Namina Forna

In the concluding chapter of Namina Forna’s trilogy, The Eternal Ones, the narrative follows Deka of Irfut, now known as the Angoro (the slayer of the gods), as she embarks on a desperate quest to save the empire of Otera and the entire world of Kamabai from the corruption of warring deities. The story begins three months after Deka’s confrontation with the Gilded Ones, during which she discovered that she is not their daughter but a divine intermediary sent by the Singular to end their madness. Deka is currently hiding on the hauntingly beautiful island of Gar Nasim, a place where silver trees puff noxious odors and iridescence lizards dart through purple grasses. Her body is in a state of horrific deterioration; gold-crusted sores erupt across her skin like lightning bolts every time she moves or uses her abilities. As her former mentor White Hands has warned, Deka is rapidly losing her connection to her kelai the substance of divinity and if she does not retrieve it soon, her mortal form will scatter into a thousand pieces. Part I: The Shadow Vales and the Call of the Divine While Deka searches for her mother, Umu, whom she believes is hiding …

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In Namina Forna’s The Merciless Ones, the second installment of the Gilded Ones trilogy, the story begins six months after Deka freed the ancient goddesses of Otera and discovered her true nature as the Nuru, the only full-blooded daughter of the divine. While a new era of freedom was promised, the kingdom of Otera remains a battlefield. The goddesses have raised the city of Abeya from the salt flats of the N’Oyo Mountains, turning the desolate landscape into a lush paradise known as “The Bloom”. However, the human forces of the former empire the jatu and the priests of Oyomo have not surrendered. Led by the mysterious and powerful Elder Kadiri, they have gathered an army to reclaim the kingdom and extinguish the alaki once and for all. The Rescue of Melanis and the Discovery of the Forsworn The narrative opens with Deka and her closest companions Britta, Belcalis, Asha, Adwapa, and the deathshriek Katya on a raid in the Southern provinces. They are confronted with the brutality of the ongoing war: young girls mounted on stakes as warnings to any woman who dares speak the name of the Gilded Ones. During this mission, an elderly Northern woman blames Deka …

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Namina Forna’s The Gilded Ones is an epic fantasy set in the kingdom of Otera, centered on Deka, a sixteen-year-old girl whose life is defined by a rigid, patriarchal society governed by the Infinite Wisdoms. Deka lives in the remote northern village of Irfut, where she prepares for the Ritual of Purity, a ceremony that determines whether a girl is “pure” and fits into society by bleeding red, or is an “impure” demon who bleeds gold. Deka has spent her life as an outsider due to her appearance; while her father is a Northerner with grey eyes, she inherited her mother’s dark Southern skin, making her a target of suspicion and malice from villagers like the spiteful Agda. Her anxiety is compounded by the memory of her mother, who died of the red pox three months prior and whom Deka resembles in ways she feels must remain secret. On the day of the Ritual, the village is festive but tense, as rumors of deathshrieks gaunt, silver-pelted monsters with lethal screams attacking the borders have reached even the remote north. During the ceremony at the Temple of Oyomo, deathshrieks launch a sudden and horrific massacre in the village square. As Deka …

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