FAQs About the Blood

Q. Are you going to write more stories about the Blood?

A. Yes. The Shadow Queen has a new cast of characters, as well as some of the members of the SaDiablo family. That story is coming out in March 2009. After that will be the sequel to The Shadow Queen and a collection of stories about the SaDiablo family, similar to Dreams Made Flesh.

Q. What is the order of the Black Jewels books?

A. For story continuity, the best order is:
Daughter of the Blood
Heir to the Shadows
Queen of the Darkness
Dreams Made Flesh
"The Price" (short story featuring Surreal which is in the anthology Powers of Detection)
Tangled Webs

The Invisible Ring is a standalone novel which could be read before or after the others.

Q. What is the relationship between the three Realms, and how do the Territories figure into things?

A. Each Realm is a separate "reality" of one world, and they're connected to each other by Gates. From lower to higher (or lightest to darkest), it would be Terreille (the Realm of Light), Kaeleer (the Shadow Realm), and Hell (the Dark Realm). While all the Realms follow the seasons in the same way, the land (and the landscape) is different, due to the people (even if "people" doesn't necessarily mean human) who live there and the events that happened in that Realm.

The Territories are, basically, the countries in each of the Realms. There are two Territories, Askavi and Dhemlan, that have the same name in both Terrielle and Kaeleer, and there is an Ebon Askavi in all three Realms.

Q. How should some of the names in the books be pronounced?

A. Jaenelle -- Jah-nell (this is a soft j)
Daemon -- Day-mon (the difference is the ae in male names is a hard "a"
and the ae in female names is a soft "a")
Saetan -- Say-tan
Lucivar -- Lew-se-var
Eyrien -- EAR--ee-en
Kaelas -- Kay-las.
Khardeen -- Kar-deen
Khary -- Kare-ee
Tersa -- Tair-sa
Grezande -- Greh-zahn-day
Kaeleer -- Kah-leer
Terreille -- Ter-reel
Chaillot -- Shy-lah
Hayll -- Hi-eel

Q. Is Jaenelle from one of the long-lived races?

A. No, she is from Chaillot, where the average life-span might be around 100-125 years. Only the Dhemlans, Hayllians and Eyriens have exceptionally long (4500-5000 years) life-spans.

Q. Can you explain a bit more about Twilight's Dawn? Why did Draca think it would be dangerous to give it to Ladvarian, and how strong is it, since it seems to have a little of each jewel in itself?

A. More information about “Twilight’s Dawn” is revealed in “Kaeleer’s Heart,” the story about Daemon and Jaenelle that is in Dreams Made Flesh.

Q. What is Dorothea's relationship to Saetan?

A. Dorothea married a descendant of Saetan's and took the SaDiablo name--which isn't usually done among the Blood since females are the primary rulers. So Dorothea--and her cousin Hepsabah--aren't actually related to Saetan. But they are distantly related to Hekatah.

Q. How is Surreal related to Saetan?

A. Actually, she's not, but she made a tiny error in judgment (not that she could have known at the time) when she declared her family name as SaDiablo. When she first meets Saetan, he accepts her claim to the SaDiablo name, saying that she had as much right to use it as the man who sired her (implying that whoever sired Kartane, it wasn't Dorothea's husband). Titian said the same thing when she first met with Saetan to talk to him about Jaenelle--that the man who broke her carried his (Saetan's) name but not his bloodline, which may be why Saetan knows this.

Q. There are hints in the story that Tersa would have been a powerful witch if she hadn’t been broken. What Jewels did she wear?

A. Tersa has never revealed any information about who she was before she was broken -- except that she came from Dhemlan. So the answer remains a mystery, at least until she decides to tell her story.

Q. Apart from Daemon and Lucivar, how many children has Saetan had?

A. Saetan and Hekatah had three children: Mephis, Peyton, and the infant who was killed shortly after he was born. Hekatah also had a son, Ravenar, with Andulvar Yaslana.

Q. How did Lucivar come by the name Yaslana?

A. He took the name at some point in his life. But he was also registered at the Keep as Lucivar SaDiablo Yaslana, acknowledging both of his bloodlines. Even though he couldn't remember it, there might have been a vague echo from the early childhood years he'd had with his father that prompted him to take the name again.

Q. Is Luthvian related to Andulvar?

A. Yes. Luthvian is a descendant of Ravenar, the son Andulvar had with Hekatah.

Q. Which Territories and Realms were Saetan, Andulvar, Cassandra, Hekatah, and Geoffrey from originally?

A. Saetan and Hekatah were both originally from Hayll in Terreille. Andulvar was from Askavi in Terreille. Exactly where Cassandra and Geoffrey came from is still unknown since they've never said.

Q. What Jewels must a Blood female/male wear to be considered a witch/Warlord?

A. From the White on up. This is the one caste that can change. A person can start out with no Birthright Jewel and be called simply a Blood female/male and then acquire a White or Yellow (probably not more than that) at the Offering. At that point, the person would be identified as a witch/Warlord.

Q. What Jewels must a Blood female/male wear to be considered a Prince, a Healer, a Black Widow, a Queen, a Warlord Prince?

A. Minimally, anyone in these castes would start out with a Birthright White. In these cases, the rank of the Jewel doesn't determine what they are, only how strong they are.

Q. Can a witch wear dark Jewels but not be a Queen?

A. Sure. Surreal wears dark Jewels and she's a witch, not a Queen.

Q. What's the difference between a First Escort and a Consort?

A. First Escort and Consort are almost the same job. The Consort does everything the First Escort would, plus more intimate duties. Usually a court has one or the other. If there are both, the First Escort takes a secondary position to the Consort.

Q. Can broken witches have children?

A. A broken witch can get pregnant only once, after that she is barren whether or not the child lives or is miscarried.

Q. Explain the difference between being broken and having your mind shattered?

A. Being broken and shattering the chalice are two different things. Breaking a witch means breaking her power back to basic Craft usually. Shattering the chalice is shattering a person's mind. A person can be broken without going insane, and a person can have his/her mind shattered without being broken.

Q. Can a man be broken?

A. Yes, a male can be broken--i.e., stripped of his Jeweled strength--but witches are far more vulnerable because they can be broken fairly easily on their Virgin Night, which isn't true for males.

Q. What determines if someone becomes demon-dead?

A. Whether or not one of the Blood becomes demon-dead depends on whether or not that person has drained his/her psychic power just prior to the physical death. It's the depletion of psychic power that makes a difference.

Q. What's the difference between being demon-dead and a Guardian?

A. The demon-dead have physically died, and a Guardian straddles the line between the living and the dead but has not physically died before making the transition to Guardian. Also, the demon-dead who have been around for a long time are the exceptions. Most of them don't stay around anywhere near that long.

Q. Can a male be a natural Healer?

A. Males can certainly learn healing Craft, and some have a lot of skill, but I don't know if there's ever been a male who was a born Healer.

Q. Is there a list of Jaenelle's First Circle?

A. Not at this time.

Q. Why isn't Jaenelle the Queen of Ebon Askavi any longer??

A. The Queen of Ebon Askavi always wore at least the Black. But while she can no longer hold that position, Jaenelle is still a Queen, a Black Widow, a Healer -- and Witch.

Q. What determines the formal address for a man?

A. "Lord" refers to a Warlord. "Prince" refers to Princes and Warlord Princes.

Updated Friday April 11 2008