Oathbound

Early in the novel, Erebus tells Bree, “Greedy men collect what they cannot understand, and weak men destroy what they cannot control. A man who is both will attempt to recreate that which is beyond his comprehension, obliterating the original in the process” (18). Throughout Oathbound, Bree and her friends see how systems of power allow greedy and weak people to subjugate others, often destroying the very magic they claim to venerate. Various systems of power exist within the magical and human worlds of Oathbound, overlapping and intersect to impact the characters in complex and multifaceted ways.

The Order of the Round Table is the most corrupt system of power in the novel—ironically, given its claim to represent goodness and truth—and the power of its Council of Regents begins to crumble at the end of the previous novel. When the Legendborn discover the Regents’ imprisonment and assassination attempts on their own, they begin to question why the Regents are in power, especially when they “mock the very values that keep [them] relevant” (117). Nick interrogates the Order’s power even further by reproaching the Legendborn as a whole, forcing them to reckon with their own privilege when he tells them, “We have to know these sins.