A Scholomance Student’s Guide to Maleficaria

In Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series, readers are instantly transported to a magical school unlike any other. There are no teachers, no friendships, and – most distressingly – the school itself wants you dead. Once you step inside the hallowed halls of The Scholomance, there are only two ways out. Death or graduation.  

And with deadly monsters coming after you all the time, making it to graduation is no easy feat.

Ready to enrol? You’ll need this guide to the magic and mayhem you’re about to endure.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Naomi Novik (@naominovik)

A Scholomance Student’s Guide to Maleficaria

This student guide to Maleficaria will teach you what to look out for during your time in The Scolomance.

Maleficaria (common name: Mals)
Noun
Creatures who prey on young witches and wizards to suck out their Mana, a type of energy that generates the power to perform spells.

Types of Maleficaria*

Wauria

You’ll want to watch out for wauria while showering. These mals slither up the shower drains and tries to latch on to the victim’s ankles before being noticed.

Sirenspider

Sirenspiders are deadly mals that paralyse their victims with a melancholy siren song before slowly sucking out their blood. The sound they make sounds like melancholy windchimes. Fittingly, sirenspider shells make good magical instruments, but it’s essential you know how to handle them first.

Sirenspiders can be killed by combat magic and brute force attacks.

Digester

Digesters are sneaky mals, as they become translucent when they haven’t eaten in a while. They can spread themselves thinly over surfaces, making them very easily disguised. You might not notice that a digester until they have wrapped themselves around you. . . but by then, it's too late.

Soul-Eater 

Soul-eaters might look enticing, due to their iridescent purple colouring, but beware – these are dangerous mals. Soul-eaters can attack multiple victims at once, and they can be difficult to stop.

Soul-eaters can be defeated by combat spells or incantations that destroy them from the inside out. When a soul-eater dies, it leaves a strong smell behind – an unpleasant reminder of a near-miss.

Grogler

Groglers are best described as a mass of jelly-like tentacles. They have thin pink cords that run through their tentacles and a big red knot in the middle of the mass. Groglers aren’t very strategic creatures, but they can be persistent when they’re hungry.

They aren’t disturbed by physical force, but electric currents can shock them.  

Cutting the tentacles off groglers doesn’t stop them, but they can be defeated by a spell that freezes them.

Maw-Mouth

A maw-mouth is a large-translucent mass, with tentacles and several eyes and mouths. Maw-mouths take on the facial features of their victims, some of which continue to scream after they have been devoured.

The only way to defeat a maw-mouth is from the inside. By getting to the core of the creature before it eats you, you can burst it from inside. However, the chances of survival are very slim, as it’s extremely difficult to get into a maw-mouth before it starts eating you.

The best advice for a maw-mouth confrontation is to get away from it before it kills you. ‘Once they’ve got you, even a little curl of a tentacle around your ankle, you’re not getting away. Not on your own.’

*There are countless types of Maleficaria, many of which don’t have names. This brief list is a general introduction to a few easily-identifiable ones. 

Check out the new book in the series,The Golden Enclaves.