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The Seventh Tower is a series of six books written by Garth Nix. It narrates the story of a world where human beings live in an enormous tower that rests beneath a veil of darkness. The tower possesses an intricate society with many different levels; each family belongs to an order represented by color (Violet, Indigo, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red, in precedence), which defines their level of importance.

At an early age, each child of the tower undergoes a rite of passage, where he or she must travel to the land of Aenir, where fantastic creatures live. The children must then return to their own dimension with a creature under their control, who will serve him or her for the rest of its life, as a shadow.

The series focuses on Tal, from the Chosen and Milla, from the Icecarls.

The books are as follows:

I. ''The Fall''
II. ''Castle''
III. ''Aenir''
IV. ''Above the Veil''
V. ''Into Battle''
VI. ''The Violet Keystone''

Template:Spoiler

The World of The Seventh Tower

Chosen

The inhabitants of the Castle in the Dark World below the Veil call themselves the Chosen. A Chosen is judged by his ranking in society, which is determined by their color level. They are as follows:

Violet
Indigo
Blue
Green
Yellow
Orange
Red

Each color has its own designated tower. If a person is demoted below Red level, they become an Underfolk, doomed to serve for the rest of his or her life.

The entire Chosen is governed by the Emperor/Empress.

Underfolk

Underfolk are the servants of the Castle of the Chosen. They are born to serve their chosen masters until they die, without ever a chance of being promoted. They are not allowed to possess a Sunstone, and they have regular shadows. A Chosen may automatically be demoted to Underfolk level for any number of reasons, including losing their Sunstone and losing their Spiritshadow.

There are two types of Underfolk:

Freefolk

A small group of renegade Underfolk who wish to be freed from their miserable place in society. They are led by Crow. The group has a headquarters hidden in the Underfolk levels called the Freefolk Fortress. They are helped by some Chosen, including Ebbit. They helped the Icecarls in their battle with the Chosen in the Violet Keystone.

Fatalists

A term used by Crow to refer to Underfolk who do not wish to be freed, or are too afraid to rebel against the Chosen.

Shadowguards

Every Chosen is born with a shadowguard for a shadow. These creatures protect their Chosen until their Chosen binds a much more powerful Spiritshadow. They are then freed back to the land of Aenir. Shadowguards, unlike Spiritshadows, may shift their shape to anything. They appear like regular shadows, and have limited abilities for protecting their Chosen.

Spiritshadows

Each Chosen, upon reaching thirteen, must go to the dream land of Aenir and bind a creature to serve as his or her Spiritshadow. Binding a powerful Spiritshadow helps a Chosens ranking in soceity.

Spiritshadows replace a Chosen's shadowguard. They are bound to their masters until their masters die, in which case the Spiiritshadows will fade away. Spiritshadows can be bound in two ways, The first and common way is by force. The second way is when the Spiritshadow is willing to bebound. Forcefully bound Spiritshadows are obliged to strictly serve their masters, whereas willingly bound Spiritshadows are much more free, enabling them to diobey their masters if they choose to do so.

A Spiritshadow feels to some extent what their master feels, including pain and emotions.

Icecarls

The Icecarls are a semi-barbaric woman-dominated population living in the Ice. Unlike the Chosen, they remember the war between the Aenirians and the Dark World, which occurred thousands of years ago. Unlike Chosen too, they fear magical shadows and curses anyone who possesses one. Icecarls are very honorable people. If one feels he/she has failed his/her clan, he/she will 'give his/herself to the Ice', an act of suicide.

The Icecarls are separated into clans, each clan having their own ship (although in this case, the ships travel on ice, not water). Each clan is headed by a Crone. Clan ships follow Selski migration around the Dark World. Arriving back to where they began would be called a circling, which roughly equivalents one year. Selski are huge beasts that inhabit the Ice, and are a source of food and various items for the Icecarls.

Other creatures among the Icacarls are Merwins, horned ceatures, and Wreskas, creatures pulling their sleighs.

Crones

Icecarl women possessing magical abilities, including healing and mentally talking to other Crones. Crones' eyes become cloudier as they age, giving the appearance of blindness. They govern to entire Icecarls. There is a Crone in each clan ship, while more important Crones are found in the Ruin Ship.

Shield Maidens

A group of experienced Icecarl warriors residing in the Ruin Ship. They hunt down dangerous creatures and are a sort of law-enforcers among the Icecarls.

Sword-Thanes

The male equivalent of a Shield Maiden, although they are less prominent in the Icecarl community.

The Ruin Ship

A large ship near the Castle, or the Mouuntain of Light as it is known to the Icecarls, which houses top Crones and Shield Maidens.

Aenirians

Aenirians inhabit the dream world of Aenir, a place with sun. They had a war against the people of the Dark World. They were momentarily defeated when Danir and Ramellan, two warriors from the Dark World, cast the Forgetting and created the Veil. It was meant that Aenirian would remain in Aenir, but the Chosen would eventually break this pact by travelling to Aenir and binding the creatures there as Spiritshadows and bringing them back with them to the Dark World.

The war was continued by an Aenirian creature called Sharrakor. He attempted to destroy the Veil protecting the Dark World from the Aenirians, but was foiled by Tal and Milla.

Sunstones

Stones which have their own light. It is a part of everyday life for the people of the Dark World, from giving light to cooking food. Chosen children are given weaker Sunstones, compared to the Primary Sunstone which older kids and adults use. A person may have more than one Sunstone. However, a Chosen who loses all his or her Sunstones shall be demoted to an Underfolk.

Some uses of a Sunstone:

gives off light
gives off heat
can be used to heal
can be used to fire heat rays
used by Chosen to respectfully greet each other
used to bind Aenirians to be Spiritshadows
used to tell time

The Veil

The Veil is a shroud of darkness that covers the world from the sun, giving it eternal darkness with only Sunstones to depend on for light. It was created to protect the people of the Dark World from the creatures of Aenir. The Veil is presumably several feet thick. Inside it, there is absolutely no light, sound, air, and to a lesser extent, sense of touch

Keystones

In each tower, there is a Keystone which keeps the veil running. It can be sealed or unsealed. Once all Keystones are unsealed, the Veil will shut down. Each keystone has a guardian, Chosen who are assigned to protect their Keystones.

The seven Keystones are be found at the top of each tower.

The Hall of Nightmares

Dreaded by the Chosen, it is a form of punishment in the Castle. It is headed by Fashnek. The victim would be placed in side a glass globe. Sleeping gas knocks him/her out, entering a dream state. In his/her dream, Fashnek enters and controls it, turning it into a nightmare where the victim cannot wake out of until Fashnek allows it. Those who have been to the Hall of Nightmares are seldom ever the same again. The victims would often twitch uncontrollably, or would cease to laugh and smile.

Ironically, the glass globe used for the nightmares was originally created to help people with bad dreams.

Major Characters

Tal

A thirteen-year-old Chosen boy residing in the Orange tower. At the beginning of the series, his father goes missing. Manwhile, his mother is extremely ill and has been confined to her bed. He has a younger brother Gref, and a little sister Kusi.

Tal is described as having dark brown hair reaching just above his shoulders. He is shorter than most boys his age.

Milla

A young Icecarl girl around Tal's age who wishes to be a Shield Maiden. She belongs to the clan of the Far-Raiders, and later on becoming War-Chief of the Ruin Ship.

Her parents died when she was young. She has green eyes, short white-blonde hair and a pale oval-shaped face.

Adras and Odris

Two Storm Shepherd siblings originally bound to a hill in Aenir. They are bound in a hill, where they, when called upon, will give a gift in exchange for a life. When Tal and Milla inadvertently called upon them with blood, they agreed to be bound to them instead, making them their Spiritshadows (Adras to Tal and Odris to Milla).

They appear as clouds that can shape-shift to anything. They usually take the form of humans. Adras, the male, is powerful but rather dumb and inattentive, while Odris, the female, is brighter but weaker.

Ebbitt

Tal's great-uncle Ebbitt is an eccentric Chosen living in Red One, the lowest level of the Chosen. He was once from the high ranks of the Indigo Order, but something went terribly wrong and he was demoted all the way to Red. He lives at the end of a rough tunnel filled with his collection of furniture.

Ebbitt is seldom serious, and he often makes makes jokes with his strange humor. He helps the Freefolk with their fight for freedom. Ebbitt knows a great deal about Sunstone magic, and he is wise in several ways. His Spiritshadow was a large maned cat with ridges along its back. He set it free later one with the help of a Crone.

Sharrakor

A creature from Aenir which can shapeshisft to a certain extent. Sharrakor plans to destory the Veil to let the Aenirians enter the Dark World and resume the war between them. He is believed to be the Spiritshadow of the Empress, but is actually a free shadow. He takes over the body of Shadowmaster Sushin to help accomplish his plans.

Crow

An Underfolk leading the renegade Freefolk. He is a few years older than Tal, and is experienced in fighting. Although an Underfolk, he possesses a Sunstone which he stole. Crow bitterly resents Chosen for the abuses to his people.

Minor Characters

Shadowmaster Sushin

A Chosen of the Orange Order. He is taken over by the Aenirian Sharrakor, making him invincible. Throughout the series, he is under the control of Sharrakor, and only appears as his real self towards the end when Sharrakor leaves his wounded body. It is unclear whether he lives afterwards or not.

Fashnek

A Chosen with long hair tied at the back and a prominent nose. Sharrakor severly disfigured him by biting off a great portion of the left side of his torso from shoulder to hip. Sharrakor offered him life, and Fashnek readily took it. His Spiritshadow then conjoined with his body to fill up the missing flesh. Unfortunately, his Spiritshadow resembles anything but a human. It is a hideous insectoid with six limbs, dark pincers and a head with a leech-like tube for a mouth.

Many fear Fashnek not just for his appearance but for the Hall og Nightmares of which he is the master of. He enters people's dreams and turns them into nightmares, only allowing them to wake up if he wishes it.

Malen

Malen is a young Crone, not much older than Milla, and is the daughter of the Shield Maiden Arla.

External Links

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 The books are as follows:
-I. ''The Fall''<br>
+I. [[''The Fall'']]<br>
-II. ''Castle''<br>
+II. [[''Castle'']]<br>
-III. ''Aenir''<br>
+III. [[''Aenir'']]<br>
-IV. ''Above the Veil''<br>
+IV. [[''Above the Veil'']]<br>
-V. ''Into Battle''<br>
+V. [[''Into Battle'']]<br>
-VI. ''The Violet Keystone''
+VI. [[''The Violet Keystone'']]
 {{spoiler}}
@@ Line 140: / Line 140: @@
 === Malen ===
 Malen is a young Crone, not much older than Milla, and is the daughter of the Shield Maiden Arla.
-==Plot==
-=== The Fall ===
-The Fall, the first book in the series, is broken up into two separate parts and a prologue. The story begins by telling of Tal, a Chosen, who wishes to find a "Sunstone" to help his family arrive in the spirit world of Aeinir. His father has disappeared, and his mother has taken ill. He then is forced to climb the Red Tower to steal a Sunstone to bring his family to Aenir. When he arrives at the top, he meets the Keeper, who is a shadow. Shadows are living creatures in the world Tal lives in, bound servants from Aenir. He is then thrown off the tower by the Keeper, falling into the Veil, a shroud of darkness.
-It then reverts back to the beginning, where Tal just found out that his father is missing, presumably dead. He knows that he must find a Sunstone, and tries to obtain one in 3 different ways. The first way is asking his aunts. Before he asks them, he does not show proper respect, where the antagonist of the story, Shadowmaster Sushin is revealed. After asking his aunts, they decline in order to make his family suffer.
-The second way he attempts to obtain a Sunstone is in mastery of light. He enters a competition, but signs his name under the wrong competition. He must enter the musical competition, instead of fitness. Without a piece, he runs down to find his uncle, who gladly gives him a piece to perform. He goes and performs it, but Sushin is a judge. He received the Yellow Ray of failed ambition, and does not acquire his Sunstone.
-The third way is through talking with the empress of the castle. He moves up, and must play a game to enter in. He was going to win the game, but her spiritshadow, Sarakkor, ends it and causes him to leave.
-With no way to get a Sunstone, he goes to his great uncle again. He advises him to steal a Sunstone, thus ending part I.
-In the second part of the story, Tal has fallen and is saved by his shadow. He trudges through the snow until Milla, an Icecarl, discovers him. She claims he is a thief, yet her Crone tells her otherwise. After Tal confuses them with servants, and orders them to take him to the castle, he is knocked unconscious and his shadow is taken from him. Icecarls have natural shadows, and fear moving shadows.
-When taken back to the Icecarl's ship, he is put to a test. He must fix the Icecarl's Sunstone to keep his life. He does so, and is thus taken to the Mother Crone. She foretells his future, and Milla is bound to him because of it.
-Together, Milla and Tal cross the "Living Sea". This sea is swarming with Selski, who are large creatures that live on the ice. They get caught in a swarm of them, and take refuge for a while. They continue through the sea, and when they get to the other side, head to the mountain. <br>
-Tal and Milla finally meet up with a Merwin. These are vicious creatures, able to pierce you, crush you, or destroy you. Tal blinds it, and Milla jumps on it, eventually killing it with her sword. The horn injures her side, and she and Tal are left dying. They are then captured by Shield Maidens, when the book ends.
 == See also ==