#wyrdmarks

WYRDMARKS

We are introduced to wyrdmarks in Throne of Glass. We are given the descriptions of some wyrdmarks in the text, and can reference these descriptions with wyrdmark images we are given on the Erilea map and wyrdmarks seen in the Throne of Glass section of www.sarahjmaas.com.

Countless Wyrdmarks were etched into their surface. They were in swirls and whorls, in lines and squares. The small Wyrdmarks made up larger ones, and the larger ones made up even larger ones, until it seemed the entire room meant something she couldn’t possibly understand. -TOG CH25

So far, she hadn’t learned much: according to one book, Wyrdmarks were an alphabet. Though, according to this book, no grammar existed with the Wyrdmarks: everything was just symbols that one had to string together. And they changed meaning depending on the marks around them. They were painfully difficult to draw; they required precise lengths. -TOG CH27

“We keep them a secret because of the terrible power that they wield. Terrible, in that it can be used for good or evil—though most have used their power for wicked deeds. Since the moment I arrived here, I was aware that someone was using the Wyrdmarks to call forth demons from the Otherworlds—realms beyond our realm.” -TOG CH51

“But the king cannot erase old spells made with older powers—like the Wyrdmarks. Those ancient spells still hold; especially ones that imbue life.” -COM CH6

He’d used the Wyrdkeys to suppress magic, but he must have some way of harnessing the innate power in someone’s blood—and the Wyrdmarks must be able to access that power, too. -COM CH47

The music was a tapestry woven of light and dark and color, building delicate links in a chain that latched on to her heart and spread out into the world, binding her to it, connecting everything. She understood then. The Wyrdmarks were—were a way of harnessing those threads, of weaving and binding the essence of things. Magic could do the same, and from her power, from her imagination and will and core, she could create and shape. -HOF CH41

LEYLINES

We are introduced to the concept of leylines in Crescent City. The concept of “ley lines” appears to be taken from our own world and originated in the early 20th century and proposed that the alignments of ancient monuments, prehistoric sites, and prominent landmarks, were connected by invisible energy pathways, suggesting ancient civilisations intentionally built structures along these lines for various purposes.

Please note: Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience. 

LUNATHION LEYLINES

“Look: all of them took place within steps of one of the major avenues. On top of the ley lines—natural channels for the firstlight to travel through the city.” “Highways of power,” Hunt said, his eyes shining. “They flow right through the Gates.” -HOEAB CH37

The Gates had been used as communication devices in the past—but the only reason words could pass between them was the power that connected them. They all sat atop linked ley lines. A veritable matrix of energy. The Gate wasn’t just a prism. It was a conduit. And she had the Horn in her very skin. Had proved it could close a portal to Hel. -HOEAB CH91

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #1 6 POINTED STAR

The quartz Gates across the city began to glow. Red, then orange, then gold, then white. Firstlight erupted from them. Lines of it speared out in every direction. The lights flowed down the ley lines between the Gates, connecting them along the main avenues. It formed a perfect, six-pointed star. The lines of light began to spread. Curving around the city walls. Cutting off the demons now aiming for the lands beyond. Light met light met light met light. Until the city was ringed with it. Until every street was glowing. And Bryce was still making the Drop. -HOEAB CH92

There was also the idea of the Wyrdgates, which appeared numerous times alongside the mention of Wyrdmarks, but she’d never heard of them. When she’d first stumbled across the notion of Wyrdgates, days ago, it had seemed interesting, and so she’d researched, digging through piles of old parchment, only to find more puzzling theories. -TOG CH27

The gates were both real and invisible things. Humans could not see them, but they could be summoned and accessed using the Wyrdmarks. They opened into other realms, some of them good, some of them bad. Things could come through from the other side and slither into Erilea. It was due to this that many of the strange and fell creatures of Erilea existed. -TOG CH27

WHY THE STAR OF DAVID DOESN’T WORK

While many have connected the Star of David - a six-pointed star formed by two overlapping equilateral triangles - the shape doesn’t follow the leylines in Lunathion. A Star of David connects 6 of the gates, but doesn’t connect the 7th and central Heart Gate to the others.

ALTERNATIVE 6 POINTED STAR

A unicursal hexagram does connect all 7 gates and follows the leylines in Lunathion. This six-pointed star that can be traced or drawn unicursally, in one continuous line “with no beginning and no end” rather than by two overlaid triangles. The hexagram can also be depicted inside a circle with the points touching it. It is often depicted in an interlaced form with the lines of the hexagram passing over and under one another to form a knot. A knot of leylines perhaps?

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #2

It was just a triangle inside of a circle. “Can you read these marks?” she asked. A Wyrdmark … how strange! -TOG CH23

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #3

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #4

LUNATHION LEYLINES AS WYRDMARKS

Was the city of Lunathion chosen for not just the leylines, but for the wyrdmarks the leylines create?

“This doesn’t offer more than what we already know about the usual sort of earth magic the Fae possess, but it does mention that those with earth magic were sent ahead to scout lands, to sense where to build. Not only the best geographical locations, but magical ones, too. They could sense the ley lines—the channels of energy running throughout the land, throughout Midgard. They told the Asteri to build their cities where several of the lines met, at natural crossroads of power, and picked those places for the Fae to settle, too. But they selected Avallen just for the Fae. To be their personal, eternal stronghold.” Ruhn considered. “Okay, so if Flynn and Sathia say this place is dead and rotting …” “It doesn’t line up with the claims recorded here about Avallen.” “But why would the ancient Fae lie about there being leylines here?” “I don’t think they lied,” Lidia said, and pointed to the maps on the other table, where Dec had discarded them. “I think the Avallen they first visited, with all those ley lines and magic … I think it existed. But then something changed.” -HOFAS CH54

“These lines are capable of moving magic, but also carrying communications across great distances.” Like those between the Gates of Crescent City, the way she’d spoken to Danika the day she’d made the Drop. “There are ley lines across the whole of the universe. And the planets—like Midgard, like Hel, like the home world of the Fae—atop those lines are joined by time and space and the Void itself. It thins the veils separating us. The Asteri have long chosen worlds that are on the ley lines for that exact purpose. It made it easier to move between them, to colonize those planets. There are certain places on each of these worlds where the most ley lines overlap, and thus the barrier between worlds is at its weakest.” -HOFAS CH60

Celaena & Elena Galathynius Havilliard - TOG

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I’m currently rereading House of Earth and Blood to get ready for the sequel next week.

What interested me is when Micah was describing Bryce’s tattoo. We know it is in some old alphabet as Bryce mentioned it to Hunt earlier in the book, but in chapter 77 Micah mentioned the language as:

The language beyond that of this world. It is the language of universes.

We know that ToG, ACOTAR and CC are all connected in some multiverse way. What if the language Micah was mentioning is the Wyrdmarks that play a major role in Throne of Glass and closing the lock between worlds?

In the very next chapter we get:

Her tingling fingers brushed over titles. On the Divine Number; The Walking Dead; The Book of Breathings; The Queen with Many Faces…

Ooo... that’s a good one!

Aelin: Sets fire to things. She says it’s just to help the Orynth firefighters train, but really it’s because it feels good to burn things.

Rowan: NGL, he’s pretty happy flying over the homes of nobles who’ve pissed him off and shitting on their heads.

Dorian: Manon (it’s the kinks that make it messed up).

Manon: Dorian (it’s the kinks that make it messed up).

Lysandra: Enjoys turning into small, defenseless creatures and then when a predator approaches turning into whatever hunts that particular creature.

Aedion: Carpentry, but he usually fucks it up.

Elide: Fantasizes about how long it took her uncle to die.

Lorcan: Fantasizes about how he could have made that feel longer for Vernon.

Fenrys: Chases his own tail.

Chaol: Let’s be real, nothing Chaol does for recreation will ever be described as “messed up”. He’s barely hardcore enough to knit.