The cloud people

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The Cloud People is a fantasy trilogy by Kai Meyer set in ancient China.

The books

Volume 1: silk and sword

The action takes place in 1760, during the Qing Dynasty . Niccolo Spini lives as an outcast near the edge of the cloud island when the island suddenly crashes and gets stuck between high granite rocks. Since no one else can speak Chinese, Duke Jacopo de Medici sends him to find Aether, the dragon's breath, which can restart the pumps and save the island. He flies down in an air sled and would have crashed if the warrior Whisperwind hadn't caught him with her feather flight. She also saves him from the malicious murmurs that have gathered in the valley. When she has left Niccolo, he makes his way to the next town, where he learns that jugglers are nearby who are supposed to own a kite. There he meets the girl Nugua, who was raised by dragons and who, after her sudden disappearance, is also looking for dragons. However, the juggler 's dragon turns out to be a disguised person and then Manschu appear, whose captain Lotusklaue wants to kill the supposed dragon. Nugua, Niccolo and the false dragon Feiqing manage to escape the Manchus. When they finally stopped, Feiqing tells his story. He can't remember anything but the last three years, only knows that the guardian dragon from the dragon cemetery cursed him in this costume and he can't take it off. Niccolo and Nugua decide to follow the trail and so all three go to Sichuan. On the way they watch the fight between the Xian Guo Lao and the Xian disciple Moon Child. With Niccolo's permission, she uses some of his chi and can defeat Guo Lao. The intervention means that Niccolo and Mondkind have to love each other. She tells him that the smiths of the lava towers have been friends with the dragons for a long time and may know where they are. In an inn, Niccolo, Nugua and Feiqing want to find a monk who can lead them to the lava towers. But the hostel is actually a ploy by a band of robbers who want to ambush them. A man named Li, who is later found to be a Xian, rescues them and leads them to the lava towers. Around the same time, the duke's daughter Alessia found blueprints for the aether pumps in the shadowy interpreter's house, which were thought to have been lost. She looks for it and finally finds it in the ether pumps. There she sees him murdering the pump inspector Sandro Mirandola, which is why he locks her in the pump. Niccolo, Nugua, Li and Feiqing follow the lava flow to its liquid end, where the towers are located. When they reach the towers, only Niccolo can go over. Li has to reveal to Nugua that he is a Xian and tells her and Feiqing the truth about the ether and moon child. In the lava towers Niccolo meets Whisperwind again, but all the blacksmiths were killed by Mondkind. Niccolo and Whisperwind find the dragon cemetery on a map. Meanwhile, Li and Nugua fly to the towers on Li's crane. Li also tells Niccolo everything about Moon Child and the ether. But then Manchu appear under the guidance of Lotusklaue, who wants to take revenge. Whisperwind and Li can defeat the Manchu, but Lotusclaw can still put the curse of the purple hand on Nugua, which will slowly kill them if the dragons do not heal him. Niccolo meets Moon Child, who flees before Li can attack her. In the end, Li and Nugua fly to the dragon cemetery, Feiqing and Whisperwind follow on foot. Niccolo goes with the silver thorn sword to Tieguai, the next Xian who wants to kill the moon child.

Volume 2: Lance and Light

Li and Nugua reach the dragon cemetery first. There they discover that the Guardian Dragon has been devoured by the Maw of Souls. Since a fight would be hopeless, they enter into a trade: Li lets himself be eaten without resistance, but they learn that the dragons are in the sky mountains. Nugua flies on with Li's crane and his shovel lance, while the curse of the purple hand weakens her more and more. Niccolo has since found Tieguai. After three days, Mondkind comes. Niccolo cannot prevent her killing the Xian and fleeing on her crane. Full of conflicting feelings, he pursues them to a Dongtian, a sacred grotto. Since the aether does not see her there, Mondkind can tell him why she did all this. She stabs silver thorn in the side and flies away. Niccolo follows her. On the cloud island, Alessia descends deeper and deeper until she finally comes across the aether fragment. It tells her the truth about the ether and creates an exit through which she can escape, but none of the people want to believe her. The island rises again, supposedly because the shadow interpreter succeeded in creating artificial aether. Whisperwind and Feiqing have now also reached the dragon cemetery. Li's soul controls the body of the Maw of Souls. He cannot lift Feiqing's curse, but tells them that Feiqing was once a secret trader and takes them to their meeting point. There Whisperwind and Feiqing learn that he has committed treason and was therefore banned. The traders want to kill him, but Whisperwind can dissuade them. The secret traders got a call from the giants. Upon meeting them, they learn that the true aim of the aether is not to destroy the Xian, but to reawaken Pangu. Traders and giants form an alliance against the aether. Niccolo follows Mondkind to the Taklamakan desert, where Guo Lao lives. He had defeated her and is now holding her prisoner. But Niccolo flees to the sky mountains with Moon Child. They reach the mountains at the last second and Nugua, who has been healed by the dragons, is able to convince Yaozi to help Moonchild.

Volume 3: Dragon and Diamond

The dragons put Mondkind into a magical coma that is supposed to heal them - but also from their love for Niccolo. In the meantime, he falls out with Nugua, as she begins to recognize her feelings for him more and more and becomes desperate. Meanwhile, the secret traders with Whisperwind and Feiqing stumble upon an airship owned by Russian secret traders, during which they were attacked by Juru and separated from the fleet. They are saved by Guo Lao, who takes them to the sky mountains. Nugua learns from Yaozi that the mountain is actually a petrified part of Pangu and that Pangu will awaken if the dragons do not protect his heart, a heart-shaped diamond in the heart chamber, from the access of the aether. But all efforts are in vain, Pangu awakens in Nuguas and Yaozi's presence. The aether fragment steers the cloud island north to the sky mountains. At this point, Niccolo is with Mondkind, who is slowly starting to wake up from her artificial sleep. He wants to save her from the Aeter's access, but she has long been lost to him without his first knowing about it. Yaozi wants to flee with Nugua, but she has finally recognized her feelings for Niccolo and can persuade him to turn back. She struggles to make her way through the body Pangus, which has now become flesh, to the ventricle, where Niccolo is also on the way with the dazed moon child. Nugua tries to pierce Pangu's heart in the ventricle, but is almost killed by Moon Child, who finally reveals herself to be the servant of the ether. Suddenly Guo Lao appears, the moon child engaged in a fight. Together, Niccolo and Nugua Pangu's heart fatally wound. Mondkind and Guo Lao kill each other in their skirmish. With Pangu's death the aether also dies - the physicality that he had desired becomes his undoing. The cloud island lands and begins to slowly dissolve. Niccolo notices that he has changed so much in the meantime that his future cannot lie with the Cloud People and so he sets off with Nugua, Whisperwind and Feiqing to the dragon cemetery to take Feiqing's curse off him. Whisperwind leaves the group because she wants to remember Feiqing for who he was. The book ends with Feiqing coming to Nugua and Niccolo, but who or what he is under the dragon costume remains open.

characters

People

  • Niccolo Spini

Niccolo Spini lives on Cloud Island. Because he and his late father could read and educate themselves with forbidden books, they were cast out by the community. His farm and domestic animals replaced his family for him. When the cloud island threatens to crash, he is sent to earth with a flying machine to fetch the aether and thus save the island. After moonchild uses his chi, he is forced to love her.

  • Nugua

Nugua grew up with the dragons around Yaozi. Her parents had left her with them as a sacrifice so that they could bring rain for them, and the dragons then took them in. She thinks she is a dragon, but when all the dragons are gone, Nugua realizes that her nature is that of a human.

  • Whisper wind

Whisperwind is an opaque, wandering swordmaster from the clan of the silent tops. She stole the godblades jade sting and silver thorn from Mondkind. In addition, she fights with throwing needles and masters sword fighting like no other.

  • Feiqing

Feiqing was once a secret dealer. He was handed over to the Guardian Dragon as punishment for treason, and cursed by him in turn to wear a ridiculous rat dragon costume that he cannot take off as a punishment for entering the dragon cemetery without permission. Because of this curse, he can no longer remember his previous life.

  • Alessia de Medici

Alessia is the daughter of the Duke of Cloud Island. But because she can read and write, she lives in open enmity with the priests of the time wind, whom she does not recognize as the future duchess because they think that a woman is unsuitable to lead the Cloud People. By chance she comes across a part of the aether in the interior of the cloud island, which tells her its story and that of the rest of the aether. In the course of the story, Alessia goes through the transformation from an unwilling, vain girl to a responsible woman.

Moon child

Mondkind was a student of the Xian He Xiangu. The aether dominates the Fast-Xian through their addiction to pure moonlight. You are commanded by the aether to destroy all Xian. After using Niccolo's Chi, she has to love him. Her weapon is a magical white silk dress from which she can shoot silk ribbons like lances.

Xian

The Xian were once ordinary people who received eternal life from the gods through the teachings of the Tao, alchemical experiments or special godliness. There were originally eight Xian, but by the beginning of the story, Moon Child has already killed five. Xian cannot be killed by time, but by the weapons from the lava forges. They are the last connection between heaven and earth and are therefore also called the "eight pillars of heaven". Xian master magic and ride huge cranes.

  • Li

The Xian used to be a general and a fangshi, an important advisor to the emperor, and is actually called Zhongli Quan. His weapon is a shovel lance from the lava towers.

  • Guo Lao

The Xian comes across as very intimidating, complacent, and brutal. His weapon is a phoenix feather, a sword made from the lava towers.

  • Tieguai

The Xian lives as a hermit on a mountain plateau with a small lake. His weapon is a steel fan of blades from the lava towers. Tieguai is more meek and wiser than the other Xian.

Dragons

  • Yaozi

Yaozi is the dragon king of the south and took up and raised Nugua. He is the oldest and calmest of the Dragon Kings. Its scales are red and bronze in color.

  • Zugolu

Like Yaozi and Maromar, Zugolu is a dragon king. He is the second oldest, his word goes before Maromar. He dies in defense of the heart before the ether.

  • Maromar

Maromar is the youngest dragon king. His character is rather cocky. He is killed in the last book.

The ether

The ether is a substance exhaled by dragons that consolidates Niccolo's home, the Cloud Island, and at the same time is animated by a treacherous life of its own. He tries to destroy the Xian through the Xian student, Moon Child, as punishment for having to learn to think first and for people to come into the world with understanding. Its power comes from the fact that it surrounds heaven and earth like a bowl and is larger than anything we know.

  • Part of the aether in the cloud island

This part of the ether has long been cut off from its other part and has got to know feelings through the people who live on the island and learned to speak in people's thoughts. It has also split in two. One part did not want to admit that people were born with understanding, the other part has come to terms with it. But the first returned through the aether lines on the cloud island to the regions beyond the sky and animated all the aether up there with his hatred of the world.

Other creatures

  • Murmur

Whispers are tree demons. They are larger than a person and are made of wood and other parts of plants. If you kill them, they dissolve into a cloud of autumn leaves. Whispers aren't particularly intelligent.

  • The Maw of Souls

The Maw of Soul is a giant millipede. He can devour living beings, whose soul and knowledge then live on in him. It is said to have lived for eons and even devoured gods. After Li is eaten by him, his soul can control the body of the Maw of Souls, although not permanently.

  • Juru

Juru are rock demons. They are born in the lava spring in the sky mountains and dwell in the rocky gorges of the mountains. Like the whispers, they hate the dragons. Juru are not particularly intelligent, but at least equipped with self-preservation instincts until they succumb to the ether.

places

The cloud island

The cloud island is operated by a machine made by the great Leonardo Da Vinci . The aether pumps hold the cloud together in the air and ensure that it does not sink. The island consists of a mountain range of clouds and a valley in the middle of the island, where most of the residents live. This depression is filled with earth, there is agriculture and cattle breeding. The Duke of Cloud Island is Jacopo de Medici. The religion of the cloud people is the belief in the wind of time, also a shadow interpreter predicts the future from the cloud shadow. The houses of worship are big windmills and the priests have a lot of power. Owning, reading and writing books is forbidden and punishable by expulsion from the community. The atmosphere on the island is reminiscent of the conditions in the European Middle Ages in some points, for example the suppression of all knowledge and the fear of all new things, which is logical, since the cloud island was also created at that time and has hardly developed any further.

The dragon cemetery

The location of the Dragon Cemetery is known only to the Dragon Kings and very few others (e.g. the forges of the lava towers). Only when a dragon senses that he is about to die will the kings tell him. The cemetery is guarded by a guardian kite.

The lava flow and the lava towers

The lava flow flows like a river through all of China. Its surface is cold except at the tip. The lava towers float on top of the lava flow. They were created by the gods to punish a blacksmith who made inferior weapons for them. He and his descendants could not leave the towers without dying and had to forge weapons for the gods. It made them kind of zombies.

Book editions

Audio books and radio play

All three parts were published as audio books by Hörcompany , read in by Andreas Fröhlich . Furthermore, in 2009 Der Hörverlag published a 6 CD radio play version with Raiko Küster as Niccolo, Jana Schulz as Nugua and Konstantin Graudus as Feiqing.