Published in 2025, Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox’s The Ascended is an adult dark romantasy novel and the first book in the Aesymarean Duet. The work’s protagonist, Thais Morvaren, leads a humble life in a fishing village but hides a dangerous secret: She can forge weapons from starlight, marking her as a Blessed Mortal. When her power is discovered, she and her twin brother, Thatcher, are forced into the lethal Trials of Ascension, which grant godhood to the survivors. Thatcher’s latent powers suddenly manifest, and the twins find themselves at the center of the gods’ political machinations. As Thais seeks to avenge her mother’s death by killing the King of Gods, she must also contend with her growing attraction to Xül, the son of the God of Death. The novel explores themes of The Cost of Revenge, The Sacrifices of Love and Loyalty, and Self-Determination Versus Destiny.

Citations in this study guide refer to the e-book edition released by Onyx Publishing in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of substance use, bullying, rape, child abuse, emotional abuse, child death, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, animal death, and death.

Plot Summary

Thais Morvaren is a Blessed Mortal, someone with the power to control the stars and fashion objects from their light. She sees her supernatural abilities as a curse because she was conceived when Olinthar, King of Gods, sexually assaulted her mother, who died in childbirth. When a group of priests discovers the power she and her family concealed for 26 years, the man who raised Thais is executed as punishment. She and her twin brother, Thatcher, are forced into the Trials of Ascension, which will elevate them to gods if they survive.

Before the Trials begin, all of the Blessed Mortals undergo a process called the Proving, in which they fight to the death before a panel of lesser deities called Legends. Thais survives the Proving without taking any lives, and she pleads with the Legends to spare Thatcher, who has never shown any sign of having powers. Unmoved by her pleas, a Legend named Drakor tortures her brother. Thatcher’s power manifests, destroying the god on the spot. Although neither of the twins has any desire to become one of the gods they despise, they resolve to survive the Trials and kill Olinthar to claim justice for their mother, their adoptive father, and the countless other people whose lives have been destroyed by the corrupt hierarchy that treats mortals like they’re disposable.

Each of the contestants who survive the Proving is chosen by a Legend, who becomes their mentor. Thatcher is chosen by Chavore, his half-brother and the God of Strategy, and Thais is chosen by Xül, son of the God of Death. During her training with Xül, she develops a complicated attraction toward him, learns about combat and magic, and befriends a fellow contestant named Marx.

In the first Trial, the contestants are tasked with hunting magical creatures, but they suddenly become the prey when the animals transform into chimeric monsters. Thais uses what she’s learned from Xül to help herself, her brother, and Marx survive, but she nearly dies of blood loss. After she recuperates, Xül introduces Thais to his parents, the god Morthus and the mortal Osythe. She overhears the father and son arguing about Xül’s refusal to marry a Legend named Nyvora, and Xül explains that he doesn’t trust his fellow deities because they were cruel to him during his mortal childhood.

The second Trial forces the contestants to battle their own emotions as they navigate the ruins of a sunken city. The twins know that they risk death if they reveal that Olinthar is their father, so Thatcher uses his powers to destroy the sirens that demand they reveal their darkest secrets. The two deities who designed the second Trial demand that the twins be disqualified, but Olinthar himself intervenes on their behalf.

After the Trial, Xül teaches Thais about the Primordial entities who created the universe. Back before the Aesymarean pantheon came to power, a Primordial named Vivros, who could manipulate and transform matter, fought a cataclysmic battle against Moros, a corrupted Primordial who sought to conquer all. Both Moros and Vivros are believed dead, but Xül believes that Thatcher possesses Vivros’s power.

The third Trial is a trap. The contestants believe that they are attending a celebratory ball. Instead, the gods show them tempting illusions that burn them to death if they succumb to their desires. Thais sees an illusion of Xül, revealing her attraction to him to the divine court. When Thais apologizes to Xül, he admits that he desires her, too, but he insists that his duty makes a relationship between them impossible.

Thais and Xül receive word that the Gods of Fate and Chaos will oversee the final Trial, so he brings her to a half-divine mortal with the power to see the threads of fate. The seer warns Thais that, unless the future is altered, Thatcher won’t survive the Trials. Xül later takes Thais on a visit to his mortal relatives and shows her more of his true self beneath the layers of duty and cynicism. After openly discussing their feelings for one another, they return to his realm and consummate their relationship.

The next day, Thais discovers a letter in Xül’s study that says that Thatcher must be eliminated. She confronts Xül and learns of a secret resistance among the gods, which is led by Morthus and seeks to overthrow Olinthar. Morthus wants to eliminate Thatcher before he ascends lest he become a powerful weapon in Olinthar’s grasp, but Thais convinces Morthus that her brother shares his vision of a more just universe.

The final Trial is abruptly cancelled by the God of Fate, who belongs to the secret resistance but is acting strangely. The surviving contestants undergo a process called the Forging the next day. Before an assembly of all the gods, Olinthar bombards the contestants with divine light that transforms them into deities. Only Thais, Thatcher, and Marx survive the Forging and emerge as gods.

During a celebration for the newly ascended deities, Olinthar takes Thatcher to a hidden temple and attempts to steal his power. Thais confronts him and learns that Moros has secretly been possessing Olinthar for centuries. Together, the twins force Moros to exit his vessel, but he opens a portal into an abyss between universes and drags Thatcher through.

Thais kills Olinthar, and his power transfers to her. Morthus warns Xül that the other gods will seek to murder her and take control of the pantheon unless they convince everyone that Morthus killed Olinthar. In return for Thais’s safety, Morthus forces his son to marry Nyvora to strengthen their political alliances. Thais feels numb and hollow after being separated from her brother, but she begins to feel a spark of hope when the seer predicts that Thatcher will return in 36 years.