The ''Empire'' Trilogy is a collaborative
trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wo ...
of political
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...
novels by American writers
Raymond E. Feist and
Janny Wurts, set in the fictional world of
Kelewan.
Novels
The trilogy traces the story of Mara of the Acoma's rise to power from a convent
novitiate
The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
to the most powerful woman in Kelewan. These three books are contemporary to Feist's original
Riftwar Saga and feature some crossover characters, mainly from ''
Magician
Magician or The Magician may refer to:
Performers
* A practitioner of magic (supernatural)
* A practitioner of magic (illusion)
* Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context
Entertainment
Books
* ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...
'' (1982) (Pug, the protagonist of ''Magician'', appears twice in ''
Servant of the Empire'' (1990) and once in ''
Mistress of the Empire'' (1992)). Mara struggles to rule her family after her father and brother are killed in a trap set by the Minwanabi, one of the most powerful families in the Empire and longtime enemies of the Acoma. Mara quickly learns how to play the Game of the Council with skill and challenges the binding traditions of her world.
The
feudal Empire of Tsuranuanni as depicted in the series, features social and political institutions which show a clear influence both of
feudal Japan
The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new inven ...
and
Imperial China, while some of the characters have
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have small ...
-influenced names.
Both Feist and Wurts have ruled out any further novels featuring these characters.
''Daughter of the Empire'' (1987)
In the world of Kelewan, Mara of the Acoma must lead her followers through terror and peril while surviving the ruthless Game of the Council. Mara must plot, bend tradition, avoid assassination attempts, and trade her heart for power in order to save the Acoma from destruction.
''Servant of the Empire'' (1990)
Mara of the Acoma has now become an expert player in the Game of the Council through bloody political maneuvering. After buying a group of Midkemian prisoners-of-war, she discovers one of them, Kevin of Zun, is a noble who reveals himself a great asset in regards to the Game of the Council.
''Mistress of the Empire'' (1992)
After rising to power, Mara of the Acoma must face the power of the brotherhood of assassins, the spies of rival houses, and the might of the Assembly—who see her as a threat to their power.
References
{{The Riftwar Cycle
Fantasy novel trilogies
Collaborative book series
Works by Raymond E. Feist