#maasverse

💖Girls Will Save the World💖

Bryceriel Week Day 8 - Twilight of the Gods ⚔️

Inspired by images from Sarah J. Maas’ old “Twilight of the Gods” Pinterest board. ✨

Art by @jae.sketch on IG 💖 thank you so much for bringing this idea to life!

And why is has to be Brannon when he was in possession of the three wyrdkeys.

This is going to be a deep dive on the histories and world building of Erilea and Midgard, which shows us that Brannon using the keys is the most likely candidate for how the Erilea fae ended up on Midgard. 

HOFAS CH94:

The shifters were Fae from another world, Danika had explained. Blessed with a Fae form and a humanoid one, gifted with elemental powers. It confirmed what Lidia had long guessed. Why she had named Brannon after the oldest legends from her family’s bloodline: of a Fae King from another world, fire in his veins, who had created stags with the power of flame to be his sacred guards.

This quote is the only concrete evidence we have in Crescent City for when the fae from Erilea crossed over to Midgard in the Erilea timeline – Rowan’s rings and Lidia’s rings while both gold and ruby do not actually match.

Rowan's Ring: Two golden rings lay there. The thicker ring held an elegantly cut ruby within the band itself, while the smaller one bore a sparkling rectangular emerald mounted atop, the stone as large as her fingernail. -KOA CH37

Lidia's Ring: She wore a gold ring crowned with a square, clean-cut ruby. -HOSAB CH33

The ring is an Easter egg, for us to connect Lidia to Aelin, the rings are not exact matches. We can’t say Lidia is 100% a descendent of Aelin and Rowan because both have gold and ruby rings.  Using the ring to build where in the timeline the crossing happened would be building theory on theory, and that is not what this theory is.

This theory is going to take canon from Crescent City and Throne of Glass and focus on the world building rules each series sets out to find the places in the Erilea timeline where the crossing could have happened. 

MIDGARD CROSSING - MIDGARD TIMELINE

HOFAS CH20 during Silene’s Ted Talk:

We were still waging our war on the humans when the door between worlds opened again. More Fae appeared—from another world this time.

Tall, beautiful beings entered. Even Bryce’s rage and despair stalled.

Fae from another world—but they looked so similar to the ones from this place. How was it possible? Another ancient conquest of the Asteri? Another place they’d colonized and tampered with, and eventually lost?

They were Fae like us, but not. The ears, the grace, the strength were identical, but they were shape-shifters, all of them. Each capable of turning into an animal. And each, even in their humanoid body, equipped with elongated canine teeth.

It was a puzzle—enough of one that my mother paused her warmongering. There were two types of Fae. From two seemingly unconnected and distant worlds. These new Fae bore elemental magic, strong enough to make Pelias wary of them. They were more aggressive than the Fae we knew—wilder. And they answered directly to Rigelus.

It seemed, in fact, like they’d known Rigelus a long while.

My mother soon began to suspect that our host was not as benevolent as he claimed. But by the time she learned just how wrong she had been about him, it was too late.

So the Erilea Fae entered Midgard shortly after the Prythian Fae came over. They seem to already know Rigelus. 

In the Midgard timeline all the fae entered the world at the invitation of the Asteri around 15,000 years before the start of House of Earth and Blood. 

After these crossings, Bryce’s starborn ancestors shut the gates, closing Midgard off from all other worlds, except Hel.

HOSAB CH73:

“Midgard is a base. We opened the doors to other worlds to lure their citizens here—so many powerful beings, all so eager to conquer new planets. Not realizing we were their conquerors. But we also opened the doors so we might conquer those other worlds as well. The Fae—Queen Theia and her two foolish daughters—realized that, though too late. Her people were already here, but she and the princesses discovered where my siblings had hidden the access points in their world.”

Rage rippled through his every word. “Your Starborn ancestors shut the gates to stop us from invading their realm once more and reminding them who their true masters are. And in the process, they shut the gates to all other worlds, including those to Hel, their stalwart allies. And so we have been trapped here. Cut off from the cosmos. All that is left of our people, though our mystics beneath this palace have long sought to find any other survivors, any planets where they might be hiding.”

Bryce shook. The Astronomer had been right about the host of mystics here. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Why do you think we allowed you to live this spring? You are the key to opening the doors between worlds again. You will undo the actions of one ignorant princess fifteen thousand years ago.”

We know Hel can still get into Midgard, even before the horn was back in play. We see demons summoned via salts, we see demons slip through the cracks in the rifts. 

HOEAB CH18:

Hel was severed from them by time and space, but still accessible through the twin sealed portals at the north and south poles—the Northern Rift and the Southern Rift, respectively. Or by idiots who tried to summon demons through salts of varying powers.

HOEAB CH51:

Jesiba told me that the princes can sneak through cracks in either Rift, taking the form of common animals. But then they’re confined to those forms—with none of their own power, save the ability to speak. And they can only stay for a few hours at a time.”

Aidas in HOEAB CH51 says:

“You do realize that it might not be my people? The Northern Rift opens to other places—other realms, yes, but other planets as well. What is Hel but a distant planet bound to yours by a ripple in space and time?”

“Hel is a planet?” Hunt’s brows lowered. Most of the demons he’d killed and dealt with hadn’t been able to or inclined to speak.

Aidas shrugged with one shoulder. “It is as real a place as Midgard, though most of us would have you believe it wasn’t.” The prince pointed to him. “Your kind, Fallen, were made in Midgard by the Asteri. But the Fae, the shifters, and many others came from their own worlds. The universe is massive. Some believe it has no end. Or that our universe might be one in a multitude, as bountiful as the stars in the sky or the sand on a beach.”

The rifts previously opened to other places, including Prythian and Erilea, but after the starborn shut the gates, the rifts are locked on hel. We do not see the northern or southern rift open to anywhere besides Hel until  Bryce uses the horn to open the portal to Prythian in House of Flame and Shadow. 

So while we could theorise that Brannon’s line came over at a different time than the rest of the Erilea Fae, it is a fantasy world so we can throw a lot of possibilities and loopholes and exceptions around, the world building and canon information we are given in Crescent City is that all the Vanir arrived in Midgard about 15,000 years ago and Midgard has been cutoff from all other worlds besides Hel since the starborn shut the gates shortly after the crossing. 

ERILEA TIMELINE

In Erilea, we have a very similar situation of a world being cut off from the cosmos with the broken Wyrdgate. 

COM CH40:

“The Wyrd governs and forms the foundation of this world. Not just Erilea, but all life. There are worlds that exist beyond your knowledge, worlds that lie on top of each other and don’t know it. Right now, you could be standing on the bottom of someone else’s ocean. The Wyrd keeps these realms apart.”

“There are gates—black areas in the Wyrd that allow for life to pass between the worlds. There are Wyrdgates that lead to Erilea. All sorts of beings have come through them over the eons. Benign things, but also the dead and foul things that creep in when the gods are looking elsewhere.”

 “But long ago, before humans overran this miserable world, a different sort of evil broke through the gates: the Valg. Demons from another realm, bent on the conquest of Erilea, and with the force of an endless army behind them. In Wendlyn, they fought against the Fae. Try as the immortal children might, they could not defeat them.

“Then the Fae learned that the Valg had done something unforgivable. They had taken a piece of a Wyrdgate with their dark magic, and split it into three slivers—three keys. One key for each of their kings. Using all three at once, the Valg Kings were able to open that Wyrdgate at will, to manipulate its power to strengthen their forces, to allow an endless line of soldiers to pour into the world. The Fae knew that they must stop it.”

We learn in KOA CH113:

“How do you think we took the keys in the first place?” A hateful, horrible smile. “In my world, your kind exists, too. Not healers to us, but executioners. Death-maidens. Capable of healing—but also unhealing. Unbinding the very fabric of life. Of worlds.” Erawan smirked. “So we took your kind. Used them to unbind the Wyrdgate. To rip the three pieces of it from its very essence. Maeve never learned it—and never shall.”

Back to COM CH40:

“And so a small band of Fae set out to steal them from the Valg Kings,” Yellowlegs said, her voice coming nearer again. “It was an impossible task; most of those fools didn’t return.

“But the Wyrdkeys were indeed retrieved, and the Fae Queen Maeve banished the Valg to their realm. Yet for all her wisdom, Maeve couldn’t discover how to put the keys back in the gate—and no forge, no steel, no weight could destroy them. So Maeve, believing that no one should have their power, sent them across the sea with Brannon Galathynius, first King of Terrasen, to hide on this continent. And thus the Wyrdgate remained protected, its power unused.” 

We later learn in HOF CH57 that Brannon took the keys from Maeve and brought them to Terrasen with the sacred stags:

She knew where it was—the third and final Wyrdkey.

It had been around her neck the night she fell into the river. And around the neck of every one of her ancestors, going back to Brannon himself, when he stopped at the Sun Goddess’s temple to take a medallion from Mala’s High Priestess—and then destroyed the entire site to prevent anyone from tracing his steps. The medallion of cerulean blue, with the white sun-stag crowned with immortal flame—the stag of Mala Fire-Bringer. Upon leaving Wendlyn’s shores, Brannon had stolen those same stags away to Terrasen and installed them in Oakwald. Brannon had placed the third sliver of Wyrdkey inside the amulet and never told a soul what he had done with it.

Back to COM CH40:

“The person who holds all three Wyrdkeys would have control over the broken Wyrdgate—and all Erilea. They would be able to open and close the gate at will. They could conquer new worlds or let in all sorts of life to bend to their cause. But even one key could make someone immensely dangerous. Not enough power to open the gate, but enough to be a threat. You see, the keys themselves are pure power—power to be shaped as the wielder wills it. Tempting, isn’t it?”

And then in  HOF CH59 Maeve says:

“The King of Adarlan, it seems, is doing what I never had the nerve to do while the keys were briefly in my possession. Without all three keys, he is limited. He can only open the portal between our worlds for short periods, long enough to let in perhaps one prince to infiltrate a body he has prepared. But with all three keys, he could open the portal at will—he could summon all the Valg armies, to be led by the princes in their mortal bodies, and …” Maeve looked more intrigued than horrified. “And with all three keys, he might not need to rely on magically gifted hosts for the Valg. There are countless lesser spirits amongst the Valg, hungry for entrance to this world.” “He’d have to make countless collars for them, then.” “He would not need to, not with all three keys. His control would be absolute. And he would not need living hosts—only bodies.”

With the Wyrdgate broken, all three keys are needed to be able to properly us the Wyrdgate. Without the keys you are limited to portals opening for short periods of time, enough to let through about one being at a time. 

EOS CH39:

No number of allies would make a difference if they could not stop Erawan from using those keys to unleash the Valg hordes from his own realm upon Erilea. His possession of two keys had already led to such darkness. If he gained the third, gained mastery over the Wyrdgate and could open it to any world at will, use it to summon any conquering army … They had to find that Lock to nullify those keys.

The world building and lore of the Throne of Glass world makes it clear that while the Wyrdgate is broken, for a large group to world walk you would need all three wyrdkeys in your possession. 

And Brannon was the only person is possession of all three keys during the correct time period. When the Valg kings and Maeve had the keys, Brannon was not yet a king and had not yet taken the stags from Mala’s temple. Brannon splits up the keys before his death, and the next people to possess all three keys are Dorian and Aelin - and we know they didn’t send a massive group to Midgard. 

But what about after Aelin fixes the gate? 

Kingdom of Ash, which was the book published immediately before House of Earth and Blood, makes it clear that Aelin seals the gate to Erilea forever. It doesn’t make sense for SJM to have written that Aelin seals the gate forever only for her to publish her next book introducing fae that came from Aelin’s world after Aelin closed the gate. She would be retconning her last chapters in her most recently published book. 

KOA CH98:

There was still one last task to seal the gate forever.

Aelin unfurled her palm, studying the Lock she had forged. She let it float into the heart of this misty, door-filled space.

She was not afraid. Not as she opened her other palm, and power poured forth.

Mala’s final gift. And defiance.

The force of a thousand exploding suns ruptured from Aelin’s palm.

Lock. Close. Seal.

She willed it, willed it, and willed it. Willed it to close as she offered over her power.

But not that last bit of self.

The debt has already been paid enough.

A map home, a map inked in the words of universes, would lead the way.

More and more and more. But not all.

She would not give it up. Her innermost self.

She would not surrender.

They would not take this lingering kernel of her.

She would not yield it.

Light flowed through the Lock, fracturing like a prism, shooting to all those infinite doorways.

Closing and sealing and shutting. An archway to everywhere now sealing.

Bitch PLEASE SPARE ME. Give us the fucking title and cover🙄