Feb 18, 2025
A saint is not a virtuous soul, but an empty one.
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Cazaril from The Curse of Chalion
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A saint is not a virtuous soul, but an empty one.
_
Cazaril from The Curse of Chalion
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Cazaril thinks of himself as 'strange' towards the end of the book, and... yeah, no wonder buddy. From the outside, nothing about this man is normal.
You are a noble at Chalion's court. The princess shows up. Her secretary is a nobody who's barely a noble (his title doesn't even have land attached to it anymore) and all his clothes are clearly secondhand. In spite of his obvious poverty, he is absolutely impossible to bribe, so good for the princess I guess. Time passes. He's a soft-spoken guy so you don't even really notice him. Boom, he's accused of a capital crime and then immediately proved innocent by the intervention of a sacred bird. What the hell. Then the Chancellor's brother dies and the Chancellor is dead set on the idea that mild-mannered sacred bird secretary guy is the one who did it, using illegal black magic. Secretary guy is proven innocent. A rumour circulates that secretary guy ate a rat. Secretary has admittedly started looking seriously ill, so there might be something in that one. Then a notable arsehole tries to bait secretary guy into a duel, at which point secretary guy turns out to be much stronger than he looks, slams the arsehole into a wall, says some truly frightening things, and tries to get the arsehole to drink his blood. Secretary guy leaves court, a shitton of political upheval happens, and as the rumour mill trickles through, apparently:
Terrifying secretary guy straight up had cancer.
Secretary guy helped arrange the most politically advantageous royal wedding in living memory. He did this by going up against a man so cunning people call him 'the Fox' and walking away without making a single concession.
Secretary guy beat a famed duellist in a one-on-one fight, in spite of, you know, the debilitatingly painful terminal cancer.
For some reason, multiple bishops have started viewing secretary guy as a high-level religious authority.
Secretary guy got run through with a sword, which somehow led to a goddess??? curing his cancer???
Secretary guy returns to the capital with a new #blessed attitude and marries the new queen's best friend in a touching ceremony
From the outside, Cazaril is some kind of incorruptible, unpredictable, unstoppable powerhouse, but having Cazaril as our POV character means we get to see him as he sees himself (sad wet decrepit cat of a man).
More book fanart that really doesn't do the book justice, but I had to get it out of my system. Might do a more polished or totally different version later.
The Curse of Chalion was an experience, and not just because it the first physical book I've ready cover to cover in a long time. Honestly, everything of Lois McMaster Bujold's is phenomenal. THe World of Five Gods series is my current obsession. I hope to draw Penric and Desdemona sometime soon too.
Here's Cazaril, suffering, as he does. In the background, Iselle and Betriz, not to be overshadowed by Caz in their suffering or ingenuity throughout the story.
“I’ve seen your integrity in action. It…widened my world. I’d been raised by my father, who is a prudent, cautious man, always looking for men’s hidden, selfish motivations. No one can cheat him. But I’ve seen him cheat himself. If you understand what I mean.” “Yes.” “It was very foolish of you, to attack that vile Roknari galley-man.” “Yes.” “And yet, I think, given the same circumstances, you would do it again.” “Knowing what I know now…it would be harder. But I would hope…I would pray, Royse, that the gods would still lend me such foolishness in my need.” “What is this astonishing foolishness, that shines brighter than all my father’s gold? Can you teach me to be such a fool too, Caz?” “Oh,” breathed Cazaril, “I’m sure of it.”
I am halfway through The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, and this is such an amazing book! I am absolutely spellbound! I absolutely love the characters and the World of the Five Gods as well! Cazaril is such an interesting and unusual protagonist.
And then I go to the Internet, as I so often do when I find something I love, and am very surprised to find that there is very little fanfare to find there. I'm honestly kind of disappointed. Is the book just not that well known? What is happening?
Anyway, if someone wants to talk about this amazing book, I'm here:)
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Bujold makes a lot of deformed male protagonists.
Miles Vorkosigan's bones dissolved before he was born, and now he has a twisted spine, a head that's too big, and bones that are way too fragile.
Cazaril was tortured with whippings as a galley slave, and now he's hunched over, in near constant pain. He has permanently curled fingers and is missing a couple of fingertips. The scars on his back are an awful sight.
Dag is missing a hand.
If I was clever, I could probably draw symbolism from their respective injuries. I'm not feeling very clever tonight.
on a scale from cazaril to gen how well do you react to the realization that your gods set in motion a plan to ultimately unite several kingdoms on a peninsula by causing you personal suffering and permanent damage to your body
“What, everyone knows of Royesse Iselle’s clever secretary, the man who keeps his own counsel—and hers—the Bastion of Gotorget—utterly indifferent to wealth—”
“No, I’m not,” Cazaril assured him earnestly. “I just dress badly. I quite like wealth.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion