Legends of the First Empire is a book series by Michael J. Sullivan. Serving as a distant prequel to The Riyria Revelations, it chronicles the rise of the first human civilization and their bloody war with the Fhrey, or Elves.
Books in the series:
- Age of Myth (June 2016)
- Age of Swords (July 2017)
- Age of War (July 2018)
- Age of Legend (expected July 2019)
- Age of Death (expected November 2019)
- Age of Empyre (expected June 2020)
This series provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer:
- Bears Are Bad News: A rather large one terrorizes a human settlement in the "Age of Myth."
- Beneath the Earth:
- Beware the Superman: Most Miralyith have a huge superiority complex and many regard themselves as gods.
- Dug Too Deep: The ancient dwarves dug miles underground, discovering many great wonders beneath the world such as crystal caverns, magma rivers, etc. But their deepest delving uncovered a small prison where an "Ancient" named Three that's older than the gods lay imprisoned.
- Eldritch Abomination: The dwarves, tunneling to deepest parts of the world 6000 years ago, uncovered a chamber that contained something that was capable of speaking to them from the inside.
-
Harsher in Hindsight: Brin's description of Gronbach eventually leads to stereotypes three thousand years in the future justifying humanity's disgust and oppression of dwarves. - Humans Are Cthulhu:
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged:
- The Magocracy: The Marilith, or sorcerers, are the highest caste in Fhrey society. Quite a few think that this isn't far enough and that they need to consolidate power to total rule over the "unworthy" other castes.
- May–December Romance:
- Moral Event Horizon:
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Shout-Out: Try to read the parts of "Age of Swords" taking place in the ruined dwarven kingdom without thinking about Moria and the Balrog.
- Giants are the result of demons breeding with human women, much like in The Bible.
- Start of Darkness: For Mawyndule, who starts out as an ambitious but endearing young man.
- Training from Hell:
- You Have Researched Breathing: Humanity's dwarven allies Face Palm when they learn that humans haven't invented wheels yet.
- The Woobie
