Second Apocalypse



"The surviving heathens were strung from trees, and in the evening light they hanged, like drowned men floating up from the deeps. And though years passed, none dared touch them. They sagged from the nails that fixed them, collapsed into heaps at the trunks. And to anyone who listened, the bones would whisper a revelation...the secret of battle. Indomitable conviction. Unconquerable belief."

A dark and philosophical fantasy series by R. Scott Bakker that is planned to consist of three smaller series, only the first of which has been currently published. An additional two short stories have been published on Bakker's website, with more to come.

The first sub-series, The Prince of Nothing, tells the tale of a son searching for his father during a Holy War, in a medieval world where Functional Magic exists and an obscure Ancient Conspiracy is plotting The End of the World As We Know It, although they have faded into myth. The characters who are embroiled in this include a tired Badass Bookworm sorcerer, a cunning whore, and a mentally unstable barbarian chieftain. But in the midst of the Holy War arrives a wandering monk, Anasûrimbor Kellhus. He is the scion of an isolated sect who have made themselves beings of pure logic over the years. At the beginning, he is completely ignorant about the outside world, yet at the same time, he is mentally superior to other humans and can easily read their emotions while he feels nothing himself.

Opinions are highly divided on whether Kellhus is a scheming Villain Protagonist, the Big Bad himself, a Sociopathic Hero doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, or an insane but Badass Anti Hero deserving of our admiration. This has a lot to do with an individual person's perception of what counts as Moral Dissonance, Black and Gray Morality, and Moral Event Horizon. Irredeemably evil? You be the judge. Ultimately a force for good? At the moment we can only speculate.

The Second Apocalypse consists of:

 * 1) The Prince of Nothing
 * 2) The Darkness that Comes Before
 * 3) The Warrior Prophet
 * 4) The Thousandfold Thought
 * 5) The Aspect-Emperor
 * 6) The Judging Eye
 * 7) The White-Luck Warrior
 * 8) The Unholy Consult (forthcoming)
 * 9) ? (the name of the last sub-series, said to be one book only, is known by Bakker but he says it's a spoiler)

See also Neuropath and Disciple of the Dog, two thrillers by the same author containing many of the same themes.

This series provides examples of:

 * After the End: The series takes place nearly two thousand years after a catastrophic conflict that.
 * A God Am I: Kellhus comes to believe this in the end. This is also a recurring fantasy of Ikurei Conphas.
 * Alien Invasion: The Inchoroi who crashed on Eärwa with their spaceship many thousands of years ago.
 * Always Chaotic Evil: The whole Sranc species.
 * Not to mention the other "weapon races" of the Consult. The Consult itself may count, but they're more Blue and Orange Morality.
 * Ancient Conspiracy: The Consult, who are a cabal of human sorcerers and the last Inchoroi.
 * Ancient Tradition: The Mandate, dedicated to stopping the near-mythical Consult.
 * Anti Hero: Sometimes Cnaiür comes off as this, even though he is insane.
 * Actually, pretty much everybody has anti-heroic elements. Except Serwë.
 * Anti Magic: The Chorae, magic-destroying spheres that are crucial to the power balance between the priesthood and sorcerers. A person bearing a skin-touching chorae is immune to sorcery, and the mere touch of one will turn sorcerers into salt. They were created by the Nonmen sorcerers, who betrayed their race by giving the resulting creations to the Inchoroi (thousands of years ago).
 * They are called "Tears of God" by the residents of the Three Seas, and while they are rare, they're common enough for most of the rulers to equip special forces of archers with them to specifically counter sorcerers on the battlefield.
 * Apocalypse How: Class 1. The Ancient North was annihilated, and the most powerful nations of the Three Seas crashed into ruin, leaving the Three Seas in chaos. Some descendants of these Norsirai were later able to build new civilizations in the northern Three Seas, and things stabilized in the south. Now the Men of the Three Seas are the center of human civilization, and the desolate High North is only a cold wilderness roamed by bands of Sranc.
 * Arc Words: "The Logos is without beginning or end." Also, variations of "war is." Conphas claims war is intellect, for example.
 * What do you see?
 * Arrow Catch: One of Kellhus's many abilities.
 * Artificial Human: The Consult's skin-spies.
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: Kellhus and all the Dunyain are masters at this.
 * Ax Crazy: Cnaiur and the entire Sranc species (who are bred to be murderer-rapists).
 * Badass: Several Plentiful.
 * Badass Bookworm: Achamian.
 * Badass Boast: Cnaiür, but only when he's in one of his violent moods. "I am Cnaiur urs Skiötha, breaker-of-horses-and-men!", "I am Cnaiür urs Skiötha, most violent of all men! I bear your fathers and brothers upon my arms!", or more straightforward, "Who will murder me?!".
 * "Demon! Demon! For a thousand years! Fucking your wives! Striking down your fathers! A thousand years I have stalked you!"
 * "I am Cleric and you will hear my sermon!"
 * Badass Normal: Again, Cnaiür.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Kellhus' career is this.
 * Barbarian Tribe: The Scylvendi. Calling themselves "the People of War", they see war as a holy act and the men cut a scar on their arms to mark their every kill. They dedicate themselves to war so much that Scylvendi children know songs and stories about each division of their enemies' armies, so they'll know exactly who they are up against. During the Holy War, Cnaiur can simply analyze the enemy army and see who is who.
 * The Norsirai (northmen) of the Three Seas are this, if you scrape off the veneer of civilization their conversion to Inrithism gave them. Some of them even wear shrunken human heads as trophies.
 * Beat Still My Heart: When Kellhus, after being crucified to a tree for days, stands up and pulls out his own beating heart. It's actually Serwë's heart, and he is either faking the Messiah act, or he's just performed a miracle, since he still manages to pull it out of his OWN chest.
 * Betty and Veronica: Esmenet and Serwë.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: Aurang and Aurax, if you don't consider Kellhus himself to be the Big Bad.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Subverted with Xinemus and his
 * Big Screwed Up Family: House Ikurei, the imperial family of Nansur.
 * Black and Gray Morality: The sociopathic "hero" does enough acts to ensure he can never be seen as "good", but it's all to unite mankind to face an Eldritch Abomination and its Complete Monster creators.
 * Black and White Morality: In a really strange way.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: Why are the Consult trying to slaughter the human spacies?
 * It's later revealed that the Inchoroi have known this for a very long time, and
 * Broken Masquerade: Kellhus reveals some emotion for the first time when he is forced to watch Serwë being raped by Cnaiur.
 * The Brainless Beauty: Serwë.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The Heron Spear.
 * The Chessmaster: Kellhus. He never, ever tells anyone to do his bidding "because I want to". Kellhus can find out everyone's innermost desire or motivation, and then appeal to that. Cnaiur scarily describes Kellhus' and his father's powers of manipulation by shouting "They make us love!".
 * Moenghus (Kellhus' father) and Maithanet are the ultimate chessmasters of the first trilogy...although Maithanet is ultimately
 * Church Militant: The Shrial Knights.
 * Court Mage: The Imperial Saik are an entire order of Court Mages.
 * Crapsack World: Let us recount the ways. Achamian was physically and emotionally abused by a drunkard father, and when the Mandate came to save him, the man still tried to claim him. So, the Mandate's soldiers beat Akka's dad. The child Akka gloated. Next, the native religions. "Suffer not a whore to live, for she maketh a pit of her womb. Suffer not a whore to breathe." That's just a taste of the Holy Tusk, for you. Also, everybody in the Three Seas lives in a rigid caste system. They are "caste-nobles," "caste-merchants," "caste-menials," or slaves. And boy, is there slavery!
 * The Scylvendi are near-nihilists who once belonged to the same religion as everyone else, but for reasons yet unrevealed, they converted to worshipping the No-God, and after his death, they became the People of War. As one character put it, the Scylvendi see the blood-guilt of deicide as hanging upon the people of the Three Seas, and thus consider the Ketyai and Norsirai as cattle for sacrifice upon the altar of the world. What was the No-God? We don't know, but his existence made babies unable to be-- WHAT DO YOU SEE? I MUST KNOW WHAT YOU SEE. TELL ME. WHAT AM I?
 * Creepy Child: Kelmomas, the youngest son of Kellhus and a Complete Monster.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: Inri Sejanus. Bakker almost certainly derived his surname from the abbreviated form of Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews).
 * Dark Fantasy
 * Dark Messiah: Kellhus.
 * Deadly Decadent Court: Emperor Xerius is surrounded by one, and later Esmenet when she is Empress.
 * Deconstructed Trope: The Chosen One and The Messiah. Organized religion is especially deconstructed.
 * Depraved Bisexual: All the Inchoroi. Averted with
 * Determinator: Kellhus.
 * Downer Ending: At the end of Prince of Nothing,
 * On the other hand,
 * The White Luck Warrior has an insanely depressing ending for several of its sub-plots.  In a heart-wrenching scene, Achamian is forced to kill him.
 * The only bright point is Esmenet's return to power. And even that comes at the cost
 * Dysfunction Junction: House Ikurei, the royal family of the Nansur Empire. Perhaps the most dysfunctional thing about them is the consensual mother-son incest.
 * Eldritch Abomination : The Inchoroi are this in their original alien forms, and one possible interpretation of the No-God.
 * The Empire: The "Kellian Empire", which spans most of the Three Seas.
 * Encyclopedia Exposita: The story part of The Thousandfold Thought is 400 pages long. The glossary is another 100 pages (hardback version).
 * The End of the World As We Know It: What will happen if the No-God returns.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Emperor Xerius, with mother-son incest.
 * Evil Albino: Iyokus
 * The Evil Prince: Exalt-General Conphas.
 * Evil Plan: Well for what counts as 'evil' in this series.
 * Evil Versus Evil: Kellhus versus the Consult.
 * Evil Sorcerer: The Scarlet Spires, a school of sorcerers who control an entire kingdom. Also, many Consult members are this.
 * "Evil" is probably overstating it for the Scarlet Spires or the other Schools. They're morally gray - just another player in the politics of the Three Seas.
 * Eye Scream: In volume two, the sickening torture of, who skewers his eyes with a red-hot knife.
 * And in The Judging Eye (fittingly), one of the many horrific things awaiting trespassers in
 * Also, stay away from  and his skewer.
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Shriah is the Pope and the Padirajah is the Sultan/Caliph.
 * Inrithi: A hybrid polytheistic/monotheistic religion with an overarching "church" and leader akin to Catholicism.
 * Fanim: Arab Muslims.
 * Nansur Empire: The Eastern Roman Empire.
 * Scylvendi: Scythians or Sarmatians.
 * Shimeh: Jerusalem.
 * Fantastic Racism: Lots and lots, from every group.
 * Flaw Exploitation: What Kellhus and his father Moenghus do to everyone.
 * The Fog of Ages: Affects the Nonmen, because they have mortal minds inside immortal bodies that live for millennia after millennia. Quite a few go insane from the amnesia. They have so many memories piled up inside them, that they can only remember the most traumatic events. The insane Nonmen who are addicted to violence for memory's sake are known as Erratics.
 * Forever War: The Nameless War, which has gone on for thousands of years. It began when the alien Inchoroi started a genocidal war against the Nonmen shortly after their ship crashed into northern Eärwa. Achamian sees a Nonman wall carving, thousands of years old, that depicts the first battle - and he realizes that war is still ongoing to this day.
 * In the White-Luck Warrior it's revealed that
 * For the Evulz: One of the motivations of the Inchoroi, who are wholly dedicated to their perverse, violent lusts (the other reasons being, as well as vengeance against the Nonmen).
 * Freak Out: Everybody has one. Even Kellhus,.
 * Serwë has the most notable one, when she finally explodes at Cnaiur.
 * Functional Magic
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: Sarl doesn't
 * God of Evil: Well, if you're called the No-God...
 * Grim Up North: Golgotterath. To a lesser extent, the entirety of the Ancient North, which is infested with Sranc. Only a handful of ragged bands of human survivors and two deeply isolated cities - Sakarpus and Atrithau - dwell in its lands.
 * Henchman Race: The Sranc, who were bred by the Inchoroi to serve as an army.
 * Heroic Sociopath: Kellhus (at first), Cnaiür, and Cleric.
 * Heroic Willpower
 * Ho Yay / Straight Gay: Moenghus and Cnaiur, which resulted in Cnaiur killing his father. This is the reason why there is latent Ho Yay between the adult Cnaiur and Kellhus, even though it's more like Foe Yay.
 * YMMV. I didn't read it as much as Ho Yay as Moenghus playing an evil mentor and persuading Cnaiur to kill his father
 * They're explicitly referred to as lovers and, so "seduced" is not metaphorical there. Considering Serwe and Anissi, Cnaiur's more Bi the Way.
 * Horny Devils: The Inchoroi, who describe themselves as "the race of lovers".
 * The Sranc are a horrifying subversion of this trope. They have the libido for it, but their appearance is extremely disturbing (hairless dog-like bodies with the extremely beautiful, bone-white faces of Nonmen), and "rape" is far too mild to describe what they'll do to you.
 * Humans Are Bastards
 * Hyper Awareness: Kellhus turns this into a superpower.
 * Instant Expert: Yep, Kellhus yet again.
 * Kansas City Shuffle: The Kellian Empire
 * Kill and Replace: The skin-spies do this to their victims.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Subverted. The knight Sarcellus rescues Esmenet from being stoned to death, but he.
 * Law of Conservation of Detail: It's stated pretty specifically that the Mandate's dreams of Sesawatha's life are slightly edited to keep them focused on the important things. They don't need to know about his childhood, for example, or that he may be the real father of an important historical figure, or that.
 * Living Lie Detector: This is easily the scariest of Moenghus' and Kellhus' abilities.
 * Lost Technology: The "Tekne" of the Inchoroi. This included
 * Love Hurts
 * Love Triangle: Kellhus, Esmenet and Achamian. Ends badly for Achamian. Also Kellhus, Serwe and Cnaiur. Again, ends badly for Cnaiur.
 * Mad Love: Cnaiur has this for his captive Serwë, who hates him. He believes that Rape Is Love.
 * The Man Behind the Man: The Cishaurim, sorcerer-priests of a heretical religion, are the target of the Holy War. They are in fact a front for
 * Manipulative Bastard: Moenghus and Kellhus.
 * Master Actor: Kellhus, of course.
 * Master of Your Domain: Kellhus and all other Dunyain.
 * Mind Rape: The Cants of Compulsion.
 * Mind Screw:
 * The Mole: Several skin-spies.
 * Moral Dissonance: Kellhus commits multiple atrocities for "the greater good", such as and, not to mention his early betrayal of  , who saved his life.
 * Moral Event Horizon: The Sack of Caraskand, by a starving, desperate and diseased army.
 * The march of the Vulgar Holy War was a definite crossing of the Moral Event Horizon for Emperor Xerius, both in-universe and out. Basically, he arranged for over a hundred thousand old men, women and orphans to march into enemy lands and get slaughtered - only so Xerius could prove a point to his "allies" and advance a political agenda he didn't even believe in.
 * The things done by Aurang or Aurax don't count, since those two already started beyond the horizon.
 * Kellhus and his ruthless manipulation of people, resulting in the deaths of loved ones and destruction of entire nations.
 * Omniglot: Kellhus again.
 * One Man Army: Gnostic sorcerers. Kellhus, Cnaiur, and especially Cleric take this trope Up to Eleven.
 * Organic Technology: The Inchoroi are masters of this, creating the Sranc, Wracu, and Bashrags.
 * Our Demons Are Different: The Ciphrang are demons from "the Outside" that can be summoned and enslaved by powerful sorcerers. Alien Geometries are implied, as being in the physical world is excruciatingly unpleasant for them and they are described as warping and wavering.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Of all the bioweapon creatures created by the Inchoroi, the dragons are the most powerful.
 * Our Elves Are Better: Subverted and played with. The Nonmen are similar to Elves, immortal and wisest of all living creatures. They were more intelligent and beautiful than humans, but also much worse in anger or jealousy. However, when we finally get detailed physical descriptions of a Nonman in The Judging Eye, the "beautiful" aspect starts to get subverted: for example, their teeth are fused together, they don't have a single hair on their body (not even eyelashes), their skin is marble-white, and the repulsive beauty of Sranc is borrowed from the appearance of Nonmen. (Speaking of which...)
 * Our Orcs Are Different: The Sranc, a race of monsters engineered to achieve sexual pleasure from violence and rape. As a homage to JRR Tolkien, they are "corruptions" of the Nonmen (the "Elves" of this setting), and genetically engineered to have Nonman faces.
 * They carve new orifices.
 * People Puppets: The skin-spies.
 * Poisonous Captive: Anasûrimbor Moënghus, during the time he was a prisoner of Cnaiür urs Skiötha's tribe.
 * Precursors: Averted, actually. There are still Nonmen around, but thanks to humans and the Inchoroi, all but one of their Mansions are destroyed and empty. The one Mansion that's inhabited, Ishterebinth, is in the far northwest, and cut off from the human world. In the Three Seas, Nonmen are effectively thought of as extinct because they tend to avoid humans, especially after Cil-Aujas (one of only two Mansions to survive the first invasions of Men) was destroyed in the aftermath of the Apocalypse.
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone:
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Cnaiür and basically the whole Scylvendi civilization.
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: "IS! NOT! TRUTH! INFINITE!"
 * Rape As Drama: Serwë's whole backstory, and the reason she has such low self-worth. She goes through this again at the hands of Cnaiür.
 * Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: This is what makes the Sranc species (who are bio-engineered for violent rape) more horrifying than any other fantasy-book monsters.
 * We also know that Galian has well and truly crossed the Moral Event Horizon when he.
 * Rape Is Love: Averted thoroughly, but Cnaiur actually believes in this when he is raping Serwë.
 * Rescue Romance: Subverted...twice.
 * Sanity Slippage: Cnaiur goes increasingly mad in the third volume.
 * Self Destructive Charge: Saubon "punishes" the Shrial Knights by making them charge the Cishaurim. The Cishaurim are sorcerers able to burn hundreds alive with a glance.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In The Aspect-Emperor,
 * Showing Off the New Body
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Highly cynical. Religious hatred, racism and violent misogyny are rampant in this world - Bakker has stated more than once that he aims to portray the Dark Ages world realistically. Although Your Mileage May Vary if he does.
 * The Sociopath: Kelmomas and Conphas.
 * Stepford Smiler: Kellhus is an extreme example.
 * Straight Gay:.
 * Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Inchoroi and.
 * Summon Magic: Achamian and his doll, and Iyokus with his demons.
 * Super Soldier: The Sranc are an odd variety. They aren't particularly great fighters and are too undisciplined to fight in any formation other than Zerg Rush, but they can easily live off bugs and scavenging, reproduce very rapidly, and have almost unbreakable morale.
 * Indeed, the Sranc are genetically engineered to be cheap and disposable soldiers, even to the point of throwing themselves at the enemy's spears to deprive them of weapons.
 * However, they are faster than mounted horses, as a terrified Leweth explains to Kellhus. The Great Ordeal learns this the harsh way.
 * Torture Always Works: Very averted. The Scarlet Spires have been capturing and torturing Mandate sorcerers for two hundred years, trying to learn the secrets of the Gnosis. It hasn't worked once. This is because all the Mandate sorcerers have Seswatha in their head, and he got tortured by things that can make men weep with fear from a glance.
 * Ubermensch: Kellhus, Moenghus and all the Dûnyain.
 * Vestigial Empire: The Nansur Empire under Ikurei Xerius III. It's been losing territory to Fanim jihads for hundreds of years, and Xerius plans to use the Holy War to get some of it back.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Kellhus. Also, his father Anasûrimbor Moenghus and the Cishaurim (but see Offstage Villainy above).
 * Woobie: Too many to count - almost everyone in the books has a Woobie moment at some point or another. Even Kellhus in the first book, when Cnaiur tortures him until he pisses himself from the pain.
 * Achamian is the biggest one in the series, hands down.
 * Cleric also qualifies as the most tragic character of them all.
 * Worthy Opponent: The Fanim (Arab stand-ins) and the Nansur (Greeks) treat each other like honorable opponents. The Nansur do not view the Scylvendi barbarians as this, and all Scylvendi prisoners are publicly raped.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Moenghus, Kellhus, and Maithanet are masters of this, altering an adapting their plans on the fly as new situations arise.
 * Worthy Opponent: The Fanim (Arab stand-ins) and the Nansur (Greeks) treat each other like honorable opponents. The Nansur do not view the Scylvendi barbarians as this, and all Scylvendi prisoners are publicly raped.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Moenghus, Kellhus, and Maithanet are masters of this, altering an adapting their plans on the fly as new situations arise.