#Nefarian Serpine headcanon

[facelessxchurch]

Headcanons: The Red Right Hand

• Serpine is one of only a handful of people who ever gained the red right hand and not only bc it's a forbidden technique even among necromancers. Powerful magic like this takes a price not everyone is willing or able to pay. If you want to cause pain, you'll need to endure pain as well.

-> For one, the process of creating the red right hand is excruciating and requires a high pain tolerance and self-discipline.

-> Second, even if the ritual is a success the red hand might not work for its user. For it to function you must have the sincere will to kill and to cause pain. Any second thoughts, hesitations or any other form of reluctance and the technique will fail (think the three unforgivable curses from HP). This is a technique only someone sure of their own sadism would ever attempt to learn.

• That also means that the red hand is safe to touch as long as Nef has no interest in killing you and prevents him from killing anyone on accident.

• Despite that everyone (apart from Mevolent) still gets nervous when he takes the glove off.

• (That's why his coup failed. He tried to kill Mev with his red hand, but when he hesitated it stopped working.)

• Nef always wears a pair of black leather gloves bc wearing one glove would look odd and make him stand out, which could get in the way of him manipulating and charming his way to his goal.

• Even after the ritual is completed the hand will never stop hurting though the pain did dull with time. Nef got used to it eventually.

• But the more he uses the hand the more it hurts (nerfs the hand so he can't just one shot kill everyone). The worse the pain gets the longer it will take him to recover from it. Being masochistic as well as sadistic Nef revels in the pain he has to endure as much as the pain he causes but once it surpasses a certain level he'll require pain-numbing leaves which he always carries for cases like this. If he is desperate enough to use his hand until he himself ends up screaming on the floor, curled around his red hand he is long past the point where pain leaves will help.

• The Red Hand is the ultimate "I will shatter myself to cut you with the shards" which fits Nef and his spiteful, self-destructive tendencies so well.

• While the shadows necromancers use are magic fuelled by death, the red hand is pure death magic.

The Ritual/Learning the Technique

The ritual involved him having to flay his own hand. He needed to do everything himself or it won't work

There is no need to use the right hand for the technique to work. It just happens that Nef is left-handed. For one it would be foolish to do something like this to your dominant hand. But also, flaying yourself is hard enough with your dominant hand, let alone your other. Imagine the strength of will it took for him to calm himself and try to suppress the shaking of his hands as he kept cutting.

During the ritual, the use of anything that would dull the pain is strictly prohibited.

As if being flayed isn't bad enough, he had to coat his hand in a mix of oils and herbs which burned like hell. They prevent the exposed flesh from getting infected or bleeding out and offer the protection that normally the skin would have provided. It also prevents it from healing.

All through the ritual he has to repeat the incantations Tenebrae dictated to him in a magic language he only half understands due to its age and lack of access to the resources he would need to fully understand it despite his best efforts to obtain them.

Unbeknownst to Nef the temples have the missing texts needed to fully learn the language which is how Tenebrae was able to to change the incantations so the red hand would temporarily kill any necromancer it was used on before resurrecting them. This would ensure Skul's survival as well as protect the temples (including himself) from Nef should he decide they outlived their usefulness.

The ritual to learn the technique is written down in the Grimoire of a dark mage and former leader of the Irish Necromancer Temple which is why they still have it long after his passing and can use it without triggering the protection curse placed upon it. The curse is the only reason Nef didn't force them to hand the Grimoire over. He can either deal with breaking a curse or stay friendly with the necromancers. The latter seemed less suicidal.

The Grimoire is presumably still hidden in the abandoned Irish temple somewhere.

[lassieposting]

Serpine in therapy for the asks :)

Okay so my headcanon is actually that Nef doesn't get a choice about going to therapy. It's part of the parole agreement he makes with the Sanctuary when he immigrates to Roarhaven. Whether or not he is answerable for our Serpine's war crimes, and whether the Sanctuary here can try him for his war crimes back in Leibniz, is still up for debate by legal professionals and he'd rather not risk it, so in exchange for his freedom he agrees to comply with weekly check-ins with a parole officer (which ends up being Skug, because China is spiteful), regular therapy, and location monitoring.

And like. Honestly, he thinks the whole thing is a massive waste of time - the Sanctuary flexing its power over him to make a point. He shows up, he's charming and personable, he flirts with the therapist and the girl on reception and anyone else he happens to bump into - but he thinks that before long, he'll have them convinced that he's psychologically normal and doesn't need their services, and they'll discharge him.

But like. The thing about Nef, aside from having a sadistic streak a mile wide and Chronic Backstabbing Bitch Disease, is that he's spent the vast majority of (at least) his adult life surrounded by people who would turn on him in a heartbeat if it suited them to do so. He comes from a world where abuse, manipulation and betrayal are not only common, they're the norm. That's the only way to relate to the world and to others that he understands. The Faceless worshippers are a nasty bunch who all encourage each other's worst impulses and learn to care only for themselves, and on the rare occasion that they break those habits, they tend to get hurt by those who haven't. So like, Nef's normal meter is completely and utterly broken. In his Handbook backstory, his childhood was unstable and emotionally damaging. As an adult, he has nothing to do with his family - all he had was Mevolent and the Church. His relationship history is littered with violent psychopaths like Christophe Nocturnal and Jaron Gallow, people who approved of and supported Serpine's own sadistic tendencies, but also tended to vent theirs on him when it suited them. This. Man. Is. A mess.

The therapist suspects complex trauma - although, that's not as unusual a diagnosis as it is for mortals: it's a given for millions of sorcerers who survived the 500 Year War - narcissistic tendencies, though not to the point of a full blown personality disorder, and an obsessive focus on/one-sided rivalry with Skulduggery.

Honestly, I think Nef would mostly use it as an opportunity to annoy Skug. He pays attention, but mostly so he can take what the therapist tells him and put it to use while Skulduggery is stuck in the car with him for an eight hour stakeout. Psychoanalyse him. Armchair-diagnose him. Treat him to a three hour monologue of "My therapist said..."

But like. You know that thing where you start saying hewwo to mock other people who say hewwo, and it's kind of a mean-spirited joke at first, but suddenly you've unironically adopted hewwo into your daily vocabulary and can't stop saying it? Yeah.

Some of it starts to get in via osmosis and sheer habit. He spends so long mockingly telling Skug about all the problems that he (Nef) thinks he (Skug) has, that he actually starts to notice things for real. He can tell when Skug is dissociating. He can point out to Val that she has a tendency to pull away from and lash out at the people who want to help her, because she's terrified to be seen as anything other than competent and capable, and then he'll think, hold on, I do that too.

A lot of therapy goes in one ear and out the other because it doesn't work for him - complex trauma is just Like That. The standard practices - like CBT - seem like platitudinous drivel to you, and the fact that everyone else seems to think they work often feels like a great big joke everyone is playing on you. But he takes in enough to start making some small changes to how he interacts with others and how he behaves. He starts learning how to react appropriately to distress signals in the people who are becoming his friends, rather than seeing those signals as something to take advantage of, a soft spot to sink a knife into and twist. He's developing basic empathy, which actually helps him, because for once in his life he's in a situation where bonding with others is The Way To Get Ahead, rather than something that would get him killed.

And he's getting a better grade in therapy than Skug, by virtue of actually agreeing to go, so he gets to be smug about that.

[spooklia]

Skulduggery pleasant characters as john mulaney quotes

[mediocreomen]

skulduggery pleasant characters barbie posters

yes some of these photos are HORRIBLE please ignore how bad they are please thanks.

bonus :

[facelessxchurch]

This is Nefarian talking to Mevolent after Serafina's death and no one can convince me otherwise.

"You're scaring us and all of us- ...some of us love you Achilles, it's not much but there's proof" "The self is not so weightless, nor whole and unbroken Remember the pact of our youth Where you go, I'm going, so jump and I'm jumping Since there is no me without you Soldier on, Achilles, Achilles, come down Won't you get up off, get up off the roof?"

Ngl I like the idea that whatever killed Serafina killed her siblings also. All apart from Creed. Ironically he lives bc he didn't follow Mev, bc he wasn't there when the attack happened.

Mev despises him for living when his wife does not and Creed loathes him bc he blames him for the death of his siblings.

The (semi-)duet part is Creed taking his anger out on Mev while Nefarian is defending him.

Creed: You want the acclaim, the mother of mothers Nefarian: It's not worth it, Achilles Creed: More poignant than fame or the taste of another Nefarian: Don't listen, Achilles Creed: But be real and just jump, you dense motherfucker Nefarian: You're worth more, Achilles Creed: You will not be more than a rat in the gutter Nefarian: So much more than a rat Creed: You want my opinion, my opinion you've got Nefarian: No one asked your opinion Creed: You asked for my counsel, I gave you my thoughts Nefarian: No one asked for your thoughts Creed: Be done with this now and jump off the roof Nefarian: Be done with this now and get off the roof

I just love the thought of Nef defending and comforting his master in the beginning, in his hours of need after all the times Mev had protected him, had saved him. Before Mev became more and more unhinged out of grief and Nef no longer regonised his old friend in him anymore. Just a husk of the great man he had once been now.

Oh, what irony that a man known for the carnage left in his path would be undone by such a gentle thing as love.

how the most dangerous thing is to love

[neims-skeleton-obsession]

Nefarian serpine for the character ask thing :)

NEFFF!! WO!!

sexual orientation headcanon: hhhe is So gay. men are sexy idk what to tell you dude

gender headcanon: that man is SO trans and could not give less of a shit about gendernorms i think. gnc icon. pronoun apathetic. to me.

mental illness/neurodivergent headcanon: havent thought about it enought to have one really but. uhhh very interested to learn other people's so i can add them to my ever growing brain hoard

3 random headcanons: a) he was the shortest of the sow roster and was SO salty about it b) he's just. really like poison dart frogs he thinks they're all so neat c) nefarian (as in not original serpine) is slowly but surely collecting piercings (starting with ears). cant explain this. thank you for the ask!!! i love nef so much!!!!!!!!!

[detective-inspector-her]

1 and 2 for the asks things (on SP)

Canon I outright reject The fact that they left normal Serpine alone for seven months. They would not have left him to become a threat for that long surely?!

A canon or headcanon hill I will die on Valkyrie is the only person that Nefarian has been a hundred percent sure wouldn't kill him if he said the wrong thing in years. (She wouldn't, she doesn't like killing, that much is obvious).

[facelessxchurch]

[in reference to this]

While Creed might have survived the attack that took the lives of his siblings in the Leibniz dimension that doesn't mean he got to live long. With Serafina dead and Mevolent losing his mind out of grief, Creed paid for his berating of Mevolent with his life.

In an angry outburst, he's beaten him to death in front of his court. Mevolent claims he was making an example of Creed, but Nefarian knows him better than that. Mevolent was losing control of himself, which was a dangerous thing for the whole damn planet.

When Mevolent decided to poison all of America it's something Nef brought up again, calling him out that his rampage wasn't for Serafina, it's not what she would have wanted, it's for himself. He cannot claim all of this carnage is for her if even her own brother fell victim to his rage and grief, not only ending an Ancient Bloodline of Faceless descendants but also ending the bloodline of the wife he claimed to love.

There is very little he could have said to enrage Mevolent more, after all very few things are more infuriating than an uncomfortable truth.

"How dare you claim what Serafina would have wanted! You do not know her like like I know her. You do not love her like I love her."

Nefarian wasn't at his side like he usually was when Mevolent annihilated America. He stayed in the castle licking his wounds, making up his mind that Mevolent could not be permitted to live, not in the state he is in now. He must be put down like the rabid dog he had become. It would be a mercy for both Mevolent and the world.

[facelessxchurch]

I honestly don't think anyone on the Faceless side was spooked by that. They've been at war for quite a while already and elemental magic, especially fire, seems popular among mages. Plus they are led by the most powerful Elemental that has ever lived.

This was definitely not the first time they burned corpses.

What I think is far more interesting is that Mevolent chose to have the corpses burned at the stake considering that's how mortals were executing suspected witches... It could very well be a poetic punishment of :

"You've sided with the ones that would burn our kind at the stake, so this is exactly the fate that will befall you, kin traitors!"

Assuming all of them were dead pre-burning like Skulduggery Mevolent would at the same time be playing the part of the 'good guy' and be like "At least I had them killed before burning them. You fight me yet defend those that would not show you no such mercy."

The only ones that 'got spooked' were the Sanctuary side bc a bunch of their leaders just got taken out. But that was exactly the point of the whole operation, to cut a few heads off the hydra and demoralise the Sanctuary forces. And Nefarian reached that goal with far greater success than even Mevolent had anticipated.

you know what is kinda spooky? the fact that when mevolents people burned skulduggerys body his body would have moved due his muscles contracting… just imagine cooking some fellow from the enemy side and he just starts MOVING.

[lassieposting]

Actually. While I'm on the subject of alt!Serpine helping out Skug on cases

Things that would be hilariously awkward about civilian consultant serpine: he'd know all the high-level perps

Imagine being a former Big Bad having to explain to all your ex-associates from Team Bad Guy that you're with the cops now. Imagine being someone like Christophe Nocturnal, handcuffed to an interrogation table on suspicion of like, murder, and then the door opens and in walks a guy who you know for sure has not only killed way more people than you, but also straight up tortured-to-death the cop doing the interrogation. And the bastard still seems more interested in pressing charges against you.

Imagine the awkward commiseration, like. It takes a moment to register and in that moment the perp locks eyes with Serpine and automatically goes like "Ugh, got you too, did they?" and Nef just sort of freezes because actually he just came in here for his weekly Thursday morning ritual of Obscenely Eat Croissant In Front Of Skug To Rub It In That He Can't Have Food Anymore and now he's going to have to explain to his ex-whatever that he kinda sorta sometimes works here now in front of his ex-nemesis. worthy foe. frenemy. whatever-the-fuck-is-going-on-that-we-don't-talk-about

[brainwrongbutalive]

Mevolent’s Generals (+China & Serafina) Dynamic

Ok so Serafina and Mevolent were mother and father. 

China was the favourite/only daughter. 

Serpine has youngest child energy. 

Vengeous was the oldest sibling. 

Vile was the middle child that likes to annoy the younger child.

[spooklia]

AU where Nefarion ends up in the past, say directly after Val and Skul have defeated his counterpart: he doesn't care that Skulduggery might try and kill him, he's just surprised that Valkyrie could look harmless.

I mean she was a child, she could not have looked too threatening. And Nef has only ever seen her as a scary teen or a scary adult, imagine seeing baby sorcerer Val and wondering wth happened?!

This is long, but I thought with your Skulduggery posts you might like it?

This would be hilarious! I imagine he would spend a good minute laughing at how short she is, confusing lil val because didnt they just kill this guy?? Why does he know my taken name??

Skulduggery would definitely try to murder him, even though nef is unlikely to care much.

Nefarian would have too much fun making fun of them and freaking them out by knowing information he shouldn't, just generally being a little shit.

[facelessxchurch]

Here are my main ships in the order of how much I like them. All of my ships are rare ships, so...

OTP: Mevpine (Mevolent x Nefarian Serpine) I love master-servant dynamics <3 And Nef has a bad enough judgement(/masochistic tendencies) to decide that dating his very tall, handsome boss is a good idea. They also read very similarly. Both are charismatic and have an easy time making people like them, highly intelligent, cunning, and sadistic and both have the same twisted sense of humour. Mev jokes about eating babies, Nef jokes about eating puppies (tho the puppy joke was previously used by Landy for Mev too). Those two certainly are birds of a feather and have massive spend-too-much-time-with-each-other-and-became-too-similar vibes. Plus Nef is like the only one that gets Mev's humour while everybody else is never quite sure if he's joking or not. Plus, I mean, it's pretty much canon that Nef is the one person that knows Mev the best. What a perceptive lil snek <3

The warlord and his closest confidant, I really don't get how this ship isn't more popular.

Baronpine (Baron Vengeous x Nefarian Serpine) They are perfect opposites in a way where they complete each other, both in fighting styles and personalities. They mellow out each other's worst trades. Baron is less of a stick in the mud with Nef around and he's able to make Nef a little less chaotic and needlessly cruel. There really aren't many people that can make Nef behave lol. They affectionately call each other their insufferable counterpart <3 They also have a delicious relationship evolution from rivalry to I-hate-that-I'm-into-you hate fucking to starting to appreciate the other's strengths and devotion to the cause to legitimately caring for each other in their own a little bit messed up kinda way. They totally bicker and roast each other all the time but not even the Gods can help you if you insult one of them in the earshot of the other.

This is like my most wholesome ship <3

Mevolent x Serafina Dey This one is really obvious. The big bad that is soft for exactly one person and it's his waifu. I also have the headcanon that since Mev grew up an orphan, raised by a cruel master, he never experienced family. But when he married Sera he was welcomed with open arms into her family by all apart from Creed.

Canon, yet still underappreciated </3

SorrowScorn (China Sorrows x Eliza Scorn) When asked if she wants to date China or be like her, Eliza answered "yes". They have such an interesting dynamic with Eliza trying to beat China at her own game but being damned to always be the second best. Lovers and rivals at the same time, Eliza is jealous of China but adores her equally as much.

This one used to be popular in the fandom but it isn't anymore. Landy did Eliza dirty by excluding her from phase 2 (apart from a brief mention).

BONUS: OT3: Nef x Mev x Sera OT3's are what happens when you like two conflicting ships lol. Mev got to keep his boytoy AND marry the woman of his dreams. He's really smug about it until he realizes that his two lovers are getting along too well and started teaming up on him. I'm living for the second where the self-satisfaction turned into the realization that he made a huge mistake :)

Honourable Mentions: Nef x Vindick Leather, Nef x White Cleaver, Nef x Creed, Mev x Charivari, Sera x Eliza

does anyone have any lesser known ships or headcanons. i’m bored

[mediocreomen]

genuinely cannot wait for this skulduggery pleasant hell breaks loose book tbh. ik phase 2 has been... lacking but HOPEFULLY this clears up stuff and makes phase 2 a bit more tied together to the last one.

[meltdownchromium]

Ok random Alt!Nef living in Roarhaven headcanon:

He does morning runs for his anxiety.

Used to take walks bc he heard it could help and thought like fuck it at least I'll get out for a bit but always felt kinda stupid just aimlessly wandering around plus the slow pace kinda fucked his paranoia even more so. he just. sped it up a bit.

It sorta actually makes him feel a bit better and this way he's doing something for his mental health while also staying somewhat fit. plus it soothes the pstd riddled part of his brain that just wants to run away from everything everywhere bc it's still in survival mode, so that's a very welcome bonus.

[endlessthoughtsanddreams]

SP Headcanon

Lord Vile never really cared who he killed, and had a tendency to just obliterate everything in his (very large) blood circle.

The only reason Mevolent’s higher officers (Vengous and Serpine) survived was because Vile didn’t particularly want to try to fight Mevolent should he choose to keep them. Everyone else was fair game though.

Instead of trying to reason with the man-shaped shadow held together by rage, Mevolent just made sure any important troops weren’t around Vile.