Riftwar
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The Riftwar Saga is a series of fantasy novels by Raymond E. Feist.
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[edit] Concept
In the fantasy novels of Feist, a Riftwar is war between two worlds that are connected by some sort of dimensionless gap. In Feist's invented history there are several riftwars. The first Riftwar between Midkemia and Kelewan is described in the trilogy The Riftwar Saga. Other such wars may be described in future works.
[edit] Works in the Series
[edit] Magician
Magician was first published in 1982. It is the first book of the Riftwar trilogy or Saga. It led to many books written by Feist in the world of Midkemia, which was the setting for this book. Originally reduced in size by his editors, it was re-published (after the author's fame grew) with the omitted text restored. Magician is now published in two volumes in the USA: Magician: Apprentice (ISBN 0-553-56494-3) and Magician: Master (ISBN 0-553-56493-5). The book is still published as a single volume Magician (ISBN 0-586-21783-5) in the UK.
[edit] Plot
Synopsis of “The Magician” By Raymond E. Feist.
Upon the world of Midkemia, the mighty Kingdom of the Isles arose, beside the vast empire of Great Kesh to the south. The kingdom was then nearing an era of greatness; the nation spanned a continent, from the Sea of Kingdoms to the Endless Sea.
In the twelfth year of the reign of Rodric the Fourth, in the westernmost province of the Kingdom, the Duchy of Crydee, an orphan kitchen boy named Pug was made an apprentice magician to the magician Kulgan. An indifferent student of magic, he rose to high station by saving the daughter of Duke Borric ConDoin of Crydee, Princess Carline, from a dire fate and became squire of the Duke's court. Pug then found himself the object of Carline’s girlish infatuation and, as result, rival to young Squire Roland, a member of the court.
With his best friend, Tomas, Pug discovered a dying man of unknown nationality near an alien sailing ship wrecked by a terrible storm. The Duke's priest, Father Tully, used his magic to learn that the dying man was from another world, Kelewan, dominated by a mighty empire of warriors, the Tsurani. They had reached Midkemia by a magic gate, a rift in space, and might be preparing the way for invasion. Duke Borric took council with the Elf Queen, Aglaranna, who agreed that some strange menace was approaching the far coast of the kingdom; the elves had seen strange warriors mapping the west, men who vanished mysteriously. Fearing this a prelude to invasion, Lord Borric and his younger son, Arutha, led a company of men to warn the King Rodric of the possible attack, leaving Crydee to the care of his eldest son, Lyam, and Swordmaster Fannon. The company numbered Kulgan the magician, Pug and Tomas, Sergeant Gardan, and fifty soldiers of Crydee. In the forest called the Green Heart the Duke’s party was attacked by the dreaded moredhel, the dark elves known as the Brotherhood of the Dark Path. After a long, bloody fight, the Duke and the other survivors were saved by Dolgan, a Dwarven chief, and his companions. Dolgan led them through the mines of Mac Mordian Cadal, where a wraith attacked, separating Tomas from the others in the company. Tomas fled deep into the ancient mine, while Dolgan led the others to safety. Dolgan returned into the mine to find Tomas, discovering that the boy had been given refuge by one of the last of the mighty golden dragons, ancient and near death. The dragon, Rhuagh vanished in a wondrous final moment of glory, a boon of the legendary magician Macros, and left Tomas with a special gift, magic golden armour.
Duke Borric’s company reached the city of Bordon, where they set sail for Krondor, capital of the Western realm of the Kingdom. They were driven by a storm to Sorcerer’s Isle, home of the legendary Macros the Black, and of other wonders. There Pug met a mysterious hermit, discovered later to be Macros himself. He hints that they shall meet again, but warns them not to seek him out.
In Krondor, Prince Erland, the king’s uncle and heir apparent, instructed the Duke to continue on to Rillanon, capital of the Kingdom, to see the King. While in Krondor, Pug met Princess Anita, Erland’s only child, and learned she was expected to marry Borric's son Arutha when she grew up.
In Rillanon, Duke Borric discovered the King to be a man of vision, and also a man of doubtful sanity, given to outbursts of temper and rambling discourse. Duke Caldric of Rillanon, Borric’s uncle by marriage, warned that the burden of repelling the Tsurani, should they come, would fall to the Western lords. The King distrusted the Prince of Krondor, dreaming of plots against the crown, and was even leery of Borric, who followed after Erland in the succession. He refused to allow the armies of the east to leave the Eastern Realm. Then came the Tsurani invasion and Rodric put aside his suspicions, giving Borric command of the Armies of the West. Borric and his companions rushed westward as the Riftwar began.
During the early part of the war, a raid into Tsurani held territory was mounted, and Pug was captured.
Tomas was with Dolgan’s force of dwarves, among the first to resist the invaders. Something alien had manifested itself in Tomas’s armour, and while wearing it he became a warrior of awesome power. Haunted by strange visions, he was slowly changing in appearance. In a frantic battle in the Dwarven mines, the Tsurani forced Tomas and Dolgan’s company to flee into the forests. Having no safe haven, the dwarves struck out for Elvandar, home of the elves, seeking to ally themselves with the elves. Reaching the court of the Elf Queen, they were made welcome. Something in Tomas’s appearance caused the old elven spellweavers to be fearful, though they would not speak of it.
Lyam left Crydee to join his father, and Swordmaster Fannon assumed command of the castle, with Arutha his second-in-command. Carline grieved over Pug’s loss and turned to Roland for comfort. The Tsurani raided Crydee, using a captured ship; during the battle, Arutha rescued Amos Trask, the Ship’s captain, a former pirate.
The Tsurani besieged Crydee and were repulsed many times. During a battle, Swordmaster Fannon was wounded and Arutha assumed command. After a terrible underground battle between Arutha’s men and Tsurani sappers. Arutha ordered the garrisons surrounding Crydee to co-ordinate for a final battle against the Tsurani. But before that battle could commence, the Tsurani commander, Kasumi of the House Shinzawai, received orders to return home with his command. He retreated; as a member of the Blue Wheel party, he secretly wished the overthrow of the Warlord. If the war in Midkemia went poorly, it would reflect very poorly for the Warlord, who would almost certainly be stripped of his title and executed. Had Kasumi directly attacked, the siege and indeed the war,could have been won. As Arutha comments, many times the Tsurani would have overrun the defenders had they pressed on, yet they would mysteriously retreat as Kasumi held back in his assault.
Four years passed, and Pug was working as a slave in a swamp camp on Kelewan, the Tsurani homeworld, with a newcomer, Laurie of Tyr-Sog, a minstrel. After trouble with the camp overseer they were taken by Hokanu, younger son of the Shinzawai, to his father’s estate. There they were ordered to train Kasumi in every aspect of Kingdom culture and Language. There Pug also met a slave girl, Katala, with whom he fell in love. The brother of the Lord of the Shinzawai, Kamatsu, was one of the Tsurani Great Ones, magicians of great power, beings who were a law unto themselves. One night the Great One Fumita learned Pug had been apprenticed as a magician on Midkemia. He claimed Pug for the Assembly, the brotherhood of Magicians, and they vanished from the Shinzawai estate.
Tomas had by this time grown to a figure of stunning power, made so by his armour, once worn by one of the Valheru – a dragon lord – the legendary first people of Midkemia, masters of all. Little was known about them save that they were cruel and powerful and had kept the eledhel and moredhel as slaves.Queen Aglaranna, her son, Calin, and Tathar, her senior advisor, feared that Tomas was being consumed by the power of Ashen-Shugar, the ancient Valheru whose armour he wore; they feared an attempt at a return of Valheru domination. Aglaranna was deeply troubled, for besides fearing Tomas, she was falling in love with him. The Tsurani invaded Elvandar and were driven back by Tomas and Dolgan’s forces, aided by the mysterious Macros the Black. After the battle, Aglaranna admitted her feelings to Tomas and took him as her lover, thereby losing her power to command him.
Pug was cleansed of his memory by the teachers of the Assembly and after four years of training became a magician. He learned he was a gifted follower of the Greater Path, a magic unheard of upon Midkemia. Kulgan was a Lesser Path magician, which had explained his inability to teach Pug. Upon attaining the Grey Robes of a Great One, Pug was given the name Milamber. His teacher, Shimone, watched as Milamber passed his final test, standing upon a thin spire at the height of a storm while the history of the Empire of Tsuranuanni was revealed to him. There he was steeped in the first duty of a Great One, attaining the Black Robes: to serve the Empire. Milamber met his first friend in the assembly; Hochopepa, a shrewd magician who instructed Milamber in the pitfalls of Tsurani politics.
By the ninth year of the war, Arutha feared that they were losing the struggle, and then learned from a captive slave that new troops were arriving from Kelewan. With Martin Longbow, his father’s huntmaster, and with Amos Trask, Arutha travelled to Krondor to seek additional aid from Prince Erland. During the journey, Amos discovered Martin’s secret, that he was Lord Borric’s bastard son. Martin made Amos swear never to reveal the secret until Martin allowed it. In Krondor, Arutha discovered the city under the control of Duke Guy of Bas-Tyra, an avowed enemy of Lord Borric. Guy was clearly on some plan to gain the crown for himself. Arutha then ran afoul of Jocko Radburn, Guy’s henchman and head of the secret police, who chased Arutha, Martin, and Amos into the arms of the Mockers, the thieves of Krondor. There they met Jimmy the Hand, a talented boy thief; Trevor Hull, a former pirate turned smuggler; and his first mate, Aaron Cook. The mockers were hiding Princess Anita, who had fled the palace. Jocko Radburn was furiously trying to recapture Anita before Guy du Bas-Tyra returned from a border skirmish with the neighbouring Empire of Great Kesh. With the Mocker’s help Arutha, his companions and Anita fled the city. During the sea chase, Amos lured Radburn’s ship onto the rocks and the head of the secret police drowned. Upon returning to Crydee, Arutha learned that Squire Roland had been killed in a skirmish. By then Arutha was in love with Anita, though he would not admit as much to himself, counting her too young.
Pug, now Milamber, returned to the Shinzawai estate to claim Katala, and discovered he was a father. His son William had been born during his absence. He also learned the Shinzawai were involved with a plot with the Emperor to force peace upon the Tsurani high council, which was dominated by the Warlord. Laurie was to guide Kasumi, who had by then mastered the language and customs of the Kingdom, to the King, bearing the Emperor’s offer of peace. Pug wished them well and took his wife and child to his home.
Tomas underwent a great change, bringing the forces of the Valheru and the human into balance. In a titanic inner battle, the human was nearly overcome, but at the end he mastered the raging inside him that was once the Dragon Lord and at last discovered peace within his soul. He became Prince-Consort to Aglaranna
Kasumi and Laurie came through the rift and made their way to Rillanon, where they discovered that the King had become thoroughly mad. He accused them of being spies, and they fled with the aid of Duke Caldric. The duke advised them to seek out Lord Borric, for it seemed civil war would surely come. Reaching Borric’s camp, Laurie and Kasumi met Lyam, who informed them that Borric was close to death from a wound.
Milamber, as Pug was known, attended the Imperial Games, given by the Warlord to commemorate his glorious victory over Lord Borric. Milamber was shocked at the wanton cruelty, in particular the treatment of Midkemian prisoners. Enraged, he destroyed the arena in a show of astonishing magical power, shaming the Warlord and thereby throwing the politics of the Empire into shambles. Milamber then fled with Katala and William back through the rift to Midkemia.
Discovering that Pug is alive and prospering as a magician, the dying Duke Borric revealed that he had adopted Pug into his family, also awarding him an island to begin an academy of magic. At the last, Borric also revealed that Martin was his illegitimate firstborn son. Upon his death, Lyam became Duke of Crydee and commander of the Armies of the West. Shortly after, the King Rodric himself led a heroic charge against the Tsurani, breaking their ranks and driving them back. He suffered a mortal injury and named Lyam the heir to the throne. With his death, Lyam became King of the Kingdom of the Isles, and he sued for a peace treaty with the Emperor Ichindar. The Riftwar, which had lasted ten long years, was finally at an end, and everyone rejoiced. On the night before the peace treaty, however, in Elvandar, Tomas was warned by Macros that there would be treachery, and that the elves and dwarves must be ready to respond by force. During the peace treaty, the two rulers, with Pug as the interpreter, began on good terms by exchanging gifts. By chance, the elves and dwarves mistakenly perceived treachery, and the truce dissolved into an all-out conflict, this time with the full wrath of the Emperor against the Kingdom. Pug sought to close the rift, and with Macros the Black, succeeded in severing the connection between the two worlds, stranding four thousand Tsurani in Midkemia. With the threat of war over, all converged to the capital of Rillanon for the coronation of the new King. Though Lyam was the appointed heir, Martin was the eldest son of Borric. In order to avert civil war, Martin abdicated his claim and supported Lyam's ascent to the throne.
[edit] Silverthorn
Silverthorn is the sequel to Magician.
A year after Lyam's coronation, Arutha returned to his city as the new Prince of Krondor, to begin plans of his wedding. He met a young thief, the very same Jimmy the Hand who had aided his escape from the city with Princess Anita, who now warned him of an assassination attempt on Arutha. Arutha bought the cooperation of Krondor's powerful and highly organized guild of thieves, the Mockers, to obtain more information on the assassins. Setting a trap, they captured two agents, who were revealed to be from the temple of Lims-Kragma, Goddess of Death. During interrogation, both prisoners willed themselves to death rather than divulge their plans. As the High Priestess of Lims-Kragma sought the truth from beyond the grave, one of the prisoner rose as a creature of the dead and begin slaughtering many royal guards, addressing Arutha as "Lord of the West" before being destroyed.
Injured in the attack, the High Priestess warned Arutha that the forces which opposed him were so powerful that they held the gods in contempt. Regardless, Arutha proceeded with his wedding. Another assassination attempt was foiled by Jimmy the Hand, but the poisoned bolt struck Anita.
With scant clues and a race against time for an antidote, Arutha led a party to the one place where any question may be answered, the great library at Sarth Abbey. Undeterred by Sarth's mighty defenses, two separate attacks were made with powerful sorcery, and both were barely repulsed. However, Arutha found that the poison was made by a rare plant, silverthorn, and that he must journey to the elves of Elvandar.
Now warned that Arutha's foes were formidable magicians, Pug asked the aid of one of his island's resident scryer. The vision of the future revealed a dark entity, speaking in ancient Tsurani, and was even capable of perceiving the scryer past the barriers of time and probability. With that knowledge, Pug recreated the rift to Kelewan, and with two companions, went to find out more about the enemy they face.
In Elvandar, the elven Spellweavers revealed that the silverthorn plant grew only around the lake Moraelin, in moredhel-held territory. Nevertheless, Arutha and his band sneaked past sentries, picked several silverthorn shrubs, and made their escape, barely escaping a moredhel general and his horde of undead Black Slayers.
In Kelewan, Pug and his companions were captured in ambush by Great Ones of the Assembly of Magicians for his role in the destruction of the Imperial Arena a year ago. Tortured by Tsurani inquisitors, his Greater Path magic neutralized, Pug turned to Lesser Path magic, becoming the only magician ever to master both paths. Gaining time, he explained his reasons to the Emperor, and was given reprieve to continue his search in the Assembly's vast libraries. Following a clue, Pug travelled to the northern wastelands of Kelewan, and discovered a lost race of people living in a forest under the ice.
With the antidote made by the elven Spellweavers, Anita is saved, and Arutha's enemies set back by the death of one of their generals. But the leader of the moredhel, Murmandamus, vowed that in a year, the long-awaited invasion into the Kingdom would commence.
[edit] A Darkness at Sethanon
A Darkness at Sethanon (1986) details how Murmandamus, a new prince of the Dark Brotherhood, marshals the forces of the Moredhel and invades the kingdom, with the intent of finding the Lifestone, a powerful relic with which he will be able to destroy every living thing in the world, so as to resurrect the Valheru Lords of old. Only Pug and Tomas can stop this new evil, thereby ending the Riftwar.
Arutha, Prince of Krondor, uses an attempted assassination as a ruse to fake his own death so that he may travel north to confront Murmandamus. In his travels to the Northlands, Arutha finds his father's former enemy, Guy du Bas-Tyra, as the Protector of the city Armengar. A historic battle ensues, which ends in the destruction of the city. Murmandamus and his forces then strike south to Sethanon, a city beneath which the Lifestone had been buried in the ancient past.
Meanwhile Pug and Tomas begin searching the world, and eventually beyond, for the famed sorcerer Macros the Black, thought killed when he helped to destroy the rift at the end of Magician. With the guidance of Macros, the history of the universe is revealed to Tomas and Pug. Tomas is told of his complete Valheru heritage and does battle with his former Valheru nemesis at Sethanon.
A battle ensues at Sethanon, during which Pug and Macros work together to prevent the Valheru from re-entering Midkemia. At the same time, Arutha, named by destiny the Bane of Darkness, engages in a duel with Murmandamus. He defeats Murmandamus, discovering in the process that he is not moredhel, but one of the Panthathians, a race of evil snake-men. He had been magically disguised as a moredhel in order to manipulate the Dark Brethren into aiding them in their plan to release Alma-Lokada, a Valheru who had created the Panthathians and was worshipped as a God by them, by capturing the Lifestone.
