Valkyries
A spoiler-free guide to A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR).
Only showing what’s been revealed up to your current progress. Future events, identities, and relationships are hidden.
Overview
The Valkyries were an elite order of female warriors drawn from many kinds of Fae and reputed to surpass even Illyrian fighters. Their martial ranks progressed from Novice to Blade and finally Valkyrie, once the highest warrior title in their territory; the order has vanished, its homeland has been absorbed into other lands, and only fragmentary written records survive.
Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie begin reviving the Valkyries through sustained martial training, and Merrill's reconstructed history is expanded to include them as the order's rebirth.
The revived Valkyries include an expanding body of trainees whose work continues beyond the Blood Rite, with full membership treated as the result of ongoing discipline rather than a single victory.
Personality and Behavior
Valkyrie discipline trains the mind alongside the body through Mind-Stilling, a practice performed several times a day to quiet emotion, face fear, recover composure after battle, and sharpen mental control.
Mind-Stilling begins with controlled breathing, awareness of surrounding sounds, a survey of the body, and allowing thoughts to pass without engagement. Its apparently simple foundations require months of repeated practice.
A trainee's ability to cut a silk ribbon cleanly in half with one sword stroke serves as a test of battle readiness. Valkyrie combat also treats shields as offensive weapons that can strike, topple, or create openings for a sword.
Valkyries fight as coordinated units rather than relying only on individual fearlessness. Their revived training emphasizes three-person formations, synchronized movement, shields, endurance, strategy, and mutual reliance; cutting the ribbon is followed by a crowning rite in which the trainee is formally named a Valkyrie.
Advanced Mind-Stilling requires maintaining calm while moving, enduring pain, and fighting under physical strain, extending the discipline beyond seated meditation into combat.
Relationships
Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie regard one another as sisters-in-arms. Their bond combines coordinated martial trust with a commitment to protect and rescue one another under pressure.
Important Events
The original Valkyries fought in the War with exceptional courage, including in battles where other experienced warriors would not engage. The order was destroyed at the Battle of Meinir Pass while undertaking a mission its members knew was suicidal.
During the Blood Rite, Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie defeat armed opponents through coordinated timing, complementary attacks, and weapon handoffs. Their performance prompts them to claim the Valkyrie name as a martial identity distinct from both the original order and Illyrian tradition.
Nesta invokes her identity as a Valkyrie while holding a mountain pass alone so that her sisters-in-arms can escape, carrying the revived order from training into battlefield sacrifice.