Fireclad

The gods are distant. The gods are cruel. The gods do not care for humans, unless the human attracts their notice -- and if you do, you will wish you hadn't. The gods do not make deals with humans. Adeaba, lord of wildfires, god of destruction, did not get this message. FAIR WARNING: From here on out, spoilers are rampant. If you ever plan on reading this as a book, stop reading here.

Plot points/Scenes

Prologue: A wildfire rages. A village fights, and does not win. A woman rages. Part 1: Imber is going on a journey with his sister Ensael. He doesn't understand where they're going, or why, or when they're going to see Mom again. His sister isn't talking. Part 2: Storm season is coming, and the villages of the mountain folk are preparing for the months when they will be trapped inside their villages by snowstorm after snowstorm, unable to forage. Amidst these frantic efforts, Siohtu is worried, and angry. Her best friend's children have gone missing, and after three months, none of the elders are willing to spare anyone to go on a search mission. This, however, is the least of their problems. The god Adeaba, who nearly destroyed the village years ago, has been spotted heading in their direction. Those in the know fear that he's coming to finish what he started years ago. What he actually wants, however, is somewhat more confusing. Part 3: This time, when Haem goes to the elders and asks for permission to leave the village to search for her children, she's not asking. If searching for her children happens to also involve hunting Siohtu down, well, the elders can't argue with that. Ost, a mutual friend of both herself and Siohtu, and the father of Siohtu's long-lost child, goes with her. They have a personal stake in this. Part 4: Sehenno is a smart girl -- too smart, sometimes, for her own good. When her best friend's older sister started acting strange -- well, stranger than normal -- she noticed. When they left in the middle of the night, she noticed, and followed them. Now, she's been living in the shadows of a mercenary group for weeks, trying to find a way to rescue Imber. He may still think that his sister has a good reason for what she's doing, but Sehenno knows better. The kid they have sealed in the basement is something of a warning sign. Part 5: (Siohtu hunts with the court of foxes)

Themes

Narrative themes: responsibility vs. culpability, parenthood/inheritance, the vastness of the world and the impact of human action on it, the definition of family Visual themes: obsidian, blood, fire,

Components

Goals

Primary/Short Term

Siohtu: Getting her child back (after they were killed by an angry god)

Adeaba: Getting his child back (after they were stolen by a group of clanless witches for ritual sacrifice)

Haem: Getting her children back (after the older one abducted the younger one and joined a group of clanless witches)

Marainein: Getting her brother's child back (before her brother can)

Ost: Keeping everyone alive through this adventure.

Secondary/Long Term

Siohtu: To ensure the survival and well-being of her family and clan

Adeaba: To see his child live to adulthood and live well

Haem: To reach some kind of detente with her guilt over her bloody past

Marainein: To prevent the death of the gods

Hooks

Adeaba makes a deal with Siohtu: he will return her long-lost child to her if she will help him recover something which was stolen from him.

Haem's two children have gone missing

Stakes

The group of rebel witches -- which Haem's elder child has joined -- plans to use Adeaba's child in a massive sacrificial ritual which will trap and harness the power of Adeaba and allow them to ...?

destroy the spirits and deities, but also the ability of humans to harness magic.

terraform the land and drive back the wild places

or -

Plot type

Book Overview

Subplots