#Hellewise

[princess-ibri]

can we have a madame mim backstory.

Sure! Sorry it took a bit

Mad Madam Mim was born Lady Miriam of Mousehole, a free spirited young woman who was tutored in the ways of witchcraft by her nannies, a trio of ladies from the land of Morva who absolutely falsified their good references to get the position, and may have been planning to eat baby Mim before she showed an early talent for magic and they decided to train her instead

Mim's great aptitude and appreciation for magic was countered by her having absolutely no inclination towards behaving as a proper lady should, she was always getting into mischief and dirt and declared she would rather be the one turning princes into frogs then kissing them

Despite this declaration she did end up eventually marrying King Bagdemagus, of the land of Gorre, who she was incredibly disappointed to find out was a quite polite and disgustingly normal man, and not an evil wizard as the name of his kingdom seemed to suggest

He was however very willing to let his mad wife run wild as long as she turned anyone important back from frogs at the end of the day which Mim appreciated, and together they had several daughters and a son, Maleagant, who with the witch Hellewise are the parents of Matilda "Mad Maddy"

Eventually Mim got bored of being Queen and giving her husband a peck on the head (she was a bird at the time) she flew the coop and settled down in the Forest Savage where she could be her prefered horrid hideous hag-like self

It was while living there she met Merlin and promptly decided her new favorite pastime was driving the fussy wizard to distraction, and they've been battling each other ever since

[moonlightreal]

New Strange Fate lore!

Ok, let’s get into this Strange Fate post! Go read it then come back for thoughts.

First of all Ms. Smith seems to have a favorite word, is it a California-ism or something? I’ve never heard it.

Quoth the internet:

/ˈzɑftɪg/ Use the adjective zaftig to describe a woman who is attractively curvy. The word zaftig is almost always used to describe a voluptuous body.

Okee-dokee then. Sarah has become curvy and since that’s practically at the top of the page I’ll comment on that. I think that back in 1996 the publishers would say, “Write lots of cishet white people!” and of course here in 2024 publishers are saying, “More diversity! We need more!” so Ms. Smith is writing for two very different markets and I think that gave us Sarah’s new curves and Mal’s new biracial as well as bi-supernatural nature. Cool! I really hope that Strange Fate not just comes out but works out so that Ms. Smith can let her imagination run wild with later books in this new diversity rich YA environment. I’m curious to see what she’d get up to!

Kierlan is a tiger confirmed! And he’s the fourth wild power confirmed again, not that there was any doubt that Ms. Smith was telling us that he was, there was just doubt in my mind since it was hard to make the story fit. Why would two Circle Daybreak boys be following Sarah around protecting her unless she’s secretly the wild power and Kierlan is just a ringer so the baddies would go after him and get tigerslapped? That is a sensible plot, but it seems not to be the one we get.

Mal’s whole name is Maledict, which

mal·e·dic·tion

a magical word or phrase uttered with the intention of bringing about evil or destruction; a curse.

"he muttered maledictions to himself as he trod the stone passages"

So a nice witch-and-vampire couple looked upon their newborn baby boy and went, “We shall name him curse. That’s a good name that definitely won’t get him teased in human school!” Ok ok, this probably actually means that Mal was not exactly a wanted baby and probably had a terrible childhood.

Mal is also Kierlan’s bodyguard, a fact that makes the whole love triangle fall into place. There aren’t two boys following Sarah around; Kierlan is following Sarah around and Mal has to follow Kierlan around and he fell in love with Sarah from being around her so much. This makes sense! I love when plot makes sense!

Except… Mal literally has a villain name! How is he not the baddie? But how can he be the baddie and also Sarah's soulmate? You can’t be soulmates with someone when you’re trying to use dragons to destroy the world they live in! Gah! Ok, when I saw the post that led me to LJ Smith’s new website? I'd literally turned my computer on to type a post trying to figure out who the baddie was, and I was having conniptions because I couldn’t make any of the suspects fit. And I still can’t. And I love it.

We also have some interesting new terminology. The couples “wove the silver cord of love” which is very much not how being soulmates worked in the first nine books. I’m making a guess that this is more 2024itizing. Forced romance as plot was more in vogue back in the nineties; now it comes across and non-con and creepy.

But I never read the soulmate principle as forced romance. I thought the mind reading and silver cord were a magical effect caused when two people were already perfect for each other. Like, there are people who work as a couple and always will work as a couple but here in our world the only way to know is to get married and live your lives together and find out, but the silver cord was just a way to find out sooner. It wasn’t forcing people to be together. But maybe I’m misreading that or seeing a distinction where there isn’t one. *shrug*

So now people can become soulmates by choice? Is that what it means? Or something?

Then we have a bit listing the returning characters who appear, including Hecate, Maya and Hellewise. So will Sarah see their distant past selves, or are they somehow still alive? Maya got pretty solidly killed but eh, she’s the first vampire, she could manage some plot device to get back alive if she wanted. And the two first witches might have magic that lets them live so long. Heck, maybe one of them is the baddie finally like, “These humans have gotten out of control! The modern world stinks! I’m just gonna raise a few dragons and use them to get things back to the primitive way I like it!” And hey, maybe Hecate is a witch who’s also not a witch because she’s a goddess… it’s a stretch but so is every suspect!

And what AI is Ms. Smith using that agreed to draw Hecate topless? I couldn’t get GPT to make me a fully covered frame from a magical girl transformation no matter how much I tell it I’m not looking for naked! But that was a while ago. (I don’t have art AI, I have a friend with a subscription who sometimes lets me play with it)

And then we have a Sarah/Mal scene and a Sarah/Kierlan scene and I gotta say, Kierlan is still kind of creepy and kind of a jerk. He dragged a girl around with her face on the ground? That’s some Blaise Harman levels of disdain for the humans, right there. And just the way he talks to Sarah is… creepy to me. Is it creepy to you guys? It’s so subjective! Kierlan’s vibes hit me wrong, but I think Ms. Smith was trying for haughty prankster with a heart of gold and it just isn’t landing with me.

Well, we’ll get to see more of our guys and all our questions will be answered if the books really do come out!

[floripire]

what, you think i’m not qualified?

morbid curiosity / @elenva

if there's anyone who's qualified to write about all the weird shit that has happened in mystic falls and will happen in perpetuity in a way that keeps most of humanity in the dark, it is elena gilbert.

who better to write about all of this than the very person who has been in the thick of it since she was a teenager?

that's not why floribeth is staring at her, though, like she's a puzzle to solve with a limited amount of time on the clock.

it's her eyes. elena gilbert has stars in her eyes and floribeth feels like she's half a heartbeat away from drowning.

it's quick flashes of faces that she sees at first. like the flash of a knife. here, then gone. the more she looks, the less she sees. more flashes. more faces. then, there's a brief transition period. it lasts seconds, it lasts centuries. less flashes, more fog. so much more fog.

floribeth doesn't see herself. rather, she sees elena. or at least, someone who looks like her. over and over and over again. she sees her mother too - selena harman-dalisay - and she sees her maternal bloodline, stretching back all the way to hellewise hearth-woman and her mother, hecate witch-queen.

at least, that's what her logical brain thinks because that's what her bleeding heart wants.

slowly, slowly and then all at once. like a stop-motion reel gets played just for her eyes only. though if she's honest, she wouldn't really be able to tell anyone the details. not really. not quite.

then, someone drops something in the room next to theirs and the sound pulls floribeth out of her starry-eyed reverie.

the young vampire shakes her head, blurting out apology after apology for not minding her eyes and being a weirdo about it.

"you are qualified. to write. to teach. to become a doctor. whatever you want to do, i know you'll put your mind to it and you'll get there. but sometimes getting to our goals means taking a circular path. what i meant to say was: i talk a lot. and not everyone's into that. are you sure you're cool with me shadowing you? i can be a bit... much."

[incorrect-night-world-quotes]

Hellewise: You’ve gone mad with power.

Maya: Of course I have. Have you ever tried going mad without power? It’s boring, no one listens to you.

[shadowcatgirl09]

The most famous and prestigious of the witch clans, directly descended from the legendary Hellewise Hearth-Woman and by extension, her mother Hecate Witch-Queen

[xdarkeningkrystals]

I seriously hope that Julie Plec doesn't get Night World some time in the future. Sure, it's with a different company and L.J. Smith owns the rights but I dunno. Greg got ahold of The Forbidden Game and Julie will ruin Night World, ESPECIALLY since those book are over 20 years old. 15 years was already too dated for her, Imagine her doing political garbage with Night World's Council and the whole Matriarchy with Hellewise and Maya trying to over throw her. She would not even care for The Soulmate Principal and warp the rules of it or make it that someone has multiple Soulmates (and not like Sarah Strange's). Or do her own version of Game of Thrones with the Redferns and the Harmans. OOOF.

And say goodbye to Redhead Poppy and Jez or Blond/e Ash, Thea, Hannah, Thierry, Iliana and Gillian.

[broughttoyoubyderrymaine]

§The Losers in the Nightworld Verse§

Stanley Uris and Eddie Kaspbrak: Witch

Stan and Eddie come from the same coven.

According to Nightworld verse:

The witches are largely based on the neo-pagan religion of Wicca as well as the Goddess Movement. They are a matriarchy which traces its lineage to the first tribe of sorceresses ruled by Hecate Witch-Queen and later her daughter, Hellewise Hearth-Woman. All witches are considered "daughters of Hellewise" by virtue of having inherited her teachings. The first vampire - Maya - was Hellewise's sister and thus all vampires share witch blood.

Witch society is composed of "Circles" to which all witches belong. Those who take to heart Hellewise's bidding to "harm none" (the Wiccan Rede) belong to Circle Twilight, while Circle Midnight is made up of witches who practice darker magic. The final and newest circle, Circle Daybreak, is dedicated to protecting all life. They are mostly separate from the other two circles and are like the secret group of the supernatural community. Most members have found refuge with their soulmates here. The Inner Circle is a coven of the nine most magically talented witches, called "the witch geniuses, the prodigies and the sages, the far-seers, the teachers, the policy-makers". The most important of these are the triad of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, positions. All witches are answerable to the Inner Circle before the Night World council, although an association probably exists between them, but this isn't specified.

A third renegade Circle also exists, known as Circle Daybreak, which promotes the teaching of magic to humans and peace between the races. This circle used to exist alongside the other two but was banned due to the persecution of witches during the Burning Times. Circle Daybreak is kept secret from the rest of the Night World, although a few suspect its renewed existence.

Witches practice magic with the aid of herbs, gemstones, effigies, and incantations, all of which may be used in a spell; they worship the Goddess in her many manifestations and celebrate Samhain and probably other festivals on the Wheel of the Year. Their magic is innate and does not always require external aids, although these can accentuate their power. Human psychics are "lost witches" who are unaware of their true descent.

Identifying symbols for Night World witches are the black dahlia and the crescent moon with three stars. The symbol for "lost witches" is a black violet. Iron is their poison.

{{All details on the posts are taken from the Nightworld Wikipedia information. It is not my own information.}}

[hearthwoman]

circle daybreak ; @soulmateprinciple​ (for iliana) 

“ i can’t imagine how you must be feeling, ”  thea says gently to the younger girl -- to her cousin. she had been thinking before they were introduced of what she would say to her new family member. it was joyous for the harmans to welcome two new heirs to their family, but iliana was special even to this special moment. thea is looking at the witch child. she’d been almost nervous to meet this subject of two prophecies. but now, looking at her delicate form, thea feels nothing but a gentle sense of warmth colored with the maternal instinct she is so infuriatingly predisposed toward. my cousin. another daughter of hellewise. 

            “ i do hope our little community has made you feel a bit comfortable              so far! we can be a little overwhelming, but we are loving ... ”

[thea-harman]

❝  I get so caught up in protecting the people I love that I forget to protect myself.  ❞

☽ The Wi☨ch is in The Details ☾

Name:  Thea Sophia Harman Age:  17 ( May ## ) Zodiac:  Taurus ( ♉ ) Gender:  Female ( ♀ ) Species:  Witch ( Daughter of Hellewise ) Clan: Hearth-Woman ( Harman(s) ) Parents: Daniel Avery ( father - deceased ) & Sophia Harman ( mother - deceased ) Relationships:  Blaise Harman (cousin), Edgith Harman (maternal grandmother), Naomi Flores (great great great great aunt), Eric Ross (soulmate) Extended Family: Redfern(s), Iliana Dominick (distant cousin), Gillian Lennox (unknown cousin), FC:  Olivia Holt ( x )

☽ Personality ☾

☑  caring, courageous, free-spirited ☒  emotional, self-destructive, quiet

☽ The Past ☾

Thea and Blaise grew up differently than most kids.  Being an only child born to Daniel Avery ( Witch ) and Sophia Harman ( Witch ).  However, when she was still very young, Thea and her cousin Blaise lost both their parents in a tragic ritual accident.  Inseparable as ever the girls are basically sisters.  Because of this, they grew up surrounded by witches often living with their different relatives, mostly due to the antics of Blaise.  Blaise was never happy in one place for too long.  Because of that, Thea got used to a life of always being on the move. Having been expelled from seven to eight different schools since they were freshmen.   

Her cousin would regularly get into trouble for taunting and playing with the local human boys and Thea would take the fall with her.  At their last school in New Hampshire, Blaise got a boy named Randy Marik to burn down the school gym for her, leading to her and Thea's expulsion.  They were then sent to live with Grandma Harman, their maternal grandmother.

☽ The Present ☾

Running out of relatives to take them in.  Thea is determined not to get expelled or any trouble this time, as she doesn’t want to disappoint Grandma Harman - or be sent to the Convent for misbehaving.  Beginning their new school, Lake Mead High.  Things go awry right from the moment she arrives at school, however.  Before she can even go inside, Thea hears a lot of fuss, after investigating she discovers that students are crowded around a snake.  Thea telepathically connects with the snake and tries to convince it to leave to avoid getting the snake or any students harmed.  However, her concentration is broken by the students throwing stones and a boy named Eric Ross.  The snake bit him but only they knew.  The two then carry the snake out to the wilderness.  Thea heals Eric without him noticing.  Using magic to heal the bite, though she tries to pass it off as the snake having missed its mark. When Blaise notices Thea possibly liking Eric, she intends to use Eric like all of her 'boy toys.'  To stop her, Thea summons an old witch, a forbidden spell. She learns later that because she did not create a ring around the summoning, the spirit got to lose.  Not wanting Blaise to get to Eric, Thea says she will use him. He takes her to the dance, but when one of Blaise's old toys shows up and causes drama the two left.  Eric took her to the animal clinic he volunteers at.  When Blaise's attempts to take Eric from Thea it fails, she eventually deduces that Eric is her soulmate, but this gives her nothing but grief, due to Eric being human and therefore forbidden to her. 

Eric also takes Thea to the gym, where the Halloween dance is set up.  The theme consists of old witch hangings and torture methods.  Disgusted with it Thea had Eric get a camera so that they can write a complaint in the school newspaper.  While he is gone, Thea discovers the body of Kevin Imamura - a boy Blaise was toying with - is found strangled and hung with witch dummies.  Connecting the dots, Thea realizes that the murder was committed by the spirit she set to lose.  A witch victim of torture in the olden days, who was forced to watch her family die before she did.  Thea realizes that the spirit will attack again on Halloween.  Eric also connects the dots that Thea is a witch and demands that she let him help stop the spirit. Thea plans, with Eric’s help, to lure Suzanne’s spirit to a natural stone circle in the desert and send her back to the afterlife.  She intends to carry out the plan on the night of the Samhain celebrations.  Eric waits for her at the circle, whilst she attends the party.  Unfortunately, Thea, Blaise, and Dani are summoned by the Inner Circle and accused of performing forbidden spells.  Thea, realizing Eric and the human students at the high school Halloween dance is in danger, flees the house and drives to the circle, getting there just as Suzanne is about to kill Eric. 

With Eric's help, Thea prepares the ritual and sets it in motion. Suzanne's spirit is strong and tries to attack Thea, but she calls upon her "power as a daughter of Hellewise" - allegedly something no witch has done before - and finally gains the strength to send Suzanne back beyond the veil.  Together they re imprison the spirit, just as all of the witches arrive.  Now knowing that Thea is in love with a human, the witches decide to make them both lose their memories rather than killing them.  Eric and Thea are given a forgetting brew.  However, when drinking it, Thea realizes that it is just tea and that Blaise is letting her keep her memories.  After escorting Thea and her soulmate outside, Blaise - bid them farewell.  Thea had an emotional goodbye with her sister Blaise and Aradia suggests she and Eric seek out Circle Daybreak, where they might be accepted.  Fearing for their life she and Eric fled in his jeep but they never reached their destination to Circle Daybreak headquarters like they planned.  Engulfed in a sudden flash of light there whole worlds changed.

☽ The Current Story ☾

Now?  Thea and Blaise’s story is on a twisted re-peat but Thea has no recollection of of what had happened.  Just that where her story began.  With them running out of relatives to take them in.  Thea herself is determined not to get expelled or in any trouble whatsoever this time, as she doesn’t want to dissapoint Grandma Harman - or be sent to the Convent for misbehaving.  Beginning thier new life in browning harbor, massachusetts in a small town.

Timeline—

2019

( Sept. 24th )  Arrived at Browning Harbor Massachusetts to live with their Grandma Harman.

☽ Abilities ☾

☽ Basic Powers ☾ 》Spell Casting: Thea has the power to cast Spells. 》Potion making: She also can make magical potions. 》Cartomancy:  Tarot reading doesn’t have the power to change future events, but it can help anticipate them.  》Sigil Creation: Thea can inscribe or paint a symbol that’s considered to have magical power.   ☽ Individual Powers ☾ 》Advanced Telekinesis ► Thea can control and manipulate the movement of objects and persons through mental influence. 》Telepathy ► Thea has the power to hear the thoughts and read the minds of another person. 》Electrokinesis ► Thea can create, shape, and manipulate electricity. 》Advanced Geokinesis ► Thea can create, shape and manipulate earth and `earthen` elements. 》Hydrokinesis/Cryokinesis ► Thea can create, shape, and manipulate water, ice, and cold.. 》Pain Infliction ► Thea has the ability to inflict great pain onto a person by causing their blood vessels to burst and thus giving them multiple aneurysms 》Advanced Healing ► Thea can heal minor wounds such as poisons, cuts, bruises, and light burns.  Along with healing external wounds, including fractured bones and deeper burns, disregarding of severity.  Lost limbs can be re-attached.  Minor damaged internal organs may heal, but more severity may be beyond repair and may take more time to heal.

[seaglassxgypsy]

❝  I get so caught up in protecting the people I love                                                                that  I forget to protect myself.  ❞

☽ The Wi☨ch is in The Details ☾

Name:  Thea Sophia Harman Age:  17 ( + ) ( may 1st ) Zodiac:  Taurus ( ♉ ) Gender:  Female ( ♀ ) Species:  Witch ( Daughter of Hellewise ) Clan:  Harman ( Harman(s) ) Parents:  Daniel Avery ( father - deceased ) & Sophia Harman ( mother - deceased ) Relationships:  Blaise Harman ( cousin - fc phoebe tonkin ), Edgith Harman ( maternal grandmother - fc raquel cassidy ), FC:  Olivia Holt ( ❀ )

☽ Personality ☾

☑  caring, mystical, courageous & free-spirited ☒  mischievous, emotional, self-destructive & guarded

☽ Her Story ☾

Thea and Blaise grew up with more freedom than most kids their age.   Being an only child born to Daniel Avery ( Witch ) and Sophia Harman ( Witch ). However, when she was still very young, Thea and her cousin Blaise lost both their parents in a tragic ritual accident.  Inseparable as ever the girls are basically sisters.  Because of this, they grew up surrounded by witches often living with different relatives, mostly due to the antics of Blaise.  Blaise was never happy in one place for too long.  Because of that, Thea got used to a life of always being on the move.  Having been expelled from seven to eight different schools since they were middle schoolers.  

Her cousin would regularly get into trouble for taunting and playing with the local human boys and Coven Leaders sons and Thea would take the fall with her.  At their last school in New Orleans, Blaise got a boy named Harlan Hunt to burn down most of the school, leading to her and Thea’s expulsion.  They were then sent to live with Grandma Harman, their maternal grandmother who owns a flower shop.  Running out of relatives to take them in.  She is determined not to get expelled or any trouble this time, as she doesn’t want to disappoint Grandma harman - or be sent to the Convent for misbehaving.  While both girls are known to help out around the shop making flower deliveries or craft all sorts of bizare and unique jewelry/pottery ( most jewelry & mugs crafted from Thea&Blaise are harmlessly enchanted ).

☽ Abilities ☾

☽ Basic Powers ☾

》Spell Casting: Thea has the power to cast Spells.

》Potion making: She also can make magical potions.

》Symbol Creation: Thea magically formulates symbols that can cause special events to occur

》Hoodoo: Thea magically practices the mixes occult elements.

☽ Individual Powers ☾

》Advanced Telekinesis  ► Thea has the ability to move objects at a distance by mental power or other nonphysical means.

》Advanced Geokinesis ► Thea can create, shape and manipulate earth and “earthen” elements.

》Mineral Magic ► Thea is able to perform rocks, crystal, and gem magic that allows her to utilize minerals, or magically manipulating them.

》Pyrokinesis ► Thea can manipulate and control fire.

》Electrokinesis ► Thea can manipulate and control electricity.

》Advanced Healing ► Thea can heal minor wounds such as cuts, bruises, and light burns.  Along with healing external wounds, including fractured bones and deeper burns, disregarding of severity.  Lost limbs can be re-attached.  Minor damaged internal organs may heal, but more severity may be beyond repair and may take more time to heal. 

》Intuition ►  Thea has the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

☽ Connections ☾

Blaise Harman [ Cousin ]  ##

Grandma Harman [ Maternal Grandmother ] ##

[bluephoenixpostsblog]

Phoebe Tonkin and Riley Voelkel as Maya Dragon Slayer and Hellewise Hearth-woman respectively of the nightworld legends(My Point Of View don't get confused 😝) . To be honest I think both actresses would pass off as sisters. Hellewise and Maya were sisters who co-lead their tribe during stone age era. Hellewise is the ancestress of the Harman family and her descendant Thea is believed to look a deal like her and all witches look up to Hellewise . While Maya is the ancestress of the Red fern family ( lamia -born vampires) and Blaise represents the persona of Maya even though the former is descended from Hellewise. In attempt to stop Maya from turning more of pipo of their tribe into vampires, Hellewise challenged her to a combat dual - one-on-one. Maya retained her witches powers after becoming the first vampire of the world but was defeated by her sister and was driven out of the tribe along with her son(who continued the lamia bloodline of Maya) by Hellewise , but unfortunately Hellewise died of her wounds

[somnumexterrerimultimuse]

𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑰𝑪 𝑰𝑵𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑴𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵:

Name: Paige Devereux Age: old enough Species: Vampire Occupation: Business owner Shipping status: — AVAILABLE —

Face claim choice: Alexandra Daddario

𝑷𝑬𝑹𝑺𝑶𝑵𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑻𝒀:

Paige became a well know gambler, party girl and frankly she was known for sleeping with either gender and taking blood as an type of ‘ kink ‘. Paige is often seen with an carefree attitude, only ever getting stressed upon information of her first boyfriend.

𝑯𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀:

The Devereux family was the original family turned by the witch who found the spell for vampirism alongside her sister Hellewise. Maya. Both sisters had found a way for eternal life however the cost for it was too great and bloody. Though Maya turned her back on her sister, turning the Devereux and Redfern family to continue her legacy. The Redfern’s are a bloodthirsty clan whilst the Devereux’s are known to be more of an calmer clan, using their vampirism to promote their lives.

Paige Devereux was no exception to this, Paige became a well know gambler, party girl and frankly she was known for sleeping with either gender and taking blood as an type of ‘ kink ‘. Paige is often seen with an carefree attitude, only ever getting stressed upon information of her first boyfriend. A hunter who almost slaughtered her and her family. He was known for often restraining Paige, forcing her to starve and then letting her out to kill unknowing humans.

Paige is well known in many countries, often owning the casinos and the hotels nearby them. She if often seen throwing luxurious parties within large mansions and inviting anyone and everyone. Paige was known to save those who was almost on the brink of death whilst harassing her sister Sienna. However despite this sisterly bond she holds with Sienna, they both refer to their elder sister Viktoria to be more of an Redfern due to her bloodthirsty nature. A nature that caused the death of many of Paige’s and Sienna’s lovers.

—more to be added at a later date—-

[moonlightreal]

Reconstructing Strange Fate, again

But longer, with more deductions and guesses.

Sarah’s story

Sarah is a normal girl with two boys…

Strange Fate seems to start with Sarah having a dream, whether it’s of Ash or Brionwy. She either wakes up and it’s time to go to school, or gets a migraine and starts having a vision while in class. She goes to the school bathroom to wash her face and fight the vision and her boys find her there. I think that leads to the sneak peek from the omnibus: The boys take Sarah home after she falls into a vision at school. They decide it’s time to kidnap her and take her to Circle Daybreak. While Mal gets the car, Kierlan takes advantage of Sarah being stuck in a nightmare to reinforce their soulmate status in her subconscious… which is a new bit of soulmate lore. The sneak peek ends as we start a flashback to how Sarah and Kierlan met. Presumably after that they would all go to the town of Harmony and that’s where they are when the apocalypse happens.

But before the apocalypse, the first dragons to wake up hunt down the youngest generation of Harmans and Redferns, particularly those who have soulmates. The mysterious figure who controls the dragons knows these people—our characters!--are dangerous to the dragons. Indeed Keller and friends, and Poppy and friends, are able to kill dragons. So the dragons are attacking everyone and Ash ends up being there to rescue them and help them travel to Harmony, with his last rescue being Mary-Lynette on the day the apocalypse begins. I think.

But if Sarah is seeing Ash’s rescues in her visions as they happen that’s four-ish rescues so four-ish dreams so four-ish chapters of Sarah’s awake life between the dreams before the apocalypse happens. What happens in those chapters? How do the dreams line up with Sarah getting kidnapped and taken to Harmony?

The apocalypse

So dragons destroy the cities with the most Circle Daybreak presence (how do they know?) then use their mind control power to call all the survivors to where they are. Probably some survivors get eaten and the rest are put into farms like we see in Brionwy’s story.

A nice simple end of the world!

When the dragons attack, our cast is in the Circle Daybreak town of Harmony, a hidden enclave where Thierry and Hannah are basically king and queen and night and day people live together in peace. Keller, Galen, Rashel, Quinn, and Thierry of the A-list characters are there

There are also “time bubbles” where our characters live, aging more slowly than the rest of the world. In Harmony there seems to be a large underground area where people live and where time is slowed down. This is a device to make the apocalypse happen years after the millennium but have all the characters still under 20 years old, and it is a completely bonkers idea. Thierry discovered time manipulation? Cryogenics is also mentioned, so the dude’s like Tony Stark he’s not just rich he randomly invents impossible stuff?! Anyway Harmony has a time bubble and so does San Francisco and other unnamed cities where lots of Circle Daybreak members live.

Ok, I can see Ms. Smith not wanting to make her characters 30 years old, but this “time bubbles” stuff is extremely silly. Just set the story “at the dawn of the new millennium,” make the exact year super vague, make the characters 18 or 19, and say Thierry got them “cutting edge tech” that does whatever they need real-world 2000s tech for.

The mission

Seven characters go on a mission to save the world and only two return. We know the four wild powers plus Hannah go on the mission. I assume the last two are Sarah and Mal since they’re the main characters of the book and Sarah should stay with both her soulmates, but we don’t know completely for sure.

They’re going out to face dozens, hundreds, even more than that, of dragons according to Keller who is upset that she couldn’t go along to protect Iliana.

What is the mission? We don’t know, but I have a guess. Since young Maya and Hellewise, and their mother, appear in Strange Fate I think we’re traveling back in time to find out how they sent the dragons to sleep long ago. So we get to meet young Maya and Hellewise. Which will be interesting for Hannah!

I do not like the time travel. Maybe if they cast a spell to look back in time that would work, but going full “Thierry is Tony Stark and invented time manipulation” is just too far outside of what a Night World story is! But since there are time bubbles, I think Ms. Smith does go full on “hop in the tardis!” time travel.

So they learn the secret from the first witches and… what? With the wild powers needing blood to call the blue fire I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a ritual where they have to spill all their blood and sacrifice themselves to save the world. Or, since we’re back in time, maybe the visitors from the future add their powers to the original binding spell so the dragons will never wake up, and the apocalypse un-happens in the future.

And we have to find out who the big bad is and defeat him or her.

The blurb says “seven set out on a mission and only two return” and that suggests it’s one mission. Maybe the entire time travel, threat of hundreds of dragons, and dealing with the big bad all happen within a short time period. Nobody takes the new lore home to Harmony so everyone can gather in the war room (which Harmony has) and make a plan to use whatever secrets have been learned, is what I mean. One mission no rest stops. This means the big bad has to be someone who’s along on the trip or someone they meet on the way, one more point in favor of Mal being the big bad.

Only two return, and I think the most likely are Jez and Delos, who have soulmates to come back to, or Sarah and her surviving soulmate since she’s the hero of this book. This doesn’t mean the others necessarily die. They could choose to stay in the past, go off on a quest to travel the world and help rebuild, transform into another type of being, or any other not-actually-death option that doesn’t bring them back to Harmony.

I think Hannah will die though, since we know she’ll come back. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the book whichever character is pregnant has her baby and it’s Hannah reborn.

The end for the world

If our heroes win and avoid Brionwy’s dark future, what future do they get? There are a lot of ways it could go. Maybe humans and Night people know about each other and live in peace. Maybe humans start sprouting powers so everyone is equally supernatural—or some great power makes all Night People into humans. Or maybe things reset. Most of humanity forgets about the dragons and believes the apocalypse was a natural disaster. The surviving Night People decide to stay separate from humankind, and there are still some evil night people. So things stay as they were. I think this is the most likely outcome, since one of Ms. Smith’s posts suggests that she was thinking of possibly writing more books afterwards!

That’s my reconstruction of the main plot and it has more questions than answers. Whole sections of the story are still unknown.

So let’s try to fill in some gaps by looking at the details and characters.

“One from the twilight to be one with the dark”

Officially, in every canon that says anything, it says Kierlan is the fourth wild power. But how is a shapeshifter “from the twilight”? He’s solidly Night World. I’d think Mal the vampire-witch would be a better fit, since vampires are a lot more night-ish than witches. I also think it might turn out that Sarah is secretly the fourth wild power. If she is not a witch but something new, a human with powers that no Night Person has, that could count as “the twilight” since she’s not a Night Person or a daylight human.

I suspect the “one from” prophecy was written before Ms. Smith knew who the wild powers would be.

“A witch who is not a witch”

Who is the big bad? Who released the dragons? I can think of a few possibilities.

-Mal Harman is a witch who’s also a vampire, so he’s a witch and not a witch. If I had to bet, it would be on Mal.

-Maya, an ancient witch who became the first vampire is a witch who became not a witch. But she is very dead after centuries of murderizing Hannah lots of times. Did she cast a spell to release the dragons before she died? Is she still around as a spirit? Vampires don’t reincarnate but nobody ever said they can’t be ghosts. The Maya in Strange Fate is young Maya of the stone age. So maybe she was part of the spell to imprison the dragons and she worked in something to release them later so they’d be grateful to her.

-Sarah Strange. She has some kind of mystical power, she dreams of the future and can astral project herself at least. But she seems to be officially a human so maybe she’s some kind of new creature, someone who isn’t descended from Hellewise but has magical powers. Like a witch but not a witch. Maybe the dragons reached out to her sensitive spirit and used her to awaken without her being aware of it.

The dragon also said it was, “Someone you’ll never know” and “we made our own alliance.” which suggests not Sarah since we’ve seen her point of view and she didn’t mention dragon buddies.

The Night World wiki suggests that Sylvia, who got pissed off at the other witches and declared herself no longer one of them, might technically count, but by that logic Thea is also possible. She is a witch who everyone thinks is not a witch, and she has a special gift with animals. Maybe the dragons are animalish enough that they could use her the same way I imagined them using Sarah.

Sarah Strange

We have quite a lot about who Sarah is but nothing about what she is. Other than a Mary Sue, which she very is. Everybody in Circle Daybreak is captivated by her. She has prophetic dreams, can astrally project herself to be seen by Ash, and has a special connection to plants- though it’s not clear whether that’s an actual power or just part of her personality.

And Mal and Kierlan think Sarah can do something to “help establish harmony between humans and creatures of the Night World to stave off the apocalypse.” In fact it sort of seems like Mal and Kierlan have been assigned to Sarah to be her guardians because she’s special. But Kierlan met Sarah when they were little kids and Sarah’s visions hadn’t started then so maybe there were other clues. In fact Sarah’s visions started when her mother died, so is there something special about her mother? Could Sarah be a half breed like Jez, and have unusual powers because of that, somehow? Is Sarah part of a prophecy? We already had one unforeshadowed prophecy girl with Iliana so a second one seems like too much but Sarah is a similar character to Iliana, they’re both soulful and more than they seem, with deep kindness and mysterious powers.

And she has two soulmates, somehow. In her posts LJ Smith just says “she has two soulmates,” Ms. Smith has given zero hint that there’s anything else going on, but there are also hints of, “Who is her real soulmate?” So there might be something else going on.

Could one of Sarah’s silver cords have been created? Mal is one of Sarah’s soulmates, he’s a witch and a lamia and my pick for undercover baddie. Lamia are telepathic and witches can cast spells that manipulate emotions, so he is the guy most likely to be able to create a soulmate connection where one was not naturally there. And Kierlan couldn’t sense the silver cord Sarah shares with Mal.

And we have a preview where one of Sarah’s soulmates is terrified that she will break the connection and leave him, which was not something any Night World character could do before or Rashel or Mary-Lynette would definitely have tried! Open and shut case, Mal created a connection so it’s more fragile than a true silver cord, Mal’s the baddie… except that the boy in terror of losing his connection to Sarah was Kierlan, not Mal. So much for that theory!

It’s also possible that having two soulmates is something special about Sarah. Maybe she can create silver cords to connect to the people she loves. This would go against the established lore that being soulmates is something that just happens-- the mystical connection happens because two people are perfect for each other, it’s an effect not a cause. But maybe Sarah is a different sort of person so things work differently for her.

Ms. Smith said the silver cords “have an additional function” in Strange Fate. It could be that this additional function is protection from dragon telepathy, since Mary-Lynette doesn’t hear the dragon’s call that takes everyone else away after her college is destroyed. That would also be why the soulmated pairs are the biggest threat to the dragons.

Unless. If having a silver cord protects you from dragon magnetism, maybe the dragon magnetism is in some way related. Maybe the dragons create bonds to people to control them. If this is right, that puts Kierlan in the running for fake soulmate, maybe when he fell in love with Sarah when they were both children his Drache powers instinctively created a bond to her, he doesn’t even know he has this power but he instinctively knows that Sarah could break the bond.

Maybe?

I feel like I’m on to something with my Holmesian deductive skills but really this is all just a guess.

Figuring out her two soulmates has to be a big part of Sarah’s story. And I feel like she has to end up with only one. A threesome ending just feels too wild for LJ Smith, so I think something has to take one of the boys out of the picture. Either Kierlan sacrifices himself as the wild power, or Mal is revealed to be the baddie, or one of the silver cords turns out to be artificially created. Something.

Kierlan Drache

Galen’s cousin, a big cat shifter-- a tiger, according to a piece of fanart on LJ Smith’s page. I’m not sure if the artist knew for sure but orange hair so we’re going to assume tiger. He has dark red hair and tawny eyes, and he’s a practical joker.

We see a bit from Kierlan’s point of view so we know a bit about his inner life. He has been in love with Sarah since they met as children, and he has always known they’re soulmates. But he is desperate for her to love only him and not Mal too. It seems like Kierlan can see his silver cord with Sarah, but not Sarah’s cord with Mal, so he may not know Sarah is also soulmates with Mal, which would make him very confused as to how Sarah can love her Soulmate and also someone else. Also Kierlan never thinks about how he’s the fourth wild power. We know he is, but does he know he is?

Kierlan calls Mal his “soul’s brother.” Does this just mean that they’re close friends or do they have a mystical connection as well? Kierlan doesn’t say he sees a silver cord between himself and Mal, but it’s not impossible that there are platonic silver cords as well. (also the two of them vibe kinda Daemon and Lucivar. Has Ms. Smith read the Black Jewels trilogy? I think she’d like it.)

Kierlan is also afraid that Sarah will cut the silver cord between them. Is this even possible? Does this mean that Kierlan and Sarah’s silver cord is artificially created and cuttable where natural ones aren’t? I wonder how much new lore Ms. Smith is going to add, here at the end of the series.

Mal Harman

Is the son of a Redfern Lamia and a Harman witch so he has both bloodlines, but he seems to use the Harman last name. This puts him at the number one spot for the “witch who isn’t a witch” who woke the dragons. Having a witch’s power to cast love spells and a vampire’s telepathy this makes him also likely to be able to create a silver cord where one wasn’t naturally there. And his name means “bad.”

Mal has sleek dark hair and very pale gray eyes. He’s “master of the cold stare,” a cool and aloof personality. In a lot of YA the cold, dark-haired boy is the one the heroine ends up with, including in the Dark Visions series.

The two boys had a gentleman’s agreement that Kierlan, who knew Sarah first, was the one who would get her even though Mal also loved her and Sarah loves both of them. Mal agreed never to interfere with Sarah and Kierlan’s relationship. But he broke his promise—or at least Kierlan thinks he did. Kierlan had to use his mental powers to “show Mal the truth”—but I’m not sure what that truth is. Maybe just that Mal loves Sarah, but I don’t think having feelings counts as breaking a promise to not interfere. Eh, it’s unclear.

The rest of the gang

Everybody got a badass upgrade, like when Doctor Who’s old companions show up and somehow they all ended up working for Unit and shooting things.

Rashel and Quinn are married.

Hanna and Thierry are married.

And one couple is having a baby, if we subtract the wild power couples and the couples with made vampires, that leaves Thea or Gillian as the mom to be.

Circle Daybreak has taken down the worst Night World enclaves and freed the human slaves… without the rest of the world knowing? Maybe the human slaves just stayed put as free people and didn’t try to integrate into modern society. Now Circle Daybreak has presence in some cities and there are “time bubbles where people age more slowly… without the rest of the world knowing?

Uh… what? Ok I get that LJ Smith wants the characters to still be 17 years old but she wants to set the story later than 1999 because it’s going to be published after 1999, but this is a very weird way to go about it.

Thierry is also basically a king, and while I am down with him being an inspiring leader to whom people pledge their allegiance, he also has a herald come into the room and go, “All rise!” and everybody has to stand up. And Thierry immediately says it’s fine and acts like a normal person but he still has this herald…

Ms. Smith went some weird places, is what I’m saying.

The Circle Daybreak town seems to be very advanced technologically even if it’s gone backward politically. Thierry has trained guards and professionals, a whole town, a sort of inverted tower where people live underground in the slowed time before returning to normal time on the surface. (maybe the time bubbles are a natural phenomenon they discovered rather than created?) and some helicopters. A LOT has been done to build this enclave. Thierry has unlimited money but how did he get the people? How did he hide it from both the humans and the evil night worlders?

Does humanity know about the Night World by the time of Strange Fate The pieces we’ve seen say no, Human society is still chugging along with Sarah in a house and high school all normal, but it strains my suspension of disbelief that all this could be built without all of humanity noticing.

The Story Thus Far

So that’s what I make of all the factoids and mentions and preview chapters we’ve seen so far. I would love to hear what you made of them. Do you think it’s time travel? It’s such a stretch! Do you think the evidence points to Mal as the big bad? It seems so likely but also so unlikely! Do you think there’s a surprise fourth wild power who isn’t Kierlan? What do you think is up with Sarah? What do you think the world will be like at the end of the story?

[piffyocs]

@zordoom-warden what would Hellebore look/”look” like to Hellewise? :o Since Hellebore isn’t properly a demon yet, but she stopped being human a long time ago, and she has technically “escaped”. Would it depend on whether the Forest That Is a Mountain is a hell, or a demon in and of itself as a self-aware pocket dimension with a distinct will (which the Wolf Matron is just the “face” of), or both?

[shadowcatgirl09]

And as Maiden of all the witches, and in the name of Hellewise Hearth-Woman, I adjure you: remove your spell from this boy.

[nieniekoto]

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