Moons of madness research notes6/20/2023 ![]() But when Luna turns five and her magic emerges, Xan realizes something must be done: Luna is a danger to herself and others. Xan pretends that everything will be fine. ![]() Glerk warns that Luna’s magic will erupt someday, and she will be dangerous. She continues to pull magic from the moon. Xan, Glerk, and Fyrian lovingly raise Luna but worry about her magic powers. Xan knows that the baby is now too dangerous for a regular family to raise, so she names the baby Luna and becomes her grandmother. Moonlight “enmagics” the girl, filling her with powerful magic. Instead of feeding the infant starlight, Xan accidentally feeds her moonlight. This year Xan is entranced by the baby’s deep, dark eyes and her crescent-moon birthmark. These “Star Children” grow up happy and successful. She feeds them starlight and takes them to loving families in the Free Cities on the other side of the woods. Each year Xan travels to the Protectorate and saves the babies that are left in the woods. She lives with her friends, Glerk, a large, learned swamp monster and Fyrian, a joyful, Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Kind, gentle, elderly Xan is a good Witch. He thinks there must be a way to stop the sacrifices. The entire episode scars Antain’s heart, making him feel guilty and ashamed. Gherland, Antain, and the Elders leave the baby in the forest. The mother is imprisoned in the Sisters’ Tower. Gherland declares that grief has made her mad, and a force of Sisters of the Star subdue her and take her infant. She has long black hair and a crescent moon birthmark on her forehead. Clutching her daughter, the mother swings wildly from the ceiling rafters of her home, screaming her defiance. He goes with the Elders to collect the year’s baby and is shocked when, for the first time ever, a mother refuses to give up her child. Kind, thoughtful, and a skilled woodworker, Antain is an Elder-in-Training and is not privy to the truth about the Witch. Thirteen-year-old Antain is Gherland’s too-curious nephew. Gherland and the Elders know there is no such thing as an evil Witch in the wood: The yearly sacrifice, although unpleasant, is designed to keep the citizens sorrowful and submissive, and keep the Elders in power. Supported by the learned Sisters of the Star and their elite soldiers, Gherland maintains the power imbalance between the cowed, impoverished citizens and the powerful and wealthy Elders. Gherland is the head of the Council of Elders, the Protectorate’s ruling body. ![]() It is the Day of Sacrifice in the Protectorate, and Grand Elder Gherland prepares to preside over the annual baby offering. The Protectorate is a cloudy, foggy, gloomy town located between a fertile, life-giving bog and a forest filled with dangers thanks to a restless underground volcano. A parent explains to a curious child that on the yearly Day of Sacrifice, the people of the Protectorate are compelled to give an infant to the evil Witch or else she will destroy them all. While the majority of The Girl Who Drank the Moon is told in the third-person omniscient perspective, the narrative is interspersed with stories related by first-person narrators.
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