#tdp viren headcanons

[raayllum]

Lissa had always wanted a mirror.

A big one, nearly ceiling to floor, and rimmed in gold or silver. Pretty, pristine. Elegant.

Warriors in Del Bar prided themselves on fine furs and neatly braided hair, and though her family had never had much money—just enough to send her for schooling as a minstrel, which had brought her to Katolis ("If you were really twice as clever you'd go into maths or medicine," her mother had admonished)—Lissa had taken as much pride in her appearance as she could. She knew the cut of her furs draped over her shoulders made her look fetching, and where to place the flower in her hair to bring out her eyes.

Fetching enough to catch the eye of the court mage's apprentice, clearly.

In the lead up to their wedding, Lissa had brought up her yearnings, surprised when her husband-to-be resisted.

"You certainly spend a far amount of time preening like a peacock," she'd needled goodnaturedly.

Viren had snorted in reply, sitting on the bench in the courtyard they often occupied these days. "What do you need with a mirror when you have me each day to tell you how lovely you look?"

And then he'd leaned in and kissed her sweetly, softly, and she hadn't dropped the matter entirely in the weeks to follow—"Couldn't it be your wedding gift to me?"—but one day, he wakes up from a nightmare and confessed the truth.

"The first time you do dark magic, mages... fall prey to visions, nightmares. In mine, there was a mirror. Oblong and grand."

Lissa takes his face in his hands, his beard just a tad untidy; she'll fix it for him later in the morning, under the warm light of day. For now she hopes the warmth of her hands are enough, his skin clammy and cold—almost gaunt and grey with fear.

"I saw—a version of myself. Grotesque, and... Sometimes, I still cannot get it out of my head."

She pulls him to her, stroking his back and catching their reflections in the tiny, square mirror across the way on their dresser. His breathing slows, and she smiles when his hands drift to the growing curve of her stomach. His ear to her heartbeat.

"It was just a nightmare," she assures him, drawing away to look again into his handsome face, and Viren leans into her touch.

She has what she needs; a large mirror does not need to be among them.

(Years later, in one final bid for her favour, Viren buys her the grandest mirror his yearly shillings can afford, but all she sees is the jagged lines on his face, covered up by more magic. Besides, it's not like she spends time in their bedroom anyway these days.

Even later, Viren hauls the mirror from his nightmares from the dragon king's lair back to the castle. What does it matter what he becomes?

Lissa is already gone.)

[beautifulterriblequeen]

so, the guy in the ace flag colors

(ace flag made with colors picked from Aaravos turnaround model)

✨Reproduces through asexual reproduction✨

Aaravos really be out here spawning the caterpillar from his own mouth like he's budding, huh.

mlem mlem plop

Step 1: spit out a bug Step 2: bug receives primal radiation to begin growth Step 3: pod Step 4: open pod

Leaves me to wonder, from a scientific perspective: if Sir Sparklepuff is indeed a clone/bud of Aaravos, maybe Sir Sparklepuff actually has Aaravos's true form. Ahaha, god that would be wild.

(But don't you think it's a little sus that these godlike beings just so happen to look exactly like elves, even though they're thousands of years older? I do. I don't trust that beauty. Something's up. Maybe it's benign, or some kind of "become an aspect of what you're worshipped for" or something. But if you could bend reality then why would you keep looking like elves 24/7? And you know I'm asking seriously because I'd be an elf for like 2479 years first before I tried any other shape. So: if god, why elf?)

Anyway, this asexual reproduction is the funniest thing in the whole show to me. Aaravos is the sluttiest slut who ever slutted, but he doesn't understand sex at all... unless he does, but with his Startouch brain, sex is just the same as everything else.

Which is extremely, extremely asexual of him.

Y'all can pry genius idiot asexual Aaravos from my cold dead hands. I'm keeping him forever.

[bycaprinae]

I was watching Reel james interview with Aaron and there he pointed out that in the scene where we learn about Aaravos' prision, there's actually a giant corpse burried there. It was a hidden element and apparently important to the story, enough to be connected to Aditi being "swalloed" but not in the way we might think! I feel like we might know who that corpse belonged to, so I'd like to connect the dots and present to you all my theory.

Being straight foward, who do i think that corpse belongs to? Leola. Why? And why that matters? I'll present my case:

I think that the Startouches are Gods that created the world of Xadia, both human, dragons and elves. Aaravos and Leola were close to one another (as friends, family or lovers?), but Leola was the first one out of the two to pity the humans. Leola cared for humanity and Aaravos cared about Leola. Leola then decides to help the humans, maybe she tried to act under the radar and disguised herself as a unicorn, so the others Startouches wouldn't find out about this, as the humans were MEANT to be weak and suffer.

But soon after, they find out that Leola gave humanity magic, and decided to punish her for it, leading to her death? And because Aaravos was close to her, but not the one that defied their plans, he was spared by the others, but casted out to the world of Xadia, unable to go back to his people, and stripped away from his original status and power. Filled with bitterness, he plotted his revenge, to undo and destroy all of the other Startouches creation from inside out, by the hands of humanity, the ones that Leola pitied, the ones that the others despised, and in the process he got closer to humanity, learned their culture, their ways of doing things, he learned the love that Leola held for those creatures. She was prometheus and he was Lucifer!

If it wasn't obvious, I think the Startouch can shapeshift, I think they're actually massive beings, and both the skelleton and the statues are actually their original sizes!

Some of it is just pure headcanons because I don't have strong evidences, but here is what I do have:

Recently we learned from Aaron that the Startouch elf we see in the opening is actually named Leola!

It came as a surprise because Leola was also described as a unicorn, but not just any unicorn, the very one that gifted humans with primal magic. This is information comes from Tales of Xadia Handbook:

And when I read that tweet from Aaron, I immediately went to check that info on Leola, because I never actually read the handbook, and I was puzzled when I found a screenshot of that text and also the information on the wiki about unicorns, because in both wiki and the handbook is only written that "the elves" warned the unicorns, but WHICH elves? I distincly had the memory of it being the FIRST elves (aka, Startouch Elves), and then today I remembered where that info came from!! Is from book one: moon prologue!

Previously I theorized that "Ripples" is not a story about how humans came to wield Dark magic, but actually a story BEFORE they even learn that. The reason for that is the choice of words used to describe the magic.

"Precious primal flames" "undeserved power", such words used to describe what they had and what was destroyed. And then there's the implication that Aaravos' plan was to have the destruction of the Startouch empire come from the hands of the very humans they once despised so much.

The next logical thing to get from Ripples was that it described the birth of the Sea of the castout, caused by none other than Aaravos falling from the sky! The short story describes a small star falling down, changing the world, birthing a new sea.

It HAD to be Aaravos right? He's a fallen star! But he wasn't the one that gifted humanity with primal magic, through primal stones. He was the one that gave them the Dark magic. Back then I thought that maybe he was the one to do it, but if Leola and Aaravos are connected, then ripples might be about Leola's passing/falling.

Cookiesaddict made a post pointing out the possible connections of Aaravos and Leola, you should read it, but to summarize the points. Once in the NYCC this question was made:

Cookie suggested that this person might be Leola. During the S5 watch party I asked Devon if the Statues in the Sea of the cast out were made before or after Aaravos was impriosioned, because people were wondering why the hell would the prision have that GIGANT STATUE almost screaming: HEY, AARAVOS IS HERE!! COME GET HIM!! and this was the response!

Now, we see that statue both in the show and as a sketch, the other elf is known as "The merciful One" as disclosed by Aaron on twitter. BUT HMMMM THAT SKETCH.... LOWKEY REMINDS ME OF... THIS SKETCH....

The one from Ripples!!

Personally I think in S6 Aaravos will tell Viren about Leola, and maybe through that story we'll find out why the hell did Aaravos insisted on having Viren to live until the end, and how their themes/motives are actually more similar than we thought it was. It's not about power, but about what they'll do to save/avenge their loved ones, their family. I also read a theory that the sparklepuff sacrifice was a test on Aaravos part, while I do think that with the theory of mine it might make sense, I also fail to see why would he go to such an extent to test Viren? Maybe Aaravos realizing that Viren is much more of a family driven man than he already knew he was (as he mentioned he wouldn't expect him to sacrifice Claudia or Soren) will be the thing to trigger their interactions where Aaravos tells him about Leola. As things stands now, Viren is the only logical character to be the narrative tool in which Aaravos shares his side of the story. They're the one that have the most intimacy for him to be "vulnerable", and perhaps their final departure will come from Viren trying to talk Aaravos out of his path of revenge, to share the realizations he had with his nightmares, ohhh my god, can you imagine, Aaravos finally is vulnerable, finally shares about Leola, shares his grief, to the one he thought might understand, because they're similar, but Viren is too far into his search for personal redemption, and belittlethe bitterness Aaravos held in for so long. Super ultra gay divorce is coming (in my delusions).

[starsky707]

Aaravos confesses to Viren 🥴😵‍💫😏

And then...

They get married!

And live happily ever after❣️

Until...

Oh... no...

Please, don't put me into tdp jail! If that's a thing here... I hope it's not. Please, no jail!

[wingzoffeather]

I like to think that, years down the line, long after Katolis recovers from Sol Regem's attack, "The Ghost of the False King" becomes a popular ghost story told at Camp Katolis campfires. Is it angsty & tragic to simplify Viren's legacy, so? Absolutely. But, this kind of irreverent take on the legacies of real world villains and/or political radicals that lost their cause, is common in real world history. Especially once those immediately affected by the person & events are gone. Just look at Guy Fawkes Day in the UK. Or the "Bloody Mary" ghost stories.

If you hear a voice calling "I am a servant!" out to you, somewhere out in the distance, it's the ghost of the False King, Viren the Betrayer. Be wary of wandering out into the dark, alone. He is always in search of a fresh, beating heart, so he may rise from the dead once more, and make another attempt at taking the throne. It would also be fun if part of Callum's lasting legacy is teaching how to connect to primal sources & teaching magic, in general, to humans (and also elves, who want to learn another primal source). Moon magic could be used to create a ghost illusion, to add an extra element of immersion on story time lol. (Another thing that could be fun is if a Katolan "Shakespeare" wrote the TDP-world equivalent of Shakespeare's King Richard the 3rd biographical play, with Viren as the titular villainous protagonist. Richard the 3rd is infamous for usurping the throne and probably having his teenage nephews murdered (their disappearance is still unclear in modern times) He was defeated in battle by Henry Tudor (who then became King Henry the 7th) and his body, thrown in a pauper's grave, was re-discovered under a parking lot in 2013)

[stuck-in-jelly]

Soren wanting to be the father is so special to me but also utterly tragic

Do you think he’s gonna be as loving as his dad used to be before he turned cruel

[that-one-daydream-you-forgot]

these are my own personal headcanons for our local sparkly elf

insert a song only he remembers stuck in his head

doing evil sparkly elf things

rehearsing the things he's gonna say to the mage that he's been ignoring

trying to make the a cool reveal while wearing the hood while viren is doing his thing

daily practicing with magic

workout(?) for 2-3 hours (working out to out run the child support bills)

does he eat human food or does he just like-

idk why but i just hc him as a bad cook....not that bad- it's just that he magics everything, that i don't think he knows how to cook like a human

probably took care of sir sparklepuff while it was transitioning into the butterfly...(it's my way to coop)

...eats flowers

can and has went into virens dreams and then denies ever being in there

has the softest hair even by elf standards

i think he (hopefully) has a shower

or maybe he can magic cleaning himself again

can do the booba blade thing

(OPAI like the ones in genshin physics)

he has nice hands, takes care of them regularly

[madou-dilou]

"Gods -Sarai, get up. Just -what am I going to tell them ?"

[eliina88]

The Dragon Prince Sneeze Headcanons 🤧

Callum: shrill, loud and always makes him double over. The whole room will go quiet with all eyes on him. He will give a sheepish smile, laugh awkwardly and excuse himself.

Ezran: sounds like a cough.

Rayla: most adorable little kitten sneeze ever. Callum goes "awww!" every time, which annoys her.

Soren: forceful and loud. Doubles over, just like Callum, except Soren doesn't get embarrassed - in fact, if it's big enough he'll get downright impressed with himself, followed by eye rolling from others.

Viren: finds the need to sneeze annoying and humiliating, so he tries to keep it quiet and discreet - but always ends up being noisy anyway. Hates it when people bless him, but will begrudgingly thank them anyway.

Claudia: nothing special. Just a regular "achoo!". Will make annoyed noises after the second sneeze, if she gets one.

Aaravos: very controlled and polite. Has mastered the art of keeping it quiet while not stifling it. Always does a 180, and then excuses himself afterwards.

[raayllum]

“Quite a toll it took all the same,” Kpp’Ar noted, and Callum supposed he’d know. “And you still haven’t answered why.” “You don’t even know who I am.” “You’re Sarai’s boy. The king’s stepson. Caleb.” Callum frowned. “Callum.” Kpp’Ar waved an aged hand. “How many years has it been? Last I saw you, you were a boy.”

teach me how to name the bigger light / i slithered here from eden, pre s6 release / 6x06, moment of truth

[air-seaprimal]

I had a revelation today.

Arravos is a stand in for Lucife. Here me out

Arravos is a fallen star, Lucifer is a fallen angle.

Both were apart the fall of man, Arravos with dark magic and Lucifer with the fruit of knowledge. Both were cast out for their sins by God or a god-like figure (I still don’t trust Aditti). There’s more biblical stuff.

Rayla means something akin to sacrificial lamb. What was Jesus? The lamb which was supposedly suppose to the scapegoat for humanity. I. E. Rayla’s savior complex.

Callum means dove, I don’t think I really need to explain this one.

Ezra’s is very close to the name Ezra; the name of one of the prophets.

You remember how it’s tradition in Katolis to mourn a monarch for seven days and knights. That’s a Jewish tradition.

In short no story is truly original and my brain went weird places.

[huntress-of-stories-and-dreams]

Headcanon #81

People in the coins remain conscious and know what’s happening around their “compressed” space.

Runaan isn’t happy when he sees the affections between Rayla and Callum.

[starsky707]

My most random TDP headcanons about the mage fam (+ Aaravos).

1. Terry uses Old Spice deodorant (this is so random and weird😭 idk???)

2. Aaravos has an extensive skincare routine (I think this is basically canon now lol)

3. Viren can braid hair (obviously, he has a daughter)

4. Aaravos likes to dance (I can totally imagine him dancing the tango with Viren or maybe even pole dancing🤨 He'd just dance in different styles.)

5. Aaravos doesn't mind/ likes wearing feminine clothes.

6. Terry isn't good at magic (he knows only a few spells and finds magic difficult)

7. Aaravos would throw temper tantrums before he was imprisoned.

Maybe I'll make a part 2...

[jennyandvastraflint]

Viren's sexual orientation is Men with Power and he has a praise kink. In this essay I will

[tdpart-321]

TDP headcanon I have

I have a headcanon that child Viren was very shy and timid. Wouldn't that be so adorable though?😍🥰🥺