Evil had cast its shadow over the kingdom of Rethwellan. When Idra, leader of the Sunhawks mercenaries, failed to return from a journey to her home, Tarma and Kethry, warrior and mage, set out in search of their vanished leader.
Fifteen-year-old Raim lives in a world where you tie a knot for every promise you make. If you break that promise, you’re scarred for life and cast out into the desert. On the most important day of his life, Raim’s wrist knot bursts into flames, scarring him as an oathbreaker. Now he has two options: run or die.
When the past comes calling, Cassius and Morgan have no option but to face the dire consequences of the choices they made before the Fall. With Cassius Black’s secret operations to save the world in the last five-hundred years finally revealed by the agencies that govern the otherworldly, his status as the most vilified Fallen on Earth changes almost overnight. Unused to his newfound fame, Cassius tries to keep a low profile, but Morgan King’s reckless actions soon have them in the news again. Forced to take a sabbatical, the pair heads to London to meet with Victor Sloan, who’s been incommunicado since his identity as the demigod who betrayed Cassius and Morgan during the War in the Nether came to light in the Spirit Realm. Meanwhile, Theophile Serrano’s attempts to adapt to his new job as P.A. to Sion CEO Hugo Frost are derailed by the strange things that keep happening to him. Things that soon convince him that he is losing his mind. Destinies collide when a catastrophe engendered by the dark God Elios strikes London. As past and present meet, Cassius finally comes face to face with the Guardians who were left behind in the Nether. Will unlocking the secrets of Cassius and Theo’s past be the key to the city’s salvation? Or will the truth tear them all apart and give Elios the victory he seeks? Oathbreaker is the fourth novel in the gay urban fantasy romance series Fallen Messengers. If you like your paranormal adventures full of action, magic, snark, and a host of steamy angels and demons, then you’re not going to want to miss this gripping, angst-filled adrenaline ride! Visit Ava's author store at Shop AD Starrling to get digitally signed books and discounted bundles! Content note: this book contains sensitive content that may be upsetting to some readers. Please refer to the blurb page of the ebook and the copyright page of the paperback and hardback for more information.
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Scope: theology, philosophy, ethics of various religions and ethical systems and relevant portions of anthropology, mythology, folklore, biology, psychology, economics and sociology.
To the Danes, he is skraelingr ; to the English, he is orcnéas ; to the Irish, he is fomoraig . He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher, the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He is Grimnir, and he is the last of his kind-the last in a long line of monsters who have plagued humanity since the Elder Days. Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slew his brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that's changed. A new faith has arisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into the shadows; even still, Grimnir's vengeance cannot be denied. Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on a journey that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of the ancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southern England, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thence to the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where his enemy awaits. But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retribution will come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning-the Old Ways versus the New-and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind, must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeance done or stand against him and see it slip away?
Oaths, vows, promises, curses - all share family resemblances. They are performatives, carrying illocutionary force. Oaths have rightly been termed, "conditional self-curses", promises have been argued to be but a more developed form of vows, and oaths and vows are often used interchangeably. This book focuses on private vows and oaths including those publically proclaimed. Through analysis of legal, liturgical, mythical and literary works, it seeks to uncover a phenomenology of oaths and vows. Viewing oaths and vows as the human creative force par excellence, it surveys their role in circumscribing and directing both erotic desire and aggression; and so - in their performative function - as standing at the foundation of society and sociability. As acts of trust which establish new obligations understandings of the role of oaths and vows are compared in the Jewish and Christian contexts, in terms of the importance of intentionality in vow making and oath taking, as well as the nature of the obligations ensuing from such locutionary acts. Analysis of the comic and tragic consequences of the violation of marriage oaths as presented in European literature from the 12th to 19th centuries reveals their perception as "habituating" Eros.
The Kingdom of Elesia stands upon the brink of ruin. A brewing war with the empire to the south threatens to engulf the entire continent in turmoil and chaos. But while kings and lords fight over petty things like power and control, a far greater threat grows in the shadows. Monsters and strange beasts roam the countryside in numbers which seem to be growing faster than once thought possible. Darkness sweeps over the land. Some even believe that an ancient evil stirs, awaiting the chance to break free of its eternal prison. A lone monster hunter finds himself being drawn back into a world he thought he’d left behind when he is tasked with hunting and killing a monster for the man who had caused the grief and traumas that have left him a broken man. Aided by an assorted crew of powerful fighters, the monster hunter must confront both his own past and a world falling to chaos as he fights both man and beast on a perilous quest that will bring him ever closer to the rising darkness and the powerful creatures that draw strength from it. But in a world full of monsters, the monster hunter may yet come to realize that the worst monster of all is the one born of grief and trauma that lurks within himself.
Originally published in 1988, A Matter of Oaths is a space opera with heart, intergalactic intrigue and epic space battles. When Commander Rallya of the patrol ship Bhattya hires Rafe as their new Web officer, she knows she is taking a risk. As an oath breaker, Rafe has suffered the ultimate punishment – identity wipe – but luckily for him, there's no one else around qualified for the job. Shunned by his previous shipmates, Rafe is ready to keep his head down and do his job, but his competence quickly earns him respect, admiration, and, in one particular case, love. It's difficult to maintain the glow of acceptance however, when his past is chasing him across the galaxy in the shape of an assassin, intent on dealing once and for all with Rafe, whatever the cost. Now with a new introduction by Becky Chambers, author of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
In this book, Lars Hermanson discusses how religious beliefs and norms steered attitudes to friendship and love, and how these ways of thinking affected social identity and political behaviour. With examples taken from eleventh- and twelfth-century northern Europe, the author investigates why friendship was praised both by brotherhoods of aristocratic warriors and by brethren within monastery walls. Social and political functions rested on personal connections rather than a strong central state in the High Middle Ages. This meant that friendship was an important pragmatic instrument for establishing social order and achieving success in the game of politics.