The Tyrant Philosophers/Varinecthes

Varinecthes - known colloquially as "Varney" and formally as Varinecthes the Sorcerer - is a thousand-year-old wizard, described as the greatest sorcerer in the world and the oldest, or near-oldest, man alive, who operates a ten-storey flying tower called the Varinaen as a weapon of war and a private dwelling. His mere presence in a city has been read as extending supernatural protection: his mooring above Eres Ffenegh emboldened the Os-Fferegh to expel their Palleseen garrison, an act that triggered the siege around which Pretenders to the Throne Of God is structured. In House of Open Wounds he appears first as the operator of a fire-attack flying tower over the Bracinta battlefield, then as a fancy-dressed old man at a Magnelei taverna who identifies concealed deities at a glance; it is in that second scene, when Masty cries "Varinecthes! Old Varney!" from the field hospital rear lines, that the two names are confirmed to belong to the same person. He is bound by contract to the demon Ghastron for over four centuries, an arrangement that has long since passed beyond master-and-servant into a domestic partnership, and in Pretenders to the Throne Of God the text states plainly that Ghastron is "not master, not any more; his lover, say the word."

His arc across the two books moves from martial utility to personal devastation and, at the end, to a quiet restoration. In House of Open Wounds he is an asset and an enigma: a battlefield operator who fulfils ancient contractual promises with imps and sun-lances, then vanishes into the crowd of a prisoner exchange, offering Jack a parting blessing or curse before disappearing. In Pretenders to the Throne Of God his private world is shattered in the novel's opening chapter when Palleseen soldiers infiltrate the Varinaen and murder Ghastron, reducing the demon to "a gap. An absence made tangible by the way the eight of them were standing." What follows is a long portrait of grief: Varinecthes withdraws into his tower, refuses all contact, is described as "broken and grieving" and "grief-hollowed," and must explain to Jack why conjuring Ghastron back would only produce a hollow copy of the beloved. The novel ends with the Varinaen's base unlocking and Ghastron walking through the door from Hell, taking Varney's hands, saying "For now at least, all is well."

Thematically, Varinecthes embodies the collision between the old world of sorcery and contractual obligation and the new world of machine-delegated magic and state violence; he observes his own threadbare slippers and worries about relevance while a cold-iron wizard-killing knife is turned into a thought. His philosophy of love, drawn from the mechanics of demon-conjuration, holds that love "undermines everything you are" because the act of naming another being into your terms overwrites what it truly was. He is, in the end, a figure who has lived too long to be motivated by vengeance - "wickedness seemed a lot of effort, and he'd rather just shuffle about his tower and drink tea" - yet who still, even diminished, is not something one wishes to stand in front of.

Character

Appearance

Varinecthes is presented as an ancient man whose physical presentation is markedly shabby for a figure of his power. He wears threadbare slippers during the Bracinta engagement and reflects on them as he observes the tower's operations; later, in Pretenders to the Throne Of God, he is still in "slippers bought in Magnelei" when he discovers the intruders in his sitting room, and in the novel's final chapter he opens the Varinaen's door "in slippers and dressing gown." At the Magnelei prisoner exchange he appears in disguise as a "fancy-dressed old man," but the void of empty chairs around his table marks him as something other than an itinerant performer. After Ghastron's murder he is described as physically frail and "grief-hollowed," a stark contrast to the "maelstrom of grief and vengeance" his body unleashed in the tower's initial moments of rage.

Personality

Varinecthes is weary, dryly blunt, and fundamentally tired of the world's cruelties. He tells Jack that "wickedness seemed a lot of effort" and that he would prefer to shuffle about his tower and drink tea. He is not gentle in speech: he calls Jack's conjuring situation "Fucking amateurs. What an unholy mess," and his advice to Jack is delivered without softening - "I'd tell you, Never love, Jack, if it wasn't too late." Yet he is tender where it counts: he calls Jack "son" on the Varinaen balcony, pulls him back from the railing, and says "this isn't the railing you need to be throwing yourself over." His grief for Ghastron is total and private; he does not perform mourning publicly, instead withdrawing from all contact and refusing delegations, until the final night when he simply opens the door.

Beliefs & Motivations

Varinecthes's deepest conviction, arrived at through centuries of contract-magic and confirmed by the loss of Ghastron, is that love is the one vulnerability that "undermines everything you are," because the mechanisms by which a sorcerer binds a demon - specifying boundaries, setting terms - are structurally identical to the ways one defines and thus overwrites the being one loves. He refuses to conjure Ghastron back because the recovered entity would be "the glass but not the wine," his own memory written over Ghastron's true self: "I'd redefine him until all the parts of him that were him were written over with my handwriting." He has confronted the Kings Below in Hell and concluded that the contract itself is the trap. What he refuses, absolutely, is to overwrite what another being truly is for the comfort of his own grief.

History

House of Open Wounds

The Fireberg Battle

Varinecthes first appears in this book as the operator of a flying tower above the Bracinta battlefield: a structure of ten storeys of building set upon a craggy rock foundation, coasting through the smoke that obscures the sky, pouring liquid fire onto the battlefield below - ch 33. Masty identifies the sorcerer from the field hospital rear lines, crying out: Varinecthes! Old Varney! - ch 33. He is described as a thousand-year-old sorcerer and Lord of the Tower, operating the structure from its balcony as part of the Loruthi war effort - ch 33.

From the tower's balcony, Varinecthes completes a fire-attack and then receives a report from Ghastron of a new conjuration demand: a hundred demons to bedevil the Palleseen advance. He fulfils this ancient promise by hurling imps over the edge of the tower - ch 33. He then attempts a "sun-lance," an inherited promise or boast made centuries ago, but the smoke of the Loruthi fireberg artillery obscures all targets, rendering the attack partially ineffective - ch 33. The resulting solar flare nonetheless produces a three-second daylight flash that topples the medical tent and sets the next surgical tent ablaze - ch 33.

Varinecthes is bound by contract to Ghastron for over four centuries; the arrangement is described as a domestic partnership in which Ghastron manages Varinecthes's inherited obligations - ch 33. The Loruthi hold title to three of four inherited claims on Varinecthes's promises, though the nature of these claims and the identity of the fourth holder remain unspecified - ch 33. During the engagement, Varinecthes observes his own threadbare slippers and reflects on the threat that machine-delegated magic poses to the continued relevance of sorcerers - ch 33.

• implied, ch 33: The operator of the flying tower is confirmed to be Varinecthes himself, identified by Masty.

The Draining of the Gods

At the prisoner exchange inside Magnelei, Varinecthes appears in disguise as a fancy-dressed old man seated at a taverna table, speaking in Maric and paying a Bracite shawm player to move away from Jack's vicinity - ch 40. He is described as an ancient sorcerer of uncertain provenance, and the void of empty chairs around his table marks him as something other than an itinerant performer - ch 40. Upon revealing himself to Jack, he identifies the divine companions concealed in Jack's box - God, Zenotheus, and The Fisher King - in an instant, prompting God and Zenotheus to respond with threatened retribution and the Fisher King to gesture at Varney with his harpoon - ch 40.

Varinecthes offers Jack a sorcerer's blessing or curse as a parting gift - ch 40. At his shoulder, Ghastron materialises and delivers a monologue arguing that all relationships are contracts, that demons are the "literal and overt reflection" of human bonds, and that the word "servant" disputes the nature of his own bondage to Varinecthes - ch 40. When Jack asks Ghastron where he would be if truly free, Ghastron answers after a silence: "Here," said Ghastron simply. "With him. No hell is sweeter." - ch 40. Varinecthes goes still, as though regretting having permitted the question - ch 40.

Pretenders to the Throne Of God

The Infiltration of the Varinaen (ch 1-3)

Varinecthes opens the novel as point-of-view in his own flying tower, the Varinaen, moored above Eres Ffenegh seven months into the Palleseen siege. He is introduced as the "greatest sorcerer in the world" and the oldest, or near-oldest, man alive - a figure whose mere presence in the city was read as extending protection, emboldening the Os-Fferegh to expel their Palleseen garrison and thus triggering the siege itself - ch 1. His emotional world in this chapter is entirely organised around Ghastron, a "grandee of the infernal" from Hell who was once his conjured servant but has long since become his equal: "not master, not any more; his lover, say the word" - ch 1. The two have been partners for centuries; Ghastron, being a demon, does not sleep but "consented to lie in this bed" and make "a decent impression" of it - ch 1.

Waking on a cold morning, Varinecthes notices the tower is too cold and an exclamation cut short came from below. He descends in slippers bought in Magnelei and finds eight Palleseen soldiers in charcoal-grey uniforms in his and Ghastron's sitting room. They have entered without triggering any ward, using a method he had not anticipated. They have killed Ghastron. What remains is not a body but a "gap. An absence made tangible by the way the eight of them were standing. A hole where the body had fallen before it fell out of the world and back Below" - ch 1. The chapter states Ghastron is "gone beyond the dreams of necromancers; gone" - ch 1.

Some soldiers fire magical batons at him; he deflects the magic into "a hole somewhere, in some unnamed direction" while still half-asleep. One attacks with a cold iron wizard-killing knife inscribed with sigils; Varinecthes turns the knife into a thought and the man into "an exploded anatomical diagram" - ch 1. His grief and rage wake the tower's stored power: the fire monster he captured and bound into the tower's foundations centuries ago as a heating system breaks free and ravages the room. The tower itself "felt the horror and despair its master's aged frame couldn't contain" - ch 1. The remaining soldiers flee through the same ineffable means they used to enter; some escape, others do not. Varinecthes kneels in the inferno, beating his fists on the floor where Ghastron was, "far more of him consumed by loss than seeking vengeance. But even five per cent of a vengeful archmage wasn't something you wanted to stand in front of" - ch 1. The narrator notes the operation was "a tactical failure but a strategic victory" for the Palleseen - ch 1. Varinecthes reflects on his own weariness: "Like the magic, these days wickedness seemed a lot of effort, and he'd rather just shuffle about his tower and drink tea" - ch 1.

The Osseach Meeting at the Pandaemonium (ch 7-9)

By the time the Osseach convenes at the Pandaemonium, Varinecthes has not been seen in public. He is referred to obliquely as "Himself," and Aeriff ea Llannach reports to Hamriddy oa Galeaff that he will not speak, having been "struck silent and neutered" by a Palleseen attack at the siege's start that did not kill him but rendered him functionally inert - ch 9. When someone in the Osseach chamber suggests approaching Abellaime, 'the Widow' instead, Aeriff snaps - ch 9. The delegation sent to him by Aeriff has been refused; the archmage refuses all contact and will not leave the Varinaen - ch 9.

The Peace Talks at the Pandaemonium (ch 17-21)

Varinecthes makes a public appearance at the Pandaemonium bar during the surrender negotiations, but he is "broken and grieving," no longer the figure the world remembers. Lovern, the Cohort-Monitor who carried out the raid on the Varinaen on Dantell's orders, feels personal guilt and tries to approach the wizard, but Abellaime blocks him, speaking to Varinecthes as an "old acquaintance" and setting aside her usual hauteur with him alone - ch 21. The notes specify that the raid "hadn't even been the right target killed, just the one who'd walked in on them" - ch 21. Lovern retreats, miserable. Varinecthes is described as "grief-hollowed," physically frail, far from the "maelstrom of grief and vengeance" Lovern witnessed at the tower - ch 21.

The Assault on the Lighthouse (ch 22-27)

After the peace talks collapse and the Palleseen resume the assault, Devil Jack is sent by Abellaime to the Varinaen to retrieve books and three conjuring candlesticks that Varinecthes pledged to her during a visit to the Pandaemonium while the Palleseen delegation was in the city - ch 24. The tower is empty of staff. On the seventh floor, Jack finds a room "comprehensively destroyed - furniture shattered, metal slagged, cloth ash - permeated by the grief of a great wizard," with at its centre an absence like a cenotaph: the shape of Ghastron's former presence - ch 24. Varinecthes is hiding in a pile of laundry; he grabs Jack's wrist, speaks in Maric, calls the theft attempt foolish, and tells him to take the things - ch 24.

On the balcony, Varinecthes and Jack recognise each other's grief; Varinecthes calls Jack "son" - ch 24. He explains why he has not simply conjured Ghastron back: the contract mechanism guarantees that a recovered demon will be only the conjurer's memory of the demon, the original's true self overwritten. "You'd get the glass but not the wine" - ch 24. He elaborates: "You'd get her. I'd get him. Only the act of conjuration is a setting of terms. It's a redefinition. You specify the boundaries within which your demon sits" - ch 24. "I'd redefine him until all the parts of him that were him were written over with my handwriting. A dream of him, and I'd have erased everything he really was, to make it" - ch 24. He also describes confronting the Kings Below in Hell and realising the contract itself is the trap - ch 24. He tells Jack, "I'd tell you, Never love, Jack, if it wasn't too late. It undermines everything you are" - ch 24. When Jack vomits over the railing, Varinecthes pulls him back and says, "this isn't the railing you need to be throwing yourself over" - ch 24. He calls Jack's situation with Caeleen - who was never his demon by contract due to a clerical error - Fucking amateurs. What an unholy mess - ch 24. The notes record that Varinecthes told Jack of a "somewhere terrible" he must go to reach Caeleen, though the full destination is not stated in this chapter - ch 24.

The Culling Lists (ch 28-33)

Following the resumption of fighting, Jack recalls having visited Varinecthes in the Right-city and hearing the siege fighting on his way out - ch 30. He subsequently delivers items from Varinecthes to Abellaime; she inspects them and dismisses Varinecthes's claim that one can visit Hell as senility - ch 32. Jack nevertheless acts on the information, standing on the Pandaemonium balcony to throw himself into Hell - ch 32.

The Challenge to the Lich Queen (ch 34-38)

At Hamriddy oa Galeaff's funeral, held at the cliff-edge by the Varinaen with the body consigned to the sea, Varinecthes attends, says nothing, and places a hand on Niev ea Galeaff's shoulder; his presence publicly marks Hamriddy's memory and lends Niev perceived stature. He had known Hamriddy over centuries - ch 34. At the siege lines the following night, he is referenced only as "the palanquin lurking nearby with its lisping occupant," implying he has moved his tower or a conveyance to the area but remains withdrawn - ch 38.

The Final Assault at the Gaelensreach (ch 39-42)

On the final day of the siege, Varinecthes watches the battle from the Varinaen. He remembers Ghastron being sent back to Hell by the Palleseen's "new magic," and when he reaches for rage he finds "only ashes" - ch 41. He had traded arcane anecdotes with Abellaime over the years, one more pleasure "lost to time" - ch 41. As the city falls and artillery shot curves oddly over the Pandaemonium, Varinecthes departs his tower as its base unlocks - ch 41.

In the aftermath, after the Dead Company has marched away and the Gaelensreach gate has been altered to lead to Hell, Varinecthes, in slippers and dressing gown, opens the door of the Varinaen to Ghastron, who has travelled from Hell to him. Ghastron takes Varney's hands. "For now at least, all is well" - ch 42.

Relationships

• Ghastron - A demon of Hell, bound to Varinecthes by contract for over four centuries. What began as conjuration and servitude became a domestic partnership and then a lovers' relationship; Ghastron "consented to lie in this bed" and manages Varinecthes's inherited obligations. When Ghastron asks where he would be if truly free, the answer is "Here. With him. No hell is sweeter." Their bond is the emotional axis of both books: Ghastron's murder in the Varinaen defines the second half of Pretenders to the Throne Of God, and the novel closes with Ghastron walking back through the door and Varinecthes, after months of grief-hollowed silence, taking his hands. - House of Open Wounds, ch 33, 40; Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 1, 24, 41, 42

• Devil Jack - They meet as strangers at a Magnelei taverna, where Varinecthes identifies the deities concealed in Jack's box and offers a parting blessing or curse. On the Varinaen balcony they recognise each other's shared grief - both have loved a demon bound by contract - and Varinecthes calls Jack "son." He gives Jack the information about how to reach Caeleen, then watches Jack act on it. - House of Open Wounds, ch 40; Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 24, 30, 32

• Abellaime, 'the Widow' - Described as "old acquaintances"; she hosts him at the Pandaemonium during the Palleseen delegation's visit, and he pledges her books and three conjuring candlesticks in return for her listening. Her usual hauteur is set aside with him alone, and they have traded arcane anecdotes over the years - a pleasure the war has now "lost to time." When Jack delivers the pledged items, she inspects them and dismisses Varinecthes's claim that one can visit Hell as senility. - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 21, 24, 32, 41

• Lovern - The Cohort-Monitor who carried out the raid on the Varinaen that killed Ghastron. Lovern feels personal guilt and attempts to approach Varinecthes at the Pandaemonium bar, but Abellaime blocks him. Varinecthes makes no acknowledgment of him. - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 21

• Aeriff ea Llannach - The Galeaff Aeriff sends delegations to Varinecthes seeking his participation in the Osseach; he refuses all contact and will not leave the Varinaen. Aeriff refers to him obliquely as "Himself" and reports to Hamriddy oa Galeaff that he has been struck silent and neutered. - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 9

• Hamriddy oa Galeaff and Niev ea Galeaff - Varinecthes has known Hamriddy over centuries. At Hamriddy's cliff-edge funeral by the Varinaen, Varinecthes attends, says nothing, and places a hand on Niev's shoulder; his presence publicly marks Hamriddy's memory and lends Niev perceived stature. - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 34

• The Loruthi - Varinecthes was employed on the Loruthi side during the war against the Palleseen. The Loruthi hold title to three of four inherited claims on his ancient promises; the fourth holder is unnamed. - House of Open Wounds, ch 33; Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 1

Notable Quotes

"Here," said Ghastron simply. "With him. No hell is sweeter." - Ghastron, House of Open Wounds, ch 40

"You'd get the glass but not the wine." - Varinecthes, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 24

"I'd tell you, Never love, Jack, if it wasn't too late. It undermines everything you are." - Varinecthes, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 24

"this isn't the railing you need to be throwing yourself over." - Varinecthes, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 24

"For now at least, all is well." - Ghastron, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 42

"far more of him consumed by loss than seeking vengeance. But even five per cent of a vengeful archmage wasn't something you wanted to stand in front of." - narrator, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 1

Tags

1. archmage · #sorcerer · #demon-lover · #ancient