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Levana Blackburn (name Levana meaning "to rise, risen" in Latin, or "white, moon" in Hebrew) was the main antagonist of the Lunar Chronicles. She was the Lunar Queen and the sister of Channary Blackburn, aunt of Princess Selene, and stepmother of Princess Winter.

Biography

History

Levana Blackburn was born to King Marrok Blackburn and Queen Jannali Blackburn, six years after her sister Channary. As a child, the frequent use of glamours and manipulation in her family strongly influenced Levana to do the same. When Levana was six, Channary convinced her to stick her hand in a fireplace, which was a hologram. Channary set a fire over the fake one, and she and Levana threw things into it. Channary then tried to use a piece of Levana's dress, but she wouldn't let her, and they fought until she accidentially pushed Channary into the fire. She, enraged, then used her glamour to force Levana into throwing herself into the fire, resulting in serious burns on Levana's arms and seriously disfiguring her face, as well as a new nickname: the "ugly princess of Luna". When Channary became queen, she gave birth to her daughter, Princess Selene Blackburn. However, Channary died of regolith poisoning shortly afterward. Levana became queen regent, but she was still unsatisfied with her position. Later, Levana attempted to kill the three year-old Selene and her nanny in a nursery fire. After thirteen years Levana she found out that Selene was alive and safe on Earth.[citation needed]

Levana and her head thaumaturge Sybil Mira had been a constant threat to Earth because of their large army and their ability to manipulate bioelectrical energy. She had been negotiating with Emperor Rikan in attempt to become empress under falsehood, in order to gain control over Earth.[citation needed]

Recent events

After Emperor Rikan died of letumosis, Levana traveled to Earth personally to coerce his son and successor, Emperor Kaito, to marry her in order to become Empress. As part of the negotiation, she gave Kai an antidote for Letumosis - just enough for one person, along with the claim that the antidote could only be produced on Luna.[citation needed]

Later, while calming a riot in a demonstration of her power, she discovered a Lunar among the citizens of the Commonwealth, and accuses Kai of harboring fugitives in violation of their treaty. Later, during a royal ball, she meets the Lunar fugitive, Cinder, face to face. Though at first she dismisses Cinder as a shell, she realizes that Cinder is actually the long-lost Princess Selene after seeing her glamour, which looked very much like that of her mother, the late Queen Channary. Levana knows that Selene is rightful heir to the throne of Luna, and demands that Cinder be turned over to the Lunars to face trial, which Kai agrees to.[citation needed]

Cinder escapes prison before she can be sent back to Luna, which angers Levana. She orders Kai to find her within three days or there would be war. Three days go by, and Kai has no luck finding Cinder, so Levana sends her own troops out after her, resulting in a massacre that kills 16,000 people. To stop the massacre, Kai offers to marry Levana instead. Levana accepts Kai's proposal.[citation needed]

With the help of Sybil Mira's ward, Cress, Levana was able to spy on the Emperor for a long time and listen in to what the Emperor had found out about Princess Selene from the Royal Android, Nainsi, which is how she knew that Emperor Rikan had died so quickly. Later, as she is preparing for her and Kai's wedding, she discovers that Kai has been kidnapped and eventually figures out that Cinder is responsible for this. This makes her enraged, and eventually, she sends out troops to start a war against Earth.[citation needed]

Levana agreed to host the royal wedding on Luna. She ordered guards to check Kai's ship and they found that Cinder and her crew stowed away. Everyone but Cress escaped.[citation needed]

Later Levana captured Linh Adri and Pearl and put them in jail. Cinder was captured by guards. Levana removed Cinder's pointer finger to disarm her of her gun. The wedding was held and Kai, listening to the vows, stabbed Levana with the scissors used to cut the ribbon in the ceremony. Levana assumed the glamour of Cinder as a "wedding present" to Kai, stopping his attack. Kai told Levana that the "wedding present" was appreciated since "Selene is more beautiful than [Levana] could ever be".[citation needed]

Cinder, Adri, and Pearl's sentencing and punishment was entertainment at the wedding. Adri and Pearl were spared but Cinder faced death by dismemberment. Cinder was waiting to be killed when her retina display uncovered Levana's face from her glamour. She controlled the guards and the Earthen leaders and guests and jumped out a window. Levana was devastated and furious.[citation needed]

The next day, the coronation was held. Levana threw a servant into jail for interrupting it due to Cinder's threats. When Cinder arrived with her "army" of Lunars from the outer sectors, Levana came out to fight and took down all of Cinder's forces in mere minutes. The video that Cress uploaded from Cinder's memory appeared above the battle. It showed Levana's true face from Cinder's perspective. The queen immediately lost her hold on the Lunars she was controlling. Cinder defeated the Lunar forces and Levana fled. Cinder found Levana in the throne room. Cinder won a battle of bioelectricity and forced Levana to put a gun to her head. Levana took Cinder's offer to surrender, losing her grip on her glamour, but as soon as Cinder disarmed, Levana lunges at her with a knife and stabs Cinder through the heart. With the last of her consciousness, Cinder shot Levana through the head, effectively ending the reign of Queen Levana Blackburn of Luna.[citation needed]

Fairest

At least 17 years earlier, Queen Levana was just Princess Levana, overshadowed by her older, promiscuous sister Channary. Levana constantly thought herself as a better queen and often spoke up about serious matters for her sister. (Even though Channary disapproved.) Some of these being the harvesting of shells for platelets to formulate the cure for their letumosis, the modified soldiers, and biochemical warfare.

This had been going on even before the plague had spread. When Dr. Erland was on his deathbed in Cress, he told Crescent and the others that Levana had created the plague. She exposed the outer cities to the plague because she knew that some Lunars were escaping to Earth and they would carry the plague with them, weakening Earth little by little so that eventually, in the future, they would be desperate for her cure.

Levana had been bullied by her older sister and fallen in love with Evret Hayle. His wife died in childbirth, and Levana had slyly convinced Evret to marry her, even though the feelings were one-sided. Levana reveals how her sister had burned her face, and how she ordered any reflective surface to be destroyed, even the windows. She tries to kill her niece with fire, wanting to rule Luna, instead of allowing the rightful heir, Princess Selene, to claim the throne.

Characteristics

Personality

Levana was shown to have a cruel, power-hungry, manipulative, and vain personality. Her original intents were to rule Luna better than her sister Queen Channary, but her mind slowly became corrupted by power as the years passed. Her obsession with beauty and power made her a tyrant over the Lunars. Being cunning, she allowed shells and Lunars carrying letumosis to "escape" to Earth, so far starting the biological war upon the unsuspecting Earthens. This, along with various other actions, forced the Eastern Commonwealth to play right into her hands, so Levana could get what she wanted all along: power over the Eastern Commonwealth, and eventually, the rest of Earth. She had malicious intent, being responsible for most of the unnatural deaths or mishaps of the Lunar royal family. Levana was also very easily irritable and vindictive. Her suggestions were always extreme and she easily murdered anyone who defied her. She stopped at nothing to pursue her goals by making others do her work in the general process. However, Levana was rather intelligent and was not easily fooled. She was considered to be very calculative - always following up her actions with a reason.

Though her disturbing behavior was another, Levana was internally suffering in reality. She evidently had no confidence in herself or her looks, showing herself in public with either a veil to cover her face or a glamour as a diversion to hide her real self.

Physical attributes

Coloring book character profile Levana

In Cinder, Levana used her glamour to hide her true appearance. With her glamour, she had long and curly auburn hair, onyx eyes, and extremely red lips. She based her glamour on Solstice Hayle, but changed the color of her skin from honey to ivory, the color of her eyes and hair to auburn and made minor alterations to her body: "her waist would be a little trimmer and her bust a little fuller". The form of her hair and face remained mostly the same as Solstice, except her lips, which would be "shockingly, vividly red".

Beneath her glamour, Levana was horrifically disfigured from her burns. The book Fairest states, "Her left eye was permanently sealed shut, and the scarred tissue on the side of her face was formed of ridges and grooves. Half of her face was paralyzed from the incident, and great chunks of hair would never grow back. The scars continued down her neck and shoulder, half of her chest and upper ribs, all the way down to her hand....It was worse than she remembered, but then, she had spent a very long time trying hard to forget."

Skills

Levana had special Lunar powers that allowed her to "glamour" others. She could manipulate and trick people into siding with her, making them admire her, fall in love with her, and much more. Her Lunar powers allowed her to control someone to turn on themselves and be able to harm themselves even though most of the time she had her head thaumaturge do her dirty work for her. It was said that nobody is more powerful than her, other than Princess Selene. In the first book, Cinder, she was able to have hundreds of protesters stop and admire her. She could use that ability to look like anyone, for example, Solstice Hayle. As with other Lunars with "the gift", her powers did not work on androids, shells, and Princess Selene.

Relationships

Evret Hayle

Levana had a mindset of betrothing Evret in her earlier years. Her love for Evret was frowned upon, deemed shameful for a royal to be in love with someone of the working class. There was an age difference between the two of them, and Levana was often criticized because of that. Despite Evret being wedded to Solstice at the time, whom Levana was envious of, Solstice died at childbirth and Levana expressed her love for Evret by glamouring her appearance to look like Solstice. This essentially forced Evret into marrying Levana. After a while, Levana promised Joshua Haddon to crown him king if he stabbed Evret to death. The latter did so, but Levana betrayed him and also killed Haddon. Putting on a façade, Levana acted distraught following the incident, but still wore a ring in memory of her late husband.

Winter Hayle

As Levana's stepdaughter, Winter had been treated with malice throughout her time spent in the palace. Levana had been accused of being jealous of Winter by Jacin, who believed that Levana was spiteful over how Winter was beautiful without a glamour, and admired by all effortlessly. When Winter declared that she would stop using her glamour at age thirteen, Levana was furious and saw it as a rebellious act to disgrace the royal bloodline. As such, Winter received punishment by Levana who manipulated Winter into using a knife to slash the right side of her face. Levana was a cold stepmother towards Winter, who was apathetic whenever Winter showed signs of distress. Overall, Levana did not care of Winter's fate.

Linh Cinder (Selene Blackburn)

Being Levana's niece and daughter of her sister Channary Blackburn, Cinder—also known as Selene Blackburn―was despised at a young age by Levana, who knew that once Channary's rule was over, Cinder would inherit the throne. To prevent this from happening, Levana manipulated Cinder's nanny to set fire to her playhouse. Unbeknownst to Levana, Cinder survived the incident and was brought to Earth until she turned sixteen. Then, it was made clear to Levana that Cinder had survived the incident and since that discovery Levana was determined on killing Cinder.

Channary Blackburn

Channary was the sister of Levana. The two sisters generally had a deep, yet complex relationship between one another. They had a rigid relationship as a whole but did not show any signs of ill-will confrontationally. The two sisters despised each other's qualities; Levana detested Channary due to her personality not befitting a ruler of Luna along with Channary's streak of getting whatever she wanted using her sadistic personality as a platform. Despite Levana's internally despicable feelings towards Channary, Levana kept those emotions to herself. She tried to cooperate with Channary and vice-versa, but the two sisters had trouble doing so. Eventually, Channary died of regolith poisoning and Levana had to inherit the throne. Levana did not grieve for her sister's death and immediately took advantage as her new position as the queen of Luna.

Solstice Hayle

The two of them had an ephemeral relationship. Levana was envious as soon as she discovered that Solstice had wed the man she admired; Solstice was aware of Levana's attitude but only repaid Levana with kindness, then stated that she pitied Levana. She was especially surprised when Solstice ended up giving a tapestry of Earth to Levana before her death.

Sybil Mira

Sybil was Levana's right hand woman. Levana had appeared to be able to trust Sybil with executing important tasks, and as a result Sybil had been granted a lot of power as a head thaumaturge. The two shared a professional relationship and were not very comfortable around each other.

Family tree

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Marrok Blackburn
   
   
   
   
   
   
Jannali Blackburn
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Unknown ♂
   
   
Channary Blackburn
   
   
   
   
Levana Blackburn
   
   
Evret Hayle
   
   
Solstice Hayle
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Selene Blackburn
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
Winter Hayle

References

Fanarts

See also: Images of Levana
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