#kencyrath chronicles

[tanoraqui]

Sentences Saturday

@thelordofgifs tagged me to share "some sentences" from a WIP (side note: I love how far this has devolved from neat tag memes like "Five-Sentence Friday" or even "WIP Wednesday). As it so happens, I spent yesterday and today writing a short little thing for the Chronicles of the Kencyrath, so here it is in full! Tagging @finxwrites, @smallblueandloud and @words-writ-in-starlight to go next if you want :)

---

Smothering, twisting darkness swirled around them in a dancing duel with silver-pale weirding mist, and the mist was winning. Where it cleared away the taint and then itself, it revealed a silent battlefield—exhausted, watching the center where the Tyr-Ridan stood, the living all still alive for now and the dead all staying dead at last. Rathilien was saved. Perimal Darkling was destroyed.

Yet darkness still loomed in front of them, utter, absolute Darkness. Ahead and behind. The ground had stopped shaking—Mother Ragga stood watching with the rest, not far away. But something still shifted unsteadily beneath Jame’s feet. Some loose thread—loose steering rope, loose fate whipping in the winds of history—was left untied.

"We have to go back." Her lips were numb with the realization. "We have to go back and start it all."

Kindrie shouted, a wordless rathorn cry of grief beyond endurance. He turned away and strode to where Kirien stood, not far behind them (or maybe distance hadn't mattered in…about as long as time hadn’t mattered).

He took her in his arms and kissed her fiercely, then pressed their foreheads gently together. The serpent cloak on his shoulders wrapped around them both.

Jame looked away to give them their privacy.

The final battlefield was full of friends and loved ones, kith and kin, more alive than she would have expected. Timmon and Gorbel were leaning heavily on one another, as were Trishien and Dianthe of Danior, all surrounded by Kendar of a melange of houses. Randiroc’s jewel-jaws were feasting on his corpse, which was fair. A few steps away, Death’s-head had started eating the Dark Judge’s corpse, which would probably give him indigestion. Before Ashe had finally gone still with the rest of the haunts, she’d sat back to back with Harn, who was gritting his teeth over a mangled forearm while Sheth, kneeling beside them, tore and tied his black coat into a hasty tourniquet.

The Kencyr had gathered closest to their lords and lady, but they were far from alone on the field. Gran Cyd bent a bloody-speared Chingetai into a passionate kiss and showed no sign of stopping. Wolvers began to howl, a rippling harmony of triumph tinged with mourning. An assortment of Tai-tastigonian gods, Bashti ancestors and other deities still ran amok, mopping up shadows with spears, fire, frying pans and odder weapons, egged on by Old Man Tishoo soaring above. Through the howling chorus, Jame heard a distinct quonk! Further yet, Arribek sen Tenzi was already stalking around, rallying his hillmen for whatever came next.

He wasn’t the only one. Countless people looked back at Jame and in their eyes she could see that one word from her, the slightest nod, and despite their wounds, exhaustion, and dawning sense of relief, they would stand and follow unflinchingly into the darkness. Brier was already getting to her feet, with blood coating her side and a mulish set to her chin. Yce was glaring past Jame, past Tori, straight into the heart of Perimal Darkling, teeth bared and legs coiled to pounce on the enemy that still hadn’t fully vacated her territory.

Kindrie let go of Kirien at last, and she of him. As he walked back to his cousins, the serpentine Cloak pressed closer and closer to his skin until it sank in completely, leaving only a ghost of snakes’ heads at his shoulders. As it faded, Kindrie shone brighter and brighter, with a white light so pure that it burned Jame’s eyes.

She turned away, and dropped the ivory Knife from her right hand. It disappeared into the shadows curling around her feet and never landed; in its place her claws slid out, longer and sharper and more natural-feeling than ever before. Each would be deadly with only a scratch. 

As usual, Torisen was the last to join them. He hasn’t reacted at all to Jame’s words; his head was bowed over the Book still open in his hands, his shoulders hunched.

With a deep breath, he straightened. The Book flared and fell into ashes in his hands. The fire licked down the bonds that tied the Knorth to their lord, and the Kencyrath to their Highlord, and set them all loose before any could be drawn into the Darkness before the three of them. Pure Creation remained, unbound, and the Kenthiar on his neck blazed as brightly silver as his open eyes.

Jame snapped her few bonds with a flick of her wrist, as easy as breathing for Destruction incarnate. With her other hand, she turned her claws carefully away one last time as she took her brother’s scarred hand, and leaned her shoulder against his. Her odd, black-purple glow was dark against his silver, though still bright against the Darkness.

On her other side, Preservation gripped the loose sleeve of her d’hen, just in case the road was rough.

And so the three faces of the Kencyr god, Torrigien, Regonereth and Argentiel, walked out of Rathilien and into the Darkness beyond worlds, beyond time.

A little while later and thirty thousand years earlier, the Three-Faced god bound together the Kendar, the Arrin-ken, the in-between race that would be known as Highborn, and the short gray folk who had always called themselves Builders, and charged them to fight the purest malevolence of entropy until it was defeated—and then upon its defeat, to the stupefaction of many on a small, divinity-packed world far down the Chain of Creation, released them all at last.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Hello, I came across your Kencyrath rec post and I am tentatively intruiged. That said I wanted to ask about a trigger before I dive in. Suicide is pretty strong trigger for me. I can handle it if it's mentioned, but detailed descriptions of the act or a lot of time spent in a suicidal character's head/thoughts dealing with suicidal ideation would not be. Is this an issue in the Chronicles of Kencyrath, and if it is, do you have a different recommendation?

Okay SO.

The Kencyrath exist in a honor/shame society, in which going against the code of honor (lying, breaking your word, etc) is considered a sin that can only be forgiven through an honorable death. Sometimes this takes the form of going into battle without the intention to come back, generally without armor, but it also takes the form of ritualized suicide with a specific kind of knife. I would call it a very specific kind of suicidal ideation, in which it doesn’t come so much from a depressive headspace as it does from a kind of rigidly religious one. There isn’t a ton of time spent in the heads of characters actively pursuing ritual suicide, nor what I would call traditional depressive suicidality, but it IS a very present element of the society, including people freely making choices with the understanding that they will be expected to take their own life afterward, or people being forced to take their own life as an alternative to being dishonored. Think samurai rules or Imperial Chinese rules and you’ll be in the right ballpark. Ultimately I can’t know the inside of your brain, but if onscreen suicide discussion or aftermath is a concern, I might table this series until you feel more ready for it.

In terms of alternative recommendations, buckle up, I have a list based on what part of the Kencyrath pitch you were into. These recommendations are made with the assumption that all the OTHER content warnings for the Kencyrath are not a problem, but I’ll note any really major ones and include a broad rating according to AO3 rules. Anything with an asterisk by it heavily features the big Chivalric Devotion vibes of the main Kencyrath dynamics. I read a lot of that.

Sprawling politics:

The Unbroken* (drafted soldier impresses daughter of the empress, they try to stop a war, full of double-crossing schemes and gallant ladies, cw colonialism, M for violence, sex, and extremely real colonialism)

The Captive Prince* (dethroned prince is sold into slavery under his mortal enemy, definitional enemies-to-lovers content, cw sexual assault, E for a very sexually relaxed culture in a bad way)

A Taste of Gold and Iron* (unambitious prince gets tangled up in a currency fraud scheme and gets a shiny new bodyguard, E for a very sexually relaxed culture in a good way)

October Daye series (starts out classic urban fantasy, rapidly becomes Blood Magic and Politics The Series, for those committed to a long series, T for violence)

Pulp fantasy adventure vibes:

Hero and the Crown/The Blue Sword* (classic sword and sorcery fantasy, for DnD lovers and people who read Horse Girl Books as kids, General Audiences)

Silver Under Nightfall* (vampire couple teams up with vampire hunter to cure a magical plague, the polyamorous murder romance you need in your life, cw coercive assault and body horror, E for gore and numerous threesomes)

Heaven Official’s Blessing***** (translated Chinese novel, very old fallen god returns to Heaven and Does His Best, for those committed to a LONG book, currently on volume 8, T for violence)

Witch King (body hopping demon tries to solve his own murder with his found family in tow, perfect standalone book, T for violence)

Spicy magic systems:

The City We Became/The World We Made (sentient cities and extra dimensional invaders, for everyone who read a lot of Avengers In NYC fic back in 2012, cw racism and survival sex work, M for sex)

Gideon the Ninth/The Locked Tomb series***** (everyone knows about this series, it’s the one with the lesbian space necromancers, cw for just the craziest flavors of abuse, M for violence and cannibalism I guess, also fits the below category)

The Gilded Ones* (what if all the misogynists who said women were demons were absolutely correct, and it was fucking rad, cw for SO much sexism and also religious indoctrination, T for violence)

A Soul to Keep* et al (okay oKAY LOOK THIS IS MONSTERFUCKER CONTENT BUT I RECOMMEND IT, local cursed woman gets forced to marry a demon, they argue a lot and the sex scenes are REAL bizarre, cw kidnapping and the second book deals with a character coming out of a severe depression, HARD E for monsterfucking, obviously)

Interpersonal relationships that are just SO fucked up:

A Dowry of Blood (a letter from Dracula’s first wife to the man himself, cw domestic abuse, M for adult themes and sex)

Remnants of Filth/Yuwu* (translated Chinese novel, loyal general becomes the jailer for his traitorous ex-lover, cw slavery and discussion of sexual assault, E for sex)

The Salt Grows Heavy (homicidal Little Mermaid and plague doctor wander through an apocalypse together, actually read everything Cassandra Khaw has ever touched, the absolute pinnacle of horror, cw all her stuff for really creative violence and body horror, M for violence and gore)

Anyway if you have any other book recommendation questions and/or you read any of these and enjoy them, hit me up, recommending books to people is genuinely one of my great joys in life.

[elise-nic]

If you haven't read the Kencyrath series, which of the following would you guess didn't happen (yet):

@2-octopuses-in-a-trenchcoat

[thelaithlyworm]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Chronicles of the Kencyrath - P. C. Hodgell Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jamethiel "Jame" Priest's-bane, Torisen Black Lord, Original Character Additional Tags: Music, Band Fic, Apocalypse, Podfic, Podfic Length: 10-20 Minutes Summary:

When Jame sings, she doesn't just bring down the house, she brings down the world. Or: an ethnomusicological take on apocalyptic bandfic.

[rattyjol]

I found a couple of old fics tonight and posted them on AO3 basically unedited:

Esk, Issa (Beginning, Movement): Imperial Radch, 800 words

My existence began in a single room. Or rather, this is where my memory record begins. My existence itself began in a laboratory some very many gates away, but this is only hardware. I, myself, did not begin until I was already in orbit, already set into place above the planet where I was destined to live and die.

The Merrikitt Hotel: Chronicles of the Kencyrath, mall AU, 1.2k

Jame stood in the empty hotel parking lot and tapped her chin. Up close, the Merrikitt Hotel was much nicer than she’d thought, dwarfed as it was by the Four Seasons’ veritable high rise next door. She contemplated the likely price for a room, weighed it against her unfortunately barren wallet, and then weighed it a second time against Rowan’s reaction if Jame came back from her lunch break still dripping mud all over The Knorth Face’s nice clean floors. Never mind that Jame thought it would lend a pleasing verisimilitude to an outdoor goods store; Rowan’s expressionless face could speak volumes when necessary. Right, showering at the Merrikitt it was.

[othercat2]

*Chin palm* Funny story, but this sounds a lot like blood-binding from P.C. Hodgell's Kencyr books. Though there's more of a mind control aspect to it. Highborn Kencyr (Shanir) have the ability to create mental bonds with other Kencyr or other humans. (IIRC, one of the characters experimented successfully with this.) The Highborn usually do this to ensure loyalty/obedience, because the blood binding is really coercive! Hodgell's work tends to deal with uses and abuses of power, and there are lots of ways to have really fucked up things happen when your characters swear blood oaths and get psychically entangled.

--A character is abused by his brother, who blood binds him into doing various humiliating things.

--The character I mentioned who was experimenting on humans. Well, I say "experimenting." He was actually being a sadistic horror movie serial killer.

--Various instances of a character making other characters do things they had no interest in doing.

--A shapechanger (former Kencyr bad guys under the control of the End Boss of the series) tricks someone into bloodbinding with him. shapechanger blood is very poisonous!

--Though if a shapechanger *gets* blood bound they tend to explode IIRC? because of the conflicting controls.

Blood Bond Fandom AU?

My brain spat out a weird new fandom AU this morning that’s kinda vampire-y and kinda soulmate-y without really being either of those things. I have no use for it so I’m setting it free for anyone who wants to play with it!

AU: When Person A swallows another person’s blood - even a single drop - it temporarily creates a bond that lets Person A feel that Person B’s emotions (one-way only). This normally wears off after a week or so, and is fairly commonplace between family and close friends when that emotional connection can be a way of relating to each other better. However, if Person B also swallows some of Person A’s blood within that week that the connection is open, it creates a much stronger, permanent two-way bond that lets the two share intense feelings and, with practice, verbal thoughts. This is normally done ritually as a marriage-type ceremony but it can sometimes happen in other ways.

Ideas for further exploration:

Accidentally becoming bonded and having to deal with it! The more ridiculous the method the better! Suggestions include: some kind of accident/crashing into each other, kissing with a tiny cut on your lips you didn’t notice, cutting yourself while cooking and someone else accidentally eats the food, biting too hard during kinky/rough sex…

The uses of a one-way bond for emotional support/bonding vs. the increased risk of accidentally creating a permanent bond that is/might be unwanted.

The societal impact of being bonded to someone who isn’t your sexual-romantic partner when that’s what the bond is normalized as.

Trying to get rid of a bond that you don’t want or didn’t agree to/wanting to be with someone who isn’t who you’re bonded to.

Multi-person bonds!

What happens if you bond with two separate people who aren’t also bonded to each other?

Weird effects from blood-related medical procedures! Getting accidentally bonded through an improperly-handled blood transfusion, or temporarily losing your bond because of dialysis.

Someone intentionally creating a one-way bond without the other person’s knowledge and dealing with the fallout when they find out. Bonus angst if they find out when the bond accidentally becomes permanent!

If you do anything with this please message me/tag me in it!

[tanoraquisloviebracket]

Round 2, Poll O

Dave the Polar Bear (mid-sized) is one of my first—maybe the first?—of my annual family Secret Santa gifts via the World Wildlife Fund's adoption program. He’s named after David Tennant because a friend of mine at the time was a big fan of both Tennant and polar bears. 

VS

Blackie (black-finned shark, small) was recently gifted to me by a friend. You may have noticed by this point that I like sharks! Mostly named for his black fins, a little bit named for Torisen “Blackie” Knorth of the Kencyrath Chronicles.

[aethersea]

you know, it's kind of wild that Ganth Grey Lord, Highlord of the Kencyrath, had a sword named Kinslayer and no one ever. said anything. about that.

it's just kind of a weird vibe. imagine being a regular Knorth highborn and your boss's primary weapon is his Sword For Killing Knorths With.

[othercat2]

Book Blather

I have volumes three and four of Heaven Official's Blessing on hold at the library! (I was somewhat surprised to find that the library got them for some reason. I shouldn't have been, after all, Phoenix public library has a lot of LGBT titles, including some fairly obscure sf and fantasy.)

Books I'm reading:

Deathless Gods, PC Hodgell: This is the most recent book in the Chronicles of the Kencyrath. Jame and Tori have to deep with the extremely slimy political machinations of Caldane Caineron, who has screwed up the mercenary contracts with the Seven Kings, who are one of the Kencyr's major clients. (The Kencyr primarily support themselves through taking mercenary contracts. The Riverlands are not actually great territory for extensive agriculture.)

Jame's friendships with Timmon and Gorbel continue to be slightly surreal and hilarious. (Jame is obviously a Very Good Influence.)

Kindrie meanwhile is neck-deep in unspecified trouble. I think The Trouble will probably turn out to be related to his third of the Tyr-ridan and politics.

In other news, I adore Randiroc.

The Grief of Stones, by Katherine Addison: I am pretty much chugging my way through this book. The going has been pretty slow since it's a pretty dark read this time around.

Assassins of Thassalon by Lois McMaster Bujold: I only got a few pages into this book, and that was months ago, which means I will have to start from the begining. What I read was pretty good, but I got distracted.

Scorpica by G.R. Macallister: I have not even started this book, and I might not because its hard for me to start new books. The worldbuilding looks interesting! But I am also having mild flashbacks to obscure seventies/eighties fantasy-sf with matriarchal societies. As one does.

Beyond, by Mercedes Lackey: This is the first book in the Founding of Valdemar. This will be my second or third attempt to read the book. (I was only able to read a chapter before getting distracted.)

Book I am waiting for:

Witch King, by Martha Wells. Holy shit, what I've seen/heard of it is so cool. :D I am hoping for some weird found family with technical Dark Lords. (Because that's what it looks like from here. Weird found family case fic with technical Dark Lords.) May is too far away, and I am filled with Longing.

[kynngi]

wanted to doodle Jorin from the kencyrath books bc he baby

[tanoraqui]

Torisen & Klondike bar, please!

[ask meme]

What would they do for a Klondike bar?

Tori would do nothing for a Klondike bar. Tori has never heard of Klondike bars. Jame, however, would trip - literally - into an alternate dimension where there are Klondike bars, befriend a couple local divinities, infuriate a couple other local divinities, semi-accidentally help somebody stage a coup, scandalize any Kendar who'd managed to follow her here, and return with several crates of Klondike bars. She sends one of them to Tori with a letter explaining that she thinks these may be useful for feeding their people through the upcoming winter; also that she accidentally hastened the advent of the apocalypse again by personally punching Gerridon in the face (again) (it was during the coup. don't worry about it!).

Tori may or may not read the letter. He takes a bite of one of the Klondike bars and concludes that they're good, and sends them to the kitchens to see if they can be replicated in some way, lest everyone starve this winter. He sends one to the college at Mount Albion to see if they can do it, too.

Kirien writes back that she's set the appropriate scholars on it, and by the way why isn't Tori writing about Kindrie's arrival in Gothregor? He set out two months ago.

(Kindrie has been kidnapped again. He does not get a Klondike bar.)

[elise-nic]

Monstress and The Kencyrath Chronicles are two series that I don’t think actually go together but for some reason my brain has linked them, probably because of some very surface level similarities in world building.

[thelaithlyworm]

[ID: Against a black background, a gathering of white lace, as of a sleeve, fancy skirt, or veil. If one looks closely, one might note the skull hidden behind it. Title reads, An Economy of Blood and Bone, written by Minutia_R, read by Thimblerig End ID]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Chronicles of the Kencyrath - P. C. Hodgell Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Trishien of Jaran & Kirien of Jaran, Trishien of Jaran/Original Female Character, Trishien of Jaran/Ganth of Knorth (mentioned) Characters: Trishien of Jaran, Kirien of Jaran, Original Characters Additional Tags: Backstory, Pre-Canon, Family Summary:

In theory, the Jaran cherished the principle of choice. Every son was free to take up the viol or sword at his discretion, and every daughter to choose the Women’s Halls or Mount Alban for her residence. The reality, of course, was rarely that simple.

-

This was fun to do - a really interesting character study. And I got to practice my Old Lady Voice! (I hope that @minutia-r​ likes it.)

[incorrectkencyrath]

As a tall person I cannot offer to reach something on a high shelf for a stranger, yet if they ask me I must oblige. This is the law of the giants.

Marc

[thepodcastboundinpaleleather]

Are you guys still alive? It's been more than a hot minute since a new episode has been released and I'm jonesing for some Gabe & Kathryn Kencyrath convo. Love to both of you, I hope all is well. -Jonathan

Hey Jonathan!  We are, in fact, still alive--it’s just been a chaotic start to the new year and we had to take an unexpected break from editing and recording so that we could get things in order.  Among other things, one of my partners had a COVID scare and wound up in a quarantine hotel (he’s fine!), and Mom and I have both been doing a whole new round of doctors (we’re working on it).  But, fret not, I have the next episode (the next few sections of Part 4 of Seeker’s Mask) recorded and ready to edit, so hopefully it should come together pretty quickly!

We are mutually DESPERATE for things to go back to normal so that we can go back to our regularly scheduled Kencyrath yelling, so stay tuned!

Incidentally, thank you all SO much for your patience, 2020 really got its last kicks in and dealing with the 2021 cleanup has been very draining.  We’re hoping to get the PBIPL back on the rails soon and everyone has been an absolute champ about the break!

- Gabe

[shipcestuous]

Different anon, but I feel ya, buddy. It's EXTREMELY rare to see incestuous couples that aren't antagonists/villains in any form, and even more so that any "good" pairings actually end living happily ever after. And God forbid that the protagonists are incestuous! *fake fasps* "Chronicles of the Kencyrath" is the only series I've seen that treats incestuous couplings as "normal" since that's how the how the setting is, and while Jame and Tori have issues, they're overall good characters.

[x]

What do we want?: Good incestuous pairings with happy endings.

When do we want it?: Yesterday!

Thanks for more details about Kencyrath! We love seeing incestuous protagonists!!!