“ | 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-brinn) 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.
Overview[]
According to Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders, every ymbryne alive is a different species of bird, and there will never be two ymbrynes of the same species alive at the same time (e.g. there will never be another peregrine ymbryne while Miss Peregrine lives). Once an ymbryne is properly trained and graduates from the Ymbryne Academy, she makes and sustains a loop for the protection of the peculiars species. Peculiar children usually took precedent over peculiar adults, since they were more at risk. Peculiar animals were allowed in the vast majority of loops, but they also had loops specifically designed for them. As well as maintaining her loop, she also had to keep her wards fed, clothed, educated and safe. Several times each year she scouts for new, undiscovered peculiar children in need of help. She also takes part in sessions of peculiar government, traveling now and then for meetings of the Council of Ymbrynes.
Ymbrynes only need an hour or two of sleep each night. Occasionally, an overtaxed one takes on an assistant, who is usually an ymbryne-in-training sent for mentorship. Ymbrynes traditionally do not marry and have children, so that they don't favour a biological child that likely would not even be peculiar. Some ymbrynes in the Far East wear wedding attire to symbolize that they are married to their work. Ymbrynes exist all over the world, as all peculiars do, and ymbryne councils also exist in Asia and Africa.
Peculiarity[]
- Avian Shapeshifting: Ymbrynes are able to shift into a particular species of bird. 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.
- Time Manipulation: Ymbrynes are able to manipulate time and create loops, permaloops and pocket loops.
- Memory Manipulation: Ymbrynes are able to manipulate other people's memories and certain memories, such as erasing them. People who just had their memories erased are very susceptible to manipulation, and can accept facts or order without second thought. This is seen with Jacob's parents when Miss Peregrine convinced them that the peculiars are a distant family to Abraham. She also told Jacob that she could probably convince his parents that the peculiars are from a moon colony.
- Possible minor additional peculiarity: e.g. Miss Blackbird's third eye.
History[]
The first recorded ymbryne was a goshawk named Ymeene, responsible for establishing the European Ymbryne Council. She taught many ymbrynes while she was still alive, and helped protect hundreds of peculiars after several kingdoms decided to banish the peculiar population from its lands. She would also help find out many of the rules that came with living within a loop; including the fact normal people could not enter loops, and that anyone will age forward given enough time. She died in 157 from the Bubonic Plague.
Ymbryne councils around the world occassionally received ambassadors and emissaries from each other, but the rise of wights and hollowgasts cut off contact. In America, the majority of the ymbrynes were killed by normals, hollowgasts, and wights. The Organization was created to kill ymbrynes. The ymbrynes in the south got the first and worst of it. In the 1860s, an ymbryne maintained four or five loops at a time, and most of the peculiars barely got to see her. Gradually, ymbrynes all over the nation started disappearing. A few ymbrynes may have survived, but they don't have anything like the power or influence they used to have. Ymbrynes are more common and hold more leadership in Europe.
After Caul's first fall, the Ymbryne Council's authority began to be challenged by the peculiars in Devil's Acre they were leading.
Known Ymbrynes[]
- Miss Apfel
- Miss Esmerelda Avocet (deceased)
- Miss Babax (deceased)
- Miss Barbet
- Miss Isabella Bird
- Miss Blackbird
- Miss Bobolink
- Miss Bolbol
- Miss Bowerbird
- Miss Bramblebash
- Miss Bronzewing
- Miss Bunting
- Miss Bustard
- Miss Cacique
- Miss Caracara
- Miss Winnifred Crake
- Miss Crow
- Miss Isabel Cuckoo
- Miss Curassow
- Miss Egret
- Miss Elachura
- Miss Euphonia
- Miss Finch
- Miss Firecrown
- Miss Flatbill
- Miss Flycatcher
- Miss Frogmouth
- Miss Gannett
- Miss Glassbill
- Ymeene Goshawk
- Miss Grackle
- Miss Grebe
- Velyana Greenshank (deceased)
- Miss Grosbeak
- Miss Hawksbill
- Miss Honeythrush (deceased)
- Miss Jackdaw
- Miss Jacobin
- Miss Kestrel
- Miss Loon
- Miss Lovebird
- Miss Merganser
- Miss Minivet
- Miss Morgana
- Miss Nightjar
- Miss Palapitta
- Miss Penduline
- Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine
- Miss Gwendoline Petrel (deceased)
- Miss Pigeon Hawk
- Miss Pippit
- Miss Evelyn Ptarmigan
- Miss Adrienne Plover
- Miss Ginny Quetzal
- Miss Raven
- Miss Rockfowl
- Miss Rosefinch
- Miss Mary Seacole
- Miss Shrikethrush
- Miss Sicklebill
- Miss Swiftlet
- Miss Tanager
- Miss Tern
- Miss Thistletail
- Miss Thrasher
- Miss Thrush
- Miss Tit
- Miss Titmouse
- Miss Treecreeper
- Miss Troupial
- Miss Turaco
- Miss Verdin
- Miss Wattle-eye
- Miss Waxwing
- Miss Whistler
- Miss Wigeon
- Miss Balenciaga Wren
- Miss Yippin
- Miss Yuhina
- Unnamed American Ymbrynes (deceased)
- 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.
- In The Desolations of Devil's Acre, it is revealed that ymbrynes are not allowed to marry.