The Ascended belongs to Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox’s Sundered Realms Universe and offers insights into the connections between the authors’ different series. In this fantasy universe, the first beings, called Primordials, created four distinct pantheons of deities. The Aesymareans, the Esprithe, the Ehlistrea, and the Vaerhunn “[e]ach ruled their own mortal realms according to their nature” (406), some benevolent and others corrupt and domineering. The four pantheons conspired together to overthrow the Primordials and seize power for themselves. The Primordials’ deaths “fractured […] the very foundations of reality” (406), and this cataclysm is called The Sundering. As a result, the four pantheons and their respective worlds were separated and cast adrift in an abyss. In The Ascended, the first book of the Aesymarean Duet, the gods conceal this history out of fear that they will be usurped just as they betrayed the Primordials.

Grenwich and Lennox’s first series, the Esprithean Trilogy, takes place on another world within the Sundered Realms Universe. Riftborne (2024) introduced readers to Fia, an outcast with the rare power to manipulate minds and shadows. Like Thais, the protagonist of The Ascended, Fia faces difficult decisions due to her supernatural abilities. When her powers erupt, General Laryk Ashford forces Fia to choose between execution and enlistment in the Sidhe Guard. As she struggles to master her powers and fend off the Wraiths attacking the nation’s borders, she also contends with her growing attraction to Laryk. Fia’s enemies-to-lovers romance with the general who teaches her to hone her powers parallels Thais’s relationship with Xül, the feared god who becomes her mentor in the Trials of Ascension.

In the sequel, Duskbound (2025), Fia uncovers secrets about her supposed foes and her own origins. When the Wraiths capture her, she learns that they are not the monsters she was trained to fear but rather a people called the Umbra fighting for their survival against the Sidhe, who steal their magic. She also discovers that she is the rightful heir to the Umbrathian throne. Like Thais, Fia must undergo deadly trials. The Strykka are a series of tests that determine Umbra’s elite Spectre unit, and the members become a found family for Fia, similarly to how Thais bonds with fellow contestant Marx. The high-stakes political machinations, shifting allegiances, and dramatic revelations of Duskbound resemble The Ascended’s twists and turns.

The Esprithean Trilogy and the Aesymarean Duet are most closely intertwined through the character of Thatcher. In Duskbound, he’s known as Aether because he has lost all his memories and seemingly appeared out of nothingness. The Umbra warrior enters the novel as one of Fia’s captors, but they eventually become comrades-in-arms and lovers. Just as Aether is selflessly devoted to Fia, Thatcher is wholeheartedly loyal to his twin sister, Thais. The Ascended reveals the character’s origins as a humble fisherman who is forced to compete in the Trials of Ascension and attains godhood. The novel also explains that the matter-manipulating power the character wields in both series comes from one of the Primordials. The links between Grenwich and Lennox’s Sundered Realms mean that a development in one series has significant implications for another, adding to the romantasy novels’ suspense.