Characters and races of the Dark Crystal
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The Characters and Races of the Dark Crystal were created by Jim Henson for his 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal.
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[edit] Concept and creation
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[edit] Characters
[edit] Aughra
Aughra is one of the supporting characters in Jim Henson's 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal. In the movie, she is portrayed primarily by Frank Oz in a costume. Oz also voiced Aughra originally (making her sound very similar to a combination of Fozzie Bear and Yoda), but later her lines were re-dubbed by Billie Whitelaw.
A horned, one-eyed, wild-haired Seer, Aughra is the sole member of her race. She is known as the Watcher of the Heavens and the Keeper of Secrets. An astronomer, she maintains her observatory set at a cliff's edge atop a mountain, which houses an enormous, working orrery that shows all the worlds that surround Thra's Three Suns. It is because of this orrery that Aughra was able to predict the coming of the Great Conjunction. Also, it is Aughra who holds the Shard of the Crystal, for which reason urSu, wisest of the Mystics, sends Jen to find her.
According to the book The Song of Aughra (alternately titled The World of The Dark Crystal), Aughra is the essence of Thra itself. Responding to the need of the rocks and trees to have an eye to see the world, the roots made the rocks split; from them Aughra came to be. The novel The Dark Crystal mentions that Aughra is both male and female. The part of her that has withered is male, and the part that remains is female. Because she is the essence of Thra, she possesses the power to control tendrils, bushes, tall grasses, and other flora. Aughra can also remove her heavily bloodshot eye from its socket and hold it in her gnarled hand for extended view, or place it in another location and move it by mental command. Her brisk voice is harsh, broken, and short of breath. The novel describes her breath as "loud, rasping, rheumy, and [having] a dank stench".
Her exact age is undetermined, though the novel says that Aughra is three times three ages old. Old enough to know the world that existed before the race of Gelflings came to be, Aughra can recall life before Mystics and Skeksis evolved their separate codes. She studies the movements of planets in the heavens and lost an eye one thousand years earlier observing the last Great Conjunction of the Three Suns, which burned out her eye also burned her body. During this time she also witnessed the arrival of the urSkeks. It was the urSkeks who healed her body and built her observatory and orrery upon High Hill.
Aughra's temperament is unpredictable, and she is very prone to mood swings. She can be angry, awestruck, taciturn, cantankerous, abrupt, etc. all in the space of a minute. An example of this is described in the novel: When Jen reaches for something out of curiosity in Aughra's observatory, she angrily pins his hand down to the table with her fist and growls at him not to touch anything. She then proceeds to continue with what she was doing, as if nothing had happened. She is shown saying dramatically that the Great Conjunction is the "end of the world", and then adding, in a different tone of voice, "or the beginning! Hmf!", before dismissively remarking that endings and beginnings are "all the same" (each being a form of change). She sometimes seems well-acquainted with what most of Thra's inhabitants would view with awe, but is herself overawed when the urSkeks assume their true forms. When Jen refers to his urRu guardian/mentor, explaining that the latter is dead, Aughra becomes suddenly excited and wary; later, when she sees Fizzgig helplessly dangling above a fiery pit, she merely remarks "How did he get up there?" and finds a means of rescuing him. When facing the Skeksis, she indignantly rebukes them for pillaging her home and by so doing wasting their chance of capturing Jen, calling them "fools" and their mechanical soldiers "stupid". She appears blasé regarding the possibility of her own death, and is sometimes shown picking up objects, such as a triangular work of metal from her own observatory or a flask from the Skeksis' laboratory, making a dramatic pronouncement, then laying it aside with an obviously nondramatic remark. She is knowledgeable about many things unknown to Jen, but does not know which of the crystal shards in her possession is the one he wants until he finds it himself. Aughra is allegedly to appear in the sequel to The Dark Crystal, titled The Power of the Dark Crystal scheduled (at the moment) to be released in 2009, according to the Internet Movie Database. Also according to the IMDB, she will once again be voiced by Billie Whitelaw.
[edit] Jen
| Dark Crystal character | |
|---|---|
| Jen | |
| Species | Gelfling |
| Gender | Male |
| Home | Mystic valley |
| Affiliations | Mystics |
| Performed by: | Jim Henson |
| Voiced by: | Stephen Garlick |
Jen is a protagonist of Jim Henson's 1982 fantasy film, The Dark Crystal. His family and people killed by the Skeksis, Jen was raised by the Mystics in their valley, believing that he was the last survivor of the Gelflings. But when his dying master, urSu, sends him on the quest to find the shard of the Crystal and to heal the Crystal, he discovers that he is not the only Gelfling left. Having obtained the shard and uncertain about what to do with it, he wanders through the swamp and is startled by Fizzgig, Kira's dog-like pet. Kira, who emerges from behind a nearby shrub, apologizes to Jen and, through dreamfasting, befriends him and learns of his quest, on which she joins him.
Jen wears a pale, cream-colored tunic. His skin has an olive complexion and his hair is dark and shoulder-length. He carries a flute around his neck, an urRu token known as a firca. Jen's flute assisted him in locating the true shard of the Dark Crystal among three different shards of crystal. Because Jen was raised by the UrRu, his was able to be easily manuiplated by the Skesis' offers of sparing his and Kira's lives. But it was skeSok murdering Kira before his eyes that allowed Jen to fulfil his pre-destined part in the UrSheks' reformation.
[edit] Kira
| Dark Crystal character | |
|---|---|
| Kira | |
| Species | Gelfling |
| Gender | Female |
| Home | Podling village |
| Affiliations | Podlings |
| Performed by: | Kathryn Mullen |
| Voiced by: | Lisa Maxwell |
Kira is a protagonist in Jim Henson's 1982 fantasy film, The Dark Crystal. Kira survived the slaughter of her people, the Gelflings, because she was hidden by her mother in a hollow tree trunk. After witnessing the death of her mother by a Garthim, Kira was later found and raised by the Podlings, who became her adopted family. Because of the Podlings, Kira learned to speak with the animals and developed a respect for the natural world. Accompanied by her pet, Fizzgig, Kira often wandered through the swamps and forests around her village, learning the ways and the speech of the flora and fauna. It was one day that Fizzgig startled Jen, who was wandering the forest, baffled by his mission and by the mysterious crystal shard that he now possessed. Kira and Jen, through dreamfasting, quickly befriended each other, and Kira would join Jen on his quest to heal the Crystal and restore the vitality of their world. Though the quest cost Kira her life, she was revived by UrShek as Jen held her to him. Kira wears a golden-brown dress and a brown cloak. Her complexion is pale and her hair is long and fair.
[edit] Races
[edit] Gelflings
Gelflings are elf-like beings populating the fictional world of Thra in Jim Henson's 1982 movie The Dark Crystal. Female gelflings have butterfly-like wings that can be folded to fit easily under normal clothing. These wings can be used to slow a long fall to allow for a safe landing, even with the added weight of a second gelfling holding onto the first. It is unknown if the wings provide any other abilities, such as flight or gliding. (The Marvel Comics adaptation of the movie states that in the past, females could fly, but this is to be considered unofficial.) Jen and Kira are the only two known survivors of a massacre perpetrated by the diabolical vulture-like Skeksis upon their race. Gelflings can speak in the languages of animals and upon physical contact with one another can share thoughts, memories, and feelings in a process called dreamfasting. Jen and Kira were instrumental in fulfilling the prophecy that restored the Dark Crystal to its natural state.
[edit] Skeksis
The Skeksis are a fictional species which act as the main villains in the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal, its companion book The World of The Dark Crystal and the TokyoPop prequel Legends of the Dark Crystal. The word "Skeksis" serves as both singular and plural form for this species, with the singular being pronounced /skɛk.sɪs/ and the plural pronounced /skɛk.siz/. They are described by concept artist Brian Froud as, "... part reptile, part predatory bird, part dragon." In the film, the Skeksis are represented by puppets engineered under the direction of Jim Henson. Jim Henson said that in the development of the Skeksis, the creators drew inspiration from the Seven Deadly Sins.[1]
[edit] UrSkeks
UrSkeks are a fictional species featured in the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal and its companion book The World of The Dark Crystal. They were designed by Brian Froud.
The UrSkeks were tall, luminescent beings of vaguely Gelflingoid shape. They sported large craniums and slim bodies. Only eight appeared in the end of the movie, with UngIm as their representative to Jen by reviving Kira.
- UngIm: General/Garthim-Master skekUng + Healer urIm
- SilSol: Chamberlain skekSil + Chanter urSol
- ZokZah: High Priest/Ritual-Master skekZok + Ritual-Guardian urZah
- AyukAmaj: Gourmand skekAyuk + Cook urAmaj
- NaNol: Slave Master skekNa + Herbalist urNol
- OkAc: Historian skekOk + Scribe urAc
- ShodYod: Treasurer skekShod + Numerologist urYod
- EktUtt: Ornamentalist skekEkt + Weaver urUtt
Two more UrSkeks were mentioned but did not appear:
- SoSu: Emperor skekSo + Master urSu
- TekTil: Scientist skekTek + Alchemist urTil
According to The World of The Dark Crystal, the UrSkeks were not native to Thra. They originated on a world where moral imperfections were found completely intolerable. The UrSkeks, of which there were originally 18 led by SoSu, were banished from their homeworld and entered the world of Thra via a portal opened by the shining of the three suns on the crystal of truth. There, they encountered Aughra, who had been badly burned by the intense heat given off by her close proximity to the conjunction. They healed her and together made exchanges of knowledge; Aughra teaching them the ways of the planet's nature and ecology while the UrSkeks taught her astronomy. They hollowed out the mountain containing the crystal that brought them to the world and created a magnificent castle. It was not long, however, before the UrSkeks began to recount their banishment and sought to rectify what they had been taught as their curse of self impurity.
Creating a network of mirrors around the crystal, the UrSkeks sought to trap the light of the next great conjunction to burn out the imperfections on their souls. For another thousand years they waited till finally it arrived. However, upon entering the light, rather than being cleansed, the UrSkeks became split beings divided into two separate species; the Skeksis, commanded by SkekSo, and the urRu led by urSu. A fight broke out, resulting in the crystal receiving a blow, which chipped off a shard. The shard disappeared and the UrRu left the castle to the Skeksis.
Despite the separation, there was still a sympathic bond between each Skeksis and its urRu counterpart, a constant reminder that they were only halves of the same being. If either is wounded, the other feels the pain and suffers an identical injury. If one dies, both die in the same manner. It was one of the reasons why the UrRu, who lack the will to take any form of direct action, were never attacked or bothered by the Skeksis and their creations. By the time of the Dark Crystal, only ten Skeksis/UrRu pairs remained. When the story begins, both skekSo & urSu passed on, leaving skekUng & urIm to succeed them repectively. By the upcoming conjunction, thanks to the Gelfling Jen, the process that created the two races was reversed and the UrSkeks were reformed. Their new leader, UngIm, revived Kira before the UrSkeks departed into a higher level of existence and left the Gelfings as the keepers of the Crystal. Because skekTek was killed during the course of the film (and thus his counterpart urTih vanished with him), the UrSkek 'TekTil' never appeared.
[edit] Reception
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