Effie/History

Effie was sent into the body of one of the Red Sect's younger disciples. An orphan girl who had been entrusted to the Maidens. The girl whose body she took had the misfortune of Awakening at a very young age. Due to this, the Maidens saw her as their promised chosen one, a prodigious warrior fated to slay Solvane and wash away the humiliation she had visited upon the sect, to avenge her sin and sacrilege.^[1]

She ran away earlier once and managed to make it to Iron Hand island. But was caught, at the time they already knew that nothing they did to her would make her obedient. So the punishment was to punish the others in her stead. After that, she did not try to escape again while the other girls were still alive. It was endless training and in the end, everyone turned out to be weak except for her.^[1]

Her teacher Hilde thought of her as her own daughter. She cared and did a lot of good but in the end, her presence reignited their fervor and went harder on other girls. After everyone died, the Maidens had nothing else to hold over her and so she planned to escape but had no idea if she would survive. Luckily, Sunny and Kai came and obliterated the whole sect to rescue her.^[1]

During their assault to the Ivory City, Effie managed to kill the Sun Prince using the Ruby Knife.^[2]

In Antarctica, the government forces escorting Wake of Ruin were never meant to participate in a large-scale battle, they were simply observers, yet they were forced to escape the Great Gates during the Battle of the Black Skull. Beastmaster offered Effie a way out of the Nightmare Desert, but then the cohort members had no plans of challenging a Seed. Their goal was to reach the Black Pyramid, and Effie believed they would escape or die quickly. After all, she had already lost her original companions in the catacombs below the Dark City and felt the thought of becoming the lone survivor was unbearable. She chose to remain with her friends. After Beastmaster, Seishan, Morgan, and Sir Gilead left, Effie had to choose between challenging the Seed with them or remaining alone in the desert.^[3]

Effie had been pregnant during their journey through the white desert, the battle of the Black Skull, and most of her time in Antarctica. Sunny realized that Effie had been acting strange, with unstable appetites and unusual snacks^[4][5]. He had teased her for motion sickness aboard the Chain Breaker^[6][7], but it was not related to the flying vessel's motions. Effie hesitated before refusing Beastmaster's offer to take her back to the waking world^[8]. Sunny realized that Effie would have needed time to think, considering not only her fate but also that of her unborn child.^[9]

Soul Reaper and Effie were sent to the same place at the start of the nightmare. The people whose roles they took belonged to a tribe of river nomads, who had regressed into abject savagery. It seemed that their ancestors were the survivors of one of the destroyed cities.^[10]

By the time Effie and Jet came around, the tribe could barely be called a tribe, and all other nomadic tribes seemed to have gone extinct already.^[10]

Soul Reaper and Effie tried to keep the nomads alive and find out where they were, what was happening, and how to conquer the Nightmare. They learned from the surviving tribesmen about the Tomb of Ariel, the Great River, the Defilement, and the fall of the River Cities. They also fought plenty of Nightmare Creatures, with Jet killing most.^[10]

Everything was well until they stumbled on an especially powerful swarm of the Drowned, which killed everyone except for Effie and Jet. They remained Outsiders despite having taken the roles of two Riverborn people. The Drowned pursued them relentlessly as if it was their life's mission to obliterate all nomads. After a week of running away and fighting, they got lost in the mist and sucked into a whirlpool. Jet then sent her echo Crow Crow, hoping to find anyone from the cohort.^[10]

After they reunited with the cohort, they managed to destroy the loop^[11] and she killed a creature which earned her a supreme Memory that can store living beings.^[12][13][14]

During the battle in Twilight, she and Jet were kept safe inside her locket Memory.^[15]

On the way to Verge, she had a contraction and gave birth to Little Dumpling inside the Nightmare.^[16][17]

Somewhere near Verge, she went on a scouting mission with Kai and Jet.^[18]

Effie became one of the five Transcendent powerhouse and beloved protector of humanity. It was mentioned that she and Soul Reaper have successfully suppressed a minor Gate Crisis in the Eastern Quadrant, resulting in minimal casualties.^[19]

After the war ended and new Domain emerged, Morgan helped to salvage the remains of Valor at the start and then disappeared without a trace. Even Cassie do not know where she is. Most of the remaining members of the branch family of Valor who did not perish in the war died gruesomely after. It was no big secret that Mordret killed them.^[20]

Those who did not carry the clan bloodline, the Knights, Spellsmiths, servants, craftsmen, workers, administrative staff were either absorbed into the Immortal Flame Clan or taken by Effie. Effie was now in charge of Bastion as the "Steward of the East". The Beast Farm is back in business too.^[20]

While inspecting the Northern Gate near the Bazaar and the Church of the Moon, Effie observed Asterion deliberately provoking her by interacting with a child, creating and destroying a carved figurine, and implying veiled threats toward her son, Little Ling, but she restrained herself, relying on the hidden protection of an incarnation of the Lord of Shadows and later admitting to her husband that Asterion was an unprecedented threat whose growing influence endangered their family and the Human Domain, resolving to resist him and attending Nephis' address at the NQSC.^[21][22][23]

Effie grew suspicious of her husband's behavior and possible influence by Asterion after noticing evasiveness and a golden gleam in his eyes, and in a later memory, she was shown imprisoned and reduced to a starving skeletal state while he urged her to reveal Ling's location so the Dreamspawn could learn it through her thoughts, but Effie resisted by suppressing her thoughts and focusing only on food.^[24]

Elsewhere, in a dungeon cell, Effie awoke from dreams of sweetness and terror to the same stone ceiling, trapped in a state of starvation-induced lethargy. Though no longer feeling hunger, her body was emaciated and weak, her limbs bound by chains that prevented her from standing or escaping. Familiar with the effects of starvation from her past in the outer settlement of the Bright Castle, she recognized the apathy and exhaustion as signs of impending death, though she knew the Dreamspawn would not allow her to die and would eventually send someone to feed her, restarting the cycle of pain. Reflecting on her dream of freedom and the possible siege of the Ebony Tower, she inferred that the war might have reached its final stage, meaning most Awakened had been summoned away. Struggling to sit upright despite the crushing weight of her chains, Effie weakly repeated the word "free", wondering if anyone would come to feed her this time.^[25]

Elsewhere, in a dungeon cell, Effie awoke from dreams of sweetness and terror to the same stone ceiling, trapped in a state of starvation-induced lethargy. Though no longer feeling hunger, her body was emaciated and weak, her limbs bound by chains that prevented her from standing or escaping. Familiar with the effects of starvation from her past in the outer settlement of the Bright Castle, she recognized the apathy and exhaustion as signs of impending death, though she knew the Dreamspawn would not allow her to die and would eventually send someone to feed her, restarting the cycle of pain. Reflecting on her dream of freedom and the possible siege of the Ebony Tower, she inferred that the war might have reached its final stage, meaning most Awakened had been summoned away. Struggling to sit upright despite the crushing weight of her chains, Effie weakly repeated the word "free", wondering if anyone would come to feed her this time.^[26]

Effie was imprisoned in a chained cell, weakened and struggling to breathe as she recalled fragmented memories of Noctis, the Crimson Beast of Twilight, and his connection to breaking chains and Hope. Confused and unable to fully remember past events, she reflected on her captivity and the idea that wolves were meant to be free. As despair and determination mixed within her, she questioned whether she would need to break herself to escape. In a grim act of resolve, she bit into her own flesh, beginning a desperate attempt to free herself.^[27]

Far beneath Bastion, Effie had torn free from her enchanted cage, badly weakened by starvation and missing a hand she had torn apart with her own teeth. As her essence slowly returned, so did her terrible hunger, driving her to devour the spoiled food left to torment her. Realizing Nephis was indisposed and would not save the day, she escaped into the dungeon corridor and encountered Saint Thane, the Dream Merchant, who confirmed that Mordret and the Dreamspawn were fighting the decisive battle. Though Effie considered escaping to the waking world, Thane reminded her that the dungeon was full of people immune to Asterion's plague who would suffer if abandoned, and despite her pain and exhaustion, she reluctantly agreed to free them and retake Bastion.^[28]

While Cassie called out to the others, Effie led the escaped prisoners of the Dreamspawn through Mirage Castle toward the throne room, using Saint Athena's strength to sustain the exhausted fighters in battle against Asterion's thralls. During the assault, Cassie contacted Effie mentally and asked her to willingly become a conduit of her Will while warning her to be wary of the thing in the throne room. After overcoming the final defenders, including her enthralled husband, Effie entered the throne room alone and discovered that it was guarded by Sebastian, the Valor family's former butler, who revealed himself to be a homunculus with the strength of a Supreme Demon created to protect the Valor family.^[29]

Effie fought the Clan Valor homunculus in Mirage Castle while enduring a relentless assault of invisible razor-sharp metal strings that shredded her armor and left her badly wounded. Although her enhanced durability kept her alive, her weakened, emaciated body was slowly tearing itself apart under the strain of battle. Relying on her predator instincts, she maneuvered the homunculus away from the throne, seized a golden spear, and put all her remaining strength into a single devastating throw. The spear shattered the throne, broke the sound barrier, and impaled the homunculus against a wall, while the recoil left Effie collapsed and severely injured as she wondered whether her enemy had finally been killed.^[30]

Gravely wounded and driven purely by her killer instinct, Effie brutally overpowered the Supreme Devil homunculus by tearing off its head and smashing it into the floor, finally killing it. After the battle, she collapsed from her severe injuries and believed she might be dying, unable to reach the Gateway herself. When Thane and her soldiers arrived, they carried her toward the Gateway so she could complete the mission. Despite her weakness and humiliation, Effie remained focused on ensuring the objective was fulfilled and that her surviving soldiers made it through alive.^[31]

In Bastion's throne room, Effie reunited with her confused husband and the freed former thralls of Asterion, but when memories of her past interactions with Sunless suddenly resurfaced, she realized what she had called him and let out a mortified scream.^[32]

In Chapter 3034, Kai, Effie, Jet, Morgan, Seishan, and Nightwalker were among the strongest champions of humanity who volunteered to challenge the Fourth Nightmare. They returned to the site of the Battle of the Black Skull. Before entering the Nightmare Gate, each reflected on personal reasons for taking the risk. Effie left behind her husband and child with the determination to return alive.

The tentative plan divides the remaining Sovereigns between the Dream Realm and the waking world. Jet, Kai, and Effie are assigned to defend Earth and oversee the resettlement of humanity. Effie's Soul Garden is particularly useful for accelerating the evacuation.^[33] (Refer to Division of Power)