Charn

Charn
The Chronicles of Narnia location
Created by	C. S. Lewis
Genre	Juvenile fantasy
Type	City
Notable characters	White Witch

Charn is a fictional city appearing in the 1955 book The Magician's Nephew, book six in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, written as a prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Charn, and the world of which it is the capital city, are the birthplace of Jadis, the evil White Witch who later takes over Narnia. When visited briefly by Digory and Polly, the protagonists of the novel, the city is totally deserted, lifeless and crumbling, under a dying sun. Rivers have dried up, and not even weeds or insects live. All life on the world of Charn had been destroyed by Jadis through an evil magic spell. In the novel the city stands as an example of the dead end that can result if a civilization succumbs to evil.

During their visit, Digory accidentally wakes Jadis from suspended animation, and she is able to leave the world with them.

According to Jadis, Charn was once the greatest city of her unnamed world, "the wonder of all worlds". It was ruled by a line of magically-adept emperors and empresses, of whom Jadis was the last. By the time the protagonists enter, the world is now a cold and desolate wasteland, with no life to be seen anywhere, and the city on the brink of collapse.

Magic may have been widely used in Charn; Jadis referred to the common use of magic carpets for transportation. However, its use was apparently limited to the nobility, who inherited inborn magical powers. Jadis disdained Andrew Ketterley, Digory's magician uncle, as an amateur conjurer without a drop of real magic blood in his veins, saying, "Your kind was made an end of in my world a thousand years ago."

Apparently dragons were also once abundant in Charn, and in the service of the royal and noble families.

The Hall of Images in the royal palace exhibits lifelike images of the past rulers of Charn, all remarkably tall and incredibly beautiful, and all crowned and seated upon thrones. The sequence of these images, through the expressions on their faces, tells a story of a world which was once benevolent but degenerated into a cruel, tyrannical empire. The early Emperors and Empresses of Charn were kind and decent, but as the centuries passed their lineage evolved into one of malevolence, corruption and evil, and even despair, seeing their subjects as property to be killed if they deemed it necessary. Evidently their hunger for power was insatiable and they conquered several other realms, as Jadis gloats that "many great kings" attempted to stand against Charn, but were defeated and their names were lost to history. Slavery was once common in Charn, as was human sacrifice. The last queen of Charn was Jadis; however, there are numerous empty thrones after her, symbolising a premature end to the dynasty of Charn.

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