#rotting darkness

[wingedblooms]

Rotting darkness

This post briefly explores the darkness in Hewn City, how it is connected to the Weaver, and foreshadows Elain’s journey as @offtorivendell, @willowmeres, @silverlinedeyes, and others have suggested. Please avoid if you do not want to read hofas spoilers.

In acomaf, Feyre visits the Hewn City for the first time and has to combat her immediate discomfort of being trapped beneath in the dark. It’s possible Elain’s own discomfort in Hewn City is similar: this place might trigger terrible memories of what she found in the Cauldron.

Feyre also observes how deathly pale and cold everyone appears, and she claims the Court of Nightmares was the work of a god. It even holds a dark castle within.

I wondered previously if Hewn City belonged to Stryga, who is described as a death-god and a dark queen; if it was her black castle once upon a time.

She was known for her ability to devour life. And it is said that the evil within her—which I theorized is similar to or the same as the rotten core of the Valg—may have tainted her favorite mirror. Is it possible that the black stone of the castle within the mountain was also tainted by her evil core? If she is like the Asteri (and goodness, from behind she truly does look like Vesperus), did the land drink from her as she might have drank from it? Over time, it might have begun to reflect her dark, evil core.

That dark and evil core seems to have started to show physically when she was bound to the Middle and could not consume life and joy and beauty in the same way she used to:

And this rotted description mirrors what Mor tells us about the darkness of Hewn City. She says there is no light in it, never had been. It is eternal, rotting, and withers all life.

It is not like the darkness in Velaris, which was made for dreams, rather than nightmares. The darkness in Velaris is full of starlight: life and joy and beauty. Hewn City is the opposite. It’s a rotting pit, or void as @offtorivendell has theorized, that devours all light, just like its former eternal, dark queen.

As such, it is also the opposite of Elain and Urd, blooming life. It may even represent the magic that the Asteri imbued (void) within Urd’s sacred waters and her sacred peaks, which are void of life and thrumming with power. And Elain’s behavior in this scene tells me exactly how she might handle that challenge in the future. She may be afraid, but she won’t hesitate to do what is needed: to descend into that darkness. And it might try to poison her light and claim the very life from her, but she will square her shoulders. And she will face it anyway.

The difference is that, in her book, she will face that darkness and prove it has no power over her.

[pandoras-prison]

[cocaineheartz]

miserable at best

[rotten4k]

[strange-house-art]

Candle Knight

[mother-lee]

almost heaven

[mai2turntt]

[st4rgirlmar1e]

[littlemsjane-error]

[snizzardd]

this happened, for sure.

[roseforviolet]

[dionysian-mystery]

From agabarga on pinterest

[dreamingawayyour1ife]

Coquette noir .✧˚⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪

Pinterestboard

[voodooya]

Stages of Decomposition Embroidery by @calicoranger

[mlarty]

— What type of meat do Marrow and Diamant enjoy the most?

Well... Ask Gortash. He knows better than anyone (he didn't want that)

[strange-house-art]

𝕯𝖗𝖆𝖚𝖌 𝕭𝖆𝖗𝖔𝖓 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖑𝖊 𝕶𝖓𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙