TV-Series
Description
Neese, commonly called Little Neese and sometimes rendered in English as Petite Neese, is a character from the anime Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. She is the daughter of the magician Slayn and the priestess Leylia, and the granddaughter of the elder Neese, a priestess of the earth mother goddess Marfa who was one of the legendary Six Heroes of Lodoss. Because she shares her grandmother's name, the two are distinguished by calling the younger one Little Neese and the elder one simply Neese or Big Neese.
Little Neese is thirteen years old during the events of Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. Like her mother and her grandmother, she is a priestess of Marfa, the goddess who presides over the earth and fertility. Her family line, however, carries a dark inheritance. Her mother Leylia was originally fated to be the incarnation of Naneel, the high priestess of the dark god Kardis, a figure often called the Queen of the Dead. When Leylia gave birth to Little Neese, that incarnation passed to the daughter through the bloodline. As a result, Little Neese carries the essence of Naneel within her and is known as the Doorway, one of three keys needed to resurrect the dark god Kardis.
Because she is aware of Naneel's presence inside herself, Little Neese keeps an emotional distance from the world around her and behaves in a quiet, guarded manner. Her detachment is a way of coping with the dangerous inheritance she carries, since the essence within her belongs to a destructive deity opposed to the goddess she serves. Her motivation is shaped by this burden: she tries to live with her inheritance and to keep it from being turned to evil ends, even as the weight of it isolates her from other people.
Her role in the story comes to a head when the sorcerer Wagnard abducts her to use her as the Doorway in his scheme to resurrect Kardis during the conflict known as the War of the Destroyer's Resurrection. Her friends, led by the young warrior Spark, travel to the island of Marmo to rescue her. When Wagnard performs his ritual and draws Naneel's essence out of her, she is freed from the presence that had lived within her since birth.
Her most significant relationship is with Spark, a young man from Flaim who dreams of becoming a knight. When she first meets him, her mental barriers begin to lower, and she gradually falls in love with him. Their connection gives her emotional warmth and a reason to open up to others, and by the end of the story the two are romantically linked. She is also tied closely to her family: her father Slayn is a wise and powerful magician who fought alongside her grandmother in the earlier war, and her mother Leylia's past fate was passed on to her daughter. Slayn's pupil Aldonova is deeply devoted to her, often to the point of losing sight of more important matters. Her grandmother, the elder Neese, is a revered priestess and hero after whom she is named.
Over the course of the story, Little Neese develops from a withdrawn girl defined by her inner burden into someone capable of trusting and caring for others. Her time with Spark and the friends who risk themselves for her allows her emotional defenses to come down, and the climax of her personal arc is her liberation from Naneel, after which she can live as an ordinary young woman and pursue a relationship with Spark.
As a cleric of Marfa, she commands the divine magic of the earth mother goddess, a tradition centered on blessing, protection, and healing. Beyond her clerical abilities, her body and bloodline carry the incarnation of Naneel, which gives her a dark spiritual connection to Kardis that others try to exploit. It is this inherited essence, rather than any ordinary skill, that defines her place in the conflict.
Little Neese is thirteen years old during the events of Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. Like her mother and her grandmother, she is a priestess of Marfa, the goddess who presides over the earth and fertility. Her family line, however, carries a dark inheritance. Her mother Leylia was originally fated to be the incarnation of Naneel, the high priestess of the dark god Kardis, a figure often called the Queen of the Dead. When Leylia gave birth to Little Neese, that incarnation passed to the daughter through the bloodline. As a result, Little Neese carries the essence of Naneel within her and is known as the Doorway, one of three keys needed to resurrect the dark god Kardis.
Because she is aware of Naneel's presence inside herself, Little Neese keeps an emotional distance from the world around her and behaves in a quiet, guarded manner. Her detachment is a way of coping with the dangerous inheritance she carries, since the essence within her belongs to a destructive deity opposed to the goddess she serves. Her motivation is shaped by this burden: she tries to live with her inheritance and to keep it from being turned to evil ends, even as the weight of it isolates her from other people.
Her role in the story comes to a head when the sorcerer Wagnard abducts her to use her as the Doorway in his scheme to resurrect Kardis during the conflict known as the War of the Destroyer's Resurrection. Her friends, led by the young warrior Spark, travel to the island of Marmo to rescue her. When Wagnard performs his ritual and draws Naneel's essence out of her, she is freed from the presence that had lived within her since birth.
Her most significant relationship is with Spark, a young man from Flaim who dreams of becoming a knight. When she first meets him, her mental barriers begin to lower, and she gradually falls in love with him. Their connection gives her emotional warmth and a reason to open up to others, and by the end of the story the two are romantically linked. She is also tied closely to her family: her father Slayn is a wise and powerful magician who fought alongside her grandmother in the earlier war, and her mother Leylia's past fate was passed on to her daughter. Slayn's pupil Aldonova is deeply devoted to her, often to the point of losing sight of more important matters. Her grandmother, the elder Neese, is a revered priestess and hero after whom she is named.
Over the course of the story, Little Neese develops from a withdrawn girl defined by her inner burden into someone capable of trusting and caring for others. Her time with Spark and the friends who risk themselves for her allows her emotional defenses to come down, and the climax of her personal arc is her liberation from Naneel, after which she can live as an ordinary young woman and pursue a relationship with Spark.
As a cleric of Marfa, she commands the divine magic of the earth mother goddess, a tradition centered on blessing, protection, and healing. Beyond her clerical abilities, her body and bloodline carry the incarnation of Naneel, which gives her a dark spiritual connection to Kardis that others try to exploit. It is this inherited essence, rather than any ordinary skill, that defines her place in the conflict.