⚠️ Here be spoilers. You have been warned. ⚠️
The story so far
Araeda’h, the self-styled goddess of magic, is ancient. She was still a young mortal when the Seventeen hosts of warrior-angels selected from among aeons of souls produced by Godforge charged through Heaven’s Gate in an effort to retake their ancestral home. Araeda’h lived her life and died while the Seventeen fought their long and bloody war for Heaven, and lost. With no gods to claim her when she died, Araeda’h awoke in her afterlife an aimless shade without purpose or guidance.
The story of how she came to claim the phoenix mantle from her dead creator will be told someday. The Litanies and Tales of how the goddess of magic reshaped Godforge in the wake of crushing defeat of the Seventeen and the resealing of Heaven’s Gate will be told someday. But not yet.
Writing Araeda’h
Writing for such a powerful character is both fun and challenging. Araeda’h fun to write because she’s so different—both different from me and different from everyone else in the story. Treating her mental health, her trauma, and her memory issues with respect is important to me. She’s not crazy for the sake of being crazy—if you’ll pardon the cliche, there’s a method to her madness. More than a plot device, Araeda’h represents the best potential and the worst derangement possible for all of us. Her choices shaped the world that Illyria was born into at least as much as the original creator.
Among the oldest living mortals, she is younger than the high gods and the old. The demon lords predate her, but she thousands of years older than the next eldest among the small gods. There was a time, before she was betrayed, when she even held sway over the high gods and the old. Achieving the characterization of an impossibly wise and experienced and mighty character who is still human enough to have foibles and make mistakes is an enjoyable challenge.
Where she’s been
Araeda’h appears in the prequel Death Descends in all her power and majesty as a goddess in the prime of her power. With the aid of Goerranu (the goddess of secrets and lies), Araeda’h engineers the ascension of Z’nnek (god of the unclaimed dead) in an attempt to unbreak the world. Between Z’nnek’s ascension and the ascension of his bride, Illyria (the goddess of vengeance), Araeda’h made a tragic error in judgment which resulted in her fall from power and entrapment within the prison pages of the Book of the Forbidden. The unsung Litany of that Tale will be told someday. But not yet.
Eight thousand years later, in the time of Raven Queen, Arise and Righteous Disobedience, Araeda’h appears as the mad goddess trapped within her prison, the Book of the Forbidden. She is both friend and enemy to Illyria and Conseca. As a frenemy, she is powerful and mysterious, whimsical and deadly earnest. Her one desire is revenge upon the one who betrayed her. If she can escape her confinement of eight millennia. If she can remember who the traitor is.
Where she’s going
Araeda’h is a central character in Raven Queen, Ascend (still in progress at the time of this writing). Many of her early miracles will be revealed in that book. She will continue in her role of frenemy for Illyria and others in the future. I very much want to write the story of her rise and her fall and many other moments in her life. Her life needs to come full circle and her betrayal repaid.
If you haven’t had a chance to meet Araeda’h, she first appears in the prequel (before she goes mad) and the companion story which are both free to subscribers of Dark Tidings. The mad goddess also features prominently in Raven Queen, Arise.
Like Raven Queen, Arise, both Death Descends and Righteous Disobedience are also for sale at all major ebook retailers.
The audio books, narrated by the lovely and talented Amy Bentley, are available wherever fine audio books are sold.
