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Astarael is the seventh of the Nine Bright Shiners, and the final bell. In The Beginning, Astarael became part of the Charter as the Abhorsen bloodline. As a bell, Astarael is the Weeper, who throws all who hear it, including the wielder, deep into Death. It was wielded by Lirael at the binding of Orannis.

Astarael by bre galloway

Astarael in the well, by Bre Galloway.

Some vestige of her power and presence remains in the Old Kingdom in the tunnels below the Abhorsen's House. When seen in Abhorsen under the well, she is an impossibly tall, pale woman. The River of Death follows in her wake, and all Charter magic fails in her presence.

This remnant of Astarael traps Mogget/Yrael and communes with him after Lirael, Sameth, and the Disreputable Dog flee. Mogget later says she gave him "a second chance."

In Goldenhand, Lirael has to ring Astarael twice in order to bring "Clariel" to the Ninth Gate, as the spirit fragment otherwise couldn't move, being chained to the riverbed by Chlorr of the Mask.

Bell Sound[]

Astarael begins softly, like a tuning fork lightly struck, but grows, like a pure note blown by a trumpeter of inexhaustible breath, until there is nothing but the sound of the bell in the minds of those who hear it.[1]

Trivia[]

  • There is some question of how Astarael gave herself to the Charter. In Lirael, the Disreputable Dog (or Kibeth), after being questioned by Lirael, reveals that the Five of the Seven disappeared completely into the Charter, while the other Two (Kibeth being one) chose to live on in Life some fashion. Then, in Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, the Hrule calls the Abhorsens "Astarael's get," implying that Astarael did join bodily with the Charter in The Beginning, and made the Abhorsen Bloodline. This would mean there is still one of the Seven in Life. Her well at Abhorsen's House can also only be opened by her "children": those of the Abhosen bloodline.
  • It is may be that even Shiners who gave themselves completely over to the Charter can "exist" as echoes or presences.
  • Astarael's eternal mourning, combined with her scent of rosemary (meaning "fidelity in love") and amaranth ("the flower that never fades"), suggests she might be mourning the separation from, or the death of, one she loved.
  • As we are told Astarael is forever separate from the godlike Charter, she may mourn this, especially if this happened because was the Shiner to split Orannis.
  • Astarael's vestigal form suggests she was female.


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