#tdp shiruakh

[dirtychaiflavoredpot]

Ok, so, I am 100% for a third arc, BUT I also NEED A PREQUEL!!!! Like what the fuck is up with Shiruakh?? Why was she fighting Laurelion?!? WHO TF THOUGHT TO TURN HER TOOTH INTO A SWORD?!?!?!? How was there even a tooth OR A SCALE left over from the explosions? Would that basically disintegrate every bit of her? I need to knowwwwwwwwww

[sunfire-shield]

Did they ever actually specify what Shiruakh was an archdragon of? Like, which arcanum she was connected to?

[zaphand]

then, she laid before me her scales,

her sword,

and her blindfold

and told me to choose.

[kradogsrats]

Timeline Revisions, Archdragons, and the Cosmic Order

This was supposed to be a post about Shiruakh and Laurelion, but I got derailed momentarily by discovering that there's actually no evidence that Sol Regem was the first Dragon King, meaning the Dragon Monarchy did not start only 1200 years ago, which is something I based like 80% of my history speculation and analysis on. As stupid as I feel about this and as interesting as it was in terms of elf/dragon/human political climate... well, it has made less and less sense as we learn about the other Great Ones and the Cosmic Order. So probably for the best.

Revised/Updated Timeline

Let's do a reset on what we actually know:

Pictured: The official timeline slide as presented at SDCC 2019.

5,000 years ago: Primal elves emerged, elves and dragons were not allied (i.e. presumably the dragon monarchy did not yet exist), and it sucked to be human.

3,000 years ago: the archdragon Shiruakh and the Startouch elf Laurelion battle to the death.

2,000 years ago: Humans acquire (primal) magic, and Elarion is founded. Humanity ascends toward a golden age.

1,200 years ago: The Dragon Prince Anak Araw ascends to the dragon monarchy throne as Dragon King Sol Regem.

1,000 years ago: Sol Regem confronts Ziard, the first dark mage, and threatens Elarion before being blinded with corruption. Luna Tenebris ascends the dragon monarchy throne and expels humanity from the eastern half of Xadia. The archdragons form the Border to keep the two halves of the continent separate.

300 years ago: Luna Tenebris dies without a suitable heir. The Sunfire elf Queen Aditi vanishes before she can resolve the ensuing succession crisis. Aaravos, the "Fallen Star," is defeated and imprisoned by the Archdragons and the Orphan Queen. Avizandum ascends to the dragon monarchy throne.

2 years ago: Avizandum is killed by the human King Harrow. His mate Zubeia ascends the dragon monarchy throne, with their son Azymondias as Dragon Prince.

"Now": Aaravos escapes captivity, but is returned to his heavenly form until his stars realign in 7 years. The archdragons Zubeia, Rex Igneous, and Domina Profundus perish in the battle. Azymondias is the last known living archdragon, and the status of the dragon monarchy is unknown.

and here's things we know happened, but not exactly when:

Between 5,000 and 2,000 years ago: the Startouch elf child Leola teaches humans the secrets of primal magic. Her violation of the Cosmic Order is reported by Dragon Prince Anak Araw, and she is executed for it. Her death forms the Sea of the Castout in Eastern Xadia.

Between 3,000 years ago and 300 years ago: the fang of Shiruakh is forged by humans into the Novablade. At some point, it winds up in the hands of the Celestial elves at the Starscraper.

Between 1,000 years ago and Now: the city of Elarion is either destroyed or naturally falls into ruin. (Anyone who can actually cite a reliable source for Elarion being destroyed is more than welcome to do so, otherwise I will die on the "we have no evidence that Elarion was ever destroyed, actually" hill.)

Sometime before 300 years ago, and probably before 1,000 years ago: the (arch?)dragon Aithne Solaire, mate of Anak Araw/Sol Regem, is killed, by him unwittingly burying her alive in an episode of rage. (I say "probably before 1,000 years ago" because she presumably would have succeeded him as Dragon Queen, if she was alive.)

Between 1,000 years ago and 300 years ago: the modern human kingdoms are founded. The mage wars end as the western half of Xadia is depleted of magical resources. (Unclear whether those two events are directly related.)

Some Speculation: The Archdragons, the Cosmic Order, and Shiruakh/Laurelion

This was originally supposed to be a post about Shiruakh and Laurelion, but let's rewind a bit. We know the Great Ones (a.k.a. the "First Elves") built or instituted something to either create an ideal Cosmic Order or preserve one they had foreseen, because that's what Aaravos wants to destroy as his revenge.

This Cosmic Order seems to be tied to an idealized state of stability—humans acquiring magic is known to be the first step in a descent to "chaos"—but also hierarchy. Archdragons are at the top. Elves venerate them. Humans are lesser beings than both. I think there's a very strong chance that the dragon monarchy was instituted either by the Great Ones, or by some agreement between them and the archdragons. The dragon monarchy oversees and preserves the Cosmic Order while the Great Ones... do whatever it is they do, because they don't actually seem very interested.

Destroying the archdragons (instead of just Sol Regem in particular) could be on Aaravos's agenda simply because they betrayed him 300 years ago, but I suspect they are considered a foundational pillar of the Cosmic Order in some way, and taking out three of the last remaining four was a pretty big win for him. We don't know where archdragons come from—like if a primal has no archdragon, whether one will just... coalesce. If that's the case, it clearly either takes more than 300 years or there's some kind of problem with Luna Tenebris's death and the Moon primal (possible).

Now, as for Shiruakh and Laurelion:

I'm assuming we'll get a translation for Shiruakh's name at some point, the best I could get was Hebrew shir ("song") and ruach/ruakh ("spirit", "breath"). Personally, given Shiruakh's coloration and the fact that her scale empowers Claudia with fire, I would lay money on her being an archdragon of the Sun. Since sometime after her death, Anak Araw is Dragon Prince, a Sun archdragon dynasty on the throne also makes sense. I would also have zero surprise if she was Anak Araw's mother, the mate of the at-the-time Dragon King, just because that would set off some animosity, there. Especially if she was hunted down because of some Cosmic Order bullshit, which would also be delicious—him and Aaravos angry for the same reason.

So why did she and Laurelion fight? Well, we just don't know.

Hmmmm. But no, we don't know.

Now, I would bet that either the Death of the Immortal poem was written long after the actual events, or else large chunks of it are missing, since Kazi skimming over "Laurelion fought an archdragon and its bite killed him" and/or "and then he exploded" would be... kind of weird. The archdragons seem to be aware of what will happen when Aaravos's mortal form dies, so presumably they wouldn't be too keen on delivering a suicidal bite if there are other options available... but the other option is the Novablade, which has the same problem. The Orphan Queen, having the same problem as the main cast, may have "spared" Aaravos less out of some mysterious compassion and more out of also sparing herself and everything in what looks like probably a multi-kilometer radius.

I (and I think a lot of others) had just kind of assumed that Laurelion was targeted for death because of some transgression, but now it seems at least equally likely that he was enforcing the Cosmic Order against Shiruakh going rogue. Given the close relationship that's implied between the archdragons and the Great Ones, with no clear point for it to have soured (except with Aaravos, specifically), it seems unlikely that the archdragons or the elves would feel the need for such a weapon. Which is consistent with the fact that, as we now see in the illustration of Aaravos's tale, the Novablade was actually forged by humans.

Given the trajectory of human civilization over the timeline, I wouldn't expect them to have the technology or knowledge to work draconic ivory that way a thousand years before they acquire primal magic. On the other hand, if Shiruakh's tooth was kicked around for a couple thousand years, why did they suddenly feel the need for a Startouch elf-killing weapon? Is this just a case of dick-swinging, like driving a car that can do 250 MPH when you're never going to go above maybe 90, and that's if you're a huge asshole (which you probably are)? "My sword is made from an archdragon's tooth and can kill a god"?

Was Aaravos behind this, somehow? I would not be at all surprised if Aaravos was behind this, somehow. It's unclear whether one Great One could kill another in single combat, or otherwise force them back to the heavenly plane—if not, the advantages of such a weapon might outweigh the risks for the person with the most motivation to dispatch other Startouch elves. A contingency.

(But I personally also think that Aaravos's manipulation was behind things like... the formation of the Border, so.)

Anyway, since either arc 3 or the leadup to it will presumably involve a lot of frantic researching, maybe we'll finally get some of the Orphan Queen story and learn some of what she figured out.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

deserted

If Aaravos going nova

wiped Lux Aurea off the map,

then did Shiruakh making Laurelion go nova

create the Midnight Desert?

I always wondered why it looked like a whole black mountain just exploded. Maybe one did.

If the Midnight Desert's size is how big the destruction zone was for Laurelion, I guess we could estimate how much of an impact Aaravos's nova made on the map, too.

Looks like there could be a really unfortunate area that got hit with both novas. I wonder what happens there. Glass? Obsidian? A big crevice in the ground? Extremely powerful Star Touch resistant sand? *rubs my worldbuildy hands together*

[its-leethee]

--7x07

there's just something so deliciously compelling about how we were shown these two battles back to back

[raayllum]

Quick thoughts on the Scale of Shiruakh:

It seems at first to be a carrier primarily of Sun magic, hence why it emits light, turns Runaan's arrow to ash, and de-corrupts Claudia's face (similar to Viren consuming sunray butterflies for the same thing). However, just summoning the amulet does make her eyes glow the telltale dark magic purple, so who knows.

We do know, alternatively, that the scale armour Claudia summons is dark magic adjacent if not it outright, because the spell to summon it is what turns more of her hair white. It also drains the green out of the leg Terry made for her, replacing it with purple (which, dear lord the symbolism of her entire character design at this point).

The fact she can use the scale without destroying it, though, and for repeated uses, does mean something interesting. It's the closest we've ever seen anything else function like a primal stone beyond an inherent primal connection itself. This makes sense, since archdragons are the embodiment of their primal in a lot of ways, but it does open up an interesting alternative to the arduous task of making primal stones (which, if even just Moon always requires grounded up unicorn bones, may not actually be a long term solution for a lack of an arcanum connection). Perhaps one day dragons could lend their scales willingly as a replacement...

[pansitow26]

Mientras estaba mirando el Mapa estelar, se me ocurrió la teoría de que tal vez este dragón que se ve sea Shiruakh; no lo sé, se parecen demasiado.

Definitivamente aún nos falta descubrir mucho de Shiruakh

[wheretwofacesmeet]

[xadianglyphs]

This is a repository of references for as many runes, symbols, and other writing as can be collected from The Dragon Prince and its supplemental materials. The intent is not to update very often unless new material is released, but please submit your own examples or requests!

TDP does not use a fantasy conlang alphabet, nor is linguistics (beyond ASL translation) a factor in designing the filler writing and decorative symbols used throughout the setting. However, because I am personally insane, I wanted a way to check if the various styles of glyphs could be grouped in any meaningful way. Which meant collecting and organizing every possible instance of writing in the entire show. So here we are.

By Appearance:

book one: moon, book two: sky, book three: sun, book four: earth, book five: ocean, book six: stars, book seven: dark, credits sketch

tales of xadia, through the moon, bloodmoon huntress, puzzle house, dreamer's nightmare, tdp: xadia

concept art

By Identified Family:

primal rune, sunforge runes, handwriting

By Culture:

human kingdoms, xadia, moonshadow elves, skywing elves, sunfire elves, earthblood elves, tidebound elves, startouch elves, order of the blood moon, celestial elves, draconic

moon nexus, sky nexus, sun nexus, earth nexus, ocean nexus, star nexus

By Primal Source:

primal sources, moon primal, sky primal, sun primal, earth primal, ocean primal, star primal

corrupted primal, dark magic, deep magic

By Surface Type/Location:

architecture, attire, books, handwriting, objects, weapons

book of aaravos, claudia's spellbook, cursed coin, scale of shiruakh, magic mirror, starscraper

Spells:

primal rune, unnamed spell

amor stella vitae, aquis spirare faucibus, arma virtutis, aspiro, aspiro frigis, eritque arcus ignis, fulgur mortifer, fulminis, historia viventem, infantis sanguine, lapis caeli, levare ventum, missilem ignem, mons aqueous, noctu igne, pluviam praesidium, sepultura caelo, stratum caligo, tenebris praesidium, terminus ad glacium, umbra chorum, ventum angulus, ventum circulo, ventus spiralis, ventus validus, venus frigoris

Meta:

meta

analysis, compilation, scene comparison

[beautifulterriblequeen]

spin cycle

Shiruakh and Laurelion fought 3000 years ago - this may be the oldest known part of the cycle we know so far. And King Ezran is one of the newest.

Do you think starweaver spiders exist because they spin the cycle?

They are, after all, bugs.

[kradogsrats]

me, sitting bolt upright in a cold sweat: we have an archdragon skeleton with a mouth full of teeth in the Valley of Graves

[wheretwofacesmeet]

[wheretwofacesmeet]

[wheretwofacesmeet]

[wheretwofacesmeet]