Light Bringer by Brown
Ref: Pierce Brown (2023). Light Bringer. Hodder Paperback.
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Summary
“Death begets death begets death…”
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Color System
The Color system of the Society originally was a caste system created by early humans on Earth to create order when first colonizing the Moon. It is also a form of social hierarchy improved upon by the early Golds during their conquering of the Solar System. It divides Humanity into fourteen distinct "Colors."
Originally the "Colors" were native Earth human beings who simply wore colored clothes that denoted their position. After conquering Earth the founding Golds of "The Society" used genetic engineering to cause members of each Color to have hair and eyes to match their caste.
Beyond the coloring, the genetic structure of their bodies was modified to allow them to be more adept at performing their denoted tasks. Examples are Red's (miners) being smaller and squat, Obsidian's (fighters) being large and with 8, 5 or 4 fingers per hand, and Gold's (conquerors and explorers) having bone 5 times stronger than an average man. Every person's vocation is dictated entirely by their Color.
As part of the genetic engineering of the hierarchy, low Colors have significantly shorter pregnancies than pre-Color humans. Labor is induced for low Colors after a maximum of 5m of gestation through the use of catalysts, sedatives, or nucleic’s. Only Golds and Obsidians experience full 9m pregnancies with natural births.
In addition to the genetic engineering that gives individuals the pigment to match their castes, a certain amount of social engineering exists in an attempt to prevent the desire for social mobility. Obsidians (for example) believe Golds to be literal gods, helping to ensure their loyalty to their masters. While Reds are socially engineered to be heterosexual, family oriented, and marry and breed by age 14-16 in order to maintain and increase their labor population.
“The Gray soldiers prowl the cities ensuring order, ensuring obedience to the hierarchy. The Whites arbitrate their justice and push their philosophy. Pinks pleasure and serve in high Color homes. Silvers count and manipulate currency and logistics. Yellows study the medicines and sciences. Greens develop technology. Blues navigate the stars. Coppers run the beauracracy. Every Color has a purpose. Every Color prop’s up the Golds.”
High Colors
Golds: Rulers of society.
Peerless Scarred: The apex Golds who have completed The Institute above the Graduates and the Shamed. They are held in the highest esteem among Golds.
Silvers: Financiers and businessmen.
Whites: Clergy and judges.
Justices: The monastic whites who, after spending their life training in a monastery, have become the spirit of justice. They oversee many of the Gold ritual functions.
Coppers: Administration, lawyers, and bureaucrats.
Mid Colors
Blues: Bridge crew of starships and pilots.
Yellows: Doctors and researchers.
Greens: Programmers and technicians.
Violets: Artisans and other creatives.
Carvers: Violets who are capable of altering and creating life via surgery and genetic engineering. Trained in the Grove, they are given hallucinogenic medication, and then told to carve the things they saw. Notable Carvers include Mickey, the man who carved Darrow into a Gold.
Oranges: Mechanics and Engineers
Master Makers: Highly intelligent Oranges who specialize in multiple different fields of engineering. Notable Master Makers include Glirastes, the man who helped Darrow use the Storm Gods.
Grays: Regular soldiers and police.
Lurchers: These are the elite special forces comprised of highly trained Grays.
Low Colors
Brown: Servants, cooks, janitors.
Obsidians: Elite soldiers and bodyguards.
Stained: Obsidians who have passed a "Trial of the Stained" and are used as elite body guards and special forces by Golds. Physical specimens, they are bred and trained in the art of killing. Notable Stained include Ragnar Volarus and Volsung Fá.
Pinks: Pleasure slaves and social functionaries.
Roses of the Garden: The rarest and most valuable Pinks, extensively trained in the art of the human body and mind during their tenure in the Garden. Highly expensive and valuable. Notable Roses include Matteo, Theodora, and the Duke of Hands.
Reds: Manual laborers and miners.
High Reds: Reds who do not work underground in the mines like the low Reds, but hold the low-level positions above ground. They fill positions such as street cleaners, farmers, and janitors
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Significant Events
Darrow recovers in the core after fleeing Mercury with Cassius.
Darrow, Cassius, and Lyria save Sevro on Venus. Darrow is nearly killed in single combat with Apollonius.
Lysander campaigns against Atalantia and goes to war against Mars.
The Ascomanni, led by Faa, kill Sefi on Mars, take the Volk, and utterly destroy the cities of Mars. The Ascomanni and the Volk sail for Jupiter.
Lysander leads the vanguard against Phobos. His forces take the moon after agreeing to a ceasefire with Virginia.
Lysander suspends the war against Mars, leaving Apollonius in control of Phobos, to assist Diomedes, Atlas, and the Rim with fighting the Ascomanni.
Virginia tells Darrow not to return to Mars until he has an Army (or something to help). Darrow heads out to the rim to look for assistance from the old leaders of the Sons of Ares. They provide equipment and a message from Jupiter, but no forces.
Darrow, Cassius, Sevro, and Lyria sail for the moons of Jupiter to find the daughters of Athena.
Atlas, who is in charge of the Ascomanni and Faa, destroy the Rim’s forces from within. Diomedes is narrowly saved by Lysander who sends him into space.
Darrow, Cassius, Sevro, and Lyria inadvertently find and save Diomedes. They sail on Jupiter and locate the daughters of Athena.
Lysander arrives on Jupiter, now working with Atlas. Diomedes gets Lysander and Darrow to agree to a triumvirate to fight Atlas, Faa, and Atalantia.
Darrow defeats Faa in single combat, discovering his new sword style “way of the wind.”
Atlas recovers a pyramid bio-weapon, capable of destroying an entire color.
Lysander tricks Cassius into killing Atlas. Lysander takes the bio weapon and kills Cassius.
Darrow, Diomedes, Athena, Sefi, with the moon lords sign a contract to establish a new non-slavery society and to fight Atalantia and Lysander.
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Misc Quotes
“You’re acting like you share a secret language all of a sudden.” “Isn’t that always the case with those who’ve read the same books?”
“I am Cassius Bellona, son of Tiberius, son of Julia, brother of Darrow, Morning Knight of the Solar Republic, and my honor remains.”
“Forgetting is essential to learning, just as exhaling is essential to breathing. Breathe out, then in. Find the self, then lose it once again. Thus, the path goes ever onward.”
“How can we promise freedom and then be the arbiter of a people’s choices? That is not freedom. That is social engineering. That is the long road to tyranny.”
“We achieve perfection first by acknowledging our failures. We increase understanding first by recognizing our ignorance.”
“The point of war is not to kill your enemies, but to come to an acceptable peace while losing as few people as possible.”
“LUX EX TENEBRIS. Out of darkness, light.”
“Be wary of tyrants: they will help you today and own you tomorrow.”
“I am bored, Darrow. I am terminally bored. I yearn for the clash. I yearn for martial sensation. So gratitude, Reaper. Gratitude, foe, for this! The ultimate honor between peers—a conversation in the language we both have mastered. Violence. Surely there can be no greater distillation of all our mutual respect, animus, and quality.” His eyelids flare back. “Gratitude for answering my summons. Gratitude for granting me this final communion.” His eyes flick to my bald head where the first sprouts of new hair are emerging. “Depilated and dilapidated though you may be.”
“Rather than fretting about whether I’ve made the right choices, I instead focus on preparing for the next one, whatever that might be.”
“The path is made of many stones that look all the same. When you trod upon evil, do not rest or look down because goodness is only a step away. The next may bring ruin, the next joy, but these stones are not your destination, they are but your journey to the path’s end.”
“To those who wrote that we might read, to those who fell so we might walk, to those who came before so we might come after, gratitude.
“Demokracy gives humanity what it wants, boy. The hierarchy gives humanity what it needs. Structure, and hope to escape our own stupidity.”
“It is very hard to break armored infantry groups without artillery or machines,” Darrow explained as if detailing how to clean a rifle. “So you don’t target them. You target their psyche. You target their groupthink. “First you send in a man like Sev or Valdir with their best ghouls—that’s what we call them. If you can’t plant the ghouls ahead of time, they should sneak deep as possible into the enemy ranks before hunkering down. “Then you kill a scout on the outskirts. Badly. The more screaming the better. That’ll draw curiosity and a heavy squad. The squad will investigate. If you can, make them disappear in silence. You want the rest of them using their imagination. You want the commander wondering if he should send another squad, maybe even a century. “Then you confirm their worst fear. Give them a death chant—we carry recordings when we don’t have Obsidians. You want anticipation. You want them preparing to face a known fear, physically, mentally. That’s when your ghouls awaken and start killing the command chain. “Then you have your main force close in silence at a fast pace and hit them as hard as you possibly can. Groups can hold a line together. Groups will make last stands. But alone, rarely. It’s very hard for the human mind to accept dying alone. No matter their number, if you summon enough chaos they will feel alone. Especially with anonymity, especially in the dark. Once the first breaks, the rest will feel like they have permission to follow.”
“I face Aurae. “It’s been a journey,” I mumble. “I wanted to say thank you. For bringing us here. For giving me The Path to the Vale. I was spiraling. People have saved my life before, but I think you saved my soul.” “And you saved Cassius’s,” she says. “It wasn’t me that did it. I liked him very much. In another life, I might have loved him. But he didn’t need a woman’s love. He needed a brother’s. The way he talked about you. Well…” Her eyes swim with tears. “Lysander was an obligation. You were an aspiration. He was so afraid on our journey to the Core. So nervous to see you and be rejected. But when he saw you respected him, valued him, he shined like a star. His path led back to you, because you made him feel loved. That is all that matters, Darrow. When he died, he knew he was loved. So when you think of him, when you feel sad, remember that.” She kisses me on the cheek. “If we do not meet again, I will see you in the Vale with Cassius. You know the path.”
“All the beauty seems so inconsequential when someone you love is in danger. Stone, states, philosophy, they feel so secondary to the fleeting preciousness of life.”
“I almost cave. But I know by now that voice of reason is the enemy. Inside me there is a coward who fears discomfort. That coward will offer solace in the form of excuses. But it is the coward who grooms a man for his defeats. The coward who makes him accept them because he is accustomed to finding a good reason to quit. The coward inside can only be killed one way. I toss down my pack and don my training kit.”
“For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.”-Homer.
“In the end, no one is happy, which means it is probably the only document anyone could sign with even the slightest suspicion that it might actually be honored by the others.”
“You need a top-tier razormaster. You need me. After all, steel sharpens steel.”
“I was taught how the world works, I say. If you don’t have the stomach to win, there's plenty of people who do, and will." - Lysander”
“Half-measures only lengthen the road to peace, and make that peace all the more fragile.”
“If we are too afraid of each other to find common ground, by what logic should they follow us?”
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