Glaistig Uaine

<tabber> |-|Worm=

{{#if:Ms. Yamada to CiaraTeneral e.1|

“	You were still a child, and you needed rules and a foundation to define yourself by, as any child does. Your chose your anchor, chose Scion, and you formed your view of capes as faerie to distance yourself from a world you barely felt in touch with. You built up your persona as Glaistig Uaine, a name others gave you. [...] You craved structure.	”
{{#if:Ms. Yamada to Ciara| —Ms. Yamada to Ciara{{#if:Teneral e.1|, Teneral e.1}} }} }}

|-|Ward=

{{#if:Ciara to ChevalierInterlude 9 II|

“	I’m fairly sure I’m older than you, Chevalier. Don’t talk down to me. I need to do this. To help, to make up for past acts, and to gather the resources and contacts to attend to my flock.	”
{{#if:Ciara to Chevalier| —Ciara to Chevalier{{#if:Interlude 9 II|, Interlude 9 II}} }} }}

</tabber> <infobox> <title source="name"><default>Glaistig Uaine</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

Deceased

</format>

<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Ciara, known publicly as Glaistig Uaine (pronounced “glash-tig ooanya”),<ref>Worm Audiobook pronunciation guide (confirmed by Wildbow) but now superseded by actual expertise</ref> The Faerie Queen and later as Valkyrie, is a former Birdcage cell block leader and a current headliner of The Wardens.

Personality

<tabber>As Glaistig Uaine=

Glaistig Uaine believes parahuman abilities to be the product of "faerie" magic.<ref name="I16">Interlude 16.z</ref>

Glaistig claimed that parahumans themselves were "dreams" of the faerie,<ref name="I16"/> or "roles" they put on,<ref name="27.4"/> and claimed to be a faerie herself - their Queen. She habitually addressed parahumans as if they were still going to be alive in 300 years.<ref name="I16"/> She viewed Scion as a parent-like figure, father and audience all in one.<ref name="27.4"/><ref name="E.1">Teneral e.1</ref> She was shocked when he showed human emotions.<ref name="E.1"/> She referred to unpowered humans as "props", albeit living ones.<ref name="27.4">Extinction 27.4</ref>

When she was angry, her voice would resonate more strongly.<ref name="E.1"/> She reacted with anger toward those who challenged her delusions.<ref name="I16"/> If someone tried to tell her she was human, she would kill them.<ref name="E.1"/>

Although she was well known to be delusional, it didn't meaningfully impair her abilities as a strategist, and her pronouncements were usually accurate. Many of her beliefs were based on the visions her powers granted her.<ref name="I16"/> She claimed that there were a few faerie who would operate before and after the "act", who were "noble" - "The champion, the high priest, the observer, the shaper, the demesnes-keeper", the "Queen Administrator", and herself - the Faerie Queen.<ref name="27.4"/> The rest would sleep during a long, long journey.<ref name="E.1"/> She identified the faerie as having two "courts", but one of them had "arrived to the stage bedraggled, maddened". The high priest, she claimed, had arrived too early and without instructions, wearing the wrong costume.<ref name="27.4"/>

She was aware of Cauldron's Clairvoyant, and reluctant to discuss anything about them in detail.<ref name="27.4"/>

She was impressed by the artistry of Marquis' and Panacea's faeries, and recognized that they were "kin"; she stated that she would only deal with Panacea as an equal.<ref name="I16"/> Much like how she dealt with Taylor.

|-|As Valkyrie= Ciara wanted to become "more human", although she didn't expect to ever become entirely normal - merely "parahuman".

She identified her projections as "warriors", rather than "mere shadows".

Ciara still getting accustomed to her new, less childish body.

She had difficulty suppressing the sensory aspects of her power, which upsets her. She felt uncomfortable around large groups of people. She was receiving lessons to help her speak normally, but it remained difficult, and she worried that slipping into her old manner of speech might turn heads.

She felt more relaxed in the presence of delusional parahumans like Nilbog.<ref name="E.1"/>

</tabber>

Appearance

<tabber>Glaistig Uaine= She chooses to remain a young child, seemingly in her early teens.<ref name="E.1"/><ref name="I16"/> She usually speaks with a chorus of dozens of broken voices,<ref name="I16"/> although she can vary how strong the effect is, from over a hundred voices down to just her own. She speaks in an affected, archaic manner.<ref name="E.1"/>

Her hair is blonde and her eyes green.<ref name="E.1"/>

In the Birdcage, she wore a blackened prison uniform modified into a shroud.<ref name="27.4"/><ref name="I16"/> However, she was able to use two of her shadows to transform it into other clothing once she left, seemingly at will.<ref name="27.4"/>

In battle, she wore a cloak and robe that glittered green and black, "as though it were made up of thousands of scales the size of grains of sand".<ref name="27.4"/>

After Gold Morning, she briefly wore a look that emphasized her young appearance - a lacy skirt and top with braided hair.<ref name="E.1"/>

|-|Valkyrie= She appeared nineteen years old, half again as tall as she had been, with long hair worn in a thick braid.<ref name="E.1"/>

She wore armor and carried a shield and sickle, both created by one of her ghosts. The costume was gold and sky blue, featuring a short skirt edged with gold chains, worn over tight knee-length trousers. It featured a mask that pressed to her cheekbones and forehead.<ref name="E.1"/> It is heavy enough to cast shadows on the upper half of her face.

The costume featured massive luminous wings.<ref name="wings">Wings that could have been projections or creations of light were partially wrapped around her, hiding much of her body, and the shadows of her helmet would have hidden her eyes, but something shone within her eyes and made them apparent. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.2</ref> Ciara also sometimes adds glowing effects to her eyes.

She is still adds ghost-echoes to her speach from time to time.<ref>Sundown 17.2</ref> |-|Titan Valkyrie= From the vision Antares saw in the Firmament about the future, Titan Valkyrie's appearance seems to be a combination of her Glaistig Uaine and Valkyrie personas. She is described as shadowy and wrapped in a cloak of black and jade, with a a winged helmet that showed only shadows beneath the helmet "face". She was large enough to be able to hold a standing adult person within her cupped hands.<ref name="In 19.9">Infrared 19.9</ref> </tabber>

Abilities and Powers

Death Touch and Collection

If desired, Ciara can collect imprints of parahumans using a touch-based ability on their body, killing the person in the process.<ref>She reached up, placing a hand on the side of my face. It was warm from the fire. Her thumb brushed along my cheekbone, the long nail coming dangerously close to my eye.

She could kill me right here. Pull my passenger away from me and claim it. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.4</ref><ref>I gathered my swarm around me and the teleporter, and I had her draw another circle.

Glaistig Uaine reached out, seizing the woman’s wrist. The teleporter’s alarm mingled with my own.

But she wasn’t attacking, and she wasn’t taking the teleporter’s powers, extinguishing her life in the process. - Speck 30.2</ref> On one occasion, she killed a mercenary by touching the crystal shell he enclosed around himself<ref>The glimmer proved to be truth when the man raised himself up, surrounded by a storm of black sand. Painfully bright slices of light lunged out of the ground and closed around him, with more sprouting out of the ground to make approaching him difficult.

Of the sixteen powered individuals with her, none seemed able to break or disrupt the shell. The prism slowly rotated, its pointed tip aimed at the horizon. As it moved to the side, the ground under it was made jagged with razor slices of light. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref> right before he could escape.<ref>If he got away with this message, it could mean the local warlord was alerted about what he was up against. Not disaster, but it could mean that the captives in the warlord’s possession could become hostages or negotiation fodder. Better that he didn’t know what was taking out his forces and forcing him to keep his armies closer and closer to home.

He can’t get away. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref><ref>The crystal jolted into motion, going from zero to two hundred miles an hour in an instant. She only barely intercepted it, her fingers grazing the surface, bending painfully and burning at the brush with the light.

But she made contact with something. She held onto that something with her power.

He flew away, and a part of him stayed behind. He made it a few hundred feet before the power quit on him.

His body tumbled into the sand, the gas mask coming loose. He didn’t reach for it, scramble, or gasp in pain at the poison he was inhaling.

For all intents and purposes, he was in her grip. She’d taken his life the moment she’d made contact.

She let that glimmer of life and the simulacrum of power and personality settle into being. A shadow. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref>

Ciara can also seemingly collect imprints of parahumans who die within a unknown range of her, as she was shown to have had Bakuda and Grue in her collection despite not being in their immediate vicinity around the time of their deaths to touch them.<ref>Interlude 10.5</ref><ref>Interlude 15.z</ref> However, she can avoid collecting a nearby deceased parahuman.<ref>The Solemn Child. A tall, broad shouldered man with a red sash. She aimed to take fire, and someone on the enemy side raised a wall.

“Shoot the one in red first!” she ordered.

The man could undo powers. Given a moment’s opportunity, he could undo hers, and her power wouldn’t be the same again.

There was a small measure of satisfaction as she watched the man die, the top of his head removed as it poked over cover. She avoided collecting him, leaving his power where it lay. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref> It is implied by Ms. Yamada that Ciara had the ability to steal powers even before her second trigger,<ref name="E.1e1"/> so what the exact changes to her power were before and after her second trigger are unknown.

Control of Parahuman Shadows

At any one time, she can have the parahumans she has ‘claimed’ manifest as ghostly specters, complete with the ability to physically affect the world and use their powers; she normally limits herself to two or three, but can maintain more than that at the cost of significantly reduced individual power.<ref name="Cast2">Glaistig Uaine – A cape that seems much younger than she is, Glaistig Uaine styles herself as a Faerie Queen, and claims that she collects the lesser faerie that grant other parahumans their powers. Whatever the true nature of her abilities, she can draw in the essence of recently dead parahumans she has come in contact with – or kill wounded or dying parahumans – and store it within herself. At any one time, she can have two or three of the parahumans she has ‘claimed’ manifest as ghostly spectres, complete with the ability to physically affect the world and use their powers. - Cast Page (In-Depth)</ref><ref name="I27">27.x (Interlude, Eidolon)‏‎</ref><ref name="I16"/><ref name="27.3"/><ref name="30.2">Speck 30.2</ref><ref name="GleamingI9">Gleaming, Interlude 9</ref> They are seemingly limited to her immediate presence,<ref>If nothing else, Bakuda was a manageable inmate, now. She would never leave Glaistig Uaine's immediate presence, let alone the Birdcage. - Interlude 10.5</ref><ref name="19.6 c1">Glaistig Uaine was mentioned in Marquis’ interlude. She claims the spirits of dead capes she comes in contact with and summons forth spectres with their powers. - Comment by Wildbow on Scourge 19.6</ref><ref name="27.5">Extinction 27.5</ref> and she can create multiple copies of a ghost through a duplicator ghost. She made twenty to thirty copies of a ghost, and later created multiple copies of Grey Boy.<ref>Above us, Glaistig Uaine had created a spirit that was spreading across the sky like circuits on a circuitboard, extending itself across a plane.  Scion was blasting it, but it had reached the point where it was spreading as fast as he destroyed it.  Her other two spirits were working in concert, one duplicating the other, so it could create and lob projectiles that exploded in the air.  The detonations left patches of a strange, nebulous darkness in their wake.  They couldn’t move more than a short distance from their master, which limited their number, but they added up to twenty or thirty in all.

...

Glaistig Uaine appeared behind him.  Three spirits surrounded her.

One to levitate, grant the ability to float.  A telekinetic or power granter.

Another to duplicate capes.  Duplicating the telekinetic, in part.  But more focused on duplicating the third spirit Glaistig Uaine had made.

Gray Boys. - Extinction 27.5</ref>

Capes she manifests appear as duplicates of their former selves with exaggerated, caricatured or blended features. Their powers are unaltered.<ref name="27.4"/><ref name="E.1"/> They slowly regenerated after being destroyed or injured in a fight.<ref name="E.1"/> They appear transparent and shadowy but otherwise solid<ref name="27.4"/> and can interact normally with the physical world;<ref name="Cast2"/> projections that are dismissed dissolve into smoke or shadow<ref name="E.1"/> or collapse into a point in her hand "like an explosion in reverse".<ref name="27.4"/> They were affected normally by gravity unless she levitated them with another power.<ref name="27.5">Extinction 27.5</ref>

When they try to speak, their voices sound faint and incoherent to others, as if were emulating language rather than actually uttering it,<ref name="27.4"/> they can speak in voices only Ciara can understand,<ref name="E.1"/> although later shadows are able to speak coherently enough to be understood by bystanders. Ciara can communicate with currently inactive spirits and partially aware of their emotions and desires. The shadows maintain their original personality and some degree of agency, although it somewhat wears off with time in the same way as their appearance. The recently collected imprints are even able to defy Ciara's wishes, although she expect them to submit later.<ref>“I need you to tell me where the captives from the raids in Rome are being kept,” she said.

The shadow shook its head.

“Tell me what you know about the people who can create the triggering moments.”

She saw and felt the surprise. He knew something.

Again, a head shake.

“You’ll realize your position soon,” she said. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref>

She draws power from her dormant shards, and feeds her active projections with that power. Even when they are not visible, she still has three projections "active".<ref name="I16"/>

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illustration by CNJLC

By the end of Worm, she has absorbed the powers of countless capes, including Eidolon. With Eidolon's ghost increasing the number of powers she can wield at once from three to five, and several more if Eidolon's powers are weaken by him using too many powers or Ciara summoning too many phantoms, she is now indisputably the most powerful parahuman in existence. Even before his death, Eidolon himself speculated that she had grown to surpass him in power. However, as of Ward, she seems reluctant to use Eidolon, stating his "battery is almost empty", and that recharging it would be "more trouble than it was worth". She was able to escape Khepri's control by forcing her to control one of her spirits instead of herself, possibly using that spirit's power.<ref name ="30.6">Speck 30.6</ref><ref name="30.7">Speck 30.7</ref>

Power Vision

Ciara possesses a secondary Thinker power, much like Chevalier and Ingenue, that allows her to recognize the carriers of other shards and see phantom images surrounding the empowered, but it is way more sensitive, including ability to sense distant parahumans through walls and at great distances.<ref name="E.1"/> She is capable of recognizing the details of how individual powers work by analyzing their phantoms.<ref name="GleamingI9"/>

Vulnerabilities

Ciara is unable to personally use the powers of collected capes. By default, she is a baseline human who still needs food, rest, and sleep:<ref>A week.

A weeks of searching, of flying through worlds with only her shadows for company and assistance. Of finding the meat and vegetables for her own meals, including tubers and edible roots found in nature that were dim substitutes for things found on supermarket shelves. Her shadows prepared and cooked the meals while she rested.

A week. A week, a day, and four hours, and she found the first settlement. Shattered buildings had been repurposed. Graves were laid out at the far side of a field. Water, food, and shelter seemed to be secured. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref> she lacks enhanced reflexes<ref name="reddit eSuperman" /> and durability.<ref>If he aimed at me and shot me in the heart, if the shadows I’ve instructed to protect me move too slowly, I could die right here. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref> Thus, it is possible for opponents such as Skadi to ambush and then hit her before she can react.<ref>He turned his back on her, because the machines were changing direction, fixating on him again. He smashed one open, prying tech free, as smaller ones began opening fire. A hail of bullets, missiles, and laser beams.

Behind him, Valkyrie reappeared. A shadow appeared behind her.

Before she could move from where she was, the shadow became Axehead.

A part of him watched Axehead smack Valkyrie out of the sky. - Radiation 18.z</ref> To temporarily augment her own personal capabilities (e.g., enhanced movement, poison gas immunity), Ciara must use power-granting shadows in her collection.<ref>Scion and Glaistig Uaine began fighting in earnest. They weren’t more than a hundred feet apart. Glaistig Uaine was drawing on spirits with a shorter range, now.

One with a fox-face that seemed to be granting three different kinds of enhanced movement, teleportation, super speed and flight. The other two varied from moment to moment. Some existed so briefly that Glaistig Uaine didn’t even try to keep them afloat in the air, images that lasted two or three seconds, employing their powers before they exceeded her natural range and dissipated.

Some came back, used powers in different variations. The ones Scion destroyed, though, they didn’t recur.

Glaistig Uaine was running out, and running out fast. - Extinction 27.5</ref><ref>Clouds of silvery poison gas rolled across black sand. Soldiers in gas masks ran up a hill and slid down the other side, to where rocks provided some cover.

Valkyrie walked through the poison gas, protected by shadows that had granted her boons before fading away. Her eyes teared up slightly, but that might have been the silicate dust rather than the chemical weapons. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref> Although she can heal her own injuries by using a Healer shadow as of 2015,<ref name="II18.z eHealer" /> this granted regeneration takes time and leaves her a sitting duck.<ref>But she had allies. connections.

He was keeping to the rules, like this. Having the right allies to watch his back. Taking a good searching look before he made any decisive moves. Both with Axehead and with Valkyrie.

In keeping with those rules, he couldn’t leave it at this. One decisive shot was good, but the follow-up was essential. Wading through the Machine Army, he aimed his partially built tinker weapon at Valkyrie.

Axehead was already gone.

His tinker device amplified his own power, adding versatility. His current form enhanced both power and versatility as well. Combined, they were enough. He pulled more scraps of metal to his device with reversed beams, and let tendrils of power pull that metal into the right shapes, reinforcing for the decisive shot. - Radiation 18.z</ref>

She could not engage Mama Mathers and her group,<ref name="II5.6 eMathers">“We’re not in a position to give you a lot of firepower,” Chevalier said, emphasizing ‘lot’. “Valkyrie cannot engage that group of Fallen, and I’m tied up elsewhere with diplomatic roles. Many other Wardens and subordinate teams are busy. Advance Guard is on standby. We’ll ask them to assist you.” - Shadow 5.6</ref> presumably because Mama Mathers would affect her power vision and any senses from her shadows that perceived her. Without outside interference, Jack Slash's secondary power prevents her from killing him.<ref name="Reddit interact">A) Broadcast would reach out to the shard well before the point of that other shard triggering. His very shard interacts with others to dissuade things that would target him. Parahumans don't kill Jack, as a firm rule. This isn't an arbitrary protection. It's an in-story protection that got a fair bit of time and focus in the narrative, toward the end. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref><ref name="Reddit eIsolated">You can qualify, you can quibble, you can tack on extra powers, but Jack doesn't lose to parahumans. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref>

She has to collect capes to amass power; Eidolon at his prime dwarfed her in power.<ref>She was bent, hands out and cupped.

Within those cupped hands was Eidolon. One of the strongest capes in the world. He had once dwarfed Valkyrie in power. There was no reason to think he didn’t have that power now. The colors of him had been changed around. A black hood with a reflective emerald face beneath, glowing with a white light. Black sleeves. A body suit of emerald, muscular. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.9</ref><ref name="27.x eReputation">Scion, the Endbringers, they were the others who typically came up in the same breath as Eidolon. He was the only one of them that was human. He had less power than they did, but more power than most.

Glaistig Uaine was one of the others, a contender for the title, though not necessarily in the public’s perception. The PRT had controlled how much information the public had about her, to keep people from getting too scared. She was a nonfactor, a captive in the Birdcage. She’d taken down Gray Boy, had attacked the King’s Men and slain Athrwys, and then she’d turned herself in.

Easy enough for the average Joe to dismiss her as a lunatic.

Except Glaistig Uaine had been amassing power during her time in the Birdcage, and he had been losing it.

Had he been supplanted in his role as the most powerful person in the world? - Interlude 27.x‏‎</ref> Even during Gold Morning, Ciara believed Eidolon was stronger than her.<ref>“You’re more powerful than I am,” he said. The words broke him a little.

She shook her head.

“No?” he asked. “Or is this a faerie riddle? It’s not really your power?”

“It’s mine. Ours. But you’re stronger than I am. I can see it. The issue, High Priest, is that you need to open your eyes.” - Interlude 27.x‏‎</ref>

Capes that she resurrects with the help of Bonesaw and Nilbog are no longer in her collection.<ref>The sad fact was that they weren’t Valkyrie’s. She didn’t know them, beyond what she’d seen the last time she’d had them. She couldn’t know their needs. - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref><ref>“Valkyrie sent some of her flock out to find people they used to work with, or to help the Wardens. She wanted some of us, me included, to stick close to her, because we had tools she needed. Now that she’s gone, I was thinking of joining with you guys or the Red Hands.” - Infrared 19.f</ref> To mitigate this loss of power, those resurrected agree to provide Ciara their assistance as members of her flock.<ref>“These ones…” Valkyrie started, searching for the words. “They died, and I brought them back, with some help. In exchange for this life, they’ve agreed to provide me with assistance. Some strangeness is to be expected.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9 II</ref>

Titan Valkyrie

As a Titan, she can now spawn a much greater number of ghosts at once and have them leave her immediate presence, with the limit on both being unknown.<ref>Almost twenty titans, and on shoulders, on heads, on ground, on rubble, on clouds, or just floating in the air, shades like Eidolon appeared, suspended in the air. I couldn’t count them – the scene on the wall changed too much. - Infrared 19.9</ref>

Shard

Ciara's powers are the result of receiving a crippled<ref>The entity altered each power he granted to give them certain restrictions. No power would be able to truly affect him, no power would cross the boundaries he set in dimension, or in affecting other powers. - Venom 29.7</ref> shard from Scion.<ref>“I’m not sure I follow,” I said.

“He doesn’t follow either,” Glaistig Uaine replied. “Which complicates things. We have two courts, but the other court arrived to the stage bedraggled, maddened, and they don’t have any instructions or forewarning, you understand?”

“I believe so,” I said.

Trying to, anyways.

“The high priest is in similar straits to these unfortunates. He stands straight and bluffs through his lines, but he’s wearing the wrong costume and he’s arrived at the wrong time, just like the others.”

“And… what does he think of this?”

Glaistig Uaine shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. But what would you think of it, in his shoes? He’s set this in motion, and there’s no finale, there’s no promise of another play after this one is done. The nobles of our court’s mighty faerie may have no role to play.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.4</ref> She call her shard the Keeper of the Dead.<ref name="E.1 eWarring">Seeing the flickers in the crowd wasn’t helping. She avoided them, making her way downstairs, into an adjoining structure. Once upon a time, she’d used that other sight exclusively. In this, in the here and now, she was warring with the keeper of the dead. A part of why she felt incomplete, fragile. They craved purpose. It took a special kind of willpower to avoid using abilities altogether. Some did, but they were rare.

Using her power meant killing, it meant being around the dead, immersing herself in the gravest kinds of conflict.

Would her experiment in humanity be so short lived? - Excerpt from Teneral e.1</ref><ref>They were all parts of a whole. The Chirurgeon, the Maker, the Keeper of the Dead. It only made sense that there would be synergies between such abilities.

A way to bring her dead back, perhaps? - Excerpt from Teneral e.1</ref> According to Ciara, her shard's duties are at the end of the cycle, which explains why her shard is more patient and relaxed than the typical shard.<ref>“It’s the approach that makes sense. The, er,” the girl stumbled uncharacteristically as she searched for a word, “parahumans… they tend towards conflict.”

“There is a lot of evidence to suggest that’s the case. Do you? Tend towards conflict?”

“No. Which is a good thing, I imagine. My other half was always more patient, more relaxed than most. Its duty was always at the end. For those who had duties at the beginning, it would be harder.” - Excerpt from Teneral e.1</ref>

Behind the scenes, the Keeper of the Dead utilizes the shard network to make her powers work. Whenever Ciara collects a cape, her shard co-opts their specific local network and makes it subordinate: it rips out an entire package and makes it a shadow that she can load/unload.<ref>Other cases of the network being in play include Teacher setting up his own temporary networks of a narrow niche of shard (thinker/tinker shards), or Glaistig Uaine co-opting other networks and making them subordinate (ripping out the entire package and making it a ghost she can load/unload). - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref> Clones of a collected cape can still reconnect with their specific local network, though (e.g., Gray Boy).<ref>The boy stepped out, and there was no sign of any difficulty. He didn’t struggle as others had, nor have trouble finding his feet. He was prepubescent, to look at him, older than ten but younger than fourteen. His hair was neatly parted, and he wore a private school uniform, complete with glossy black shoes. Dry.

Even though he was naked in the tube. - Interlude 25</ref>

Thanks to Ciara's second trigger,<ref name="E.1 eSecondTrigger">“You miss my point,” Ciara said, clearly annoyed.

“No. I got it. Chronologically, you’re older, and by those measures, your youth is only a mask you wear. By other measures, you’re still a child. You triggered at a very young age, you were no doubt isolated, as masters tend to be. No doubt surviving purely by your own methods. Somewhere along the way, something happened. You stole the wrong power, you fought someone and lost, or you found yourself in a bad situation. In the course of that event or in the wake of it, you unlocked stronger powers, and they eclipsed you as a person. Am I too far off track, here?”

Ciara didn’t respond. Her hard stare was a challenging one, now, a hard stare. - Excerpt from Teneral e.1</ref> her powers are relatively unbounded and are thus more leashed to the goodwill of her shard than others.<ref>Some powers are simply more leashed to shard goodwill than others. Often the case with breakers (Moord Nag's pet is breaker-ish) and the more unbounded powers such as Eidolon (who has a dead shard, for the record), Leet, Glaistig Uaine, and Panacea. People who were slated to fall pre-powers are set up to fall in a bad way.
[...]
Working with the passenger's wishes means the ongoing effects and the bounds that form around the unbounded effects as they take hold (success rates and accuracy, power, efficiency, collateral damage, etc) are more to the parahuman's wishes. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref> For example, when starting out as Valkyrie, she found herself warring with the Keeper of the Dead over no longer using her power vision exclusively.<ref name="E.1 eWarring" />

History

Background

Ms. Yamada believed that Ciara triggered at a very young age. She speculated that she was isolated both before and after her trigger, "surviving purely by your own methods", and at some point experienced a second trigger event that led to her powers eclipsing her personality. Ms. Yamada speculates that the cause was either stealing the wrong power, fighting someone and losing, or Ciara finding herself in a bad situation.<ref name="E.1e1"/>

When Glaistig Uaine's ability to harvest and use the powers of any recently deceased parahuman she had come in contact with became known, it evoked panic among the cape community. Multiple teams sent after her failed, with thirty-two capes fatally claimed by Glaistig Uaine, then an armed force of fifty parahumans was assigned, they retreated, thirteen of them having been claimed, "everything" was reportedly sent after her and only then did Glaistig Uaine willing enter the Birdcage.<ref name="27.3">Just like String Theory’s terror campaign had driven people to desperation in their attempts to stop her from her scheduled sprees of destruction, Glaistig Uaine had drawn entire flocks of capes down on her head, by virtue of her habit of finding, killing and claiming the ‘spirits’ of capes.

Thing was, they’d sent multiple teams after her, and they’d failed.  Thirty two capes killed and claimed.

So they sent more after her.  Again, they failed.  Of the fifty who were forced into a retreat, thirteen were killed and claimed.

When that wasn’t enough, they hit her with everything, only for her to surrender.

She walked into the Birdcage of her own will. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3</ref>

Glaistig Uaine's most notable accomplishment at this time was permanently killing Gray Boy, something which was thought to be impossible due to his power resurrecting him whenever he died. Glaistig's ability to steal the powers of the recently deceased stopped Gray Boy from resurrecting. After this, she attacked the King's Men and killed Athrwys, before turning herself in to the authorities.

Her killing of Gray Boy was orchestrated by Contessa to allow Cauldron to eliminate Gray Boy while still keeping his power in play for use against their true enemy.<ref>Cauldron permitted Gray Boy because he was the closest thing to a weapon they had against Scion since Eidolon. When the S9 started picking up and more parahumans started getting removed from the fiend than Gray Boy was theoretically worth, they moved in. Manuevering Glaistig Uaine into taking him over, so the power would still be in play. - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref>

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

As the leader of Cell Block C Glaistig Uaine welcomed Amelia to the Birdcage.

Gold Morning

She was later shown having conversations with Eidolon about parahuman shards and Scion. She spoke cryptically and indicated that she intended for Scion to win the coming conflict. She referred to Eidolon as the "High Priest".

Glastaig Uaine began helping in the fight against Scion during the oil-rig battle in order to "force him back to sleep".<ref>“Then I will be here when you return, and we can have that great battle, fighting to drive him back into slumber.” - Speck 30.2</ref> Liberal application of Gray Boy's power allowed her to effectively stall him, as every time Scion was trapped in a time loop he had to expend effort to break free.<ref name="27.5">Extinction 27.5</ref>

A major contribution to the battle was her hinting Eidolon that he could drain the energy of other parahuman's shards to re-charge his own powers. Most notably, it allowed him to use the Matter Eraser, a power that had been unavailable to him since before the emergence of Behemoth, as well as a slew of other lethal powers so effective in combination with Glaistig Uaine's defensive abilities Scion had to resort to Path to Victory to defeat the pair.<ref name="I27"/><ref>“No.  Well, maybe.  I don’t know.  Haven’t exactly had a long conversation with her.  No.  I’m saying… well… Scion has it.  Her power.  That line he fed Eidolon?  It was calculated to devastate the man at the point he was flying highest, so the fall would be more catastrophic.  It’s something I couldn’t pull off.  I watched some footage of the fight, where Scion’s power didn’t nix the cameras.  Corroborates the evidence.  He wasn’t actively using the power, but there’s a confidence there.” - Cockroaches 28.6</ref>

Eidolon's death at Scion's hands allowed her to harvest his shard,<ref name="29.2">Venom 29.2</ref> making her the most powerful parahuman in history. She was shown to be able to resist being mastered by Khepri. She accomplished this by shunting Khepri's control from herself to one of her conjured parahuman ghosts.<ref>The Faerie Queen began to slip from my grasp.

She knew what was happening, and she was forcing my power to affect her spirits. A single spirit.

Breaking free.

She moved her hand of her own volition.

And then she was free. Inside my radius, but free.

She turned to face me. I met her gaze, as best as I was able. My vision wavered. - Excerpt from Speck 30.6.</ref> Over the course of Khepri's fight against Scion, she also claimed Doormaker, still able to use his power despite Khepri depleting it earlier.<ref>T-theyyyy fixxedd himmm.

Except it wasn’t him.

It was the faerie girl. She had him as a shadow-puppet. A ghost.

I could hear my friend swear. The others around her were tense.

They turned to run, sprinting through the portal. - Excerpt from Speck 30.6</ref>

After Khepri's victory against Scion, Glaistig Uaine was able to "convince" her to leave the dimension without incident and liberate her swarm, or so it seemed to others.<ref name="30.7 e67">“The Faerie Queen was brought in. You should remember her. She’s the one who let you go.”

“Yes,’ I said.

“There were a lot of eyes on you two, at the end. It reflected well on her, that she got you to free the captives.”

She hadn’t, but I didn’t explain. This woman probably knew, anyways. - Excerpt from Speck 30.7</ref>

Post-Gold Morning

After events she wound up taking a therapy with Jessica Yamada, who got her to reexamine her life.<ref name="E.1"/>

Ciara presented herself to the world as Valkyrie to the grumbling of the other heroes.

Later she went to the basement of the Warden HQ where she met with Rinke and Riley. This interaction gave her an idea of what to do with her Flock.

Glow-worm

Two years after Gold Morning,<ref>Evacuation is still underway even two years and two months after Gold Morning. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.1</ref> Valkyrie was known as a "rising star" in the Wardens. An interview with her was posted online and discussed on Parahumans Online, where she deflected questions regarding her former identity.<ref name="GW">Valkyrie Interviewed and Thread Link
Rising star in the Wardens.  Exceptionally powerful, many references to the Green Maiden or something?  Might harken back to before my time.  She is asked directly about this in the interview and deflects. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.3</ref>

Early-Ward

As a member of the Wardens and a new hero she was still considered one of the group's key members, and has her own statue in HQs lobby.<ref name="II3.6">Inside the building, statues of key members stood off to either side of the lobby. Chevalier, Narwhal, Valkyrie, Legend, Cinereal, Stonewall, Topflight and Miss Militia.
[...]
“Is Weld getting a statue?” Tristan asked.

“Not for a while,” Sveta said. “That’s more for people who’ve put in the years, and he only just got in. He’s got a preliminary thing in the gift shop.” - Excerpt from Glare 3.6</ref>

She was present at the briefing when the team of new heroes gave their presentation about the viability of an assault on the Mathers compound.<ref>Shadow 5.6</ref>

Post-Fallen Fall

At this point she had already amassed a group of resurrected parahumans, although something prevents her from continuing to pursue this path.<ref name="GleamingI9"/>

Survived the portal sabotage, but was very busy since then.<ref>Beacon 8.2</ref> Valkyrie was sent on many high-tier missions, including dealing with the Tower, a dog with powers, an army of ghosts, and a warzone full of powered warlords. She was able to find the stranded Warden personnel.<ref name="GleamingI9"/>

Post-Time Bubble Pop

Valkyrie decided to produce more of The Flock to bolster anti-Teacher operation.<ref>She recently made more. Sent them on this mission. - Excerpt from Dying 15.3</ref>

During the Wardens' assault on Teacher's base she was depowered and cornered by Ingenue, with her Flock attempting to protect her.<ref name="15.yII">Interlude 15.y II</ref>

Post-Attack on Teacher

Valkyrie allowed more freedom to the members of The Flock, and started introducing them to their friends and relatives,<ref>Sundown 17.2</ref> while still keeping the core team near herself.<ref>Valkyrie sent some of her flock out to find people they used to work with, or to help the Wardens. She wanted some of us, me included, to stick close to her, because we had tools she needed. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.f</ref>

The Ice Breaks

She led the The Flock against Titan Auger. Before she was able to do anything substantial Auger recognized her and summoned Axehead, which ambushed Valkyrie and thrown her into the thick of Machine Army. She had to be saved by Grue yet again.<ref name="II18.z">Radiation 18.z</ref>

Fell victim to the second Ice Break and became a Titan, leading to her Flock being scattered.<ref name="II19.6 eTitan">“Valkyrie,” Kenzie said. “They got her.”

I swallowed, hard. I found the notification marked out in gold. The icon in the distance and the corresponding label too small to really see.

Titan Valkyrie. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.6</ref>

As a part of agreement between Contessa and Antares Titan Valkyrie delivered Riley Davis, the parahuman plague, and the remainder of remote cape-volunteers to The Wardens' HQ.<ref name="II20.a">Last 20.a</ref>

Chapter Appearances

Ward Chapter Appearances

{{#if:Flare|{{#if:Flare|Flare|Flare}}|Flare}} 1. Flare 2.1 {{#switch:m debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} 2. Flare 2.2 {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} 3. Flare 2.3 {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} 4. Flare 2.4 {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} 5. Flare 2.5 {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} 6. Flare 2.6 {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} 7. Flare 2.7 {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}} x. Interlude 2 II {{#switch: debut=Debut yes=Appears pov=Point of View flash=Flashback f=Fantasy c=Clone s=Spirit m=Mentioned sc=Screen d=Death co=Corpse sh=Shadow Absent}}

Fanart Gallery

<tabber>Glaistig Uaine=

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  Illustration by cjnlc on SpaceBattles
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  Illustration by GroceryStorePhobic on DeviantArt
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  Illustration by shittyartiste on Reddit
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  Illustration by somnolentSlumber on Discord
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  Illustration by kingdaume on DeviantArt
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  Illustration by kingdaume
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  Illustration by Uberpigeon on Reddit

|-|Valkyrie=

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  Illustration by Cyrix
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  Illustration by Cyrix on Reddit

</tabber>

References

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Site Navigation

Titans
The Kronos Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Eve {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Fortuna {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Nemean Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Arachne {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Oberon {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Ashen Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Skadi {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Ophion Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Strange Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Auger {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titaness Amenonuhoko {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Flowing Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Drillbit {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Liminal Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Pouffe {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Valkyrie {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Morgana {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Yakshini {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Ashoka {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Ghast {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}

S-Class Threats
Endbringers	Behemoth {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Leviathan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Simurgh • Khonsu {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Tohu {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Bohu {{#switch: unknown	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Titans	The Kronos Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Eve {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Fortuna {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Nemean Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Arachne {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Oberon {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Ashen Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titan Skadi {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Ophion Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Strange Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Auger {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Titaness Amenonuhoko {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Flowing Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Drillbit {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • The Liminal Titan {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Pouffe {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Valkyrie {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Morgana {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Yakshini {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Ashoka {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Ghast {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}
Groups	The Slaughterhouse Nine {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Three Blasphemies • The Machine Army
Parahumans	Ash Beast {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Echidna {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Khepri {{#switch: former	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Nilbog • Pastor {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Scion {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }} • Sleeper • The Tower {{#switch: deceased	deceased=†	noncanon=≠	former=‡	unknown=*	#DEFAULT= }}