Discussion Administrivia / MagnificentBastard

Paff from Deltora Quest.

What is the Setting?: Deltora Quest is a three-part fantasy book series set in medieval times in the land of Deltora, basically a fictional equivalent of Australia. The land of Deltora consists of seven tribes, each occupying a different territory, each valuing a specific virtue and having a gem with deeply magical properties. The first book series is about freeing the land of Deltora from the evil Shadow Lord, the Big Bad of the whole series. The second is about invading his territory to reclaim the hostages and slaves from Deltora he took with himself, and the third (where our MB is found), is about discovering and dismantling his secret contingency plan for destroying Deltora he planted in case he couldn't have it.

Who is the character?: Paff is a young Deltoran woman whose age is unspecified, but in all likelihood she's about 9-15, which makes her crimes more hideous and sympathetic at the same time. She was one of the slaves in the second series who our Hero, King Lief rescued. She lost her entire family due to the Shadow Lord's tyranny, and thus became extremely depressed and suicidal, looking for a purpose in her life. This made her an easy target for the Shadow Lord, who contacted her, and convinced her to become his spy and the Guardian of the Sister of the South, a piece of evil magic that was hidden in the castle, singing an unheard song that filled people with despair without them ever realising it. She volunteered for the position of Josef's, (the palace librarian's) assistant, and presented herself as a mousy Nervous Wreck and an Extreme Doormat, thus making people pity her. When King Lief and his companions embarked on their journey to destroy the Sisters, Paff began slowly poisoning Josef as he was growing suspicious of things. In the third book, when Josef sent Lief a message warning him of the dangers on Bloodlily island, he gave it to Paff to post, and she sabotaged it by removing one of the pages that contained a coherent warning, while all the rest were mad ramblings of his failing mind. In the fourth book, when Sharn, Lief's mother returned to the chief city of Del that contained the castle, Paff used the magic the Shadow Lord bestowed her with to set her masterplan in motion. She poisoned Sharn's lip cream, and then poisoned the food of everyone who dined with her, and then poisoned THEIR food. The symptoms of the poison looked like a very contagious, deadly infection. Paff then spread propaganda notices around the city of Del, reasoning that Sharn had just returned from Tora, a magical city in the west that was second to Del in influence. So, the Plague was artificially created by Toran sorcerers to destroy Del, so Tora could take control. She reasoned that Lief's Toran cousin, Marilen was next in line to the throne and was expecting a child, so once Lief was dead, the royal family would permanently settle there. The notice gave purely circumstantial evidence, but presented them as facts, and had a very emotional tone, so it is not surprising that nearly everybody believed it. Hundreds of people had died from the "Toran Plague". When King Lief returned to Del, he deduced from the magical powers of the Gems that the whole thing was a ruse, and declared for everyone to abandon their "protective masks". Paff then poisoned the messenger birds so noone could send for help from Tora, and killed two guards in such a way that couldn't have been caused by poison. This sends Lief, and every single Good character in the book into a crippling Despair Event Horizon. When Josef in delirium tries to give Lief a final hint, Paff conjures and possesses a horrific Animalistic Abomination that is nigh-undefeatable, but puts Paff in the meantime into catatonia. (No-one at this point realises her evil). It all comes to a climax when Lief and Co. discover the hiding place of the Sister and Paff conjures her demon for the final time to protect it. Keep in mind she did all of this without any influence from her master. The Shadow Lord, however had a secret plan hidden even from her that can only come into play once the Sister is destroyed. He is tired of her and withdraws her power. The Sister is destroyed, and Lief and Doom (the deuteragonist of the series) both put together her involvement at the same time. When confronting her, she first learns with relief that Josef is finally dead, and then laments that she wasn't good enough for her master and probably ruined his plans. She then commits suicide by touching the Belt of Deltora, which has very powerful Smite Evil properties.

How is she Magnificent?: She most likely suffered from Stockholm Syndrome, given that she was a Sycophantic Servant to the one who ruined her life. The people of Del were not too kind to her, and she immediately committed suicide at abandonment. Her Xanatos Speed Chess masterplan is also very admirable, despite how heinous it was. She is probably the most sympathetic mass murderer of all time.

How is she a Bastard?: She poisoned hundreds of people to death and pushed every character on the side of Good info a Despair Event Horizon. 'Nuff said.