The story so far... Last First Snow and what came before
Wicked Problems is about to descend unto the world. A thrill-a-minute joyride around the world of the Craft Sequence, I can best compare it to a magical Mission Impossible meets Avengers Infinity War, with characters and plots colliding and leaping around the planet while the end of the world looms on the horizon.
As the eighth book in the Craft Sequence, you’ll get the most enjoyment out of it if you remember characters and moments in books that you might not have read in years. I would always advise a reread (as somebody who has read every book a frankly unbelievable number of times, I can promise you get more and more out of each read) BUT the book comes out in a handful of days. So unless you have literally nothing else to do with your time, I imagine that’s not super possible.
Which brings us to this series. Whether you know the books back to front or haven’t picked up Three Parts Dead since 2012, this series is for you: the Craft Sequence story so far.
To make it a bit more manageable, we’re breaking this up by book and going chronologically rather than publication order. This instalment covers the pre-series set up of the God Wars and the events of Last First Snow.
This post contains extensive spoilers for Last First Snow, some spoilers for the rest of the series, and expects the reader to have already read all currently published Craft Sequence books.
Set up: The God Wars
“The God Wars lasted a hundred years give or take. Imagine fighting your own people for a century. By the time the wars crossed from the Old World to the New, both sides were exhausted, desperate, mean.”
In the world of THE DOMAIN, gods are as undeniable as gravity. As diverse as the peoples who worship them, the gods grew hand-in-hand with humanity, developing strength and power through worship, and granting power to their faithful as grace.
Until. A century and a half ago, MAESTRE GERHARDT developed a new form of magic and power: the Craft. Power that had previously been reserved to the gods was now accessible to the people - or at least, to the people with a natural aptitude to harness the Craft and pull power from stars and souls.
The first experiments with the Craft left devastating scars on the world. The gods began to worry. And then they began to fight back. Thus began a century of THE GOD WARS, a series of conflicts that spread country by country, culture by culture, until they engulfed the entire world.
The world broke, a little. Gods fought. Gods died. Believers rose up against anyone who seemed to be able to use the Craft, no matter how much danger they posed. Craftsfolk banded together, and their institutions took off into the sky to become THE HIDDEN SCHOOLS and other flying universities. Craftsfolk developed new ways of using the power of the stars and of the soul, becoming godlike in their own ways. Generations were born, lived, and died in the Wars. Many fled the Old World for the New, only for the Wars to follow them.
DRESEDIEL LEX, ancient Quechal city on the continent of Northern Kath in the New World, was the setting of one of the first major victories for Craftsfolk. The Quechal gods and their holy knights were all but defeated. The forces of the Craft, led by KOPIL, THE KING IN RED met to negotiate peace.
Peace talks failed. The battle restarted. More people died, and the world broke a little more. Ultimately, the King in Red was victorious; TEMOC ALMOTIL, the last Eagle Knight of the Quechal gods, was saved by ELAYNE KEVARIAN, teenage warrior and Craftswoman.
The world went on. Remaining gods signed peace agreements with their Craftsfolk enemies, some of whom were experimenting with immortality and leaving flesh and blood behind to become the first Deathless Kings. The Craft rose as the dominant power in the world, remaking institutions and governments and revolutionising the world until it was nearly unrecognisable from the one that came before.
Our story proper begins back in Dresediel Lex, forty or so years after Liberation.
Last First Snow
“That’s why we made the Craft — to resolve problems without bloodshed.”
“The Craft was made for the same end as any other tool: to bring power to those who wield it.”
“Craftwork is more than a big stick to use on people we don’t like. We fought to build a better world than that.”
“I have no power in the camp.”
“Those people look at you like a saint.”
“And what happens when I try to lead them? I am the last Eagle Knight. Priest of the Old Gods. The King in Red has waited decades for an excuse to kill me, and you ask me to offer him one as a solstice present.”
“He’ll deal with you in good faith, if I have to break his neck to make it happen.”
Dramatis Personae
Our leads
ELAYNE KEVARIAN - Craftswoman at Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, representing the King in Red and Tan Batac in their attempts to remake the Skittersill wars. She has war history with Temoc, but hasn’t see him in the 40 years since Liberation.
TEMOC ALMOTIL - The last Eagle Knight, trying to singlehandedly reform the Quechal religion and chart a new path for peace after years alone in the wilderness. Married with a young son.
KOPIL, THE KING IN RED - Deathless King of Dresediel Lex and Chief Executive of Red King Consolidated. A Craftsman who has gone full skeleton but not managed to rid himself of his PTSD or his drama queen tendencies. He has a bad history with Temoc.
Temoc’s family
MINA ALMOTIL - archaeologist / anthropologist who met Temoc in the wilderness and convinced him there was a place for him in the post-God Wars future.
CALEB ALTEMOC - Temoc and Mina’s 7 year old son. He enjoys playing (and counting) cards. Thus far he’s been insulated from Temoc’s past and church.
Skittersill protestors
THE MAJOR - armoured, faceless, militant leader who ideologically clashes with Temoc.
CHEL PAXIL - one of Temoc’s close allies who joins the negotiating committee. Hopeful for the future, but not naive. Willing to compromise and try to see other points of view.
BILL AND KAPANIA KEMAL - members of the negotiating committee and cooks for the protestors. Their young daughter Malina is living with an aunt.
TAY - Chel’s partner, torn between Temoc and the Major’s visions for the future. More militant than Chel
ZIP, RED BEL, HAL TECHITA - other members of the negotiating committee.
Allies of the King in Red
TAN BATAC - slumlord turned real estate tycoon, represents financial interests in the Skittersill.
CAPTAIN CHIMALLI, SERGEANT CHIHUAC, LIEUTENANT ZOH - Faceless wardens de facto working for Kopil.
Assorted others
JUDGE CAFAL - Craft judge overseeing the legal / Craftswork Skittersill case
KAL ALAXIC - Eagle Knight turned Craftsman. Loyalties unclear.
ZACK - golem working for Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao making connections between world events and predicting likely outcomes.
JIM PURCELL - insurance agent with Aberforth Duncan, providing insurance to Tan Batac.
What happens in Last First Snow?
Forty years after Liberation, Elayne returns to Dresediel Lex as partner in a Craft firm, to negotiate land rights between The King in Red and investors in the city. This is where our series starts (chronologically) in LAST FIRST SNOW. The deal Elayne has worked on for months is about to be agreed, when she learns Temoc is back in the city, peacefully leading a protest against the new developments in the Skittersill area of the city.
Temoc is now married to MINA ALMOTIL, and they have a young son CALEB ALTEMOC. He has turned away from war after decades lost in the desert. Elayne mediates between Temoc’s people and the King in Red to find a new solution for the Skittersill. The relevant parties come to agreement, meet in Chakal Square to sign a treaty…
And a riot breaks out. Investor TAN BATAC is shot. Wardens - Dresediel Lex’s police force - retaliate against the crowd. A child dies. Wardens and the King in Red refuse to hand over the man who killed the child, and thus the peaceful protest becomes a violent uprising, led by THE MAJOR. The King in Red is happy to fight back. Temoc leaves to be with his family. Elayne attempts to hold the line and keep peace as much as she can.
She can’t succeed. Not against this. Unnatural beasts of Craft are set against leaders of the Skittersill Uprising when they leave the Square to convince Temoc to return. He still has the power of the gods, weakened though it is. He makes the decision to leave his family and return to Chakal Square with CHEL, a protestor from the Skittersill; to protect his son, he carves the sacred scars of the Eagle Knights into Caleb’s skin. Mina finds him, their son bloody and unconscious.
Temoc returns to the Square and Mina desperately tries to get Caleb to a hospital - but she’s being chased by demons. In a terrifying flight and fight, she manages to reach Elayne Kevarian’s hotel room; the demons are dispatched by the Craft, and Caleb taken to hospital.
In the Square, the Major has been mortally wounded and asks Temoc to sacrifice him to the gods, feed them and get more power back. Temoc does so, breaking the last possibility of peace - the King in Red will destroy the Square and the Skittersill Uprising the next day using God Wars weapons. Elayne learns that Tan Batac arranged to have himself shot to prevent the new conditions of the Skittersill deal from coming into effect.
Elayne is forced to promise not to intervene to protect the people of the Skittersill - and a promise with the Craft cannot be broken without breaking your own mind. She finds a loophole, and is able to save much of the Skittersill itself, if not its people.
Gripfire falls from the sky. The King in Red rides the corpse of a dragon into battle. The few remaining gods rise up and make some of the dead, including Chel, into weapons, but they can’t fight against the might of the King in Red. The Skittersill Uprising is brutally quashed.
At the last minute, Elayne finds herself praying - and someone, or something, answers her.
Last First Snow ends with Temoc a fugitive, the King in Red maintaining control, Mina raising Caleb alone, and Elayne leaving. Before she goes, she confides in ZACK, a knowledgeable golem working for Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, about the strange answer to her prayers in Chakal Square. And, finally, Temoc confronts his former colleague ALAXIC, who he learned sent the demons after his wife and son to force him back to battle.
“What will you do next?”
“Someone has to make him pay.”
“That’s not what I hoped to hear,” she said. “Wars beget wars.”
“Then kill me now. I will come for him one day. If it takes decades, if it takes centuries. Not all the armies of this earth with stop me.”
“Your son,” she said, “needs a father.”
“He needs a world less broken that this. All the sons need that. And the daughters, too.”
“Is there such a world?”
“There must be.”
The importance of Last First Snow
Most people will likely read Last First Snow fourth (as in the publication order), and in this order the book serves to deepen our understanding of the main characters, who we have already met in previous books. Temoc goes from a 2D religious extremist to a conflicted man faced with impossible choices; Elayne goes from ever in control senior Craftswoman to someone battling to do what’s right when there’s no easy right answer. Although we get little POV from him, we also get to see the King in Red from Elayne’s perspective - he’s an old friend rather than a terrifying skeleton boss. And Caleb, who I admit is my least favourite protagonist and leads my least favourite book in the series, is seen as a child, unscarred physically or metaphorically, right before his family implodes.
Similarly, we get a new view on Mal, the antagonist of Two Serpents Rise, seeing her trauma firsthand as we get to know her parents, the cause they fought for, and their agonising deaths. We get a new perspective on Dresediel Lex as a whole at this tipping point in history.
The God Wars are cast in new light, seen from the perspective of those who fought them rather than the next generation on. Tara and Caleb and Kai could tell us about the Wars factually: it was a dangerous time for people who used their minds; bloodthirsty gods were overthrown; Makawe and his sisters rowed off and never came back. But Elayne can show us cities burning. Temoc can recall being speared by lightning and seeing everyone he knows die. Kopil can bring forth powers our current generation of characters can barely imagine.
And we get yet another facet of power imbalances and the cruelty of a modern industrialised world. The people of the Skittersill aren’t - for the most part - trying to bring back slavery and human sacrifice. They’re working class people trying to stop their community being torn apart by financial interests who want a better return on investment.
It’s a question confronted throughout the series, and in our real life: we can’t go back to what came before, to the gods or to a pre-industrialised society. We wouldn’t want to even if we could. But neither can we live with the injustices and evils of today, where those with the least power are crushed by those who’ve clawed their way to the top.
How do we square that circle? How do we find a future we can all live with?
And, of course, there’s more than character and theme here. It’s easy to miss at the end of a brutal battle, but holds incredible importance for the future of the series.
Elayne’s prayer.
“For the first and last time in her life, Elayne Kevarian prayed.
Not to the gods above, traitors and accursed. Not to the gods of her childhood, whose people had hunted her through wood and field. She prayed up, and in, and out, in broken desperation, in case something might hear.
Save him.
Please.
The answer came at once, so sudden and swift she mistook it for wishful thinking: a cold rush that covered her skin. But there was a mind beneath and behind the answer: cold, vast and alien and personal at once, a voice she’d known since she first caught a falling star, a voice to which time was something other people did.
How? it asked.”
Who - or what - answered Elayne’s prayer? Not a god, not of this world. Not of the Domain.
Something else. Something out there in the darkness, something beyond time.
Something we meet in Dead Country, tricked into descending and trapped by Alexander Denovo. The Craft-god. Skazzerai.
Buuuut it’s going to be a few books before we can delve into that properly. Check out our series on the skazzerai here for more info.
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