Black Jewels: Geography and Races
Jul. 5th, 2015 06:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beroli Bishop deliberately uses "light" and "darkness" in a way contrary to most people's assumptions. In addition to darker Jewels being stronger, the Blood speak of "the Darkness" as the source of their power and their people, talk of "honoring the Darkness" as a Blood obligation, speak of people who have died as having "returned to the Darkness," and use "the Darkness" as an epithet the way a number of real-world people use "God" and "Heaven." "Thank the Darkness." "May the Darkness be merciful."
The world of the Black Jewels series is divided into three Realms, which can only be traveled between by magic. I have the impression, which I may either recant or be able to place more specifically while going over individual books, that each Realm is equal in size and generally resembles the others in terms of geography.
There's Terreille, the Realm of Light. Home of one of the primary villains of the series, the High Priestess Dorothea. At the time the series begins, home, almost entirely, to races considered human and nonsapient animals. Contrary to what would be the usual associations of "the Realm of Light," it's been almost entirely conquered by Dorothea, using methods I'll go into later, when the series begins.
There's Kaeleer, the Realm of Shadow. Although not all the heroes of the series begin there, it is presented very much as where they belong. "Most of Kaeleer's a legend," a character once proclaims. Its people include humans but also centaurs, satyrs, intelligent spiders, unicorns, and large numbers of the kindred--animals who are Blood. Note that, for animals, being Blood carries sapience as well as magic.
There's Hell, the Realm of Darkness, the afterlife realm. Although the name implies, to readers in our world, a place of punishment, it's largely a positive place for those who exist there: the living dead. When the Blood die, by default, they are automatically transported to Hell, with their bodies in whatever state death left them, and spend an uncertain amount of time as "demon-dead" before running out of energy and returning to the Darkness.
Almost any of the living who find themselves in Hell are nearly certain to be eaten. Almost everything native to Hell hungers for the blood and flesh of the living: the plants, the animals, even the demon-dead themselves. The demon-dead owe a lot of their concept to traditional vampires; sunlight greatly weakens them, and they have a constant hunger for human blood. Someone who has a constant source of fresh blood can last far longer as demon-dead than she would without it. Bishop never goes a great deal into Hell's geography, but judging by epithets characters use, the sun never shines in Hell. Also there are fires--as in "By the fires of Hell."
The world of the Black Jewels series is divided into three Realms, which can only be traveled between by magic. I have the impression, which I may either recant or be able to place more specifically while going over individual books, that each Realm is equal in size and generally resembles the others in terms of geography.
There's Terreille, the Realm of Light. Home of one of the primary villains of the series, the High Priestess Dorothea. At the time the series begins, home, almost entirely, to races considered human and nonsapient animals. Contrary to what would be the usual associations of "the Realm of Light," it's been almost entirely conquered by Dorothea, using methods I'll go into later, when the series begins.
There's Kaeleer, the Realm of Shadow. Although not all the heroes of the series begin there, it is presented very much as where they belong. "Most of Kaeleer's a legend," a character once proclaims. Its people include humans but also centaurs, satyrs, intelligent spiders, unicorns, and large numbers of the kindred--animals who are Blood. Note that, for animals, being Blood carries sapience as well as magic.
There's Hell, the Realm of Darkness, the afterlife realm. Although the name implies, to readers in our world, a place of punishment, it's largely a positive place for those who exist there: the living dead. When the Blood die, by default, they are automatically transported to Hell, with their bodies in whatever state death left them, and spend an uncertain amount of time as "demon-dead" before running out of energy and returning to the Darkness.
Almost any of the living who find themselves in Hell are nearly certain to be eaten. Almost everything native to Hell hungers for the blood and flesh of the living: the plants, the animals, even the demon-dead themselves. The demon-dead owe a lot of their concept to traditional vampires; sunlight greatly weakens them, and they have a constant hunger for human blood. Someone who has a constant source of fresh blood can last far longer as demon-dead than she would without it. Bishop never goes a great deal into Hell's geography, but judging by epithets characters use, the sun never shines in Hell. Also there are fires--as in "By the fires of Hell."
