Rebecca Yarros is known for her willingness to follow a story wherever it leads, even if it breaks hearts along the way. But at Apollycon 2026, the bestselling author of the Empyrean series gave fans a peek behind the curtain at a version of the story that could have completely rewritten everything.
In a clip shared by fan account @boundlesstalesbykris, Yarros revealed that she originally intended Violet Sorrengail to be the character who turned venin, not her brooding, shadow-wielding love interest Xaden Riorson.
"I did want Violet to be the one who turned venin, originally," she told the crowd. "I know, right? I shouldn't have said that. That is what my head is like going down to alternate universe... I think about that often, like what evil Violet would look like."
She added that while she stands firm on letting a story go where it needs to go, this was one instance where her editor successfully pulled her back and she listened. "When you have an editor, you listen to your editor," she said. "Otherwise, why have an editor?"
What are venin and why would this twist matter so much?
To understand just how seismic this alternate plot would have been, you need to understand what venin are and what turning venin means for a character.
In the world of the Empyrean series, venin (also called dark wielders) are humans who channel magic directly from the earth itself bypassing the sacred bond between a rider and their dragon entirely. While dragon riders receive magic through their bonded dragon as a kind of controlled conduit, venin reach into the raw source of power beneath the ground and simply take it. This act is considered an irreversible corruption of the soul. The moment someone channels from the earth even once, the transformation begins.
Venin develop vivid red rings around their eyes that spread into spiderwebbed veins across their faces and they become increasingly driven by hunger for more power that erodes their morality, their identity and eventually, their humanity.
Venin are organized in a hierarchy of Initiates (freshly turned, eyes still fading red), Asims (more experienced, deeper corruption), Sages (powerful enough to instruct initiates, with full red eyes), and Mavens, the most dangerous and least-understood rank of all.
Xaden's timeline of how he ended up turning
The path to venin corruption that readers actually got is already one of the most gut-wrenching arcs in recent romantasy fiction.
In Iron Flame, during the climactic final battle, Xaden makes the desperate decision to draw power directly from the earth in order to save Violet, who is nearing burnout trying to imbue the wardstone. He sacrifices himself choosing Violet over everything else, and in doing so, crosses the point of no return. His eyes take on the telltale red tinge. The man who spent two books fighting against the venin has become one.
In Onyx Storm, Xaden begins the book as an Initiate, desperately trying to avoid channeling from the source. But by the end, forced to act when his dragon Sgaeyl is held captive by the venin, he gives in completely channeling more power and completing his transformation into an Asim.
What "evil Violet" could have looked like
Yarros admitted she still thinks about this alternate timeline and honestly, so will fans now.
Consider what venin-Violet would have meant narratively. Violet Sorrengail is described throughout the series as one of the most powerful dragon riders alive. The venin themselves are obsessed with her, constantly referring to her as "the one who wields the sky" and tracking her power even before she encountered them at Resson. They believe she could be a weapon for their side.
Yarros had been seeding this possibility from the very beginning. The venin sage who haunts both Violet and Xaden in their dreams tells each of them that they will choose to turn venin. As the books revealed, this prophecy was only true for one of them. In the published timeline, that's Xaden. In Yarros's original vision it would have been Violet.
A venin Violet would have had access to the most powerful lightning signet in Navarre, the very power that can kill dark wielders. In enemy hands, it becomes something else entirely.
It also would have completely restructured the emotional core of the series. In the published books, the weight of Xaden's transformation falls on Violet. She has to watch the person she loves become the enemy. Flip it, and suddenly Xaden is the one watching Violet consumed by the corruption he has spent his whole arc fighting.
No changes in where the plot is headed
Yarros was also characteristically direct about her philosophy as a storyteller during the segment. She doesn't shy away from hard endings, and she doesn't let reader discomfort stop her from following through on where a character's arc is heading.
"If the demise of a character or the arc of a character is where something is going, then it's gonna go there no matter what, unless I'm pulled back in edits," she said plainly.
It's a reminder that the devastating path Xaden has taken through Iron Flame and Onyx Storm is not an accident and that whatever the fourth and fifth books hold, Yarros is unlikely to flinch.
For now, fans are left sitting with the knowledge that in another version of this world, it was Violet, not Xaden, who first looked in the mirror and saw red.
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