Tatterwing IV Recap

Reading order should be:

1: The Dragon Beshrewed
2: The Dark in the Wood parts 1 and 2
3: The Haunts in the Hackles
4: The Unborn Realm
4.5: The Hunt For Tatterwing (original short story, written in 2014, but chronologically taking place before book 5)
5: The Hunt for Curses

Summary:

Book 4 opened with Medo and Owyn living in the castle Orchrim with Tresdayle. Outside, the Torn Realms were slowly dying from the encroaching darkness of the Haunt Trees. Over the duration of the book, Medo and Owyn strove to find the connection between Tresdayle and the Haunt trees, but answers were difficult because Tresdayle trusted no one and offered little for clues.

During the book:

-The Old Families (Tresdayle’s old supporters) were invited to stay the winter in Orchrim to escape the darkness. Over the course of the story, Tresdayle poisoned them with plague, stripped them of their riches, imprisoned them in the palace walls, and then at the end of the book, forced them on an exodus to their ransacked homes. During his speech he revealed that he believed the families had gone too soft over the centuries and he wanted them to suffer and toughen up and perhaps earn their worth once again. 

-The fifth realm, known as The Spirit Crown, went mysteriously dark because the Haunt Trees overtook it much more aggressively than the rest of the land. Incidentally, this realm was the homeland of the Old Families. It was also the resting place of the Curse Relic:

-Marlin spent this whole book digging up information on the whereabouts of the Curse Relic, which is essentially a magic artifact that allows the user to create High Curses. High Curses are basically story-book-level magic, that can impact an entire population with a single verse. Marlin knew that if Medo can get her hands on this artifact, she can destroy the Haunt Trees and the dark world they are apart of. Near the end of the book, he and Rallyn left for the Spirit Crown to pursue this item.

- Medo had no time for legendary artifacts in book 4. Her aim was solely to pry out Tresdayle’s secrets and try to find out how his connection worked. But Tresdayle had his own demands of Medo, sending her on errands to prove her loyalty to him.

In order to cope with these pressures, Medo began using a new spell called “Travel by Darkness” which essentially let her travel through space instantaneously by letting herself be swallowed by darkness. Throughout the book it became clear that this means of travel wasn’t just instant, but that she was traveling through a world of darkness where memory could not survive. 

In the ending of the book, she discovers memory of this world CAN in fact be retained if you carry the Eye Piece Relic that belonged to Rallyn. She winds up with this Relic in hand when she Travels by Darkness one final time, and essentially learns:

This dark world is the answer to everything:

1. The Shadow-shaped beings (Watchers) that have been haunting her every step since book 2, actually live in this world, taking 3-dimensional shape: walking in forms of flesh and blood instead of simple shadow forms. 

2. Tresdayle has created a familiar bond with one of these Watchers, and is using his connection through this “Hive Queen” to impose his will of hatred and malice across every fiber of this dark world, reaching every single Haunt Tree at once. This hatred is the force that is driving the Plague and the half-born creatures that live in the Haunt Trees.

Medo knows if Tresdayle dies, then she can end the darkness here and now. Her attempt to kill Tresdayle in his own palace succeeds, but he is brought back to life by his Watcher (who has the ability not only to rip away souls, but hold them artificially in place, prolonging life). 

Medo is forced to flee from the palace, Tresdayle’s trust in her shattered. She knows now that killing him may be harder than she anticipated. She also knows that killing Tresdayle won’t provide a permanent solution. After all, the Hive Queen could just move on to another hateful human and continue her work. The best solution, she decides, is to go with Marlin’s plan and Curse the dark world, wiping out all the Haunts. 

The plan becomes to assemble a team and pursue Marlin and Rallyn into the Spirit Crown.

Other things of note:

-Medo’s Larkin grandfather, the Druid, was caught and tortured by Tresdayle at the end of the book. He died in their escape from Orchrim and she was forced to leave his body in the dark world as the Watchers pursued her and her companions. 

-The Eye Piece relic may have allowed Medo to see and remember the dark world, but it also caused agitation and hostility from it. The trees closed in like a cage and she barely got out with her life—giving her pause to use the Travel spell from here on out.

-Sinder teamed up with an old creep named Kilredge, who was from his father’s old witch hunting order “The Cold”. Together, they’ve been rekindling the order, throwing out old rules to grow faster. In book 4 they expressed interest in bringing back the old laws of Witch burning, believing that the plague and darkness are a result of moral transgressions in society at large—in the rise of black magic use following Medo’s defeat of Migwul in book 1

Tatterwing III Recap

Medo meddled too far in her Black Magic spellbook and was promptly harvested by mysterious shadow-beings called Watchers. Book 3 opened with Owyn bringing her "displaced spirit" back from wherever it was, and returning it to her mortal coil.

Medo spent the book in kind of a 'gotta get back on the horse' style crisis. She felt observed by the Watchers and tried lots of things to repell them. The main Watcher she encountered time after time had the distorted appearance of her childhood mentor Malva, which made Medo draw the conclusion that the Watchers are basically dead people in spirit form, but this was disproved toward the end of the book. Instead she learned the Watcher was mimicing Malva's form to freak Medo out, and scare her into using black magic again (watchers feed off black magic use). In the end of the book, Medo ended up using Owyn's Mirrored Blade to stab the shadow, and cripple it. Although it eventually crawled away in the night, Medo felt she'd triumphed over the strange creatures, at least enough to re-embraced her use of Black Magic.

A weird plague had spread over the realms in Medos absence. Moths emerged from Haunt trees (evil trees) and basically crawled into peoples lungs, planted eggs which then grew internally and resulted in madness. Many of these plague victims die from their growths, but sometimes the madness "calls" them to the wilderness/toward the haunt trees. Sinder and Raglet ended up going into one of these trees and while much was shrouded by illusion, they perceived some of the plagues victims had been ensnared by the tree.

Medo met Tresdayle, the long lost high king, who, after over a decade of absence in Cryferiss, returned to confront and get vengeance on Arkhold, his betrayer. Medo helped Tresdayle achieve this and the two kinda bonded over the process. He pardoned her from her past crimes and gave her and Owyn a job in the palace. Pretty neat, right? Except it turns out Tresdayle is evil and is somehow connected to the plague/moths/rising darkness in the land. We know this because he has control over the moths and used them to afflict Arkhold with the plague, and to cure Rowan from her affliction.

Rallyn returned to explain a lot of stuff. Like how Medo's dad was a Larkin (the Larkin house was a fallen house of black magic users). And how Medos dad helped Rallyn investigate haunt trees a long time ago. Together they learned that creatures were growing beneath the haunt trees (unborn gods, as Rallyn described them). These creatures were eventually going to reach full development, wake up on their own and make life terrible for everyone. So Rallyn forced them to wake early with Medo's unwitting help (events of book 2). This early waking should have forced the creatures beneath into a stillbirth, but instead they somehow survived and are currently doing their best to wipe out humanity with their mothy plague.

Also see previous recaps and character name glossary if you need additional memory kicks:

https://tatterwing.blogspot.com/2018/06/tatterwing-ii-recap.html

https://tatterwing.blogspot.com/2017/08/beshrewed-recap.html



People of note:

Raglet - A creature from the mountains that Medo befriended in book 1. His people, the Lyns, were cursed long ago so their skin reacts negatively to sunlight, giving those who walk above a blackened, peeling, rather goblinish appearance. Other notable Lyns who helped Medo in book 1: Bezore, Krell, Kruan, King Kraktook

Rowan –High queen of the realms.

Tenebrim – Owyn’s dead father. Previous king of Orchrim. Murdered by Arkhold.

Arkhold – Previous King of Orchrim. Murdered his brother Tenebrim, framing Tatterwing and her companions for the act. Later killed by Tresdayle/Medo/Owyn.

Tresdayle – Current High king of the torn realms, husband to Rowan.

Morogwym– Unknown to most, Morogwym was the biological father of Rowan, Tenebrim and Arkhold. Most know him as the villain from Tresdayle and Rowan’s formative years: a villain that was defeated,banished. However, when Morogwym returned to the realms from a long absence, his three children protected him from the law (protecting him from Tresdayle) in hopes of learning from him. Shortly thereafter, Morogwym broke into Tornhold and betrayed Tresdayle/Rowan (the Migwul incident).

Tresdayle pursued the old man over Cryferiss, only to learn the old villain had hanged himself. His intent all along had been to draw Tresdayle into the middle of no where.

Grem Kotswollow – Medo’s first well known murder. His son, Harker Kotswollow, survives him.

The Druid – An old forest dweller from book 2. The last of the Larkin House – other than his grandaughter, Medo Tatterwing. He's a bit wild these days and lives among a pack of bewitched wolves.

Sinder - A foil character to Medo. He's anti black magic and lectures people about not using it. He joined with Medo briefly in book 2, before things took a turn, at which point he was knocked out by Medo and the Druid, and left behind. In book 3 he was basically trying to get Tresdayle to see Medo was evil/possibly a Larkin.


Places of note

Orchrim – The palace once belonging to the Larkin House. Once their line was overthrown, Tenebrim Ordene was put in power. With Tornhold in ruin, Orchrim is the new seat of power in the Torn Realms

Sespa – The city at the foot of Orchrim.

Cryferiss – An ice wasteland to the north.

Tornhold – Tresdayle and Rowan’s palace, now broken and shattered beyond repair.

Tatterwing II Recap

Main Plot Summary:

Book 2 basically documented Medo's falling out with society at large.

The book began two years after the events of book 1. Marlin and Medo were teaming up in a business venture to sell somewhat innocuous Black Magic trinkets to locals. They were beginning to change the way people viewed the 'dark side'. Witches were beginning to seem like not such a bad thing.

But then Rallyn showed up, cracked open a hidden door in the basement, and woke up a sleeping queen (this queen was basically Migwul AND Rowan in human form--if you don't remember who they are, Migwul was the dragon antagonist from book 1 who used to be a queen).

Medo was well known for witchery in those parts, so when a Queen that was supposed to be dead turned up, mindlessly roaming the woods, people blamed Medo almost automatically. Hoping to protect their reputations (and their blossoming business), Medo and her companions pursued the queen, promising to halt the problem promptly.

But the long lost Queen's sudden reappearance also drew attention from other parties. Namely Rowan's brothers: Tenebrim, seer king of Orchrim, and the ever-scheming Arkhold.

Long story short, Owyn turned out to be Tenebrim's long lost kiddo. Arkhold turned out to be the sort of uncle who likes to kill their nephews so they can have the throne to themselves when the king finally croaks. Medo quickly found herself in Arkhold's crosshairs and struggled to not only keep her companions alive, but, secondarily, attempted to prove Rowan was not merely a walking corpse, but a capable human being who could vouch for everyone's innocence and make a happy little ending for our heroes.

None of Medo's hopes worked out :( She and Rowan were captured by Arkhold and sentenced to public execution by burning. In her escape from this, things got excessively murdery. One of her captors was rendered paralyzed and Medo ensured his eyes got eaten right out of his face by crows while he was still living. Don't mess with that girl, amiright?

Anyways, Owyn had been revealed to be royal blood just before his capture, so Arkhold had no choice but to take him up to see Tenebrim. But Arkhold is a scheming jerk, remember? So he managed to boobytrap Owyn's unconcious body with a black magic weapon of Medo's, setting up Owyn and Tenebrims for a long slow death.

Anyway, Medo fled her attempted execution and arrived just in time to save Owyn, bust him out of his dad's and Arkhold's clutches, and escape into the ruins of the palace Orchrim.

Unfortunately, in the process, Medo used a lot of dark magic, and thus emotionally exhausted herself. At this point Medo had gathered both halves of her black magic spellbook, and knew from Rallyn that there was a rune inside the book that had an extra store of Black Magic trapped inside of it.

Needing a little more magic to ensure her escape, Medo joined the book halves together, drew from the store of trapped power, and used said power to extinguish the nearby fires so that she could get away in the cover of night. But due to the amount of power she drew on, spell turned out kinda huge. It extinguished every hearth in the castle and surrounding city.

Medo had little time to process this because shadowy figures emerged from the corners of the room, cornered Medo, tore something vital from her being, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Owyn came on this scene just in time to carry her off and wish his crazed father goodbye. There was no hope of taking Arkhold on at this point. He'd already turned everyone against our heroes, rendering them outlaws.


Other Plotlines of Note:

The Druid: there was an old forest dweller who kept intervening to save Medo at different times. He was revealed to be one of the only survivors of the House of Larkin (a dead royal house who practiced black magic openly, were friends with the mountain dwelling Lyns). When pressed about his helpfulness, the old man revealed he believed Medo was his dead son's daughter. This was based on the fact that before his son died, he spoke of having a daughter with a Saiheen woman (the Saiheen are Medo's people).

Sinder: Is a young knight trying to rekindle his dead father's order: the Cold. The Cold were responsible for fighting Black Magic users, surviving Larkins, stray Witches and the like. Through book 2 Sinder found himself reluctantly switching sides once he realized Owyn was royal blood and Arkhold was plotting to have him killed. But the alliance was shaky. He spent a lot of energy telling Medo how terrible Black Magic is and how she shouldn't use it. In the end of the book he ended up opposing Medo, so she and the Druid knocked him out and left him behind.

Rallyn: has been generally mysterious thus far. For the last two books he really pushed Medo into using black magic, and into using her spellbook/seeking the other half of it when they broke into Orchrim, etc. In his introduction, Rallyn claimed to be a seer, and to have lived forever. We learned in book 2 that he might be capable of seeing not only distant places, but also the future (making him a prophet, technically). Prophets are never forthcoming about what they've foreseen, as a general rule.

Haunt trees: The gang camped out by a Haunt tree. Its a massive oak like tree that people associate with Black Magic. Medo is told Sinder's order, the Cold, used to execute witches by hanging at trees like those. Also according to Sinder, Old Stagger, (more or less the folk god of Black Magic) is said to frequent these trees, sometimes appearing to mortals so that he can strike deals with them.

Royal betrayal history: It was also revealed that Arkhold and Tenebrim worked together to betray the High King Tresdayle. Basically how it worked was Arkhold, Tenebrim and Rowan were all siblings. Their dad was Morogwym, a bad guy from the past who had been banished from the realms. When Morogwym returned from his exile as an old man, Tresdayle wanted him executed, but the three siblings protected their father, hoping to learn things from him. Things escalated, and eventually Arkhold and Tenebrim conspired to help Morogwym get into Tresdayle and Rowan's castle because they were fed up with the High King and all of his crap. So Morogwym broke into the castle, but his attack didn't center on Tresdayle, it centered on his own daughter, Rowan. This is how Rowan became Migwul. After doing this, Morogwym fled over the winter wastes of Cryferiss. With no obvious cure to Rowan's ailment, Tresdayle pursued Morogwym into Cryferiss and neither were ever heard from again.




...................................................

I think that's pretty much it. I advise you read the names and places list, so that you're familiar with returning characters from book 1.Reading a full recap of book 1 is probably unnecessary, but if you wish to, that link is here:

https://tatterwing.blogspot.com/2017/08/beshrewed-recap.html

More Concept Art

Adede's face, because I guess that's needed?

This was Gibb. At one point he had 3 fingers, for a captain hookish feel?

So many satchels. These are all of Medo's in 3, including her dust pouch. Again, needed?

Rallyn's creepy friends.

This was a sketch of Malva and some of the Witchfolk pendents. 

Bogo, because you all wanted to see him, right? Right?

Ohlos Crullak concepts.

Migwul Concept Art

An old one from early years.

Art from early drafts.

My meh attempt at 3d. Good for lighting reference.

Want Extra Stuff?

So here's basically all the links I can think of to supportive materials.

The youtube channel which contains book trailers:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TatterwingChronicles


The deviant art page where I sometimes post extra art and stuff:
https://mmstauff.deviantart.com/

The first "hook" tatterwing short story, which can be acquired for free on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Tatterwing-Chronicles-Glimpse-ebook/dp/B00JVU32TQ

Our author page with all the books listed:
https://www.amazon.com/M.M.-Stauffer/e/B00JV879BA/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Map of the Torn Realms