Everything has lead up to this, Pierce’s final novel of the Immortals Quartet, Realms of the Gods. Published in 1996, this book concludes Daine’s story arc. In doing so, Pierce shows us different aspects of morality, largely through contrast. This is interesting in both the content of her story, and in the context of a changed world.
It’s that changed world context that has had me apprehensive of this piece. I’ve been thinking about it since I started writing this series of articles. We’re now twenty-two years past the initial publication date. Things that might have been more easily accepted then are now widely debated topics on the internet. I am, of course, referring to the relationship between Daine and Numair. The morality of that relationship is something that will be discussed at length below.
Spoiler warning for all the previous books in this series. Vague spoilers for future books regarding Daine and Numair’s relationship.
What Happened?
The story begins at Midwinter, a few months after Emperor Mage, when the barrier between the divine realm and the human realm falls. The barrier that once kept the immortals from entering en mass. By Midsummer, Tortall is in the midst of a brutal war against immortals and mortals alike. Jonathan sends Daine and Numair after a new monster, called Skinners. After losing that battle, Daine’s parents pull them into the Divine Realm. We find that Sarra has become a goddess. In addition, Daine’s father is Weiryn, an antlered god of the hunt. After a time spent with her parents Daine and Numair leave for the Dragonlands. Daine’s parent’s can’t return them to the mortal realm, but they hope that the Dragons can.
This prompts a journey through the Divine Realm, facing off against divine threats, immortal opponents, and dealing with darklings. Through this journey, Gainel the dream lord, tells them that the Tortallan war has a greater source. Uusoae, the queen of chaos, is fighting her siblings, the gods. Ozorne’s efforts allow her to tap into the mortal realm to bolster her power. A group of spidrens almost kill Daine, and when Numair rescues her, they kiss. After a short conversation regarding that, Rikash and various other Stormwings carry them to the Dragonlands. Kitten’s grandparents bring them back to the mortal realm.
The book ends with a description of the battle of Port Legann. Rikash is killed in the battle. Daine pursues Ozorne when he flees, and kills him. Then, Uusoae appears and tries to kill Daine. Father Universe and Mother Flame imprison Uusoae. The major gods demand that Daine choose between the Divine and Mortal realms, forever. Daine ultimately chooses a mortal life.
Contrast and Morality
Uusoae and The Gods, Order and Chaos
This is one of the most important moral threads throughout the entire novel: the Skinners that Daine and Numair fight at the beginning are Uusoae’s servants. Ozorne manages to do as much damage as he does because he’s serving Uusoae. Order and Chaos is one of the archetypal literary themes, along with Light and Dark, Life and Death, and innumerable others. Pierce uses shades of this archetype and trope in her writing, with the myth of when Uusoae will break free and consume the gods being an apocalyptic metaphor. Gainel shows Daine and Numair a chess game that pits them and the Gods against Uusoae and Ozorne.
But, Pierce’s morality in this universe is more complex than the base she draws from. Pierce brings up that both humans and Gainel have aspects of order and chaos in them. “The Dream King smiled. —Like you mortals, I have one foot in the Divine Realms, the other in Chaos.” (p. 169). Gainel, is the most human of the gods, and I don’t just mean through his nature. He takes care to introduce the concepts of Uusoae’s campaign against the mortal world in ways that don’t startle them. Gainel helps heal Daine when she’s brought before the gods after Uusoae’s assault on her. He and Daine are the moral centers of the story.
Pierce’s moral centers are part chaos, and Daine chooses a mortal life, with all the chaos inherent there. Mithros makes Daine choose because, “Wherever the Godborn go … trouble— disorder—‘ —Change,— interrupted Gainel, “follow. (p. 317). Yes, Uusoae is horrifying, both to the reader and to Daine. Yes, Daine gets sick near the Chaos vents, but that’s because it’s distilled chaos. As both Daine and Gainel show us, a little chaos mixed within order is a good thing.
Sarra and Daine’s Relationship
Another question of morality and feminism that Pierce raises in this book revolves around the relationship between Sarra and Daine. One of the first conversations they have is as follows.
“Speaking of war, I never raised you to be always fighting and killing. That’s not woman’s work.’ ‘It’s needful, Ma. You taught me a woman has to know how to defend herself.’ ‘I never!’ gasped Sarra, indignant. ‘You taught me when you were murdered in your own house,” said Daine quietly. … Against her mother’s hurt, she set Numair’s smile and the badger’s approval.” (p. 35-6).
They are both at fault here. Sarra denies the idea that Daine fighting has any merit. Daine unfairly lashes out at her mother for getting murdered. They don’t understand each other.
This plays out in different arenas as well. Sarra provides Daine, both at the beginning and end of the story, with dresses. While wearing a dress is not a problem, Daine has a well developed dislike of them. In Wild Magic, she has an entire litany regarding how uncomfortable they are that she often repeated to her mother. Sarra denies Daine the chance to make her own choices, and ignores them when she does make them. She treats Daine like a child, and Daine rebels against that. However, Daine also treats her mother like a child. She thinks that Sarra always, “needed looking after.” (p. 48).
It’s Queenclaw, the goddess of cats that provides the explanation. “Are you who you were?” (p. 46). Daine and Sarra have both changed. Sarra is a goddess, and Daine is a woman grown up. People change, and that we need to respect that, is the morality of Pierce’s story. By the end of the novel, Daine and Sarra realize that, and make steps to renew their relationship as changed people.
Questions of Morality
Freedom and Choice
The darkings are beings that Pierce ties deeply to the plot of her novel. They’re black jelly-like beings made of Ozorne’s blood and magic. He uses them to spy on the Tortallans and their allies, but Daine befriends the one that he sent trailing her and Numair. Eventually two others defect to her side, and we discover that Ozorne punished them severely for the smallest missteps.
One of the things that is unique to the Divine Realms is that despite expectations, beings created there have their own free will. Ozorne created the darkings over the winter, when he sheltered in the Divine Realms. However, he didn’t know that even beings made of blood, which traditionally ties magical constructs to their creator, have free will in the Divine Realms.
This blindness and his treatment of the darkings reminds us of the fact that Ozorne was the emperor of a slave company. After Daine and the rest discover what the darkings are, the darkings make progress. They have names, not just the numbers that Ozorne gave them. They learn to talk. One of the first things that Gold-Streak says after they can speak is, “I go. Talk to darkings. Teach them … Freedom,’ it said clearly. ‘Choosing.” (p. 159).
Freedom and choice are the two central tenants of feminism. As such, it’s fitting that Pierce incorporates them into the morality of this final novel. The darkings serve on yet another level in a series already about acknowledging the agency of various beings. Daine can talk to animals, and this communication forces the readers to see them as having agency and choices. The darkings, and eventually the Stormwings, grow to reach this same level over the course of the novel and the series.
What is the purpose of Stormwings?
In addition to information about the gods and the underpinnings of the wider universe, this story reveals more about the origins of the immortals. Daine says that immortals are born of mortal dreams. She asks Riskash who dreamt of Stormwings and why. He responds,
“Ages ago, a traveler form the mortal realms went from place to place and found only the leavings of war—the starving, the abandoned, the dead. … She wished for a creature that was so repulsive, living on war’s aftermath, that even humans would think twice before battle. That creature would defile what mortal killers left, so that humans couldn’t lie about how glorious a soldier’s death is.” (p. 218-9)
That is the morality that lies at the center of all of Pierce’s work from this point forward. War isn’t glorious. It’s ugly, it’s painful, it’s pure destruction. And that finds it’s roots in Stormwings.
After Rikash’s death, all Daine can do is scream. Barzha and Hebakh mourn in one of the most emotionally affecting moments in the story. All for a Stormwing.
Considering that the series started with Daine utterly despising Stormwings, the moral shift is especially notable. Mithros and the other gods moved to ban Stormwings from the mortal realm. After a knee-jerk moment where Daine agrees with them, she argues against the gods and manages to convince them that Stormwings should stay. “Stormwings aren’t humans. They aren’t gods. They are what they were made to be. … How can you begrudge a mortal home to anything that might scare two-leggers off war?” (p. 321-2). The morality of war’s aftermath is nonexistent from Pierce’s perspective. From this moment forward, when we see Stormwings we are reminded of their purpose.
Daine and Numair’s Relationship
The Tamora Pierce Wiki says that Numair was born in 424 HE. Realm of the Gods takes place in 452 HE, making him 28. Daine is sixteen at the time of Realm of the Gods and when she starts a romantic relationship with Numair. This twelve year age gap is the center of a tangled knot of morality, feminism, and the problematic. It’s also an example on how morality, especially in the romantic arena, has changed in the twenty-two years since the book’s initial publication.
I first read this book when I was twelve, roughly the same number of years after it was published. No one else I knew had read it. I was in the phase of my reading development where I accepted the romantic relationships presented to me by the author without question. The one between Daine and Numair wasn’t any different for me than the one between George and Alanna in Pierce’s previous books. It wasn’t very different than the one between Arwen and Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, or Harry and Ginny in Harry Potter.
When I go back to this book, years later—heavily feminist, heavily liberal—I’m conflicted. I can’t ignore that part of me that’s twelve years old and watching these two characters fall in love. I’m better educated now than I was then. I understand why relationships between people with similar age gaps, especially when one is Daine’s age is supremely problematic in real life. But I still ship it. I also understand why people don’t ship it, and that our various viewpoints will color our opinions on this relationship and Pierce’s depiction of it.
That said, let’s get into what happens in the text.
The Problems
In real life, if someone Numair’s age was interested in someone Daine’s age, it would be illegal. The attention to pedophilia in the media, the law, and in fandom spaces has changed in the twenty years since it was first published. The power dynamics between them would be nigh insurmountable. The older person would be grooming the younger and it would be almost inherently toxic. Pierce doesn’t address those power dynamics at all.
Numair was once Daine’s teacher, which already puts them on unequal footing regarding power dynamics in their relationship. Pierce never addresses this. One of the people that Sarra hears prayers from is a woman of Snowsdale. She’s serving as a midwife for Nonia, a girl Daine knew, who’s only a year older than Daine, who’s going though breech birth. This is the closest Pierce comes to addressing the fact that someone Daine’s age is too young for sex and the things that typically come after it. (Pregnancy charms notwithstanding.)
Pierce instead, tries to make it a cultural norm that sixteen years old is an adult in her universe. This is a massive clash of the morality in universe and out of it. The morality of our world would paint a sixteen year old as an adolescent, and the social mores surrounding a potential relationship are vastly skewed because of that divergent point.
Daine is the moral center of the novel and our point of view character. The fact that Pierce has Daine endorse the relationship between her and Numair skews the book’s morality, especially given the change in public opinion since it was published.
Undoubtedly, there are more problematic elements in this relationship, more issues that I have either not addressed or not noticed. Feel free to point those out to me in the comments.
The Good Things
The one thing that keeps me from seeing Numair as incredibly, incandescently skeevy is that we see the moment he falls in love. At the end of the prologue, when the barrier falls, the magic users all feel linked in this awareness. In this linked state, Numair feel’s Daine’s eyelashes on his cheek and thinks, “Suddenly he learned something that he’d never considered before.” (xiv). That is the moment he falls in love with Daine; it’s not something that he’s been feeling for years and manipulating Daine into a position where she’d reciprocate.
In addition, it seems to be something he tries very hard to suppress. The first half of the book is filled with moments where he seems to be reaching out to her, and then pulling back. One other situation where Pierce’s depiction of their relationship is healthy is that, immediately after the realization and first kiss, they have a conversation about it. Numair even says that it doesn’t feel right, someone his age falling in love with someone her age. They talk about the issues surrounding their ages. They talk about the difference between sex and love and marriage in an exchange that delights me for the discussion of it as much as it embarrasses me.
Daine and Numair eventually agree to table that conversation until after the war is over. Once they reunite after the battle of Port Legann, Daine kisses him and Numair blearily proposes. Daine laughs it off with a, “Maybe someday.” (p. 336). We know from later books that they do get married, nine years later. The snippets we see of their relationship through the rest of Pierce’s books depicts a relationship that’s healthy, and one that they choose to enter and maintain willingly.
My opinion of the morality of the relationship rests solely on the fact that it’s what Daine chooses. Choice is the central feminist tenant. Not all choices can be perfect; people make mistakes. It may be that for a lot of people Daine and Numair’s relationship is a mistake. But it’s one we have to respect a person’s right to make.
Conclusion
Morality is a confusing mess and it’s all influenced by a person’s personal lens. In The Realm of the Gods, Pierce presents a large number of different moral situations, and shows contrasts about a large number of them. Everyone’s opinions about morality are different, and it may be we disagree about them. That is perfectly fine. Again, if you have any burning opinions you want to share, please do so in the comments. I find Pierce’s morality overall forgivable, though I do admit that in the twenty years since she first published these books, conventional morality has changed around them.
It may be that if she was writing this story again today, it would be different. But I believe, that even if it would be different, she would still try to make her work feminist, even if she fails in places. As I have said before, her feminism and her problematic elements always continue to improve. There are always stumbling blocks on the way to improvement. I hope you’ll stick with me as I continue to unpack the feminist elements and the stumbling blocks alike.
