#onyx storm theory

[justascrollingghost]

I’m placing my bets now that Xaden will be fighting for his life not to channel at the end of this book and Violet will launch herself at him to stop him and he’ll scream in absolute agony thinking he’s going to hurt her whilst she’s just clinging to him absolutely fine and that’s how we’ll all find out the silver in her hair is because she’s already part venin…

[chyyy66]

Here it is, my Onyx Storm bingo card !!!

Some of these theories are a little out there, and some are just fun !! Some also contradict each other, but it’s fineeeeeeeee !

[somewhere-in-the-rain]

Not to come on here and immediately start bitching about BookTok, but why do I keep seeing people say Aaric’s dragon will be Andarna’s mate? Seriously, I just do not understand this theory.

Andarna is 3 YEARS OLD. Rebecca Yarros repeatedly describes her as a TEENAGER. She is not going to mate with a fully grown dragon any time soon and it is kind of fucked up to suggest that.

[mattyalwayssmokesweed]

Some of my crazy, unhinged theories I have about the Empyrean series because I overthink everything a little too much:

Violet is Queen Maraya’s daughter Lilith took in as some sort of deal/barging chip with Poromiel, and Catriona accusing her of “stealing her crown” is foreshadowing for her stepping in as Queen of Poromiel and stealing the crown from Viscount Tecarus (Catriona’s uncle). Plus it explains why she looks nothing like the rest of her family

Andarna doesn’t belong to an almost extinct species of dragons; she’s the goddesses of dragons who reborns whenever a chosen one needs her to defend the Known World (a sort of Phoenix in a sense)

The Maven is Violet’s twin sister. Violet is always described as being half-something; half scribe, half rider. Half weak, half strong. Even her hair is half-half; magic needs balance, so they’re both half-something without the other (said twin sister was taken by venin as a baby)

Aaric’s dragon and Andarna will be mates

Violet’s second signet is actually all the signets; just like Andarna can morph into whatever color she wants, the signet she gives her rider will also change depending on what Violet needs/wants at the moment

Brennan’s rune in his hand is actually a sort of “notice-me-not” rune that makes people not notice anything weird about him and/or ask him a lot of questions

Papa Sorrengail discovered a prophecy about Violet and that’s why he wanted her to go to the Scribes quadrant. After his death, Lilith found it between his things and sent Violet to the Riders Quadrant to protect her from said prophecy

A rider has to have all their things burned after their death because otherwise they are stuck in the mortal world as some sort of “phantom” no one can see or feel

Feel free to ask me to elaborate on any of them because I’m a certified yapper

[litnerdwrites]

Did Jack Barlow Know? If so, who else knew and how?

Okay, so hear me out! We know this likely means that either Andarna is linked to this mysterious weapon. We don't know if means she knows where to find it/activate it, if she is the weapon, or if a rider that bonded her species of dragon was what wiped them out. Either way, it's safe to say that it all relates back to her in some way.

We also know that Jack Barlow was a Venin before he crossed the parapet, right? And in Kaori's classes, he was very interested in Tairn. Then, during Threshing, his number one goal was to kill Andarna (which isn't smart given where he was). Also, by the end of Iron Flame, he was somehow controlling Baide. Not, seemingly, dissimilar to how Varrash described influencing a dragon instead of allowing it to influence you.

His interest in Tairn is most likely because he wanted to bond a powerful dragon for the Venin to use, or for him to control. He wanted to influence Tairn the way he did Baide, maybe even syphon power from him, and by proxy, Sgaeyl.

He was also weirdly obsessed with Killing Andarna during Threshing, which, at the time, just could be attributed to arrogance, disrespectfulness and self-centredness, which was on brand for him. But now that we know what he is, and what he was doing all along, it's safe to say there could be other Venin in the wards.

There's so much speculation regarding Violet's potential Venin heritage, from either her mother or father's side. Lilith's rank and position means that she and Violet's dad had been close to the hatching grounds for a while. Violet's father specifically was researching Feathertails, and he died one or two years before the start of the book, when Violet was about 18. What else happened when Violet was 18? Andarna. She hatched when Violet was 18, possibly before her father even died.

Who's to say how many other Venin there are within the Wards. There are likely to even be a couple, like VIolet's dad, that were within a four hour flight radius to said wards. If Volet's dad felt Andarna hatch, then any other near by Venin could have too. Going back to his research for a moment, it's worth mentioning, how would he be able to study Feathertail effectively? The only way for there to be information about them in his research that isn't common knowledge, is either, a) he had access to very restricted texts (like the King's personal collection), which seems unlikely, or b) to have seen a feathertail.

If nothing else, I think Andarna knows something of the research he did. Perhaps he even met her for himself. When Varrish was questioning Violet about it, Tairn confirms that he doesn't know about it, but Andarna? The author makes a point to tell us that she went silent. Not that she wasn't there, or grew uninterested, or even went to sleep. She was there, she was listening, but she didn't respond.

By now, I think it's safe to say that she knows something. Throughout the books, Andarna drops hints to her secrets, without outright saying them, or lying about them. She prefers lying by omission, which, towards the end of the first book, Tairn points out to her, can be just as bad. It still seems to be her preferred method of secret keeping, though. Like how she's not like the other juveniles, or how she'd be the head of her own den, all indicating that she really isn't. She's a whole other species, and already the head of her own den.

I think Andarna knows something about the Venin, and about Violet's dad, in which case, it's possible he also knew, somehow, that Andarna would chose Violet. I'm not sure how likely that would be, and would depend on how much Andarna knows of this research.

However, I'm confident that she's the key to stopping the Venin in one form or the other. I also think that, somehow, the Venin knows this too. Either through Violet's dad, who may or may not have had contact with Andarna, or knew of her, at the very least, or through another Venin in Basgaith.

So, finally, going back to Jack Fucking Barlow, the root of this discussion, did he know about all of this? We know he was sent to destroy the wards, but was hellbent on killing Andarna during Threshing.

Powerful dragons can tell what a hatchlings colour will be, before they mature. Is it possible that powerful Venin can too? If there was a Venin near the wards, powerful enough, would they be able to tell as well? It's possible that a Venin inside the wards reported back to a higher rank, about Andarna's hatching, or that a Sage or General to learn about the dragon hatchlings through other Venin, or people like Violet's dad.

If they did, then they could Know what Andarna is. They'd know how she's different, how she's the key to stopping them, and perhaps even the key to their victory. Could it be that the Venin sent Jack to, not only destroy the wards, but to kill Andarna before she became a threat? If the higher ups amongst Venin didn't know, then did Jack figure it out on his own, and do it to earn The Sage's approval? Based on how desperate they are to capture Violet for The Sage, they seem pretty obsessed with proving themselves. Jack might have wanted to become a strong rider to gain the acknowledgment or promotion from The Sage, and later decided to kill Andarna while he was at it.

It's possible that that's the reason that The Sage wants Violet so badly. If you can't beat them, join them. Or have them join you by turning the love of their life into a monster, and using him to kidnap or manipulate them into joining your cause because they're the biggest threat to you and your kind. Perhaps they want her to manipulate Andarna the way Jack did with Baide or Varrish claimed to do with Solas, since it was Andarna, or her kind, that ended the war 600 years ago.

[auraisereigh]

Black Dragons (Dubhmadinn line)

Everything we know about black dragons so far. What they're like, their original hatching grounds and a little insight about the known black dragons and their riders. 🖤

This entire page is made by me, i did my research on both the books and The Empyrean Wiki, but feel free to correct me if something is wrong or missing. Do not use without giving credit, i spend many hours on this one to perfect it. This beautiful art of Tairn is made by the amazing @bookartbysloan on instagram, make sure to check out her other pieces too!

This is part of the "aura's dragon guide" series. Find the rest on my masterlist here, i will update all of these once onyx storm is out. Every sunday i post a new part.

This one was so much fun to make. I love tairn and violet + i have an extremly soft spot for Naolin somehow so i loved putting some of him in there hehe. I loved laying this out, the black with white is something i love so much for some reason. 🖤

[meeville]

Theories for Onyx Storm:

Spoilers for Fourth Wing and Iron Flame obviously. Also buckle your seat belts cuz this is a loooong one because I don’t know how to be concise. 

I’m not much of a theory person but as someone who straight up predicted Mira would deck Brennan as soon as she found out he was alive I think I’m pretty qualified. As any theories of mine I’m adding many embellishments to things we know and jamming puzzle pieces together blindly without actually knowing if they go together so everyone prepare your salt. 

Halden and Violet are exes theory: 

Halden went through basgiath in the infantry, canonically and here’s where my theory begins. I believe he’s only one year older than Xaden and thus he would have been in third year while Violet was helping Jasinia study for the scribe quadrant. This is the time when I think they were dating ish… the numbers don’t really matter. Violet definitely dated infantry and Halden is confirmed to have been through so this is how I’m making the numbers work. Halden being older than Xaden is important because Xaden killed Halden’s younger brother Alic who he was in threshing with and that probably ment they were around the same age. Unless Alic was an unbonded from the previous year (but I don’t think so, and for this theory he isn’t). 

So Halden and Vi date in Halden’s third year while She and Jasinia are studying and therefore Jasinia probably met Halden and knew who he was. And this is how she recognizes Aaric, whom she’s never met before. She recognized his eyes and said that it was pretty obvious if you knew what to look for, ie Jasinia knew who Aaric was because she met Halden and “knew what to look for” as she put it. 

So Vi and Halden dated but why did they end it? I have an answer for you. Vi doesn’t have noble blood, none of the Sorengails do (that we know of anyway). King Tauri seems like the type who would not be happy with his son being with somebody who isn’t noble or royal. Also Halden seems like an asshole from what I’ve interpreted about him from IF, so he could have also easily dumped Vi because of this. And possibly left her for a noblewoman or something like that. And we’re going with the second option in this theory because this leads into a really silly part of this theory: Violet is pretending that the target in her room is Halden in chapter twenty-nine of FW. This detail has always bugged me. Who was she imagining? Her asshole ex perhaps? If you don’t know the scene it’s the one after Vi wields for the first time and drops a mountain on Jack. Xaden comes to check on her and she’s throwing knives. He asks if she’s pretending it him and she says that it was about twenty minutes ago. He asks who it is now and she says ‘no one you know.’ I think it was totally Halden. Just a little detail that I thought was interesting. ‘M makin’ them puzzle pieces fit. 

Anyway we’re getting back on track now. Halden dumping Vi would explain her insecurities with Cat because she’s been in a similar situation before. Vi acts really out of character in IF and if this is what happened with Halden it would explain a lot. Violet had been jealous before (Imogen) but not to this extent and she moved on quickly before. But not now and her jealousy and insecurity around Cat could be explained by deep seated insecurities that Halden’s actions made her feel and that’s why it lasted throughout the book. Xaden is noble and so is Cat and Halden left Vi for a noble using some excuse about how it was better this way because Vi wasn’t a noble and this new woman was. This is why Vi is out of character: Because Halden made her believe she wasn’t worth the trouble because she wasn’t noble and that why Vi makes all the comments about how Xaden and Cat belong together. 

This is a theory. Please Take my words with a grain of salt. None of what I’m saying has much proof so: Grain of salt. Please. Also some more things I didn’t feel like making a new post for:

When we’ll see Halden:

Halden will show up in OS. RY doesn’t tend to mention a name unless they are on the death roll to make the series more lived in or have or at going to showing up in the series. Halden is someone important in the world and I think he’ll show sooner than later. 

Setting and plotish stuff? IDK:

I think the next book will have some more widespread world politics. It was confirmed that Vi and probably second squad are going to the isles. This was in the blurb for OS’s French edition and was taken down quickly after that. Again RY doesn’t mention something unless it will play a role. She didn’t mention the isle in FW but did in IF so we knew something had to be up. 

Violet’s second Signet:

RY said we might find Violet’s second signet more boring than her first and because of that I’m leaning the way of Amplifier. I have seen some solid arguments for Intinsic but people know that she’ll have a second signet and will start to ask questions when she never “develops” one. Which could lead into learning more about intinsics. I’m not super sold on that one or the truth-sayer one. I think truth-sayer is an inaccurate name for the signet people think she’ll have. Truth-sayer Nora can detect lies. That’s what truth-sayer is. I think that if Vi has developed a signet in this vein, it won’t be that, with the clues we have. It will be more of a “if she asks you a question you literally cannot lie to her, the words you speak will only be the truth,” kind of thing. She has to ask the RIGHT questions but yeah. 

Ships:

I ship Sloane and Aaric but my friend has a ship-related wish/theory. She thinks Aaric and Cat will get together without Cat knowing he’s royalty and they fall etc. But it would be good development for her to fall in love with someone for who they are not what they are right? She’s always going for more political power and stuff and it would be hilarious if she accidentally ended up in ultimate political power. I also think Aaric will end up as king by the end of the series so that ties in a bit too. 

Jasinia Neilwart Curator of the Scribe Quadrant:

Also also. People are freaking out over the recovered correspondence and faithfully transcribed by Jasinia stuff so here’s my two cents. I think Violet either wrote the books or helped in their creation in the original Navarian. I think she provided her and Xaden’s correspondence so that things could be truthfully told. I think at one point in the future of the series she decides to write everything down and be truthful like Lyra was in her own journal so future generations have a way to fight if the threat of venin comes back. Or something like that. The “honour the fallen” line doesn’t have to be about Violet or Xaden it could be about literally any of the characters that have already, at this point in the series, died. Or Violet and Xaden could have faked their deaths and Jasinia changed the texts to make this believable so the two of them could live their lives. There are literally so many probabilities. I know RY is known for her unhappy ending and what not but I’m naïvely choosing to be optimistic. Not everyone is going to die. Just everyone who is not Jasinia lol! But seriously y��all are dark. There are so many alternatives to everyone dying and alternatives to how and why this story is told the way it is. 

Anyway I’m actually shaking in excitement rn. If anyone in or formally in Flame section Fourth Wing Dies I will riot. And if Tairn dies I quit ( I’m joking, but not really, but also I am.) Onyx storm will be out in less than a week so everyone remember to put your spoiler warnings on your motherfucking posts. Not everyone reads the same pace so be generous with the spoiler warnings. Notice how this post has one, and a cut? but also this post is long as shit so it was necessary lmao. I have a true fear of opening insta on the 21st because of spoilers. Y’all be kind to us who don’t get their copy till at least a week later and have to audiobook it in less than 24h because otherwise we’ll get spoiled. Don’t spoil or Ill SPOIL YOU!!! Add all of your additions to my post I want to see ideas flowing. Also make sure you stay sexy and don’t get murdered. Happy next few days of existential dread. Love Y’a. mouah<3

[cannothelptheobsession]

Ok so you know how in IF they’re trying to work out the translation and keep coming up with iron rain, and then after all it’s Iron FLAME as per the title on the gd book cover? It got me thinking about FW and how calling it Fourth Wing suggests Violet makes it through to threshing and bonds with a dragon and so becomes part of fourth wing. Except that’s too obvious somehow, RY is more tricksy than that - and then it hit me that the title reflects the fact that VIOLET BONDS TWO DRAGONS GIVING HER FOUR WINGS.

It makes me excited to see what OS means - I’ve seen someone talk about Xaden’s onyx eyes, and I guess onyx could represent the black of his shadows? And then Violet the lightning welder as storm? I can’t wait to see how it’s used!

[winnie-the-monster]

Lol Violet’s second signet is truth. I’m calling it now. She’s gonna be able to make people tell the truth

[b3anieperson]

Gut wrenching thought.

Wyvern are made of runed stones right?

Jack is a venin.

And he is surrounded by stone.

What if they forget to dose him one day and he has all these rocks set up, runed and ready, and he makes a Wyvern.

[somewhere-in-the-rain]

My favourite one currently (and the most convincing one to me) is that Violet is some kind of or a full intinnsic.

This is not an in-depth post but here goes (spoilers for Iron Flame):

Rebecca Yarros has confirmed that Violet’s SS only manifested in Iron Flame, so there’s not really any foreshadowing for it in Fourth Wing. She also said she thought it would be obvious, so I think people are reading too far into it.

Violet could see Xaden’s dreams: throughout IF she had this recurring dream about the Sage and the Venin, and then in Xaden’s chapter at the end he had the same dream - so she subconsciously slipped into his dreams?

In the Throne Scene™ she also heard his thoughts, and although he said that he “shouldn’t have done that”, maybe it wasn’t him doing it?

Signets reflect what people need the most, and Violet needs information and facts and the truth more than anything else.

Anyway, that’s my leading theory atm

with only 160 days between my emotional demise (onyx storm) please someone just give me some good theories about violets signet cause I have absolutely noneee

[skyfallscotland]

Ok so Rebecca did a one hour panel today in Sydney with Lynette Noni hosting, where she asked questions and then they opened it to fans. I've kind of summarised the things I haven't seen mentioned over and over, but I don't frequent the subreddit anymore or use TikTok, so there might be overlap. In any case, it's long. Settle in. I've sectioned it into plot/character relevant first, then themes and interesting facts about her and her writing. Basically, you all came with me. 💗

• In book three (and every book thereafter) we'll be going to more and more new places. She specifically worded it as "watching the map expand" whether that's significant or not, I don't know. (I was thinking Isle Kingdoms for OS, but maybe that's just my wishful thinking).

• She implied Jack will have a reason (explained) for uh...being a power-hungry prick? lol

• She's hella defensive of Dain, which I love. #DainApologistsClub 😌 Some highlights include:

"You guys give Dain so much shit for the same thing Xaden does. You really do and you're so fast to forgive Xaden and not Dain. Why? Is it because he's hot?"

And, "when push comes to shove, all Dain did—yes he violated her boundaries, as does Xaden—but all he did was trust his dad when his best friend no longer spoke to him. That's it."

"When Dain looks at her (in the interrogation chamber) and says 'if you had just told me, none of this would have happened', he's not just talking about the interrogation, he's talking about Liam, he's talking about if she had just trusted him (in Fourth Wing) it never would have happened." 😢

• She was asked about Liam's appearance in the interrogation chamber and definitively put to rest any signet theories involving that. "She's so alone in that moment and...I don't read fan theories but sometimes they reach my ears; she's completely disconnected from her magic in that moment, she can't even reach out for Tairn or Andarna, which are the bonds that are actually most important to her. She can't reach out for Xaden. And that's the one person who would have prevented that from happening the last year, so it's natural that's who her mind would summon."

• She's thought about a spin-off series, but she's just trying to survive this series.

• Someone asked her if there'd be any redemption and romance for Jack Barlowe and honestly, thanks guys, I don't think she's ever coming back to this country 💀 ("Are you getting enough sleep? Uh...I mean, from his prison cell maybe? No.")

• Someone asked "what is Garrick's signet and why hasn't it been shown yet?" (shoutout to this girl, she's the real MVP) to which Rebecca said "it's very much in book three, I love it."

• Someone asked about the orange dragons and unpredictability re: Amber, Jack, Varrish and then Imogen and Brennan. Rebecca said some dragons might look for traits like their own and some look for balance because it's a partnership; and that Brennan as a strategist needed that little bit of unpredictability in his life (lol, I think he got it).

• She didn't always plan for Violet to have two dragons. Originally it was going to be one (Tairn) and the editor had hoped that she would sway towards a weaker, smaller dragon and she thought that was a little too close to Abraxos in ToG, and so they compromised and gave her both. She also went on to say she doesn't like overpowered heroines and since Tairn is extremely powerful, Andarna balanced that out. (I'm not...I'm not sure how that works out? But that's what was said.)

• We are definitely going to find out more about the original six (and Lynette asked if that was a spin-off possibility and was shushed, so she's thought about it at least, but I get the idea she's thought about a lot of possibilities 😂)

• There's no timeframe for the release of the final two books.

• Someone asked if Violet's dad was Malek to which she was kind of shocked. He's not a god, guys. And low-key I JUST WANT TO KNOW HIS NAME. 😤

• On Sgaeyl: "You do (get more of her) but holy crap is she pissed. So—I'll tell you that about Onyx Storm—she is really, really mad at Xaden and she's not exactly speaking to him at the moment. So it's hard for her to speak into that bond when she's not speaking to him." 💔

• She was asked about the Violet dated Halden theory (which was fucking hilarious because the poor girl misspoke and asked if Xaden dated the prince and we were all really confused about which TikToks the poor thing had seen (note to self: consider cam/xaden), anyway after we got to the bottom of that, Rebecca replied, "I think you should read the third book." Which I'm taking to mean, the man is making a damn appearance and we're gonna find out for ourselves 👀 Hey, if I'm lucky maybe we'll even find out his surname

• Finally she said she has EP on the Amazon series, they've all been exceptionally protective of it and that she's happy with how it's going (they're not near casting yet and she doesn't want to really comment on that ever, to leave each role open to as diverse a cast as possible). She said the production team has come to the signings in LA to meet readers and see what they love and are passionate about when it comes to the series to make sure that's honoured.

"Like I mean, I've seen certain...like what can I say without getting tackled to the ground? Let's just say they've already taken steps to make sure that what you guys love about the story is envisioned and that it's not run amok. And I'm very happy with it, they're super protective of it." Which could just be me reading into it, but the first place my brain went was the dragons 👀🐉 and the CGI or whatever.

• She was asked about where the inspiration for the universe came from and she said that when her Entangled decided they were going to do romantasy they asked her for five pitches and Fourth Wing was one of them (she won't say what the others were because she might still write them someday). She said she likes the fated mates trope but she wondered what that would look like if the dragons were the ones mated, not the humans and the humans who couldn't stand each other were forced to be around each other because of this. 

• Her first ever book was romantasy but it didn't sell

• She's never really written enemies to lovers before.

• She likes found family themes because she was raised in a military family and moved around a lot, so that makes it hard to keep in touch with your extended family, and after she married her husband and became a military wife, it was their found family that was there for her—it was her found family who helped her move her house, who sat with her when her husband was injured in Iraq, etc, so she thinks it's very important to show that your family is also the people you choose and that can be just as strong as any blood tie.

• She was asked (by Lynette) why she wanted to show death and the reality of war and she said, "I've been surrounded by it. My husband's been at war since 2003, he spent 22 years in the army, first as a 19 Delta cavalry scout and then ten years as an apache pilot and we buried our friends. And I saw what it did to him, and I saw what it did to our friends, I saw what it did to our children, to us, and I love being able to examine it from a fantasy perspective just because I think fantasy gives us a unique environment from which to critique our own world by viewing it through the lens of another. And I've always delved into those themes as to why we do this to each other and where is there hope to stop it?"

• As an author her favourite scenes in Fourth Wing were the dagger stealing scene (very important to their chemistry and romantic development—"she's the only person he's taught ever, how to actually kill him") and the first kiss scene.

In Iron Flame it was the interrogation scene and how that ends with Dain and Xaden and everything coming together.

When asked about a similar scene from Onyx Storm that elicited the same strong emotion from her she said "you're not gonna like it" and that's it 💀

• She would consider writing fantasy again after she's done with the Empyrean world, maybe one of her other pitches, but she won't truly think about it until she's survived this one.

• She spoke about the "kill your darlings" writing advice and how if you love a scene but it doesn't move the plot, you've gotta cut it, and how she did that with the final scene in Fourth Wing, which was originally 7k words of Violet POV pulling information out of Xaden.

• When asked about fan theories she actually said something I found a little sad. "I don't listen to fan theories. One, I'm not on TikTok—it's a little bit more important for me to be alive than to listen to what other people think they know about me, and two, I don't ever want fan theories to bleed into my writing."

〰️ And that's it! If anyone's going tomorrow, please voice record the whole thing and report back lmao 🙏 🫶🏼

ETA: part two is here, x

[somewhere-in-the-rain]

“Violet is a truth-sayer because Xaden can’t lie to her”

Yeah, whatever. Xaden has lied to her. When he told her he had no intention of falling for her over and over again. When he said she was the last person he’d want bonded to him. When he said he was perfectly in control of his emotions around her. Call them exaggerations if you like, but technically they are lies.

“Well the signet hadn’t manifested yet” Ok, well tell me why Xaden saying “I can’t lie to her” in the Fourth Wing bonus chapter is apparently foreshadowing, then? Why can the evidence suit your theory, but not my counterargument?

Don’t even get me started on the constant lying by omission. Not telling her about the venin or his second signet or the deal with her mother. He didn’t lie, but he also did not tell her the truth. The signet is called ‘truth-sayer’, not ‘lie-preventer’.

If you couldn’t tell, I am not a fan of the truth-sayer theory.

[mattyalwayssmokesweed]

Onyx Storm theory

Violet is going to bond with Sgaeyl in Onyx Storm.

In Fourth Wing, when we first learn about Sgaeyl, Professor Kaori says:

“She even bonded the relative of one of her previous riders, which you all know is typically forbidden, but Sgaeyl does whatever she wants, whenever she wants.”

Losing a rider could kill a dragon. Sgaeyl and Tairn are mates, meaning Violet and Xaden and practically tethered for life.

Given the state Xaden is currently in, the survival of not only him, but Sgaeyl, Tairn and Violet is on the line. If one of them dies, it could kill both their dragons and, in turn, also kill the other.

But if a dragon has two riders, losing one might not affect them as much (it still would, given how important those bonds are, but it won’t be a life-or-death situation)

Xaden could “lose himself” in Onyx Storm and basically be considered a “dead man”, if not physically, figuratively. The connection between Xaden and Sgaeyl could be almost broken, as if he had actually died.

If things take a bad turn, and Sgaeyl starts to weaken over the state of her rider, Tairn could convince her to bond with Violet so she is safer.

The bond wouldn’t be as strong as Violet’s bond with Tairn and Andarna, but it would basically be a short of “bridge” between life and death for Sgaeyl, to ensure she doesn’t die over Xaden’s current state.

Idk, what do you guys think? Kinda crazy but hey, you never know.

[pipperoni32-blog]

I think it has something to do with time - how she counts during the battle, bringing each moment into focus…

Although I do think it’s interesting that she had either three or four moments of seeing herself from someone else’s eyes. Normally Tairn and Xaden, and possibly Andarna, when she was trying to imbue the stone and saying her good byes.

I know that alot of people think that Violet second signet is Inntistc. But In the throne room scene, when Xaden is going down on Violet. He is the one that loses control. "Shimmering onyx wraps around my mind and everything intensifies" "His desperation". He tells violet to give him a moment. She asks him what did he do. She would have felt if it was her. Inntistic have a hard time controlling their powers from the start. If she did have this power, she would be using it on everyone. As I'm reading I'm trying to put together her second signet. I honestly think that was Xaden. He lost control. He states himself that even he doesn't really understand his signet. Because there aren't any other inntistic around.

[stillcantdance]

Ok so here’s a theory that has been bugging me since I read Iron Flame, and I haven’t heard anyone else bring it up:

The wards were raised by the first six, who we assume each were bonded to each type of dragon( black, blue, red, orange, green, brown). BUT, from the end of Iron Flame we know that it’s actually the dragon fire of the six and the one(seven), and that a dragon from the seventh den, an ancestor of Andarna, was used to raise the wards.

SO, WHO WAS THE SEVENTH RIDER?

Was there even a seventh rider? Did the seventh den dragon just agree to help raise the wards whilst being riderless? The first six erased and hid the evidence of the seventh den after the first wards were raised, did they erase the evidence of the seventh rider as well?

And if so, why?