The War of Two Queens

Penellaphe Da’Neer (née Balfour), better known as Poppy, is one of the novel’s two protagonists and first-person narrators. She is the Queen of Atlantis. In the absence of her husband, Casteel, she leads their kingdom to war against her birth mother, Isbeth, to liberate the people from the tyranny of the Blood Crown and the Ascended. Over the course of the Blood and Ash series (See: Background), she transitions from a sheltered, controlled Maiden to the Primal of Blood and Bone. She is described as beautiful and curvy, with red hair and green eyes, like her father’s, that glow silver with magical eather when she’s using her power.

Poppy is also covered in scars from the abuse she suffered in the past and from an attack by the Craven during which her adoptive parents died, an event that she has nightmares about in the novel. This attack resulted in severe scarring on the left side of her face, while the right remains unmarked. This duality is omnipresent in Poppy. While she can use her powers to calm and heal, she can also destroy, such as in Chapter 36, after Isbeth kills the descenters. The