Novels of the Ring Realms


Savant's Blood Series Description

Ring Realms Master Plan
The 12 Book Story Line Timeline/Booknotes Character Tie-Ins/Cameos Past and Planned Novels
Novels in the Savant's Blood Series
Series Description * Shadow of the Avatar * Hecate's Bounty Aesir's Blood Gaea's Blood
Novels in the Reality's Plaything Series
Series Description * Reality's Plaything * 'Neath Odin's Eye Gaea's Legacy:
* Eternal's Agenda
Gaea's Legacy:
* Savants Ascended
Gaea's Legacy:
Infinite Annihilator
Novels in the Shaladen Chronicles Series
Series Description * A Knot in Time Anvil of Sorrow Who Mourns the Creator
Ring Realms Cross-Over Series (War of the Genemar)
Series Description * Child of Ascendants The Karanganoi Gambit The Chyrith Agenda Gaea’s Revenge The Infinite Child
Other Realms Novels
Psychedelic Electrons Ghost Hunter A Taste of Magic To Turn The Mystic Clock War of the Adepts
* Novels listed with an asterisk are published (or soon to be) and available at Writer's Exchange.

Savant's Blood Series Description

The Savants

The historians called it the millennium of the immortal storm. One thousand years had passed since the Silissian holocaust swept the globe of Titaan. The Saughuin invaders had been driven back into the murky depths of the sea, and the dwarven halls at Blackstar rang with the sounds of victory over the orc hordes.

It was an age of gods and those who would challenge them, when demi-gods and goddesses walked the land in the guise of mortals and took lovers and begot children.

Magic was strong and plentiful, and varied were the strains of man that came after the first dilutions of immort blood.

It was the rise of the Ivaneth Empire over a declining Corwin, when the greatest mages and warriors ever to walk the face of Titaan were born and grew strong.

Thence came the Krillar, and the Shael Dal, and the organized bands of adventurers whose strength was the equal of any kingdom's army.

This time also marked the rise of savants, known to the immortals as the Ka’Amok. For eons, once every few decades men and women were chance gifted with the persistent life sparks of Alpha and Gaea that made them the spiritual brothers and sisters to the pantheon lords. However, the gods treated them not as kin but as prey, hunting them to harvest their bodies for the ritual of succorunding—the forced binding of avatars. For eons that hunt had continued, until the first of true born walked the worlds and grew strong, seeking to end a thousand centuries of predation…

Young eight-summer old Liandra Kergatha is stolen from her mother by the agents of the moon-goddess Hecate to be succorund, the forced joining of a mortal to a god. Good fortune intervenes and the ritual is never performed but the child is left alone in an alien world to fend for herself. With no memory of her former life or family she becomes a street waif who over time acquires the identity of 'Wren'.

The story picks up more than a decade later, Wren is a elder member of the Brethren Guild, a thieves guild in the ancient city of Corwin. Wren and her partner Grahm have just pulled off the heist of a lifetime, the theft of the Malicent gem. Their success is not without its detractions. Wren is injured by the wizard in their flight from the scene. As they make their getaway to avoid the city guard they discover that the guards are the least of their worries. A rival guild, the Cult of the Dagger, are back in the city and they can have only one reason for their return—revenge.

Wren's troubles are only beginning. The events of the Savant's Blood are only warming up. Wren will become embroiled in an eons old clash between the pantheon lords and the Ka'Amok, the savants.

Savant's Blood is a story of identity. Wren must not only learn who she is, but what and how she fits into the universe she lives in. As she later discovers, for a savant, a sense of self is far more than a name, or even a body—but a spiritual destiny tied to the very origins of the Ring Realms themselves.

The battle with the Cult of the Dagger leaves Wren without a partner, injured, and on the run. She seeks refuge with a friend, a priest of Ishtar named Jharon. There in the temple, hurt and grieving the loss of her partner Grahm, she receives the first clues that will lead her toward the truth. From her dream, an amulet in the shape of a phoenix has appeared around her neck. Engraved on the back of the magic device is one simple word—Liandra.

Discovering the meaning of that word lies well down the path. She resolves to find a way to avenge the destruction of the guild. To that end, she begins a search for the mysterious Whitelock, the mistress of the Brethren now long absent from their precincts.

The Immortals

What man knows of the immortals is more conjecture than fact. Those that know truck little with common men. Some days one might chance near a tavern corner and hear the hushed converse of those who have braced those who are more than mortal.

Many are the creatures of the Ring Realms that be not of ordinary flesh. There are the elders, men and women with knowledge and magic who cheat the finite span of life. There are the sentinels who transcend humanity to serve in the hosts of the pantheons.

Above those are the immorts, dilutions and derivations of the pantheon lords and the elder races.

Higher still are the true immortals and the progenitor races, gods that shake the heavens with their footsteps and bend the lives of lesser creatures.

Lastly, there are the incarnations of eternity, beings of transcendent power to whom a century is like the passing of day and the power even of gods is of no consequence. Of these, words are only spoken of in whispers, for who dares to belittle a god?

The trail of Whitelock leads Wren to Ivaneth, a city a thousand leagues to the east. There Wren will make new allies and new debts, and finally force her into a confrontation with the sorceress, Cassandra. Surviving that ordeal will make her a puppet for the great mage. For Cassandra recognizes the amulet and will tell Wren great secrets in return for doing a little 'task'. The slaying of Avatar Hethanon—the human embodiment of the pantheon lord, Set.

Cassandra reunites Wren and Whitelock, but it is a reunion fraught with resentment and malice. Wren is anything but pleased with the irresponsible mistress who left the guild without leadership in its time of greatest need.

Their own conflict eventually leads them to ruin as they prove unequal to the task of defeating Hethanon. It is only with the intervention of Jharon, and later Cassandra herself, that they survive the ordeal.

The battle has left Wren crippled and dying, a black poison slowly eating away at her body...

This challenge and ones far greater yet face Wren in the trails that come later. She must "remake" herself, confront Mishaka, and make a deal with Gaea, the ultimate creator-force. She will reclaim lost friends, gain new abilities, and fight immortals in a quest to learn her origins and reclaim her family.

Savant's Blood touches on nearly all of the major players of the Ring Realms. In it we see glimpses and portents of all the possibilities for stories that are offered in the Realms. Wren, the heroine of the series is a stalwart protagonist willing to weather all to be true to herself and those counting on her. A cynic in the circle of life who still can find something to laugh at, even if it's herself.

She's 'got game' would be the literal catch phrase in her memorable participation in the great game of the immorts (as depicted in the first twenty chapters of Hecate's Bounty). The chemistry of plucky Wren and the heroes of the Ring Realms is something special and worth experiencing.

Even after confronting a god, Wren still has more in store. After all, confronting a god is one thing—what if you have one for a grandmother? What if you are heir, not only to legacy of the savants, but to the immortality of the pantheon of the Aesir? When the gods themselves are jealous, can there not be some adventure in store? Mix in the wild assortment of Wren's new extended family and friends and there is an odyssey in store that will take her through the courts of the Aesir, and too the end of the Realms themselves.