Character Descriptions of the
Surviving Skeksis and Mystics
urSkek pairs: "There are indications that the name of the original urSkeks progenitor of each pair can be formed by uniting the urRu and Skeksis names after separating out the ur-and skek- prefixes."
NAMES: Mystics -- Skeksis : urSkeks
urSu the Master -- SkekSo the Emperor: SoSu
urZah the Ritual-Guardian -- skekZok the Ritual-Master : ZokZah
urIm the Healer -- skekUng the Garthim-Master: UngIm
urSol the Chanter -- skekSil the Chamberlain: SilSol
urTih the Alchemist -- skekTek the Scientist: TekTih
urAmaj the Cook -- skekAyuk the Gourmand: AyukAmaj
urNol the Herbalist -- skekNa the Slave-Master: NaNol
urAc the Scribe -- skekShod the Treasurer: ShodAc
urYod the Numerologist -- skekOk the Scroll-Keeper: OkYod
urUtt the Weaver -- skekEkt the Ornamentalist: EktUtt
Character descriptions:
urZah the Ritual-Guardian -- urZah the Ritual-Guardian had another wisdom. His mind was like a deep pool stirred by profound currents. Very slow to move, to speak; as wise as the silent stars. he made the sand paintings of prophecy for the urRu, pouring the colored sands while the others chanted; combing and brushing the sands of amethyst, opal, agate, onyx, and chalcedony; building the forms of spiral energy, himself a spiral, and a t the moment of completion and revelation sweeping all away with his tail. He spoke more freely than the other urRu, but in riddles for choice. Long nights of meditation had left thought spirals not only on the skin of his face, as on the faces of the other urRu, but all across his body. Of this he would not speak.
skekZok the Ritual-Master -- skekZok the Ritual-Master thought to hold all control of the life of the court in his own hands. He had the ear of the Emperor, whose wishes were absolute; none could hope for success save through skekZok. The other Skeksis he sought to control through the prophecies he invented, the false apparitions he conjured. Too late he found that the Emperor raised favorites only to enjoy the pleasure of their fall, caring for them not at all; and that the other Skeksis all practiced their own secret divinations, which they trusted above his.
urIm the Healer -- To the eyes of urIm the Healer, the corona that had flared around the heads of the urSkeks still flickered over the urRu. His amulets, his baths, his acupuncture, were designed to restore balance to the corona. With his right hands he made patterns in the air to restore the fires of the soul; with his left hands he made patterns in water to reduce them. He knew the art of the death trance; all other music he neglected.
skekUng the Garthim-Master -- Strongest of all for brute force, after the Emperor, was skekUng the Garthim-Master. Torment was his pleasure, through his urSkeks original had been a healer and continued so in urRu form. Hidden in that tall, shining urSkek was one who, ages later, could find satisfaction in tearing apart the gentle Gelfling. (I am of stone and wood; I too could crumble and rot.) The urSkeks knew this evil was in them and tried hard to burn it out. The soul driven by strong forces is weak, and the soul without its strength is helpless. Wisdom and compassion have their roots in the same soil as violence and hate; the strong being allows them to fight within him, to recognize that his strength of will must control the evil he could do. That the urSkeks did not understand this and violated their nature was the ruin of our World. They looked and spoke like superior beings, but they too were capable of error.
urSol the Chanter -- urSol the Chanter had two voices: one light and gentle for speech, one deep and resonant for song that could calm thunder or make waterfalls still. music, he said, is the most ephemeral form of sculpture and therefore the most powerful. He wore his hair tied in a club; the knots it formed were varied for each chant and loosened at the lesser conjunctions. He had the art to sing one note that made all the different stones of the valley tremble.
skekSil the Chamberlain -- Between skekUng the Garthim-Master and skekSil the Chamberlain there was bitter rivalry, for skekSil hoped his smiling poison and suspicious craft would lead him, not skekUng, to succeed the Emperor's glory. Both were deceived.
urTih the Alchemist -- urTih the Alchemist was forever lost in his experimentations. He would seek to change the forms of things, solids and liquids, liquids into solids again. With humility did he approach his work, bearing in mind the knowledge that he could not make or create anything that was Nature's work.
skekTek the Scientist -- To betray is to break the circle of trust. The Skeksis came to betray all friendship, without reason, without need. The end of my friendship with skekTek the Scientist is still bitter to me. Before the Division, TekTih of all urSkeks gave me most, then his divided soul became Alchemist and Scientist alike. When the urSkeks first came to our World, he taught me all the movements of the skies and designed the great Observatory. And in return, I gave him all my knowledge of the rocks, even to the secrets of the metals.
skekTek kept some real power of thought, but in truth he had become only a juggler of ideas, of memories from his previous life. Then he had studied the light of the Crystal and used it for the Division; now he studied the wounded Crystal, and by that light he saw his way to acts of darkness. Two great evils I charge against him. First, that he learned the art to make beams of light from the Dark Crystal, which he burned into the Pod People's eyes to make them living ghosts, his perfect slaves. After the light had struck them no light lived in their eyes, but they obeyed; that was all.
And the second worse evil was to use dark light to draw the essence of life, to drain it from the living to make a drink for the Skeksis, above all fort the Emperor. This essence gave them back their youth and vigor for a while, only for a little; but many Gelflings were victims forever.
urAmaj the Cook and urNol the Herbalist -- The closest together among the urRu were urAmaj the Cook and urNol the Herbalist. They attended to the greater and lesser balances of the bodies and spirits of their companions. Over much time urAmaj would blend the flavors and textures of fruit and root and grain and spice, sour and sweet, salt and aromatic, smooth and granular and fibrous, till the dish had the desired properties to soothe the urRu. urNol's herbs were taken for adjustment in the time between meals; he also made use of birds' feathers, and in particular of the mosses and lichens that grew on the Standing Stones, where he had his favorite gardens.
skekAyuk the Gourmand and skekNa the Slave-Master -- Nor did the feasts prepared by skekAyuk the Gourmand and his teams of harassed slaves to satisfy any appetite for long. Hot spices, sweet liqueurs, cream-rich sauces, were his delight; and he boasted he had a different menu for every feast. But between meals the Skeksis went to skekNa the Slave-Master for scraps to appease the raging hunger they always felt. skekNa was purely and openly evil from the beginning; but without him the work of the castle would have never been done.
urAc the Scribe -- urAc the Scribe wrote the simpler thoughts of his comrades on unwound cloth spirals. This they called writing in rays of sunlight. Thoughts that he judged deeper and worthy of growth he wound into spirals to bring out their richness. Also he made the prayer sticks and composed their prayers.
skekShod the Treasurer -- skekShod the Treasurer counted gifts, not time. None dared approach him without some offering; yet his desires were so inordinate and his powers of speech so limited that he knew no way to get his will other than extravagant bribery.
urYod the Numerologist -- urYod the Numerologist kept track of time with moving strings of stones. I read his stars in secret; once we exchanged concordances. Before the Division, he aided me with the Observatory.
skekOk the Scroll-Keeper -- skekOk the Scroll-Keeper kept the record of the Skeksis; he was the smallest, finest-featured, least honest of them all. He write and rewrote his accounts, and kept changing them to please one or another of his shifting allies. The truth was soon lost.
urUtt the Weaver -- The blanket coats of all the urRu were made by urUtt the Weaver. Such delicate work from such thick fingers! Each coat was a record of its wearer's thought and fate, with spirals that were also a comment on his past life and that controlled his dreams. At an urRu's last breath, the coat became as delicate and transparent as gossamer, then collapsed as the body beneath it vanished and the thoughts within its weaving were released. The urRu die, said urYod, because they can no longer join the future with their past.
skekEkt the Ornamentalist -- And skekEkt the Ornamentalist made clothes, above all for himself, rich fabrics that dripped jewels, the death of a hundred birds for one cloak. He first discovered the art of anointing the skin with a paste of clotted blood and diamond powder, to restore the sparkle of youth.
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Page last updated: January 21, 1999.
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