The Ruin of Kings (A Chorus of Dragons)

by Jenn Lyons

  *Probably not. Demons are not natural creatures, although they can, temporarily, take on physical forms. As such, demons do not possess any gender beyond which is assigned to them, or sometimes, the gender they decide has the most utilitarian value.

  †Demons are, naturally, poorly understood entities, and despite the amount of research that has gone into deciphering these creatures, huge gaps in our knowledge remain. The Lesser Key of Grizzst is an obvious beginner’s treatise, but I also find The Cold Invasion by Killus Vornigel to be an excellent perspective on these monsters and their interactions with the physical world.

  *Compare with the following prophecy from A Study of Demonic Possession in Quur: “Hail to the Lawbreaker; Hail to the Thief of Souls; Hail to the Prince of Swords. Long will we search for the lion, Until at last we find the hawk, Our king who will free us from ruin, The long suffering of our souls unlocked.”

  *Demons are not generally locked into a single form, although they are not the same as mimics such as Talon who shape-change with disconcerting impunity. However, once a demon enters the physical world, they seem to keep their form for the duration of their stay. A demon’s form may be dictated by the sorcerer who summons it, who might declare that a demon should only appear with “a seemly and handsome form” or demand that a demon appear “hideous and terrifying to scare his enemies.” The Lesser Key of Grizzst, for example, recommends demanding a form the demon would find unpleasant, as a way of determining if the demon is truly under control. (I don’t put much stock in this personally, since a demon is more than capable of putting up with a few hours as a cuddly puppy—if it means ripping his summoner to tiny pieces later on.)

  *One wonders if Kihrin occasionally forgot that he had a great deal of money saved up, or if he just lost himself in a role, that of a musician’s young apprentice. I suppose the easiest way to keep from spending that money would be to forget he had it.

  *One hundred and twenty-five years ago, the King of Zherias, Shogu, attempted to outlaw the practice of slaving, traditionally one of the primary Zheriaso tradecrafts (along with piracy and mercantilism). He survived less than five days past his declaration, and his eldest child, Sinka, promptly legalized it again.

  *“Willing” is a debatable term given Morea’s status as a slave.

  *The Joratese culture, and particularly their god-touched nobility, survive in large part because they were created as a servitor race to the centaurs that ruled that area. When Quur invaded, the Joratese eagerly sided with the Empire to overthrow the god-king Korshal. The Joratese were quick to offer their sons and daughters to Quuros soldiers, who were entitled to landholdings in the new dominion. Eventually, this resulted in the current Jorat dominion. It takes a dim view of outsiders, or the magic that resulted in their original enslavement.

  *Speaking of old, dead god-kings … but I really don’t need to provide a history lesson on old Laregraen’s god-king, do I? It’s been a mandatory class at the Academy for the last two centuries.

  *There have been any number of servitor races created by the god-kings during their supremacy. Some, such as the centaurs of Jorat or the snow giants of Yor, are extinct or nearly so. The Daughters of Laaka have flourished, in large part because Laaka invested them so heavily with resistance to magic, but mostly because their preferred habitat, the ocean depths, is far from the dominion of man.

  *She means the Celestial Concord, perhaps? Very little is known about the Celestial Concord, save that it was a binding agreement between the Eight Immortals and certain god-kings. They all decided it was better to play nice and promise to behave than be hunted down and slain by the Emperor—using his preferred weapon for such, Urthaenriel. Presumably it was some kind of treaty on acceptable behavior. And afterward, the Concord gods did not physically rule on earth. This had previously been a common occurrence during the Age of God-Kings.

  *Citizens of the Kirpis and Kazivar dominions like to insist that only wine made from grapes should be called such. The presence of the Academy in Kirpis means that generations of wizards have returned home with a taste for grape wine and the quirk of preferring it for rituals. While Ola never attended the Academy, she must have picked up this association from her time spent in the Upper Circle.

  *And poisons. The heart-pumping, excited state nakari powder is famous for inducing can be created through poisonous mushrooms, aconite, and the thorax of the red dragon beetle. In small quantities, these are harmless, but I would be careful to buy nakari powder from a trusted source.

  *Is it paranoia I suspect that was the whole point?

  †Eamithon is home to some curious exceptions from Quuros law, due to the fact that of all the dominions of the Empire, Eamithon (under the reign of the god-queen Dana) was the only one to join the Empire willingly, with the full cooperation of its ruler. Technically speaking, slavery is legal in Eamithon, but since virtually no one in Eamithon seems to realize this, slaves brought into the dominion have a habit of “vanishing” and turning up in isolated villages where the natives swear that the person has lived there for their whole life. There is also enormous peer pressure on anyone settling in Eamithon with their slaves to free them.

  *“Like trying to drown a Zheriaso” is a colloquial expression for attempting something impossible. The phrase’s origins are believed to be tied to one of the many Quuros pirate wars, when Zheriaso were often seen to simply jump overboard and abandon ship rather than fight the superior Quuros navy. They later turned up whole and hale back on Zherias, even in instances where ships were scuttled miles from the coast.

  *Since he was never licensed, this technically makes Kihrin a witch.

  *House D’Talus.

  *According to eyewitness reports of the eruption of Mount Daynis in the southernmost edge of Khorvesh, the main cause of death was not the lava or giant boulders that blew upward from the volcano, but a surge of hot gases and smaller debris that behaved like water, flowing downhill and engulfing entire towns and cities in its path.

  *Felicia Nacinte’s masterpiece The Rape of Thoris has regrettably since been destroyed, but some of her other paintings, particularly The Morgage Rout, The Courtship of the Duke’s Daughter, and A Rose for Thaena, are on display at the Duke’s palace in Khorvesh. I highly recommend their viewing if you ever have the opportunity.

  *Radiation of what? I would give much to be able to ask Taja for elaboration on these points. Assuming that this dream was really an encounter with the goddess herself (for the record, yes, I am assuming exactly that). However, in substantiation of these claims, I’ve been able to find no mention of any celestial phenomena resembling Tya’s Veil prior to the God-King Era. And prior to the God-King Era, poetry involving the sun and sky did indeed use “yellow” and “blue” as central color motifs.

  *I rather suspect that statement is wrong on all possible counts.

  *The closest translation of Valathea is “the exquisite sorrow that comes from understanding great truths.” It is a female Kirpis vané given name, currently out of vogue.

  †Not better at all, I suspect. “Notrin Milligreest allowed me to examine the Valathea harp, which by family legend traces back to Elana Kandor, widow of famous Quuros Emperor Atrin Kandor. It was said that the harp only plays notes in a minor key, no matter what the skill or intention of the musician. I wished to see this for myself, and Notrin humored me. The harp is in excellent condition, and has been well maintained, and yet, as predicted, I could not coax any music from the harp not best fit for a dirge. When I asked how this had been accomplished, Notrin shrugged and informed me that there was no great skill to it: Valathea only played brightly for those she loved.”—A Study of Enchantment, by Darvok Hin Lora

  *An exaggeration. There are, at most, several hundred deities. Maybe twice that many counting dead god-kings.

  *No. But the architecture might appear older by virtue of being more primitive. Many relics come from eras technically younger than the vané.

  *Although most popular in Khorvesh, Thaena is
worshipped in every dominion in the Empire and outside its borders, usually in the form of propitiatory offerings meant to turn her attention elsewhere.

  *For my own reasons, I admit to a fascination with mimics. Little is known about them, largely because they’re difficult to find: understandable when dealing with a race that changes their shape and coloring. Most scholars dismiss them as the remnants of some mad god-king’s experiments, which may be the case, since mimics neither age nor reproduce in any traditional sense. As mimics have no interest in illuminating matters, we may never know their true origins.

  *This gives the strong implication that his real name is some variation, or rather, that Kihrin is but a mispronunciation of his proper name.

  †Although most people are used to calling the strip of land that circles the Imperial Arena “Arena Park,” it’s never been officially named such. Other nicknames in common usage include “Blood Grounds,” and of course the ever-popular “Culling Fields.”

  *I must admit, I too thought it was a nude dance. Now I understand why that priest of Thaena stormed out of the room when we saw it performed at the Winter Festival, two years previous. Someone really should tell the Revelers Guild.

  *I have met the witch-goddess Suless while visiting Duke Kaen in Yor. She’s a deeply unpleasant woman. Also, don’t ever eat anything she bakes. Trust me.

  †Urthaenriel, otherwise known as the Ruin of Kings, Eclipser, the Emperor’s Sword, Godslayer, Map Burner, Saetya, Tyasaeth, Vishabas, War’s Heart, Sun’s Shadow, the Severer, Zinkarox. These are all names given by one group or another to the sword of the Quuros Emperor, one of the great artifacts of the world. At school, they teach that the sword was manufactured by Grizzst the Mad for Emperor Simillion at the request of Khored the Destroyer, but I am skeptical.

  *The Manol vané as a race are well known for their skill with archery, but most particularly for their use of poisoned ebony arrowheads. Arrowheads that have slain important enemies of the vané are often taken as souvenirs by the archer who fired the arrow.

  *As if the Lord Heir had any right to cast nominating votes for Voices of the Council. Darzin was getting ahead of himself here.

  *One does hear rumors, on occasion, to the effect that there are still Kirpis vané inside the Kirpis dominion, despite their diaspora and exile from their homeland after the Quuros conquest, but I have never found any conclusive evidence.

  †Technically, no vané’s coloring is “natural,” but it’s a fair question if one is unaware of the mercurial nature of vané appearance.

  *One could argue that the Royal Houses benefit from monopolies of scarce resources, but since demand far outstrips supply, Kihrin’s argument has merit from a purely economic viewpoint.

  †The definition of “witch” is one of the most hotly contested words in the Guarem language. According to the Academy at Alavel, a “witch” is “an uneducated magical adept who operates without official license from the Royal Houses.” But since women are never given licenses and are forbidden to attend the Academy, the gender-neutral term is almost exclusively applied to women.

  *And technically only qualifies as a witch because of a lack of formal licensing. Must be infuriating.

  *I’m not convinced the Scrolls of Fate aren’t a clever hoax perpetrated by someone trying to muddy the water—or simply profit off the fascination so many hold for prophecies.

  †He still does. And it’s still profoundly boring. On the plus side, mentally replaying one of his lectures is the best insomnia cure I’ve ever discovered.

  *Note the wording here. I am inclined to interpret this literally: not that Miya didn’t know, but that she had been ordered to keep silent. Questioning someone who is gaeshed is a bit like talking to a demon—and for the same reasons.

  *Lady Miya just made a slip of the tongue here, since, technically speaking, Quuros royalty are forbidden from “ruling.”

  *At a guess, probably Sarin D’Mon’s Anatomy of the Human Body, which I understand is still used as the basic primer for entry-level study.

  *There is a story concerning the dragon Baelosh where he promised Emperor Simillion he would hunt him down and kill him after “a short nap.” The short nap lasted twenty-five years, and when Baelosh woke, Simillion was dead.

  *It’s not uncommon. The vast majority of guildsmen only know one spell, not because they have no desire to learn more but because they have no ability.

  *Not technically true. There is quite a trade in illegal practice, primarily in Yor, Marakor, and Jorat.

  *Not true. A witch gift depends on talent arriving before skill, so that a child stumbles onto a power before they’ve learned the rules of how that power works, including what might otherwise be self-imposed limitations. Sometimes, particularly when a child is part of a Royal Family, it’s entirely likely that they will receive formal training to use magic before they stumble onto such a gift themselves.

  †House D’Mon’s control of the Shadowdancers is not technically illegal, except in as much as the Shadowdancers regularly break the law, but it would certainly be an extraordinary scandal if this were ever made public.

  *Only because demons seem to prefer our fear to our desire. There’s no reason a demon couldn’t be beautiful if it wished.

  *Mimics eat brains, apparently absorbing their victim’s memories and skills. Although I suppose that was obvious enough from Talon’s side of these transcripts. It should be emphasized that she clearly doesn’t need to eat a person to access at least some memories.

  *Mimics make such good spies and assassins that it’s almost a cliché to find their services sold in this regard, although most of their employers never realize they are not hiring humans.

  †Not an ability that I associate with mimics. I’m left to wonder if this is a talent unique to Talon, a facet of mimic physiology of which I had been previously unaware, or if Talon was simply lying. I lean toward the last one.

  *Obviously, it was the reverse. I take some consolation in knowing that Talon lied to absolutely everyone.

  †Thank the secrecy of the vané. None of us really understood how the Stone of Shackles worked.

  *I suspect there are very few members of the D’Mon household who haven’t been subjected to Talon’s close mental scrutiny over the years. Darzin was clearly not immune, despite Talon’s false reassurance that he was too strong-willed.

  *You’re reading the resulting transcription of the recording she made. So, at least for this singular occasion, she was good for her word. I wouldn’t count on it ever happening again.

  *I find this astonishing. I can see no sense to this at all, except perhaps some dark part of Darzin’s mind feared his son possessed a talent for magic greater than his own. It is, after all, unwise to abuse a child who may one day learn the ability to summon demons.

  *Kihrin needs to pay more attention to what people are actually promising, rather than what he wants them to have said.

  *Really, that’s a question the Kirpis vané should have been asking too.

  *In a sense. There was a freak weather phenomenon that year that covered much of the continent with a giant and rather spectacular storm. The argument can indeed be made that the storm was not natural, and thus “the world wept.”

  *Not that lost. The Royal Families murdered Emperor Simillion, and the gods were annoyed because he had been in the middle of doing something for them.

  *It really wasn’t that mysterious. The family members that Pedron didn’t sacrifice in order to summon demons died during the Affair of the Voices. It was a violent time.

  †Additionally, not only did Therin D’Mon marry a Khorveshan woman, but all his daughters received private training and served in the army. Clearly Therin does not possess Darzin’s overdeveloped sense of misogyny.

  *I don’t believe any of this is true, although I do think Lyrilyn and Miya were close.