Marcia Overstrand

Marcia Overstrand- is a fictional character in the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. She is the current ExtraOrdinary Wizard and an extremely powerful one at that. She has Septimus as her Apprentice for the next seven years.

Description
Marcia is described as a tall woman with the characteristic green eyes of the Wizards. She has long dark curly hair. Marcia wears a deep purple tunic, held at the waist by her ExtraOrdinary Wizard belt. She wears a purple cloak around her which is a part of her Magyk. Around her neck is the Akhu-Amulet of Hotep-Ra, the source of power for ExtraOrdinary Wizards. She wears a pair of purple python skin boots made specially for her by Terry Tarsal, the shoe maker. She has an aura of Magyk around her and people are fascinated as well as extremely scared by her as Marcia, though she doesn't know it, can scare people very easily.

Development
According to author Angie Sage, the character of Septimus Heap was in her mind from a long time, but it was not until the character of Marcia Overstrand was developed and appeared on the scene that everything in the series came up together.The bossyness of Marcia is what inspired her to continue writing the series and she was able to develop everything in the Septimus Heap world.

Background
Marcia Overstrand has always been ambitious. Ever since she was a child she wanted to be ExtraOrdinary Wizard. Though her peers settled for being apprentice to Ordinary Wizards, Marcia made sure that she became the Apprentice to the then ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Alther Mella. Marcia learned a lot from Alther who was an extremely patient teacher and a good wizard. When Marcia completed her final wizard examination, the heir to the Castle was born to the queen. Marcia and Alther went to the Palace to congratulate the queen. But the queen and Alther were murdered by an assassin. Marcia was able to protect the Princess and herself. Alther gave her the Akhu-Amulet before dying and she became the ExtraOrdinary wizard. Marcia, in order to hide the princess, gave her to fellow wizard Silas Heap, who raised her as his own daughter Jenna. His own son Septimus apparently died that same day after his birth.

In Magyk, when Jenna is 10 years and is discovered Marcia takes Jenna and escapes, assisted by Silas, his son Nicko and a mysterious Young Army boy called Boy 412. Marcia does a projection while escaping to Marram Marshes to fend off the Hunters. At Zelda's cottage Marcia learns that the Necromancer DomDaniel has taken over the Wizard Tower. She wants to take revenge but Alther's ghost warns her. While teaching the kids about magyk, she learns that Boy 412 has immense magykal powers. Marcia asks him to be her apprentice, but Boy 412 refuses. One day, Marcia receives a message from Silas and goes back to the Castle, but it was a trap and she gets caught by DomDaniel's guards. He throws her in a dungeon and takes away her amulet which drains all her powers. Boy 412, assisted by Jenna and Nicko, come aboard DomDaniel's ship and a fight ensues which resulted in Marcia taking back her amulet and escaping on the Dragon-Boat. Later DomDaniel consumes his own apprentice and through trickery tries to steal the amulet again, but this time Marcia destroys him completely. Boy 412 accepts her apprenticeship, and Marcia comes to know that he is the real Septimus Heap.

After Septimus becomes her apprentice, Marcia comes back to the Wizard Tower in Flyte. She gets rid of all the darkness left by DomDaniel but cannot get rid of a shadow which keeps trailing her. She decides to build a ShadowSafe. With Jenna getting kidnapped and Septimus on her search, Marcia decides to eliminate the shadow completely. But the eldest Heap son, Simon, jealous of the apprenticeship bestowed to Septimus, made a Placement on her by placing DomDaniel's bones inside the shadow safe's parts. In the finale, DomDaniel's bones gets reassembled and tries to kill Marcia, but Septimus realises this and helps Marcia in identifying the bones and thus destroys DomDaniel again. Marcia gets Simon arrested.

In Physik, Marcia comes to learn that Septimus has been sent back in time by getting pulled through a magykal looking glass in the Queen's Room by Marcellus Pye. In the meantime, an evil Queen Etheldredda's spirit (who sent back Septimus) gets released by Silas Heap when he unseals her portrait and wreaks havoc on the Castle. Marcia does all she can to get back Septimus and stop a sicknesse from spreading but nothing seems to work. Jenna, Nicko and Snorri go back in time and bring back Septimus, but sadly Nicko and Snorri get trapped in that time. When Septimus gets back he and Marcia create an antidote for the sicknesse by using what he learned from Marcellus. Marcia, on learning Etheldredda's evil plan to kill Jenna so she can be queen forever, decides to destroy her. She makes a huge bonefire out of Septimus' pet dragon Spit Fyre'sfire and through strong magic, pulls Etheldredda's spirit to the fire and destroys her forever. She is also able to destroy Etheldredda's pet called Aie-Aie which was responsible for the "sicknesse" that was going around.

Marcia, in order to control Septimus' moves, takes away his flyte charm and locks it. Tertius Fume, an ancient evil ghost, calls for the legendary drawing of the Queste stone. Marcia prevents this by helping Septimus escape, assisted by Jenna and his friend Beetle, who discovers that going to the House of Foryx will enable them to find Nicko and Snorri. He also realises that going there is actually the Queste. Marcia tries to find him through her magic and even enlists Simon's help through his tracker ball. But all hope seems failing when she realises that Septimus' dragon Spit Fyre can track its owner. She takes Sarah Heap and goes on the dragon to the House of Foryx, where she bangs on the door, ignoring the door bell, and immediately Septimus - followed by the others - come out and all are able to go back in their own time.

In Syren Marcia promotes Septimus to senior apprentice because he was the first to complete and come back alive from his Queste.

Magical power
Marcia is an extremely powerful wizard. She can perform any kind of magic and is extremely perfect at that. She is able to create a fog as well as do a projection at the same time, which even Silas (who generally doesn't approve of Marcia) admires. She is even adept at little Physik, as when she was able to cure Septimus' spider bite with a little dark magic in Flyte. Marcia dispels DomDaniel a number of times as when the Necromancer tries to usurp her position. Marcia destroys the evil spirit of Queen Etheldredda by burning her in a Bonefire out of Spit Fyre's fire in Physik. She can transport freely from one place to another like she did in Magyk or Queste. She is adept at day to day needy magics like cleaning, transfiguration etc. as is shown countless times in the series. Like when she modifies Zelda's desk by adding hands to it in Magyk or cleaning up the scribes mess in a trifle in Queste. She knows how to dispel dark unruly magic like a placement and escapes from it in Flyte.

Other traits, possessions and likes
Marcia is generally a very short tempered and impatient woman. Her temper is what scares people the most about her. At the same time she is very ambitious and knowledgeable. She loves Septimus and Jenna dearly and shows her soft side many times. Although it seems that she and Silas are constantly bickering, they do respect each other. But Marcia cannot keep patience with Sarah or Septimus' pet Spit Fyre, Silas' pet wolf Maxie or the manuscriptorium chief scribe Jillie Djinn. She is on good terms with the ghost of her mentor Alther and still seeks his knowledge and help. She hates Aunt Zelda's cabbage sandwiches. In Queste she decided to be patient with Marcellus Pye although she disapproves of him, as he could have helped her find Septimus. Among Marcia's dearest possessions are her purple python skin boots which she has stockpiled after her favorite ones were ruined in events from Magyk.