"I choose to be Scythe Anastasia. I vow to become the change that might have been." — Citra Terranova, Scythe
Citra Terranova is a former scythe known as Scythe Anastasia. She was the apprentice of Scythe Faraday, along with Rowan Damisch and later the apprentice and junior scythe of the late Scythe Curie. She is the main female protagonist of the Arc of a Scythe series.
Biography[]
Scythe[]
On a cold November day, sixteen-year-old Citra met Scythe Faraday when he showed up on her family's apartment and invited himself for dinner. The Terranovas were afraid he was going to glean them. Citra snapped at him during the whole dinner which intrigued Faraday, as Citra was not wary and afraid of him like most people. Faraday then admitted he was actually there to glean their neighbor, Bridget Chadwell.
Not long after, Citra received a mysterious invitation to the Grand Civic Opera where she met Rowan Damisch. The sender turned out to be Scythe Faraday, who had invited them both so they would become his new apprentices. They began training with him. Faraday teaches them both how to become scythes, including tagging along in Faraday's gleanings.
At Vernal Conclave, Citra failed her test as she lied to Scythe Curie about the worst thing she had ever done, which was tripping a girl making her fall down a staircase, killing her. She had actually pushed the girl in front of a bus rendering her deadish. It is then determined by a suggestion from Scythe Rand that Scythe Faraday is not allowed to have two apprentices and that at the end of the apprenticeship the winner must glean the person who fails. This causes the relationship between Citra and Rowan to be strained and awkward. The two share a kiss but decide they do not love each other because it is safer that way.
After the "self-gleaning" of Scythe Faraday, Scythe Curie takes Citra to Fallingwater to complete her training, and Rowan is sent to train with Scythe Goddard. While with Scythe Curie, Citra learns compassion and how to help the families of the people they glean. She also goes to apologize to the girl she pushed in front of the bus. Citra begins to suspect that there might have been foul play with Faraday's self-gleaning so she begins to secretly research the night of his disappearance.
At the Harvest Conclave, Citra sees Rowan for the first time in four months. She told him of her research, but he tells her to stop looking into it. Later Rowan and Citra face off in a competition in the martial art of Bokator. At first, Rowan tries to purposefully lose to Citra, but she does the same, making it look like Rowan is winning the match. With 10 seconds left in the match, Rowan breaks Citra's neck and spine, disqualifying him and causing Citra to go deadish. They both lose the match.
While Citra is in the Recovery Center reviving, the Thunderhead speaks to her right before she wakes up (so it does not break the rule of no interference between the Scythedom and the Thunderhead). The next day, BladeGuardsmen arrest Citra for the murder of Scythe Faraday because of a note Faraday had written that was actually about Scythe Curie and was misread. Citra escapes by jumping off the building and splatting herself, which puts her under the jurisdiction of Nimbus agents. The Thunderhead again speaks to Citra while she is reviving and gives her a clue about Gerald Van Der Gans. Scythe Curie takes Citra to a secluded cabin in the woods to hide. Two Scythes find them, so Curie stays behind and sends Citra on her way with instructions. Citra eventually finds Faraday in his hideout.
She spends a few days with him before going back to the Winter Conclave for her final test. For the last test, she had to make her brother Ben deadish. Citra is chosen for scythehood and chose the name Anastasia. Because she was chosen, Citra must glean Rowan. Instead, she punches him in the mouth, getting his blood on her ring and consequently granting him immunity. Rowan tells Citra that he loves her before he grabs three blades, and escapes into a car that's waiting outside for him with Scythe Faraday.
Thunderhead[]
Citra serves as a junior scythe under the watch of Honorable Scythe Curie. During her scythehood, she chooses to tell her gleaning victims that they will be gleaned 1 month in advance and also allows them to choose their act of gleaning. This causes many scythes to not agree with her choices and causes much disruption between the scythes.
Just after Scythe Anastasia gleans a cellist named Ethan J. Hogan after a game of baccarat, Scythe Anastasia takes a publicar to no specific destination, just south. As Scythe Anastasia spots a rest stop, she then calls Scythe Curie to inform her she will not be home because her next gleaning will take place in an area very far from Fallingwater. The drive back would exhaust her. Scythe Marie cares for her well-being and reminds Citra to take care of herself.
After Citra hangs up on Scythe Marie, she proceeds to enter the deserted rest stop and changes out of her scythe robe into ordinary street clothes. Although Citra does feel guilty about not wearing her robe at all times, a part of her still feels attached and is not quite accustomed to her forever scythe nature, Scythe Anastasia, yet. Citra wanders into the Mortality Memorial located in the heart of Pittsburgh which showcased the concept of death in the Age of Mortality by natural means. Wandering through the Halloween parties held in Pittsburgh, she looks to find the mysterious person who had written her a note to meet at midnight at Mortality Memorial. At precisely midnight, she discovers the person behind the note is Rowan, who is now known as Scythe Lucifer. They talk casually, despite what has happened between them. Citra notices how ghostly Rowan looks, and how little he does to take care of himself. Citra confronts Rowan about the Scythe Lucifer business, and Rowan describes it as a "calling".
Scythe Curie and Citra are under attack from an unknown source. As they approach one of their gleanings, they are threatened with a bomb along the road but are saved by Greyson. They are assigned three more gleanings before being placed on a temporary probation under the supervision of lead investigator Scythe Constantine. On their last gleaning in a grand theater, they are threatened with acid in the sprinkler system that would rain down upon everyone in the area. Fortunately, the dubious plot is foiled, and they make it out alive.
At the next conclave, it is determined that High Blade Xenocrates has risen to Grand Slayer of NorthMerica. The two candidates to be his replacement are Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard, to which Citra contests the latter due to his body only being 7% scythe. The inquest leads them to Endura (The Land Of The Enduring Heart).
While at Endura, they explore the land prior to finding out the fate of the next High Blade, though they notice that the systems seem to be malfunctioning everywhere. Nevertheless, the inquest continues, and the result is that Scythe Curie is to be the next High Blade.
The island's floatation system completely crashes, and the residents of Endura perish in a high-adrenaline fight for their lives. Citra and Rowan are saved by Scythe Curie by being locked in the sealed room of the founders. As the island sinks and Scythe Curie self gleans, Rowan and Citra fall to the bottom of the ocean, hoping to be found and revived once more.
The Toll[]
3 years after Endura sank, the vault Citra and Rowan were trapped in was lifted from the sea. She is revived in Amazonia.
After learning about Overblade Goddard, she and Scythe Possuelo escape from Amazonia heading to the region of SubSahara on a boat being brought by Jerico Soberanis. There, they meet with High Blade Tenkamenin, and she is asked to search in the back brain for details on specific dates. Neither she nor High Blade Tenkamenin knows what the dates are related to. She uncovers information and sends out broadcasts to the public about her findings, and that she is still alive. She learns details that happened during the Mile High gleanings. She sends more and more broadcasts out that hint at how the colonization failures were caused by Carson Lusk, also known as Scythe Goddard.
Tonists attack High Blade Tenkamenin's residence and kill multiple scythes. Scythe Anastasia, however, survives by giving her robe to Jeri, who runs up the stairs to distract the Tonists. Citra then attacks the remaining Tonists who were not expecting it, since she looked like a civilian. After defending Jeri from the Tonists who were after them, they head up the steps to the ceiling where fire, dead bodies, and Ambudrones can be seen everywhere. They decide that one of them must go deadish to bring an ambudrone to them. She starts to thrust a blade into her chest but stops right before hitting the skin. She remembers that if she thrusts the blade, she'd have self-gleaned. Jeri can't render her deadish either since then she/he and his/her whole family would have to die. So Jeri is rendered deadish instead, and they are both brought to safety.
After reuniting with Rowan at Kwajalein, she gives up her scythe ring to Faraday, giving up being Scythe Anastasia and fully becoming Citra Terranova.
During her attempt to leave Kwajalein to get to a colonizer ship, she is badly struck by debris from a missile shot by Goddard, which renders her deadish. She is revived after 117 years, waking up to the sight of Rowan Damisch who had waited for her and turned a corner when the time came.
Personality[]
Citra is very clever, although she can be short-tempered and rude at times. She is also very caring, accepting her scythe apprenticeship to ensure her brother and parent's immunity from gleaning. Citra is competitive and loves to win. She is an extremely loyal person, strives for justice, realistic, and hates corruption.
During her apprenticeship, she develops more empathy, compassion, and kindness for others, which is reflected in her gleaning method.
Despite being a world-famous scythe, she hates being the center of attention, but always handles it well, knowing what to say.
Physical description[]
Citra's genetic index is predominantly Afric. Scythe Curie used to braid her hair which implies her hair is long enough to braid.
Gleaning method[]
Scythe Anastasia allows people to choose their own method of gleaning and gives them a one month’s notice ahead of time. Her method is to choose a subject and research it thoroughly, then approach them, inform them they have been selected for gleaning, then proceed to inject them with a hypodermic gun containing a grain of lethal poison that activates if they tried to leave MidMerica to escape their gleaning or if they do not contact Anastasia within the next thirty days to let her know where and how they would like to be gleaned. She gives them one month to put their lives in order and to say their goodbyes; with this she searches to give her gleaning subjects a moment of perspective and for them to find completion. Then, she gives them her business card, turquoise ink on a white background, with simply her name "Scythe Anastasia," and a phone number reserved exclusively for her gleaning subjects.
If they lose the card, they must call the general number for the MidMerican Scythedom, choose option three, and follow the prompts to leave her a message. If they try to get immunity from another scythe, the scythe would know they have been marked and would glean the subject on the spot.
Her method was unheard and received mixed opinions within the Scythedom; some said it was brilliant and compassionate, while others reprimanded her in a hearing at her first Vernal Conclave because they saw it as weakness, as something immoral, inhumane, and barbaric to give the public so much control over their own gleaning.
Scythe Anastasia's argument to the accusations was that, in her studies of the mortal age, she had learned that for many people, death was not instantaneous. Some diseases gave people warning, time to prepare themselves and their loved ones for the inevitable. Since it violated no laws, and the Parliamentarian couldn't find grounds for legal objection, they could not put her on probation, and she was allowed to keep gleaning with her method.
Only a handful of her subjects didn't return at the end of their grace period. Some tried to cross the border to Texas or WestMerica and died in the process. No one was allowed to touch the body until Anastasia arrived to pronounce them gleaned. Others simply waited for the time to run out and were found dead in their beds. In all instances, the method of death had been entirely the choice of the subject, which was most crucial for Scythe Anastasia. She found it indignant to have your death chosen for you. It created more work for her, but it helped her sleep at night.[1]
Relationships[]
Romances[]
- Rowan Damisch: Citra and Rowan start off as rivals, then to turned friends, although they later realize they have feelings for each other, which is against the Scythe Commandments. When Citra was chosen for scythehood, she indirectly saved Rowan. After this, Rowan said "I love you" to Citra for the first time, which she reciprocated.[2] When they both end up in the Vault of Relics and Futures, Rowan comforted Citra from the loss of Scythe Curie and as neither of them knew what was going to happen.[1]They presumably made out in the vault, and use direct body heat has getting closer to the bottom of the ocean. After being separated from each other for so long, they meet at the Atoll. When Citra realizes she can be with Rowan, she renounces her scythehood.[3]
Friends[]
- Scythe Curie: She is Citra's second mentor.[2] Citra thought of Scythe Curie as a second mother. They loved each other, even went so far as to Scythe Curie protecting Anastasia and Rowan from death by locking them in the Vault of Relics and Futures.[1]
- Scythe Faraday: He was Citra's first mentor and was the first person to introduce her into the world of the Scythedom when she became his apprentice. He taught her to glean with compassion and was a fatherly figure to her. He also "self-gleaned" to save her and Rowan's life. However, this plan backfired. Citra spent a great amount of time looking for who killed him and it turned out to be him faking his death all along. [2] When they met at the Atoll they were both shocked, as Scythe Faraday thought that she self-gleaned during the sinking of Endura.[3]
- Scythe Possuelo: She saw him as a fatherly figure and friend and started building her relationship with him after she was revived after being found by him in the Vault of Relics and Futures. He called her "meu anjo" which means my angel, which she saw as a term of endearment. While she was regaining strength after revival, they played card games together until she had regained strength and state of mind.[3]
- Greyson Tolliver: Greyson jumped in front of a car to save the life of Citra and Scythe Curie, and later in the book she advised him to stay with the Tonists which set him up on his path for the future.[1] They traveled together and worked as a team and as friends, along with a few others.[3]
- Jerico Soberanis: Jerico, also known as Jeri, met Citra, and decided to accompany her on her journey, saying that it was Possuelo's orders when really Jeri wanted to be by her side. Jeri went as far as rendering her/himself deadish to save Citra's life. Jeri was in danger of being gleaned on a few occasions, and Citra always made sure that it wouldn't happen.[3]
Enemies[]
- Scythe Goddard: Citra is against the new order, and Goddard was the leader of it, thus making Goddard her enemy. Goddard had no personal interest in Citra as anything other than a source of amusement at first, one to be pitted against Rowan. He later saw her as nothing more than an obstacle to Rowan's scythehood, and then as an enemy he hated more than most anyone else. Citra never liked him either and threw wrenches into his plans whenever possible.
Appearances[]
- Scythe (first appearance)
- Thunderhead
- Anastasia's Shadow (mentioned only)
- The Toll
- A Dark Curtain Rises (mentioned only)
Gallery[]
.jpg "Citra Terranova (Scythe Anastasia).jpg (94 KB)")
Quotes[]
- “Hope in the shadow of fear is the world's most powerful motivator.”— Scythe
- "I won't do that. Luck is for losers. You have history on your side. You have gravity. You have authority. You are the Granddame of Death. Your Excellency."— Thunderhead
Trivia[]
- Scythe Anastasia's robe would be made of simple fabric, like cotton, since she is not a showy person.[4]
- Scythe Anastasia's business card has her scythe name "Scythe Anastasia" written in turquoise ink on a white background and the phone number that was reserved for her gleaning subjects.[1]