Oberon is the King of all Fae and one of the Three Creators of Faerie. He is frequently mentioned but first properly appears in A Killing Frost.
About[]
Oberon is married to both Maeve and Titania. Before the Three's disappearance, he split his time between them, spending summers with Titania and winters with Maeve.[1][2] Since his disappearance he has attained a godlike status and his name is used as both curse ("Oberon's ass!") and blessing ("Oberon's honor")
Oberon is the father of most Firstborn, from which descend all the races of Faerie. However, he claims very few of them as his line, the notable ones being the Dóchas Sidhe, Malvic's line of the Cait Sidhe and the Tuatha de Dannan. His descendant races tend toward heroism[3] and are prophesied to bring back the Three Creators someday.[4]
Before disappearing, he laid down what became known as Oberon's Law: a prohibition against killing pureblood fae that has since been twisted away from it's original intent.
Appearance[]
Once restored, Oberon acquires a pair of antlers with blooming flowers. The flowers are utterly unique and only exist when Oberon is present in the world. His eyes are dark brown similar to that of a deer and his teeth are sharply pointed.[5]
After being reunited with the Luidaeg, he takes on a general appearance of unremarkability. He retains his horns but they are smaller, closer to a Satyr or Gwraggen.
Personality[]
After his half-millennium geas is broken, Oberon retreats within himself and does all in his power to seem unremarkable. The Luidaeg says he is still healing and getting oriented after his long time away.
Oberon does have the tendency to shirk away from his duties, a habit which rightfully infuriates Toby. This has led to the suffering of many fae, including his own wives Titania and Maeve. If it weren't for the Luidaeg, he would've left Toby to die and wouldn't have bound Titania in the new geas that prevented Titania from acting against his or Maeve's descendants, or anyone whom Toby claims as family. He values his role as King, as he aggressively reminds Toby that everyone respected him until she scolded him,
Despite his disdain for Titania's cruelty, he still loves her, as he laced his blood with a memory that made Toby less willing to kill her, and was willing to place her under a geas in order to teach her how to be better, indicating that he loved her enough to hope that she learned to be a better person.
Biography[]
See Also: Timeline
Before recorded time, Oberon married first Maeve and then Titania. The Three created Faerie and produced many of the Firstborn. Oberon acted as father and judge of his descendants, and spent time with those he favored such as his daughter the Luidaeg and granddaughter Luna Torquill.[6]
After Maeve's disappearance, Oberon took Janet Carter as a lover.[7] They had a child, Amandine, although Oberon was not present for the naming and had wanted to call her Almandine.[5] Noticing Titania's contempt of his youngest daughter and knowing that she had a hand in Janet's interference in Maeve's last Ride, Oberon bound her in a geas to become a strange form of changeling that would repeat a cycle of starting a new life over and over again until she learned to be a better person. This however did not work as she viewed herself as flawless and perfect, and the cycle became neverending as a result.[8]
Oberon recognized that his descendants needed time and space to exist without their creator's presence, though he could've been trying to absolve himself of any responsibility towards Faerie. He put his affairs in order by bidding farewell to the Luidaeg and forbidding the pureblood fae from killing one another. He also bound Eira from harming his descendant races, knowing that the Dóchas Sidhe would help bring him back.[9] Then he closed the gates to deeper Faerie and disappeared.[4]
His time between the 1500s-2000s is unknown, including whether he disguised himself to walk among fae and mortals. Toby and the Luidaeg believe that he placed a geas on himself to forget his own identity.[10]
In the 21st century, Oberon takes on the life of Officer Thornton. He is drawn to October Daye, and following her misadventures eventually leads her to recognize him and restore his memory. [11][12][13][5]
In the Series[]
The Fixed Stars[]
Oberon addresses the aftermath of the changeling war with his daughter, the Luidaeg, and other surviving Firstborn.
A Killing Frost[]
Through a slip in the tongue from Evening, Toby recognizes him as Oberon, breaking the geas that disguised him as the fully human Officer Thornton. Oberon joyously reunites with the Luidaeg. Later, he attends the divorce proceedings of Simon Torquill and his daughter Amandine as an unremarkable member of the crowd. When Amandine is enraged by August choosing Simon over her, Oberon stops Amandine from attacking them. No one finds it strange that an anonymous faerie can restrain a Firstborn.[14] Oberon's return is kept a secret between Toby's family, the Luidaeg, and Simon. Amandine does not indicate that she recognizes him.
When Sorrows Come[]
Oberon attends Toby's wedding as one of the Luidaeg's two "plus-ones." The Luidaeg makes it sound as if he made the decision to come along. He remains in the background for most of the ensuing adventure, using glamour to make himself unremarkable and unnoticed. The Luidaeg says that he is still healing after the trauma of breaking the geas, and she fiercely guards his privacy. She memory-wipes anyone who accidentally figures out his identity.
And With Reveling[]
Oberon reunites with his daughter Amphitrite at Toby's wedding reception. Later, he offers Toby the use of his knife to cut the cake. He slips off before she can return it to him, so she holds on to it.
Be the Serpent[]
Oberon is present during Raysel's trial. After Jessica is murdered and Toby recounts what the killer had done to the blood memory and said to Jessica in her final moments, he explains that it was Titania's doing at the Luidaeg's insistence and the geas he had placed on his wife to punish her.
Oberon gives Toby a large amount of his blood in order to protect Toby from Titania's far superior magic, but laces it with a blood memory without her knowledge in order to dissuade her from killing Titania. He tries to absolve himself of any responsibility in rebinding Titania, but once again the Luidaeg has to force him to. Although given an opportunity to capture her himself, he however allows her to escape, once again infuriating Toby to the point where she calls him out for his negligence and selfishness.
Quotes[]
- "Lady, let alone!"[13]
- Said as Officer Thornton, this line gives Toby a major clue to his true identity. The quote comes from the Ballad of Tam Lin, calling back to the fateful events that led to the Three Creators' disappearance.
- "Oberon's departure was still fresh in the memory of those who'd known him when I was born. My parents truly believed he would return any day, that they would see him come again. I was raised believing he'd merely stepped away, that he was still watching over us from some remove, out of sight but ever out of mind...Five hundred years, October. You can't fathom how long a time that is to wait for something." -Sylvester Torquill[15]
- "Ye shall no sooner be entered into that wood, if ye go that way, he [Oberon] will find the manner to speak with you, and if ye speak to him, ye are lost forever. And ye shall ever find him before you, so that it shall be in a manner impossible that ye can scape from him without speaking to him, for his words be so pleasant to hear that there is no mortal man that can well scape without speaking to him. And if he see that ye will not speak a word to him, then he will be displeased with you, and ere ye can get out of the wood he will cause rain and wind, hail and snow, and will make marvelous tempests with thunder and lightnings, so that it shall seem to you that all the world should perish, and he shall make to seem before you a great running river, black and deep." -Luidaeg, Ch. 20[16]
- Quoted directly (give or take translation variants) from the 13th century epic Huon of Bordeaux.
Mythology[]
- Oberon is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania, Queen of the Fairies.[16]
- Oberon is a main character in Michael Drayton's narrative poem Nimphidia (1627) about the fairy Pigwiggin's love for Queen Mab and the jealousy of her husband King Oberon.[16]
- He appears in the 13th century epic Huon of Bordeaux. The title character is warned against going into Oberon's wood, then does so and encounters the Faerie King himself. This version of Oberon is described as "he is but three feet high, and crooked shouldered, but he hath an angelic visage, so that there is no mortal man that seeth him but that taketh great pleasure in beholding his face."[10]
- nce returned, Oberon's appearance resembles that of the Horned God/Cernnunnos of Wiccan religion.
References[]
- ↑ Rosemary and Rue Ch. 23
- ↑ Late Ecl."ipses Ch. 8
- ↑ An Artificial Night
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Brightest Fell
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 A Killing Frost ch. 19
- ↑ An Artificial Night
- ↑ Night and Silence
- ↑ Be the Serpent
- ↑ The Winter Long
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 When Sorrows Come / And With Reveling
- ↑ Late Eclipses ch. 12-14
- ↑ Ashes of Honor ch. 2
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Brightest Fell ch. 16-17
- ↑ A Killing Frost ch. 22-23
- ↑ A Killing Frost Ch. 6
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon