#tales of Xadia

[raayllum]

Watching a video on the history of unicorns (heartily recommend it) and in its discussion of the design of unicorns and how they got stapled onto religious iconography and then ideas of purity (including maidenhood/female virginity/innocence for better or for worse) it made me think about TDP, obviously.

I know pre-S7, I was thinking that the unicorn resting place was the Garden of Innocence, not Innocents. Now, the two concepts are related — in order to read the map to find the Garden, you need a true (innocent) heart — but the Garden of Innocents indicates that those who are innocent are multiple, and tied there. While it could be a referral to those who find the Garden, I think it's far more likely that the Innocents refers to unicorns themselves, and this is interesting for a few reasons. One is because arc 2 takes arc 1's skirting around the idea of "who is innocent? (implied)" and makes it much more overt and fraught:

Now, TDP evolves to question whether someone being innocent is a basis for whether or not they're spared in the first place — Rayla, Harrow, and Runaan are prime examples — but it is still worth thinking about people who were/are considered to be innocent (Ezran, a child punished for his father's crimes/choices) or should be (Leola) but aren't.

Next, I want to talk what we do know about the Garden before we get to the unicorns themselves, especially because this is more straightforward both in 1) the info we receive and 2) where we receive it being entirely in show canon.

As Aaravos says:

The map to the Garden of Innocents is special, Claudia. Only the true of heart can see it. A protection of sorts.

which raises the question of protecting it from what/who, and by proxy, who we're protecting the unicorns, alive or dead, from as well.

Then we have how Aaravos describes the Garden:

The unicorns had many secrets, and their oldest secret was the Garden of Innocents. A beautiful place hidden from prying eyes where unicorns could find peace and tranquility.

This both does and doesn't make sense. Unicorns having secrets makes sense because they have the star arcanum, and because 7x03 is also about secrets being revealed (Aanya telling Ez hidden history and showing him Duren's greatest secret of the fire rubies, etc). We'll debate later whether "peace and tranquility" refers to literal peace, or like... peace and tranquility in death, so let's put a pin in that for a second.

However, if the Garden of Innocents is their oldest secret... then how can it be also their resting place? Unless it began as a Garden where innocents would gather (themselves included, or those who could read the map or maps if there was more than one) to discuss and spend time together? And a place where the unicorns retreated upon being, presumably, hunted past that point. But as you can see, we very quickly spiral into speculation territory.

For now, let's go over what we actually know about unicorns (or at least, near as we can figure). We know they're connected to the Star arcanum (Tales of Xadia) and that their horns are immensely powerful and rare (3x06). We know from Terry in 7x03 that "they're all gone now". We also 'know' from both Tales of Xadia and the Book One novelization that humans hunted unicorns to extinction (which we're gonna put another pin in, for a second):

Unicorns were the most recognizable creature tied to [Star] magic, but, sadly, they have all but vanished from Xadia, as humans hunted and poached them to harvest for dark magic.

Perhaps the most valuable and sought-after prize of all was a unicorn's horn. Eventually, the humans hunted the unicorns until they disappeared completely from Xadia.

This matches up with what we see in canon, then: very few unicorns still exist; Claudia indeed hunted one for its horn and Viren tried for many years; and dark mages hunted many other magical creatures to extinction pre and during the Mage Wars that followed the expulsion. It fits.

And yet, this is where things start to get messier, however, simply because like most things in TDP, we have other sources that directly contradict all of the above claims from the book one novelization and Tales of Xadia. One such source is a page shown in 2x08 for a brief moment that was translated by fans and also exists in the Arc 1 artbook, which reads:

The only known creatures connected to the stars are the mysterious Startouch Elves and the rare, fascinating unicorns. Dark mages have tried to hunt the unicorns to better understand their power, but their stellar magic and their devious cunning make them almost impossible to hunt.

This of course goes against everything previously discussed. Unicorns being creatures of "devious cunning" is a far cry from being merely compassionate and innocent. Being almost impossible to hunt doesn't jive with being hunted to near complete extinction. Two of these are from more 'neutral' perspectives... but the Book One intro is from Aaravos, and Tales of Xadian can sometimes have a more Xadian slant, versus the pages written by humans who were followers OF Aaravos.

So which is it?

This level of contradiction is present in about everything we do know about unicorns. From each respective piece, we can fit together certain things to get... glimpses at the full picture. Here is what the book one novelization from Aaravos says:

Unicorns were always the most selfless of the Xadian beings. There came a time when, filled with pity, they desperately wanted to help the struggling humans. After all, it was not the humans' choice to have been born without magic. But the First Elves were wary. They warned the unicorns that kindness was not always returned with kindness; it would be a mistake to trust the species. After all, if humans were supposed to be use magic, they would have been born with it. However, the unicorns' compassion ran deep, and they could not convinced. So, despite the elves' warning, the unicorns bestowed the ways of magic onto the humans. They gifted a few wise humans with powerful orbs called primal stones, which contained vast magical energy. Then they taught them to draw runes to attract and focus the stones' power, and to speak the ancient words used by dragons to release that energy as magical spells.

Here, we get a few crucial things:

The First Elves, specifically, were against magic being shared

The unicorns in general, not specific ones, gave humans magic

They gave humans primal stones, but not arcanums

Tales of Xadia gets both more specific and more vague in some ways:

One heart took pity on the plight of humanity. A unicorn, unique among her own rare kind, saw the strength and ingenuity of the human spirit where others saw weakness and beastly ignorance. Her name was Leola. While elves warned that if humans were meant to wield magic they would have been born with it, she gifted the wisest humans with secrets: the language of the dragons and the runes that shaped spells. With the unicorn’s gift, the most determined minds among the humans could finally harness primal magic. It was difficult and dangerous work, and few could bear the grueling path of a rune mage.

Here, we get:

Leola's name and her as the bearer of gifts, ie. specifically giving humans magic

She did not give primal stones, but secrets. This sounds much closer as to how Lujanne describes an arcanum (i.e. "a secret and a spark")

We see in S2 with Callum and S7 in making primal stones that connecting to arcanums and making primal stones is what is gruelling and dangerous

We know, thanks to S6, that Leola was not actually a unicorn, but nicknamed as one. We know that something she did made it look like, at the very least, that she'd given magic to humans, and she was executed for it. We also know that humans had primal magic to a degree before dark magic, created/developed by or alongside Aaravos, took shape, and that sometime during this period but before the Mage Wars, unicorns were hunted to extinction, leading to the exiling of humanity (from the book one novelization):

But the elves were right about one thing: humans were unpredictable. While most were good, some were not. [Invention of dark magic.] Dark mages and their followers began to hunt and poach magical creatures throughout Xadia, for they needed fuel for their spells. Perhaps the most valuable and sought-after prize of all was a unicorn's horn. Eventually, the humans hunted the unicorns until they disappeared completely from Xadia. The elves and dragons were disgusted and outraged by what they saw. They were convinced the annihilation of humans was necessary and inevitable. But at the last moment, a daughter of the elven leader proposed the Merciful Compromise.

So something took the unicorns out, with the blame laid fairly or unfairly on humanity's shoulders. The unicorns as a group were responsible for giving some form of primal magic, seemingly primal stones, to humanity... but Leola also gave humans magic earlier than that.

Season 7 actually complicates this even further, as we learn what's required (so far as Aaravos is willing to share; who knows, there could be alternative ways) to make at least one kind of primal stone:

[To make a Moon primal stone] requires an exceedingly rare ingredient that can only be found at a place where unicorns once roamed, the Garden of Innocents.

So, did the unicorns give humans primal stones... or were their bones/horns required to make primal stones, and the gift giving got conflated from "you're 'giving' me your bones" to "I need/am taking your bones"?

What I'm going to propose, therefore, is this:

All of the above accounts are correct, just not maybe in the way we'd expect.

Here's what I think happened, with perhaps a more extensive meta to follow on the first part:

Leola gave humans a form of Deep Magic (potentially Love). This allowed them to form connections with primal sources. Them nurturing "primal flames" in Ripples, therefore, does not refer to literal Sun magic, but "a secret and a spark, but enough to ignite the world with its magic" being steadily developed.

After her execution, unicorns helped humanity develop primal magic further (potentially somewhat in her honour). They're not squeaky clean, maybe, but were trying to do more of a net good than negative

Humans having primal magic was not doing enough to fuck with the Cosmic Council, and left the playing field too even, so Aaravos stirred up trouble, maybe encouraged the dragons to be upset about primal/deep magic usage.

This caused the first stage of the Elarion debacle ("and caught the dragons' hungry eye") and for the Stars to leave.

After primal magic was exposed as inferior or made an issue, humans turned to dark magic, and this gave Aaravos a way in. He needed to ensure they'd continue to be dependent on dark magic, and this meant disposing of alternatives.

Potentially, Aaravos encouraged people to hunt down unicorns to get rid of humans having more widespread primal magic and/or to make more (Moon) primal stones. If dark magic is corruption/compromise, than primal magic is more 'innocent', after all. Peace and tranquility indeed

Getting rid of the unicorns also had the bonus of getting humanity and elves split up, making Aaravos' manipulations much easier if they weren't in communication with each other, and letting him mess around to encourage the Mage Wars (and a potential invasion of Xadia back in the day).

I want to do more of a meta on Leola giving humans deep magic and why I think it makes sense later, but the unicorns and their secrets / contradictions within the text are a decently big part of it so, uh...

Hope you enjoyed?

CLAUDIA: I feel bad about Terry. You made the Garden sound so beautiful, like it's just some wonderful peaceful place of rest. AARAVOS: It is beautiful. It is a place of rest. Those are not lies. CLAUDIA: But it's not the whole truth, either. Just like the map and those feathers. We didn't tell Terry that unicorns come here to rest... forever. That this place is a graveyard.

[ac0531]

Justin said this from the main server

Omg 👀

[its-leethee]

Lucia the first elves and archdragons, who designed and built the camp cosmic order, is angry and scared that the spark human's use of primal magic is going to spread through the camp and endanger everyone--

It happened long ago, when humans had only just learned to hold fire in their hands without burning. They nurtured their precious primal flames secretly—in the dark of night, beneath shadows and shrouds—as cultivating its glow drew the eyes and ire of monsters. Eventually, for the audacity of their fire, they were hunted, and—though they looked to the stars for salvation—the stars, too, looked down upon them with disdain. Humanity had been given something it was never meant to have. And so there came a calamity.

--Ripples

I've been thinking about why the stars and the Cosmic Order would turn their backs on and refuse to watch over Xadia. If they could see the future - why is there nothing they're willing or able to do to stop it?

But if the human's unchecked use of magic would attract the attention of a certain type of monsters -

Speculation that Aaravos was hoping to attract a star devourer dragon to destroy Xadia is an idea that's been bouncing around the fandom for a while.

And this would explain why the other Startouch elves on the Cosmic Council would stay out of the way; why they would turn their backs and avert their eyes; why they wouldn't want to look past a certain point via their timeblind powers either.

"...the beginning of the end. The long slow spiral to chaos." They won't look past the cosmic-prophecy-event-horizon because there's a star devourer dragon sitting just beyond.

They're afraid of being driven mad.

"...I can feel my very being shattering from the inside out!"

Aaravos gleefully goading the humans on; taunting the Cosmic Council, "are you watching?"

I have not seen the stars in centuries. But when I see them again—when the stars are forced to look upon me, their dark brother—they will know how I have waited. And when everything they have built lies shattered, I will savor their fall from the sky.

--Patience

In lieu of a conclusion paragraph I'm gonna leave y'all with a piece of my terrible humor:

--2x01 foreshadowing???? i love this show so much

[caelans-got-opinions]

Hey guys. You know what else we should do besides just using the hashtag "giveusthesaga"?

Pester Netflix on social media. (Not employees - the company's accounts.)

Go on Netflix's social media and comment on as many posts as you can that you want The Dragon Prince to get greenlit for more seasons. Follow their accounts and comment on each new post that you want more Dragon Prince.

Pester them.

[lettersfromxadia]

This art is STUNNING.

[hiccupshypotheticalleftsock]

reunited 🫶🫶

[stuck-in-jelly]

The Human Mages of The West

"A cruel queen once ruled Duren with an iron fist. Anyone who crossed her was banished to the icy north, where she expected them to die. But the people she banished found each other, helped each other, and survived together. Soon there were so many banished—so many people the queen had declared her enemy and doomed to die alone—that they realized they were a small army. Arm-in-arm they marched back to Berylgarten to overthrow the cruel queen and return peace to all the land." - Tales of Xadia | Gazetteer of Xadia. pg. 35

"Though he was the largest and strongest creature in Evenere, the eon-mawed megagator wasn’t satisfied. One day, he encountered a traveling mage and stole a magical artifact, hoping it would grant him great power. The megagator swallowed it… and to his delight, he began to grow. But as he grew, his stomach ached. The artifact had bled strange magic and poison into his body. Cursing his mistake, the giant megagator perished. His body became a hill in the middle of Evenere and his toxic blood entered the waters. To this day, few things survive where the megagator fell—not much can thrive once greed takes over." - Tales of Xadia | Gazetteer of Xadia. pg. 36

"Centuries ago, the largest mountain in Del Bar was devoid of people, and its slate-cliffed confines contained the lair of a vile dragon. Del Barians say their first king slew the foul beast and hurled it down the mountain. The dragon fell to the earth with such force that it left a rift in the land itself. The rift flooded and became the Serpentongue River./ Their tales differ from those of Hinterpeak: they tell a tale of a clever hunter who stroked the ego of an ancient dragon and pulled out its tongue to make the Serpentongue river." - Tales of Xadia | Gazetteer of Xadia. pg.32,33

"Generous and loving beings linked to the Star primal, they’ve been hunted to extinction by dark mages eager to poach them for their horns." - Tales of Xadia | Gazetteer of Xadia. pg. 59

"Of course not all humans could stomach the cost of dark magic, but all humans were punished for it nonetheless. As they built new civilizations from nothing, humanity began to tear itself apart. Humans struggled for control of the region’s resources, from food to wealth to safety from Xadia’s wrath. Through the chaos, the practice of dark magic became instrumental: kings and queens offered riches and prestige to dark mages in exchange for their power—and, more importantly, their loyalty. Eventually, though, the dust settled, and five powerful kingdoms emerged from the ashes of the conflict: Katolis, Del Bar, Duren, Evenere, and Neolandia." - Tales of Xadia | Welcome to Xadia. pg.11

[knuffi516]

Will Evryknd having some Xadian-Human fusion cuisine like our Tex Mex and others?

[superaquafishy]

[moon-sky-sun-earth-ocean-stars]

Dargon prince writing prompts

I decided to do a post to ideas and prompts I have or recieved of the dragon prince, so people might decide to write them. Feel free to use them. It would be nice to get credit or message if you do use them but it's not necessary. If you have other ideas write me in the comments or in a message and I might add them to this list. If you do write a fic for one of this prompts and you'll send it to me I'll add a link to it in the post. The ideas are plot based and not shipping based and that the point of all the prompts.

Sunfire elves royal family

Rayla and Suroh meet again

Trenda and Pozili (because they both scholars skywing elves)

Runaan's thoughts when he sees Tiadrin and Lain in the coins

Eltha and Somma meet and talk about botanics or has a special botanic project together

Soren in camp Katolis

Terry coming out as trans

Astrid coming out as trans

Villads adventures

Why Darys was in Scumport (ideas: could be because he lost sunforge dagger, or maybe he was undercover, or he has a hobby of going to fighting pits, or he started to trade goods from the human kingdoms after the border was opened and that why he went to Scumport)

Rayla meets Tressal in Chasing Shadows

Viren coping with Lissa leaving

In the lore book of tales of xadia there are many short folk stories, each of them can be idea for a fanfic.

Lira and Somma in bun bun fire night in Silvergrove

[raayllum]

Aaravos and Leola

[anantplayingdnd]

well, i’m gonna largely be on my own for this project, it would seem. aside from the one person who wrote a blog article about making Curse of Strahd in Tales of Xadia…. It truly seems like that’s it. From what I can tell, ToX is a pretty niche system as is.

But I will persist! And I’m gonna mod this game to fit my needs if it kills me.

[its-leethee]

My thoughts are running around in circles about incantation-less and ingredient-less magic right now, thanks to this panel from Puzzle House:

I had speculated that Claudia's hand-flashlight spell and Viren's candle-lighting spell were perhaps a sort of dark magic cantrip that they'd prepped ahead of time and stored up charges for.

But in this Puzzle House scene, Claudia doesn't categorize the candle-lighting trick as dark magic. She explains that Kpp'ar coined the term "snap magic" and that it was powered by "a 'spark of fun' instead of primal sources or..." or what remains a mystery, because Claudia interrupts herself there and doesn't finish her explanation.

There's an intriguing passage in ToX explaining that experienced* dark mages can cast some "simple" spells, specifically like lighting a candle, without dice rolls (bypassing the pass/fail mechanic of the game); however, it's not clear if that means they wouldn't still have to use a reagent to perform the spell.

--Tales of Xadia, page 147

*"Experienced" dark mages as in, possessing dark magic trauma from the accumulated and untreated stress brought about casting dark magic spells.... Do you really consider that a "spark of fun," Kpp'ar?

The other time I've heard mention of magical sparks is from Lujanne's lecture about arcanums in 2x01 (emphasis mine):

"Wait, what's an arcanum?" "It's like... the secret of the Primal, or its meaning." "The secret of the Primal?" "Yes. That secret becomes a spark. The tiniest possible flicker of a Primal Source inside you. But enough to ignite the world with its magic."

There are two other examples within the show where mages cast spells without voicing a spell or incantation. Every instance where Aaravos casts a spell, he is silent, and Callum is able to cast spells underwater in 5x09 without breathing a word. They both still do need to trace out runes/do some kind of hand-waving for their spellcasting.

So, we have sparks, we have secrets, we have silent mages... and I wish I had more of the pieces to this puzzle, because I can't put together a conclusion.

[caelans-got-opinions]

You know what I really, really want from The Dragon Prince?

A guidebook for the world and lore.

I want full chapters on each of the human kingdoms, each type of elf, dragons, magical creatures, magic, etc. Like, come on! This world is so captivating and beautiful - it's practically BEGGING to have a guidebook!

[sparrowsocks]

Every time a new season of the dragon prince comes out I remember I own the TTRPG book “tales of xadia” and I go. Huh.

That book has an insane amount of lore of the world, like what happened in the past, and a lot about the civilizations in the world formed. It also has so many dragons in it.

I’m just gonna put some of the lore that feels significant after season 5.

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

As an advertisement for the Xadia game, here is a list of things I have said while playing it:

"I'm back, bitches!!"

(whispering) "bam."

(at a pitch only a soprano can achieve) "Naur!"

"Haha!"

*singing Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter*

"Wheeee!"

"Sneak attack!"

"I'm gonna push you over the edge, bro."

"I need comments, or I'll LITERALLY wither away and DIE."

"Bow chicka bow-wow."