Ashlords

“‘Adrian’s heading south,’ he says. ‘He will be the first Longhand in twelve years to compete in the Races. When he wins, our people will remember. They will rise to war. My son will remind the Ashlords who we are, what we can do. Their world will tremble.’”

Ben Ford raised Adrian to be the exemplar of the Longhands so that he could essentially serve as a mascot for their cause. The Races are immensely popular, even in the Reach: Ben bets that seeing one of their own win will be the spark that the Reach needs to revolt against the Empire. Ben’s tone in this quote highlights his commitment to both the cause and his plan.

“‘Adrian made a lot of noise yesterday, but remember, that’s all the thunder ever is. Noise. It’s the lightning you have to worry about. Ever seen a good storm out on the plains?’ The girl nods. ‘You always see the strikes before you hear the boom. That’s how I’ll handle the Longhand. I’ll ride hard and I won’t look back. I’ll be in the distance, and he’ll just be the noise that follows.’”

A key rivalry forms early between Pippa, the natural favorite to win the Races, and Adrian, the dark horse competitor. Pippa refers to the motif of thunder and lightning, likening Adrian to thunder by arguing that he is “the noise,” while she is the main attraction. Boasting during the required interviews allows the competitors to build their personal brand, heightening the entertainment value and changing their odds on the betting markets.

“The Ashlords even took our names from us. The joke goes that—after the war—the Ashlord census takers were too lazy to write down our full names. Our braver history teachers whisper the truth, though. Reducing all of our surnames to four letters—Beru and Rahm and Shor—was a reminder of who was in power and of how much we still had to lose.”

The Ashlords’ cultural stranglehold over their imperial subjects extends even to the names of the Dividian. Dividian culture has been all but snuffed out, exemplified by their truncated names and the conversion of some Dividian to the worship of the Ashlord gods. The shortened names are a constant reminder of the Ashlords’ power, and the fact that Imelda refers to “brave” people who “whisper” the truth shows the mercilessness of the Ashlords’ rule, developing the theme of The Relationship Between Mercy and Power.

“You already know that you’re the best. You’ve already pulled all the necessary strings to arrange a victory, so now all you have to do is hand him the crown and live happily ever after. Your parents will think it a grand disappointment. Zeta—and maybe the rest of the world—will call it a disaster, but stubbornly you remind yourself that this is your life, it’s your future.”

Pippa’s second-person narration is a reminder that she is constantly in the spotlight; it is as though she is witnessing her own performance. This passage also highlights the fact that she is trying to talk herself into something that goes against her upbringing and training and risks her public persona. While she is the most privileged of the three protagonists, she has had little control over her own destiny. Her choice to lose the Races to Bravos is an assertion of her agency—but the fact that Pippa knows that Bravos would never do the same for her bodes ill for their relationship.

“My heart beats in triples. Then skips beats. It’s the first time I’ve seen it all so clearly. There are two worlds, and I know exactly which one I belong in. Even if Ayala’s offering me a temporary glimpse of their world.”

Imelda grew up in a tiny, unnamed town far from the capital, with little interaction with the Ashlords aside from Oxanos. Her exposure to Furia, and especially the Dividian living as second-class citizens, marks Imelda’s true social awakening. She realizes that even if she were to win the Races, she would still be treated as lesser, and the sensory imagery of her heart racing and skipping highlights the emotional resonance of her revelation.

“No one in my family ever converted to the Ashlord religion. There are Dividian who have taken up worshipping their foreign gods, and I’ve never understood the decision. The gods are the reason we became their servants in the first place. They’re the power behind every Ashlord threat, the reason we keep our heads low and our dreams even lower.”

The key division between the Ashlords and their subjects is the favor of the gods, who receive power through the Ashlords’ blood sacrifice. The gods represent a real danger: Their intervention stopped the Dividian invasion and the Longhand rebellion. Some Dividian have assimilated into Ashlord culture by worshipping their gods, but most have quietly refused, illustrating The Different Approaches to Rebellion in their small act.

“This isn’t a sideshow. This is years of hard work. This is how we’re built in the Reach. I can ride, I can fight, and if you do both of those things, you can damn well win the Races.”

Adrian uses anaphora—repeating “This” and “I can”—in this passage to emphasize the high stakes of the Races for him. He must walk a fine line between firing up the Reach and making himself a target for the Ashlords. In his interview with Cassiopia, he controversially strips off his shirt to show off his athletic physique in a direct confrontation with both social mores and the Ashlords. As a “mascot” for the Reach, this shows his physical capabilities—he is even larger and more dangerous than Bravos, whom Pippa describes as a gladiator. However, his gesture comes across as excessively prideful, stoking the flames of the Ashlords’ hatred of the Longhands.

“You have heard this story thousands of times period in past years you have stood where the gathered crowd stands now, proud of your lineage. But this year the presence of the Longhand and the Dividian serve as a reminder. It is not a story about one group of people, but three. It begins with the Dividian ancestors arriving at your shores. Invaders. Their great ships numbering in the thousands and your soldiers pouring into the coastal cities with every intent of conquering your ancestors. Until the gods answered.”

Pippa’s narrative gives context to the Ashlords’ relationship with their gods and with the Dividian. While the Dividian are now a subjugated people, they were once invaders who attempted to conquer and subjugate the Ashlords themselves. Ironically, it was this failed invasion that forced the Ashlords into a relationship with their gods and gave them the power to rule. Since then, the Ashlords have used their connection to the gods to rule the Dividian without mercy.

“I eventually sleep, but the dreams start out dark and haunting. I’m playing a board game against the other writers, and they won’t explain the rules. They move each piece flawlessly. When I try to mimic their emotions, they laugh, slap my hand away, and say that’s not how the game works. All of them laugh and laugh and laugh until I flip the table.

And the pieces scatter everywhere.”

Imelda’s dream is a metaphor for the challenge that she knows she faces. She is incredibly skilled at alchemy, and she is a gifted writer, but she has no hope of besting Adrian or the Ashlords in a fight. In addition, her dream acknowledges what she has come to realize: She has not even had access to the complete ground rules of the Races—even the least-prepared Ashlord competitor is more primed for victory than she is. This dream is the seed of her rebellion, as she realizes that she must flip the board, ignoring the rules altogether, to carve out a personal victory for herself and the Dividian.

“Win the Races and the Reach will march with a boldness this generation has forgotten. But surely you see what your father sees. Losing will accomplish the same that winning would. They’re going to kill you, Adrian Ford. And when they kill the favorite son of the Reach, it will start a revolution. Victor or martyr, your father gets his war.”

Until meeting the Dread, Adrian’s faith in his father bordered on worship, trusting him completely and taking his word as gospel, illustrating one reaction to The Effects of Familial Pressure. However, the god of caution reminds him that Ben is a shrewd tactician: He knows that there is a very real chance Adrian will die (like the last Longhand racer), and he will have a plan to capitalize on it.

“The final realization hurts most of all. She didn’t trust you to win on your own. The daughter of champions, destined to follow in their footsteps. It doesn’t matter that you’ve won every single amateur race or that you train harder than she ever did. At the end of the day, your mother thinks that Adrian Ford could beat you.”

Like Adrian, Pippa finds her faith in a parent shaken. The realization that her mother won the Races by cheating—seeking help from the Madness, rather than relying on her skills—tarnishes the image she has always held of Prama. Even worse, Prama damages Pippa’s own self-image by forcing her into the same deal with the Madness without giving her a choice in the matter.

“No gods now. It’s just me against them.”

Adrian is confident in his prowess on what he thinks is a level playing field. However, he is unable to see that three of his competitors have spirit guides, and he forgets that he himself has received a boon from the Dread. Instead, Adrian stubbornly continues to believe that the winner of the Races will be decided on merit.

“It takes an effort to remind myself that daddy doesn’t want me to die. There’s a difference between planning for my death and wishing it into existence. I know the Dread is right. If the Ashlords actually killed me, Daddy would have wasted no time using my death to start his revolution. That realization almost knocks the breath from my lungs. All the years together, and it is the first stain painted over an image I’ve held of a flawless father.”

Adrian continues to struggle with doubt concerning his father, and the visceral image of his breath being knocked from his lungs underscores how deeply he is affected by the realization that his father would capitalize on his death. His faith in the Longhands’ cause is directly related to his faith in his father, and this is the first time that faith is shaken. Adrian tries to console himself that his father does not actively want him to die, but he has barely escaped with his own life—and only with help from the Dread, which his father had refused.

“I bring down the switch on his knee, then his hip, then his nose. There’s no mercy in the strength of my arm or in the accuracy of each strike. I don’t take pleasure in giving pain, but this is a necessary message, to him and to all of his kind. I’m playing by their rules in the Races, but there will come a day when we are no longer at their mercy.

It’s possible they’ll be at ours.”

The contestants are always conscious that their every move is being watched by race officials and by the public. Adrian’s methodical beating of the phoenix is not only revenge but also sends a message to the other contestants, the Reach, and the Empire itself, reminding them all of the strength of the Longhands. Adrian’s treatment of the phoenix illustrates the relationship between mercy and power from a different perspective; like the Ashlords, he knows that a performance of mercilessness is also a declaration of power.

“I hope the Dividian see this, too. I don’t know if what I have planned will actually change anything, but it’s a message at the very least. It is a bold cry to our rulers that not all Dividian will be made to bow and serve their purposes period we will not continue pretending. We are not small. We are not to be swept aside. Amaya was right. It’s time to outdance a few more Ashlords.”

Imelda’s relatively small first act of rebellion, outdancing Oxanos, has snowballed into a much more consequential form of revolt. Though she does not realize it, her new purpose in the Races aligns closely with Adrian’s. The Qualifier position is a meaningless gesture meant to placate the Dividian—a sort of participation trophy. By openly rebelling and stealing from the Ashlords, Imelda hopes to rekindle the fire of independence and liberty in her people.

“You came into this race with a confident swagger, but Bravos’s betrayal stole that. You’re stunned to feel recovery so soon. It’s not hard to figure out that the spirit’s presence is helping you do the impossible. It also helps that you’ve realized something about men like Bravos—men like your father. Their need to be first place as a weakness. Their desire for you—or your mother—to be less so that they look like more is a weakness. You realize they’re afraid of you.”

Pippa once again adopts the second-person point of view to talk herself through a problem. As Pippa’s bond with Bravos is shattered, her bond with Quinn deepens. Quinn provides her with something more important than protection or offensive capabilities—emotional support. Pippa has all the skills she needs to win the Races, but she is blindsided by her emotions, her one unguarded area. Heartbreak forces her to mature and see men, even her father, differently.

“‘So. You’re the Alchemist, huh?’

I smile at him. ‘Now I am.’”

“The Alchemist” is a title that Farian came up with; Imelda has never been entirely comfortable with it or the fame associated with the name. Alchemy involves building something out of nothing, and now that she has sparked a rebellion, Imelda indicates that she feels worthy of the name.

“You came back because it felt wrong. That natural impulse that’s been carved into you for your entire life. And the quiet whispers of your proud parents. And the heart pounding cheers of full stadiums. Always reinforcing one truth: when at all costs. Be the best. Fight hard and burn brighter. You have never doubted the righteousness of that feeling until now. So you came back.

Once, you’d have been too proud to admit that.”

Quinn did not hesitate to stay behind and help Etzli, even though it would likely void the blood contract she formed with Pippa; it was simply the right thing to do. Quinn’s selflessness awakens Pippa’s conscience, which is typically buried in Ashlord ideology. Pippa learns to be empathetic and merciful, a lesson that fundamentally changes her nature and awakens her to the relationship between mercy and power. Her reflection that she can now admit something that she would’ve been too “proud” to admit before illustrates that not only has she changed, but she is also aware of that change and sees it as a positive one.

“You don’t feel guilty. I might never walk again, but you don’t care period I can see it in your eyes. You’re just doing equations and distances. Not thinking at all about what life will be like for me now. You care more about winning. That’s all my people care about, too. Who wins and who loses. That’s all I was ever taught.”

Capri begs Adrian for the mercy that he would have denied the Longhand: He and the other Ashlords fully intended to kill him. For Adrian, this is an important lesson in mercy because as the victor, he has Capri’s life in his hands. Winning the rebellion will require the Longhands to be as merciless as the Ashlords.

“The best-case scenario is that I survive this, settle into my cousin’s village, and live life as a rancher. Martial is slick enough to help my family visit from time to time, but I’ll miss birthdays and celebrations and all of it. I didn’t know how much I wanted a better life for them until this moment, until I knew exactly what it would cost me to get it for them.”

Imelda has been so focused on the execution of her plan that, until now, she had not truly considered the repercussions. She will never go back to a normal life; she will always be hunted by the Empire, and her best bet for safety will be a quiet, anonymous life in the mountains. However, her willingness to accept this future shows the depth of her devotion to her family.

“You’ve opened my eyes. I am no longer just an Ashlord. I am more than what my parents would have me become. I am more than what this world craves. I am something new.”

Pippa has grown beyond the cruelty and pragmatism that Ashlord society demands of her thanks to Quinn. Pippa’s “conversion” suggests that there is hope for the Empire to become more merciful toward its subjects, especially in the context of her description of herself as being “more,” with the implication of being better or more evolved. While she still has a way to go to truly be like Quinn, this foreshadows her continued character growth in Bloodsworn.

“‘This is an ancient tradition.’ She pauses the thread again. ‘In the Old Games, victors would often tend the wounds of the person they defeated. It was an intimate moment shared between them. A reminder from the victor. These wounds? I gave them to you. I defeated you once and every one of these scars will be a reminder that I can beat you again.’”

As with most Ashlord traditions, the treatment of the second-place contestant’s wounds by the victor at the end of the Races carries an aspect of dominance. Despite the intimacy shared by Pippa and Adrian, the scars on Adrian’s body from the wounds that Pippa stitches will forever be a reminder that she bested him. These scars will be a continued reminder of the Ashlord’s dominance over the Longhands if the rebellion fails.

“‘It never ends,’ I say quietly. ‘You will hate me. And my children will hate your children. Your gods must be excited. Things are about to get bloody period just the way they like it, right?’”

The cycle of hate derived from violence and war is perpetual unless a conscious effort by all parties is made to end it. The lessons that Adrian has learned through his experiences with his father, the Dread, Capri, and Pippa have changed him. While he is still committed to the rebellion, his new perspective indicates a new level of maturity and willingness to accept new points of view.