Setting
Unsounded takes place in the fictional continent of Kasslyne, which is dominated by the two superpowers Cresce and Alderode, who exist in a state of perpetual war with one another. Cresce's system of government is a mixture of Communism and Monarchy, and it exerts a large sphere of influence over most of Kasslyne. Alderode is a mysterious and insular country whose populace is divided into a supernatural caste system denoted by hair color. The castes of Alderode have wildly varying lifespans that are inversely proportional to their magical abilities. A third minor superpower, the highly corrupt and capitalist Sharteshane, influences and profits from the Cresce-Alderode war. Kasslyne also features fictional species: "Inak", intelligent humanoids with traits of reptiles; and strange immortal beings known as "Senet beasts", who are believed to be creatures from the gods' first attempt at creation.
The Cresce-Alderode war is partly fueled by a conflict between the two dominant religions of Kasslyne: The Gefendur, who believe the world is overseen by two sets of twin gods, and the Ssaelit, who believe a man named Ssael slew the Gefendur gods and took their place. Ssaelism is heavily persecuted outside of Alderode, where it exists in an uneasy compromise with the Aldish Gefendur.
Kasslyne is governed not by the laws of physics, but by an invisible spectral plane known as "the khert". Trained individuals can use pymary (a type of magic) to manipulate the khert into altering objects' properties such as temperature, weight, and contour. The author has stated this magic system was inspired by her experiences utilizing console commands in video games. The organs and bodily secretions of Senet beasts, called "First Materials", contain their own khert systems separate from the universal one, allowing them to be enchanted with special pymaric effects that form the backbone of Kasslynian technology. The khert also preserves the memories of all humans upon death, which can be captured and used to create artificial intelligence through a process known as "sounding". The Gefendur and Ssaelit believe that the gods reside in a deep portion of the khert known as the "Great Unsounded", so called because no sounder has ever found it.
The author deliberately eschews pinning the technology and costume design to a specific time period, stating "Unsounded cannot contain anachronisms; it doesn't take place in our world nor anywhere along its timeline." [3] Cope has referred to the setting's aesthetic as "pymary-tech" in contrast to conventional genres such as steampunk and dieselpunk. [3]
Plot
Sette Frummagem, a Sharteshanian girl, is tasked by her father, the crime lord Nary-a-Care, to extort tribute from her cousin Stockyard, a black sheep of the family who has started his own business in the country of Cresce. Duane Adelier, an Aldish undead scrivener and skilled mage, is forced to accompany her as a bodyguard despite his hatred of Cresce. On their way to Cresce, the duo clashes with the Red Berry Boys, a group of criminals who disembowel kidnapped children and replace their organs with a supernatural material. This brings them in conflict with an elite Crescian peacekeeping squad headed by a Captain Emil Toma and Lieutenant Elka, who mistakenly believe Duane and Sette are in league with the Red Berry Boys.
Upon arriving in Cresce, Sette discovers that Duane's shadow allows her to bodily enter the khert, where she sees a memory of the day Duane died. Duane was a prominent member of the Ssaelit clergy with two children, but he was assassinated by Crescian agitators, with his daughter Mikaila also dying in the melee. This causes Sette to realize Duane is a real person and not an artificial intelligence like she believed, leading to her treating him with more empathy.
Upon reaching Stockyard, he reveals Sette's father lied to her about the true nature of her mission, which involves using Duane and the Red Berry Boys to craft a First Material superweapon that will upset the delicate balance of power between Cresce and Alderode. Though he imprisons Sette and Duane, the superweapon "detonates" prematurely underneath his headquarters, spawning an enormous monster composed of the bodies of the Red Berry Boys' victims. The superweapon is revealed to have been created by "Cutter", a misanthropic inak who seeks to use the weapon to destroy the memories recorded by the khert. With the help of the Crescian Peaceguard and Mathis Quigley, a former employee of the Red Berry Boys, Sette is able to defeat the monster by pushing it into the nearby river, but Stockyard and many of his employees are killed.
While the group recuperates, Kima Bell, Lord General of the Crescian military, is revealed to be the commissioner of the superweapon; he orders the town razed to cover up the superweapon's premature emergence. Emil and Elka discover there is a traitorous faction within the military who seek to depose the current queen of Cresce and raise Bell to the throne, forcing them to go rogue. Sette, Duane, Mathis, and Mathis' young son Matty narrowly escape the town's destruction with the help of Uaid, a large construct designed by Mathis' late wife.
Political tensions rise as Maharaishala Sonorie, the queen of Cresce, marries an Aldish rebel named Roger Foi-Hellick. However, this is a ruse to "dissect" his soul with the help of the Black Tongues, an amoral group of pymaric researchers, and a Senet beast named Ruckmearkha. Roger is the subject of the "Etalarche curse", which magically compels Aldishmen to irrationally hate the subject. Roger believes that examining the curse's effect on his soul will give Sonorie the power to bloodlessly end the Cresce-Alderode war.
Duane learns that his soul enters the khert at night, allowing him to view humanity's memories as Sette did. He is visited by Sessine, a Senet beast who is imprisoned in the khert. She claims that the khert exists outside of time and contains not only past memories but memories of events yet to come; to prove this, she shows Duane a memory of the superweapon attacking Alderode, and implores him to seek and destroy the weapon to prevent this future from coming to pass.
While following the superweapon's path down the river, the protagonists are stopped by a raging storm near a Gefendur shrine called Litriya. While they seek shelter, Emil and Elka are captured by the rebel faction. Stockyard's cousins, Anadyne and Knock-Me-Down Frummagem, are revealed to have survived the superweapon's massacre, but are trapped within its remains. Knock-Me-Down escapes, but Cutter forces Anadyne to merge with the superweapon.
Emil and Elka take advantage of the storm to escape the rebels and infiltrate the shrine. Together with Mathis and Duane, they discover a secret facility beneath the shrine where engineers are experimenting on "stormbringers", humanoid Senet beasts with the power to cause storms. The engineers used torture to force the stormbringers to create the endless storm, as it protects the shrine from Aldish airstrikes. Duane is disgusted and frees the stormbringers, but an Aldish strike force attacks as soon as the storm breaks. They are led by Lemuel, Duane's younger brother.
Duane chooses to aid the Aldish soldiers while the shrine's inhabitants retreat to a reinforced bunker. The shrine's engineer reveals to Matty that Mathis betrayed his rebellious wife to the Aldish state, resulting in her death; reeling from the revelation, Matty attempts to escape the shrine alone. The shrine's enslaved inak population attempt to bargain with the soldiers, but are met with violence; in desperation, the dying inak activate the secret facility's self-destruct spell, killing most of the soldiers but also the remaining inak. Seeing the carnage, Duane realizes the atrocity of his actions and vows to defend the shrine.
While fighting his brother, Duane realizes that Lemuel's lieutenant is Mikaila, who survived the assassination due to the help of the Black Tongue who reanimated Duane. Her miraculous survival made her a celebrity, allowing her to join the Aldish military despite patriarchal Aldish culture normally forbidding it. Duane successfully defends the shrine until the Crescian military arrives, forcing Lemuel to flee; however, Lemuel destroys Uaid during his retreat.
The Crescian border city of Grenzlan is occupied by Aldish soldiers. After they perform a spell that expands the influence of Alderode's khert, the Black Tongues launch a counterattack and retake the city on Sonorie's orders. Sette reveals that she can physically remove memories from her soul, which she has used throughout her life to forget painful memories. Cutter and Anadyne march on the city of Port Morstorben with a group of freed inak rebels, but Cutter abandons the inak once they reach the inner city, revealing his goal was only to reach the city's "khert-hub", a massive First Material that allows the monster to access the khert. At the same time, an Aldish invasion force attacks the queen's manor, resulting in the deaths of the Gefendur high priestess and the heads of the Crescian noble families, as well as severely injuring Ruckmearkha. General Bell clashes with the heroes and is killed.
Sette theorizes that since the First Material weapon is powered by bad memories, it can be defeated by good memories. Using Duane's shadow, she enters the khert once again to find happy memories she can use. While there, she discovers that she can reach into the physical world to influence events, and uses this power to assist the other heroes. However, Duane stops her from helping Queen Sonorie, resulting in a bitter argument that ends with Duane seemingly consumed by bad memories. Sette is then approached by girl who looks like Sette and a lion called Jacaranda, who carries her to Sessine.
Sessine reveals that the khert did not always store memories; this was a feature she designed with the help of a human man. The man, horrified to discover reincarnating souls did not exist, sought to create one; Sette and Jacaranda are the recipient of this "First Soul". However, while the First Soul allows souls to remain whole in the khert, it cannot retain memories when it reincarnates, instead giving birth to countless copies of Sette and Jacaranda across the ages. Sessine believes this to be a mistake, and reveals she manipulated the events of the story to bring the superweapon (which is made from her bones) to her, which will give her the power to revert her changes to the khert.
Sessine commands Sette to pull the First Material weapon into the khert, but Sette instead kills Anadyne, causing the monster to turn on Cutter. In a fit of rage, Sessine kills all the Black Tongues through a telekinetic link. The First Sette ambushes Sette and kills her, retrieving the First Soul and using its power to destroy Sessine and Jacaranda. Duane discovers Sette's dead body and is attacked by the First Sette, who plans to possess Duane's body to re-enter the living world. However, Sette's ghost arrives and defeats the First Sette. Impressed by her love for Duane, the First Soul resurrects Sette. Their reconciliation attracts a large number of happy memories, allowing Sette to succeed in her original plan of using them to repel the monster and save the city. However, Mathis dies while rescuing his son from a fragment of the First Silver monster.
Three weeks later, Queen Sonorie grants the inak a sovereign state in the ruins of Ethelmik and publicly executes Bell's remaining supporters and Roger (now in a vegetative state from the effects of Ruckmearkha's venom). Emil confesses his love for Elka, but retires from public service due to his disillusionment from recent events. Duane and Sette are under house arrest, but Sette resolves to escape and find her lost brother.
