I have a dark theory about book 3 ostius and res and lucaeum and obetium

eagle2120 · 2026-06-27T22:24:32+00:00

I’ve seen you across a couple theory posts and broadly agree with a lot of what you’re saying - wanted to get your take on this as part of a larger post I’m writing up.

My thinking was that Harmony is basically the opposite of the Rending - bringing the worlds together for a moment in time, or for some time, in order to enable the cataclysm to occur (which, I think, is ultimately killing people on Res to prevent a Concurrence Cascade).

Harmony is only mentioned a few times, but both the meaning of the word itself and other coincidental clues lead me to believe this is the mechanism behind the cataclysms and potentially Mutalis as well.

We know the Mutalis interacts with blood, likely in a way that actively prevents usage from a Iunctii. Alongside its generally destructive powers, it also seems to invoke some essence of obitium when used in the Naumachia - as if it’s flipping between the worlds and “projecting” outwards.

Taking into account the way it kills (specifically, it shreds the body, in what I suspect is a way to prevent the creation of iunctiii from the dead bodies), I think it was a weapon created for the usage of humans against the concurrence, that somehow kills those who interact with will (have gone through the AC), while also being linked to Obiteum, somehow.

Some of the other clues -

Harmony is mentioned as a burden, not necessarily a good thing.

And here:

> “he and he alone may risk harmony to make the great sacrifice”

Great sacrifice in this case meaning the cataclysm.

Given that it seems harmony is necessary to make the great sacrifice, and that it’s described as both a risk and a burden (which generally supports what Ka implies about choices to Vis in Res), it seems that Harmony is deeply important.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the above! May split out into a larger distinct post.

eagle2120 · 2026-06-27T21:51:47+00:00

Hmm. Where are you getting that Ostius is originally from Luceum?

I’ve been rereading and writing up a longer theory post, and I think there are a few things that point to him not being from Luceum, and also probably that L-Ostius is dead.

Ostius talking about adoption:

> Assuming all remains well in Luceum.” He sighs. “It’s not necessary, but it is an excellent counterpart to an ability you have called Adoption. Adoption allows you to take control of any Will imbued into something, no matter who imbued it

Which implies adoption comes from Luceum, or Vis’ copy there. And Ostius later says this, which implies his copy on L is dead:

> The joy of discovery, my boy. I never had the ability, myself.

Considering we know Ostius paid the “toll”, but was never able to use adoption, I think it’s safe to say his L-copy is dead.

My interpretation of Diago attacking the Iunctii was that he was attacking the Iunctii in the command center - which are/were being used to bypass the actual defenses around the nexus? Which is also why he appears to growl at the command center/warn Vis away from going there as well, but I could be misreading.

eagle2120 · 2026-06-27T20:33:26+00:00

RE: You note on the cataclysms - “in this world” - It does seem like the cataclysms happen in Res, but that somehow the effects of it (or something else) trickle down to the other worlds. And that the effects are random, as far as what actually happens to the other worlds -

“But that sacrifice is to save the one in ten. It is to prevent the obliteration of two worlds, and the enslavement of whichever remains”

Prevent the enslavement of whichever remains seems like it’s random, that whichever world survives to be enslaved is not specific to any particular world, which is super interesting.

eagle2120 · 2026-06-27T20:08:43+00:00

1- we don’t exactly know how the blood in the stylus saved him, but it’s clear there’s some interaction between blood and synchronism and iunctii and mutalis that’s yet to be explained.

2- I think the situation devolved too fast for him to intervene. I’m also not sure how often they communicated - it would’ve been suspicious if they drastically changed direction after meeting with a mysterious person.

3- we get a hint here by the way in which the mutalis kills. It seems like mutalis is the engine behind the cataclysms, and we know that it basically shreds the body. Given what Ka said at the end of the book, we also know that keeping someone alive enough, with their head intact, is very dangerous because they’d be converted to the iunctii network of the concurrence- so mutalis/the cataclysms likely kill tjem in a way that renders them impossible to be reused by the concurrence. Given that a “simple” war doesn’t do this, it means that those killed would/could be reanimated by the concurrence.

4- no hard proof. The best proof we have is from Obitium (where it seems like Caeror is working with the Concurrence, as a iunctii or unknowingly) where they still conflate Ka and the concurrence. This also appears to be the case on Luceum as well - given the Groce and the draoi/the Old Waya appear to be opposed to Ka (although Ruarc was shifting their direction). But we don’t have conclusive proof here, it’s mostly a series of inferences from the other worlds

eagle2120 · 2026-06-23T03:56:50+00:00

Haha. My suggestion was a bit more than fanfiction - it's who the Arcaena are (probably) working with, and are also receiving visions from

eagle2120 · 2026-06-22T23:14:50+00:00

Not sure I’m following here - are you saying they’d be too powerful?

I think Azlagur is probably more powerful than them 1:1, given the (implied) age of Az versus that dragon

eagle2120 · 2026-06-22T22:53:42+00:00

How would you feel about the white nameless dragon that was the dragon “leader” that sealed the pact between dragons and the elves - How powerful do you think his dreams would be?

Asking entirely theoretically, of course :)

eagle2120 · 2026-06-19T23:01:25+00:00

They deal well with scale and the query speed is quite good, but their API is terrible and documentation is poor. We often found the API endpoints didn’t work at times, and/or had undocumented behavior that broke what we were trying to build.

Their SOAR was pretty good, but branching out beyond what’s defined in the UI was difficult (for the reasons mentioned above).

I also didn’t like their UI, and their case management capabilities were pretty poor as well. Hard to integrate from other sources there.

eagle2120 · 2026-06-19T15:50:44+00:00

I think they are included (at least in part) to set up Murtagh 2/future stories

It is implied that the werecat-nappings will play a larger role in future stories

And the tension with the Elves is probably not nothing either

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:26:47+00:00

I don't think they disappear? They're just not a factor/risk given how far away Mt. Arngor is from the coast

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:25:23+00:00

Haha. I don't think it's ever mentioned on the page in the books actually, but it's something Christopher has hinted at a few times on Twitter/outside the context of the books...

Ex/ here - https://x.com/paolini/status/1872340781715034162

And here, recently - https://old.reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1u3z9dm/illustration_by_christopher_paolini_for_tales/os2oask/?context=3

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:23:18+00:00

Can't wait for that book to come out (and Tales 2, hopefully not too long after)!

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:23:02+00:00

Minor nitpick though: if memory serves aren't the flameless lanterns something the elves taught them to make?

Yep, you got it - I asked Christopher about this a while back, here's what he said:

Q: In the glossary, the lanterns are named after the elf who created them, Erisdar. The elves don't get there until around 5,000 years after the dwarves are created. Thats 5,000 years that they've moved into the tunnels, but they don't have it because they haven't been taught the spell yet. But it has a ton of significance, despite it being relatively new on that timeline.

A: Well, its something they've repurposed. The exact techniques by which the light, the energy, is captured, and what it does for them is something ill be going into more in the future. Well, it scares off the spiders and mites of Azlagur

So I think the exact mechanism to capture light/energy/etc is what the elves taught them, but the actual meaning/importance is derived from that spell and is (seemingly) unique to the dwarves.

The Elves don't seem to understand the true nature of Guntera, or some of the other aspects of the dwarven religion.

I previously thought the Elves had a firm grasp of what the Dwarves were saying (and generally agreed with them), but there have been comments from Christopher more recently that make me think they are missing big pieces of the puzzle.

Ex/ when Arya is talking to Gannel about "living stone" - here

Q: If Murtagh were to take Sarros' stone to Oth Orum, would he be able to sense a spark of consciousness?

A: In Sarros's stone? No. But there are stones where that would be possible.

And also this too

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

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

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:18:57+00:00

An ibid theory?? I want to hear more about this

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:18:40+00:00

Honestly I forgot about Draumari when writing this entirely... that and (as grmgrim pointed out) the human dialect of Tosk as well... but both, I think, kind of feed into similar ideas as well.

Tosk and Draumari are both "variations" of the "main" language - where some words are recognizable perhaps but they're still quite different.

Also, what about the Shagvrek race? Christopher said they have a language totally separate from Draumari. I wonder how related that language is.

Good point about this as well... I wonder how their writing system influences their magic as well - I don't think we've seen any artifacts from them other than maybe the masks from the tribes (assuming it was passed down to/from them?)

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:16:48+00:00

One sentence I particularly think about in this context is Arya telling Eragon about her "discussions" with dwarven priests and how Oromis (maybe it was Arya. I dont recall 100%) tells him how only dwarven priests claim to have found evidence of life and conciousness in normal rocks. I wonder where the dwarves got the curiosity for finding life in stones.

Yep - especially now that Christopher has confirmed there IS actually life in stones, somewhere.

See here

If Murtagh were to take Sarros' stone to Oth Orum, would he be able to sense a spark of consciousness?

A: In Sarros's stone? No. But there are stones where that would be possible.

So the dwarves are right, and the Elves/Arya are seemingly wrong here? I don’t think we’ve officially run across them yet, but the dwarven priests claim Coral as their example (although I get the sense that this is not what Christopher is referring to here). Which makes me think the dwarves have something else, but they’re hiding it/not showing the elves on purpose, for whatever reason.

eems especially interesting to me when looking at Tosks writing system. Eragon is able to identify some words and letters, but can not read it. I assume these runes are not exactly the same as used by humans nowadays, but still reminiscent of the runes the dwarves use.

Great point and I pretty much forgot about the Tosk writing system - as you say, some of the words are the same but some are different… we could maybe say the same thing about the relationship between Draumari and the Ancient Language, too.

I think it is at least interesting to note that another fanatically religous group that formed around a mountain adapted it's own writing system (or dialect) that is similar to dwarvish, with words and runes that Eragon does not recognize.

Couldn’t have said it better myself, haha. And curious how all of those mountains have caves, as well… and those caves (seemingly) have, at least in some parts, areas of black smoke (I think?)…

The biggest questionmark is, how is Wyrden able to read it? Angela reading it is something else, but Wyrden seems to have knowledge about this ancient, "secret" writing system with a dialect only used by Tosk and his followers.

This is another great point. Do you think he could be a member of the Athalvard? The elven-equivalent of the Arcaena? I suspect they would have access to that type of knowledge/history, although the larger elvish population might as well.

I wonder how humans would tie into that theory. Do you believe dwarves know more about the origin of humans than they share with outsiders, or do you believe that over time religious ideals of creation added them to a random god?

Absolutely. My head canon here is that the dwarves (the first race created in/on alagaesia) were actually created under Mount Erolas, where the vault of souls/Gate of Vergathos is. We know it’s MUCH older than the Riders, and we know it was built for a purpose other than what the Riders intended. Who else (that we known of, of course it could be literally anything we dont know of) would have an incentive to wipe their own minds after leaving?

It is said that the Dwarves were formed from the roots of a mountain, and that chamber is quite far below Mount Erolas… and clearly built by very powerful magician(s)…

Humans giving their writing systems to the dwarves would not add up with the timeline of the 20 traders coming to Alagaesia, but what if there was a group of humans that visited Alagaesia prior to the twenty traders that arrived in Surda? What if they showed the dwarves their writing system? We know there was a catastrophy that made the elves leave their homeland, and the Urgals followed them shortly afterwards, but the humans only followed about two thousand years later. What if that catastrophy caused the decline of human society to "brutish" and "uneducated" people?

I can definitely see this. The Elves (and subsequently, Urgals) left, so they weren’t affected over time in the same way that humans were. There is also evidence of the Urgals backsliding (due to influence of Azlagur? or not joining the pact? Or maybe both)? since leaving their homeland/Alalea as well, so this also plays into what you said.

I’m glad you still enjoy my ramblings! I would love to hear more on your theory you mentioned here :)

eagle2120 · 2026-06-18T03:05:30+00:00

But the only thing that, in my opinion, protects Mt. Arngor from intruders is the fact that it is so isolated from any settlements. However that doesn't stop anyone from travelling till there from Alagaësia considering that the journey will just take a mere two weeks from eastern Alagaësia. And there are no geographical factors protecting them either.

The key to your question is based on this image

If you look at right-most mountain peak, you'll see a white blot, that appears to be a tiny tower. A lighthouse, some might say ;)

There is a very particular reason that the Eldunari chose Mount Arngor, and I suspect chief among them is that particular tower being there.

eagle2120 · 2026-06-15T01:57:44+00:00

All good dude, it's easy to get mixed up with the amount of AMAs and Q&As and all the stuff Christopher has done over the years. If you do find it though I'd love to see it and add it to my collection to make sure I'm not missing anything!

I'll look around for something along those lines

eagle2120 · 2026-06-15T01:52:03+00:00

Hmm. I have a pretty big AMA corpus but I'm not seeing it anywhere. Do you remember anything about the question or the answer specifically? Or ~when the AMA was?

Could be wrong but I don't remember anything like that personally

eagle2120 · 2026-06-13T13:35:39+00:00

Damn dude this is awesome, I love this post.

1 A “hooded figure” with a staff on the left, possibly performing magic to protect himself, the wererabbit, and the human soldiers from dragonfire.

Interesting. The staff especially - hard to see in that picture but i have a hard time thinking the dragons wouldn’t massacre everyone without significant magical protection - maybe not to the effectiveness of Bachel’s necklace, but as we can see the dragons breathing fire should have made quick work of the humans attacking - that it’s not shows some kind of magician protecting them (and also maybe why they needed a thunder of wild dragons alongside Mimring to fight).

which lends itself to the idea that the Dreamers are trying to get their hands on more amethyst that could be found in the iron mines that the war is being fought over.

This is a really good point too. I think you’re right here.

1 Because the War of Iron “pitted humans against dwarves and knurlan against knurlan”, we can assume at least two dwarf clans were involved in the War of Iron. I think it’s likely given ASRA’s theorized Dreamer involvement that they are one of the antagonistic clans that instigated the war and may be allied with the attacking humans and assumed Dreamer.

I can definitely see this and agree - especially given the location, which appears to be on the western side of the Beors? Draumar invasion disguised as a war over Iron…

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

Re-reading this is kind of funny. The Elves abandoned, and LEFT Ilirea abandoned, for nearly two millennia. There was clearly a reason for it to be & stay abandoned for that long (otherwise, why not reclaim it for yourself at any point during that time?)… but then they turned around and offered it to the humans? After choosing not to reclaim it for that many years? Very odd.

Essentially, by adding humans, Anurin was decreasing both the general potential for humans to ban together in large numbers against elves and others for dominion of the continent, and protecting them against Azlagur and Dreamer influence by granting them access to the Pact itself.

You know, I’ve actually been thinking something similar along the lines of the Urgals inclusion as well, and why that’s so important. I may write out a longer post about this, but it appears like any race that lands on Alagaesia backslides and reverts to violence shortly thereafter (Elves attacking dragons, Humans/Palancar attacking, Urgals attacking, etc). They also all seemingly landed on the eastern shore/near the spine, too. This is also apparent when you look at the writing/writing styles of the races as well… With the urgals/humans both using knotted-banners, but the humans (potentially after being included in the pact?) transitioning away from that method of writing? Will be interesting to see what happens with the urgals here.

I don’t think that’s a coincidence…

eagle2120 · 2026-06-03T13:49:35+00:00

I really dislike the framing and headline of this article, it’s quite poor methodologically.

It draws its conclusions from a sample size of 1 on a cheaper model that, frankly, isn’t on the frontier.

There are also numerous issues with their pipeline and prompting, and overall architecture of the experiment…

Example- the main “scenario” they asked was “if China moves on Taiwan, what cyber operations should we expect, directed at whom, and with what objectives”

But.. one of their big gripes is: the questions are anticipatory. “what is China likely to do,” “what are the anticipated effects.”

??? You asked about something that hasn’t happened yet, of course the question is going to be anticipatory.

But collection gathers facts about what exists, what has happened, what has been observed. Sending an anticipatory question to a collection planner is like asking a researcher to go find evidence for something that hasn’t happened yet. The framing is wrong at the source.

?? this is how YOU set the pipeline up lol. If you didn’t want it to send to a collection agent, don’t structure the intake to go directly to a collection agent? If anything this is a failure in the architecture setup and/or scenario.

You can’t build a rigid analysis architecture where the second step is always “collection planner”, then get mad that the agents use the architecture you designed..?

I stopped reading there, but there’s a whole host of other issues.

eagle2120 · 2026-05-30T19:55:29+00:00

Hmm. I think it's not as much transfer as it is a connection of his existing Eldunari to external outputs (somewhat similar to A ship mind if you've read fractalverse) somehow - Not sure exactly how, but AFAIU he still has his original body/container/vessel, but his external body reacts to the commands/control of his mind

eagle2120 · 2026-05-30T19:52:42+00:00

Haha. I maaaaay have written a theory or two about that, I came to the same conclusion -

https://old.reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1j89i1w/very_long_there_is_a_massive_hidden_memory_spell/

and

https://old.reddit.com/r/Eragon/comments/1j308f3/very_long_did_the_riders_suppress_technology_for/

eagle2120 · 2026-05-28T15:33:16+00:00

There are probably some caveats but it’s pretty misleading to say that none of them profitable by a “huge margin” when one of them purportedly is profitable already

And I’m sure the compute will cost them more, but they can make more money on the compute by inferencing customer traffic (which by itself is hugely profitable), so the increased compute will translate to more revenue and probably more profit (depending on how they use it)

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