Troy Game
Encyclopedia
The Troy Game is a quartet by Australian author Sara Douglass consisting of four books: Hades' Daughter, God's Concubine, Darkwitch Rising and Druid's Sword. It centres around a group of characters who are reincarnated at the end of each book and take the form of renowned historical figures from different ages. The entire series is set in London
and focuses on the characters trying to complete the Troy Game, a kind of spell cast in the first
book to protect the city.
sorcery lives on.
Theseus
bested the Minotaur
with the aid of Ariadne
, Mistress of the Labyrinth
. So when Theseus betrays her, Ariadne turns her wrath upon him and all his world, the catastrophe strikes the Mediterranean. Thera
explodes, Atlantis
sinks below the waves, poisons fill the air, tidal waves inundate nations, entire peoples are destroyed.
Amid the chaos, the great city of Troy
falls, undone as much by Ariadne's revenge as by Greek
cunning. Among the scattered Trojans
wanders one man, Brutus
, who carries with him the Troy Game, the greatest secret the western world has ever known. And Ariadne wants it – badly. As do her wicked daughter-heir successors.
The Greek goddess, Artemis
appears to Brutus and offers him a splendid and powerful future if only he can resurrect the Troy Game. Hungry for power and a home for his people, Brutus accepts her challenge. And so the Troy Game begins, on the shores of the Thames in ancient Iron Age Britain.
But the malevolent Minotaur, Asterion
, has escaped death and seeks to destroy the Game completely. And Cornelia, Brutus’ strange, unknowable wife, trails death in her wake.
Everywhere lurks Ariadne’s legacy of hatred, carrying western Europe
into a maelstrom of darkness.
For 2000 years the Troy Game has survived Asterion’s murderous attempts to find Brutus’ Trojan kingship bands. Admitting defeat, Asterion must allow the rebirth of the Game’s creators…to lead him to the magical golden bands of Troy.
Now, two millennia after Genvissa and Brutus founded the Game, they find themselves reborn into a vastly different world, a world where they are separated by ambitions and hatreds endangered by the approaching Norman invasion
of England
. They discover that Cornelia has also returned, apparently more determined than previously to thwart them. And Coel has been reborn at her side, but this time with a sword in his hand.
Yet Brutus and Genvissa’s most deadly enemy may be the Troy Game itself. Left on its own for 2000 years, the Game has changed. Become aware. Become manipulative. Become devious. Become alive.
And Asterion, abroad in Anglo-Saxon
London, is desperate to find it.
It is the seventeenth century, and once more the players of Troy Game are drawn back into its intricate dance. But this life there is a difference.
This life the Troy Game itself takes flesh, and walks.
Restoration London becomes the field of the most desperate battle yet. Can the Troy Game outmanoeuvre Asterion, who lurks in a nightmare lair he has built against the rear wall of the bone house of St Dunstan-in-the-East
? It is here that Asterion traps Cornelia-reborn Noah Banks, and Genvissa-reborn Jane Orr. It is here that he manages the ultimate trickery in order to obtain the kingship bands, the Game and Noah.
But no one – not Asterion, not Brutus, not even Noah – could have anticipated an ancient Darkwitch rising from the dead with a secret so terrible it would not merely tear both the Game and land apart, but devastate any chance that Noah and her lover, Brutus can be together.
It is the early days of the Second World War. Grace - daughter of Asterion and Noah - remains bound in agony to Catling, her wrists cruelly scarred by the otherworldly restraints.
There are none, it seems, who can help Grace. Certainly not her mother or father.
Jack Skelton, Brutus-reborn and the love of Noah’s life, is the only one able to break through Grace’s carefully constructed barriers. It may be that Grace is not entirely helpless after all…
And while Genvissa-reborn and Coel-reborn attempt to identify exactly how to deal with the grip of the malevolent Troy Game, a killer stalks the streets of London creating terror upon terror as the bombers shadow the land.
Set during 1939-1941, mainly during the period of the London Blitz, from 7 September 1940 to 10 May 1941, the book centres on Jack Skelton's (Brutus') desperate search for a means to not only save London, but the Faerie and all those he loves. He seems helplessly trapped, unable to find a solution, watching many of those he loves best lost to death for all time, until one day he finds himself in a long forgotten crypt, staring at a piece of marzipan fruit on a chipped plate, a half-full decanter of whisky and two dirty glasses, and a receipt from a seedy hotel, all of which sit on a crumbling altar. Suddenly, he has an idea ...
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and focuses on the characters trying to complete the Troy Game, a kind of spell cast in the first
book to protect the city.
1. Hades' Daughter
Blurb: Created by gods. Destroyed by revenge. Reborn in the darkest magic of all. THE TROY GAME. The ancient AegeanAegean civilization
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization...
sorcery lives on.
Theseus
Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
bested the Minotaur
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
with the aid of Ariadne
Ariadne
Ariadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
, Mistress of the Labyrinth
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
. So when Theseus betrays her, Ariadne turns her wrath upon him and all his world, the catastrophe strikes the Mediterranean. Thera
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...
explodes, Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
sinks below the waves, poisons fill the air, tidal waves inundate nations, entire peoples are destroyed.
Amid the chaos, the great city of Troy
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
falls, undone as much by Ariadne's revenge as by Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
cunning. Among the scattered Trojans
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
wanders one man, Brutus
Brutus
Brutus is the cognomen of the Roman gens Junia, a prominent family of the Roman Republic. The plural of Brutus is Bruti, and the vocative form is Brute, as immortalized in the quotation "Et tu, Brute?", from Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar....
, who carries with him the Troy Game, the greatest secret the western world has ever known. And Ariadne wants it – badly. As do her wicked daughter-heir successors.
The Greek goddess, Artemis
Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
appears to Brutus and offers him a splendid and powerful future if only he can resurrect the Troy Game. Hungry for power and a home for his people, Brutus accepts her challenge. And so the Troy Game begins, on the shores of the Thames in ancient Iron Age Britain.
But the malevolent Minotaur, Asterion
Asterion
In Greek mythology, Asterion denotes two sacred kings of Crete. The first Asterion or Asterius , the son of Tectamus or son of Neleus and Chloris by the Greeks called "king" of Crete, was the consort of Europa and stepfather of her sons by Zeus, who had to assume the form of the Cretan bull of...
, has escaped death and seeks to destroy the Game completely. And Cornelia, Brutus’ strange, unknowable wife, trails death in her wake.
Everywhere lurks Ariadne’s legacy of hatred, carrying western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
into a maelstrom of darkness.
- Taken from: Hades' Daughter, Sara Douglass, (c) 2002
2. God's Concubine
Blurb: The Troy Game lives - but can anyone control it?For 2000 years the Troy Game has survived Asterion’s murderous attempts to find Brutus’ Trojan kingship bands. Admitting defeat, Asterion must allow the rebirth of the Game’s creators…to lead him to the magical golden bands of Troy.
Now, two millennia after Genvissa and Brutus founded the Game, they find themselves reborn into a vastly different world, a world where they are separated by ambitions and hatreds endangered by the approaching Norman invasion
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. They discover that Cornelia has also returned, apparently more determined than previously to thwart them. And Coel has been reborn at her side, but this time with a sword in his hand.
Yet Brutus and Genvissa’s most deadly enemy may be the Troy Game itself. Left on its own for 2000 years, the Game has changed. Become aware. Become manipulative. Become devious. Become alive.
And Asterion, abroad in Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
London, is desperate to find it.
- Taken from: God's Concubine, Sara Douglass, (c) 2004
3. Darkwitch Rising
Blurb: Out of a city devastated by plague and fire rises the most powerful Darkwitch in history.It is the seventeenth century, and once more the players of Troy Game are drawn back into its intricate dance. But this life there is a difference.
This life the Troy Game itself takes flesh, and walks.
Restoration London becomes the field of the most desperate battle yet. Can the Troy Game outmanoeuvre Asterion, who lurks in a nightmare lair he has built against the rear wall of the bone house of St Dunstan-in-the-East
St Dunstan-in-the-East
St Dunstan-in-the-East was a Church of England parish church on St Dunstan's Hill, half way between London Bridge and the Tower of London in the City of London. The church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and the ruins are now a public garden....
? It is here that Asterion traps Cornelia-reborn Noah Banks, and Genvissa-reborn Jane Orr. It is here that he manages the ultimate trickery in order to obtain the kingship bands, the Game and Noah.
But no one – not Asterion, not Brutus, not even Noah – could have anticipated an ancient Darkwitch rising from the dead with a secret so terrible it would not merely tear both the Game and land apart, but devastate any chance that Noah and her lover, Brutus can be together.
- Taken from: Darkwitch Rising, Sara Douglass, (c) 2005
4. Druid's Sword
Blurb: As Hitler unleashes his bombs on London, another, more ancient, terror emerges...It is the early days of the Second World War. Grace - daughter of Asterion and Noah - remains bound in agony to Catling, her wrists cruelly scarred by the otherworldly restraints.
There are none, it seems, who can help Grace. Certainly not her mother or father.
Jack Skelton, Brutus-reborn and the love of Noah’s life, is the only one able to break through Grace’s carefully constructed barriers. It may be that Grace is not entirely helpless after all…
And while Genvissa-reborn and Coel-reborn attempt to identify exactly how to deal with the grip of the malevolent Troy Game, a killer stalks the streets of London creating terror upon terror as the bombers shadow the land.
- Taken from: Druid's Sword, Sara Douglass, (c) 2006
Set during 1939-1941, mainly during the period of the London Blitz, from 7 September 1940 to 10 May 1941, the book centres on Jack Skelton's (Brutus') desperate search for a means to not only save London, but the Faerie and all those he loves. He seems helplessly trapped, unable to find a solution, watching many of those he loves best lost to death for all time, until one day he finds himself in a long forgotten crypt, staring at a piece of marzipan fruit on a chipped plate, a half-full decanter of whisky and two dirty glasses, and a receipt from a seedy hotel, all of which sit on a crumbling altar. Suddenly, he has an idea ...
Recurring characters
- Brutus of TroyBrutus of TroyBrutus or Brute of Troy is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Æneas, known in mediæval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain...
; later William the Conqueror, Louis de Silva, Major Jack Skelton and Ringwalker - Cornelia; later CaelaEdith of WessexEdith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
, Noah Banks and Eaving - Coel-Harold GodwinsonHarold GodwinsonHarold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
-Charles II of EnglandCharles II of EnglandCharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
-Harold Cole and Lord of the Faerie - Genvissa; later Swanne, Jane Orr, Stella Wentworth and the Caroller
- AsterionAsterionIn Greek mythology, Asterion denotes two sacred kings of Crete. The first Asterion or Asterius , the son of Tectamus or son of Neleus and Chloris by the Greeks called "king" of Crete, was the consort of Europa and stepfather of her sons by Zeus, who had to assume the form of the Cretan bull of...
(The MinotaurThe MinotaurThe Minotaur is a novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, written under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. It was first published in 2005.- Plot summary:...
); later Amorian the Poiteran, AldredAldredEaldred was Abbot of Tavistock, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York in Anglo-Saxon England. He was related to a number of other ecclesiastics of the period. After becoming a monk at the monastery at Winchester, he was appointed Abbot of Tavistock Abbey in around 1027. In 1046 he was named...
the Archbishop of YorkArchbishop of YorkThe Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
and Weyland Orr - Grace Orr
- Catling (the Troy Game incarnate)
- Ecub; later Marguerite Carteret
- Erith; later Judith and Catherine (Kate) Pegge
- Matilda of FlandersMatilda of FlandersMatilda of Flanders was the wife of William the Conqueror and, as such, Queen consort of the Kingdom of England. She bore William nine/ten children, including two kings, William II and Henry I.-Marriage:...
; later Catharine of Braganza and Mrs Matilda Flanders - Loth; later Saeweald, James Duke of YorkDuke of YorkThe Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
(eventually James II of EnglandJames II of EnglandJames II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
) and Walter Herne - Long Tom the Sidlesaghe
- Reverend John Thornton; later George VI of England
- AriadneAriadneAriadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
- SilviusSilviusSilvius may refer to:* Alba Silvius, a Roman mythology king* Aeneas Silvius, a mythological king* Latinus Silvius, a mythological king* Romulus Silvius, a mythological king...
; later Silvius Makris - The Imps; later Bill and Jim Philpot (the Pentinent Rippers in Druid's Sword)
- Gog and MagogGog and MagogGog and Magog are names that appear primarily in various Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures, as well as numerous subsequent references in other works. Their context can be either genealogical or eschatological and apocalyptic, as in Ezekiel and Revelation...
, legendary protectors of London - Mag, previous goddess of the waters, predecessor to Eaving
- Og, previous god of the forests, predecessor to Ringwalker
- PrasutagusPrasutagusPrasutagus was king of a British Celtic tribe called the Iceni, who inhabited roughly what is now Norfolk, in the 1st century AD. He is best known as the husband of Boudica....
, husband of Boudicca; later Malcolm, Jack's servant in Druid's Sword - The White Queen