#tdp primal magic

[sunfire-shield]

Has Callum actually ever attempted to teach other humans to do primal magic. like this is such a huge breakthrough you would have thought humanity would be fascinated but we get a whole multi year timeskip and see nobody else even trying primal magic. are you really telling me that multiple kingdoms of humans just aren’t interested in learned a magic that doesn’t wither your soul to ash? you would’ve thought Callum would be very excited sharing this. like, do you think there was there a class you could take in Katolis where the high mage excitedly tries to tell you what a primal stone is and how the whole worlds a primal stone when you think about it and therefore the power of the wind and storms is at your fingertips if you can just bring yourself to look at the world and it’s interconnectivity a different way. like. was this class just like. not interesting to anybody. was it not well advertised. is the real reason why there aren’t other human mages after the timeskip because nobody parsed out Callum’s philosophising. tell me

[random-fandom-ramble]

How are primal stones made?

So, in honor of Aaron Ehasz asking that question on Twitter, and me giving my two cents there, I thought I’d share it here too. (Original tweet below)

I originally drew this up on paper a while ago, and it describes the mechanics of how a primal stone might work.

Basically, you need a strong source of concentrated primal magic and deep magic to strike on the same point.

Then, while the primal magic keeps hitting the same point, the deep magic has to wrap around the primal magic, forming a sphere.

There where the two magics meet, a crystallisation occurs. The crystallisation is mainly deep magic, but it’s constantly pushing inwards/growing inwards. At the same time, the primal magic is constantly pushing outwards/grinding away at the inner walls of the primal stone.

So it’s a case of constant erosion+growth and unstoppable force meets immovable object combined into one.

It’s quite complicated, and seems very difficult to do, which would fit with what Aaron said in another reply to his post anout mages dying trying to make a primal stone:

[hiccupshypotheticalleftsock]

Listen listen listen,

the celestial council killed Leola because she gave the humans magic (primal magic) and in all their celestialness and future seeing they only saw what would come of it (dark magic/end of the world/no more balance bla bla) but didn’t realise that the act of punishing her would drive Aaravos to look for a way to avenge her (by killing the other star touch elves on the council) and how would he do that?? By inventing a magic that takes power from squishing it out of a creature. And what are startouch elves made of?

I rest my case.

[theredhairedmonkey]

Janai: You may not travel to Lux Aurea. As Queen, I forbid it.

Callum: You’re not my queen, that’s not going to work!

Janai: Ok then as your aunt I forbid it!

Callum: Awwww…but still no.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

The Power of Love

Ethari can't bring Rayla back by himself. His flare of magic doesn't even last more than a few minutes.

But with Runaan holding his hands - and completing a circuit, if you will - he can cast a spell that works properly and lets Rayla stay visible for long enough to complete her ritual.

ergo: Runaan is Ethari's spell battery. Holding hands is part of the ritual, and Runaan's presence - his love - lets Ethari cast more powerful spells than he can alone.

The power of love is literal for Ruthari.

[starry-skies-writes]

Also just realised that when someone performs Dark Magic, their eyes turn black because using Dark Magic creates this void in their soul— and eyes are a window to the soul

While in Primal Magic their soul remains whole and pure— hence their eyes light up.

[raayllum]

Solving mysteries

[kradogsrats]

Aaravos, Leola, and the Entire History of Human Magic: Revisited

So I last dumped on this topic right after s5 released, and came up with a rough series of conclusions that were largely correct, as far as interpreting what information we had been given so far. Now that s6 has dumped some new delicious and crunchy twists into the mix, let's take another look.

The Unicorn's Gift

Going into s6, we had 2.5 accounts of the gifting of primal magic to humans: the Book One: Moon novelization, Tales of Xadia, and Ripples. In Book One: Moon, and Tales of Xadia, we learn that humans received primal magic from the/a most selfless and compassionate unicorn(s), against the advice of the elves.

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 use magic, they would have been born with it.

— Book One: Moon

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.

— Tales of Xadia

What's interesting is how inaccurate both of these stories have turned out to be. We also don't even actually know whose stories these are. By the time of the series events, it's no longer even remembered that humans had primal magic, aside from primal stones. It's a truth forgotten on the human side, and either similarly forgotten or deliberately suppressed in Xadia. Despite the brightest, most constant star in the sky still retaining the name "Leola's Last Wish," neither Callum nor Rayla know who Leola was.

Ripples obliquely acknowledges the vagueness and changing nature of these stories, opening with:

Like all the oldest tales, time has bent its shape and blurred its color. It is a fable whispered on some tongues and shouted on others. While one may say it ends with a sunrise, another will insist it ends at nightfall.

— Ripples

So rather than directly telling the story of humanity's acquisition of primal magic, Ripples deals with the aftermath. We learn that humanity had been, implicitly or explicitly, forbidden primal magic, and in the wake of them receiving it, a star fell.

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

The story told in Ripples turns out to be the most accurate, based on what we have learned from s6. Humans acquired primal magic, and a star was cast from the sky. (A tiny star, if you want extra emotions.) It makes no mention of how humans learned primal magic, only that they did, and—unlike the other stories, where the elves caution against giving magic to humans but take no other action—the are hunted by monsters for it.

Elarion, fading bloom, afraid to wilt and dim and die, she searched the dark for but a spark and caught the dragons’ hungry eye.

— Midnight Star

Hmmmm.

The Order of the Stars

One of the main things, possibly the main thing, we learned from s6 is that we were given a glimpse of the stars as the god-like authorities that have been hinted at in a lot of Aaravos-related side content. It's not a good look. (It never was.)

It tells us succinctly why primal magic was forbidden to humans: in the timeless gaze of the stars, humans acquiring magic dooms the universe.

(Of course, it is the attempt at averting prophesied doom that actually brings it to pass, but that's just standard stuff. For all their omniscience, the stars apparently still lack genre-awareness.)

This "cosmic order" is likely what the stars have built that Aaravos seeks to destroy:

I hope the stars were watching. I hope they saw it: the moment their perfect reflections turned warped and ruined, churned to chaos by the touch of a single human hand.

— Ripples

And when everything they have built lies shattered, I will savor their fall from the sky.

— Patience

Snitches Get Stitches, Even Dragons

The other major curve ball s6 has thrown into the story as we understood it is the involvement of the archdragons, Sol Regem in particular. According to Aaravos, the testimony of a young Sol Regem is the only evidence against Leola.

At the time, Aaravos seems to take this at face value, and argues that anything Leola may have done was out of love for humans and the world, not defiance of the cosmic order. Maybe this is because Sol Regem/Anak Arao is an archdragon of the Sun, the primal source known for the light of truth.

I, however, have to wonder if he was lying. Taking a look at Ripples, again:

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.

— Ripples

Apparently, the first primal source humans accessed was the Sun. It could just be that Anak Arao was a rules-obsessed hall monitor and... but what if it wasn't Leola who gave humans that secret? We don't even see Leola doing any magic of the kind she's credited with giving humans—no runes, no spells of any specific primal. If someone did teach humans the runes and Draconic words for primal magic, it seems unlikely to have been her.

But as heir to some kind of position of authority, could it have been partially Anak Arao's responsibility to keep his primal source out of human hands? Was it maybe stolen out from under his nose, and he sought to shift the punishment away from himself? (And boy, would it sure be a real uno-reverse to have this story loop all the way back around to a literal theft of fire for humanity.) Or could it have been lost/given to humans by someone he wanted to protect from the same cosmic justice?

Hmmmm.

There have been hints about a larger human/dragon conflict in the past, most notably the Midnight Star poem. In a hiatus-era interview, Aaron Ehasz describes an early version of the setting as being essentially humans/unicorns vs. dragons/elves. The low-key emphasis on humans and dragons in opposition that we get from some of these materials is a) interestingly not mentioned in either of the "unicorns gave primal magic to humans" stories, and b) not actually what we see as the primary conflict in the setting, outside of Sol Regem's personal grudge.

It gets especially weird because, like... there's no reason to think all the other archdragons we're aware of (except Zym) weren't there, too. Sol Regem is cast as a bit older, but not "of an entirely different generation from the other archdragons"-older. So like, you'd think Zubeia would remember, at minimum, that primal magic was forbidden to humans by the cosmic order. Maybe, given the implied departure/loss of interest by the stars, no one cares anymore? Maybe dark magic was considered a much more serious issue, as far as perversions of the natural order are concerned. Or I guess it's possible that there was some special relationship between the stars and the line of the archdragon Sun King, and the other archdragons weren't privy to the machinations going on in the heavens.

Basically, there's been a big new mystery introduced as to the geopolitics of Xadia and the heavens in the distant past, in addition to Aaravos's personal relationships with all the archdragons.

Book and Key

So overall, I don't actually know what to make of this:

But I have a couple wild theories to put forth.

First of all, Aaravos has been referred to as "archmage of all six primal sources," and this is reflected in the pre-s6 promo art series featuring the book and key.

But, interestingly, we also see in s6 that in order to truly commune with the heavens, the Celestial elves have to remove themselves from the influence of the other primal sources, specifically the Sun and Moon.

So, as powerful as they are, I think maybe Startouch elves don't have automatic access to the other primal sources. Maybe not even the magic of the Star primal, as it exists harnessed by rune spells. The book is probably how Aaravos himself built connections to primal magic while in Xadia.

(This would mean that the reason it was at all believable for Leola to give the secrets of primal magic to humans is because Aaravos was exploring those secrets—something it could be that the stars resented?)

Anyway this could also connect up with any number of wild theories about the nature of primal magic or primal elves, though we see a Moonshadow elf among Leola's friends so it seems primal elves are already present at this point. Being me, if Aaravos and Leola's home was actually in what is now Duren, I at least personally want to believe that he was seeding the frontier with magic.

Anyway, as always: some answers, and even more questions. Catch y'all later when the post-release interviews and Q&As inevitably make everything even weirder.

[stuck-in-jelly]

Obsessed with how Claudia and Soren view magic.

Claudia views magic as something amazing and special, even dark magic despite having to ‘harvest’ from living creatures in order to use it. Because in the end how could something that helps her friends and family be bad? How could something that saved an entire kingdom from starvation be evil?

Soren meanwhile doesn’t care about dark magic vs primal magic. In his eyes Dark magic can be used for immense good just as much as Primal magic can be used for horrific evils. At the end of the day all magic has ever done is divide people and cause years of suffering.

But they are both such hypocrites (affectionate).

Claudia views dark magic as a gift, something to take pride in having. But when she is finally broken down she reflects back she feels disgusted at herself for viewing living creatures as parts. Then when pushed into a dangerous situation she cried out “Don’t make me! Don’t make me do dark magic!”

Soren believes the world would be better without magic at all. Yet he turned to it, he looked his father in his eyes and said “You have your other way! Dark magic.” Not caring that Viren explained the original spell was a primal spell and the new spell would require a terrible sacrifice.

[lilcetis]

tbh i never bought the whole "there's something special in callum's lineage and that's why he can do magic" when lujane makes it clear that magic isn't about heritage, but wisdom. its just that magical being are born with the wisdom, but knowledge can be learned by anyone. like, maybe, just maybe, callum was the first human primal mage... because he was the first one to ever try?

[saltyb0ba]

a deep blood moon, a starless night

dark enough to see the light

[nix-moon]

✮⋆˙✮ V𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔫'𝔰 𝔳𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔫 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔯𝔢𝔡𝔢𝔪𝔭𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔞𝔯𝔠𝔥 ✮⋆˙✮

(𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕨𝕙𝕪 𝕀 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕤𝕠 𝕞𝕦𝕔𝕙)

SEASON 6 SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️📢🚨

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I'll start by saying that this is my personal analysis based on nothing more than my own experience watching "The Dragon Prince". Anyway, long text ahead!

•°•°•°•°• ☆ °•°•°•°•°• ☆ °•°•°•°•°•

I really like how Viren's story was built throughout The Dragon Prince/Mystery of Aaravos. I enjoy villain narratives that bring some elements which, in my opinion, give the character development a little bit more of a "real humanity" you know?

Like for example, a character that makes mistakes, regrets them, and then go and do something totally apposed to their beliefs, take hypocritical actions, such as humans do all the time! I love when the idea of a perfect character falls apart, showing contradiction.

I think TDP brings that to the table all the time buuut talking about Viren I think it makes total sense that he used dark magic again after giving it up on previous seasons, exactly because of contradiction in actions, because things change and so does the circumstances and his whole beliefs/regrets.

Another thing, and this might be totally MY gone-too-far analysis, I feel like there's a lot of attention to detail and symbolism in Viren's relation with dark magic, which is basically, you know, the main "element" that makes him a villain somehow. Whether this was on purpose or not, I'd like to point out some of my observations towards this:

𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ Dark Magic and Viren's ascension and fall ᯓ★

Viren's plot started and ended with dark magic. As his "villain era" started when he used it to cure Soren, as shown on season 6, he also died from its use. TWICE if you think about it, because the turning of events in previous seasons were mostly led, in my opinion, by the fact that Viren, being someone very ambitious (thinking that he would to anything to get what he wants, either the cure of his son or power) found in dark magic the instrument he needed to materialize his desires.

𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃⋆ Someone who was served, someone who claims to be a server ᯓ★

Before dying, king Harrow "humbled" Viren by pointing out his place as a servent of Katolis, which wasn't taken so seriously by the High Mage at that time. In my opinion, we was already taken by the idea of getting almost everything he wanted from dark magic, or, being served, since magic creatures were literally serving to his purposes. As his journey continues in the "after-resurrection" times and he starts to be more reflexive, he comes to a point where he, himself, goes back to the place he sort of turned his back to (Katolis) claiming not mercy, not forgiveness, but that he is a servent of that kingdom. ~CHILLS~. This is one of my favorite moments by far! It shows to me a true redemption, where the character isn't looking to a scenario of "feeling better" about the things he did and regretted, he is actually assuming the weight of his mistakes and willing to pay the price.

I understand that people wanted some sort of reconciliation between him and Soren, or some kind of gathering with Claudia, but I like the way things went in the story by far. I'm glad Soren didn't get that letter, because to me it brought even more real-life aspects to the narrative: where you may not be ready to say some things and back up, where there's angst, where forgiveness is so hard to achieve when someone you love takes a path that hurts you so bad! Soren goes to see Viren on the dungeons, and then doesn't want it anymore, he is fighting contradictions of feelings he doesn't even know how to name - is there something more human than that? Being confused and wanting to do AND not do something at the same time?

𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ The heart: corruption and salvation ᯓ★

The last topic leads me to this one: the heart. During the series, we constantly see the narrative of the "corruption by dark magic", the "it will consume you inside", and at some point the heart is used as the main corrupted "element", let's say, which is already symbolic enough for me to think about. BUT WAIT!

Not only Viren was corrupted by dark magic, which means his heart was taken, but it was his heart that "saved" Katolis. That old heart, broken by the idea of losing his child, broken by his wife reaction to his use of dark magic, and then consumed by it, stopped by it more than once, who was used in a spell made not anymore by the High Mage Viren, but by the humbled servent of the kingdom.

And more: Soren wanted him to take his heart. In his place, Viren decided to take his own, even though he had to use dark magic again, even if he would die doing it.

This is why it makes sense to me he did it again. This time, he wasn't doing it for him, he was doing it for his son, like he did before. In the beginning, he used dark magic to save his son, and in his last moments, he did it for his son once again, and the way this was so beautifully built trough the narrative makes me actually feel butterflies in my stomach and scream cry throw up.

I love this FUCKING show so much.

∘₊✧────────────────────────✧₊∘

That was my super-freaky-super-long analysis of a fictional character. If you read all of this... Go get a life. JK, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think! ᯓ★

[random-fandom-ramble]

Do you think that Callum unlocking deep magic could cause him to invent a better magic system?

Ooooh, that’s a very interesting question.

So before I can answer this ask properly, I’ll explain what I think deep magic actually is.

A few years back I made a theory post detailing what I believe deep magic to actually be, and to summarise what I’d said there:

I think deep magic is the underlying core of all magic, the base component from which all other magic is then created, and which all primal sources have in common (like a common denominator of every primal magic spell). When you remove all the various attributes from the other sources (fire from sun, earth from…earth), then what you’re left with is “pure” magic. Aka deep magic.

What that aforementioned post also proposes is that if you could tap into that deep magic and control it, then you should technically be able to control every kind of primal magic to a certain extent (since deep magic is maybe contained in every form of magic).

This was my original theory as to how Aaravos seemingly mastered all six of the primal sources; he simply found a way to control deep magic. These days I don’t think I’d brush him off as „just“ a deep magic user rather than a master of all six sources, but I still think it might’ve played a part in that.

Now to your actual question @dragoncoreice :

Could Callum invent a better magic system using deep magic?

Here’s the thing;

The world of Xadia is built with and upon the six primal sources. Regardless of how they’re getting used, they are the basic building blocks of this reality. So they’re always going to exist in some way, and they aren’t going to be replaced, which I doubt would be even possible.

But I do think that this system of six primals can be improved.

One gripe that I’ve always had with magic (and elven societies for that matter) in the tdp universe is that it’s seemingly so segregated:

The sunfire elves only use sunfire tools, the moonshadow elves only live in villages in this one particular forest, and the ocean elves stay in the water. There seems to be very little exchange happening between the elves and even the dragons, with most of them keeping to their own people and communities, unless they have a practical reason to interact with another.

Similarly, there seems to be no blending of magic in Xadia: every magical item, spell or living being (save for Aaravos) is strictly tied to one primal source, and can only exude magic from that source. Yes, someone can cast magic from another source if it’s in the form of a magical stone/gem or plants, but even then, it’s technically the item doing the magic, not the person.

That is where I think deep magic could help.

If every primal source has the same base component, then it should be possible to combine or even blend different types of magic using that component [deep magic].

So instead of needing to rely on a tidebound elf or an ocean gem to perform a healing spell, a moonshadow elf could tap into deep magic and use that to then indirectly use a nearby water source to cast a healing spell. It may not be as good as from an ocean mage, but it could do the trick.

Or a sky mage could tap into deep magic and use it to sow fire magic into a lightning spell, and create whole new spells that are built from TWO different primal sources.

Once the merging of different types of magic is a thing, a whole world of new possibilities opens up and creates opportunities for new inventions and extraordinary new spells unlike anything that was seen before. And technically it would still be based on the six-primal-sources-system, but better.

So to put it shortly: no, I don’t think discovering deep magic could allow someone to invent a whole new magic system that replaces the old one. But I do think that it could greatly improve and enrich the current one.

Now, wether Callum is the one to unlock deep magic or not is left to be seen, but knowing how passionate he is about magic, he’s definitely going to get involved with it. Once he does get his hands on it, he’ll want to play with deep magic and see where he could go with it.

But considering how one of the shows most prevalent themes is about unity and teamwork, about how working towards a shared future and helping each other out is better than being alone, I wouldn’t be surprised if this revolution of magic didn’t come from Callum alone.

He might instigate it, yes, but I could really see him actually reaching out and teaching others how to tap into deep magic, so that anyone could go and invent new spells and magic; so that everyone has the chance to change the world.

~~~~~~

Thanks for reading✨

Feel free to reblog or comment with your own thoughts and ideas!

[lolabearwrites]

One thing I'm still really confused about is Star touched elf reproduction.

No mother was mentioned so I'm assuming Leola never had one. Star-touched elves are basically gods so I assume they can just whoosh a kid into existence (take a part of their soul and mesh it with magic shit??)

Anyways, they are also immortal which means there doesn't really seem a need to reproduce.

So, my question is, did Aaravos just really want to be a dad? Because...that's so sweet. Aaravos I fucking love u so much

[theredhairedmonkey]

Idk about you, that’s what I saw go down.

[kilfeur]

Je réfléchis peut être trop mais le fait que pour se connecter à l'arcanum de l'Océan. Callum devait comprendre qu'il pouvait pas tout contrôler et lâcher prise malgré la culpabilité d'avoir utilisé un sort de magie de noire. Et qu'Aaravos a essayé de défendre sa fille contre l'ordre cosmique en vain et a été forcé de lâcher la main de Leola. Et la culpabilité de la voir mourir sous ses yeux.

I may be overthinking this, but the fact that to connect to the Ocean's arcanum. Callum had to understand that he couldn't control everything and let go despite the guilt of having used a dark magic spell. And that Aaravos tried to defend his daughter against the cosmic order in vain and was forced to let go of Leola's hand. And the guilt of seeing her die before his very eyes.