Welcome to this slightly unusual instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I chat to a trio of fantastic authors – Anna Stephens, Liane Merciel and Jamie Crisalli – about their new portmanteau Covens of Blood. Part of Black Library’s Age of Sigmar range, this comprises three linked novellas featuring the Daughters of Khaine, each focusing on different characters but tied together by an overarching theme. It’s available to buy right now, and it looks like being the perfect read if you fancy learning a little more about these intriguing characters in the Mortal Realms.
Without further ado, on with the interview…
ToW: To start off with, here’s Anna Stephens to give us an overview of what Covens of Blood is about, what a portmanteau is, and how it works…
Anna Stephens: A portmanteau is a volume of collected stories framed within a larger narrative – in this case, I wrote the opening to a story in which Morathi has become aware of a plot against her reign and suspects several of her most trusted subordinates to be complicit in planning her downfall.
From there, the three novellas each follow one of these suspects and/or the aelves around them, and at the conclusion of the third novella, the framing device picks up the fates of the survivors and brings the whole narrative to a conclusion.
You could potentially read each novella as a standalone, or you could read the framing device, the novellas, and the conclusion to enjoy a larger, more complex narrative as a whole.
ToW: With that in mind, I asked each of the three authors a few questions about their individual novellas. Let’s start off with the essentials, which I’ve broken out author by author – what each novella is called, what it focuses on, who the main characters are, and what inspired each novella.
Anna Stephens
My novella, titled Trisethni the Unseen, focuses on a witch-aelf of the Khailebron coven and the secrets she uncovers during her missions for her Hag Queen in Ghyran. During these tasks, she is pushed to her absolute limits, but it is on her return that she learns of a betrayal sweeping enough to destroy everything she believes in.
As a witch-aelf of Khailebron, Trisethni’s specialty is ambush and assassination. She is fiercely loyal, but her relationship with her Hag Queen, Belleth, has recently soured. Belleth’s motives for sending Trisethni on her missions might not be entirely innocent and Trisethni has to deal with the prospect of betrayal as well as fighting for her life to bring honour to her coven, Morathi, and Khaine himself.
I wanted to show the Daughters of Khaine as something more than bloodthirsty murderers. They are as complex as any other aelf or any other race across the Mortal Realms, and I was intrigued by how it might feel to know that your allies against Chaos hate and revile you even as they rely on the very expertise they loathe. That makes them, in my opinion, very conflicted, and I wanted to see how it might play when that conflict is exacerbated by secrets and betrayals within the coven itself.
How does someone cope with knowing that not only are they feared by their enemies and their allies, but that the very foundation of their lives and their worship might also be built on betrayal? It was this idea that helped me make Trisethni a sympathetic character despite her bloodlust and the enormous body count in her past.
Liane Merciel
Red Claw and Ruin begins when the Kharumathi coven receives a visit from an emissary of Morathi who orders them to retrieve a shard of Khaine from a cursed fortress known as Redhollow Ruin. The fortress is held by a Bloodbound warlord, whose forces overmatch those of the Daughters of Khaine. The story follows the witch aelves’ efforts to defeat Khorne’s champion and recover the shard, while also dealing with treachery within their own ranks and, perhaps deadliest of all, Morathi’s suspicions of their disloyalty.
There are three main characters in this story: Rhaelanthe, the Hag Queen of the Kharumathi coven, a hotheaded fanatic who is utterly devoted to Khaine and to Morathi as her High Oracle, and her two main lieutenants, Nepenora and Thaelire.
Although Rhaelanthe’s loyalty is absolute, her unquestioning zealotry sometimes clouds her ability to lead the witch aelves effectively, and the fortunes of the Kharumathi have declined under her rule. As they’re confronted with a possible suicide mission in Redhollow Ruin, Nepenora and Thaelire begin to believe that perhaps the Kharumathi would be better served by new leadership — indeed, that this might be the coven’s only chance to survive. Any scheme they might hatch to remove the Hag Queen, however, is complicated by the fact that Morathi has sent a powerful Melusai handmaiden to watch over the Kharumathi war effort. None of the Kharumathi dares to be seen as disloyal to the High Oracle. This conflict is the key dynamic for all that follows.
The first kernel of inspiration for this story came as I was thinking about how closely aligned Khaine and Khorne are, in terms of theme and portfolio, and yet how bitterly opposed their forces are. They’re both blood gods, they both command armies of rage-maddened fanatics who happily surrender to divine bloodlust in battle, and yet one is allied to the forces of Order and the other is a pure Chaos menace. And, of course, their adherents hate each other.
So I thought it would be interesting to pit these two gods’ followers against one another and see how that story developed. How do the Daughters of Khaine and Bloodbound think about each other? That was the first question I wanted to explore.
The second main thing I wondered about, as I was putting together the plot and characters, was what it might be like to live under this constant cloud of paranoia and suspicion. Morathi really doesn’t trust her followers at all. Her entire system is built on a lie: that she is the High Oracle of Khaine, and that the Daughters of Khaine will, under her leadership, someday revive their god. But of course that’s not true; Morathi’s actual plan is quite different. And she can’t allow her followers to discover this, so she has to resort to an elaborate system of spies and informants and, really, the destruction of anyone who’s clever or dedicated enough to begin approaching the truth.
Historically, we know that this kind of rulership leads to some pretty messed-up places. So that also seemed like it could be a potentially interesting theme to explore.
Jamie Crisalli
I can finally talk about it, so excited! My novella is called A Snake Sheds Its Skin and features the Draichi Ganeth, the coven that is the most direct in their methods. Athletic and murderous, they rely on pure skill to destroy their foes. So, no sneaking around, no poisons, no clever plots, just pure skill. And they have to prove that skill to each other as well as their foes on a continual basis. There’s rivalries, duels, and of course, a lot of bloody combat.
Vahis is the Daughter we follow through the novella. She is an ancient warrior, ruthless and proud in the extreme but content with her place in the world. She is at the top of her game and no one dares challenge her. Yet, politics and plots threaten her position and she is forced to confront not only a dastardly quest with uncertain allies and vicious rivals but her own mortality.
Sareth is the opposite of Vahis. She wants to be Vahis’s rival but the ancient does not take her seriously. Unlike Vahis who is content with her life, Sareth burns with ambition. And she’s finally given the chance to put Vahis in the ground, or at least knock her down a peg or two.
You rarely see older women characters in their own stories and when you do, it’s usually one of two archetypes, either the wise priestess or the schemer. With Vahis, she relies on her physical prowess and fearsome charisma, rather than wicked intelligence to maintain her position. And she is wise enough to know it too. She has no ambition for titles and authority over others, but rather, wants to be the best and ensure everyone knows it. At the beginning of our story, she is content with her life, she is exactly where she wants to be. At least, as content as a murderous amoral cultist can be. And then it starts to go horribly wrong because it must.
I also asked a few wider questions about the Daughters of Khaine, working on a portmanteau, and the book as a whole. I’ve included all three authors’ answers under each question.
ToW: What is it about the Daughters of Khaine that appeals to you in terms of characters to write about?
Jamie: Where to start. Often, it’s just fun writing evil. With the Daughters, you have wickedness galore. So, you get to write all the fun lines and maniacal laughter but they’re also protagonists, so you can put them in situations that you can’t with a straight villain. They can win but is that really a good thing given their nature? The other thing is, the Daughters are treacherous and evil but they’re also a force for Order with allies that are nominally heroic, and it is fascinating playing with that tension. They have to keep so many secrets, and there are some allies like the Stormcast Eternals that one can’t just murder if they discover certain things. The Daughters are in this constant high risk/high reward dance that’s fascinating to explore.
Anna: I’ve always been drawn to morally grey, complex characters, and I think a cult that is literally based on slaughter as a form of worship – and that they ostensibly fight against the Ruinous Powers – to be the greyest of the grey! And yet, at the end of the day, they’re as much people as any of the other races or cults, and I wanted to dig through the surface to find out what sort of person would give herself to such a way of life. I wanted to make readers sympathise with Trisethni, despite her actions. If I can make you feel sorry for an assassin witch aelf, then I’ve done my job!
Liane: One of the things I like about the Daughters of Khaine is that they’re depicted as being quite seductive, which is interesting to me because they don’t have to be. They aren’t like the Slaaneshi: disarming their opponents with lust isn’t inherently part of their M.O. The Daughters of Khaine are perfectly happy to meet you straight-up in battle and disembowel you into a cauldron. They don’t need to seduce you first.
But they might do it anyway, which suggests to me that they do it because it amuses them and they can. No other reason. Which to me reads as very empowering, and therefore fun to play with. Obligatory seduction doesn’t interest me very much. But doing it because you want to, because it’s just part of how this particular cat likes playing with its mice? That’s something I can dig into, and it heavily informed how I wrote Thaelire, in particular.
ToW: How did you find the experience of working on a portmanteau novel, knowing your novella would be read alongside the other two within the connecting framework?
Liane: To be honest, it didn’t affect my usual writing approach that much, except that I wanted to be very careful not to overlap too much with the other authors’ material. In a themed collection, you always want to avoid retreading too much of the same ground, but it can be tricky to figure out how to do that when you don’t know exactly what the other writers will come up with. So a lot of that was blind guessing. Hopefully I guessed right!
Other than that, it didn’t really change anything from how I would ordinarily approach a story. I am terribly curious to see what the other authors came up with, though. I still don’t know, and will discover that right alongside all the other readers after the collection is released.
Jamie: It’s really fun because you get to see how not only the different characters and covens tackle their challenges and what they consider a challenge but also how different authors approach their craft and the twists and turns they come up along the way. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the others wrote.
Anna: It was really exciting. I hadn’t done one before, and so I needed to know the broad names and plot of the other two novellas in order to draw the framing narrative around all three stories and make it cohesive. I was sent the synopses from the other authors, Jamie and Liane, and they seemed to mesh really well with my own, which obviously made it easier to frame all three.
I’m excited to read their novellas and see how the different voices all meld together through the whole book.
ToW: What do you hope fans will get out of your novella – and Covens of Blood overall – by the time they’ve finished it?
Anna: I’d like them to see Trisethni’s loyalty and dedication first, her love of her people and her god, and realise that she, like all Daughters, is more than just a killing machine. Underneath the gore, they’re complex characters with loves and wants and betrayals. It would be nice for readers to see that they’re not just savages hellbent on slaughter. I mean, obviously, slaughter features heavily in their daily lives, but they’re more than just weapons.
Liane: I hope it’ll develop some interesting angles on the Daughters of Khaine — who they are, how to portray them, how their motivations and backstories might fit into home campaigns. They’re a really interesting faction and I hope that my novella, and the collection as a whole, inspires people to play around with them a little more.
Jamie: I hope they enjoy walking on the shadowy side of the forces of Order. Also, not only that readers like it of course but also get some perspective about why the Daughters go through such lengths to achieve their goals. In a way, the Daughters understand Chaos better than most, and that knowledge drives them on to do terrible things.
ToW: Lastly, if you were an aelf in the Mortal Realms, to which of the gods would you give your allegiance? Would you risk it with Morathi as a Daughter of Khaine, or would you take a different path with Tyrion, Teclis, Malerion or Alarielle?
Jamie: Why is this question so hard?! I would have to say Alarielle. What can I say? I have a bit of a green thumb. At least, I haven’t managed to kill my rex begonia yet.
Anna: Hmm, while I’m not averse to a bit of violence, I’m not sure I’ve got the lust for it that would make me a good Daughter, so I’m going to go with Alarielle. Obviously the sylvaneth still kick butt, but I like how Alarielle is focused on life and growing things and nature, as well, and I’m intrigued by the symbiotic relationship the sylvaneth have with Ghyran, Alarielle and each other. That would be very cool to experience.
Liane: Oof, that’s a tough one!
I don’t get the impression that there’s a whole lot of freedom of religion in the Age of Sigmar universe. Your allegiance seems to be determined largely by luck of the draw: where you’re born, who your family or tribe follows, and then maybe if you’re exceptionally talented and lucky, you might get to break away and go free agent later in life. Or maybe you just get killed as an apostate for even thinking about it.
So probably my life course would be limited by the options available to me at birth. But, if we assume this isn’t an issue, then I’d go with Tyrion and Teclis. Morathi’s clearly a bad gamble if you have any better options, and I can’t imagine Malerion is much better. Alarielle is a little too alien for me to feel comfortable following. That leaves us with Tyrion and Teclis, who conveniently get you all the gilt-edged luxury and famous aelven arrogance with relatively little of the backstabbing and lies. Sold!
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I’d like to say a big thank you to Anna, Liane and Jamie for getting involved with this interview, and providing some fantastic answers! Covens of Blood sounds like a lot of fun – I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to reading it when I can!
See also: the main Age of Sigmar reviews page on Track of Words
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