Beranabus (character)

Infobox character
name = Beranabus
first = "Demon Thief"
last = "Wolf Island"
alias = Bran
Run-Fast
species = half-human
half-demon
gender = Male
family = Brigitta (mother, deceased)
Unnamed demon (father, deceased)
The Minotaur (adoptive father, deceased)
portrayer =
creator = Darren Shan
lbl21 = Powers
data21 =

Superhuman speed

Can charm any weak beast

Great magical skill

Beranabus is a character from Darren Shan's "The Demonata" series. He has appeared in "Demon Thief", "Blood Beast", "Bec" and "Demon Apocalypse" and "Death's Shadow", and has been mentioned in "Slawter".

Parentage

Beranabus is half-demon. His mother, Brigitta, was promised to a prince before she was born, but was abducted and raped by a lesser demon after the prince had angered a priestess. Beranabus stated that he tracked his father down, killed him and used his head as a chamber pot.But in reality he held his father head up to and weeped for him mourning him and hating him.

Beranabus has the potential to turn into a Demon at any time he wants, in order to use his demonic powers. But this is a great risk; it is very possible he might turn into a demon for good, since his demon side tries to break out everyday, only to be fought back down by his human side.

Biography

As a child

The prince considered the shame of having to be stepfather to an illegitimate child and instead of bringing Beranabus up as his own, he had Brigitta sent to Crete courtesy of King Minos, who locked her away in the Labyrinth with his own wife's illegitimate son, The Minotaur. The Minotaur killed Brigitta after she had given birth to and named Beranabus, but he allowed the baby to live as he saw something in him.

A few years passed and The Minotaur brought Beranabus up as his own, but one day Theseus came to the Labyrinth and slayed The Minotaur. He offered Beranabus the chance to go with him, but Beranabus unsettled Theseus so he left him there alone. Beranabus left the Labyrinth during the night to see the outside world.

Growing up, Beranabus relied on the kindness of strangers for food, drink and shelter, but was unable to communicate with people as he had not developed much of a vocabulary or understanding of the world around him. Two centuries old and only barely looking like a teenager, he first saw the Demonata slaughtering a village, and it reminded him of his time with The Minotaur. Beranabus followed the Demonata back into their Universe.

Beranabus loved his time in the Demonata Universe, he loved the bloodthirstiness and the torment of the Demonata, but never wanted to be prey to any Demon; luckily for Beranabus he'd discovered two gifts:

* He could tame any beast, which meant the Lesser Demons would leave him alone.
* He could run at great speed, which meant he could escape the more powerful Demonata.

Beranabus would often get bored with realms in the Demonata Universe; so he would jump from one realm to another through the many windows. However, one day he went through a window that led him back into the Human Universe and there he was stuck.

Beranabus started to learn small bits about the world and how to say a few words, the closest thing he could get to saying his own name was "Bran". Around this time he came into contact with the druid Drust, who sent 'Bran' on a mission to find people who could help him on a quest to close a tunnel between the two Universes. During the course of this mission, he falls in love with Bec MacConn, and, simple-minded as he was, had the intelligence to realise that Drust intended to sacrifice Bec as part of the spell to close the tunnel. Bran faltally injured Drust at the last second before the sacrifice was to take place, and the dying magician himself to be killed instead so that the tunnel could be sealed. In the ensuing chaos of the demons being sucked back through the tunnel, Bec and Bran desparately attempted to escape the cave before it too sealed itself. However, Bec was injured by Lord Loss' pet demon Vein, rendering her unable to escape. Since Bran would not leave her, she magically forced him escape using his speed, leaving her trapped in the cave, where Lord Loss' familiars killed her.

Devastated by Bec's death, Beranabus attempted to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. However, the cliff in question was situated near the resting place of the Old Creatures, who saved Bran and recruited him as their champion against the Demonata, coercing him with the possibility of one day being reunited with Bec (whose soul they knew to be trappped in the cave of her death). The Old Creatures trained Beranabus to use magic, helped him learn to speak and act like a human, and later sent him on missions in the Demonata's Universe, setting him to kill specific demons. Though Beranabus eventually realised that the Old Creatures had no intention of carrying out their promise about Bec, he continued to serve them anyway, accepting the death of his love and moving on. He continued to serve the Old Creatures for a long time, until one day he returned to the cave to find them gone. Going to Newgrange, he found one last Old Creature waiting for him. This one informed him of the Kah-Gash, and intrusted the protection of humanity to him, before leaving itself. Thereafter, the aquisition of the Kah-Gash became Beranabus' ultimate goal.

The Disciples

A group of mages came to Beranabus seeking training and Beranabus trained them and made them into a group called The Disciples and became the leader. He recruited Nadia Moore, a woman who could see the future, in 1929. He fought demons with her and a small group.

In "Demon Thief" he meets Kernel Fleck, who joins the Disciples. Beranabus reveals that he's on a quest to find the Kah-Gash. In the end Kernel becomes his assistant, because he is a part of the Kah-Gash and helps him with demon attacks and the search for the other parts.

In "Blood Beast", about thirty years into the future, Beranabus disguises himself as a tramp and tracks Grubbs Grady down. In "Demon Apocalypse" he saves Grubbs from a demon attack and recruits him as a Disciple because of his great magical potential. Grubbs tries to help them fight a demon, but he fails. When they return, they find to their dismay that Lord Loss has succeeded in opening a tunnel to the Demonata Universe, and demons have invaded the world. Sharmilia, a Disciple, informs them that it is too late to stop the demons, but they attempt to close the tunnel anyway. Whilst in the cave, they meet Bec and find out that she and Grubbs are the other two parts of the Kah Gash. Kernel is blinded by Spine, a demon. Through the magic of the reconstituted Kah-Gash, they are sent back in time to stop Lord Loss from opening the tunnel in the cave. Beranabus and Kernel discover that Nadia is now allied with Lord Loss, and has taken the name Juni Swan. Grubbs kills Bill-E (his brother) in order to stop the tunnel opening, and Bec takes over Bill-E's body, animating it and thereby restoring herself to life. At the end, after Beranabus is done catching up with Bec, Grubbs leaves with him and Kernel.

Beranabus appears in the later half of book 7, "Death's Shadow". He turns up with Grubbs and Kernel just in time to help Bec save a whole maternity ward full of babies from being killed by demons. He then takes Bec, Dervish (who is dying from a heart attack), Sharmilla and Kernel with him to the demon universe, sending Grubbs, Shark and Meera Flame to deal with the Lambs. He has made base at an oasis in a desert where the trees have bones for branches and flaps of skin for leaves. He makes use of these trees to rebuild Sharmila's legs.

When Kernel notices that Juni Swan is in the human universe again they all go to a boat to find out what she is up to. There they get into a fight with some demons, and Cadaver reappears. Juni is making use of a lodestone to bring through the huge, shadowy entity briefly seen in Book 6. This comes through and, to destroy the lodestone, Beranabus reveals his full demon form for the first time. It seems that he is the demon on Book 7's cover. He manages to destroy the lodestone but is fatally injured in the process and his last word is 'flower' to Bec before he finally dies.

Appearances

*Demon Thief
*Bec (as Bran)
*Blood Beast (as the tramp)
*Demon Apocalypse (as the tramp at first)
*Death's Shadow