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- "...false stories of glory, conduct of so-called valor that were really deeds of shame, tales of so-called honor that were in truth histories of disgrace, codes of loyalty that were in fact schemes of hatred and vengeance. Yes, that is what Nyra taught me."
- ―Coryn speaking about his childhood with Nyra, The Outcast, page 56
Nyra was a female Barn Owl (Tyto alba) and a Pure One general. She was the mate of Kludd/Metal Beak and his deeply committed personal lieutenant, as well as the mother of Coryn and his unborn sibling, the daughter-in-law of Marella and Noctus, the sister-in-law of Soren and Eglantine and the aunt-via-marriage of Bell, Blythe, and Sebastiana. Nyra is the secondary antagonist of the first arc of the series and becomes the main antagonist of the series after Kludd's death. She is the secondary antagonist of the film. In the books, she commands the Pure Ones after Kludd dies, and insists on being called General Mam.
History[]
Before the Books[]
Little is known about Nyra's past, except that she hatched in the Northern Kingdoms on the night of a lunar eclipse, making her part of an ancient lineage of Nyrolian owls.
She was also said to have been named after a Nyra of ancient times, who was also born on the night of an eclipse. Legend says that night the moon fell from the sky and rose in the face of a hatchling. The significance of this event is that owls born on the night of a lunar eclipse are bestowed an enchantment of great power that is either meant for great spirit or pure evil. In Nyra's case, it turned out to be for pure evil.
Eventually she traveled to the Southern Kingdoms and joined the Pure Ones alongside her then mate, the previous High Tyto. Despite being mates, all evidence implies Nyra utterly despised her original mate and only remained with him out of her belief in the need for more Barn Owls. It was during this time that she would, by chance, encounter Kludd while she was out on a recruiting mission. She could tell, even as a nestling, that he would be the perfect candidate for invitation to the ceremonies of the Pure Ones, as well as a future replacement for the High Tyto. She had spoken to the High Tyto before concerning Kludd and they agreed to wait until he had learned how to fly. Kludd performed beyond both Nyra and the High Tyto's expectations. Kludd was quite pleased he was required to kill a family member. He chose Soren, his least favorite sibling and only brother.
A year before the events of The Siege, Nyra and Kludd planned the murder of the old High Tyto before declaring Kludd as the Pure Ones' new master (it's currently unknown if they were alone in their plot or if there were co-conspirators among the Pure Ones who's loyalty had switched to Kludd). Despite half of Kludd's face being torn off, Nyra still held a deep passion for him and became his mate after he ascended to become the new High Tyto, leader of the Pure Ones. Nyra subsequently acted as Kludd's right-wing owl and personal lieutenant.
The Siege[]
Nyra was present at Kludd's side at Cape Glaux during the Great Massing that was the prelude to the siege of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. She and Kludd had by this time begun to plan out Soren's death should they find him in the battle. If they managed to achieve victory over the Guardians, Nyra's plan was having a nest full of eggs ready to hatch by spring. She appeared in a dream Soren had, in which he imagined himself being caught in one of the air traps. The primary offensive attack of the Pure Ones was scattered and the rest caught in Ga'Hoolian air traps. However, Kludd and Nyra attacked the far side of the island, where the defenses were few because of Nyra's expertise on the winds of the Northern Kingdoms. Nyra assured her beloved master that though the battle had been lost, the Pure Ones would still emerge triumphant.
Nyra fights Soren
Despite this invasive force, the Guardians were able to retaliate after a few weeks by digging their way out behind enemy lines and executing a pincer movement. During this battle, Nyra managed to kill Strix Struma but not without being scarred by Otulissa; a scar she would be recognized by for the rest of her life. Eventually, she found Soren and Martin, before engaging them in combat alongside Kludd and Wortmore. She was told by Kludd to flee when Slynella, a flying snake from Ambala entered the fray. By this time, the Pure Ones had retreated and the siege of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree had failed for them.
The Shattering[]
After the siege, Nyra took part in a plot to infiltrate the Great Ga'Hoole Tree and discover its secrets of higher magnetics. She already had a spy inside the tree named Ginger, who had supposedly reformed and joined the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Through Ginger, she managed to shatter Eglantine by having flecks placed in her nest. Eglantine also began making trips to the Beaks, with the belief that her mother Marella and father Noctus were still alive through dreams that she had. She also began to tear information on higher magnetics out of books in the library and brought them to Nyra.
However, Nyra's disguise as Marella began to weaken when Eglantine noticed key features that she remembered- her mother not having such as a scar on her face, calling her "darling" and her mentioning Noctus, Kludd, and Soren out hunting together. She was eventually imprisoned with her best friend Primrose, who had been captured earlier when she followed Eglantine on one of her visits. It was revealed to the two Ga'Hoolian owls that Nyra was in the possession of an egg of her own known as the Sacred Orb. Eglantine thought to use the egg as a hostage and, along with Primrose, stole the egg which made Nyra go yeep.
Immediately after this occurrence, Nyra and the Pure Ones flew in pursuit of the hostage egg. Her forces, the Nyra Annihilators, were then confused by a force of Guardians sent to rescue Eglantine and Primrose. The Guardians performed a peg-out in Krakish and Hoolian that misled the Pure Ones into thinking that the Guardians had divisions of owls at their command. Eventually, only a minor scuffle took place and Eglantine was ordered by Boron to drop the egg. Nyra and her forces eventually retreated to the Beyond the Beyond to await Kludd's news concerning the takeover of St. Aggie's.
The Burning[]
Despite the loss of the Sacred Orb, Nyra managed to produce another egg. She was already eager to produce a chick with her own blessing, that the chick would become a powerful force for good or evil, the blessing or curse of the Nyrolian owls. To do so she pecked at the egg, causing it hatch early, upon an eclipse, the condition for creating a Nyrolian owl. It was unknown whether she participated in the battle that came to be known as the Burning, but afterwards she tearfully mourned for the loss of Kludd and watched as her fatherless chick hatch from its egg. She named the chick Nyroc: the traditional male name for a Nyrolian chick.
The Hatchling[]
After Kludd's death, Nyra became the leader of the remnants of the Pure Ones in the canyons of St. Aegolius. There, she raised her son Nyroc to prepare him to become the next leader of the Pure Ones. She filled Nyroc's head with false stories concerning his father's death at the talons of Soren in the hopes that it would fuel his hatred and rage. Despite all her evil intentions, Nyroc had no intention of being like his father after he learned the truth from reading the flames over his father's bones at his Marking. This is attributed to the fact that he received great power for good instead of evil like his mother. He tried to run away with Phillip, but Nyra hired Doc Finebeak to track down her son and was eventually successful at capturing him. Because Nyroc wouldn't kill his friend Phillip, Nyra killed him herself, prompting Nyroc to turn his back on the Pure Ones and his mother forever.
The Outcast[]
After Nyroc's departure from the Pure Ones, Nyra herself set out to find him. Nyroc, who had renamed himself Coryn, went to save an egg for a family of Burrowing Owls, pretending to be Nyra's hagsfiend to scare away the Pure Ones egg guards. This sparked many false rumors amongst the owls of the Southern Kingdoms that Nyra had died and that her scroom was flying around.
When Nyra heard that Coryn had been sighted in the Beyond the Beyond, she decided to disguise herself as a rogue smith. To do this, she would murder the Rogue Smith of Silverveil. In the past, she had refused to craft battle claws for the Pure Ones during the siege on the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. After a quick scuffle, Nyra brutally shoved the Rogue Smith of Silverveil into her own fire, sneering that the Guardians preferred their meat roasted and that it would be a surprise for Madame Plonk, her sister. The next phase of her plan was to acquire green eyes from paintings of the Others, so she could present them as a gift to the dire wolf clan known as the MacHeaths. Using some of the metal artwork the rogue smith had made and some ashes to disguise herself, she went to where Trader Mags set up shop and bartered with Trader Mags' apprentice, Bubbles. Bubbles gave Nyra the entire collection of green eyes and later was berated by Trader Mags, who suspected that something terrible must have happened to the Rogue Smith of Silverveil.
Nyra eventually made her way to Beyond the Beyond and presented the green eyes to Dunleavy MacHeath. She then proceeded to fabricate a story involving King Hoole choosing the MacHeaths and not the MacDuncans to guard the Sacred Ring. With this knowledge, Lord MacHeath offered his allegiance to Nyra and vice versa through the blood oath to kill Coryn, obtain the ember, and restore the "honor" of the MacHeaths. Nyra then found Coryn attempting to retrieve the ember and laid in wait until the moment was right to strike, silently wishing her beloved Kludd was there to see her. Fortunately, she was noticed by Doc Fineback and Uglamore who both had enough to do with the Pure Ones. Nyra eventually revealed herself and Coryn fled towards a passing wolf inflicted with rabies, intending to lure Nyra into its jaws. Eventually, others joined in the effort, forcing Nyra to flee, her plans in ruins.
The Golden Tree[]
After reading the legends of Ga'Hoole, the young King Coryn decided to fly around the owl kingdoms searching for any traces of nachtmagen that could have emerged with the return of the Ember of Hoole. It was during this time that Coryn stumbled upon the Book of Kreeth among some of Trader Mags' items. When he and the Band visited the chapel of Trader Mags, she told them she had sold the book to an old Barn Owl soldier with a nick out of his beak. Coryn immediately knew that Nyra had got Stryker, one of her top lieutenants, to get the book which confirmed Coryn's suspicions of his mother being associated with nachtmagen.
Indeed, Nyra and the remnants of the Pure Ones had allied themselves with Dunleavy MacHeath and set up operations in the Tunnel of Despair. The tunnel was said to be a place where haggish transformations would occur. Coincidentally, their position in the caves was also the site where Kludd died and his Final Ceremony had taken place. The dire wolves allied with MacHeath would also undergo transformations into vyrrwolves, the wolves' version of hagsfiends. With Kludd's ashes and the Book of Kreeth in her possession, Nyra intended to transform herself and eventually her son into hagsfiends and claim the ember. However, the Band and Coryn deduced their location and sabotaged their operations. However, Nyra was able to severely wound Twilight and she escaped the fray despite being almost overwhelmed by Coryn and his magen (despite not even having the Ember with him).
The River of Wind[]
Nyra waited for the Striga (Orlando) to go hunting for Bell and when he came back, Nyra and Stryker captured him and took both him and Bell into a prison. Afterwards, Nyra and the rest flew to the River of Wind after the Striga was forced to tell them important information concerning the River of Wind. Then Primrose and Eglantine found this out after sneaking into their hideout, and told Bess, who passed it over to Soren and the others.
Thereafter, a battle in the Middle Kingdoms started and Nyra commanded the Pure Ones to attack. She was also wearing Kludd's mask for battle, which surprised the Ga'Hoolian owls. The battle ended with the guardians' victory; three Pure One soldiers were killed and the mask of Kludd was left behind, and it was thought that Nyra had died. However, when Soren went closer, he saw that Nyra just left Kludd's mask beside the dead owls' bodies, which concerned the Band that Nyra was still alive, and planning to strike again.
Exile[]
When the Striga was rousted from the Great Tree, Coryn had a vision in the flames of two owls in an ice cave: Nyra and the Striga.
The War of the Ember[]
Nyra, with her face badly mutilated from the Battle of the Middle Kingdoms after the Striga killed three of her soldiers and wounded her, is now becoming more and more ragged with exposure to nachtmagen, met the Striga in the Ice Narrows a year after he was rousted from the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. She offered him a chance to join the Pure Ones and help her to bring back hagsfiends into the contemporary era.
She explained that after the attempt on Coryn's life had failed in the Middle Kingdom, she retreated into the cracks of the Panqua Palace. There, Nyra was able to reignite the old flames of the many imprisoned dragon owls that had been extinguished by years of heaped-on luxury and flattery and corrupted blue owl servants. With these Dragon Owls and corrupt staff, Nyra began making preparations for a mass hatching of hagsfiends on the night of a lunar eclipse with smuggled eggs from the Panqua Palace. The eggs would then be guarded and tended by the Dragon Owls in the Ice Cliff Palace until they were ready to hatch. Despite these preparations, Nyra was wary of the Striga and suspicious of his motives. From the start, Nyra knew that the Striga, despite claiming they had common ancestry as hagsfiends, could ultimately prove to be an enemy that she intended to tie off after her victory.
Nyra also commenced the recruitment of forces of Pure Ones for the upcoming war in the Beyond, where the Ember of Hoole was said to have been taken. Nyra and the Striga met up with the Pure Ones in the Beyond on the second front of the War of the Ember, the first being in the Northern Kingdoms involving the Dire Wolf slink melf whose purpose was to destroy the Dragon Owl broodies and the hagsfiend eggs. Nyra and the Striga attempted to parley with Soren and Coryn but the Guardians refused to surrender. As both armies clashed, Coryn returned the ember to the volcano, H'rathghar, but was followed by Nyra who believed Coryn still had the Ember.
Nyra then used the fyngrot against her son, triggering her transformation into a hagsfiend. Soren and the Striga immediately came to the aid of their respective leaders, and they confronted one another amidst the heat of the volcanoes. Lured by the ember, Nyra became vulnerable, and this gave Soren the chance to fling an ice splinter into the hagsfiend's heart. As she died, Nyra blamed Coryn at a gasp for cheating his own mother, to which Coryn asked why she had the courage to call herself his mother. As Nyra fell, the Striga attempted to save her, but Nyra was swallowed up by the rising lava. Nyra, the most tyrannical and haggish owl in Hoolian history, was no more.
Lone Wolf[]
Nyra and the Pure Ones are called "a legion of hellish owls" by Gwynneth.
Star Wolf[]
Nyra is mentioned by Airmead when recounting the slink melf mission carried out by the MacNamara clan.
Description[]
In the book and the original illustrations, Nyra's appearance is that of a typical Barn Owl. She is not mentioned to have unusually pale feathers like in the movie, and instead the 'moon' part of her is represented in her face, which is said to be larger, whiter, and rounder than any other owl. In her official art, her other plumage is of normal coloring. She is mentioned to look quite like Marella by Eglantine, though she was near-shattered at the time. She has a scar running across her forehead, given to her by Otulissa in the Battle of the Siege after she murdered Strix Struma. She was also described in Soren's dream as "quite beautiful".
As time passed, however, Nyra's beauty began to diminish, starting with the scar that slashed diagonally over her face, courtesy of Otulissa, which widened over time, beginning the tarnishing of her beauty. As the years grew, Nyra's dark eyes lost the luster she once held and the alluring heart-like shaped frame of her face blurred as the tawny feathers framing it had darkened to a muddier texture and grown shaggy. The face of Nyra also became pockmarked over time, first with patches when the feathers had thinned, leaving pieces of her flesh in sight, then later became a "battlefield" of scars and craters made from the carnage of war. Indeed, following her battle in the Sixth Kingdom, the left side of Nyra's face grew puckered with bubbles of flesh, whilst the rest grew horribly disfigured.
Personality and Traits[]
Nyra was the typical "stereotype" of villains, and as such, was a cruel owl who dreamed of power. She was proud of her heritage of owls who were born on eclipses and believed Barn Owls were superior to all, though she knew when to conceal such supremacist feelings and permit exceptions to further her ends. She was also very manipulative and ruthless, though not as openly violent as her mate Kludd. Nyra had a special relationship with Kludd; she greatly admired him for his rage and strength, and she truly loved him even after his face was scarred; she thought of him as beautiful to her even after being maimed and she loved him more than his family ever had, and felt that he could do no wrong, serving him with fanatical dedication. When they first met, she sensed that he would be perfect for bringing about world she dreamed of, a world ruled by the Pure Ones. Even after his death, Nyra continued to regard Kludd with a worshipful devotion, wishing several times through her plots that Kludd could have been there to see her now and eventually wearing Kludd's mask in tribute to him.
When raising Nyroc, she only saw him as a weapon and heir of the Pure Ones instead of an owlet who needed love and care. She was unfamiliar to the word love and acted uncomfortable when it was used despite her clear love for her mate, who she followed with an obsession. She didn't seem to know the difference between right and wrong because, in her beliefs, whatever the Pure Ones were doing was right and all of the Guardians' actions were wrong. Nyra holds a special hatred for the Chaw of Chaws, presumably for their roles in her mate's death, and, along with her vendetta at Coryn, held a deep-seated hatred for Soren and Twilight, reflecting Kludd's enmity for the former and loathing the latter for his killing of her beloved. Despite their alliances, she occasionally insulted Dunleavy B. MacHeath in her head and frequently expressed her silent dislike of the Striga, the latter of whom she intended to kill after they were victorious.
Nyra showed a sadistic streak on several occasions and seemed to enjoy taunting her enemies as she killed them, demonstrated by her doing just that as she killed Thora Plonk, suggesting sarcastically that her burned remains be served up to the Guardians as she shoved the Rogue Smith into her forge. Her murder of the Rogue Smith is also just one example of her vengeful side, as, though she intended to kill a Rogue Smith to assume her identity and believed trinkets such as Thora's were the best kind of objects to try to trade with Mags, the primary motivation behind Thora's murder was the Snowy's refusal to forge battle claws for Kludd.
Etymology[]
- Nyra is an Ancient Greek name, meaning hunter.
- It also has Indian origins, meaning beauty or light of Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge. Being bestowed this name also indicates that one is a blessing to their parents, which falls in line with Nyra being blessed with power on the night of her hatching.
- It could also be of Maori origin, meaning flaxen, or having a pale greyish-yellow color.
Trivia[]
- Despite leading the Pure Ones, a group originally consisting of only Tyto Owls, Nyra was part hagsfiend.
- Strangely, in Nyra's artworks in the books, Nyra was shown to have 3 front talons on her left foot, but only two on her right. It can be speculated that she probably lost that one in a battle or an accident or, more likely, that was a drawing error.
- In the books, she despises Phillip because he's a Sooty Owl, but in the movie, she's the mate of Metal Beak, who is a Sooty.
- In The War of the Ember, Nyra was willing to work with the Striga for the time being, until she got the Ember. It was revealed that she viewed him as an enemy overall and would have sought to kill him as a threat to her power. Moreover, Nyra even thinks that were Kludd still around, she may have tried to kill or depose him from power too, as she knew that only one owl could rule with the Ember and she didn't want to be "queen to someone else's king" but wanted to "be both king and queen". This shows that despite her love for Kludd, her addiction to power was stronger.
- This statement on page 130 in The Siege offers a revealing glimpse into Nyra's convictions: "She had picked him out when he was just a nestling. True, she was older, but what did it matter? She was not that much older. She had been so young when she was with the old High Tyto. She had spotted Kludd on one of their recruiting missions through the Forest Kingdom of Tyto. There was a look in that nestling's eye. She knew he would be perfect. The old High Tyto couldn't last forever. There was no one else except herself who could lead. But they needed more heirs. There must always be always be eggs in a nest. They had to think of the future."
- The phrases "she had been so young when she was with the old High Tyto," "more heirs" as opposed to simply "heirs," and finally, "there must always be eggs in the nest" are perhaps the most important parts of the paragraph. This could indicate that Nyra was conceiving owlets as soon as she was able with the previous High Tyto. This was most likely not because of any emotional attachment, rather, it was a fulfillment of her ideological beliefs and also granted her power. She attempted to do so with Kludd as well, though things did not turn out the way she hoped. Being as her ambition was to create and rule a world populated by Tytos, it is quite probable she was committed to producing offspring on a regular basis.
- Nyra bares many similarities to Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter. These include:
- Both were the right-hand lieutenants to their respective masters (Kludd and Lord Voldemort respectively), who both possessed an obsessive love towards.
- Coincidently, both Nyra and Bellatrix bore a living child (albeit illegitimate in Bellatrix's case) with their leader (Coryn, Delphini). The Sacred Orb does not count, as it never hatched.
- Both were fanatical believers in the supremacy preached by the organization they were part of (Pure Ones and Death Eaters) and believed any who were not Tyto Albas (Nyra)/Pure-Bloods (Bellatrix) were impure and thus worthless.
- Both met their deaths by a strike to the heart during the final battle of their respective series (The Guardians of Ga'hoole and Harry Potter series respectively).
- Both died at the hands of a relative of theirs via marriage (Nyra met her end at the point of an ice splinter wielded by Soren (her brother-in-law) while Bellatrix was slain by Molly Weasley (Bellatrix's second cousin once removed by marriage)).
- Both wielded dark powers drawn from an unnatural source (Nyra, after transforming into a hagsfiend, gained the ability to harness fyngrot, while Bellatrix was a dark witch).
- Both were noted for their beauty, which they slowly lost later in life.
- Both seemingly lacked anything in the way of love for their original husband (Bellatrix married Rodolphus Lestrange only because he was a "respectable" marriage choice, while Nyra was more than willing to plot against her previous mate with Kludd).
- Both killed a character (Strix Struma, Sirius Black) much beloved by one of the main characters (Otulissa, Harry Potter) in a major battle that occurred in the book that marked their first chronological physical appearance (Nyra slew Strix Strauma during the last battle in the Pure Ones' siege of the Great Tree, while Bellatrix (who had previously appearance in the Goblet of Fire, but only as a memory) caused the death of Sirius Black during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries).
- Coincidently, both of these battles also marked the outbreak of full-on war between Nyra and Bellatrix's different groups against their respective enemies (the Guardians of Ga'hoole, Order of the Phoenix/Ministry of Magic)
- Both showed various signs of insanity caused by to a traumatic experience in their life (for Nyra, it was the death her beloved mate, Kludd, while for Bellatrix, it was fifteen years of prolonged exposure to the Dementors of Azkaban).
- Both often regarded themselves as superior to many of their cohorts due to their position.
- Both were the right-hand lieutenants to their respective masters (Kludd and Lord Voldemort respectively), who both possessed an obsessive love towards.
Quotes[]
- "I am assured but I shall not rest. And I vow to kill Eglantine if it is the last thing I ever do."
- ―Nyra, The Shattering, page 152
- "You shall be great, Nyroc. You shall rule not like a general but like a king, an emperor. It is your destiny. You were hatched on the night of the eclipse. Not since the ancient King Hoole has there been such an owl as you. I know it. I feel it in my gizzard."
- ―Nyra to her son, The Hatchling
- "You cheated me... your own mother."
- ―Nyra's last words to Coryn, The War of the Ember
Gallery[]
Family Tree[]
| Soren's Maternal Great-Grandfather | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Noctus | Marella | Unnamed parents | Pellimore's Aunt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former High Tyto |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | Blythe | Sebastiana |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
= Male
= Female
= Gender Unknown