The Fool
From Canonwars
THE CANON
WARNING: This post contains major spoilers for Robin Hobb's Assassin Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy, and Golden Fool Trilogy.
The Fool has had many names over the course of his life. Born an albino in a village of childless mountain people, The Fool was raised by the entire village with much love and attention - however his mother called him only Beloved. Normally such a person would be venerated as a White Prophet, and indeed The Fool did have strange visions and a sense of direction, but as there was already a woman walking the world who had proven herself as The White Prophet, the villagers declared him a false prophet, as two White Prophets in one time is impossible. He ran away when he was still very young - probably around twenty or so, but appearing as a child, as his people age slowly.
He was taken in at Buckkeep, home of the kings and queens of the Six Duchies, and his pale skin, hair and eyes endeared him to King Shrewd, who looked after him and appointed him as his Fool. It was here the Fool met Fitz, abandoned by his mother as the late Prince Chivalry's bastard son, apprentice to the royal Assassin and living with Burrich, Chivalry's former dearest servant and the Buckkeep stablemaster.
The Fool became firm friends with Fitz, seeing that here was the boy he was going to use to change the world. He called Fitz his catalyst - saying he would be a rock in the rut the wheel of time rolled through, spinning things off their course wherever they went. Watching Fitz grow up, fall in love, face his morals, accept his Wit and learn the Skill, deal with the emnity and hatred of many around him, including his ursurping Uncle Regal, bond with a wolf, die and be revived, search to save the kingdom and create dragons made of memory... merely being near Fitz and providing a shoulder to cry on (or rage at) enabled the Fool to watch and nudge at many of the Six Duchies most important events.
Eventually the Fool went away, to Bingtown, where he transformed his appearance and became the carpenter, Amber. She too nudged events withing Bingtown, Jamaillia and the surrounding cities, staying near the dragons, serpents, and momentous events of her time. (I begin using the female pronoun here because the Liveship Trilogy does, and in fact throughout all series there is a question of the Fool's gender, which is never officially resolved. I believe the Fool is anatomically male, but can easily take on the personas of either gender.)
Amber recarved the face of the mad Liveship, Paragon, into that of Fitz. It is within the pages of Liveship that the reader begins to understand the depth of feeling Amber has for Fitz - when the books are not from his POV, Amber and thus the Fool are shown in a different light. Certainly Amber/Fool sees Fitz as her life's love. Amber also demonstrates her ability to change her appearance very well, appearing at one point as a very convincing slave girl through the judicious application of some makeup, rags, and a fake tattoo.
To compress, Amber watched as history unravelled itself and felt she had completed whatever it was she had set out to do. She enjoyed some peaceful time with her friends, however she had spent ten years in Bingtown and began to feel she was needed again in the Six Duchies. Of course, she still only appeared as though she was in her late twenties.
Returning to Buckkeep, The Fool took on the persona of Lord Golden, an effete and obnoxious merchant with a predeliction for pretty clothes, rich food, and scandal among the young boys and girls of the court. He brought with him the finest styles from Jamillia and Bingtown, and his exotic golden skin was considered the height of fashion.
You see, the Fool had been succumbing to a disease which it seems is applicable only to failed or false White Prophets (something revealed in the very end of the Tawny Man trilogy.) Every few years, the Fool underwent a time of fever and illness and sort of shed his skin, to reveal the new skin underneath a few shades darker. Coupled with Amber's time spent out on the open seas, he had tranformed from palest white too a deep, rich gold.
Lord Golden hired Fitz as his manservant, under the guise of "Tom Badgerlock". Fitz (older but not much wiser, having given most of his painful memories into the Skill Dragons that saved the Six Duchies) was shocked to find his old friend so changed (and seemingly so much younger than he was) and resented the changing of roles as Lord Golden got all the attention.
Eventually (and I'm skipping a lot of Fitz's life here, it being significant to plot but not characterisation) The Fool/Lord Golden undertook another quest with Fitz/Tom Badgerlock, as they rode out after the young rebellious Prince. Fitz's wolf Nighteyes came with, who he had literally possessed to escape death and who had formed a pack with Fitz and the Fool (whom he called The Scentless One). On the adventure, the wolf died, hardening Fitz even further.
Serious events involving the inheritence and the Prince's marriage go on, and Fitz begins to train both Prince Dutiful and the castle whipping boy (an autistic young man named Thick) in the use of the Skill magic. Eventually his old assassin mentor Chade joins in, and together with the Fool they bring Fitz back from death and form a kind of odd coterie.
At some point, one of Amber's closest companions and bodyguards, the Six Duchies woman Jek, comes to speak with Lord Golden, who is a trading contact Amber reccomended to her. Of course, Jek recognises Amber (and Fitz as Amber's love from her carving of Paragon) and Fitz is horrified to see The Fool slip as easily into the role of Amber as he does into the role of Lord Golden. They fight over whether the young Fool who had befriended Fitz all that time ago was just another role - Fitz is convinced he has never known the Fool, and the Fool tells him he knows the most of all.
They argue again later, when the Fool is feverish and ill (though Fitz doesn't realise it.) Many harsh words are spoken, as Fitz realises the Fool is in love with him, says he would never bed the Fool, and the Fool reveals he thought Fitz was giving him flowers... seriously, there is so much information in this scene alone, and I'm getting lengthy already.
By the end of the book lots of political situations are resolved and the Fool confides in Fitz, who he makes tentative amends with, that he will go on the journey King Verity has appointed Fitz to - to go with Prince Dutiful to slay a frozen dragon so he can marry a Mountain Bride. Said bride is being manipulated by the "real" White Prophet, the Pale Lady, who I forgot to mention wreaked all that nasty stuff on the Six Duchies in the first three books. She had also tattooed serpents over the Fool's back when he was a child and they are now feverish and burning.
The Fool tells Fitz that he has seen the future yet again - and he will die on the quest. Fitz does everything within his power to stop the Fool from going, including confiding in the King (who knows both their secret identities) and banning The Fool/Lord Golden/Amber from the port, and arranging for him to be held up the morning of the travel. However when they arrive at the wintery place they seek, the Fool is already there waiting for them.
The Fool and Fitz grow very close on this quest and lots of plotlines are resolved. The Fool DOES die, at the hand of the crazy Pale Woman who tortures both he and Fitz, but Fitz brings him back to life using the Rooster Crown which has been important in all nine books. Fitz enters his body, realizes the depths of the Fool's love for him, and they kiss. As the FOol recovers, Fitz plans to rush back to the SIx Duchies with news and then travel with the Fool - who can no longer see the future - to Bingtown. However he never comes back, and after the Fool recovers he makes his own way back to Buckkeep, where he leaves a note and a carving, carpenting having always been his forte. He rides off into the metaphorical sunset, knowing somehow that Fitz is still alive but not wishing to wait for him.
(in case you wanted to know, Fitz IS alive and was just delayed for 3 months in his magical method of transport - think getting stuck between locations in a teleporter. He's cut up to learn the Fool buggered off without him, but Robin Hobb is pleasant enough to breifly summarise that "he marries his childhood sweetheart, has lots of kids, grows old, dies, and never ever sees the Fool again okay stop asking you stupid slashers.")
THE WARS
The Fool is played by Greenie
His journal is carvings.livejournal.com
His PB is some random person from iStock
