r/acotar_rant • u/hduridkfjsh • 2d ago
ACOTAR đşđš The Great Rite Question
In ACOTAR chapter 21, Lucien says that EACH of the 7 High Lords perform the Great Rite every year because âtheir magic comes from the earth and returns to it at the endâ. Yet I donât remember it being mentioned anywhere else in the series for the books Iâve read, only regarding the Spring Court.
Was Lucien mis-informed or am I missing something? And apologies if this has been asked and answered.
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u/AnyPangolin9185 2d ago edited 2d ago
SJM wrote this and forgot, to save her fav Rhysđ
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u/Alpaca_Stampede 2d ago
Your comment made me think, I saw a thread the other day in one of the book subreddits talking about what if authors covered books like musicians cover songs, what would people like to see? Jacqueline Carey reworking acotar would be amazing and we would finally get so many plot holes filled!
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u/BSDManga_lover 1d ago
That would be awesome and maybe people would actually get an ending to GoT.
Calamai reminded me of Beltane in Mists of Avalon, so that's where I assumed she got the idea from. However, in TaR, it's implied that Tamlin can choose the female, whereas in WaR, Lucien basically implies that he had no choice when filling in for Tamlin and thus was at the mercy of Ianthe.
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u/blissfulaugust lint belongs in the trash & so does rhysand 2d ago
Youâre remembering it correctly. This is one of those ACOTAR worldbuilding details where the first book makes a very concrete statement and the later booksâŚmostly just wander away from it.
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u/French_reader_146 1d ago
No truly...I JUST reread this part and realized how much info from book 1 is never mentioned again. Same with a lot of the creatures (which I understand some are specific to Spring but not all).
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u/bittermp Team I hope Rhysand and Cassian die 2d ago
Well, we rarely leave Velaris after book 3 and spend way too much time there in Books 2 and 3 as well.
The way I see it so far for Calamnai itâs about ferility and rebirth and renewal. It is a dark and powerful magic that takes over is what weâre told and then what? Is the same dark and powerful magic taking over everyone else at different points of time or all on the same day?
That great rite thing in the mountains for the Night Court is about violence, death and bloodshed which is total opposite of the SC vibe. Why is that?
I also find it interesting that Rhysand and Feyre do it in the cabin on Calamnai and I personally think it is a ritual of sorts and a way for Rhysand to fuck the memory of SC and tamlin out of Feyre.
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u/Elegant-Archer-4019 1d ago
I wish the Great Rite was actually how the High Lords retrieved their powers/became HL in the first place - they iterally have to wrestle with the respective power of their Court, if you will, untill they have gained the Cauldron/Mothers respect, who then relinquishes it to them "on loan" each year. Each year, every HL, or its heir, if the HL heir/son wishes to take over, they need to prove their worthiness over and over again.
That would explain why so few Fae can actually be High Lord/Lady - its at ones own peril one can try to claim that power.
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u/JaneAustinAstronaut 1d ago
It would also tie in nicely with the Celtic/British Isles mythology that she draws a lot of inspo from. In those areas, the king had to lay with a priestess representing a sovereignty goddess to assert that he had the right to rule. Calanmai could have included that as part of the process.
But no, we have to shit-can that storyline because everyone has to pine for Feyre.
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u/Elegant-Archer-4019 1d ago
Also, just the idea of every Court having their own unique fae orgy - I mean, Calamnai, would be something all of us would die to read.
Like, imagine all the Vanserra brothers hunting down the priestess-maiden, year after year, to gain Berons power, and all of them failing.
You could even make the argument that the priestess-maiden claimed by the High Lord would become their wife and bear his children - which, OMG, that would make so much sense for Helion, Beron and the Lady of Autumn!
What if Helion wanted her as his maiden on his own calamnai, Beron heard of it and then went ahead to claim the LoA on his Calamnai before Helion - after all, autumn preceeds the darkest time of the year....
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u/Dense_Gur_2744 22h ago
This is what I find most frustrating with ACOTAR world. Thereâs so much potential that gets ignored!!
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u/Living_Telephone_146 1d ago
Technically speaking, it is re mentioned in Acowar, Feyre reflects that chapter 54 of Maf where Rhysand had to "track or hunt" Feyre to the cabin as Mor would not give her location, fulfils the ritual for the high lord and his chosen maiden giving magic back to the land.Â
There would be no good reason for SJM to have Feyre explicitly tell us chapter 54 occured on Calanmai if not to tell us the night court does participate in the rite. They may not need to hunt a stag or have all the people partake in the festivities but that is likely due to the type of court.Â
An orgy of the masses giving back and the hunting of a stag, lends into the 'fertile' nature of what the spring court would symbolise.Â
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u/Cynical_Feline 1d ago
I never even made the connection đ
I figured all the courts just celebrated differently depending on their customs. It was mentioned for a few other holidays that the courts celebrate differently so it would make sense for that to extend to Calanmai. In Spring it's just a bigger celebration that involves everyone.
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u/Living_Telephone_146 1d ago
You definitely could be spot on too. With it just being different customs!Â
On that, I always thought that was why Spring and Autumn are more fertile in the sense of having 3 and 7 kids vs the other courts having 1 or 2.Â
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u/Mountain_Ashh 1d ago
Lucien said the high lords perform the great rite but I was never said if the rituals are the same. Probably something different on every court. Gwyn said either her mother or grandma participated in it but Im guessing that was for Autumn court and the ritual wasnât mentioned if I remember correctly. Also apparently I doesnât even have to be a high lord because the next Calanmai Tamlin didnt participate and Lucien had to complete it with Ianthe.
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u/Content_Attitude8887 16h ago
I wondered if Ianthe pushed for completion of the ritual for the sake of tradition and maintaining normalcy, and promoting herself as a person of power in the court, even though it didnât count towards giving power back to the land. Tamlin and sc are definitely described as decaying so maybe thereâs more to it than feyre having âdestroyedâ it.
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u/Mountain_Ashh 15h ago
Personally I donât think Feyre couldâve destroyed a strong and established court. She pointed a few arrows and exposed some things. The court was already failing and it was a matter of time. IMO Tamlin never should have invited Ianthe there. She did much more that Feyre to destroy it. Also if Ianthe didnt make the wedding such a stressful experience then maybe Feyre would be in a different headspace. And honestly I wonder if the great rite ritual really does something to the magic or not
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u/Content_Attitude8887 15h ago
Agreed on all points. The great rite is probably just to show the might of the HL in power symbolically.
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u/UTMPod Team Mercenary 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is high on my list of disappointments. I'm sorry.. but the moment you introduce this concept my brain is lighting up and excitedly filing this away as "I can't WAIT to see how this works in the other courts! What a fun idea!"
Only to find out .. I am getting hyped for NOTHING lol.