Rikke

Rikke
Rikke by bluerbell
Alias	Rikke of the Long Eye Sticky Rikke Black Rikke (later) Queen of the Northmen (later)
Culture	Northmen
Family	The Dogman (father, deceased) Unnamed (mother, deceased)
Status	Alive
Book(s)	A Little Hatred (POV) The Trouble With Peace (POV) The Wisdom of Crowds (POV)

“	I know there’s a better North waiting. A North free of the grip of Scale Ironhand, and the one who pulls his strings, Black Calder, and the one who pulls his strings even. A North free for everyone to choose their own way. And your Long Eye will pick out our path to it.	”
	— Isern to Rikke

Rikke is The Dogman’s daughter. Blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the Long Eye, which gives her glimpses of the future, accompanied by paralysing fits and loss of control over her bowels.

Appearance

Rikke has a wild tangle of red-brown hair, a wide expressive face, and excellent teeth. Her most distinctive feature is her eyes, huge and pale and almost overly-expressive. She has a thick gold ring through her freckled nose (“it keeps me tethered”), and a cross of dark paint over her left eye ("a goodly mark much loved by the moon”). She also wears a rattling mass of beads, charms and talismans around her neck, including a well-bitten dowel for her fits.

Later, Rikke gets a tattoo. Her left eye (her so called Long Eye) is surrounded by a cobweb of fine black lines and letters, circles and symbols, with the pupil yawning huge and black. Her right eye has a great red stain, with the pupil shrivelled to a milky pinprick; apparently blind.

Personality

Rikke has grown up a little coddled, the only child of a powerful chief, with no mother, and a hall full of old warriors doting upon her. She lacks confidence in herself, but others – her father, Isern-i-Phail, and Caul Shivers – see hidden depths inside her. She has two mentors in her life, pulling her in opposite directions; the mad-hillwoman Isern urging her to “make of your heart a stone” to get anything done, while The Dogman wants her to use her heart so she can get the right things done.

History

Rikke was born in Uffrith, the capital of the Protectorate, the only daughter of The Dogman, and an unnamed mother, who apparently died in childbirth. With her father grieving, Caul Shivers, probably the most feared man in The North, became an unlikely nursemaid for the sickly infant. Raised in her father's hall, she was doted upon by his old warriors but shunned by other children who thought her mad due to the fits and twitchiness. Her closest friend was Shivers, whom she never feared despite his metal eye, felt there was something odd about a friendship between a little girl and an infamous killer. When Leo dan Brock was fostered in Uffrith in his youth, the pair were close, though he mocked her fits until she knocked him down and sat on him. Later, Rikke herself spent a year in Ostenhorm, where a Union tutor taught her to read and write.

A Little Hatred

The mad-hillwoman Isern-i-Phail has taken Rikke under-her-wing to help control her fits, interpret her visions, and perhaps toughen her up a bit. Rikke’s story begins recovering from one of her fits, somewhere outside Uffrith. None of these visions makes much sense, except for the one about Uffrith burning, which makes her worry for her father. As the two women head for home, they encounter three of Stour Nightfall’s scouts in the woods and kill them. Then emerging from the forest, they see that Uffrith is indeed burning, just like in her vision. Isern is typically pragmatic; pleased to have conclusive proof that Rikke does indeed have the Long Eye.

With her characteristic tough love, Isern leads Rikke south towards The Dogman’s folk and their Union allies. While trying to sneak past the marauding Northmen, the two women are forced to hide beneath a root-riddled overhang in an icy river, and hear three Northmen, Jonas Clover, Wonderful, and Stour Nightfall himself, discussing the search for Rikke. Black Calder wants to use The Dogman’s daughter as a hostage in negotiations, but Stour has all sorts of unpleasantness in mind for her. Rather than being afraid, however, Stour's revelation only makes Rikke boil with fury.

Rikke and Isern are now being hunted, chased through the forest by Northmen with dogs. They find their way blocked by a narrow ravine, which Isern jumps with ease, but Rikke crashes into the lip and begins to slide over the edge. Isern drags her back from the fall, but gets an arrow in the leg in the process. Rikke sees another arrow coming straight at them, but she sees it with the Long Eye. Knowing everything about the arrow, she finds it easy to just nudges it safely off course. Having doubting herself, Rikke can no longer deny she has the Long Eye. Slowed by the hillwoman’s injury, she soon hears someone approaching and prepares to fight. To her delight, Caul Shivers steps into the clearing his sword wet with blood from killing their pursuers. He ignobly hauls the wounded hillwoman over his shoulder, and begins to lead them towards The Dogman’s camp.

In the camp, Rikke and Isern stop to admire two shirtless men training in a good-old fistfight. As the crowd shout the winners name, Rikke struts over to Leo dan Brock, and catches her childhood friend in a hug. That night Rikke gets drunk whilst her father gives a speech at a feast. He doesn’t know if he has the bones for yet another fight, but she reassures him that he's done plenty good besides raising her. Meanwhile, he cautions her against making of her heart a stone and tells her he likes her heart how it is. Later, Rikke finds Leo being lectured by his mother. After a flirtatious exchange Rikke takes Leo outside, kisses him, and then drags him into a barn for a roll in the straw.

Rikke and Leo are now lovers, though she’s well aware he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. She can’t resist mocking him for his petulance at his mother's strategy, his resentment that Prince Orso might steal the glory, and his very tight-knit group of male friends. One morning Rikke has one of her fits. When Isern helps bring her round, this time the Long Eye has shown her a lion and a wolf fighting in a circle, and, though the wolf had the best of it, the lion was the winner. Leo is intrigued by this last prediction. Another morning, they are interrupted by Jurand with news that a Knights Herald has arrived in the camp. At a war council, Finree dan Brock announces that, due to the uprising in Valbeck, Orso and his regiment won't be coming for weeks. The only person who looks happy is Leo, who realises that they therefore stand alone against Stour Nightfall and Black Calder.

After weeks of retreating, Finree and The Dogman decide to make a stand in a narrow valley with an ancient-looking bridge, with Dogman's folk hiding in a ruined fortress on a hilltop. On the day of the battle, Rikke sees a tall pale man slip from the forest with dozens more men behind him. No one else can see them; Rikke realises her Long Eye is open. She goes to warn her father, who is reluctant to commit men to search the forest. Shivers vouches for Rikke, however, and thus the Dogman permits him to take a few Carls and search the forest.

Down in the valley, the battle between the Union and Nightfall's Northmen commences. The Dogman is pleased that his plan is working. However, his joy is short-lived as Shivers comes bursting from the trees, announcing that Black Calder is advancing on their position from the forest. Rikke sees the tall pale man again, just as she had with the Long Eye a few moments earlier. Calder's men press in on every side and battle commences, preventing the Dogman from sending his men down into the valley against Nightfall as originally planned. A shield wall is formed but one of Calder's men breaks through and charges at Rikke. She stabs him with a knife and he is finished off by Isern. Rikke loses control of the Long Eye and starts seeing ghosts of men fighting amongst the battle.

The battle ends in a stalemate, with Leo and Stour agreeing to settle the matter in a duel in the circle. Leo’s mother tries to get Rikke to talk Leo out of the duel, but Rikke foresees that it’s hopeless. The Knights Herald that she's been expecting eventually arrives and announces that the king has confirmed Leo as Lord Governor. There’s nothing that can change Leo’s mind now. Instead, Rikke bolsters Leo's courage for the fight, convincing him she has seen the future with the Long Eyewhere and the lion beats the wolf. As the duel begins, it quickly becomes apparent to everyone that Great Wolf is stronger, faster, and a better swordsman, but he decided to toy with him and show off. In desperation, Rikke tries to force the Long Eye open, and, remarkably, it works. Seeing what will happen, she screams at Leo to go low, and he surprises Stour, catching him in the thigh sending him tumbling. To his own shock, Leo finds himself with his enemy at his mercy, but opts to spare his life.

Blinded by desire for vengeance on Stour Nightfall, Rikke refuses to visit Leo as he convalesces, and when the pair do eventually meet, they part on sour terms. Rikke seeks comfort from her father. Instead The Dogman announces that she’s going to Adua to represent the Protectorate in any post-war deals. Rikke arrives in Adua, dumbfounded by the size of the city. Leo is on the same ship, but she studiously avoids even looking at him. She also meets Bayaz, who seems interested in her Long Eye.

At a great party in the palace, Rikke feeling completely out of place. Things however improve when Savine dan Glokta introduces herself. The two women get on famously, and end up swapping necklaces: Rikke’s Northern runes for Savine’s gold and emeralds. But when Savine later starts flirting with Leo, Rikke seeks comfort with someone as miserable as she is: Prince Orso. They get on well, both disdaining the other party-guests, and their former lovers especially. In the end, Orso invites Rikke for a stroll in the gardens, via his bedroom. Rikke wakes the next morning in one of the palace’s massive bedrooms. Their bout of intense north-south diplomacy is nevertheless interrupted by Queen Terez, who arrives to get her son ready for the triumph.

Rikke rides in the triumph with the other foreign representatives. Towards the end, she topples from her horse from one of her fits. This vision showed an old chieftain dead with men gathered about the body, all wondering what they can get from it. This makes her worry for her father, and she immediately make plans to return to the North.

The Trouble With Peace

Rikke’s fits have been getting worse ever since she forced the Long Eye open during the duel between Leo and Stour. Not only is she having visions, but also she is mixing-up the present with past and future visions. Of her latest visions, Isern knows the old woman with her face stitched together with golden wire; a witch who lives in a forbidden cave, beside a forbidden lake, in the High Places. Rikke, Shivers, and Isern head for the hillmen village of Slorfa, where Isern's brother Scenn can lead them the rest of the way. Heading on, Rikke becomes so weak that Shivers has to carry her. Finally reaching the entrance to the forbidden lake, they find two ancient standing stones carved with symbols,and guarded by a pair of Shanka. The witch is Caurib. After Black Dow split her skull, the Shanka literally stitched it together with golden wire. Caurib's explains that Rikke will have to sacrifice an eye to reclaim control over the maddening magic of the Long Eye.

When The Dogman's little girl returns to Uffrith with her new tattoo, folk she’d have called friends stare in shock and fear, but Caurib has cured her of the fits. Alas, her father has died. During the mourning, Stour Nightfall pays a visit. His swaggering entrance comes to an abrupt halt when he sees Rikke's face; no one could look more like a witch. Rikke plays it up, frightening him away with predictions of how his men will die. After burying The Dogman, the conversation immeditately turns to the future of the Protectorate; Oxel favours rejoining The North, while Red Hat wants it to become a full member of The Union. Rikke points of that The North has old ways of settling contentious decision; a duel in the Circle. With some reluctance, the two old warriors agree, and Oxel wins. As he roars his triumph, Rikke interrupts him to point out that there's a third choice; for the Protectorate to remain independent. Shivers steps forward to fight for that option, and easily kills Oxel. Rikke has made her point; she is chief of Uffrith now.

Later, Leo and his new wife Savine visit Uffrith, to bring her into a rebellion against King Orso of The Union. Rikke is reluctant, especially on learning that Stour Nightfall will be part of the alliance, but then a cunning plan takes shape. First, she agrees to join the alliance, but sends an anonymous warning about the rebellion to King Orso. Then, when Stour sails for Midderland with the bulk of The North's warriors, she captures Carleon by stealth with the help of The Nail of the Western Valleys. Skarling’s Hall itself holds for a while, but a little blatant bribery soon deals with that problem. Rikke enters the hall, and sits her arse in Skarling’s Chair.

Sitting in Skarling’s Chair is nothing special; it’s staying in it that’s the trick, with Stour Nightfall and Black Calder clearly having other ideas. For the first problems, Jonas Clover chooses his moment to betray Stour, delivering him beaten and crippled to Uffrith.

The Wisdom of Crowds

Rikke has troubles with her allies who left her one by one. At the same time Black Calder is gathering allies. WhenRikke is left only with token forces in Carleon, Black Calder strikes. After long forced march through the muddy countryside Calder talks to Rikke, calling for her to surrender his son and the town. In Response, Rikke kills his son and drops him from the tower to his father eyes. Calder has the numbers, he called every one of his debts, from beyond the Crinna to Angland, but it's for nothing. Rikke has tricked him, her allies were hidden in the woods and attack the disorganized and tired Calder's troops. She kills him and takes the title of Black Rikke.

As Savine and Leo took the power in the Union, she travels south to clear up the previous treasons. She has no problem with the Savine, but Leo lost an arm and a leg, It's a little bit vengeful to her treason, no matter that Savine betrayed her first, offering Uffrith as a prize for his help in the war against the Union to Great Wolf. He wants something. That night Rikke is visited by runaway king Orso, who wants her help in getting out of Adua which is under blockade by Leo's soldiers which are looking for him. The pair makes love, but he is betrayed to Leo the next morning. He is the price off peace between the North and the Union.

Rikke returns to North, transfers the capitol of the north to Uffrith and hopes to have a peaceful reign. Some time after, Rikke's long eye opens for the first time since she had the runes placed upon it. The vision seems to foretell atrocities that will occur in the not so distant future, likely due to the meddling of the 'bald weaver'. The next morning, when asked about a vision by her advisors & visitors from around the North, she decides to lie to preserve the happiness of her comrades & subjects, instead telling them that the vision was nothing to worry about.

Rikke's Final Vision (Wisdom of Crowds)

"She saw a bald weaver and the work on his loom was all in ruins, a million threads hanging severed, but he was stitching it back together. Patience. Patience. But he was smiling as he worked. He put out his hands, and one fell on the head of a black haired boy, and the other on the head of a blond haired girl.

She saw the girl become a laughing woman, flashing lenses on her eyes, a tall hat perched on her golden curls; and the hat belched smoke, spat ash, blotted out the bleeding sun, and cast the world into twilight. She blew a kiss, and the kiss became a coin, a thousand coins, a million golden, jingling chains. She offered her hand, and the fingers became iron rails, and the rails reached across the sea and made a cage, the cage that Stower had forged; and the whole north was inside.

She saw the black haired boy become a black haired man, and he sat on a hill of bones in a circle of fire with a grey sword across his knees. A grey sword that was never sheathed, a grey sword that was marked with one silver letter. His scarred mouth spoke but his words were drops of blood that became a stream, that became a river, that became a sea, that broke upon the beaches of the North. A tide of blood. A flood, whose red waters would not recede.

She saw the Crenner boil. She saw Uffrith burn again. She saw the graves open and spew up the dead. She saw Skarling's chair split in two and the broken wood bleeding. She saw a plague of worms writhe in the poisoned fields. She saw a plague of crows shower from the bare trees, blot out the moon, sink the world into darkness. And in the darkness, she saw the bald weaver, and in his eye she saw a burning stone, and in the burning stone she saw a circle of runes, and in the circle of runes she saw a black door, and beyond the door a figure rose from the seething sea. A figure made of blinding light, and his feet left smoldering footsteps in the shingle. And he spoke in thunder 'I AM RETURNED.'"

Powers

Rikke has been blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the gift of the Long Eye, which enables her to see visions of the future and sometimes the past, that vary from crystal-clear flashes to some that are highly symbolic. These are accompanied by paralysing fits, crippling headaches, throbbing in her left eye (her so-called Long Eye), and loss of control of her bowels. In The North, the Long Eye is spoken of as an extremely rare gift, but not unheard of.

Rikke's Visions

	Vision	Interpretation
✓	Dozens of folk falling from a high tower	After The Burners take control of the Commons' Round they begin to throw people found guilty of betraying The Great Change off of the Tower of Chains.
✓	Rows of people hanged	Probably the people gibbeted after Prince Orso suppresses the Valbeck insurrection.
✓	A battle below a red hill	Clearly a reference to the battle with Stour Nightfall where the two hills are crowned with red bracken
✓	Uffrith burning	Self explanatory
✓	A wolf eats the sun, a lion eat the wolf, a lamb eat the lion, an owl eats the lamb	One of the most intriguing visions. The sun is the Union, the wolf is Stour Nightfall the lion is Leo dan Brock and the lamb is Prince/King Orso (who was called The Young Lamb at his triumph). The owl is Rikke, after she gives Orso over to Leo when Orso tries to flee Adua.
✓	A bald weaver with a purse that never emptied	Presumably a hint about the mysterious Weaver behind the Breakers. In The Trouble With Peace, he is revealed to be former Superior Pike, now Arch Lector Pike. Has he appropriate so much cash from Valint and Balk to have an enormous purse? He is kinda bald, describes as having no eyebrow and scalp patchy with pink bald spots. Actually revealed in The Wisdom of Crowds that The Weaver has been Sand Dan Glokta all along, and he engineered The Great Change to cut the strings that Bayaz had attached to everyone.
✓	An old woman whose head was stitched together with golden wire	Revealed in the second book to be Caurib, whose head has been quite literally stitched together that way by the Shanka to save her life after Black Dow split her head open with an axe.
✓	A lion and a wolf fighting in a circle, and, though the wolf had the best of it, the lion is the winner	References Leo dan Brock & Stour Nightfall's duel to decide the fate of the North. During the fight Stour (The Great Wolf) was clearly the better fighter and went so far as to toy with Brock (the Young Lion). Rikke is able to force her long eye open and scream instructions to Leo, allowing the lion to defeat the wolf.
✓	A white horse prancing at the top of a broken tower	This is in fact the Steadfast Standard of King Casamir flowing in the wind at the top of the damaged tower of the Stoffenbeck city hall. It is placed there during the Battle of Stoffenbeck between Leo Dan Brocks rebel forces and King Orso's loyalist troops. Orso puts it there to lure Leo's troops into an ambush which decides the battle.
✓	A great door open but on the other side there was only an empty room	After The Great Change, the People's Constables finally open the main vault of the headquarters of Valint and Balk to find it completely empty.
✓	An old chieftain dead with men gathered about the body, all wondering what they can gain from it	Although Rikke worries for her father, this is either a reference to Jezal who passes in A Little Hatred, or The Dogman who passes in The Trouble With Peace. As King of the Union it is obvious why men would be picking over Jezal's body for what they could gain in the resulting turmoil. The Dogmans funeral is a little more literal with both men gathered around his body, as well as each of his 3 War Chiefs voicing a different idea of what should be done with the Protectorate directly after the funeral...as well as an appearance by Stour Nightfall.
?	A river full of corpses	This might be the Battle of Stoffenbeck, where the Open Council's forces fell into the river, when Pike ordered the keystones chiselled.
✓	Two old men fighting a duel in the Circle.	Clearly a reference to the duel between Oxel and Red Hat.
✓	Two young women holding hands under a golden dome	This refers to the dual marriages of Savine and Isold dan Kaspa to their respective husbands beneath the dome of the Lord's Round.
✓	A flag with an eye upon it, standing behind someone sitting in a high chair	This is Rikke sitting in Skarling's Chair, with her banner of an eye behind her. Note the careful use of the word "someone" rather than "a man" sitting in a high chair.
?	Uffrith’s inn burning	This might be a vision of the past when Scale Ironhand and Stour Nightfall took the city.
?	See "Rikke's Final Vision (Wisdom of Crowds)" above.	A vision referring to Hildi & Calder's bastard being part of the "bald weaver's" (presumably Bayaz) plans for the world following the Age of Madness trilogy.

Illustrations

Rikke at his father's funeral