The Curse of Chalion (World of the Five Gods, #1)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

white in the sigil of the Lady of Spring.

Rat and Crow, sacred to the Bastard, god of all disasters

Enough to convict and hang him, if he hadn’t been dead already. The punishments for practicing—no, for attempting—death magic were ferocious.

there was no case Cazaril knew of a magical assassination that had not cost the life of its caster.

Death magic baby, we learn so much more about it as the story unfolds.

To kill was to be killed.

The Order of the Bastard, by the logic of its theology, classified unwanted births among the things-out-of-season that were the god’s mandate:

The bastard is the most fascinating God in Lois Macmaster Bujolds world of the five God's universe. Need to spend some time reading about the five God's, their principles and lore.

a god who was supposed to command a legion of demons ought to have an easier time shaking out donations for his good works.

The Bastard... Bad boy God!

The Father of Winter was the god of all deaths in good season, and of justice;

the Bastard was the god of executioners. And, indeed, god of a whole purseful of other dirty jobs.

Would really like to see some illustration work visualising the God's in this universe.

the merchant would never have been driven to use death magic,” said Iselle slowly. “Two men are dead and damned, where it might have only been one .

The alternative—that Iselle had been touched by the goddess that day—disturbed him to contemplate.

Cazaril had met, in his time, some two or three persons whom he suspected might be truly god-touched,

What could possibly drive such an implacable cruel hatred of you?”

The Roknari heresy of the four gods makes a crime of the sort of odd loves the Bastard rules here.

The Roknari are in opposition with others in this world in regards to religion. They worship 4 God's not five like the other Quintarians.

Roknari theologians say the Bastard is a demon, like his father, and not a god, after his holy mother, and so call us all devil worshippers—which is a deep offense to the Lady of Summer,

So much religious nuance in this world. I definitely need to read this book again just to pick up on all the nuance. An excellent use of religion in a fantasy book.

They torture and hang men caught in sodomy, and the better Roknari shipmasters do not tolerate it abo...

Homophobia from the Roknari, whilst the Saint Umegat is a queer character. So much nuance...

“Stop saying that. We slaves. You are a lord of Chalion!”

declaring he would wipe the Quintarian heretics and the worship of the Bastard from the face of the land with fire and sword.

Even the depiction of religious strife is spot on. Sectarianism, competing beliefs driving animosity between different groups who worship & believe different things.

Fonsa the Wise, from deep study, reasoned that the Golden General must be the chosen of one of the gods; no sacrifice less than that of a king could balance his thundering destiny.

the Golden General must be the chosen of one of the gods;

Golden General is critical to the development of the story. I need to go back to understand better how this evolves.

no sacrifice less than that of a king could balance his t...

Courtiers swarmed around the youths, Cazaril thought dryly, like flies around spilled honey.

“Cazaril!” the crow cried shrilly from this new perch.

the holy military order of the Daughter.

far more glamorous order of the Son,

He met Dondo dy Jironal coming down.

“The man wears the robes of a holy general of the Lady of Spring, yet undertakes to rob women of their virginity,

Cazaril, about to cry Caz, Caz to be safe, was suddenly overcome with theological curiosity. He already knew the truth—what else might this test reveal?

The gods didn’t really reach into that room, right?”

“The Bastard is the most subtle of the gods, my lord.

I think the Bastard is my favourite God from this fictional universe.

no guarantee you are not g...

“You’re Roknari. Aren’t you of the Quadrene faith?”

Quadrenes worship 4 of the 5 God's shunning the Bastard. There religion is a heresy to the Quintarians and vice versa.

“I’ve been a devout Quintarian since my late youth.”

“It’s Ser dy Sanda. He was set upon last night by footpads, and robbed and stabbed!

“Not injured, m’lord. Slain!”

Whatever the means used, the omen was the one tiny miracle the gods granted every person, no matter how humble, at their last passing.

most beautiful of sacred animals, selected for appropriate color and gender.

The acolyte of the Son in his red-orange robes led a glorious young dog-fox,

It was the natural order of things that his soul would be taken up by the Son.

The Bastard took up all of His own order—and all those souls disdained by the greater gods.

The god who shepards the rejected....

The Bastard was the god of last resort, ultimate, if ambiguous, refuge for those who had made disasters of their lives.

A god for the failures in this life, interesting concept.

What was his word worth now, after the misfired slander about his flogging scars?

“I am not wearing that thief Lord Dondo’s pearls.

he had turned at the last not to magic, but to plain prayer.

a will then put aside, laid wholehearted on the god’s altar. Help me. Help me. Help me.

“Catch me a rat.” “A rat, my lord? Why?” Ah. Why. Why, so that I can work the crime of death magic upon the second most powerful lord in Chalion, of course!

sat to plan the rest of his ploy, his dark prayer, his suicide.

Animals were innocent, even the grisly crows; that innocence surely made them all a little sacred.

My friend Palli, the March dy Palliar, knows the true story of how I was betrayed after Gotorget.

his elder brother deliberately struck me from the list of men to be ransomed, to betray me to the galleys and my death.