Rock culture references
The song "Jillian", included in Within Temptation's album The Silent Force , is about the relationship between Nevyn and Jill.
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| Author | Katharine Kerr |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Books (USA) Voyager Books (UK, Australia) |
| Published | 1986–present |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) Audiobook E-book |
The Deverry Cycle is a series of Celtic fantasy novels by Katharine Kerr set in the fictional land of Deverry. As of February 2020, sixteen books have been published in the series.
The series is written in a non-linear style: the principal narrative is frequently interrupted by flashbacks to events that occurred decades, or even centuries, before. These flashbacks concern the prior incarnations of characters in the principal narrative, and provide insight into the relationships of the characters in their current incarnations.
Kerr began working on what would become the Deverry cycle in 1982, expecting to produce a short story. The project grew much larger than that, eventually expanding into a series of sixteen novels. Kerr has a contract for two additional full novels in the series. [1] Kerr has likened the Deverry cycle to a play, dividing the story into five acts:
The novels take place in the world of Annwn (pronounced "An-noon" [ˈanuːn] , meaning "no place", the Otherworld in Welsh mythology), an Earth-like planet in a parallel universe. Annwn has six sapient species: humans, elves, dwarves, Horsekin, Dwrgi, and dragons.
There are three human nations on Annwn. They are the kingdom of Deverry, the Rhiddaer, and Bardek. Both Deverry and Bardek were colonized by humans from the "real" world, who arrived there by magical means. Only the people of the Rhiddaer represent the indigenous humans of Annwn.
The kingdom of Deverry was founded by a fictional Gallic tribe that fled Gaul to escape Roman rule. The tribe accomplished its journey across dimensions with the aid of a powerful magical being. The government of Deverry is feudal with the High King at the top and three lower ranks of nobility. The society is characterized by near-continuous internal warfare.
Bardek is a collection of independent city-states on an archipelago to the south of Deverry. There are oblique suggestions in the novels that Bardek, like Deverry, was settled by people from the "real" world, and the author has stated in online discussions that the people of Bardek are descended from Hellenized Moors.[ citation needed ] The Bardekian city-states have a democratic system of government, resembling that of Classical Athens.
The Rhiddaer (pronounced "hrithair", [r̥ɪðɛːr] ), or Freeland, is located on the same continent as Deverry, to the north and west of that country. It is inhabited by the indigenous humans of Annwn, whose ancestors escaped from enslavement by the early Deverrians. The people of the Rhiddaer no longer have their own language, but speak an archaic dialect of the Deverrian language. They have a democratic system of government, headed by an elected Chief Speaker.
Also known as elves , the Westfolk physically resemble humans in most respects, although they can be distinguished by their pointed and furled ears, as well as their eyes which have catlike irises. The Westfolk are longer-lived than humans, with a lifespan measured in centuries, but have fewer children than humans do. The Westfolk also have sharper vision than humans, being able to see clearly in very low light. Another major difference is that the Westfolk remain youthfully vigorous for most of their adult lives, and begin to age only near the end of their lives. The Westfolk are cross-fertile with humans, and the children of such unions generally resemble humans more than elves, although they may exhibit some elvish traits (slightly sharp ears, an extended lifespan, and a long period of youthful vigor).
The Westfolk are nomads, wandering the grasslands to the west of Deverry. They formerly dwelt in seven great cities further west, but the cities were sacked by marauding Horsekin about a thousand years before the events of Daggerspell. There is a second, smaller population of Westfolk dwelling on an island south of the Bardekian archipelago, and another far to the west of Annwn past their destroyed cities.
Living in the mountains north of Deverry, the Mountain Folk, or dwarves, are short but stocky. Like the elves, they have a significantly longer lifespan than humans and are cross-fertile with them. They likewise share the elven ability to see in the dark. Like many versions of dwarves in fantasy fiction, they have a predilection for mining and metalworking. There are two different dwarven populations, both of which live in cities that are partially or primarily underground, and which make use of artificial and natural caves and tunnels. Dwarven culture emphasizes thrift and takes debt and obligations of all types very seriously. They distrust the Westfolk, considering them to be thieves. Connected with the dwarves is a remote and sparsely populated city, Haen Marn, which travels through space and possibly time.
The Guardians are spirits who dwell in one of the higher planes. Though they were meant to incarnate like all other souls, they somehow stayed behind. Most have no sense of individuality. Some Guardians have great magical prowess, most notably Evandar who is responsible for bringing the original human settlers of Deverry from our world to Annwn. The Guardians are known as the Færie in “our” world, with their two main divisions known as the Seelie (led by Evandar) and Unseelie (led by his “brother”) Hosts.
A large and hairy humanoid species which possesses a strong psychic talent which manifests as animal empathy. They are responsible for the destruction of the former elven civilization having been pushed out of their own homelands by the humans when they arrived in Annwn. They are referred to by the elves as demons and also as Hordes. Because one of their cultural practices is to eat the flesh of their own dead, the Horsekin were struck with a cholera-like plague which almost completely destroyed their population. The survivors abandoned the elven cities and constructed new settlements nearby. The term “Gel da’Thae” refers to civilized Horsekin that live in these settlements, while the term “Horsekin” in its stricter sense refers to the uncivilized tribes that dwell on the high plains north of the Rhiddaer, who have a culture extremely different from those living by the elven ruins, and who are considered barbarians by the city-dwelling Gel da’Thae.
Introduced in the penultimate volume after some brief foreshadowing in the previous work is another species that provides an elemental affinity to Water. Dwrgi appear to be shape-changers, able to shift from human (or near-human: their features as described hint at their alternate form, since their hair is particularly short and thick and their brows low) to otter-like form. There are at least two tribes or communities of them, loosely allied.
Resembling the legendary creatures in European folklore and mythology, the dragons are enormous, four-legged reptiles with two batlike wings and long tails. Unlike legendary dragons, however, they neither breathe fire nor hoard wealth.
Dragons appear to have all originated "our" world but been convinced to move to Annwn by Evandar. Dragons dwell in the mountains north even of the Rhiddaer. Dragons appear to live alone or in mated pairs.
Magic and sorcery are featured prominently in the Deverry novels. The fictional magical tradition practiced in the books, called "dweomer," is described as a personal journey toward spiritual enlightenment. The effects of magic on the material world, while spectacular, are secondary. Within the books, there are two differing schools of thought about how magic should be used. Those that follow the "dweomer of light" are servants of spiritual beings called Great Ones (analogous to the Buddhist concept of Bodhisattvas),[ citation needed ] and work to better the world in some way. Practitioners of "dark dweomer" seek magical power for its own sake or as a tool for achieving personal goals.
Characters who practice dweomer can perform a large number of magical feats. One of the most frequently used powers is to manipulate the classical elements of earth, air, fire, water, and aether by calling upon elemental spirits. Other powers include astral projection, scrying, precognition, retrocognition, and shapeshifting.
The first four books have two major plot threads: the quest of the extremely long lived sorcerer Nevyn to fulfill an ancient oath, and a complex plot by a cabal of sorcerers from Bardek to plunge Deverry into war. The past-life flashbacks deal with several of Nevyn's failed attempts to fulfill his oath and with the beginnings of the Time of Troubles, a decades-long period of civil war.
The fifth through eighth books are concerned with Rhodry's self-imposed exile and subsequent quest to find a dragon, and a Horsekin invasion of Deverry.
The ninth through eleventh books feature the Time of Troubles in the past and the Rhiddaer in the present, with consequences for an entire race.
The twelfth through fifteenth books complete the Deverry cycle, featuring the transformed Rhodry (now known as Rori).
The song "Jillian", included in Within Temptation's album The Silent Force , is about the relationship between Nevyn and Jill.
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This article lists some of the major characters in the Deverry Cycle by Katharine Kerr. The core characters of the Deverry cycle appear under different names in various books and at various times due to being reincarnated. The Deverry culture in the cycle is heavily influenced by Kerr’s extensive reading on both the Celts and classical Graeco-Roman society. Having no written records by the Celts themselves, it is a matter of dispute if Ancient Celtic religion included a belief in reincarnation. Several ancient classical sources refer to the Celts as believing in reincarnation.
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The Hand of Chaos is a fantasy novel by American writers Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the fifth of seven books in The Death Gate Cycle series. It was released in 1993.
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The half-elf is a player character race featured in Dungeons & Dragons and related material.
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The Inheritance Cycle is a tetralogy of young adult high fantasy novels written by American author Christopher Paolini. Set in the fictional world of Alagaësia, the novels focus on the adventures of a teenage boy named Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, as they struggle to overthrow the evil king Galbatorix. The series was originally intended to be a trilogy until Paolini announced on October 30, 2007, while working on the third novel, that he believed the story was too complex to conclude in just three books.
