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Fin Raziel is a good sorceress of Tir Asleen who was tutored by Vulsant. She was courted by Prince Mikal Tanthalos until Bavmorda seduced him and banished Raziel, transforming her into a possum. Then she remained in exile on a lonely island, until Willow Ufgood came to her.

Fin Raziel taught Ufgood a transformation spell so he could return her to her human form, but he only managed to turn her into a rook. Shortly later the team brought baby Elora Danan to Tir Asleen to find out that the place was cursed by Bavmorda. While the Army of Nockmaar attacked, Ufgood once more attempted to cure her, but again he failed and made her into a goat. When she finally became human again, Raziel was given Cherlindrea's wand and led the fight against Bavmorda to save Elora Danan.

Biography[]

Early life[]

A native of Tir Asleen, Fin Raziel was born to a couple of the kingdom's lower gentry.[1] From the day of her birth, it was clear for all those who attended upon her mother knew she participated in the Great Mystery, as many animals emerged from the forests, fields, skies and marshes to pay her homage.[3] According to one account, she was in fact the incarnation of the Messenger of the Earth, sent by the Spirit of the Earth to bring peace to the world.[4]

When she was still an infant, formless hovering lights started appearing above her crib, which prompted her parents to call Tir Asleen's court magician, Vulsant, so he could examine her. Upon performing a few simple tests, the magician determined that she did have great magic potential, much to her parents' joy and pride.[1]

On Raziel's first birthday, the King of Tir Asleen himself, Tanthalos VIII "the Great," declared publicly that she would be invited to succeed Vulsant as his court magician once she would reach womanhood, and the old man started training her. Under the guidance of Vulsant, Raziel practiced sympathetic magic, such as providing water during dry months, or helping the forest deers feed in winter.[1]

Some said that, before she was even five years old, Raziel rode on the back of great eagles that took her to far-flung places. Legend had it that, before the age of ten, she had journeyed to the farthest reaches of the kingdom and had made a pilgrimage to some ancient glyph-covered ruins in the Western Islands. Everywhere she went, she was summoned by many skilled sorcerers who tried to help her find her Way. She had friendly dealings with small folk of the lakes and forests, like the lords of the elves, with the high priests of the Brownies, and even the fairy queen Cherlindrea, who took her under her wing and watched her grow into an exceptionally pure, beautiful child.[3] Raziel was often gone for days at a time, but her parents trusted her to stay safe, and she had a happy family life.[1]

Teenage years[]

When she entered adolescence, Raziel had long left sympathetic magic behind and even surpassed the old Vulsant. The bond between them remained strong, however, as their master and disciple relationship had evolved into an unbreakable friendship.[1]

One late spring when she was nearly twenty, Raziel had an encounter with Prince Mikal, King Tanthalos' son, which she had only known from afar in her childhood. Within a season of that fateful meeting, the two were engaged in a romantic relationship. From that moment on, Raziel entered a new world of radiant happiness, but started neglecting her duties to the Great Mystery, and she experienced a steep decline in power. As more people saw her at social functions or riding with Mikal, Vulsant, Cherlindrea and her other teachers saw her less. Vulsant did try to warn her, but Raziel constantly rebuked her. Eventually, the old man was forced to find himself a new potential successor in the person of Bavmorda, a younger trainee enchantress whom Raziel greatly disliked.[1]

Upon leaving her old mentor, Raziel immediately went to Mikal,[1] who had just proclaimed their engagement.[3] Much to her surprise and dismay, he told her that she did not mean anything to him, and that he would marry Bavmorda instead. Raziel immediately understood that her rival had bewitched the prince, but before she could do anything about it, the other woman gave her the end of a silk thread to follow, hinting that Vulsant was in danger at the other end. Raziel managed to save her old master from a magical strangling grip in extremis, but the frightened old man resigned from his position at the castle and went into retirement, only to die soon thereafter of apparently natural causes.[1]

Fighting Bavmorda[]

Raziel tried to gather allies against Bavmorda, but found none at Tir Asleen. Even Cherlindrea refused to lend her her powerful wand, as she felt no real concern for the world outside her forest,[1] which prompted a storm of furious and inconsolable weeping from Raziel. The following day, when the enchantress had grown calmer, Cherlindrea tried to console her as much as possible, and made her a promise: if she returned to her discipline and pursued her Way once again, and if Bavmorda's power kept growing, then, when the time came to confront that power for the sake of the entire world, then Raziel would have the wand.[3] Despite that promise, it marked the start of a long coolness between the two.[1]

Now all alone, Raziel went back to studying magic, eventually regaining her old skill. Meanwhile, Mikal had married Bavmorda, and when King Tanthalos and his wife died in mysterious circumstances, Raziel's rival became queen. As Bavmorda's oppressive reign began, no other magician dared face her anymore. Raziel, however, challenged her to a duel, which probably took place at the Standing Stones. There were no witnesses to the combat, but accounts from remote villages spoke of flashes of light, explosions, frightful noises and sulfurous clouds. After several hours, Raziel lost the sorcerers' combat.[1]

Living as a possum[]

Instead of killing her, Bavmorda condemned her rival to an even more cruel punishment. Raziel, whose beauty was renowned through the realm, was turned into a possum and exiled on a small island on a lake below Tir Asleen. Raziel, one of the most powerful mages of her generation, was forced to live as a small furry animal for a great many years. She did, however, manage to stay hopeful, because she knew of the prophecy of a foretold child, one born with a certain mark, whose power would triumph over evil.[1]

Back in the fight[]

After a long solitary exile, Raziel made the acquaintance of an unlikely party, made up of the Nelwyn farmer Willow Ufgood, the Brownies Rool and Franjean, and a baby. Ufgood told her that he'd been sent by Cherlindrea, who had tasked him with finding Raziel and giving her the wand. Upon realizing that the baby was Elora Danan, the child of the prophecy, Raziel urged Willow to leave the island at once, for the sudden storm brewing into the sky meant that Bavmorda had sensed her presence.[2] As Ufgood rowed frantically, a monstrous "fish man" attacked the boat. Raziel urged Ufgood to kill the monster, and after a harrowing battle, the Nelwyn used a magic acorn to turn it to stone.[3]

Even after she was rescued from the island, Raziel's troubles only grew. She asked Ufgood, who wanted to become a sorcerer, to use Cherlindrea's wand to make her human again. As a result of Ufgood's first attempt, she became a raven, which actually proved useful when the party needed to navigate the Canyon Maze to Tir Asleen. Later on, when the party found refuge in Tir Asleen Castle, Raziel asked Ufgood to try the transformation spell again, only to be turned into a goat. Almost immediately, they were attacked by Bavmorda's troops, whose leader General Kael managed to kidnap Elora Danan before retreating.[2]

The "Tir Asleen rebels" then set off to Bavmorda's fortress in Nockmaar, intent on rescuing the child. Although she was still a goat, Raziel proved invaluable again, teaching Ufgood how to use the shelter chant, protecting him from the mass transformation spell Bavmorda used to turn her enemies into pigs. When the Nelwyn finally managed to return her to human form under the cover of a tent, Raziel was at first surprised to see that she had become old, but she quickly regained her composure and started turning the rebels from swines to people.[2]

While the rebels fought the troops of Nockmaar, which had been lured out of the castle though a clever ruse, Raziel and Ufgood entered Bavmorda's tower, where the queen had begun a ritual to exile Elora Danan's spirit into oblivion. The two enchantresses then locked in a powerful magic battle while the Nelwyn rescued baby Elora from the sacrificial altar. Even with the wand of Cherlindrea, Raziel lost her second duel with Bavmora, but Ufgood saved the day with a simple sleight of hand trick, making it seem as if he had cast the infant into a dimension the queen could not reach. The incensed Bavmorda lost control of her casting and was consumed by her own ritual.[2]

With Bavmorda out of the picture, Raziel was able to lift the curse over Tir Asleen, where Elora Danan would someday rule as empress of all the kingdoms. Having retrieved her own grimoire from Tir Asleen Castle's library, she gifted it to Ufgood, who had proved his worth in her eyes.[1] In the aftermath, Raziel and Cherlindrea joined forces to create a magical Barrier designed to protect the future empress from evil.[5]

Powers and abilities[]

As a powerful magic-user, Raziel knew all manners of spells of good or neutral intent, and was also familiar with most evil enchantments, although she would never stoop to casting them herself. Outside of magic, she was also skilled in history, instruction, lore, and survival.[1]

Behind the scenes[]

In Willow, Fin Raziel was played by Patricia Hayes.

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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