Tomi Adeyemi

In Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Anguish and Anarchy, the final installment of the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, the story begins in the immediate, harrowing aftermath of the civil war in Lagos. The kingdom of Orïsha has been decimated not by its own internal strife, but by a foreign invader known as the Skulls, a ruthless group belonging to the Tribes of Baldeírik. These abductors, led by the enigmatic and brutal King Baldyr, have systematically raided the Orïshan coast, kidnapping maji and tîtáns alike to serve a dark, ancient purpose. Part I: The Captivity and the Shipwreck The narrative opens with Zélie Adebola imprisoned in a hanging iron cage aboard a Skull slave ship. She is in a state of profound physical and spiritual agony; her signature white hair has been shorn, and her body is covered in grime and bruises. To suppress her magic, the Skulls regularly inject her with liquid majacite, a magic-dampening poison that leaves her numb and disconnected from her goddess, Oya. Zélie’s isolation is total until a new prisoner is thrown into an adjacent cage: Prince Inan. Inan, who was believed to have been left for dead in the palace cellars, is gaunt and scarred but …

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In Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the kingdom of Orïsha is thrust into a bloody civil war following the restoration of magic. The narrative picks up shortly after the centennial solstice ritual, exploring the devastating consequences of the returned power and the deep-seated trauma of its protagonists. The story is told through the alternating perspectives of Zélie Adebola, Princess Amari, and King Inan, each struggling to navigate a world where magic is no longer a memory but a volatile weapon. Part I: The Price of Magic and the Burden of Grief The story begins with a profound sense of loss. Zélie Adebola, a Reaper of the Ikú Clan, is consumed by the memory of her father, Baba, who sacrificed his life during the ritual to bring magic back to Orïsha. She recalls the lullaby of the tides and the warmth of his presence, contrasting it with the cold, gray reality of Jimeta’s rocky bluffs, where she prepares to lay him to rest. Zélie feels the purple light of her ashê the divine power that fuels magic bubbling under her skin, but it only reminds her of the pain of her father’s spirit tearing through her veins. Accompanied by …

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In Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, the land of Orïsha is a kingdom fractured by a history of magic and a legacy of systematic oppression. Eleven years before the story begins, magic “died” in an event known as the Raid, during which King Saran ordered the slaughter of all adult maji while magic was mysteriously absent from the world. Since then, their children known as divîners have lived as a marginalized underclass, recognizable by their snow-white hair and forced into heavy taxation or the stocks (state-sanctioned labor camps). The Catalyst: A Fish and a Scroll The narrative begins with Zélie Adebola, a seventeen-year-old divîner living in the ocean village of Ilorin. Zélie trains in the art of the staff under Mama Agba, a lethal elder who teaches divîner girls self-defense. The precariousness of their lives is highlighted when royal guards arrive to demand an increased “maggot tax,” leading to a violent confrontation where Zélie is assaulted by a guard. To pay the debt and save Zélie from the stocks, her father, Baba, and brother, Tzain, decide she must go to the capital city of Lagos to sell a rare, valuable red-tailed sailfish. Simultaneously, in the royal palace, Princess …

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