#a queen being named like this is a reference at rayla being a future princess just saying

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I was watching Barbie and The Magic of Pegasus and the sudden Rayla name drop caught me offward

[beautifulterriblequeen]

King Runaan of the Moonshadow Elves

This post will have several sections. They’ll be as follows.

Runaan is a king, and Rayla is his heir (this post)

Runaan had to confess his love first, because he is the king

Ethari’s entire skill set is now dedicated to keeping the king of the Moonshadow elves alive

Rayla's self-worth issues

Viren did invite the assassins just like he said Amaya accused him of. One assassin in particular

Aaravos and Viren may both want to spend Runaan in the future

1. Runaan is the king of the Moonshadow elves

Angst Rating: 1/10

This theory came to me with one specific image in mind, while talking theories with @kotikala​ yesterday. But it got anchored by two other things. Rayla’s grumpy face behind Runaan’s back in S1E2 when he called her the fastest and strongest of all of us, and the fact that Runaan has a 3D model with a post-battle torn vest, and another with no shirt. These three things. Plus a year and a half’s worth of theories--many of which I had lying around with no bigger picture in mind until last night--and rewatches. I feel simultaneously giddy and stupid as hell.

That one image was Runaan’s shoulder markings.

They are in fact like Aaravos’s crown shape, with a round moon instead of a second diamond,

but not because Runaan’s markings reference Aaravos. Because Runaan is royalty just like Aaravos.

This double diamond shape appears in Katolis, too, on the armor of the king’s army and even Callum’s scarf.

It’s also right there on top of Khessa’s crown, looking very similar to Runaan’s markings, with a round disc replacing one of the diamonds. In this case, it represents the sun instead of the moon.

Runaan doesn’t wear a crown anytime we see him. He might not have a crown at all, since he’s a warrior king who has “seen his share of hardship and war.” But he paints that symbol on his arms and wears his rank as king for everyone to see. He might never have had an older symbol on his arms at all, since he was born to this.

His face markings are the shadow of an assassin hood. He never needs to wear his because he’s internalized his duty so well. And he has probably had these markings since he was tiny, because there was never any question about his future.

Kings generally come with castles. This is Runaan’s castle. 

A thousand-year-old tree near the edge of the village. It was probably either planted or reshaped when the Moonshadows had to move eastward out of Katolis following the Merciful Compromise, and it’s been the royal dwelling ever since. Ah, tradition. This wasn’t Ethari’s home because it had space for a forge in it. It’s Runaan’s home, and his home is literally his castle. (How many levels does it have in there, and does anyone else live with them? I have such questions)

Moonshadow elves are forest elves at heart. Runaan lives in a tree, while his people live in ordinary houses. 

The tree house is the best and brightest home any of them could imagine. So Runaan’s tunic bears the symbol of a tree trunk on it. He is the stable trunk of his people, and they branch from him and the anchoring stability he provides. His tree tunic is his royal robes of office, marked with the symbol of his (literal and metaphoric) house.

The Moon Druid link has been pretty well theorized in general, if not in specific, before now, but here’s a summary: the Moon Druids of old used to live in Katolis’s forest, around the Moon Nexus. When the border was drawn 1000 years ago after the Merciful Compromise was suggested by the daughter of the Moonshadow ruler, the elves had to leave. They destroyed the Nexus, left a guardian, and settled/resettled in the Moonshadow Forest, reestablishing their rule in the east and taking up the dark and sacred duty of protecting Xadia from dangerous humans by assassinating them, so their merciful agreement to spare all the humans never brought disaster. 

When Runaan took his team back west, he performed the binding ceremony in an ancient grove with six trees and a moon-rune-shaped water border. It was his own people’s ancient grove.

The Moon Druids stood like this.

And so does Runaan.

His accent and Lujanne’s are the only two British voices among all the Scottish Moonshadows. One of them guards the Moon Nexus, where the Moon Druids used to live. The other is currently ruling from the Silvergrove.

The Silvergrove is the only place labeled in the Moonshadow forest. On a map, if you’re only going to have one city, you label the capital. I didn’t understand the relationship between the Silvergrove, the assassins, and the human kingdoms before. I thought it was a border village. But it’s deep in the forest, at its heart.

Runaan didn’t come to the Silvergrove to train to be an assassin. He was born there. The Silvergrove and the assassins were always the intimately connected. The Moon Druids became assassins to uphold their sacred duty. Wherever they live, that’s where the assassins train.

Runaan was once drawn younger in this outfit. It’s blurry but the white text reads “younger Runaan?”

It got morphed into someone else. But look at this dynamic. This is clearly a Moonshadow leader and his close ally—his son. His son the assassin.

The Moonshadow staff used to look like this a thousand years ago.

Then it got stabby.

Now it looks like this.

My heart for Xadia, indeed. That line might very well be reserved only for the ruler and his heir to swear.

Runaan’s bio says he “cares deeply for his people.” That means all of the Moonshadow elves. And he’s called, in full, Runaan of the Moonshadow Elves. That’s a title.

Rayla gave her name to Sol Regem in that format, too. Rayla of the Moonshadow Elves. Because Rayla is Runaan’s legal heir. He’s a gay elf and won’t be having his own kids. So he chose his best friends’ child to follow him in succession. He’s been training his own replacement since she could walk.

Rayla is the Moonshadow Princess and she has her own title.

I think part of the reason I didn’t see Runaan for the king he was, or even the prince I used to think he was, had to do with my assumptions that any Moonshadow ruler would preside over a community similar in setup to Khessa and Harrow. Big, obvious, powerful. Meant to be seen. But that’s not the Moonshadow way. Even though Runaan’s tree castle is literally all of those things. I just wasn’t speaking Moonshadow fluently enough yet.

Runaan’s rule, and the Moonshadows in general, really give me a Viking-era England feel. England was comprised of several small kingdoms before the time of Alfred the Great. They never covered too much territory, and they weren’t very centrally organized. You might get a handful of heavily walled towns, and if there was trouble, all the citizens outside the walls would scamper in for safety. (Imagine the Silvergrove’s moondome functioning like the dome over Wakanda’s capital city when Thanos’s minions attacked in Infinity War. Nice, huh?)

Runaan has that local-king feel. His position is a martial one. He leads from the front. He’s very focused on upholding his duty, not looking cool in furs and crowns or whatever. He either gave his own oath to the Dragon King and Queen, or he was already bound to a pre-existing oath, Oath of Féanor-style, and that promise rules his life. His life, but not his heart. So he lives in his quiet little village with his cute craftsman husband and all his people and his blood promise, and he trains with focused dedication to uphold his people’s honor with maximum efficiency and safety for his own assassins.

Things that hit differently now

Amaya hates Moonshadows the most because their king kills

Kings probably aren’t good cooks

Why no one spoke against Runaan when he said a teenager was coming on his mission

Of course they used the pool outside the tree house for the lotus ritual. That’s the royal pool outside the royal palace.

Of course Runaan had to ghost his friends. They were assassins, and he was their leader and king. He had to lead the ghosting.

Duty before love makes so much more tragic sense now

Literally yesterday I posted about Runaan’s biological legacy not being called into question regarding Rayla’s parents’ failure. But she is his heir, so his wisdom was being questioned.

“When Someone Great is Gone” from Devon’s Runaan/Ethari playlist

Runaan and Harrow are both kings bound by literal and metaphorical chains. Neither is free

“Justice will not be denied/Your justice will come later/Humans are liars”

“My heart for Xadia”

“You let him live, but you’ve killed us all”

Basically every word Runaan has ever said

part 2