“ | We are the Thirteen; from now until the Darkness claims us. | ” |
The Thirteen was a Blackbeak coven under the command of Manon Blackbeak. They were considered to be the fiercest and most disciplined of all the Ironteeth Witches.
History[]
The Thirteen was founded by Manon Blackbeak when she was a young witchling. They are all around the same age and were raised and trained together. Over the next hundred years the Thirteen gained notoriety amongst the Blackbeak Clan as being the most deadly coven in the clan. The members were extremely loyal to the coven and to each other. Within the coven, there existed a hierarchy, with Manon being the leader, her cousin Asterin Second, and Sorrel Third, etc.
Towards the start of the third Valg war, the Thirteen accompanied the Blackbeak Clan, under orders from the Matron, to Morath to train as Erawan's new aerial legion. After receiving their new wyverns the Thirteen quickly became the highest-ranked coven amongst all the clans.
After Manon's defection from the clan—in defiance of her grandmother attempting to execute Asterin—the Thirteen fled Morath and were separated from their leader. Three months later they reunited with her, joining a naval battle in Eyllwe and crushing the opposition. They bore witness to Aelin Galathynius's capture by Queen Maeve and followed their leader when she made the decision to track down the hidden Crochan witches.[1]
For the next three months, the Thirteen searched for Crochans, eventually finding a camp in the mountains led by Manon's great-grandmother Glennis. They carefully assimilated into the camp, making peace with the Crochans until a surprise attack by an Ironteeth scouting party forced them to fight alongside the Crochans, earning some measure of trust from them.
They then followed the Crochans when they broke camp, flying south to Eyllwe to aid their kin. Upon finding the southern Crochans decimated, the Thirteen single-handedly buried all the dead. The Crochans and the Thirteen were eventually tracked down by the three Ironteeth Matrons; in the subsequent battle, Manon killed the Yellowlegs Matron and drove off Cresseida Blueblood and her grandmother. The Crochans crowned her Queen afterward, and on her orders both witch clans flew north to Terrasen to answer Aedion Ashryver's call for aid.
In Orynth, the Thirteen joined a fearsome battle against the armies of Morath, helping to turn the tide until the appearance of a Witch Tower forced them to temporarily retreat. With Manon grounded due to injuries sustained by her wyvern Abraxos, the Thirteen chose to incapacitate her and make a charge against the tower and the enemy Ironteeth guarding it. Flying in their trademark formation, they managed to punch through to the tower, sustaining losses along the way, but ultimately giving Asterin the chance to reach the tower and kill the Blackbeak Matron, just as she and all the fallen members of her coven performed the Yielding, destroying the tower and surrounding forces but dying in the process.
Devastated by the loss of her coven, Manon later visited the site of their last stand on the Plain of Theralis, where the soldiers and people of Terrasen placed flowers to honor their sacrifice.[2]
Members[]
In order of the hierarchy within the coven:
- Manon Blackbeak (leader)
- Asterin Blackbeak †
- Sorrel Blackbeak †
- Vesta Blackbeak †
- Faline Blackbeak †
- Fallon Blackbeak †
- Edda Blackbeak †
- Briar Blackbeak †
- Thea Blackbeak †
- Kaya Blackbeak †
- Linnea Blackbeak †
- Ghislaine Blackbeak †
- Imogen Blackbeak †
Gallery[]
- Art by PhantomRin on Tumblr
Notes[]
The Thirteen's deaths, and the subsequent placement of flowers on the battlefield where they died, may have succeeded in breaking Rhiannon Crochan's curse on the Witch Kingdom. As the curse states:
“ | Blood to blood and soul to soul, together this was done, and only together it can be undone. Be the bridge, be the light. When iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood—let the land be witness, and return home. | ” |
With the deaths of the twelve witches by Yielding, they caused "iron to melt" (as a result of them being Ironteeth Witches), and flowers laid on their last resting place essentially "sprang from fields of blood".
The order in which the witches sacrificed themselves is the following: Imogen, Lin, Ghislaine, Thea, Kaya, the demon twins (Falline y Fallon, without an specific order), Edda, Briar, Vesta, Sorrel, and last, Asterin.