The Old Kingdom
The Old Kingdom, or Abhorsen in North America, is a fantasy series written by Australian author Garth Nix. It originated in 1995 with the novel Sabriel and has continued in the novels Lirael, Abhorsen and Goldenhand. The series has continued with the prequel novel Clariel and the latest installment of the series, Terciel & Elinor, was released in November 2021. The Old Kingdom also consists of the novella The Creature in the Case and other short fiction.
In Australia an omnibus edition comprising three novels and one novella was titled The Old Kingdom Chronicles. Omnibus editions in the U.S. have been titled The Abhorsen Trilogy and The Abhorsen Chronicles. ISFDB catalogues the entire continuing series as "The Old Kingdom / Abhorsen".
Books in the series
''Sabriel''
The protagonist, Sabriel, is in her final few days at her school in Ancelstierre, when she is visited by a spirit summoned by her father, who is trapped in Death, and departs to rescue him. Travelling into the Old Kingdom, while being hunted, Sabriel makes her way to the ancestral house of the Abhorsens to get clues, equipment, and help. Accompanied by her father's assistant Mogget, she discovers Touchstone; and with him continues to Belisaere. In a sacred site under the city, Sabriel briefly frees her father, who diverts the antagonist Kerrigor while the others escape.Sabriel and Touchstone then travel to Ancelstierre to destroy Kerrigor's body, which the local soldiery convey to Wyverly College, Sabriel's school. Kerrigor and his undead followers besiege the college, killing many students and guardsmen; whereupon Mogget, in his true form, fights Kerrigor for the right to kill Sabriel. Kerrigor consumes Mogget and throws Sabriel onto her sword; whereupon she throws Mogget's binding ring over Kerrigor. This creates two cats: a black Kerrigor and white Mogget, which are then bound by Ranna. Sabriel then dies, but is resurrected by her ancestors to succeed her father as the Old Kingdom's protector.
''Lirael''
The protagonist, Lirael, is raised among the Clayr; but having coal-black hair, a pale complexion, and brown eyes, differs physically from her chestnut-skinned, white-blonde, blue or green-eyed peers, and additionally lacks their native precognition. While trying to make a canine sending, she accidentally summons the immortal 'Disreputable Dog', thereafter her constant companion. In Ancelestierre, Prince Sameth is attacked by the necromancer Hedge and his summoned Dead Hands ; and Sameth's friend Nicholas 'Nick' Sayre is placed under Hedge's control. Sameth's father, Touchstone, thereafter conveys him to their capital Belisaere. Here he is expected to succeed his mother as the Abhorsen, a future of which he is terrified.Concurrently, Nick Sayre crosses the border into the Old Kingdom and continues to the Red Lake: a region in the south-west of the Kingdom where neither the royal rule nor the Clayr's 'Sight' has influence. Upon news thereof, Sameth goes in search of him, and is later joined by Mogget. Meanwhile, Lirael inherits the artifacts of a Remembrancer and is swiftly dispatched to fulfill a very recent vision of herself and Nick Sayre upon the Red Lake. She is joined by Sameth and Mogget en route. All are attacked repeatedly and nearly overcome by Chlorr of the Mask; but they reach the Abhorsens' House, where Lirael is identified as Sabriel's half-sister and heir, and Sameth as successor to the previously extinct 'Wallmakers'.
''Abhorsen''
The Abhorsen's House is besieged by Dead Hands led by Chlorr of the Mask under the control of the necromancer Hedge. Hedge himself serves Orannis the Destroyer, an immortal imprisoned millennia prior by 7 of its 8 cohorts and now wants to destroy the biosphere. The protagonists escape the siege through a well-like opening, in whose adjoined tunnel they encounter the spirit 'Astarael'. Meanwhile, Prince Sameth's parents, the Abhorsen Sabriel and King Touchstone, are in Ancelstierre to stop the genocide of refugees; but are nearly themselves killed by rebels and return to the Old Kingdom. Thereafter descendants of each of the powers that originally created the Charter unite at the two nations' dividing Wall to re-enact the imprisonment of Orannis; and having done so, Lirael's 'Disreputable Dog' revives the dead Nicholas Sayre and departs into the border dividing Life from Death.''Clariel''
Clariel, a prequel to the original three books of the series, is set some six hundred years before the events of Sabriel, in an Old Kingdom ruled by an absent King, Orrikan, who refuses to rule, or abdicate to someone who will, until his granddaughter returns to take the crown. In his place, the mercantile Guilds have taken power, led by the powerful Kilp, the Guildmaster of the Goldsmiths, who rules as governor in Belisaere. Clariel is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Jaciel, a talented goldsmith, the estranged daughter of the current Abhorsen and a cousin of the King. A descendant of two of the ancient bloodlines that bind the Kingdom to the Charter, Clariel is a berserk, disinterested in Charter Magic but whose rage and strong will gives her a latent affinity to Free Magic. Clariel's reluctant admission to an academy for the young elite and an encounter with a Free Magic creature leaves her curious about its forbidden power. After a meeting with the King ends badly, Clariel is taken to dine at the Governor's manor, where a chance encounter uncovers that Kilp's son has consorted with a Free Magic creature to cheat his way up the Guild. Clariel's family is killed in the fighting that follows, Clariel briefly escapes, only to be captured. On the verge of escaping once more she is rescued and is spirited away to the Abhorsen's estates in the south, only to be locked away by the Abhorsen for her own safety. Fearing that her parents will not be avenged, Clariel conspires with Mogget to free two of the Free Magic entities imprisoned in the House and to bind them to do her bidding. In the process of doing so, Clariel corrupts her Charter Mark, weakening her link with the Charter and her ability to perform Charter Magic, but at the same time allowing her to perform feats of magic using her own raw willpower to shape and control Free Magic. When she reaches the city, she kills Kilp and his son and rescues the King, only to nearly be killed by the creatures she has bound, who have conspired with Mogget to use the King's blood to break the Great Charter Stones. She is saved by Belatiel, the new Abhorsen, but is disfigured and badly injured. Belatiel assists her to the forests of the far north, and gives her a bronze mask she earlier used to protect herself from Free Magic. Clariel is destined to later become Chlorr of the Mask.''Goldenhand''
Feeling restless after the events of Abhorsen and reeling from the loss of the Disreputable Dog, Lirael makes her way to The Wall to find Nicholas Sayre lying there unconscious, having woken up a Hrule — a rare free magic creature which drinks blood. From there, they journey to the Clayr's Glacier for further medical attention. At the same time, Ferin of the Athask is racing towards the Clayr's Glacier with an urgent message from Lirael's mother. Chlorr of the Mask is doing everything to stop her, as she brings necromancers together to battle at the Greenwash Bridge. Nicholas is discovered to be capable of acting as a Charter Stone, and so he and Lirael journey to the north in order to send Chlorr of the Mask to her final resting place.''Terciel and Elinor''
Bonnier Books UK has signed a deal with Garth Nix for a new novel in the Old Kingdom series and his backlist, marking the first time the series will be housed under one roof in the UK.The novel was released on November 2, 2021, and follows Sabriel's parents, Terciel and Elinor. Per Publishers Weekly:
Novellas and short stories
''The Creature in the Case''
The novella The Creature in the Case was published for 2005 World Book Day. It was retitled "Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case" for collection in Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories.According to the publisher, "It is six months since the cataclysmic events of Abhorsen...". Nicholas Sayre is sent by his Uncle Edward to a party, to observe the workings of a clandestine government organisation responsible for gathering information about the Old Kingdom. The organisation's head, Alastor Dorrance, has covertly obtained a monstrous 'Hrule' and intends to free it across the Wall; and when he attempts to do so, it runs amok, destroying numerous people until pursued by Nicholas to the Wall, where it is rendered harmless by Lirael.
''An Extract of the Journal of Idrach the Lesser Necromancer''
This short story was distributed by the Old Kingdom series web site and collected in Across the Wall.''An Essay on Free Magic''
A short text released on the Old Kingdom Website.''To Hold the Bridge''
The novella To Hold the Bridge was published in 2010 as part of the anthology Legends of Australian Fantasy, edited by Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan.It has also been published outside of Australia in a new collection of the author's works, To Hold the Bridge.
''Doctor Crake Crosses the Wall''
This short story appears on the Old Kingdom series web site as a bonus feature.''One Wyverley Summer''
For the 25th anniversary edition of Sabriel, the short story One Wyverley Summer was included as a bonus feature.Magic
The Charter and Free Magic
In the Old Kingdom, magic takes two forms: Free Magic or Charter Magic. The former is older, and natural in origin, whereas the latter is imposed as an assurance of order. Some Free Magic remains in the world, mainly in various breeds of monster. The Charter is described as an "endless flow" of symbols describing the cosmos; each used by magicians to achieve psychokinesis. The composition of spells ranges from single Charter marks to long series requiring a 'master mark' and sometimes a physical focus. Though Free Magic is 'corrosive' to living things and Charter Magic, Free Magic spells are required to pass the Gates of Death, and the calls of the Abhorsen's bells are Free Magic spells subject to the Charter. Although the Abhorsen may use Free Magic without suffering long-term ill effects, typical necromancers are ultimately "devoured by the Free Magic they profess to master". Practitioners of Charter Magic have a Charter Mark drawn on their forehead at birth. Marks unsullied by Free Magic are used to identify true Charter Mages.The Five Great Charters:
In Sabriel, the Five Great Charters are identified by a song:
Five Great Charters knit the land.
Together linked, hand in hand.
One in the people who wear the Crown.
Two in the folk who keep the Dead down.
Three and Five became stone and mortar.
Four sees all in frozen water.
This rhyme dictates that at some point in history the Five Great Charters were concentrated in physical objects, or human bloodlines. The bloodlines are those of the royals, the Abhorsen, the Clayr, and the Wallmakers. After this, the entire Wallmaker line physically became the Great Charter Stones and the Wall that separates the Old Kingdom from Ancelstierre, to prevent contamination of their descent. The Great Charter Stones are located in an underground reservoir in the Old Kingdom's capital, Belisaere, and are the sources of Charter Magic in the Old Kingdom. Under the influence of the Wall, magic, both Free and Charter, exists only in the Old Kingdom; but can be practised in northern Ancelstierre, and further south if there is a strong wind from the Old Kingdom.