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cahnOK, let’s get into the more detailed “what is actually going on in TDW” read! This post will cover Chapters 1 through half of 9, or, “the relatively easy part to understand.” I will concentrate mostly on plot and on other features such as AU history, vampirism, and what-have-you mostly as they relate to the plot and what I think JMF is trying to do. (Although sometimes I will just talk about whatever I want to talk about. Also, since rachelmanija brought up magic, I'll try to put in some mentions of that.) However, I would welcome discussion of anything that is interesting to people! I will refer to Draco Concordans as “DC" and will sometimes parenthetically put in my reponses to various DC claims.
I will also occasionally mention a particularly good pun, none of which I understood before DC :P
The overall plot, let us remember, is Hywel’s plan to stop Byzantium from taking over England. That Byzantium wants to take over England is discussed as early as Chapter 1, although that Hywel is counter-plotting is not a thread that comes in until the end of Chapter 5.
Ch 1: Standalone plot: Hywel saves Ptolemy and becomes his magic apprentice (...this sounds much less fraught than what actually happens)
Byzantium is mentioned in both its incarnations as the Beautiful City (Ptolemy’s first description sounds very similar to the Charles Williams epigraph at the beginning) and as the Big Bad. (Note that the absolute dictatorship/Empire that characterizes Christianity is a good thing if you postulate an infinitely loving, wise, and powerful God as its head, and becomes a nightmare if the “directors,” as Ptolemy calls them, are not infinitely loving and wise.)
Here also is where we're introduced to magic and how it works in this universe, and the ideas (expanded on later) that a) magic corrupts and destroys the ones who wield the power (I don't think in this chapter the "spillage" idea that it affects people around it is brought up, because no big magic is done) and b) that magic can be done by making small changes to a larger system (this is not how everyone does magic, e.g. most of the other wizards we see, but Hywel certainly seems to have taken it to heart).
Of note is that Byzantium is working to destabilize England (by way of Irish rebels, here) even in Hywel’s childhood -- and even before, in Owain Glyn Dŵr's time. They work long-term...
Also, that chapter ending. *shiver* This is the first time I've reread that ending because it spooked me so much on first reading. I suppose Ptolemy was just trying to say, in the most direct and painful way possible, that magic destroys. But ugh.
Ch 2: Standalone plot: Byzantium takes steps to exterminate Dimi's family; Dimi makes a charge
Another long-term (hundreds of years) plot by Byzantium is, we find here, to exterminate the Ducas line. (Note that such an extermination did not occur in our world.) The Ducai are sent to Gaul/France. After a while Dimi’s father dies of a stroke (DC claims that a poisoner made him more susceptible to stroke, though I am a little skeptical — but per Lucian, a poisoner was involved somehow. DC also isn't sure to what degree Constantinople is involved, but to me it's pretty clear that the entire order to exterminate the Ducas line comes from Byzantium) and Dimi and his friends make a charge that ends in disaster.
It’s not 100% clear to me why Dimi and his friends make the charge at the end, but I think (and Draco Concordans also thinks) that his mother and Philip think that Dimi will challenge the Byzantine government (Tertullian, Lucian, etc.), the townspeople will rise to support them, and Dimi will become the head of France/Gaul, and it will not end there ("it will not end in Gaul, it will not end in..."), and he will continue to conquer until he becomes Emperor of Byzantium. (And Dimi is basically cowed by them into at least trying.) But since his mom and Philip are crazy, it of course doesn’t work anything like that, and the townspeople don't rise, his friends die, and he has to disappear to (as we find later) become a mercenary.
(Other DC notes: p. 53: I think Iphigenia says "deserted him at his death" because Dimi didn't bring him a vampire, not because he was away.)
Ch 3: What is happening to Lorenzo / Cynthia's family /Will Florence be saved? (Spoiler: no)
OK. So there is a lot going on here. The Cynthia's-family stuff I'll gloss over, as I think it's relatively easy to parse, is depressing, and really never comes up again (except in terms of her own trauma and motivations). (Of course if you would like to talk more about it in comments feel free!) But also we have this subplot which I never quite understood before: Byzantium is Coming to attack Florence/Fiorenza, and Lorenzo de' Medici knows it. So Lorenzo sends Cynthia away to ask for help from the mercenary Federico da Montefeltro, whose city-state Urbino has held out against Byzantium for years. (Lorenzo also sends her in particular so he can get her away from the family drama/violence.) Unfortunately, it turns out Federico cannot help Lorenzo because he has already signed a contract with Sforza, the vampire Duke of Milan (turned vampire when he would have died in our world), against Florence. It is also true, however, that (unbeknownst to Federico) Sforza is in league with Byzantium. When Cynthia discovers this and points it out to Federico, he tears up the contract with Sforza, who then kills him, and Cynthia kills vampire!Sforza. Anyway, the point is, all this means no one comes to help the Medicis, and it's implied that Fiorenza and the Medicis will fall to Byzantium's attack, which starts at the end of this chapter (we hear about it in Ch 4, so presumably shortly after this chapter is over).
(According to DC, this is an AU version of the Pazzi conspiracy.)
...I guess none of this really comes up that much again either, except obliquely (and Medici/Milan loyalties are relevant for the murder mystery). But this is the first reading in which all of that made sense to me!
(DC: p 68 oh my god stella martis = STAR WARS this alone was worth reading DC for! p 76: Cynthia can't see Reynard's face not because Reynard can't see himself as human, but because Reynard is casting a glamour, as we will learn in Ch 6. p 84 - uh, Ford isn't making a point about Hell in the AU universe, but in ours -- he likes to point out things about Christian theology that don't make any sense to him :) )
Additional small note: last page of chapter, "...the English story, of Arthur? Sending the one away, at the end, to tell the story?" This is, of course, a reference to Once and Future King :P
Ch 4-5: Who killed Falcone? These two chapters are fun for being a locked room murder mystery. (I gotta confess that until this reading I never actually read it super carefully to really get all the ins and outs of the murder mystery.)
I am going to skip right over the vast majority of the locked room murder mystery, which is not relevant to the larger plot (seriously, I think JMF just... decided he wanted to write a locked room murder mystery as his get-the-questing-party-together arc, more power to you JMF) and concentrate on the solution, which is relevant (a bit). Basically, the messenger Falcone (who is actually a Medici agent passing on a message) is murdered by della Robbia (who is pretending to be a Medici banker, but is really a Byzantium agent). Della Robbia told Cynthia that Falcone was the Byzantium agent, to get her to help him.
What is the message Falcone was sending? Who knows? Is it relevant to the overarching plot?? DC doesn't know either. The fragments indicate that it has something to do with Edward IV and the Medici interest in him (they have loaned money to him). Cynthia thinks in the next chapter that maybe it is relevant to the Exemplification??
(DC: p135, I think the phrase about the "kind [of horse] mercenaries prefer to ride" is simply to point out that this is the same horse that della Robbia / the Agent was riding earlier.)
Ch 6: Can we get/destroy George's Exemplification?
Okay, starting here the history of England becomes rather more relevant (that is to say, not knowing it becomes a hindrance to following the plot). Though really the only thing you need to know at this point are that the Lancasters and Yorks fought (the "Wars of the Roses").
The players: The weak last Lancaster monarch was Henry VI, who is often called "Henry the Idiot" by characters in TDW, and his strong-willed wife was Margaret of Anjou. The Yorks are the killed-in-battle Richard of York and his sons, who eventually won the war: Edward IV (the reigning monarch in this chapter) and his brothers, George (who will be relevant in this chapter) and Richard (who will become Richard III).
(Byzantium wants to use the destabilization of the succession to come in and take over, though they seem to be curiously bad at it -- one might have expected them to have taken over during the Wars of the Roses.)
Anyway. The first sally of Our Heroes involves George (recall he is brother to Edward IV and Richard III), who wrote an "Exemplification" contracting with Henry VI that George would be Henry's heir (this was during a point when Henry briefly returned to power). In other words, George betrayed his brothers and there's written proof of it. Hywel wants to destroy it, and they go to France to find Margaret of Anjou, who is sending it to England via wizardry. They find the French wizard who's helping her, and end up destroying it (and the wizard).
I am not entirely sure why Hywel cares so much about the Exemplification -- the fact that they destroyed it doesn't seem to make any difference (later, George is executed just the same). I guess they were hoping that it would prevent George from being executed and therefore give York more supporters?? And George just keeps doing dumb things (see next chapter) so this doesn't work??
In any case, Margaret of Anjou is presumably allied with Byzantium in all this and is working with a wizard in England to destablize England via this Exemplification. We don't know who the wizard is yet in this chapter, but it will turn out to be John Morton (we'll find out in Ch 10-12 -- see next post).
Ch 7: Everyone hangs out with Duchess Cecily!
Yeah, this is kind of a connector chapter. Cecily is the mom of Edward IV, Richard, and George. Our Heroes hang out with her, and we all meet Richard for the first time. The destruction of the Exemplification fails to prevent George from being branded a traitor (due to his doing several stupid things that he also does in our history) and executed. Our Heroes prepare to split: Dimi and Gregory with Richard to Scotland, and Cynthia and Hywel to Wales (after Gregory play-acts a bit of Romantic!Vampire at her to prevent her from going to Scotland).
I don't know why they split. Like, I can see why Hywel wants to take Cynthia to Wales (to cure her and possibly to help with the dragon-hunt) but why are Dimi and Gregory going with Richard and how does anyone think that is going to help anything? I don't really get it.
(DC notes: p177: "If Henry [VI] swore an oath to protect the family of his enemy, was he kept to it by fear of losing face in front of his allies, or by fear of genuinely being struck by lightning?" Naw. Henry was just a pious kind of person, in our history as well as AU. p196 ("with his mouth open as if he had just understood a mysterious thing"): Yeah, I don't understand what Dimi's thinking there either. Does anyone else?)
Ch 8: Dimi rescues Albany (who is then abruptly murdered)
Dimi and the spy Colin rescue the Duke of Albany (Scottish royalty), and then Colin kills Albany. In our world, Albany and Richard III allied; in TDW AU, they obviously don't, and Colin cites preventing this alliance as the reason he killed Albany.
Why did Colin kill Albany and prevent the alliance? Was he in league with the Byzantines as well? I guess so (and so does DC), but this is never stated outright.
(DC notes: Dimi's girl is obviously Elayne! p. 213 - one of the running gags in this book, which DC doesn't seem to note, is that everyone claims King Arthur for their own: the Welsh, the Scottish, the English. It's funny because it's true! Also, note DC about Georges as a plot point, which is something I entirely missed.)
First half of Ch 9: Hywel takes Cynthia to Wales so Mary can help her be cured!
Actually I guess this Wales trip has two purposes? The first is taking Cynthia to Mary to cure her. The second seems to be for him to pick up the dragon medals and replace them with his own benign (or at least anti-Byzantine) wizardry, but we won't see that until Ch 13.
We also learn a lot about magic in this chapter -- in particular, we learn that Hywel has learned how not to make magic corrupt and devour yourself, or at least he has learned how other people (Mary among them) do it. "He knew what kept those five alone from devouring themselves. It was not the sorts of spells they worked, nor the names they worked in, nor magic circles or eye of newt or the phases of the moon. He knew what it was, but knowing could not save him, because the parts of him that could sustain faith were all burned out." Oof!
"She had helped prove it to him, although he would never tell her that" -- I don't understand what this means? Because she has faith and he doesn't?
There's more about magic in the last half of Ch 9, but I'm tired! We can still talk about it here, though :D
rachelmanija brought up magic, I'll try to put in some mentions of that.) However, I would welcome discussion of anything that is interesting to people! I will refer to Draco Concordans as “DC" and will sometimes parenthetically put in my reponses to various DC claims.I will also occasionally mention a particularly good pun, none of which I understood before DC :P
The overall plot, let us remember, is Hywel’s plan to stop Byzantium from taking over England. That Byzantium wants to take over England is discussed as early as Chapter 1, although that Hywel is counter-plotting is not a thread that comes in until the end of Chapter 5.
Ch 1: Standalone plot: Hywel saves Ptolemy and becomes his magic apprentice (...this sounds much less fraught than what actually happens)
Byzantium is mentioned in both its incarnations as the Beautiful City (Ptolemy’s first description sounds very similar to the Charles Williams epigraph at the beginning) and as the Big Bad. (Note that the absolute dictatorship/Empire that characterizes Christianity is a good thing if you postulate an infinitely loving, wise, and powerful God as its head, and becomes a nightmare if the “directors,” as Ptolemy calls them, are not infinitely loving and wise.)
Here also is where we're introduced to magic and how it works in this universe, and the ideas (expanded on later) that a) magic corrupts and destroys the ones who wield the power (I don't think in this chapter the "spillage" idea that it affects people around it is brought up, because no big magic is done) and b) that magic can be done by making small changes to a larger system (this is not how everyone does magic, e.g. most of the other wizards we see, but Hywel certainly seems to have taken it to heart).
Of note is that Byzantium is working to destabilize England (by way of Irish rebels, here) even in Hywel’s childhood -- and even before, in Owain Glyn Dŵr's time. They work long-term...
Also, that chapter ending. *shiver* This is the first time I've reread that ending because it spooked me so much on first reading. I suppose Ptolemy was just trying to say, in the most direct and painful way possible, that magic destroys. But ugh.
Ch 2: Standalone plot: Byzantium takes steps to exterminate Dimi's family; Dimi makes a charge
Another long-term (hundreds of years) plot by Byzantium is, we find here, to exterminate the Ducas line. (Note that such an extermination did not occur in our world.) The Ducai are sent to Gaul/France. After a while Dimi’s father dies of a stroke (DC claims that a poisoner made him more susceptible to stroke, though I am a little skeptical — but per Lucian, a poisoner was involved somehow. DC also isn't sure to what degree Constantinople is involved, but to me it's pretty clear that the entire order to exterminate the Ducas line comes from Byzantium) and Dimi and his friends make a charge that ends in disaster.
It’s not 100% clear to me why Dimi and his friends make the charge at the end, but I think (and Draco Concordans also thinks) that his mother and Philip think that Dimi will challenge the Byzantine government (Tertullian, Lucian, etc.), the townspeople will rise to support them, and Dimi will become the head of France/Gaul, and it will not end there ("it will not end in Gaul, it will not end in..."), and he will continue to conquer until he becomes Emperor of Byzantium. (And Dimi is basically cowed by them into at least trying.) But since his mom and Philip are crazy, it of course doesn’t work anything like that, and the townspeople don't rise, his friends die, and he has to disappear to (as we find later) become a mercenary.
(Other DC notes: p. 53: I think Iphigenia says "deserted him at his death" because Dimi didn't bring him a vampire, not because he was away.)
Ch 3: What is happening to Lorenzo / Cynthia's family /Will Florence be saved? (Spoiler: no)
OK. So there is a lot going on here. The Cynthia's-family stuff I'll gloss over, as I think it's relatively easy to parse, is depressing, and really never comes up again (except in terms of her own trauma and motivations). (Of course if you would like to talk more about it in comments feel free!) But also we have this subplot which I never quite understood before: Byzantium is Coming to attack Florence/Fiorenza, and Lorenzo de' Medici knows it. So Lorenzo sends Cynthia away to ask for help from the mercenary Federico da Montefeltro, whose city-state Urbino has held out against Byzantium for years. (Lorenzo also sends her in particular so he can get her away from the family drama/violence.) Unfortunately, it turns out Federico cannot help Lorenzo because he has already signed a contract with Sforza, the vampire Duke of Milan (turned vampire when he would have died in our world), against Florence. It is also true, however, that (unbeknownst to Federico) Sforza is in league with Byzantium. When Cynthia discovers this and points it out to Federico, he tears up the contract with Sforza, who then kills him, and Cynthia kills vampire!Sforza. Anyway, the point is, all this means no one comes to help the Medicis, and it's implied that Fiorenza and the Medicis will fall to Byzantium's attack, which starts at the end of this chapter (we hear about it in Ch 4, so presumably shortly after this chapter is over).
(According to DC, this is an AU version of the Pazzi conspiracy.)
...I guess none of this really comes up that much again either, except obliquely (and Medici/Milan loyalties are relevant for the murder mystery). But this is the first reading in which all of that made sense to me!
(DC: p 68 oh my god stella martis = STAR WARS this alone was worth reading DC for! p 76: Cynthia can't see Reynard's face not because Reynard can't see himself as human, but because Reynard is casting a glamour, as we will learn in Ch 6. p 84 - uh, Ford isn't making a point about Hell in the AU universe, but in ours -- he likes to point out things about Christian theology that don't make any sense to him :) )
Additional small note: last page of chapter, "...the English story, of Arthur? Sending the one away, at the end, to tell the story?" This is, of course, a reference to Once and Future King :P
Ch 4-5: Who killed Falcone? These two chapters are fun for being a locked room murder mystery. (I gotta confess that until this reading I never actually read it super carefully to really get all the ins and outs of the murder mystery.)
I am going to skip right over the vast majority of the locked room murder mystery, which is not relevant to the larger plot (seriously, I think JMF just... decided he wanted to write a locked room murder mystery as his get-the-questing-party-together arc, more power to you JMF) and concentrate on the solution, which is relevant (a bit). Basically, the messenger Falcone (who is actually a Medici agent passing on a message) is murdered by della Robbia (who is pretending to be a Medici banker, but is really a Byzantium agent). Della Robbia told Cynthia that Falcone was the Byzantium agent, to get her to help him.
What is the message Falcone was sending? Who knows? Is it relevant to the overarching plot?? DC doesn't know either. The fragments indicate that it has something to do with Edward IV and the Medici interest in him (they have loaned money to him). Cynthia thinks in the next chapter that maybe it is relevant to the Exemplification??
(DC: p135, I think the phrase about the "kind [of horse] mercenaries prefer to ride" is simply to point out that this is the same horse that della Robbia / the Agent was riding earlier.)
Ch 6: Can we get/destroy George's Exemplification?
Okay, starting here the history of England becomes rather more relevant (that is to say, not knowing it becomes a hindrance to following the plot). Though really the only thing you need to know at this point are that the Lancasters and Yorks fought (the "Wars of the Roses").
The players: The weak last Lancaster monarch was Henry VI, who is often called "Henry the Idiot" by characters in TDW, and his strong-willed wife was Margaret of Anjou. The Yorks are the killed-in-battle Richard of York and his sons, who eventually won the war: Edward IV (the reigning monarch in this chapter) and his brothers, George (who will be relevant in this chapter) and Richard (who will become Richard III).
(Byzantium wants to use the destabilization of the succession to come in and take over, though they seem to be curiously bad at it -- one might have expected them to have taken over during the Wars of the Roses.)
Anyway. The first sally of Our Heroes involves George (recall he is brother to Edward IV and Richard III), who wrote an "Exemplification" contracting with Henry VI that George would be Henry's heir (this was during a point when Henry briefly returned to power). In other words, George betrayed his brothers and there's written proof of it. Hywel wants to destroy it, and they go to France to find Margaret of Anjou, who is sending it to England via wizardry. They find the French wizard who's helping her, and end up destroying it (and the wizard).
I am not entirely sure why Hywel cares so much about the Exemplification -- the fact that they destroyed it doesn't seem to make any difference (later, George is executed just the same). I guess they were hoping that it would prevent George from being executed and therefore give York more supporters?? And George just keeps doing dumb things (see next chapter) so this doesn't work??
In any case, Margaret of Anjou is presumably allied with Byzantium in all this and is working with a wizard in England to destablize England via this Exemplification. We don't know who the wizard is yet in this chapter, but it will turn out to be John Morton (we'll find out in Ch 10-12 -- see next post).
Ch 7: Everyone hangs out with Duchess Cecily!
Yeah, this is kind of a connector chapter. Cecily is the mom of Edward IV, Richard, and George. Our Heroes hang out with her, and we all meet Richard for the first time. The destruction of the Exemplification fails to prevent George from being branded a traitor (due to his doing several stupid things that he also does in our history) and executed. Our Heroes prepare to split: Dimi and Gregory with Richard to Scotland, and Cynthia and Hywel to Wales (after Gregory play-acts a bit of Romantic!Vampire at her to prevent her from going to Scotland).
I don't know why they split. Like, I can see why Hywel wants to take Cynthia to Wales (to cure her and possibly to help with the dragon-hunt) but why are Dimi and Gregory going with Richard and how does anyone think that is going to help anything? I don't really get it.
(DC notes: p177: "If Henry [VI] swore an oath to protect the family of his enemy, was he kept to it by fear of losing face in front of his allies, or by fear of genuinely being struck by lightning?" Naw. Henry was just a pious kind of person, in our history as well as AU. p196 ("with his mouth open as if he had just understood a mysterious thing"): Yeah, I don't understand what Dimi's thinking there either. Does anyone else?)
Ch 8: Dimi rescues Albany (who is then abruptly murdered)
Dimi and the spy Colin rescue the Duke of Albany (Scottish royalty), and then Colin kills Albany. In our world, Albany and Richard III allied; in TDW AU, they obviously don't, and Colin cites preventing this alliance as the reason he killed Albany.
Why did Colin kill Albany and prevent the alliance? Was he in league with the Byzantines as well? I guess so (and so does DC), but this is never stated outright.
(DC notes: Dimi's girl is obviously Elayne! p. 213 - one of the running gags in this book, which DC doesn't seem to note, is that everyone claims King Arthur for their own: the Welsh, the Scottish, the English. It's funny because it's true! Also, note DC about Georges as a plot point, which is something I entirely missed.)
First half of Ch 9: Hywel takes Cynthia to Wales so Mary can help her be cured!
Actually I guess this Wales trip has two purposes? The first is taking Cynthia to Mary to cure her. The second seems to be for him to pick up the dragon medals and replace them with his own benign (or at least anti-Byzantine) wizardry, but we won't see that until Ch 13.
We also learn a lot about magic in this chapter -- in particular, we learn that Hywel has learned how not to make magic corrupt and devour yourself, or at least he has learned how other people (Mary among them) do it. "He knew what kept those five alone from devouring themselves. It was not the sorts of spells they worked, nor the names they worked in, nor magic circles or eye of newt or the phases of the moon. He knew what it was, but knowing could not save him, because the parts of him that could sustain faith were all burned out." Oof!
"She had helped prove it to him, although he would never tell her that" -- I don't understand what this means? Because she has faith and he doesn't?
There's more about magic in the last half of Ch 9, but I'm tired! We can still talk about it here, though :D
