Continuing this fun self assessment exercise, I wish to follow up with Leilandy. She only makes a minuscule appearance in An Ominous Book 1, and then becomes an important antagonist in books 2 and 3. And spoiler! Book 5.
With so many subplots ocurring concurrently in the story, Leilandy sort of gets tossed under the rug which is a letdown because she is the only 100% human mage in the series to become massively overpowered without being under the influence of any of the 4 Ominous Books.
She is the most human character of them all, and a reflection of the society she grew up in. I sympathize with her, albeit I don't precisely like her either. Earlier when I wrote the books, I had pondered whether either she or Trevilin could be in the hunt for the Green Book because both of them were earth mages until I ultimately scrapped the idea and went in a different direction instead.
So sit down, steal an elf's mace and summon an earth golem! 😎
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1. Does the character shape her own destiny? Does she actively try to change her situation and if not, why not?
Leilandy's survival was an accident even the Ominous Book was incapable of predicting. The book decided to keep her alive because it wanted to exploit her burgeoning hatred of the Elf Kingdom to further its master plan. In this regard, Leilandy couldn't choose to survive the extermination of her family because her mother gifted her an ancient stone necklace that was a family heirloom and the it saved her life.
She also had no chance to oppose wearing the metallic mask that is an outdated tradition of her country. In this regard, she couldn't blame her suffering on the Elf Kingdom because it isn't a cultural export of the kingdom.
What she did have was the choice to ask Trevilin to teach her how to use magic. At first sight, her petition seemed innocent enough, but it is veiled by a mattice of jealousy for Richard being first in line to the throne (which she falsely attributes to his gender instead of the fact the Earlrose family had a stronger claim to the throne). Learning magic would be fruitful because she took advantage Richard was unable to awaken his magic to usurp the throne and planned to force Richard to live the rest of his life under house arrest far away from the capital where he couldn't be a nuissance.
The subsequent invasion of Ayrtain in book 5 was commanded by her with the purpose of being the new queen and to someday conquer the Elf Kingdom.
Points: 0.5/1
2. Does she have her own goals, beliefs and hobbies? Did she come up with them on her own?
We don't get to see her enjoy hobbies in book 2 because she suffered the worst punishment due to wearing the mask. Constrained by the threat of being tied to a chair if she exposed even a smidget of skin in public and forced to wear uncomfortable clothes that made it impossible to do exercise, she spent most of her free time praying. The book doesn't hint whether her prayers were genuine or because there wasn't a lot of other permissible activities.
Her disdain for the Elf Kingdom was imbued by her society which became unfettered hatred after she ended up expelled by Richard. Taking advantage the kingdom isn't well liked in many foreign nations, she somehow ended up in Hataraj, learned the language, and chose to marry a thuggish warlord she both adores and mistreats.
The siege of Ayrtain is entirely her doing and she proves to be a pretty resourceful commander despite having poor combat skills.
Points: 1/1
3. Is her character consistent? Do her personality or skills change as the plot demands?
She initially tolerates her cousin Richard and dislikes the Elf Kingdom, but her hatred grows in equal amounts as the story progresses.
She is heartless, demeaning and sadistic. She feels no remorse seeing humans starve to death in a gibbet and enjoys being cruel to captured elves out of spite.
It is no surprise she treats her lovers with equal amounts of lovebombing and as peons. We can see proof of this by the way she obtains the loyalty of both Knight Ralph and her husband Kumar.
Her stone collar is no ordinary piece of jewelry. It becomes increasingly powerful and has rendered her essentially immortal. Had she bothered to train in magic rather than become too reliant on the necklace, she could potentially destroy the kingdom.
Points: 1/1
4. Can you describe her in one short sentence without mentioning her love life, her physical appearance, or the words ‘strong female character’?
A bitter heiress to the throne that wants to blame every misfortune in her life to the Elf Kingdom whether or not this is true or not.
Points: 1/1
5. Does she make decisions that aren’t influenced by her love life?
Her ultimate goal is to regain her perceived birthright to become the Queen of Ayrtain, become a more powerful earth mage and someday destroy the Elf Kingdom for killing her parents.
Ralph and Kumar as just two artifices she uses to make it easier to attain her wish.
Points: 1/1
6. Does she develop over the course of the story?
She starts out as a jaded young teenager that has suffered through the trauma of losing her family for reasons out of her control and evolves into a bitter, cruel woman that just happens to be both beautiful and a competent earth mage.
Points: 1/1
7. Does she have a weakness?
She doesn't know anything about her stone collar nor its weaknesses. Her judgement is clouded by her unfettered hatred of the Elf Kingdom so she never bothers to learn the full extent to her magic or show the humility to apologize to Richard and make ammends.
Had it not been for her stone collar, she would have been considered to be a below average human mage and any apprentice Aimite guard could have easily defeated her with ease.
Points: 1/1
8. Does she influence the plot without getting captured or killed?
Yes. She awakens her magic, imprisons her cousin Richard, purges the capital of knights that remain loyal to her cousin while continuing to increase her grip on power.
The stone necklace ensured she remained unharmed when she emigrated to Hataraj and she willingly learned their language and culture because of a common hatred for the Elf Kingdom.
Book 5 however has a plot spoiler and that means I had to knock decimals here.
Points: 0.5/1
9. How does she relate to stereotypes about gender?
Even though Leilandy is quite ladylike in her choice of attire, she is outspoken about her racism, mistreats men (both lovers, enemies and allies alike), and quite resourceful when it comes to emigrating to a hostile foreign country to settle down. She doesn't believe a woman should be denied the chance to become a queen and is very adamant in choosing a husband as long as he is capable with the sword, blindly obeys her every command and can satisfy her sexually.
The book seems to prove she is a bit of a contrast to the gender stereotype during her magic training where she is caught talking to flowers with the demureness of a lady while at the same time being able to summon an unladylike rock golem shaped phantom beast.
Points: 1/1
10. How does she relate to other female characters?
Leilandy only shares a strong relationship with Nelida. At first they get along very well due to finding common ground about disliking the Elf Kingdom. Leilandy even tries to guilt-trip Nelida into taking her side at least once.
Upon discovering Nelida (now under the full control of the White Book) not only is a capable air mage but she confessed she murdered their family, they become sworn enemies.
Leilandy ceases to have a relationship with Nelida but lets her posessed cousin wreak havoc to the Elf Kingdom because this made it easier to imprison Richard who is accussed of withcraft and because Nelida was busy killing elves which is something she agreed with.
Points: 1/1
*****
Point total: a whopping 9 points out of 10! 🥳🥳🥳
5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Perhaps Leilandy is blindsided by predjudice against both elves and men, and she has to rely on the magic of a stone necklace to become overpowered instead of learning how to fight better. But she is a pretty formidable female character that doesn't get the attention she deserves.
She should get a few extra points just because she looks so damn badass carrying a mace and has the audacity to talk back at Froylan. Very few characters are dumb enough to do that.