Christopher Carrion

Christopher Carrion
Artwork by Clive Barker
Titles	Lord of Midnight Midnight Prince The Nightmare Man
Species	Human
Age	Unknown
Gender	Male
Books	Abarat Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War Abarat: Absolute Midnight

Christopher Carrion is one of the main characters in the Abarat series, and functions as the primary antagonist of its first two installments Abarat and Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War.

Appearance and Character

Christopher Carrion has a ghastly appearance, with rotted skin like that of a corpse (or carrion). His lips have scar marks from when his Grandmother sewed his lips shut for saying the word "love." Around his head is a translucent collar filled with a light blue liquid. From the back of his skull are tubes that let his nightmares crawl out from his mind and take on a semi-corporeal form, somewhat like a snake made out of smoke and lightning. It's suggested that when they rub against his skin he can relive the nightmares he had. The fact that he takes joy in this is a testament to his morbid personality. Carrion is also very quick to anger. He enjoys manipulating people to bring out their inner darkness, such as telling a pair of brothers that the other was plotting against them and then watching as they try to kill one another.

Family and History

Carrion is the Lord of Midnight on the Island of Gorgossium. Carrion was raised by his grandmother, Mater Motley, after his mother and siblings were killed in a raging fire. Mater Motley raised Carrion strictly and brought him up to share her belief in the goal of Absolute Midnight, a state where all the islands of the Abarat would eternally be plunged into darkness. Loathing anything verging on sentiment, Mater Motley sewed up Christopher's mouth once when he uttered the word 'love'.

In Abarat

Chirstopher Carrion makes his first appearence in Abarat during a meeting where Mendelson Shape tells him a girl from the Hereafter now has the Key. Though enraged at Shape, he is amused at the prospect of a meeting the girl. His lieutenant Otto Houlihan escorts a man from Commexo City to Gorgossium to review surveillance footage from all across the Abarat. After Shape searches through the images, they find Candy in the Yebba Dim Day. When seeing her image for the first time Carrion was drawn to Candy without realizing why, and orders Shape to capture her and bring her into his presence.In a later chapter it is revealed that Carrion was deeply in love with Princess Boa. Although she treated him with kindness and respect, Princess Boa did not love Carrion and rejected his offer of marriage. He was very scarred emotionally from the aftermath.

In Abarat: Days of Magic: Nights of War

Carrion finally meets Candy for the first time, though intitally in disguise, in the Dead Man's House on the island of Efreet.

It is said, and only suggested by others previously that Carrion sent a dragon to kill the Princess on her wedding day to Finnegan Hob, enraged by her refusal of him but willingness to marry a "half-breed" of Night and Day. Carrion was grief-stricken and intensely guilty after the death of Princess Boa, and fell even deeper into self-loathing.

In Abarat: Absolute Midnight

After returning from the Hereafter and healing himself, he finds Candy to warn her to return home. When she refuses, he tells her of the coming war between Night and Day and what he and his grandmother together had planned for the Abarat in the form of the Sacbrood.

Later, he makes his way to Mater Motley's Stormwalker deathship, where Candy brings a mysterious stranger very closely connected to Carrion's sordid family history to meet again for the first time in decades. The Carrion family's past, present, and future are closely tied to whether the Abarat will survive and it is an ugly affair.

Abilities

Carrion is a very gifted sorcerer, able to conjure a great many things. He can use the powdered bones of a mummified body to create a giant moth, and also see through the eyes of it. Somehow he has found a way to harness his nightmares in a semi-corporeal form as long, snaky forms of lightning. With these he is said to be able to relive his nightmares when they run against his skin. He also suggested that he is able to interrogate dead bodies if he has to.