Fourth Wing book 4 is easily one of the most anticipated titles in romantasy space right now, and honestly, the wait has been rough. Rebecca Yarros hasn't given us an actual release date, and we have reason to believe the next installment won’t be coming out until 2027 at the earliest. What we do have are little updates dropped here and there, and fans have been picking apart every single one of them.
One of the more interesting things Yarros has said is that book 4 is going to be on the thicker side compared to the earlier books. Part of the reason for the wait and the extra length comes down to how she's approaching the back-half of the series. She's mentioned that she had to plot out points connecting book 4 and book 5 together almost as one continuous story, just to make sure everything lines up properly by the time the whole five-book series wraps up.
Meanwhile, there are so many fan theories going around that it's honestly hard to keep track of all of them. Ever since Onyx Storm ended on that cliffhanger, fan discourse has been going nonstop on BookTok, Bookstagram, and basically every Empyrean fan space you can think of. Some of these theories have gotten so detailed and so well-argued that we're almost convinced they're canon. Here are six of those.
- Berwyn is secretly Naolin
- Brennan is the new venin "brother"
- The venin are hunting the six most powerful signets
- Tairn had to sever his bond with Sgaeyl
- The six missing eggs were traded to the Queen of Unnbriel
- Violet's dream-walking is way more than it looks
Berwyn is secretly Naolin
This is probably the theory getting the most traction right now. We've known about the venin called Sage since the first book, and after three whole books we still barely know anything about him other than that he turned Xaden and that he's got some kind of rivalry with Theophanie.Â
Fans have started connecting this to Berwyn, whose fixation on Xaden feels way too personal for a random venin and whose hatred of dragons goes deeper than it should. Put those together and a lot of readers think Berwyn is actually Naolin, Xaden's father who was presumed dead. We feel like this one has real textual backing.
Brennan is the new venin "brother"
This is the theory that has caused so many arguments in fan comments sections. When Sloane siphons power from Dain into Brennan to save Mira's life, Violet notices something off. Normally that kind of transfer leaves a visible mark on both people, and this time there's no mark on either of them.
Some fans are reading that as proof the transfer didn't actually go through as expected, and that whatever power Brennan used to heal Mira came from somewhere else entirely. It helps that Brennan already survived death once before thanks to Naolin, and that near-death experience left a scar that this new incident conveniently doesn't.
The venin are hunting the six most powerful signets
There's a line early in Onyx Storm where it's mentioned that the six most powerful signets on the continent have only walked it at the same time once before in recorded history, and now it seems to be happening again. Fans think this isn't a coincidence and that the venin already know who these six are, which is why they keep going so hard after Violet and Xaden specifically.
Another thing being theorized is that the signets of the original six are essentially reappearing through this generation of riders, with Violet and Xaden as two of the six and people like Lynx, Garrick, Mira, and possibly Ridoc or Sloane filling out the rest. If this theory holds, book 4 is likely to spend real time explaining who the other slots belong to and why they're all showing up now. Also it could widen out to show the venin actively hunting down the rest of that group one by one.
Tairn had to sever his bond with Sgaeyl
At the very end of the book, Andarna tells Violet that Tairn needs a full cycle of rest to recover, which is a strange thing to say about a dragon who's usually described as basically unstoppable.
The theory going around is that Tairn had to break his bond with Sgaeyl, Xaden's dragon, specifically to cut Violet off from whatever's happening to Xaden now that he's turned venin. It would explain the exhaustion and it would also explain why nobody seems totally sure whether Violet's own connection to Xaden is still intact.
The six missing eggs were traded to the Queen of Unnbriel
Six dragon eggs go missing from the hatching grounds during the chaos of the ending, right around the same time four riders and three elders are also unaccounted for. Fans have connected this to an earlier scene where the Queen of Unnbriel makes it clear she wants dragon eggs, two of each kind, in exchange for her army joining the fight.
The theory is that Xaden made that exact trade during his missing 12 hours to get outside military help for the war, which would be a pretty huge and pretty risky move on his part.
Violet's dream-walking is way more than it looks
We got confirmation that Violet's second signet is dream-walking, but a lot of fans think we've only scratched the surface of what it can actually do. Some are calling it a link to older dragon magic or a way to stay connected to Xaden's mind even while he's turned.
There's also a more out-there version of this theory floating around where Violet's dream-walking could let her access other timelines entirely, which would open up a whole fate-versus-free-will storyline for the next book. We're a little more skeptical of the timeline-jumping part, but the idea that dream-walking will be central to finding or saving Xaden feels pretty solid.
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