The Sword and Its Servant

The Sword and Its Servant is the first installment of a six-part young adult fantasy series by Victor Salinas. This flagship book was intended to set the stage not only for an ongoing series, but also for a number of related media based in the world of Grauwelt.

Setting
The principal setting for The Sword and Its Servant is the Grauwelt (or "Gray World"), a world caught "between" the Ærth (our world, or "the Earth") and Hel (the underworld). It is here that strange beings struggle ceaselessly for survival and dominance.

The Grauwelt is a place that is  seen as not being good or evil, but somewhat of a mix between these two extremes (thus "gray").

Within the space of the book, the protagonists find themselves in a castle known as the Kaltstein, which is the ruling keep of a land known as the Kaltmark. The Kaltmark is but one of many kingdoms that in turn make up the Hundish Realm.

Structure
The Sword and Its Servant opens with a prologue and closes with an epilogue; between these are thirty-three chapters containing the full text of the story.

Contained within the book also is a simplified version of the Graulore and a map of the Hundish Realm.

Themes
Conflicting motivations

The chief protatonist, Einsa, is faced with having to escape the clutches of the Löwa throughout the story. Her natural inclinations pull her in the direction of not harming her enemies any more than is necessary; while her companion, Klinde, attempts to push her into fulfilling a bloodlust she doesn't have.

Einsa would be well enough to leave Klinde behind, were it not the unfortunate case that he was her only reliable guide for escape into a world she knows nothing about. Einsa must constantly make choices between what she believes is right and necessary.

Lore
Grauwelt was created in part to provide audiences with a deep sense of realism. Though a fantasy tale, the world in which the stories take place have a very intricate and detailed structure. Many parts of The Sword and Its Servant touch upon ideas, objects, and institutions larger than the story itself, which will be more fully explored in future installments of the series and through other media.

Macabre
The book is often described as being "sad" or "melancholic." The world around the characters is filled with tragedy, harkening back to ancient myths that dealt with such themes.

Politics
Politics plays a vital role in the story of The Sword and Its Servant. Many of the characters are kings, princes, or other titled officials, and the chief setting is the Kaltstein, a heavy-guarded castle. Allusions to and even an encounter with the Diet of Säula, a legislative body ruling the Hundish Realm, are a major theme throughout the story and are sure to play into future themes of later installments.

Violence
Grauwelt is a very violent place. Characters, both protagonist and antagonist, often meet with grisly fates. While the entire story does not necessarily revolve around violence and killing, this is certainly one of the major cornerstones of the feeling and tenor of the book.

Inspiration
''Three roots there are | that three ways run 'Neath the ash-tree Yggdrasil; 'Neath the first lives Hel, | 'neath the second the frost-giants, 'Neath the last are the lands of men.''

—Grímnismál, stanza 31 (epigraph to The Sword and Its Servant)

According to a number of pieces written by and short videos in which he appears, author Victor Salinas attests to the influence of ancient Germanic and Norse myth on the Grauwelt franchise.

Much of the iconography, character and place names, and allusions to myths and legends native to the setting are either adapted from or created in the style of these real world ancient stories.

Most notable among these inspirations in the concept of "differing worlds." The Sword and Its Servant discusses three of these: the Ærth, the Grauwelt, and Hel and alludes to nine in total (though the other six have not yet been named). This is analogous to the legend of Yggdrasil, known to the ancient Norse as "the Cosmic Tree," an ash tree that was the framework of all the cosmos. Each of the nine worlds rested on different "branches" of the tree, with Hel, the underworld, at its roots.