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thejosiebird · 6 days ago

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Aaravos' Master Plan, S7 Edition

Because I think like 90% of S7 went according to Aaravos' plan step by step, so let's talk about it.

But to talk about that, we have to talk about 6x08 briefly, first.

Attacking Katolis and Killing Viren

Initially, I had thought that destroying Katolis allowed Aaravos a few easy wins:

Viren dies, meaning he can't influence Claudia away from Aaravos

Aaravos needs Claudia in Katolis, because there's the staff with the quasar diamond and the prison just sitting there

He gets revenge on Katolis (thanks to the Orphan Queen)

He gets revenge on Sol Regem

That on its own is already impressive in a "two birds with one stone" approach. However, there is even more shit that the attack on Katolis allowed him to create / set into motion, such as:

If Viren is dead, then Claudia has an incentive to help Aaravos invert the Moon Nexus she would not have otherwise

Lets him leave the island there On Purpose, as he wants to converse with Ezran and trick him into getting the Nova Blade

Lets him attempt to manipulate / trick Callum into accepting the apple (being re-corrupted with dark magic)

Ensures that the Staff of Ziard remains in his possession, which is important for later

As we can see, then, Aaravos is routinely 5 steps ahead of everyone, including back in previous seasons (i.e. having Viren collect the Sun staff so he could corrupt the Sun Nexus, knowing he'd need it later to corrupt the sun). This is because Aaravos is most likely timeblind.

With that in mind, I want to talk about other aspects / choices Aaravos (or Claudia) made throughout the season through a "this was on purpose/planned" lens and speculate as to why. Let's go

Getting rid of Terry

Terry is pretty openly against Aaravos in late S6 / early S7, but he stays because Claudia stays, and he doesn't want to leave without her. That said, Terry tries multiple times to dissuade Claudia and Aaravos from engaging further with each other ("He isn't doing anything for love. He's doing it for revenge" / attempting to leave / "Why are you getting her hopes up?") even if it's unsuccessful.

Aaravos is very flippant and calm to any of Terry's concerns, if he answers them at all. He also seems to know, however, that they'll need Terry, considering Aaravos is the one who explains to Claudia why the map doesn't work anymore, and what a True Heart really is, which was previously unknown to Claudia. So Aaravos knows that Terry is needed for this first step.

AARAVOS: [Making a Moon primal stone] requires an exceedingly rare ingredient that be only be found at a place where unicorns once roamed, the Garden of Innocents. [...] Rare though it may be, young Terrestrius has what we need.

Once they get to the map and especially once they reach the Garden, however, Aaravos immediately starts setting up the dominoes to knock down. He convinces Claudia to lie to Terry, which probably would've been enough in some ways ("I knew he'd leave once he found out," she admits) but goes a step further. There's no real reason that Aaravos couldn't have gotten himself or Claudia to collect the feathers. He wanted an excuse for Terry to be complicit and have a reason to show him where the birds where so Aaravos could have his revelations (you were tricked about the birds and the feathers; Claudia and I lied to you about the garden; Claudia lied about the map and used you) as well as having Terry witness the killing and be unable to stop it.

This all leads to the loss of Terry's True Heart as well as his decision to leave. The initial takeaway I know I had was that Aaravos wants Terry to leave so that Claudia is more isolated and more reliant upon him. If Terry remains, he could possibly sway Claudia against certain actions, or at least make things more complicated. I don't think Aaravos is really worried about him ("I'll tell Claudia!" "It will change nothing. She loves me"), but the Startouch elf is nothing but elegant and efficient, and removing Terry from the equation is both of those things.

But does he really remove Terry from the equation?

Terry leaves Claudia and runs straight to King Ezran and co., revealing a multitude of important information that you'd think Aaravos would want under wraps... but clearly doesn't, so let's dig in.

Wanting everyone to know

In the beginning of 7x01, Aaravos seems to revel in having awareness and subsequent power that his enemies don't.

They don't know. The elves and dragons, all the arrogant fools blinded by the searing light of their own self-righteousness. They stand all, and they will fall hard.

This likewise makes sense. The less people know about him, the fewer people will be trying to stop him or get in his way. Aaravos even travels in disguise in his human form (rather than any other elf's) to avoid attracting attention and remains in said form until post-Moon Nexus inversion.

The only time he really uses this disguise, however, is to try and trick Callum into accepting the apple in 7x01 (more on Callum later). In sending Terry to Ezran, he makes this disguise then moot post-7x04, and doesn't seem surprised exactly at the Archdragons' arrival in 7x08 or 7x09. He asks the Stars if they're watching, likely hoping they are or will.

Aaravos is very careful about when or how he relays information, and what pieces of information, at any given time. While I think he wanted to be able to travel and make his Moon primal stone in peace, past that point I don't think he really cared about keeping his release a secret. This is for 2 reasons:

Once people know he's out, they have to respond to it, and it makes them desperate

Desperate people are easier to manipulate

By sending Terry to Ezran, he made the young king desperate. Terry can inform Ezran about 1) Aaravos being huge so they can prepare, 2) Aaravos' placement at the island in Katolis, and 3) Ezran waiting there for Aaravos at the Valley of the Graves.

Again, you'd think this is the opposite of what Aaravos would want. He just had one vessel destroyed by being shot in the throat, and now his other much larger more important one is immediately attacked. But Aaravos is playing the long game with Ezran in particular, so let's dive in.

Ezran

Recently, I'd speculated on what treachery Aaravos had committed that would make the Archdragons want to imprison him. While they'd clearly discovered that Aaravos had created dark magic (4x03 confirms they'd found out the Staff of Ziard was actually his), it didn't feel like enough. What seems to make the most sense, therefore, is that after the Mage Wars (under Aaravos' influence) drained magic from the West, he was preparing to encourage humanity to stage an attack on Xadia for its magic, the eastern half already weakened by the Archdragon infighting and succession crises / Aditi's disappearance (which while the archdragons don't know he's responsible for, we do). Put a pin in this, because "Humans wage war on a weakened Xadia" is something we've already seen play out (S3) and something we're going to return to, speculation wise.

For now, as we've touched on:

Aaravos wanted Terry to tell Ezran about the island. He wanted Ezran to be there, and Aaravos let himself be chained down (as demonstrated when he easily stands back up). Aaravos wanted to have the day to speak with Ezran and keep him there in the Valley of the Graves, because Aaravos knew that the Nova Blade was there, and Aaravos wanted Ezran to have the Nova Blade. Aanya even spells this out for us:

EZRAN: Destiny works in mysterious ways. The Nova Blade came to my ancestor, only to be lost for generations until we needed it. AANYA: Ezran, I have never been one to hesitate. I've fired arrows from my bow that have reached their target before I even had time to complete the thought. But something about this doesn't feel right. EZRAN: I have to do this. I have to kill Aaravos. AANYA: What if he wanted you to find the Nova Blade? He hid it in a riddle so you would think it was your idea, but he led you there. Ezran, what if this is a trap? EZRAN: It might be, but I'm going to face him.

So Aaravos layers two manipulations of Ezran in 7x07. The first is to join him against the elves and dragons, which Ezran steadfastly rejects without much trouble, even when Aaravos frames it as joining him and Callum as well. The second manipulation layer, which Aaravos uses Callum as a hinge to get Ezran to turn upon ("if I can't do anything to help, Callum will do something terrible"). He gets Ezran to take up the Nova Blade, even though Ez himself acknowledges that it might be a trick.

Which begs the question, then: why does Aaravos want Ezran to have the Nova Blade, really?

Think of it this way: you're Aaravos. There are only two things that can destroy your mortal form. One of them is an Archdragon's bite. Over the course of a month, you manage to kill 4/5 remaining archdragons, leaving just one (1) singular threat to your existence behind for the next time you take mortal form. So why on earth would you point someone to the one other thing that could potentially take you out?

My initial thought was that maybe he just wanted Ezran to show up with it to tip the scales in his favour in 7x09. Ezran destroying his mortal form means he can't be trapped in the coin. Aaravos does smile after all, as soon as he sees Ezran is arriving, while Runaan is still lying in wait to kill Callum. Aaravos wasn't happy to see that Callum had enlisted Runaan, not Rayla (who the Startouch elf was convinced wouldn't be able to do it), to kill him, and that the coin plan subsequently had a better chance of working.

But what happens when Ezran arrives, imo, rules out that reading. Even with Runaan still at the ready, Aaravos emphasizes to Callum that the window is closing to imprison him, trying to goad him into dark magic... even though Callum was going to do dark magic regardless of Ezran's arrival, and had just made that plain. On the contrary, Ezran's arrival makes Callum hesitate, and Aaravos uses it as a threat ("or else the brave king will seal my fate, and set the world on fire") to make Callum start the coin plan faster. (And we'll circle back to Callum later, don't worry.) This is the opposite of what Aaravos should want, since the coin plan still presents a threat and if he's coined fast enough, Ez wouldn't reach him or could be talked down.

When Callum does start the coining spell, Aaravos smiles and makes no attempt to break out of it. And if Aaravos did want a backup plan of "I don't get imprisoned because my mortal form gets destroyed instead," he could've just... let one of the archdragons bite him, which is what ends up happening anyway. Ezran, specifically with the Nova Blade, did not need to happen to achieve any of the same outcomes, but Aaravos put a lot of time and effort (destroying Katolis, having Claudia release him there, the island, allowing himself to be chained down, telling Ezran the history) to make sure it did happen. So what gives?

It could be that Aaravos' plan was to have the main trio "sacrifice everything that they are" in order to break them. But Aaravos' plan of Callum's plan going wrong did hinge on Rayla not being able to do so, anyway, and if the Archdragons hadn't been there to bail them out, Ez destroying him with the Nova Blade would've led to all the main trio dying regardless. That'd be an effective way to get rid of 99% of the people trying to stop you, but again, not something that couldn't have happened by making sure the archdragons were too busy murdering you to protect anyone else. And if all the trio had died, as Callum would've in the coin plan or everyone in the Nova Blade plan, that means Aaravos can't use any of them further.

What I want to point to, therefore, on a speculative level is Aaravos' focus on putting weapons into Ezran's hands. The obvious is the Nova Blade which I'll elaborate even further on in a minute. The less obvious but bigger focus this season is on Project Ruby Fire. Ezran is motivated to start this project with Aanya explicitly because of Katolis' destruction, which Aaravos orchestrated. The weapons are being crafted in mind to be able to hurt/stand up to dragons (and Archdragons), who Aaravos hates, after Aaravos commandeered an Archdragon to burn Katolis to the ground.

And while the Archdragons' sacrifice is a huge component of why Ezran forgives Runaan ("they've given us a great gift, a chance to keep on living, keep trying to do better"), builds Evrkynd, and keeps working towards peace... Aaravos' imminent return gives Ezran a concrete reason to keep going with Project Ruby Fire to fight, if not dragons, then against a Startouch titan... who hates all the other Startouch titans.

And if it is just against the dragons, then it means the two biggest kingdoms with the two currently best armies in the Pentarchy (since all but Duren were pretty devastated by the Battle of the Storm Spire, and some of Katolis defected) are going to be heavily armed against Xadia's most powerful creatures ("I don't need five armies when I have one archdragon" / "all throughout history, dragons have had all the power") in the immediate aftermath of Xadia losing their most important protectors in the Archdragons.

Just like in the time of the Orphan Queen with the succession crisis, and just like in S3, Aaravos has created the perfect motivations and tools for humans to use to attack a Xadia that is incredibly weakened, a goal we have explicitly seen him chance once and likely more than once to begin with. Only this time, a non-mage king is the one playing perfectly into his hands while trying to do the opposite.

This makes me think that the Nova Blade could solve some similar purpose. Aaravos' likely endgame goal is to permanently kill the other First Elves. If the Nova Blade can kill a First Elf's mortal form as is, it stands to reason that perhaps if modified with dark magic or something else that it could kill a First Elf permanently, and be a powerful weapon of choice for Aaravos.

Speaking of weapons, let's talk about

The Staff, Again (or Corrupting Callum)

We touched briefly on the staff a little bit before. It's a thousand year old contingency brought to light, where Aaravos stole a staff from the Starscraper and a quasar diamond, putting the latter inside the former. This seems, as of S6, to be the reason behind the staff's insane amount of power, now rendered partially moot by the quasar diamond being used to give Aaravos a body... which indicates, given how rare and unique this property of quasar diamonds are, he knew well ahead of time it was likely he'd be imprisoned, perhaps not just when or by whom.

However, Aaravos' plans go further than that. The staff was critical in freeing Sir Sparklepuff from his homunculus and implied to be in the same spell that ended his life, with the blood of child ritual. It was used by Viren in spell that ended his own life, and used by Claudia to defend herself against Callum, rather than Aaravos just leaving her Sun staff untouched/unchanged. She uses it a few times throughout the season, once to invert the Moon Nexus, twice in her duel against Callum. And then she just... throws it away with a smile on her face.

This is especially odd at first glance given that TDP delays Claudia claiming the staff as hers until 7x06... and her throwing it away happens the immediate episode after. Odd, and on purpose. Part of this is because Claudia claiming the staff is more symbolic of her dynamics with Viren and with Aaravos than it is about it physically being hers (a longer meta on the Staff of Ziard, what it symbolizes, and Aaravos' plans here) but that this is the second time Aaravos' instructions to Claudia can readily refer to the individual we directly associate them with... and with Callum.

CLAUDIA: He said the being will guide you to the one who has answers. (4x01)

Sir Sparklepuff guides them to Rex Igneous, who has the map that leads to Rex Igneous. But the only reason Claudia and co. know that is because Callum figures it out, as he determines:

CALLUM: Having knowledge doesn't mean knowing knowledge. He possesses the knowledge of where Aaravos is trapped. Like... He has a map! REX IGNEOUS: Very clever, young human. CLAUDIA: Yeah, you always were a very clever human, weren't you, Callum?

only for 6x02/7x09 to indeed reveal that Callum's Key of Aaravos functions similarly, being something he has but not knows, and that it has a map to the location of Something in Elarion (probably its matching book, but who knows?). And 7x06 does the same thing again, with Aaravos telling Claudia that "there's another threat that must be removed" (paraphrasing because I'm lazy).

Claudia goes and kills Akiyu (and possibly destroys what the mage was working on), but it's not clear how long there was between that and Callum and Runaan arriving. What the scene indicates, though, is that Claudia got there, carried out her mission, and then waited for them to arrive. She then tries to kill Callum twice (the rock blow) and nearly sucks the breath out of his lungs, never directing anything actually at Runaan on purpose. (Until 7x09, wherein she takes him out of the picture, and not Callum, even though both or her former friend could've been taken and dragged off the tower.)

So the implicit orders seem to be either 1) kill Callum unless he'll do dark magic again and 2) leave the staff and once he has it, leave him open for it.

Another marker I want to loop back around to is Aaravos' disguise. Think about WHY it's there. Really think about it. Because in the 6 episodes it's there, it largely did not have to be. For the majority of those six episodes, Aaravos is with Terry and Claudia, who know it's him the whole time. This is true once Terry splits and goes to Soren and co., who all know the figure with Claudia at the Moon Nexus is Aaravos.

It is also more expensive to create a new character model and rig if you don't have to, hence why the elven disguises Aaravos considers are 2D, not fully 3D/rigged. It would've been cheaper to just use the Aaravos design but smaller that they already have. And we just established that in basically every scene he's walking around with the disguise is not one he needed to be disguised for, so why have it at all? There's the characterization reason, sure, that he prefers humans/humanity, but that could've also been achieved by Aaravos debating having a disguise, considering a 2D human one, before deciding to just be himself and save on rigging. So what gives?

The only plot relevant scene with the disguise in the whole season is Aaravos' attempted deception with Callum. His first attempt to corrupt the kid with dark magic again, through an apple (which talk about a loaded symbol for Knowledge, Freedom, and Corruption) not through compromise, but through blatant lying. However, this deception scene does indicate that Aaravos, very badly, wants Callum to be re-corrupted, and 7x09 affirms this as well, with the aforementioned goading Aaravos employs with Ez on his way and Runaan still in the game.

What I think this indicates, ultimately, is that Aaravos wants (or needs) a corrupted Callum and an actively pursuing weapons / wielder of the Nova Blade Ezran to survive past 7x09 in order for him to use them the next time they come around. For Callum, it'll be his reinstated corruption (with the possession plotline finally coming full circle so help me god) and Ezran's weapons / potential conflict with Zym, but more on that in a second.

That said: if like I'm positing his goal was to use the brothers — and for Ez to survive and create more weapons / humanity to invade Xadia — they'd have to exist in a world that's hospitable, which means that the sun couldn't be permanently corrupted, because all plant life and agriculture would wither away... then why even corrupt the sun and invert the Moon Nexus in the first place? Why fail in this manner?

Therefore, while I'm not going to claim that everything in 7x09 went 110% according to Aaravos' plan (he got his ass kicked, and the sun remained uncorrupted) because I don't think it truly did, I think the bulk of it was for 1 main reason:

They Fall Hard

Aaravos hates the Archdragons. He blames them for enforcing Cosmic Order (barring for some of them, the only things of their of is Domina keeping Finnegrin, another elf/Xadian, in line, and Rex Igneous seems to rarely come out of the ground) and if he didn't hate them along with Sol Regem before he was imprisoned, he definitely hates them afterwards.

He directly states so in 7x01, making it plain that elves (the Cosmic Council, seemingly) and the dragons (specifically the archdragons) are his most hated of the millennia:

The dragons and the elves, all the arrogant fools blinded by the light of their searing self-righteousness. They stand tall, and they will fall hard.

(This also ignores the fact that every time thus far Aaravos has been actually defeated or significantly delayed, it's been through humans, elves, and dragons working together, but I digress.)

And we know that Aaravos plans are going to well, plan, in 7x08 for the most part, as he reflects:

Now, this is familiar, isn't it? Hasn't this all happened before? Arrogant fools. Again and again you make the same mistakes.

Now, this makes sense. Last time, there was a (future) ruler of Katolis, a human mage, and the Archdragons working together to imprison him in a pearl. Callum tried to do the exact same thing, halted only when Aaravos had Akiyu taken out of the picture... but Callum and co.'s goal is still to imprison him, and that was the note he'd left off with Ezran as well ("Then I'll follow in her footsteps. You will be imprisoned again"). Ez's doesn't stick, because Aaravos uses his brother against him to manipulate Ezran into wanting to murder him, nor does Callum's since he turns to dark magic, so they're not quite repeating their mistakes, but it still would lead somewhat to their ruin. But I digress again.

With my previous points, I think Aaravos inverted the Moon Nexus for one main reason: to have creatures to keep his smaller, squishier enemies (humans and elves) busy, but mostly to bring Avizandum back to life. He gives the Moon primal staff to Ziard to do just that, and Avizandum is the one weaponized against the Archdragons on both a physical and emotional level. At its worst, having Avizandum meant the fight would be 2-3, and then becomes 2-on-2 once the Dragon King kills Rex Igneous. The fact that its particular torment for Zubeia is just the cherry on top.

(It is also Aaravos' downfall but again: we're getting there.)

The long winded Point I'm trying to make in this section (which I've touched on further in this meta) is that one of Aaravos' goals was to bring down the Archdragons. Potentially, this has been happening for centuries (starting with Sol Regem's mate, or perhaps Luna Tenebris) but at the very least it started with Sol Regem, so in about a month, Aaravos took out 4/5 remaining archdragons. This works twofold for him:

He wants revenge on all of them

It means they cannot destroy his mortal body, with the only remaining threats to it being Zym and the Nova Blade

He wanted to take out the Archdragons (more on that here)... and now he has.

While the trio could retry the old plan they employed in 7x08-7x09, Aaravos has already clarified, "I do not fall for the same tricks twice". The Archdragons spared/saved them, but now are out of the picture as far as both solutions and information wise. I don't know about you, but taking out like 4 different Major enemies/threats and leaving the world considerably weakened against you while also ensuring you're not locked away in another prison is one hell of a power move.

Now, only the Cosmic Council really remains on Aaravos' chopping block. So let's get into it.

Seven Years

I've wondered why about Aaravos many times, mostly in regards to why Aaravos has taken a 1,000+ years to put his plan into action. Presumably, he's wanted to invert the Moon Nexus and corrupt the Sun this whole time and has had the means (little bug pal) to corrupt the Sunforge also this whole time. So why wait? Why manipulate the Archdragons rather than just barrel on ahead?

We know it's extremely likely that Aaravos and the First Elves are timeblind, and we also know that First Elves can only come back to earth when their stars re-align (6x04). We also know that (storm) archdrgons only lay an egg once every thousand years (1x05). Aaravos waiting for a First Elf's stars to realign, or for Zym to be born, would make a lot of sense.

If Aaravos went into the final battle knowing that either he'd 100% accomplish his goals, or take out the archdragons but be set back 7 years, then he probably has a contingency plan or something in accordance with it taking more time, for someone as meticulous as he is.

I want to talk more about the arc 2 intros, revisited, in another post, but given the parallel framing thus far...

It seems that everything is still on track with Aaravos' plans with steady progress made, and haven't been ruined at all. I expect that once S8 / arc 3 comes out, we'll get to look back at S7 (specifically 7x07-7x09) with clearer eyes and see what new dominoes he was setting up to fall.

In the meantime, all we can do is wait, but I hope you enjoyed this meta nonetheless.

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thejosiebird · 13 days ago

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The Relic Staff Meta, Arc 2 Edition

Because I thought too long about implication, history, and acquirement / symbolism, and here we are, apparently. Let's goo

What we learned

We learned a decent amount about the relic staff in arc 2, as follows:

It is known as the Staff of Ziard (4x03) and he was presumably the first human / human (dark) mage to wield it

The staff originally belonged to Aaravos, and Ibis (+ archdragons and co.) know this (4x03): "If you seek to return that staff to its true owner..."

The staff itself comes from the Starscraper, and is part of a matched set of 8, with its one still missing (6x04).

According to Kpp'Ar and his worldview, something with the staff is wrong / dangerous enough that it must never be used again (6x06), though we don't know why. He also, presumably, was unable to find a way to destroy it.

The staff, for 1000+ years, had a quasar diamond concealed inside of it with an illusion spell (6x09). What happened to the 'original' gemstone it was supposed to have is unknown.

The staff was merged with Claudia's Sun staff, taking the corrupted primal sun stone successfully into itself (7x01).

We know that the staff was important and powerful during the Mage Wars (7x03) with seemingly being at the centre of the struggle for magical power amid the mage warlords.

Even without the quasar diamond, the staff's metal itself has special properties, as Callum was able to successfully begin casting the soul imprisonment spell (7x09). While the quasar diamond no doubt helped given the staff special properties and amplify spells, it was not required nor the only way for it to work (seemingly; we may find out later that Callum's spell was not / is not going to be able to work).

The implication that's driving me the most insane is this one, wherein we see Laurelion with a weapon that has a very similar design to the staff's opened face:

It's not a perfect match up, but it's semi close, and closer than what we've traditionally seen human or elven styled weapons match up design wise with the staff. We know at this time (3,000 years ago, before humans' acquirement of primal or dark magic) that humans were apt enough that they could forge weapons such as the Nova Blade from Shiruakh's fang, and presumably the scale armour as well. We don't know why, but there could be a multitude of reasons. It doesn't seem like Aaravos' quest for revenge had begun yet given that we don't know if Leola was born, let alone already killed.

Now that we got all the lore under our belt, let's talk about the symbolism of the staff within character arcs and character relationships.

Line of Succession

The known line of succession goes as follows:

Ziard

Countless generations / mages

Unnamed high mage of Katolis

Unnamed female high mage of Katolis (Kpp'Ar's predecessor)

Kpp'Ar

Viren

Claudia

Callum

And, hesitantly, I want to add the Jailer as the beginning of the High Mage of Katolis line holding onto it. Kpp'Ar and the Jailer's commonalities have been remarked upon before by many due to their penchant for puzzles (the Puzzle House / "The puzzle is the real prison, she told me with a proud smile") and both being human mages. We don't know if the Jailer was a human or a primal mage, but we do know that she and the Orphan Queen lived around the same time; that the Orphan Queen founded Ezran and Harrow's royal line; and that she held onto the Key of Aaravos. It is possible, therefore, at the Jailer took the Staff of Ziard along with it for safekeeping.

With all that in mind, let's talk about Kpp'Ar.

Kpp'Ar

What does the staff represent in Kpp'Ar's life? Well, for starters, we know that Kpp'Ar received the staff from his predecessor, who presumably chose and trained him as the high mage. We know he had other students, with Viren being the "most eager" and possibly best in order to inherit his position when King Atticus was still king. It is unclear if Kpp'Ar had already retired from being high mage and then from magic itself, or if those things were simultaneous, but they seem to be in close proximity timeline wise regardless. Either way, Kpp'Ar made the choice to resign and to not give the staff to Viren, stating "It is not an entitlement of the office."

We learn in the Book 2 novelization and 7x02 that Kpp'Ar gave up dark magic and sought to destroy all his old tools. Viren also says this directly in 6x06:

The game motif in TDP has consistently referred to Aaravos throughout the show, in lines such as "What game are you playing at?" (2x08), "We had to beat Aaravos at his own game" (4x04), the cube ("This is the game room. Cube should be in there [...] it's a toy, a piece from a children's game" in 1x04, etc), and his collection of pawns. It is unsurprising, then, that it would eventually come for 'his' staff.

The staff belonging to a collection of relics also makes sense. For example, we know thanks to 6x06 (and possibly with the coin spell as well) that there are ancient spells written down that label the staff among its specific set of ingredients, whether as a conduit or adding something that is needed in particular, or both:

VIREN: I found a creative solution. I suppose I should call it what it is: dark magic. But to do the spell, I needed something that belonged to my mentor, Kpp'Ar. I needed his staff. (6x06)

So we can piece together a bit of a timeline. Kpp'Ar inherited the staff when he took over as High Mage. And despite being in his possession for years, we never see him use it on screen, nor is it a replacement for his cane. At some point in his time as High Mage, Kpp'Ar discovered a terrible truth about the staff. This likely played into his choice to resign as High Mage and hold onto the staff rather than pass it onto Viren as was custom, if not traditional of the office. However, whatever truth about the staff is not so terrible that Kpp'Ar believes telling Viren would change his apprentice's mind.

Kpp'Ar is then imprisoned by his own staff, which feels... thematically loaded, I suppose. It's not like he's the first to 'die' over it; plenty likely did during the Mage Wars, and Ibis was literally impaled with it. However, in much the same way Viren's "original sin" in the show was not hesitating to sacrifice others while hesitating to sacrifice himself (culminating, as predicted, in the opposite choice in 6x08)... Kpp'Ar's arc seems similarly bundled up with the staff in a way that isn't yet quite true for any other character. Part of this is because we know so little about Kpp'Ar as a character that the staff just inevitably ends up feeling more prominent, but also because he staked quite possibly the most important claim of his life on not using it, and the subsequent fallout had consequences.

Kpp'Ar's arc with the staff is also currently not 'closed,' unlike his apprentice. So onto the next (or the previous) mage to wield it:

Viren (and Ziard)

I'm putting these two together because they arguably open and close the same story in what is one of the show's most succinct turns of the Cycle across the whole series.

Ziard, as mentioned, is the person who becomes synonymous with the staff, as it is known as his staff, whereas the Key (although related) is known explicitly as Aaravos'. For whatever reason, Aaravos did not want the staff to be as easily related to him as the Cube, likely because the former was related to dark magic, and the latter was primal magic (which the current archdragons he was cozying up to and manipulating wouldn't have batted an eye at).

I'd also speculated in the past that Ziard was being set up by Aaravos in 3x01, used to provoke Sol Regem for... whatever reason. Given how his death mirrors Viren, who is set up by Aaravos in numerous ways (Aaravos wanted to kill Viren to keep him from swaying Claudia, and his dead would give her an incentive to invert the Moon Nexus to check the In-Between) it seems that this is more and more likely. Why set Ziard up, we don't entirely know. It seems like he was the leader of Elarion's dark mages ("you and your followers") and that Aaravos' involvement wasn't immediately known. He was smart enough to step away and let Ziard take the fall, literally, with even his involvement with the staff being shrouded in mystery.

Viren, meanwhile, has more awareness of the shadier side of Aaravos' involvement (although not all of it) even if he has comparatively less understanding about the history and uses of the staff. Additionally, Viren is probably the mage we associate most with the staff, however. His arc 1 design directly emulates it with the purple chest gemstone, he carries it near constantly in his possession, and he's its sole user. Even in season 4 up through his final scene in season 6, the staff is his ("You left your staff... my staff" / "I must face my truth") with the first time he used it to coin Kpp'Ar, and then to save Soren.

Either way, Ziard and Viren's last stand with the staff are used to keep a city from being destroyed / people from dying. While Viren used the staff previously to complete a few spells, however, he did not use it beyond the Zym consumption spell (the one Ziard used with the birds) to play into Aaravos' hands. Part of this is because despite having it on his person, Viren doesn't use the staff that often, and part of it is because other instances (such as 3x07's hearts of cinder amplification) were clearly Aaravos playing the long > short game in wanting to corrupt the Sun Forge, even if getting the Sunfire elves involved is one of the main reasons they lost the Battle of the Storm Spire.

We know that even Viren's heroism did end up fitting Aaravos' plans, however, given the smirk he shares through Pharos after Viren's demise.

You wanted this outcome. His death creates opportunity for you. (1x05)

What we can glean from this is that, thus far, it seems that there has been no use of the Staff of Ziard that hasn't been exactly what Aaravos wanted, even when seemingly 'stopping' him in the process... and that goes for Callum, too. But first, in keeping with the line of succession, let's talk about Claudia.

Claudia

Claudia is kind of the odd mage out, in terms of the staff. She's the only one to not be a high mage (assuming that's what the Jailer became) even though the occupational line has subsequently been important. Outside of the Jailer, she's the only other woman. Her journey with claiming the staff also zigzags.

Part of this is because she mirrors Viren with the sun staff. Aaravos gifts it to Viren, who uses it (and the Staff of Ziard) once, and then he never uses the the sun staff again. Instead, it becomes Claudia's weapon of choice, and she is the only one to use it throughout S3-S6 post-3x07. However, Claudia's alignment with the Staff of Ziard is still always clear.

And it seems like Claudia in season 4 is being pushed harder into her father's role with the staff as a metaphor. She's far more active, battling Ibis for it and driving the group up the mountain even when Viren wants to do something else. Viren refuses it twice, telling her to hold onto it much to her surprise and chagrin, and then Claudia steps up to do the spell that her father refuses, highlighting her power and expertise. It seems that everything is in place for the staff to become hers...

and then no, it's not.

Viren picks it up, does dark magic again, and falls into a coma induced nightmare hell. His younger self never carries the staff in front of the mirror also connected to Aaravos, and the staff isn't used in any real manner the whole season. He rejects the Blood of Child spell, which presumably needs the staff (which tracks like, unfortunately well) and abandons it on the beach. Claudia uses it in the interim, but still uses her sun staff as a literal and metaphorical crutch, and we see the Staff of Ziard's associations begin to shift.

In 1x01, the staff was a symbol of evil and untrustworthiness. In 3x01, we see it could be used for heroic deeds, just as in 3x09 we see it can be used for evil. While Kpp'Ar complicates the 3x01 readings further, he's chronologically much later. Beforehand, in S4, the staff represents who is going to help Aaravos and continue walking further down the path of his pawn, down to Viren being in the intro, not Claudia. And seemingly, that's what Viren takes accountability for in 6x01.

His vision zooms in on the staff lying in a pool of SS's blood, and he rejects Claudia's plan to free Aaravos outright, citing instead:

Which very easily could transform the staff into a more positive symbol. It represents truth, and as Viren clarifies, "The path of truth is the path of freedom" from 'the path of fate' and 'the dark path' he regrets leading Claudia on, as it took both of them into Aaravos' clutches; into pain, blood, sacrifice, and suffering. We subsequently have two readings we can look at, then:

Viren takes the staff, a negative symbol, purposefully away from Claudia, hopefully freeing her up to make better choices. This is more in line with their back-and-forth in season 4.

Viren takes the staff, now turned into a positive symbol, inadvertently away from Claudia, reflecting how she's doomed to continue being a pawn of Aaravos.

I don't think either reading symbolically is more true than another, but the second one does seem to be more in line with the staff's usage in S6, given that immediately after this episode, we get our first Claudia pawn intro.

This is especially true since Claudia is unable to let go of Viren, and instead seeks him out to find her "deep truth," and we know that not all truths are good ("this is a deep, dark truth" / "a burden"). She finds her father's body and staff lying side by side, and takes them both to the Valley of the Graves, and Aaravos uses both of them — the diamond inside the staff, and Claudia's love for Viren ("Aaravos did what was necessary. Like my dad") — to convince her to set him free.

That said:

A Quick Sun Staff Tangent

I think to better understand what the Staff of Ziard represents to Claudia, we have to look at what the Sun Staff does, first. Claudia receives the sun staff off screen from her father in between 3x07 and 3x09, and she wields it ever since. There's not too much symbolism beyond it being a corrupted light, which is like ridiculously on the nose. It also contributes to Claudia's continued association with the Sun arcanum and fire (1x04 with lighting the pyre; 3x07 with the fire dragon's horn; and eventually getting the scale armour of Shiruakh, to the point she can breathe fire).

It's only in season 6 that we get a bit more symbolism with it, specifically in 6x03 and 6x04:

So the sun staff represents dark magic, it seems, and she drops it when she runs to embrace Terry, even if that part of their arc hasn't entirely panned out yet. The corrupted light is corrupting her life, and she looks to one of her lights (Terry) for direction of what to do. He doesn't really give it, and so she follows yet again in her father's footsteps, just as she did in going up the Storm Spire, to go back to Katolis.

It's also worth noting that the sun staff is what allows Viren to corrupt the soldiers in 3x07, and Claudia states, "Maybe he's just doing what needs to be done," even if you can tell she's also somewhat convincing herself of that fact. We can take this one step further, then.

Say the sun staff represents dark magic and falsehood, two things that Aaravos utilizes and what Claudia has been left behind in twice now (once by Soren, once by Viren). This posits the Staff of Ziard as the Truth, her path, and goes beyond dark magic.

In season 7, Claudia is no longer turned to stone by dark magic. She's no longer turned to stone at all, instead standing happily in the careful curve of Aaravos' palm. Under the "Staff of Ziard" is the Truth reading, it's unsurprising therefore that the show has her finally claim ownership over it after she's received Aaravos' truth, and right before her former friends/loved ones are about to deceive her.

Claudia compares Aaravos to her father, and then grows to see him as another father. To her, unlike Viren, Aaravos gives her 'the whole truth' and the she takes complete ownership over Aaravos' staff. Over Aaravos' truth.

Because by the mid-point of season 7, the Staff of Ziard has come to represent Aaravos' Truth. His truth, his path, his staff, his version of freedom ("I helped humanity mature, so they could be free").

However — just as the previous form of the staff with a literally hidden by an illusion quasar diamond was its own form of deception, wielded by Ziard and Viren respectively — this version of the staff, of the truth is still not the complete truth. Aaravos loves Claudia but is using her and has lied to / manipulated her repeatedly. He took the corrupted light of the sun staff — the falsehood of necessity and dark magic — and transplanted it into his staff. Stapled it onto his Truth to sell to whoever would buy it.

With all this in mind, let's talk about

Callum

One of the 'weirdest' moments in the season, per Claudia's oddness in the succession line with the Staff of Ziard, comes down to Claudia finally stating its hers... and then she loses it an episode later, and doesn't even seem to care. She tosses it into the water and makes no show of trying to get it back at any point, even when both Runaan and Callum have to avert their eyes, and even when she's given the opportunity to attack Runaan and/or Callum in 7x09. She chooses the assassin, not the one with the staff—her staff.

Or is it, now?

One of the most important tenets about Callum's series' long arc with dark magic is the way it, and himself, is constantly dogged by both Viren and Claudia's actions. His ability to do dark magic or the circumstances he does it within are usually contingent on one or both of them. He does dark magic because Claudia creates the circumstances for it and steals her book and ingredients; he does dark magic in 5x08 because Finnegrin wants to know what spell Viren used to slay the Dragon King; he uses the snake slithering spell twice because Claudia showed him how; he holds onto the cursed coin even without knowing Aaravos is out in case he might need it, and uses Viren's spell against his own enemy.

He acquires the Staff of Ziard, corrupted sun primal and all, because Claudia leaves it for him on Purpose.

He takes the staff, which is literally now representative of Viren (the original and high mage), Claudia (the corrupted sun primal), and Aaravos onto his shoulders, narratively speaking.

There's also two main levels of symbolism in Callum's acquirement of the staff, and I'd like to go each of them.

The first is most obvious, with Callum taking Rayla's "reflection in the water" motif from arc 1 and utilizing it to great effect in S7, including but not limited to also conversing with another reflection of himself (dark!Callum) an episode prior.

This motif tracks his fear, determination to abstain, and then awareness and acceptance of what he's undertaking and committing to. The fact that it is also linked and shown through water, which is linked to the Ocean arcanum, which is linked to dark magic, is just the cherry on top tbh, and it makes me feel feral.

The other more complicated layer of symbolism is answering the ones we've already built upon. The staff represents the path of freedom. The path of truth. It represents Aaravos' truth. So what is Aaravos' truth, for Callum?

It's not the same one that Claudia acquires, as that one is about Leola, and Callum doesn't know about her (or Terry, or Ezran's nukes) when he picks up the staff. However, Aaravos' dialogue and 7x06 still makes it fairly plain:

CALLUM: I filled the darkness inside me with light. They said I'd be cleansed of dark magic forever. DARK!CALLUM: And you were. You didn't create me with dark magic, Callum. I have always been a part of you. (7x06)

AARAVOS: I have seen generations of humans and elves accept the dark that lurks in all of us beside the light. There is no black or white, only shades of grey. (7x04)

EZRAN: You know, you're very good at telling most of the truth. AARAVOS: Most? What truths have I left out? (7x07)

DARK!CALLUM: I get it, you hate me. But we know the truth, too. That only I can save them all.

AARAVOS: You call it corruption. I call it compromise. It is the nature of children to believe the world must be one way or another. With maturity, we learn that most of life is lived in the space in-between. I merely helped humanity mature, so they could be free.

DARK!CALUM: You were young before. Naive. But you can trust me now. Trust yourself. CALLUM: [...] There must be another way. Another way without you.

CALLUM: No, there's no one else. But there might be another way. (7x07)

AARAVOS: Imprisoned? By whom? Your brother? [Smiles] There is a great affinity between your brother and I. Callum sees the world as I do, understands the need for compromise. Very soon, your brother will embrace dark magic to save those he loves. I have seen it written in his eyes.

Despite having lost his true heart seasons prior (meta here), Callum still has 'growing up' to do as Aaravos would put it. Aaravos thinks that true maturity is acknowledging the need for compromise (corruption); to not think that there is only one way or another, but that ideas and paths can coexist. That you have to accept the truth of who you are, and all parts of yourself.

In 2x07, Callum turned to dark magic to save Rayla without full awareness of the consequences. In 5x08, he knew regardless of whether he did it again or not, he was still tainted, though the experience heavily rattled him. It made him aware that there were depths and parts of himself that he didn't currently understand. In season 6, he was adamant that he didn't have a choice of whether to do dark magic or not.

In season 7, all of that is brought to fruition. Callum accepts the dark that has always been inside him. He knows what he's throwing away, and he knows it's his life after having a clean slate. Rather than saying that Aaravos or anyone else has forced his hand, he acknowledges the opposite:

You'll be imprisoned forever. That's is the destiny I choose. The one I write for myself.

There are no more half truths. Callum stares into the depths of the water — Ocean arcanum — and sees his own corrupted reflection. Yet unlike before in 2x08, he doesn't rear back. Instead, he accepts what's being offered to him, and lifts the staff out of the water. These are the lengths he's willing to go to and in what manner, and they always have been. They always will be.

No choice? Ha! You made the same choice you always made. (5x02)

He will always do whatever needs to be done to save his loved ones, however dangerous, however vile. Even if that means he's corrupted and destroyed; even if that means Rayla no longer loves him, he'll do it so that she can live a long happy life. That is Aaravos' truth for him, and that's what Callum grows into and accepts in S7.

And, in Aaravos' eyes, perhaps by having Callum embrace this Truth, he has set him free. The path of 'freedom' is the path of truth, with Callum's destiny motif being equally compounded in choosing his destiny here being synonymous with choosing dark magic, even though the two were previously primarily opposite.

But just like with Claudia, there's falsehoods in Aaravos' Truth that Callum embraces. Callum's turn towards dark magic wasn't actually necessary, as the Archdragons are able to temporarily defeat Aaravos. Rayla does not forsake or hate him, but continues to love him unconditionally. While Callum was posed to follow Ziard and Virne's paths — sacrificing yourself to save people — this ultimately doesn't come to fruition.

Additionally, the previous occupational implication of the staff being passed down between High Mages has been mucked since Claudia took it. As noted, she was never High Mage, Viren's last usage happens when he hasn't been High Mage for years, Kpp'Ar likewise held onto it post his resignation, and Callum's happens after he resigns from the role as well.

It's unclear if Callum will resume being high mage post season (I personally lean towards no, but who knows?) but it does seem like he will hold onto the staff for similar reasons he hung onto the cursed coin, and the cube, and why Viren didn't destroy the egg in the first place.

DARK!CALLUM: If you're so sure, why did you save it? You're wondering if you might need that cursed coin after all. That if all else fails, you might need me after all. (7x06)

TIADRIN: Why would you destroy it? It could be a powerful weapon. (3x08)

It also means that when we swing back around to the deep lore of the staff — why Kpp'Ar believed it could never be used again; more history on the Mage Wars; what can, if anything, destroy the staff; and its roots in dark magic and Elarion, the latter of which the Key of Aaravos is also definitively connected to — it will all be tethered to Callum's arc as well.

Outside of Kpp'Ar (and even then, he might've) every mage who's taken possession of the Staff of Ziard has fallen into Aaravos' clutches, helped him, and/or carried out his plans.

Here's looking to you, Callum.

Conclusion

Other considerations to takeaway from the Staff and its uses in the show are as follows:

The staff streamlines dark magic's tendency to consume. Even without a quasar diamond, it can drag someone's soul out of their body and put them in a coin or another container, suck in someone's breath, etc. as a conduit.

Spells using the staff that pertain to soul magic seem to default to giving a corrupted face, ie. Viren coining Kpp'Ar, Claudia's blood of child ritual, and what would've happened to Callum had he finished the coin spell

The Archdragons did not know at first that Aaravos was involved with the staff, but found out pre-present day (presumably as a piece of his treachery). This likely also indicated and/or confirmed his involvement with dark magic to them.

It is unknown if the other Starscraper staffs have similar or different properties. We do know they have different coloured gemstones.

It is unknown who forged the staffs and for what purpose. Given that the Nova Blade was forged from a dragon tooth, perhaps the Staff has a similar history. I am willing to bet that rather than humans, First / Startouch elves were more involved, however.

The staff works as a source and amplifier for dark magic spells. It has seemingly never done a deep magic spell on its own that didn't also require or induce dark magic, meaning that dark magic must be innate to it. Whether the staff was made with this in mind, Aaravos modified it to operate this way, or drew on it in developing dark magic outside of using the staff is unknown.

Other misc thoughts:

As of the end of S7, it seems that Aaravos will rely on Callum, not Claudia, as his primary pawn going forward.

When forced to choose between the Sun staff or the relic staff, Aaravos chooses the latter (7x01) and outfits it with the corrupted primal. This is presumably because he wanted Callum to have both.

Callum now carries the Staff of Ziard and its corrupted light and all its implications. The staff that Aaravos makes for himself in 7x09 is subsequently similar in holding a corrupted sun primal in it, just on a much larger scale.

While the line of succession we see in canon hasn't been as directly violent it seems, as in the Mage Wars, the staff has routinely passed hands through violence. Viren betrayed/imprisoned Kpp'Ar; Ibis, another mage, died trying to keep Claudia from taking it; Claudia took the staff from his corpse; and Callum took it after battling Claudia. I think it's unlikely this pattern will break sooner rather than later.

There is very clearly something that Aaravos still needs and wants the staff of Ziard for, though only time will tell its true, ultimate endgame role.

And that's about it, see you in the next one!

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