Photarch Yanessa Halovar is the current leader of the new religion, the Candescent Creed, and the grandmother of Wicander Halovar. As an NPC, she is played by Brennan Lee Mulligan.
Description[]
The Photarch is an elderly matriarch who dresses with complex robes in public, befitting her position within the Candescent Creed.[5] In private she doesn't use her regalia, choosing instead a simple white gown.[6]
Biography[]
Background[]
Campaign Four: Overture[]
At the execution of Thjazi Fang, the Photarch addressed the gathered crowd and spoke of the Light's forgiveness. Her grandson Wicander Halovar believed that she was responding to his suggestion that Thjazi's sentence be commuted to life in order to gain popularity with the common folk. Speaking privately to Wicander, she brought up the theater that had been recently gifted to Halandil Fang, Thjazi's brother, which Wicander believed was a good way to carry their message to the masses and could present the Candescent Creed in a good light. The Photarch approved of this, telling Wicander he was doing very well, but, "He has to die," and the execution proceeded.[7]
The next day, Yanessa interrupted a meeting between Wicander and Teor Pridesire in which Wick was ready to hire him to add to his security detail, telling Wick to get rid of him since he had been a member of the traitorous Falconer's Rebellion and therefore could not be trusted. She told him that the House's closest ally, House Tachonis, was up to something and their own house must therefore be wary. Thjazi had to die because Tachonis wanted him dead. She realized now she had made a mistake allowing Wick to only see the light, and told him that when his father returned home that evening, she would tell him the truth.[8]
When Wicander was taken into the depths of the Villa Aurora that night, passing through wards and doors bearing ancient glyphs in Celestial, or ancient Obridimian, he met his grandmother now dressed in a simple white gown. Yanessa assured him that she truly loved him, but that some things he had been told were not true. She then showed him a massive, 40-foot tall glyph-carved stone container, the Prismatic Retort. When Godard opened it, Wick saw the container was an iron maiden that held captive a screaming, feral, 30-foot tall angel, its featherless wings outspread and pinioned, and its glowing blood being harvested as the Photarch said, "Wicky, I'd like you to meet your grandfather." [9]
Fan art of Wicander and his grandmother, by Laura Mackenzie@KiwiDrawer.[art 2]
The Photarch assured Wicander multiple times that she loved him, and understood this was "unusual." She told him that the Filament was the bodily fluid of the celestial, which had been drunk and used as ink in tattoos on many people's bodies including Wicander's. Seventy years ago after the death of the gods, she realized that people needed something to believe in place of the destroyed deities, and used that knowledge to create the Candescent Creed and to help save House Halovar. When Aetheon, the captive celestial and former servant of Tansul the sun god, now gone feral after the death of his god, fell into her hands, she used his blood, the Filament, as a material component in a Wish spell that resulted in the birth of Wick's father, Godard Halovar.[10] Yanessa realized that they could not identify the Light held sacred by her created religion as being Tansul, even though that's what it was.[11] She wrote the sacred texts that became the basis of the religion[12] and believed that the rules contained there were good rules, although they served also as a tool and the family was free to break them for their own advantage.[13]
Yanessa told Wick that his proposed marriage to Ebecca D'Antonio for family business purposes must move forward, although he did not know her well, as an alchemical compound produced on their land will allow the family to dilute the Filament and increase their profit.[14] Wick, stunned, agreed to everything his grandmother said, and Tyranny eventually suggested a warm bath to relax. Before they left, Wick asked what his grandmother meant when she told him to get rid of Teor Pridesire, and she responded that it was already done.[15] Later, he learned the Halovars had an arrangement with the Mercanaud family to make problems go away.[16]
Character information[]
Notable items[]
Abilities[]
- Spellcasting
- Thaumaturgy[17]
Appearances and mentions[]
- Campaign Four
- "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01) (first appearance)(as "the Photarch of the Candescent Creed")
- "Broken Wing" (4x02) (first identified as Yanessa Halovar)
- "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03)
- "Knives and Thorns" (4x06), mentioned only, unnamed
Quotations[]
- "There are no bygones. There are never bygones. Everything is another drumbeat of a drum that's been ringing since the dawn of time."[18]
- "I thought it would be of great benefit to our house that our Scion should walk only in the Light, but there's nothing solid that doesn't cast a shadow."[19]
- "If you can't be an empire, you take your licks, you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you start a church or a merchant company, something."[20]
- "You do not get your powers from your devotion to poetry. You get them because of the blood that runs in your veins. It's our family first always, Wicander."[21]
Trivia[]
- Brennan Lee Mulligan said he created Yanessa's character to honor what he loves about Sam Riegel as a performer: someone funny but with an unexpected and "fucked up" depth.[22]
- When Yanessa described how Godard was conceived she didn't mention Sir Filoneus Halovar as being connected to Aetheon. He might be her son from a normal relationship,[23] as Sam refers to him as his (Wick's) father's brother.[24]
- Her title of "Scion" is meant to be inherited, with Wicander being the next in line for that position.[25]
References[]
- ↑ See "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01) at 0:13:25.
- ↑ See "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01) at 0:13:25.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:24:47. Yanessa was a "young girl" during the Shapers' War 70 years ago.
- ↑ See "Knives and Thorns" (4x06) at 0:51:10.
- ↑ See "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01) at 1:32:44.
- ↑ See "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01) at 4:26:27.
- ↑ See "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01).
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02).
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02).
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02) from 0:21:27 through 0:27:08.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:29:21.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:30:43.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:33:23.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:36:05.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) from 0:37:22 through 0:38:32.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:12:01.
- ↑ See "The Fall of Thjazi Fang" (4x01) at 1:32:37. Yanessa uses the cantrip to amplify and dulcify her voice as she addresses the masses.
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02) at 2:15:32.
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02) at 2:18:02.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:30:15.
- ↑ See "The Snipping of Shears" (4x03) at 0:40:15.
- ↑
CR Cooldown C4 E003 at 21:01 (subscription required) (Transcript).
- ↑ See "Broken Wing" (4x02) at 2:14:22. Filoneus is the uncle of Godard's son, Wick.
- ↑ CR Cooldown C4 E008 at 0:58 (subscription required) (Transcript).
- ↑ See "Knives and Thorns" (4x06) at 0:52:31.
Art:
- ↑ Fan art of Photarch Yanessa, by Ed Palhares (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Wicander and his grandmother, by Laura Mackenzie@KiwiDrawer (source). Used with permission.
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