I reader recently wrote me asking for the names and insignia of the royal houses of The Shattered Isles. I felt more readers might be interested, so here along with a little more history, are the royal families that make up the ruling class:
The names of the groups and houses originate after the success of the revolt and the rise of Maxis. The men each chose new names for their families, rejecting the “goddessed” names of their ancestors and starting new lines in the light of Maxis.
The Houses Denae
These houses are all closely related, tracing their ancestors back to the three men who banded together to overthrow the rule of the goddess Progenita, who they refer to as Pestilentia.
Family: Danae
Symbol: Sun Hawk
Family: Fawnae
Symbol: Summer Eagle
Family: Malnae
Symbol: Falcon Moon
As the Three, they stand slight higher in status than the other royal houses.
The Houses Sey
The Sey joined the rebellion some years after the beginning of the struggle. Thus, they rank lower than the others since they came along to the cause later, and were awarded estates of lesser value.
Family: Onsey
Symbol: Griffin of the Light
Family: Wensey
Symbol: Basalisk
Family: Ansey
Symbol: Sea Tiger
The final royal house is the only one that dates back to before the great war.
Family: Gaunefer
Symbol: The Ancient Spider
Gaunefer was one of the ruling clans from the days of the goddess. They betrayed Progenita and served a key role in the defeat of the forces of the goddess. As a reward, they were allowed to keep their ancestral lands and retain status as a ruling family. However, they have always been looked upon with distrust and rumors have circulated for years that they sheltered witches, who kept the cult of the goddess alive in secret.
Some history
House Kybele was the last ruling family during the matriarchy. Once King Denae seized power, he sought to hunt down and kill each and every member of the family as well as all hekatin. This was when he formed the order of the Witch Hunters. Their primary function was initially to eliminate all descendants of Kybele, but later became the suppression of goddess worship and witchcraft. Whispers have long haunted the Kings Denae that a heir survived, and her descendants have lived on in secret awaiting the return of the Witch Moon.
Originally, the lands now known as The Shattered Isles consisted of one large land mass. When House Kybele fell and Maxis rose, the Witch Moon vanished from the sky and there was a great tumult. The very ground shook and the seas boiled. The land shattered into a series of islands, great stretches of land sinking into the sea and leaving them divided. King Denae and the priests of Maxis determined this “shattering” represented the shattering of the bonds that had been placed on them by “Pestlentia” and so celebrated the breaking up of the lands by renaming them The Shattered Isles.
To the new ruling class, Pestilentia (and all women) represented chaos, emotionalism, illogic and the irrational. In their new order, women were denied any leadership positions and consigned to be wives and mothers. In the eyes of the men, women lacked the mental facilities to lead properly, allowing their feelings to govern their decisions. The only magic allowed was the magic of men– primarily spells to wage war and aid in physical tasks such as building. With their power in the rise, they constructed wonderous temples, roads and aqueducts.
For several hundreds of years after the rise of Maxis, girls received no formal education at all. Even many royal women lacked the ability to read. However, as time passed, it was determined that “properly” educated women made better wives for their husbands, and so gradually girls were allowed to learn some non-domestic subjects, primarily in what would become The Girls’ Academy in the royal city of Denaerk. The initial teachers came primarily from Gaunefer, where the lax leadership had allowed them to learn academic subbjects over the course of years, despite royal mandates forbidding such learning.
Some More History
According to The Hekatin
The priests of Maxis and the hekatin relate very different stories as to the origins of the world. According to the hekatin, Progenita gave birth to the world and to all life. She ruled over the lands as a loving mother, the hekatin her loyal servants. The lands, once known as Progenia, had always been ruled by a matriarchy. She placed the Goddess Moon in the sky to show her eternal love for her people, that they would ever know of her goodness. The people lived in harmony, harvest was abundant and all dwelt in comfort and safety.
They teach that a matriarchy is the natural and original order of the world. Men are all little boys who need a strong mother to guide their actions. And it was a dark God named Maxis who came from distant lands and tore the world asunder.
According to the Priests of Maxis
The priests of Maxis teach that Maxis forged the lands with his great hammer, Granite . He then made men of steel to fight and lead, and women of silver to provide comfort to their men. He placed the Ever Moon, later called the Witch Moon, in the sky as an expression of his love for his wife.
Pestilientia was his wife. She grew jealous of how much the people loved Maxis, and she revolted against her nature, seeking the power and the role of a God. So, she did betray him, slipping a sleeping drought into his wine one night and then binding him with mighty chains and spells in his own dungeon. The wicked queen then drew his power from him and gave it to women, allowing them to subjugate men and bringing an era of chaos and darkness to the world.
Finally, Maxis freed himself from her spell using the power of his mind, took back his power and restored the rule of man to the isles, striking down the Witch Moon, cutting out Pestilentia’s tongue and consigning her to serve as a maid in his palace. The wars to restore the rule of man shed much blood, and so Maxis cursed women to bleed once a month as a reminder of the folly of woman’s rule.
T.G. Kadee 
Cool
Its just sad that serren had to pay the price for the betrayal and subjugation of women for so long
Did the women subjugate men under prognita
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They did in the sense that all leadership roles went to women. They considered men childish and unfit to lead.
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no wonder they fought. And now I wonder about the wisdom of this goddess that didnt even know that men can be good and competent leaders and there are very childish women. They were just asking for a violent rebellion
And they could face such a rebellion again, especially with how they treated Serren. If he want so kind and loving and learned all about the goddess and grew to love her, he may have personally lead such a rebellion against his sister if he was so inclined. But he didnt because he loved her, and was loyal to her rule.
Hes so great.. I love him so much
I really question this goddess making someone as cruel as pattenia her vessel to torment and mistreat Serren
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Yes. It is a cycle!
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It seems like the old great war was a very necessary thing. The men were enduring great injustices under the Goddess
But then they do the same thing to women. It just seems like they wont need another great war to restore the goddess. Bu the men are right to fear such a thing, yet a number of men are willingly following Pattenia to restore her, regardless. But I am guessing that they dont really know about the history about the Hekatin and how society was ran under the goddess. that these powerful men could be stripped of everything the way it was done to Serren
But Serren in letting himself get so immersed in his feminine lifestyle and accepting it to such an unprecedented degree will help him when the time comes
but he still shouldn’t have had to lose his entire life the way he did. It was still like they murdered Serren. There is no more Serren now. He wont be Serren again. The Narator may as well simply call the Character Serrenina and use female pronouns now. She is Serrenina
I am still saddened how everyone turned their back on him after what was done
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The cycle has been set now that each side eventually becomes oppressive to the other. Each time this happens, there is an upheavel!
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I agree that Serren has undergone a life changing experience. He will never be the same. Yet, as much as he has been changed by the need to conform to the feminine world in which he finds himself, he still thinks of himself as Serren– thus, the narator following suit.
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I thought he had started accepting his female identity by the end. He became a witch, he did all of that to become one and is a devoted follower of the goddess now so I assumed actonias prophesy that he was happy with being a woman was becoming true
if its not then its very sad and I hope he regains his manhood
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now I am really confused. I don’t understand it at all
According to the Hekatin and the Goddess, they want a strictly matriarchal society where only women hold power and men are the subjects to the power. They have no power over society or their lives
why would Serren join and believe in this? Especially after what they did to him to achieve it, that part makes no sense. Serren is an ambitious boy who wanted more
Perhaps he fully has accepted his femininity when he became a witch but I still don’t think Serrenina would want to subject men like this. She still sees what happened to her as an injustice and what her sister is doing to her life
And the story says there’s many men who believe in the Goddess. Aanya made sure all of the Kings personal guards were believers in the Goddess which was why they all turned on Serren and pledged loyalty to his sister so quickly.
I can see a number of men believing in such a thing. There’s men that aren’t ambitious and would be happy being led by a powerful wise woman. But don’t those men realize that there are ambitious strong men that would never be satisfied under such a system and it would only start breading hatred and resentment of the kind that sparked the first great uprising and it would happen again if such a matriarchal society were implemented again
But I don’t see why Serren has become such a fanatical believer in the goddess
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Pattenia has kept men in leadership positions. The ideal they operate from is that everyone should be able to achieve on merit– other than King, of course. However, the followers of the God and Goddess have a tendency to overstep the ideals of the Gods they worship. In other words, Progenita did not command or order that the hekatin oppress men. Instead, certain flawed leaders took them down that path, which, perhaps, is one reason they lost power!
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gods allow their followers to overstep their bounds
these beings that can reform the land at will and have the powers of goddess’s allow their followers to overstep
I had assumed that it was all the will of the goddess or she wouldn’t allow it
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how had the Goddess allowed her people to overstep for so long. The story says she was the queen for thousands of years before the great war of 1914, kidding lol. I mean the great war in the book led by the first Denae who seized the crown
how had she allowed her followers to oppress men if she didnt wish it
I guess only the book will reveal what happened back then and what will happen to Serren
I had assumed he had no hope with the goddess and her supporters wishing him to get no power and suffer. Now you reveal this may not be the will of the goddess it gives me some hope that there is hope for his future
maybe thats why he is so powerful, perhaps that is the will of prognita
i wonder how powerful he really is
is he stronger than Pattenia, Aanya, or even Falconette
I am so eager for this book now
I really hope you make it by the 15 but thats 11 days from now
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Prognita did not command or order that the Hekatin oppress men
It does not matter
And did Prognita order the hekatin to mistreat and oppress Serren after they transformed him? thats something im curious about
But my point is that a commander is responsible for those under her or his command
and the Goddess was the queen, she was responsible for the conduct of the commanders and administrates under her
so in the end, she was very rightfully vilified and it is right to fear her restoration and do anything to prevent it
especially since she so cruelly had a boy transformed in front of everyone against his will and celebrated by taking down the entire temple and shattering its windows
wasnt that all the will of the goddess
why didnt she help that boy resist it all
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I can hardly wait to read it
Is it still set for the fifteenth
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I don’t think I am going to be able to meet that date! So sorry. I am working along– wrote for a few hours this morning and will continue later today!
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oh no 😦
these things happen but I hope you can have it out some time in dec
I hope you arent having real problems in your life
I hope this means its a massive book that will be worth this wait
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Thanks for your concern, but I am fine. Just writing away!
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There are so many questions I have that you refuse to answer. You simply say we will have to wait
What happens to Serren? How did he become pregnant, how will it all go
What will he do, how will he turn out and what will he do with his power About his family and his sister?
That cruel bitch Patteinea and his callous mother and the Hekatin
will he confront them, I assume he will but how will it go
and what about the war, and those piloting against him what happens there
What does Serren become, Theres so many questions and we have to wait
but some of us have been waiting over a fucking year!!!! and I know there have been some problems but I thought the wait would end and now its still not ready. so when? Only the book can answer these questions and we need the damn book
Are you having problems? Writers block? Or is it something else that is preventing you from making the progress you promised You at least need to inform your readers of these things even if you refuse to show anything about the general plot and direction Serren will take
I am really looking forward to Serren handing his sister and her entire horrible regime its ass when he takes over even if he doesn’t take the crown itself, because that isnt his path, he will be something more but I think he will defeat his sister and have it out with his family over how they treated him and I have been waiting for so long I am beginning to feel very frustrated, very angry and a little disheartened and wondering if it will come out.
i was hoping before christmas but now I have no clue because you cant give us anything on your progress are you going though major rewrites
why cant you make the fifteeth or are you having family issues or perhaps just holidays and other things I can understand if you at least tell us and give us something
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its sad that none of this came out in the book. I wish you could have fit it all in and I suspect you did when you planned on Serrenina taking her trip to Guenefer and then she refused to leave. She remained in Denaerk. It made me pretty sad but I understand why she refused. She wanted to remain there with her fmaily and keep her baby. And defy pattenia
but still, all of this never came out
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