Nicci (Sword of Truth)
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Nicci is a fictional character in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.
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[edit] Overview
Nicci is a mysterious sorceress who allied with Richard Rahl after she became disillusioned of the ideals of the Old World. This ironically occurred as she was attempting to convert him to those same ideals. She had sworn her loyalty to The Keeper for somewhat vague reasons, but not because she wanted immortality which was the main reason most of the other Sisters of the Dark joined. It could be theorized that as Nicci grew more devoted to the rigid ways of the Imperial Order, a largely suppressed part of her secretly sought a way to escape from it. As evinced by her fashion for wearing elegantly cut black dresses and hooded cloaks, she is an individual intimately familiar with the dark side of human emotions. Nicci initially symbolizes death, seduction, and cruel indifference. But to say she was evil would be oversimplifying her multifaceted character. She is a mirror into which we can view the unrealized potential within ourselves for kindness, nobility, ferocity, and desperation. Finally, it has been her negative experiences, tempered by the purity of her spirit and the strength of her resolve that makes her a truly fascinating character in the series.
[edit] Introduction
Nicci first comes to the attention of Richard Rahl in the book, Stone of Tears. She is introduced as one of the Sisters of the Light, who reside at the Palace of the Prophets in Tanimura. She and five other Sisters (Merissa, Liliana, Cecilia, Armina, Tovi) served as Richard's instructors in the use of his war wizard's gift. Nicci is both incredibly attractive and seductive, with long blond hair and blue eyes, and a tall, svelte physique. She has a fierce beauty and cold demeanor that has made her something of a legend among the citizens of the Old World and the surrounding nations. Her formative years were spent in the servitude of Brother Narev, a high priest and central figure in the regime led by Emperor Jagang. During this period of her early life, she was taken advantage of sexually by various men. Her mother and father died tragically during her adolescence, and Nicci remains in a perpetual state of mourning for losing her beloved father, as well as for the ruined happiness and innocence of her childhood. After gaining the attention of Prelate Annalina Aldurren as an individual with great potential in the use of magic, she was brought to the Palace to be trained as a novice. The ancient and complex spell that surrounds the Palace allows whomever is inside its walls to age very slowly, and Nicci was sent to live there sometime before her teens. She appears to be a youthful woman in her twenties, but she is actually quite old in terms of a normal human lifespan. She reveals in Faith of the Fallen that she is approximately one hundred and fifty-six years old. This unusual extension of her longevity allowed her to spend many years training to instruct young wizards in the mastery of their magic. Ironically, as Nicci grew in wisdom and knowledge, the further her suffering and despair began to consume her.
[edit] Character Development
Some time after her tenure as a Sister of the Light, Nicci pledged her loyalty and her soul to The Keeper. She now belonged to the Sisters of the Dark, a cadre of formidable and extremely dangerous gifted women that seek to bring about a reign of death upon the world. It was during her involvement in this inner circle of evil that Richard began experiencing the first manifestations of his gift, and was approached by Sister Verna Sauventreen. She and two other Sisters had travelled to the home of the Mud People to offer Richard a chance to become a pupil at the Palace of the Prophets. Richard eventually accepted the burden of the Rada'Han to save his own life and followed Sister Verna to the Old World. There, Nicci was put in a strategic position by Sister Ulicia, leader of the Sisters of the Dark, to eliminate the threat that was posed by Richard's pivotal role in ancient prophecies. Nicci was given a directive to kill and steal his Han while he was under her tutelage, but no one had guessed that he was already a grown man and had mastered the Sword of Truth. After failing to complete her mission in Tanimura, Nicci joined the Imperial Order as Jagang's second-in-command. Nicci is aptly named Death's Mistress by the masses, a spectre of darkness and terror that lays to waste anything and anyone standing in her way. It can be said that those familiar with the Imperial Order feared her far more than they did Jagang. She acts as both his lieutenant and sexual victim, as well as the instrument of Jagang's displeasure, wielding her powers against the hapless citizens of the Old and New Worlds. Nicci has a certain quality that Richard recognizes as "the regal bearing of a queen" which signifies that she is a person who has suffered a great deal in her lifetime, and knows well the responsibility of wielding immense power and authority but yet still retains a very deep vein of vulnerability.
Richard first thought Nicci to be the ultimate personification of lust. She used whatever means necessary to carry out her own personal agenda while presenting an exterior facade that supported the goals and ideals of the Imperial Order. She reaches a state of philosophical epiphany later in the series, and joins with the protagonists as a supporter of Richard's cause. This was after she met and grew to know Richard Rahl while holding him prisoner in the Old World. Ultimately, his kindness and charisma brings her closer to being the happy, selfless, and good-natured person she had been before her involvement with the Imperial Order. She becomes resolute in a newfound conviction to value her own life and the lives of those innocent people Jagang seeks to enslave. Nicci possesses a profoundly complex emotional depth and has proven that she is truly capable of anything. For now, she is Richard's trusted ally and a deadly foe to anyone who would challenge her.
[edit] Magical Abilities
Her abilities as a sorceress include the use of both Additive and Subtractive magic, the latter of which she acquired during her time as a Sister of the Dark. Nicci's vast magical power is even further augmented due to her participation in the ritualistic murders of powerful wizards, in which she siphoned away their Han and absorbed it into herself, giving her both male and female aspects of Han. She is able to draw upon magical energies that exist in the natural world (elemental-based forces like air, fire, water, and earth) as well as terrible dark magics from across the Veil that reside in the world of the dead. Her years of devoted scholarship in the study of magic contribute to the vast array of applied knowledge she possesses, and allows her to be endlessly creative with her abilities. With calculated ease, Nicci can fashion either simple weapons of compressed air or projectiles of liquid flame, to more widescale attacks that mimic the fury of an incendiary holocaust. She also has the capacity to heal wounds and to cure various conditions, but this talent was mainly drawn upon as a deus ex machina to further the story. She is adept at learning new spells quickly, and is resourceful and cunning in her means to create a panorama of death and destruction on par with the arcane talents of Richard Rahl and First Wizard Zedd.
Indeed, Richard has described her as actually more powerful than Zedd and other magic users like Ann and Nathan Rahl. She is thought by Richard Rahl to be the most powerful sorceress "to ever draw a breath." Richard thinks that although Zedd or the others may be more skilled or experienced than her in areas, the sum total of all that Nicci is makes her far more powerful. A part of this is that she can use Subtractive magic and the others cannot. Her magical ratio to other magic users such as Shota is not defined precisely, but Richard has said that he never wants to these two women to get into a magical battle (and has actually expressed a chill of dread at the thought) especially after the two came face to face and exchanged less than friendly words with one another.
