Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses anti-Black racism, violence, rape, and nonconsensual medical experimentation.

Legendborn and Rootcrafters experience The Power and Pressure of Legacy for better or worse depending on how their magic situates their relationship to their ancestors. Rootcrafters get their power from their ancestors temporarily, by mutual consent. When Sel asks whether the power of root is the practitioner’s or the ancestor’s, Mariah tells him he’s “thinking like a colonizer” (433). Unlike the Order, no one owns power in Rootcrafting society. This relationship puts Rootcrafters in protective community with their ancestors and alleviates the pressure of forced legacy Legendborn have.

Jonas calls Merlin’s Spell of Eternity “a centuries-old spell that’s given sixty generations nothing but misery” (246). William, for instance, is a healer but being a Scion forces him to do and witness things that go against his nature. Bree notices the pressure of his legacy on William, “who was forced to watch them torture me. Who prioritizes consent. And who, against his every instinct, tortured a demon tonight for answers” (257). While the legacy of being a Scion gives people like William power, it also traps them into participating in a cycle to which they did not consent.