Duke Perrington · The full story
The Valg king in a borrowed body
For six books the Duke was the King's brutish, red-faced right hand. There was no Duke — there hadn't been for decades.
THE MAN WHO WASN'T
The King opened a crypt as a boy and let something ancient in.
Decades before the series, the young King of Adarlan unwittingly opened Erawan's crypt beneath Morath with a Wyrdkey, and the Valg King poured himself into the Duke's body. Ever since, 'Perrington' — big, dark-bearded, perpetually scowling, wearing a black Wyrdstone ring like the King and like Cain — has been a husk with something far older behind the eyes. At the King's Champion competition he sponsored the brute soldier Cain, who was opening a Wyrdgate to summon a ridderak and murder rival champions. The reader who knows what he is watches a very different scene than the one the court sees.
MORATH
He built a fortress whose only real product is more of him.
He withdraws to Morath and makes it the open seat of Valg power. He chains Ironteeth witches — the Yellowlegs first — to tables to breed them with Valg demons; he forges Wyrdstone collars for the Valg princes and rings for the lesser ones; he bonds Kaltain Rompier to a Valg and sinks a Wyrdstone in her arm, turning her fire to shadowfire and using her to torture soldiers. The Blackbeak Matron and Vernon Lochan help him run it. Morath is not a stronghold so much as a factory, and its product is the end of the world.
THE TRUE FACE
When the disguise finally wore out, the thing that stepped out of it was beautiful.
In Empire of Storms he sheds the worn-out Perrington body and manifests his own form to summon Manon Blackbeak — ivory skin, golden hair, and gold eyes disturbingly like her own, a voice described as carnal and lovely and cruel. He speaks through Valg-possessed soldiers across the whole continent, learns that Aelin carries a Wyrdkey, and wants all three to tear open the Wyrdgate and pour the Valg into Erilea. The mirror war-towers his witches build can level a threat in a couple of blasts. The scowling human duke was only ever a coat.
BURNED OUT
It takes a healer, a shapeshifter and a stolen face to end him.
In the last war he marches on Anielle and on Orynth at once, a Morath host of roughly a hundred thousand. Aelin baits him off the line by seeding distrust between him and Maeve. Then Dorian wears Yrene's face to lure him onto a Wyrdmark-warded balcony; Lysandra drops the real Yrene in; and Elide charges out with Damaris — Gavin's ancient Sword of Truth — and pins him through the gut. Yrene burns the demon out of him and, linking her magic with Dorian's, unmakes him completely. The instant he and Maeve are dead, the entire Morath host drops where it stands.
The Valg king in a borrowed body
The patient, planetary evil the human villains were only ever working for.
The opened crypt
A boy-King opens Erawan's tomb beneath Morath with a Wyrdkey, and the Valg King takes the Duke's body for his own.
Perrington at court
The King's scowling right hand, a black Wyrdstone ring on his finger, sponsoring the champion Cain.
The poisoning
He has Kaltain poison Celaena before the duel, then throws Kaltain to the dungeons to bury his own part in it.
The breeding pits
At Morath he breeds Ironteeth witches with Valg demons on chained tables — the Yellowlegs first.
The collars
He forges Wyrdstone collars and rings, bonds Kaltain to a Valg and sinks a stone in her arm to make a weapon of her.
Morath burns
Kaltain detonates a third of the fortress and herself; he survives the blast and immediately starts planning again.
The true face
He sheds the Perrington body to summon Manon — gold eyes like her own, a lovely and cruel voice, nothing like the man they'd dealt with.
Speaking through the possessed
He reaches across the continent through his Valg-ridden soldiers and learns Aelin carries a Wyrdkey.
The war-towers
He masses Valg legions, wyvern-riding witches and mirror towers that can level a threat in two blasts.
Anielle and Orynth
He marches on both at once with a host of roughly a hundred thousand.
The trap
Dorian wears Yrene's face, Lysandra drops the real Yrene in, and Elide pins him with Damaris on a warded balcony.
Unmade
Yrene and Dorian burn him out of existence, and his whole host drops dead the moment he does.
The instruments
A god's toolkit, run out of a fortress.
- The Wyrdstone collars and ringsThe black bands that let Valg demons ride a human host — rings for the lesser ones, collars for the princes. The King, Cain and Perrington all wear them; Morath forges them by the crate.
- The mirror war-towersGiant transportable towers lined with ancient mirrors that amplify magic into a weapon able to level an army in a couple of blasts.
- DamarisNot his — Gavin's ancient Sword of Truth, the blade Elide drives through him to pin him for the kill. The first king's weapon ends the thing the first war only managed to seal.
We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put Manon on a shirt without knowing which way the iron teeth snap — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.
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