The Seventh Tower
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''
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.