"A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens."
A Gunpowder Feminist Fantasy series written by Samantha Shannon, inspired by the myth of Saint George and the Dragon.
The world of The Priory of the Orange Tree is divided into two sides: those who worship dragons and those who hate them. In the dragon-worshipping East, Tané is training to be a dragonrider, and Niclays Roos, a master surgeon and alchemist, has been banished to the isolated island of Orisima by Queen Sabran Berethnet IX of Inys. In the West, Queen Sabran is in desperate need of an heir because, the moment her bloodline ends, a terrible dragon will rise again and destroy the world. Eadaz du Zāla-uq Nāra, a mage from the titular Priory, poses as an Ordinary Chamberer to Queen Sabran in order to protect her. Sabran's closest friend, Arteloth Beck, has been sent out of Inys on a mission by the Queen's spy, without the Queen's knowledge or permission.
To prevent the dragons from taking over the world, they must work together despite their differences.
A prequel novel titled A Day of Fallen Night was published in early 2023.
This novel provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Ead, Tané, and other female dragon riders and Red Damsels.
- The Alliance: "Virtudom", the historical alliance of the nations who practice the Six Virtues as their state religion. It includes Inys as the head, Hróth, and Mentendon, and until recently, Yscalin. (Mentendon is more free-thinking than the others, willing to trade with the East and having some scholars questioning the divine powers of the Berethnet line.)
- All There in the Manual: There are short bios, glossary, and a timeline at the back of the book. Supplemental information can found on the author's twitter
. - Always Chaotic Evil: Western dragons, in contrast to their Eastern counterparts. They are all descendants (either directly or through several degrees of removal) of the Nameless One. Although not all of them are sentient, they do all serve his will.
- Amazon Brigade: The Red Damsels of the Priory are an order of "sisters" who are devoted to fighting draconic creatures and keep watchful for signs that the Nameless One may return.
- Anyone Can Die: Many characters die in this story, whether they are important to the plot or to the protagonists. Sometimes they die as a direct result of the evil dragon god's imminent return, but sometimes it's because they got unlucky, or thought they were shielded from consequences, or ran into an unforgiving law.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Kalyba is the one who ends up killing secondary antagonist Mita Yedanya, the Prioress who killed Ead's mother and banished Ead from the Priory.
- Barrier Maiden: The continuing existence of the Berethnet line is the only thing keeping the Nameless One sealed away. ...Or not.
- Ban on Magic: Magic is referred to as sorcery in Virtudom and is punishable by death. Ead has to be very careful about her use of siden while in Inys.
- Bed Trick: Kalyba, to Galian Berethnet. Galian believed that she was Cleolind.
- Beta Couple: In the background of Ead and Sabran trying to figure out their mutual attraction are Magret Beck and Sir Tharian Lintley, who are very steadily in love and only hampered by the fact that her noble rank is much higher than his.
- Cast Full of Gay: Niclays, Ead, and Sabran are all confirmed queer. Same-sex relationships are also accepted to the point of marriage, but there are still difficulties if one of the partners is expected to produce an heir, and social rank is very much a consideration.
- The Chains of Commanding: Sabran, the Emperor, and the Prioress all have stories of giving up their personal desires for the good of their realms. For Sabran and the Unceasing Emperor, romance lost to political necessity figures heavily.
- Chickification: Cleolind is known in Lasia as "the Mother", but in Virtudom she is known as "the Damsel". Ead hints at this when she starts telling her version of the story, in which Cleolind angrily refuses Galian's offer to slay the dragon only if she married him.
- Completely Unnecessary Translator: The Golden Empress is multilingual but keeps Laya as her translator to encourage carelessness in prisoners she wants information from.
- Country Matters:
- Donmata Marosa asks Loth if Sabran is going to open her... country to the Mentish prince.
- Niclays drops one late in the book when finally given the opportunity to confront Sabran.
- Dance of Romance: The Candle Dance for Ead and Sabran.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Siden and western dragons get their power from the same source, the heat of the earth's core. This means that siden users are technically able to create wyrmfire, but it's considered dangerous and something to be avoided.
- Death by Childbirth: Frequently mentioned. It's happened to Berethnet queens and is a recurring fear for Sabran. Cleolind also died this way according to Inysh hisory, leaving the first Queen Sabran. The "Cleolind" in question was Kalyba, who nearly bled out and was unable to maintain her hypnotic spell on Galian in her weakened state. This resulted in her ejection from Inys and his suicide.
- Defiant to the End: After the coup is foiled, Igrain Crest goes to the block still adamant that she was right to commit all of her treasons, from assassinating Rosarian to attempting to usurp Sabran's throne.
- Disease by Any Other Name: The "sourceless melancholy" that afflicts Berethnet queens strongly evokes clinical depression.
- Dirty Coward: Niclays is seen as this when he begs the Golden Empress for his life before she even threatens him, leading her to nickname him after a very soft type of jellyfish.
- Doorstopper: Tops 800 pages in the hardcover.
- Dragon Variety Pack:
- Eastern-type dragons are native to Seiiki and the Empire of the Twelve Lakes and strongly associated with water. They fly by means of a magical organ on their heads called the crown, although some very old specimens grow wings.
- Western-type dragons, called wyrms, are evil monsters associated with fire, and are further divided into a number of types:
- High Westerns are Kaiju-sized, winged, four-legged, and sapient.
- Wyverns are Mooks controlled by High Westerns, with two legs, two wings, and eyes resembling burning coals.
- Cockatrices are human-sized chicken-dragon hybrids of low intelligence.
- Basilisks are snake-dragon hybrids.
- Jaculi are wolf-dragon hybrids bigger than horses.
- Ophiotaurs are bovine-dragon hybrids.
- Driven to Suicide: Back in history, this was Galian's fate. When he discovered that his beloved "Cleolind" was actually his adoptive mother Kalyba, he hanged himself. The other Knights of Virtue hushed this up, leaving the circumstances of his death one of the unknowns of Inysh history.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him:
- Both Sulyard and Truyde are major players in kickstarting the plot, believing that they are the only ones who can see and avert the danger, but because they think this, they make unwise choices that lead to them both being executed.
- Kit is killed off during a random rockslide, leaving Loth to continue his journey alone.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Ead has some difficult conversations with Loth and Sabran when it comes out that she was sent to Inys on false pretenses and is really a mage from a "heretic" order that deplores the Virtue religion. However, given that she has repeatedly demonstrated she is there to protect Sabran, saved her from a High Western and Igrain Crest, and that the Big Bad is really close to returning, they soon make their peace with it. Margret doesn't need to do much soul-searching at all since Ead brought her beloved brother back (and again, averting a coup takes priority).
- Loth has to guard himself against doing this when he's tasked with judging Combe's loyalty. He concludes that Combe is sincere, and they can't afford to imprison a useful and intelligent counselor, but he does insist that Combe make restitution to the Glades for Kit's death.
- Evil Chancellor: Combe, who sent away Loth on an obvious suicide mission so that he wouldn't threaten Sabran's marriagiability and whom Ead suspects of sending the cuthroats to Sabran's room. Although his methods are questionable, he didn’t actually send the killers. The true evil chancellor is not him; it's Igrain Crest, who tries to usurp Sabran's throne once Sabran loses her pregnancy and Ead is removed.
- Failed a Spot Check: For all his information-gathering and dread reputation, Combe admits that he completely neglected to do any surveillance on the Dukes Spiritual because he assumed that their loyalty was beyond question.
- False Flag Operation:
- The attempts on Sabran's life. Ead realizes that the cutthroats were sent to purposely get close enough to Sabran's person to frighten her, not kill her, because they're competent enough to reach her but always make some fatal blunder that reveals them. Ead killing them all before they can have their intended effect makes their employer desperate enough to give the last one a key, which reveals that they're being sent by someone close.
- Later, Truyde hires a troupe of actors to play as draconic doomsingers so she can convince Sabran to open talks with the East. Igrain usurps this plan with one of her own, inserting real assassins into the group to kill Aubrecht since he's not the man she wanted Sabran to choose.
- False Prophet: People who don't live in Virtudom consider Galian and his Saints to be a fraudulent religion. In the Priory specifically, the records state that Galian tried to force Cleolind's hand so that he could set up a brand-new religion with himself at the head. Galian really did think he was married to Cleolind, but when he realized it was his adopted mother, he hanged himself.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: According to the author, countries and regions in the world are inspired by real world counterparts:
- In the West, Inys is very like Elizabethan England with a strong chivalric tradition and a heavy dose of Arthurian Legend. The Free State of Mentendon is the Dutch Republic, a mercantile state considered more freethinking than its neighbors and the only Western nation allowed to trade with and settle in Seiiki (the Japan analogue). Yscalin is based primarily on Spain, while the Kingdom of Hróth to the north is clearly Scandinavian-inspired.
- In the East, Seiiki, an island nation with a strictly isolationist policy ruled by a warrior aristocracy, is very like Japan during the Edo period, with the neighboring Empire of the Twelve Lakes on the mainland corresponding to China and the peninsular nation of Sepul standing in for Korea.
- In the South, the language, culture and geography of the Ersyr are based on Persia/Iran, while Lasia is inspired by the Kingdom of Kongo.
- Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Virtudom is an analogue for Christendom and follows the Six Virtues. Sabran's position as the head of the church (she alone takes Galian as her patron) evokes Anglicanism in particular, although it comes about for completely different reasons.
- Fantasy World Map: One is present in the front of the book, detailing the main countries and landmarks.
- Find the Cure!:
- At the Donmata's behest, Loth infects himself with the draconic plague to undertake the task she sets him. He manages to get to the Priory in time to be cured, unlike the first person she requested help from.
- Ead is hit by a poison dart from the Red Damsels sent to kill her. However, the one who shot it was her former friend, who diluted the poison, leaving her comatose until Tané gets an orange from the Priory.
- Forbidden Zone: The Abyss in the middle of the ocean. Even Eastern dragons don't like going near it.
- Forced Miscarriage: Kalyba transforms into the White Wyrm and attacks the pregnant Sabran, which causes her to miscarry her daughter/heir, sending Virtudom into disarray and opening the opportunity for Kalyba to take the throne with the help of the Nameless One.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Inys, once it becomes apparent they cannot defeat the Nameless One on their own, petitions for aid not just from their co-religionist countries but Lasia and the Eastern powers.
- Gunpowder Fantasy: The world is roughly based on the 17th century; Seiiki is clearly based on the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, Mentendon is heavily inspired by the Dutch Golden Age, etc. Muskets and other weapons coexist with magic.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Tané's initial plotline looks like a Coming of Age Story about a student from humble means rising to meet rivals, challenges, and unexpected friendships. Then she achieves success, and the thing she did on the first page crashes back into her life hard.
- Heroic Lineage:
- The Inys royal family is descended from Galian Berethnet whonote banished the Nameless One.
- A more straight example is Tané, who is descended from Neporo, who helped to bind the Nameless One under the abyss.
- Hero of Another Story: Truyde is one of the only people to question Inysh mythology and Sabran's ability to repel the Nameless One while still remaining loyal to the throne itself, sending Triam Sulyard to attempt to parley with the East whilst (correctly) suspecting Ead of being a witch. Unfortunately, she and Triam don't realize that they're up against implacable political forces, resulting in Triam being executed as a common trespasser and her own plans being subverted by the person who then has her killed.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Tané and Susa met as children and have been inseparable ever since.
- Hidden Elf Village:
- The titular Priory is a closely-guarded secret. Strangers who find their way there are forbidden from leaving so that they will not betray its secret. When Loth is delivered there, he is given drugs to make him forgetful of his previous life.
- The island nation of Seiiki was ravaged by the draconic plague during the Grief of Ages. As a result, they strictly prohibit any outsiders except in certain instances and after verifying they don't carry plague, and they are only allowed to live in the island port of Orisima. Tané's internal monologue makes it clear that fear of the plague is still very much the reason for this policy. Any foreigners who sneak in without permission are summarily executed, and anyone who shelters them probably will be too.
- High Fantasy: Played straight. It's a land of swords, sorcery, and dragons.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Galian Berethnet, in universe.
- Holier Than Thou: Igrain Crest considers herself one of the most virtuous people in Virtudom. Which is why she arranged the death of Queen Rosarian for allegedly having an affair. When she realizes that Sabran is not going to be guided by her every opinion, Igrain imprisons her and tries to force her to abdicate in favor of the Crest family.
- I Am X, Son of Y: Some members of the Priory use matronymics, names derived from the name of a mother or female ancestor, to denote relation.
- Identical Grandson: Sabran, and all the previous queens of Inys, look just like Kalyba.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place:
- The Dreadmount, a volcano in Yscalin that was the birthplace of the Nameless One and his High Western servants. It comes awake again shortly before the story, precipitating that country's conversion to dragon-worship.
- The Abyss is the expanse of ocean where the Nameless One was imprisoned a thousand years ago. The water is black and flat as a mirror. Only the Golden Empress has the nerve to sail it; even Eastern dragons avoid flight over its expanse.
- Illegal Religion: The Virtues of Knighthood is the only allowed religion within Inys, and official posture is that every other religion is false and heretical. This rankles nations outside Virtudom who would otherwise have nothing against relations with Inys. Sabran officially abandons this pose late in the book when she has to seek alliance with Lasia.
- Immortal Breaker: Ascalon. Forged by Kalyba from fragments of the Long-Haired Star, it is the only weapon known to have harmed the Nameless One.
- Immortality Seeker: The Golden Empress wishes to become immortal. Sabran also considered it in the backstory.
- Insistent Terminology: Gian Harlowe is not a pirate, he is a privateer in service to the Inysh crown.
- Last of His Kind: Sabran is the last of the Berethnets after she loses the ability to have children. Kalyba is also the last of the original three magic users - Cleolind and Neporo have both long since passed.
- Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Inverted. The map is still left-justified, but the countries on that side are analogous to real world East Asia. The other map is a landmass surrounded by water.
- Legendary Weapon: Ascalon, Galian Berethnet's sword that wounded the Nameless One.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: As Sabran's family history becomes shakier and shakier, the notion that she is not Wiltsan's daughter but Gian Harlowe's becomes stronger. By the end, Sabran thinks it's more likely than not, and Harlowe implies fatherly feelings towards her.
- Mistaken for Romance: Loth's close relationship to Sabran is the reason he's packed off to Yscalin at the start of the story. Although they state repeatedly that the love between them is that of siblings, anyone looking from the outside thinks that there's romance there.
- Mordor: Yscalin while under draconic control. Overnight, it went from a country of lavender fields and other natural beauties to an ashen plague pit criss-crossed with rivers of lava and stalked by draconic beasts.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Combe needs Sabran to look and be available to foreign suitors for the sake of making a good alliance. Anyone who looks too close (like Loth) or is too close (like Ead) becomes his target. He keeps his hands clean on the technicality that he doesn't order them outright killed—just chucks them into situations in which they almost certainly will die.
- Mystical Plague: The draconic plague, or red sickness. It's caused by the Nameless One and the High Westerns. After being ravaged by it during the Grief of Ages, Seiiki closed its borders and forbid outsiders on pain of death except in the small trading city of Orisima (and even then it's tightly regulated). It's rampant in Yscalin, where suffering houses are marked with red paint. The plague causes scaly lesions first on the hands and then the rest of the body, fever, madness, and death.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Fyredel, the Nameless One, the Dreadmount, the Abyss.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kalyba's attack on the Priory is what allows Tane to to recover the Rising Jewel from the Prioress, and later the information she gives Niclays about the Nameless One's weak spot proves instrumental in finally killing him for good.
- Off with His Head!: The customary punishment for treason in both the East and the West, inflicted on many in the story, including Truyde, Sulyard, Susa, and Igrain Crest.
- Only the Chosen May Ride: Dragons choose their riders from a class of elite Sea Guard apprentices.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Divided into Eastern and Western dragons that follow the real world portrayals of each.
- Eastern dragons are benign and coexist peacefully with humans, and are revered as gods.
- Western dragons are evil rage monsters in service to the Big Bad.
- Our Wyverns Are Different: Wyverns are a weak variety of Western dragons with two legs, two wings, and eyes resembling burning coals, and serve the High Westerns as Mooks.
- Parental Abandonment: Less harsh than the usual example. Parents in the Priory are discouraged from showing favoritism to the point that some children don’t know who their parents are.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Loth and Sabran. They’re very close best friends, and state repeatedly that they have no romantic intentions towards the other, but often get Mistaken For Couple just because they’re of opposite genders.
- Playing with Fire: Practitioners of Siden, a kind of fire magic that originates in the core of the earth.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- The long-standing distrust between East and West results from the East closing their borders against the draconic plague, which allowed knowledge in the West to be muddled so that they eventually believed that there was no distinction between Eastern and Western dragons.
- Truyde and Triam could have avoided a lot of trouble if they felt able to talk to anyone.
- Averted. Tané eventually can't take the guilt of letting Triam into the country and tells her dragon everything. This prevents any drama arising from that, but unfortunately it doesn't stop her getting kidnapped by pirates.
- Posthumous Character:
- Jannart, Niclay's lover, is dead before the novel begins. Like Niclays, he was an alchemist, and Niclays is trying to complete their work to find closure.
- Queen Rosarian, Sabran's late mother, casts a long shadow over her daughter. She was a free-spirited woman, may have had an affair with Gian Harlowe, and was assassinated when Sabran was just fourteen.
- The lives of Cleolind and Neporo become increasingly important as the protagonists scour history to find a way to defeat the Nameless One.
- Power-Up Food: Fruit from the Orange Tree grants Siden, a type of fire magic. After enough time without the fruit, the magic eventually fades.
- Puppet King: Yscalin's royal family. The current ruler Sigoso—known as "the Flesh King"—willingly sold his kingdom to the Nameless One so he could get revenge on Sabran's mother but has been reduced to a wyvern's mouthpiece slowly rotting from the draconic plague. His daughter, Donmata Marosa, is forced to play the part of a willing cultist even though she hates what is happening to her country.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Combe sends Loth and Kit to Yscalin for two reasons. One is to get them killed so that potential suitors won't think Sabran is already attached. The other is that they might survive long enough to send some useful intelligence back.
- Preserve Your Gays: Not only do queer people exist in this book, they manage to survive as well.
- Race Against the Clock: The Nameless One is set to return after one thousand years at the bottom of the ocean. Time is almost up. The protagonists find a record from the time of his binding that specifies it is literally "one thousand years and not one sunset more", and they're able to cross-reference other records to nail down his return to a specific date in the spring.
- Religion of Evil: Yscalin's king decided to worship the Nameless One and forced his subjects to do the same. They don't actually believe in it, but the alternative is being chained up to be eaten by draconic creatures, so they have no choice.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Kitson Glade is Loth's best friend. He's optimistic, a poet, in love with a girl back in Inys, and he provides much-needed emotional support to Loth in their exile. When he dies in a sudden, pointless fashion in their escape from Yscalin, it demonstrates that everyone is in a life-or-death situation, and there is no guarantee that death will be "meaningful."
- Sapient Steed: Aralaq and other ichneumon are capable of speech.
- Satellite Character: Magret just exists to be Ead's friend and Loth's sister.
- Satanic Archetype: The Nameless One. Imprisoned under the earth/ocean? Check. Held at bay by the hero of the religion that dominates the Europe stand-in? Check. Serpent-like? Check.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Nameless One was imprisoned under the ocean and it was said that he would remain so for a thousand years.
- Seven Heavenly Virtues: Christianity's Seven Virtues' are paralleled with Virtudom's Six — Courage, Courtesy, Fellowship, Generosity, Justice, and Temperance.
- Secret Art: Siden magic is not something the world at large is aware of.
- Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: In between 6 and 7. (It isn't "women are better than men", rather "most of the characters who drive the plot are women".) Most of the social difficulties in the setting are due to interclass, ethnic, and/or religious conflict; neither male nor female characters are subject to Gender Scoff, and women being powerful leaders and warriors is not seen as unusual in any way. There is some ambiguity to this, however—Truyde once mentions that the Inysh are obsessed with the behavior of young ladies (it's unclear if this is particular to ladies and not young men, though there are indications that male chastity is also expected) and people who don't like the late Queen Rosarian call her a slut and a harlot. Cleolind has also been subject to Chickification in the Inysh histories as the helpless "Damsel" and Tané laments that women in the old stories tend to lose their names. That might imply that things were less egalitarian a thousand years ago except that Galian's original Knights of Virtue included women.
- Single Line of Descent: Berethnet queens always have a single child, a daughter, to carry on the line of succession, fueling the belief that the line is holy and blessed. The actual reason is that they are descended directly from Kalyba, an immortal sorceress.
- Slut-Shaming: The late Queen Rosarian took a lot of heat for stepping out on her political marriage to have a romantic affair with the pirate Gian Harlowe.
- Spanner in the Works: The Golden Empress intrudes into the tale to kidnap the dragon Nayimathun and Niclays on a completely separate and self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with anyone's efforts to prevent or procure the return of the Nameless One. But she steers things back towards the plot again with the revelation that she's looking for the legendary mulberry tree that grants immortality.
- Star Power: Sterren comes from the stars.
- Succession Crisis: Sabran is twenty-eight and not getting any younger. Her council pressures her to marry so she can fulfill her Mandatory Motherhood and secure an heir.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Truyde utt Zeedur and her lover, Triam Sulyard, want to stop the Nameless One's imminent return and believe alliance between East and West is imperitive, and are correct to think so. Sulyard travels alone to Seiiki in secret, believing that his sincerity and charisma will earn him an audience with the Warlord in spite of the capital prohibition on foreigners. Truyde, meanwhile, plots to convince Sabran to lay aside Virtudom's distrust of the East. They behave as though they are in a medieval romance, where one lone couple's love and righteousness will see them through. Sulyard is unceremoniously executed without a hearing. Truyde makes more progress, but her plan is usurped and twisted into an assassination for which she is convicted and beheaded.
- Sword of Plot Advancement: The good guys must find the real Ascalon in order to stand a chance against the Nameless One. (Fortunately, Galian handed it off to a friend whose house still exists, making finding it not too difficult once they have enough information. Unfortunately, Kalyba grabs it from them almost immediately.)
- Take That!: The book is explicitly a feminist retelling of Saint George and the Dragon. The nation of Lasia shares a name with the fictional city in an early version of the tale, as well as the princess having a more active role that was whittled away when the legend was retold and reinterpreted in different eras. Her name in different versions (when she is named) has been both Cleolind and Sabra, and George has sometimes had a wicked sorceress mother named Kalyb, Kalyba, or Kalyt. The book also takes a hard look at the fact that in most versions, George offers to kill the dragon only if the frightened populace converts to Christianity. (A full explanation can be found here.)
- The Theocracy: Inys is ruled by the House of Berethnet, which traces its lineage to the founder of Virtudom, Galian Berethnet. Other religions are forbidden, and to have any standing in Inysh society one must undergo conversion. Inys has also refused relations with the East due to their reverence of dragons, not understanding that Eastern dragons are of a different sort than the Nameless One's.
- Thousand-Year Reign: The Berethnets have ruled Inys for a thousand years.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ead and Tane at first because of their differing opinion of dragons. Tane reveres Eastern dragons while Ead spent most of her life considering them to be no different from Western dragons.
- Thunderbolt Iron: Ascalon was forged from sterren, which is why it has the power to wound the Nameless One.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Triam Sulyard ignores every warning Niclays tries to give him about the punishment for unsanctioned entrants and the total impossibility that he'll be granted an audience with the Warlord until he's actually been detained. He follows Niclays' advice then for the best chance to not be executed, but he's beheaded nonetheless.
- Aubrecht Livelyn ignores Ead's advice not to bring Sabran on progress through the streets of Inys while there are cutthroats on the loose, and ends up getting shot dead while trying to protect Sabran from said cutthroats.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The four POV characters' timelines overlap chronologically before converging.
- Un-person: A half-example with Cleolind. Any Inysh depiction of her is based on speculation; Galian Berethnet had all images of her taken from life destroyed out of grief after she died in childbirth. That's the assumption. After it's revealed that his "Cleolind" was his adoptive mother in hypnotic disguise, his real reason for doing so becomes clear.
- Universe Chronology: Included in the back of the book.
- Warrior Monk: Members of the Priory are trained in physical combat as well as magic.
- Weakened by the Light: Wyverns are repelled by Sterren magic.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Ead and Truyde both fear the return of the Nameless One, but two things keep them from trusting each other early in the book—Ead thinks that Eastern dragons are just as wicked as Western ones (and Truyde cannot convince her otherwise) whilst Truyde thinks that all magic is evil sorcery (and Ead can't explain that without risking death at the stake).
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Combe is perfectly willing to send people off to a certain death if he believes they pose a threat to Inys' best interests, even if the Queen would disagree with him. This is why he isn't punished for his transgressions. He might be underhanded, but he is loyal to Sabran.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Set up to be a major roadblock in Tané's journey, one she defeats Turosa in combat, he pretty much vanishes entirely from the plot.
- World Tree: There are three trees that were the source of magic and, in legend, immortality, all located in different parts of the world—a mulberry, a hawthowrn, and an orange tree. The orange tree is the only one that still lives.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: When Triam Sulyard unveils his and Truyde's plan to Niclays, Niclays groans because it sounds like a heroic tale of romance and not a plan which takes any political or social realities into account. Truyde later defends Triam's decision to go east by saying that he is so naturally gifted with sincerity and charisma that anyone he petitioned aid one would be swayed to his side.
