- "Maybe it's my job to represent Fillory."
- ―Fen
High King Fen is the wife of Eliot Waugh and the leader of the High Council. Born in Fillory, Fen was betrothed to the High King before her birth by her grandfather, who demanded she become royalty as payment for his services in forging the Leo Blade to stop The Beast. She will help to shape the future of the land, become the first Fillorian officially on the throne and participate in the creation of the New Fillory, getting the nickname of Birth Mother of Fillory.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Growing Up in Fillory[]
Fen was born in Fillory and raised by a family of knifemakers and swordsmiths. She was raised with two dads and a mother, being aware of polyamory couples happening in her land from a young age.[1] Like every Fillorian girl, she went through Tree School, and eventually joined the radical group known as Fillorians United during her teenage years, in rebellion against having to marry a stranger, whom she didn't know if she would come to love.
Married to a stranger[]
Quentin and Julia made a deal with Fen's grandfather to provide them access to the throne in exchange for the Leo Blade. After some time travel, they come to collect the blade decades later, as Fen's father is now the knifemaking shop owner. Using a knife that will only harm a High King, they manage to figure who will be the new leader of their land within the strangers from Earth. Fen is then to be married that night to Eliot Waugh and told by her father that she must consumate the marriage that day to make it official.
Wife of the High King[]
The day after their wedding, Eliot leaves to battle The Beast and help Fillory. Fen - and Eliot - believe that this will kill him, so it is a surprise for her to see him come back with all his friends to her house; The Beast had not been comprehensively defeated, and they need to gather to form a new plan.
She heads to Castle Whitespire with Eliot to find that the castle has been poorly kept, and the throne room is locked due to a curse. While his husband and his friend are gone in the castle's armory, Fen gets to talk to Tick Pickwick and start the cleaning and upkeep of Castle Whitespire.
When Eliot's friend leaves for Earth and has to face the fact that he is alone in Fillory, Fen tries to be the wife she was told she had to be: obedient, quiet, and creating an heir. If Eliot empowers her to speak up, in bed, he is reluctant to be with her as she is not what he prefers.
While explaining to Eliot that, because of The Beast stealing Fillory's magic, the land and the crops of the farmers are dying, she is then confronted with the fact that her husband is as clueless as her when it comes to lead an entire country. Through discussion, Fen makes Eliot realize that Fillorians use magic to grow crops, and then her husband introduces fertilizer to the farming land, saving them from famine. When the Throne room is finally clean, Eliot (and the other monarch High Queen Margo, Queen Alice and King Quentin) become cursed by a spell put there by The Beast decades ago, making whoever sits on the thrones want to kill one another. With Penny's help, Fen will help them stop the curse from happening and save all of them.
Pregnant![]
After insisting a few times to lay in bed with her husband, Fen becomes pregnant and is overjoyed to announce it to Eliot. She becomes quickly saddened by the fact that he seemed less than thrilled and when she privately tries to find the reason only for an assassination attempt to be made on her husband.
After discovering that it is the Fillorians United who were behind it, she goes to confront the leader, Bayler, whom she reminds the group was never violent. Her allegiance changed now that she is a wife and mother to be. After being threatened by Bayler to reveal she was one of them, Fen tells Eliot the truth, which makes him stop trusting her. Fen tries to defend herself, reminding him that she is not in this marriage for love but for the sake of Fillory.
Meanwhile, High Queen Margo put Fillory at war with Loria, which leads to Eliot having to combat King Idri. The chances are not so great for her husband to survive as Loria's king is a known swordsman. She runs to her father's house, where she remembered having a sword forged by her grandfather that granted whoever speaks the magical enchantment linked to it, would become a master swordsman as well. It had been crafted for a king who never came to claim it, and so she gives it to Eliot, who goes at war more confident than ever.
High Queen Margo, still trying to save Eliot from the combat and knowing that magic is sparse due to The Beast trick Fen into accepting a deal with the fairies where she does not know the terms yet. Eliot ends up coming back alive and with the promise of marrying Idri instead of killing him, which shocks Fen and Margo.
After it, Fen seems to sight many fairies looking at her for a second only to disappear. She tries to support her husband in his new marriage preparation, but her mind is elsewhere. Only when she sees that Margo, too, is seeing the Fairies that Fen is reassured that she is not losing her mind. She is then learning that the deal with the fairy she agreed on was to give her baby to the fairies. In a rage, Fen tells Margo to find a solution as she will not give her baby and, when she is going to tell Eliot, the fairy tricked her and capture her away from Castle Whitespire.
The Fairies[]
Fen spends the rest of her pregnancy shackle in the dungeons of The Fairy Realm. When she gives birth, she cannot hold her daughter, who is then taken away from her. Devastated, she even refuses to follow Josh and Margo when they come to save her as she wants to leave with her daughter.
When she heard that the fairies were about to do a coup and take over Castle Whitespire, Fen manage to bargain with the Fairy Queen to go back home to warn Eliot and Margo. She pays the price of having her toes removed from her.
While The Fairy Queen is taking over Fillory and uses Margo and Eliot as puppets for her plan, Fen becomes disinterested in anything happening and goes into a deep postpartum depression that leads her to be delusional. She even goes to carrying a log and cuddles it as a replacement for her daughter.
Fray[]
As Eliot is trying to find a solution to bring back magic and get rid of the Fairy Queen, Fen tells him about the Muntjac. Since she is the reason he is going on a quest, she invites herself to the journey. The Fairy Queen requests that someone she trusts on the boat and presents them to Frail Human, mostly known as Fray, who is their daughter, who grew up faster in the Fairy Realm. Fen ultimately buys the explanation and throws herself at her lost daughter while Eliot doubts her.
After many adventures that lead them to Outer Islands, where Fen can show her knife expertise to her husband, with pirates on the Muntjac and in the Neitherlands, Fen, Eliot and Fray finally arrive on Earth. Eliot sends her and Fray with Todd to explore New York City as he continues his quest with Quentin. She comes back full of glee to have experienced the "square of time" and had family-style diner with Fray in a pizzeria. Despite Fray's reluctance, she tries to be a mother to her.
After Eliot and Margo leave to see the Fairy Queen in Fillory, Fray discovers that they have hidden fairy eggs in The Physical Kids' Cottage. Fen tries to stay loyal to her husband and explain that loyalty is to trust your family sometimes, even when you don't fully understand their actions. Fray flees, which alarms Fen, who warns Eliot and Margo, who were about to negotiate the ransom for the fairy eggs with the Fairy Queen.
The Fairy Queen arrives with Fray, who tells her everything Eliot has been doing to get rid of her and where the eggs are. Fen feels betrayed by her daughter, but when the Fairy Queen turns against Fray, she decides to come clean, saying that she is not their daughter. This forces the Fairy Queen to admit that Fen and Eliot's daughter died in childbirth, bringing Fen to tears and needing to leave Fillory, far away from any fairies.
Skye[]
She arrives on Earth and meets Alice, both of them drink, and Fen drunkenly advises Alice to lead her to do something about her doubt about magic. Fen drunkenly falls asleep only to wake up to Julia, opening the door to Irene McAllistair and Skye. Alarm to see a fairy, she tells Julia who couldn't see Skye as she did not deal with the fairies.
Julia manages to convince Fen to help, which leads Fen to talk to Skye and discover her name and the fact that the fairy believes she is not a slave but working for Irene, so she is protected from other humans. Wanting to know more they investigate and find Skype being amputated of her leg as her limb grounded into fairy dust.
Julia wants to help, and Fen is reluctant as the fairies are why her daughter is dead. She ends up agreeing only if she does not have to pretend she likes the fairies, which Julia understands. Together, they find that the McAllistair Family has been having fairies for generations and uses the fairies as slaves and fairy dust for magic. They seek the Fairy Queen for her help, and she only agrees when Fen reminds her that she hates the fairies and yet wants to help because she believes their situation is not fair.
When Fen discovers that the collar they are wearing is only removable through beheading, she will confront Dust, a fairy who participated in the decapitation. Dust explains his ordeal while the Fairy Queen listens. Then Edwin McAllistair comes to get Skye to get more of her limb, Fen and Julia try to protect her only from being blasted to the wall by magic. Seeing humans trying to protect her kin, the Fairy Queen decides to finally help and breaks the deals her mother has made with the McAllistairs, freeing all of the fairies.
(Acting) High King[]
Fen comes back to help Eliot in the first Fillorian election, and despite her husband losing will be front row to applaud as Margo makes her way as the first female High King.
Quickly Margo has to leave to save magic and decide to give the command of Fillory to Fen by making her Acting High King. This makes her the first Fillorian to be rightfully on the throne. When the Fairy Queen, newly given citizenship to Fillory, comes to seek help, Fen does not hesitate to protect the fairies from being kidnapped by Gavin and Irene McAllistair. When the Fairy Queen ends up giving her lives to those two in exchange for the protection of all the fairies, Fen cries, which surprises the Fairy Queen, who kisses her goodbye in the act of respect.
It takes an oddly long time for Margo to come back, and meanwhile, Fen learns the rope of leadership. The air in Fillory has become saturated with opium, killing many people, and rumors are spreading about the return from the dead of Ember. She is then alerted by Tick Pickwick that her guard found a stranger who says she is High King Margo but does not look like her at all.
With the stranger, they manage to find that the god Bacchus is impersonating Ember and the reason for the air problem. While confronting the god, the stranger magically turned herself back to being the real Margo. Without hesitation, Fen gives her back her crown and power to rule, only for the High King to be sent away to Earth by Bacchus, who does not want to have his disguise revealed.
When Margo comes back, she tells Fen about Eliot's body being possessed by Nameless and is most likely dead. Fen starts to mourn her husband with the Fillorian traditions to High King Margo's exasperation, who needs her help to deal with Lady Pike.
During her mourning, Fen starts to have dreams that tell the future, such as the talking animals becoming silent or Josh's souffle failing. The latter helps her control her lucid dream, which leads her to go on a solo quest -that becomes a duo quest when Margo follows her - towards a woman who pretends she is the one who sends the dream. While Fen is excited to prove herself to the Green Lady, Margo gets suspicious and reveals the woman as a fraud.
Back to the castle, Margo gives Fen ambient sleeping pills that make her deep into sleep while she chases the lady in green in her dream. It is then that The Napster reveals herself to give Fen a warning; for the sake of Fillory, she must dethrone Margo.
Fen tries to resist this omen from the questing creature, but when Queen Ru comes to a diplomatic diner and the same warning from The Napster, it becomes hard for her to avoid it. She tries to resist, even when Margo learns the plot that Ru has concocted, but eventually, she goes with the Coup since Margo orders her to do it and discovers that it is the only way it could save Eliot.
As a king, Fen will discover a secret passage within Castle Whitespire that is open only if you play a game of Bearskip. This passage reveals the Drowned Garden and the Secret Sea, which leads to the others being able to gather the power to defeat Nameless and his sister and bring back Eliot.
The End of Fen's Reign[]
As Fen takes the leadership of Fillory, Josh stays with her as a counselor. After a while, they notice that magic is not restricted anymore and that their friend manages to stop the Order of the library's control over it. They expect their friend to come back to the lands, but they are not. Months pass, then years, and they both start to wonder if their friend has not abandoned them. Their worry takes over anything else, which made them blind to the threat of the Takers and the Dark King, who are first seen in the Northern Marsh. As the problem grows more prominent, the people of Fillory get angry at their leader's inaction and revolt against them. They end up beheading Josh and hanging Fen, who is no longer their leader. This is what Fillorians will celebrate in the Great Unshackling.
Timey Wimey[]
Margo, who could not be reached because the surges of magic created a leap of 300 years for Fillory, will try to warn Fen and Josh in the past.
Margo's first try to warn them of the Takers, and the fate that awaits them is via the talking bees who Josh is deadly allergic to and dies. Fen manages to listen to them; she sent an army of soldiers to hunt down the Dark King, "a massive search that was viewed as a tyrannical overreach by the people of Fillory. She was overthrown and executed." [2]
The second try what via a Time Stamp, a magical stamp that can be sent to anyone at any moment in history when used on an envelope. She writes a letter to Josh before he gets stung by the bees, explaining everything that happens for the first time and after her first try. They rally all of Fillory against the Takers and manage to banish them. But as they celebrate their victory, a new swarm of Takers appears in the castle and kills everybody.
The last attempt of communication was from Eliot who tells them to run away as there is no hope for them. Josh, Fen and some people from the court follow the advice and come in the future, leaving Fillory of the past to be taken over by the Takers and the Dark King becoming the leader of Fillory.
Mother of Fillory[]
The Maid from Inside[]
While trying to save Fillory from the Dark King, Fen enters the centurion tournament with Margo. Both women end up finalists as Centurion, but a patriarchal law allows only one woman. Before the battle, Margo -who is high on werewolf hormones - learns that Josh and Fen had slept together when they believed their friend had abandoned them, which makes Fen a werewolf as well.
Margo will stab Fen into the heart in battle, but she survives as it was only a Childsplay Knife, and no harm could genuinely happen. She then learns that Margo has no idea that it was a harmless knife and tried to kill her. Hurt, Fen, lose the blind admiration she had over Margo.
To be near her friends, and since she loses a place into becoming a centurion, Fen gets herself employed as a maid in the castle. Eliot tries to get her not to come to Earth by saying they need a "maid from the inside," which she naively believes is an Earth saying.
While everyone is gone, Fen manages to contact the fairies and their new queen, Rowan. Despite her past with the fairies, she manages to gain their trust only to have Margo come into the camp and derail the friendship. Margo tends to make amend by saving them from an incoming raid from Bick Pickwick. Grateful, Rowan then shows them part of the secret of the Dark King; he is the one summoning the Takers.
After everyone gets together and decides to kill the Dark King, Fen helps Julia learn that she is pregnant. She becomes rather protective of the new mother as part of her still yearn to be one.
Representing Fillory[]
When the Dark King's assassination attempt happens, Fen and the other flee the castle as they do not want to get captured by others. Fen is the first to arrive on Earth, where they find Plover in a confused state due to the Tongue Twister inhabiting his body. After helping him, they then learn the Dark King's truth and the fact that they need to destroy Fillory to kill him.
Fen is then summoned in a dream by Ember, as well as Eliot, Margo and Josh. All former High Kings of Fillory are warned by the Ember Alert System that if the Dark King goes with his plan of opening the gate to the Underworld, Fillory and the rest of the worlds will be swarmed with the dead. While everyone agrees that the best way to stop the Dark King is to destroy Fillory, Fen is somewhat reluctant to the idea but stays silent as nobody listens to her.
They go to Umber's House in Vancouver to find a pocket world to put all of the Fillorians inside, so they could be safe while another Fillory would be created. There, Fen's knowledge of the Fillorian scripture helps them enter the place, but when she is put to the test of finding the right pocket world for the Fillorians, Margo becomes rather obnoxious towards her. Fen, not wanting to do the plan in the first place, snaps and leaves, telling them to find the answer without her. Eliot will go to calm her down and will be the first to listen to her worries.
- "But I just keep thinking, if this was Earth, you would try a lot harder to find some other way."
- ―Fen to Eliot Waugh
Eliot agrees with her and makes her understand that she has to choose between the world she knows and the people and its culture. She then gets the Great Seahorse pocket world to save the Fillorians and now aims to get the World Seed to give them a new home.
My Fillory[]
Fen and the others decide to do a heist to get the World Seed from The Couple. Under a Conductor Spell and equipped with an emotion bottle, they enter The Nave Hotel. Quickly, Fen, Margo and Josh get captured by Psycho!Fogg . Fen manages to bargain time with The Couple by saying the World Seed page they are translating from old Fillorian is wrong and can help. While she translates, the others manage to get their plan in action.
Margo and Josh manage to get Paloma at gunpoint, so George uses Fen as leverage. Josh calms things down by reminding they need the World Seed needs a moist, and 99-degree room and where they are is becoming colder by the second from the ac activated by Alice and Eliot. George liberates Fen while Margo does the same with Paloma, but the bag she is holding is now broken, and the Seed is at risk. While Margo distracts The Couple, Fen manages to put the World Seed inside of her vagina and then run away with the others. When safe, she tells the others where the [World Seed]] is, which troubles and impresses them at the same time.
After planing the finer details, Fen, Zelda and Alice go to the Neitherlands Library, where Fen removes the World Seed and gets it ready to hatch. Meanwhile, the dead have risen, and The Beast is now inside the library going toward the Fillory fountain. Zelda makes Alice and Fen flee as she stays to protect the fountains, giving her life.
Back on Earth, they go to Brakebills' lab and, with little time left, Fen is asked to talk about Fillory. Her description is rather visual, and Alice explains to her that she has to be emotional. In her speech, Fen talks about her Fillory, where she saw good things and injustice, inequality and many backward ways of thinking.
Hoping for a better Fillory, one with what she loves of both worlds she visited, the World Seed then open and brings her, Alice, Margo and Josh to the New Fillory she created.
There, Margo says Fen should be the one who brings back the Fillorians from the pocket world as she carried this new world literally inside her, but in the end, Fen calling herself the birth-mother of the New Fillory gives the honor to Margo, whom she crowns the High King.
Personality[]
To be added
- Learning Self-Worth: "Do you value yourself?"
"I have to don't I?" - Napster to Fen[3] - Empathy: "Tears? For your enemies?" - Fairy Queen to Fen[4]
Abilities[]
- "She is a knifemaker's daughter, she can handle herself."
- ―Eliot Waugh
- Skilled Marksman: Raised in a family of knifemakers, Fen is extremely skilled in throwing daggers and can aim at lethal spots, such as the head, demonstrating high coordination.
- Combatant: To be added
Equipment[]
- Daggers: Fens pull out dagger hidden in her clothes in S03E03
- Childsplay Knife: Practice knife for kids, gives the impression of harm without actually harming
Relationships[]
Family[]
Allies[]
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Enemies[]
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Appearances[]
Appearances of Fen |
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In chronological order: |
Trivia[]
- Fen's actress Brittany Curran confirmed that Fen's backstory of being raised by polyamorous parents was written into the script then removed for time.
- In The Magicians, Fen is the partner of Dint, and serves as a guide to Quentin Coldwater and his friends when they first arrive in Fillory. She is skilled in martial arts and uses Battle Magic to augment her fighting techniques. She was killed by Dint, who was revealed to be an agent of The Beast.