Obernewtyn Chronicles

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**The Obernewtyn Chronicles**
Author	Isobelle Carmody
Country	Australia
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction, fantasy
Publisher	Penguin Group
Released	1987, 1990, 1995, 1999
Media Type	Print (paperback)
ISBN	NA

The Obernewtyn Chronicles are a series of science fiction/fantasy novels by the Australian author, Isobelle Carmody. They are set in a post apocalyptic world, and are told through the point of view of the series' protagonist, Elspeth Gordie.

1 The Books
2 Setting
3 Plot
4 Main Characters
5 Powers of the Mind
6 External links

[edit] The Books

So far, the series consists of four published novels:

Obernewtyn (1987)
The Farseekers (1990)
Ashling (1995)
The Keeping Place (2000)

and the yet to be released The Sending.

[edit] Setting

Many years into the future the world has been ravaged by a great nuclear holocaust that came to be known as the Great White. Only small and remote areas were spared and in The Land, a Council of powerful farmers was formed to protect their community.

Any human or creature born mutated or not completely normal were condemned to be burned. The Council appointed a fledgling religious order called the Herder Faction to oversee these rituals. The Herders believed that the Great White was sent as punishment from God, who they called Lud. All artefacts of the old world were purged, and the Beforetime, as it came to be known, was shunned and abhorred.

Council law and the Herder Faction gradually fused, and those who opposed it were burnt as Seditioners or sent to work on Council Farms - a virtual death sentence. Orphan homes were set up to house those children of Seditioners left unclaimed by relatives.

After a time, it would become apparent that mutancies of the mind, not apparent at birth, could develop later in life. It was decided that those few people affected by mental mutancies would not be burnt, but labelled with the term Misfit and condemned to the Council Farms. The most savagely-afflicted Misfits were sent to the strange and remote mountain keep of Obernewtyn, to be treated and isolated in order that other 'normal' people would be spared of this horror.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Elspeth Gordie, the young orphaned daughter of burned Seditioner parents, is one of those affected by mutancies of the mind. These mutancies manifest themeslves as extraordinary mental powers, abilities which Elspeth ruthlessly conceals in order to avoid sentence as a Misfit. However, following a series of disastrous events at her orphan home, Elspeth is condemned as a Misfit by a fellow orphan. She is senteced and sent to Obernewtyn, although neither the Council nor the keepers at Obernewtyn suspect the extent of her powers. It is rumoured that at Obernewtyn the enigmatic Dr Seraphim is working on a cure for afflicted Misfits, and those Misfits sent there are used as test subjects in his experiments.

It is at Obernewtyn that Elspeth discovers she is not alone in possessing enhanced mind-powers, or Talents. While plotting her escape with fellow Talented Misfits, she learns that the doctor is in fact a simpleton and his keepers are searching for forbidden Beforetime weapons. They hope to use Misfits with rare abilities to scry out the knowledge for them. However, they are thwarted in their attempts by Elspeth, her new friends and Obernewtyn's farm overseer Rushton Seraphim, who is revealed to be the true and rightful heir to Obernewtyn. Rushton and his small group of followers, Talented Misfits all of them, have long been planning to take over Obernewtyn, and the conflict that ensues between Elspeth and the keepers of Obernewtyn provide them with the opportunity to do so.

After the subsequent uprising at Obernewtyn, Elspeth and her new friends establish a haven for Talented Misfits, relying on their remote location and the rumour of a firestorm to keep prying eyes away. Under the guidance and leadership of Rushton, now Master of Obernewtyn, they work in secret to rescue condemned Talented Misfits from the Council Farms, and also seek out those Talented Misfits whose abilities have not yet been identified by the Council. Obernewtyn becomes both a refuge and a place where mental abilities are nurtured and explored. Obernewtyn also becomes a safe haven for animals, with whom many of the Misfits, including Elspeth, can communicate. The animals, or beasts, are treated as equals at Obernewtyn, and are given free reign to do as they wish.

As her life at Obernewtyn progresses, Elspeth learns that the animals regard her as the prophesied Innle, the person who is fated to lead the beasts to freedom. It becomes apparent to her that she is also destined to be The Seeker, whose responsibility it is to seek out and eliminate the dormant weaponmachines of the Beforetime before they can be used to create another terrible and final holocaust. In this quest she has a fated opposite, aptly named The Destroyer, who is seeking to find the weaponmachines and use them for their evil ends. Elspeth's only guidance in her quest are the clues and hints left for her by the mysterious Beforetime seer Kasanda. The fey cat Maruman and noble horse Gahltha are her only confidants.

Woven amongst Elspeth's private quests are the quests of Obernewtyn as a whole, to provide refuge for Talented Misfits and to establish itself as a force in The Land. The Land is also entering a period of turmoil, as the Rebels, with whom Obernewtyn has an often-fraught relationship, begin an rebellion against the Council and the Herder Faction. The elusive gypsies, especially those of the pure-blooded Twentyfamilies, likewise play an important role in the political and social struggles of The Land. Elspeth also begins to discover a link between the Twentyfamilies and Kasanda that will aid her in her quest to destroy the weaponmachines.

Elspeth's story is set against a backdrop of scattered references to the Beforetime; indeed Elspeth routinely dreams of, or mentally travels to, the Beforetime. The Beforetimers who populate her dreams seem to hold important clues about her quest and the significance of Obernewtyn. Particularly startling is her discovery that mental powers existed in the Beforetime, and so the abilities of Talented Misfits are not mutancies caused by nuclear contamination, as the Council claims, but the natural evolution of the human brain, catalysed into powerful manifestations by the force of the Great White. This has the potential to be vital in the Misfits' quest to be considered 'normal'. Importantly, the Beforetimers and their world bear a remarkable similarity to our own world, and it seems that we are supposed to read the novels at least partly as a comment on the evils and dangers of the modern world.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Main Characters

Elspeth Gordie
Rushton Seraphim
Dameon
Matthew
Maruman
Gahltha
Kasanda
Ariel
Atthis
Brydda Llewellyn
Swallow
Dragon
Domick
Kella
Daffyd
Darga

[edit] Powers of the Mind

Powers of the mind may manifest themselves in a variety of ways and as a variety of abilities. Minor, weak powers, such as the ability to true dream or the possession of a canny knack for guessing correctly, seem to be rather widespread, although mostly these abilities exist only in the unconscious levels of the brain. As such, many individuals with these powers are not aware of their abilities and cannot control them. Stronger, conscious powers are called Talents, and may be used at will by their possessor. The seven most common Talents, as defined and named by the Misfits of Obernewtyn, are farseeking, coercion, empathy, healing, futuretelling, beastspeaking and 'teknoguilding'. A Talented Misfit may possess one or more of these Talents, although one particular power will usually manifest itself more strongly than the others. Some combinations of Talents, such as farseeking and beastspeaking, are quite common, while others, such as coercion and empathy, are extremely rare.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At Obernewtyn, each Misfit belongs to a group, or guild, consisting of similarly-Talented individuals. A Misfit is free to choose which guild he or she wishes to belong to, but usually the guild corresponding to their strongest Talent is chosen. Each guild is led by a leadership group consisting of a Guildmaster or Guildmistress (who is usually, but not necessarily, Obernewtyn's strongest possessor of that Talent), a Guilden and one or more Wards. Guilds are responsible for nurturing their members' abilities, and also for contributing something to Obernewtyn as a whole (the Farseeker Guild, for instance, is responsible for scrying out Talented Misfits). Guild leaders meet to discuss the affairs of Obernewtyn in meetings called guildmerge.

The seven Talents, examples of powerful possessors of each Talent, and each guild's master are outlined here:

**Powers of the Mind**
Talent	Description	Misfits	Guildmaster/mistress
Farseeking	Essentially telepathy; the ability to communicate with others mind-to-mind over distance. Possible range depends on the mental strength of the individuals involved.	Elspeth, Matthew, Ceirwan	Elspeth
Coercion	Mind-control; the ability to manipulate others' minds without them knowing. One of the three Talents that uses the ability to deep probe.	Elspeth, Gevan, Domick, Miryum, Dragon	Gevan
Empathy	The ability to receive emotions at greater stengths than others can, and, in some Misfits, the ability to transmit emotions to others.	Dameon, Miky, Angina, Dragon	Dameon
Healing	The ability to heal others' bodies through the use of a finely-tuned mental deep probe.	Roland, Kella	Roland
Futuretelling	Seeing the future; performed by sending a deep probe into the mindstream, the deepest subconscious of all sentient beings were all individual minds, past, present and future, merge and form one.	Maryon, Dell	Maryon
Beastspeaking	Farseeking between humans and animals; not all Farseekers are Beastspeakers, nor vice-versa.	Elspeth, Alad	Alad
Teknoguilding	A deep affinity with machines and a love for study, especially of technology (and therefore of the Beforetime). Possibly entails some ability to manipulate machines mentally.	Garth, Pavo, Fian	Garth

In addition, the animals of Obernewtyn have formed the Beasting guild. Their leader is the mare Avra. The Beasting guild have equal rights to participate in guildmerge. It seems that most, if not all, beasts can communicate with each other mentally. Most species of beast are also able to communicate with any human beastspeaker, although some (such as cats, dogs and horses) are more able to do so than others (such as cows and wolves).

Spoilers end here.