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"My power is stored inside me. I am my own weapon."
— Melancholia as the Death Bringer
Melancholia St Clair
Melancholia
Character Information
Taken Name Melancholia St Clair
Species Human
Gender Female
Birth Around 1991
Age 22
Death January 2014
Magic Necromancy
Faction Necromancers
Weapons Her Necromancer powers inside her body
Titles Death Bringer
Location Deceased

Melancholia St Clair was a Necromancer who was first seen in Mortal Coil when Valkyrie talked to her after the first meeting to elect the new Council of Elders. She took an instant dislike to Valkyrie, and had high respect for the High Priest.

Cleric Vandameer Craven thought that she would be the Death Bringer, and focused all his energies into preparing her body for the Surge. Her Surge loops through her, amplifying her powers to immense levels before dipping dangerously low.

She attempted to kill the entire population of Earth, but was stopped by Valkyrie and Lord Vile. She later helps in battling Darquesse.

Biography[]

Mortal Coil[]

Meloncholia was first seen at the Great Chamber, waiting for Auron Tenebrae. Valkyrie spotted her, and started to annoy her. She was shocked and angered at the way Valkyrie referred to the High Priest as "Tenny."

Later on, at The Necromancer Temple, Vandameer Craven visited her. He told her that she had the potential to be the Death Bringer if she worked hard.

Near the end of the book, she escorted Skulduggery and Valkyrie to see Tenebrae. Valkyrie pointed out that she looked tired; this was due to her "training" with Craven, which was both mentally and physically draining.

Death Bringer[]

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Melancholia during the Death Bringer crisis.

Meloncholia is first seen strapped to a table. Craven had carved symbols into her skin over the past few months to prolong and loop her Surge. The symbols were designed to store her power in the symbols, which boosted her magic to extreme levels; Craven's improvised attempt to turn her into the Death Bringer. Through his narration, it is revealed that Craven was pretending to be Meloncholia's friend to gain her trust and manipulate her.

Melancholia was later presented to the Temple and to the Necromancers as the Death Bringer. Some Necromancers, such as Solomon Wreath and Valkyrie Cain, were apprehensive at Melancholia's new found powers. Melancholia's Surge loops through her body in peaks and valleys, leaving her either chaotically powerful or painfully weak.

Melancholia, in one of her peaks, visited Valkyrie Cain at her home in Haggard. She grabbed Valkyrie and shadow-walks her over a period of two kilometres, a feat impossible for a normal Necromancer. Now alone, Melancholia began to brutally torture Valkyrie with Necromancy, inflicting severe damage. She explained to Valkyrie how she now believed herself to be god-like. During this attack, Melancholia overexerted herself, demonstrating the limitations of her power to the point of almost collapsing. She left Valkyrie to die.

As a result of her attack upon Valkyrie, the Sanctuary issued a warrant for Melancholia's arrest for her attack on a Sanctuary detective. The Necromancers refused to relinquish Melancholia, and the Sanctuary laid siege to the Temple.

After Tenebrae explained to Valkyrie the nature of Skulduggery's true identity as Lord Vile, he visited Melancholia. He and Craven argue, Tenebrae pointing out Melancholia's instability and that her fate as the Death Bringer was questionable. Melancholia killed Tenebrae after hearing this fact, disillusioned with her own power.

Melancholia then met Skulduggery and Valkyrie during the Sanctuary's siege. She recklessly killed a number of Necromancers before revealing herself, claiming she needed their deaths to fuel her power. Skulduggery tries to arrest Melancholia, who then attacks the pair. Melancholia overpowered them easily. Skulduggery, in a reflex survival instinct, transformed into Lord Vile and attacked. Melancholia was at a disadvantage against Lord Vile and was almost defeated, but she begged Valkyrie to save her and she obliged. With Valkyrie distracting Lord Vile, Melancholia escaped from the Temple.

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Melancholia as the Death Bringer

Melancholia was next seen at the Willow Hill Retirement Home with the remainder of the escaped Necromancers. Craven justified Melancholia's murder of her fellow Necromancers and High Priest by lying to the group; he claimed she did not have any control over their deaths. He then goes on to explain how her sole responsibility was to bring about the Passage.

Melancholia secretly confided in Solomon Wreath about Craven's lies to the Necromancers, and detailed Craven's plans to murder him before she slipped away. Craven, meanwhile, informed the Necromancers that Melancholia would usher in the Passage that night.

Melancholia was later seen in the Battle at Willow Hill Retirement Home. She was the target of the Sanctuary agents, who were told to apprehend her alive. Before the battle, Melancholia was placed on a raised platform to begin the Passage, and was surrounded by Necromancers. She was attacked by Valkyrie during the fight. Valkyrie quickly gained the upper hand, Melancholia appearing to be in one of her weak periods. During this fight, Craven attempted to intercept and ended up killing Melancholia by slicing her body in half. Later, it was revealed that Melancholia's reflection was used during the battle as a ruse to trick the Sanctuary agents into believing that she was dead.

She was then outside of the Requiem Ball with Craven and the remaining Necromancers. She participated in his scheme, infiltrating Gordon Edgley's home and stealing the life force of three hundred mages, including Ghastly Bespoke, to gain power. Bertrand Solus then approached Melancholia while she was in a meditative state and asked her to initiate the Passage. She declined and explained that she did not wish to live in a world without death, having seen the real beauty of it. She then revealed her plan was not to initiate the Passage; originally, Melancholia was to kill roughly half the world's population. However, she decides that she would rather kill everything on Earth. Melancholia killed three unnamed Necromancers, Cleric Solace, and Adrienna Shade. Having frightened Craven into submission, they began to descend into the tunnels beneath Gordon Edgely's mansion to escape Skulduggery and Valkyrie.

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Melancholia then confronted Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Skulduggery attempted to empathise and reason with her, but she demanded a battle. Skulduggery attempted to fight Melancholia, but his life force was drained from him, leaving him lifeless. Valkyrie, overcome with grief, physically attacked Melancholia. Craven debates assisting Melancholia, but eventually intercepted the fight and attacked Valkyrie, dragging her off of Melancholia. Melancholia, angered by his late response, brutally attacked Craven, labeled him a coward, and killed him. She then turned to Valkyrie and began fighting her again. She quickly overpowered her by destroying her Necromancer ring, stunning her.

Lord Vile's armour, partially sentient but weak without Skulduggery, returned and attacked Melancholia. Melancholia overpowered Lord Vile's armor, eventually incapacitating it, returning her attention to Valkyrie. Valkyrie taunts Melancholia, who was having trouble controlling her powers. Valkyrie put the idea in Melancholia's head that she could release Skulduggery's energy, and then tricked her into sending a blast of shadows into Skulduggery's torso. This act resurrected Skulduggery.

Skulduggery gives into Lord Vile to defeat Melancholia. Lord Vile attacked Melancholia, and she soon realised that she was at a disadvantage. Valkyrie then helped an injured Melancholia escape from Vile, and they began to navigate through the tunnels. Melancholia's sigils carved into her skin were damaged in the fight, and she reveals that her Surge can't loop properly. The two grew weaker and weaker as they traveled through the caves, trying to outrun Lord Vile. The White Cleaver, previously under control of Craven, catches up to them after fending off the Rippers from the party above. Melancholia commands the White Cleaver to help them reach the surface. Lord Vile finds them once again, and Melancholia commands the White Cleaver to defend her. The White Cleaver is ripped apart by Lord Vile as Melancholia and Valkyrie escape.

Both girls managed to escape the tunnels, but they are weak and practically defenseless. Outside the caves, Lord Vile finally caught up to them. As a last resort, Valkyrie angered Melancholia into punching her, so as to bring forth Darquesse. Melancholia obliged before passing out.

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The Melancholia character card from the Skulduggery Pleasant website.

After the battle, Melancholia was apprehended by the Sanctuary and placed in the care of Dr. Nye, who placed her into a coma. It was implied heavily that this would be a permanent state, unless a solution to Melancholia's recurring Surge was found. It was also revealed that her magic was hugely unstable and that she could have gone off like a nuclear bomb.

The Dying of the Light[]

Melancholia appears toward the end of the novel. She is woken up from her coma as a last resort to defeat Darquesse. Valkyrie was sent to explain the past few years and recruit Melancholia to the Sanctuary's side in the upcoming battle against Darquesse. Melancholia was distraught when she finds out the only cure for her condition was for her memory to be erased, and her personality rewritten, sans magic. She agreed to help Valkyrie, and Valkyrie promised to help find another way to fix her.

Melancholia and Lord Vile attack Darquesse at the battle. Their Necromancy power combined, they weakened Darquesse, and it appeared as though they were going to defeat her. However, Darquesse created a huge explosion, killing Melancholia as Melancholia turned unstable again and claimed to be death itself.

Magic[]

Melancholia was a Necromancer and was thought to be the Death Bringer. During her Surge, sigils were used to loop and amplify her powers. She showed amazing Necromancy skills, being compared to Lord Vile's strength. However, she was defeated by Vile rather easily.

She described herself to Valkyrie as a god. She claimed that to experience her power, Valkyrie would need to be a god. She could shadow-walk vast distances, draw in people's life energy, and control shadows with fearsome accuracy and brutality. Her eyes turn red when she uses her powers in the sixth book, but in the final installment, her eyes turned black.

Personality[]

Melancholia was shown to be extremely condescending and pretentious, an attribute Valkyrie assigned to most Necromancers. Her surname and manner may have indicated a snobbish upbringing. She despised Valkyrie from the very moment she joined the Order, extremely jealous of how much attention she received despite the fact that she had been studying Necromancy for much longer than her. Valkyrie could never resist the opportunity to make fun of her because of this, finding her hatred astonishingly amusing. She was also shown to be somewhat of a religious fanatic, dedicating large amounts of time to studying Necromancy. She had a lot of respect for her elders in the Temple before her Surge, doing as she was told solemnly and without question.

After her Surge, she seemed to have realised her great strength, and became quite self-righteous, complimenting herself and referring to herself as a "god." She appeared to become mentally unstable in her periods of strength. Melancholia was also shown as very callous in her peaks of power, not caring about the people she killed for strength. She was also incredibly deluded and arrogant; in a conversation with Valkyrie, she claimed that she had moved beyond what living people thought of as important and that both life and death meant nothing, effectively making her a nihilist at its extremes. However, Valkyrie considered Melancholia's claim that lives are meaningless hypocritical, due to the fact that when she said it, she was running from Lord Vile, showing that she feared death, though she defended this by claiming she just didn't want the inconvenience of it.

In her periods of weakness, Valkyrie befriended her. Melancholia denied the friendship until the very end, claiming she hated Valkyrie and that she wanted to kill her. However, in the caves under Gordon's Mansion, she seems concerned with Valkyrie's well-being after fights, and repeatedly asks Valkyrie for help.

Appearances[]

MortalCoil
Death Bringer
LSoDMMentioned
The Dying of the Light Cover
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