Silverwing (series)

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This article is about the novel series. For some information about the television show, see Silverwing (TV series).

The Silverwing Series is a series of books by Kenneth Oppel featuring the adventures of Shade, a fictional bat.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

When Shade Silverwing breaks an age-old law, looking at the sun, his home is burned to the ground by a group of owls. Then he is blown out to sea and makes a friend with a Brightwing, named Marina, who has a band on her arm, who wants to meet the elder, Frieda, who also has a band. They run into some strange bats: Zephyr, a mystical albino with great hearing, Goth and Throbb, two giant bats from the jungle, and Scirocco, a bat intent on becoming human. Shade will have to go through a test of willpower and strength if he ever wants to see his colony again.

[edit] Books in series

[edit] Main Characters

[edit] Shade

Main article: Shade (Silverwing Character)

Shade Silverwing is a runt, and often mocked by his peers, who take pride in their size and strength. While Shade's strength may be inferior to the other bats', He becomes a master of the sound, often creating illusions or moving materials with echoes.

At the end of Firewing, Shade commits suicide so that his son Griffin and his friend Luna could absorb his lifeforce and return to the world of the living. His spirit returns as well and melds with the bodies of his son and mate. His name means "of darkness."

[edit] Marina

Marina Brightwing is Shade's closest friend and companion. She is one year older and wiser than Shade. Because she has a tracking band, she was banished from her colony who lived on an island.

In the first book, she is of great help to him, even if he found her mildly annoying. In the second, Shade claims Marina as his mate.

Her name comes from Marine, meaning "from or of the water".

[edit] Goth

Main article: Goth (Silverwing Character)

A cannibal male bat, prince to the Vampyrum spectrum, is deceptive and cunning. He was taken from his home in the jungles by humans, and seeks to return home, he and his trusty sidekick Throbb, whom he'd love to make into a tasty snack. His carnivorous nature makes him eat many kinds of animals, including birds, enraging the owls against Shade. In the first book, Goth and his cousin Throbb are captured by humans, escape, meet Shade and Marina, and plot to follow them to the Silverwings' hibernaculum, were they could spend the winter devouring the entire colony. In the end, Goth was badly wounded and Throbb killed by a bolt of lightning. The demon-god Cama Zotz healed Goth and made him King of the Vampyrum Spectrum, but Goth was killed when the high priest dropped a powerful explosive device on the temple in an attempt to sacrifice everyone to resurrect Cama Zotz. In the Third book, Goth's ghost pursues Shades son Griffin through the underworld and eventually kills him, steals his life force, and returns to the jungle. His name comes from the English word Gothic.

[edit] Griffin

Shade and Marina's son, and therefore a Silverwing/Brightwing hybrid. He hates the idea that he is nothing like his father, although he knows it. He is a constantly worrying over anything and everything and looks for the worst in any situation. He ends up being sucked into the Underworld. At the end of the book he is killed by Goth, who steals his life force. Shade commits suicide and gives Griffin and Luna, a dead bat that had been Griffin's friend before her accidental death, his life force so that they could return to the living world.

His name comes from griffin, a blend between two animals: an eagle and a lion. A fitting name for a hybrid bat.

[edit] Secondary Characters

[edit] Silverwings

The Northern Bats have an Elder hierarchy, with one being elected high elder.

  • Ariel: Shade's mother. Since the loss of her mate, Cassiel, she has become very protective of Shade. At the end of Sunwing, she is elected elder.
  • Cassiel: Shade's father. He went missing searching for the "secret of the bands", before he was born. He is also banded. Shade eventually found him in the Southern Jungle.
  • Mercury: A male; the only one who stays with the females and their young outside of winter.
  • Chinook: A promising newborn in Silverwing. He looked down on Shade and, at times, didn't seem to notice him. At the end of Sunwing he and Shade become brothers and friends, because his parents died and he was adopted by Ariel.
  • Jarod, Osric, Yara, Rasha and Penumbra: Newborns; friends and admirers of Chinook.
  • Freida: An elder of the Silverwing colony who is banded. She is the oldest bat in the colony and thus the wisest. She helps Shade, even though he did something foolish. At the end of Sunwing, she dies at Bridge City. In the Underworld, she meets Griffin, telling him where to find the tree of life, a possible means of escape for him.
  • Bathsheba: An elder who seems content the way things are. When Shade breaks the law, she was very vocal about having him turned over to the owls rather than suffer the consequences.
  • Lucretia: One of the female elders.
  • Aurora: One of the female elders.
  • Icarus: A male; he is optimistic about what the bands foretell.
  • Luna: A Silverwing newborn, and Griffin's best friend. During Griffin's plan to steal fire from humans, Griffin drops the lit grass on her causing her to burn to death. He meets her in the Underworld, and they fly to the tree together. She comes back to the Upperworld with Griffin.

[edit] Vampyrum Spectrum

The Vampyrum Spectrum, unlike the Silverwings, has a monarchy. They are carnivores and eat just about anything smaller than them, including other bats. They worship the Mayan bat god Cama Zotz.

  • Throbb: A weakling taken from his home in the jungle, alongside Goth. He lacks courage and is forced to do Goth's bidding. He ends up being turned to ashes by a lightning bolt while in a thunderhead. His ghost serves Cama Zotz in the Underworld by aiding in an attempt to tunnel through to the world of the living.
  • Voxzaco: A High Priest that talks to Cama Zotz by eating strange, possibly hallucinogenic, herbs. His spine is crooked due to age. He is able to interpret the stone calendar that serves religious purposes. He commits suicide by dropping a bomb that destroys the temple in an attempt to sacrifice 100 hearts to Zotz. In the third book, Zotz reveals that his ghost is suffering eternal torment in his stomach for his failure.
  • Phoenix: One of the dead. A female servant of Zotz. Promised mate of Goth. Her name is derived from the phoenix, a legendary bird who rejuvenates itself through an immersion in fire. Fittingly, she is restored to life along with Goth.
  • Murk: A rare benevolent Vampyrum who travelled to the Tree with Shade, Yorick, Nemo, and Java.

[edit] Other Bats

  • Zephyr: An albino bat who lives in a church spire, a central hub for migrating bat colonies. He is very old and has lost his ability to see, but he uses his sonar with great accuracy. He also can see into the past and future using his ears. He has a vast knowledge of medicinal herbs. His name comes from the Greek god Zephyrus, god of the west wind.
  • Scirocco:[Desceased?] A long-eared bat that led a movement among the banded bats, saying they were promised to become humans. It is unknown what happened to him, but most likely he was eaten by Goth and Throbb.
  • Penelope::[Desceased?] A banded Brightwing, and one of those who followed Scirocco. It is unknown whether or not she was among those who escaped from Goth and Throbb.
  • Caliban: A mastiff bat who leads a survival group living in statue haven. The humans had used bats to carry fire (bombs). Shades father used to be the leader of the group, but was captured by the Vampyrum Spectrum. Statue Haven was based on the statue of Christ The Redeemer statue above a city in Brazil.

[edit] Dead Bats in Zotz's Kingdom

  • Yorick: A Silverwing bat who died 500 years ago. He always wants his way because he has the map to the tree. He crashed into a tree and died, which severely damaged his wing and has to suffer the pain.
  • Nemo: Is from the coastal waters way down south. He is a fish eater. Has long, sharp claws to catch fish. He has been dead for 452 years.
  • Java: A megabat; even bigger than Goth, Java has a wingspan of 5 feet. She is not hostile toward any living thing. She doesn't have the gift of echolocation, which Shade doesn't like, but has huge eyes to see with.

[edit] Other Animals

  • Brutus: an owl general; he led the burning of Tree Haven after Shade glimpsed the sun.
  • Orestes: an owl prince; son of King Boreal. One of those who persuaded the owls to lift their ban on the presence of bats in daylight. Like Shade, he is a runt.
  • Romulus: King of the Northern rats. At first he is considered a freak because of winglike flaps of skin between his fore and hind legs, which for his part lead him to believe that bats and rats have a common ancestor. When his brother Prince Remus fled he took command.
  • Remus: Prince of the Northern rats. He is distrustful of everyone, to the point of paranoia. Eventually he scares himself into abdication from the throne. Romulus and Remus's names come from Roman mythology, as the first founders of Rome.

[edit] Locations

[edit] Tree Haven

A place where newborn bats are raised by their mothers during the spring and summer. The tree haven in Silverwing is burned to the ground by owls. Later on, a new tree is hollowed out, and becomes the new Tree Haven. This is where Griffin lives, and the creation of it can be read about at the end of Sunwing

[edit] Stone Hold

A place where the male bats roost during the spring and summer.

[edit] Hibernaculum

A place behind a waterfall where Shade's colony goes to hibernate during the winter.

[edit] Jungle

A rain forest, most likely in Central America. Home to the Vampyrum Spectrum bats and the Pyramid. It's also hosts creatures including large insects, southern owls and other exotic things that northern bats haven't seen.

[edit] Statue Haven

A statue of Jesus Christ that overlooks Rio de Janeiro. The survivors of the explosions from the metal disks use this as a safe haven from the Vampyrum.

[edit] The Pyramid

Home to the royal order of Vampyrum, Goth's home. It's filled with millions of Vampyrum. It was destroyed when Voxzaco dropped an explosive on it, killing all the Vampyrum.

[edit] Underworld

A place created by Cama Zotz for his Vampyrum Spectrum. It is mostly made up of pictures that occur in bats' minds as a result of conflicting sonal vibration, which give the appearance of images. All bats that die end up there. It is under the earth. It is possible, but rare, for a living thing to enter the Underworld; where the denizens will notice a "glow" about them.

At the place where Zotz fought and killed his counterpart Nocturna, a great Tree made seemingly of fire grows. Entering it, the bats become as Nocturna has become; an observing intelligence in the natural world.

[edit] History

[edit] Great war

The great war between the birds and the beasts happened approximately 65 million years before the story. The bats, seeing themselves as being both, but neither, refrained from fighting. At the end of the war, the two warring factions banished the bats from ever seeing the sun again because they refrained.

[edit] War to bring back the sun

A war between the owls and the bats fought 15 years before the Silverwing book. The bats lost. Later, Shade Silverwing and Owl Prince Orestes called for a truce, under which bats were given freedom to move under sunlight for as long as they caused no trouble.

[edit] References

Go To www.kennethoppel.com or www.silverwing.ca

[edit] Trivia

  • Zephyr and Chinook's names came from wind spirits, Cassiel and Ariel's names were from angels from the Old Testament, and Goth comes from the English word gothic. Other names come from Greco-Roman and Egyptian mythology (i.e. Romulus, Remus, Hermes, Icarus, Isis, Orestes), while Cama Zotz is based on a Mayan deity by the same name.
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