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One of the challenges of writing a series is ensuring readers can pick up new entries without having to re-read previous installments whenever a new title is released. Often, authors resort to a standard bag of tricks to help readers. Characters awkwardly reminisce about past events, or we scatter flashbacks throughout the story. Needless to say, such tricks often interrupt the natural flow of a story, so in an attempt to avoid that problem, I’ve instead tried to summarize the key events of the previous installments. I hope you find it useful.
Band of Broken Gods opens on a father named Hakon searching for his daughter. Once the fearsome leader of a legendary band of warriors, he started a new, more peaceful life with his late wife and now-grown daughter. He is tehoin, a warrior capable of manipulating the mysterious power his people call teho.
His daughter, Cliona, has left home and has been living and studying at an academy in the rapidly growing city of Vispeda. A curious soul, she is one of the foremost interpreters of a long-dead language spoken by the gods of myth and legend, the stamfar. Recently, she disappeared, leaving no clue as to her destination. Hakon braves a vicious wilderness and old foes to seek her out.
As he travels, he hears the first rumors of a possible war, set in motion by a name he hasn’t heard in almost a hundred years. Damion is a powerful warrior, an ancient kolma like Hakon, building a force of tehoin far to the west of the Six States in the secluded stone fortress of Aysgarth.
While Hakon searches, Cliona works at an archaeological site led by a cantankerous older scholar from her academy. They seek the home of a famous stamfar, Marjaana, hoping to uncover the mysteries hidden within. She’s joined by Zachary, a noble son exiled from his house for murdering his sister’s abusive fiancé.
Their dig is a success, and they find the home buried deep underground. Not long after the discovery, Cliona learns the academy didn’t fund their dig, as she’d assumed. Their actual benefactor is a mysterious and powerful man named Damion.
Damion convinces Cliona to join him in Aysgarth, where she can study the ancient texts and search for references to an object lost long ago. She agrees, and Zachary accompanies them.
Back in the Six States, Hakon suspects his daughter has gotten entangled in Damion’s schemes. He discovers that the academy in Vispeda is run by another familiar face. Solveig, a warrior who was once part of his band, has become an accomplished scholar. She leads him to Ari, a quiet and yet skilled assassin who was also one of the band.
Together, Ari and Hakon find the dig site, as well as the corpses of the academics who worked on it. Damion killed them to prevent word of his efforts from spreading.
There is no love lost between Hakon and Damion. They once fought on opposite sides of a great rebellion, and Hakon knows that if Damion discovers Cliona is his daughter, her life will be forfeit. Fortunately, Cliona herself doesn’t know who her father really is. He’s never told her of his long life before he settled down with her mortal mother.
Hakon, driven by necessity, reunites his old band. First, they find the master swordsman Irric, followed by Meshell, the only other kolma who can manipulate teho within her body like Hakon.
Once together, a strange stamfar named Isira visits them. She fought the band in the past and once imprisoned them for the crimes Hakon committed. She is the only foe they fear more than Damion.
The band convinces the stamfar to spare them, though she makes it clear she is watching their every move. Finally, the band travels west to rescue Cliona from Aysgarth.
In Aysgarth, Cliona meets an enormous dragon, a creature that had long vanished from the Six States. Damion controls it, making him an even more fearsome leader. Over time, her trust in Damion erodes. She finally finds the secret Damion has been searching for. Instead of revealing it to him, she escapes Aysgarth with Zachary by her side.
After a dramatic escape, aided by Damion’s dragon, Cliona and Zachary meet up with the band on their way to rescue them.
Cliona sees her father fight and realizes he is not the man she thought he was.
The reunion between father and daughter is bittersweet. Hakon has his daughter back, but she is wounded by the lifetime of lies he’s told her about his past.
Together, the group decides they must travel to Husavik, the place Damion has sought for years. It is an abandoned city deep in the wastes, and Cliona is certain it is the burial place for a stamfar named Ava.
Once they reach Husavik, Zachary betrays them. The young man reveals that Damion has blackmailed him since the beginning. Damion captures Cliona as his troops flood into the old and nearly forgotten city.
Forced to work for Damion, Cliona eventually finds the burial site. As Damion moves to secure it, the band attacks. They intend to both rescue Cliona and prevent Damion from reaching Ava’s grave. But they are vastly outnumbered, and Damion has brought his dragon.
It is a fierce battle, and in the fighting, Zachary is gravely wounded. All looks lost, especially when Damion deals a fatal wound to Cliona.
Though her body dies, Hakon is certain some part of her lives on in the dragon, which she freed from Damion’s control. Hakon mounts the dragon and in one final blow, ends Damion’s life.
After, Isira appears on the scene and agrees with Hakon that there is something strange surrounding the events of Cliona’s death. She takes Cliona’s body for safekeeping. The band is victorious once again, but at a cost much higher than anyone was prepared to pay.
Fall of Forgotten Gods opens eight months after the conclusion of Band of Broken Gods. Hakon and Zachary are both struggling with Cliona’s apparent death, each in their own way. Hakon has traveled the width and breadth of the Six States, searching for clues that might explain what happened that fateful day in Husavik. Zachary journeyed west, seeking any sign of the elder dragon. Both are frustrated by their inability to find answers. There’s been no sign of the elder dragon nor any evidence supporting their desperate belief that Cliona still lives.
Meanwhile, the situation in the Six States grows direr. The wild is launching coordinated attacks, destroying caravans and young settlements. There are fewer and fewer tehoin to protect
the brave settlers. Worse, there is evidence that dragons are returning to the Six States after being driven far away.
In Vispeda, a dragon appears in the sky just as Ava breaks free from her long confinement. Ari and Solveig attempt to fight, but their efforts are futile. Both Ava and the dragon are far too strong.
The Band, plus Zachary, gathers in Vispeda to discuss the challenges facing humanity. Though Solveig continues to ask for help from the more populous cities to the east, her requests are always denied. The cities believe their distance from the frontier will protect them, and they fear suffering the same losses the western militia units have experienced.
At the meeting, Hakon argues that they are stretched too thin. There are only five of them, and they can’t possibly protect the entirety of the Six States. Instead, they should strike out west, seeking the home of the dragons. Though he hopes to find Cliona there, he also believes they may find the answers to save the Six States. The others believe he’s only holding onto a foolish hope, but Hakon refuses to listen to reason. He storms out of the meeting, set upon his path. Meshell agrees to accompany him and keep him safe.
The meeting represents a turning point for Zachary. His father has been demanding that he return home, but Zachary has little interest in Mioska. In secret, he’s been approached by Hel, the head of the new ruling council at Aysgarth, hastily formed after Damion‘s death at Hakon’s hands. They want to recruit Zachary, and their offer is more tempting than his father’s. When he tells the band he’ll be traveling to Aysgarth, the remaining warriors decide to join him. They hope to recruit more tehoin to the defense of the Six States.
Meshell and Hakon endure a brutal journey into the deep wilds. On their quest, they discover more mysteries, including strange tunnels dug by the stamfar and evidence of a dragon killed by its own kin. Eventually, they stumble upon a massive structure unlike any they have seen in their long lives. Unfortunately, Hakon is seriously wounded on their journey. Just beyond the structure, Hakon senses his daughter within the mountain nest of the dragons. He attempts to assault the mountain, leaving Meshell no choice but to knock him unconscious and return him to Aysgarth.
The arrival of the band in Aysgarth results in mixed reactions. The fortress has been attacked by dragons, and they know they
don’t have the food to survive the winter. Some are excited that help has arrived, but several of Damion’s closest surviving commanders view the band’s presence as an affront to their founder’s memory. The situation grows more complicated when both Isira and Ava appear, dueling in the skies above. The battle results in an uneasy alliance between Isira, the band, and Aysgarth. Isira sticks stubbornly to her beliefs, refusing all responsibility and telling the Aysgarthians that if they want a leader, they should turn to Solveig.
Isira’s proclamation sets off a fierce debate. Zachary risks his life to disagree with the ancient stamfar, an outburst that forces Hakon to explain the events of the band’s past. He tells the tale of the band’s birth, forged in battle against an elder dragon over a hundred years ago. He talks about the years of dedicated service to the empire, followed by Torsten’s and Damion’s corruption, which led to them joining the Rebellion. And finally, he talks about his decision to kill Torsten after the war was over. That decision was the one that broke the band apart and led to their long imprisonment. After hearing the story, Zachary is not impressed. He argues they’re still so wrapped up in the past that they can’t fight for the future.
The events at Aysgarth result in two decisions: the band will once again travel to the nest of the dragons to find Cliona, and Zachary will return home to Mioska in a bid to find food for Aysgarth.
Far to the west, the band explores the enormous structure, finding mystery after mystery within. They watch the dragon nest, only to have Ava appear and go within. Hakon, worried for Cliona, leads the band in an attempt to rescue his daughter. Inside the nest, they find the elder dragon from Husavik, bound by invisible chains of teho. Hakon confirms that some part of Cliona lives within the dragon. While he struggles to free his daughter, the band fights Ava.
In Mioska, Zachary finds that much has changed in his absence. His father is dying and his younger brother, Tollak, is unfit to take charge of the family affairs. Upon Zachary’s return, Tollak tries to assassinate his brother, an attempt that fails miserably. Zachary exiles his brother to the western frontier and takes his father’s seat on the council, only to find himself stymied by the more established nobles. Before he can even discuss a deal with Aysgarth, two dragons appear in the skies above and attack the city.
Back at the dragon nest, Hakon has freed the elder dragon and rides it into battle. Despite his heroic efforts, Ava deals a fatal blow to the dragon. The band, for all their strength, is helpless before her. As she is about to deliver the final blow, Isira appears and drives Ava away, though at a great cost to her own body.
Zachary loses all hope in his fight against the dragons. He saves whom he can, but Mioska has no defenses. Then Hel arrives with the remaining Aysgarthians, and they fight the dragons off. Zachary and Hel are hailed as heroes, and a deal is struck between Mioska and Aysgarth. The former rebels will provide protection in exchange for food.
The elder dragon and Cliona ask Hakon to kill them, and after fighting against the inevitable, Hakon acquiesces. He drives his sword into the dragon’s heart, ending its agony. He believes his daughter is lost for good.
But Isira is not so sure. Secrets lie buried deep within her, and she believes Cliona is walking a path no tehoin has stepped foot on before.
All of which leads us to the present moment…
