Sarafine Duchannes

"My power is growing, and soon the Seventeenth Moon will be upon us, called out of time, as only a mother can. I decide when the sun sets. I have moved stars for my child, and she will Claim herself and join me."

- Sarafine, telling Olivia, Ethan, and Link about the upcoming Seventeenth Moon whilst possessing Ridley, Beautiful Darkness

Sarafine Duchannes was one of the most powerful Casters known in Caster world. Being born in the cursed Duchannes family as a Natural, she was not able to choose between Light and Dark during her Claiming. This eventually lead to her turning into a Cataclyst when her Sixteenth Moon revealed to her the path of Darkness. First trying (and failing) to fight off her Dark nature, the Dark soon took control over her in the same time Abraham Ravenwood was helping her to try and grasp her new dark powers. She eventually killed her husband John Eades when he threatened to take their child, the newborn Lena, away from her fearing for Lena's safety around her.

Early life
Izabel Duchannes was born to Emmaline Duchannes and to Silas Ravenwood, both members of cursed families. As a member of the Duchannes family, she was a powerful Caster who couldn't choose between the path of Light and the one of Dark. As a result, she grew up with the constant fear of becoming Dark.

Before her Sixteenth Moon occurred, she met John Eades, with whom she fell in love with. While he knew about her curse, she lied to him about her exact birth date in order not to scare him. The day she turned Dark, she was rejected by her family. On that day her mother Emmaline revealed her true name, Sarafine. If John still accepted being with her, she was convinced she could fight off her Dark nature and powers. However, it became obvious she was failing to fight off her Dark nature and was slowly becoming a threat to their newborn daughter's safety. This is proved true with the influence of her ancestor Abraham Ravenwood and when she soon totally lost herself to the Darkness of her powers and lost total control of her abilities, putting things on fire unwillingly.

When John threatened that he would take their child away from her if she were to see Abraham again, she became outraged and kills him by setting their house on fire, nearly killing their baby in the process, before leaving the house to perish in the flames simply walking away officially a new, cruel and evil person. What she did during the following sixteen years remained unknown, though she eventually let the Dark totally and completely consume herself, ultimately becoming the "Darkest of all Casters", and also murdered Ethan Wate's mother, Lila Evers Wate, a fact she did not deny and almost brags about; saying how easy she was to kill.

Sarafine was murdered by her daughter, Lena Duchannes when the girl encircled her in a circle of fire. She attempted to trick Lena into freeing her claiming to have always loved her, but Lena, aware of her trickery and lies, allowed her to die. She was then perished in the flames of the fire, suffering the same fate as her late husband John Eades did by her own hands.

Sarafine helped Ethan in his journey by killing herself in order for him to return to the Mortal world, helping him defeat Angelus since, while she openly said she hated Ethan, she hated Angelus "more". Ethan, though, liked to believe a part of her genuinely wished to help Lena and him.

Personality
Sarafine is shown to be a cruel and evil Caster totally consumed in the darkness of her powers. She has even tried to kill her daughter Lena on the night of her sixteenth moon and even murdered her boyfriend Ethan right in front of her just to provoke her into going Dark (although Lena and Amma brought him back to life soon after his murder). When she failed to convince Lena to turn Dark and failed in her attempt to kill her, she teamed up with Abraham in order to force her to turn Dark; which also fails.

Before the night of when Sarafine turned Dark, she is shown to have actually been a kind and caring woman; even being capable to love her husband John and Lena when she was a baby. But when she turned Dark, that person faded away as the darkness of her powers totally consumed her into a hateful and cruel woman. Although in Beautiful Redemption, she helps Ethan return to the mortal world by killing herself so that he may kill Angelus. Despite saying that she is only helping him because she "hates Angelus more" then she does him, Ethan likes to believe that a part of her genuinely wished to help Lena.

Physical attributes
Sarafine is described as having an almost identical resemblance to Lena; having the same long, curly black hair and long elegant features, but where Lena is "frighteningly beautiful," Sarafine is described as "simply frightening."

Though there is a striking resemblance between Sarafine and her daughter, Lena is described as terrifyingly beautiful - while Sarafine is said to be just terrifying - mostly, because it's her eyes that make all the difference. She has the same yellow eyes as all Dark Casters - yet somehow, on Sarafine, they're even more striking. A dark, almost golden color, their slitted pupils are somewhat cat-like, and they project a faint, otherworldly glow that typically creates a feeling of unease and intimidation. People who gaze into her eyes feel that there's something wrong - because most people tend to be perceptive enough to just sort of feel how Dark they are. Like the stripes on a yellow jacket, or the bright colors on a poisonous snake, they're meant to be subconsciously perceived as a natural warning sign: "stay away".

If it weren't for those eyes, she could perhaps be described as beautiful. She has elegant, feminine features (though they tend to sort of twist horrifically when she's angry), and smooth, fair skin with a hint of color tinging her cheeks. She's around average height, standing at about 5'6, but she's rather thin and spindly - almost witch-like in appearance, she could be described as. Her hair is long and a very dark shade of brown - almost black - and like any Natural's or Cataclyst's, it always seems to be a bit wild and windswept and actively twists and curls when she's Casting.

Sarafine has a very unusual style that, more often than not, attracts a bit of attention. Traditionally, adult Caster women wear things like corsets and gowns, and she's taken up the fad quite entirely. However, while elegant, her style is a bit...darker and edgier than what some in the Caster community (ahem, Emmaline) might approve of. She mixes vintage Southern Gothic dresses with more modern wear - motorcycle boots and gloves, for instance - in a way that gives her a very distinctive 'steampunk' sort of vibe. She radiates a different culture entirely, with a hint of something all her own, and it's not difficult to notice.

Powers and abilities
Since Sarafine is a Dark Caster, she has the regular abilities other Casters have, but she is considered the most powerful Caster in the Caster world since her powers are enhanced to a whole new and powerful (as well as dangerous) level, having far more control of her abilities and hence able to use them in ways that regular casters can not.

She is shown to also have additional powers Casters do not have as seen in Beautiful Creatures when she is able to possess Mrs. Lincoln for a long period, thus showing her power of Possession. Like her daughter Lena, Sarafine has the power to control weather and the elements, among other abilities. Which is a higher level of power a caster can control and no regular caster has those abilities. An expanded list of her powers include:

• Elemental Control - Naturals and Cataclysts can control the elements of the natural world. They are known to be capable of such feats as causing tidal waves to rise from the ocean, creating earthquakes, weaponizing the very air - essentially their control over water, earth, air, and fire makes them quite formidable. Sarafine's speciality happens to be fire. She can create and control even massive amounts of it seamlessly - almost without even thinking about it.

• Weather Manipulation - To further emphasize their ties to the natural world, Naturals and Cataclysts can control the weather in a specific area. Anything from rain, snow, and hail, to straight up hurricanes are all well within their reach. Furthermore, they're even known to have some control over celestial bodies - Lena and Sarafine both demonstrated that they were capable of influencing the moon and stars, for instance.

• Casual Reality Warping - There are set to be no set 'limits' to what a Natural can do - their entire lives are spent expanding their abilities, and most of that relates to manipulating reality. Shattering glass and moving and transfiguring objects are the most basic manifestations of this, but at its full extent, even ripping through space and time is possible. Unless Sarafine channels her abilities through the Dark Fire, however, she is not capable of exactly that. She can, however, completely warp environments directly around her - changing a casual suburban home into a castle, for instance.

• Time Manipulation - The most powerful Casters (Sarafine being among them) can manipulate time itself with the use of Time Binds - which essentially holds time in a total stasis, 'locking' it in place so that it cannot be pushed further or backwards. A more simple description of this is just 'freezing time'.

• Possession - Sarafine has expanded her abilities to the point where she can assume a dark, spiritual form and actually possess other beings. If one is strong-willed enough, fighting against this is said to be possible.

• Dark Phazon Phasing - The process by which she accomplishes the ability mentioned above; Sarafine can actually 'phase' into a non-corporeal darkness, and travel through shadows this way.

• Kelting - Kelting is an ability that all Casters share. Essentially, it's a form of telepathic communication. However, it's only possible between two people who have formed a strong emotional bond.

• Psychic Traveling - An ability typically exclusive to Incubi - however, Sarafine (presumably under Abraham's guidance, and because she herself has Incubus blood through her father's side) has learned it. It's a sort of...mind probing. Not mind-reading, not exactly - far more aggressive. It's an actual attack, forcing unwanted thoughts and emotions and memories to the surface, often leaving the victim traumatized - even comatose, if they're exposed to it long enough

• Mental eavesdropping - Sarafine presumably has the ability to actually overhear telepathic conversations, since she was able to listen in on Lena and Ethan's Kelting.

• Mental Resistance - Sarafine was immune to Ridley's Persuasion, which is a fairly strong ability - so it'd take psychic influence on a lot more powerful level to really effect her or force her into doing things.

• Transitioning - Sarafine was able to 'remove' Ridley's abilities, and more than that - actually send her through a Transition that turned her Mortal. Transitioning is one of the most powerful and unstable branches of magic, but can also work the other way around - Transitioning a Mortal into a Caster.

• There's a Cast For That~ - Yeah basically Casts are incredibly numerous and have a wide variety of uses - and Sarafine's had the time to learn quite a few. Binding Casts, Silencing Casts, Locator Casts, and Barrier Casts, to name a few.

Abraham Ravenwood
He first meets Sarafine as she goes Dark and soon begins to influence her into shedding her once caring and kind personality and transforming her into a cold and cruel and just as ruthless person. Sarafine's then-husband John Eades, fearing the influence of Abraham was too strong for her to resist harming Lena for mere kicks, made a secret arrangement to take off with Lena. However when Sarafine, discovering his plot and too far deep in her cruel and sadistic ways brought on by Abraham, murdered him. It is unknown if she spent the following 16 years with Abraham or by herself, totally unknown.

Sarafine continued to be Abraham's basic partner alongside him in his plans and tactics to get Lena into turning Dark, therefore making all Light Casters in her family to die. All of which ultimately failed. In the third novel of the series, Sarafine and Abraham team up once again to discern who the One Who Is Two was to spare the worlds from ultimate imminent destruction along with them in it. When Lena trapped her in a circle of fire, she leaves her to perish in the flames and to suffer the same fate as John Eades, doing the same thing to her as she did to John.

Quotes

 * "I'm so sorry, Ethan. I hoped our first meeting would be under different circumstances. It's not every day that you meet your daughter's first boyfriend. Or your daughter."


 * "Just a few words with Mrs. Lincoln and look how easily this whole town turned on you. You don't belong in their world. You belong with me."
 * "You and Ethan can never be together, not physically. Casters and Lilums cannot be with Mortals. At least not without killing them."
 * "You know, you've interfered for sixteen years. I think you should sit this one out, Macon."
 * "I've always loved you, Lena. You're my little girl."
 * "Oh my daughter how I've missed you, your dear mother Sarafine has come home for you."
 * "You don't know. Do you?" Turns to Macon. "You didn't tell her. Well, that's not playing fair."
 * "Surprised Ethan? You think Lena's the only Caster on this Channel? Let her try to stay Light now."


 * "There will be no New Order. The universe has already brought Darkness upon the Mortal world. But things will get worse."
 * "There is Darkness within us all. Haven't you learned that by now?"
 * "I will love you until the day after forever."
 * "You wouldn't believe how many times I nearly killed you at the dinner table droning on and on about your stupid band."
 * "Ethan, we have a way the two of you can be together."
 * "Kids these days.."
 * "You little bitch! I wish you had burned to death like your miserable father! I will find you in the next life!"
 * "My power is growing, and soon the Seventeenth Moon will be upon us, called out of time, as only a mother can. I decide when the sun sets. I have moved stars for my child, and she will Claim herself and join me. Only my daughter could block out the Sixteenth Moon, and only I can raise the Seventeenth. There are no others like us, not in either of our worlds. We are the beginning and the end."