Skulduggery Pleasant (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
light_mischief) wrote2022-04-29 06:55 pm
light_mischief) wrote2022-04-29 06:55 pm
[ooc] canon notes & character highlights
About the Books
Skulduggery Pleasant
Stephanie Edgley is an 11 year old girl who inherits her wealthy uncle's estate after he dies unexpectedly. When staying the night alone, she is attacked by a man looking for a "key" -- and she's then saved by a skeleton in a suit. After confronting him over the existence of magic, Skulduggery Pleasant introduces Stephanie to the hidden community hiding in plain sight, and even tells her that she too could be magically inclined. Reluctant for her to tag along at first, Skulduggery quickly recognizes Stephanie's quick wits and critical reasoning skills, and the two of them work together to solve her uncle's mysterious murder. The main suspect is Nefarian Serpine, one of Skulduggery's oldest rivals from the old War. However Serpine, a member of a cult dedicated to worshipping faceless evil gods, seems to be holding to the truce between Mevolent's cult and the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary is reluctant to rock the boat.
When it becomes clear that Serpine is looking for a magical artifact thought only to exist in sorcerer folklore, Skulduggery and Stephanie race to find the mystical Sceptre of the Ancients before him. Meanwhile, Stephanie has to decide if she wants to return to life as a mortal, or commit to the thrilling, dangerous world of sorcerey. (By the end of the book, her name is Valkyrie Cain, so you can guess what she decides!)
Playing With Fire
A year after the first book finds Skulduggery and Valkyrie working together to stop crimes and arrest bad guys for the Irish Sanctuary. When one of Mevolent's generals breaks out of prison, the two of them are put to the task of finding him and stopping whatever his evil plans may be. His plan, you ask? Well, he intends to use another general's powers to ressurrect a creature known as the Grotesquery - a creature composed of monsters and pieces of an actual Faceless One. The biggest hitch, however, is finding that power; the general in question, Lord Vile, was a powerful necromancer, but he disappeared one day during the war and was never seen again. Nor was his armor, which served as the focus for his power.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Skulduggery Pleasant book if Vengeous didn't find the armor and learn how to use it. After finding the armor and the Grotesquery, Vengeous begins his dark ritual to summon the Faceless Ones. It's only because of some quick-thinking that Valkyrie manages to kill the Grotesquery before it can fully open the portal; however, as it dies, it lets out an unearthly shriek that tells the Faceless Ones where Earth is. On top of that, Skulduggery and Valkyrie realize that there is a shadowy cabal controlling things from behind the scenes... and they seem to have a mole in the Sanctuary.
The Faceless Ones
Barred from working with the Sanctuary after accusing the Grand Mage of treason, Skulduggery and Valkyrie are forced to work with minimal resources to solve a string of teleporter murders. Despite working against the Sanctuary's incompetent but ruthless new detective, the two manage to discover a plot to reopen the portal between Earth and the dimension the Faceless Ones exist within. This plan requires a few things: a teleporter to hop from one side of the portal to the other; an item called an Ithmus Anchor, which is meant to exist in both dimensions; and finally, the location of the portal itself. Skulduggery and Valkyrie manage to find the last living teleporter, the portal, and the Ithmus Anchor -- but the latter is comprised of the Grotesquery's remains, locked inside the Sanctuary.
After enlisting the help of their many friends -- including Skulduggery's not-really-a-friend Solomon Wreath and two other necromancers -- Skulduggery and Valkyrie engage with the shadowy Diablerie head-on in a vicious battle. The battle momentarily swings in the favor of the Faceless Ones, as the Diablerie manage to open the portal between the worlds long enough for three Faceless Ones to enter Earth. These things are invisible, massive monsters that cause immediate psychic damage on sight... at least until they each take over the physical bodies of the cultists who summoned them. Two of the Faceless Ones are killed in these mortal forms, but the third proves to be too much for conventional means.
In the end, the only thing they can do is open the portal one more time and push the Faceless One back through. Skulduggery goes one step further by throwing the Grotesquery's corpse through as well, gauranteeing that there are no links left between the Earth and the world of the Faceless Ones. It's only then, as the portal closes, when the Faceless One makes its final and most devestating move yet: it latches its entrail-tentacles around Skulduggery and pulls him through with it. The portal closes, and Skulduggery is gone.
Dark Days
Eleven months after the events of the last book, we find Valkyrie at the end of her hunt for Skulduggery's original skull. Her new necromancer mentor, Solomon Wreath, has informed her that Skulduggery's original skull would serve as an Ithmus Anchor, a way to connect their reality to the one the Faceless Ones took their friend to. Valkyrie has begun exploring the option of necromancy, which has been helping her deal with Skulduggery's absence.
Once they find the skull, Valkyrie, Fletcher, China, Ghastly and Tanith all return to the farm where the portal is. Valkyrie enters alone, finding herself on a dead alien planet. She hunts down Skulduggery, who believes her to be a hallucination, and forcibly drags him back through the portal. (It stands to note that Skulduggery hesitates until China shows up and yells at him, because LET'S BE REAL..... You never ignore an order from China Sorrows!!!) Skulduggery immediately pretends like everything is totally okay, despite the fact that he is acting increasingly unhinged.
There are a bunch of villains who have formed a Revenge Club against Valkyrie and Skulduggery. They have a whole plot that involves blowing up people with a bomb created by the kindly old Kenspeckle Grouse. I don't really want to get into it because quite frankly the story starts getting super good here and you should just READ THE BOOKS...
The end of the book comes with a massive cost, and the very foundation of magic in Ireland is rocked to its core by the desolation engine. Skulduggery and Valkyrie are now confronted with the knowledge that there is a contender to the Death Bringer title, and by the end of the book, Darquesse illuminates herself as the true bad guy of the series.
Fast Facts
Skulduggery Pleasant
Stephanie Edgley is an 11 year old girl who inherits her wealthy uncle's estate after he dies unexpectedly. When staying the night alone, she is attacked by a man looking for a "key" -- and she's then saved by a skeleton in a suit. After confronting him over the existence of magic, Skulduggery Pleasant introduces Stephanie to the hidden community hiding in plain sight, and even tells her that she too could be magically inclined. Reluctant for her to tag along at first, Skulduggery quickly recognizes Stephanie's quick wits and critical reasoning skills, and the two of them work together to solve her uncle's mysterious murder. The main suspect is Nefarian Serpine, one of Skulduggery's oldest rivals from the old War. However Serpine, a member of a cult dedicated to worshipping faceless evil gods, seems to be holding to the truce between Mevolent's cult and the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary is reluctant to rock the boat.
When it becomes clear that Serpine is looking for a magical artifact thought only to exist in sorcerer folklore, Skulduggery and Stephanie race to find the mystical Sceptre of the Ancients before him. Meanwhile, Stephanie has to decide if she wants to return to life as a mortal, or commit to the thrilling, dangerous world of sorcerey. (By the end of the book, her name is Valkyrie Cain, so you can guess what she decides!)
Playing With Fire
A year after the first book finds Skulduggery and Valkyrie working together to stop crimes and arrest bad guys for the Irish Sanctuary. When one of Mevolent's generals breaks out of prison, the two of them are put to the task of finding him and stopping whatever his evil plans may be. His plan, you ask? Well, he intends to use another general's powers to ressurrect a creature known as the Grotesquery - a creature composed of monsters and pieces of an actual Faceless One. The biggest hitch, however, is finding that power; the general in question, Lord Vile, was a powerful necromancer, but he disappeared one day during the war and was never seen again. Nor was his armor, which served as the focus for his power.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Skulduggery Pleasant book if Vengeous didn't find the armor and learn how to use it. After finding the armor and the Grotesquery, Vengeous begins his dark ritual to summon the Faceless Ones. It's only because of some quick-thinking that Valkyrie manages to kill the Grotesquery before it can fully open the portal; however, as it dies, it lets out an unearthly shriek that tells the Faceless Ones where Earth is. On top of that, Skulduggery and Valkyrie realize that there is a shadowy cabal controlling things from behind the scenes... and they seem to have a mole in the Sanctuary.
The Faceless Ones
Barred from working with the Sanctuary after accusing the Grand Mage of treason, Skulduggery and Valkyrie are forced to work with minimal resources to solve a string of teleporter murders. Despite working against the Sanctuary's incompetent but ruthless new detective, the two manage to discover a plot to reopen the portal between Earth and the dimension the Faceless Ones exist within. This plan requires a few things: a teleporter to hop from one side of the portal to the other; an item called an Ithmus Anchor, which is meant to exist in both dimensions; and finally, the location of the portal itself. Skulduggery and Valkyrie manage to find the last living teleporter, the portal, and the Ithmus Anchor -- but the latter is comprised of the Grotesquery's remains, locked inside the Sanctuary.
After enlisting the help of their many friends -- including Skulduggery's not-really-a-friend Solomon Wreath and two other necromancers -- Skulduggery and Valkyrie engage with the shadowy Diablerie head-on in a vicious battle. The battle momentarily swings in the favor of the Faceless Ones, as the Diablerie manage to open the portal between the worlds long enough for three Faceless Ones to enter Earth. These things are invisible, massive monsters that cause immediate psychic damage on sight... at least until they each take over the physical bodies of the cultists who summoned them. Two of the Faceless Ones are killed in these mortal forms, but the third proves to be too much for conventional means.
In the end, the only thing they can do is open the portal one more time and push the Faceless One back through. Skulduggery goes one step further by throwing the Grotesquery's corpse through as well, gauranteeing that there are no links left between the Earth and the world of the Faceless Ones. It's only then, as the portal closes, when the Faceless One makes its final and most devestating move yet: it latches its entrail-tentacles around Skulduggery and pulls him through with it. The portal closes, and Skulduggery is gone.
Dark Days
Eleven months after the events of the last book, we find Valkyrie at the end of her hunt for Skulduggery's original skull. Her new necromancer mentor, Solomon Wreath, has informed her that Skulduggery's original skull would serve as an Ithmus Anchor, a way to connect their reality to the one the Faceless Ones took their friend to. Valkyrie has begun exploring the option of necromancy, which has been helping her deal with Skulduggery's absence.
Once they find the skull, Valkyrie, Fletcher, China, Ghastly and Tanith all return to the farm where the portal is. Valkyrie enters alone, finding herself on a dead alien planet. She hunts down Skulduggery, who believes her to be a hallucination, and forcibly drags him back through the portal. (It stands to note that Skulduggery hesitates until China shows up and yells at him, because LET'S BE REAL..... You never ignore an order from China Sorrows!!!) Skulduggery immediately pretends like everything is totally okay, despite the fact that he is acting increasingly unhinged.
There are a bunch of villains who have formed a Revenge Club against Valkyrie and Skulduggery. They have a whole plot that involves blowing up people with a bomb created by the kindly old Kenspeckle Grouse. I don't really want to get into it because quite frankly the story starts getting super good here and you should just READ THE BOOKS...
The end of the book comes with a massive cost, and the very foundation of magic in Ireland is rocked to its core by the desolation engine. Skulduggery and Valkyrie are now confronted with the knowledge that there is a contender to the Death Bringer title, and by the end of the book, Darquesse illuminates herself as the true bad guy of the series.
Fast Facts
- Everyone has three names: the name you're born with, the name you're given, and the name you take. Taking a name will lock your given name, ensuring that sorcerers can't use it to control you. If somebody learns your true name, however, they will gain complete and total control over you. Only like 5 sorcerers know their true name - Skulduggery, AFAIK, is not one of them.
- The two schools of magic are Elemental and Adept. Elementals can manipulate fire, water, air and earth (though the latter is only used in extreme cases). Adepts will only have control over one very specific thing, but it can be literally anything. One adept we know of is Tanith Lowe, who basically can run up walls, fight real good with her sword, and do other anime shit. Necromancers are considered Adepts, but they're dicks and pretend they're better than everyone else.
- The Faceless Ones once ruled the planet, and are really into subjugating, terrorizing, and destroying all mortal life. Basically huge bummers all around.
- When Skulduggery was a kid (back in the 1500s), he spoke with a stutter, so people thought he was possessed by the devil.
- Skulduggery's most prized possesion is his car: a 1954 Bentley R-Type Continental. He will not shut up about it.
- He used to be married and have a kid, until Serpine showed up and ruined the whole thing!
- Later on, Skulduggery's gonna learn how to fly. SUCK ON THAT CAPTAIN
- Oh yeah, remember Serpine? That dick used Skulduggery's ribcage as a xylophone once. idk that's just fucking funny man