Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Dawn (2025) is a grimdark fantasy novel and the third and final installment in the internationally bestselling Empire of the Vampire series. The novel concludes the epic saga begun in Empire of the Vampire (2021) and Empire of the Damned (2024). Set in a world plunged into near-perpetual darkness, the story is primarily framed as a confession from the legendary half-vampire warrior Gabriel de León, who is imprisoned in an enemy fortress. As a condition of his captivity, Gabriel recounts the saga of his life, his war against the vampire king who murdered his family, and his quest to protect Dior Lachance, a young girl prophesied to be the world’s savior.

Like its predecessors, the novel explores complex themes through its morally ambiguous characters and brutal world. Kristoff examines The Corrupting Nature of Absolute Power, showing how immortal beings become detached from humanity and commit atrocities to alleviate their own existential suffering. The narrative also posits Love as an Act of Rebellion, as characters forge bonds of loyalty and affection in defiance of a hopeless world. The battle between belief and reason reinforces the theme of The Perils of Uncritical Faith. Author Jay Kristoff is a #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author who has won numerous accolades for his work in fantasy and science fiction, including eight Aurealis Awards and an Australian Book Industry Award.

This guide is based on the 2025 St. Martin’s Press first edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, death, child death, suicidal ideation, substance use, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In the 27th year of daysdeath, the perpetual darkness plaguing the world, the famed vampire-hunter Gabriel de León is a prisoner in the vampire fortress of Sul Adair. At the command of the ancient Empress Margot Chastain, he recounts his story to her son and historian, the Marquis Jean-François. The fortress awaits a Conclave of vampire leaders, and with the vengeful new leader of the Dyvok line, the Draigann, already at the gates demanding Gabriel’s head, Jean-François must extract the full history of Dior Lachance, rumored to be the world’s savior, before it is too late. 

Gabriel’s tale begins in the recent past, where, believing his protegee Dior to be dead, he abandoned his friends at the ruined city of Dún Maergenn to seek vengeance against the Forever King, Fabién Voss, the most powerful and evil of the vampire-lords and the murderer of Gabriel’s wife Astrid and daughter, Patience. To kill Voss, Gabriel arms himself with three vials of Dior’s holy blood, which he believes is the only substance that can destroy the ancient vampire.

Gabriel is soon joined on his quest his former apprentice, the silversaint (the order of vampire-hunting monks to which Gabriel belongs) Lachlan á Craeg, and his old friends, the blacksmith Baptiste Sa-Ismael and his husband Aaron de Coste, who has been recently turned into a highblooded vampire. The group’s journey is tense, as Gabriel’s enchanted, sentient sword, Ashdrinker, is discovered to have a critical crack that worsens with every battle. Baptiste determines the blade can only be mended at a special forge, the closest of which is in the city of León, the ancestral home of Gabriel’s mother. After his mother got pregnant out of wedlock with Gabriel, she was banished from Leon by Gabriel’s grandfather. 

Arriving in the Barony of Leon, Gabriel’s group is intercepted by a company of vampire-hunters led by Gabriel’s austere cousin, Charlotte de León. Though she seemingly despises Gabriel for his “illicit” origins, Charlotte brings his group to the city. There, Gabriel and his allies discover a horrifying secret: León is secretly ruled by Ilon, the ancient Priori (vampire-lord) of the Whispers bloodline and one of the first five vampires cursed by the Redeemer, the son of God. The city’s entire populace is hypnotized by Ilon, converted into “thralls.”

Gabriel devises a plan to break Ilon’s hold. He stages a violent public confrontation with Aaron and Lachlan, creating the illusion that Aaron has fled the city in a rage. Gabriel then confronts Ilon, but is overpowered by the ancient’s mind-bending gifts. Just as Ilon prepares to enthrall Gabriel, Aaron returns and attacks. Charlotte, who was freed from Ilon’s influence by an accidental splash of Dior’s blood from one of Gabriel’s vials, joins the fray and helps slay the ancient. Gabriel’s grandfather, the Baron of Leon, sacrifices his life in the process. With León liberated but its leadership dead, Charlotte becomes Baronne and pledges her army to Gabriel’s cause. 

As they prepare to march on Voss’s known location at San Maximille, Gabriel’s former lover, the duskdancer (a shapeshifter) Phoebe á Dúnnsair, arrives with the staggering news that Dior is alive. Dior has resurrected and a prophecy reveals that she must be crowned Empress in the capital city of Augustin while holding the Redeemer’s blade—Ashdrinker—to end daysdeath. Phoebe wants Gabriel to break his march to Voss and join her, but Gabriel refuses to abandon his quest for vengeance. 

After making love to Gabriel, Phoebe steals Ashdrinker and flees toward Augustin. Undeterred, Gabriel attacks San Maximille with a borrowed sword, only to discover the battle is a trap. Voss’s forces overwhelm his army, and Voss reveals he holds Gabriel’s daughter, Patience—long thought dead—who has been turned into a vampire. Voss offers Gabriel his daughter and friends back if he will join him. To save them, Gabriel agrees to hear Voss’s plan. At this point in the narration, Gabriel stabs Jean-Francois, escaping from Sul Adair. 

The story is then taken up by Gabriel’s half-sister, Celene Castia, a follower of the Esani order, who is also imprisoned in Sul Adair. She reveals to Jean-François that Dior did resurrect and was met by the ancient Esani vampire Maryn, who explained the full import of the prophecy to Dior’s group. Celene and Dior sail to Augustin with Dior’s allies—including Princess Reyne á Maergenn and Phoebe—and arrive to find the capital besieged by the Endless Legion, the army of the Forever King, led by Kestrel Voss or the Iron Maiden, the eldest daughter of Voss. Dior’s forces fight, causing Kestrel to temporarily retreat.

Dior, Celene, and the others meet Empress Isabella of Augustin and share their plan to end daysdeath. The empress is reluctant to give the throne to Dior till Reyne suggests Dior wed Isabella’s son, Prince Phillipe, thus joining their bloodlines. Isabella agrees, but Dior is inwardly furious, since she and Reyne are in love. Meanwhile, Celene has begun to get a disquieting feeling about Maryn. She follows her hunch and it is revealed that that the Esani prophecy is a lie: its true purpose is not to end daysdeath but to trigger the final Day of Judgment, ending the world. A conflicted Celene keeps this revelation to herself for now.

On the day of Dior’s wedding to Phillipe, news reaches that Gabriel has allied himself with Voss and the Forever King may be approaching. As chaos breaks out, Gabriel and his forces appear in the castle, Gabriel and Celene sparring. Gabriel accuses Celene of engineering Judgement Day with Maryn. Reyn is killed in the battle, and Gabriel is seized by the Augustin forces as the rest of his company retreats. 

In the dungeon, a grieving Dior attacks the bound Gabriel, accusing him of Reyn’s murder. Gabriel promises Dior he did not kill Reyn and tries to warn her of the Esani plot. Dior does not listen and is taken away by Phoebe. Meanwhile, Jean-Francois is interrupted by Dario telling him that Empress Margot has returned, capturing the escaped Gabriel.

In the throne-room, Jean-Francois finds a badly injured Gabriel, one of his eyes gone, sprawled at the foot of Margot’s throne. Margot hands him over to Jean-Francois for the last bit of the tale, since the Vampire Conclave will be in Sul Adair in a matter of hours. Jean-Francois takes Gabriel to Celene’s dungeon this time. Gabriel resumes his account before Celene.

Gabriel recounts how he formed a temporary and desperate alliance with his nemesis, Voss, after Voss revealed the true designs of Maryn. As Celene told Jean-Francois, Gabriel did indeed go to the castle in Augustin to warn Dior of the Esani plot. However, what Celene left out, Gabriel tells the historian, is that the fight between brother and sister was staged. Gabriel and Celene were of one mind in resisting Maryn, when Fabien Voss himself arrived at Augustin with tens of thousands of vampires. In the ensuing bloodbath, Gabriel, his friends, and the forces of Augustin offer a valiant resistance, but Prince Phillipe, Charlotte, Lachlan, and Phoebe die. Maryn was killed as well. 

Voss kidnaps Dior, revealing that the only way to undo daysdeath, which he himself created, is to kill the Priori of the five ancient vampire bloodlines whose blood was used in the original ritual. However, Voss does not want to end daysdeath. He wants to take Dior to Charbourg, the site of the Redeemer’s murder, to perform his own dark ritual using Dior’s blood to gain the power to turn mortals into vampires at will. 

A dejected Gabriel walks out of Augustin, but takes heart when he sees Aaron. They head to Charbourg, where Voss has taken Dior, Baptiste, and Patience. In the present timeline, Jean-Francois begins to pack up his quills as he believes the story completed, since he already knows from Gabriel the quest ends in disaster with Dior dead. However, brother and sister tell him there is more to the story.

Gabriel’s party runs into Margot’s ambassador and granddaughter, the Viscontessa Nicolette, at the edges of Charbourg. Nicolette shows them the ruins where Voss has Dior nailed to a wheel, her blood dripping into a bowl for his ritual. Voss spots Gabriel and forces him to drink the blood so he can turn him into a highblood vampire, Voss’s own “son.” The spell does not work and Voss grows enraged, killing Aaron and Baptiste. Celene arrives just in time to save the day. Working together, Gabriel and Celene finally slay the Forever King. In the chaos, however, Patience is accidentally splashed with Dior’s blood and burns to ashes. 

Devastated and consumed by his sangirè (a paleblood’s escalating bloodlust), Gabriel turns on Dior and drinks her blood until she is dead. In the aftermath, the weakened siblings are captured by the Viscontessa Nicolette, thus beginning their imprisonment and the elaborate story they tell Jean-François. Celene and Gabriel end their story, Celene contemptuously referring to Gabriel as the monster who “broke” the Holy Grail, that is, Dior. 

His history concluded, Jean-François goes up to meet the newly arrived Conclave of vampires, including Kestrel Voss. He mentions Patience’s death to Kestrel, prompting her to remark that Gabriel’s daughter died four years ago with her mother. Jean-Francois realizes the truth: Gabriel and Celene’s entire testimony has been a masterful deception. Patience was never resurrected as a vampire, and Phoebe did not die. Gabriel and Celene have been stalling for time while Dior, who resurrected once again, has been rallying an army with Phoebe and Lachlan. 

Just as Jean-François understands the ruse, the fortress is invaded by an army of Highlanders and soldiers from León. Dior, now able to transform into a great white wolf, leads the assault. Using her holy blood, which is a bane to all vampires, she kills Empress Margot and the other visiting Priorem—Kestrel, Kariim Ilon, and the Draigann. With the death of the Priori of the four cursed bloodlines (Maryn, the Esani Priori, having been killed at Augustin), the ancient magic of daysdeath finally begins to unravel.

In the aftermath of the battle, the sky begins to brighten for the first time in 27 years. The world, at last, is healing. Gabriel is reunited with his surviving friends and makes peace with his sister. Gabriel, his own bloodlust finally calmed by the true power of Dior’s blood, reflects that while he has lost so much, his faith in Dior has redeemed not only the world, but himself. Though the healing will be slow, he says, “I have patience.”