Obernewtyn Chronicles

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The Obernewtyn Chronicles
Author	Isobelle Carmody
Country	Australia
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy, Science fiction novel, Post Apocalyptic
Publisher	Penguin Group
Publication date	1987, 1990, 1995, 1999, 2008
Media type	print (paperback & hardback)
ISBN	9780140134056

The Obernewtyn Chronicles are a series of science fiction/fantasy novels by Australian author Isobelle Carmody. They have a post apocalyptic setting, and depict a world struggling to come to terms with the destruction caused by global nuclear holocaust. The series' protagonist, Elspeth Gordie, is a young girl with mental powers condemned by the series' main antagonists, the governing bodies known as the Council, and the Herder Faction. The novels deal with themes of responsibility, duty, prejudice, discrimination, tolerance, and human and animal rights.

Contents 1 The books 2 Setting 3 Plot 4 Powers of the mind 5 Beast language 6 Characters 6.1 The Misfits 6.2 The Beasts 6.3 The Rebels 6.4 The Gypsies 6.5 The Beforetimers 6.6 The Sadorians 7 External links 8 References

The books

The series consists of five published novels. The sixth and final book of the series is yet to be given a definite release date.

• Obernewtyn (1987)
• The Farseekers (1990)
• Ashling (1995)
• The Keeping Place (1999)
• The Stone Key (2008)
• The Sending (Tentative release date according to an Isobelle Carmody interview conducted with Obernewtyn.net is February-March 2010)

In the American edition published by Random House, The Stone Key has been split into two books, Wavesong, and The Stone Key.^[1] Random House will also split The Sending into two books, Red Queen, and The Sending.^[2][3]

The series is narrated through the first person point of view, via the protagonist, Elspeth Gordie.

Setting

Many years into the future the world has been ravaged by a great nuclear holocaust known as the Great White. The devastation only spared small, remote areas. The more influential farmers and citizens established The Council to protect their communities from harm, and from the people flooding into the area from the major cities. The Council burned any humans or creatures born deformed, or those with obvious mutations that came from the cities. The Council then appointed a fledgling religious order called the Herder Faction to oversee these rituals. The Herders believed that the Lud, their God sent the Great White sent as punishment for a materialistic society. As a result, they destroyed all artefacts of the old world, or the Beforetime, as they named the time before the Apocalypse.

Council law and the Herder Faction gradually fused, and came to depend on each other. They burned those who opposed them, branding them as Seditioners. If the two governing bodies did not burn the dissidents, they sent them to work on Council Farms. Orphan homes were set up to house those children of Seditioners not claimed by relatives.

After a time, it was apparent that mutations of the mind, not apparent at birth, could develop later in life. The Council, by way of the Herder Faction, decided that those few people affected by mental mutations were not to perish at the stake. They chose to name these Misfits and sent these to the Councilfarms. They sent the more afflicted Misfits to the remote mountain keep of Obernewtyn to be treated and isolated, as to spare normal people.

Plot

Elspeth Gordie, a young orphaned daughter of burned Seditioner parents, is one of those affected by mutations of the mind. These mutations are extraordinary mental powers, abilities which Elspeth conceals in order to avoid being discovered a Misfit. However, following events at her orphan home, Elspeth is named as a Misfit by a fellow orphan. She is sent to Obernewtyn, although neither the Council, nor the keepers at Obernewtyn suspect the extent of her powers.

It is at Obernewtyn that Elspeth discovers she is not alone in possessing enhanced mental powers, or Talents. While plotting her escape with fellow Talented Misfits, she learns that the doctor is in fact a simpleton and his keepers are searching for forbidden Beforetime weapons. They hope to use Misfits with rare abilities to scry out the knowledge for them. However, they are thwarted in their attempts by Elspeth, her new friends and Obernewtyn's farm overseer Rushton Seraphim, who is the true heir to Obernewtyn. Rushton and his small group of Talented Misfits have been planning to take over Obernewtyn for a long time, and the conflict that ensues between Elspeth and the keepers of Obernewtyn provide them with the opportunity to do so.

After the subsequent uprising at Obernewtyn, Elspeth and her new friends establish a haven for Talented Misfits, relying on their remote location, and the rumour of a firestorm to keep prying eyes away. Under the guidance and leadership of Rushton, now the Master of Obernewtyn, they work in secret to rescue Talented Misfits from the Council Farms, and also seek out those Talented Misfits whose abilities have not yet been identified by the Council. Obernewtyn is both a refuge and a place where mental abilities are nurtured and explored. Obernewtyn also becomes a haven for animals, with whom many of the Misfits can communicate with. The animals, or beasts, are treated as equals at Obernewtyn, and are given free rein to do as they wish.

As her life at Obernewtyn progresses, Elspeth learns that the animals regard her as the Innle, the person who is fated to lead the beasts to freedom. She is also destined to be the Seeker, whose responsibility it is to seek out and eliminate the dormant weaponmachines of the Beforetime before they can be used to create another terrible holocaust. The cat, Maruman, and horse Gahltha are her only confidants in this quest.

Woven amongst Elspeth's private quests are the quests of Obernewtyn as a whole, to provide refuge for Talented Misfits and to establish itself as a force in The Land. The Land is also entering a period of turmoil, as rebels begin to revolt against the Council and the Herder Faction. The elusive Twentyfamilies' Gypsies, and halfblooded gypsies, also play an important role in the political and social struggles of The Land.

Powers of the mind

Powers of the mind may manifest themselves in a variety of ways and as a variety of abilities. Minor, weak powers, such as the ability to true dream or the possession of a canny knack for guessing correctly, seem to be rather widespread, although mostly these abilities exist only in the unconscious levels of the brain. As such, many individuals with these powers are not aware of their abilities and cannot control them. Sentient powers are called Talents, and may be used at will by their possessor. The seven most common Talents, as defined and named by the Misfits of Obernewtyn, are farseeking, coercion, empathy, healing, futuretelling, beastspeaking and 'teknoguilding'. A Talented Misfit may possess one or more of these Talents, although one particular power will usually manifest itself more strongly than the others. Some combinations of Talents, such as farseeking and beastspeaking, are quite common, while others, such as coercion and empathy, are rare.

At Obernewtyn, each Misfit belongs to a group, or guild, consisting of similarly-Talented individuals. A Misfit is free to choose which guild he or she wishes to belong to, but usually the guild corresponding to their strongest Talent is chosen. Each guild is led by a leadership group consisting of a Guildmaster or Guildmistress (who is usually, but not necessarily, Obernewtyn's strongest possessor of that Talent), a Guilden and one or more Wards. Guilds are responsible for nurturing their members' abilities, and also for contributing something to Obernewtyn as a whole (the Farseeker Guild, for instance, is responsible for scrying out Talented Misfits). Guild leaders meet to discuss the affairs of Obernewtyn in meetings called guildmerge.

The seven Talents, examples of powerful possessors of each Talent, and each guild's master are outlined here:

Powers of the Mind

Talent	Description	Misfits	Guildmaster/mistress
Farseeking	Essentially telepathy; the ability to communicate with others mind-to-mind over distance. Possible range depends on the mental strength of the individuals involved. Also the ability to read others minds without this power.	Elspeth, Matthew, Ceirwan, Jik, Kader (secondary ability), Wila, Zarak	Elspeth
Coercion	Mind-control; the ability to manipulate others' minds without them knowing. One of the three Talents that uses the ability to deep probe.	Elspeth, Gevan, Harwood, Kally, Linnet, Merret, Miryum Domick, Miryum, Taril Dragon, Ariel	Gevan
Empathy	The ability to receive emotions at greater stengths than others can, and, in some Misfits, the ability to transmit emotions to others.	Dameon, Miky, Angina, Dragon, Ariel, Jik, Blyss, Kader, Kally (secondary ability) Kella(A Slight talent)	Dameon
Healing	The ability to heal others' bodies through the use of a finely-tuned mental deep probe.	Roland,Kella, Kador	Roland
Futuretelling	Seeing the future; performed by sending a deep probe dangerously close to the mindstream, a probe will hover above the mindstream which 'bubbles' will come out of and reveal the past or future, the deepest subconscious of all sentient beings where all individual minds, past, present and future, merge and form one.	Maryon, Dell	Maryon
Beastspeaking	Farseeking between humans and animals; not all Farseekers are Beastspeakers, nor vice-versa.	Elspeth, Alad, Khuria, Merret, Zarak	Alad
Teknoguilding	A deep affinity with machines and a love for study, especially of technology (and therefore of the Beforetime). Possibly entails some ability to manipulate machines mentally.	Garth, Pavo, Fian, Jak	Garth

Outside of these seven powers, other powers have emerged or have been expressed in different ways from the normal way.

Elspeth possesses a mysterious power known as the killing power, something she has described as a 'dark snake' coiled at the base of her mind. It has the power to kill individuals as shown in 'Obernewtyn', when she used this power to kill Madam Vega. The killing power can also be used to augment her own powers to increased levels (shown in 'Ashling' when Elspeth uses it to break through Dragon's mental defenses, and in 'the Keeping Place' in order to break through the demonband static).Other powers to have emerged include Dragon's illusion-generating abilities, which have been described as the result of a critical mass of coercion mental power (other coercers display this power but not to the same degree). Freya's empathy also displays abilities outside of the normal range. Her power is described as 'enhancing'; allowing people under its affect to perform better than they otherwise would. Ariel's rare empathy/coercion combination allows him to feed his victims ghastly visions of torture while using empathy to make the victim think they're enjoying the experience. He is described by Domick (a victim of this torture) as an empath turned inside out.

Two children described in the series: Lidgebaby (first seen in 'The Farseekers') and Gavyn ('the Keeping Place') also have strange abilities. Lidgebaby's coercion powers allowed him to link other Talents to him, effectively binding them to him to the effect that they were compelled to protect and love him above all else. A side-effect of this never-seen-before merging was the generation of mental static that cancelled out all other powers (as experienced by Elspeth in 'the Farseekers'). Gavyn is described as adantar, beastspeach for 'link'. He has an unusual amount of control and effect over animals even though he isn't a beastspeaker. Elspeth and the beasts believed he is some sort of enthraller whose powers only affect beasts.

In addition, the animals of Obernewtyn have formed the Beast guild. Their leader is the mare Avra, Gahltha's mate. The Beast guild have equal rights to participate in guildmerge. It seems that most, if not all, beasts can communicate with each other mentally. Most species of beast are also able to communicate with any human beastspeaker, although some (such as cats, dogs and horses) are more able to do so than others (such as cows and wolves).

Beast language

The animals of the Obernewtyn world are described as sentient beings capable of speech. However their form of communication is not oral but mental in nature. This form of mental communication has been described as a blending of word and mental images with empathised emotions. The beast language also uses different words to humans, this has appeared time and time again in the series. Such words include: funaga (human), equine (horse), barud (home), gehdra (the invisible ones), jahran (the cold ones), vlar-rei (children of the waves), coldwhite (snow), galta (nothing) and Innle (seeker). The beast language also runs words together to form a single word, examples include freerunning, strongminded, gladshield etc.

Characters

The Obernewtyn Chronicles are populated by a large cast of characters. Only the most important of these are listed here.

The Misfits

• Elspeth Gordie is the main character in Obernewtyn Chronicles. She is a young Misfit daughter of burned Seditioner parents, was an orphan at the Kinraide Orphan Home until she was condemned to Obernewtyn. Elspeth is tall and slim, with brilliant green eyes, which are somewhat sad, hence the nickname 'little sad-eyes' given to her by Brydda Llewellyn. Her hair is long and black, and she has pale skin.

Elspeth is "the Seeker"; or Innle in the beast-language. Despite much evidence proving her to be "the Seeker", Elspeth is constantly denying that she is Innle. Known as Elaria to the Gypsies. She's been dubbed a figure of legends, said to do a number of things, the most important to 1) Find the five signs, and beat "the Destroyer" to the weaponmachines in time to prevent a second Great White rising over the world, and 2)Free the beasts from human dominance.

Elspeth possesses many talents, which set her apart from other Talented Misfits. She possesses the abilities of Farseeking, Coercing, Beastspeaking and possibly Teknoguilding, given her ability to manipulate locks. Some futuretelling or Truedreaming ability is also apparent, though this is vague and uncontrolled. She has the power to heal her own body, bestowed upon her by Nerat the Agyllian, in The Farseekers. She also has a separate Talent of killing with her mind that she is too scared to uncover properly (this Talent can also be used to increase the strength of her other Talents). The only Talent she doesn’t seem to have a smidge of is Empathy.

Elspeth becomes betrothed to Rushton Seraphim at the end of Ashling, having then realised that what she had felt for Rushton all along had been love, but she was too scared to face it.

• Rushton Seraphim: eldest son of former Master of Obenewtyn, Michael Seraphim; and halfbrother to Stephen Seraphim. He is a Misfit with latent powers. He is approximately 19 years old at the beginning of the series, and is tall, with jade green eyes and dark hair. He is the heir to Obernewtyn and as of The Farseekers, Master of Obernewtyn. Rushton is first known to Elspeth as the farm overseer at Obernewtyn, a post he holds while he plots to claim his birthright to Obernewtyn from his defective younger half-brother's evil minders. As Master of Obernewtyn, Rushton transformed Obernewtyn into a haven for Misfits and beasts alike.

Rushton is a Misfit with latent Talent, which he only begins to use at the end of Ashling when Freya, an empath-enhancer, tries to enhance his abilities. At the end of Ashling he becomes betrothed to Elspeth Gordie, Farseeker guildmistress and powerful farseeker-coercer-beastspeaker. She enhances his abilities further than anyone else could. In The Keeping Place, Rushton is kidnapped by mysterious persons, along with corercer Domick, later believed to be the Herder Faction, who for unknown reasons insist that the Misfits aid the rebels in the rebellion against the Council.

• Dameon: powerful, blind empath, and, with Matthew, one of Elspeth's first friends at Obernewtyn. Dameon is the beloved Guildmaster of the Empath Guild. He is an older misfit. He is tall, blind, has an "angular" body, light to white eyes, a slightly large nose, and many, many freckles. Dameon is a very talented empath and Guild Master of the Empath Guild. He first appears in the first "Obernewtyn Chronicles" book, Obernewtyn and since then has been regarded as one of Elspeth Gordie's, the main character's, most loyal friends.

The character Dameon was the son of a councilman. He was to inheret all the vast properties of his father after his death, however, upon the death of his father, Dameon's cousin pronounces him a misfit in order to send him away and gain the land for himself. Ironically, even though to his cousins knowledge he was not a misfit, he actually is. Dameon is then sent to Obernewtyn where he meets Matthew, and later, Elspeth. In "The Stone Key" it is mentioned that he intends to sue his cousin to regain his lands, and establish a co-operative farm there.

It has been interpreted by many that Dameon is secretly in love with Elspeth. Despite much implication throughout the series a popular indicator of this occurs in the third book Ashling. When Elspeth and Rushton become betrothed, Dameon chooses not to return to Obernewtyn. Rushton says he knows the reason and why he must stay behind. Elspeth is surprised that Dameon blushes at this comment. He then creates a 'block' so that Elspeth may not read his thoughts, and he may not read her feelings as they say goodbye.

The author has said in an interview^[4] on obernewtyn.net that she did intend Dameon to be in love with Elspeth.

• Matthew: farseeker, and, with Dameon, one of Elspeth's first friends at Obernewtyn. Matthew is the first human with whom Elspeth communicates mentally, and the first Talented human, other than herself, whom Elspeth encounters. He is later made farseeker ward, a post he holds until he is captured by slavers and taken to the Land of the Red Queen where he serves slave labour. He is also the most likely candidate for being "the Destroyer" if Elspeth's belief about Ariel proves erroneous. Matthew is slightly older than the main character, Elspeth Gordie. He is described as tall, thin, and "sharp eyed" in the first book, Obernewtyn. Matthew is a Farseeker's Guilden, and was the first to introduce Elspeth to another main character, Dameon.

• Dragon: young wildchild, and extremely powerful empath-coercer. She was discovered and rescued on a Farseeker expedition to the West Coast. Her name was unknown, so Elspeth called her Dragon not just for her flame-red hair and fiery temperament, but for the image she projected into all their minds on their first encounter with Dragon, in her attempt to scare them away. Dragon is the daughter of the Red Queen from the distant and mysterious Land of the Red Queen, and as such she holds important clues to Elspeth's personal quests in the deep subconscious levels of her mind.

• Domick: one of Rushton's allies early in the series, and later coercer guilden. Domick is sent to establish a safe house for Obernewtyn in Sutrium, the capital of The Land. There he infiltrates the Council as Obernewtyn's spy, creating the alter-ego Mika for this purpose, and his espionage work sends him almost insane. He later renounces his ties to Obernewtyn. He was captured along with Rushton, by Ariel and taken to Herder Island where he was physically and mentally tortured. He was brainwashed by Ariel, and was infected with disease so as to spread a plague throughout the land.

• Kella: healer guilden, Elspeth's only female friend and Domicks bondmate. She accompanies Domick to Sutrium, although his work at the Council cause the two to become estranged.

• Daffyd: armsman for the Herder renegade Henry Druid, and Misfit. Daffyd is sympathetic to Obernewtyn's cause and friends with Elspeth and Rushton, but is currently searching for his Misfits friends, who disappeared after the Druid's camp was destroyed by a firestorm.

• Ariel: a Misfit with defective mind and a rare empathy/coercion Talent combination and Elspeth's principal enemy. Canny, rude, ambitious and amazingly beautiful, Ariel was, before Rushton's coup, favoured by the keepers of Obernewtyn and assisted them in their failed quest to find the Beforetime weaponmachines. In "The Farseekers" It is believed that Ariel has run away from Obernewtyn,and presumed dead. He has since ingratiated himself with Henry Druid, the Herder Faction, the Council and Salamander. Elspeth, and many readers, presumed he is the Destroyer, particularly after Gahltha seemingly confirmed to Elspeth that Ariel is "H'rayka", which in beast language means "one who brings destruction" but Carmody has said in interviews that that is 'not necessarily' the case. A possible explanation is that Elspeth mistook Gahltha's meaning and he was in fact correcting her by saying that Ariel is not in fact "the Destroyer" but the one who will bring the Destroyer to their eventual fate. Ariel loathes Elspeth, and tries to seduce her on the Dreamtrails in Ashling,hoping to help him find the weaponmachines, if he is indeed The Destroyer.

The Beasts

• Maruman: fey, battered cat, and the first being with whom Elspeth communicates mentally. Maruman endures frequent bouts of madness, and even at his most sane he is prone to making cryptic predictions about Elspeth's fate. It is from Maruman that Elspeth learns most about her roles as the Seeker and Innle. According to prophecy, Maruman is the Moonwatcher, one of Elspeth's guardians in her quest.

Maruman, first appears in the first book, "Obernewtyn". He encountered Elspeth Gordie at the Kinraide Orphan Home, in which she resided for most of her early life, after she alerted a bird to his presence. This was also her first experience with her mind powers, after she realised she could hear Maruman cursing, he is the first being Elspeth communicates with mentally. Maruman is the Moonwatcher, and travels with Elspeth on most of her dreamtrail wanderings and adventures, protecting and guarding her from forces unknown. He is known as the Yelloweyes to his fellow beasts, and is held in high regard by them. The Agyllians, or flamebirds, are in constant communication with Maruman, resulting in schizophrenic tendencies. He is prone to fits of madness, and even at his most balanced moments he is apt to make cryptic predictions about Elspeth's fate. It is from Maruman that Elspeth learns most about her roles as the Seeker and Innle, the Innle being destined to free the animals from their human oppressors.

He is a contrary being, and his temperament can shift, without warning, from wise to sullen and difficult. Maruman's age is never specified, it is only know that he is ancient, and possibly Beforetime, or pre-apocalypse, in his origin. This makes his quite old, far older than the ordinary feline, at over a century old. As of The Keeping Place, he has only one eye, courtesy of his solitary adventures in the radioactive Blacklands. The last we see of Maruman in print is his return to Obernewtyn with Elspeth and Gahltha at the end of The Stone Key. However he can be seen being cradled, unconscious, by Elspeth in the cover for the as of yet unreleased sixth book, The Sending. They are alone and walking the deathroad.

According to prophecy, Maruman is the Moonwatcher, a figure of legend, destined to help the "Seeker" complete her quest for the destruction of the weaponmachines. Maruman is one of Elspeth's guardians in her quest, and the dramatic foil to Gahltha, the horse also known as the Daywatcher, and is Elspeth's companion on the Dreamtrails. He is fated to be Elspeth's companion to his end.

• Gahltha: noble, black horse, originally mad and spiteful due to mistreatment by his former human owners, but now wise, calm and understanding. Gahltha is Elspeth's constant mount on all her travels, and is the Daywatcher, the second of Elspeth's fated guardians.

• Atthis: leader of the Agyllians (or Guanette birds), a powerful, wise and ancient species of bird. Atthis is also one of Elspeth's main sources of information regarding her quest. Atthis often communicates with Elspeth through Maruman.

• Darga: small dog belonging to young farseeker Jik. Darga proved extremely adept at navigating safe pathways through contaminated land. He was lost and presumed dead in the firestorm that destroyed Henry Druid's camp, although Maruman has since said that his return will be important.

The Rebels

• Brydda Llewellyn: Seditioner and rebel leader. Brydda becomes friends with Elspeth and is sympathetic to the Misfits' cause. He invites Obernewtyn to join the rebellion against the Council, although this proposal faces stern opposition from many of the other rebel leaders. Brydda was the chief organiser of the rebel alliance in its early stages, although control has increasingly been wrested from him by others, most notably Malik and his allies.

• Malik: A power hungry rebel leader who strongly opposed to having the Misfits join the rebellion. Unlike Brydda, his heart wields no sympathy for 'mutants' and regards them as monsters pretending to be human.

• Bodera: The rebel leader of Sutrium, father of Dardelan. Brydda Llewellyn's mentor.

• Dardelan: Bodera's son. Ends up looking after Bodera and falls in love with Jakoby's daughter, Bruna. They are going to get married

The Gypsies

• Swallow: a Twentyfamilies gypsy, son and heir of the D'rekta (the leader of the Twentyfamilies) who later accedes to the D'rektorship himself. He is somehow connected to Elspeth and her quest, possibly as the fated 'one of Kasanda blood' who will accompany Elspeth on the final stages of her quest. Swallow is a code name; his real name is unknown.

• Iriny: half sister to Swallow, she is rescued by Elspeth in Ashling and brought to Sutrium for healing. It is through her that Elspeth was able to gain contact with Swallow.

• Darius: a Twentyfamilies gypsy who has the ability to heal beasts, he also has skills to heal humans.

• Maire: a Twentyfamilies gypsy healer, Grandmother to Swallow and Iriny.

The Beforetimers

• Kasanda: mysterious Beforetime seer, also known as Cassandra Duprey (or Cassy). She lived through the Great White and into the first years or decades following it, when the world was in turmoil. Kasanda was the first gypsy D'rekta and the sister-in-law of the first Red Queen. Before the Great White, she foresaw Elspeth's quest, and following the holocaust, she left scattered clues that will aid Elspeth in fulfilling her quest.

• Jacob Obernewtyn: the wealthy partner of Hannah Seraphim (owner of the Reichler clinic), Obernewtyn was named after his work on misfits in the Reichler Clinic. acknowledged in the reception centre in the city under Tor.

The Sadorians

• Jakoby:Sadorian tribal leader, mother to Bruna, ally of Brydda

• Bruna:Jakoby's daughter, lover of Dardelan

• Straaka:Sadorian tribesman, believes he is betrothed to Miryum(coercer), later dies defending her.

External links

• Obernewtyn.NET The Official Obernewtyn Chronicles Fan Club
• [1] Penguin Books Official Obernewtyn Chronicles Site
• The Obernewtyn Chronicles series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

References

v • d • e The Obernewtyn Chronicles By Isobelle Carmody Obernewtyn | The Farseekers | Ashling The Keeping Place | The Stone Key