| “ | We create temporal loops in time which anyone can live indefinitely... only women are born ymbrynes... We ymbrynes must scour the countryside for young children in need, steer clear of those who would be harmful, and keep our kind fed, clothed, hidden, and steeped in the lore of our people. And if that isn't enough, we must also keep our loops resetting each day like clockwork. | ” |
–Miss Peregrine | ||
Ymbrynes (pronounced imm-brinns) are female peculiars who can manipulate time and shift between the form of a human and a bird. Since they are able to create loops, they have been placed in charge of protecting the vast majority of peculiardom. They are bound by law to perform certain duties.[1]
Overview[]
While every single ymbryne has the same powers, no two living ymbrynes' bird forms can be the same species,[1] though this rule is apparently broken by the two Miss Finch's. Most European ymbrynes are educated at the Ymbryne Academy founded by Miss Avocet and Miss Bunting.[2] Graduates change their surname to the name of their bird form, and usually go on to make a loop for the protection of peculiars, typically children, who they scout for. Others make menagerie loops for peculiar animals or open and run tourist or punishment loops. Occasionally, an overtaxed ymbryne takes on an assistant, who is usually an ymbryne-in-training sent for mentorship.
Formally trained, full-fledged ymbrynes, particularly those who take care of peculiar children, traditionally do not marry and are discouraged from having their own biological children, so that they do not favor their child over the others. Some ymbrynes in the Far East wearing wedding attire to symbolize that they are married to their work.[1] Ymbrynes who do not graduate may find other roles in peculiardom and its government,[2] such as Isabella Bird, who acted as an ambassador and traveler to uncontacted loops. These ymbrynes are not held to the same rigidness as fully trained ones.
Ymbrynes only need an hour or two of sleep each night. Their bones have many uses and are made into medicines after the ymbryne's death.
Peculiarity[]
- Avian Shapeshifting: Ymbrynes are able to shift into a particular species of bird.[3] If an ymbryne is arrested in bird form for too long (at a maximum of around 4 days, depending on her strength), she will lose her human self, becoming and remaining a normal bird forever.[4] This presumably happens because ymbrynes were more bird than human in the past.
- Bird Communication: Many ymbrynes can and do converse with their species of bird.[5]
- Time Manipulation: Ymbrynes are able to manipulate time and create time loops.[3]
- Memory Manipulation: Ymbrynes are able to wipe the memories of normals with precision, done by tickling a feather under their nose. A normal's brain can be "paused" before the wipe is actually done,[6] but this does not appear to be a necessary step.[7] People who just had their memories erased are very suggestible and can accept facts or order without second thought, with Miss Peregrine telling Jacob that she could probably convince his family that the peculiars are from a moon colony.[8]
- Possible minor additional peculiarity: e.g. Miss Blackbird's third eye.[1]
History[]
Europe[]
The first recorded ymbryne was a woman named Ymeene Goshawk, who established the first recorded loop and the Council of Ymbrynes. Since many kingdoms were banishing their peculiar populations, the loops seemed to be extremely promising for safety, and the ymbrynes' popularity caused them to replace the extremely unpopular Council of Important Peculiars. Ymeene died in 157 from the Bubonic Plague. In honor of her, ymbrynes were first known as ymeenes, which became the modern term ymbrynes from passage of time and the gradual shifting of tongues in Britain. [9]
The European ymbrynes ruled until the late nineteenth century when the Claywings started gaining traction, with certain peculiars, most male, beginning to wonder if the ymbrynes should really be in charge of peculiar society. The Claywings met their downfall in the Experiment of 1908.
After Caul's first defeat in the Library of Souls, the Ymbryne Council's authority would be once again questioned, but this time by the peculiars in Devil's Acre, many of whom were jealous of the loop freedom attained by those who had been in the collapse of the Abaton loop.
America[]
In America, normals in the United States figured out that peculiars were living in loops and created the Organization, whose aim was to kill peculiars, particularly ymbrynes. The vast majority of the States' ymbrynes were killed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the remainder being forced to go into hiding. As a result, one ymbryne would have to maintain up to four or five loops, and in the present, most loops are run by demi-ymbrynes and loop-keepers.
Because of the lack of ymbrynes, the culture in the United States was forced to change and became ruled by clans. Since they didn't have ymbrynes, peculiars didn't become dependent on them and thought the way they treated peculiars in other parts of the world was infantilizing, with Angelica, Dogface, and Wreck Donovan criticizing the European ymbrynes in Devil's Acre.
Other continents[]
Ymbryne councils are mentioned to exist in Africa and Asia, which run parallel to the European one. Ambassadors were once received between the different councils, but the rise of the wights and hollowgast cut Europe off from the rest of the world.[1]
Known Ymbrynes[]
- Miss Apfel[10]
- Miss Esmerelda Avocet
- Miss Ravenna Babax
- Miss Barbet[11]
- Miss Isabella Bird
- Miss Blackbird
- Miss Bobolink
- Miss Bolbol[11]
- Miss Bowerbird[11]
- Miss Bramblebash[11]
- Miss Bronzewing
- Miss Bunting
- Miss Bustard[11]
- Miss Cacique[11]
- Miss Caracara[11]
- Miss Winnifred Crake
- Miss Crow[12]
- Miss Isabel Cuckoo
- Miss Curassow[11]
- Miss Egret[13]
- Miss Elachura[11]
- Miss Euphonia[11]
- Miss Finch
- Miss Finfoot[14]
- Miss Firecrown[11]
- Miss Flatbill[11]
- Miss Flycatcher[15]
- Miss Frogmouth[11]
- Miss Gannett[3]
- Miss Glassbill
- Ymeene Goshawk
- Miss Grackle[16]
- Miss Grebe[17]
- Velyana Greenshank
- Miss Rebecca Greylag
- Miss Grosbeak[11]
- Miss Maud Hawksbill
- Miss Honeythrush
- Miss Hornbill[6]
- Miss Jackdaw[18]
- Miss Jacobin[11]
- Miss Kestrel (TotP)
- Miss Kestrel (MPHFPC)
- Miss Loon
- Miss Lovebird[11]
- Miss Merganser[19]
- Miss Minivet[11]
- Miss Morgana[11]
- Miss Nightjar
- Miss Palapitta[1]
- Miss Penduline[11]
- Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine
- Miss Gwendoline Petrel
- Miss Pigeon Hawk
- Miss Pilotbird[11]
- Miss Pippit[11]
- Miss Evelyn Ptarmigan
- Miss Adrienne Plover
- Miss Ginny Quetzal
- Miss Rakefeather[17]
- Miss Raven[20]
- Miss Rockfowl[11]
- Miss Rosefinch[11]
- Miss Mary Seacole
- Miss Shrike[21]
- Miss Shrikethrush[11]
- Miss Sicklebill[11]
- Miss Swiftlet[11]
- Miss Tanager[11]
- Miss Griselda Tern
- Miss Thistletail[11]
- Miss Thrasher[11]
- Miss Thrush
- Miss Tit[11]
- Miss Titmouse[15]
- Miss Treecreeper
- Miss Troupial
- Miss Trumpeter[14]
- Miss Turaco[1]
- Miss Verdin[1]
- Miss Wattle-eye[11]
- Miss Waxwing
- Miss Whistler[11]
- Miss Whydah[22]
- Miss Wigeon[11]
- Miss Woodhen[14]
- Miss Balenciaga Wren
- Miss Yippin[5]
- Miss Yuhina
- Unnamed ymbryne from Bombay
- Unnamed three ymbrynes that were supposed to guard three of "the six"
Ymbrynes-in-training[]
Film[]
- Miss Hornbill (Film)
- Miss Owl (Film) (Long-eared Owl)
- Miss Owl (Film) (Spotted Owl)
- Miss Turkey (Film)
Trivia[]
- Grimbears are the preferred companion of ymbrynes in Russia and Finland.
- While in the books, clothes do not go along with the ymbryne when they change into a bird, but in the movie they do.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Ymbrynes)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (The Ymbryne Academy)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Chapter 6)
- ↑ Hollow City (Chapter 4)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (A Necessarily Incomplete Taxonomy of Peculiar Abilities)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Library of Souls (Chapter 11)
- ↑ The Desolations of Devil's Acre (Chapter 14)
- ↑ A Map of Days (Chapter 1)
- ↑ Tales of the Peculiar (The First Ymbryne)
- ↑ A Map of Days Photographs: Mission report
- ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 11.16 11.17 11.18 11.19 11.20 11.21 11.22 11.23 11.24 11.25 11.26 11.27 11.28 11.29 11.30 11.31 11.32 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Time Loops)
- ↑ Hollow City (Chapter 12)
- ↑ The Desolations of Devil's Acre (Chapter 11)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (How to Hide in Plain Sight When Your Peculiarity Cannot Be Disguised... and Make a Living at It)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 The Desolations of Devil's Acre (Chapter 5)
- ↑ The Conference of the Birds (Chapter 2)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Talking to Normal People)
- ↑ Hollow City (Chapter 12)
- ↑ The Desolations of Devil's Acre (Chapter 7)
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Chapter 10)
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (The Wights)
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Important Books by Peculiar Writers)