Ezekiel lore page:

Creating a new grimwalker takes time, and since Belos began making a new grimwalker (during his early days of begin emperor and he wanted to be working towards consolidating his power in the Boiling Isles) instead he had disappeared for a few months to make a new grimwalker and his influence had begun to slip in the further afield parts of the boiling isles.

Due to wanted to get back to his mission and role as emperor Belos was slightly rushed and pulled out the grimwalker from the ground too soon, instead of a fully grown grimwalker, which he wanted, the grimwalker was young teenage (somewhere between (13-15), who he named Ezekiel, but Belos declared him to be far too young to become a competent Golden Guard (a thought Belos would later change) so decided that he needs to wait a bit before Ezekeil is old enough.

With this new grimwalker, Belos got the idea that it’s outside influence that makes the grimwalkers turn on him, so while he waited for Ezekiel to grow up a little he need to be kept in total isolation from any witches and can’t leave the castle unless supervised by Belos.

During Ezekiels early years in isolation he spends most of his time in his room (which used to be Mallory’s room) and begins to teach himself the Violin, which he soon mastered.

A few years go by and he is really feeling the effects of prolonged almost total isolation, resulting in a mental health decline, it is around this point when he first starts to see Mallory’s ghost. His first time seeing Hamlet is in mirrors (similar to luz appears in mirrors in Yesterday's Lie and when she dies she goes back to that place where she was able to do tha,t so in this au reflections are easier for the dead to manifest in) but it's an easy thing to for Ezekiel to convince himself it's not real, seeing in a reflection, someone who look pretty identical to him isn’t too out of the ordeinally.

Eventually Belos considers him to be grown enough, and he takes on the role of Golden Guard, he is given a new violin, fitted with artificial bard magic and his main mission is to travel with Belos round the Isle, preforming speeches, trying to firmly establish Belos’s power and the coven system in general.

At the start of Ezekiel’s life Belos is emperor but in many areas this is only in title, he’s got his foot in the door but doesn't have full control over all areas yet (although in some areas he's really powerful)

Ezekiel, by spending his time playing music and delivering speeching (in the name of Belos) becomes a but like a celebrity. People like him, he's speeches seem more relatable then Belos's, and he's a really skilled musician, there something about him that's just more appealing then Belos is to the people of the boiling isles and because of this he is very important as a means of gain popularity for Belos. He becomes a bit of a figure head for Belos due to how often he's making public appearances, it gets to a point that sometimes he’s making more public appearances then Belos is. But due to his isolation and general lack of perspective on large areas of life, he’s completely unaware how well liked he is, his only interaction with anyone other than Belos are one-sided from a stage which are scripted.

The first time Ezekiel see Mallory’s ghost outside of mirror is when he's doing a speech at the castle and he appears within the crowd of people, this happens a few times until he then starts turning up in hallways around the castlle and then he just is sitting on the desk in their room (not speaking at this point, just there almost lie reanacting a memory) Ezekiel doesn't want to deal with this nor does he know how and think’s it would be a bad idea to tell Belos so just tries to ignore him.

The first time they actually talk is in a reflection; Ezekiel snaps at him and yells at him demanding what it all means. Before this point Hamlet’s ghost wasn’t really conscious, being directly talked to snapped him into being aware again, it takes him quite some time to beable to gather himself enough to actually respond to Ezekiel

Over the next few years, they talk more and more but Mallory really struggles at actually talk about anything important regarding the truth he knows about Belos (I go into depth into the reason why on Hamlet’s page but in short it’s due to trauma ) but as time goes on Hamlet can slowly begin to open up about some stuff that happened to him during life, one of these few things he can actually discuss in depth is Winslow. They both come to the conclusion that she might be in the conformatorium

Ezekiel often has to guard the conformatorium so he decided that next time he’s there he’s going to take a quick search and see if Winslow is there, and turns out she is. After he finds her he decided that he’s going to try and talk to her (and bear in mind this is his first time talking to anyone who isn't Mallory or Belos, first proper real conversation with a normal person) So they talk for a bit, Winslow tells him everything she knows (which isn’t too much) and suddenly something clicks for Ezekiel, paired withe everything he’s seen traveling the Isles with Belos he starts to understand that something really terrible is at work under the surface.

Ezekiel starts to really feel bad for Winslow, (He has only actually talked with her for about 45 minutes but this is the longest conversation he has with anyone and he gets really attached to her) when he goes to leave and get to back work and he can't, without really thinking he turns around and frees her, and she sets of running, and also grabs Ezekiel by the arm on the way out, dragging him along with her.

They make it back to Winslow cabin which is really rundown because its been empty for 6 years and Ezekiel loses it for a bit, he just spontaneously threw his life away without really thinking and decides that has just going to go back and talk to belos and he'll properly be angry but it'll be ok eventually (Although Hamlet has talked about it alot, at this point Ezekiel hasn’t actually seen much of a bad side of Belos, unlike what Mallory and Winslow have) and Winslow is NOT in support of this in the slightest, she

doesn't know what Hamlet after they last saw each other but by Ezekiel being there, she can assume what happened after they got separated. Anyway, she manages to convince him to stay for just a bit longer, just while they talk things thought properly and make a plan. During this time she talks to him a lot about Mallory, it's one of the only things they have common ground on, Ezekiel is really trying to figure him out and Winslow is trying to process that she now knows for sure her friend is dead.

After a while they decide to give Hamlet a proper funeral and he get a gravestone in Winslow's back garden, next to pywackets (who was killed by Belos). It's then that everything properly processes for Ezekiel, and he decides he's going to stay gone for good.

By this point Ezekiel has been gone two weeks and Belos is after him. Winslow and Ezekiel go to town one day and find it covered in wanted postered for them both, and they decide it's not safe for them at Winslow's cabin as it’s so close by the castle, so they decide to go to Winslow's parent's for help, as they are the only people Winslow know and thye live much further afield. (Now Winslow hasn’t had contact with her parents in about 8 years, partly due to her being arrested they have no idea what happened to her). After they turn up and Winslow is able to make up with her parents, who are very confused but are overall just happy to see her again and they are able to hide out there, Winslow's parents are kind of just really confused why this very well-known political figure is crying in their spare room.

Stuff is good for a while, Winslow's parents live on a farm in the middle of the countryside so it's pretty safe there. Ezekiel get to be almost normal for a bit, he meets some of Winslow's old school friends, he read Hamlet (the play) as well at this point after being given Mallory's copy from Winslow who had it stashed in her cabin, they both carve palismen together, Ezekiel's is a Jackdaw he names Horatio for Mallory's sake. Things are good for a while, Ezekiel starts to see Mallory less and less (Partly because Mallory is a bit more at peace and also due to Ezekiels mental health significantly improving.

However one day, when Ezekiel decides to venture into the nearby town, he is recognised and reported, resulting in his capture and being sent to Belos, (initially he's intending to fight him) and they fight for a bit and Ezekiel is losing BADLY and goes to just run away but belos stops him and it ends on him coming to a deal with belos that he won’t go after Winslow in turn for him to come quietly which he does. and his palismen is able to escape before he's dragged to his old room, and he's locked in there.

Being there for about a week, prompts Mallory to start showing himself again. And they are both really confused about what is happening, they have pretty much just been left alone, brought meals but haven't seen Belos at all, which is weird. There is this weird sense of peace, it's like Ezekiels early days where he just spends all his time in his room playing the violin.

Till one day he's walk outside by two coven guards and he sees belos standing on a stage in front of him, and its weirdly just like old times, he's even wearing his old uniform and put on his old mask and get on stage, (he's really confused at this point and hamlet is freaking out and is gone totally non-verbal) and he gets up on stage and sees a massive crowd, and weirdly there seems to be a new golden guard standing next to belos on the stage and in the centre is a gallows (I might change this but since this is how they would historically killed a lot of witches it seemed fitted) and he dies there on the stage in front of a crowd of people.

bunch of people. Winslow has been trying to find a way to get him free and ends up being in the crowd. Hamlet watches as well completely unable to do anything. And this big public execution seals the deal for Belos's control over the boiling isles, Ezekiel finally for filling his purpose in death.

Winslow builds him a grave next to Hamlets, and takes care of Horatio, eventually she leaves the boiling isles to see what lies beyond the boiling sea.

In regard to how much Ezekiel actually knows about Hamlet. They are closely liked, not just by the shared bone but they look identical completly, typically grimwalker look a little different to Caleb, they still look like him but their faces are a little off, Belos can typically move past this and still see Caleb in them but this is a bit different with Ezekiel because he looks so like Mallory, Belos sees Mallory in his face rather than Caleb, and it’s a constant reminder that Ezekiel isn’t Caleb. Belos doesn’t just forget about Mallory like he wanted too, he’s not just replaced and forgotten, like Belos wanted about because he’s still there though Ezekiel, so it’s a lot harder to see Ezekiel as a replacement for Caleb.

This also gets worse when Ezekiel starts to talk to hamlets ghost, since hamlet is the only person, he has ever really properly talked to (and he’s autistic), he starts to really pick up his mannerisms and speech patterns (completely accidentally). It a constant reminded of Mallory. So Belas has told Ezekiel bits here and there about Mallory (and on several instances accidentally calling Ezekiel, Mallory) only small things like telling him he’s better than his predecessor but it’s all really negative things.

(this paragraph is also on the Mallory page) Ezekiel took over Hamlets room, although somethings have been taken away, the way it’s decorated, the posters on the wall things Hamlet put there. Hamlet also hid stuff, notes, around the whole castle but majority round his room, he finds drawings, short stories, even pages of his journal. Ezekiel starts to form a very fragmented idea of who this predecessor was, being in his rooms gives him a very personal view very contrasting the cold comments from Belos. He’s living in the place of someone who wasn’t expecting to be gone, to him it’s like Hamlet disappeared and he was just thrown in his place. It’s everything, the clothes in the wardrobe don’t fit him (since he’s not fully grown yet being about 15 at the start). Especially before he became Golden Guard and got a bit more do his own identity, he can’t help but link who he is to the fleeting memory of Mallory, he can’t seem to forge an identity outside of him and the people around him can’t either. So much of his life seems to be determined by someone he’s never met.

When he meets Mallory Ghost properly, he has such a strong predetermined idea of the sort of person he would be, and it’s all wrong. This isn’t helped by how standoffish Hamlet is at the start, he’s just an illusion really to start with, who doesn’t communicate, lurking in doorways not paying him any attention. But Hamlet rooms was full of very very personal things (hidden but when someone is spending all do their time in certain place nothing stays hidden forever), Hamlet wasn’t expecting to be killed when he was, he didn’t think to arrange his life to prepare for someone else to take over and Hamlet has no idea how to feel about someone basically becoming him overnight, finding his secret things that he would never willingly share with anyone, seeing his personal note, dreams, deeps fears all be read through and being totally unable to stop it. He can’t help by feel like Ezekiel had taken something from him, be angry toward him and everything he’s doing despite knowing he means no harm in it, he can’t help but hate Ezekiel. But then he does the opposite, he so fixated him hating Ezekiel and thinks that’s what he wants to do but then he does what everyone else has does and starts to see himself in Ezekiel, but he starts to see him more as his own individual person rather then a rushed copy made to replace him, he watches his draw, learn violin, he sees the way Belos treats him, and can’t keep hating him, he can’t do anything but pity him, and once he realised that he wants to do nothing but get him out of the situation but he can’t

One of Hamlets Trauma responses is to go non-verbal, and even when he’s calmed down he struggles to break though that and start speaking again. Being around Ezekiel as a ghost can be really traumatic for Hamlet, he is in alot of ways reliving his own trauma by watching Ezekiel go though the same thing. So he is often shut down and stops speaking. This is why Ezekiel is around for so long, as golden Guard he wouldn’t be around much longer after learning the truth, but it takes years for hamlet to be able to tell him that. And obviously neither of them understands anything about Trauma so know what’s really going on with Mallory. Halmet not knowing why he’s incapable of things and Ezekiel unable to understand what hamlets deal is. He’s getting very mixed messages from Hamlet doesn’t know if he wants to help him, be his friend, be evil or anything, he’s got no clue. But hamlet can also be a massive yapper, which confuse Ezekiel anymore, he’ll be silent for days then talk no stop for 5 hours about a book

Ezekiel isn’t as much of a solider as other golden guards were, yes he can fight and he’s decent enough at it but he’s more of a showman and speaker, because of this his outfit is very decorative, lots of embroidered golden details, lace. It’s very pretty but still got this military esk feel to it. It is also a lot more similar to Belos’s Outfit, his mask having the antlers and the Zigzags on his outfit being similar to Belos’s Preacher Era outfit. Ezekiel is meant to be an extension of Belos, everything he says and does is ment to also be what Belos says and does, Belos wants the Public to connect him more with himself then he does with Ezekiel being a separate person.