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Spoiler warning!
This article or section contains plot spoilers for the Mortal Engines quartet. Proceed at your own risk. |
Erdene Shan is a secluded valley located in the mountains some miles east of Batmunkh Gompa. This location plays a significant role in the ending of A Darkling Plain.
It is known as the final resting place of Tom and Hester Natsworthy, the Jenny Haniver, and Anna Fang.
Description[]
Erdene Tezh, an abandoned temple that was Anna Fang's home, is located in this valley on an island in the middle of a large pond. She is the sole resident of this region.
Tom and Hester's resting place is near a stunted oak tree that grows beside a river at the head of the valley. Over time, foliage consumed their corpses. Nearby is a shallow cave where Shrike watched over them for eons.[1]
History[]
A Darkling Plain[]
As a Stalker, Anna contacts ODIN from her house in Erdene Shan and uses it to destroy the anti-tractionist capital Tienjing and the leading tractionist city of Manchester before attempting to use it to wipe out humanity. However in a fleeting change of heart, she sets the weapon to destroy itself before it can do any more harm. Professor Pennyroyal then manages to kill the Stalker with a lightning gun whilst also setting Erdene Tezh ablaze. Tom's failing heart finally gives out and he passes into the Sunless Country, and in Hester's grief she takes her own life and dies alongside her husband in the gardens of Erdene Tezh.
Upon discovering Tom and Hester, a deeply saddened Shrike lays their bodies down together at the end of the valley and watches over them for years until they are taken back by nature. Purposeless, Shrike remains dormant and observes the valley changing over decades.
"Stars blurred over him; seasons blinked at him. The trees became a wood. Bare branches breathed in, exhaled green leaves, turned golden, bare, breathed in."
Eventually a settlement grows in Erdene Shan. Its people awaken Shrike from hibernation many many years after the events of Mortal Engines in a time where tractionist cities no longer exist, and he shares with them his guarded memories of the past.
References[]
- ↑ A Darkling Plain, Chapter 54: "Shrike in the World to Come"