Zorachus
Encyclopedia
Zorachus is a fantasy
novel
written by Mark E. Rogers
, a science fiction
and fantasy author. It was first published by Ace Books
in December 1986.
Zorachus is set in a fantasy world with some similarities to Renaissance
-era Europe
on Earth, but with significant differences. These differences include the existence of actual magic and the interference of otherworldly beings such as demons and spirits. The world of Zorachus is made noticeably darker by the ambitions of an evil spiritual entity (similar to the Christian Devil) called Tchernobog.
The novel features as its protagonist the eponymous Mancdaman Zorachus, a powerful sorcerer who at the beginning of the novel was in his early 30s and had become a Seventh Level Adept of the Sharajnaghi Order. He was acknowledged by teachers and peers alike to be the most puissant sorcerer in the world.
After his elevation to Seventh Level Adept, Zorachus learned from his teachers that he was the son of Mancdaman Zancharthus, former ruler of the city of Khymir, in the north. Khymir was, and always has been, the most evil city in the world, a bottomless pit of vice and temptation. Emissaries had come from Khymir to ask Zorachus to come back to his father's city and help the current regime rule the place. Zorachus was asked by his Sharajnaghi teachers to go to Khymir and, under the guise of doing the will of the ruling order and enjoying the pleasures of Khymir, prevent Khymir's evil from spilling out and making victims of nearby peoples.
Zorachus was a very moral man, having been raised by the Sharajnaghi. He was afraid that he would not be able to resist the temptations to lust and violence Khymir and its people, and Tchernobog, offered. However, he was eventually convinced by his friends and teachers to go.
From the very start, even on the voyage by water to Khymir, the Khymirians tempted Zorachus, performing sexually in front of him and inviting him to join in. Zorachus resisted these blatantly sexual advances fairly easily. He had a more difficult time not killing his Khymirian hosts to wipe out their evil. For instance, when the Khymirian ship was attacked by Kragehul pirates, Zorachus helped fight the pirates using his natural fighting ability and his battle magic. The victorious Khymirian sailors and soldiers, however, began to rape the captured Kragehul. Zorachus nearly gave into the urge to blast the rapists with the same magic he had used to blast the pirates.
The magnitude and variety of the temptations only increased after Zorachus arrived in Khymir. Slavery was widespread in Khymir, and no one saw anything wrong in mistreating, torturing, raping, or killing slave and freeman alike, so long as the victim was of lower class than the victimizer. Zorachus was very strong-willed, but even he began to despair under the constant onslaught of horrible experiences he was forced to witness, all the while pretending he saw nothing wrong.
In the end, Zorachus' bloodlust; his repressed desire for the Asa, wife of his Kragehul friend Halfdan; his loathing for Asa's lesbian, unfaithful relationship with the female slave Leahkalah; and his self-hatred; all combined to convince him that every human was evil.
Zorachus led a coup d'etat
, using baleful, evil, forbidden magic to seize absolute power in Khymir. He personally killed dozens of people in horrifying ways, completely abandoning all his former moral precepts. This was just as Tchernobog had planned, turning a good and moral magician-warrior to evil.
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Mark E. Rogers
Mark E. Rogers
Mark E. Rogers is an American author-illustrator.-Biography:Rogers, while a student at Pt. Pleasant Beach High School, wrote a short novel, The Runestone, which has since been adapted into a 1990 film starring Peter Riegert and Joan Severance...
, a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy author. It was first published by Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
in December 1986.
Zorachus is set in a fantasy world with some similarities to Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
-era Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on Earth, but with significant differences. These differences include the existence of actual magic and the interference of otherworldly beings such as demons and spirits. The world of Zorachus is made noticeably darker by the ambitions of an evil spiritual entity (similar to the Christian Devil) called Tchernobog.
Plot
The novel Zorachus is chock full of sex and violence. It depicts several gory scenes of death, murder, war, and torture. It depicts in equally explicit fashion many scenes of sex. Very little of the sex is of the standard variety.The novel features as its protagonist the eponymous Mancdaman Zorachus, a powerful sorcerer who at the beginning of the novel was in his early 30s and had become a Seventh Level Adept of the Sharajnaghi Order. He was acknowledged by teachers and peers alike to be the most puissant sorcerer in the world.
After his elevation to Seventh Level Adept, Zorachus learned from his teachers that he was the son of Mancdaman Zancharthus, former ruler of the city of Khymir, in the north. Khymir was, and always has been, the most evil city in the world, a bottomless pit of vice and temptation. Emissaries had come from Khymir to ask Zorachus to come back to his father's city and help the current regime rule the place. Zorachus was asked by his Sharajnaghi teachers to go to Khymir and, under the guise of doing the will of the ruling order and enjoying the pleasures of Khymir, prevent Khymir's evil from spilling out and making victims of nearby peoples.
Zorachus was a very moral man, having been raised by the Sharajnaghi. He was afraid that he would not be able to resist the temptations to lust and violence Khymir and its people, and Tchernobog, offered. However, he was eventually convinced by his friends and teachers to go.
From the very start, even on the voyage by water to Khymir, the Khymirians tempted Zorachus, performing sexually in front of him and inviting him to join in. Zorachus resisted these blatantly sexual advances fairly easily. He had a more difficult time not killing his Khymirian hosts to wipe out their evil. For instance, when the Khymirian ship was attacked by Kragehul pirates, Zorachus helped fight the pirates using his natural fighting ability and his battle magic. The victorious Khymirian sailors and soldiers, however, began to rape the captured Kragehul. Zorachus nearly gave into the urge to blast the rapists with the same magic he had used to blast the pirates.
The magnitude and variety of the temptations only increased after Zorachus arrived in Khymir. Slavery was widespread in Khymir, and no one saw anything wrong in mistreating, torturing, raping, or killing slave and freeman alike, so long as the victim was of lower class than the victimizer. Zorachus was very strong-willed, but even he began to despair under the constant onslaught of horrible experiences he was forced to witness, all the while pretending he saw nothing wrong.
In the end, Zorachus' bloodlust; his repressed desire for the Asa, wife of his Kragehul friend Halfdan; his loathing for Asa's lesbian, unfaithful relationship with the female slave Leahkalah; and his self-hatred; all combined to convince him that every human was evil.
Zorachus led a coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, using baleful, evil, forbidden magic to seize absolute power in Khymir. He personally killed dozens of people in horrifying ways, completely abandoning all his former moral precepts. This was just as Tchernobog had planned, turning a good and moral magician-warrior to evil.