Thaegan

"Thaegan hates anything that is beautiful, alive, and free."

- Jasmine to Lief and Barda.

Thaegan was a powerful Deltoran sorceress and servant of the Shadow Lord who controlled the north of Deltora for 100 years, including during the Shadow Lord's reign of the land. She was responsible for removing the voices of the Ralads, transforming the city of D'Or into the Lake of Tears and transforming Nanion of D'Or into Soldeen, which became the hiding place and guardian of the Ruby respectively. She was born to the sorceress Tamm in the northern Deltoran village of Nest.

Early life
Thaegan was born in the northern Deltoran village of Nest to a wise woman and sorceress named Tamm toward the end of the reign of Queen Elspeth. She inherited her mother's magical abilities, a woman respected by her neighbours, for she would make successful love potions and cast healing spells. Tamm also had the ability to transform herself into a blackbird at will. Thaegan's powers were far stronger than Tamm's, and although she was beautiful, her nature was cruel and spiteful. Bored by the family's simple life, Thaegan turned to dark magic to satisfy her taste for power. Tamm tried to reason with her, and finally to control her, but fruitlessly. Thaegan finally broke through the shutting spell Tamm had woven around their cottage, and fled into fled into the mountains separating Deltora from the Shadowlands.

Seven years later, Thaegan returned, significantly more powerful than before. It is unknown what happened to Thaegan in the Mountains, it is said that she may have struck a bargain with evil forces that she summoned there, but most believed that she encountered the Shadow Lord, who granted her more magical power. At some point, Thaegan had thirteen monstrous "children"; Hot, Tot, Jin, Jod, Fie, Fly, Zan, Zod, Pik, Snik, Lun, Lod, and Ichabod. The thirteen of them prowled the north of Deltora with their mother. It is uncertain how they came to be; whether they were fathered by the forces of evil or simply brought up by Thaegan herself is unknown. Thaegan relished the taste of blackbirds and ravens, in spiteful memory of her own mother.

Thaegan's malice continued to grow for a century, and though she grew older and more wicked, her appearance of a beautiful young woman never changed, for she hid her old age under a magic spell. She also created a magical armour over her body except for her finger with which she would cast her spells. No mortal weapon could pierce this magical armour. Over a hundred years before the recovery of the Ruby, Thaegan transformed the city of D'Or into the repulsive, dangerous Lake of Tears. Before transforming them, she promised them the Shadow Lord would come. She transfigured all of the city's inhabitants into horrific, writhing sea creatures and forced the city's leader, Nanion, to serve her in the form of an enormous sea serpent, Soldeen. The Ralad people spoke against Thaegan's cruelty, but the sorceress retaliated by robbing the Ralads and all of their descendants of their voices.

A few years after the Shadow Lord's invasion of Deltora, Thaegan attacked and ate a nest of ravens. Only one member of the family, a newly hatched bird named Kree, escaped. Kree flew to the Forests of Silence and met Jasmine (also recently orphaned by the Shadow Lord's forces) and told the young girl about Thaegan.

At some point, an enormous bird deceived Thaegan to save a friend from death — presumably, this friend was another bird that Thaegan tried to eat — and in retaliation the sorceress bewitched the bird, transforming him into the golden-eyed giant and forcing him to guard a bridge in her territory until truth and lies became one.

Over the years, many individuals tried to kill Thaegan, but all failed and were killed.

The Lake of Tears
Jasmine fiercely opposed travelling through the north of Deltora because she knew that Thaegan ruled the area. The group encountered the "golden-eyed giant" at his bridge, where he told them of his curse. The Giant-based one of his riddles entirely around Thaegan and her children. Lief failed to correctly answer the riddle, as he did not know of Thaegan's fondness for eating live ravens, but managed to break Thaegan's curse on the Giant by making "truth and lies one." Jasmine later explained to Lief and Barda that she was concerned for Kree's safety more than her own, because of what Thaegan had done to his family, before sending the raven back to the Forests of Silence for his own safety. Jasmine also told her companions about D'Or, a beautiful city that Thaegan cursed.

The trio were captured by two of Thaegan's children, Jin and Jod, but managed to slay the two with the help of Manus and Kree, the latter having returned to help Jasmine. Barda told Lief about the curse Thaegan had put on the Ralads before Manus led them to Raladin. The group feared that Thaegan would track them down, but she did not. Upon arriving in Raladin, the Ralads warned Barda, Lief and Jasmine about the Lake of Tears and Soldeen. They also told the group that Thaegan was invincible due to her magic.

Despite the Ralads' warnings, Manus led Barda, Lief and Jasmine to the Lake of Tears, where they faced Soldeen. Soldeen was moved by Manus' music and the power of the Topaz, which cleared his mind enough for Lief to reason with him. He convinced Soldeen to give them the Ruby, but Thaegan appeared before they could get away. Thaegan blasted Soldeen with her magic and dragged Lief through the Lake. Barda and Jasmine tried and failed to attack the witch, only to be blown back by her magic. As Thaegan prepared to transform the group into more monstrosities for the Lake of Tears, Kree pecked the finger that the sorceress used to cast her magic—the only part of her that was unprotected — and drew blood. Thaegan shrieked in pain and rage before violently dissipating, the only remaining trace of her being a yellow stain on the rocks.

Thaegan's death restored the voices of the Ralads, the city of D'Or and the city's people. The chiefs of D'Or Nanion and Ethena, eternally grateful, presented the Ruby to Lief.

City of the Rats
The Ralads celebrated the death of Thaegan, though Barda, Lief and Jasmine knew that her death would not go unnoticed by the Shadow Lord and were cautious as they left Ruby territory. They were attacked by Thaegan's remaining eleven children, but tricked them into fighting each other. They fled from Ichabod (the only survivor of the infighting) and eventually escaped into the Plains, finally exiting Thaegan's territory.

Return to Del
The last of Thaegan’s children, Ichabod, attacked the assembly of the seven tribes of Deltora and kidnapped Dain, the apparent heir to the Belt of Deltora. Ichabod remained in Del until Lief donned the completed Belt of Deltora and banished the Shadow Lord from the land. Ichabod was killed by the power of the Belt, effectively ending the last trace of Thaegan’s influence in Deltora.

Physical appearance
Thaegan was a tall, towering woman with green skin and long, grey hair. Her green skin, which shined like glass, was the result of a magical shield that protected her body from harm. Her real skin was bone-white in colour, as evidenced by the tip of her left little finger, the only part of her body not shielded. She had a beautiful face and her blood was dark red. Thaegan's gorgeous appearence seems to be some sort of illusion. Behind her false beauty, she looks like a hideous, deformed witch. Her magic was often accompanied by acrid, yellow smoke, which such as whenever she teleported throughout her territory. When doing so, the sky would seem to split open with a jagged streak of light and the yellow, foul-smelling and choking smoke would belch from the split with her body appearing in the midst of it.

Personality
Thaegan was a sadist that enjoyed inflicting pain on others. Jasmine described her on multiple occasions as a monster, a title that Thaegan typically lived up to. She ruled the north of Deltora with an iron fist, tormenting its people however she pleased and destroying any beauty she found. Thaegan's extreme cruelty was not the result of the Shadow Lord’s influence as with most of the other antagonists in the series and she was a largely independent entity. She openly detested anything joyous, beautiful, or free and took every opportunity to stamp out such things during her reign. Thaegan had a particular hatred of birds, because of their ability to soar freely through the sky. Her hatred of birds can be traced back to her negative relationship with her mother, who could turn into a blackbird. Live ravens were Thaegan's favourite food, another spiteful reference to her mother.

Thaegan was offended by the thought of her curses being undone and insubordination by her minions and considered the deaths of Jin and Jod a personal insult. She took great pleasure in lording above her foes and demeaning those she was stronger than. Thaegan's curses were usually specifically designed to torment her victims in a personal way, such as binding a proud, free bird to one spot on the ground, robbing the musical Ralads of their voices, or turning the beautiful D’Or into a repulsive lake.

In the anime, though harsh and stern with them, Thaegan showed great pride and even real love for her children. She was furious at Lief, Barda and Jasmine for causing the demise of Jin and Jod, promising to avenge them. She was remorseful of accidentally killing Hot, Tot, Fie, and Fly, and though she favoured Ichabod as the biggest, fiercest, and strongest of her children, she was sincerely touched when her children (sans Ichabod who had been unconscious at the time) chose to die with her because all they wanted was to be with her.

Abilities
Thaegan was arguably the Shadow Lord’s most effective and powerful servant. He trusted her with control over a significant section of Deltora before her death. She was a sorceress and seems to have inherited her mother's magical gifts. Though the source of her powers was not the Shadow Lord, Thaegan was exceptionally powerful in her own right. In addition, she was not constrained to the Shadowlands like her master and could deal with matters in Deltora more directly than the Shadow Lord. Thaegan displayed the ability to teleport throughout her territory, telekinetically hurt people through the air and levitate. Jasmine suggested that the Shadow Lord strengthened Thaegan's magic with his own.

Thaegan was infamous for her curses. Her curses varied wildly in their strength and effects, but seemed to be limited only by the sorceress' imagination and cruelty. Most notably, she struck the Ralad people and all of their children with muteness, bewitched the golden-eyed giant, transformed the city of D'Or into the Lake of Tears and turned the people of D'Or into horrific sea creatures. While the Giant's curse was undone by Lief, the spells on the Ralads and D’Or were only undone by Thaegan's death. Thaegan was practically immortal, as she lived for well over a hundred years, but she was unable to stop her aging. She needed to disguise herself with magic to hide her decadent face. The sorceress magically protected her entire body from harm, with one exception: the tip of her left little finger, the finger she used to cast her spells. This was her one weakness, as a sorceress can be destroyed if even a single drop of their blood is spilled, as was Thaegan's fate.

The yellow, foul-smelling smoke that Thaegan was able to produce, for instance when teleporting, was of a choking nature.

Deltora Quest 1

 * The Lake of Tears

Supplementary books

 * The Deltora Book of Monsters

Anime
Thaegan's role in the anime was drastically changed from her book counterpart. The producers of the anime decided that they needed a recurring villain, so they brought her back after her initial battle, with the Shadow Lord reviving through her ring. Then it tasked her with murdering the companions, or risk losing her eternal youth.

In the anime, she is similar in personality with a few changes. She is shown to be somewhat spiteful to the Shadow Lord but most of the time she keeps it to herself, choosing instead to focus her anger on Fallow whenever he snarks at her. She also shown to be very loving towards her children, moreso than the books, as although she was shown to get frustrated by their antics, she would always fly into a rage when they were hurt or killed. Thaegan also appears to have a noble side to her, destroying an Ol that impersonated her in an attempt to murder Lief, Barda and Jasmine. Thaegan is also somewhat comedic compared to her book incarnation, shown in her frustration to her children crowding her upon her first resurrection or when she gets offended by Lief, Barda, and Jasmine talking ill about her when pretending to the the sickly mother of Françoise (really, just the disguised form of Fie, Fly, Hot, and Tot). Contrary to her appearance in the book, where she appeared naked, in the anime, Thaegan wore a long, form-fitting black dress with a plunging neckline and a small, diamond-shaped hole that exposed her navel. She wore pink earrings shaped like four-pointed stars, a third pink star on her sternum and a red ring on her casting finger. She also wore violet-blue lipstick and nail polish and had yellow eyes.

In the anime, Thaegan, while strict with them, was a proud mother of her children, doting on them and taking measures to avenge them upon Lief, Barda, and Jasmine. In her final appearance, due to her fear of the Shadow Lord, she briefly took her children for granted when she lost her magic and destroyed herself, as she just couldn't live being rendered her true and decrepit age. When her children (minus Ichabod who was unconscious at the time) followed her into oblivion she was baffled by their decision until she realized how much they loved her and how deeply she loved them in return, and she passed on with her children in peace.

First attempt
Thaegan recruited four of her children — Hot and Tot; Fie and Fly — to pose as a girl named Francoise and lure Barda, Lief and Jasmine to a house she had enchanted. After several minor setbacks, her children succeed. Thaegan at first pretended to be an old woman and asked the companions about how they killed Thaegan before revealing herself. She pursued the companions through the house and onto the grounds, when they escape through the chimney. She and her children corner them and she prepared to murder the three. However, a single star appeared in the night sky, activating the power of the Lapis Lazuli. It dispelled Thaegan's magic, causing her to age. Enraged, Thaegan tried to fire a spell at the three, but in her weakened state she was unable to control it. The spell ended up hitting all four of her children, killing them. Lief used the opportunity to cut off Thaegan's finger, killing her for the second time.

Second attempt
Thaegan was revived again after the companions retrieved the Amethyst and is told by the Shadow Lord that this is her final chance. For this attempt, she recruited all of her surviving children — Zan, Zod; Pik and Snik; Lun and Lod, and Ichabod. They succeed in capturing Barda, Lief and Jasmine, and brought them to Thaegan. She trapped them inside the Mirror of Fear, an object created specifically for the anime, sending all of her children inside to torment and slowly kill them (with the exception of Ichabod, who she keeps by her side). Inside, Pik and Snik became a copy of Prandine who fought and tormented Barda about his dead mother; Lun and Lod became a dark version of Lief who wanted to replace him; and Zan and Zod suspended Jasmine over boiling water, where she is forced to solve a block puzzle to survive. Barda, Lief and Jasmine were able to withstand each of their challenges, so Thaegan changed her tactics. Zan, Zod, Pik and Snik revealed themselves to Barda and Jasmine with an offer: if they surrendered themselves, Lief could live. Lief was forced to watch this from his chamber, realising it was a vision from the Opal he had received earlier. Refusing to let it come to pass, Lief smashed the mirror in his room, ejecting everyone from the Mirror of Fear.

Thaegan scolded her children for their failure and turned to Ichabod, telling him to succeed where his siblings failed. He fought Lief and nearly killed him, until Barda and Jasmine arrive — the latter stabbing Ichabod in the eye and knocking him out. Enraged at seeing her most powerful child injured, Thaegan tried to murder the companions herself. Lief managed to block her spell with the Mirror of Fear, which projected Thaegan's own worst fear at her. She lost her youth and became a frail old woman.

Thaegan was unable to live with herself in this form and prepared a suicide spell around herself. Her children realised what she was doing and ran towards her as the spell went off, dying alongside her. Thaegan asked them why they chose to die with her and they explain that they simply wanted to be with their mother. Thaegan was touched by their love and entered the afterlife happily with her children (except Ichabod).

Trivia

 * Despite her dislike of birds, in her extended appearances in the anime she is shown transforming into a large bird resembling a monstrous crow with a pink cross on its chest for travel.
 * In the anime, Thaegan bares a slight resemblance to Queen Beryl from Sailor Moon.
 * Even though it is spelled the same in the anime, her name is pronounced "Tay-Gan" as opposed to "Thay-Gan".