Benjamin Nightwalker

**Benjamin "Ben" Nightwalker** is a main character of **The Witch Diaries**. Benjamin is an extremely powerful and dangerous witch. He is the father of Lillian-Rose Nightwalker and the adoptive father of Malachai Parker and boy he rescued from slavery.

## History

### Early Life

Ben was born in the late years to a Viking warrior named Mikael and his wife. His parents had met after her mother was captured during a Viking raid, and fell in love before marrying. Ben was their first born child. He was, according to Kai, the apple of his father's eye. However, when he was five, Ben was taken as part of his mother's deal. His mother claimed that he was the victim of a plague in order to cover up what she had done.

### 1820

In 1820, Ben was living in Los Angeles at the Governor's mansion; and were paying the governor in gold to keep quiet about the existence of vampire's. One day the Governor threw a party for him. Ben attended the funeral of the Governor's son, when Ben sees a man whipping a child. Ben saves the child; and decides to care for him. He names the child Malachai.

He later meets the Governor to ask for Malachai's freedom and chokes the Governor's neck until he grants the freedom. Benjamin asks Kai about his father and quotes that family can be more than just those with whom they share blood and that they can choose. Kai looked touched by his words.

## Personality and Traits

* Early Life
* Witch

Early in his life, Ben was obedient. He was incredibly loyal to his mother, doing anything he could to be a good son, even at the expense of his father at times.

Ben is continuously described as being cruel, sadistic, careless, paranoid, reckless, impulsive, short-tempered, aggressive, volatile, unpredictable, slightly unreasonable, narcissistic, manipulative, jealous, obsessive and competitive. Though he shows little to no regard for human life in general, Ben feels guilt and remorse for most of his actions, he just does not show it, and he has morals. Despite his negative traits, Ben has shown to be very protective of his adoptive son Kai, who stayed by his side for centuries, and he is not pure evil, he is just sadistic.

Ben can sometimes be cold and ill-mannered, he is also not above killing children, if they are a threat to him or his family, despite this Ben dislikes people in general who mistreat or abuse their children. He only trust those who have proven themselves trustworthy to him. He wants people in general, to be loyal to him and respect him of their own free will, he does not like to compel people to be loyal to him against their free will, he only does this if he believes they are plotting against him or his family. Like Kai, Ben can easily be provoked when disrespected, as he has no tolerance for those that disrespect him. Although he puts up a tough demeanor, deep down Ben cares about his family; he just has a lot of difficulty showing it. Initially, Ben hated being a witch, but he eventually accepted his witch nature.

During his time in Los Angeles, Ben has grown to genuinely care about his unborn child, and was deeply hurt/enraged when Jake and Charlotte falsely accused him of using her; that he violently cursed Jake in retaliation. Although, he does still maintain a twisted sense of humor about his child as he once referred to his child as "that" when discussion how to keep it and Charlotte safe. Ben is also shown to be more mellow. It is possible that being in his former home, with his family, has caused his humanity to show more. Ben has also shown to have matured greatly as he no longer uses his magic to put down his family when he disagrees with them like before but instead settles things in a civil and sometimes violent matter. As the baby's birth approached, Ben became more and more protective of both her and Charlotte. He even had a nursery built right next to Charlotte's bedroom so she could be near her baby. His undying love for the child is evident as he willingly sent the child away from the chaos in Los Angeles so that she could grow up properly in the loving arms of her brother Kai.

Ben is shown to have developed strong paternal instincts since the birth of Lillian. One such case is his belief a parent who trades their child for anything deserves a punishment worse than death. Ben has also mellowed down, so much so he, in an ironic twist of fate, restrained Kai when he lost his temper when Charlotte was threatened (and unknowingly Lily) unlike before where he would just let the blood flow. Ben's main concern is keeping his daughter safe now that she has returned home.

Despite this, he still can be, though to a far less extent; cruel, sadistic, vengeful, ruthless, manipulative and jealous as when he declared only he will decide what is the best way to protect his daughter not his coven or Charlie, and he picked up the fact that he fears Lily will grow up to call her godfather Jacob "Daddy". Ben is a brilliant strategist, and skilled in making people suffer, traits he inherited from his father. however, unlike him, he never underestimated members of his family, or his enemies, he committed immoral acts. He reactivated a Curse on Charlie. All these actions of his was partly as revenge/punishment for betraying him/for trying to take his daughter away from him.

Ben still has guilt and remorse for most of his actions, however, he still refuses to show it; but he only shows his remorseful nature towards Lily. He also still has morals and a sense of honor. Ben no longer has a sensitive side; as he no longer cares about what people in general think about him, particularly Charlotte and Kai, with the exception of Lily.

In his new role as a parent - Ben has gradually begun to reveal an unexpected aptitude towards the demands of fatherhood - placing his daughter's needs above his own. In the act of abdicating his leadership over the Nightwalker Coven and handing the reigns of control back for the sole purpose of focusing his attention on raising Lily- Ben exhibits a phenomenal turn-around in his priorities and power-hungry nature as well as in embracing the advent of parenthood and the experience of a new, self-sacrificing love.

Even five years after his imprisonment, Ben's personality has not changed much. Initially, he did not want to be reunited with his daughter, as he was afraid that he would fail Lily as her father (as he did not want her to become like him) just like he did with Kai, despite his best efforts. After some encouragement from Jacob Chamberlain, a manifestation of his subconsciousness in responses to torture, he overcame this fear.

Prior to being rescued by his coven, Ben has developed PTS (post traumatic stress) as he dislikes being locked up, even if it is for his own protection. Despite this, he shows no remorse for his actions in regards to others in the same aspect, such as with Kai, knowing the feeling of being secluded for an extended period of time.

## Skills and Abilities

### Powers

While Benjamin was still a child, his magic was bonded to his father, and because of his father's strength, Ben's power was augmented. During his early life, Ben experienced some difficulties controlling his magic.

Ben had proven herself to be an extremely powerful witch, though still feared his father, demonstrating the ability to communicate with his daughter, Lillian, through dreams and visions.

His pain infliction spells are more than powerful enough to give Kai major headaches, even though Kai has built an immunity towards pain infliction. This kind of spell also proved to be quite useful in her many encounters with a number of witches. Ben used the non-verbal form of pain infliction to enforce his will on his enemies to never come near his daughter Lily. He used the non-verbal form of this power again on Insidious after he threatened to find and kill his daughter. It was powerful enough to cripple him and bring him to the ground though he recovered quickly after the latter mentioned killing anyone who touched his daughter.

Ben's skill in locator spells is evident when he managed to locate Lily in the Bayou.

Since the death of his father, Ben has had many of his spells and rituals result in failure implying that the colossal amounts of power he previously possessed disappeared with his father's death as prior to his father's death he had succeeded in most if not all the spells he had cast.

Ben has shown the ability to not only astral project within the same city, but to also to very distant locations. He displayed this after performing a locator spell on Kai, and then visiting him in astral from Los Angeles to Italy. He cast a spell (while in astral form) that simultaneously snapped the necks of all vampires surrounding him, proving he is a force to be reckoned with.

Ben also continues to demonstrate his prowess in locator spells and, though he could not pinpoint him outside the city of Los Angeles, could still sense Kai's presence. Ben continues to showcase his in-depth knowledge of magic as he was able to develop an enchantment capable of killing Insidious by combining his blood, magic, Insidious's venom and ashes. He is also well versed in "old magic", as stated by Kai, when he linked a boundary spell to the beat of his heart. Ben casts an illusion spell on Charlotte and, unlike the previous spell he performed, this glamour spell was physically harmful as the spell took effect. He also devised an intricate spell to disempower and to bind Insidious to a small location in order to torture and gain information from him, going as far to break his protection spells and access his mind. He also uniquely used telekinesis to cause cardiac arrest on Insidious (something that proved to be a reversal of fortune). After his temporary death, he used representational magic to reestablish a protection spell around his mansion, ensuring that if he died, the spell could persist.

With his boost in power, he was also able to create an astral plane using Representational Magic that he had near complete control over when inside. With his power boost, Ben is an unstoppable force against anyone who opposes him.

### Weaknesses

Benjamin has the typical weaknesses of a witch.

## Relationships

### Lillian-Rose Nightwalker

"*My dearest Lillian,*
I do not know how this will find you. As a child full of wonder, a teenager full of opinions, or as a woman with the world at her feet. I write to tell you I love you, and to explain that in our family’s darkest hour, I was called upon to save my family, and so I did.Please do not mourn me, whatever pain I endure, I do so in service of those I love. My sole regret, is that I will be away from you.Be good to your mother. I draw comfort knowing that she will protect you. And I know she will not rest until our family is united.Until then, my sacrifice will allow you to grow. To become the beautiful daughter I can now only imagine. Please remember you are the legacy this family has always desired. The promise we fought to protect.

You are, and always will be, our Lily.*"*

—Ben to Lily in a letter

Lillian is Ben's only daughter and child with Charlotte. He looked happy when Charlotte told him that the baby would be a girl, then he began to fight for her protection against his enemies. He loves her more than anything and in order to protect her from the people that are trying to kill her, he and Charlotte decided it was best to send her away. She was given to Kai, who would keep her safe. Ben was reunited with Lily when her safety was compromised. Lily is now living at home with her parents. The supernatural community is now aware of her existence.

### Malachai Parker

"*I'd have thrown you a damn parade*"
—Kai to Ben