Raven Masters

**Raven Masters**, known to the public as **Raven**, is an Ell, a librarian of the Infinite Library and a former companion of Uther Penndraig, now traveling with Juniper Smith's party. She shares some traits and her appearance with Maddie, a former member of Juniper's tabletop roleplaying group.

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> “I didn’t like being Ell, didn’t like feeling like I was going to be little forever when big things were happening, and so I got it into my head that I wanted to be an Animalia instead. A cat, specifically. It’s mortifying, of course, but it was just one of a string of those incidents, as it often is with my kind. We’re slow to outgrow our mistakes.”
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> “But you do?” I asked.
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> Raven smiled at me. “Oh yes. I haven’t worn cat ears in at least twenty years,” she said.
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> Chapter 130: "The Abject Despair of an Uncaring World"
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## Appearance

Raven has shoulder-length dark black hair, with bangs cut to just above her eyes, and a pale complexion. She wears concealing black outfits that hide the shape of her body, including her large breasts. She's shorter than Juniper by a fair bit.

With her combat entads activated, her magical black cloak swirls in it's own wind behind her, an entad surrounds her head with a shimmer, her clothing is replaced with armor composed of golden bands, three seafoam-green orbs orbit he, and she can produce a mirror-bright sword of frozen time from thin air.Raven

## Abilities

Raven is a master of Library Magic, although there are few opportunities to use it outside the Infinite Library. She does not sleep after being expelled from the Plane of Dreams, which even renders her immune to magical sleep effects. Like all Ell, almost everything takes 100 times as long for her, good and bad; but as one of Uther's Knights, she mysteriously overcame her species' 100x-slowed ability to learn and change, and she retained much of the benefits after he disappeared. Like the other Knights, Uther used Spirit Magic to make her immune to the antimemetic effect surrounding the Far Reaches. Her mind contains a number of deadly memes, making accessing her soul or spirit lethal. [*citation needed*]

She wears a number of personal bound entads:

* Orb of Three Spirits: A small orb, carried about the person. At a thought, three sea-foam green orbs appear above her, each of which can be fired off in a straight line, carving through any solid or liquid in their path with no resistance. Each orb, once used, will take one week to recharge.
* Anklet of Reactive Radiance: When someone increases their physical abilities near her using magic, typically bone magic, her own physical abilities rise an equal amount. This effect also matches the effects of permanent increases from entads.
* Banded Grasp: Worn as a single band of metal, usually under the clothes, allows armor to snap around the user with a thought. Doesn't cover head or hands. Armor is extremely resistant to kinetic damage, and absorbs a fair amount of power from other attacks (heat, electricity, radiation, etc.). Disbands with a thought.
* Shadow's Cloak: A pseudo-sentient cloak, which will twist and flutter in an imagined wind unless instructed otherwise. Has a wide variety of weak powers, including extradimensional interior pockets, resistance to tearing and ripping, and the ability to defensively react to threats. Loyal to Raven, and will act to protect her, such as helping her glide if she's falling or strangling minor enemies.
* Mirrored Blade: A blade that can be summoned to hand with a thought and disappears into extradimensional space when not in use. The blade itself is made of a slice of stilled time and capable of cutting through nearly anything.
* Brace of the Bound: A brace that can store information from books in it when the wearer touches a book. A single book at a time can be made manifest with a thought, though it's not a "real" book and cannot leave the wearer's possession. Holds 32,768 books (at full occupancy, which it is at the time of the story), with new books requiring an old one to be cast out. Not mentioned as being bound to her, so possibly unbound or invested.
* An amulet which produces an inpenetrable shimmer around her head (but nowhere else) in response to attacks.

In addition to the aforementioned gear, she also possesses an unknown entad which can launch her and one other person into the air to anywhere else on Aerb (although it's only usable outside, an only once per day). She also has a number of minor utility Skin Magic tattoos which are hidden by her clothes, and some magic that heals her when injured.Raven

Before they were Excluded, she was an expert in Dibbling and Groove Casting. She would wear in her Grooves while reading, building them up over the centuries, and Dibble for energy which she then channeled along the Grooves.Cooldown

## Personality

Raven displays a great deal of strength during combat, but she's more emotionally vulnerable than she looks. She tends to come across as reserved, but is passionate about protecting Aerb, and like Maddie she seems to flush easily. She has a strained relationship with her father as a result of her desire for adventures and danger. According to Juniper, she effectively acted as Arthur's moral compass while traveling with him. Despite her age, she has some childish traits, like tilting her head to the side when confused and disliking swear words. According to her colleague, Juniper is "definitely her type".Schemata She admits that the grind of responsibility has made her a bit of a buzzkill, while June notes that "she rarely seemed happy".Cooldown

## Biography

### Earth

A version of Raven first appeared in the story as one of Maddie's D&D characters in a flashback. She was a spellcaster, and the sister of Craig's character Miaun, who she sided with when he decided to kill some guards against the party's wishes.Chapter 85: The Great Train Robbery Her study of magic was an outgrowth of her love of books. The character was heavily based on herself.

### Aerb

#### Uther

Raven was one of Uther's knights, his "archivist". She was only around 1200 at the time, and her father disapproved, although he eventually "came around".The Veil of the World Raven was present when he discovered Kuum Doona, and for some of his subsequent visits to the house.An Open House She befriended Pallida when they were both effectively 12, but ended up catching her with Dahlia Penndraig and exposing their relationship to the court, leading to bad blood between them.The Remnants of the Past She adventured with him for 32 yearsRaven until his disappearance in 30 FE.

#### Interregnum

When Uther vanished, she searched for him for a full century.The Veil of the World As part of her travels, she incidentally created the Warrens system.

60 years after Uther's disappearance, she returned to Kuum Doona with a great-grandson of his, Tansy Penndraig. She interviewed the house for details on Uther's expedition into the Boundless Pit. When the mayor who lived in the house returned and struck up a relationship with Tansy, Raven left the pair, forbidding Tansy from adding more entads to the house.An Open House

After a century of searching, she declared that the world would have to make do without Uther.The Veil of the World

In her misspent youth, she went in cycles of overindulging in drink, drugs, and regretful sexual encounters. At one point she spent about a decade as a "very lazy vigilante" under the Second Empire, with a superhero costume and secret identity, living off her wealth by day and fighting crime as "Night Light" at night using her magical abilities and entads. On six occasions, she ended up killing criminals while fighting crime. Cooldown She had numerous brief relationships, hoping that she could have casual "romances" similar to Uther's. In the year, she had a terrible relationship with a depressed 17-year-old named Benji that she later suspected was intended as a parallel with Juniper and Maddie - she was obsessed with him, obviously desperate, but after a week of dating she slept with him and realised during that he didn't actually care about her.Parallel Lines

After the collapse of the Second Empire, she became Head Librarian of The Infinite Library.The Veil of the World She purged the librarians of the Second Empire "with a flaming sword".Schemata Under her tenure, the Library maintained a policy of strict neutrality, as they worked to continually avert the end of the world.The Remnants of the Past

#### Juniper

Juniper read of Raven in history books, and surmised that she was based on Maddie's character. She was the only one of Uther's Knights from a species that would be expected to still be alive, but was known to have been missing for centuries. Amaryllis Penndraig correctly speculated that she might have something to do with Library Magic.

Raven initially approached the Party with the objective of stopping Amaryllis from releasing television technology and unleashing the Couch Potato.Deceptions

## References

1. ↑ Raven was 1700 years old, which translated to seventeen years old.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 122: "Raven (Chapter)"
2. ↑ “Wait,” I said. “Raven?” She was the same species as him. Even in her biography, it hadn’t given her any other name but Raven. - Chapter 109: The Veil of the World
3. ↑ a teenage girl with dark black hair standing in front of the door. It was Raven, Uther’s archivist
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 120: "Deceptions"
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 She was dressed in black from head to toe, a concealing outfit that went so far as to keep her neck covered. Her hair was the same way Maddie had usually worn hers, bangs cut to just above her eyes, with the rest of her hair falling down to her shoulders.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 122: "Raven (Chapter)"
5. ↑ Raven had a pale complexion, which went paler on seeing that. (Maddie had spent most of her time in a dark room with blackout curtains, typing away on her computer. The whiteness was another thing they shared in common.)
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 122: "Raven (Chapter)"
6. ↑ She hit puberty at 13, and transformed from an awkward, gangly little girl to a slightly taller and still very awkward girl with big boobs, which mostly changed things for her in a negative way, since it meant that she started getting the wrong kind of attention.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 121: "Maddie (Chapter)"
7. ↑ Raven’s legs were shorter than mine by a fair bit, but she was putting on enough speed that I had to hurry to keep pace with her. Her voice was level, but she seemed pissed off.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 129: "Schemata"
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 \* Orb of Three Spirits: A small orb, carried about the person. At a thought, three sea-foam green orbs appear above her, each of which can be fired off in a straight line, carving through any solid or liquid in their path with no resistance. Each orb, once used, will take one week to recharge. Bound to Raven.

	* Anklet of Reactive Radiance: When someone increases their physical abilities near her using magic, typically bone magic, her own physical abilities rise an equal amount. This effect also matches the effects of permanent increases from entads. Bound to Raven.
	* Banded Grasp: Worn as a single band of metal, usually under the clothes, allows armor to snap around the user with a thought. Doesn't cover head or hands. Armor is extremely resistant to kinetic damage, and absorbs a fair amount of power from other attacks (heat, electricity, radiation, etc.). Disbands with a thought. Bound to Raven.
	* Shadow's Cloak: A pseudo-sentient cloak, which will twist and flutter in an imagined wind unless instructed otherwise. Has a wide variety of weak powers, including extradimensional interior pockets, resistance to tearing and ripping, and the ability to defensively react to threats. Bound to Raven.
	* Mirrored Blade: A blade that can be summoned to hand with a thought and disappears into extradimensional space when not in use. The blade itself is made of a slice of stilled time and capable of cutting through nearly anything. Bound to Raven.
	* Brace of the Bound: A brace that can store information from books in it when the wearer touches a book. A single book at a time can be made manifest with a thought, though it's not a "real" book and cannot leave the wearer's possession. Holds 32,768 books, with new books requiring an old one to be cast out. (Currently full.) - Chapter 138: Stats for Nerds II
9. ↑ They arced through the air and then began to fall. Raven felt it when Prince’s Invulnerability wore off, as the winds suddenly began to buffet them hard enough to hurt, and bits of detritus pinged against her armor. They had been spinning, but her cape had stretched itself out to put an end to that, because her Shadow’s Cloak was a good, loyal entad, one that often acted on its own when there were threats against Raven. [...] She looked behind her, at her cloak, which was doing its best to slow their fall. “Landing will be hard.” It was unlikely that they were going to die, but it wasn’t going to be the cushioned landing that a tattoo could have provided. [...] They hit the ground one after the other, Pallida first, Raven second, both rolling to redirect their momentum, both standing up and stretching out to make sure that they weren’t too injured. - Chapter 157: The Bird on the Fence
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Her amulet protected her head and face, her cloak whipped around and strangled any that tried to get behind her, but her hands were unprotected, and eventually one of the bats sank its teeth in, piercing straight through her palm. - Chapter 157: The Bird on the Fence
11. ↑ I released my sword and drew my dagger, throwing it hard, directly at Raven’s face, and dodging another of the orbs at the same time. I heard, rather than saw, the dagger striking solid air in front of her nose and bouncing off wildly.

[...]

I reached into my pocket and pulled it out as quickly as I could, burning SPD and throwing it directly at Raven’s unprotected face as her bands of armor encircled her. There was a shimmer in the air in front of her, followed by an audible click, which seemed to happen concurrently with the dagger striking the invisible surface of whatever magic was protecting her. The dagger glanced off, and was back in my hand in half a second, ready for another throw. I couldn’t tell whether her shield was reactive, or whether she was just that fast, but either way, I didn’t seem to be able to stab her in the face even in full-draw SPD bullet time mode.

[...]

As soon as I was at the beginning of the loop, as I saw her eyes widening, I fired off the blue beams of light. [...] Three hit Raven against whatever invisible field was protecting her head. Automatically, reactively deployed then?

[...]

I fired off the gem magic again, that meter having been thankfully refilled on reset, and watched as messages flashed across my HUD. Four hits to Raven this time, plus those that went to her head, which was entirely protected by whatever entad was springing to life to aid her. - Chapter 133: The Critical Path
12. ↑ Raven had her own way around the world, an entad that only worked outdoors and by all appearances, flung her straight up into the air. It worked once a day, and she could bring a single person with her; she’d left shortly after the wedding had finished, and now she was back with her father in tow. - Chapter 141: Monty Haul
13. ↑ “Thank you,” said Raven. “And thank you for giving me time.” She looked at me with bleary eyes. I had some preconceptions of Raven, which had been reinforced when she’d gone into Valkyrie mode with magic flaring around her, but now I was finding her much more vulnerable than I had thought she would be. A small part of me wondered whether that was an act intended to evoke sympathy, but it didn’t seem likely.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 123: "Medieval Stasis"
14. ↑ Raven settled back in her seat. “No,” she said. “But that’s not the point. The *point* is that Fel Seed escaping the exclusion zone would almost certainly result in the end of civilized life on Aerb [...] all of *my* plans were too risky when I was planning to risk my own life and the lives of others, not *the entirety of Aerb.* ” My experience of Raven had been that she was fairly reserved, forthright but deferential, even when she’d gotten her fingers cut off, but this, finally, seemed to have lit a fire in her. - Chapter 125: The Remnants of the Past
15. ↑ “You’re right,” said Raven. “Thank you.” She sat for a moment, cheeks still a bit pink. Maddie had gotten like that sometimes, especially in the evening, a bit flushed, even if she wasn’t embarrassed or even particularly emotional, though embarrassment definitely exacerbated it. - Chapter 206: Parallel Lines
16. ↑ “ “There’s a weight that comes with time, certainly, so it’s not the same, but it’s close. To say that my father, in his forties, was watching his twelve year old daughter run off with a strange man in his twenties … well, it’s not accurate, but it’s not wholly inaccurate either.” She sighed. “It took me a long time to have any misgivings about leaving. It wasn’t until after Uther was gone, actually. My father and I reconnected a bit, but it was still strained.”
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 130: "The Abject Despair of an Uncaring World"
17. ↑ You? For Arthur, I think you were his moral compass, the person that kept him grounded and reminded him of home, except that he didn’t tell you everything, and it didn’t always work.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 134: "Safe Mode"
18. ↑ “They’re trying to save the world,” said Raven, tilting her head to the side a bit in the same way that Maddie used to do, but just a touch less exaggerated.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 131: "A Cypress Waits"
19. ↑ Raven let out a long, low sigh. “Fudge,” she said.
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 122: "Raven (Chapter)"
20. ↑ “And he didn’t,” I said with a nod. “He would just barrel ahead and fuck what anyone else thinks.”

Raven frowned at the f-word. “It worked out well for him.”
—*Worth the Candle* Chapter 130: "The Abject Despair of an Uncaring World"
21. ↑ It was uncomfortable, talking to Maddie like this, but she was so vastly different from Maddie that it wasn’t fazing me as much as it might have. She was close to the *character* of Raven, a studious scholar who dabbled in magic as an outgrowth of her obsession with books, but Raven had been played by Maddie, and the character suffered from an actor who wasn’t up to snuff, as much as I might have tried to help her out. - Raven (Chapter)
22. ↑ I wanted to ask what Raven had looked like, as seen by Zona, but I refrained, worried that she would manifest as a variant on Maddie. Raven had been one of her characters, with most of the details matching Maddie herself. I had lingering questions about those other characters, but nothing in their backstories made them seem like they were my one-time friends. - An Open House
23. ↑ 30 FE: Uther disappears - Chapter 196: Notes II
24. ↑ “I actually created the Warrens [...] I spent a lot of time looking for Uther,” said Raven. “I went all over Aerb when he disappeared, back and forth. We were only rarely constrained on travel after the first few years, unless it was interplanar travel or somewhere exotic, but after Uther was gone, all his best entads more or less went with him, given to his children. I wrote up a proposal for cooperation between people who held travel entads during a very, very long trip by carriage, when I had little else to do. I’ll grant that I didn’t do a lot of the work in setting things up. Mostly, I just mailed letters and made introductions.”

“Still,” I said. “For some people, that would be what they were known for.”

“I’m known for being Uther’s Knight,” said Raven. - Chapter 176: Warrens
25. ↑ “She’s not going to, because we’re the key to mysteries she spent a century of her life trying to solve, not to mention we’re very likely to be the only ones capable of saving the world, which she spent … what, the past four centuries on?”

“Less,” said Raven. “I wasn’t a librarian until after the collapse of the Second Empire.”

I glanced at Solace, and she gave me a small smile and a nod. It was something that I’d wanted to clear up sooner than later, and I was happy that it wasn’t going to be a point of friction. Heshnel, on the other hand, might be more of an issue, as he had not only been a working member of the Second Empire, but had seemed a bit defensive of it. - Medieval Stasis
26. ↑ There were distractions in her story too, points where parts of my brain were pinging with recognition; when she spoke of Raven, the archivist, my mind went to Maddie’s character, who seemed to share a common origin if the history books were anything to go by. - An Open House
27. ↑ So far as I knew, Raven was the only one of the Knights from a species with a long enough lifespan to still be alive, and she’d been missing for centuries. - Chapter 103: Contract
28. ↑ Library Magic: J not much help. Lots of libraries in J’s games, but only three really magical ones, Boundless Library with all books, Ascentium (sp?) with books whose stories become real, and Libor Mortis w/ something like redaction magic (excluded, Bowdler). Juniper says reference maybe L-space (Pratchett, Discworld). Ties in w/ Raven? Uther’s “archivist”, part of that mystery pile, maybe alive, def missing, game character of Maddie (sp? Mattie?). J also says ref maybe “import library” elect. computer programming concept (?) - Chapter 105: Notes