#also I don't remember if I've talked about the lightning rod parallel on here so if you're confused on that pls just lmk and I can explain

[wundrousarts]

What do you think about the other Wundersmiths besides Morrigan and Squall?

There are always 9, and Squall supposedly uses the "curse" to cover up killing all the children born on Eventide, because they have the potential to become Wundersmiths. Yet there were only three other cursed children registered in the Republic (and even then, Jupiter didn't think that they were Wundersmiths at all). Do you think that all of the other Wundersmiths went unregistered in the Republic? Are some actually born in Nevermoor? How come they haven't been discovered, if Squall can't kill them (I assume he can't, given that they don't seem to have any version of the curse)? Why can't they be born in Nevermoor, and does it have something to do with the attempted coup/massacre?

I think it could be possible that post-Massacre, Wundersmiths couldn’t be born in Nevermoor due to the magic that’s keeping Squall out, but I can’t say if the same is true pre-Massacre. According to Sofia, in the olden days when a Wundersmith would die, Wunsoc would send out a team to search “all over the realm” for the new one. This would cover all of the States, probably also the Free State. I think sometimes folks forget that Nevermoor is just a city in a larger state! I think it could be interesting if the city of Nevermoor is so Wunder-dense that Wundersmiths can’t be born there. I also like to think that Nevermoor/Wunsoc is similar to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, if you’re a Star Wars fan. Both are places of study that people with magic powers who are taken away from their parents at a young age go to train.

When it comes to the cursed children, I feel like the “lightning rod” parallel in Nevermoor and Hollowpox solidifies for me that they all are (or, eight of them are) Wundersmiths. It’s mentioned that there’s three other children on the registry, and then Mog is the fourth, so there should be four other mini Wundersmiths out in the world. It is possible that they aren’t registered. They also possibly could be in the Free State perhaps. Regardless of where any of them are, because of the Gossamer and the Hunt, Squall can just kill them whenever from wherever it seems.

You have to also remember that the "curse" isn't real, it's just something that people made up to rationalize why the children died. If there are perhaps Wundersmiths born in the Free State, perhaps they're harder to spot because they aren't publicly registered in the same way. Also, I wonder if any of accidental manifestations are brushed off easier because the Free State is so much more Wundrous than the Republic. I know that Mog had like a huge gathering, but perhaps it's a little easier to passively or unconsciously use up/dispel Wunder in the Free State just because there's so much that seems fueled by it. This, along with the fact that there is no longer a dedicated Wundersmith Search Team, might be why folks slip under the radar and also don't raise alarm bells when they are inevitably killed by Squall. Also, they may not even manifest anything! Nothing Mog was accused of ever seemed to link back to her Wundersmith powers afaik, and I think she was only found by Jupiter due to her abnormally large gathering of Wunder.

Additionally, referring back to Sofia’s quote, they could also just die whenever. Perhaps, despite Squall’s best effort, not all of the Wundersmiths are always born on Eventide post-Massacre just because one died of natural causes or an accident earlier than expected and threw a wrench into the reincarnation tracking. Don’t think too hard about how this then wouldn’t match up with my Eventide theory 100%, because that honestly has a lot of holes and I might have to put that on hold for a book or two until we get more Wundersmith info.

I don’t think there’s another child Wundersmith out there waiting to be featured in a future book, and I also don’t think that there’s secretly an older Wundersmith out there. I think that Squall would’ve noticed that during his cullings. However, I'm curious what Jupiter meant when he said "they're safe" when asked about the other cursed children. I wonder if he did manage to snatch one or two up, or if that was a lie. I personally don't think there's any more out there, nor do I want any more to show up, but who knows.

I think it’s worth mentioning that Mog, as our beloved Main Character, is an Anomaly. Whereas other States with cursed children had shortages, there was an abundance of Wunder in Wolfacre. I don’t think it’s something like “some Wundersmiths are just more powerful than others,” I think that Mog's power compared to the others is due to her mindset + emotions + the environment that she was raised in that caused her to just unconsciously gather an absolutely massive amount of Wunder. For all we know, the other cursed children could have been coddled by their parents due to their bad luck and impending deaths whereas Mog was scorned. Honestly, I wonder if her family might've treated her a little nicer if her mom hadn't died? Anyways, Mog's resentment and anger and emotions are vital to her power, which is something we see explored a lot in Wundersmith, especially with Inferno. She stood out to both Squall and Jupiter, which is why both of them wanted to pluck her up.

If anything isn't clear or you'd like me to elaborate, please let me know! Also if any of my info is straight up wrong, please tell me, because that happens sometimes lol.

TL;DR: I think it’s hard to theorize and answer a lot of these questions with much certainty because there’s a lot we don’t know, either because it hasn’t been discussed yet or it’s been filtered through biased or unreliable sources.

Side note: do you think that Squall also kills any other unlucky (lol) people born on Eventide that aren’t Wundersmiths, or does he spare them?

#this is NOT answered remotely in order of your questions and for that I am sorry #asks #nevermoor #nevermoor theory #got distracted partway through and nows it's 3:30 AM so I may have forgotten some things I was going to originally say. rip. #also I don't remember if I've talked about the lightning rod parallel on here so if you're confused on that pls just lmk and I can explain #thank you for the ask I always love getting asks that allow me to think and talk about things! #I think I have like two or three things in my drafts that are responding to you just I'm postponing them for after I reread Hollowpox