SOLVED. Fantasy novel series; multiple POVs - one of them kills off his brothers in a power struggle amidst FJORDS, a lot of magic, some magic was related to precious stones like lapis lazuli. [s]

[Donald]

The book reminded me of A Song of Ice an Fire... read it sometime between 2007 - 2009.
There was lots of war, blood and carnage
Monks/priests rewriting manuscripts by hand
A lot of magic relating to precious stones like lapis lazuli; there was a ritual involving concentric rings of increasing power.
An entire army travelled through a portal.

A power tussle between brothers, they didn't have names just numbers (3rd brother, 4th brother etc). Their location was in the midst of FJORDS. The most cunning killed off the rest and I remember him trapping one of his brothers in a creature that would digest him for ages.

[Kris]

Something by Brandon Sanderson (e.g., The Way of Kings)?

[Sue]

The power struggle among brothers reminded me very much of the Eika, a non- human race in Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, in fact I clearly remember the scene you describe occurring in one of them. However it's been a while since I read the series and as there are seven quite chunky books in it I couldn't say for certain which book this occurs in, or if it is what you are looking for. The setting of the series is medieval and in what appears to be Europe, and there is definitely a lot of bloodshed, there are monks involved and magic, but I can't recall how the magic system worked.

The King's Dragon, the first book in the series.

[Donald]

Sue wrote: "The power struggle among brothers reminded me very much of the Eika, a non- human race in Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, in fact I clearly remember the scene you describe occurring in one of..."

Yes! Yes!!! Checked all the reviews and I'm really sure that's it. Thank you so much