The Power of Five: Introductions

 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!

Bringing Light

 This week, I ‘m going to do something a bit different for my blog post.  I still have plenty of ideas to dig into the Mull-tiverse theme, and this week’s post will still be related to that, but I won’t be looking at any of the books in particular.

Last week, I watched a live stream interview with Brandon Mull where he talked about his journey to becoming an author, his process, his inspirations, and how his faith impacts these things.  It was a beautiful interview that gave me more respect for him not just as an author (which I already had) but as a human being.  I left that event thinking, if I ever have the opportunity to meet him in person, I am going to take it because I want to thank him in person for the inspiration he has given me and so many others.

There are plenty of things that I could discuss about that interview here, but I am going to focus on three comments he made (one random, one insightful, one inspiring).  The intent is not just to rehash the interview and do a play-by-play.  For one, he had some very vulnerable moments where he shared some personal experiences and, while this increased my respect for him and aspire to have the will to be that vulnerable in the right moments, I don’t feel it is my place to pick apart his life experiences.

This is a fan blog, but it is more about the content than the man himself.  That being said, any opportunity to get content from the author is golden.

Random: One of the things he asked was if he had a favorite of his characters or if there was one he felt particularly connected to.  He didn’t really answer this, but he did.  First he explained how it was his job, as an author, to hide the fact that all of his characters are part of him.  As an aspiring writer myself, I appreciated this, but when he got down to talking about one particular character, I was actually surprised: It was Nate from Candy Shop Wars.  The reason I say he didn’t really answer this is because his explanation was that Nate was closest to him personality wise at that stage of his life.  I honestly expected it to be Seth from Fablehaven and Dragonwatch since there is more content about Seth, but it was also very intriguing and made me more eager to read the Candy Shop War books again (also, he said his next one would “probably” be a CSW 3 book).

Insightful: Another one of the questions, really the main question that they focused on the most, was how his faith impacted his writing.  He basically told his life story as a response, but one thing that he said really stood out.  I wish I had written his exact wording, but here it is in a nutshell: a time came where he had a decision about what kind of stories he wanted to produce.  He said he was so full of ideas that there were plenty of directions he could take.  The decision he made was that he wanted to share stories that brought light into the world.

This, of course, got me thinking about all his books that I’ve read and the light that they have brought to my life and my son who has read some of his books too.  It also made me think of his literal use of light: the Source, the orantium blast that destroyed Maldor, and how thematic light and the battle between light and darkness is across all his writing.

To go full-on Nerd for a moment here, I LOVE fan theories.  I don’t necessarily agree with every single fan theory out there, but I love the idea of fan theories.  One of my favorites is one of the biggest out there: The Pixar Theory, which suggests that all Pixar movies exist in the same universe on one gigantic timeline (if you don’t know about it, look it up; it’s fascinating).  Any time Pixar comes out with a new movie, I try to see how it fits in to the Pixar Theory.  Then I watch the Super Carlin Brothers (probably the biggest proponents of it) to see what they have to say about it.  At one point, the Super Carlin Brothers made a comment that made me love fan theories even more.  They were addressing some comments about people who had found content that disproved the theory, and basically their response was: You don’t get it.  That’s not why fan theories exist.  It’s about the message that the theory teaches as a whole.  With the Pixar theory, that message is about two sources of energy that we all need: emotions and memories.

Back to the interview with Brandon Mull: his comment about light, with regards to this blog, made me rethink what purpose it can serve.  It’s fun to see how the worlds are connected, and point out the Easter Eggs in his writing, and I’ll continue to do that.  And because of the comment from the Super Carlin Brothers, I had always intended to get to the point where I identified the overarching theme.  Then the author, himself, handed me the answer: bringing light into the world.  I know this is super vague, and could go in a lot of different directions.  But Brandon Mull handed me the compass, so to speak, to identify the theme.

Inspiring: This one is going to take a sharp turn away from the book content pretty soon, so to avoid distracting from the comment Mull made later on, I’m going to get this out here now: there was a specific moment in Dragonwatch: Return of the Dragon Slayers that popped into my mind and became even more meaningful than it already felt when I read it for the first time.  It was the moment when Seth was immersed in the aether at the Source.  You can read my detailed analysis of this scene in last week’s post as it relates to the Mull-tiverse, if you want.  His comment made me realize that there was imagery he uses that I was missing out on.

Brandon Mull made a comment directly about his faith that struck me.  I have been thinking about it all week, and not as it relates to his writing.  He had been recounting a time in his life where he had felt “unfixable.”  He didn’t see any way that he could be repaired, so to speak.  The way he was able to move past that was his reliance on the Savior, Jesus Christ.  He said he had always thought of himself as a faithful person—had great faith in prayer, liked going to church, served a mission for his church, but it wasn’t until that experience that he truly understood Christ’s role as our Savior—that he can fix the unfixable, heal the unhealable, and bring light where there’s darkness.  I don’t remember if those were his exact words, but it’s what I left thinking about after the interview.

What’s funny is, as I started watching the interview, knowing he would be talking about his faith, and still thinking that it would be interesting to dive into his writing again based on what he said.  While that is true, and I am excited about continuing to explore his books to develop this fan theory further, when he made this comment, at least a piece of that went away.

It became, and remains, much more important to learn how to rely on Christ and become a better person.

Moving forward, I’m still going to explore Brandon Mull content and the Mull-tiverse theory because, as I said, this is a fan blog.  And I hope it is as fun for you, the readers, as it is for me.  But I’ll be diving into themes more, and since Brandon Mull is a Christian, and since I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and therefore a Christian as well, I’ll be exploring Christian themes in the writing.  It's going to be a great ride!

Source Abilities

 Continuing from last week on further connections to the Mull-tiverse that “Return of the Dragon Slayers” offers us, I’m going to write today about the most obvious one of all: The Source.  Dragonwatch is not the first time we have heard about The Source.  It’s even called the same thing in The Five Kingdoms—it’s what the slipstreams in the Echolands (which are made of a substance called ether) lead to.

Playing devil’s advocate for a second (just because that’s fun sometimes), let’s make the argument that “The Source” is such a generic term that it can be used in different series, even by the same author, and not be the same thing.  Plausible.  Until you hear this from Konrad:

“This world can be debilitating,” Konrad said.  “But better, higher purer realms exist.  The Source is proof of that.  It connects to them” (519).  And later this, when he is talking about entering the Source himself: “The Source unnaturally prolonged my life… Too many of those days have been spent without my wife.  It’s time to see if I can catch up to her” (543).

I would argue that this is more than a wink and a nod to anybody who has read The Five Kingdoms series.  So today, I’m going to spend some time exploring the connection between Seth, and another Brandon Mull hero who spent some time in the Source… Or at least something that led to it: Cole Randolph.  The burning question that pulled me into my explorations for this post was this: Was Cole Brandon Mull’s first Shadow Healer?  After all, both spent time in the Source, and both had remarkable healing abilities after that experience: Cole was able to unblock the effects of shapecraft, reuniting others with their powers, and Seth was able to end the suffering of the undead.

So let’s dive in:

Cole spent more time in the ether of the slipstream than Seth spent in the aether of the Source—or at least more page space—which means we have a lot more detail on Cole’s experience.  In the fourth book of the Five Kingdoms series, “Death Weavers,” Cole dives into the slipstream to rescue Destiny, and stays behind so he wouldn’t get captured.  At first, the ether whips around him, physically trying to pull him toward the Source.  But his experience changes when his thoughts changed:

“But somebody had to save Tess.  And so many others.  He had to hold on… He needed to live.  He had to see his family again.  He had to help Dalton and Jenna find their way home.” (411)

These noble thoughts cause a shift in how Cole experiences being in the slipstream:

“The windy fluid still mostly whooshed around him, but now it felt like some of it flowed through him.  As he paid attention to the sensation, it gradually increased.” (412)

This is our indication within Five Kingdoms that the slipstreams do more than just carry echoes—or at least living echoes like Cole—into the next realm.  And it doesn’t take a whole lot for it to do more—just the right thought pattern. 

As a side note at this point, I love that there is something tangible that changes Cole that is directly tied to his thoughts; Cole has been heroic up until this point, but I would argue that this is the point where he truly becomes a hero.  And as a side note within the side note, being a literary nerd, I also love that this follows one of the conventions of Epic Heroes, which is a descent into the afterlife.

Okay, back to it.  Cole’s thoughts change, and the more he focuses on those thoughts, the more his experience in the ether changes.  One of my favorite moments as we are following Cole’s thought process starts off feeling like a tangent, but ends up being a remarkably profound moment:

“A memory stirred.  When had he heard wind like this?  The terminal void behind the cloudwall!  He wondered if the swirling maelstrom might be composed of this same ether.” (412)

As I read this section again this morning, preparing for this post, I had a total geek out moment at the use of the word… you guessed it… “void!”  Granted, this is void with a lower-case “V” but it’s no accident that “void” was used here.  There are plenty of other words to use—maelstrom, for instance.  In this little “this seems familiar” moment that Cole has—which happens SO MANY times in the course of a normal day—Cole hits on something profound: Although there are drastic contrasts between the Void, and the Source, they are connected.

Also, which other Mull-tiverse hero has experienced both the Void and the Source?  Seth!  Okay, Kendra, too, but we’re focusing on Cole and Seth today because he was immersed in it.

The passage with Cole in the slipstream is one of the richest passages in the Mull-tiverse.  And it doesn’t end with Cole’s connection between the void and the slipstream:

“Cole began to feel hot inside.  Although the ether penetrated his body, something within him resisted the shrieking gale, causing incredible friction.  The heat became uncomfortable before Cole recognized the scalding element as his power.

“He was feeling his power!” (412-413)

Unlike Seth, who discovers what the change within him means only after leaving the aether, Cole discovers it while ether is still swirling around and through him.  It heals him of his wounds, and he starts to hear the homesong:

“Cole had lost everything—his home, his family, his friends, his future—but this song promised restoration.  Peace and joy and endless abundance that included all he believed he had lost.” (413)

Even though Cole ultimately decides to leave the slipstream rather than continuing on to The Source, this is a significant experience, and completes his journey to becoming a true hero: he goes from desperation to resolve to pain to peace.  It is only after Cole feels peace that his transformation is complete, he can harness his power, and go on to complete his quest.

Now let’s explore Seth’s experience in some more detail.  We don’t have as much to explore here since Seth’s experience is a quick dip in the aether rather than a prolonged battle with a slipstream.  But there are definitely similarities.

I “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” Seth is invited to either drink from the Source or bathe in it.  Not wanting to become one of the undying, Seth opts for the bath.  I might add here that this likely prolonged his life, which I thought was interesting, though never directly addressed.

So the circumstances of the experience were quite different, though both Cole and Seth chose to “dive in.”

Before taking the dip in the aether, the Alderfairy asks Seth, “Do you formally renounce darkness?” and before answering, here is what we get for Seth’s reaction:

“He considered the champions of darkness he had met… then compared them to those who favored the light…Seth reflected about how he felt in the presence of the Void, contrasted with how he felt here beside the Source” (520).

Even though this is much more condensed, it is essentially the same though process that Cole goes through.  Seth thinks about his enemies and then his friends.  Then he thinks about the Void and the Source.  I’ll point out here that Seth has been dealing with darkness for NINE books now!  He became a Shadow Charmer in the second book of Fablehaven, and is reflecting on it near the end of the fifth book of Dragonwatch.  So even though we have a brief paragraph here, he is reflecting on TONS of experiences.  So it is not a light decision (pun intended) when he answeres, “I renounce darkness.  I’ll fight for the light.  I’ll help keep the balance” (520).

It’s also important to point out here before we go on that Seth has gone through a TON of desperation and suffering at this point.  He has also been firmly resolved for a long tome to not allow the darkness within him to get the better of him—and that includes the suffering caused by the stab from the unforgiving blade.  This is not to cheapen Cole’s experience at all—he had been through a lot too, and his experience was also after a lot of desperation and suffering.  We are just given a great illustration of those stages while he is in the slipstream.

Now, let’s look at Seth’s experience when Konrad has fully immersed him in the aether:

“For a moment, time slowed, and Seth experienced overwhelming bliss.  Not a single fear could trouble his mind.  He was forgiven and deeply loved.  Whether he lived or died, everything was going to be fine.” (520-521)

Seth finally gets the feeling of peace he has been longing for.  In his mind, the word is “bliss” and later “happiness,” but the idea is the same.

I said earlier that I felt like Cole became a true hero when he left the slipstream.  Even though Seth enters the Source so close to the end of the Dragonwatch series, I would make the same argument for Seth.  He was incredibly heroic in several instances through the entire Fablehaven and Dragonwatch saga.  But he became a hero and did the most heroic things of all after leaving the aether.  This is when “darkness is replaced by light” (paraphrasing what Konrad says on 521) and Seth becomes a Shadow Healer.

This leads us back to my original question: was Cole Brandon Mull’s first Shadow Healer.  Through most of my exploration on this topic, I was convinced that he was:

Seth, who actually has the title of Shadow Healer is able to end the suffering of the undead.  He is able to dispel the darkness within them and show them the light.  Cole is able to heal the damage caused by shapecraft to those in the Outskirts, and almost everyone in the Outskirts, at least in a way, is undead because they are in a “space between.”

Both heroes were fully immersed in substance connected to the Source, which travels through many dimensions, as established in Dragonwatch.  This means that even though it was called aether in one and ether in the other, it’s the same stuff.  Both had powers before, and both powers changed after being in the Source.

I am telling you, I was so convinced of this.  But then I read this:

“The aether works a little differently on everyone, depending on who they are and what they really want.” (519-520)

So I had to ask: what did Cole want?  Considering Cole’s specific experience, I had to go with what caused the change in his experience once he was in the ether.  Here’s that passage from “Death Weavers” again:

“But somebody had to save Tess.  And so many others.  He had to hold on… He needed to live.  He had to see his family again.  He had to help Dalton and Jenna find their way home.” (411)

To sum up: Tess, The Outskirts, Life, Family, Friends.

And for Cole, this isn’t a priority order, it’s a sequence order to the end result of getting back home.  He has to make it home, but he has to save the Outskirts in order to do that.  It’s important to point out that he is still willing to help save the Outskirts even if it means he can’t get home, but that is his goal, and his powers are uniquely suited to allow him that opportunity—in the Outskirts.  Not on Earth.  Because that is also a contributing factor.  After all, the Mull-tiverse is a multiverse.  That, and healing the effects of shapecraft is not Cole’s only ability.  He is able to use raw shaping to recharge magical devices and others with magic abilities in the Outskirts.  So ultimately, I do not think Cole is a Shadow Healer.

Just for fun, let's look back at Seth for a second.  What does he want?  His statement in “Return of the Dragon Slayers” is “I renounce darkness.  I’ll fight for the light.  I’ll help keep the balance” (520).  And again, I’ll point out: On Earth.

Their powers are in separate dimensions, where magic works in different ways.  Cole loses his abilities when he returns to Earth, and I am guessing the same would happen to Seth if he ever went to the Outskirts or Lyrian... even though these abilities were gained in a substance that travels through all dimensions within the Mull-tiverse... or would he?  What would happen if Seth ever traveled to other dimensions?  And what if Cole somehow found the Source on Earth?

Well, those are questions to explore later on. 

Colson, Selona and The Source

 Fair warning: there will be spoilers for the final installment of Dragonwatch in this post.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I haven’t been neglecting Brandon Mull’s books.  Before reading “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” I wanted to reread the other books in the Dragonwatch series.  I was hoping to find some new support for the Mull-Tiverse theory in doing so, and boy did I!

For today’s post, I would like to focus on some new information that we learn in “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” namely the secrets of Selona, and what those secrets do to support the Mull-Tiverse theory.

In the last installment of Dragonwatch, we learn where Selona is, and how it stays hidden.  Unlike some of the other secret places in the Fablehaven/Dragonwatch universe (The Fairy Realm, Zzyzx, the stadium in Humburgh) it is not a pocket dimension, and unlike the preserves and dragon sanctuaries, it’s a little more unique than just distracter spells, although very powerful distracter spells are used to protect Selona.

Gerwin explains it this way:

“Long ago, our kingdom was part of the normal world.  But as our people became the Fair Folk, mortals began to instinctively avoid our land, driven away by our magical natures” (427).

I know, this is no different than the preserves and the dragon sanctuaries.  The dense population of magical beings naturally causes mortals to steer clear of the area.  But this is only the beginning of Selona’s secret.  This was not enough to satisfy Konrad that Selona was safe, and Gerwin explains this, too, when he says, “My dad always told me that too many important things are hidden in Selona” (429).

He elaborates on this a little bit by referring to the fact that the sovereign skull, which protects humans from full-on dragon attack, is hidden in Selona.  He says he didn’t know all the details, but it is understood that other significant magical items (and, as we learn later, The Source) are hidden within the kingdom as well.

Moving everyone into a pocket dimension didn’t seem to be an option for an entire kingdom and all its inhabitants so Konrad, and the other powers that be, took a different approach:

“Selona is markedly distinct… Imagine two entirely different maps covering the same area, both perfectly accurate.  The sun shining on Poland is the same sun giving light to Selona”  (429).

While this is really cool to think about, you may already be thinking, What does this have to do with the Mull-Tiverse theory?

Well, let’s dive into it!

This, as I see it, is the strongest evidence that supports that the Earth in Beyonders, and Candy Shop Wars is the same Earth as the Fablehaven/Dragonwatch universe.  The strongest link is between this and Candy Shop Wars, so that’s where I’ll go next.

In an earlier post, I pointed out that Vista, Colorado (from Beyonders) and Colson, Colorado (from Candy Shop Wars) were a little more challenging to fit into the same Earth as the Earth in Five Kingdoms and Fablehaven/Dragonwatch because those two series only use actual places.  Selona changes that in one regard, but it also hands us an awesome explanation!  A combination of high magical population and protections brought on by other spells (to keep magical items safe) can cause the general population to avoid, and even forget about an entire kingdom… or city!

Let’s talk about Colson, California.  Right out of the gate, the biggest flaw in this idea is that Nate’s family just moved there.  So how did they find it if it was protected?  I’ll tell you: I don’t know.  I’m still fleshing that part out, but here’s what I have so far: First off, I don’t think that what is hidden there is anything nearly as significant as the location of the sovereign skull or the Source (though, I think it’s connected—I’ll get to that), which means the spells would not be nearly as strong.  Additionally (or maybe alternatively?) it is possible that it is a much newer protected area than Selona, which is ancient.  Another idea is that somehow there was magic involved in the job offer that Nate’s dad received—one that he wasn’t even aware of—that needed to occur in order to bring Nate to Colson, similar to the way that Rachel and Jason were drawn to Lyrain.

So, I just said that it’s possible that the magic protection in Colson isn’t as old as the magic protection in Selona.  There is actually support of this in the book.  The first is the name of Ms. White’s shop: “Sweet Tooth Ice Creame and Candy Shoppe.”  I know that there are still little towns that have novelty stores that still use the old fashioned spelling, but you can’t overlook any detail in a fan theory.  Additionally, there’s this little nugget from page 30: “All along Main Street from Greenway to the hill topped by Mt. Diablo Elementary, the buildings looked like they were trying to belong to the Old West.”

Or maybe the people in the town are now trying to make it not look like the old west anymore.  Maybe the magical protections began in the old west days.

If this isn’t enough to convince you, no worries, this is not where it ends!

The tasks that Ms. White gives to Nate, Summer, Pigeon and Trevor are to get them to find a magical item—specifically a draught from the Fountain of Youth.  There are TONS of legends out there about the Fountain of Youth.  I think it’s safe to say that this would be a location worth protecting with magical barriers.  But they’re not looking for the fountain itself, just a draught from it.  So, while it is incredibly important to protect, it is not nearly as important as protecting the location of the actual Fountain of Youth.

So here’s the story: Someone, at some point way back in history, found the Fountain of Youth, and pulled a draught from the fountain and kept it.  Whoever that was, or whoever got it from them, found a safe place to hide it in California in the day of the Old West.  I am guessing that individual was a magician, not a wizard.  Why do I say this?  Well, partially because that is the established source of magic in Candy Shop Wars, but also because the spell was clearly not as strong as those put over Selona.

But wait!  There’s still more!  Let’s look back at Selona again for a bit:

Powerful magic was used to protect Selona because it was the location of the sovereign skull, yes, but the biggest reason they went to such extensive measures to protect it was because it was also the location of The Source.  We learn in “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” we learn that on Earth, the access to The Source is a pool of a substance called aether, surrounded by a remarkable garden. 

Seth bathed in it, which healed his “unhealable wounds” and turned him into a Shadow Healer.  Kendra’s ankle was healed in it, as well as the Fairy King’s bit from a narcoblix.  But these aren’t the coolest things the aether can do:  Konrad and his children drank the aether and became undying.  Aether was used to water crops and livestock in Selona, and it turned the inhabitants into the Fair Folk.  Konrad’s wife bathed in the aether, and it prolonged her life!

I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a way cooler version of the Fountain of Youth than most other legends.  So the connection is even stronger!  The Source, or at least its location on Earth, is the Fountain of Youth!

I have to say, I was very excited to discover this, because I was originally really worried about finding connections between Candy Shop Wars and the other books.  This discovery brings it fully into the theory in my mind and I am so excited to find more connections!

What on Earth is a Torivor?

 The majority of this post is from my good friend Ryan Baker.  We have been tossing ideas off each other, and he came across a real break-through in the Mull-Tiverse theory as he was reading the third book of the Dragonwatch series.  After this paragraph, I'll be posting Ryan's words.  This one is amazing, and connects the Single-Earth component of the theory as it relates to torivors.  I will supplement with italics in a couple spots:

If all of Brandon Mull’s books take place in the same universe (or multiverse), then one of the

obvious connections between series to explore is the torivor.  Torivors are explicitly mentioned

in both the Beyonders and the Five Kingdoms, and they are clearly the same type of being in

both series.  Therefore, the Beyonders and Five Kingdoms take place in the same universe.

But do Kendra and Seth inhabit the same universe as Cole, Jason, and Rachel?  Are they all

from the same Earth?  I’m going to assume they are all from the same Earth . If they are all

from the same Earth, then a torivor might easily have visited the Earth of Kendra and Seth.

But there’s a problem.  According to Trillian, a torivor who goes to Earth would lose its powers. 

He even says it’s uncertain whether a torivor could survive such a trip.  That initially made it

hard for me to connect torivors to Earth.   I asked myself “why would torivors be powerful in

Lyrian and the Outskirts, but not on Earth?”  Clearly the torivors are quite adept at the “magic” of

the Outskirts (shaping), and although they don't seem to use the resident magic of Lyrian (Edomic),

they are still quite powerfulthere, and do seem to have at least some connection to Edomic (which seems to be involved in

Maldor’s control over them). 

I just finished listening to the audiobook of "Chasing the Prophecy," and a detail I had forgotten was that the torivors are able to use Edomic through Maldor (and vice-versa) as evidenced by their visiting Rachel in her dreams, which allows Maldor to communicate with Rachel. In this way, they are essentially being used as an Edomic router.

So why would they be powerless on Earth?  Why would they not have some access to the magic

present in the world of Fablehaven?  Well, maybe they do.

When Trillian said a torivor would be stripped of power, I suspect he was only talking about shaping. 

Trillian would not have been familiar with any other forms of magic, and when he sent his servant on

the Pilgrim Path, he probably only saw that his connection to shaping would be lost if he walked that

path.  He would not have been looking for, or even known how to look for, other types of magic.

And of course, losing shaping ability upon going to Earth makes sense in the Mull-tiverse.  After all,

Rachel was an adept at Edomic but could not use it at all when she returned to Earth.  It stands to

reason that something similar applies to shaping.

I 100% agree with this speculation.  The closes evidence I can think of to support it is the wolf-headed slaver in "Sky Raiders."  Presumably, this slaver is from Eloweer, and is unable to conceal his true form on Earth.

Ok, so that’s that problem resolved.  But there’s still the issue of a torivor’s ability to survive on Earth. 

Trillian makes clear that Earth could be a very hostile environment for his kind.  And that got me

thinking.  See, torivor’s in Lyrian have a very distinct form- they are essentially living shadows who

apparently cannot speak (except for in dreams, or in Rachel's case, telepathically, which is further evidence of their ability to use limited forms of Edomic).

That’s quite different from their form in the Outskirts.  When Ramarro finally escapes from his prison,

he is described as an albino man, and he does quite a bit of talking.

So if a torivor looks like a living shadow on Lyrian and like an albino man in the Outskirts, what on

Earth is a torivor?  I suggest that we’ve already met one.  Her name is Dezia.

Yep, I think phantoms are actually torivors.  In both Lyrian and the Outskirts, torivors arrived from

some other realm.  In the case of Lyrian, it seems they were summoned there and tied to the

Myrkstone.  In both cases, they had to travel through some sort of gateway to get there.

In book 3 of Dragonwatch, “Master of the Phantom Isle,” we learn where phantoms come from.  We

first hear it from Ronodin, who tells Seth “Phantoms are ethereal.  They have no tangible body. 

Nobody knows exactly where they come from, but they are born out of deep tragedy.”  We further learn,

however, that unlike many undead, phantoms are not a transformed version of an earthly being. 

Rather, Ronodin says, “The phantom is what fills the footprint of the tragedy.”  

Ronodin seems to think that the tragedy createsthe phantom, but Dezia tells us otherwise.  She says “Many years ago, fifteen firewalkers lost their

lives inside the volcano Baga Loa.  They are buried here under those coals I helped you cross. 

Their demise opened my gateway to your world.”  (emphasis added).

This suggests that Dezia existed prior to the deaths of the firewalkers, but inhabited some place other

than Earth.  She was able to come to Earth when a gateway opened!The same way torivors travel from their realm to Lyrian or the Outskirts.  Strangely, phantoms are

counted among the undead despite having never been a living, earthly being.  That seems to square

nicely with the questionable survival of torivors on earth.  They are neither fully alive nor truly dead. 

And phantoms certainly seem to be limited in their power.  They have some access to magic, but they

are confined to a limited space and bound to a token, just as torivors in Lyrian were bound to the

Myrkstone!  

The pieces seem to fit.  I believe that on Earth, torivors are phantoms.

What the Heck is Hank?

 I've started re-reading Candy Shop War and I am now even more convinced that the Vista Point Zoo is a magicians lair!  It only took a few pages before lightbulbs started flickering to life in my brain again: remember how Mrs. White says that children are her favorite "customers?"  And I can't believe I had missed this connection before, but through most of the book, Mrs. White is having the kids "work" for her--the tasks getting progressively more risky.  It just makes it all the creepier that Jason is working at the zoo when you think about it in this way, but it fits so well!

But today's post is going to focus on another aspect of this magician's lair: the animals.  I am still convinced that the animals at the Vista Point Zoo, at least some of them, but more likely all of them, are mythical creatures that the magician has started collecting.  If we are following the laws established in Fablehaven, the residents of Vista wouldn't know the difference unless they "drank the milk" of the appropriate creature.  This is possibly one of the things Nate hasn't encountered yet--maybe the owners don't trust him enough yet.  After all, he doesn't seem to be questioning his own safety as he works there--at least not yet.

The big question, though, is what do they have in their mythical creature collection?  Because it's in Colorado, I picture sasquatches that look like gorillas.  I also imagine they probably would be attracted to more dangerous creatures, so maybe an aviary with harpies and sirens or a reptile house with gorgons.  Maybe they have some griffins that look like lions (or eagles?).  But for the most part, we have to use our imagination because, even though it references how many animals they have, we only know of one animal that they have for sure: a hippo.

But what mythical creature would look like a hippo before you "drink the milk?"

Fortunately, we don't have to dig too far to figure out the answer to this one.  Galloran actually gives us the answer on page 82 of "World Without Heroes:"

"'I know how this sounds.' Jason shifted uncomfortably. 'I came here through a hippopotamus.'

'A water horse? Intriguing.'"

Now, I know that hippopotamus actually translates into "water horse," but Galloran could have just repeated "hippopotamus?" when Jason said it.  For that matter, he wouldn't have even had to say that.  He could have just said "Intriguing" and been done with it.  But he didn't.  He said water horse.

So I looked up water horse on Wikipedia.  From this, I learned that it could be a few different things: it could be a kelpie, a hippocamp, or another form of lake monster.  The article there goes on to explain that some use the term kelpie to mean both lake and turbulent water monsters, but others distinguish between still water monsters, like the famed Nessie, and turbulent waters--kelpies being the creatures that live in turbulent waters.

Further Google "research" indicates that hippos spend up to sixteen hours a day in lakes and rivers, that they can hold their breath underwater for up to five minutes, and that the Greeks are credited with given them their actual name, which means "river horse."  So--it actually means water horse, but the Google search said "river horse," so we're going to go with that.  So Hank is actually a kelpie!

Not convinced yet?  Let's look at some of the other details.  Look at this passage from page 17 of "World Without Heroes:"

"Jason paused to stare over the railing at the enormous hippo resting motionless below the water on the floor of the tank.  Hank was the only hippo in the zoo, an adult male with his fortieith birthday coming up in the summer.  Jason shook his head.  The majestic hippopotamus--hard at work as usual.  They might as well replace it with a statue.  No visitors would know the difference." (17)

Hippos can hold their breath underwater for five minutes.  That's a really long time, but Hank seems to be able to hold his breath for a lot longer than that.  If Jason has been working at this zoo for a while, this probably isn't just a random thought of adolescent hyperbole.  He is completely submerged a lot.  In fact, when we see him again in the second book, he's completely submerged then, too.  The little red-headed kid wants his mom to "make him come up."

Additionally, hippos are social creatures, who thrive in family groups.  I'm not claiming that Hank is "thriving" by any means, but he is massive, as indicated in several parts of both scenes where he is featured.  But he is alone.  And kelpies are more solitary creatures.

But what about their magical abilities?  Galloran explains that Jason's arrival to Lyrian via the hippo is "the residue of very old magic."

So what magic do kelpies have?  An article on historic-uk.com says this: "Kelpies can also use their magical powers to summon up a flood in order to sweep a traveller away to a watery  grave." (https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Kelpie/)

This one, admittedly, is more of a stretch, but think about this: Jason was a traveler (though not intentionally) who was "swept away to a watery grave."  Not his own, but that of the Giddy Nine.  And even when he comes back (this time as an intentional interdimensional traveler), Tark was on his way to the same watery grave before Jason rescued him.

Sure, it wasn't a flood, but he was sent to a river where people were about to die.

Considering that Jason is from the same Earth as Seth and Kendra, which means he lives in a world where mythical creatures are hiding, sometimes in plane sight, from human, it makes more sense that it was a mythical creature that brought him to Lyrian, and a kelpie comes closest to what would be able to do that.  Plus, it makes sense that those without access to the special milk or butter that allows you to see mythical creatures would see a kelpie as a hippo.

There's Something Weird About the Vista Point Zoo

 I LOVE the Beyonders.  It is an amazing series.  The wizard races are awesome, the adventure and the moral messages of the series are fantastic.  Most of the time, I had no issues with suspension of disbelief throughout the series.  But even early on, there were a couple things that just felt off about the Vista Point Zoo.

Here's a passage from page 16 of "World Without Heroes":

 "Although the family-owned institution was no match for the Denver Zoo, Vista Point held a respectable population, with more than four hundred animals representing almost one hundred and sixty species."

The zoo is family-owned?  Private zoos are not unheard of: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is a privately owned zoo.  Even family-owned isn't entirely unheard of.  The book "We Bought a Zoo," by Benjamin Mee, is a true story.  But most, if not all, it's not that simple.  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was deeded as a non-profit public trust, and its founder, Spencer Penrose, was the founder of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society.  Even the Mees no longer "own" their zoo.  Eight years after buying it, it was donated to the Dartmoor Zoological Society, which is a charity.

Still, privately-owned, and even family owned zoos are not unheard of, so let's dig a little deeper. Jason is thirteen years old, and he's working... at a zoo.  It's weird enough that he's thirteen and has a job, but it's even weirder that his job is at a zoo.

Jason lives in Colorado, so out of curiosity I looked up the three zoos in Colorado.  In size order from smallest to largest, that is the Pueblo Zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, and the Denver Zoo.  All three require employees to be at least 18. 

To be fair, let's say there is a youth volunteer program at the Vista Point Zoo.  All three Colorado zoos have these, too.  in Pueblo and Colorado Springs, these programs are for fourteen and up, so Jason almost makes the cut... almost.  The Denver Zoo has a Teen Intern program, and participants have to be at least thirteen.  Sweet!  There you go!  But there's a catch.  All three of these programs are summer programs.  And Cole is working there in the winter. 

Even if you can shrug off the fact that it's family-owned and the idea of a thirteen-year-old working at a zoo, let's look at the display in front of the hippo exhibit.  Here's another passage from page 16:

"When he entered the hippo viewing area, Jason paused to admire a glass case on the wall labeled: MONUMENT TO HUMAN STUPIDITY.

"It contained various items workers had fished out of the hippo tank over the years: aluminum cans, glass bottles, coins, cigar stubs, two cigarete lighters, a dental-floss dispenser, a pocket knife, a tangled Slinky, a plastic wristwatch, a disposable razor--even a few rounds of ammunition." 

This, admittedly, is hilarious.  I love that they have a display labeled "Monument to Human Stupidity."  But it's a little on the nose for a zoo.  Zoos now days are all about conservation.  They take good care of their animals and use a lot of the money they make to promote animal conservation projects.  They are very friendly about it.  And their signage reflects that as well, often using the word "Please" or using gentle reminders that litter and foreign objects are not good for the animals.

Calling your guests stupid, as funny as it is to read about, is not great business.

And then there's the list of things in the exhibit.  Most are not too surprising.  But how many people floss while wandering around a zoo?  Or shave!  Or fire off guns!  Even the slinky is a little extreme, but maybe a little kid got it at the gift shop and dropped it in.

As hilarious as this passage is, it makes me wonder about the owners, and the guests at the Vista Point Zoo.

Let's look at the owners.  We know very little: they are a family, which means it's a private zoo.  Most private zoos are affiliated with a Zoological Society--conservationists and charities.  With Cheyenne Mountain, Penrose's personal animal collection was getting big, so he made it a zoo so others could enjoy seeing the animals.  Over time, it has evolved into an organization that promotes animal conservation projects, as many zoos do.  If we are drawing, or even jumping to conclusions about this, we can assume that the family who owns this zoo are animal enthusiasts who want to show off their cool collection.  Maybe they're affiliated with a charity, but most charities don't insult their guests by calling them stupid, even if it's an indirect statement.

At Dartmoor, the Mees wanted to save the animals, so they bought the zoo, and when it was better established, donated it to a charity that could do a better job of running it than he and his two kids could.  Benjamin Mee is still the CEO of the charity, and still lives at the zoo.  So maybe this family is more like the Mees.  They saw animals who were not being properly treated, and did something to solve that problem by buying a zoo and living on it.

Who else do we know of in the Mull-Tiverse that cares about animals and lives with a wide variety of unique animals... and creatures?  Hmmm... Wait!  What if the Vista Point Zoo is actually a preserve for mythical creatures!  I really liked this idea for a while, even though all the other preserves are on massive amounts of land... in remote areas... and most of the creatures roam free on the land, restricted by magic rather than physical barriers... and the caretakers do everything they can to prevent people from seeing the creatures they protect... okay, so it's probably not a preserve for magical creatures.

But then there is the connection between Fablehaven and Candy Shop Wars that magicians exist as "pretenders" and Wizards are actual magical beings.  So what would a magician, who wanted to have a collection of mythical creatures look like?  Well, they could never leave their lair--they'd have to live at the zoo.  And magicians don't seem to have any issue with people unknowingly traversing their lair.  Not only this, at least some of them have shows that they want people to come into their lair.  Why else would you make your lair a candy shop or an arcade?

This also would explain their lack of tact with the "human stupidity" display in front of Hank the Hippo's exhibit (if Hank really is a hippo... just sayin'...).  

And it could potentially explain the stupidity of some of the guests!  Maybe there's cotton candy that suddenly makes people obsessed with hygiene--they just have to floss... or shave... and don't even realize they're doing it.  Or maybe White Fudge is involved somehow.  It has always made me sad that Jason's parents were so inattentive to him, but not his older siblings, and this, while in some ways, could make it even sadder, also means that it really isn't their fault: if they are the victims of a cruel magician who causes them to neglect their son, who unwittingly is working for them around creatures far more dangerous than he realizes... at least it's not their fault.  See what I mean?  Way worse, but also... in a tiny way... mildly better because they're good parents, just not themselves lately.

And as the icing on the cake, it supplies some fodder to bring the Beyonders series more firmly into the One-Earth piece of the Mull-Tiverse theory!

I know this leaves a lot more questions, but would love to hear what other people think.  Is this too far fetched, or does it make Brandon Mull's books more enjoyable to read and talk about?  Do you have any other tidbits that would support the Mull-Tiverse theory?

And what kind of creatures do you think they have at the Vista Point Zoo if they really are mythical creatures in disguise?