The Absolution of the Morning Star series and its expanded world
Welcome to Lucardia
Enter Lucardia, a land of spiritual unrest and political fracture, where power hides in the cracks of lost histories—and the choices that matter are rarely clean.
The World
Vesper Zulikaarme, the great Uniter, has squeezed a realm of twelve kingdoms into a single empire—but it holds like loose-packed sand, not clay. His grip weakens with age, and Lucardia is ruled now as much by the memories of the dead as by the decrees of the living.
The Caspian faith commands the present, but it is a recent ascendant—built atop older, unsettled ground. Beneath its doctrine, deeper forces stir: forgotten magics, half-remembered gods, and spirits that refuse the Threshold’s call. The priests whisper promises of salvation, even as the Red Cloth zealots demand change.
The Guild of White clings to faded glories. The Order of Thanatos marches the endless dead toward silence. And everywhere, the past watches.
Why Lucardia?
Because Lucardia offers no simple heroes—only survivors, zealots, traitors, and the broken. This is no world of prophecy fulfilled, but of crooked patterns in a worn and tangled rug. Magic exists, but it is buried beneath centuries of silence. Truth is layered in ash. Nothing is as it seems, for powers, both new and old, scheme.
Every tale unearths something darker—and asks what a few are willing to do to endure. In their survival, stories are born.
Dare to enter Lucardia. But know this: it does not care for your comfort.
The books
(in relative chronological order, both written and planned)
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Writing
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Planned
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Outlined
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Writing
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Planned
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Supplementary material:
Lucardian Timeline
Character Glossary
Lucardian Maps
Suggested reading order:
The Absolution of the Morning Star (AMS) series is the main storyline, beginning with Dawn of the Lightbearer. It follows the story of Erikson Gray. Ideally, this is the best place to start.
Jezelle: Thief of Forks is an immediate prequel to Dawn of the Lightbearer and is an origin story of Jezelle, a viewpoint character in the main series. Starting here is fine, too.
Koen: Quills of the Raven’s Nest, and the yet-to-be-completed, Sylvanus: Swords and Sons, are prequels to AMS and tell the tale of Erikson Gray’s father, Koen the Gray. Koen was written to be read before or after the main series, but it hits harder after knowing some of Erikson’s tale.
The Order of Thanatos series, starting with the Novice of Thanatos, is a standalone series that will eventually tie into the AMS series (at the end of Destiny of the Daystar, book 4 in AMS). It follows Mishal of Gaven Hill as he progresses from a novice to a monk, and finally, to a confessor in the Order of Thanatos. This can be read alone.
The Consort and the Spire series, starting with Duke Rhime of the Spire, takes place hundreds of years before any of the books above. It tells the tale of Rhime of the Spire, the second uniter of Lucardia, through the eyes of his wife, Evaline. It gives some history of the Battenborne family and sets the stage for the rise of the Zuilkaarme family, both of which will play integral roles in the AMS series. This can also be read alone.
