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The Nine Bright Shiners were the ones who were originally in "The Beginning". They are Ranna (Sleeper, Wall/Stones), Mosrael (Waker, Clayr), Kibeth (Walker/Dog), Dyrim (Speaker/Royals), Belgaer (Thinker, Wall/Stones), Saraneth (Binder, Abhorsens), Astarael (Weeper, The Sorrowful), Yrael (Mogget), and Orannis (The Destroyer).

"I’ll sing you a song of the long ago -

Seven shine the shiners, oh!

What did the Seven do way back when?

Why, they wove the Charter then!

Five for the warp, from beginning to end.

Two for the woof, to make and mend.

That’s the Seven, but what of the Nine-

What of the two who chose not to shine?

The Eighth did hide, hide all away,

But the Seven caught him and made him pay.

The Ninth was strong and fought with might,

But lone Orannis was put out of the light,

Broken in two and buried under hill,

Forever to lie there, wishing us ill."

-Lirael pp. 525-526.

The first seven of these helped in the creation of the Charter, while only five: Ranna, Mosrael, Dyrim, Belgaer, and Saraneth, put their full being into the Charter. Three in the Clayr, Royal, and the Abhorsen bloodlines. Mosrael, for the Clayr, Dyrim, for the Royal blood, and Saraneth, for the Abhorsens. Two of these, Belgaer and Ranna, put their being into the Wall and the Great Charter Stones. Yrael was neither for nor against the creation of the Charter, while Orannis, the Destroyer, despises it. The two who did not give up their being, Kibeth and Astarael, reside on the land still: Astarael in the Abhorsen's well and Kibeth as the Disreputable Dog. Yrael exists as Mogget, bound into servitude to the Abhorsen. The Seven's powers currently reside in the bells used by a necromancer and the Abhorsens. The spirits of the Seven also resides in the panpipes, that the Abhorsen-in-waiting and a Remembrancer uses.

Their spirits occupy all the bells and panpipes in existence, which theoretically must span the hundreds at least, meaning their power is spread out across the universe.

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