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"THE PRIESTING OF ARILAN"

By Katherine Kurtz

Published by Ballanttne Books:

First Edition: August 1986

contents

introduction

I Catalyst (Fall, 888)

II Healer's Song (August 1, 914)

III Vocation (December 24, 977)

IV Bethane (Summer, 1100)

V The Priesting of Arilan (August 1, 1104-February 2, 1105)

VI Legacy (June 21, 1105)

VII The Knighting of Derry (May, 1115)

VIII Trial (Spring, 1118)

appendix I: Index of Characters

appendix II: Index of Place Names

appendix III: A Partial Chronology for the Eleven Kingdoms

appendix IV: Literary Origins Of The Deryni

Introduction

Welcome to Gwynedd and the universe of the Deryni. Whether or not

you've been here before, you'll likely find it at least somewhat familiar, for

Gwynedd and its neighboring kingdoms are roughly parallel to our own

tenth, eleventh, and twelfth century England, Wales, and Scotland in

terms of culture, level of technology, similarity of social structure, and

influence of a powerful medieval Church that extends its machinations

into the lives of nearly everyone, highborn or low. The major difference,

aside from historical personalities and places, is that magic works; for the

Deryni are a race of sorcerers.

In a sense, the term "magic" is almost a misnomer to describe Deryni

capabilities, because much of what the Deryni can do falls under the

general category of what we would call extrasensory perception or ESP.

Telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, and other "paranormal" phenomena

are functions we are now beginning to suspect may be far more normal

than we had dreamed, as we approach the threshold of the twenty-first

century and science continues to expand our understanding of human

potential. In fact, much of what we consider science today would have

been magic to the feudal, superstitious, non-technological folk of the

Middle Ages. (They would have scoffed at the notion that invisible

animalcules called "germs" could cause disease, for everyone knew that

evil humors made people sick—or, sometimes, the wrath of God.)

Of course, not all "magical" phenomena can be explained, even by

modern science. Complicating matters in Gwynedd is the fact that the

Deryni themselves cannot always distinguish between the various forms of

these phenomena. First there are the natural Deryni abilities, ESP-type

functions. Then there is the grey area of ritual procedures which, when

performed with suitable mental focus, concentrate the operator's own

power to produce certain predictable results. And finally, there are

supernatural connections that even the Deryni would regard as magical,

which tap into unknown power sources in unknown ways, at unknown cost

to the well-being of one's immortal soul—the certain existence of which is

also unknown. The latter is a realm that has always been of profound

interest to those engaged in philosophical pursuits, whether those of

science, organized religion, or more esoteric disciplines. (And if we define

magic as the art of causing change in conformity with will, then perhaps

all Deryni powers are magical. Denis Arilan will have some thoughts on

supernatural agents in the story bearing his name.)

The Deryni, then, have abilities and power connections that are not

accessible to most people—though Deryni are not omnipotent. At their

best, the Deryni might represent the ideal of perfected humankind— what

all of us might be, if we could learn to rise above our earthbound

limitations and fulfill our highest destinies. One would like to think that

there is at least a little Deryni in all of us.

With few exceptions, the use of one's Deryni abilities must be learned,

like any other skill; and some Deryni are more skilled and stronger than

others. Primary proficiencies have to do with balances—physical, psychic,

and spiritual—and mastering one's own body and perceptions. Even

without formal instruction, most Deryni can learn to banish fatigue, at

least for a while, to block physical pain, and to induce sleep— skills that

can be applied to oneself or to others, Deryni or not, with or (often)

without the conscious cooperation of the subject, especially a human one.

Healing is another highly useful Deryni talent, though rare and

requiring very specialized training for optimum use. A properly qualified

Healer, provided he has time to engage healing rapport before his patient

expires, can deal successfully with almost any physical injury. Treatment

of illnesses is necessarily more limited, confined mainly to dealing with

symptoms, since medieval medicine has yet to understand disease

mechanisms. (Physicians, both human and Deryni, have made the

connection between cleanliness and decreased likelihood of infection, but

lack the technology to discover why this is so.)

Few would take exception to the abilities we have just outlined—other

than sleep-induction, perhaps, if it were used to the detriment of a subject

unable to resist. What is far more threatening to non-Deryni is the

potential use of Deryni powers outside a healing context. For Deryni can

read minds, often without the knowledge or consent of a human subject;

and they can impose their will on others. Some exceptionally competent

Deryni have even been known to take on the shape of another person.

In actual practice, there are definite limitations to the extent of all these

abilities, though most non-Deryni have wildly exaggerated notions of what

those limitations are, if they even acknowledge their existence. And

human fears are not reassured by the fact that some Deryni can tap into

energies outside even their own understanding, consorting with powers

that may defy God's will. Fear of what is not understood becomes a major

theme, then, as the human and Deryni characters interact in the stories.

But humans did not always fear the Deryni as a race, though individual

humans may have come to fear certain individual Deryni. For centuries

before the Deryni Interregnum, especially under the consolidating rule of a

succession of benevolent Haldane kings (some of whom made discreet

interaction with a few highly ethical Deryni), Deryni were few enough and

circumspect enough in their dealings with humans that the two races

lived in relative harmony. The Deryni founded schools and religious

institutions and orders, sharing their knowledge and healing talents with

anyone in need, their own internal disciplines discouraging any gross

abuse of the vast powers at their command. Certainly, there must have

been occasional incidents, for the greater powers of the Deryni surely

subjected them to greater temptations; but exclusively Deryni outrages

must have been rare, for we find no evidence of general hostility toward

Deryni before 822. In that year the Deryni Prince Festil, youngest son of

the King of Torenth, invaded from the east and accomplished a sudden

coup, massacring all the Haldane royal family except for the two-year-old

Prince Aidan, who escaped.

We can blame the ensuing Festillic regime for much of the deterioration

of human-Deryni relations after the invasion, for the Deryni followers of

Festil I were largely landless younger sons, like himself, and quickly

recognized the material gains to be had in the conquered kingdom by

exploiting their Deryni advantages. Much was shrugged off or overlooked

in the early years of the new dynasty, for any conqueror takes a while to

consolidate his power and set up the apparatus for ruling his new

kingdom. But Deryni excesses and abuse of power in high places became

increasingly blatant, eventually leading, in 904, to the ouster of the last

Festillic king by fellow Deryni and the restoration of the old human line in

the person of Cinhil Haldane, grandson of the Prince Aidan who had

escaped the butchery of the Festillic invaders.

Unfortunately, Deryni magic itself, and not the ill judgment and avarice

of a few individuals, came to be blamed for the evils of the Interregnum.

Nor, once the Restoration was accomplished, did the new regime waste

overmuch time adopting the aims, if not the methods, of their former

masters. After the death of the restored King Cinhil, regency councils

dominated successive Haldane kings for more than twenty years, for

Cinhil's sons were young and died young—within a decade—and the next

heir was Cinhil's four-year-old grandson Owain.

Such an enticing opportunity to redistribute the spoils of the

Restoration to their own benefit could hardly be overlooked by regents

nursing memories of past injustices. With lands, titles, and offices in the

offing, the Deryni role in the Restoration soon became eclipsed by more

emotion-charged recollections of the Deryni abuses that had triggered the

overthrow of Deryni overlords. In the space of only a few years, Deryni

remaining in Gwynedd found themselves politically, socially, and

religiously disenfranchised, the new masters using any conceivable pretext

to seize the wealth and influence of the former rulers.

The religious hierarchy played its part as well. In the hands of a now

human-dominated Church, political expedience shifted to philosophical

justification in less than a generation, so that the Deryni soon came to be

regarded as evil in and of themselves, the Devil's brood, possibly beyond

the salvation even of the Church— for surely, no righteous and God-fearing

person could do the things the Deryni did; therefore, the Deryni must be

the agents of Satan. Only total renunciation of one's powers might permit

a Deryni to survive, and then only under the most rigid of supervision.

None of this happened overnight, of course. But the Deryni had never

been many; and with the great Deryni families gradually fallen from favor

or destroyed, most individuals outside the immediate circles of political

power, both temporal and spiritual, failed to realize how the balance was

shifting until it was too late. The great anti-Deryni persecutions that

followed the death of Cinhil Haldane reduced the already small Deryni

population of Gwynedd by a full two-thirds. Some fled to the safety of

other lands, where being openly Deryni did not carry an automatic death

sentence, but many more perished. Only a few managed to go

underground, keeping their true identities secret; and many who did go

underground simply suppressed what they were, never telling their

descendants of their once proud heritage.

This, then, is a very general background of the Deryni, much of which is

woven into the stories in this volume; it is told in far greater detail in the

novels of the three trilogies set in the Deryni universe. THE LEGENDS OF

CAMBER OF CULDI— Camber of Culdi, Saint Camber, and Camber the

Heretic— recount the overthrow of the last Festillic king by Camber and

his children, and goes on to show what happened immediately after the

death of King Cinhil Haldane, thirteen years later. THE CHRONICLES OF

THE DERYNI— Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate, and High Deryni— take

place nearly two hundred years later, when anti-Deryni feeling has begun

to abate somewhat among the common folk, but not yet within the

hierarchies of the Church. The HISTORIES OF KING KELSON— The

Bishop's Heir, The King's Justice, and The Quest for Saint Camber— pick

up the story after the CHRONICLES; and future novels will explore the

centuries between the reigns of Cinhil's successors and the accession of

Kelson Haldane.

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