Black Hair, Black Eyes *Spoilers all RotE Books*

[Farseer]

Okay, here's pretty much the reason for my thinking that this all has some significance...

The Skill is predominate in those people who have blood from both the land and the sea (eg shares Six Duchies and Out Islands bloodlines), and these people seem to often share the physical features of black hair and black eyes. The Skill is also connected to having had "the stuff of dragons" in one's family line eg an Elderling connection/Elderling blood.

In Fool's Fate, Prilkop talks to Fitz within his cabin on Aslevjal (just before Fitz goes in search of Fool). He says,"I failed. With the old ones, I came here. We were the last ones and we knew it. The other cities had gone empty and still. But I had seen there was still a chance, that all might go back to what had been. When the dragon came, at first he gave me hope..."

Now we know that Prilkop failed in his role of White Prophet but who were the "old ones" that he is speaking of here? Hmm...I believe he is possibly talking about the last of the Elderlings, who he escaped to Aslevjal with during the cataclysm or whatever finally befell the realm...no doubt via the Skill-pillars. The other cities that he mentions had gone empty and still, must be the Elderling cities we now know of as Kelsingra, Frengong and Cassarick, if not also others we may not yet know about.

From there, once Prilkop and the last of the Elderlings established their home at Aslevjal, the Elderling line possibly dispersed throughout the Out Islander population and, as time wore on, the original Elderlings, though long-lived, eventually would have died out while Icefyre (interestingly, a black dragon ) and the Black Man, as a much longer-living White Prophet, continued to live on there.

Later on down in history, these Out Islanders/Elderling descendants took to raiding the southern lands and among these was Taker. What if dark-haired and dark-eyed Taker himself was a descendant of these Elderlings on Aslevjal and therefore also possessed the Skill magic? He heads to the region of the Six Duchies and then settles at Buckkeep. As we all know, he then becomes the first in the line of Farseers, the first King of Buck....and it is from his features that the dark Farseer look is inherited and from him that this Skill magic comes (as well as, of course, other Out Island/Six Duchies family lines).

Still thinking...

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Ah, just to clarify, my thoughts in the very first post of this thread were more about trying to link all of the different people in the whole realm who had these dark features and a proven/possible Skill-ability. This is because there is already a solid connection between black hair and black eyes with the Skill, at least with people from the Six Duchies and Out Islands (and hence why I thought it may also link other people in the realm eg the Vestrists). This clear connection is evidenced by Fitz at the beginning of the second chapter of AA:

"...And so the blood of the Outislanders still ran strong in the royal lines and the noble houses, producing children with black hair and dark eyes and stocky limbs. And with those attributes went a predilection for the Skill, and all the dangers and weaknesses inherent in such blood. I had my share of that heritage, too."