Spensa Nightshade

Spensa Nightshade is the main character in the *Skyward* series. She is also known by her callsign Spin, which was originally a nickname given to her by her father as a young girl.

## Appearance

Spensa for the greater part of the series is a 17 year old, she has brown hair and distinctive purple eyes on book co. She is 151cm (4ft 11in) tall.

## Personality

Spensa is known to be a very aggressive and determined young lady. Her favorite color is blood red and she prefers simple yet flavorful food. Spensa has learned that bravery is more than just sounding heroic, but instead having confidence in herself and knowing that she wasn't a coward.

## Attributes and Abilities

Spensa is an excellent pilot and also has cytonic abilities. So far, she has demonstrated the ability to intercept the Krell's faster-than-light communications with their drones and to react to those orders faster than would be humanly possible. On one occasion, she was also able to activate M-Bot's cytonic hyperdrive.

## History

### Skyward

As a child Spensa grew up during the Glorious Rise of Industry. She was very close to her father was a pilot for the DDF (Defiant Defensive Force) and was well respected among his flight crew. One day however her father went to fight off the attacking Krell that had been invading their planet and died. People told stories about how he was a coward and failed his flight crew when they needed him most. Spensa grew up discriminated for being the daughter of a coward, although she knew in her heart her father would never be a coward. This didn't stop Spensa from dreaming about joining the DDF herself, where she would prove she was not a coward.

In order to get accepted into the flight academy, Spensa and her peers must take an exam to prove their worth. Spensa, who has been preparing for the exam her entire life, has high hopes to pass, as does her longtime friend Rodge. However, on the day of the testing, DDF Admiral Ironsides rigs the exam so that Spensa fails. Angry at her defeat, she surreptitiously retakes the exam after everyone has left. Cobb, her father's former wingmate and an instructor at the academy, spies on her and sees her near-perfect score, so he offers her the opportunity to come train under him.

Spensa is put into the Skyward flight crew (named after her recommendation) and finds a friend in her flight mate Kimmalyn, and eventually her other classmates. One person she did not trust however was the obnoxious Jorgen, or as Spensa nicknamed him, Jerkface. Spensa after every lesson would go stay in a cave she found away from the city, where she would help repair the sentient ship M-Bot who is obsessed with mushrooms. In this same cave she finds a giant yellow and blue slug, which she adopts as her own and names Doomslug.

Spensa and Jorgen went to cremate their crew mate Hurl who died in a crash. Spensa persuades Jorgen to help her steal the booster from Hurl's ship, which leads to him finding out about M-Bot. Spensa is able to steal a file from the DDF and has M-Bot play it back. It reveals that her father did not desert, but rather turned on and attacked his fellow pilots. Cobb explains that his turning was the result of "the Defect", a mental power which is genetic. Spensa has occasional disturbing visions, which her father supposedly also saw. During her next battle, Spensa is shot down, and ejects in order to save her own life. Ironsides uses this "cowardice" as an excuse to remove Spensa from the Academy.

On graduation day, Ironsides mobilizes all her pilots to battle the Krell for a valuable piece of fallen space salvage. While the pilots are distracted, a Krell bomber launches an attack from the opposite direction. Spensa uses a damaged fighter to assault the bomber, but is shot down again. She crashes, but Cobb brings M-Bot to her, and she uses its advanced capabilities to destroy the bomber and save the DDF. She travels with M-Bot into space, where her Defect allows her to hear and intercept Krell communications. She returns to the planet to report that the Krell are actually a coalition of aliens intent on keeping humans trapped on Detritus, though they are now actively trying to exterminate humanity.

### Starsight

Spensa and the DDF have pushed the Krell war into space; Spensa's cytonic "defect" has been a key advantage in the war. Cobb, now the DDF admiral, is worried that humans will lose unless they manage to steal a Krell hyperdrive, as the Superiority is sending increasing numbers of warships into battle. Rodge and the engineers discover footage showing a creature known as a 'Delver' consuming and destroying the first inhabitants of Detritus - Spensa recognizes it as the eyes that she sees in the Nowhere when using her cytonic powers.

Spensa learns that Alanik was traveling from her own backwater world to a Superiority space station called Starsight to train as a pilot. Using M-Bot's holographic technology, Spensa disguises herself as Alanik and, using Alanik's coordinates, teleports herself, M-Bot, and Doomslug to Starsight. Spensa poses as Alanik in order to infiltrate the pilot program and steal a hyperdrive.

Spensa quickly finds herself caught in a political game between Cuna, a dione government minister, and Winzik, head of the department that is battling Spensa and her people. Spensa is put into a training flight consisting of the misfit dione Morriumur, Captain Hesho and his crew of tiny kitsen, the figment Vapor, and a rare Superiority human, Brade. The pilots are being trained specifically to fight delvers, which can be drawn into this realm by overuse of cytonics. The humans summoned delvers which destroyed numerous planets during a past war, and while these delvers are long since gone, there is suspicion that they may soon reappear. Spensa befriends all her flightmates except the stand-offish Brade, and she and the group frequently run training exercises on a fake delver maze (the delver's core). Back on Detritus, Jorgen begins manifesting cytonic powers.

Spensa builds a small drone with M-Bot's help and sneaks it into a battleship engine room. She recovers the drone and learns that the Superiority hyperdrives (which don't attract delvers) are powered by slugs like Doomslug. Spensa is caught by Cuna, but Spensa realizes that Cuna is actually pushing for species integration and peace with the humans in the government. Spensa reveals her true self to Cuna, and the two agree to potential peace talks.

Winzik mobilizes the pilots against the Detritus humans in a bold political move. Spensa reveals herself to Brade, trying to earn Brade's trust, but Brade ousts Spensa, and she is forced to flee to her home planet, abandoning M-Bot. The Superiority arrives and a battle commences; Spensa realizes that Winzik and Brade are plotting to summon a delver and frame the humans for it. As the battle rages, Spensa enlists Vapor and Hesho's crew to stop Brade from summoning the delver. However, Brade kills Hesho in a dogfight and they are too late to stop her from summoning the monstrous creature. A desperate Spensa cytonically redirects it to Starsight instead. Realizing what she has done, Spensa teleports herself, Vapor, and the surviving kitsen to Starsight, where they are joined by Morriumur. Morriumur is able to guide Spensa to the heart of the delver maze, where she is able to send the delver back to its own realm before it destroys the station.

Spensa is cared for on Starsight, where she and Cuna are optimistic for successful peace talks. However, Winzik throws a coup and frames Spensa for multiple murders. Spensa helps Cuna to safety, and recovers Doomslug and M-Bot, who has transferred his consciousness to the drone as Winzik's forces dismantled him. With Winzik's forces closing in, Spensa and her companions M-bot and Doomslug escape into the Nowhere. [1]

## Trivia

* If Spensa was a Knights Radiance she would most likely be a Dustbringer
* Spensa would probably find most the foods in our modern day world do be overwhelming, since she likes to stick to basic dishes
* Spensa would get along well with Vin, Alkatraz, and maybe David depending on how they meet.

## Notes and References

1. ↑ https://coppermind.net/wiki/Spensa\_Nightshade; History from the Coppermind wiki.
2. ↑ https://wob.coppermind.net/adv\_search/?query=Spensa+meet&date\_from=1998-04-10&date\_to=2021-11-02&speaker=&ordering=rank