A Note on Content
The Utmark Saga is a work of dark fantasy, written for adult readers. It contains graphic violence and gore, the deaths of children, and unsparing depictions of grief, trauma, and dissociation. Reader discretion is advised.
⚠ Spoilers below — click for the detailed, per-book list
If you’d rather go in unprepared, the short note above covers the essentials. The list below names specific events.
Book I — Oath of the Dead
- Graphic violence; battle and weapon gore; injury detail
- Major character death; grief and mourning
- The abduction of a family member (a sister taken)
- Undead / body horror and a monstrous antagonist
- A cursed bite and a forced transformation against the character’s will
- The massacre of a community and the destruction of a home
- Animal death; funeral pyres / cremation
Book II — Blood of the Exiled
General: graphic violence and gore, body horror, blood-drinking, captivity and enslavement, pervasive psychological trauma.
- The death of an unborn / newborn child (the most graphic scene in the book)
- The death of a child (a mercy killing)
- Genocide / the massacre of a people, children included
- Animal death — the killing of the protagonist’s wolf
- A killing committed during dissociation (depicted as horrifying, never eroticized)
- Human “livestock,” blood-farming, slavery and branding; an ossuary
- Torture and ritual mutilation (the blood eagle)
- Dissociation, depersonalization, and loss of agency
- A moment of passive suicidality
- Existential / religious despair; grief and survivor’s guilt throughout
Book III — Wrath of the Unbound
General: graphic violence and gore, siege and mass-battle carnage, body horror, blood-drinking, pervasive grief and psychological trauma.
- The violent death of a father figure; mass funerals and funeral pyres
- The remains of a massacred people, children among them
- Human “livestock” and blood-farming — people penned, hung, and drained
- The protagonist kills his own sister (a mercy killing)
- A total loss of self: a killing frenzy during dissociation, nearly turned on his own companions
- Graphic deaths of companions, including a man disembowelled by the dead
- A character burned to death
- Gods in chains and in torment; religious and existential despair
- Grief, survivor’s guilt, and the ageing and death of an old companion animal
Questions or concerns? Email utmarksaga@gmail.com.