The demons (Meißner)
The Demons is a fantasy novel by the German writer Tobias O. Meißner , which was published in the summer of 2008 by Piper Verlag in German-speaking countries. In the hardcover / fiction category , the novel made it into the top 50 ranks of the bestseller list . It is the first volume in the demon trilogy.
The world
The central location of the action is the land of Orison, which is divided into nine so-called baronates. These are arranged around the capital, Orison City, located in the center of the empire. The numbering of the baronates runs clockwise and begins in the northwest in the first baronate. Each of the baronates has an inner castle within easy reach of Orison City, an outer castle near the coast, and a main castle that lies between the inner and the outer. In addition, each baronate has a small number of port cities. In addition to the three castles, the fourth is the only baronate to have another city called Witercarz inland, which is located on the mountains of the same name. Other locations in The Demons are the Gramwood in the eighth and the demon mouth in the sixth baronate.
Orison lies on a kind of peninsula and is bordered in the south, west and east by the Green Sea and in the north by the Wolkenpeiniger Mountains. Behind the latter is the barbaric land of Coldrin, which is a constant threat to Orison.
action
The prospective student Minten Liago is caught trying to hit the colliery and then captured.
Meanwhile, the shy and inexperienced King of Orison, Tenmac III., His advisor Tanot Ninrogin and two coordinators (ministers) from the sixth baronate, Faur Benessand and Eiber Matutin, ride to the demon's mouth, because the young king wants to visit it. The demons live in the Demon Maw, which were once captured by the great magician Orison and banished there. Tenmac III. During the visit, out of sympathy for the demons, throws an earring into her throat and also lets Faur Benessand cry a tear, which also falls into her throat.
The captured demons Gäus and Irathindur use these two things to escape from the demon's mouth. Both make a pact not to attack each other, since they helped each other to escape, and then nestle in the bodies of two rulers of the country: Gäus chooses the body of the shy king, while Irathindur chooses the body of the strict baroness of the Sixth Baronate.
After a while, Irathindur was hit by violent attacks in the baroness's body. Since all demons participate in a kind of life force that is only available to a limited extent, Irathindur suspects that she gets less life force because she does not hold the rank of king like Gäus. Thereupon she declares the sixth baronate independent, renames it Irathindurien and rises to the rank of king.
Meanwhile, Gäus visits the mysterious Gramwald and discovers that the life force is not distributed based on ranks, but is present here in the Gramwald, which is why he regularly visits the Gramwald. When he and his adviser return, the Fourth Baronate has also declared themselves independent and besieges Orison City. The Baron of the Fourth Baronate also rises to be king.
Meanwhile, Jinua Ruun, a former instructor, took Minten Liago out of prison and into the inner circle, a kind of unofficial wrestling league. There Minten fights his way to the top of the rankings until Jinua decides to support the Third Baronate with him, which has now also been attacked by the independent Fourth Baronate. Jinua suggests to the coordinators there that she and Minten, who has since become her bodyguard and lover, ride to Coldrin to incite the Coldriners against the Fourth Baronate, which would weaken both sides. The proposal is approved and Minten and Jinua ride with a guide towards Coldrin.
The while lets Irathindur attack the Fifth Baronate in order to close the gap to the Fourth Baronate. The project succeeds within five days. At the suggestion of his advisor, Gäus appoints himself emperor in order to stand out from Irathindur and Helingerd, king of the Fourth Baronate.
Minten and Jinua reach the people of Coldrin and are able to persuade them to ride with them to Orison to support the Third Baronate in their fight against the Fourth; in return they receive the spoils of war.
King Helingerd and Irathindur both make themselves emperors. The latter also made the decision to destroy the Coldriner under Minten and Jinua, who had collapsed in the Second Baronate, in order to ensure Orison's safety. Gäus also sends a troop under the leadership of Faur Benesand, the coordinator of the Sixth Baronate, who has since defected, to drive out the Coldriners.
During the capture of a castle in the Second Baronate, Minten and Jinuas part ways, as Minten intends to escape in time while Jinua intends to continue occupying the castle. As a result, some coldriner stay in the castle near Jinua, while others flee with mines towards the mountains. While Irathindur's troops under army coordinator Eiber Matutin besiege the castle occupied by the Coldriners, the riders of the insane Faur Benesand Minten and the rest of the Coldriners pursue. However, the chase gradually dissipates as the soldiers refuse to ride on with the unpredictable Faur Benesand. In his unpredictability, he experiences a change of heart, kidnaps Minten and deposed him in the Third Baronate, which has since been conquered by Helingerd, and then rides to the main castle of the Sixth Baronate, where he fails to kill Irathindur, whereupon Faur Benesand commits suicide in his madness .
Due to the increasing frequency of seizures, Irathindur rises to the rank of goddess. However, it is becoming more and more clear that only one demon can exist, regardless of rank, which is why Gäus finally downgraded himself to king again; he also reveals to his advisor Tanot Ninrogin, who had long since noticed the changes in the king since Gäus was implanted, that he and Irathindur are demons.
After being kidnapped by Faur Benesand, Minten meets Taisser Sildien, a cardsharp he met in prison. Together they earn money with the help of marked dice in pubs until their fraud is discovered by an officer.
At the border between the Fourth and Fifth Baronates, Irathindur and King Helingerd are now at war, as the former allies have increasingly developed into competitors. In order to weaken the opposing party, Irathindur leaves the body of the baroness of the (former) Sixth Baronate and briefly nests in the body of Helingerd and in the body of the Baron of the Second Baronate, kills them and leaves their subordinates with instructions to ally with Irathindurien or leave behind intentionally confusing instructions regarding succession. On the way back he discovered Gäus during one of his regular visits to the Gramwald. Irathindur now also discovers that the life force is present here and demands half of the forest from Gäus. This refuses and without an agreement they part, knowing full well that there will be a war.
The officer who uncovered Taisser and Mintens fraud makes them an offer to fight against Irathindurien in compensation for their fraud for the Fourth Baronate, which is accepted by both. After their regiment dissolves due to a defeat, both are integrated into the Irathindurian Army, which is busy conquering the Third and Second Baronates. After Irathindur helps the armed forces, this project also succeeds, and the army continues its way towards the Eighth Baronate, partly by sea, partly by land, in order to conquer the Gramwald. However, this is burned down by Gäus to take Irathindur the incentives of war.
Gäus goes to the island of Kelm, drives Irathindur and his fleet there with the help of the wind in order to receive it there and to put an end to the war in a fight between the two demons.
There is a fight. Since the adversaries strain themselves, they are magically drawn back into the demon's mouth. There they arrive in a hitherto unknown hall in which a number of demons have founded a council to develop a plan for an escape. It turns out that the chairman of the council of magicians is Orison himself, who is also not a human, but a demon. Since the system developed by Orison is to allow all demons to break out at the same time, so that individual demons cannot break out in the long term, and Irathindur and Gäus quickly begin to despise the members of the council, they flee again from the demon maw to help the people from the demons to warn.
Both know that they cannot exist in this way in the human world and decide to duel for the last time, with the winner looking for a strong successor to King Tenmac III, who will no longer be like before because of Gäus' stay, the people armed against the demons. Gäus emerges from this duel as the winner. Minten, however, who had traveled in the same fleet as Irathindur to get to Kelm, arrives at the injured Gäus and wants to kill him. Before he does that, however, Gäus Minten asks to find a strong successor to the throne. Minten puts an end to Gäus and hands over the crown to Taisser Sildien and his officer Lae, who agree on Lae as queen and Taisser as advisor.
continuation
The sequel The Demons. Freedom or Darkness ( ISBN 978-3-492-70184-6 ) was published in March 2010. The third and final part of the series The Demons. At the end of the times ( ISBN 978-3-492-70232-4 ) was published in November 2011.
Book editions
- Tobias O. Meißner: The demons. 464 pages, paperback, Piper-Verlag, Munich, July 2008. ISBN 978-3-492-26740-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ buchreport.de: bestseller archive ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 29, 2009
