The Peculiar Children Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Abaton is an ancient loop of unknown origin and is considered very valuable to peculiardom, since it houses the Library of Souls. The Library of souls contains all peculiar souls and the librarian's inside would distribute them. It is unknown how the city or the Library was built, and why so many souls were gathered in the loop. Since there didn't seem to be any housing in the library, the city was probably used by the Librarians to live.

History[]

Tales of the Peculiar[]

The "frugal-minded" peculiars, as Myron Bentham put it, didn't want to waste any peculiar souls by taking them with them when they died. So, when peculiars died, it was said that they would journey to the Library of Souls in Abaton, and replace the soul they had "checked out" when they were born, much like a library book. It is unknown how someone would gain their soul when they were born.

The Legend of the Lost Loop[]

The legend says that one day a man found a way to enter the library without being dead. He somehow snuck around the Librarians and stole some of the souls, it is unknown how he could have picked up the jars, since only librarians could pick up the soul jars and move them around. Before he could get away the library's guardians killed him and put the souls back. However, it was too late and eventually peculiars got wind of the incident and the most cruel of them sought for the power of the library.

The Librarian's were unable to prevent a battle from erupting and were somehow unable to further protect the souls inside. Since thousands of years later, people were still able to interact with some souls, Most of the souls on the outermost rooms were stolen, though they probably couldn't have been used since somebody would have to perform a specific ritual to get a peculiar soul.

Peculiars with inconceivable powers battled each other day and night for control of the library, each new "self-declared king" being killed by another before he could claim his prize. Finally, the last king fell and the one who slew him went to claim the Library. As he made his way to the hills of the ancient city of Abaton and came across instead an empty valley. The loop, and all the souls inside it, had miraculously disappeared. It is believed that ymbrynes had something to do with it, since ymbrynes were needed to re-find the city.

This story was told in the earliest (later banned) editions of Tales of the Peculiar. People would slowly forget about the city, and few believed the city actually existed.

Caul and the Claywings[]

ClaywingsPropgandaPoster

A recruiting poster for the Claywings

He cast himself as an underdog fighting to wrest control of our society from what he called the 'infantilizing influence of ymbrynes'.

–Library of Souls, Myron regarding his brother Jack

Jack "Caul" Bentham and Myron Bentham made it their lifelong mission to find Abaton, with the soul purpose of locating the Library of Souls. Caul was the main one of the pair who wanted to find it since he was extremely jealous of the attention given to his younger sister Alma LeFay Peregrine by the ymbrynes of his loop. They created the Claywings in order to slowly get rid of the way the ymbrynes were running the peculiar society.

While they researched the city and searched for it they created the Panloopticon, so they could more easily travel the world and could be more connected. The search would be stopped when Myron figured out the real reason behind the Claywings and he was imprisoned. From his jail cell he was able to convince his guard to do an old ritual that was considered a last resort since it completely destroyed a loop, but it did have the benefit of completely reseting somebody's internal clock. The ploy worked and the most of the Claywings went into the loop, the incident would be called the Experiment of 1908. The Claywings were turned into hollowgasts, and it took them decades to regain their strength and restart the search for the city.

They searched and searched for the lost loop, mounting expedition after expedition, each failure only fueling their zeal. All along, my brother had only cared about ruling it, like the would-be peculiar gods of old. And when I tried to challenge him and regain control of the inter-loop traveling machine I'd built, he smeared me as a traitor, turned the others against me, and locked me in a cell.

–Library of Souls, Myron discovering Jack's true motives

The Claywings would take on the name the Wights, and they would eventually find the city. Upon realizing they needed ymbryne's to reopen the city, they started kidnapping ymbryne's in Europe. They would take the ymbryne's in London primarily, since it was where most of them lived, but they would go as far as Wales to kidnap Miss Peregrine and Miss Wren.

In the book Hollow City, Sergei Andropov talks to Jacob Portman about Abaton. Upon witnessing Jacob performing his peculiar ability on The Rogue Hollow, Sergei realises that Jacob is one of Abaton's Librarians. He tells Jacob (along with Emma and Addison MacHenry), to find the loop and use the peculiar jars in there to create more peculiars- until they form an army. Abaton is referred to as: 'The Ancient Home', 'Navel of worlds' and 'Gurehmeh' by Sergei.

The city was destroyed when Myron Bentham realized how corrupt his brother was and what he wanted to do with the souls. He used the soul of Abraham Portman in ambrosia to gain the librarian ability, when he had successfully gained the ability, he took a soul from the shelves and consumed it. He gained the ability and detracted his brother while the prisoners the pair had brought to the city destroyed it. When the Library was brought back, the city wasn't.

Trivia[]

  • Abaton is Greek, and it means "I go not." In addition, Abaddon is from the Hebrew Bible and means destruction. Its Greek equivalent, Apollyon, is both a place of destruction and an archangel of the abyss. Abaddon references a bottomless pit, often appearing alongside Sheol, which is the realm of the dead.
Advertisement