#the starless saint

[outletcrash]

the martyrdom of sankta alina and vanquishing of the starless saint

ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵉʳˢᵖᵉᶜᵗᶦᵛᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵃⁿ ᵃʳᵗᶦˢᵗ ᵒⁿᵉ ʰᵘⁿᵈʳᵉᵈ ʸᵉᵃʳˢ ˡᵃᵗᵉʳ

ᶦⁿˢᵖᶦʳᵉᵈ ᵇʸ ˢᵗ ᵐᶦᶜʰᵃᵉˡ ᵗʰᵉ ᵃʳᶜʰᵃⁿᵍᵉˡ ᵇʸ ᶜˡᵃᵘᵈᶦᵒ ᶜᵒᵉˡˡᵒ

#alina starkov #the darkling #sankta alina #the starless saint #grishaverse #shadow and bone #grisha trilogy #s&b trilogy #aleksander morozova #alexander morozova #her light powers became a sword of light artistically #like she grabbed a ray of sunlight straight from the heavans #sun summoner #sol koroleva #the grishaverse #sab #soc #starless saint #art #my art #painting #realism #kind of #in the catholic way #can you tell i dont know my terminology.. #digital art #cult of the starless saint #this took me 3 days dont let it flop pretty pretty please

[call-me-sunpaw]

#it's literally all those darkling simps #the author knew the fandom so well she even made a part of it a canon organization #grishaverse #grishaverse memes #rule of wolves #grisha #kos duology #shadow and bone #s&b trilogy #grisha trilogy #king of scars #nikolai duology #the darkling #alexander morozova #the starless saint

[darklingduck]

They call him the starless one because his little star didn't want him.

#shadow and bone #alina x darkling #aleksander morozova #the starless saint #the darkling #alina starkov #rule of wolves #crack

[starlesssaintsasha]

“I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina," he said. "You and I are going to change the world.

#alinastarkov #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #darklina #grishaverse #shadow and bone #the darkling #ruin and rising #siege and storm #the grisha trilogy #the starless saint #sun summoner #shadow summoner

[the-starless-reader]

Death by a Thousand... Stars?

I've been going through my notes on Siege and Storm, and one particular detail stood out. It's an excerpt from the prologue:

[...] they stood together on deck, picking out constellations from the vast spill of stars: the Hunter, the Scholar, the Three Foolish Sons, the bright spokes of the Spinning Wheel, the Southern Palace with its six crooked spires.

The note says: Double-check the constellations! Alina's bedchamber has a star-speckled dressing screen! The Darkling's bedchamber has constellations on the ceiling!

And then I remembered my notes on Ruin and Rising. And guess what? The monastery of Sankt Demyan, otherwise known as the Spinning Wheel, was turned into an observatory 'a few hundred years ago'. Double-check the constellations!

[...] the bronze columns were constellations—the Hunter with his drawn bow, the Scholar bent in study, the Three Foolish Sons, huddled together, trying to share a single coat. The Bursar, the Bear, the Beggar. The Shorn Maiden wielding her bone needle. Twelve in all: the spokes of the Spinning Wheel.

It's been abandoned 'for over a century'. This version of the Darkling is approximately 120 years old. Coincidence? I think not. Sugar had been rationed in Ravka for the last hundred years, which can only mean that the current war had started around the same time he'd made himself known again.

But what about the monastery? I think that the Darkling was the one who'd turned it into an observatory. My only proof is a tale found in The Language of Thorns. It's a story about his half-sister Ulla, titled When Water Sang Fire. Our Youngling was the seer's apprentice in the lost city of Söndermane, a scholar cloistered in the Prophetic’s Tower. A stargazer!

At each level the apprentice named another subject: history, augury, geography, mathematics, alchemy. Ulla hoped they’d wind all the way to the top of the tower, where she knew they’d find the famous observatory.

However, stargazing wasn't his only preoccupation there. But we'll come back to that later. Double-check the constellations! Let's get back to the twelve spokes of the Spinning Wheel.

The Hunter with his drawn bow? That's Sankt Petyr, with his still-burning arrows. The Scholar bent in study must be Sankt Dimitri. The Bear is obviously Sankt Grigori. The Shorn Maiden wielding her bone needle is probably Sankta Vasilka, the first firebird.

What about the others? Thirteen Saints were shown on the massive triptych behind the altar in the original Lantsov chapel, where the first Ravkan kings were crowned. Thirteen Saints were featured in the original version of the Istorii Sankt’ya. But there are only twelve spokes, twelve constellations. Who's the odd one out?

Sankt Demyan is most certainly not, and here's why.

According to The Lives of Saints, the site of Sankt Demyan's death is the tallest mountain in the Elbjen. He was the nobleman who owned the land upon which a cemetery stood; and when the birches started to obscure the path, he had his servants cut a new one. When the rains came to disturb the cemetery, Demyan designed the aqueduct around the graveyard, diverting the water to irrigate the fields. But the people still complained.

He was desperate to please them. He asked the Saints to raise the cemetery up to the sun itself, so it would no longer be obscured by the shade of his previous creations.

He laid his hands upon the soil, and the earth began to shake. The ground rose higher and higher, until the highest mountain was made. The cemetery was intact, but his own family crypt was broken. The people accused Demyan of disrespecting his family name by using dark magic, and the angry mob stoned him to death. He became known as the patron saint of the newly dead.

Sankt Demyan's miracle was the creation of the highest mountain in the northern Sikurzoi.

But why is this important? Because the Sikurzoi mountains cover most of Ravka's eastern and southern border with Shu Han. And the Spinning Wheel is located in the Elbjen, which is the Fjerdan name for the northern range of Sikurzoi. More so, it's the place the first firebird came from. And that firebird is Ravka.

But what if I tell you that the first Taban queens also come from the highest mountains of the Sikurzoi range? The palace of the Taban dynasty has the Court of the Golden Wing. You know who else has golden wings? Sankta Vasilka, the first firebird.

It's said that the borders of Ravka were sketched by the firebird's flight. Its rivers run with the firebird's tears. And when one of her feathers fell to earth, the young warrior picked it up and carried it into battle. No one could defeat him, and so he became the first king of Ravka.

But where are the stars? The old Taban queen resides in the place called the Palace of Thousand Stars. Even before the first Taban queens have come to their rule, Sankta Neyar was already one of the Six Soldiers, the sacred protectors of the Shu Han.

Remember the constellations? The Southern Palace and its six crooked spires? The Spinning Wheel? It's all there, written in the stars.

And the Starless Saint knows that.

His bedchamber is built on a hexagonal plan, like the temples of Ahmrat Jen. His dark wood walls are carved into the illusion of a forest crowded with slender trees. The birch trees, like the ones growing around the cemetery. He almost died there, once.

Demon in the wood. Demyan in the wood.

The domed ceiling above his bed is spangled with chips of mother-of-pearl laid in constellations, to create the illusion of the Spinning Wheel. The ebony screen in Alina's bedchamber is speckled with mother-of-pearl stars, too. It was probably brought from his rooms, as only his chambers are furnished in ebony.

It's death by a thousand stars...

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone meta #grishaverse meta #shadow and bone worldbuilding #sankt demyan #sankt demyan of the rime #aleksander morozova #the darkling #the starless saint #grishaverse #the grisha trilogy #the lives of saints #leigh bardugo #parallels and references #a searing burst of thought

[kittenbradensgf]

more appreciation for Aleksander as a saint i think.

#the starless saint #that name fucking slaps btw #sankt aleksander!! need more for that concept #i get you yuri you strange little man i get you #cult of the starless saint #ate and left no crumbs #aleksander morozova #the darkling #darkling antis dni lololol i love himb

[just-1other-nerd]

I'm reading The Lives of Saints right now and it was pretty much confirmed in King of Scars and Rule of Wolves that most, if not all Saints of the Grishaverse were Grisha, so now I'll list them and tell you what order I think they were in. Also Spoilers for the Grishaverse

- Sankta Margaretha: Durast because she works with solid materials like metal and gem stones

- Sankta Anastasia: Healer because her blood healing people is pretty obvious

- Sankt Kho: Tailor because he works with solid materials like metal (which is a Durast thing) thing but also with flesh and bones (which is a Corporalki thing especially a Corpse witch thing) and Genya explains at some point in the first book that a Tailors powers are kind of in between those two

- Sankta Neyar: Durast because she is the Saint of the black smiths and made her own sword

- Sankt Juris: a confirmed Etherealnik, his animal is the dragon

- Sankta Vasilka: Fabrikator because she works with threads and colours (btw I'm convinced that Leigh chose this name cause it's got "silk" in it, you know like a pun), her animal is the firebird

- Sankt Nikolai: I acutally have no clue (maybe an Alkemi???) even though it seems like this little boy didn't do the wonder himself he deserves to be a Saint because he is so nice to everyone and wants to share with the people also I think his animal is definitely the reindeer

- Sankta Lizabeta: a confirmed Fabrikator, her animals are the bees (btw I'm disappointed that we didn't get a picture of her like the one described in the Grisha trilogy you know where that bitch is brutally quartered)

- Sankta Maradi: Etherealnik most likely a Squaller

- Sankt Demyan: Fabrikator most likely a Durast

- Sankta Marya: Durast because she manipulates solid materials (rocks)

- Sankt Emerens: no clue (maybe a Fabrikator???), his animals were most likely the rats. Damn he deserved better than drowning in grain because he wanted to do something good like that's such a cruel death and then they didn't even bury him in the cemetery

- Sankt Vladimir: Tidemaker because my boy is holding back the ocean all alone for a whole month

- Sankt Grigori: confirmed Corporalnik Healer, his animal is the bear

- Sankt Valentin: powers no clue, animal is a snake, the book doesn't tell how he became a Saint and I'm curious but it told us a wonder he did just like in the Juris chapter but there the "defeating the dragon made him a Saint" was at least mentioned

- Sankt Petyr: powers no clue, I don't think the demon could be his animal

- Sankta Yeryin: Fabrikator because maybe she used her powers to move millstones to make the flour

- Sankt Feliks: most likely a Materialnik like the monks in the end of RoW, animal is the falcon

- Sankt Lukin: I'd guess Corporalnik because he survives something he shouldn't and because making people sleep before they die is a very heartrender thing

- Sankta Magda: the birth help and the suddenly looks younger part sound Healer-like but the healing potions and elixars and whatever sound more like a Alchemi thing so it's gotta be one of those

- Sankt Egmond: Durast, he works with stone, metal, glass etc can it be more obvious?

- Sankt Ilya: he is Morozova, the Bone Smith, a Fabrikator who used Mezost, even though he created the 3 Amplifiers those never were his animals but Alinas

- Sankta Ursula: Etherealnik, Tidemaker the wave was pretty obvious

- Sankt Mattheus: no clue, he just tamed wolves, so I guess they'd be his animals

- Sankt Dimitri: no clue

- Sankt Gerasim: Fabrikator most likely an Alchemi, because he works with paint and powders

- Sankta Alina: confirmed Sun Summoner, her animals are the stag, the sea whip and Mal I guess

- Starless Saint: confirmed Shadow Summoner

#grishaverse #lives of saints #the lives of saints #sankt grigori #sankta lizabeta #sankt juris #sankta alina #shadow and bone #alina starkov #the starless saint #the darkling

[the--starless-saint]

Happy darkling night 🌑

#the grisha trilogy #the grisha series #the grishaverse #the darkling #aleksander morozova #the starless saint #eclipse

[spagcatstack]

ahh i hope this doesnt look too weird

#spag art #warrior cats #wc art #frostpaw #creepy tw #blood tw #scopophobia #a starless clan #digital art #mspaint #text above her says saint twice

[twilightroses]

hot girl reads or whatever

#lesbians :) #the locked tomb #this is how you lose the time war #donna tartt #the starless sea #the raven boys #books #the goldfinch #the six deaths of the saint #these violent delights #gideon the ninth

[stromuprisahat]

Halfway through tenth chapter of Siege and Storm, and it makes me so helplessly angry!

Nikolai's talking like Aleksander, yet he's The Good Guy™. He comes from privilage, picked the path that showed him suffering, yet we're supposed to see him as better than the person, who never got a choice, and still decided to care?!

Bribery and manipulation are alright as long as you're royalty?!

Brutality's excusable as long as you throw up in private?!

Am I supposed to believe Nikolai would be any better after half of what the Darkling lived through?!

I can't help but wonder why didn't Nikolai try to negotiate with Aleksander? He knows how Grisha are treated, what state is Ravka in, how corrupt is leadership... and he chooses more malleable, politically incompetent, inexperienced girl as an ally? When he's oh-so-nice and not-at-all calculating?!

#Grishaverse #S&S Chapter 10 #The Darkling #Nikolai Lantsov #grishanalyticritical #Cult of the Starless Saint #The Cult of the Starless Saint #Siege and Storm #Alina Starkov #V #anti Leigh Bardugo #Not anti Nikolai #because I kinda enjoy his character #I'm just pissed about the double standard.

[greensaplinggrace]

in much the same way that they shouldn’t have called him ‘the darkling’ if they didn’t want me to think about baby shadows and tiny cats, they shouldn’t have called him ‘the black heretic’ if they didn’t want me to find him sexy. like everyone knows hereticism is the sexiest thing a person can do

#also they shouldn't have given him the name 'starless saint' #im only human #although anybody who knows me knows that his crowning moment of attractiveness for me was when he was forced to his knees in front of alina #but shhh 🤫 #everyone doesn't need to know that #shadow and bone #sab #grishaverse #aleksander morozova #the darkling #myramblings

[hiddenvioletsgrow]

I’m a Darkling hater if ever there was one but I gotta say The Starless Saint and The Black Heretic are some pretty freaking cool villain titles

#the darkling #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone #s&b #king of scars #leigh bardugo #the cult of the starless saint #the black heretic

[idaoftheburningmind]

Dawn Greeting Dusk Falling

A reimagining of the events after ‘Siege and Storm’ and a coping mechanism for the SaB S2 ending we would rather not have…

She had kept a little of his shadow, he enough of her light. This is what made it possible, this meeting at the roiling edge of the Fold where Alina knew she would one day find herself.

Fifty years did he say? She knew it had been more, and still it surprised her as the seasons dragged on that love had endured — the love of so many, and the love of one above all. Even if she had to watch each one shrouded and laid in the ground. Each and every one.

What she means to do here now is neither a reckoning, nor a reconciliation. The moment is simply right. She looks into the shadows, and lifts her hand. The globe of light is muted, as though in a fog; but she knows he will not fail to see it.

“Alina.”

There is no rage in the way he says her name, not even a question. They are past that, she supposes.

One who was too young, and one who lived too long; they were here now, nearly unchanged but for her white hair worn unbound. He did not expect her to come sooner, he knew time well enough. He might have thought he knew her as well.

She did not destroy the Fold.

Thought dead after the collapse of the Chapel, legend had it that her spirit guided skiffs as they made each journey. For not a soul has been lost to the Fold since.

That was how she knew that he wasn’t lost. And the knowledge, when she realized it, caused her that day to weep with joy.

The two of them lived because they could not let the other die; when his humanity was burning away, she held on blindly to what remained and he … she could not name what he did, but in the end she knew he had kept her from falling into darkness.

He had kept — some essence, some hope? Light either way.

And a resolve not to lose her to the void.

What was left of him that day was drawn to the Fold, the only place where he could still exist.

A shadow among shadows.

“You might have left me with a fresh set of clothes. An eternity disheveled is its own unique torture.”

She startles with laughter, the unexpected joy at the even more unexpected attempt at humor freeing the tension in her shoulders. She lets herself smile at him, and his smile is genuine as he smiles back.

“Are you angry?” she asks.

“What is anger for?” is his reply.

Flame sputtering to life in sunlight has more purpose.

A silence heavy as the weight of loss they now share settles between them.

“I could not bear it if you turned from me now.”

He spoke the truth. It was the same truth she would always understand, no matter the centuries left to them, no matter their choices that will always hang in the balance.

She reaches for him with a tendril of shadow.

He holds out his hand in welcome.

————-

A/N: For my AU sister @becauseicantthinkwritings who has been putting up with my not-fun era for longer than she should 😅

#darklina #darklina end game #i am never writing fic again #i don’t know how you guys do this #also I’m already inconsolable #aleksander morozova x alina starkov #aleksander morovoza #alina starkov #darklina fanfiction #darklina fanfic #darklina fic #aleksander x alina #alina starkov x the darkling #alarkling #the darkling #shadow king #starless saint #the darkling x alina #general kirigan #darkling shadow and bone #netflix shadow and bone #shadow and bone season two #shadow and bone season 2 #shadow and bone #shadow and bone fanfiction #shadow and bone fanfic

[starlesssaintsasha]

“I'm the Sun Summoner. It gets dark when I say it does.”

#alina starkov #alinastarkov #sun summoner #sunsummoner #sunsaint #sol koroleva #grishaverse #shadow and bone #ruin and rising #siege and storm #aleksander morozova #darklina #the darkling #the starless saint #Sasha #Alinochka #shadow summoner

[kolarpem]

Morning Doodle: "I don't expect you to be wooed or bribed or swayed by my admittedly winning demeanor," he said so quietly that only the monk and Zoya and Tamar could hear. "But you may be swayed by the sniper stationed behind that gentle knoll--do you see it? Excellent spot for picnicking--with orders to burst your head like a summer melon if I lift my right hand." Nikolai raised his hand the and boy flinched, but the king merely adjusted the lapel of his coat. (Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars CH7)

#nikolai lantsov #yuri vedenen #cult of the starless saint #grishaverse #king of scars #rule of wolves #leigh bardugo #nikolai duology