YMMV / The Gilded Chamber

• Complete Monster: Haman the Elamite, the most trusted advisor of King Xerxes, will go to immoral lengths to obtain power, silencing anyone who opposes him. Introduced having amputated the tongues of attempted assassins, Haman finagles his way into Xerxes's graces, and proceeds to purge the royal court of alleged traitors over the course of a few years, with the gallows stated to be a "permanent fixture" in the royal courtyard and possibly anyone being a spy in his service. Additionally, Haman prolongs the war in Sparta, and has a puppet governor installed in Egypt to bloodily stifle dissent. Concurrently forcing people to bow to him, Haman plots a genocide against the Jewish people as retaliation for Mordecai, also known as Marduka, refusing to bow on account of his graven image. Later revealed to be in league with former Queen Vashti, Haman had also arranged for the current Queen Esther to miscarry at the hands of his abused wife Zeresh, later taunting Esther over her miscarriage when she confronts him over his attempted annihilation.
• Realism-Induced Horror: The most unsettling thing about the novel is the fact that people like Haman routinely come into power and commit atrocities. One can draw parallels to Adolf Hitler or Lavrentiy Beria, both of whom suppressed dissent in an utterly cruel fashion.

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