50 Fun Facts About Shadow and Bone

Which actor, Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia films, plays the Darkling in Netflix's Shadow and Bone?

Ben Barnes is also a singer: his debut single, 11:11, came out in September 2021, a few months after the show's first season.

Which winged, flesh-eating monsters attack the First Army's crossing of the Shadow Fold at the start of Shadow and Bone?

Volcra were once ordinary people: they lived on the land the Fold swallowed, and its creation twisted them into blind, clawed predators.

By which title does Ravkan history remember the Grisha who created the Shadow Fold in Shadow and Bone?

The Black Heretic proves to be the Darkling himself: he has faked his death again and again, posing as his own descendant for centuries.

Which magical animal of Ravka's far north does the Darkling kill to make Alina Starkov's collar in Shadow and Bone?

A stag: Alina finds it first but cannot bring herself to kill it, and that act of mercy is what later lets her break the Darkling's hold on her.

Linguist David J. Peterson built languages for Netflix's Shadow and Bone after inventing Dothraki for which series?

Game of Thrones gave Peterson his break: HBO needed a Dothraki language, turned to the Language Creation Society, and he won the resulting contest.

Netflix's Shadow and Bone filmed its palaces and city streets in and around the capital of which European country?

Hungary stood in for Ravka: Festetics Palace in Keszthely played the Little Palace, and Budapest's Ethnographic Museum became the king's hall in the Grand Palace.

What lasting change does Alina Starkov suffer after using forbidden magic against the Darkling in Siege and Storm?

Her hair turns white when she tries to raise shadow soldiers of her own, an effort that nearly kills her and leaves her too weak to summon.

Which one-word genre label did author Leigh Bardugo coin to describe her debut novel Shadow and Bone?

Tsarpunk is Bardugo's name for fantasy drawn from early-19th-century Russia, a setting she picked to take readers somewhere other than the usual land of broadswords and ale.

What do Alina and Mal quietly run together under new names at the end of Ruin and Rising?

An orphanage, and the very one in Keramzin where they grew up: the Darkling had destroyed it, so they rebuild it and take in children.

Leigh Bardugo, author of Shadow and Bone, opened the DC Icons novel series with a book about which superhero?

Wonder Woman: Warbringer, published in 2017, was the first DC Icons novel, and it was later adapted as a graphic novel too.

Which job does Alina Starkov hold in Ravka's First Army before her Grisha power is discovered in Shadow and Bone?

Cartographer is a generous word for it: Alina is only a junior mapmaker's assistant, trained beside Mal at the army post in Poliznaya.

Which uncanny talent makes soldier Mal Oretsev so valuable to the Darkling in Shadow and Bone?

Tracking is Mal's gift: he can find anything in the wild, and the final book reveals why, since he is himself the last of the ancient amplifiers.

Under which alias does Prince Nikolai Lantsov sail as a privateer when Alina first meets him in Siege and Storm?

Sturmhond had his face reshaped by a Grisha crewman so nobody from court would know him, reasoning that at sea a prince is worth more as a hostage than as a captain.

Which Grisha Tailor makes Alina Starkov presentable for the King and becomes her first friend at the Little Palace?

Genya Safin was handed to the Queen as a servant when her rare gift first showed, which is why the other Grisha look down on her.

Which jealous Squaller breaks Alina Starkov's rib during combat training at the Little Palace in Shadow and Bone?

Zoya Nazyalensky begins as a rival and ends the trilogy as one of Alina's allies; later Grishaverse novels even make her Ravka's queen.

Which Ravkan capital, nicknamed the Dream City, is home to both the Grand Palace and the Little Palace?

Os Alta is a city in two parts: peasants live in the outer town, set apart from the palaces, boulevards and gardens of the rich at its heart.

To which country across the True Sea do Alina and Mal escape at the end of the novel Shadow and Bone?

Novyi Zem is no refuge for long: after two weeks in the town of Cofton, they return to their boarding house to find the Darkling waiting.

Which priest, spiritual adviser to Ravka's king, takes an unsettling interest in Alina Starkov in Shadow and Bone?

The Apparat hands Alina a book of holy lives early on, then builds a cult around her that all but holds her prisoner in the final novel.

What is the name of the embroidered, bullet-resistant robe worn by Ravka's Grisha soldiers in Shadow and Bone?

Kefta worn into combat are made of corecloth to stop bullets, and the embroidery on the cuffs tells you exactly what kind of Grisha is inside.

Which color does Alina Starkov ask to wear at the Little Palace, turning down the Darkling's offer of his own?

Blue is the Summoners' color, and Alina asks for it because she does not want to stand above the other Grisha; hers arrives embroidered in gold.

Netflix's Shadow and Bone weaves in a gang of Ketterdam thieves from which other Leigh Bardugo duology?

Six of Crows is a heist story about breaking into a high-security prison, so the show wrote its thieves a brand-new plot that crosses Alina's.

Which Ketterdam gang boss, played by Freddy Carter, is hired to kidnap Alina Starkov in Netflix's Shadow and Bone?

Kaz Brekker walks with a cane because his creator sometimes does too: Leigh Bardugo has osteonecrosis and gave her master thief the same aid.

Which English actress, once a teaching assistant, plays Alina Starkov in Netflix's Shadow and Bone?

Jessie Mei Li had made her professional stage debut only months before she was cast, in All About Eve beside Gillian Anderson and Lily James.

Which actress, Madam Hooch in the first Harry Potter film, plays the Darkling's mother in Netflix's Shadow and Bone?

Zoë Wanamaker was born in New York but made her name on the British stage, winning two Olivier Awards long before she was teaching Alina to summon.

By which surname is the Darkling known in Netflix's Shadow and Bone, where he commands Ravka's Grisha as a general?

Kirigan tests Alina in his tent in the very first episode: he nicks her forearm with a blade, and a beam of light bursts from the wound.

Eric Heisserer, showrunner of Shadow and Bone, earned an Oscar nomination for writing which 2016 sci-fi film?

Arrival, about a linguist learning to talk with alien visitors, was adapted by Heisserer from Ted Chiang's novella Story of Your Life.

Which Ivy League university did Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo attend, later the setting of her novel Ninth House?

Yale gave Bardugo more than an English degree: she joined the Wolf's Head secret society, and the tombs of such societies inspired her ghost-haunted campus novel.

In which Middle Eastern city was Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo born before growing up in Los Angeles?

Jerusalem was only her birthplace: Bardugo was raised in Los Angeles by her grandparents, with family roots in Spain, Russia and Lithuania.

Which demanding tutor at the Little Palace is revealed to be the Darkling's mother in Shadow and Bone?

Baghra can summon darkness just like her son, and she tells Alina to run out of love for him: she wants to stop him before he is past redemption.

Which part of the sea whip, the ice dragon Rusalye, becomes Alina Starkov's second amplifier in Siege and Storm?

Its scales are made into a fetter that Alina wears; Ravkan folk tales say the creature was a cursed dragon prince guarding the frigid Bone Road.

Which mythical creature do Alina and Mal hunt as the supposed third amplifier in Ruin and Rising?

The firebird proves a false trail: when Alina and Mal finally reach it, they learn that the real third amplifier has been Mal all along.

Which legendary Fabrikator, nicknamed the Bonesmith, made the three great amplifiers of the Shadow and Bone trilogy?

Ilya Morozova is the Darkling's grandfather, and villagers threw him off a bridge in chains for raising his younger daughter from the dead.

Which twin Heartrenders from the privateer's crew become Alina Starkov's personal guards in Siege and Storm?

Tolya and Tamar were raised in the church and learned to read liturgical Ravkan, so Tolya can help Alina translate an old text in the library.

What unusual ability does a small craft built by Nikolai Lantsov show off in Siege and Storm?

It can fly: the Hummingbird rides winds raised by Squallers, though its trip across the Fold ends with a crash landing in a lake on the far side.

What does the Darkling call the shadow soldiers he creates in Siege and Storm, a name meaning 'nothings'?

Nichevo'ya simply re-form when shot or slashed, and the Darkling chose the mild name to soften the fear they stirred even in his closest allies.

Which true first name does the Darkling confide to Alina Starkov late in the Shadow and Bone trilogy?

Aleksander strikes Alina as so ordinary a name that she laughs when she hears it, which draws a rare, genuine smile from him.

What do the Grisha of Shadow and Bone call their power, insisting that it is not magic at all?

The Small Science only works on matter that already exists: an Inferni cannot conjure fire from thin air, so most carry a flint to strike the spark.

Which Grisha order, also called the Order of the Living and the Dead, includes Healers and Heartrenders?

Corporalki wear red and work on the human body: a Heartrender can stop a heart outright or keep air from reaching the lungs.

Which wind-driven craft carry soldiers and cargo across the Shadow Fold in Shadow and Bone?

Sandskiffs are shallow sleds with a single mast: Squallers fill the sail so they glide silently over the sand, where animals would frighten too easily.

By which other name do Ravkans know the Shadow Fold, the strip of darkness cutting the country off from its coast?

The Unsea covers what was once green, fertile farmland and some of Ravka's richest estates, drowned in darkness centuries before Alina was born.

As what do pilgrims across Ravka come to worship Alina Starkov after her power is revealed in Shadow and Bone?

A saint, Sankta Alina: while she is still recovering in the infirmary, she is told that people are already building altars in her honor.

At which palace celebration do Alina and the Darkling perform a show of light and shadow in Shadow and Bone?

The winter fete is the night everything changes: hours later Alina learns the Darkling's secret and flees the palace hidden in a troupe's wagon.

Which Leigh Bardugo short story, later a graphic novel, tells of the Darkling's boyhood before Shadow and Bone?

Demon in the Wood finds him as a boy travelling under the false name Eryk, moving from camp to camp with his mother to keep their rare powers hidden.

Which gemstone is set in the Lantsov family ring that Nikolai offers Alina Starkov when he proposes?

Emerald: the ring is a Lantsov heirloom from his mother, and when Alina refuses him for good, Nikolai tells her to keep it and build something new.

Which elder brother of Nikolai Lantsov, heir to Ravka's crown, is killed at a birthday dinner in Siege and Storm?

Vasily had just struck his own deal with Fjerda that opened Ravka's trade routes, and the Darkling used that opening to slip his forces into the capital.

What does the Darkling do to Nikolai Lantsov during the attack on the Spinning Wheel in Ruin and Rising?

Makes him a beast: shadow forced into his body gives Nikolai wings, fangs and talons, and dark scars stay on his fingers after he is restored.

Which Irish actor, later the young Dexter Morgan in Dexter: Original Sin, plays Nikolai in Netflix's Shadow and Bone?

Patrick Gibson joined for the second season; years earlier he had left a philosophy degree at Trinity College Dublin unfinished when The OA cast him.

Which English actor, a former air-conditioning apprentice, plays Mal Oretsev in Netflix's Shadow and Bone?

Archie Renaux started out as a model before turning to acting, and he later faced a very different kind of monster in Alien: Romulus.

What is the name of the orange tabby that follows the Inferni Harshaw everywhere in Ruin and Rising?

Oncat is simply the Kaelish word for cat, and Harshaw once shaved the sides of his head on the grounds that she had told him to.

Which former Shu mercenary teaches Grisha to fight without their powers at the Little Palace in Shadow and Bone?

Botkin Yul-Erdene fought for anyone who could pay before the Darkling recruited him, and he rewards Alina's progress with a knife of Grisha steel.