History Literature / TheDivineCities

Shara Thivani, spymaster and operative from Saypur, has always been fascinated by the Continent's history -- when a historian and reformist she was personally close to shows up beaten to death in Bulikov, she seizes the opportunity to show up in Bulikov and find his killer.

The second book in the series, ''City of Blades,'' was released in January 2016. A generation ago, the city of Voortyashtan was the stronghold of the Divinity of War and Death. Now, the once-powerful capital is a wasteland of sectarian violence and bloody uprisings, and General Turyin Mulaghesh -- foul-mouthed hero of the battle of Bulikov, rumored war criminal, ally of the embattled Prime Minister -- has been exiled there to count down the days until she can draw her pension and be forgotten.

** ''City of Blades'' has Signe Harkvaldsson, Sigrud's daughter, and Nadar, who is in charge of Fort Thinadeshi.

The third book in the series, ''City of Miracles,'' was released in May of 2017, with Sigrud je Harkvaldsson as the central character. Thirteen years after he last saw her, Sigrud learns that his friend, former prime minister Shara, has been assassinated, and travels to the booming city of Ahanashtan to investigate. Quickly it becomes clear that Shara had once again run afoul of a mysterious divine being, who has now set his eyes on also murdering Shara's daughter -- and her new bodyguard, Sigrud.

** Lastly, in ''City of Miracles'' there's Tatyana, Shara's adopted daughter.

* AntiMagicalFaction: The Saypuri are an unusually sympathetic (though still morally gray) example, thanks to spending eight centuries colonized and brutally enslaved by an empire with some very active gods on their side. Said pantheon spread miracles around like water, giving their followers Divine weapons, spells, super-soldiers, cities, and even a different climate. Then one of the Saypuri figured out how to kill a god, breaking everything they created. The Saypuri proceeded to wipe out the pantheon, invade the devastated empire, confiscate or destroy anything connected to the Divine (including various demigods), and banned even mentioning the dead gods by name. The series proper starts 75 years after the last god died, and they're only starting to lose their paranoia about anything Divine.

* BarbarianHero: Sigrud, Shara's six and a half feet tall bodyguard and assistant. She tends to introduce him as her [[BlatantLies secretary]], especially when confronted with other people's assumption that he's just a Dreyling barbarian from the northern lands. Sigrud does not care to correct their assumptions and prefers his heritage to dictate others' opinion of him. It is, however, Sigrud who often saves the day and gets horribly injured while fighting to protect strangers, even though his methods for doing so involve copious amounts of flat-out slaughter.

* DeityIdentityConfusion: Jukov, the trickster god, lost his identity and started to believe that he was another god [[spoiler:Kolkan when he concealed himself in a pane of glass that was a prison intended only to hold Kolkan]].

* DugTooDeep: The people of Fort Thinadeshi in ''City of Blades'' have found an ore with odd miraculous properties in the ground that they wish to mine and likely use for weaponry. Of course it turns out that [[spoiler:the ore is what's left of a giant grave of buried swords which are directly connected to tens of thousands of undead Voortyashtani warriors bent on destroying the living. And mining the swords woke them up. Oops.]]

* GenreBusting: ''The Divine Cities'' is DieselPunk set in a secondary world but written largely like [[SpyFiction Spy Thrillers]].

* GovernmentConspiracy: In ''City of Stairs'', Shara at last finds out that Dr. Pangyui was in fact murdered by [[spoiler:his own government to bury what he found out about the Kaj's - and thus the prime minister's, i. e. Shara's aunt Vinya's semi-divine background.]]

* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: Philosopher's Stones, which have roughly the same effect as LSD, were historically used to commune with the Divine. As such, as Shara learns first-hand in a desperate last-minute plan near the end, while taking an enormous dose will drive you mad, [[spoiler:if you happen to know how to cast Miracles, they will make your casting of said Miracles *far* more powerful. She then creates *new* miracles, starts wiping out a whole divine army with them, and basically temporarily becomes a god, all while high as a kite.]]

* MagicAIsMagicA: Miracles can be used by anyone who knows what they're doing. Granted, most people are unaware that there are even any miracles still available after the (supposed) death of the gods. As such they almost take on the role of LostTechnology.

* MartyrdomCulture: Voortyashtani culture, to a T. Every Voortyashtani's life goal was to fight glorious wars and die in battle, then to wait in the afterlife until the day when their god led them to fight the last war on the living. [[spoiler:The fact that Voortya died before gifting her warriors this last war is the underlying problem in ''City of Blades''.]]

** In the second book, [[spoiler:Voortya's afterlife still exists even though Voortya herself does not. This is because of the divine rules used to set up the place.]]

* RealityWarper: All the Divinities created their own realities that they imposed on the part of the Continent that they ruled over; in Bulikov, these different realities overlapped, which is one reason the world still behaves oddly in some places there by the time the trilogy is set.

* RitualMagic: Though the word ''magic'' is never used once in the trilogy, most miracles work like rituals of varying complexity. Shara is an expert at using divine miracles and also taught Sigrud a number of them.

* SecretGovernmentWarehouse: The Unmentionable Warehouses contain all the artifacts and miraculous items the Saypuri were able to get their hands on after they conquered the Continent and outlawed any mention of the Divinities or their miracles. Nobody but the hightest authorities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are even allowed to know of the existence of the warehouses, and even less people are allowed to enter them, meaning the various items have been collecting dust for over seven decades. The warehouse outside of Bulikov masquerades as an unremarkable warehouse between ones that store supplies for the Saypuri military, but becomes vital to the story as Dr. Efrem Pangyui's legal access to it brings the Restorationist's on his case, who want access to its stored miraculous items for their own means.

** With a pantheon of squabbling gods reigning over the Continent, it's not a surprise that there were plenty of semi-divine beings around before the Kaj killed the Continent's Divinities. Those beings were called the Blessed and reality itself felt the urge to accomodate their wishes, warping itself around them and -- to a lesser extent -- around their descendants. Saypur's last Kaj and resident godslayer, upon conquering the Continent, [[spoiler:dragged them and any other divine creatures he could find out into the streets and executed them all.]]

** [[spoiler:Vinya Komayd, Shara's aunt and head of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs]], on the other hand, turns out to be Blessed, meaning her entire political career was not her own achiement. Her bitterness over that discovery is what kicks the plot of ''City of Stairs'' off by ordering the death of Dr. Efrem Pangyui, who made the discovery in the first place.

** In an ironic turn of events, [[spoiler:the Kaj himself was part Divine through his mother Lisha, a daughter of the Divinities Olvos and Jukov, though he didn't know this until Jukov himself told him]]. It was the only reason, in fact, why and how he menaged to develop a weapon strong enough to kill the gods, [[spoiler:as a non-Blessed human could not have accomplished that]].

The second book in the series, ''City of Blades,'' was released in January 2016. A generation ago, the city of Voortyashtan was the stronghold of the Divinity of war and death. Now, the once-powerful capital is a wasteland of sectarian violence and bloody uprisings, and General Turyin Mulaghesh -- foul-mouthed hero of the battle of Bulikov, rumored war criminal, ally of the embattled Prime Minister -- has been exiled there to count down the days until she can draw her pension and be forgotten.

The third book in the series, ''City of Miracles,'' was released in May of 2017, with Sigrud je Harkvaldsson as the central character. He learns that his friend, former prime minister Shara has been assassinated, and travels to the city of Ahanashtan to investigate.

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Vohannes Voltrov -[[spoiler: knowing he won't survive the encounter anyway]] - proceeds to taunt [[spoiler:Kolkan]] with all the ways in which he doesn't follow the god's many insane rules.

** NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: Then it turns out that by the time ''City of Stairs'' is set, three divinities - Kolkan, Jukov, and Olvos - are actually still around, only the first two have been hidden away for a long time and the latter is voluntarily living in anonymity among mortals.]]

** OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Once there Mulaghesh ends up having to wield [[CoolSword Voortya's Sword]], which is only given to her because of her long and bloody history as a career soldier.
* RealityWarper: All the Divinities created their own realities that they immposed on the part of the Continent that they ruled over; in Bulikov, these different realities overlapped, which is one reason the world still behaves oddly in some places there by the time the trilogy is set.

* ExperiencedProtagonist: Shara, Mulaghesh and Sigrud are in their thirties, forties and fifties respectively and have already lived busy lives before the story starts - Shara as a spy and operative, Mulaghesh as a military leader, and Sigrud as Shara's longtime assistant and [[spoiler: royal exile]].

* SealedEvilInACan: While the Divinities aren't evil per se, [[spoiler:the Bulikovians in ''City of Stairs'' plot to release Kolkan and Jukov from where they have been held in order to help in their fight against Saypur. Since the gods CameBackWrong, it doesn't end well for anyone involved.]]

* SecretGovernmentWarehouse: The Unmentionable Warehouses contain all the artifacts and miraculous items the Saypuri were able to get their hands on after they conquered the Continent and outlawed any mention of the Divinities or their Miracles. Nobody but the hightest authorities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are even allowed to know of the existence of the warehouses, and even less people are allowed to enter them, meaning the various items have been collecting dust for over seven decades. The warehouse outside of Bulikov masquerades as an unremarkable warehouse between ones that store supplies for the Saypuri military, but becomes vital to the story as Dr. Efrem Pangyui's legal access to it brings the Restorationist's on his case, who want access to its stored Miracles for their own means.

* TheseHandsHaveKilled: The source of Mulaghesh's trauma is [[spoiler: having killed innocents when she first started out as a soldier after being ordered by her superior officer and not questioning it.]] Her regret over these actions define her later years as depicted in ''City of Blades''.

''City of Stairs'', the first book in the series, was released in September 2014. Bulikov was once the Seat of the World and host to a pantheon of Divinities that provided everything their followers needed and led them to victory in expanding to an empire. That is, until someone from one of their conquered colonies, Saypur, discovered a way to [[GodIsDead kill the Divinities]]. In the years since, Saypur has risen to the status of a world power with the help of technology while Bulikov has been reduced to a destitute backwater.

The third book in the series, ''City of Miracles,'' was released in May of 2017, with Sigrud je Harkvaldsson as the central character.

* GodIsDead: The Continent's gods -- who created not only most of the Continent's infrastructure, but much of its parallel ''realities'' as well -- were killed in a rebellion 75 years prior to the first book, ''City Of Stairs'', and the Continent still hasn't recovered since. The fact that they're no longer even allowed to discuss or reference their old gods doesn't help with the discontent.

** In terms of religions, the Ahanashtan bore a close resemblance to Jainism, while Olvoshtan monks (who shave their heads and wear orange robes) are counterparts to Theravada Buddhists. Kolkan's harsh laws on topics ranging from same-sex relations to mixing fibers are an exaggerated version of The Book of Leviticus.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Inconsistently; when the Divinities were killed 75 years before the first book, ''City of Stairs'', their miracles and anything they had built stopped working or ceased existing. This included a ''lot'' of the Continent's cities and infrastructure, leaving the place extremely devastated. The city of Bulikov, for example, shrunk by several miles inward. Other miracles, however, kept working, and no in-story explanation is known for why some things stopped existing and others didn't. [[spoiler:Storywise, this is a major hint that not all the Divinities are dead.]]

* TheTheocracy: Bulikov and its Continental neighbouring cities all were theocracies during their Golden Age. Their individual gods were highly involved in the lives of their followers and provided leadership, guidance and infrastructure, with Bulikov being neutral ground ruled by all six Divinities equally. The Continent's been a bit of a mess ever since all the Divities died as it turned out that not only did they provide societal laws, but the Continent's entire infrastructure relied on their existence.

** By the time of the finale, ''City of Miracles'', the level of technology approaches something like the TheThirties of our reality, with regular forays into TheFifties and beyond, what with large-scale electrification, automobiles and buses that are utterly commonplace, glass-and-steel skyscrapers with elevators in them, a heavy-duty cable car system, hand-held automatic firearms and much more. One distinct difference to the real world ([[{{CaptainObvious}} apart from the whole Divinities thing, that is]]), however, is the utter lack of non-miraculous, purely technological aviation, of which there is not a single example even by the time of third book - although, by the standards of Saypuri technology in general at that point, they at the very least ought to have figured out the basic principles comfortably.

* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Subverted. Knowing how defensive the Continentals are when it comes to anything Divine, Shara expects the locals to be furious when they kill Urav, a god-created tentacle monster that was attacking the city and devouring dozens of people. She's quite surprised when the populace hails them as heroes.

** In terms of religions, the Ahanashtan bore a close resemblance to Jainism, while Olvoshtan monks (who shave their heads and wear orange robes) are counterparts to Theravada Buddhists.

** Saypur is based on India, while the Continent is combination of Britain (former colonizers bitter about the loss of their empire) and Russia (names, climate, and being compelled to give up their religion). Only in this world, the British Empire fell so hard it was reduced to a third-world country and occupied by India. Meanwhile, Sigrud's homeland, the Dreyling countries, are very obviously based on Scandinavia.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Saypur is based on India, while the Continentals - pale-skinned former colonizers bitter about the loss of their empire - most resemble the British (with Russian names). Only in this world, the British Empire fell so hard it was reduced to a third-world country and occupied by India. Meanwhile, Sigrud's homeland, the Dreyling countries, are very obviously based on Scandinavia.

The third book in the series, ''City of Miracles,'' is planned for 2017, with Sigrud je Harkvaldsson as the central character.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Bulikov and the continent is based very loosely on Russia, while Saypur is based on India. Sigrud's homeland, the Dreyling countries, are very obviously based on Scandinavia.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

** In an ironic turn of events, [[spoiler:the Kaj himself was part Divine, though he didn't know this until the last Divinity told him]]. It was the only reason, in fact, why and how he menaged to develop a weapon strong enough to kill the gods, [[spoiler:as a non-Blessed human could not have accomplished that]].

* AfterTheEnd: For the Continent, at least. Life as they knew it ended when their gods were killed over 75 years before the events of ''City of Stairs''.
* BarbarianHero: Sigrud, Shara's six and a half feet tall bodyguard and assistant. She tends to introduce him as her [[BlatantLies secretary]], especially when confronted with other people's assumption that he's just a Dreyling barbarian. It is, however, Sigrud who often saves the day and gets horribly injured while fighting to protect strangers.
* ChekhovsArmory: Several items from the list of impounded miraculous items stashed away in the Unmentionable Warehouse are mentioned in passing. but become vitally important to the story later. [[spoiler:The villains are using a magical door to access the vault that contains them, and they use threads from a flying carpet to create a fleet of nigh untouchable airships]].
* GodIsDead: Killed, in fact, and the Continent still hasn't recovered in the 75-odd years since. The fact that they're no longer even allowed to discuss or reference their old gods doesn't help with the discontent.

* MadGod: In the backstory, one of the Divinities went insane giving his followers rules to follow. He started out fairly sane, but kept on making thousand upon thousands of rules about incredibly minor things- and mandating increasingly harsh punishments for the mildest violations- until his fellow Divinities [[UnPerson disappeared him]].
* MandatoryUnretirement: ''City of Blades'' opens with Shara forcing Mulaghesh back into service.
* NoOntologicalInertia: Inconsistently; when the Divinities were killed, their miracles and anything they had built tended to stop working or cease existing. This included a ''lot'' of the Continent's cities and infrastructure, leaving the place extremely devastated. Most of Bulikov, for example, simply vanished. Other miracles, however, kept working, and no in-story explanation is known for why some things stopped existing and others didn't. [[spoiler:This is a major hint that not all the Divinities are dead.]]
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: In one of the main plot lines in ''City of Blades'', [[spoiler: the missing explosives assumed to have been stolen from the Saypuri forces by guerrilla fighters were actually taken by Saypuri operative Choudhry in an attempt to prevent a supernatural apocalypse.]]

** With a pantheon of squabbling gods looking after them, it's not a surprise that the Continent had plenty of these, which they called Blessed. [[spoiler: Saypur's last Kaj and resident godslayer dragged them and any other divine creatures he could find out into the streets and executed them all.]]
** [[spoiler:The Kaj himself was part Divine, though he didn't know this until the last Divinity told him.]]
* TheTheocracy: Bulikov and its Continental neighbours. Their gods were highly involved in their lives and provided leadership, guidance, and infrastructure. They've been a bit of a mess ever since all their gods died.
* TricksterGod: Jukov was the Divinity of pleasure, corruption, chaos, madness, rebellion and a few other things. Stories of him playing tricks on his believers, like changing their form or luring them somewhere, abound. His favourite animal was the starling, but he seemed to favour birds in general, often turning himself or his followers into birds.
%% * WarIsHell: A recurring theme in ''City of Blades''.

* AfterTheEnd: For the Continent, at least. Life as they knew it ended when their gods were killed over 75 years before the events of ''City of Stairs''

''City of Stairs'', the first book in the series, was released in September 2014. Bulikov was once the seat of the world and host to a pantheon of gods that provided everything their followers needed and led them to victory in expanding to an empire. That is, until someone from one of their conquered colonies discovered a way to [[GodIsDead kill the gods]]. In the years since, Saypur has risen to the status of a world power with the help of technology while Bulikov has been reduced to a destitute backwater.

Shara Thivani, spymaster and operative from Saypur, has always been fascinated by the Continent's gods--when a historian and reformist she was personally close to shows up beaten to death in Bulikov, she seizes the opportunity to show up in Bulikov and find his killer.

The second book in the series, ''City of Blades,'' was released in January 2016. A generation ago, the city of Voortyashtan was the stronghold of the Divinity of war and death. Now, the once-powerful capital is a wasteland of sectarian violence and bloody uprisings, and General Turyin Mulaghesh—foul-mouthed hero of the battle of Bulikov, rumored war criminal, ally of the embattled Prime Minister—has been exiled there to count down the days until she can draw her pension and be forgotten.

At least, that's her cover story. The truth is that the general has been pressed into service [[OneLastJob one last time]], dispatched to investigate a discovery with the potential to change the world—or destroy it.

** ''City of Stairs'' introduces Mulaghesh, who's middle-aged and career military. Shara is as well, in her own way.

* AfterTheEnd: For the Continent, at least. Life as they knew it ended when their gods were killed over 80 years before the events of ''City of Stairs''
* BarbarianHero: Sigrud, Shara's 6 and a half feet tall bodyguard and assistant. She tends to introduce him as her [[BlatantLies secretary]].
* ChekhovsArmory: Several items from the list of impounded miraculous items. [[spoiler:The villains are using a magical door to access the vault that contains the others, and they use threads from a flying carpet to create a fleet of nigh untouchable airships]].
* GodIsDead: Killed, in fact, and the Continent still hasn't recovered in the 80-odd years since. The fact that they're no longer even allowed to discuss or reference their old gods doesn't help with the discontent.

* SemiDivine: With a pantheon of squabbling gods looking after them, it's not a surprise that the Continent had plenty of these, which they called Blessed. [[spoiler: Saypur's last Kaj and resident godslayer dragged them and any other divine creatures he could find out into the streets and executed them all.]]

* TricksterGod: Jukov.
* WarIsHell: A recurring theme in ''City of Blades''.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: In ''City of Blades,'' [[spoiler: Rada Smolisk, survivor of the Battle of Bulikov, is the one trying to bring about the apocalypse]].

Ashara Thivani, spymaster and operative from Saypur, has always been fascinated by the Continent's gods--when a historian and reformist she was personally close to shows up beaten to death in Bulikov, she seizes the opportunity to show up in Bulikov and find his killer.

* ActionGirl: A good number of them.

* ActionGirl: Mulaghesh, who's middle-aged and career military. Shara is as well, in her own way.
** ''City of Blades'' has Signe Harkvaldsson, Sigrud's daughter.

* ChekhovsArmory: Several items from the list of impounded miraculous items. The villains are using a magical door to access the vault that contains the others and [[spoiler:they use threads from a flying carpet to create a fleet of nigh untouchable airships]].