Hey guys, I thought I would start this topic because we don’t know a whole heck of a lot about Aisling? We know a fair bit about Sullivan and his adventures, even the way he felt due to his writings in The Monarch Papers. But Aisling is still a mystery to us.
We know that she followed the path of silver, and she met Sullivan at the crossroads of that path. They married in the ruins of a temple. She dreamt of a little red house where she, Sullivan, and Deirdre would be safe. And she raised Deirdre as virtually a single parent until Sullivan came to take her away, and Aisling sacrificed her life to protect her only child.
She sounds like an amazing person to me, extremely brave and very Ebenguard like her daughter. But I’d love to hear your thoughts on her, or things you’ve noticed on Deeds’ blog.
Oh hey! Time to engage in my favorite internet pastime: rampant speculation.
So, when we were first attempting to figure out what to do with Sullivan’s journal entry that unlocked the Chronocompass, I was combing every resource I could find for mentions of Deirdre’s mother.
In addition to what you listed above, we know Aisling and Monica were best friends in school, and I feel like imagining a person Monica would have been good friends with gives me some ideas of what she may have been like. But since Deeds mentioned that Sullivan and Aisling had met when she was following the path of silver, I have to wonder how she picked up that thread in the first place.
Someone mentioned on the Fragment thread that we should probably distinguish between the group who created The Storm and the path of silver itself, and I categorically refuse to believe Aisling herself could have been involved with the Silver group’s nefarious plans to destroy those opening the Book of Briars. (I have lots of thoughts about them, too, but that’s mostly for another post.) However, knowing what we now know about the conflict between Monarch’s Mountain and the Silver makes me think.
This conflict has endured for generations, so clearly someone (or several someones) from the Silver passes down their knowledge of magic to the next generation, and I can’t imagine them letting their magical materials circulate just anywhere, jealous for power as they are. Thus, the most likely way I can imagine Aisling reaching the path of silver is through a relation; maybe a distant or estranged relative had some knowledge of the path, or of the magic in Neithernor, that got her started?
I have several theories on Aisling, both as a person and her part to play in this world.
What we know is that she was a traveler, that she explored the paths and was seeking Neithernor (Much like her daughter now) This makes me believe she was a Weatherwatch
However, we also know that she sacrificed herself to save her daughter, which is not out of character for a WW, but falls more under the Ebenguard umbrella.
There is always the possibility she was a polyguild, the first major polyguild we would have met so far. However, I think she is probably one of the two guilds I have listed.
As for her spouse Sullivan, I believe he was a Thornmouth.
(These are just my two cents at least)
So there was some speculation before about why she was on the Path of Silver.
From looking at our own path, and Monarch’s Mountain being on the Path of Wool maybe, some of us literally stumbled upon this. I think it was the same for her. I’m still not all that sure about what exactly separated the paths in the beginning, but I think that Aisling happened upon that particular path and that’s how she discovered magic. There’s a chance she could have been introduced to the Path of Silver through her family, just like Deidre, but from what we’ve learned about her I like to think she was adventurous enough to go out and find magic in the world on her own since she was willing to walk her Path on her own before she even met Sullivan. (Unless of course she didn’t walk it alone before him, but we don’t know enough about before then so this is all speculation of course.)
There’s not one proper way to discover magic and one Path isn’t necessarily better, and from what we’ve learned about her relationship with Sullivan, being on the Path of Silver doesn’t make someone the bad guy.
So the Storm might have been created by those on the Path of Silver once upon a time, but I think Aisling should be an example of how that doesn’t represent anyone who’s ever walked that Path.
