The number five is very prevalent throughout Brandon Mull’s canon. There are (currently) five series included in this canon: Fablehaven, Candy Shop Wars, Beyonders, Five Kingdoms, Dragonwatch (and since he is said he is working on a third Candy Shop Wars, that will (for now) remain at five). Three of those five series are made up of five books: Fablehaven, Five Kingdoms, Dragonwatch. But it goes a lot deeper than that as well:
1: There are
five prominent artifacts featured in the Fablehaven universe:
The Chronometer, which can
manipulate time in a variety of ways
The Font of Immortality, which
grants immortality to those who drink from it regularly
The Oculus, which allows you to see
anywhere and everywhere all at once
The Sands of Sanctity, which heal
those it is poured over
The Translocator, which can take you
anywhere you have already been
2: There are
five Kingdoms in the Outskirts:
Sambria
Eloweer
Zeropolis
Necronum
Creon
3: There are
five crowns that represent five kinds of magical beings:
Fairies
Demons
Undead
Dragons
Giants
4: The Ethergem
was broken into five pieces:
The Wizenstone
The Ethershard
The feature stone on three of the
five crowns: Giant Queen, Dragon King, Demon King
5: (This one
is just a theory I would like to explore in more depth) There are five main
realms in which magic operates differently.
This last
one is speculative, but the plan is to explore this over the next few weeks on
this blog. Here is the starting point
for this: We know of four, for sure,
already:
Earth
Lyrian
The Echolands (I am not saying the
Outskirts here because the Echolands already existed, and the Outskirts was
created from the Echolands)
The realm of the Torivors—This one has only been referenced, not actually visited, but I believe it to be a key piece of the Mull-tiverse theory.
I’ve been
thinking about his use of five, and it got me wondering about what five
symbolizes in other places. A quick Google
search provided some cool insight:
1: Five is used to represent
curiosity and adventure—how perfect is this for the Mull-tiverse!
2: It symbolizes human perfection (the human body, with outstretched
limbs forms a pentagon, we have five fingers on each hand, five toes on each
foot, etc.)
3: Five is a core number in
numerology representing life, destiny, soul, personality and maturity
4: The pentagram is a significant magical
symbol, which represents light and health
5: There are five traditional
elements: earth, fire, water, air and spirit (which is sometimes called ether
or aether)
There is a
lot more than this, but we’re kind of on a “five” kick, if you haven’t figured
that out already. The five I selected
were the ones I thought were most interesting and relevant in terms of the
Mull-tiverse if we’re exploring the number five and how it supports themes in
this theory.
The themes
of five are much more overt in Fablehaven, Dragonwatch and Five Kingdoms, but
with all this information, I bet there is relevance in Candy Shop Wars and
Beyonders as well. So here is the plan:
For the next
five weeks (not counting this one) I’ll be looking at the significance of the
use of five and what it means for the Mull-tiverse:
Week One: The obvious fives and how
they are connected across series
Week Two: Five ways that magic is
used
Week Three: How five leads us to
light
Week Four: Five Mull-tiverse character
archetypes
Week Five: Five realms of the Mull-tiverse
This is
going to be quite the adventure. I am
hoping to carry the theme of five throughout the blog posts after that, but
everything needs to start with a foundation.
See you next
week as we dig deeper into how the number five helps us connect the worlds
within the Mull-tiverse!
I think we know about a fifth magical realm, at least a little. Specifically, the realm where the Alderfairy came from. I have a feeling that realm, linked to the Source, is the antithesis of the realm of the Torivors, so I believe the Torivor realm is linked to the void. Which would be consistent with the "phantoms are torivors" hypothesis.
ReplyDeleteThis is venturing much further into conjecture, but in book 3 of dragonwatch there's some mention that when the Source was sealed off, the Void was collaterally sealed off. I've wondered if that could have anything to do with why earth is so hostile to torivors, even if they're not phantoms. They come here and lose their connection to the void. Probably some holes in that theory, but with some tweaking it might work.
This is Ryan, btw, though you may have figured that out
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