#it is a surefire sign that the cauldron and prythian is starting to heal and adapt

[goldenspringmornings]

"But in the end, Faery rings and their splendor and riches are hollow, cold replications of the free, full, raw love of life that humans experience." @achaotichuman yesss this!! it's something that's ostensibly missing from acotar but since we're doing all sarah's work for her speculating its far more interesting to say that it is there- just turned on the high fae because the daglan bred that innate sense of Otherness out of them and they're constantly searching for something, anything at all, to replicate it. which would in turn justify (kinda not really) the utm sa in the first book- a very classic if highly fantasized (if we're being nice) version of how that sort of story goes

and if we're accepting that rhys is the strongest high lord (unfortunate) then it's likely because of his Illyrian ancestry- I hadn't given much thought to the lives/magic of the lesser fae in that earlier reblog thread but if they are closer to the native fae magic and cultures of prythian (which does makes sense if the daglan were breeding for "perfection" and thus made the high fae into what they are now) and rhys did just end up hitting the genetic lottery it would explain why he's Like That. he can feel the magic, the life that's missing from half of him, and just has a stronger connection to his magic because he's so constantly aware of it. tho I do agree he wouldn't feel that difference as strongly or deeply as elain or nesta being cauldron-made would and that's why he's so threatened by nesta specifically. she's Other enough, original enough, that her power feels wrong to high fae but rhys is the only one to have even an inkling as to why and be worried about it

we mentioned on the earlier reblog chain that nesta being Made was also kinda of like cleaning an old, festering wound with no anesthesia that ultimately let that wound heal faster. I'd say that it isn't that high fae or even the high lords that feel the difference in the cauldron first- it's the lesser fae like the Illyrians that notice the small changes from pulling the rot out. it's easier for them to see the reversions, to scrape and claw back their history than it would be for the high fae, because they aren't so far removed from it

No one:

Me: hey wouldn't it be fucked up if the fae in acotar, especially the high fae have almost zero biological redundancies? And that's why they're so "perfect"? Because the daglan essentially cultivated them as livestock with what would be the most desirable traits to consume from fae?And now all the fae post invasion are now so far removed from the original indigenous fae population that they are basically husks of what they were?

@goldenspringmornings @achaotichuman @a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire

[flat-neines]

You're making a good point about lesser fae here, that with their more non human/ animalistic features of the indigenous fae (who weren't divided by class) probably remind the high fae, at least subconsciously, of what they lost.

@goldenspringmornings and I were discussing this earlier in a reblog thread about the wider implications of this hc on prythian's history as a whole and they made a point on how the enslavement of humans possibly started because of misplaced blame towards humans for the daglan's oppression and torment of them. That envy that the high fae may have for the lesser faes not seeming as diminished as they are would also be a huge contribution to why the fae end up repeating the cycle of cruelty the daglan started.

On hybrids, I think there's always going to be pros and cons depending what said fae is mixed with. Rhysand in particular, being high fae and illyrian might not feel anything is innately wrong because he's still fundamentally so far removed from his ancestors as everyone else, high or lesser fae regardless, is. Cauldron-affected fae hybrids (or cauldron affected individuals in general) on the other hand would definitely feel a loss or pain as they're more directly connected to the central wound of the planet via the cauldron.

(Though if rhysand is the most powerful high lord bc he's the best physical traits of fae by genetic lottery, he's also the quintessential feast for daglan. Bro is going to be first to be devoured)

This doesn't mean the fae will never return to the near primordial beings they once were, it just was a losing battle for the mother/cauldron to reverse the changes the daglan made, so any positive changes in the world aren't noticeable. Yet.

Sadly, this probably means that the current fae around don't actually have a true scale of what "real fae" are anymore and are just arbitrarily deciding what it is off of rules that never made sense in the first place; with no way of knowing otherwise.

Like you said every authority, pleasure and fragment of power chased, will still ring hollow for the high fae in light of what they lost. It's better to deny they lost anything anyways.

No one:

Me: hey wouldn't it be fucked up if the fae in acotar, especially the high fae have almost zero biological redundancies? And that's why they're so "perfect"? Because the daglan essentially cultivated them as livestock with what would be the most desirable traits to consume from fae?And now all the fae post invasion are now so far removed from the original indigenous fae population that they are basically husks of what they were?

@goldenspringmornings @achaotichuman @a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire