Doom of the Valanate
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The Valanate of the Isles sits upon the precipice of chaos. Sabel, the capital, is filled with tension. Lord Cadius Privar, Valan and Protector of the Pentarchy, Brankia, and all the Isles, is a sickly man who is seen to be manipulated by the high lords and his lady wife. The people of the city chafe against his rule, petitioning against the corruption and nepotism of the royal ministries. Country folk, ruined by devastating floods, demand restitution. Dissident sages preach openly against House Privar in the street.
A solitary sage, Alys, meets with the overseer of the church to discuss an ancient prophecy. If her divination is correct, Lord Cadius will soon be dead and the end times upon them all.
Into this maelstrom are thrown three ordinary folk; Lanna, an adolescent Cruid girl bonded to servitude in a temple house; Halmor, the third son of an Eldan smallholder conscripted to fight in Jomundra; and Jac, a young woman apprentice at the Sabel Seaport shipyards.
Book I – Sword and Sceptre
The Valanate of the Isles is in turmoil. Floods have devastated the countryside, unrest threatens the capital, and victory eludes the valan’s armies in the north. Omens of the End Times are gathering, and the future of the Isles, and the world, is at stake.
Lanna, abandoned to the suppressive whims of the temple house, is taken in by a mysterious old woman from distant lands.
Halmor, dutiful third son of a smallholder, proves himself in bloody battle only to learn that his destiny may be darker still.
Jac, a shipwright who is beginning to despair of ever becoming her own master, finds her world turned upside down.
Book II – Crown of Heaven
The volatility within Lord Valan Cadius Privar’s great diet has been seemingly stabilised by the maneuvers of the court. But news from Regnal City will throw the capital and all the country into even deeper chaos.
Lanna, apprentice to the sorcerer Katarin, is embedded within the valan’s court and surrounded by the many scheming factions of the nobility.
Halmor, bodyguard to Ser Torrence Ceran of the Academy of Martial Arts and Sciences, must protect his master from threats from every corner.
Jac, now an agitator in the Seaport, finds new allies and new obstacles on her quest to bring justice to the Isles.
Book III – The White Wheel
Civil war wracks the Isles. As the country is split between the forces of the diet and the valan’s court, the loyalties and ambitions of every lord, knight, and commoner will be tested.
Lanna, her powers growing by the day, follows her friend Princess Natalia in a quest across the Isles to win the lords of the lands to the cause of restoring order to the shaken Valanate.
Halmor, his cursed doom seemingly fulfilled, is charged with the unsavoury task of uncovering the traitors to the diet. What he uncovers, though, could be an even greater threat.
Jac, now hailed as a war hero by the militias, finds that each new victory opens another battle, and not always with the enemy that she suspected.