Emperor of Thorns

The Story So Far

For those of you who have had to wait a year for this book I provide a brief synopsis of books 1 and 2, so that your memories may be refreshed. Here I carry forward only what is of importance to the tale that follows.

Jorg’s mother and brother, William, were killed when he was nine: he hung hidden in the thorns and witnessed it. His uncle sent the assassins.

Jorg’s father, Olidan, is not a nice man. He killed Jorg’s dog when Jorg was six, and stabbed Jorg in the chest when he was fourteen.

Jorg’s father still rules in Ancrath, married now to Sareth. Sareth’s sister Katherine is Jorg’s step-aunt and something of an obsession for him.

Jorg accidentally (though not guiltlessly) killed his baby step-brother Degran.

A man named Luntar put Jorg’s memory of the incident in a box. Jorg has now recovered the memory.

A number of magically-gifted individuals work behind the many thrones of the Broken Empire, competing with each other and manipulating events to further their own control.

We left Jorg still on his uncle’s throne in Renar. The princes of Arrow lay dead, their army shattered and the six nations gathered under Orrin of Arrow’s rule ripe for the picking.

We left Jorg the day after his wedding to twelve-year-old Queen Miana.

Jorg had sent men to recover his badly-wounded chancellor, Coddin, from the mountainside.

Katherine’s diary was found in the destruction outside the Haunt — whether she survived where her baggage train did not is unknown.

Red Kent was badly burned in the fight.

Jorg discovered there are ghosts of the Builders in the network of machines they left behind.

Jorg learned from one such ghost, Fexler Brews, that what he calls magic exists because the Builder scientists changed the way the world works. They made it possible for a person’s will to affect matter and energy directly.

The gun Jorg used to conclude the siege on the Haunt was taken from Fexler Brews’ suicide.

The powers over necromancy and fire were burned out of Jorg when they nearly destroyed him at the finale of the battle for the Haunt.

The Dead King is a powerful individual who watches the living from the deadlands and has shown a particular interest in Jorg.

Chella, a necromancer, has become an agent of the Dead King.

Every four years the rulers of the hundred fragments of empire convene in the capital Vyene for Congression — a truce period during which they vote for a new emperor. In the hundred years since the death of the last steward no candidate has managed to secure the necessary majority.

In the earlier thread ‘Four Years Earlier’ we left Jorg at his grandfather’s castle on the Horse Coast. The mathmagician, Qalasadi, had escaped after failing to poison the nobles. The Builder-ghost, Fexler, had given Jorg the view-ring that offers interactive views of the world from satellites and other optical resources.