The Devils

The Devils draws from the political, religious, and social structures of medieval Europe. While not set in our world, the novel functions as a dark, distorted mirror of the Middle Ages, incorporating elements of church schisms, mercenary warfare, religious fanaticism, and widespread social unrest. Abercrombie uses the trappings of fantasy not to escape history but to explore its patterns in a fantasy setting.

One of the most direct historical parallels is the novel’s Church. While the Savior and saints are fictional, and this religious structure features a female-led clergy, it is still based on the real Catholic Church of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The rituals, hierarchies, and elaborate ceremonies described in the novel also draw heavily from Catholic liturgical practice, albeit twisted to emphasize hollowness and hypocrisy. Real-life figures like the Borgias, who enriched themselves through simony and utilized the papacy to exert secular power, serve as historical antecedents to the political clergy in Abercrombie’s story.

The novel also features the Eastern and Western churches, creating another historical parallel. In the real world, the Roman Empire formally split in 395 CE after the death of Emperor Theodosius I. The two regions gradually developed different political systems, cultures, and religious traditions. While both empires were officially Christian by the end of the fourth century, disputes over church leadership, doctrine, and ritual widened the gap between them. The tensions culminated in the Great Schism of 1054, which permanently divided Christianity into the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East.

Geographically, the Western Roman Empire covered territories such as Italy, France, Spain, Britain, and parts of North Africa. The Eastern Roman Empire, later known as the Byzantine Empire, encompassed the Balkans, Greece, Türkiye, the Levant, and Egypt, with its capital in Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. In The Devils, Constantinople is replaced as the seat of the Eastern Empire with a different ancient city in Türkiye: Troy.

Troy, also known as Ilios, was located in what is now northwestern Türkiye, near the Dardanelles Strait. It is most famously known from Greek mythology and epic poetry, especially Homer’s Iliad. The site was rediscovered in the 19th century by Heinrich Schliemann, whose excavations, although controversial and destructive, confirmed that it had once been a large, fortified city. Archaeologists have identified at least nine major layers of settlement, with Troy VI or VII often associated with the period that may have inspired the Iliad.

The novel also refers to the Crusades, several of which Jakob of Thorn fought in. The real Crusades were a series of religious wars that took place in the medieval period between the 11th and 13th centuries; the church initiated, supported, and sometimes directed them. Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in response to the Byzantine Empire’s request for military aid against Turkish advances and to take Jerusalem from Muslim control. The Crusades had lasting political, economic, and cultural impacts, intensifying Christian-Muslim hostility and reshaping European and Middle Eastern geopolitics. By layering the novel with cultural and historical references, Abercrombie lends a sense of verisimilitude to his novel that contributes to both plot movement and thematic meaning.