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Monarchies of God

Hawkwood's Voyage The Heretic Kings The Iron Wars The Second Empire Ships from the West
Author	Paul Kearney
Language	English
Genre	Grimdark fantasy
Publisher	Ace Books Victor Gollancz Ltd Solaris Books
Published	1995 - 2002
No. of books	5

The Monarchies of God is an epic fantasy series written by Irish author Paul Kearney. This series was published between 1995 and 2002 in five volumes. The series is noteworthy for its ruthlessness in dispatching major characters, its large number of epic battles and its use of gunpowder and cannons. Kearney also has an extensive knowledge of sailing and uses this to inform his description of naval travel and combat. The series garnered critical praise and numbers fantasy author Steven Erikson among its fans as he mentions in an interview with Neil Walsh, May 2000. The series has also been criticized for its pessimism, prompting some to label it - and other of Kearney's work - as grimdark fantasy.

One noteworthy feature of the series is its brevity. Each of the five volumes is slim by modern fantasy standards.

Background

The series depicts the continent of Normannia, which is loosely based on Renaissance Europe. The continent is dominated by the five eponymous monarchies: Hebrion, Astarac, Perigraine, Almark and Torunna. Smaller duchies and principalities also exist, such as Candelaria, Tulm and Finnmark. The isolationist Republic of Fimbria, based on the real-world Roman Empire, has been reduced from an empire controlling most of Normannia to a small tract of land by a religious civil war four centuries prior, although its armies are still viewed as the best on the continent.

The monarchies of Normannia are united in their worship of God through his messenger, the Blessed Saint Ramusio, which in most respects resembles Christianity. The Ramusian Church is based in Charibon, but the spiritual centre of the faith is in the city of Aekir, an analogue of Constantinople. The Ramusians have an complicated relationship with a neighboring people, the Merduks, who live to the east of Normannia, and follow the teachings of the Prophet Ahrimuz, which are similar to those of Islam. Although the Ramusians have fought devastating wars with the Merduks, many of the western kingdoms have been enriched on trading with them.

Magic, known as Dweomer, plays a prominent role in the series. There are seven major types, or Disciplines, of Dweomer, including shapeshifting, weather-working, and soothsaying. While many people are born with some level of Dweomer, it takes mastery of four of the Seven Disciplines to become a mage. Users of the Dweomer have a difficult relationship with the Ramusian Church, which has often purged them for purported witchcraft. Even within the Dweomer-folk, shapeshifters are often shunned due to their uncontrollable, violent nature, leading shifting to be known as "the black disease."

Plot summary

Hawkwood's Voyage

The series begins after the sack of the City of God, Aekir, in the year 551. After a lengthy siege, Merduk invaders from the Sultanate of Ostrabar have overrun the city's defenses and slaughtered the legendary Torunnan commander John Mogen, along with much of his army, leaving Torunna open to invasion. The remnants of Aekir's garrison are destroyed while covering the escape of over 200,000 of the city's civilians. The refugees are headed to the nearby fortress of Ormann Dyke, where Torunnan general Martellus is preparing to make a last stand.

Among the refugees is Corfe Cear-Inaf, an ensign of cavalry, who deserted after losing his wife in the fighting. On the road to Ormann Dyke, he befriends an old, blinded man, who turns out to be Macrobius, High Pontiff of the Ramusian Church. At the dyke, Corfe becomes one of Martellus's chief advisors after repelling multiple Merduk attacks. Unable to breach the defenses, the Merduks settle into winter camp, and Corfe and Macrobius are sent south to bring reports to King Lofantyr. Unbeknownst to Corfe, his wife Heria is still alive, sent to Ostrabar to be made into one of Sultan Aurungzeb's concubines.

Meanwhile, in Hebrion, the Prelate Himerius begins purging the Dweomer-folk, against the wishes of King Abeleyn. The king's mage, Golophin, secretly smuggles over a hundred Dweomer-folk out of the kingdom aboard an expedition led by Lord Murad, who intends to find the fabled Western Continent and set up a colony there. Also aboard are Bardolin, a former pupil of Golophin's; and Griella, a shifter he has befriended. The voyage is captained by Richard Hawkwood, a veteran mariner who commands the Gabrian Osprey. His other ship, the Grace of God, carries the rest of the refugees.

However, the voyage quickly goes awry. Hawkwood soon loses sight of the Grace, and a storm blows the Osprey far off course. A series of brutal murders, which Bardolin identifies as shifter attacks, causes paranoia amongst the passengers and crew. The shifters ambush Hawkwood and Murad one night, but are subdued and killed, although Hawkwood is injured and Griella dies protecting Murad. The Osprey, despite being severely damaged during the struggle, reaches the shores of the Western Continent, where they find the wreckage of the Grace of God.

In Hebrion, Himerius is summoned to a synod in Charibon to elect Macrobius's successor. Abeleyn leaves soon after for Vol Ephrir, capital of Perigraine, to discuss the Merduk threat with the Conclave of Kings, a council of Normannic monarchs. Himerius is elected High Pontiff just as news of Macrobius's survival reaches the Conclave. Abeleyn, along with Mark of Astarac and Lofantyr of Torunna, voice their support for Macrobius, while the other monarchs side with Himerius. Fimbria, after centuries of isolation, promises to send an army to defend Ormann Dyke, while remaining neutral in the forthcoming religious conflict.

The Heretic Kings

Excommunicated as heretics, Abeleyn, Mark, and Lofantyr return from Vol Ephrir to their respective kingdoms. In Abrusio, a group of noblemen and clerics conspire to seize the Hebrionese throne, although the army and navy remain loyal to the king. En route to Abrusio, Abeleyn is attacked by corsairs and two of his ships are sunk. He receives a letter from Mark, who has also narrowly escaped assassination, proposing that Abeleyn marry Mark's sister, Isolla, to strengthen their alliance. Abeleyn manages to retake Abrusio, albeit at great cost; half of the city is destroyed in a fire, and Abeleyn himself is mortally wounded by a cannonball.

Macrobius and Corfe reach Torunna admist a flood of refugees from Ormann Dyke. Lofantyr's mother, Odelia, takes a liking to Corfe, and they become lovers. Displeased, Lofantyr gives Corfe a ragtag force of galley slaves and orders him to quell a revolt in the south, expecting him to fail. Surprisingly, Corfe gains several decisive victories, organizing his slaves into a cavalry unit nicknamed the Cathedrallers. Further north, the Merduks make an amphibious landing south of Ormann Dyke, outflanking the Torunnan defenses.

Hawkwood and Murad lead an expedition into the interior of the Western Continent, but discover that a colony of lycanthropes and mages has existed there for centuries. They are held captive, while Bardolin's spirit is brought before Aruan, the immortal leader of the mages. Aruan reveals that he intends to invade Normannia with an army of shifters to establish a mageocracy, and that Bardolin himself has been converted into a werewolf. Murad and Hawkwood successfully lead an escape, but in the jungle, huge flying creatures ambush and obliterate their party. Only Murad, Hawkwood, and Bardolin are spared.

In Charibon, the Church is bequeathed the kingdom of Almark after the death of King Haukir. Two monks, Albrec and Avila, discover hidden documents in Charibon's library asserting that Saint Ramusio and the Prophet Ahrimuz are the same person. They are confronted by the Senior Librarian, who reveals himself to be a werewolf, but Albrec stabs and kills him with a silver dagger. Together, Albrec and Avila flee into the snow, where they are later found by the Fimbrian army marching to Ormann Dyke.

The Iron Wars

In Abrusio, Princess Isolla arrives to wed Abeleyn, only to find him on the verge of death. Lady Jemilla, Abeleyn's former mistress, schemes to secure the throne for her unborn son, which would make her regent of Hebrion. While searching for Bardolin in the west, Golophin psychically encounters Aruan; the energy of the meeting allows Golophin to magically restore Abeleyn to full health, foiling Jemilla's schemes. In the harbor, the remnants of the western expedition return aboard the Gabrian Osprey, having survived the return journey.

In Torunna, Corfe crushes the last remnants of the revolt. He rushes north after hearing news of a Merduk retreat, correctly interpreting it as a prelude to a larger attack. Unbeknownst to him, Ormann Dyke has already fallen, and Martellus's retreat has been cut off. With a thousand new recruits, Corfe

Odelia has Corfe promoted to a general, against the wishes of Lofantyr. The Torunnan High Command decides to make one final attack on the Merduk encampment

The war in the east comes to a final end. Lofantyr is killed in the King's Battle, when the Torunnans mount a massive assault on the encamped Merduk army. Although victorious, the Torunnan army suffers catastrophic losses and the only person who stands between the Merduks and the capital is Corfe, promoted to general of the armies at Queen Odelia's command. An attempted coup by Torunnan nobles fails and Corfe plans a final attack on the Merduks at Armagedir. The Torunnans are again victorious, but only after the Cathedrallars sacrifice themselves to stop the army being outflanked. With this final defeat the sultan bows into the pressure of his mullahs and agrees to a peace treaty based on mutual recognition of a common religious heritage between Ramusian and Merduk. Corfe marries Odelia and becomes King of Torunna.

Meanwhile, the Himerian Church establishes itself as a new empire, securing direct control of Almark after the king bequeaths the realm to the church on his death. Perigraine and the smaller principalities later all swear fealty to Himerius as well. However, Himerius is in the thrall of Aruan, who has converted him into another werewolf. The Vicar-General of the Knights Militant realizes that the church has become the Second Empire, which in prophecy will bring about the Age of the Wolf and the fall of humanity, but is killed by Aruan before he can alert the rest of the church.

Ships from the West takes place seventeen years after the preceding volumes in the series. In this time the Grand Alliance has been forged between Astarac, Hebrion, Torunna and the Merduks, whilst the Second Empire has grown in power as well. Aruan is now openly the leader of the church, although Himerius remains a figurehead. Aruan has corrupted Bardolin and most of the Dweomer-folk of the continent to his service. The Alliance has built a massive fleet to meet the expected invasion of Aruan's armies from the western continent, but this fleet is decimated in a single battle by magical forces, including flying creatures which attack out of a supernatural fog. Abeleyn and Mark are both killed. Hebrion surrenders to the invaders. Meanwhile, Astarac is invaded and destroyed by the Himerian armies. Torunna is left standing alone. King Corfe has erected massive defences across a mountain pass lying along the border with Almark, but again the Himerians deploy magical forces (including large armies of werewolves) to shatter this line. Torunna is invaded from north and south and the enemy are only held at bay by the arrival of Merduk armies to reinforce the capital. Corfe, meanwhile, has crossed the mountains by a little-known pass and attacks Charibon, stealing a march on the Second Empire and killing Aruan and Bardolin. Corfe is badly wounded in the battle. The Torunnan army is virtually destroyed, but a Fimbrian army arrives to save the remnants. The book ends with an epilogue in which Corfe crosses the eastern mountains with two figures who turn out to be Ramusio himself and Shahr Baraz, the Merduk general who captured Aekir.

Notable features of the series

The Monarchies of God is notable for covering a large number of events (as the above detailed synopsis reveals) in a short space of time. The page-counts for the five volumes in mass-market paperbacks are 382, 320, 255, 294 and 296 pages respectively. The brevity of the series has been both applauded and criticised: there is a particular concern that characterisation is rather broader than it should be for such conflicted and troubled individuals.

The series is notable making most of its characters extremely troubled and conflicted and killing off most of the characters. Unusually, with the exception of Corfe, most of the major characters die in rather off-hand and unheroic ways (Mark is randomly sprayed with fire from a broken lantern and pulled down with a sinking ship, for example). Minor and secondary characters are usually given much more heroic ends. The series is also deeply concerned about depicting realism in warfare: in The Second Empire Corfe reluctantly decides not to attack a Merduk host rampaging through a town as he lacks the numbers to guarantee success. During the night he waits for reinforcements, the sack of the town is shown in extreme detail, including a graphic rape scene. The intention behind this scene is to show the unavoidable consequences of such military decisions.

The book takes an unusual approach to religion. Oddly, the least devout characters in the books seem to be among members of the Ramusian Church itself. In a schism of it in a reformed "Macrobian" and a more and more secular "Himerian" branch, simple, common or disowned clerics tend to be the most devout characters; in Ramusian church as well as Ahrimuz ummah, secular seduction brings the protagonists from the "right path", while the true faith often is more dangerous and less rewarding. As always, characters from the Himerian branch also are depicted as devout, but mislead by the religious zeal of Himerius; characters from the Macrobian branch can be contemptuous and arrogant. Even patriarch Macrobius states he began to "see" only as his court and pomp were taken from him and he was tortured and almost killed by Marduk. Corfe and Macrobius meet first when Macrobius' golden symbol of his pontificate is stolen, a parable of him being disowned in the sack of Aekir (IRL Constantinople).

On multiple occasions, common paupers are depicted as standing beyond the politics of nobility or Aruan's new "Dweomer" state. Commoners and peasants live the same, be their masters Ramusians, Merducs or the utopia of Aruan. Science is more than once described as only a way to improve warfare and "methods of killing".

The intolerance of the (Himerian) church. ironically caused by Aruan himself to split the common, open society of Dweomer- as well as "mundane" folk, brings the Dweomer folk almost to the brink of extinction and makes them - another ironical fact - join the Himerian states after Aruan converts Himerius into a werewolf, thus opening them to the retribution king Corfe planned and probably had executed had he survived. In the dream-like end scene, when his soul joins Ramusius/Ahrimuz and Shar Baraz, he confesses he had "almost taken the wrong path".

The final volume in the sequence has received a great deal of criticism, unusually a lot of it from the author himself. The final battle for Charibon is actually the final chapter of the book: we learn nothing about the aftermath of the war. In an interview on the Malazanempire forum in the summer of 2005, Paul Kearney admitted that he rushed the end of the book and hopes to one day produce a second edition that would be roughly 100 pages longer and resolve more of the loose threads. According to Kearney, the Fimbrians reemerge as the dominant force on the continent after the Second Empire's fall but Torunna retains its independence and Hebrion eventually becomes its own master again.

At the end, all the high nobility whose fates the series followed are extinct: King Mark's family was obliterated by the "Flyers", a race of Chimeras that Aruan created; the "illegitimate son" of Abeleyn and Jemilla in reality Hawkwood's son; Isolla, Marks sister and Abeleyns wife, killed childless; Aurungzeb at last killed by Heria, his son heavily influenced by her; and it being more than doubtful that Corfe "produced" an heir with Heeria and Aufungzeb's daughter, "laying together" only in their rushed wedding night. The last male heir to Shar Baraz was killed along with Aruan, Bardolin and Corfe. The whole elder generation died, the Fimbrian electorates "having no interest in horses, probably that's why they never bred a nobility" or a younger generation influenced by egalitarian and meritocratic thinking superseding the feudal state. Many protagonists see its end, and even the "Second Empire" is a fulfilment of the mendicant church elder Honorius' prediction (a book from him - the "Saint"/"Prophet" was active a mere 500 years before the series - gave the "Macrobians" their faith and led to peace between Ramusians and Ahrimuzians).

The series was originally supposed to be more of a series of standalone novels about Hawkwood's voyages but was altered after Kearney's publishers suggested trying something more akin to 'standard' epic fantasy. After the series' success, Kearney was able to return to his original plan in his current series, The Sea-Beggars, which starts with The Mark of Ran (2005) and continues with The Stars We Sail By (2006). The Monarchies series is published by Ace Books in the USA and by Victor Gollancz Ltd in the UK, although some of the volumes are now out of print.

In fall 2010, Solaris Books has reissued the series in two volumes, Hawkwood and the Kings and Century of Soldier.