‘Tartarus’ is the name of a prison created by the elder gods in Greek mythology. It exists on “the other side of the flat Earth.” Earth isnt flat. Fillory is. Blackgate Spire is Tartarus, and it ties directly to Prometheus... and... Pandoras Box.
A couple of leaps of logic...
Titans were traditionally dumped in this prison to contain them. They’re at least one generation stronger than the gods physically portrayed in the series. A lot of the titans were released for one reason or another (usually good behavior), including Promethus (rescued by a mortal), who was dumped there for a while.
Of the titans impisoned there, we have (in order of those most likely to have the monster’s personality):
- Menoetius - a ‘younger’ titan. God rash action and violent rage
- Epimetheus - was the titan god of afterthought and excuses (Prometheus’ brother)
- Perses - God of Destruction
- Hekatinkheires - A hundred-hand, hundred-head monster that’s both imprisoned, and guards the dungeon. It was imprisoned solely for being too powerful for Zeus to handle. This might also why we still havent seen the Monster’s true form.
Its possible the Monster is pulling proto-titans sealed within the other gods. If this is the case, then if he / she / it is successful, it spark a war between the titans and whatever is above them. Everything below them will be promptly curb stomped; but probably not immediately.
This would easily overshadow ALL past events the casts has faced. It could even be worse, if you account for at least one object having hieroglyphics on it. This means, its not just recovering Greek titans, but also their equivalents from other polytheistic religions.
It gets more complicated, because the human charged with keeping the Monster distracted, could be a variation on Pandora. This could make the access panel for magic, the real ‘box’ which contained many of humanity’s evil aspect, as well as Hope (personified).
In the original legend, Pandora was sent to Prometheus and his brother with the box, as a way to ‘tarnish’ the ‘perfect’ creation that is humanity.
- Monster and its sister are nameless "mistakes", created by Old Gods. Though they kill Our Lady Underground and ex-Librarian gods, they have no interest in current affairs and instead plan to wage war on the Old Gods themselves.
Its already been suggested multiple times that her power is building with each miracle. Her power surpassed Raynard’s before his demotion. A maenad converted from Bacchus to her, rather than commit suicide after Bacchus’ death.
We’ve seen that the gods spend a lot of their time creating other worlds, while Julia focuses on Earth, and possibly Fillory. The more miracles she accomplishes, the more followers will begin worshipping her, the more power she will gain.
The later conflicts will probably revolve around Julia’s role as a god as the less benevolent gods try to retain their power.
- So far Jossed: she's possessed by Monster's sister, rendering whole question moot.
- Jossed for good: after exorcism Binder converts her to full human.
- Jossed: She couldn't penetrate the glamour until it was broken by Julia. Though she noticed some oddities in color perception.
- Jossed: It is made very clear that Quentin is the one who is leashed. The Super-Beast has an agenda, and it treats Quentin like a puppyboi - violent abuse included.
Its not really explained what happened to Prometheus other than the other gods really hated the fact he loved humans, and they eventually ‘killed him’ soon after he created the keys.
The show described the keys as ‘horcruxes’ which in the potterverse are effectively containers storing part of an entire soul. Though there’s an issue here: if the keys are the horcruxes, then what are the pieces of the monster the other gods store within themselves?
Julia was able to recreate the keys AND its demonstrated she is still very much a god. By all accounts, she actually carried out godly duties which actually puts her a step above the self-centered gods.
Julia and Prometheus are / were both very humanitarian gods, unlike their counterparts. This suggests Prometheus’ power grew much like Julia’s, and this probably upset the other gods.
Maybe, Prometheus’ splits didnt stop with the keys. When he was weakened, the other self-centered gods saw their chance and spiritually ‘tore him apart.’ After doing so, they augmented their own power and reduced him to a child like state.
While in this state he remembers only enough to realize he’s incomplete. Since he’s creepy, still powerful, they dump him in a special dungeon where he consumes any other ‘dissidents’ as sort of a “blind idiot monster.” His human guard doesn’t know what he is so she just kind of assumes he’s an amazingly scary monster.
After his roaring rampage of revenge, he starts to realize what he really is, and remembers that there was a point where he foresaw the gods would need the humans. Thinking back on the horrors of his recent existence, he decides being a god is no longer for him, and hands his power off to one or more of the main characters to prepare them for the next steps of what he foresaw.
His goal is probably to have both humans and lower gods on equal footing for what’s to come next.
- Gods, and beings wielding comparable power, whether their own or accumulated in artifacts, can kill other gods permanently. Whole point of the Monster's imprisonment is that it cannot be killed for good even with godlike power. Therefore, it's something very much different. Otherwise gods wouldn't bother with prison and just snuff it out.
- Except its already established in-universe that ‘killing a god has consequences.’ With the humans, this resulted in magic getting shut off. One god killing another probably has its own form of enforcement. Historically, in the real world, when a government is averse to executing someone, they put them some place where they stop being a problem.
- Do not conflate physical inability with voluntarily enforced laws: Ember choked Umber without batting an ear, and in turn was killed with freshly enchanted sword, and both completely ceased to be (Ember's phantasm was created while he was alive and made autonomous), and Iris was trying to kill Julia, fully and legally recognized as goddess by her peers and in exactly the same situation as Prometheus. For consequences to occur word must've reached the Elder Gods one way or another, which took quite some time, and after that they issued the Plumber to manually switch off magic - no built-in law of nature to punish any party, it required informed decision and action. The Monster, again, cannot be killed by any means available to gods, and they're shit-pants scared of it (justifiably so) - historically, any death ban, taboo and moratory could be lifted or circumvented if someone in question is too much of a threat to stay alive (as Monster is), often after imprisonment to keep it hush-hush. More on the reinforcement - you must be head-up-your-arse dumb if you create something so dangerous (Umber was scared of his enraged brother, but he still saw him as more or less equal, while Iris shits a brick the moment the Monster catches her and has nothing to counter him with) while trying to squeeze into Fate Worse than Death-instead-of-death loophole, when laws in that area are enforced at will and on individual basis. Even if they were under Ape Shall Never Kill Ape restriction, Monster now slaughters any god it can find, causing orders of magnitude more damage, and there must be a loophole or just plain way of petition to get rid of it - y'know, like shooting rabid dog, otherwise whole system is pointless Plot Device to bring back someone sympathetic for a shallow plot twist.
- We are informed about his death by Calypso. The one who both designed the prison, and had to know what it must keep imprisoned, and had warm feelings for Prometheus himself. She'd said "they took him away/tore him apart/unmade him/something similar" instead of simple "killed him" (or just interrupted herself before saying anything) - even if she's prohibited to give any info on prisoner that wouldn't be enough of a hint, so there's no reason for direct lies.
- Jossed: Monster and his sister are literally nameless "mistake" gods, born with too much power and unable to die. Since even dismembering cannot kill them, Old Gods don't interfere in the affair.
I've been pondering what its true nature might be. This show loves a twist reveal of what something REALLY is; The Beast, Harriet, even Marina.
So using that to assume the monster will not be as it seems (as well as the events of Season 4 Episode 2); my theory is that The Monster at the End of the World is in fact the Abrahamic God or rather, what remains of him. The so called Old Gods stole something from him; potentially aspects of perfection or something along those lines; dividing up the countless domains held by a singular god amongst hundreds or thousands of lesser (but still vastly powerful) gods.
This will further lead to him targeting Julia as she now holds the piece that was given to Renard.
- Correction to theory: so called Abrahamic God was a mistake, created by Old Gods. When it proven itself a jerk even by gods' standards they tried to repurpose it's parts, ascending some mortals with them.
- It could go either way; though if they did it because he was a jerk that's just the pot calling the kettle black.
- A jerk even by their standards.
- It could go either way; though if they did it because he was a jerk that's just the pot calling the kettle black.
- She spent the piece re-creating the Keys.
- I don't think she actually spent the piece, I think she burned up all the power she had collected; and the spark is still there, just out of juice. I figured that's why she was drawn to Brakebills again even under the glamour.
- Not arguing the spending part, but she was drawn to Brakebills by Fogg's decision, who wanted to make some amends, and her very own innate magic gift is still there, as well as her considerable talent, which is enough. She failed all tests because glamour was messing with her thinking, but all this was waived, because Fogg knew what's going on.
- She confirmed she still has the seed of power in her, it's just burned out like I thought; wonder how long it'll take The Monster to figure it out?
- I don't think she actually spent the piece, I think she burned up all the power she had collected; and the spark is still there, just out of juice. I figured that's why she was drawn to Brakebills again even under the glamour.
- Another theory is that it's 'simply' a crippled, amnesiac Elder God, who was incredibly unlucky enough to fall victim to the gods' plan to overthrow one of their parents. Mind you, that's like one child out of millions purchasing their hundredth set of toys (after destroying all the previous sets) only to discover they're evil magic and transform the child into a toy just like them, except the toy still retains enough power to be imprisoned with all the animals they've also turned into toys - who are quickly eaten alive by the kid with the BB gun.
- The things inside gods are his bodyparts. They're made of clay and inscribed with Mesopotamian symbols. There's a myth in that region, about a thing made from clay and watered with blood of god. It was called 'man'. More precisely - the first man, Adam (which means "clay").
- Freeze-frame shows that both inscriptions and that page are in Egyptian. Which is even more confusing. Though, there is a myth about dismembered Osiris...
- Jossed: The clay organs belonged to the monster's sister. Both she and the monster are gods who were born "mistakes" and abandoned but could not die. Not being able to die they could be dismembered by humans without invoking the old gods nerf button
Elliot finally overcame his fear, and it's doubtful Quentin will be able to fully reconcile with Alice (besides, he offered this in the first place).Though they must both survive and solve the matter of the Monster for this.
Jossed: Quentin is dead before he can reunite with Elliot.
But she will sacrifice herself willingly. And it was she who came up with that scheme with organs, and now she's guilt-ridden.
- Sadly, confirmed: Monster's sister breaks her neck after possessing Julia. Though she had nothing to do with stone organs, and she did not sacrifice herself as much as interfered and didn't run away in time.
When he persuades Penny to give up on the Quest, he reasons that it doesn't really matter in the end, since magic is just a means to control mortals, and thus appears to be sympathethic. But it also may be he couldn't care less about Penny and mortals, and all we was doing is trying to sabotage the Quest, to ensure that noone accidentally frees the Monster (which actually happened).
It teleports with noticeable sound like them, while gods appear seamlessly, as if they always standed there. Though no clue as to how that might affect plot.
The one Josh whacked off on during his Quickening? Yeah, a magical STD spreading among a forest can't be good for the ecosystem.
- Not protesting the theory, but Earth descent as a royal requirement is now moot, since both Fillorian gods are dead and cannot enforce the law anymore.
- King himself in episode 4 confirms he's of Earthian descent and knows at least some of modern concepts.
- Jossed: He's Rupert Chatwin.
- The storage was stolen by Marina, who wanted to exploit the Convergence, but so far she gave no indications of alliance with the Dark King.
- Jossed: they don't even know about each other.
- Zig-zagged: The far-off land is indeed Earth, but the gate is of the Underworld. The Dark King wants to open it, which would free all the dead and kill everything alive. Since his immortality is tied to the Fillory itself, the gang decides to destroy it completely themselves, while saving people in the Ark.
