Four Ruined Realms

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

Five Broken Blades, the first novel in Mai Corland’s Broken Blades series, introduces the main characters of Four Ruined Realms: Aeri, Sora, Mikail, Royo, Euyn, and Tiyung. The first novel also introduces the world of the series, in which four kingdoms—Yusan, Khitan, Gaya, and Wei—vie for dominance and political alliance. At the center of the world’s power are a number of sacred relics, each with its own distinct power, which can only be wielded by those of royal blood. Any person who wields two together has greatly increased power, and an individual who possesses all the relics becomes the Dragon Lord, with an almost godlike power.

In the first novel in the series, the team is introduced and becomes connected through their independent but interconnected plans. Aeri hires Royo to guard her as she steals a diamond. Mikail enlists his former lover, Euyn, the exiled prince of Yusan, to kill Euyn’s father, King Joon, and take the throne. Seok, a Yusan noble, orders his indentured servant, the poison maiden Sora (an assassin who uses poison), to go with his son Tiyung to kill Joon. Aeri, secretly a princess of Yusan and Joon’s daughter, uses the sacred relic Sands of Time to save Royo from pirates on a riverboat. Euyn and Mikail defeat birds of prey and rekindle their love affair.

These groups meet in Rune and join forces to steal Joon’s Immortal Crown, a sacred relic that keeps him from being killed. Sora is kidnapped in Oosant, and when the group saves her, the violence forges a bond between everyone. The group discovers that a contact of theirs, a count named Dal, who was supposed to get them an audience with Joon, is dead in Tamneki. Sora wants to abandon the plan to kill Joon, but Mikail, wanting revenge for Yusan’s massacre of Gayans, convinces the group to go through with the plan.

At a tournament at Joon’s palace, Aeri steals Joon’s crown, but it is a fake; he still possesses the true crown that grants him immortality, and when Sora manages to kiss Joon with her poisoned lipstick, it fails to kill him. The group of six is captured, and Joon reveals that he set up their assassination attempt to see their skills. He then imprisons Tiyung and orders the rest of them to steal the magical Golden Ring from Quilimar, the queen of Khitan. Joon threatens their loved ones to get them to comply, and they begin to plot how to convince Quilimar to kill Joon.