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"Nocturna presides over the upper world. She ushers in the dusk, but also brings on the dawn."
-Voxaco
Nocturna by melspyrose111-da98wdc

Nocturna is the goddess of the bats who presides over the land of the living and sister to Cama Zotz. Her wings are said to be so large, that She can cover the entire world with them, making the night sky. Her relatively passive actions in the Silverwing series is explained in the book Firewing, where Cama Zotz admits to killing Her. Though she is dead, her presence in the world of the living is still felt.

Role in the Books[]

Though she is dead, Nocturna is able to influence the events of the series and interaction somewhat with her followers. In Silverwing, the underside of Zephyr's wings took on the appearance of the night sky as he tried to help Shade Silverwing and Marina Brightwing. This implies that Nocturna was helping him with his task.

In Sunwing, as Shade was holding the metal disc over the Vampyrum Spectrum's palace, he felt as though something were helping him hold it up as his friends and family escaped. This could be Nocturna trying to help him.

Dualism[]

After Nocturna's death, the two bat gods seem to fit the Taoist idea of duality, yang and yin: male and female, light and dark, active and passive, motion and stillness; Where Cama Zotz fills the role of yang and Nocturna fills the roll of yin.

Death of Nocturna[]

"We were meant to rule equally-- Nocturna the world of the living, me the world of the dead."
-Cama Zotz

In order to keep His subjects happy in their afterlives, Cama Zotz asked Nocturna if they might return to the Upper World. Nocturna refused, and Cama Zotz strangled Her. Where She died, grew a Tree made of fire and life that allowed Cama Zotz's dead bats to return to the Upper World, ironically fulfilling Cama Zotz's request. It is unknown if She did this on purpose or if it's simply an after effect of Her death. Cama Zotz doesn't know that the Tree sends his subjects to the Upper World and sees the Tree as Nocturna's last insult to him.

Bats who go through the tree are brought back into the living world, but not as they were while alive. Unable to actually interact with the living, they instead inhabit living things. This way, they can experience the life of certain living things without being alive.

The Banishment and the Laws[]

After the war, a treaty was formed that banished the southern bats to the jungles for their role in the war. They were never to return north unless they intended to incite a war again. The northern bats also agreed to a law that would divide the world in the kingdom of the bats, the kingdom of the birds, and the kingdom of the beasts.

References[]

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