Asgard Eventide: Application
IC Information;
Character Name; Lirael
Canon; Abhorsen, by Garth Nix
Wikipedia Article
Book Reviews
Canon Point; Shortly after the end of the book Abhorsen, perhaps by about a month.
Age; 19
House; Hel
Power; Shadow Control
Personality;
Lirael grew up in the Clayr Glacier in the Old Kingdom, not knowing her father and barely remembering her mother, feeling vaguely abandoned by the lack of both. While her earlier childhood was relatively happy despite this, playing with all the younger children, taking lessons, and anticipating the day when she would join the ranks of the future-Sighted Clayr, she still stood out from her peers in many ways. It was around when she turned eleven that she realized how different she really was: in appearance, she was pale, dark-haired, and slight while her cousins were tanned, blonde, and beautiful; in interests, she thought about death and darkness and was serious in nature rather than sunny and cheerful; and in powers, for all the other Clayr had the Sight, the magical ability to see into the future. Lirael, despite doggedly growing older while the Sight woke in her younger peers, never had it. That was the start of her first spiral into depression, and of her feelings of worthlessness. Without the Sight, she was not a proper Clayr; without the Sight, she didn't belong, and she had no way to relate to anyone around her.
On her fourteenth birthday, still without the Sight, Lirael's depression and morbid nature led her to nearly kill herself, stopped partly by fear, partly by chance, and partly by a lack of proper opportunity. While she got herself help from the Clayr who caught her at her not-quite-death, a new job as a Third (and later Second) Assistant Librarian in the Great Library of the Clayr, and eventually a new friend in the Disreputable Dog, it didn't make her feel any more accepted, and her low self-worth never rose. She didn't speak to anyone but the Dog, avoided social gatherings, even avoided making eye contact and took to hiding in her own long hair, so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone who had the Sight or who might take her for as alien as she felt. She fell to such levels of asocialness that her shyness is now ingrained in her. Large groups of people and strangers make her severely uncomfortable, unless she has a job to do among them.
Lirael is a very serious person, taking duty and responsibility seriously, and is very practical-- and she doesn't really take teasing well, either. On the rare occasions she even realizes she's being teased and doesn't simply take the joking seriously, she is likely to get flustered and exasperated with the teaser-- even when her dearest and only friend, the Dog, teased her it put her on edge. Knowledge is important to her, as a Librarian and a clever girl, and she's perfectly happy to spend most of her time either reading or exploring when she doesn't have something else to do to keep her busy. She still doesn't think much of herself, though, no matter how learned she might be: all her life, she has considered herself less important than the other Clayr, and if ever a need should arise for a sacrificial lamb to protect the greater good, she automatically assumes it should be herself. After an adventure dealing with a Stilken-- a Free Magic creature of terrible hunger-- that she accidentally set free from its binding magic, she learned how to be brave, and often took it upon herself during the course of her years as a Third Assistant Librarian to rid the Great Library of potentially dangerous creatures, so as to protect the other, proper Clayr from them. Given how dreadfully curious she is, as well, she wound up in that position rather often while poking around the Library.
Only recently in her life has she ever been given a purpose outside the life of the Clayr, a reason to live as it were. A month and a half ago, she was sent away from the Clayr Glacier where she'd lived all her life, out into the Kingdom itself, to save a young man from himself and stop the end of the world... though all she knew at the time was she was out in the world, alone, facing more monsters than she could imagine, with a new ability as a Remembrancer-- a "gift" on her nineteenth birthday that the Dog led her to find-- and a very whiny Prince she didn't know how to talk to. Thankfully, from him she learned of (and read) The Book of the Dead, was given the bells of the Abhorsen-in-Waiting-- weapons with which to fight the Dead and Free Magic creatures-- learned the identity of her father, the previous Abhorsen, and of her calling: to put the dead to rest, to protect the living, to walk the path she is set. Does the walker choose the path, or the path choose the walker? as The Book of the Dead asks. She can, when under the office of that calling, act with confidence and deal with confrontation, showing the strong will all Abhorsens are born with, but it's still such a new thing to her that she always falls back to her old ways in times of stress.
At the end of that "adventure", Lirael and a small group of friends, family, and magical beings of various kinds vanquished a great evil on her world, the Bright Shiner known as Orannis the Destroyer: a manifestation of all that is evil and bitter and destructive in the world, with the power of a sentient atom bomb. They defeated this evil, with unexpected help and unexpected loss, and even with a month to recover, Lirael is still somewhat reeling from the events. Living without her best friend, the Dog, and without her right hand, has been difficult, but at least there she had a place in the world.
Character Name; Lirael
Canon; Abhorsen, by Garth Nix
Wikipedia Article
Book Reviews
Canon Point; Shortly after the end of the book Abhorsen, perhaps by about a month.
Age; 19
House; Hel
Power; Shadow Control
Personality;
Lirael grew up in the Clayr Glacier in the Old Kingdom, not knowing her father and barely remembering her mother, feeling vaguely abandoned by the lack of both. While her earlier childhood was relatively happy despite this, playing with all the younger children, taking lessons, and anticipating the day when she would join the ranks of the future-Sighted Clayr, she still stood out from her peers in many ways. It was around when she turned eleven that she realized how different she really was: in appearance, she was pale, dark-haired, and slight while her cousins were tanned, blonde, and beautiful; in interests, she thought about death and darkness and was serious in nature rather than sunny and cheerful; and in powers, for all the other Clayr had the Sight, the magical ability to see into the future. Lirael, despite doggedly growing older while the Sight woke in her younger peers, never had it. That was the start of her first spiral into depression, and of her feelings of worthlessness. Without the Sight, she was not a proper Clayr; without the Sight, she didn't belong, and she had no way to relate to anyone around her.
On her fourteenth birthday, still without the Sight, Lirael's depression and morbid nature led her to nearly kill herself, stopped partly by fear, partly by chance, and partly by a lack of proper opportunity. While she got herself help from the Clayr who caught her at her not-quite-death, a new job as a Third (and later Second) Assistant Librarian in the Great Library of the Clayr, and eventually a new friend in the Disreputable Dog, it didn't make her feel any more accepted, and her low self-worth never rose. She didn't speak to anyone but the Dog, avoided social gatherings, even avoided making eye contact and took to hiding in her own long hair, so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone who had the Sight or who might take her for as alien as she felt. She fell to such levels of asocialness that her shyness is now ingrained in her. Large groups of people and strangers make her severely uncomfortable, unless she has a job to do among them.
Lirael is a very serious person, taking duty and responsibility seriously, and is very practical-- and she doesn't really take teasing well, either. On the rare occasions she even realizes she's being teased and doesn't simply take the joking seriously, she is likely to get flustered and exasperated with the teaser-- even when her dearest and only friend, the Dog, teased her it put her on edge. Knowledge is important to her, as a Librarian and a clever girl, and she's perfectly happy to spend most of her time either reading or exploring when she doesn't have something else to do to keep her busy. She still doesn't think much of herself, though, no matter how learned she might be: all her life, she has considered herself less important than the other Clayr, and if ever a need should arise for a sacrificial lamb to protect the greater good, she automatically assumes it should be herself. After an adventure dealing with a Stilken-- a Free Magic creature of terrible hunger-- that she accidentally set free from its binding magic, she learned how to be brave, and often took it upon herself during the course of her years as a Third Assistant Librarian to rid the Great Library of potentially dangerous creatures, so as to protect the other, proper Clayr from them. Given how dreadfully curious she is, as well, she wound up in that position rather often while poking around the Library.
Only recently in her life has she ever been given a purpose outside the life of the Clayr, a reason to live as it were. A month and a half ago, she was sent away from the Clayr Glacier where she'd lived all her life, out into the Kingdom itself, to save a young man from himself and stop the end of the world... though all she knew at the time was she was out in the world, alone, facing more monsters than she could imagine, with a new ability as a Remembrancer-- a "gift" on her nineteenth birthday that the Dog led her to find-- and a very whiny Prince she didn't know how to talk to. Thankfully, from him she learned of (and read) The Book of the Dead, was given the bells of the Abhorsen-in-Waiting-- weapons with which to fight the Dead and Free Magic creatures-- learned the identity of her father, the previous Abhorsen, and of her calling: to put the dead to rest, to protect the living, to walk the path she is set. Does the walker choose the path, or the path choose the walker? as The Book of the Dead asks. She can, when under the office of that calling, act with confidence and deal with confrontation, showing the strong will all Abhorsens are born with, but it's still such a new thing to her that she always falls back to her old ways in times of stress.
At the end of that "adventure", Lirael and a small group of friends, family, and magical beings of various kinds vanquished a great evil on her world, the Bright Shiner known as Orannis the Destroyer: a manifestation of all that is evil and bitter and destructive in the world, with the power of a sentient atom bomb. They defeated this evil, with unexpected help and unexpected loss, and even with a month to recover, Lirael is still somewhat reeling from the events. Living without her best friend, the Dog, and without her right hand, has been difficult, but at least there she had a place in the world.