Brede
Names: BredeBrede of the Two FacesBrede ShipspousePrescient LadyPrescient Lady Brede Shipspousethe Shipspousethe Two-Faced OneTwoface BredeTwo-Facethe exotic womanBrede the Shipspouse
First appears in Book 1: The Many-Colored Land, chapter 1 (Prologue)
Appearances
What you know
Book 1: The Many-Colored Land
- Ch 1Brede is the small woman at the Ship's directive console, called Shipspouse; she is prescient, soothes the quarrel, and has lightly sounded the planet.
- Ch 1Brede reports the planet's dominant life-form is speechless and no mental threat for over six million orbits, though compatible for breeding and service.
Book 2: The Golden Torc
- Ch 2Brede is to initiate Elizabeth into Tanu ways; she is a prescient poet, 'of the Two Faces', and is the only Tanu who understood how torcs work.
- Ch 4Brede, the Shipspouse, is the guard and guide of the Exile, older and perhaps wiser and more powerful than all; she rarely intervenes in the High Kingdom.
- Ch 9Brede is a Shipspouse of a different race from the Tanu and Firvulag, who wears a respirator because Aven's atmosphere is thin for her.
- Ch 9Brede has the metafaculty of prolepsis; she foresaw that the exiles would benefit a younger galaxy and carried them there, and foresees a climactic resolution at the Combat.
- Ch 9Brede says her foresight fails at the human arrival, and she does not know how to proceed with Elizabeth, whom the Host sees as a lethal threat.
- Ch 9Brede invites Elizabeth into her room without doors to share knowledge, offering sanctuary from the Host's attack.
- Ch 12Weird old 'Two-Face' not truly Tanu, who avoids High Kingdom affairs; Nontusvel proposes demanding her ruling on the dispute.
- Ch 12Brede is described as the oldest and wisest, a guide and first benefactor when the galaxy was arrayed against the exiles.
- Ch 12Brede had the original vision that inspired transporting the First Comers to their Exile on Earth.
- Ch 12Brede brought both Tanu and Firvulag to this Earth, so her destiny is linked to both races.
- Ch 19Brede has foreseen Tanu and Firvulag united, and believes Elizabeth is part of the pattern converging at the Grand Combat in three weeks.
- Ch 19Brede concludes Elizabeth's role is to teach her how to guide her people into the psychounion, the mental Unity, rather than to be a racial mother.
- Ch 19Brede is about 14,000 years old and has worn a torc for thousands of years; her Ship mate is dead, leaving her alone.
- Ch 19Brede can use her Ship's legacy of hyperspatial translation to cross the galaxy without machinery, and uses it as the pain source for her ordeal.
- Ch 19After the ordeal Brede becomes operant, removes her torc, and experiences first true Union with a mind of Earth.
- Ch 21Brede forbade Gomnol's scheme to mate Elizabeth with the King; Elizabeth distrusts her as a spider weaving metapsychic webs.
- Ch 23Brede has emerged from the room without doors and placed Elizabeth's genes under the strongest taboo, saying Elizabeth's destiny conflicts with the Thagdal–Gomnol mating scheme.
- Ch 31Brede, the Shipspouse, refused to attend the meeting, saying the Combat would reveal the Goddess's Will; she says Felice's rescue was not planned by her.
- Ch 33Brede claims a racial vision needing Elizabeth's help and pursued Elizabeth's operancy to reach her; Elizabeth sees her as manipulative.
- Ch 34Brede replies by mind to Sukey even after her torc is cut off, saying events will happen as foreseen.
- Ch 38Brede is a masked exotic Shipspouse who freed three humans from gray torcs and assigned each a role for the coming day.
- Ch 39Brede's arrival at the Encounters is described as unprecedented.
- Ch 40Brede, the dark Shipspouse who has guided both races for a thousand years, wept and decreed the last Combat between the two heroes, with Sword and Spear.
- Ch 41Brede died in the cataclysm; her mind passed Elizabeth with a final touch and was met by a vast, bright, loving alien mate.
Book 3: The Nonborn King
- Ch 6Brede called Elizabeth the most important person in the world; Elizabeth considers her melodramatic and manipulative.
- Ch 13The Shipspouse who transported the Tanu and Firvulag to Earth and conscripted Elizabeth; Elizabeth doubts whether it was a great objective evil.
- Ch 30Brede died in the Flood after giving her mind-screening device to Elizabeth's friends.
- Ch 34The Shipspouse designated Elizabeth for the task of healing Felice, according to Creyn.
Book 4: The Adversary
- Ch 5Called the most important woman in the world; an ancient Shipspouse who endured a mind-expanding ordeal with Elizabeth and waited fourteen thousand years to die.
- Ch 5Brede came to see tore technology as a meta-psychic catastrophe that doomed the Duat Mind to a dead end.
- Ch 5Brede came to believe Duat Mind evolution could continue only by merging with the human race, perhaps via relict Pliocene mating with Neanderthals.
- Ch 34Brede is a figure whom Elizabeth is made to symbolize; she is described as two-faced and wore the black-and-scarlet robes and glittering mask.
Connections
- related toThe ShipShipspouse, bonded to the Ship
- related toElizabeth Ormeto become Brede's initiateoffers sanctuary and mutual teaching; Elizabeth remains wary
- related toTanubrought them to Earth
- related toFirvulagbrought them to Earth
- related toBrede's ShipShipspouse; mate of the interstellar organism
- leadsTanuguide and teacher of her people
- leadsFirvulagguide and teacher of her people
- related toThagdalShipspouse who defies his mating scheme
- friend ofElizabeth Orme
- related toSukey DaviesBrede calls Sukey 'Little Daughter' and answers her mental call
- ally ofElizabeth Orme
- createdroom without doors
- partner ofBrede's ShipShip is Brede's mate
Key moments
- Book 1 · Ch 1The Ship arrives and crashes
The dying Ship emerges near the planet; the exiles flee in flyers before it plunges into the eastern highlands, creating a huge crater.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Plan to compel Elizabeth's self-destruction
Imidol and Culluket will design a compulsion to self-destruction, powered by the Host members in Muriah, while waiting for Nodonn and Grand Combat. They resolve to act after Brede's initiation and to hide it from the Thagdal and Gomnol.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Suicide compulsion on the headland
The Host of Nontusvel bombards Elizabeth with suicide compulsion at the cliff edge; she shows she is aware of it and shuts them out, and they withdraw.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Entering the room without doors
Brede leads Elizabeth into her mentally silent sanctuary, where Elizabeth feels relief from mental noise.
- Book 2 · Ch 9Brede tells the story of the exiles
Brede recounts the origins of Tanu and Firvulag on Duat, the Ships, the Golden Age and wars, and how her prescience led her to carry the exiles to this galaxy.
- Book 2 · Ch 12Dispute over Gomnol's plan for Elizabeth
The Host demands Elizabeth's death, fearing hybrid operants; Gomnol and Eadone defend the plan. Aiken Drum's possible challenge is raised, and the Queen proposes demanding a ruling from Brede.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Brede asks Elizabeth to teach her the Unity
Brede abandons the genetrix idea, proposes Elizabeth teach her mental Unity techniques. Elizabeth refuses, then agrees because the teacher shares the ordeal and she expects to die.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Hyperspatial ordeal and Brede's awakening
Across the galaxy in hyperspace, Brede endures agony guided by Elizabeth, glimpses a bright presence, and is drawn back. She becomes operant, removes her torc and experiences first Union with Elizabeth.
- Book 2 · Ch 19Elizabeth leaves to see the King
Elizabeth, angered by Brede's attempt to resume probing the pattern, resolves to tell the King her new judgment and retrieve her balloon. Brede promises the balloon and to deal with the Host of Nontusvel.
- Book 2 · Ch 21Elizabeth relieves black-torc child and receives call
Elizabeth eases a dying child, refuses to stay long-term, and then hears Angélique's telepathic call about sabotage of the torcworks, with Brede's help.
- Book 2 · Ch 23The King's failure and the doomsday survey
After Thagdal fails again with a love-gift girl, Nontusvel comforts him. He reveals Brede's taboo on Elizabeth and Bryan's survey predicting Tanu downfall. He vows to stop a human-hybrid coalition and destroy the reports.
- Book 2 · Ch 33Elizabeth rejects Brede
Elizabeth withdraws into the room without doors and refuses Brede's pleas until Brede's calls fade.
- Book 2 · Ch 34Stein cuts Sukey's torc
Watching the flood from the balloon, Stein, resolved to let the catastrophe proceed, cuts Sukey's golden torc with steel cutters to silence her. Brede still reaches her mind.
- Book 2 · Ch 38Brede instructs the humans
Brede leads Basil, Burke and Amerie to Elizabeth's room, assigns their tasks, tells them to stay until dawn, and vanishes.
- Book 2 · Ch 40Aiken named Lugonn and defies Thagdal
Mayvar names Aiken the Shining One, Young Lugonn. He plants the Sword of Sharn before Thagdal instead of giving fealty; Brede ordains a final Combat of Sword and Spear.
- Book 3 · Ch 13Elizabeth and Creyn argue Brede's legacy
Elizabeth voices her fear that replacing Brede repeats the sin of forcing destiny, drawing parallels to the Metapsychic Rebellion; Creyn answers with felix culpa.
- Book 4 · Ch 5Elizabeth and Creyn discuss the doomed Duat Mind
Elizabeth tells Creyn that Brede saw the tore as dooming the Duat Mind and that humans may rise to Unity using it as a stepping-stone. Creyn counsels trust; Elizabeth admits despair.