Quanyii

Quanyii

Gallery

Quanyii
Quanyii from the poster for The Devil in the Sunlight by Milo Mars
Details
Pronouns	She/her, he/him, they/them
First Mentioned	Second Citadel - Lady of the Lake
Status	Alive
Age	Unknown
Aliases	The Witch of the Wastes Hector of the Archives (cover) Lady Quanyii (Sir Angelo)
Occupation	Witch
Affiliations	Sir Caroline
Family	Gawain (dog)
Relationships	Sir Caroline (wife)
Species	Undead
Voice
Voice Actor(s)	Melissa DeJesus
First Heard	Second Citadel - The Spiral Sage (Part 1)

“

I know what you're thinking. Can I really afford a witch? In this economy? But I'm happy to say that you can, no matter how poorly doctors are treated in the modern day.

”

—Quanyii^[src]

Quanyii is a possibly ancient, famously powerful, dubiously wicked Witch from The Western Wastes.

Early Life

Quanyii was born in the Western Wastes and gained significant infamy there under the moniker "The Witch of the Wastes" before moving on. At an unknown point before reaching the Northern Wilds, Quanyii met Sir Caroline while she was holding hostage the children of The Glass city of Galwa. Caroline was a bounty hunter tasked with killing Quanyii, and nearly did, before Quanyii spoke a prophecy without realizing it that caused Caroline to spare her. Their relationship had an instant spark, and the two decided to spend their lives together. They have an open relationship, lived together, and shared the care of their dog Gawain.

History

Quanyii first appears in the monster courthouse, speaking to Rilla and masking her voice from Caroline. She saves Rilla and Caroline's lives by tricking Judge Helicoid into going to sleep, but Caroline is still infuriated upon seeing her, insisting she should not be here. The two play it off as if they do not know each other, Caroline acting as if she just does not want to be around a witch and Quanyii flirting with and asking out Caroline as if they've only just met. Quanyii makes a deal with Rilla that she will help her escape Fort Terminus, but Rilla will owe her a favor in return. Caroline warns Rilla strongly against it because being in debt to a witch is more dangerous than she can imagine, but Rilla tells Caroline she has lost her trust and Rilla makes the deal with Quanyii.

Quanyii reveals she wants Rilla to get the four thumbs of a reptilian familiar, which Rilla is extremely averse to. Luckily for her said familiar is teleported away before her debt can be called. Quanyii later asks Rilla to retrieve the silks of the Fear monster's cocoon, but quickly realizes it is the monster's aura talking and rescinds the request.

Quanyii teleports several knights away from Fort Terminus at Caroline's request and disappears before Rilla and Caroline find their way back to the Swamp of Titan's Blooms. Later, Quanyii greets Caroline when she returns to their home by complaining Gawain has Not been a good boy while she's been gone. Caroline scolds Quanyii for breaking their one rule and following her to work. Quanyii seems to feel bad about making Caroline feel condescended to, but quickly changes the subject. She congratulates Caroline on her promotion to Captain of the Guard and asks her if she's finally comfortable here. Caroline then notices Quanyii is wearing her clothes, Quanyii says they look better on her, and the two make love.

Some months later Quanyii encounters the changeling Olala in the Swamp of Titan's Blooms. Olala tells her she is going to meet the Queen, and Quanyii assures her she can charm the Queen no problem. Olala becomes very afraid of Quanyii when she tells her her name, asking if she is really 'The Witch of the Wastes'. Quanyii says she may be from the Wastes, but she is of wherever she wants to be, the Wilds currently, though that may change if 'she' doesn't apologize soon.

Later on, Quanyii prepares Olala for a scheme. He briefly explains that he is genderfluid and remarks that one would never want to be a woman in the Second Citadel because it is disgusting. He takes Olala to see Sir Angelo, from a distance, so that she can shapeshift into him. He puts a miniaturized Olala in his pocket and goes to see the captain of the journeymen knights, Sir Absolon, and tricks him into handing over one of two keys to the archives. He expresses his distaste for Absolon to Olala, then instructs Olala to shift into Angelo and retrieve the other key from Sir Caroline. He gets small and gets into Olala's pocket and advises Olala to agree with Caroline if she is at a loss for what to say. Caroline greets 'Angelo' tersely and gives a rundown of the current state of the Citadel. She explains how she has banned all monsters and monster-adjacent beings from the Citadel in order to root out a shapeshifter. She has already found several shapeshifters, including one who confessed to killing a child, but not the shapeshifter she's looking for. She shows an anti-magic staff she has had built from the stone of Fort Terminus. Olala asks for the key just as the real Angelo arrives, and just snatches it out of her hands and runs, Quanyii still in her pocket even as she shapeshifts into a mouse.

When they arrive at the archives and return to their human forms, Olala comments that Quanyii is a beautiful woman again, and Quanyii tells her to keep the flattery up. They go looking for the door, only to find that they got a fake key from Sir Caroline. Sir Angelo and a few guards arrive on the scene, and they're forced to hide separately. When Angelo finds Quanyii, Olala quickly makes a deal with Jack of Shadows, a kind of shapeshifter imprisoned in the archives, and he sweeps Olala and Quanyii behind the locked door and safely away from the knights. Quanyii lights a magic lantern and warns Olala to stay well within the light, for Jack is dangerous and prone to eating children. Jack says that he has made a deal with Olala and cannot hurt her until it is finished. Quanyii gets Olala to repeat the deal verbatim and says that he cannot hurt her until he gets them through a second locked door, at which point their deal is complete.

Olala shows Quanyii the Thoughtstream, which she and Jack are both very interested in. It produces an indefinite amount of Nine of Mirrors cards. Since the Mirrors suit represents The Wayward East, Jack points them towards a guitar from the East that functions similarly to Olala's cards. He lures Olala to the edge of Quanyii's light in the guise of showing her how it works, and so when he casually opens a second door for her, Quanyii is too far away to protect her. Quanyii enters a fight with Jack and appears to lose. In actuality, she retreats to find Sir Caroline, and they both arrive back just in time to save Olala from Jack. Caroline handily despatches Jack, and gripes at Quanyii for not waiting for her to check that the Soulkeeper Amulet was missing instead of breaking in to see for herself. Quanyii rebukes that Caroline had been putting off checking that the Amulet was missing for days, and she could not wait any longer to be proven right. She tells Caroline The Kite must have the Amulet, but Caroline does not seem very interested, instead roughly taking hold of Olala. Quanyii tells her to be careful, Olala is just a little girl, but Caroline disagrees. She demands that Quanyii go home. Quanyii reassures Olala that Caroline wouldn't really hurt her, seeming to believe it herself, before departing presumably to her and Caroline's home.

Quanyii becomes a member of the travelling party consisting of Caroline, Angelo, Ale, Olala and Gawain. They travel together for five years hunting down the old great knights from Galahad's time, in an attempt to find the greatest knight of them all. After defeating the last of these knights, Sir Pellinore the Prepared, the party decides to travel across the Mirrored Plains to The Wayward East. These plains are known for driving people mad due to exposure to the universe's trauma. However, Quanyii devises a plan to magically make herself incapable of introspection, which she hypothesizes will protect her from the universes trauma. This backfires when, instead of being sheltered by her own demons, she bears the full force of the universes trauma and is irreperably damaged by the experience. She ends up in a coma, periodically screaming in horror and agony as the horrific scarring of the universe is played for her over and over again. This causes her wife Caroline deep worry.

Caroline is told that a dandelion could heal the mirrored madness, so she asks Talfryn to deliver some to Silvershore. He successfully makes the delivery when he is transported to Silvershore by so-called Saintly magic along with 25 other knights. In order to avoid the invasion of Silvershore, Caroline attempts to leave with Olala, leaving Quanyii behind. This fails, and she ends up in the final confrontation with Tristan and Galahad. This ends in the W.E.P Clocktower crumbling with Caroline, Damien, Olala, Lamorak, and Tristan inside. When Quanyii wakes from her coma to find the love of her life dissappeared, she becomes erratic and violent, choking Damien to get answers out of him. This is acknowleged as out of character by several others. When she realizes that Caroline, Olala, and Lamorak were magically transported away, she leaves Damien and co alone to look for her. This is unsuccessful, and she returns to them. She then helps them by getting information about how to fly a plane out of the pilot they were interrogating by sucking out his memories and leaving him a broken husk. He then flies the aeroplane to the second citadel and crash-lands it, before poofing away.

She finally makes good on her debt with Rilla and asks her for a source of passion. She takes Rilla's passion for science and uses it in a spell to commune with the universe. This spell overwhelms her. She discovers that part of the universe believes that Olala must die in order to be rid of the off-world invaders. This inspires her to try and kill Olala. In trying this, she accidentally severely burns Caroline, which she is horrified by. Lam tries to talk her down, but she wails and teleports away. Later, she meets Lam by their campsite and tells him what the universe is telling her about what everyone else is doing. This information lets Lam make a plan of action on what to do next. She only feels comfortable talking to Lam because she is so ashamed of what she did.

When Olala has to convince The Monster Senate to work together with the Queen of the Second Citadel, Quanyii helps her by showing visions of the monsters' homes in ruins. This is what ends up convincing the Senate to work together with the Queen against the Off World Invaders.

Abilities

Quanyii is a skilled witch. She opens a portal to the Swamp of Titan's Blooms, while simultaneously maintaining control over Rilla's sprained ankle. According to Sir Caroline, she is 'more dangerous than any monster.'

Her powers operate by "scavenging" objects and body parts from innately powerful monsters, and by asking the universe the right question: not so much "please don't let those rocks fall on her head" as "pretty please, just for me, give my little pocketwatch the power to stop time so I can freeze those rocks before they hit her." She tells Olala she has made herself "not entirely human", but not part monster, just a little dead. He also remarks that he gave his soul away "years ago."

She later gains the ability to directly communicate with the universe itself. Though this is maddening, it lets her hypothetically know anything that is happening on the universe at any time.

Relationships

Sir Caroline

Quanyii and Sir Caroline are in an open relationship, and Quanyii references the two of them choosing to spend their lives together. They are married. Before Olala, Quanyii was the only person Caroline had ever told about her origins, and the first person Caroline ever opened up to. They have a cottage and a war pug, Gawain. Until the season 2 finale when it's revealed that they're together, Quanyii relentlessly asks Caroline on dates, which Caroline brushes off. When Quanyii is in a coma, Caroline, often states how much she misses her, and the "witches fantasy" she brought. When Caroline disappears, Quanyii becomes extremely distraught, having realized through experiencing immense trauma that Caroline is the only thing that matters in her life and that she wants to spend as much time as possible with her, no matter what. Quanyii would do anything to keep Caroline safe.

Amaryllis of Exile

Quanyii likes Rilla, initially commenting on how pretty her name is when they meet. Rilla is amazed by Quanyii's abilities and very curious about the nature of magic. The two of them establish a repoire, "encouraging each other" much to the ire of Sir Caroline. Rilla's wonder at Quanyii and her abilities is significantly dampened by the fact she wants Rilla to cut off Lord Arum's thumbs and give them to her in order to settle her debt, but when Rilla instead gets Arum away safely Quanyii does not press her on them. Rilla still expresses excitement about sharing her supernatural research with Quanyii after they're separated by a cave-in, and dread at the idea she (or anyone else) may have been killed in the cave in. The Fear monster briefly tricks Quanyii into charging Rilla with taking the silks from its cacoon for her, but she quickly comes to her senses.

Quanyii chokes Damien during the invasion of the off-worlders, which Rilla does not like. They are repeatedly antagonistic towards each other when Quanyii helps them escape Silvershore in an aeroplane. Though when Quanyii finally comes to settle Rilla's debt, Rilla does not expect it and tries to bargain with Quanyii, who is at that point incredibly desperate and driven mad by the feelings of the universe. She demands a source of passion from Rilla, originally wanting her memories of Lord Arum, which Rilla refuses. Then Rilla comes up with the idea of giving up her passion for science, which Quanyii accepts. Despite not being obligated to give anything in return, Quanyii helps Rilla, Damien and Talfryn escape the Second Citadel by knocking out the guards and giving them their things. Rilla loses her memory of making a deal with Quanyii and only vaguely recalls Quanyii having been there.

Olala

Quanyii finds Olala wandering alone out of the Swamp of Titan's Bloom's, and recognizes her as being desired by The Kite. She decides to use Olala as a helper on her mission to break into the Second Citadel's archives, as she needed a shapeshifter. He finds Olala's honest nature cute and seems to grow fond of her as their time together progresses. When Olala makes a deal with Jack of Shadows Quanyii tries her hardest to protect Olala from him while keeping still keeping herself safe, and goes to Sir Caroline for help saving her. Quanyii seems to genuinely think Sir Caroline will not hurt Olala or turn her in to The Kite. Olala for her part is initially frightened of Quanyii because of her reputation but grows attached to her, to the point that she reminds her of Sister Tiilei. In the following four years, their relationship becomes more familial. Quanyii often delights in teasing Olala, but as she grows up Olala takes Quanyii's threats less seriously, knowing they're on the same side.

Trivia

• Harley Takagi Kaner chose Quanyii's name, "trying for something cutesy and not too much like any specific language," and says they tried several spellings before Kevin Vibert came up with the double "i."
• Quanyii appears to be a genderfluid lesbian, much like Xavin of Marvel comics.
• In the poster for The Devil in the Sunlight, Quanyii is wearing the same colors as the logo for The Penumbra Podcast. This could also be an allusion to the nonbinary flag.