I’ve been getting this feeling that her shadow spell had been progressively getting stronger and having more and more effects as her notoriety increases. The fact it helped with her senses when she was sealed and the “coldness” and aura others reported feeling when in contact with it makes me feel like something is going on beyond others being scared and conjuring illusions.
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.
I tend to agree. It seems like she’s unconsciously losing “control” when forced to use her shadow in stressful times
Obviously her shadow became more powerful recently, not only explicitly more real in appearance, but it’s also been effected by her mood. Whether it will become the same as Myrdin’s shadow shield, remains to be seen; it can’t do that yet. With the revelations about how popular perception of an idea has an effect on magic, Azalea also seems to be making it possible that the shadow will take on the powers people believe it will have. More rumors = more powers?
yeah that’s what I was thinking. Public “Faith” seems to have quite the effect on magic
The shadow is becoming automatic… she didn’t need to cast it to cause the ripples when she was very angry… it is becoming part of her being not just a captured shadow put under control. It seems to me that she used it to sense her surroundings remotely and that is was absorbing spell energy during the Pendragon battle and pulling its power source from the subtle energies emitted by all matter touching the shadow… her shadow is going to get very powerful and i think it will begin responding to her like its another part of her body not a separate thing… i am hoping it will begin to extend to all shadows…allowing her remote sensing and control of areas far beyond her immediate location… i am excited to see it become active in her everyday environment subtle even that others don’t see it but connected to her so she has a larger presence…
Yes is definitely getting stronger!
I have a theory that part of the shadows effects come from the fact that everything inside it is within the sacrifice “circle”, so whenever the shadow touches someone and takes a little heat, they also feel Siobhan’s will contesting ownership of that part of their body.
She is also getting stronger herself, plus changing the sacrifice to include ambient heat/light around the shadow noticeably increase its potency.
The draw on the heat of her breath through her fingers disappeared almost entirely, and her shadow solidified somehow, the sensations it was feeding back to her becoming more tangible, and the metaphorical ink of its form growing deeper, the better to stretch farther and wider.
I also have been thinking… when she released her shadow after extended casting during the escape she missed it and felt ‘exposed’ (I forget the exact adjective that was used). This and another place in the book … i can’t remember where at the moment, that eluded to something similar… This makes me think… Should she try to always have it active even if she isn’t modifying the shadow’s normal shape and actions… kinda like exercising a muscle?
Sorry for the necromancy, but I figured since there were few enough threads so far that it’d be OK.
I had pretty much been assuming that whatever entity is sealed in her head is leaking out via the shadow familiar spell. The more the binding weakens, the more it manifests, drawing energy not only to power the spell, but to strengthen itself, also causing increasingly strange and disturbing effects on the people it interacts with. I’m guessing the situation with the drained beast core is related, either the entity drained it, or some part of her heritage allows her to do so, her heritage being linked in some way to the presence of the bound entity.
The theory about it being the same as Myrdin’s spell, and therefore increasingly capable of the mythical feats attributed to it is interesting, but I think something totally different is happening here. Their capabilities are converging, but that’s because I think Myrdin had the same heritage as S, or had the same kind of entity bound to him. So the convergence in capabilities would be due to the source of the ability, rather than the resulting spell.
Frankly, I’d be very curious to compare what happens if someone else were casting the shadow familiar spell. I have to wonder if other people can even cast it. If they can, they may not be able to get it to do the same things, regardless of skill.
I think this is the similar spell that Myrddin used in the past. The black ball he used that was tangible. Eventually it will get to that level of power.
I doubt it’s the same, Myrddin made a small shield to absorb enemies attacks which in turn made the shield bigger.
Her shadow is just that, a shadows, attacks just go through it, let alone physical objects.
They do have some similarities, but I think it’s because Myrddin’s spell was absorbing everything coming in contact with it, including light which is what Siobhan’s spell does.
Maybe she’ll get there one day after a lot of modifications but I’d find it weird if she could reproduce what Myrddin made with a complex spell array that took him an hour with a simple chant.
The chant is quite something though and does seem really ominous for a “simple light trick”
Life’s breath, shadow mine. In darkness we were born. In darkness do we feast. Devour, and arise
Something she might be able to do though is duel cast an attack spell with the output detached to make it look like the shadow is the one that attacked, I’m not sure if she can do output detachment while casting 2 spells though, maybe later on when splitting her Will in 2 becomes trivial for her.
Her familiar with a big scythe would make quite a show, with a slicing spell on “impact” with a target (especially if the target is behind a shield :p)
Maybe. Or, more ominously, what if her Grandfather didn’t teach her a simple trick? The more we learn about him, the darker and more dangerous he seems. It could be possible that he taught her the basics of this esoteric spell, and that its powers grow exponentially as her power, control, and understanding of the world do.
Think about it: in magical classes, they learn how to cast using heat and light, because it’s easier for most people to think of that as an energy source. But there are many ways to measure energy, and just as many magical methods to devour energy. Heat, light, plants, living creatures, food stuffs, etc. If you can burn wood to Sacrifice the heat for your magic, what’s stopping you from Sacrificing the wood itself? Or the oxygen in the air? If your body can eat a chicken cutlet to fuel itself, what’s stopping a versatile thaumaturge from Sacrificing the whole chicken?
Right now her shadow uses light and heat from the electromagnetic spectrum for power. A year ago, it only used her body heat. In her most recent battles, it absorbed some spellfire and became significantly more opaque. What is going to stop her shadow from being able to “devour” more?
What if Myrddin’s complex and ridiculous spell array was never even real, and he only cast the shadow spell?
Anyway… I don’t know if I’m right about this, but I think the extreme fear her shadow familiar elicits is not a coincidence, and I do think this spell is far more sinister than she thinks it is.
Okay, now that I’m at this part of the book I understand.
And I disagree
It’s less that her shadow familiar is getting stronger
But her understanding of how light works, based off of classes we have witnessed, is getting so much better.
Also her will control to alter on the fly is getting better.
Honestly, it really feels like magic is just a for e of nature, and the different forms of magic is how they access and use it.
Familiars, glyphs, conduits, a third eye, whatever, seems to be a crutch. They help the caster focus what they want done.
Glyphs seem to be preferred because it’s easy to draw and share a picture to pass it on instead of the how long of a scroll to get into the avatar state, oh, sorry, I know it has a proper name, something about light, but come on. That is not easy to pass on the info.
Magic will honestly do whatever you believe it will, look at the sympathetic magic class. When she ask the very valid question about pigeons sensing lies, it’s kinda a hint.
And I question how much magic baulks at new spells, than this new idea that not only has it not been beaten into submission to do this thing, but the caster prob has just an orchid seed of doubt, which gives magic wiggle room to put up a fight.
So our girl is able to do all these things with her shadow, not because her shadow is stronger
But because, to her, the logic that her shadow should be able to do all these things is so clear, she has no room for doubt, so it just will do as she wants.
And she has used the “no room for doubt, I will succeed because I simply will it” so many times.
She is getting stronger with her understanding.
I bet the cobbled components very bad idea would have worked too, because in her mind she could make the sympathetic connections,
However, it was a stupid bad idea, and I look forward to later outcome of what she did choose.
I feel like it should be mentioned that one of the definitions of shadow is:
(From Wiktionary) (obsolete or poetic) A reflected image, as in a mirror or in water.
So a shadow is kinda/sorta a reflection…? To me, a shadow/reflection that grows stronger and starts doing its own thing sounds more like the tale of Myrddin where his mirror reflection grows sentience and runs away!
I would agree that S. is getting more capable with her shadow due to her understanding, but a pet theory of mine is that part of the reason the Shadow is capable of more is because there are enough other people now believing the shadow can do more. But if that is the case, it makes me start to wonder if S. is also being shaped by the will of the people. Is the Raven Queen gaining power and capability because her followers need her to have those things?
Oh no, she’s going to become an accidental god.
Those always have some really interesting stories.
Some cultures have the belief that if enough people believe something strong enough it becomes true, and they keep giving her god like powers with aspects of what they consider shadow.
A shadow realm is going to become a thing because enough people are going to believe in it…
Are we sure this is a practical guide to magic
Or is this a practical guide to godhood xp
My thoughts are Siobhans mother is a sealed memory, but it is her mother. Her adopted grandfather sealed Siobhan’s mother in an attempt to save her using Siobhan as a vessel. What wasn’t intended is for the memory to try to gain freedom or be sentient before another vessel could be found hence the sealing
Chapter 181 – Revenant – Azalea Ellis offers some support for this idea.
“The prayer might have something to do with it,” the Ambassador to the Public suggested. “We have records of suggested experiments during the Third Empire that hoped to use the masses to provide strength to certain ideas.”
Certainly the widespread belief in The Raven Queen is not going to hurt her.
I’m with you on this. Grandfather loved and adopted her mother.
We know that her mother started to loose control after the little season died.
Can you really think of a better jail for someone than their own child? The blood of your blood can be VERY useful in spells.
I don’t think the nightmares are trying to hurt her, either it’s a warning trigger from grandfather so she can strengthen the bond back, or it’s that her mom is trying to get out, but without hurting her
The thing is, expect for.the sensory depreciation thing, her nightmares don’t seem to be getting better or worse. It’s a matter of how long the dreamless sleep spell last
Okay, wow, just got the chapter that I think inspired this if it’s from book four
I still am not sure it’s getting stronger, swallowing the beast core, detaching it from her, that didn’t make her shadow stronger
That made the locked one in her head temporarily stronger
And if you take all the people who believe in her shadow and consider that a power source
…
But now I’m questioning what is in her head, blues theory is nice and all, but there was one question it ask, that to me disproves his theory “do you remember when we met”
And I suddenly have the terrified question of can children become aberrants? Are they more likely to and that is why it’s such a taboo to teach magic to those that are young
And is meeting this child/aberrant the reason why Ras decided to teach our girl magic?
I have so many more questions now…
I didn’t even protest the chapter ending
And who did she say taught her the shadow spell?
Did she say it was grandfather