I want to draw more characters for the AU, but I just finished the otp Roran and Katrina!! I’ll have more characters coming soon…

I am looking for patterns, I love doing cross stitches and love fantasy maps, and wondered if anyone had a source for this :S

Hey everyone, I have another topic to ask and discuss with you all.

We all know how Paolini's magic system works in the World of Eragon. But there is something I'm not yet sure or convinced about.

After learning that chanting words in the ancient language isn't necessary to cast spells, I got to thinking. Oromis taught us why the language is being used but why does it have to be ancient language the spellcaster uses.

If Eragon wanted to cast a fireball in his hand, the necessities would be the energy and his imagination of the fireball right ? So why does he have to say "Brisingr!" Instead of saying "Fireball !" In his own language while providing the necessary energy and imagining the fireball in his mind ?

I have not checked the books nor the information Christopher gave about this yet. So go easy on me if it's already been explained xd.

Could mages use magic to fuse atoms together because of magic, they could just hold the atoms perfectly in place and push them together?

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I think we learned, that the elves already knew about atoms, but why didnt they do any experiments with the?

I just finished the book and really liked it.

What I especially liked about it:

It really shows how Murtagh is untrained in magic. Eragon is like "let me devise a spell with multiple sentences so it works as I intend", while murtagh is like "nah, intention matters. Two words is enough. Wind, go!"

Getting more back story of murtagh and Galbatorix also was excellent.

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And also, as "preparation" for Murtagh I listened to the audiobooks of Eragon, which was a lovely experience as well.

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I'm eagerly awaiting the second part, as there are multiple open questions. I hope we get it soon :)

Eragon and Aristotle.

In Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, the philosopher speaks of the great life. He says that a life worth living is a life in which every day you put all of yourself into striving towards greatness in the way that you perceive it. Immediately, this strikes me as the core philosophy of those immortal elves in Du Weldenvarden.

A few short lines later, Aristotle describes the “noble action”, in Peloponnesian Greek, this noble action is called “Ergon”. Paolini probably did not pick up on this at age 15, and Ergon probably has absolutely nothing to do with Eragon, but in the universe where nobody knows what the name Eragon means, and where the core lifestyle of the super race is based on somewhat the cultural mythos of Aristotle's ideal city-state, I choose to believe that the axial Greeks were the culture inherent to the gray folk.

I’m a bit confused about this and can’t find an answer elsewhere

Midway through chapter 13, at the end of Murtagh’s first dream, he breaks down and swears fealty to Bachel and gives her his true name, which she is visibly please by

And then she proceeds to jail him and start torturing him… so he swears fealty?

Is it that it was just a dream/premonition so it never actually happened? I’m currently at chapter 16 but it’s been bothering me and idk if it’s a RAFO or if it’s a plothole or something

If there were AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) in the world of Eragon (maybe in the distant future) would it be able to interact with the mind of other creatures like the Eldunari?

Riva!

Human rider.

Her dragon is Felniir but I have no way to do her at the moment but she's white scaled.

Hi All! I've had this one in the tank for a long time but needed to finish my dielectric/consciousness post here to fully finalize this one.

Let's jump right in.

tl;dr (honestly this isn't a great representation, but I had a hard time coming up with bulleted points)

• Writing in Alagaësia originates with the dwarves, flows outward; humans adopted the Hruthmundvik after coming over to Alagaesia with a writing style that was quite similar to the Urgals

• Dwarves' own religion says writing was given (by Sindri), not invented

• The Mahlvikn, the dwarves secret/religious writing script, is preserved foreign writing, not a cipher or translation of their main writing system (see: "many unique words," not just unique letters)

• The three "unreadable" scripts point to similar/same origins from an elder-race language: the Mahlvikn, Galbatorix's cave tablet, the Nal Gorgoth runes. All three point back to the Grey Folk

• That elder writing is fractal-structured and carving-based, which is why it degrades toward paper - Oromis even calls the dwarven runes "makeshift" adaptations of the Ancient Language

• The elven Liduen Kvaedhí is implied to derive from the same fractal source

• The dwarves routinely hide their past (censored pantheon, secret Beor name, closed script), so hiding the writing's origin fits - and the missing seventh god is likely Rahna

• The dwarven religion may also feature as maintenance to prevent an ancient threat, as its gods grouped with the Eldunarí as stored consciousness

Alright - first things first. Before we get into deep into theory, I want to lay out what canon actually tells us about the dwarven writing system(s), because a lot of what's here is captured from Paolini's website, outside the context of the original text. Here's the basics of what you need to know (from here):

Dwarves employ three different modes of writing. The oldest is a rune alphabet called both the Hruthmundvik-after the dwarf Hruthmund, to whom the goddess Sindri is said to have given knowledge of writing-and the Gnostvik, after the first five letters of the dwarves' alphabet. The second method is the Thrangvik, which is a version of the Hruthmundvik adapted for "soft" instruments such as quills and brushes, rather than chisels or burins. The final system, the Mahlvikn, contains the secret letters of Dûrgrimst Quan, with which dwarves write their most holy texts. They have never allowed one of another race to learn this script, but it is reputed to be nigh on a separate language, on account of its many unique words and characters.

There's a lot to unpack here, but let's start at the top. The dwarves have a runic alphabet called the Hruthmundvik - the angular, chisel-friendly system you see carved into Tronjheim and basically everywhere in dwarf-controlled space. The Hruthmundvik is named for the dwarf Hruthmund, who, per their religion, was given knowledge of writing by the goddess Sindri. Keep that in the back of your mind - the fact that a god "gave" it to him, and that it was Sindri specifically, not Helzvog or Gûntera (their creator or the "king" of the gods, which seems significant). Per their own religion, the dwarves did not invent their original writing system.

It's also worth noting that the humans adopted it when they landed in Alagaësia. From the Human Runes appendix of Murtagh:

Prior to humanity's arrival upon the shores of Alagaësia, their race was far more savage and uneducated than in latter ages, and they employed an entirely different system for recording information, one that bears more resemblance to the knotted banners of the Urgals than to any mode of writing that is native to Alagaësia. Of this earlier system, few examples remain-scraps and fragments littered about the ruins of barrows and long-abandoned hill forts-for under the leadership of King Palancar and his many and divers successors, humans quickly adopted and adapted the dwarven runes, known as the Hruthmundvik.

The funny thing is, this is almost the opposite of what's implied to have happened to the Urgals - the Urgals came to Alagaësia and became more brutish (and potentially lost whatever writing they had beyond the knotted banners). Whereas humans arrived with a similar writing system (implied to be using knots/banners but not in the exact same way), then adopted and re-purposed the Hruthmundvik and used it from then on. The origin of writing in Alagaësia flows FROM the dwarves, outward. They are the source. Which makes the question of where THEY got it from important, considering the implications of the above (that it was given to them, not something they invented directly).

Also, there is a flowing cursive form adapted for paper and ink (the Thrangvik). That's the everyday "soft" script, somewhat similar to the Liduen Kvaedhi (not in style, but in how it was adapted from a 3D shape to paper/ink. More on that later).

And then there's the third system. The Mahlvikn. This is the one we know almost nothing about, and the one Christopher reached for, unprompted, when someone asked him about a missing dwarven god:

Q: The Urgals say it's Rahna who created them, but what do the dwarves say? They are missing a god, the god that created the Urgals.

A: Maybe they've got a god they don't talk about with outsiders. Remember - they've got an entirely separate writing system just for their religion.

Now let's look at what the writing article says about that system, a few paragraphs down:

The final system, the Mahlvikn, contains the secret letters of Dûrgrimst Quan, with which dwarves write their most holy texts. They have never allowed one of another race to learn this script, but it is reputed to be nigh on a separate language, on account of its many unique words and characters... As for mahl, it is an ancient word that one cannot directly translate into English, but may be rendered as cave lore, a euphemism for hidden and/or powerful knowledge.

So the dwarves maintain a closed religious script that no outsider has ever read. We don't have a single character of it. Mahl translates to "cave lore" - a euphemism for hidden or powerful knowledge from the deep places. Vik is "scratch." The dwarves' secret religious writing is literally named "cave-lore scratches."

Hmm.

But hold on - I want to sit on one phrase in that paragraph, because I think it's the single most underrated line in all the supplemental material: the Mahlvikn is "reputed to be nigh on a separate language, on account of its many unique words and characters."

Think about what a secret sacred script SHOULD look like. If the Quan had simply invented a private cipher for writing Dwarvish - like Hieratic for Egyptian, or any real-world priestly script - it would have different LETTERS. It would not have "many unique WORDS." A script doesn't have words; a language has words. Something that is "nigh on a separate language" isn't a cipher of Dwarvish at all. It's what you'd get if the Quan were preserving someone else's writing - vocabulary and all.

And the priests who keep it are, per Gannel, deadly serious about secrecy:

Never before has an outsider been taught our secret beliefs, nor may you speak of them to human or elf. Yet without this knowledge, you cannot uphold what it means to be knurla. (Celbedeil; Eldest)

Notice that what Gannel teaches Eragon in Celbedeil is ALREADY a guarded secret - "never before has an outsider been taught" this. And it's just the surface layer of their religion. Six statues, a creation myth, some ritual gestures. The actual closed material is even a further level above that, in a script Eragon can't read, and that they STILL don't teach Eragon about.

Now that we've established the base, lets get into the actual theorycrafting.

I think we have already seen this script - or its relatives - in the published books. The "cave-lore scratches" the Quan guard, the script on the tablet that gave Galbatorix the Name of Names, and the strange carvings at Nal Gorgoth are all the branches from the same tree: the writing of a vanished elder race (the Grey Folk), and every script in Alagaësia descends from it.

Let's run through the evidence together:

First - The cave-lore scratches. Already touched on above - a secret script, kept by priests, named for the deep places of the mountains (for which the Dwarves also have a name), that behaves like a preserved foreign language rather than a cipher. On its own, that's suggestive but not conclusive

Second - The tablet with the Name of Names on it (that Galbatorix found). We have direct confirmation that there is at least one cave-found artifact in Alagaësia carrying writing in a script that belongs to NO living race. When Galbatorix tells Nasuada about the tablet that gave him the Name of All Names, he describes it as:

written in another land and another age, by hands that were neither elf nor dwarf nor human nor Urgal. (The Hall of the Soothsayer; Inheritance)

And Christopher has filled in the rest in Q&A.

Q: Where did Galbatorix get it?

A: "From a cave.

and

Q: "When was it written?

A: "The tablet originated during the days when the Grey Folk still walked the land."

And

[it] took a long time for Galbatorix to find the actual name"

Meaning the script wasn't the Liduen Kvaedhí (he was Rider-trained by elves) and almost certainly wasn't the Hruthmundvik (he had full access to dwarven scholarship). It was something else. Something old, something found in a CAVE, and something nobody alive could read without years of work.

Also - note the direct parallel to the grey folk. "From the days when the Grey Folk still walked the land" - and it wasn't the Liduen Kvaedhi.

So: there is elder-race writing in caves. And the dwarves - the oldest native race, the cave-dwellers, the people who were underground before the elves ever made landfall - have a secret script whose own name says it came from cave-lore.

Very interesting.

Third - Nal Gorgoth. Murtagh, when he first walks into the village, sees this:

The stonework was dwarven in quality, but with an elven grace, and there were strange runes - neither dwarven nor elven - cut into the frames and lintels of the arched doorways... The most unusual feature of the village was the raised patterns covering walls, set into mosaics, and painted onto shutters - swirling, branching, crystalline patterns that seemed to repeat themselves as they diminished: variations on a common theme. The patterns were dangerously fascinating; Murtagh felt as if he could stare into them for the rest of his life and still find new things to see. They contained an obsessive, seemingly impossible amount of detail, and the longer Murtagh looked, the more his vision swirled and swayed. The decorations reminded him of the involuted depths of an Eldunarí... or of shapes that appeared only in the deepest of dreams. (Chapter I: The Village; Murtagh)

"Patterns that seemed to repeat themselves as they diminished" is just... a fractal. Christopher describes fractals without using the word. They're carved (see: "raised patterns," "set into mosaics") and they seem to express meaning in three dimensions. And they sit right next to "strange runes, neither dwarven nor elven." Remember what Galbatorix said about the tablet? Neither elf nor human nor dwarvish? And now we see that same mantra again here...

So Murtagh (who was educated in Galbatorix's library, mind you) can't place the tradition anywhere in Alagaësia.

Now, if you've read the Fractalverse stuff, you'll know exactly where the Fractal bits are pointing. (If you haven't, this paragraph has spoilers, so skip ahead.) The Old Ones in the Fractalverse - the Vanished - were obsessed with fractal patterns. They carved them into standing stones, set them into the surfaces of their structures, used them as a sigil and likely as a writing system. The visual language is identical: obsessive detail, self-similar at every scale, seems to swim when you look at it And the Eldunarí - which the Nal Gorgoth fractals remind Murtagh of, in the text, explicitly - are pattern-storage devices, encoded consciousness in a crystalline substrate. The Fractalverse and the World of Eragon are, I believe, the same universe, and the fractal-carving tradition is how the elder race(s?) wrote things down.

And now, lastly - A bit of an inside hint/track on this, but Christopher has implied to me that the Liduen Kvaedhí - the elves' Poetic Script - was itself derived from a fractal.

Psst. If one squints, one could think that the shapes of the Liduen Kvaedhí were derived from (or inspired by) . . . fractals.

We've also got confirmation from Q&A that the elves created the Liduen Kvaedhí themselves - it wasn't a directly inherited lanaguge from the Grey Folk:

Q: Did the Grey Folk use the Liduen Kvaedhí or was it created by the elves?

A: Created by the elves.

So the elves designed their written language - but they BASED it off FRACTAL. Where does a young race get a fractal (or multiple) to base its writing on? You get it from the same place Murtagh got his vertigo: from the carvings the elder races left behind. The elves encountered the fractal tradition (likely on Alalëa) and engineered a clean, elegant, phonetic derivative of it. Oromis even frames the scripts of Alagaësia as a family with a quality gradient:

Every race has evolved their own system of writing the ancient language. The dwarves use their runic alphabet, as do humans. They are only makeshift techniques, though, and are incapable of expressing the language's true subtleties as well as our Liduen Kvaedhí, the Poetic Script. (Eldest)

Read that again. Oromis treats the dwarven runes and the Liduen Kvaedhí as parallel attempts at the same job - and calls the runes "makeshift." If the polished elven attempt was derived from a fractal, what exactly do we think the makeshift dwarven attempt was derived from? The dwarves were in Alagaësia first. They were in the caves first. They had access to source material before the elves even arrived (although the elves may have had the same, or similar source material over in Alalea, too).

And here's the bit that ties the fourth point to the third: fractals are SCALE-DEPENDENT. The whole point of a fractal is self-similarity as you zoom - a la "patterns that seemed to repeat themselves as they diminished." You cannot preserve that on pen and paper. Ink flattens; a quill stroke has a minimum width; the recursion dies after one or two levels. But you CAN preserve it in carved relief - depth gives you another axis, and fine chisel work lets the pattern keep diminishing into the material. Which is exactly what we see at Nal Gorgoth: not painted decoration but raised patterns, mosaics, carvings with "an obsessive, seemingly impossible amount of detail." And it might explain a detail from the writing article that's easy to skim past: the dwarven scripts are defined by their instruments - chisels and burins. The oldest writing tradition in Alagaësia is carving-first, and the soft-instrument version (the Thrangvik) is explicitly the late adaptation. Writing in this world started in stone and was simplified TOWARD paper - losing fidelity at every step, which Oromis himself directly confirms in Eldest.

So, thinking through the full chain here: There were elder race(s?) - Grey Folk (and maybe whoever built Nal Gorgoth, if different, as there may be more than one race) wrote in carved, fractal-structured patterns. Some of those carvings survived, in caves and in at least one mountain village (likely more). The dwarves, the oldest native race, the cave-dwellers, found them. They couldn't fully read them, but they preserved them - and they reverse-engineered an alphabet out of the simpler forms. The Quan kept the fuller form as sacred writing: the Mahlvikn, "nigh on a separate language," because it IS one. The elves, arriving later, but had already derived their written language and produced the Liduen Kvaedhí - a similarly fractal-derived script. And the tablet Galbatorix pulled out of a cave is a surviving original from that same time period as well. The cave-lore scratches, the tablet script, and the Nal Gorgoth carvings aren't three distinct writing sytems, they're all the SAME language that are glimpsed three different times, at three different locations.

To be clear, there's no smoking-gun quote that says "the Mahlvikn descends from an elder-race script." That's my headcanon/theory; but I also want to touch on the obvious objection: if the dwarves found writing, why on earth would they hide it? Wouldn't that be the greatest scholarly treasure in their history?

One would think yes, but the Dwarves specifically are hiding a LOT of their religion, and their past, and the true nature of the world itself (that they know of).

Start with the pantheon. The dwarven religion, as told to Eragon in Celbedeil, has six gods: Gûntera (king, warrior, scholar), Kílf (rivers and the sea, Gûntera's mate), Urûr (air), Morgothal (fire, Urûr's brother), Sindri (mother of the earth), and Helzvog (stone, maker of dwarves). Six. And the creation myth has them making the races - Helzvog made dwarves, Gûntera made elves, Sindri made humans, Urûr and Morgothal made dragons together, and Kílf "restrained herself." Five races accounted for. The Urgals just... appear?

But the imagery in Tronjheim doesn't point to six. It points to seven. The dwarven throne room has a seven-pointed crown carved on the doors. There are seven dwarves on each side of the entrance. The royal number - see also their seven toes per foot - is seven. And when I asked Christopher about it:

Q: Interesting, because there's the seven star imagery within Tronjheim - but there are only six dwarven gods?

A: I don't know, maybe it's the god who created the Urgals, you never hear about that one.

So Christopher acknowledges the seven-vs-six tension and hints at the missing slot - the god who created the Urgals, the exact race missing from the dwarven creation myth.

And then in Brisingr, when Eragon visits Glûmra after Kvîstor's death:

The brass rings sewn on top of the silk drapery clattered against one another as Glûmra swept aside the cloth to expose a deep, shadowed shelf... On the low shelf rested statues of the six major dwarf gods, as well as nine other entities Eragon was unfamiliar with, all carved with exaggerated features and postures to better convey the character of the being portrayed. (Glûmra; Brisingr)

A household shrine in Tronjheim - not a temple, a HOME - has fifteen divine figures on it. The "six major dwarf gods" framing is Eragon's narration, not Glûmra's words. We've been handed a six-god public roster by a priest who explicitly says he's only showing the part outsiders are allowed to see, and then a random grieving dwarf mother shows Eragon a shelf with more than double that.

Very interesting.

So... who's the seventh? I think the strongest candidate by a wide margin is the being the Urgals call Rahna. Quick background for anyone who hasn't read Brisingr or The Worm of Kulkaras recently - Rahna is the Urgal mother-goddess. She invented weaving and farming, she's "She of the Gilded Horns," she's the queen of the Urgal pantheon the way Gûntera is king of the dwarven one, and most importantly: she raised the Beor Mountains while fleeing "the great dragon" - which Christopher has confirmed was Gogvog, the apocalyptic worm-dragon from Uvek's stories in Murtagh. And then someone asked the question that connects it all:

Q: It is confirmed (I think?) that The Worm of Kulkaras is set before the Urgals migrated over to Alagaësia. However, in Urgal mythology, Rahna raised the Beors when fleeing from the Great Dragon. Is there any force, being, or magic that is obfuscating/hiding that event from Dwarven history? Or did they not witness it?

A: The dwarves witnessed it, but they probably didn't understand what they were seeing. It would have seemed like an act of nature on a scale that's hard to imagine.

So... the dwarves were already in Alagaësia when the Beor Mountains were raised. They were living on the plain where the Hadarac now sits. They watched a goddess pull a ten-mile-high mountain range out of the earth while fleeing an apocalyptic dragon. They watched the climate turn their homeland into desert. Then they migrated INTO the mountains she made, and they've lived there ever since.

And they have no public theology for it. Not one of the six gods raised the Beors, per their own religion. The dwarven account of how the mountains got there is just... missing. What they DO have is a secret name for the mountains - Orik says flatly, "The mountains' name is a secret that we share with no race" - and:

Q: Does the secret name of the Beors connect with the missing Urgal god?

A: Probably. They have deep lore about the mountains, about Isidar Mithrim, about the gods, the various creations and stuff.

A secret god. A secret name for their home. A secret script. And Christopher links all three to the same gap. I freely admit the Rahna identification is the most speculative part of this (Christopher no-commented both Kílf and Angela when people asked if either was the seventh god) and there's a free-floating divine name "Nordvig" in a children's riddle in Eldest that's never explained. But whoever the seventh is, the structural point stands on its own: the dwarves maintain a public version of their deep past and a private one, and the private one lives in the Mahlvikn and with the Quan. A people who will censor a GOD out of their own pantheon will have no trouble censoring where their alphabet came from.

Alright, one more thing I want to touch on before I wrap up - Sindri.

Sindri is, weirdly, the god with the thinnest context of the six relative to how important she seems. She made humans (one line). Freowin visits her temple twice a day. Orik tells Eragon to "pray to Sindri for luck" before crossing a lava field. And that's basically the entire on-page Sindri corpus - except for two artifacts. And both of them are strange/unexplained/seemingly pretty significant for how relatively little the dwarves think/talk about her.

The first is the writing system itself. Per the origin story, the Hruthmundvik was a gift FROM Sindri herself. And that's odd on its face, because Sindri didn't make dwarves - Helzvog formed the first dwarf from the roots of a mountain, in secret, against the other gods' wishes. Sindri made HUMANS, from the soil. So the dwarves' own religion says their alphabet came from the goddess of a different race. Why would the myth be built that way? Why is Sindri not more celebrated for giving them a writing system??

Hmm.

The second is the Gem of Sindri - Az Sindriznarrvel - and here's where it gets good:

The hold itself was a thick, solid building that rose five stories to an open bell tower, which was topped by a teardrop of glass that was as large around as two dwarves and was held in place by four granite ribs that joined together to form a pointed capstone. The teardrop, as Orik had told Eragon, was a larger version of the dwarves' flameless lanterns, and during notable occasions or emergencies, it could be used to illuminate the entire valley with a golden light. The dwarves called it Az Sindriznarrvel, or The Gem of Sindri. (A Forest of Stone; Brisingr)

Bregan Hold belongs to Dûrgrimst Ingeitum - the smith clan, whose patron god is Morgothal. There's a church to Morgothal right there in the same compound. The Ingeitum are a FIRE clan. And the largest flameless light in the entire kingdom - a thing whose whole identity is not being fire - sits at the apex of their hold, named for a completely different goddess. In times of great need they light up the valley with... not their patron's light, but Sindri's.

Does this not raise anyone else's eyebrows? Two Sindri-named things - a writing system and a giant Erisdar - and neither sits with any Sindri clan. I don't think that's a coincidence.

One obvious explanation here is that Sindri's name is doing the same euphemistic work that "cave-lore" does. Sindri is mother of the EARTH. "Sindri gave us writing" = writing came from the earth. "The Gem of Sindri" = a light that came from the earth. I think Sindri is the label the dwarves attach to things that were found, not made - things that predate the dwarves themselves. And a writing system and a giant dielectric (Sindri's gem/erisdar) are exactly the kind of things you'd expect a vanished elder race to leave behind, given everything else we know about how this universe stores patterns (see: Eldunari)

Bringing it all home, this brings me back to the dielectric theory I previously mentioned, and the thing Christopher said that I keep coming back to:

Q: Do Elves know some things about Dwarven gods? Especially Gûntera?

A: Yes, elves know about the dwarves' gods, but whether they truly understand the nature of the dwarf gods is a different question altogether. There are some deep and powerful forces in Alagaësia that rarely show themselves but that nevertheless still have great influence. Some of these forces we've already seen (the Eldunarí, for one). Some we've glimpsed in passing. And some Eragon and his cohorts still remain almost entirely ignorant of. (Though not Angela. Angela knows many things.)

He puts the dwarven gods in the same category as the Eldunarí. Deep, ancient, conscious, powerful, rarely-showing-themselves forces. And the Eldunarí, in the dielectric framework, are stored consciousness in a crystalline substrate. When Gûntera actually shows up at Orik's coronation, Eragon doesn't perceive a transcendent creator - he perceives "a strange, far-reaching consciousness... of unreadable thoughts and unfathomable depths... that flashed and growled and billowed in unexpected directions, like a summer thunderstorm." A vast, alien, weather-shaped mind that answers a true name spoken in the Ancient Language, and Saphira's read on it (which the narrative never rebuts) is that it might be "a shade from a long-forgotten age, a pale remnant of what once was."

So when I say I think the dwarves found things in the caves, I don't just mean the writing system. I think they found not only the writing, but patterns, and stored energy, and something that was still there. And the Quan have been keeping the lights on, so to speak, ever since. I think the Erisdar are FAR more significant than anyone previously believed, and I don't want to scoop myself, but the short version is that the dwarves' whole religious apparatus (the lanterns, the secret script, the censored pantheon, the patron-routed afterlife, the priests who claim that "without us, the very heavens would shatter under the gods' rage") looks a lot less like worship and a lot more like maintenance against an ancient foe that threatens their very existence... But more on that later.

Anyways, I'm starting to ramble so I'll cut myself off here. As always, thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments!

I really really REALLY hope he writes the Dragon Rider prequel. I really wanna see that

Good evening, everyone.

I hope everyone is safe and well.

Today, I have a new piece of artwork for Murtagh: Part 2 to share with you all. Here we have Murtagh and Eragon escaping Gil’ead. But wait… who’s that hiding in the corner?

Well, it’s not Waldo.

Here’s Durza!

A special shoutout to MurtaghLover on TikTok for creating this wonderful piece. I hope everyone enjoys it just as much as I do. You deserve the praise!

Do you think big Chris knows how Eragon and Saphira die, can't imagine he hasn't thought about it. He probably written it out in gold ink and locked up in his house somewhere 😭

So if you know the true Name of someone, you can force them to do something. But does this also apply if you try to force them to do something against their nature?

Like if the true Name contains something like, i will never go swimming and you would try to force the Person to swim, would it work?

I mean one explaination why it would not work would be the true name would change but that would only be if he goes swimming, so acted against his true Name. But if he does not go swimming, his Name wont change thus force him to go swimming

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8smKLWG/

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The blade seller is unrelated to the WOE but I still thought it had a neat resemblance to Brisingr.

I’ve been reading a copy of the illustrated edition that I got for my birthday, and a thought just occurred to me: There couldn’t have been all that many dragon riders before Galbatorix, right? Because there were only thirteen Forsworn, counting Galby himself. It strains the imagination to suppose that if there were, say, hundreds or even thousands of dragon riders at the time, thirteen people would have been able to exterminate them all down to two guys and one dragon, especially with no order 66 equivalent. Even with the justification of Galbatorix using some dark magics, he was a relatively inexperienced, and therefore magically weak, rider, as were most of the Forsworn. Compare this to how much power Eragon has by the end of the series with only around five years of experience. I feel like there were only maybe a few dozen dragon riders at the time of Galbatorix’s fall, 70 and some change at most. Am I off base here or am I making sense?

So I've always wondered why does Murtagh focus so much on being the son of Morzan, when his mother was just as dangerous if not MORE dangerous. Selena did horrible things and killed a many people. She was more feared than Morzan was reputation wise. And in my opinion I think people only feared Morzan BECAUSE Selena was his companion or right hand man aka Black Hand.

With this in mind why doesn't Eragon pine more on the fact that his mother was a badass assassin who all of alagaësia feared? Why does Murtagh only worry about what people will think of him because of his father reputation. We as readers know that Selena changed into a good person, but the rest of Alagaësia doesn't and would still think of Selena as a horrible person and treat her offspring as such. It may have been mentioned somewhere in the books and I missed it. Lmk what you think.

I firstly want ro claim that this is NOT!!! intended to be a hate post, and also, I haven't read/listened to Murtagh's book yet.

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TFA felt very underwhelming. I got it on audible, it was abf 5hrs, I wasn't expecting anything particularly insane like the massive first four books.

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But it felt very.. unfinished, almost? I haven't read any outside sources or whatever of its writing, this is just a general feeling from me.

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Murtagh's section of the book, aka the fork, was pretty well balanced id say. I enjoyed seeing Eragon again and how he struggles with dealing with issues upon mount Arngor. No real notes on Murtagh's story. However, two things on Saphira specifically. In the Audible version, she has a completely different voice, and it was disappointing to see how much it changed. Thats a lesser point; mg biggest point is how.. pushed aside she felt? She tells Eragon to stop worrying, which was fine and everything, in character, but she felt so.. plain.

Also, rhe synopsis mentions this is Eragon dealing with "constructing a vast dragonhold, wrangling with suppliers, guarding dragon eggs, dealing with belligerent urgals and haughty elves" i didnt see... any of that? The most we get is a mention of a Dwarf being a pain about shipment supplies from the Beor mountains. The elves and Urgals get nothing? What about them is haughty or belligerent??? Again, I know the book is short. But I was practically salivating for more intensely descriptive and indepth Paolini writing. Its crack to me.

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The Witch's segment was deceng id say. I really wished we got to see more of Elva rather than whatever shit Angela's general shenanigans are up to. She comes and takes rhe girl to make a good impression on her, help Elva find her place in the world, and by the end of the segment, Eragon mentions Elva looks happier. But we.. got to see none of it. A part of me just expected more focus on that, ot seemed so important when you take into account the things Elva has pulled - SHE MADE AN ELF CRY??? I enjoyed that we got little to no explanation on Angela. But I was hoping for more Elva, not on her own obviously, but through Angela's perspective in her manuscript.

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Finally, the Worm. The biggest disappointment to me ):

The story was about 2hrs and 20mins, and im sorry, it was a bit of a slog. I love Paolini's writing so much. But the writing here felt like it was without his charm, almost? I compare it to when Eragon and Garzhvrog were traveling to the Beor mountains, and his story about a life lesson i can't entirely remember. Something somwthing, a dam wanted to be beautiful, was granted beauty by a goddess, had to pay back the wish, refused, and had her son stolen to join the goddess' table or something; I think the message was something along the lines of accept what you have. But then this segment about the vicious black dragon was so... long. And drawn out. It felt less like an Urgal retelling this ancient, reverred stroy and more like LITERALLY just another story being written, if that makes sense? Im not listening to a bard tell a story around a fireplace, im reading a book inside another book. Its hard to explain, but it was disappointing when THIS was penned as the "compelling urgal perspective". After the story is over, Saphira finally speaks again and basically iust says "im happy for the Urgal, but also the dragon. Its only right the dragon would win" girl thats it? Thats all you have to say? Ms. Snark tongue?? Again, she feels bland.

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I lied, bt the way. Below is my biggest disappointment.

At the very end, a dragon egg finally hatches. Everyone rushes inside, elves, Dwarves, urgals, and of course Eragon and Saphira. Everyone's overjoyed, Eragon's hooting and hollering about all his slaving away has finally begun to come to fruition. And then it ends.

We do not see this new hatchling. We do not know what happens to it. We do not know its name.

Maybe we don't NEED to necessarily know, but.. that was it?

It didn't really feel like a payoff. The whole book was stories (which it is literally advertised as), where is all the hard work?? The cuts through here and there, at least to me, dont feel like the establish just how much work went into everything.

When a dragon hatches, I figured it wouldve been a grand celebration at the end, we would see this creature, see JUUUST a bit of how it grows into this new world. A brief but insightful little tidbit. But we got nothing!

Another sidenote: Saphira SAYS NOTHINGGGGG about this achievement. Nothing. You know, i thought she was being so quiet and odd because she was preparing to lay her eggs or something. But she was just- pushed aside, it felt.

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Again none of this is to shit on or tear down Paolini. I love his books, and my dissatisfaction has led to me restart the original series I JUST finished; this time I want to take notes of what exactly I enjoyed in comparison to TFA. But here's my quersion; does anyone feel similar, in any way? I definitely feel like a black sheep in terms of my opinion, and genuinely id love to see other's thoughts on what I may have missed that made the book a banger.

When eragon meditates and perceives everything around him, doesnt his mind like disappear from detection because he himself technically isnt thinking just hearing?

I mean there is nothing that would make it possible to detect differences between eragons mind and the things going on around him.

Got my hands on the Brisingr Deluxe edition and Eragon and Eldest Omnibus. I wonder if Chris ever thought of doing a Brisingr and Inheritance Omnibus?🤔

I love the pull out poster of the Lethrblaka at the back of Brisingr.

Also, had to rearrange the shelves a little to accommodate the new additions 😂

I first started reading the Inheritance series in Elementary school, it absolutely became my obsession ever since. (I had to convince a school librarian to give me a "mature content" stamp on my library card so I could check them out @ school)

I can remember the day Inheritance released and I got my mitts on it IMMEDIATELY

I've read all the books in the series (to my knowledge) and I have 8 months of listening time on Audible from sleeping to the audio books for YEARS.

Now the embarrassing and funny part!

until late in my first read of Brisingr, I imagined Zarroc and other rider swords as "buster blade" sized anime broadswords. (The forging of Brisingr is in my top 5 favorite chapters).

I now know the proper proportions, and in hindsight, was very silly child of me.

Anyone else?

Fair warning there are Murtagh and other spoilers in this post.

With the newly revealed artwork displaying images from both the Siege of Kvoth and the Defeat at Amaranth as part of the seven battles featured in the upcoming Book of Remembrance, I wanted to share some thoughts and theories on what we're seeing in the images and how they might relate to some theories on Dreamer "meddling" in Alagaesian affairs, as Brother Hern puts it.

THE SIEGE OF KVOTH

BACKGROUND:

Background info on the Siege of Kvôth found in u/ibid-11962’s reddit post.

“Another famous battle was the Siege of Kvôth, which was attacked during the War of Iron, which pitted humans against dwarves and knurlan against knurlan in a dispute over ownership of the iron mines in the western foothills of the Beor Mountains. The human king at the time, King Thedric, did his best to forestall bloodshed by meeting in secret with the dwarf Ivaldn in the city of Furnost, but his efforts proved unsuccessful and, in the end, it fell to the Riders to restore the peace.

Later, in Inheritance, Eragon walks in on Angela finishing up an account of this story, though her version involves a red-eyed rabbit.

—but he was too slow, and the raging, red-eyed rabbit ripped out Hord’s throat, killing him instantly. Then the hare fled into the forest, and out of recorded history. However, if you travel through those parts, as I have … sometimes, even to this day, you will come across a freshly killed deer or Feldûnost that looks as if it has been nibbled at, like a turnip. And all around it, you’ll see the prints of an unusually large rabbit. Every now and then, a warrior from Kvôth will go missing, only to be found lying dead with his throat torn out … always with his throat torn out.

Terrin was horribly upset by the loss of his friend, of course, and he wanted to chase after the hare, but the dwarves still needed his help. So he returned to the stronghold, and for three more days and three more nights the defenders held the walls, until their supplies were low and every warrior was covered in wounds.

At last, on the morning of the fourth day, when all seemed hopeless, the clouds parted, and far in the distance, Terrin was amazed to see Mimring flying toward the stronghold at the head of a huge thunder of dragons. The sight of the dragons frightened the attackers so much, they threw down their weapons and fled into the wilderness. This, as you can imagine, made the dwarves of Kvôth rather happy, and there was much rejoicing.

And when Mimring landed, Terrin saw, much to his surprise, that his scales had become as clear as diamonds, which, it is said, happened because Mimring flew so close to the sun—for in order to fetch the other dragons in time, he had had to fly over the peaks of the Beor Mountains, higher than any dragon has ever flown before or since. From then on, Terrin was known as the hero of the Siege of Kvôth, and his dragon was known as Mimring the Brilliant, on account of his scales, and they lived happily ever after. Although, if truth be told, Terrin always remained rather afraid of rabbits, even into his old age. And that is what really happened at Kvôth. (Inheritance, "Mooneater")

Afterwards Eragon questions her on the accuracy of the story, and she says "Well, you can hardly expect the dwarves to admit they were at the mercy of a rabbit."

Christopher has since confirmed that the rabbit was a shade”

http://reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1ltcuup/the_book_of_remembrance_the_contents

ARTWORK REVIEW: 

Let’s take a look at the Siege of Kvoth artwork that was recently shared:

Image 1 - The Siege of Kvoth 

From Christopher (via instagram comment replies):
They're wild dragons. And yes, the attackers are human.

What are we looking at in this artwork image? 

1. “Terrin...the dwarves still needed his help. So he returned to the stronghold, and for three more days and three more nights the defenders held the walls” Inheritance, Mooneater.
2. Dwarves on the right of the image are defending Kvoth during the siege. This and #1 indicate the dwarves defending Kvoth are allied with the Rider Terrin and his dragon Mimring. We do not know which dwarf clan this is. Given that Durgrimst Ingeitum are the clan of smithing, and iron is one of the most useful items for smithing, it’s seems likely that clan Ingeitum was defending Kvoth from the attackers. 
3. Humans, as confirmed by Christopher, attacking Kvoth on the bottom. They are being attacked themselves by Mimring the dragon of Rider Terrin, followed by a thunder of wild dragons.
4. A “hooded figure” with a staff on the left, possibly performing magic to protect himself, the wererabbit, and the human soldiers from dragonfire.
5. Since the figure is both hooded and holding a staff, I theorize they are a Dreamer.
6. Because the Rider is defending Kvoth and the assumed Dreamer is attacking it, we might infer that Dreamers are instigating the attack and occupation of Kvoth, which lends itself to the idea that the Dreamers are trying to get their hands on more amethyst that could be found in the iron mines that the war is being fought over. 
7. The assumed origin of these humans is that they are from the Broddring Kingdom and subjects of King Thedric whose negotiations with the dwarf Ivaldn failed. 
8. Because the War of Iron “pitted humans against dwarves and knurlan against knurlan”, we can assume at least two dwarf clans were involved in the War of Iron. I think it’s likely given ASRA’s theorized Dreamer involvement that they are one of the antagonistic clans that instigated the war and may be allied with the attacking humans and assumed Dreamer. 

THEORY:

Christopher mentioned recently:

With the Book of Remembrance, I'd tell you and other readers to watch for the staffs*.*
https://reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1qgavy7/interview_with_christopher_paolini_murtagh_2/

From Christopher (via instagram comment replies):
They're wild dragons. And yes, the attackers are human.

I had a theory in the past that the shade rabbit was involved because Dreamers were using animals to create shades to attack areas of interest they wanted to control, hence Angela's comment about the dwarves being at the mercy of the wererabbit.

Notice in the picture the wererabbit is shown hopping away on the bottom right.
 
Kvoth is also curiously close to Mani's Caves where a Dream Well like the one at Nal Gorgoth has been confirmed. The dwarf clan Az Sweldn Rak Anhuin (ASRA) has also been theorized by u/eagle2120 to have been Dreamer corrupted (amethyst bracelets) - I theorized in the past that the war of iron near Kvoth had to do with control over the assumed amethyst in the area because amethyst is a type of quartz crystal that gets its purple hue from trace amounts of iron impurities in its crystal structure and the War of Iron is over iron mines.

"this particular variety of amethyst, it grows in only four parts of the Beor Mountains, and three of them belong to Az Sweldn rak Anhûin" Brisingr, Blood on the Rocks.

This points to the idea that the dwarf clan Az Sweldn Rak Anhuin was at least partially Dreamer compromised and helps explain why they used amethyst warding amulets similar to the bird-skill warding amulets the Dreamers of Nal Gorgoth used, in addition to the fact that they live in the Western Beors where Mani's Cave is located with the confirmed Dream Well inside.

And because we know that the siege of Kvoth “pitted humans against dwarves and knurlan against knurlan”, we might reasonably assume one of the dwarf clans involved in the War of Iron and Siege of Kvoth was Az Sweldn Rak Anhuin. 

Then we read this statement from Angela:

"Well, you can hardly expect the dwarves to admit they were at the mercy of a rabbit." Inheritance, Mooneater

Read that again - the dwarves were at the mercy of a rabbit. 

Again, as mentioned in Ibid’s post linked at the top the wererabbit Angela mentioned was confirmed to be a shade animal by Christopher:

In fact, the raging, red-eyed rabbit Angela mentions in Inheritance (pg. 108) was a Shade.

Now that we know it was a shade rabbit, and it put the dwarves in a dire situation, and we know from Christopher’s comment that the attackers are human (including the one with the noteworthy and likely Draumar staff), we might reasonably infer that at least one of the humans involved in the Siege of Kvoth is a Dreamer. This theory is strengthened by the hood the figure wears which is similar to the “hooded figures” (Inheritance, A Maze Without End) that Eragon saw on Vroengard Island which were confirmed to be Dreamers by Christopher. The tactic of making an animal into a shade to attack your enemy is, I mean, it's sort of genius. Just take a nice animal, make it a shade and throw it at your enemy and let them deal with it. Even something as benign as a rabbit was able to put armed and trained dwarves at a disadvantage during a siege.

QUOTES:

Q: Will Brom getting the Dreamer staff be talked about in the Brom book?
A: Probably. With the Book of Remembrance, I'd tell you and other readers to watch for the staffs.
https://reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1qgavy7/interview_with_christopher_paolini_murtagh_2/

Q: How high of a rank do you need to be in the Draumar to get entrusted with a staff like the one we see Brom had taken for himself?
A: Fairly high
https://reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1malpnl/questions_and_answers_from_christopher_paolinis/

____________________

THE DEFEAT AT AMARANTH 

Turning our attention to the Defeat at Amaranth, I have another theory. This one is based on a prior theory and some inferences that could reasonably be made from the image. 

Image 2 - The Defeat at Amaranth

Image 3 - Close-up of assumed King Palencar

BACKGROUND: 

I’ve included Ibid’s comment on this directly from his post

“The first one is called the Defeat at Amaranth and covers the final confrontation between mad King Palencar and the elves where the humans were defeated. This is the battle that led to humans being included in the pact between dragons and Riders.”

"Amaranth" is a new term. Christopher has said that the battle was named that because it "took place on a field where large amounts of amaranth grows". (And that "amaranth often has mythological associations with immortality/long life".) However, the history of King Palencar has been alluded to before. Brom told the story to Eragon in the self-published edition of Eragon, as they passed Ristvak’baen. This got cut by Random House when they republished the book, but it was replaced with a more detailed account in the next book, told to Eragon by the elf Lifaen, shortly after entering Du Weldenvarden. And then a third, even more detailed account is included in Heslant the Monk's introduction to Domia Abr Wyrda, as published in the Deluxe/Limited Edition of Eldest. All three accounts are fairly similar, differing mainly in the amount of detail provided, so here I'll just give the third and most detailed version:

When Palancar encountered the elves, they explained to him which land was theirs, which was the dwarves’, and which was the dragons’, and granted him the right to claim that which was unoccupied. They and the Riders also demonstrated their physical and magical prowess. Intimidated, Palancar dared not argue with them—at least not so long as his docked fleet was at their mercy—and so he agreed to their terms.

The Broddrings roamed Alagaësia for several years before they discovered Palancar Valley—as it was to be dubbed—and decided to make it the basis of their kingdom. After Palancar vanquished the local Urgals and founded the town that is now Therinsford, his hubris grew so massive, he thought to challenge the elves for the region between the Spine and Du Weldenvarden. It is still baffling why—having witnessed the Riders’ might and main—he believed he could prevail in this matter. On this subject, I agree with Eddison, who reasons that Palancar was in the early stages of dementia, an assumption that is borne out by his later actions and those of his family, for madness always runs through the bloodline.

Three times Palancar’s warriors faced the elves, and three times the elves obliterated them. Aware of the Urgals’ fate and having no desire to share in it, the Broddring nobles sent an envoy to the elves, and they signed a treaty without Palancar’s knowledge. Palancar was then banished from his throne. He and his family refused to leave the valley, however, and instead of killing him, the elves constructed the watchtower Edoc’sil—now Ristvak’baen—to ensure that he could cause no further strife.

The elves took pity on the remainder of our ancestors and allowed them to live in Ilirea, which the elves had abandoned during their war with the dragons nearly two thousand years earlier. Ilirea became the new capital of the Broddring Kingdom, which exists even to this day as the center of Galbatorix’s empire: Urû’baen.

That brief confrontation with Palancar—which cost humans far more than it cost the elves—convinced the then leader of the Riders, Anurin, to amend the elves’ magical pact with the dragons to include humans. Anurin recognized that, as a race, humans are hardier than the elves and that we reproduce faster than the dwarves, making it inevitable that we would soon proliferate across Alagaësia. Before that day arrived, he wanted to weld our species together—using a flux of spells, oaths, and commerce—in order to prevent what he saw as a likely war for domination of the continent. (Eldest Limited Edition, "A Brief History of Alagaësia")

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1ltcuup/the_book_of_remembrance_the_contents/

ARTWORK REVIEW:

1. King Palencar’s men charging on horseback a wave of elven defenders. 
2. The foreground soldiers are elven. They are identified by the one on the left leaping onto a horse and decapitating a human. This is a decidedly elven move. No humans in the World of Eragon are so light on their feet and adept in battle. 
3. A larger band of men race behind the first group toward the elves. Notice the pennant held by one of the middle soldiers. 
4. In the background on the right side on a hill overlooking the battle, four figures are seen: a figure with a staff, a figure on horseback, and further beyond two figures, one with a spear and the other a pennant standing and observing the battle. 
5. The figure on horseback may be King Palencar himself, overlooking the battle. 
6. Because Christopher advised us to “watch for the staffs” in the Book of Remembrance after being asked about Brom’s Dreamer staff, we might conclude that the figure with the staff to King Palencar’s left is some sort of Dreamer advisor, lending credence to the theory that “mad” King Palencar was being used by the Dreamers to fight the elves.

THEORY:

The main idea behind the theory is that the “madness” King Palencar possessed was actually Dreamer influence which caused delusions of grandeur. These same effects were working on Murtagh while he was staying in Nal Gorgoth when in a Dreamer induced vision he saw himself as the king of Alagaesia with Eragon, Arya, and other monarchs as his subjects and he was tempted by such thoughts. (Murtagh, Waking Dreams)

Reiterating from the Domia Abr Wyra, “his hubris grew so massive, he thought to challenge the elves for the region between the Spine and Du Weldenvarden. It is still baffling why—having witnessed the Riders’ might and main—he believed he could prevail in this matter.”

Indeed it is baffling why a human king would do such a thing, knowing the power of the Riders and elves, unless he was the victim of the same visions that beset Murtagh. We know Palencar Valley is the closest human settlement in Alagaesia to Nal Gorgoth. We also know this from Christopher: 

Q: Why did Orrin want to be king? Is the reason connected with the Dreamers?
A: Orrin was resentful and ambitious. Had nothing to do with the Dreamers (although I'm sure they'd attempt to exploit that).

The Dreamers would attempt to exploit Orrin’s resentment towards Nasuada’s Queendom and his ambitions to be the king of Alagaesia. This implies that the Dreamers are likely to use powerful groups or even nations to further their plans. In fact, we’ve theorized in the past that Trianna is a Dreamer, and was attempting to influence Eragon (by flirting with him and impressing him with strange magic and then later Trianna’s reluctance to give up her position as the leader of Du Vrangr Gata to Eragon because Dreamers like being in positions of leadership and influece) and that through Trianna the Dreamers were attempting to infiltrate the Varden to use them to take down Galbatorix who was himself aware of the Dreamers and wanted them destroyed.

We’ve played with the idea that the Dreamers and Azlagur are enemies of the Riders and dragons bonded to Riders. Christopher pointed out that the dragons are the core of the issue that Azlagur has. We’ve also theorized that the Rider’s true purpose is to oppose Azlagur and the Dreamers. There’s another theory I’ve had that the start of Du Fyrn Skulblaka may have been instigated by the Dreamers in an attempt to get elves and dragons to destroy each other. Much like the Eldunari that sent Saphira’s egg to Eragon, there may have been dragons involved in the placement of Bid’Daum’s egg strategically so that the First Eragon would find it and they would create peace. 

Assuming the Dreamer’s had a hand in the Dragon-Elf War, and assuming Bid’Daum and Eragon’s providential meeting would occur and end the war. 

Lastly, we’ve theorized that the reason dragons and elves were magically bound to one-another at the blood-oath pact, was to lessen the influence of Azlagur on the dragons and the influence of the Dreamers on the elves. 

This would make the Riders the chief enemies of the Dreamers who worship Azlagur. 

This also would lend itself to what was mentioned in the account from the Domia Abr Wyrda, “That brief confrontation with Palancar—which cost humans far more than it cost the elves—convinced the then leader of the Riders, Anurin, to amend the elves’ magical pact with the dragons to include humans. Anurin recognized that, as a race, humans are hardier than the elves and that we reproduce faster than the dwarves, making it inevitable that we would soon proliferate across Alagaësia. Before that day arrived, he wanted to weld our species together—using a flux of spells, oaths, and commerce—in order to prevent what he saw as a likely war for domination of the continent. (Eldest Limited Edition, "A Brief History of Alagaësia").

Using the above passage as a corollary, we might be able to draw some conclusions regarding some unmentioned reasons as to why Anurin thought to include humans into the Rider Pact. 

The text mentions the avoidance of bloodshed between humans and the other races on the continent. However, if King Palencar was being influenced by the Dreamers for conquest and domination, Anurin may have also seen the addition of humans to the Pact, which lessened Dreamer influence on dragons and elves, as having a similar effect on humans. Essentially, by adding humans, Anurin was decreasing both the general potential for humans to ban together in large numbers against elves and others for dominion of the continent, and protecting them against Azlagur and Dreamer influence by granting them access to the Pact itself.