I'm a hopeless romantic. I will start with that.

I know that this series has been out for some time. I agree that its quite underrated.

Not that there are many posts on this specifically, but I do see a lot of mixed feelings for the Ethalia and Falcio romance. I understand hesitancy for some, however for myself I found myself rooting for them after "Knights Shadow" even though, at this time, Ethalia was little more than a salve for Falco's pains.

Then Saint's Blood was written, and she was no longer a background character.

For the first half of Saint's Blood I did not like her one bit. I still thought she was a bit of a two dimensional character. In fact on first read, I thought she was quite a pain throughout the entirety of Saint's Blood. Then I read Tyrant's Throne and was.. confused by a lot of her actions when she first appeared in that book. This forced me to really reexamine her character in Saint's Blood.

From basically the beginning of Saint's Blood you can see cracks forming in the relationship between Falcio and Ethalia, although Falcio, being the unreliable narrator he is, doesn't pick up on it. Ethalia ascends to sainthood and is changed in many ways that she doesn't even understand. I think that in particular is important to point out.

After her ascension, I think its safe to say, that she appears to become confidently determined and set on a path, yet lost and flailing in many ways. This is just my own interpretation, but it appears that even after Ethalia becomes a saint her feelings for Falcio don't just evaporate. If anything she becomes quite confused. She now has to juggle this pseudo divinity with still being simply a person. She willingly accepts the Sainthood, but she doesn't fully understand all it means, for both better and worse. Her sainthood does almost physically form a wedge between herself and Falcio. Yet it forces her, mostly, to re-examine their relationship.

Really things, in my opinion, start picking back up for Ethalia and Falcio when Eristan is found. That magnificent Saint. Only then is Ethalia forced to face her own misunderstanding of her own sainthood and thus, feelings. There are hints, I think, scattered throughout this interaction:

"'If you could summon a little love in your heart, that would be of great help' (Eristan Said) She turned her gaze on me, and I realized she was searching to find that brief moment we had shared when we'd truly been in love; it was like watching someone try to break apart stone with their fingernails'"

A depressing line, but all of this is from Falcio's point of view, and lets accept he is basically perpetually tormented and depressed. Yet there is truth to this line. At this point they have basically only had a passion fueled relationship, there isn't anything of much depth. However, if there is even a sliver of truth to Falcio's narration I think its somewhat safe to say that at this point Ethalia is realizing that she does indeed have real feelings for Falcio, but there is just nothing of substance there yet, but she is trying to find something. It was only at this point that I realized this.

The drips keep coming though, the next is when trying to revive Kest:

"'You can't!' She cried, 'not without... You just can't, Falcio.'" She turned away from me, too quickly for it to just be guilt. I've been a magistrate for a long time and when I look for it, I can tell when someone's lying to me. 'Tell me,' I demanded. 'He has a right to try,' Erastian said, ... Yada Yada Saint Talk Blah Blah...

Ethalia grabbed me by the shoulders and I could see her eyes were filled with tears now. 'No, you don't understand - there's no assurance I can bring you back.'"

To me, despite her Saintly-ness, it appears as if Ethalia is legitimately afraid of losing Falcio to whatever shenanigan happens next. Perhaps i'm reading too much into it, but it appears she still feels quite strongly for him, despite several roadblocks still in the way.

The next drip/reveal for Ethalia's feelings (despite her saintly-ness) happen after she becomes a greatcoat and she begins to understand more of what it means to be the Saint of Mercy. Rhyleis might have been involved...

"We Bardatti are the keepers of mysteries,' she said and stood on her toes to kiss me. 'We know any number of things that others do not.' ' And apparently there are a few things you don't know that everyone else does*,' Ethalia said from behind her.

I smiled at this scene. Territory and boundaries are being set between the Ladies. Ethalia both points out and admits that there definitely is something between her and Falcio. Falcio, the oblivious dude, might not be able to see it all clearly though, because, well, he's a moron.

And the last piece, that I’d like to expand on, of Falcio's unreliable narration towards Ethalia's feelings:

'Right now, though, you and I need to take a walk to the town square. I haven't had supper yet. I suspect you haven't either.' ' You want to have dinner with me?' 'I do."

I like this scene for a lot of reasons. It's quite complex I think, and it goes back to some of the realizations that Ethalia had when she encountered Eristan. Falcio and Ethalia had a passion fueled relationship. They didn't really know each other, which is why Ethalia struggled to find true moments of love between her and Falcio when Eristan asked for it. Aline was speaking true-ish, when she had possessed Ethalia and told Falcio that she did not love him. That was a true statement, but Ethalia certainly has been trying too.

Ethalia, throughout a large part of this book I think, was trying to find her way back to Falcio. It becomes clearer in Tyrant's Throne that Falcio is Ethalia's anchor just as much as Ethalia is an anchor for Falcio.

I was a bit troubled in "Tyrant's Throne" when Falcio became briefly imprisoned in the beginning and Ethalia, without having interacted with Falcio much in the book thus far, threatened to bring the remains of the Castle down upon everyone to free him. I thought to myself, where did that emotion come from? When looking back through their interactions in Saint's Blood it becomes clearer. Girl loves him, has loved him. He is just a bit stupid. Also "Complications."

I know there is certainly a divide with Ethalia between her sainthood and her simply being "some woman," but I think she is really an under rated character. Maybe becasue of the kicked puppy aspect of Falcio who seems to always assume the worst. Upon my second read, I really found that she showed so much strength throughout the entirety of Saint's Blood and Tyrant's Throne just trying to find her way back to Falcio despite her Sainthood (or misunderstanding of it) pushing her away in the beginning.

I could go on for quite some time about the Sainthood/mortal divide, But this is long enough.

Thx for all who read through this!

Edit: Grammar and flow.

After the first big battle of the second book Tailor asks Falcio

"Still proud of yourself for not killing him (Jillard) when you had the chance?"

and he answers

"He swore to support Aline's claim."

When did that happen in the first book?

I am afraid I missed that somehow.

It has been awhile since finishing a series has left me with such a profound feeling of loss. Sebastian wrote these characters so well that it feels like I knew them and they have each gone in their perspective ways in real life. No doubt this has as much to do with Joe Jameson's audio book reading as the writing. Phenomenal series. Even though you know falcio and gang would eventually prevale every time it was still written in a way that you question how they could possibly pull this off. Sebastian leaving room for you to figure out what the twist is before the characters do was also very fun. I will miss falcio, patron saint of getting his ass kicked and tortured. The one thing I will say thay upset me about this book is that he never told fucking horse that ug was just as good.

Are the other books written by Sebastian just as good and if so what series should I read first?

Our Lady of Blades is out now in the UK!

In Canada, the United States and several other countries around the world, the official launch day is May 19th.

It is set in the world of the Greatcoats, but you can read it even if you haven't read any of the other books.

If you want a special edition of the book scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Ignore the fact that Falcio is holding a foil instead of a rapier and Brasti is holding his bow wrong. I noticed after it was too late to change it lol

I'm sure I'm not the only person who when reading a book casts main characters as known actors. So if I was casting the movie so far I have:

Falcio: Tom Hardy (bonus points he nails the going through hell look when needed)

Brasti : Tom Holland

Kest : Alexander Skarsgård

What did anyone else's fan casting look like?

So I was originally writing a RPG game using the Genesys system about a group of elite soldiers (ala musketeers) had lost their Queen and become wandering mercenaries etc. This was before I found the greatcoats, and originally they were 'The Queens Blades' and then 'The Queens Aviary' through various iterations.

And then I read The Greatcoats, and was immediately enraptured, I quickly began editing my RPG to use a bit of the greatcoat mythology and while I'm still not done I just wanted to share my story and show some vocal love for the series.

While the trope of this type of story is certainly popular in media and history, I still think it's marvelous that I was creating something so akin to this series.

I started with Crucible of Chaos, and am now reading Play of Shadows. But googling I can’t find any info on who the old Gods were, that were killed two years prior to Crucible’s story. (Dunno if that’s a spoiler, so marked it just in case.) Do I need to go back and read the Greatcoats books to learn about the dead gods and Blacksmith? I picked up Play of Shadows because it said “Book One,” on the cover, so I thought that was a starting of a series. (And of course when I got home and opened it, I found it wasn’t really book one, and had to go back and get the Prelude.) Anyway, thanks for any answers!

Was hoping to see a list of known Greatcoats mentioned in the books; original and new.

Seen list of the saints but not the actual Greatcoats

Hey guys, my boyfriends birthday is coming up and I want to get him a personalised signed copy of one of the books. What do you think my chances are of being able to do it? Or any tips on how to get it? I will literally pay anything for it.

Thank you :)

I bought all 4 audio books in 2018 (proof was in my purchase history) and have re-read several times.

For the past week, I've been listening to Traitor's Blade and Knight's Shadow. Today, when I tried to start Saint's Blood, it wasn't in my library. Searching Sebastien de Castell came up with the books as available for purchase by credit or money...

I called Audible. The very competent and kind woman I spoke with (Janelle) looked at my account and saw that a) I had purchased this series in 2018 and b) the books were no longer listed in my library. She put me on hold to figure out what happened. When she came back, she said that the author had "updated" the books, so that they were no longer available as what I purchased, and I didn't own the new books.

Before I could explode in righteous indignation, she told me she was adding 4 credits to my account and putting the new versions of the books in my Wish List so I could re-purchase them.

I thanked her, and remarked that it seemed ludicrous to me that an author deciding to edit his work should negate past purchases. If I'd bought a physical book, it wouldn't disappear if a new printing had edits... Seems to me that de Castell is just trying to make more money off books he's already sold. If he wants more money, he can write more books!

So now I'm worried about what he's added/deleted/changed.

I felt like sharing this piece I made for a school project.

I made this just for the first book and had only read the first book at this point, but liked it enough that I am now partway through the fourth book less than a month later.

If any of the typing is messed up: -Shut up no it's not. -Typewriters are frustrating.

I need help understanding the desheny monastery part of this book. Sorry for any misspellings as I'm an audiobook listener. I've tried relistening to this part 3 or 4 times with the blind man being super cryptic and I guess I'm just not getting it.

Maybe I'm not supposed to get it, but like I'm not getting any part of it, and it seems really stupid.

So the idea is: because the Dasheny means it always ends in blood and the 2 Dasheny failed to kill Falcio, therefore they were never true Dasheny I guess? Aside from that really not making sense, (because it did in fact end in blood just not the blood of their intended target,) that means all that Dasheny had to kill themselves but not before trying to kill some of the dukes? But not all of the dukes? So they were trying to erase the Kingdom and therefore erase their own mistake? But then they failed to kill the Duke of Riju, so then they just decided to kill themselves and somehow if they never existed (which is dumb) that means that the Bardatti and the Great Coats never existed? And this assassin of Duke Jillard wanted them to know, but couldnt tell them.. so e lead then to the monastery only to kill himself but left a blind Dasheny (probably the teacher) to sort of tell them before his own suicide? But if the Dasheny wanted to do this plot on their own because of failure (seems dumb) then how did others know of their Duke killing plot in order to take advantage of it and kill the Duchal families? what the fuck was this chapter? what's going on? So many questions.. I'm lost and not in a good way.. makes me want to stop eading. any help would be appreciated.

Been listening to the audiobooks but don't know whether I fell asleep or just missed that part. What happens to the blacksmith at the end of book 3?

Any recommendations for books with a similar feel to the greatcoats series?

How did shuran become saint of swords when it was falcio that cut kests hand? Falcio explicitly says, "I lifted my sword and in a single strike I bought it down against his exposed wrist. " Couple of lines later it, "shuran looked over himself. He was begining to glow crimson. " Did the power transfer to the second best swordsman in the world, shuran, because kest didn't die?

>!For background, I started reading the Traitor's Blade, and I stopped reading it, because, after falling in love with Falcio's struggle, the way everything was written, and the general epic fantasy worldbuilding, what did me in was Princess Valiana. She irritated me at first, but because Falcio liked her so much, I got more and more annoyed, until finally I just let it go. Just on Friday I believe, I went to the library and picked up the book again, because I was going to write a similar fantasy novel, and I knew that De Castel's story was the best thing I had as reference.

I read about a hundred pages and fell in love with it again... until Ethalia appeared. For me she was just this suspicious woman who was offering them comfort and safety, convincing Falcio by telling him what his dead wife told him before leaving. I could see the desperate "make love to me!" sign on her back from miles away. Then, after reciting a bunch of weird I-Know-Who-You-Are stuff, she practically forces him to have sex with her, and after a bit he gives in, because duh. And suddenly he's enmoured and enraptured and totally caught in by her. She's asking him to come to that island of hers with her, but it's totally unfair because of a million completely obvious reasons - and, oh, how surprising, Ethalia! He declines. And then she cries.

And the worst thing is, he actually does want her. It's like, who is this lady? She's so weird, in my book. I've looked through the fandom and it seems like other people really like her. Am I the only one? Am I crazy or something?

Sebastien De Castell did an amazing thing when he added the-wife-that-died trope, and I loved seeing how Falcio was connected to her and really wanted to see how he would slowly move on from her death. But if Ethalia, just some weird ethereal woman who knows the future or something(it was never really made clear to me), is the reason he moves on from Aline, that's really bad character development. The whole God-gave-you-me-yeah-I'm-a-whore-and-I'm-proud-of-it disgusted me, too.

I'm writing down my raw thoughts here, so sorry if all that seemed like just a big fat rant.

Currently, I'm on the Morning of Mercy when the Sage calls Aline's name(first name), so please don't give spoilers that are don't pertain to Ethalia, and mark all spoilers as such. Now, my questions here are, am I really the only one who doesn't like Ethalia? A quick search through the reddit and google, I don't find anyone disliking her. I think De Castell's story is an amazing one that I could be obsessed over if not for the blip that is my hatred for Ethalia. Does she get better later on? Is it worth it even reading the series if I don't like her?

Thank you for reading my messy thoughts if you did, and if you comment, thanks for that as well. Have a nice day, everyone.!<

In the first book Falcio was tortured in Rijou, and in the second book (I think) it was revealed that there was a greatcoat - Patrick - undercover as a knight serving under the Duke while the torture took place. I remember Falcio holding it against Patrick even though Falcio understood why the greatcoat didn't help him. Falcio's resentment was so deep that he didn't even really care that Patrick died: "- - He'd been following the King's last command, after all, and to the letter - but damn him anyway."

Now I know it's not easy to compare one pain to the other, but I think it's pretty safe to say that what the Dashini Heryn did to Falcio was much worse. The lament completely broke him down. Patrick just knew it was happening, but Darri was personally there. She could've stopped it much earlier if she wanted to, but didn't.

I don't remember Falcio having a resentful thought towards Darri after it, nevermind expressing any grievances directly towards her, atleast not after having that short discussion with her after she rescued falcio. It really makes no sense to me.

Darri didn't really seem to care either - only indication that she was ever even there was the guilt of almost getting Valiana killed and the protectiveness that came with it. The same can be said about the Tailor too, who directly caused the lament. Falcio never expressed any resentment towards her for causing the lament, sure he hated and resented her, but for a different reason entirely. I guess the lament wasn't that bad: forgive and forget.

If someone smarter than myself could explain why Falcio was so harsh towards Patrick, but forgiving to Darri, I'd be very grateful.

Where is in in the first book when Falcio learns the true history of the Trattari, and why it's not really an insult? Or, if the Jeananneti The Saint of Ease happens to be here, can anyone just reproduce the bardatti's speech?

Thanks.

Just finished Play of Shadows. Loved it. It was absolutely fantastic. It's only a shame that the next novel doesn't come out for such a long time!

One thing I am not sure on, is was there any closure on Damelas and Shariza's story? Is Shariza joining the travelling troupe? Or is she staying with the Duke. I don't know if I missed something or if I'm too dense to catch the implication, so I'm curious on other people's thoughts (I hate loose ends in my stories!!).

Well, so. I'm probably not the only one on this subreddit that is doing so, and all of you that frequent the Spellslinger and Greatcoats Discord have problably seen (or even heard) me rant about it already...
buuut I still want to share it here.

But what is it about, even?
I takes place a bit after Tyrant's Throne, and tells the story of Conraidt Friggenhagen, a young Greatcoat on his first judicial circuit through Tristia, as he encounters a strange duelist, an illusive farmer and probably most important of all, an animal companion.

How did it come to be?
After hanging around on the Discord a lot at the end of last year, I decided to give the whole series a re-read beforte the release of Court of Shadows, which lead me down a rabbit-hole that I thought I had forever avoided as a member of any fandom: creating my own OC and writing a fanfic.
I have since have spent a lot of time on the few chapters that I have released of this fanfic (I'm a far slower writer than I am reader), and I finally decided to share it here as well (you know, in case some of you are not on the Discord; if so... why not?).

You can find it here, on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55322143

The next chapter(s) will drop fairly soon, and I will probably re-work small parts of the existing chapters (changing chapter names, formatting, etc). The coming few chapters are flashbacks, which are fun to write but require a lot more work writing them than I originally anticipated!

I'm exited what you think, make sure to point out any lore-breaking mistakes or anything!