V.D. doesn’t seem to keep an eye on Erin 24/7. The gang visited Zuurith and the Paladin archives but V.D. seemed unaware of this, if his surprise to this information in 1-21-2 and 1-21-3 is anything to go by. It seems that, unless Erin’s life is in danger or he sees an opportunity to escape, he doesn’t listen to day-to-day affairs.
Which is very good as Erin and the others need as much wiggle room as possible.
True. I suspect that just as the gods aren’t accustomed to thinking so small unless incarnated, the Void Dragon is even less capable of holding a vested interest in the daily words and actions of a single mortal. Not to mention he’s a self-absorbed, arrogant dick.They probably only devote a very small amount of their attention to Erin’s activities unless he’s doing something drastic, incapacitated, or speaking to them directly.
But Walter must know that he and Lucy are connected on SOME level, based on the way he keeps referring to her as his “Other”…and this addition surprises me. I had assumed that Primordial Fire had been the CAUSE of the split, or creation, of the Light Dragon. Curiouser and curiouser indeed…
He’s definitely not listening all the time, I’m just curious whether Erin would know if he were listening. He seems confident enough that he isn’t, but I’m not sure whether it’s been confirmed anywhere.
Maybe Falst will ask on Monday. Seems like a thing he might point out to try and make Erin look dumb (to then backfire when Erin says he knows that VD doesn’t listen to anything he says to anyone not named VD).
We’ve seen plenty of cases where the dragon is completely unaware of things that have happened with Erin around. For example, in his most recent appearance, he had no idea who Tess was or how much Erin had told her (“Ah, you must be new.” “He must not have warned you. How thoughtless.”). Of course, he was then able to probe Erin’s mind to find out more about her, so if any of them hint at the whole Light/Dark link while the dragon is active there’s a chance he’ll be able to do a deep dive and find out what Erin has discovered, although that would still require Erin to be in a bad way (“He’s never left his thoughts so unguarded” when he’s doing the deep dive to figure out who Tess is).
The better question is, what exactly could VD do with this information that would be so dangerous? It’ll be trapped in Erin’s head still, and it’s not going to be learning light magic anytime soon.
The sitaution might be a bit like Vash and Kendal?
In that Vash is bound by the collector in his prison, but could visit Kendals body under the right circumstances.
The Void Dragon is in a prison of Adamant, yet also able to go to Erin’s body at times.
. “But… but that doesn’t make sense,” Dainix protests. “You said yourself, the Dragon is afraid of what they’ll do to you!”
. “He is,” Erin responds. “Or he’s a capable liar with a vested interest in driving me into the arms of his supposed greatest foes.” He looks up at Dainix. “But I agree that there must be more to this. The Dragon seems certain that the Light Dragon is a real adversarial threat to him. The Paladins have certainly harmed his greater goals, and he’s attacked them in turn. And there’s something else I can’t quite square.
. “When you fought him on the outskirts of Zuurith, he didn’t understand what you were doing to his power. It’s now clear that you must have been transmuting his caustic energy into a less deadly form the moment it touched you.”
. “I… I think Tahraim said that too,” Dainix says, recalling the fragments of memory he has from that fight.
. “While this is further compelling evidence that the two forces are actually one–” Erin says, raising a finger as he speaks, “–The Dragon didn’t seem to know that was possible. And in consequence I nearly died. Which also indicates that, when he battled the still-living Fire primordial whose abilities no doubt eclipsed anything you or I could accomplish with their borrowed power — it was NOT possible.”
. “So if the Light Dragon and Void Dragon really are two sides of the same power…” Falst says slowly, “They don’t know?”
. “Yes, I think that’s a safe conclusion,” Erin says. “And I suspect neither one would react positively to learning that their existential nemesis is inextricably bound to them.” He runs a hand through his hair in consternation. “I fear we’ve stumbled upon the worst kind of secret: One that can’t presently help us in any way — and that could trigger total cataclysm if it were improperly revealed.”
Sorry I’m so late lol, a lot of Stuff has been going on. Most important of which is it Finally snowed!! A good snow too, maybe an inch or two. I brought some in for the cats and they were both like “aaAH what is this cold foreign substance?!?” and ran away
Is this why Tahraim and/or Caliban need a crucible? If fire wasn’t able to do this, but Dainix can (possibly due to being a crucible) they might have been on the lookout for someone like him.
If Dainix can transmute VD energy, maybe this is part of a plan to get rid of VD permanently? Throw a crucible at the problem and see if that fixes things?
I guess we’ll find out more when (if?) we get to the monastery and see the treatise written by (possibly) a previous crucible.
Oooo, what would happen if VD were to possess a crucible? I imagine Void energy and the fire always under Dainix’s skin wouldn’t play nicely together. Would that be enough to ‘cleanse’ the part of VD that’s in control of the body?
For being seemingly calm talk in a cozy cave, this conversation really does rather deal with oh holy drek worldshattering stuff aaaaaaaaah~~~!
But heeeyyyy, what could go wrong, just tell them it’s been a huge mistake all along! See what they say! I’m sure everything will turn out peaceful. For about three seconds while they ponder the implications.
Don’t you love it when a world is full of complicated, intricately connected things with lots of little details and tidbits that even most of the inhabitants do not know?
I think Erin is missing something about this, bc I believe VD has referred at one point to his “other”, which implies that VD knows about LD and their relationship to each other. But I guess Erin didn’t catch that at the time.
sooo guess who went back to look at the Crucible Dainix vs Void Dragon fight 🙂
all I’m saying is there are definitely some white spark-like things very reminiscent of panel 3 any time they interact…
I’m wondering if the transmuting of Void into Light is associated with mortals, because maybe The Twins couldn’t outright oppose Walter when making mortals, but they had enough wiggle room to lay a trap that could become the bedrock of his undoing. Then you have gods like Tahraim building on it by making Crucibles, taking that transmutation ability to 11 with the help of fire.
Erin just giving a full on university lecture while sitting in a little hidey-hole while held together with bandages and obstinancy like this is just a Tuesday for him. Ah, I missed him.
“So, hypothetically, if we were to suppose YOUR Dragon and MY Dragon were actually the SAME DRAGON–” …Yeah, I don’t know, Erin, why don’t you ask them when they get here?
I adore this sequence of pages. Most writing ends up having “thinking” sections be mostly exposition disguised as thinking (and not very wel disguised at that). This actually feels like Erin and the rest of them picking apart the puzzle in a natural manner.
Falst: Worse than the secret about humankind being purpose-built tools made to bring about the apocalypse? Erin: … Look, we’re amassing a lot of uncomfortable truths on this quest. I’m still trying to figure out how to phrase Alinua’s situation in a way that doesn’t result in mobs, scientists, and/or cultists chasing after her.
Erin is both admitting there’s more to this situation and he seems to be more open about the existence of L.D.; being able to reclassify them as a primordial and not a regular god made through mass delusion probably helped. This is good progress for him and his personal growth, but while this info is nice tasty lore for us, it’s not, as Erin says, especially useful to them right now.
So Fire wasn’t capable of transmuting Void to Light this or else V.D. would already know. That puts the brakes on my previous L.D. formation theory, but I guess it only makes sense. So how did Light come about?
The Ancients knew of the existence of both dragons long before even Ignans existed, let alone Crucibles, and the Anceints’s manipulation of the elements were rather limited with no elemental links themselves. So that means Light must have come into existence either before or shortly after the planet was formed through a mechanism we probably haven’t seen yet.
Or maybe it’s a Yin-Yang-type situation and there’s a tiny bit of Light inside V.D. and that’s the source of the Paladins powers?
If I were to go against the grain with my theorising, I cannot help but notice that the light that awoke the mortal wills in 0-1-2 doesn’t quite match that of Light magic. Light is either sharp and uniformly white as with the Paladins, or organic and prismatic like that bit Dainix transmuted in 2-3-40; the light that awoke the mortal wills is white with a blue glow and an undefined shape, more closely matching Starfire than Light.
It might just be a stylistic choice, white with blue glow coming out of a black void does look good, but could V.D. be wrong in assuming it was L.D. who thwarted his plans?
Prediction for next week: I was wrong last time about a scene change, but maybe now might be time. Kendal and Tess reuniting and seeing the oncoming Paladins? The Paladins on the dragon ships organising search parties? … Or maybe Red will prove me wrong again and we stick with the boys.
I thought a bit about it, and, well, if Light didn’t come into existence during the primordial battle, it must have happened after, but before VD created the twins and humans, for her to be there and interfere. …so, I assume the light aspect of the void element came into existence while VD was locked away in the planet’s adamant core.
Combined with other people’s theories on what specifically “light” is, I think the common thread nowadays is desire, I’d think the dragon accidentally created this aspect himself as he spent eons in desire to see the stars again (and eat them). Maybe that desire, VD feeling something other than hunger for the first time in his life, created a new sub-element of void that wasn’t consumption and destruction.
Maybe he did wither in that cage, just a little bit. Maybe if he was left in there for long enough… who knows. The primordials’ plan might work after all.
i really like erin talking about this all like “this is very sensitive information that we should be careful not to reveal to either of the dragons because it could really upset them”
HE’S IN YOUR HEAD, BRO
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING YOU THINK AND DO
THERE IS NO ESCAPE
HE KNOWS.
Does he, though? Walter didn’t know about Tess until he specifically looked into Erin’s unguarded thoughts about her. In fact, Walter doesn’t seem to know everything about Erin’s life. Other comments say this well enough that I won’t repeat them all, but I don’t think Walter knows yet.
I think my phone browser got a lil funky and my comment didn’t actually submit… trying again…
I once again underestimated Erin! It’s not like I thought he was unintelligent, or anything like that, but he’s accounting for the Light Dragon after all, and saying on-page what quite a few of the audience had been theorizing and seeing: that the dragons are two sides of the same coin, two facets of the same power, even though they’re diametrically opposed foes. The only piece he hasn’t spoken—yet—is the Dragon’s connection to desire: instinctive desire (void, hunger) and conscious desire (light, will).
He also observed something that I’d missed. Erin’s right, theoretically Fire should have been able to transmute the Void Dragon even more easily than Dainix… so why was the Dragon surprised when Dainix was able to change void to light? Was the Void Dragon different at the time, neither light nor void but the primordial base of the two? Did something happen to them afterward? Did the act of imprisoning them split their nature somehow? Hm. Curiouser and curiouser, indeed.
I feel like I’m not fallowing something here. Dainix’s fire can transmute attacks. Yes, interesting.
How does this lead to the Light Dragon and Dark Dragon being intertwined? Like, I could have guessed that with them, but I don’t see how Erin’s erkua moment makes sense.
(Bear in mind that Erin is adamant that there is no Light Dragon, so he does have a bias.)
Dainix apparently produced Void from nothing. This is not possible; Dainix’s power is that of transmutation, not creation. Therefore, he must’ve created Void from SOMETHING. It’s possible that he had Void in him already, seeing as his core is only made of five elements, presumably excluding Void/Light, but Erin says there’s no way that’s the case given the sheer quantity of Void. Also, if it’s because the Void wasn’t included in the core, then why didn’t we see it last time he transformed?
At the moment that he produced the Void, he was touching Tam’s Light shield. I actually did wonder when I first saw that scene if he’d created the Void from the Light. Erin seems to think the same way. If so, there are only two explanations for this: Fire can transmute elements into other elements (which appears to be false) or Void and Light are in fact the same element. This is further bolstered by the fact that purified Void is all bright and glowy, just like Light.
fire can transmute things, essentially turning things into other things(like lead to gold and etc)
in order to transmute 1 thing into another the things need to be part of the same element, (you can transmute lead to gold but not lead into organic matter for instance because that would be life’s purview)
if you check the void dragon vs crucible dainix fight you will see that dainix isnt just taking the void attacks they are turning into light the same light that the paladins use
in the boat fight dainix once again turns light into void and vice versa before turning into a rock
two things have to be a same element in order to be trasmutated, thus void and light must be one and the same to turn into one another
Per last page — Dainix is sure he cannot transmute one element into another, only an aspect of an element into another aspect of that same element. Despite this, he has transmuted Void to Light and Light to Void. Given both of these things as facts, there can only be one conclusion — Void and Light are not two different elements, but two aspects of the same element.
To put it in what’s called “standard form” by logicians —
1. Not even Soulfire can transmute one element into another
2. Soulfire transmuted Light into Void
∴ Light and Void are the same element.
(Those three dots mean “therefore.”)
I think this has something to do with Dainix being a mortal. Soulfire is made of elemental Fire but behaves quite differently. Based on Tahraim’s comments, a Crucible needs to exert their own will and sense of self-efficacy to reach their full potential. There appears to be a running theme of the power of mortality, specifically that being short-lived and an underdog pushes mortals to exceed the limits of their predestined abilities and grow into what they believe they can be. This is why Tahraim is so careful not to strip Dainix of his belief in his own autonomy; this would make Soulfire more useless than ordinary Fire. This is also why Life needs Alinua and why the Collector cannot fill this role.
That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought about the theme of mortality from that angle, but you’re right. Kendal has advantages Vash didn’t— freedom from the godly taboos, the all-encompassing responsibility, and the physical restrictions. Alinua provides Life with perspective, because only a small living being is capable of loving life for what it is. Tynan was strengthened and weakened by the mortals in Zuurith, by the rise and fall of their fear. VD’s plan depends on mortals, of course. And Dainix is really the only one who understands teamwork here, a skill resulting directly from his (former) LACK of supernatural power.
Normally I just read the amazing comic but hoooo boy! I need help processing this! Apologies in advance for author/Forever-DM wording.
From what I DO understand: Void is basically a living singularity dead-set on consuming everything, imprisoned in the core of the world thanks to the Primordials, Kendal and Aliuana stumbled across his current meat-puppet because the other “Big Bad” trying to extract the somehow-still-living Primordial LIFE from the world but Life isn’t really sure that they WANT that so Life is using Aliuna to look at the world, the Paladins serve another dragon “Light” who… I don’t really understand at the moment even before this revelation.
What I MAYBE-KINDA understand: Light is directly opposed to Void, Void even calling her his “Other” for reasons. Collector thinks she’s Life’s agent working to free Life at Life’s behest (???) but Life wants some perspective while seemingly unwilling to aid Aliuana direcly (see the prison-break in Zuurith – I don’t think I spelled it correctly but the god of that city doesn’t even deserve the Zuko Award so oh well), and while all this is going on the gods around are worried about the Collector and Kendal’s implications.
What I ABSOLUTELY Do Not Get: Somehow a “mortal” Crucible (is Dainix even mortal being a Crucible? Feels like there’s a tiny catch in there with two different gods screwing with his life, directly or not) was able to transmute Void Energy into Light Energy when PRIMORDIAL FIRE could not with the source of the Void in the respective cases being Void’s “Avatar”/Puppet/Arrogant Sucker serving as a vessel and VOID AT FULL(-ish) POWER.
Is anyone else thinking that the difference is “mortal” souls having something the Primordials don’t?
[Sorry if this got posted twice – computer glitching and keeps multi-reading inputs…]
WAIT. Okay we’ve been assuming that the power of Light is free will and/or consciousness. But Dainix transmuted Void into the power of love. Indicating its higher property is not consumption but desire. A longing for something. Is that … not what free will is? A desire to do something? Metal-caste children lack the desire to do anything until they hit puberty (I’m intrigued as to what this means about their relationship to Light), which translates into a lack of free will or personality or consciousness. In this light, it DOES make sense that Void and Light are one and the same.
But … Kendal DOES have a free will and thoughts and desires? But we also know that while he’s capable of breathing and eating and converting those into useful energy for fighting and healing, he doesn’t do it automatically. He could probably sit on a rock for 20 years and be just fine. Maybe it’s the same with his thoughts and desires. He’s capable of doing them, but they don’t come automatically to him (perhaps explaining why he spent all of Arc 1 convinced that his only purpose in life was to save Vash). It’d be interesting to see if they’re all chillaxing and they’re like “so, what do you want to do” and Kendal’s just like “???”
Perhaps the Light Dragon represents CONSCIOUS Want/Desire whereas the Void Dragon represents UNCONSCIOUS Want/Desire?
Hence why the Light Dragon is intimately connected to Free Will, and her followers must intentionally forge a link with her instead of being born with the necessary soul channels whereas the Void Dragon is defined by Hunger, not just for food, but for power, for dominance, for recognition. They are two equal and opposite aspects of a greater collective concept.
Interesting! Maybe the power of Fire can’t transmute the true body of Void while it’s still attached, maybe Void was just too distracted by the fight to notice the transmutation happening, or maybe he attributed the presence of Light to something Light herself was doing.
Is the Light Dragon a part of his defeat, his very Self cleaved in twain and bound to guard his endless tomb?
Or worse, was the Light Dragon the original, was Void itself Created when wondering Fire tried to transmute its kin?
mk so erin has the vibes as avid from vampires smp and idk why
i mean they are kinda similar in personality but also erin has more hubris and is more confident but idk
they just have similar vibes ig
I love vampires smp! 😀
They definitely do have similar vibes though, they’re both sort of scholarly and probably wrong about a lot of things.
And they’re both my favorite characters:)
Oh wow, from the way Erin phrased it last page I wasn’t sure if he had fully understood the dualism aspect, but if he’s right he actually worked out more of it than I had. I’ve got to stop underestimating my boy.
Maybe Danix can transmute Void into Light but Fire couldn’t because Fire didn’t know Void could be transmuted. The presence of life in Danix resulted in him trying to transmute Void even if he didn’t know he could.
We’ve been thinking that Fire was able to split the dragons in that first fight because he was more powerful, but if he wasn’t, that could be a huge clue on what a Crucible is. Crucibles use Soulfire, as in Soul energy mixed with Fire, rather than just pure Fire. It could very will be that mortal soul energy really is linked with the Light dragon and the free will of mortals, which all are counters of VD, and mixing that with the trasmutative properties of Fire is what makes Crucibles unique.
I think you’re onto something, that it’s Soul Energy/the Soul Barrier that’s making the transmutation work, and that’s why Primordial Fire couldn’t do it.
I don’t think they are the first to figure this out, or at least not the first to find out the special properties of soulfire. Tahrim seemed to know, or at least know enough to guide Dainix through it. And Caliban also at least knows enough to want a crucible for themself. If things like cave corruption have been around basically forever, the nature of the 7th element might not be such a secret among gods.
I feel like knowledge of the 7th element would only apply to certain gods, since they are made up of soul energy and their constructs don’t contain Void either (Kendal). Vash didn’t seem to know about it, if Kendal has no clue. Tahraim used to be human (according to the wiki, linked at my username) so he may have more info to work with than others, and may be manipulating Caliban as well as Dainix, using one tool to help make another. We still have no idea what Caliban’s plans for Dainix are.
In terms of mortals figuring out the 7th element, there’s an “academic paper” by Erin & others in Extra Lore at the top of the page, they definitely noticed Cave Corruption and had theories, but no real way to prove them.
I reread the Erin-Tam-Dainix fight, and on 2.3.19, VD says “I did not choose to bring me here”, so did the presence of Tam? But then why did being in the Paladins’ library not bring VD out (Theia even uses light magic to open a window at one point for the spellbird)? Was it specifically Dainix’s Soulfire transmuting Light to Void causing a higher presence of void (2 pgs earlier)? Then why did Glort not bring VD out, Erin was literally touching it (1.22.41, before he tells VD to behave)?
ALSO, if Void and Light are 2 aspects of the same element, where is the LD and who is speaking to the Paladins? SO MANY QUESTIONS! 😀
No, it wasn’t the mere presence of Tam/Paladins/Light Magic, but the reaction of Light with Soulfire, which transmuted it to Void. The Glort was an insanely corrupted Cave-Crawler that had fully amalgamated after a “Long Time”, rather than actual Void, the substance, which is what VD reacted to.
It’s also possible that we’re misinterpreting VD when he says “I did not choose to bring me here”. He might simply refer to the substance of Void being present (his body/power) rather than his possession of Erin, which did come about intentionally when Erin lost consciousness and the presence of Void Magic srew his attention.
When V.D. said “I did not choose to bring me here”, he was referring to the Void that Dainix transmuted. V.D. did not summon it, it appeared independent of him, so he was wondering where it came from.
Following the current theories about the relationship between light and void: I want to note that free will (conscious desire) and things like hunger (unconscious desire) are both desires, but are also very much opposed. If I consciously want to read a book, but I have the need to sleep, my free will is restrained by the unconscious desire. We also have surprisingly little control over our food intake. It’s part of why starvation diets don’t work- it cannot be maintained and your unconscious desire will override your conscious desire to lose weight, even at the expense of your own health and wellbeing.
So, while they are both desire, they are opposed. Because the drive for More is not something we can control. Void regulates breathing- we see this through Kendall’s lack of need to breathe constantly- and those with Void in them cannot stop breathing. Which, yk, isn’t necessarily a bad thing since they would die. But it IS opposed to free will.
Even when in control of his body, Erin has to work around Void’s presence. He has to uphold his deal to use his connections to protect Void. In a moment of weakness, just like how we might eat something we would regret, Void takes complete control. (Side note that I personally struggle with weight gain, and my knowledge of how hunger works was gained with my personal situation in mind, which is why I use it as an example. These examples are less aplicable to those without weight gain issues but you get the point I think)
What I’m trying to say is there is a lot of discussion of how they are similar, but I thought I might point out how this theory of conscious and unconscious desire puts them at such incredible odds.
Also, I think it makes sense that mortals are necessary for Light. Something to note about the gods we have seen is their free will is actually quite limited. When their domain and/or beliefs surrounding them change they are forced to change along with it. Before mortals void could not be transmuted into free will because there was no free will to be had. But Dainix, when exerting free will while in his fiery state, transmutes Void into Light. His act of free will is part of the transmutation. (Note @Juniper mentioned that Dainix’s free will is vital!)
When he transmutes Light into Void his thinking had been impaired, so he was not acting out of free will, but out of the unconscious desire to survive and get away from danger. Strong anxiety, which he had been experiencing before the paladin showed up from the surrounding water, is something that anyone with severe anxiety or a phobia can tell you impedes on the ability to exert free will. His unconscious anxiety driven self turned Light into Void. Free Will into Hunger. It took calm deliberate action to transmute it back into light. The state of mind being relevant is necessary, as a switch for going one way or the other, otherwise you would get a mixture of void and light as they are transmuted back and forth, since we see in the paladin fight that light can transmute into void.
As a crucible Dainix can transmute large amounts of void at once, but for the light dragon to exist void has to have been transmuted before. I think mortals have been transmuting small amounts of the void inside them into light for a very long time, which formed the light dragon. This can be done probably whenever a mortal chooses free will over their unconscious desire. Choosing peace when angry, for example. Small defiances of the void over time transmuted enough void into light that the light dragon could form. While Dainix has soulfire, all mortals have soul energy that can fuel these small transmutations. The soul energy is what prevents life mages from healing old wounds.
In this context, perhaps soul energy is produced with a mixture of all elements. This is why at the beginning the second someone was open to all soul channels the void in them transmuted into free will. Perhaps Void even triggered it because his planning was too deliberate and not fueled by unconscious desire properly.
Fire, when not primordial fire, I think seems to just be Very Strong. Between starfire and soulfire, neither of them being fire fire. The fire form is just an amplifier. I do wonder if there is something untapped theory wise about the significance of the soul energy that stops life mages from healing old wounds, beyond what I have theorized here.
So, in conclusion, under the theory of conscious and unconscious desire, Light and Void are opposed as Free Will and Controlling Drives. Mortals have a unique ability to have free will, and that allows light to exist, as the transmutation of desire. When Dainix exerts free will in his crucible form, he can transmute void into light. An unconscious drive like anxiety controlling actions, will do the opposite. All mortals, being composed of soul energy, can transmute the small amount of void within them into a small amount of light, but not at the rate a Crucible can.
AAAAAAAAAAA! We were so sure Erin was wrong, we never considered SECRET THIRD THING!
I haven’t read Evil Tree or any of the other essays on this page yet, but… What if Erin’s on to something here? This is very much a huge-if-true concept.
Win condition spotted! Throw dainix into the void dragon to turn him into the light dragon
Unfortunately, Failure condition spotted! Dainix and the light dragon face off against each other and he turns herinto void dragon two
oh golly me it’s dainix
oh golly me it’s Falst
oh golly me it’s Erin
Oh golly me it’s…oh. 🙁
oh golly me it’s tess
Oh golly me it’s the cave
Doesn’t… doesn’t the dragon automatically know just because Erin knows? Can Erin tell when VD is or isn’t listening in on his thoughts?
The Void Dragon mentioned in 2.4 that Erin usually keeps his thoughts guarded, so hopefully he’s not paying as close attention.
Can he keep his thoughts guarded while he’s spilling them out loud?
V.D. doesn’t seem to keep an eye on Erin 24/7. The gang visited Zuurith and the Paladin archives but V.D. seemed unaware of this, if his surprise to this information in 1-21-2 and 1-21-3 is anything to go by. It seems that, unless Erin’s life is in danger or he sees an opportunity to escape, he doesn’t listen to day-to-day affairs.
Which is very good as Erin and the others need as much wiggle room as possible.
True. I suspect that just as the gods aren’t accustomed to thinking so small unless incarnated, the Void Dragon is even less capable of holding a vested interest in the daily words and actions of a single mortal. Not to mention he’s a self-absorbed, arrogant dick.They probably only devote a very small amount of their attention to Erin’s activities unless he’s doing something drastic, incapacitated, or speaking to them directly.
But Walter must know that he and Lucy are connected on SOME level, based on the way he keeps referring to her as his “Other”…and this addition surprises me. I had assumed that Primordial Fire had been the CAUSE of the split, or creation, of the Light Dragon. Curiouser and curiouser indeed…
So we’re calling Her “Lucy” now? That’s… I’m not gonna do it, but it’s hilarious and I love it.
How many pairs of pets out there will be named Walter and Lucy because of this?
He’s definitely not listening all the time, I’m just curious whether Erin would know if he were listening. He seems confident enough that he isn’t, but I’m not sure whether it’s been confirmed anywhere.
Maybe Falst will ask on Monday. Seems like a thing he might point out to try and make Erin look dumb (to then backfire when Erin says he knows that VD doesn’t listen to anything he says to anyone not named VD).
We’ve seen plenty of cases where the dragon is completely unaware of things that have happened with Erin around. For example, in his most recent appearance, he had no idea who Tess was or how much Erin had told her (“Ah, you must be new.” “He must not have warned you. How thoughtless.”). Of course, he was then able to probe Erin’s mind to find out more about her, so if any of them hint at the whole Light/Dark link while the dragon is active there’s a chance he’ll be able to do a deep dive and find out what Erin has discovered, although that would still require Erin to be in a bad way (“He’s never left his thoughts so unguarded” when he’s doing the deep dive to figure out who Tess is).
The better question is, what exactly could VD do with this information that would be so dangerous? It’ll be trapped in Erin’s head still, and it’s not going to be learning light magic anytime soon.
The sitaution might be a bit like Vash and Kendal?
In that Vash is bound by the collector in his prison, but could visit Kendals body under the right circumstances.
The Void Dragon is in a prison of Adamant, yet also able to go to Erin’s body at times.
for mobile readers
Alt text: nice Job breaking it, hero
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: nice job breaking it, hero
Image source: secret
tumblr text: mmmm delicious lore
Bluesky test: enlightening!
. “But… but that doesn’t make sense,” Dainix protests. “You said yourself, the Dragon is afraid of what they’ll do to you!”
. “He is,” Erin responds. “Or he’s a capable liar with a vested interest in driving me into the arms of his supposed greatest foes.” He looks up at Dainix. “But I agree that there must be more to this. The Dragon seems certain that the Light Dragon is a real adversarial threat to him. The Paladins have certainly harmed his greater goals, and he’s attacked them in turn. And there’s something else I can’t quite square.
. “When you fought him on the outskirts of Zuurith, he didn’t understand what you were doing to his power. It’s now clear that you must have been transmuting his caustic energy into a less deadly form the moment it touched you.”
. “I… I think Tahraim said that too,” Dainix says, recalling the fragments of memory he has from that fight.
. “While this is further compelling evidence that the two forces are actually one–” Erin says, raising a finger as he speaks, “–The Dragon didn’t seem to know that was possible. And in consequence I nearly died. Which also indicates that, when he battled the still-living Fire primordial whose abilities no doubt eclipsed anything you or I could accomplish with their borrowed power — it was NOT possible.”
. “So if the Light Dragon and Void Dragon really are two sides of the same power…” Falst says slowly, “They don’t know?”
. “Yes, I think that’s a safe conclusion,” Erin says. “And I suspect neither one would react positively to learning that their existential nemesis is inextricably bound to them.” He runs a hand through his hair in consternation. “I fear we’ve stumbled upon the worst kind of secret: One that can’t presently help us in any way — and that could trigger total cataclysm if it were improperly revealed.”
Sorry I’m so late lol, a lot of Stuff has been going on. Most important of which is it Finally snowed!! A good snow too, maybe an inch or two. I brought some in for the cats and they were both like “aaAH what is this cold foreign substance?!?” and ran away
YOU CAN PREORDER AURORA VOLUME 2!!!!
I’m so excited eeeeeeeeee
Is this why Tahraim and/or Caliban need a crucible? If fire wasn’t able to do this, but Dainix can (possibly due to being a crucible) they might have been on the lookout for someone like him.
If Dainix can transmute VD energy, maybe this is part of a plan to get rid of VD permanently? Throw a crucible at the problem and see if that fixes things?
I guess we’ll find out more when (if?) we get to the monastery and see the treatise written by (possibly) a previous crucible.
Oooo, what would happen if VD were to possess a crucible? I imagine Void energy and the fire always under Dainix’s skin wouldn’t play nicely together. Would that be enough to ‘cleanse’ the part of VD that’s in control of the body?
For being seemingly calm talk in a cozy cave, this conversation really does rather deal with oh holy drek worldshattering stuff aaaaaaaaah~~~!
But heeeyyyy, what could go wrong, just tell them it’s been a huge mistake all along! See what they say! I’m sure everything will turn out peaceful. For about three seconds while they ponder the implications.
So anyway the paladins can have fun with that
The worst kind of discovery, the kind he can’t brag about.
THIS.
So the paladins can have fun with that
A couple of questions answered and a thousand more appear in its wake. Such is the lot of lore theorists, I guess. Well played, Red. Well played. XD
* sobs in a corner, covered in red string *
Don’t you love it when a world is full of complicated, intricately connected things with lots of little details and tidbits that even most of the inhabitants do not know?
Oh, it’s he best thing ever!
This is my favorite comment on this page, perhaps on any Aurora page.
I think Erin is missing something about this, bc I believe VD has referred at one point to his “other”, which implies that VD knows about LD and their relationship to each other. But I guess Erin didn’t catch that at the time.
sooo guess who went back to look at the Crucible Dainix vs Void Dragon fight 🙂
all I’m saying is there are definitely some white spark-like things very reminiscent of panel 3 any time they interact…
I’m wondering if the transmuting of Void into Light is associated with mortals, because maybe The Twins couldn’t outright oppose Walter when making mortals, but they had enough wiggle room to lay a trap that could become the bedrock of his undoing. Then you have gods like Tahraim building on it by making Crucibles, taking that transmutation ability to 11 with the help of fire.
Erin just giving a full on university lecture while sitting in a little hidey-hole while held together with bandages and obstinancy like this is just a Tuesday for him. Ah, I missed him.
“So, hypothetically, if we were to suppose YOUR Dragon and MY Dragon were actually the SAME DRAGON–” …Yeah, I don’t know, Erin, why don’t you ask them when they get here?
“Okay, professor, keep it in the classroom.”
– Tess, 1-15-17
I adore this sequence of pages. Most writing ends up having “thinking” sections be mostly exposition disguised as thinking (and not very wel disguised at that). This actually feels like Erin and the rest of them picking apart the puzzle in a natural manner.
*me tryna set an alarm to be early* oh wow its zer0 w0lf and tye rest of the gang(me joining too late to be part of said gang)
UZI??
Hello where did all the comments go am i second or did something glitch
well i for one ADORE the sound of chekhov’s gun being loaded in the background
This
You know it is always a treat to see the dedicated smart character not just spout lore or get shown up but actually figure things out.
Kinda wish other franchises would follow that example
Falst: Worse than the secret about humankind being purpose-built tools made to bring about the apocalypse?
Erin: … Look, we’re amassing a lot of uncomfortable truths on this quest. I’m still trying to figure out how to phrase Alinua’s situation in a way that doesn’t result in mobs, scientists, and/or cultists chasing after her.
Erin is both admitting there’s more to this situation and he seems to be more open about the existence of L.D.; being able to reclassify them as a primordial and not a regular god made through mass delusion probably helped. This is good progress for him and his personal growth, but while this info is nice tasty lore for us, it’s not, as Erin says, especially useful to them right now.
So Fire wasn’t capable of transmuting Void to Light this or else V.D. would already know. That puts the brakes on my previous L.D. formation theory, but I guess it only makes sense. So how did Light come about?
The Ancients knew of the existence of both dragons long before even Ignans existed, let alone Crucibles, and the Anceints’s manipulation of the elements were rather limited with no elemental links themselves. So that means Light must have come into existence either before or shortly after the planet was formed through a mechanism we probably haven’t seen yet.
Or maybe it’s a Yin-Yang-type situation and there’s a tiny bit of Light inside V.D. and that’s the source of the Paladins powers?
If I were to go against the grain with my theorising, I cannot help but notice that the light that awoke the mortal wills in 0-1-2 doesn’t quite match that of Light magic. Light is either sharp and uniformly white as with the Paladins, or organic and prismatic like that bit Dainix transmuted in 2-3-40; the light that awoke the mortal wills is white with a blue glow and an undefined shape, more closely matching Starfire than Light.
It might just be a stylistic choice, white with blue glow coming out of a black void does look good, but could V.D. be wrong in assuming it was L.D. who thwarted his plans?
Prediction for next week: I was wrong last time about a scene change, but maybe now might be time. Kendal and Tess reuniting and seeing the oncoming Paladins? The Paladins on the dragon ships organising search parties? … Or maybe Red will prove me wrong again and we stick with the boys.
I thought a bit about it, and, well, if Light didn’t come into existence during the primordial battle, it must have happened after, but before VD created the twins and humans, for her to be there and interfere. …so, I assume the light aspect of the void element came into existence while VD was locked away in the planet’s adamant core.
Combined with other people’s theories on what specifically “light” is, I think the common thread nowadays is desire, I’d think the dragon accidentally created this aspect himself as he spent eons in desire to see the stars again (and eat them). Maybe that desire, VD feeling something other than hunger for the first time in his life, created a new sub-element of void that wasn’t consumption and destruction.
Maybe he did wither in that cage, just a little bit. Maybe if he was left in there for long enough… who knows. The primordials’ plan might work after all.
Or maybe I’m crazy.
This is all turning out just as I anticipated.
Yes, no shocked reactions here.
So it’s a yin/yang situation! That’s so cool!
Well, now one of the dragons knows.
i really like erin talking about this all like “this is very sensitive information that we should be careful not to reveal to either of the dragons because it could really upset them”
HE’S IN YOUR HEAD, BRO
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING YOU THINK AND DO
THERE IS NO ESCAPE
HE KNOWS.
Does he, though? Walter didn’t know about Tess until he specifically looked into Erin’s unguarded thoughts about her. In fact, Walter doesn’t seem to know everything about Erin’s life. Other comments say this well enough that I won’t repeat them all, but I don’t think Walter knows yet.
I think my phone browser got a lil funky and my comment didn’t actually submit… trying again…
I once again underestimated Erin! It’s not like I thought he was unintelligent, or anything like that, but he’s accounting for the Light Dragon after all, and saying on-page what quite a few of the audience had been theorizing and seeing: that the dragons are two sides of the same coin, two facets of the same power, even though they’re diametrically opposed foes. The only piece he hasn’t spoken—yet—is the Dragon’s connection to desire: instinctive desire (void, hunger) and conscious desire (light, will).
He also observed something that I’d missed. Erin’s right, theoretically Fire should have been able to transmute the Void Dragon even more easily than Dainix… so why was the Dragon surprised when Dainix was able to change void to light? Was the Void Dragon different at the time, neither light nor void but the primordial base of the two? Did something happen to them afterward? Did the act of imprisoning them split their nature somehow? Hm. Curiouser and curiouser, indeed.
Time to go back and look closely at panel 3 of 2-3-40
also 1-17-33
The boys are looking so, so tired. They need a serious nap; unfortunately, the chapter cover art promises they’ll be getting absolutely none of that
I feel like I’m not fallowing something here. Dainix’s fire can transmute attacks. Yes, interesting.
How does this lead to the Light Dragon and Dark Dragon being intertwined? Like, I could have guessed that with them, but I don’t see how Erin’s erkua moment makes sense.
Maybe it’s a me thing. Can someone explain this?
(Bear in mind that Erin is adamant that there is no Light Dragon, so he does have a bias.)
Dainix apparently produced Void from nothing. This is not possible; Dainix’s power is that of transmutation, not creation. Therefore, he must’ve created Void from SOMETHING. It’s possible that he had Void in him already, seeing as his core is only made of five elements, presumably excluding Void/Light, but Erin says there’s no way that’s the case given the sheer quantity of Void. Also, if it’s because the Void wasn’t included in the core, then why didn’t we see it last time he transformed?
At the moment that he produced the Void, he was touching Tam’s Light shield. I actually did wonder when I first saw that scene if he’d created the Void from the Light. Erin seems to think the same way. If so, there are only two explanations for this: Fire can transmute elements into other elements (which appears to be false) or Void and Light are in fact the same element. This is further bolstered by the fact that purified Void is all bright and glowy, just like Light.
fire can transmute things, essentially turning things into other things(like lead to gold and etc)
in order to transmute 1 thing into another the things need to be part of the same element, (you can transmute lead to gold but not lead into organic matter for instance because that would be life’s purview)
if you check the void dragon vs crucible dainix fight you will see that dainix isnt just taking the void attacks they are turning into light the same light that the paladins use
in the boat fight dainix once again turns light into void and vice versa before turning into a rock
two things have to be a same element in order to be trasmutated, thus void and light must be one and the same to turn into one another
Per last page — Dainix is sure he cannot transmute one element into another, only an aspect of an element into another aspect of that same element. Despite this, he has transmuted Void to Light and Light to Void. Given both of these things as facts, there can only be one conclusion — Void and Light are not two different elements, but two aspects of the same element.
To put it in what’s called “standard form” by logicians —
1. Not even Soulfire can transmute one element into another
2. Soulfire transmuted Light into Void
∴ Light and Void are the same element.
(Those three dots mean “therefore.”)
I think this has something to do with Dainix being a mortal. Soulfire is made of elemental Fire but behaves quite differently. Based on Tahraim’s comments, a Crucible needs to exert their own will and sense of self-efficacy to reach their full potential. There appears to be a running theme of the power of mortality, specifically that being short-lived and an underdog pushes mortals to exceed the limits of their predestined abilities and grow into what they believe they can be. This is why Tahraim is so careful not to strip Dainix of his belief in his own autonomy; this would make Soulfire more useless than ordinary Fire. This is also why Life needs Alinua and why the Collector cannot fill this role.
Whoa, that’s really good extrapolation. I love this interpretation.
That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought about the theme of mortality from that angle, but you’re right. Kendal has advantages Vash didn’t— freedom from the godly taboos, the all-encompassing responsibility, and the physical restrictions. Alinua provides Life with perspective, because only a small living being is capable of loving life for what it is. Tynan was strengthened and weakened by the mortals in Zuurith, by the rise and fall of their fear. VD’s plan depends on mortals, of course. And Dainix is really the only one who understands teamwork here, a skill resulting directly from his (former) LACK of supernatural power.
Normally I just read the amazing comic but hoooo boy! I need help processing this! Apologies in advance for author/Forever-DM wording.
From what I DO understand: Void is basically a living singularity dead-set on consuming everything, imprisoned in the core of the world thanks to the Primordials, Kendal and Aliuana stumbled across his current meat-puppet because the other “Big Bad” trying to extract the somehow-still-living Primordial LIFE from the world but Life isn’t really sure that they WANT that so Life is using Aliuna to look at the world, the Paladins serve another dragon “Light” who… I don’t really understand at the moment even before this revelation.
What I MAYBE-KINDA understand: Light is directly opposed to Void, Void even calling her his “Other” for reasons. Collector thinks she’s Life’s agent working to free Life at Life’s behest (???) but Life wants some perspective while seemingly unwilling to aid Aliuana direcly (see the prison-break in Zuurith – I don’t think I spelled it correctly but the god of that city doesn’t even deserve the Zuko Award so oh well), and while all this is going on the gods around are worried about the Collector and Kendal’s implications.
What I ABSOLUTELY Do Not Get: Somehow a “mortal” Crucible (is Dainix even mortal being a Crucible? Feels like there’s a tiny catch in there with two different gods screwing with his life, directly or not) was able to transmute Void Energy into Light Energy when PRIMORDIAL FIRE could not with the source of the Void in the respective cases being Void’s “Avatar”/Puppet/Arrogant Sucker serving as a vessel and VOID AT FULL(-ish) POWER.
Is anyone else thinking that the difference is “mortal” souls having something the Primordials don’t?
[Sorry if this got posted twice – computer glitching and keeps multi-reading inputs…]
WAIT. Okay we’ve been assuming that the power of Light is free will and/or consciousness. But Dainix transmuted Void into the power of love. Indicating its higher property is not consumption but desire. A longing for something. Is that … not what free will is? A desire to do something? Metal-caste children lack the desire to do anything until they hit puberty (I’m intrigued as to what this means about their relationship to Light), which translates into a lack of free will or personality or consciousness. In this light, it DOES make sense that Void and Light are one and the same.
But … Kendal DOES have a free will and thoughts and desires? But we also know that while he’s capable of breathing and eating and converting those into useful energy for fighting and healing, he doesn’t do it automatically. He could probably sit on a rock for 20 years and be just fine. Maybe it’s the same with his thoughts and desires. He’s capable of doing them, but they don’t come automatically to him (perhaps explaining why he spent all of Arc 1 convinced that his only purpose in life was to save Vash). It’d be interesting to see if they’re all chillaxing and they’re like “so, what do you want to do” and Kendal’s just like “???”
Perhaps the Light Dragon represents CONSCIOUS Want/Desire whereas the Void Dragon represents UNCONSCIOUS Want/Desire?
Hence why the Light Dragon is intimately connected to Free Will, and her followers must intentionally forge a link with her instead of being born with the necessary soul channels whereas the Void Dragon is defined by Hunger, not just for food, but for power, for dominance, for recognition. They are two equal and opposite aspects of a greater collective concept.
Interesting! Maybe the power of Fire can’t transmute the true body of Void while it’s still attached, maybe Void was just too distracted by the fight to notice the transmutation happening, or maybe he attributed the presence of Light to something Light herself was doing.
Is the Light Dragon a part of his defeat, his very Self cleaved in twain and bound to guard his endless tomb?
Or worse, was the Light Dragon the original, was Void itself Created when wondering Fire tried to transmute its kin?
mk so erin has the vibes as avid from vampires smp and idk why
i mean they are kinda similar in personality but also erin has more hubris and is more confident but idk
they just have similar vibes ig
I love vampires smp! 😀
They definitely do have similar vibes though, they’re both sort of scholarly and probably wrong about a lot of things.
And they’re both my favorite characters:)
Oh my god you’re so right! I think it may be the hairstyle?
omg im not the only vsmp fan here im so happy 🙂
Oh wow, from the way Erin phrased it last page I wasn’t sure if he had fully understood the dualism aspect, but if he’s right he actually worked out more of it than I had. I’ve got to stop underestimating my boy.
Guess we gotta put the Void Dragon and the Light Dragon in a get-along shirt. Time for primordial godly sibling rivalry shenanigans!
Erin’s theorizing is delightful to witness, I like that he figures stuff out naturally instead of just magically knowing it
Maybe Danix can transmute Void into Light but Fire couldn’t because Fire didn’t know Void could be transmuted. The presence of life in Danix resulted in him trying to transmute Void even if he didn’t know he could.
We’ve been thinking that Fire was able to split the dragons in that first fight because he was more powerful, but if he wasn’t, that could be a huge clue on what a Crucible is. Crucibles use Soulfire, as in Soul energy mixed with Fire, rather than just pure Fire. It could very will be that mortal soul energy really is linked with the Light dragon and the free will of mortals, which all are counters of VD, and mixing that with the trasmutative properties of Fire is what makes Crucibles unique.
I think you’re onto something, that it’s Soul Energy/the Soul Barrier that’s making the transmutation work, and that’s why Primordial Fire couldn’t do it.
I don’t think they are the first to figure this out, or at least not the first to find out the special properties of soulfire. Tahrim seemed to know, or at least know enough to guide Dainix through it. And Caliban also at least knows enough to want a crucible for themself. If things like cave corruption have been around basically forever, the nature of the 7th element might not be such a secret among gods.
I feel like knowledge of the 7th element would only apply to certain gods, since they are made up of soul energy and their constructs don’t contain Void either (Kendal). Vash didn’t seem to know about it, if Kendal has no clue. Tahraim used to be human (according to the wiki, linked at my username) so he may have more info to work with than others, and may be manipulating Caliban as well as Dainix, using one tool to help make another. We still have no idea what Caliban’s plans for Dainix are.
In terms of mortals figuring out the 7th element, there’s an “academic paper” by Erin & others in Extra Lore at the top of the page, they definitely noticed Cave Corruption and had theories, but no real way to prove them.
I reread the Erin-Tam-Dainix fight, and on 2.3.19, VD says “I did not choose to bring me here”, so did the presence of Tam? But then why did being in the Paladins’ library not bring VD out (Theia even uses light magic to open a window at one point for the spellbird)? Was it specifically Dainix’s Soulfire transmuting Light to Void causing a higher presence of void (2 pgs earlier)? Then why did Glort not bring VD out, Erin was literally touching it (1.22.41, before he tells VD to behave)?
ALSO, if Void and Light are 2 aspects of the same element, where is the LD and who is speaking to the Paladins? SO MANY QUESTIONS! 😀
No, it wasn’t the mere presence of Tam/Paladins/Light Magic, but the reaction of Light with Soulfire, which transmuted it to Void. The Glort was an insanely corrupted Cave-Crawler that had fully amalgamated after a “Long Time”, rather than actual Void, the substance, which is what VD reacted to.
It’s also possible that we’re misinterpreting VD when he says “I did not choose to bring me here”. He might simply refer to the substance of Void being present (his body/power) rather than his possession of Erin, which did come about intentionally when Erin lost consciousness and the presence of Void Magic srew his attention.
When V.D. said “I did not choose to bring me here”, he was referring to the Void that Dainix transmuted. V.D. did not summon it, it appeared independent of him, so he was wondering where it came from.
Following the current theories about the relationship between light and void: I want to note that free will (conscious desire) and things like hunger (unconscious desire) are both desires, but are also very much opposed. If I consciously want to read a book, but I have the need to sleep, my free will is restrained by the unconscious desire. We also have surprisingly little control over our food intake. It’s part of why starvation diets don’t work- it cannot be maintained and your unconscious desire will override your conscious desire to lose weight, even at the expense of your own health and wellbeing.
So, while they are both desire, they are opposed. Because the drive for More is not something we can control. Void regulates breathing- we see this through Kendall’s lack of need to breathe constantly- and those with Void in them cannot stop breathing. Which, yk, isn’t necessarily a bad thing since they would die. But it IS opposed to free will.
Even when in control of his body, Erin has to work around Void’s presence. He has to uphold his deal to use his connections to protect Void. In a moment of weakness, just like how we might eat something we would regret, Void takes complete control. (Side note that I personally struggle with weight gain, and my knowledge of how hunger works was gained with my personal situation in mind, which is why I use it as an example. These examples are less aplicable to those without weight gain issues but you get the point I think)
What I’m trying to say is there is a lot of discussion of how they are similar, but I thought I might point out how this theory of conscious and unconscious desire puts them at such incredible odds.
Also, I think it makes sense that mortals are necessary for Light. Something to note about the gods we have seen is their free will is actually quite limited. When their domain and/or beliefs surrounding them change they are forced to change along with it. Before mortals void could not be transmuted into free will because there was no free will to be had. But Dainix, when exerting free will while in his fiery state, transmutes Void into Light. His act of free will is part of the transmutation. (Note @Juniper mentioned that Dainix’s free will is vital!)
When he transmutes Light into Void his thinking had been impaired, so he was not acting out of free will, but out of the unconscious desire to survive and get away from danger. Strong anxiety, which he had been experiencing before the paladin showed up from the surrounding water, is something that anyone with severe anxiety or a phobia can tell you impedes on the ability to exert free will. His unconscious anxiety driven self turned Light into Void. Free Will into Hunger. It took calm deliberate action to transmute it back into light. The state of mind being relevant is necessary, as a switch for going one way or the other, otherwise you would get a mixture of void and light as they are transmuted back and forth, since we see in the paladin fight that light can transmute into void.
As a crucible Dainix can transmute large amounts of void at once, but for the light dragon to exist void has to have been transmuted before. I think mortals have been transmuting small amounts of the void inside them into light for a very long time, which formed the light dragon. This can be done probably whenever a mortal chooses free will over their unconscious desire. Choosing peace when angry, for example. Small defiances of the void over time transmuted enough void into light that the light dragon could form. While Dainix has soulfire, all mortals have soul energy that can fuel these small transmutations. The soul energy is what prevents life mages from healing old wounds.
In this context, perhaps soul energy is produced with a mixture of all elements. This is why at the beginning the second someone was open to all soul channels the void in them transmuted into free will. Perhaps Void even triggered it because his planning was too deliberate and not fueled by unconscious desire properly.
Fire, when not primordial fire, I think seems to just be Very Strong. Between starfire and soulfire, neither of them being fire fire. The fire form is just an amplifier. I do wonder if there is something untapped theory wise about the significance of the soul energy that stops life mages from healing old wounds, beyond what I have theorized here.
So, in conclusion, under the theory of conscious and unconscious desire, Light and Void are opposed as Free Will and Controlling Drives. Mortals have a unique ability to have free will, and that allows light to exist, as the transmutation of desire. When Dainix exerts free will in his crucible form, he can transmute void into light. An unconscious drive like anxiety controlling actions, will do the opposite. All mortals, being composed of soul energy, can transmute the small amount of void within them into a small amount of light, but not at the rate a Crucible can.
A small nitpick, mortals can hold their breath, just not for that long, Falst did it when he used the scarf as a lasso.
AAAAAAAAAAA! We were so sure Erin was wrong, we never considered SECRET THIRD THING!
I haven’t read Evil Tree or any of the other essays on this page yet, but… What if Erin’s on to something here? This is very much a huge-if-true concept.
Ngl i somehow forgot that this comic existed until Sunday 😭😭
Win condition spotted! Throw dainix into the void dragon to turn him into the light dragon
Unfortunately, Failure condition spotted! Dainix and the light dragon face off against each other and he turns herinto void dragon two