Soul Eaters

The Soul Eaters are fictional characters who appear in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series written by Michelle Paver. They are the enemies of Torak, the main character of the books. They are all amazingly strong, but all in different ways.

History

They were first called the Healers or the Mages because they were seven mages of different clans that joined forces, but their thirst for power and the need to rule the woods made them evil, and they came to be known as the Soul Eaters. They possessed a great opal called the fire opal, which was the center of their power. But one of them tried to stop the others and he was expelled by them, after which he broke the fire opal into three pieces and started a great fire. One of the Soul Eaters died in the flames, trying to save a piece of it. Others became injured. The Soul Eaters were driven apart by the fire, and the one that started the fire went living hidden in the forest as a hunter, together with his son Torak.

Role in Wolf Brother

When Torak was age twelve, the Mage of the Seal Clan, Tenris, who was Torak's uncle and a Soul Eater, put an elemental demon inside a bear, thus creating a monster which, in a couple of months, would destroy the whole forest. This creature killed Torak's father, who told Torak with his last breath that he must find the mountain of the World Spirit. Torak destroyed the demon, together with his wolf companion, Wolf, and Renn from the Raven clan.

Role in Spirit Walker

Tenris used his knowledge of poison to make it look like a terrible disease had come to the forest to lure Torak to the Seal Islands. Torak came to the Seal Islands, unaware that Tenris was a Soul Eater and his father's brother. Tenris killed a young orca to use parts of it, including its teeth, which he needed for a sacrifice (later in the book). When trying to find an antidote for the disease, Torak nearly drowned and discovered that he was a Spirit Walker. He told this to Tenris, who, on midsummernight, tried to sacrifice Torak to become a Spirit Walker himself. But during the sacrifice, Torak jumped in the sea, as did Tenris and at the moment Tenris tried to kill him, he was killed by the dead orca's parent or Notched Fin.

Role in Soul Eater

In spring of the next year, Wolf was kidnapped by the Soul Eaters, who wanted to sacrifice nine hunters at the Eye of the Viper (on top of a mountain) in the far north to release lots of demons in the world. But Torak and his friend, Renn, followed them to save Wolf. They found them only at the Mountain of the Snake Eye, where Torak pretended to be a member of the White Fox clan who wanted to join the Soul Eaters. After some time, he found Wolf and saved him, but then the Soul Eaters wanted to start the sacrifice and attacked Torak. But Renn and Wolf helped him and they escaped with a piece of the Fire Opal. The Soul Eaters followed them, but at an ice gap, one of them, Nef the Bat mage, felt guilty and destroyed the piece of the Fire Opal by jumping in a stone crevase with it. In the meantime, Torak went spirit walking in a polar bear to scare the Soul Eaters away.

Role in Outcast

Torak is an outcast and at the mercy of the Viper Mage. She uses the pebble that Torak gave to Renn in Spirit Walker to control Torak and make him lash out at all of his friends, including Wolf.

Biography of the different Soul Eaters

Eostra

Eostra, the Eagle Owl Mage, is the most powerful Soul Eater. It is said that she can wake the dead. Her face is always behind a mask, probably because she has been grievously wounded in the fire that drove the Soul Eaters apart. Mostly she is seen in the form of an owl.

???

The name and clan of this Soul Eater are unknown. He died in the fire that drove the Soul Eaters apart trying to get one of the fire opal fragments.

Seshru

Seshru, the Viper Mage, has knowledge about herbs and potions.She is like a snake in everything she does. She is beautiful, but vicious. She can also sense souls. She is Renn's mother as revealed in book 4, "Outcast".she also dies in outcast and the fragments of the fire opal dies with her.

Thiazzi

Thiazzi, the Oak Mage, is as strong as a tree and very cruel. He likes to hurt those who are weaker than him for fun. He has green eyes, and is the main villain in "Oath Breaker". He attempted to trick the deep forest clans into attacking the open forest clans by impersonating the mages of the Forest Horse and Auroch clans, but he was killed when an Eagle Owl stole the remaining piece of the fire opal from his grasp atop a huge oak tree in a sacred grove in the deep forest.

Nef

Nef, the Bat Mage, is very intelligent. When her child died, she tried to kill herself, but was stopped by Torak's father and therefore, she felt guilty that he had died at the hands of the soul eaters. At the end of the third book in the series, Soul Eater, she destroys the fire opal by jumping in an ice canyon with it, as vengeance for the death of Torak's father.

Tenris

Tenris the Seal Mage lives on the seal islands to the west of the forest. Tenris appears briefly in the first book known as "The Crippled Wanderer", but reappears as the antagonist in the second. He has killed his brother, Torak's father, by using magecraft (with the help of the fire opal) to lock an elemental demon inside a bear and sent it on a murderous rampage through the forest. He also sought to eat Torak's heart to gain his spirit-walking abilities. He was killed by a killer whale in the second book (also known as a hunter in the books) for the crime of killing one of the whale's young. In "Wolf Brother" Fin-Kedinn describes him as the soul eater who is fascinated by demons, which explains why he has both the bear and the tokoroth as his weapons.

Torak's Father

Torak's father was the seventh Soul Eater. He originally joined the Soul Eaters in the hope of healing and helping people but when the group turned to evil Torak's father tried to leave. He was the one who shattered the fire opal and started the great fire that had damaged the other Soul Eaters. He was hunted down and killed by the demon in the bear that Tenris summoned.