#by now yall know ive got too much freetime

[worth-this-and-more]

why are only merlins succumbing to their blood: a selwyn's tattoo appreciation concerned post

[spoilers for legendborn and bloodmarked, read at your own caution ;)]

sel's tattoos haven't been explained much, they are mentioned here and there but we don't really know much about their story or functions, if any

and the merlin's tattoo, it's only on the merlins, right?? obviously its in the name

and in the whole story, merlins are the only ones who are seen to succumb to their blood. they are the ones who are taught to be bound by oaths to keep their humanity, only natasia who went rogue is able to resist her demonia. and also, valec, even though he has the exactly-half-demon-half-human-bloodwork thing going on, he is still able to keep his demon inside way easily.

so what if the tattoos are the ones that are triggering the imbalance in merlins?? the tattoos definitely have some kind of purpose other than style or identification (lets be real identification is impossible because you wouldn't get close enough to see the tattoo anyway), because nothing tracy has ever said in the story has ever been useless. she has used the chekov's gun fundamental way too many times and I trust her on this. its just a theory, but this seems like a way bigger coincidence.

we know natasia has somehow retained her humanity, so what if with the help of faye she managed to get rid of those tattoos, and regained control of her demonia?? faye definitely helped her a lot considering that she risked her entire freedom just so she could meet bree one last time.

it's not highly unlikely, because just like valec there must be other cambions outside of the order, and assuming that they are not yet slaughtered by the order, they must also retain their humanity?? patricia's ancestor on the memory walk where pearl gave birth to valec said that "you have to cast it away before it grows big enough to do harm" but we all know valec didn't grow up unbalanced like that.

so what if cambions are just generally assumed to succumb to their blood because of the order's lies just so they can convince them to swear their undying loyalty to the order, place their whole existence in the service of legendborn, reduce their life's purpose as to just be a weapon??

merlins are constantly exploited and used throughout the order, at the price of letting them keep their humanity. no merlin with a sense of morality would ever want to go rampant like the very shadowborn they fight against, the largest part of selwyn's self-hatred stems from this. so whats to say order wont just make up another lie for this exact reason??

the orignal merlin probably used oaths to keep his descendants loyal to the order but we all know someday along the line someone is bound to question why the fuck are we supposed to save these people from our own kin?? so probably merlin made up this lie to keep the spell of eternity useful and his descendants loyal.

and then the line or mograine finally had enough of this bullshit and went rogue, ditching the order altogether. they dont seem succumbed to their demons. and I'm pretty sure they would've ditched oaths completely just out of spite, because why would you follow the footsteps of the very same thing they left??

nvm i just really need a whole detailed book chapter explaining each and every tattoo on selwyn.