Marian Ashcroft

“	You have no idea the things I've seen. The things your mother saw	”
	— Marian, telling Ethan about the things she and his mother experienced in the Caster world, Beautiful Darkness

Marian Ashcroft
Appearances
First appearance	Beautiful Creatures
Last appearance	Beautiful Redemption

Marian Ashcroft is the Keeper of the Lunae Libri who loves her friends and loved ones to the extent of even willing to put her life on the line for them, a good friend towards Ethan Wate and his group. She was previously the best friend of Ethan's deceased mother, Lila Evers Wate, before her death. She gives advice to Ethan, Lena Duchannes and the others in time of need using her many experiences in the Caster world.

Biography

Marian has two jobs- both of which she inherited from Ethan's mom, Lila Jane Evers. Her day job is as the librarian of the Gatlin County Library and her night job as the Keeper of the Lunae Libri, hidden underground. However, as the Keeper, Marian says she's a neutral force- meaning that she can not interfere in Mortal nor Caster politics. Marian has been the Keeper of the Caster library for many years in Gatlin as well as the owner of the Gatlin library since Lila's death. She had been best friends with Ethan's late mother Lila before Lila was murdered by Sarafine. She has known Ethan for most of his life and is very fond of him in an Aunt type of affection. She was discovered to be training Liv to become as Keeper and warned her against going with Link and Ethan into the Tunnels to help find Lena, but Liv declined despite knowing the consequences, wanting to go with them.

Since she helped the group during their journey she, in result, had to pay for it. She is found guilty of treason since she "allowed" for the destruction during the novel to happen upon the Mortal and Caster world. The Council also sentenced her to be sent to the Dark Fire as well as Death insisting she had to pay for what "she" allowed (also it being shown that she was forced to shave her head). However, Macon and John Breed attempt to help her; with Macon stating that they "couldn't blame a wet child for the rain" and that all mortals are sentenced to death before they are able to escape with Marian. Marian is also the one who discovered Ethan is a Wayward and provided him with information about Waywards and their importance in the Caster and Mortal worlds. She also warned him to be more careful in his choices since he may not know what effect they may cause, this warning confusing him slightly.

Appearance and Personality

Marian is shown to be a kind and nice person in the series. She is fond of Ethan and her loved ones and has been shown to even be willing to die for them as seen in Beautiful Chaos when as a Keeper isn't allowed to interfere in Mortal nor Caster politics, but does so anyway to help her loved ones. She can be seen crying alongside Liv when discovering, among every one else, that Ethan was the One Who Is Two (in the third novel of the series) and was the required sacrifice for the Worlds to return back to order.

Marian's specialty is quoting literature; anything from Shakespeare to Oedipus, Homer to Martin Luther King, Jr. Marian is shown to have a quote for almost every type of situation and knows how to use them as seen in Beautiful Creatures when she and Macon verbally attack the disciplinary panel at the hearing when they had attempted to wrongly expel Lena from the school.

Relationships

Lila Evers

She was Lila's best friend since they were presumably young. The two young women very close like that of sisters up and worked in the library- both the Gatlin and the Caster one- both aware of the Caster world. It is shown that she knew everything about Lila, including her history with Macon, and is the one to tell Ethan that his mother loved his father just as much as she loved Macon. Lila and Marian maintained their friendship until the day she died in a car accident caused by Sarafine.

Ethan Wate

Marian has known Ethan since before he was even a baby due to being good friends with his mother, Lila. She is shown to be something of an aunt towards him; always helping him and guiding him in his life during his many troubles in the Caster world. She is the one to have discovered he is actually a rare type of mortal known as a Wayward, a rare Caster world being, and gave him information about Waywards in the Caster world. She, along with Liv, weeps on the day he must be sacrificed and killed.

Olivia "Liv" Durand

Liv was Marian's student to become the next Keeper of the Gatlin Caster Library. The two had been training together for some time with Marian as the teacher helping Liv with her Keeper studies. She advised Liv not to go along with Link and Ethan into the Tunnels since doing so would greatly risk her chance to ever become a Keeper, but Liv decided against it since it was a chance that every Keeper was denied to have. She and Liv are shown to be close with Liv defending Marian during her trial insisting that it was all her fault; not Marian's.

Quotes

• "One question at a time, EW. I'll answer yours, and you'll answer mine."
• "Let's say you're right, and this is Macon's private study, the place where he collected his thoughts. Even so, how did you find us tonight?"
• "You have no idea the things I've seen. The things your mother saw."
• "Olivia knows all about your mother, Ethan."
• "You have a destiny all of your own, like Lena. Which means things could become very complicated."

Film portrayal

Her character has been cut from film adaptation of Beautiful Creatures. In the 2012 Comic-Con, it was revealed that the director of the film decided to combine the characters of Marian and Amma to create one "elegant" character of a Seer and Keeper. Therefore, cutting Marian's character completely from the film. 

Notes and Trivia

• She was best friends with Lila, Ethan's deceased mother, and knew her quite well.
• She was being prepared to train Liv to become the next Keeper of the Lunae Libri.