Brannon Galathynius · The full story
The first fire
Aelin's fire didn't start with Aelin. It started two thousand years earlier, with a bastard the sun goddess chose and a theft that outran a queen.
BRANNON OF THE WILDFIRE
The fire everyone fears in Aelin is his, gifted by a goddess.
He was a bastard-born Fae of immense power, born in Wendlyn roughly two thousand years before the series, and the goddess Mala Fire-Bringer gave him fire. He fought the Valg beside his friend Athril — who carried Goldryn — and beside the Fae queen Maeve, in the first war. 'Brannon of the Wildfire,' they called him. The flame of the Galathynius line begins with him, which is the quiet reason the reader recognises it every single time Aelin burns something to the ground: she is doing what her ancestor did, with the gift he was given.
THE THEFT
He turned on the most powerful being alive and ran west with everything she wanted.
When Maeve murdered Athril and turned on him too, Brannon — terrified of what she would do with the three Wyrdkeys — stole them from her outright, took Mala's sacred sun stags as well, and sailed west across the ocean to escape her reach. It was a permanent rupture with Maeve, and it is the grudge that drives the whole back half of the series. On the far shore he founded the kingdom of Terrasen and its city Orynth, and took his House crest from Mala's sun stag.
THE GODDESS
The Sun took a mortal body to be with him, and gave up forever to do it.
Mala Fire-Bringer came down into a mortal form to be Brannon's mate, forsaking her immortality for a mortal life at his side. Their daughter was Elena Galathynius, who would marry Gavin Havilliard and become the first Queen of Adarlan. But Elena spent the Lock early, to trap Erawan instead of binding the Wyrdkeys forever — and so the true task fell back onto Brannon's own line, a thousand years later, onto a fire-blooded descendant who would have to finish what his daughter left undone.
A MESSAGE ACROSS A THOUSAND YEARS
His last act was to hide everything and trust a descendant he'd never meet.
He forged the Amulet of Orynth to carry one Wyrdkey, marked the keys and their chamber in Wyrdmarks, hid the third key in Mala's own temple, and engraved a warning on the amulet's back for the heir who would one day gather all three and have to die sealing them. Then he walked into the molten river at Mala's temple and went down into her fire. When Aelin reclaims that temple at Ilium, his thousand-year-old ghost rises from the flames to give her the quest — find the Lock in the Stone Marshes, and sink the keys forever.
The first fire
He is the founding myth the whole series is quietly a sequel to.
Mala's gift
A bastard-born Fae of huge power, born in Wendlyn and given fire by the sun goddess herself. They named him Brannon of the Wildfire.
The Valg Wars
He fights the Valg beside Athril and the queen Maeve in the first war, two thousand years before Aelin is born.
Athril falls
Maeve murders Athril for Silba's ring; he dies fighting her with Goldryn, having hidden the ring inside the blade.
The theft
Fearing what Maeve would do with the three Wyrdkeys, Brannon steals them and Mala's sun stags and sails west across the sea to escape her.
Founding Terrasen
On the far shore he founds the kingdom of Terrasen and the city of Orynth, and takes House Galathynius's crest from Mala's sun stag.
The Sun made mortal
Mala forsakes her immortality to take a mortal body as his mate; their daughter is Elena.
Hiding the keys
He forges the Amulet of Orynth to hold one key, marks the keys and their chamber in Wyrdmarks, and hides the third in Mala's temple.
The warning
He engraves a message on the amulet for the heir who must one day gather all three keys and give up their life to forge a new Lock.
The molten river
His death: he walks into the fiery river at Mala's temple and goes down into the flame of his goddess.
The ghost at Ilium
A thousand years on, Aelin reclaims his temple and his ghost rises from the fire to set her the last task.
The Lock in the marshes
He sends her to the Stone Marshes to find the Lock and bind the Wyrdkeys forever — though he cannot tell her how to kill Maeve.
What he left behind
A founder's inheritance, hidden for a thousand years.
- GoldrynAthril's flaming sword, which Brannon took after Maeve killed him and hid in a cave by the Wendlyn lake — the blade Aelin later pulls from the water and carries to the end.
- The Amulet of OrynthForged by Brannon to carry one of the three Wyrdkeys, with a warning engraved on its back for the descendant who would have to finish what he started.
- The sun stagMala's sacred beast, stolen out of the old world and made the crest of House Galathynius. A stag constellation still points north toward Terrasen.
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