Warning: This story contains major spoilers for “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame,” the first two books in Rebecca Yarros’ “Empyrean” series.
The following text has been faithfully transcribed from Navarrian into the modern language by Georgina DiNardo, TODAY.com editorial intern.
“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.”
article one, section one the dragon rider’s codex – “fourth wing,” chapter 1
Welcome back to the world of Navarre, where Malek, the god of death,waits around every corner.
With “Onyx Storm” set to publish Jan. 21 — nearly 15 months after the ending of “Iron Flame” left readers clamoring for more — a refresher on the characters, relationships, world and plot of Rebecca Yarros’ “Empyrean” series is in order.
So, join us as we recap Violet Sorrengail’s journey at Basgiath War College and the war beyond from “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” in anticipation for everything to come in “Onyx Storm.”
The ‘Empyrean’ world explained
Places
The Continent: All the land that is encompassed so far in the “Empyrean” world. Within the Continent are different kingdoms with different leadership structures.
Navarre: The kingdom Violet and many of the main characters are from. The land within Navarre is protected from the outside world by wards, but no other kingdom (that we know of) has the protection of wards.
Basgiath War College: The school that every Navarrian officer goes through. Each student chooses to enter one of four quadrants: Healers, Scribes, Infantry or Riders, the quadrant with the highest death rate. Near Basgiath are the dragon hatching grounds known as the Vale. Basgiath is where the original dragon riders, known as the First Six,wove the wards of Navarre, which protect the borders.
Tyrrendor: One of the provinces that make up Navarre. Tyrrendor’s leaders tried and failed to secede from Navarre in the Tyrrish Rebellion before the events of the books. Navarre’s wards that originate near Basgiath do not reach Tyrrendor. Aretia was the capital before the Tyrrish Rebellion.
Aretia: The capital of Tyrrendor before the failed rebellion. It was burned to the ground by dragons as a punishment for the Tyrrish Rebellion. The Treaty of Aretia required the 107 children of the rebels to enter the Riders Quadrant at Basgiath.
Riorson House: Xaden’s family home located in Aretia that is “half palace, half barracks” and has never been breached by an army. As Aretia is believed to be burnt down, its existence is unknown. It serves as the base for the growing rebellion led by Xaden in “Iron Flame.”
Samara: Said to be the cruelest Navarrian military outpost. Xaden and Garrick are both stationed there after graduation from Basgiath.
Poromiel: The neighboring kingdom to Navarre. Gryphons and gryphon fliers train in Poromiel. Navarrian leadership tells its citizens that gryphon fliers are the enemy. Poromiel and Navarre have been at war for 400 years.
The Barrens: Dead land east of Navarre and Poromiel where all the magic and life has been sucked dry by venin who live there. It’s been abandoned by humans and mythical creatures.
Positions at Basgiath War College
Wing: There are four Wings for Riders at Basgiath. Each Wing’s makeup is identical. The Wing are how cadets are kept orderly and function under peer command.
Wingleader: A student elected by leadership to be in charge of the entire Wing. The Wingleader can elect an executive officer, who serves as their second in command.
Sections and squads: Every Wing is made up of three sections: Claw Section, Flame Section and Tail Section. Each section is made up of a section leader, an executive officer and three squads, consisting of 15-20 people each. Squads grow very close with each other over the years. Each section’s structure looks the same.
Section leader: Each section (Claw, Flame and Tail) is led by a section leader. Each section leader can elect an executive officer, their second in command.
Squad leader: Each squad leader is in charge of their squad and can elect an executive officer, their second in command.
Mythical creatures, monsters and key other terms
Dragons: Humans don’t know all the details of dragon society. Notably, there’s a governing body called the Empyrean that controls dragon law. Dragons can choose to bond with someone in the Riders Quadrant if they deem them worthy during an event called Threshing at Basgiath. Once bonded, they have a channel of communication within their Riders mind, and the dragon’s power manifests in a Rider in the form of a signet.
Signet: Every bonded Rider develops a signet. Signets are unique to the Rider, born out of their deepest desires. The stronger the dragon, the more powerful the signet.
Gryphons/Gryphon fliers: Half-lion, half-eagle beings. They do not do well at high altitudes. Gryphons bond with fliers, who ride them. They die when their flier dies. They can channel power to their flier, however gryphon fliers are not capable of producing signets. Gryphon fliers are gifted at mind work and better at “lesser magic,” such as rune work, in comparison to Riders.
Marked ones: The 107 children of the officers who fought in the Tyrrish Rebellion, led by Fen Riorson. They all carry rebellion relics, tattoo-like marks that identify them as rebel children. Unlike other Navarrian citizens who get to choose which quadrant to enter, all marked ones must enter the Riders Quadrant.
Luminary: A tool that amplifies dragon fire. Useful in quickly melting down alloy to make daggers that can kill venin.
Venin: Also known as dark wielders; they are humans who have traded their souls for power. They suck power from the ground itself. It is believed venin have heightened senses.
Wyvern: The venin create wyvern, which are similar to dragons. The wyvern can breathe flame like dragons, however, if you kill the venin that created the wyvern, the wyvern dies, too.
All the characters to remember from ‘Fourth Wing’
Violet Sorrengail: The heroine of the tale. She suffers from an unspecified chronic condition that mirrors Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, affecting her connective tissue and making her joints weak. She intends to join the Scribe Quadrant but is forced into the Riders Quadrant by her mother.Through training, Violet excels, bonding with not one, but two dragons: Tairn and Andarna. She’s a lightning wielder.
Xaden Riorson: The main love interest of Violet and son of Tyrrish Rebellion leader, Fen Riorson. Xaden begins as an enemy since Violet’s mother executed Xaden’s father. Xaden is the oldest marked one, fulfilling a de facto leadership role for the rest of the group. He also took responsibility for the 107 marked ones safety. Xaden and Violet have had a tumultuous relationship so far, with plenty of secrets. Xaden is leading another revolution and has two signets: shadow-summoning and is an inntinnsic (meaning he can read minds). He is bonded to Sgaeyl, who is mated to Tairn, giving Xaden and Violet a path to mind speak to one another.
Tairn: A dragon bonded to Violet. His full name is Tairneanach, but he goes by Tairn. He’s mated to Sgaeyl and is currently the second-largest active service dragon. He’s known to be grumpy, but he acts as a father figure to Andarna.
Andarna: She is an unknown breed of dragon and the second bonded dragon to Violet. When she was a baby dragon (known as a feathertail) she was able to stop time for brief moments. However, the power faded with age. Currently, she can change the color of her scales, but her development from a child into an adolescent was altered. By the end of “Iron Flame,” her personality is akin to that of a teenager: moody, keen on not being left out and searching for independence.
Sgaeyl: She’s a blue daggertail dragon, mated to Tairn and bonded to Xaden.
Dain Aetos: Violet’s childhood best friend, although they’ve grown slightly apart as adults. The pair had a brief romantic moment; however, it did not last. He was promoted from squad leader to wingleader and lives by the rules. He is bonded to a red swordtail named Cath. His signet is retrocognition, meaning he can read and feel others memories by touching them.
Lilith Sorrengail: A general and the head of Basgiath War College, as well as Violet’s stone-cold mother. Despite coming across as distant, her actions reflect her desire to protect her children in the long run. Lilith married a scribe, and they had three children: Brennan, Mira and Violet.
Brennan Sorrengail: The older brother of Violet. He was thought to have died during battle, killed by Fen Riorson. However, the end of “Fourth Wing” revealed he actually survived and joined forces with the revolution. His signet is healing, and he’s bonded to an orange daggertail named Marbh.
Mira Sorrengail: Violet’s middle sibling. Mira is a First-Lieutenant Rider. Her signet is ward extension, and she’s a famed rider for her skills. She’s bonded to Teine.
Catriona Cordella: A gryphon flier of Poromiel and Xaden’s ex-fiancée. Known as Cat, she and Xaden were betrothed for nine months. She’s bonded to the gryphon Kiralair and niece to Viscount Tecarus,heir to the Poromiel crown. Her magical gift is heightening others’ emotions.
Liam Mairi: A marked one and the closest thing Xaden has to a brother. Xaden assigns Liam to shadow Violet and protect her. His signet is farsight, allowing him to see very far away. He’s bonded to Deigh.
Jack Barlowe: A brutish cadet in the same year as Violet who is determined to kill her. He is bonded to the dragon Baide and has the power to manifest pain directly into someone’s body.
Jesinia Neilwart: Curator of the Scribe Quadrant at Basgiath and Violet’s friend. Jesinia speaks many languages.
General Augustine Melgren: A general whose signet allows him to see and predict the outcomes of battles. He rides Codagh, the largest black dragon alive — the only one bigger than Tairn.
Sloane Mairi: Liam’s younger sister. Violet swears to protect her, despite Sloane hating Violet. Her signet is a siphon, meaning she can suck others’ power away.
Aaric Graycastle: His real name is Cam Tauri, and he’s one of the sons of King Tauri, the current ruler of Navarre. Violet recognizes him when he joins the Riders Quadrant but respects his wishes to keep his identity a secret. His father doesn’t know he’s joined the Riders Quadrant.
What happens in ‘Fourth Wing’?
The novel begins with the book-minded Violet being forced to join the Riders Quadrant by her mother, instead of going to the Scribe Quadrant like she’d planned.
Before entering the Riders Quadrant, Mira instructs Violet to stick close to Dain and stay away from Xaden, claiming he will try to kill her in revenge for his father’s death.
Violet struggles to survive each day at Basgiath War College, facing threats from fellow cadet Jack Barlowe, who views her as weak. But she uses her book smarts to make it through physical fights and training.
One night, she overhears Xaden holding a secret meeting with all the rebellion children. Basgiath has a rule that no more than three marked ones can meet at once, so this meeting is a capital offense. Violet is caught by Xaden, but she promises to keep the meeting a secret.
She ends up excelling at Threshing, bonding with not only one, but two dragons: Andarna, who is thought to be a golden feathertail, and Tairn, an extremely powerful black dragon.
Violet and Dain kiss after Threshing, although Violet doesn’t think it feels right. Afterwards, the pair maintain a friendship.
Bonding with Tairn immediately links her to Xaden, as Tairn is mated to Xaden’s dragon, Sgaeyl, giving them the power to mind speak to each other.
Despite being mortal enemies, Xaden ends up training Violet. A rider will die if their dragon dies, and occasionally, a dragon can’t recover after their rider’s death. Tairn and Sgaeyl’s mating bond also means they cannot be apart from each other for long, and if one dies, so does the other. Because of their mated dragons, Xaden now needs to keep Violet alive to keep himself alive.
Xaden assigns Liam to be Violet’s shadow and security guard. Although Violet initially hates this, she and Liam grow a close friendship.
Xaden also trains her, and in the process, they get to know each other better, sparking attraction.
Violet develops her signet, lightning wielding, during a game of capture the flag after Jack tries to kill Liam. Violet lashes out in response and her power drops an avalanche on Jack, killing him.
Xaden and Violet begin sleeping together, although it takes them time to both be prepared to admit their love and that they want a relationship.
What happens at the end of ‘Fourth Wing’?
In the books climactic ending, Dain betrays Violet.
Throughout the book, Dain regularly touches her face in times of worry. It’s revealed that secretly, he’d been using his signet to read her thoughts, and he saw the secret, illegal meeting Xaden held. Dain reported it.
When the War Games, an end of year test of a squad’s abilities, comes around, Dain’s dad, Colonel Aetos, assigns Xaden and Violet’s squad to go to Aethebyne, located beyond the wards’ safety.
When they get there, Violet learns that Xaden has been secretly assisting gryphon riders from Poromiel, supplying them with weapons. It turns out, the reason they’ve been attacking Navarrian outposts is because they are under attack from venin, creatures Violet previously believed were only myth, and needed supplies.
Learning that venin exist and that the gryphon fliers aren’t the true enemy, Violet is forced to question her complacency and her mother’s role in spreading propaganda.
The squad then realizes that Colonel Aetos sent them into a trap. Instead of a War Games exercise, they are forced into real battle against four venin while trying to defend a nearby village.
Working in tandem with the gryphon riders, they fight the venin and win the battle, but at deadly costs. Liam’s dragon is killed, which kills Liam as well. Violet holds him as he dies and promises she will protect his younger sister, Sloane.
During the battle, Violet takes out the final venin with a bolt of lightning, but before it dies, it stabs her with a poisoned blade. Xaden flies a semi-unconscious Violet to his secret hideout in Aretia.
Violet is mended and eventually wakes up furious at Xaden for his deception. Still, Violet agrees to join the revolution and keep it a secret, but she tells Xaden she can’t trust him with her heart.
The novel ends with one more secret Xaden was hiding: Violet’s dead brother, Brennan, is very much alive, and he was the one who mended Violet.
“Welcome to the revolution, Violet,” is the last line of the book, spoken by Brennan, as he smiles at his shocked sister.
What happens in ‘Iron Flame’?
“Iron Flame” begins where the first book ended, but Violet’s inner turmoil is at an all-time high as she comes to terms with fables being real, mourns the loss of Liam, battles conflicting emotions regarding Brennan being alive and misses Xaden, despite not wanting to.
After they return to Basgiath, Xaden graduates and is immediately stationed at Samara. However, because Tairn and Sgaeyl are mated and need to see each other consistently, Violet and Xaden are given leave once a week to see each other.
Xaden promises to help Violet build her mental shields so she can protect her mind from Dain and others with similar signets. As for their relationship, they still struggle with trust. With Xaden becoming the revolution’s leader, he needs to keep some secrets, but Violet requests full disclosure if he wants to be together. They remain at an impasse for a while.
Meanwhile, the other marked ones continue to smuggle weapons out of Basgiath to gryphon fliers. Violet, now a second-year, embarks on a research journey in the Archives, with the help of Jesinia, to figure out how Basgiath wards work so she can set up wards around Aretia.
New characters are introduced, including first years Aaric and Sloane, who Violet promised to protect, as well as new villains, like Major Varrish, who is known for his harsh torture techniques and harbors a hatred for Violet.
As Violet continues to search for accounts from the First Six on how the wards were created, Jack Barlowe returns to Basgiath. It turns out, Violet didn’t kill him in the first book, and he’s been going through an extensive mending process.
With the help of her friends, Violet figures out that the journals of the First Six are most likely in King Tauri’s private vault, but they’ll need someone from his bloodline to get in, so they rope Aaric into their plan.
But before they can enact it, infantry cadets try to kill Violet. Surprisingly, Jack saves her, though it doesn’t change her distrust of him.
Violet and Xaden eventually break into the Archives for the journals and take two. However, Nolan, a healer who Violet has always trusted, deceives and drugs her. Varrish arrives, taking one of the journals with him.
Violet is subjected to torture from Varrish, but she holds strong. In a final act to break her, Varrish calls in Dain and commands him read Violet’s memories, which he does. After seeing the truth, Dain frees Violet just as Xaden and Garrick arrive. Xaden and Violet then kill Varrish together.
Xaden uses the chaos of Basgiath to his advantage, addressing all the cadets and telling them the truth of what’s happening beyond the wards. He gives them the option to stay at Basgiath and defend Navarre, or, come with him to fight for the whole Continent. Nearly half the quadrant decides to join.
The group continues holding classes for the riders at Aretia as Violet tries to translate the journals and get the wards up and running. Soon, she thinks she’s discovered the solution: blood magic.
After her first attempt fails, Violet goes in search of a luminary. She visits Poromiel’s leader, Viscount Tecarus, and learns that Xaden was offered a luminary in exchange for herself, a deal he refused. After having to fight off another venin and agreeing to train gryphon fliers in Aretia, Xaden and Violet secure the luminary.
Back at Aretia, Violet, Xaden and his ex-fiancée, a gryphon flier named Cat, spar over their twisted romantic pasts. Xaden reveals he is technically heir to Tyrrendor, reassuring Violet that he and Cat were only ever together for a political alliances.
But just as the pair starts to piece their relationship back together, it crumbles once more when Violet realizes that Xaden has a secret second signet, since Sgaeyl bonded Xaden and his grandfather before him.
Violet demands he tell her what it is. He reveals he’s inntinnsic, meaning he can read minds. Manifesting as an inntinnsic typically results in death in Navarre.
How does ‘Iron Flame’ end?
General Melgren, General Lilith Sorrengail and some other members of leadership request a meeting with Violet, Xaden and Mira.
Melgren tells them that he’s seen an upcoming battle, claiming the venin will attack Samara and win. He asks them to help in the battle, but Brennan reveals himself, telling them no.
Violet then realizes that the real battle won’t be at Samara, but at Basgiath. Violet convinces Xaden that they have to fight for Basgiath, but Brennan refuses.
Violet and Xaden give the cadets and gryphon fliers the choice to fight or not, and most decide to join.
When they arrive, Violet and Xaden rush to the wardstone, passing dead guards, to find Jack and his dragon within the chamber. It turns out, Jack survived Violet dropping a mountain on him because he turned venin. Jack kills his own dragon, which cracks the wardstone in half, knocking down the college’s wards.
Xaden knocks Jack out before he can draw power from the ground.
They begin to assemble their forces, as Brennan arrives with more riders and fliers. Brennan tries to mend the wardstone as the battle above begins.
One of the venin reveals that their goal is to take Violet alive. Violet kills the venin and runs to Jesinia, who has been continuously transcribing one of the First Six’s journals amidst the battle. Jesinia reveals that Andarna is the secret to activating the wardstone. Andarna turns out to be a dragon breed of her own and waited for Violet — a period of 650 years — before hatching.
Now, Violet has a solution to their ongoing battle. But a dragon can only power one wardstone, meaning Violet and Xaden have to decide to protect either Basgiath or Aretia.
Xaden tells her to go ahead and ward Basgiath. But first, the wardstone has to be imbued with a rider’s power, which typically takes weeks to do safely.
Violet decides to sacrifice herself, pouring all of her power into the wardstone knowing she will die from it. Just before Violet burns out, her mother kicks her aside and forces Sloane to siphon all of her power into the stone. Lilith and her dragon die in an act of sacrifice for her children, and the wards at Basgiath are restored.
The wyvern fall with the wards back up, but a bigger threat looms. It’s revealed that while Violet was sacrificing herself, Xaden was taking on a venin general — and losing. When Xaden felt Violet dying for him, he channeled power from the Earth so he could save her, turning venin in the process.
Now, in the aftermath of the battle, he reveals his new venin status to Violet, and she looks on in horror.
The final pages of “Iron Flame” are from Xaden’s perspective. Xaden seeks out Jack for help finding a cure to being venin. Jack responds that there is no cure, saying Xaden will “only hunger for more” power.
