SPOILER WARNING May contain plot details |
| “ | Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to. | ” |
–Madoc, The Wicked King | ||
Madoc is a redcap faerie and the former Grand General of Elfhame under the rule of High King Eldred. He is the father to Vivienne, foster father to Taryn and Jude Duarte, and Oak, and husband to Oriana.
Physical Description[]
Madoc is described as having greenish skin, gold cat's eyes, and lower teeth too long for his mouth, typical of redcaps. He is tall and burly with furred pointed ears and blonde hair. He has claw-like nails.
Personality[]
He is very protective of his family, but is also very ambitious, cunning, and ruthless. He enjoys bloodshed and uses it to achieve his goals. As a redcap, Madoc dips his cap into the blood of those he has killed. It is mentioned by Jude that war is part of his nature. He describes himself as someone who doesn't shirk his responsibilities. Thus, he takes Jude and Taryn because as "the progeny of his wife" they are his responsibility. He doesn't mind the barely suppressed conflict that stems from Oriana, Vivi, Taryn, and Jude. He's capable of love, but it is a violent form of love. Oak explains that Madoc has always craved conquest, not necessarily for the power, but for the fight itself.
Biography[]
Childhood[]
Madoc was born on a battlefield. His mother sliced through the umbilical cord with her blade, binding him in her cloak. Though her thighs were stained in red and her newborn howled like the dying around them, she continued fighting until she won the battle. For all his life, she repeated to Madoc that he was a true redcap: born in blood and bred to bloodshed.
Early Life[]
Madoc fell in love with a human woman named Eva, and she became his wife. While she was pregnant with Vivienne, she ran away with Justin Duarte while Madoc was at war. She burned down the house and left a woman and an infant burnt remains to cover her escape.
Madoc arrives in the human realm at the house of Eva and Justin. Justin tries to kill Madoc but is killed instead. Eva tries to flee and Madoc stabs her in the back, killing her. Madoc takes Vivi, Jude, and Taryn back to the faerie realm.
Madoc raises the girls in Elfhame at his Stronghold as if they were all his daughters, not just Vivi. He ensures they know how to fight using various weapons and insists they are educated along with the children of the Gentry.
Madoc and his family attend a revel at the High Court as is required of Madoc in his role as general.
When Jude asks for permission to wear the sash signifying she is competing for knighthood in the Summer Tournament, Madoc refuses her. He says that she is not a killer.
At Jude's request, Madoc begins giving her lessons in strategy and tactics, where she has to accomplish certain objectives with a limited amount of resources. He also continues to train her in sword fighting.
He is furious when he learns that Jude was forced to eat faerie fruit. She won't tell him who did it to her because she knows Madoc will go and kill them, which is would put her position in danger.
Jude learns from Oriana that Madoc wants to take control of the throne by crowning Oak the High King. This would make Madoc the regent and he will be able to control Elfhame.
At the coronation, Madoc reveals himself to be an ally of Prince Balekin and helps him kill the royal family, except for Prince Cardan who was missing. After Jude and Taryn duel over what happened with Locke, Madoc offers to broker a trade between Balekin and Jude for Cardan. He tells Taryn that Locke doesn't deserve either her or her sister but that he won't stand in the way of her choices.
After Cardan shows up to Balekin's banquet with Jude, Madoc meets her in the hall. Jude offers him a drink. When Madoc is unable to promise to give up his regency when Oak comes of age and to never hurt him, they duel. Madoc gains the upper hand, but weakens because of the poison Jude had slipped into the drink she gave him. He slips into unconsciousness and thus misses his opportunity to seize the crown and the throne.Madoc retains his position as the High King's General, but his relationship with Jude is strained. He constantly schemes to undermine Jude. Madoc later gets Taryn to betray Jude by impersonating her in front of Cardan, taking half of the king's army and severing Madoc's ties to the crown.
Madoc plots against Cardan, after having taken half of Cardan's army. When Jude comes back dressed as Taryn, Madoc sends a messenger to tell her he'll save her. Once Cardan takes Jude back to his room, Madoc's troops are there and they capture Jude. At Madoc's camp, Madoc promises Jude/Taryn, that he'll remember her loyalty and she'll be rewarded. Madoc tells Jude (Taryn) that it is his fault they turned out the way they did, since they were like blades forged in fire. Not breaking. Later, however, Madoc learns that it is really Jude and he attacks her and leaves deadly wounded.
Madoc then comes before the throne and challenges Cardan for the crown. After Cardan becomes a serpent, Madoc allies with the Court of Teeth to give Jude a faulty bridal that is supposed to bind Cardan to her. While trying to negotiate with them, he tells Jude that she will be able to be a mortal Queen who is unchallenged with bound to her. Taryn, that she will have all of Locke's lands and perhaps a title. That Vivi can live in the mortal world without the ties of family, and that Oak will be with his mother. Madoc offers that they get rid of the Living Court and he will take place as Jude's advisors. He also admits he agreed to the Court of Teeth that Oak would marry Queen Suren, that way when he ascends the throne, so will she. When Jude kills serpent Cardan, Madoc bows When Jude kills serpent Cardan and Cardan comes out, Madoc submits. Though saying he'll only surrender to her and her alone. Due to his treachery, Jude exiles him to the mortal realm, where Taryn jokes that he will micromanage Vivianne's life and plan an invasion of the neighboring apartment building.
Oak tells Suren that after Madoc was exiled to the mortal world and stuck with the geas that kept him from picking up a weapon, he was completely at a loss. He started working shifts at a slaughterhouse just for the smell of blood. He trained Oak in combat and strategy. He began playing politics with the neighbors in his apartment building and had them all at each other's throats within a month.
Madoc has since been kidnapped by Lady Nore.
Relationships[]
Jude Duarte[]
Jude confesses her relationship with Madoc to be an odd love. Madoc was like a parent for the twins, although he was the murderer of their real parents. Madoc raised them out of obligation, honor, and duty, but he raised them with love. He demands that they receive everything due to children of the nobility, which is not the norm in Faerie. He teaches them how to fight, and after that, Madoc helps Jude in improving her technique in combat and knowledge of strategy. Jude knows he is thirsty for power and he is cunning. Jude knows that his love is a dangerous and violent sort of love. She knows that his need for war will come before his love of her and her siblings. Madoc is the father Jude remembers best, the one in whose shadow she has, for better or worse, become what she is.
Vivienne[]
Vivienne and Madoc have a poor relationship because she has never forgiven Madoc for killing her mother and stepfather. She is angry at Madoc for stealing her and her half-sisters away from the mortal realm and taking them to the faerie realm. Because of this Vivienne is cold towards her father and spends a lot of her time in the mortal world. When he killed her mother and stepfather, she vows to hate him forever. Vivi would like to punish Madoc, but her only power is to be a thorn in his side. Because she is Madoc's legitimate daughter, she feels no pressure to please him and does what she likes, knowing that he will not hurt her. If Madoc approves of something, Vivi immediately despises it.
Taryn Duarte[]
TBA
Oriana[]
TBA
Oak[]
While not Oak's father by blood, Madoc is the person who raised him. Oak sees him as his dad. And while he acknowledges how complicated Madoc is, Oak loves him. He trained Oak in combat and strategy.
Eva Duarte[]
TBA
Gallery[]
Triva[]
- After every battle, he ritually dips his hood into the blood of his enemies. He keeps the hood, under glass in the armory.[1]
- Madoc’s crest contains a dagger, a crescent moon turned on its side so it rests like a cup, and a single drop of blood falling from one corner embroidered in silk thread.[2]
- Jude says that Madoc smells like smoke and dried blood.[3]
References[]
- ↑ The Cruel Prince, Chapter 4
- ↑ The Cruel Prince, Chapter 4
- ↑ The Wicked King: Prologue