Fall of Ruin and Wrath

Lis is the protagonist and point-of-view character in Fall of Ruin and Wrath. In the Prologue, she is a child living in an orphanage with her only friend, Grady. However, when the main narrative begins over a decade later, she is 22 years old and has been living in Archwood with Grady for six years. Though she grows up believing herself to be a lowborn mortal, the novel eventually reveals that she is a starborn and caelestia meant to teach Thorne compassion, a twist that underscores the danger she faces as the series continues.

An ability that Lis calls her “intuition” is central to both her characterization and the novel’s exploration of Compassion as Vulnerability and Strength. This “intuition” gives her the power to read other people’s minds and see their future when she touches them. Occasionally, it also gives her a feeling of what she should do—even if she does not fully understand it. She uses her intuition to gain favor with Archwood’s baron, Claude, who gives her a comfortable life in exchange for information she gleans through reading other people. Despite its practical utility, however, Lis also finds her intuition burdensome, as she often finds others’ thoughts encroaching on her own—a literalization of how heightened empathy can make maintaining personal boundaries challenging.