Codex Alera


Codex Alera is a fantasy book series by Jim Butcher. The series chronicles the coming-of-age of a young man named Tavi in the realm of Alera, an empire similar to Rome, on the world of Carna. Every Aleran has some degree of command over elemental forces or spirits called furies, save for Tavi, who is considered unusual for his lack of any. As the aging First Lord struggles to maintain his hold on a realm on the brink of civil war, Tavi must use all of his intelligence to save his family from diverse enemies.
Alera is part of a large continent that is inhabited by the Icemen to the north. They are connected to another large continent held by the Marat via a land bridge, which is the location of the Calderon Valley. The Canim reside across the ocean to the west, staging regular, bloody raids on coastal settlements. A map of the realm, illustrated by fan Priscilla Spencer, was published in First Lord's Fury.
The inspiration for the series came from a bet Butcher was challenged to by a member of the Del Rey Online Writer's Workshop. The challenger bet that Butcher could not write a good story based on a lame idea, and he countered that he could do it using two lame ideas of the challenger's choosing. The "lame" ideas given were "Lost Roman Legion", and "Pokémon".

Books in the series

Furies

Furies are elemental spirit-like forces that inhabit all aspects of Alera. Furies can be found as exceedingly small motes anywhere attention is paid, but can aggregate into larger and more volatile beings. Furies in the wilderness or lands distant from cities are often considered more powerful, and the land more likely to be inhabited by such 'feral' furies. The nature of furies as independent beings appears to be substantially dependent on both the Alerans' cultivation of the land and their furycraft power. In tamed lands, the furies dissolve into motes that do not act independently, but can be gathered by a crafter into a manifest fury for their uses. Untamed lands, however, are prone to dangerous manifested furies that will harm anyone on sight unless destroyed or claimed by a Crafter of skill. Those living in these regions generally give their furies names and treat them as independent entities with quirks and individual talents, which causes their furies to do exactly that, as Crafting is an application of willpower. Crafters are often only limited by what they believe they can and cannot do with their furies. The furies connected to a person can be passed on to another chosen by the crafter after their death, allowing that person to manifest that fury. This implies that Furies' natures are neither as simple as motes gathered with personalities projected onto them by the ignorant, nor fully independent entities that do not change.
Of these, the Great Furies are the most powerful, representing large scale landmarks such as mountains or weather systems. They are for the most part bound and placated through the efforts of High Lords, and cannot be directly controlled by Alerans except to annoy and provoke them. The term 'Great Furies' is often used as an imprecation or expression of awe, a remnant from an age where their existence was common knowledge. Most are not aware of the Great Furies outside of myth, to prevent ambitious or dangerous Crafters from provoking them: a fully roused Great Fury is capable of laying waste to huge areas of the continent.
While Proto-Aleran ruins show no sign of fury-crafting ability amongst humans of the past, the Aleran people at the present day manifest personal furies in their early childhood or adolescent years, and control them with their will. They are used to aid them in whatever task is undertaken from housework to combat. This fury-based magic is accomplished in one of two forms. First, an Aleran may draw from the strength of their fury to increase their own. For example, earth crafters often draw physical might from the ground, through their furies, to allow them to lift loads far too heavy for normal people, while wind crafters can increase their speed and metalcrafters their endurance and tolerance of pain. The second form of fury-crafting is to "manifest" a fury. This involves the fury taking a corporeal form, often the shape of an animal, though taking the shape of a human is not unheard of. Manifested furies are necessary for the most powerful forms of furycrafting, including flight and healing.
While most Alerans display some type of very rudimentary ability in all areas of fury-crafting, they are typically skilled in only one or occasionally two elements and generally cannot rise above the freeman social status. Those who have sufficient skill with one or two fury types may elect to become "Citizens" by displaying that skill in a trial. High Lords and their offspring generally show considerable talent in all areas of furycraft well beyond the capabilities of a typical person, indicating that heredity plays some role in furycrafting, including inheritance or transference of specific furies. Residents of large cities typically treat furies as generic entities, while those in rural areas forge close personal bonds with specific furies often tied closely to local natural landmarks. All Alerans of sufficient talent and strength in furycrafting to be admitted to the Citizenry are obliged by law to marry someone with similar ability, in the interest of producing children with strong fury-crafting talent.
During "Princeps' Fury", a fully intelligent Fury is introduced as the secret behind much of the First Lord's continent-spanning furycrafting. Named Alera, this fury came to be accidentally, when the First Lord Gaius Primus gathered pieces of stone from across Alera into a moasic map of the land. This allowed Primus to obtain information by seeing through the furies of very disparate locations, and effect changes from a great range, but this unique construct allowed these furies to coalesce and form an awareness unlike any before it, a fury that represents the continent itself. This fury can appear in the guise of a woman made of metal and precious stones, clothed in mist. Having been manifested by the thousand-year-old House of Gaius, Alera acts by observing distant events through the many furies that make her up, and can effect enormous changes in the continent's climate by guiding the First Lord's power to be applied remotely where he desires, allowing him to effect such changes as minimizing hurricane systems and pushing cold systems into otherwise temperate locations. Alera has a very distant and detached personality. Lacking human emotion, the vastness of her awareness causes her to therefore lack particular care for personal attachments; she finds the beings that inhabit Alera to be interesting, but transitory, with her having existed for millions of years before any civilization upon the continent. Alera can only act in a manner consistent with the powers and limitations of a fury, and only at the behest of the First Lord. She clarifies to Octavian that all effects she helps him to manifest will impact the entire continent, all peoples equally and without prejudice. Alera represents a legacy of connection to enormous power in the hands of the House of Gaius. Her existence is therefore known only to the First Lords of this line, as awareness of her potential could motivate other High Lords to attempt similar constructions. The greater risk, however, is Alera's implication that any other such amalgamation would lack the conscious beneficent intent with which Gaius Primus and his heirs had accessed and utilized her power. Throughout Octavian's interaction with Alera, it is made apparent that her visible form is progressively diminishing, possibly her collective power as well.

Types

Watercrafters are not conventionally used in the front lines of battle. In the series, Tavi himself also uses them almost strictly as medical staff that actively tend to the injured. Given the number of casualties during battles, any and all Watercraft specialists are assigned to that position. Outside of healing, strong water crafters are used as spies and assassins; as the ability to completely change appearance and copy the forms of others is of great use in these roles.
A group of raw legionare recruits, or "fish," who acquitted themselves remarkably well under Tavi's command, were given the nickname "Knights Pisces". This group was a unit of Knights Aeris.

Races of Carna

Alerans

Alerans are humans, taking their name from the country they inhabit. They are the most developed civilization on Carna, and they exert their influence over all other sentient races through their use of furies. Their far-flung empire spans most of an entire continent, but they are pressed on all sides by hostile enemies. Their government is a feudal monarchy with institutions derived from the Roman Empire. The government is headed by a single patriarchal monarch, the First Lord, who controls the high lords and their territories. The Senate is the political body for the empire, establishing laws and government appropriations. All of the high lords and senators are part of an aristocracy called Citizens, as are lesser lords and nobles. To become a Citizen, an Aleran must either win a duel with a Citizen called the juris macto or be appointed by the First Lord. Citizens are similar in status to Roman Patricians.
Aleran culture is male dominated and allows for people to be bought and sold as slaves. Women's rights are lacking in many respects but a highly influential Dianic League is winning support for more rights. The country is organized into city-states, with each of the major cities ruled by a high lord. The outlying areas of the cities are inhabited by farms, called Steadholts. Each Steadholt is led by a steadholder who rules that area of Alera, under the authority of the local High Lord.
The Aleran military is organized into legions similar to those used by the Romans. Each High Lord is allowed and responsible for maintaining three full legions and a contingent of bodyguards. Each legion has sworn loyalties to their High Lord, which causes issues when conflict arises between the First Lord and a High Lord.

Canim

The Canim are large, anthropomorphic wolf-like creatures and fierce warriors. They are long-lived, with a society organized in a caste-like social hierarchy which is susceptible to political in-fighting. Canim speak a growling barking language more suitable to their muzzles than the mangled Aleran that they attempt. Most Aleran contact with the Canim is through Canim raids along the west coast of Alera. They are capable of sorcery, as revealed in Academ's Fury when the Canim use their influence over the elements to batter the coast of Alera with violent storms and in Cursor's Fury when they shot bolts of concentrated red lightning to hit the officers of the First Aleran legion. The blood of living intelligent beings is necessary in the use of Canim sorcery, in contrast to the fury-based magic of the Alerans. Their current ambassador to Alera is Varg, who was imprisoned after the events of Academ's Fury. In Cursor's Fury, a large contingent of Canim invade Alera with the intent of creating a permanent colony on the continent. In Captain's Fury, it is revealed that the Canim are invading Alera with such massive forces because their homeland has been invaded by the Vord. In Princep's Fury it is revealed that Canea used to consist of several countries, or ranges as the Canim term them, each of them as big as or bigger than Alera itself. Yet by the time the Canim invasion force returns home only one range, Shuar, remains. Shuar is described as a cold, northern, range with tundra and hardy people. The Shuarans are known for their golden fur and their monumental defense engineering. They had turned the plateau that defined their range into a monstrous fortress, which is the reason they have survived against the vord longer than the others. The Narashans are Canim with mainly black fur and are called the "tree people" by other Canim, suggesting that they once lived in forests. Their range was south of Shuar. Ambassador Varg is a war-leader of Narash. Most Canim view Alerans as unnatural demons and call them as such. Historically, only the Canim of Narash viewed the Alerans as anything more than vermin to be eventually exterminated.
Four classes in the Canim caste system are described as follows:
Very little is known about the Icemen except that they are a savage enemy of Alera, held at bay along the northern fringes of the empire by the Shieldwall. The expense of maintaining the northern defenses, as well as the slave trade, has caused a political rift between the cities of northern Alera and the cities of southern Alera. The Marat use the hair of female Icemen to make incredibly strong, lightweight ropes that will not freeze and break, even in the coldest of climates. In the Marat language, they are called the Gadrim-ha. Icemen first appear in the prologue of Princeps' Fury where they are described as being apelike creatures, the tallest the size of a legionnare but with broader shoulders and chest. They hurl icicles as javelins. In Princeps' Fury, some light is shed upon their method of communication; they make use of considerable mental powers to share emotions. The use of this ability is also available to watercrafters, as Isana demonstrates during negotiations with the Icemen. She also theorizes that this, in conjunction with some type of firecrafting, is the accidental cause of the conflict between Icemen and Alerans, igniting passions that escalated into war. It is also hinted that they wield some form of control over the weather; their military movements are almost always accompanied by snow storms.
In First Lord's Fury, Tavi announces that Alera will lease the Wall from the Icemen before eventually tearing it down. After the Vord War is concluded, the Icemen become a part of the new racially integrated society of Alera, receiving their own recognized state. An Iceman even attends Tavi and Kitai's wedding, with the aid of a coldstone amulet around its neck.

Marat

The Marat are a silver-haired, pale-skinned people who reside on a continent connected to Alera via a land bridge. The Marat appear in many ways to simply be barbaric humans, but their culture and physiology show several key differences, including night vision and exceptional physical abilities, and are noted to have a much higher body temperature than Alerans. They are an aggressive race who routinely fight one another in small scale conflicts. The Marat bond themselves to another creature and call this creature their Totem, gaining many of the creature's strengths and abilities; for example, the members of the Gargant clan have exceptional strength, while those of the Horse clan are faster than other Marat. They are also known for "partaking" in their fallen enemies, where they eat their adversaries in combat to gain their strength. It has not been shown whether this actually improves the physical abilities of a Marat or is merely superstition. When their hordes attacked Alera before Tavi was born, they killed the Princeps Septimus's Legion at the First Battle of Calderon. However, after a series of complicated events, their most powerful clans, the Gargant and the Horse clans, became allies of the Aleran nation and often help them against the other hostile forces in Carna. In Captain's Fury, the Marat are seen supplying the First Aleran legion with scout auxiliaries and are trading with the Alerans at the city of Garrison, with one of their headmen offering to act as moderator in negotiations between the Icemen and Aleran representatives. In First Lord's Fury, the Gargant, Herdbane and other Marat clans come to the aid of the Alerans in the defense of their final holdout in the Calderon Valley.

Vord

Little is known about the Vord. They are described repeatedly as an "alien" race, but no one knows where they come from. The Vord are originally found in Alera in the Wax forest, where their Queen slumbered. Events were set into motion by Tavi and Kitai which awakened the queen, and caused the Vord invasion. According to Marat tradition, they are shapeshifters. When they come, they possess members of a sentient race, consuming their souls and transforming them into the Taken. The normal vord scouts have the appearance of large spiders and see in infrared vision. They feed on a translucent, waxy substance called croach, and resided in dormancy in the Wax Forest before they were awakened by Tavi and Kitai. After the Vord queen was awakened, she began producing members of the Vord warrior form; these vord warriors tend to take on the characteristics of the civilization that they are assaulting, and have colossal reserves of strength. When facing the Alerans, they take on humanoid forms, and emulate the Knights. For example, one type of Warrior Vord has a humanoid body, dragonfly-like wings, and two blade-like arms the same length as a legionare's Gladius and thus resemble a Knight Aeris. In another instance, they take on the characteristics of the Canim Warrior caste. While they can be killed by conventional methods, the most effective way to kill a Vord warrior is to burst the large, croach-filled bubble on its back. At the start of each Vord uprising, there is a primary queen; this queen rapidly forms a nest, and spawns two additional queens who depart to form separate nests; each queen is capable of creating more queens, although in Princeps' Fury, it is discovered that the primary queen birthed sterile queens in the Canim lands. The Keepers, venomous, spider-like creatures the size of dogs, maintain the croach; without the croach the Vord can not survive, for it acts as both air and food. Keepers take living creatures into the croach and they are slowly dissolved into it. The Vord's main objective appears to be to make all things like itself; in pursuit of this goal, the three queens will each occupy different areas of the places they wish to "infect." After the events in the book Cursor's Fury, the prologue states that the Vord have taken over the savage Canim's homeland. After events in Princeps' Fury, the Vord queen is described as looking like Kitai but greenish; this probably has something to do with the events that happened between Kitai and Tavi when they sought the Blessing Of The Night in Calderon many years before, and awoke the creature. After First Lord's Fury the Vord in Alera are left in disarray and are slowly being exterminated, though wild Vord who learned to survive do remain. The Vord in Canea are left as a future threat to the realm, unifying the surviving races against the common enemy.

Extinct races

In Princeps' Fury, a few races that were driven to extinction by the Alerans are mentioned. These include the Children of the Sun, the Malorandim, the Avar, the Yrani, and the Dekh. Nothing is known about them besides the fact that they all once had empires that were powerful enough to challenge Alera at the time; and that the Children of the Sun left a series of ruins in the Feverthorn jungle, as well as an unknown force which has kept Alerans out even centuries after their extinction.

Relation to Rome

Codex Alera takes place during the reign of a Rome-like empire. While the relationship between ancient Rome and the realm of Alera is only alluded to over the course of the series, having been lost to history, Butcher confirmed that the people of Alera are the descendants of the "lost Roman legion" and its camp followers, which had been transported to the continent of Carna—an effective "drop chute for the Bermuda triangle."
The realm's Roman ancestry endures in the hierarchical society; the military structure, fighting style, and weaponry; and the nomenclature of cities, geographical formations, people, and ranks. At least one book survived, as well. In the prologue to First Lord's Fury, the Canim Warmaster Varg is reading a book out of Alera's history, but comments that he does not believe "Julius" could have taught Tavi anything.
Like the explorers of Earth, Alerans had a tendency to name the places they discovered and built after places in the world they left behind. The ruined city of Appia, one of the earliest Aleran settlements, most likely refers to the Appian Way, also known as Via Appia, which is one of the earliest and most strategic roads in Ancient Rome. It is in this city that Tavi and Maestro Magnus perform their research into Romanic technology at the beginning of Cursor's Fury. When questioned about the term "Romanic" by Max, Tavi responds, "The people were called Romans...you call something Romanic when it was built by Romans."
Other geographic features named for places in Rome include the River Gaul, the Tiber River, the city of Aquitaine, the city of Phrygia, and the city of Rhodes.
Some of the names appropriated for Aleran geography are borrowed from Roman mythology, though the gods themselves did not survive. The city of Ceres shares its name with the Roman goddess of agriculture, and Placida was a surname of the goddess Venus.

Characters

Major characters

Minor characters