Why 'The Monarch Papers'?

The Age of Magiq
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Why did Sullivan call his journals ‘The Monarch Papers’?
We associate the title with butterflies (Is that only because of the pamphlet Steve brought to our attention?) but also with Monarch as in a ruler.

One of the volumes is about Anne of Brittany, but another volume was about his life, and we’ve still no idea where the second volume is but have a theory it was stolen from from Sweden.

Titles are important, and can often reveal more about literature than we realize. So I’ve been questioning this. Why would you write a journal about your own adventures and title it like that? Was this Sullivan’s way of attempting to write journals about what he’s discovered about Magiq?

Monarch is defined as:

  1. A hereditary sovereign, as a king, queen, or emperor.
  2. A sole and absolute ruler of a state or nation.
  3. A person or thing that holds a dominant position
  4. Monarch butterfly

So for Anne of Brittany that makes sense … what about Sullivan’s tales? Did he think he was somehow in charge of finding and preserving Magiq and gave himself that title? He knew he wasn’t the only one who knew about Magiq though … Why put his own stories there too?

Next: Monarch Butterflies
In terms of spirituality (From the Christian perspective because that’s what I am familiar with, feel free to add or challenge) Monarch butterflies were a sign from your guardian angel that you were on the right path.
In regards to a butterfly as totem, it serves to guide us on a journey of freedom, freedom from the past through becoming a higher self.
They are common symbols or rebirth, change, and transformation.

Which Magiqmystically on the whole journey is fine and dandy and makes sense, but I never took Sullivan for the sappy type? But then again, he is/was a time travelling Neithernorian so maybe he used Monarch in the sense that he was in a dominant position of being a helping hand throughout the years?

So many questions. Come wear a tinfoil hat with me.

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cough you mean your tinfoil crown/tiara :eyes:

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Let’s tinfoil! Is that a verb? It’s a verb now.

Well, let me side track before I ramble on about your question. Why did the path of Wool choose the name Monarch’s Mountain? I don’t know. (Thanks for coming out, I’ll be here all night)

But I can guess. If the Woolies found information on the guilds, and the crests, then they also would have found out about the connection of the 6 royal houses to butterflies. It would make sense why they might. It’s just a guess, but The Woolies decided this new order was tied to butterflies, especially Monarch’s in some way so they went with it.

Now…why did Sullivan name the papers such? Well first I have to ask. Which Sullivan wrote the Monarch Papers?

Remember there are basically two in our timeline. There’s the Sullivan who was born to a publishing house, lived his life, chased magiq for most of it, met and fell in love with Aisling. Had a kid…then he kinda tried to steal her and his wife tried to kill him… Then he spent the rest of his life in Central Park.

Or at least the rest of his life until the second Sullivan. The first Sullivan let himself be sent back many decades into the past by the Storm because he knew SOMEONE would have to help shepherd all us crazy kids on our path to bring Magiq back.

It’s the second Sullivan who knew about magiq from day one. It’s the Second Sullivan who was armed with journals to himself describing the upcoming century and what he had to do. The Second Sullivan who lived (lives?) in Neithernor and may be intimately aware more about magiq than maybe anyone else.

I think it’s the second Sullivan who wrote the Monarch Papers. Not to hold information, but to transmit it, to us, to his daughter, and maybe even Laureen. I don’t think we were reading words he posted decades earlier but words he was writing, at the time, to us as we moved forward with the spell to open the Book of Briars.

Now, why the name? Maybe because it’d stand out to the Mountaineers, who were based on the idea of researching Monarch’s Mountain? Maybe just to catch our attention? Maybe it has some deeper significance though. I don’t know. Fun to speculate though.

Oh, and you definitely earn the title of tinfoil crown, @Ginger. Grats!!

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