Tier

"Behold! From this moment, the Isle of Tier is like no other island in the Silver Sea. From this moment it can move where it wills, and devour other life wherever it finds it. Now it can take revenge on the ordinary mortals who betrayed me. And the Staff that gave it life, the Staff that cures all ills, cannot be taken from me by any man or woman alive." — Tier[1]

Tier
Biographical information
Alternative name(s) Master of the Staff
Home Two Moons (formerly) Isle of Tier (formerly)
Successor Bar-Enoch as King of Tier
Status Deceased
Cause of death Relinquished hold of the Staff of Tier
Physical description
Species Half turtle, half man
Gender Male
Personal information
Relatives Unnamed sorceress mother
Allies Wraiths (formerly)
Enemies People of Two Moons
Weapon of choice Staff of Tier (formerly), magic (formerly)
Chronological and political information
Profession Sorcerer
Position Creator of the Staff of Tier Master of the Staff (formerly)
Affiliation Wraiths
First appearance Shadows of the Master

Tier was a gentle half-turtle man born to a sorceress who lived on the island of Two Moons, and wielded strong magic. One day, however, he was forced from the island by its people, who had grown fearful of his growing growing body and growing magical power and bound him with metal shackles and sent him out on the sea to die there, with metal and salt weakening him. He was the creator of the all-consuming, moving Isle of Tier and the fabled Staff of Tier, both of which he made to take revenge on the world.^[1]

Tier was the first Master of the Staff.^[1] After Tier decided to relinquish himself of his immortality and died, the Illican pirate Bar-Enoch found and through the use of a goozli took the Staff of Tier.^[2]

History

Early life

Tier was born to a sorceress on the small island of Two Moons. He and his mother lived in the swamplands. When his mother died, Tier stayed in the swamp, living peacefully and moulding amber mud into living, moving shapes.^[1]

Exile

As Tier grew older, larger and stronger in magic, some of his neighbours began to fear him and wished him ill. The people of Two Moons were afraid to kill Tier, fearing that he would haunt the island as a ghost. Instead, on the appointed night, a woman Tier trusted lured him from his work. She sang to him and gave him a strong drink made of swamp orchid seeds, which made him fall into a drugged sleep. While asleep Tier's enemies bound him with iron chains and dragged him to the shore, where they set him adrift in the sea on a raft of logs, and told the tide to take him far away from Two Moons.

Tier woke on the open sea. The living mud of his home still covered his hands. He remembered the songs of the woman he trusted, and cursed her name. He unsuccessfully tried to break his chains. The iron that bound him and the salt of the sea weakened him and his magic. Tier cried out for help. Great turtles from far and wide heard his call, came to him and bore his raft through the sea. After three days and three nights, the turtles steered the raft onto a barren black rock island. The salt of the sea had rusted Tier's iron chains, and he broke them.

To thank the rock from freeing him from the sea, Tier smeared his mud-caked hands on its surface while murmuring magic words, and at once it bloomed, transforming into a green paradise which Tier named the Isle of Tier. In order to take revenge on the people who had exiled him, Tier crafted the Staff of Tier by taking handfuls of sand from the island's shore and pressing it between his hands, forming a long black diamond staff. He poured all his magic, grief, passion and rage into the Staff, and then he went to the heart of the island, and plunged the Staff into the earth, causing the island to come alive and making it able to move where it willed and devour other life where it found it. Ships, monsters of the deep and even smaller islands were consumed by the "Hungry Isle."

Word of the Hungry Isle spread throughout the Silver Sea. Curious sailors came to the island, meaning to only spend an hour on it, but they never left. Becoming enraptured by the magic Staff, they stayed to worship it and its Master. Even when they died, they remained on the island as wraiths, forced to do Tier's bidding, so sailors learned to fear the Hungry Isle, and when it was sighted on the horizon ships changed course.^[1]

The Staff could cure all ills^[3] and made whoever held it immortal, but only as long as they held onto it.^[2]

Death

Tier lived for centuries, but life ceased to have flavour for him and there came a time when he gladly welcomed death and let himself die on the Isle of Tier.^[1]

Legacy

While Tier died the Isle of Tier lived on, a danger to everyone sailing the Silver Sea, until a pirate named Bar-Enoch came upon the Isle of Tier and through trickery defied Tier's spell and took the Staff of Tier for himself. He wrested it from the island's heart and took it away to aid him in his plundering and bloodshed. As a result, the Isle of Tier was no longer able to move and feed until the Staff was rediscovered by Dare Larsett. Mikah brought it back to the Isle of Tier, resurrected the island, and became the King of Tier.^[1][4]

Physical appearance

Tier was half man, half turtle. He was implied to be relatively tall, and was described as having mighty, horny hands and a great, humped shell on his back that glowed in the sun.^[1]

Personality

When he was younger, Tier was a gentle soul who would never dare to harm another creature. He was more occupied with creating life, out of the amber mud of the swamplands that he called his home on Two Moons. After he was betrayed by the people of the island, including one he trusted, he came enraged, bitter and disillusioned with the rest of the world, not caring that the Isle of Tier that he created brought ruin, devastation and death to others, as was his wish, to take revenge.^[3]

For a time, Tier wished to live on, allowing himself, through his own magic, to be immortal for centuries, however with time life ceased to have flavour for him and there came a time when he gladly welcomed death and let himself die on the Isle of Tier.^[3]

Ironically, the people who had gradually come to irrationally fear Tier as he grew larger and more powerful in his magic transformed him into what they feared he might become by their actions, and if they had instead cared for him or simply ignored him, he would likely never have become the dangerous, wrathful force of the Silver Sea that he is infamous for being later in his life.^[3]

Abilities

Tier wielded strong magical powers, inherited from his sorceress mother. Over time his powers grew stronger, to the point where his neighbours began to fear him.^[3] His magic, however, was weakened by iron and salt^[5] like the magic of the Fellan of Dorne.^[6] Tier could shape and create life from the living amber mud on Two Moons, creating "goozli" among other things.^[5]

Since Tier poured all of his magic into the Staff of Tier, it is likely that he has all the same powers that the Staff has, including the ability to cure all ills^[3] - effectively making him immune to any disease or decay as long as he still ate food to sustain himself. Other powers he must have had, since the Staff did, is the ability to conjure anything he want, including food, drink, living creatures like birds, and any riches such as precious jewels.^[7] He would also have been able to fuse body parts together, even if those body parts to one another, even being able to fuse the body parts of one being to another's and still having it functional. Both the pirate Bar-Enoch and Mikah used this power of the Staff of Tier to fuse the hand of the dead Tier to their wrist, in order to have the Staff for themselves.^[4]

Presumably, while the Staff of Tier granted eternal life to whoever held it, as long as they were touching it and also eating food to sustain their body, Tier's longevity could have come from within himself, from his own magic, rather than the Staff itself, however since the Staff contains the same magic he has, having been imbued with it by him, it is effectively the same thing. He was however still holding the Staff of Tier when Bar-Enoch took the Staff from him, by fusing Tier's hand onto his own body, which means Tier likely decided to relinquish himself of his immortality by starving himself to death.^[4][7]

Relatives

Appearances

Star of Deltora

• Shadows of the Master

Trivia

• Since Tier's magic is weakened by salt and metal like the magic of the magical Fellan of the island of Dorne, it is possible that Tier is half or at least part-Fellan. Perhaps his mother, who was a sorceress herself, was a full-blooded Fellan or part-Fellan. It is also possible that magic in general is weakened by these things, or perhaps certain unrelated magic-wielding beings share an identical source of magic.
• The cause of Tier being a human-turtle hybrid is unknown. Not much is known about his lineage either, other than the fact that he was the child of a "sorceress" who lived on Two Moons. It is possible that he was conceived by way of magic, his mother possibly transforming an actual turtle into him, imbuing it with some of her own humanoid traits, or his mother may have been a part-human part-turtle herself, or a humanoid turtle although not human, though still one able to procreate wirh humans. It is unknown who his father was, or if he even had one. If he did, the father could have been a part-human part-turtle or humanoid non-human turtle as well. It is also possible that both or one of his possible parents merely looked like a humanoid turtle and therefore was called as such by people witnessing them, but was a whole other kind of creature. Thr turtle-ness of his body may also have been a mutation, either a natural genetic one or one somehow brought about by magic. If not mutation, then perhaps a form of magical transformation, either purposeful or accidental. It is however clear that Tier's connection to turtles do not end with his resemblance to them, as he also had great turtles saving him from dying. It is unknown if he was using his magic to reach out for help from anyone and just so happened to connect with turtles randomly, or if he has a deeper, magical or perhaps even familial connection to them. Great turtles also came to seemingly interfere on the Star of Deltora's journey to the Isle of Tier, and seemingly aided on Britta's journey towards ending the King of Tier/Master of the Staff and destruction of the Staff itself, though it is unknown why.

Preceded by Position established

Master of the Staff

Succeeded by Bar-Enoch

References

See also

• Isle of Tier
• Staff of Tier