Skulduggery Pleasant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of young adult books by Irish writer Derek Landy . Of the 14 books planned for this series, thirteen have so far been published in both English and German-speaking countries. All books published so far are also available as audio books. The title character Skulduggery Pleasant is a living skeleton who, as an "element magician", can influence fire, water, air and earth. Together with the second main character in the series, Stephanie Edgley (Valkyrie Unruh), he fights against evil to protect humanity and to continue to keep secret from her that magic even exists.

The books

Skulduggery Pleasant - The gentleman with the fire hand

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Scepter of The Ancients )

Synopsis: Stephanie is twelve years old when her uncle Gordon Edgley, an author, dies unexpectedly. At the funeral, a thin, unknown husband draws her attention. Despite the heat, he's wearing sunglasses, a coat and a scarf: Skulduggery Pleasant. Gordon leaves him with nothing but a mysterious piece of advice that later turns out to be vital. Just like the brooch that Gordon bequeathed to his brother Fergus, Stephanie's second uncle. Stephanie inherits her uncle's estate.

After a storm and a breakdown in her parents' car, Stephanie spends the night alone in her uncle's house. She reads his manuscripts and prepares for a cozy night. But a stranger breaks into the house looking for a key that supposedly belonged to Gordon. The situation threatens to escalate when the stranger she knows from the funeral storms into the house and drives the attacker to flight with fireballs and a shot from his revolver. In the process, he loses his disguise and it turns out that he is a skeleton.

Stephanie faints. After she wakes up, the skeleton introduces itself as Skulduggery Pleasant. As the story progresses, it turns out that among the people live alchemists , magicians , necromancers and other magical beings. Stephanie becomes Skulduggery's apprentice, who works as a detective for the Sanctuary .

Skulduggery suspects Serpine, a once very powerful alchemist. He is looking for the scepter of the forefathers, which gives its owner unimaginable power. In a race against time, Skulduggery and Stephanie, who now calls herself Valkyrie Unruh, look for the scepter. The brooch that Gordon Fergus and Beryl bequeathed to him proves to be the key to the scepter. On their adventure they get to know the swordsman Tanith Low, the beguiling China Sorrows and the tailor Grässlich, among others. Serpine wants to use the scepter to bring back the so-called faceless, a powerful race that regards humans only as food and slaves. He also wants to get hold of the book of names in order to gain power over other people. Because every person has three names: one that his parents give him, one that he gives himself to protect himself from the power of names and a real name that he usually does not know himself. When a magician knows a person's real name, he can completely control and manipulate him through magic. The real names of all people are recorded in the Book of Names.

Award: 2010; Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book of the Decade ; Irish book of the decade.

Skulduggery Pleasant - The grotesque returns

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Playing with fire )

Synopsis: Skulduggery Pleasant and Walküre Unruh (Stephanie Edgley's adopted name) have a new assignment: Baron Vengeous has escaped from prison and is seeking revenge. He wants to revive the grotesque, a hybrid of several different magical creatures and the body of a dead faceless man, with the help of the magical armor of Lord Vile. This creature would be able to bring the faceless ones back to earth. Skulduggery and Valkyrie seek out a man named “the torment”, who found out where Baron Vengeous once hid the grotesque. Vengeous succeeds in resuscitation, and the Sanctuary wizards fight him and the grotesque.

Award: The speaker Rainer Strecker received the audio book award of the city of Eltville in 2008 for his reading of the audio book.

Skulduggery Pleasant - The diablerie begs to die

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - The Faceless Ones )

Synopsis: A number of teleporters are killed, all in the same way, with a stab in the back. Skulduggery and Valkyrie investigate on their own as they are no longer serving the Sanctuary. They find out that the connection between our world and the world of the faceless can be opened with the help of a teleporter and the torso of the slain grotesque.

A little later, the penultimate living teleporter is murdered, so they take the last, a pain in the ass by the name of Fletcher Renn, under their wing. In addition, Horrible Schneider comes back to life after he has transformed himself into a stone statue in volume 1 with the power of the element earth to escape death through the white scythe bearer.

During a fight in the practice of Professor Kenspeckel Grouse, the great magician Thurid Guild is kidnapped by an organization called Diablerie and acting on behalf of a certain Batu. He wants to bring the faceless back into this world and demands the last teleporter Fletcher Renn in exchange for the grand mage.

Everything went wrong at the handover. The Diablerie kidnaps Renn and Walküre is arrested at home by Remus Crux, the Sanctuary's new detective. However, she breaks out and learns that the administrator of the sanctuary is a traitor who enabled the Diablerie to steal the remains of the grotesque. Skulduggery and Valkyrie try to prevent the opening of the gate that allows the faceless to return to our world. However, this fails. The mysterious Batu is in truth a normal person without magic powers, who sacrifices himself to the faceless because he thinks he will then get magic powers. With the help of the scepter of the forefathers, Skulduggery and Valkyrie destroy two of the faceless and force the last one back into its dimension. Skulduggery Pleasant is drawn into its dimension by the last faceless person, and the portal closes irrevocably.

However, Valkyrie learns from the necromancer Solomon Kranz that there is a way to save Skulduggery: With his real head, which was stolen from him by a gang of goblins years ago, the connection to the dimension of the faceless can be reopened.

Award: 2010: JuBu Book of the Month

Skulduggery Pleasant - Sanctuary sabotage

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Dark Days )

The book was published in English in April 2010, the German translation followed in September of the same year, but under a different title than expected. Instead of "Dark Days", the fourth volume is now called "Sabotage in the Sanctuary".

Synopsis: Clement Scarab, a magician who was once wrongly sentenced to 200 years in prison, seeks revenge after his release. Together with Billy-Ray Sanguin, Dusk (a vampire of the dark side), Springer-Jack, Remus Crux, who changed sides, and Vaurien Scapegrace he founded the "Revengers' Club" (German club of avengers), which explained The aim is to destroy the Irish sanctuary and to get revenge on Skulduggery Pleasant, Thurid Guild and especially Valkyrie Unruh.

At the same time, after an eleven-month search, Valkyrie succeeds in finding the original skull of Skulduggery. Together with China, Tanith, Grässlich and Fletcher, she breaks into the sanctuary because the skull is said to be there. They are arrested while trying to outsmart Guild. Ultimately, Valkyrie, China and Fletcher manage to flee and steal the skull. Fletcher immediately teleports the three to the portal of the world of the faceless. There he opens the portal with the help of China and Valkyrie leaps through without hesitation.

On the other hand, she finds herself in an abandoned and devastated city. She discovers Skulduggery huddled in a kind of cave and tries to persuade him to follow her to the portal. However, he waves it away because he thinks Valkyrie is a hallucination. He tells her about the daily torture that he has to endure and also about new skills that he has acquired. After a tough battle with a horde of Faceless creatures, China suddenly appears on the battlefield and can finally convince Skulduggery to follow her and Valkyrie through the portal. However, Skulduggery cannot rest after arriving home, as Scarab and the Avengers Club steal a soul catcher and desolation machine, a type of bomb that will crumble any material. With the soul catcher they want to catch one of the remnants who are locked in a room in the Hotel Midnight . The hotel owner is Anton Shudder, a powerful magician who can let out his dark side and let go of his opponents. In the hotel, Skulduggery and Valkyrie meet Billy-Ray Sanguin who, with the support of a recruited zombie army, wants to take a remnant with him. In the fight, Billy-Ray Shudder steals the key that gives access to the remnants prison and disappears with a remnant. Then the avenger club kidnaps Kenspeckel Grouse in order to infuse him with the remnants who, with Grouse's knowledge, repairs the desolation machine and makes a second one. Grouse is later freed, but the two bombs do not end up in the hands of Skulduggery and Valkyrie.

In the end, the Avengers Club wants to blow up one of the two desolation machines in the Croke Park Stadium. The plan is thwarted by Fletcher, who teleports with Guild across the North Sea and lets it explode there. Dusk, after biting Valkyrie, and Billy-Ray give up their plans for revenge and leave. Skarab is arrested, as is Guild, who is being brought to sanctuary for the murder of Vanguard - for which Scarab was previously imprisoned for 200 years. The second bomb, however, is smuggled into the sanctuary by the detective Marr, where it explodes, destroying the entire building and killing everyone present. However, Skulduggery can bring Valkyrie and Guild to safety.

Valkyrie then remembers having recognized her real name Darquise in the Book of Names . According to some predictions of the sensitive, a certain darquise is supposed to bring great evil over the world.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Rebellion of the Remaining

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Mortal Coil )

The German first edition appeared in November 2011.

Content: Solomon Kranz receives the order from the high priest of the necromancers to determine whether Valkyrie is the deathbringer - the person who, according to the necromancers, will tear the line between life and death. However, the sensitive Finbar Wrong who would be able to do so is a friend of Valkyries. Therefore, Kranz is said to use the remainder, which is in the possession of the necromancers, to make him so docile. When he does, however, the restant sees only Darquise, which leads Kranz to believe that Valkyrie is destined to defeat her. The restant, however, sees Darquise as the destroyer of the world and thus the redeemer of the restants. He manages to escape and free the remaining two thousand or so remnants from the Hotel Midnight.

Meanwhile, Skulduggery and Valkyrie have tracked down Daviana Marr, who is responsible for the destruction of the sanctuary. Before they can get any information about their accomplices from her, however, she is killed by the hit man Tesseract. When he returns to his employers, the Spider's children, in Roarhaven to receive his payment, they try to murder him. He manages to kill two of the conspirators, but is then overwhelmed by the rest of the crowd who attack the sanctuary.

Valkyrie still keeps a secret that she now knows her real name, Darquise. She learns of a way to have it sealed and is taken to Doctor Nye, who complies but then prepares to experiment on her naked, dead body. Nevertheless she manages to escape and she lets Skulduggery know about her approach.

The rest of the country began to take over powerful magicians and influential people. Meanwhile, Kranz returns to Wrong and finds him mentally shattered by the temporary obsession. A little later, Kranz also fell victim to a remnant.

Valkyrie introduces Fletcher to her parents and then goes dancing with him. However, the club is attacked by restants and the two narrowly escape. They meet Crystal and Carol, Walküre's two cousins, and Walküre is forced to reveal the truth about the magical community to them. The remaining magicians gather in the Hibernia cinema and develop the plan to activate the gigantic soul catcher under MacGillycuddy's Reek in order to catch the remnants that Fletcher is supposed to teleport there. Grouse meanwhile spreads a virus that makes people act aggressively in order to be able to offer a supposedly natural explanation for the ongoing events to the non-magical society. Valkyrie opens up the existence of Gordon's Echo Stone to her colleagues so that Gordon can support the group with his knowledge.

They split up to find the key to the Soul Catcher, leading Tanith and Ghastly to admit their mutual feelings for one another. They manage to get both parts of the key, but in the subsequent attack on the cinema, Fletcher is taken over by a remnant. He attacks Valkyrie, who is saved by Billy-Ray Sanguin, who asks about Tanith and implies that he is in love with her. Back in the movie theater, Valkyrie discovers that Kenspeckle was killed by his obsessed assistant and is attacked again by Fletcher. This time Caelan rushes to her aid, which gives her the opportunity to flee together with Skulduggery, Horrible, Tanith, China and Billy-Ray. However, China is also possessed by a remnant and suddenly turns against the group. She takes out Skulduggery, Ghastly, Billy-Ray and Tanith. A restant then also hatches in Horrible. She takes the key, captures Valkyrie and finally escapes. However, at the last moment Sanguin manages to steal the key from her unnoticed.

While the group finds the soul catcher, a restant invades Valkyrie. However, he fails to take control of the body. He just tears down the last barrier between Valkyrie and Darquise. The latter comes free, destroys the rest of it and begins ruthlessly killing the possessed. A little later, Skulduggery appears and reveals to Valkyrie that Darquise would be what she would become if she didn't fight the cruelty in her life. Valkyrie regains her self-control and immediately Skulduggery threatens to kill her if the remnants do not leave the occupied bodies immediately. When they do this, the soul catcher takes them in. Only a restant escapes and drives into Tanith. Valkyrie opposes her, but cannot get her to the soul catcher in time, and Tanith or the restant who owns her escapes.

The magical community has suffered numerous deaths and is therefore forced to re-elect a leadership. Erskin Ravel is named Grand Mage, Horrible and Madame Misty elders. The agony makes Misty's appointment a condition for future use of the Roarhaven Sanctuary. After four days, Tanith, who is owned by the restant, visits Valkyrie at home. She explains that she has no intention of harming her or her family, but will only subtly lead them in the direction of her fate as Darquise. She disappears with her new boyfriend Billy-Ray Sanguin. Skulduggery tries to arrest Tesseract after the agony kills him. During the ensuing fight, Lord Vile appears, mortally wounding Tesseract, and declares that he wants to kill Valkyrie and all the other necromancers. Then he disappears. Before he dies, Tesseract asks Skulduggery if it was Vile who brought him back to life, but Skulduggery doesn't answer.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Passage of the Necromancers

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Death Bringer )

Content: The journalist Kenny Dunne is on the trail of a big story: Through extensive research he came across the homeless Paul Lynch, who regularly has visions of the end of the world, in which there are people who have strange, if not magical, abilities. But when he tries to interview him, he finds Paul with his throat cut. With the help of Fletcher, Skulduggery and Valkyrie manage to question Kenny and thereby find out the plan of the necromancers: Melancholia St. Clair is supposed to initiate the so-called "passage" by killing 3.5 billion people at once with shadow magic. Valkyrie tries to stop the necromancers together with Skulduggery and discovers his darkest secret: He is Lord Vile. Nevertheless, they manage to stop Lord Viles armor, who runs around independently, Darquise, who always breaks out of Valkyrie when her life is in danger, and Melancholia, who is determined to kill Valkyrie and half the rest of the world.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Duel of Dimensions

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Kingdom Of The Wicked )

Content: The seventh volume is about a magician named Walden d'Essai. He is extremely dangerous because he knows his real name: Argeddion. He is a pacifist and doesn't really want to harm any soul, but because of his power it was considered advisable to turn him off. To this end, he has been held in an energetic cage called a 'cube' for the past 30 years, in which he was in an artificial coma. He slept like this for almost 30 years, guarded by four magicians who set up a hiding place inside a mountain in Switzerland.

For the past few weeks, Argeddion has sought out mortals in their dreams and bestowed them with magical powers. He also took control of the wizards who held him captive. He believes the whole world is suffering from the fact that magic is withheld from mortals, so he transfers parts of his own to select people. For example to the four teenagers Kitana, Doran, Sean and Elsie, who quickly become a gang of murderers who have no idea about magic and never had anything to do with it before, but who now even take on Valkyrie and Skulduggery and almost kill them in the process.

At the same time, sanctuaries around the world are putting pressure on Grand Magician Erskin Ravel and his elders, Ghastly Tailors and Madam Misty. They offer to help them, but this is more like a threat to take control of the Irish sanctuary. If the problem with caster mortals is not resolved within a week, they will step in. You have elected the so-called “Supreme Council”, whose representatives include Grand Magician Strom and Assistant Sult.

Valkyrie and Skulduggery find out that Silas Nadir, one of the last still living dimensional shifters, is being used in "Hammer Lane Prison" to send the building through eight different dimensions per second. This prevents breakouts, as individual body parts would be distributed over several dimensions.
When they free Nadir from the cables, the latter, controlled by Argeddion, falls on Valkyrie and, when he touches the girl, causes a so-called echo, which causes Valkyrie to change dimensions later. It changes into a dimension in which Mevolent survived the war. Skulduggery is also still there as Lord Vile at the side of Mevolent, who is in possession of the scepter of the forefathers. In this dimension, people are brutally kept under control by the magicians, the "rulers". There is resistance from wizards to this oppression, led by China Sorrows. Nefarian Serpine, who betrayed Mevolent, is hidden in the basement of a house by the resistance fighters.
Argeddion succeeds through Valkyrie's change of dimensions to find his own self, Walden D'Essay, in this other dimension and to team up with him and thereby increase his strength.

In the dimension in which Valkyrie lives, they just manage to stop Argeddion with the help of Kitana, Doran and Sean. However, these lock Argeddion back in the cube instead of killing him as agreed, because they would lose their magical powers again. They fight Valkyrie and Skulduggery who transform into Darquise and Lord Vile to stand against them. Darquise is drawn back into the other dimension during the fight. There she tries to get the scepter to kill Argeddion and the three teenagers. She succeeds, but on her return she loses the scepter. She mistakenly thinks it stayed in the other dimension.

Darquise can kill the three teenagers without the scepter, but Argeddion regains their power. He brings the three back to life, but they no longer have any magical powers. Skulduggery succeeds with the help of magic sigils that he has previously attached to create a kind of stroboscopic flash light that makes everyone present unconscious, including Argeddion. Darquise becomes Valkyrie again.

In the epilogue one learns that Valkyrie's reflection has found the scepter of the forefathers. It helps Valkyrie's cousin Carol to conjure up her reflection as well. Then it kills Carol to charge the scepter that was discharged by the dimensional jump. With him it wants to destroy Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Horrible and all the others who stand in its way. It wants to live Stephanie's life as its own, with normal experiences, its own personality and a family. Carol's reflection is to carry on Carol's life from now on.

Skulduggery Pleasant - The Return of the Dead Men

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Last Stand of Dead Men )

Synopsis: In this part of the series, the ultimate war is imminent. The Irish sanctuary is being challenged by America's premier sanctuary. They claim that the Irish are no longer able to defend themselves. They offer to bring in American executives so that trust grows again. The Irish refuse this offer because they still have the accelerator from Argeddion, which is known to give tremendous power and thus offers the Irish (in case of war) a tremendous advantage. The Americans are offended and plan to destroy this accelerator only to subsequently overwhelm the Irish with an advantage in numbers. The attempt to destroy the accelerator fails thanks to the attentive Horrible. The saboteurs are then captured.

The Americans feel compelled to reply and are now arresting Irish sanctuaries in their country who were actually only passing through. One of the prisoners is killed by inattention, so that the spider (she denies having been involved) has the saboteurs killed by the spider's children in revenge. This leads to war. Dexter Vex, who has been taken prisoner by the United States, barely escapes conviction, is freed by Tanith Low and taken to Roarhaven.

In the background, powerful monsters called warlocks are killed by human soldiers with the help of the spider and a man with golden eyes. These lead the plan that the warlocks attack the humans and the wizards intervene as saviors. They thus provoke the attack of the warlocks on the actually uninvolved people.

After a long slaughter between the various sanctuaries, the great magicians of the other cradle continents, Africa and Australia, are killed. When Grässlich returns to the sanctuary with Shudder and Ravel to find the spider who suggested a coup, Erskin Ravel literally stabs them in the back and kills Grässlich and Shudder together with the spider. He was the man with the golden eyes. Now grandmasters are dying in a great many countries and the countries are making peace in order to live with the people. Meanwhile, Valkyrie has become Darquise out of desperation before death and is up to mischief somewhere. The mirror image (slowly beginning to call itself Stephanie) fights with the scepter, but is not perceived as the real Stephanie. She must also fight the warlocks who, contrary to the expectations of the spider and Erskin Ravel, attack the Irish sanctuary directly. The plague (improved hullless but still with no real life) are of serious concern to the sanctuary. Then some mages are charged with the accelerator to deal with the threat of warlocks and pestlings. Later the charged magicians (renegades) flee. Only barely and with the help of Darquise, who does not kill the mirror image when encountered, the attack of the Warlocks can be repulsed.

When Darquise disappears, Skulduggery Pleasant, with the help of Stephanie, decides to hunt her down. The story ends with the reporters who wanted / should shoot a documentary for the mortals on behalf of Erskin Ravel, either die or delete the footage.

Award: Irish Book Award in the Book of the Decade category

Skulduggery Pleasant - The Dying of Light

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - The Dying of the Light )

Volume 9 was published in August 2014. The German translation was published on September 21, 2015.

Content: In this part, Stephanie and Skulduggery fight together to bring Valkyrie, or better Darquise, back and defeat them. After Valkyrie (in the 8th volume) reluctantly but voluntarily surrendered control to Darquise, her human reflection, Stephanie, took her place.

Together with Skulduggery she is supposed to find the renegades. During this adventure, Stephanie uses the scepter of the forefathers from Mevolent's dimension (see volume 7).

Thanks to a ruse, they manage to bring back Valkyrie from Darquise after Darquise killed the grand mage there and a monster from Gorden's catacombs in the sanctuary of the USA.

After that, Darquise is just a detached entity that can enter Sensitive. However, the bodies burn themselves from the inside. Besides that, she and Tanith, who is still owned by a remnant, released the remnants, whereupon the monster hunters, including Fletcher and Saracen, go on the hunt for the remnants. Dexter Vex accompanies them, but is attacked by a remnant. Darquise kills Stephanie, the mirror image of Valkyrie. With the help of a magical ritual, Darquise drives into the body of the mirror image.

The sanctuary in Roarhaven prepares for the battle with Darquise. On the advice of Solomon Kranz, Skulduggery goes to the necropolis to activate the Merryyn-Sygille, which makes Valkyrie invulnerable for 23 minutes. Likewise, Valkyrie's strength is reinforced by the Sygille.

In the necropolis, Skulduggery meets deceased relatives and friends as well as his family. The third exam was not completed by him, but by Vaurien Scapegrace, who became a zombie again. To do everything against Darquise, Melancholia St. Clair is awakened from her coma and Skulduggery increased his necromancer powers in the accelerator. Together they almost kill Darquise, whereupon Darquise triggers an explosion in which Melancholia dies and Lord Vile is injured.

Valkyrie's parents learn from Kenny Dune that there is magic and what Valkyrie does. In the fight against Darquise, Bily-Ray Sanguin (who saved Tanith's life in the fight against the black scythe bearer), Solomon Kranz (who is split in two by Darquise), all the remnants (when Dexter Vex tries to take over Darquise with all the remainder), Alison Egdley (when Valkyrie stamped the scepter on himself), Desmond Egdley (killed by Darquise), Melissa Edgley (killed by Darquise) and many more strangers.

In the end they defeat Darquise through the sensitive and conjure up a vision of the future they want in their brain. They make Darquise disappear into the reality of the faceless. One is not sure if Darquise was defeated or if she died as she was never able to achieve all of her powers. In the end, the traitor Erskin Ravel is put into the accelerator to turn it off because it threatened to overheat.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Resurrection

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Resurrection )

On February 10, 2017, another tenth part was announced on the official Facebook page, which was published in the English original language in June 2017. This part was published in German under the title "Resurrection" on November 13, 2017 and is about Omen Darkly, a new protagonist, among others. This is a rather mediocre student of the Corrival Academy, a school for young magicians, and the younger twin brother of the chosen one Auger Darkly. Auger received intensive combat training as a young boy, as a prophecy said that the firstborn son of Caddock Sirroco and Emmeline Darkly, a boy full of wisdom and strength and with a brave heart, would face the King of the Nightlanders in battle when he was seventeen who decide the fate of humanity. Believing that Omen was stronger than the other Corrival Academy students because he had taken part in his brother's combat training, but that he was less conspicuous than his brother because everyone had heard of the prophecy, Skullduggery and Valkyrie ask him for help. He accepts the assignment to look for members of a group of villains in his school.

Skulduggery Pleasant - midnight

(Original: Skulduggery Pleasant - Midnight )

In the eleventh part of the series you learn more about the history of Abyssinias, Omen Darkly and of course you learn a lot more about Valkyrie and Skulduggery.

Skulduggery Pleasant - madness

(Original: Skullduggery Pleasant - Bedlam)

In the 12th part of the series, the search for the lost soul of Valkyrie's sister Alison continues. And Valkyrie must stand against the sanctuary to save her. At the end you also learn that Valkyrie does not descend from the last of the forefathers, but is faceless.

Tanith Low - The nefarious seven

(Original: The Maleficent Seven )

The nefarious seven is a secondary act and is about Tanith Low after she was occupied by a restante in part 5. You and a few other villains like Dusk and Springer-Jack want to prevent Darquise from being stopped by stealing and destroying all godsliders so that no one can kill Darquise anymore. Your opponents - including Dexter Vex, Saracen Rue and five others - want to prevent that. In terms of content, this story takes place between the 7th and 8th part, although the book appeared before the 7th part.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Apocalypse, Wow

Volume with 13 short stories:

  • Over a dark plane
  • The Halloween ball of horror writers
  • The forgotten art of world domination
  • Gold, Babies and the Muldoon Brothers
  • The inglorious end of black Annis
  • On Friday nights in the arena
  • Operation Myosotis Terra
  • The wonderful adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinus
  • An ordinary Friday evening
  • The doomsday machine
  • trick or treat
  • Get away from me, Bubba Moon
  • The button

Skulduggery Pleasant - Undead Land

Important information is missing from this article or section. Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

Movie

Derek Landy keeps making vague hints, but no details have been given, except that Warner Bros bought the rights. However, the resulting script was so bad that Derek Landy and Warner Bros agreed not to direct the film. Warner Bros has also returned the rights to the film to Derek Landy. Derek Landy wants to make the film as perfect as possible and write the script himself. That's why he's now working with another studio whose name is not known. However, the script is not ready yet. Derek Landy said the script was perfect so far. According to their own statement - if there is demand - a film should be made for each book.

The characters or main roles

Skulduggery Pleasant

A living skeleton , usually wearing a suit and hat. He's an elemental mage, but he also has a certain talent for necromancy. After his violent death on October 23rd (birthday of Derek Landy) by General Nefarian Serpine, who had also previously murdered Skulduggery's wife and child, he could not go on to the realm of the dead because Tenebrae (high priest of the necromancers) tied him to his body would have. After being burned and thrown into the river as a pile of bones, Skulduggery used this magic to put it back together. Because he could no longer bear the pain and his anger, he gave in to his dark side, took the name Lord Vile and took an apprenticeship with the necromancers, who saw in him the future deathbringer. Instead of taking on this determination, he joined Mevolent because he could spread more fear and terror there, and became one of its highest generals and a war criminal. He did not reveal his identity. At some point, however, he managed to overcome the "evil" part of his being - he took off his armor, which he used to concentrate his necromancer powers, and returned to the side of his former friends. He has worked as a detective for the Irish Sanctuary since the end of the war against Mevolent . He lost his real head while he was sleeping ("The goblins stole it from me!") And won a new one playing poker. In the fourth part, Valkyrie gives him the old one back after she used it to bring Skulduggery back from the realm of the Faceless. There he learned some new skills, such as flying. He is very sarcastic, complacent and moody, likes to joke in the most unbelievable and inappropriate situations (in the 6th part he makes the code word "The sparrows fly south in winter" with Valkyrie) to warn them when he approaches someone again Mash beats) and is feared by his enemies because of the anger he has accumulated over the centuries. His big secret is that he was the mass murderer Lord Vile, and he still has the potential to do so, he just has to give in to his dark side. Because of his acute worries about Valkyrie, even this dark side (his subconscious) can manifest itself as his old armor. His family was betrayed to Serpine by China Sorrows, so they are actually responsible for Skulduggery's death. His vehicle is a 1954 Bentley R-Type Continental, one of only 207 examples. Skulduggery is very proud of this car and takes good care of it. In the 9th part he succeeds in freeing Valkyrie from Darquise. In the vision Darquise gets from the sensitives around Cassandra Pharos, she murders Skulduggery by robbing him of the magic that holds him together. In reality, he then seems to sacrifice himself after the fight, so that the accelerator deactivates itself, because a voluntarily given soul is required for this. In the end, he actually pushes the hated Erskin Ravel into the accelerator and then justifies himself to the guardian of the accelerator, the engineer. He accepts the justification. In the last chapter he visits Valkyrie in her home in America to bring her back to Ireland after five years of isolation. Walküre's guest, Danny, would rather not get to know Skulduggery.

In the new volumes in the series, Skulduggery continues to work as a detective and also an arbitrator. As such, he can take action against anything and anyone who represents a threat to the magical world, regardless of the laws and regulations of the sanctuary.

Valkyrie Unruh (Stephanie Edgley)

(English: Valkyrie Cain )

She is the protagonist and thinks that she is descended from the forefathers but at the end of the 12th part, a vampire explains to her that she is the child of the faceless until she meets Skulduggery, she is a normal girl by the name of Stephanie Edgley. After her uncle dies and she finds out that it was murder, she and Skulduggery try to solve the murder. The two become partners and friends, fight evil, and Stephanie is trained in elemental magic and later also in necromancy. Her adopted name is Valkyrie Unruh . She also learns her real name - Darquise - later (in the fourth volume). Her salient qualities are courage and sarcastic humor.

Valkyrie has dark hair and dark eyes, and she mostly wears black clothes. In the fourth volume she comes together with Fletcher Renn, but ends again in the sixth volume (passage of the necromancers). In order to fight in the “underworld” (= the world of magicians), she has a doppelganger at home who does homework for her, goes to classes, etc. She gets it through a spell; the double literally comes out of the mirror. This doppelganger - also known as the mirror image - tries to kill Valkyrie in the 8th part of the story. At the end of the 8th part, Darquise takes control and withdraws after the battle against the Warlocks in Roarhaven. In "The Death of the Light" she is finally freed by Darquise after some back and forth and is preparing for the final battle against Darquise. The mirror image of Valkyrie with its own identity is killed and then occupied by the detached spirit of Darquise. After regaining her lost powers she can throw white lightning and see magical auras, a completely new and pure form of magic. In the vision shown by Darquise, she dies from a too hard impact against a house wall, caused by Darquise himself. In reality, the impact doesn't even hurt them badly. After the numerous deceptions, Darquise retreats into the world of the faceless, believing that she has won, in search of a new challenge. In the accelerator room, Valkyrie confesses to Skulduggery as he allegedly wants to sacrifice himself that she loves him. Valkyrie alias Stephanie Edgley retreats into isolation in America for five years after the events of "The Dying of Light", because she cannot cope with the fact that she had to kill her sister Alison so that she had the scepter to shape can. Although she immediately resuscitated her sister, she cannot forgive herself for that. She has an adventure in America with the mortal Danny, who is then initiated.

In the new volumes in the series, Walküre is 25 years old and continues to work as a detective and mediator. You also learn that Valkyrie is bisexual. She also has a German shepherd named Xena.

Horrible tailor

(English: Ghastly Bespoke )

His mother was cursed while pregnant, so his face is scarred. Horrible is one of Skulduggery Pleasant's oldest friends and was with him in the elite troop of the war "The Dead Men". He's also in love with Tanith Low. Horrible Schneider likes to tell you that his tailoring talent came from his mother and that his father was a boxer. In truth, it's the other way around, Horrible Schneider's mother was a heavyweight in boxing and was killed in front of his eyes by Lord Vile in the war against Mevolent. He tailors extraordinary suits, and one glance is all it takes to find out the size of his customers. Besides, he doesn't particularly like the world of sorcery - if he could have chosen, he would have taken the world without magic. He doesn't think it's good that Stephanie ends up in the world of sorcery because he wants to protect her from it. In the fourth volume he receives a magical tattoo from China Sorrows , which shows his disfigured face for a few minutes without scars; this allows him to move almost unnoticed through large crowds without anyone noticing his appearance. At the end of Volume 5 he is elected to the Council of Elders together with Erskin Ravel and Madam Misty (against his will), but is killed in the eighth part by Erskin Ravel in the war against the Warlocks. In the 9th and last part, in the city of the dead, the necropolis, Skulduggery meets his beloved deceased and those for whose death he is responsible in the 2nd trial. Horrible is among them and accuses Skulduggery of the murder of his mother. He also tells Skulduggery that his time is up and that he should join them.

Tanith Low

Born in 1916, she is an excellent swordsman with 60 years of training who has saved Skulduggery and Stephanie's lives several times. Through the magic, nobody can see that she is actually 83 years old. The book says: "She is over 80 years old, looks in her mid-twenties and acts like a four-year-old". Her trademark is a huge sword that she wears under the coat of her leather suit. Tanith is up for fun and is a good friend of Stephanie. In the fifth part she reveals her love for Horrible, but is permanently possessed by a remnant, then enters into a relationship with Billy-Ray Sanguin and is almost completely gone. She puts together a group of villains and tries to prevent Darquise from being stopped with them. She was originally trained as an assassin. Her first victim, whom she was supposed to kill as part of her training, was named Tanith, after whom she named herself so that she would never forget what she did to her. She has an older brother who was also trained in Knives in the Dark, the assassin training camp. In the seventh part, Duel der Dimensions, she returns with Billy-Ray Sanguin to carry out the mission Valkyrie Unruh from a hit man. They were hired by Eliza Scorn. In the eighth part, she and Sanguin team up with Skulduggery & Co. for a short time in order to prepare for the war of the sanctuaries. When Walküre becomes Darquise for the first time for a long time, Tanith and Sanguin leave the group again. In the 9th part she joins the withdrawn Darquise together with her partner and declares herself to be her personal protector. As the book progresses, she doubts Darquise's plan and the rest of her becomes more and more good-natured. In the caves under Gordon Edgley's house, she allows Valkyrie to escape and kills Mercy by beheading her. Subsequently, Darquise removes the remnants from Tanith and eats it to get information. The now no longer occupied Tanith can escape thanks to Billy-Ray Sanguin. When she learns of Grässlich's death, she is very shocked because she felt something for him. In the finale of the series, Tanith finally kills her old rival, the white scythe bearer, after he murdered Sanguin. Tanith mourns him too, as she had developed a bond with him too. In the vision shown in Darquise, she is personally killed by Darquise. In reality, she survived the events of "The Dying of Light".

While it has never been confirmed, there is evidence that Tanith is bisexual. In the more recent volumes we learn that Tanith retired to South Africa after Sanguin's death. But she is returning to Ireland and is the first to take action against China.

China Sorrows

The most beautiful woman in the world and sister of Mister Bliss, whom she often tried to kill without success. She has the gift of influencing people to do things they want. China runs a library where Stephanie and Tanith first met, and she's also a fanatical collector. In the first volume she is particularly interested in the scepter of the forefathers. For treasure like this she would kill. Former leader of the Diablerie (during the time she also betrayed Skulduggery's wife and children), she has turned away from the evil side. She only does what you use, but she is often the savior of Skulduggery and Stephanie. Your magic is one of the advanced teachings. She conjures up with the help of the symbols she wears as tattoos on her body and in her apartment across from the library. She probably knows these signs better than any other wizard of her day. Later, her library and almost all of her possessions are destroyed by Eliza Scorn, an old adversary and supporter of the Faceless. In the eighth part, several assassinations are carried out on her and she seeks protection in the sanctuary in Roarhaven. Towards the end of the book, she and Skulduggery try to kill Erskin Ravel and activate a certain sigil on her body, which causes her to burn from within. Darquise deactivates the spell, however, saving China's life. After that she becomes "Grand Magician". In the 9th part she helps as a grand magician to free Valkyrie from Darquise and finally to stop Darquise. Incredibly, she even got her fingers dirty in the final battle in Roarhaven. In the future, which Cassandra Pharos & Co. fooled Darquise, Darquise kills China. In the book with the words "China Sorrows tried. China Sorrows died." described. English: "China Sorrows tried it. China Sorrows died."

Mr. Bliss

Bliss is considered the physically strongest man on earth and with his tremendous muscle strength he has already saved Skulduggery from many dangerous situations. He is China Sorrow's brother, but turned against their common family at an early age, who were on the side of the Faceless. In the first two volumes, many people attempted to kill Bliss, but to no avail. He seems immortal until, in the third volume, shortly after being inducted into the Council of Elders, he is killed by a faceless man.

Fletcher racing

After a number of teleporters are murdered in the third volume, Fletcher is the only one of this type of magician still alive. He's not the kind of guy who fights, like Skulduggery, for example, but he is there in the toughest situations and uses teleportation to save his friends (Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Horrible, Tanith, ...). He is often stubborn and child-headed, but can (though rarely) be serious. Fletcher is also totally convinced of himself. His hairstyle, which he thinks is great, resembles that of a porcupine (everyone but him thinks his hairstyle is: "Totally stupid" as Valkyrie said) - his hair always sticks out in all directions. At the end of the third volume he falls in love with Valkyrie; but they are only really together in the fourth volume. Behind his back, Valkyrie starts something with the vampire Caelan. In the sixth volume, Walküre finally ends and tells him the truth about himself and the vampire. In the seventh volume Fletcher finds a new friend, Myra, a mortal from Australia, who turns out to be a traitor in the eighth part. After killing two of Fletcher's friends and almost himself, Fletcher escapes to Ireland, where he is a Bride of Bloody Tears (an organization of female witches) in Africa with monster hunters Donegan Bane and Gracious O'Callahan in Africa. who live in a pyramid with tongue-less slaves) is kidnapped. In his rescue, Valkyrie becomes Darquise for the first time for a long period, but Fletcher and Skulduggery manage to escape from the pyramid. After that he is a great help in the war, and meanwhile also smooches a little with Stephanie, Valkyrie's reflection in the mirror. In the 9th part a firm relationship develops between the mirror image and Fletcher. After the well-turned reflection of Darquise is killed, Fletcher mourns and withdraws briefly. He's back for the final battle and helps stop Darquise. In Darquise's vision, Fletcher is called by her, Darquise, and killed. Of course, this does not correspond to reality and he survives.

Gordon Edgley

Gordon Edgley is Stephanie's uncle. At the very beginning of the story, he is killed by Nefarian Serpine's Red Right Hand. He knew magic existed through his friend Skulduggery and wrote countless books about it, but to his regret he never had magical abilities, unlike his brother Fergus, the father of Carol and Crystal. Under his house, which previously belonged to a wizard, there are many secret tunnels in which the legendary scepter of the forefathers was hidden until Serpine steals it in the first volume. With this scepter the faceless were driven into another world by the forefathers. In the caves under Gordon's house monsters live that are immune to magic and even feed on it. There is also a vein of "black crystals" there. Such a crystal is also in the scepter and everything it touches (except for the descendants of the forefathers) is destroyed by this crystal. Before his death, Gordon transferred his personality to a so-called "echo stone", so he can still talk to Valkyrie and the others after his death. He is one of the few who knows that Valkyrie is Darquise. In "The Dying of Light" the Echo Stone of Gordon is occupied by Darquise's detached spirit and Gordon is for the time being ousted. Valkyrie doesn't even notice that she is falling into a trap, because she thought she was talking to the "real" Gordon. After Darquise has left the stone, Gordon only has a short time to talk to Valkyrie because the echo stone is permanently damaged. The echo stone erases itself before Gordon could say his well-arranged "last words". He also reminds of Derek Landy because both are writers.

Speckle Grouse

Kenspeckel Grouse is a professor in the laboratory that is hidden in the old Hibernia cinema. His main characteristics are his rough handling of patients and his genius. He tends to Skulduggery and Stephanie's wounds. He's a good friend of Stephanie's, but he thinks Skulduggery is a bad company for her, he doesn't particularly like him. He hates hurting others, that's why he became a doctor. He is also terrified of vampires and therefore always carries a small bottle of salt water with him. He is incredibly intelligent, which has saved Skulduggery and Valkyrie several times from seemingly hopeless situations. In volume four he is possessed by a remnant and injures Tanith Low. In the fifth part he is slit open with his own scalpel by his assistant Clarabelle, who is also possessed by a remnant. In Part 9 he is among the spirits that haunt Skulduggery in the necropolis.

In another edition it is called 'Gruse' instead of Grouse.

Doctor Nye

Doctor Nye is a tall, adventurous being (Nye's intersexuality and non-humanity is mentioned several times, it is one of the last known Crenga) with very good skills as a doctor. However, it is not always so strict about the rules and sometimes it makes its patients victim by taking them apart to see what is going on in them. At the time of the book's action it is in search of the place of the soul in the (human) body. It actually only serves as the sanctuary's doctor, but repeatedly performs illegal interventions - for example, Vaurien Scapegrace gets a new body for his brain. Before Kenspeckel Grouse died, it was in the service of the banshee and death. During the war against Mevolent, Nye was in his service and is a multiple war criminal and well-known sadist and murderer. Clarabelle becomes Nye's assistant after Grouse's death and works as a doctor in the sanctuary. In the 9th part, Dr. Nye out of prison with aiding and abetting and likely seeking refuge with Eliza Scorn. The version of Nyes from the alternative Mevolent dimension has (found the place of the soul and) its appearance in the last part and is about to dissect Valkyrie, but Nefarian Serpine saves Valkyrie from him.

Billy-Ray Sanguin

William-Raymond Sanguin, Billy-Ray for short, is a Texas hit man who describes himself as a "luxury killer". He works for Baron Vengeous and the Diablerie, among others. Later he founded the "Club of Avengers" with his father Scarab (short: Scarab), the vampire Dusk, Springer-Jack, Remus Crux and Vaurien Scapegrace. Then he goes underground for the time being. At the end of the fifth volume he stands for a change on the side of Skulduggery and Co. and finally disappears with Tanith, who is possessed by a remnant and with whom he has long been in love. Sanguin is usually sarcastic. No matter what situation he is in, he is not at a loss for any ironic remark. Billy-Ray has blonde hair and usually wears a brown suit, worn cowboy boots and dark sunglasses to hide the fact that his eyes are just two dark sockets. Still, he sees excellent, especially in the dark. He has the gift of disappearing into the earth or walking through walls. In the third volume, Valkyrie cuts him on the stomach, which severely weakens his strength. At the end of the fifth part he disappears with Tanith Low, who is owned by a resident. In the seventh part, Duel der Dimensions, he returns with Tanith Low to fulfill an assignment from Eliza Scorn, who, however, displeases him a lot: "He has to prevent Valkyrie Unruh from being hunted down by a hit man, which Tanith and himself manage. He is then persuaded by Tanith to let Dr. Nye cure him while he talks to the severed head of Vaurien Scapegrace. In the intermediate volume "The Nefarious Seven" he and Tanith want to destroy the four murderers so that no one can stop Darquise In the 8th part of the series "The Return of the Dead Men", he and Tanith are briefly on the side of Walküre, but only to protect her, since she is Darquise. At the end they withdraw. In "The dying of Lichts ", the finale of the series, he joined together with Tanith Darquise. During the book he became more and more uncertain of the matter and stayed after Tanith's liberation from the restant and his help in their escape only with Darquise, since he is afraid. He openly admits this to her. It was never his intention to see the world destroyed, he only helped Darquise for Tanith's sake. Finally, towards the end, he joins Tanith and the others in Roarhaven to take part in the final battle against Darquise, armed with the godslayer dagger. At the end of the book, he comes to Tanith Low's help in the fight against the Black Scythe Bearer and saves her life while he leaves his own with it. The scythe-bearer slits his throat and he suffocates on his own blood. Tanith mourned for him, although she couldn't directly remember her relationship with Billy-Ray.

Anton Shudder

Anton Shudder is an old friend of Skulduggery. He is the owner, manager and head of the "Hotel Mitternacht", which changes its location every twelve hours. Anton Shudder is an alchemist. It has a so-called "quintessence", a being that controls the body if you let it rage for too long. The quintessence is very strenuous and immortal. In the fifth book he is attacked by a restant who controlled him. Fortunately, however, he is freed from this. In the eighth part, Erskin Ravel betrays him and has him killed by his army of scythes. He, too, is in the necropolis in Part 9 among those who visit Skulduggery. He says that now that he's dead, he can finally laugh with relief.

Eachan Meritorius

Eachan Meritorius is the most powerful Irish Sanctuary Grand Mage to have ever lived. Next to him, the council of elders consists of Morwenna Crow and Sagachious Tome. He and Crow are betrayed by Tome in the first book and murdered by Nefarian Serpine with the scepter of the forefathers. He was an element mage, recognizable by the fact that he tried to ward off the scepter's lightning with a shield of air.

Auron Tenebrae

The high priest Auron Tenebrae is the head of the Order of the Irish Necromancers. Seeing during the war that Skulduggery Pleasant possessed superior necromancer skills, when he helped Nefarian Serpine get the "Red Right Hand", he made sure that Skulduggery's ghost, in case Serpine should kill him with his red right hand to come back into his body. He later trained Skulduggery to be Lord Vile. After Auron Tenebrae revealed this secret to Valkyrie Unruh in Volume 6, he was killed by Melancholia.

Solomon wreath

(English: Solomon Wreath )

A high-ranking cleric in the Order of the Irish Necromancers, 396 years old. He appears for the first time in the third part and has been the mentor of Valkyrie Unruh ever since, training her in necromancy. Not much is known about him and his past. He and Skulduggery don't like each other. He was once tasked with protecting Nefarian Serpine from Skulduggery when the latter fled to a temple from the dead men . Kranz conducted the trial in front of the temple gate (read in the short story collection Armageddon outta here ). He tied his necromancy magic to his walking stick. In the third volume this is unfortunately destroyed by a faceless man, whereupon he gets an identical stick. He mostly wears black suits because he doesn't like robes. Many necromancers say that he is too fond of Valkyrie because he has been looking for a deathbringer for over 200 years and now thinks that Valkyrie could be that deathbringer. After his plan to make Valkyrie the Deathbringer fails and Melancholia St. Clair is made the Deathbringer instead, he withdraws. He only "celebrates" his comeback in the 8th part, "The Return of the Dead Men", when he visits Valkyrie on her 18th birthday and gives her a new, more powerful ring for her funeral magic. He also says that he deeply regrets how things have gone. In "The Death of Light" he comes back and supports Valkyrie wherever he can. For example, he tells her how she can become invulnerable, namely with the Meryyn sigil, which only a dead person in the city of the dead, the necropolis, can activate through 3 trials. As a result, Valkyrie can take action against Darquise for 23 minutes and they almost overwhelmed her. Shortly afterwards, Solomon Kranz was struck in half by Darquise with the remains of the godslayer sword and died.

Melancholia St. Clair

She is a sullen and arrogant girl trained by the necromancers but only proves to be moderately talented. She and Valkyrie clash at times. In "Passage of the Necromancers", Vandameer Craven tries to turn Melancholia into a death-bringer by carving magical signs into her skin in a painful procedure that lasts for days. However, this only works imperfectly. This gives her great powers, but does not have full control over them. In the 9th part she is awakened from her coma and agrees to help Valkyrie in the fight against Darquise. In the final battle, she actually fights alongside Lord Vile against Darquise. When she is about to be killed by the two of them, she causes an explosion. While Lord Vile is only injured, Melancholia is killed.

Caelan

Caelan is a vampire who died at the age of 19. For the first time he appears in the 4th volume. He is a quiet, brooding, yet brutal young man and also in love with Valkyrie. Valkyrie thinks he's great because he's handsome and dangerous. He hates Fletcher Renn because he is with Valkyrie. He doesn't live with any other vampire because he broke the rules by killing another vampire. In the sixth part he is killed by Fletcher and Walküre at night, in monster form, in which Valkyrie pushes him under water. When he swallowed the salt water, he died because, like all vampires, he was allergic to it.

Mevolent

Mevolent was the colonel on the other side in the great war. He had three generals: Nefarian Serpine, Baron Vengous, and Lord Vile. In a parallel dimension (see "Duel of the Dimensions") he has the godslayer sword, which destroys all magic and life functions. There he is killed once a day and then resuscitated to show that he is the lord of life and death. In his castle in the parallel dimension, which is something like a sanctuary, there is a huge throne room, many prison cells, a few secret passages, torture chambers, an inner courtyard, etc. Mevolent himself only fought when he felt like it, or when the enemy closed is strong for his troops. He modified the scythe bearers to redcoats (redhoods). Ultimately, however, he was killed in the main dimension (/ action dimension). In the 9th part he gets back to Darquise in his dimension with the sick Baron Vengous and Lord Vile at his side. He puts them on the run with a new weapon called a magic sucker.

Erskin Ravel

Completely disregarded in the first to fourth volumes and only mentioned as a man with the golden eyes, Erskin Ravel appears briefly in the fifth volume and is crowned a grand magician. At his side are the elders of Horrible Tailors and Madam Misty, a child of the spider, and of course the sanctuary detectives Valkyrie and Skulduggery. Ravel is doing very well in his new role, and even if he doesn't have as much experience as the great mages of America, for example, he undoubtedly has decision-making skills and a good heart. He was one of the Dead Men, just like Horrible and Shudder, but kills Horrible in part eight and also brings about Shudder's death. He betrays the dead men and allies himself with Madam Misty, desiring to rule over mortals. At the end of Volume Eight, Darquise punishes him by causing him to be tortured in hell twenty-three hours a day. Ravel is the man with the golden eyes. The 9th part shows that he suffers greatly from the punishment imposed on him. After being waved back and forth from one dimension, it acts as bait and it works. When Darquise arrives, he fights with the godslayer spear at the side of Skulduggery & Co. before trying to escape. When he boosted his strength with the accelerator, he initially reacts knocked out and the accelerator shortens the time to overload. When Skulduggery and Valkyrie arrive, Skulduggery pushes Ravel, and not himself, into the accelerator and the device is deactivated. Skulduggery is very surprised when Valkyrie says that she thought he was sacrificing himself. Full of indignation, he says that the world would not be worth living without him.

Dexter Vex

Dexter Vex, an old friend of Ghastly and Skulduggery, is one of the Dead Men. He is an energy thrower and likes to travel. At 150 to 200 years of age, he is still relatively young, but already has a lot of experience. In Volume 5 it is mentioned for the first time in the vote of the Council of Elders and appears for the first time in Part Six on the Memories Ball. But he only becomes important in the intermediate volume "The nefarious Seven" where he leads a group of six other people (including Saracen Rue, whom he has known since the time of the "Dead Men"), which Tanith Low and her group (also with six other members, including Billy-Ray Sanguin) want to stop. Since he does not belong to a sanctuary, his mostly unorthodox methods cannot be punished at higher levels, which makes his actions from time to time bolder, but also more deliberate. In the 9th part he and his long-time friend Saracen Rue help the monster hunters in the hunt for remnants. Eventually he is occupied by one himself and becomes Darquise's new protector. When he betrayed Darquise in the final battle, a trap snaps shut for the world destroyer and all of the remnants except for Darquise in Vex. But since it is too strong, it kills one after the other and at an impressive rate. In the end she forces the remnant out of Vex and lets him flee. Dexter Vex remains half dead on the floor.

Saracen Rue

“Saracen Rue knows things”. Nothing more is known about its power. Nobody except Erskin Ravel knows what his talent or ability lies, and this only because both were trapped together and were about to be executed by Mevolent. According to Derek Landy, the author of the series, Saracen Rue embodies the author, Landy himself. He is not particularly good at fighting magic, but often scares people because his talent cuts into the flesh. He was also one of the dead men. Saracen claims to have impressed the dead men by attacking an entire battalion, according to his best friend Shudder he slipped and tumbled into the enemy camp. In the 9th part he and Dexter Vex help the monster hunters with the hunt for remnants. In the final battle he fights at Skulduggery's side with the godslayer bow against Darquise. He is almost killed by her.

Vaurien Scapegrace

Appears in part two as the "villain" who tries to throw Valkyrie from a tower. Later I always had small supporting roles. In part four he joins the Avengers Club and is later turned into a zombie by Skarab and Sanguin. His first recruit is called Gerald and is always referred to as "stupid" or "stupid" by himself. Scapegrace is annoyed by the name and that he recruited him at all and calls him Thrasher. In part five, he and Gerald seek out Kernspeckel to become human again. When the latter dies, the dream seems to be over until, in the seventh part, he can persuade Nye to bring both of them back into human form. The beautiful dream of finally becoming human again becomes a nightmare; because Scapegrace awakens in the body of a young sporty woman. He complains about it a lot, mostly because Thrasher got the body of a muscular and handsome man he actually wanted himself. In the eighth part he takes kung fu lessons from Master Ping, an old Chinese man, but without any real success. He imagines he is a superhero and roams Roarhaven at night with Thrasher. When he gets into considerable trouble because of this, Ping saves him. He promises to protect Scapegrace if he becomes his partner (Ping doesn't understand that Scapegrace is actually a man). Vaurien refuses, but Ping stays with him and emphasizes in front of others that he "has a love affair with Miss Scapegrace" ("Skulduggery Pleasant - The Return of the Dead Men", chapter "The Man with the Golden Eyes", p. 451) . In the 9th part he feels like a stranger in his new body and, like Thrasher, wants to return to the old one. After some back and forth, this can also be achieved through a "mind transplant". As a zombie, he goes to the necropolis with Thrasher to finish the 3rd trial of Skulduggery. The Guardian will not allow this until he hears that it is the Zombie King worshiped among the dead. He takes up the fight against the two. As he thrusts his sword through Thrasher's head, Scapegrace screams and takes him in his arms. Vaurien had passed the third exam because he felt compassion and affection for Thrasher in that brief moment. The Meryyn Sigil is now activated for 23 minutes. The zombie king also gets the offer to stay in the necropolis and rule over it as king of the dead. He declines the offer because he has promised Clarabelle to come back. He says that he will definitely accept this offer later.

Militsa Gnosis

Is one of the recurring characters in the newer books. She is a necromancer and teacher at Corrival School. She met Valkyrie during her investigation there. Militsa is a happy personality who talks a lot. She is confident and quick to grasp, but is also clumsy. She is quickly ready to support Valkyrie. In the third volume of the new series, you learn that the two are a couple.

Omen Darkly

He is a fourth year student of Corrival School and the twin brother of Auger Darkly, the chosen one of the Darkly Prophecy. He helped Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Unruh on their missions. Omen was born in a town near Galway minutes after his brother Auger, to Emmeline Darkly and Caddock Sirroco. Through his mother, Omen is a member of the Darkly family. Where he grew up, the magical community had deep distrust of mortal neighbors. At Corrival School, Omen was overshadowed by his older brother Auger, who was the most popular kid in the school because of his natural looks, charisma, and fame related to the Darkly Prophecy. Omen was in the background. He found only a few friends, his best friend was the student Never. In his third year at Corrival School, Omen was hired by Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Unruh to keep an eye out for suspicious activity at the school. They believed the counter-sanctuary would recruit young and receptive students. Omen ran through the school, spying on teachers and students, following them and listening to their conversations. Omen is a very clumsy person socially and quite clumsy. He's neither very talented nor very intelligent. He desires fate and attention because of his brother's status and the neglect he received and receives from his parents. He is also quite forgetful, which often annoys his teachers and which is why he always forgets his schedule. He has trouble thinking on his own and taking initiative. However, he was described by Miss Gnosis as a good and gentle boy. Omen has used both alchemy and elemental magic so far, which is possible because his surge of powers is yet to come. However, he is considering specializing in elemental magic. He is also interested in the magic of linguistics, i.e. mastering any language.

Abyssinia

Abyssinia, known as the Princess of the Night Lander, was the daughter of the nameless and inherited this title from him. She had a son, Caisson, whose father is alleged to be Lord Vile. When Lord Vile threw her out the window, her father saved her. He gave her his powers on the condition that when Caisson dies, she would connect his soul to Caisson's body. She agreed, the father died, and she caught his soul with a soul catcher. Her first appearance was when Valkyrie was trying to have a vision of the future that she would see Abyssinia in after making an attack on Roarhaven, accompanied by Auger and Omen Darkly and Skulduggery Pleasant. She looks directly at Valkyrie when she has the vision and says that she "comes for them all". She was resuscitated in Coldheart Prison by taking the life force from Mr. Collup and Mr. Rut (they were killed) and using some from Valkyrie Unruh (she survived). Abyssinia is seen laughing before Never teleports the group away.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Derek Landy: Skulduggery Pleasant-The Author. In: Skulduggery Pleasant. HarperCollins Publishers, Tom Percival, Nov. 12, 2009, p. Full page , archived from the original on Dec. 12, 2009 ; accessed on December 12, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Overview of the audio books on the publisher's website , accessed on April 24, 2012.
  3. ↑ a b c d Derek Landy: Skulduggery Pleasant-The Gentleman with the Firehand . Loewe, Bindlach 2007, ISBN 978-3-7855-5922-2 .
  4. ↑ Bord Gáis press release
  5. ↑ Derek Landy: Skulduggery Pleasant-The Grotesque Strikes Back . Loewe, Bindlach 2008, ISBN 978-3-7855-6001-3 .
  6. ↑ Press releases from the city of Eltville: www.eltville.de Retrieved on April 17, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b c d Derek Landy: Skulduggery Pleasant-Die Diablerie begs to die . Loewe, Bindlach 2009, ISBN 978-3-7855-6002-0 .