The Sleeper

###  Appears in

*Aru Shah and the End of Time**Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes**Aru Shah and the City of Gold*

**The Sleeper**, or **Suyodhana**, is the main antagonist in the Pandava Quintet. He is Aru Shah's biological father and Kara's adoptive father, and the reincarnation of Duryodhana.

## **History**

### Early Life

The Sleeper was born Suyodhana. From a young age, he was placed in the Otherworld Foster Care System. Suyodhana always longed for a family, and appeared to dislike living at an orphanage. Suyodhana was a prodigy at magic and was very studious, reading books and building inventions.

When Suyodhana was around twenty years old, he sought permission to pursue a higher education in magical arts. In order to do so, Otherworld Council members sent him on a quest to find and retrieve the most powerful substance in the world. When asked to share his results, Suyodhana offered a drink to each Council member, waited until they had taken a sip, then told them that he had poisoned their drinks. The Council members immediately panicked, fearing for their lives, before Suyodhana revealed that he had lied, and that the strongest substance in the world was belief.

### Meeting Krithika Shah

Suyodhana later meet and fell in love with Krithika Shah. They dated for a while, going on dates with each other and enjoying each other's company. When Krithika learned she was pregnant, she asked Suyodhana to choose the child's name. Suyodhana chose the name "Arundhati" because he wanted his daughter to be like the morning star, a sign of hope.

### The Prophecy

Suyodhana learns of a prophecy that states he is destined to destroy the world. He wishes to avoid the prophecy completely, not wanting his unborn daughter to inherit a world he is meant to destroy. Suyodhana decides to go on a quest and look for Kalpavriksha, hoping he can make a wish to reverse his prophecy. On the way, he is forced to sacrifice his childhood memories and give away the secret of Aru's name. When Suyodhana reaches Kalpavriksha, the price for his wish was for him to forget loving his wife and miss the birth of his child. Suyodhana decides that he does not want to lose his family, and chooses to find another way to avoid his destiny.

After coming home from his quest, Krithika noticed that Suyodhana was much changed. Wanting to protect Aru and not knowing what else to do, Krithika imprisoned Suyodhana in the Diya of Bharata.

## **The Pandava Quintet**

### Aru Shah and the End of Time

The Sleeper is released from the diya by Aru while she is trying to impress her classmates. The Sleeper aims to wake Lord Shiva, the god of destruction, who will dance upon the world and end it. However, with the help of Mini-Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez and Boo, Aru manages to engage him and his forces in a fight, keeping him occupied long enough that he is unable to reach Shiva.

### Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

The Sleeper beings searching for Kalpavriksha again. With the help of Boo, he kidnaps Sheela Jagan in an attempt to use her to find the Tree of Wishes, with the promise that he will share his wish with Boo. The Sleeper and his army fight the Potatoes near the wishing tree once they locate it. At the end of the book, Aru rushes at the Sleeper and ends up being captured and brought to his lair.

## **Appearance**

The Sleeper changes his appearance often. When he’s released from the diya, he looks like a tall shadowy figure with fur, horns and fangs.

In a photo that Aru saw that she thought might be her father, he was handsome and dark-haired, had skin the color of dark amber, and Heterochromia iridium, meaning that he had two different colored eyes.

When he came for them after they got the sprig of youth, the Sleeper was a dark massive form of twisted ink and ice that spread ice where he moved, as well as a prehensile large black snake tail.

At the enchanted library in the Otherworld, the Sleeper drips from the ceiling into a man with hair the same inky night-color as his previous tail, with what appeared to be stars caught in his hair. he’s tall and thin, with a hungry look. his cheekbones stick out and he wears a black sherwani jacket over dark jeans, and he carries a birdcage. his eyes are brown and blue, and he’s similar to how he looked in the photo.

At the fight against Aru in the Museum of Indian Art and Culture, the Sleeper looked like a man, and at the same time, not like one. His eyes, instead of being warm and round like in the vision in the Pool of the Past Aru had seen earlier, were slitted and gem bright, like a cat’s eyes gone narrow with fury, and when he smiled, small tusks curled out from his bottom lip.

At the fight against Aru in Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes, his pants end in wisps of smoke.

## **Personality**

Suyodhana was a very caring and intelligent person. He deeply loved Krithika and Aru, and was willing to give up his childhood memories to save Aru from his destiny.

However, after being imprisoned in a lamp for twelve years. the Sleeper is incredibly angry and hates Krithika for betraying and imprisoning him. The Sleeper is also a master of manipulation. He almost sways Aru to join his cause multiple times, and even manipulates Kara into betraying the Potatoes, saying that helping him would enable her family to become whole again.

## **Relationships**

### **KRITHIKA SHAH** (former romantic partner)

The Sleeper and Krithika appear to have had a close romantic relationship; in the vision Aru saw in the Pool of the Past they were strolling along a river and kissing. This is confirmed by Krithika, although she didn't name the sort of relationship he was to her (boyfriend, fiance, husband, etc).

They shared similar thoughts of how one could escape destiny. It seems as though Krithika was meant to make him fall in love with her by her family, but she fell in love as well. However, when the Sleeper went on his quest to Kalpavriksha, Urvashi and Hanuman reasoned her into thinking it would be for the better if she imprisoned him in the Diya of Bharata, and when he came back changed, she decided to do it. On the night Aru was born, she imprisoned the Sleeper in the diya and began searching for a way to change his destiny. Even after the Sleeper was released, she’s still searching, but she doesn’t like to talk about him. For the Sleeper’s part, he’s still angry at Krithika, although he still wants to tell her how he feels; he wants vindication.

When Krithika was scared about her pregnancy, he told her to put each fear on a piece of paper, then he turned the pieces of paper into songbirds to remind Krithika that the things that scare us can also give us joy.

### **ARU SHAH** (daughter, enemy)

Aru is determined to defeat the Sleeper, although she’s worried that when the time comes, she’ll be too weak. The Sleeper has always known that she is his daughter, but she only realized part way through her first quest. At the end of the first book, he invites her to join him when she fails to kill him, and then vanishes. He seems to care about her, but he overall cares more about getting revenge on Krithika and whatever other nefarious plans he’s making. He also seemed to be excited to have a child; in the vision Aru saw in the Pool of the Past, he was wearing an I’M A DAD! T-shirt and holding Aru. He doesn’t really know Aru, but that makes sense, due to him never interacting with her for twelve years; he did, however, know her well enough to exploit her insecurities. Aru, on her part, is bitter; when Meenakshi tells her that he misses her, she says he tried to kill her. She also doesn’t see him as a father but as a puppet-master pulling strings. But she also doubts herself when it comes to him. She’s afraid she’ll let him go again, or even join him, and she’s especially worried she’ll turn out like him, a villain.

Later, in *Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes*, Aru sees that he did actually care about her, but makes the choice to defeat him in order to save the Otherworld.

### **KARA** (adopted daughter)

Kara is the adopted daughter of the Sleeper. Two years before the events of Aru Shah and the City of Gold, the Sleeper kidnapped Kara from her adopted family and wiped her memories of her past life so she wouldn’t have nightmares, saying that she was treated horribly. Kara often refers to the Sleeper as “Dad” and mentions multiple times that she loves him. However, when she discovers what he’s up to and sees the bad things he’s been doing, she decides to leave, as she doesn’t want a part in hurting people or help him by becoming his secret weapon. Later on, when Kara encounters the Sleeper, she stands up to him and chooses to stick with the Potatoes rather than return with him. Near the end of the book, the Sleeper reveals to Kara her true identity as the reincarnation of Karna, one of the secret Pandava brothers. The Sleeper convinces Kara to come with him and help her family (the Sleeper, Krithika, Aru, and her) to become whole again. Kara uses the astra to destroy the Pandavas’ celestial weapons, then is taken by the Sleeper to find the nectar of immortality. After the Sleeper leaves, Aru discovers that Kara is not the biological daughter of the Sleeper. Instead, she is the daughter of Krithika and someone she fell in love with when she was very young. Kara was eventually adopted by another family in California who loved her. This means that Kara had two families - one adopted, and one biological, both of which the Sleeper stole from her. Therefore, the Sleeper lied to Kara, most likely only telling her that she lived with a horrible family to earn her trust and manipulate her into helping him find the nectar of immortality.

## **Powers**

### Intangibility

The Sleeper has the ability to walk through walls with ease.

### Gandharva Powers

Because the Sleeper is descended from gandharvas, he has some of their powers, such as enchanting paper songbirds to come alive.

## **Trivia**

* Suyodhana means "great warrior"
* The Sleeper only wanted a happy life with his family.
* He bought a *Where the Wild Things Are* book for Aru from the hospital gift shop, saying that Aru was "bound to be a wild thing".
* He is actually the second love of Krithika Shah, the first being the unnamed father of Kara.