#key of aaravos

[kradogsrats]

GOD so what a thing to put in a silent, 60-second scene at the end of an episode and then NOT RETURN TO AGAIN, because like... this is the "the cube always rolls toward one point" payoff????

They've shown it in kind of a weird way, because unlike... idk, me, a sensible person, who would record the direction in which the cube rolled with arrows or something, Callum is recording the angle of the marks it leaves on the ground as a series of lines:

This means the lines are 90 degrees off from the direction of the cube's motion, so taking that into account we get something like this:

Each shape is marked on the map as somewhere he has been with the cube, very roughly: triangle for Lux Aurea, rectangle for the Storm Spire, circle for Umber Tor, crown for Katolis, and the diagonal cross is their current location on the way to the Frozen Sea.

Line them all up on the map and we get:

Not sure what's going on with Umber Tor there, unless they at some point changed the map location from the Sea of the Castout, in which case it would line up perfectly. (The blue circle is the rough area they're currently at for the diagonal cross, being almost to the Frozen Sea coming from Katolis.)

So the cube is rolling toward, of all places, Duren. The point Callum marks is just north of the border with Katolis and due west of the Breach. But Duren. Not Aaravos's prison, not the Starscraper, not Elarion. Duren. Was that maybe where Aaravos's home with Leola was?

Anyway, this is insane. They have mentioned this feature of the cube once. In Callum's Spellbook, which is not exactly top-tier content. And now, completely without explanation, they're chucking this at us at the end of *checks watch* EPISODE TWO and then smoke-bombing away into the rest of the season.

[wylldebee]

Hahaha what if the Key of Aaravos was actually one of Leola's toys or something Aaravos used to teach her about the Primal Sources, and Aaravos made it his key to his book because it's one of the most important things to him because it was Leola's. Wouldn't that be something haha...ha...

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

Wait it would be messed up if the cube had like the heart of leola (IT COULD HAPPEN LIKE THE STARTOUCH ELVES ARE SERIOUSLY DISTURBED) and aaravos's heart is just Somewhere Else and he wants the cube back so bad because that's His Daughter's Heart

[self-spaghettification]

cube = interlocking diamond motif?

thanks @imminent-danger-came their post got me strangely speculating 😭 (clowning)

theory in images

"This cube is an ancient relic that has been passed down through the ages."

"Legends say it unlocks something of great power in Xadia." - Harrow's Letter

here:

Janai said the sun seed was a "gift"....

hm. hm. huh.

The "Star of Elarion" and "The Merciful One"

What do you all think? LOL

[a-certain-elf]

Why don`t we just put the Key of Aaravos in Jello

maybe Aaravos hates jello

[dragonprincequotesimadeup]

Key of aaravos dice!!

Available here

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Everyone believes that the key of aaravos unlocks his prison but I don't think that the case. What do you think that key does?

I can't decide yet! There's plenty of possibility given what we know so far, and like so many themes and objects in TDP it seems to serve multiple functions as well. But I think it really is some kind of key.

Hmm. Maybe it would help if we knew who named it that.

It might be a literal key, it might be a figurative key. Or both, in different ways. After all, Callum's been carrying it with him for a long time now. Maybe it's unlocking something in him already, before he even gets to whatever it's supposedly for in Xadia? dun dun DUNNN!

You wanna know one thing I've never understood and keep thinking about, cube-wise?

Why did Callum's fever dream conjure a creepy hellish portal for the dark magic cube to vanish into? 👀 What is that about.

My best guess for the key's function is that there will be some kind of physical space that the cube-holder reaches at some point, where the cube "fits," and then it Does Something. Which is a long way of saying it could literally unlock something that's locked. An Actual Key.

But does it free Aaravos?

There are so many possibilities I couldn't possibly guess with any certainty. But my favorite and funniest guess, regardless of probability, is that if there is a literal locked area and this cube opens it, then what's inside won't be what everyone thinks of as "Aaravos."

tldr: I'm not smart enough to call this one on facts yet so I'm agreeing with you, but only for silly reasons.

[dreamerwithnightmares]

The truth is that Key of Aaravos is actually his fidget toy.

Bro sits and puts his cube to the ground to watch it glow. Or he walks up to Aditi to put it next to her face and watch the rune glow. Or to himself.

It's like a toy for children who have to match the circle to the shape of the circle. He was learning where the source of magic was.

And then he gave the toy to others to play with, and they think it's some powerful magical item.

Aaravos Prankster of The Xadia

Riddle solved, you are free to go now

Goodbye

[xadian-daydreams]

Key of Aaravos

This has definitely been discussed before, but most of what I see relates the Key to the prison or helping Callum/humans learn arcanum, so here's my 2 cents.

In short, it's how and why Aaravos is an archmage of all six Primals - when he shouldn't be an archmage at all. Full explanation below the cut.

Arcanum Theory

This is my understanding of how this works.

Xadians are gifted at birth with arcanum, which connects them to facet(s) of a Primal Source. Arcanums vary between species, with elves being the only ones where arcanum varies between individual members. They can choose to explore and fulfill their potential with it, but they can't ever exceed it. You can only become an archmage if you were born with an arcanum with archmage potential. If you weren't, no amount of effort, learning, philosophising etc can make you become an archmage - you simply weren't born with that destiny. Another example, if you were born a Moonshadow elf with an arcanum related to appearance and perception, then you can study to become an illusionist, but you couldn't become life/death moon druid.

Humans have no born connection to any Primal Source, but they also have no limits placed on their potential if they manage a connection, beyond time dedicated to exploring the Primal concepts and their capacity to understand. If a human connects to Moon and wants to learn illusions, and druid magic, and shadow magic and... you get the gist, well, they totally can with enough effort.

The way around arcanum limits (or having no Primal connection) is using magic gems and Primal Stones - which artificially gives you temporary access to archmage grade arcanum and a bunch of primal energy to channel into rune spells.

(Alternatively, there's also the Bloodmoon cult, who used dark magic to alter their inborn arcanum to liberate themselves from the restriction of the moon cycle.)

The Exception to the Rule

Then there's Aaravos, who's so unique and special the rules didn't apply, and he managed become an archmage in all six Primals. (Did you know the six stars on his face are astral tattoos? Man wanted to make a point).

But what if Aaravos isn't exceptional and has the same limits every other Xadian has - one arcanum related to a single Primal, probably not even archmage potential, that he is confined and limited by - he just figured out how to cheat better than Primal Stones.

If Aaravos held a Primal Stone for each Primal, he could fake his abilities. But Primal Stones have to be in contact and can break. There's no evidence Stars Primal Stones are even possible. Plus, he clearly isn't doing that. But... some way to make a bridge to channel the artificial arcanums without needing to even be near the source. An artefact that can hold something of himself to act as the link. There's a theory of Raayllum's that the Key of Aaravos contains his chest piece (white heart/star core), which helped inspired this theory. Aaravos' chest piece glows when he's accessing the artificial arcanums to cast magic, as he's reconnecting to the missing piece held in the Key.

Why does the Key glow in proximity to magical creatures/active primal magic- maybe a password system. You need archmage/archdragon grade arcanum for each Primal touching the cube simultaneously to open it - which would mean currently only Aaravos could open his Key to retrieve his core.

A Source of Great Power

But there's the hang up of where Aaravos got the full arcanum for Stars to make this Key theory work.

Harrow's letter says the Key unlocks a great power in Xadia, with the Key itself being slightly pulled towards this Source. Conversely, this means the Key is also part of what locked away this great power in the first place.

Running with the theory, this Source would need to contain the full arcanum of all six Primals - the only thing I can think of that would do that is Deep magic - the ancient mashup precursor to Primal magic. So, Aaravos placed some sort of syphon on the Deep Source/Nexus itself, and connected it to himself via the Key.

The bigger question is - does this tie into Aaravos' gift of dark magic to humanity as a whole? Dark magic is intrinsically linked to Aaravos, using it forms a connection to him personally. Is there Deep Nexus being augmented to artificially allow the casting of dark magic. Which would mean this Key could be used to access a means to the source of dark magic - which could be disabled.

Also, it's probably not a coincidence the dark magic symbol has the diamond shape of Aaravos' Star chest piece in it.

And a final question - if the Key is giving Aaravos arcanum, could it be used to remove his arcanum, giving him the same unlimited potential as a human. Presumably, his long experience with using the Primals would translate into reconnecting, human style, fairly easily. (And I have another theory which would mean Aaravos would have access to a backup arch potential Stars connection he could use to reconnect, if that's the one Primal you can't force). Just saying this because of the alternate Callum opening which indicates Callum's going to do something with the Key that Aaravos wants to happen - and Callum thinking he's defeating Aaravos when he's actually making his power independent... Seems like something Aaravos would find hilarious. (Edit: I also just noticed Callum is staring at the Stars symbol on the Key in the opening, which is more evidence that the person who will be holding it has Stars Primal. And after discussing, Callum could just be after putting the chest piece back in so he can stab it with the Novablade, but I'm still convinced there's more of an angle then that, 'cause where does Aaravos benefit?)

Sorry if something like this has come up before, not trying to tread on toes, but there's quite a few theories about the Key out there...

Thanks for reading.

[nexis9]

Key of Aaravos headcanons!!!!

So, before season 6, my headcanon with the cube was that it could store primal sources in it but it was used more in a way to steal primal sources from magical creatures but it also had the power to give primal magic to others. So, using the cube, Aaravos could have taken someone's moon primal and gave it to a human! And with Callum, during his dark magic dream he accidently activated the cube and the cube gave him his sky magic!

I also headcanoned that Ziard gave the cube to Aaravos as a gift when Aaravos gave Ziard the staff. And Aaravos appreciated it so much that he used magic to make it useful!

(thinking about it now, the entire ocean arc of season 5 where callum unlocks the Ocean arcanum kinda disproves that headcanon but shhhh)

Though if the headcanon was canon, then I bet Aaravos had loads of extra arcanum's in the cube so Callum could have gone and just randomly give arcanum's to people if he figured out how to make it work

[greenmoons]

This is the key of Aaravos and Ezran for some reason thought it going to be a good idea to take the prison with them, but what if the moment the cube is close to the pearl Aaravos will be released? They might have done a grave mistake, they could free Aaravos without mean it. This is going to be bad.

[kradogsrats]

um—

[wheretwofacesmeet]

[kradogsrats]

okay... OKAY

we know Callum is going to the Starscraper, possibly the single place most related to Startouch elves, practically a literal bridge to the cosmos

and it's implied that the Key predates Aaravos's imprisonment, given the way it's shown with the Orphan Queen

what if it unlocks something at the Starscraper

the Stars/Startouch/First Elves have been positioned, in a lot of ways, as gatekeepers of magic—it's Leola who opens primal magic to humans, it's the stars who enact punishment over that, it's Aaravos who opens another pathway to magic use, etc. and it's possible that they literally created the primal sources and primal magic

and Callum is taking the key associated with all six primals and also Aaravos to the Startouch elf place, hmmmMMMM

(imo strong possibility here is the old "they key unlocks arcana" theory, which if "Callum has access to all primal magic" is meant to be the endgame state would be a very efficient way to get that done in only two remaining seasons... however I think it would also tie in with the new speculation on a link between dark magic and unlocking an arcanum, which IMO if that is the case it's not a natural thing but something engineered by Aaravos

so basically "here's the key to near-limitless power, but in using it you will chain yourself tighter and tighter under my control")

i am This Close to getting back on a CHET variant bullshit lemme tell you

[spicyviren]

Thinking about how Rayla originally said the Key was just a child’s toy and now wondering if the Key was originally simply a toy Aaravos made for Leola when she was younger (like children’s blocks) and then later repurposed for the book he was working on which, perhaps, he meant to pass on to her when she was old enough.

[dragonprincequotesimadeup]

Coming soon to my shop!

Key of aaravos dice