63 pages • 2 hours read
The Hurricane Wars
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Themes
The Destructive Nature of Imperialism
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of violence, sexual content, and child abuse.
In a novel about war, power is an integral concept. As the Night Empire continues its reign of terror across the Continent, seeking to overtake all the kingdoms of the Sardovian Allfold, it takes on the role of oppressor, the imperialist force of violence that attempts to obtain as much power as possible. While Talasyn and the other Sardovians attempt to resist the Night Empire’s hunger for aether hearts, land, and resources, they are ultimately unsuccessful, and the Continent falls. After 10 years of constant conflict and bloodshed, the Night Empire prevails, taking control of the entirety of Sardovia. The Sardovians are robbed of their land, their culture, and their autonomy, as imperialism seeks to erase the cultures it conquers.
The Nenavar Dominion, protected by its position on the far side of the Eversea, remains out of Hurricane Wars while the conflict raged on. Because of their uninvolvement, they are able to develop technology not solely geared toward war. When Talasyn and Alaric witness the Nenavarene aethermancy amplifier, they both have the same thought process: “So this was what it was like when a country hadn’t spent the last decade at war. When their Enchanters weren’t focused on powering stormships […] This was what the Continent had lost in its nation-states tearing one another apart” (407). Alaric, as the representative of the oppressive Night Empire, and Talasyn, as the representative of the oppressed Sardovian Allfold, both realize the cost of the Hurricane Wars, the progress lost to bloodshed. Even though Alaric is on the winning side of the conflict, he understands that the war has negatively impacted his people as well, forcing them to devote resources to war that could otherwise have been used for technological and cultural progress.
The Nenavarene take a hard stance against surrender to the Night Empire after Gaheris sets his sights on conquering the Dominion. Daya Langsoune tells Alaric, “We would sooner salt our fields and poison our waters, burn our castles and bury our mines, and kill every last one of our dragons before we let any of it fall into the Night Empire’s hands” (171). The Nenavarene view any level of Kesathese control of their affairs as oppressive, especially in light of the Night Empire’s cruelty toward the Sardovian Allfold. The Nenavarene would rather wreck their own isles and resources than allow the Night Empire to overtake them, recognizing that imperial control represents an even deeper and more lasting form of destruction.
The Sardovians fought the Night Empire with the intent of preserving their autonomous control of the Allfold, and when they failed, they fled in hopes of regrouping and continuing the battle against Kesath. The Nenevarene seek to avoid conflict with Kesath, but as Daya Langsoune illustrates, they would rather see their islands burn than see the Night Empire rule them. The difference between the Sardovian and Nenavarene perspectives on the issue of oppression illustrates how those oppressed by imperialist forces can approach the power imbalance, seeking either to take their power back or to prevent the oppressive forces from taking another iota of power.
The Ephemeral Nature of Political Power
The political sphere of the world Guanzon constructs in The Hurricane Wars is rife with shifting allegiances, complex relationships, and fluctuating notions of power. The Night Empire wields intense political power as it continues its conquest of the entire Continent. It is a clear enemy of the Sardovian Allfold, but the more subtle adversarial relationships between nations and their leaders are less overt throughout the text. After the fall of Sardovia, the survivors flee to Nenavar to seek help. Talasyn regards the ship that the Dragon Queen arrives on as overkill, prompting the Amirante to explain, “‘It’s a show of power […] Of strength and grandeur. An intimidated opponent is much easier to negotiate with.’ Talasyn wondered at the Amirante’s use of the word ‘opponent’” (137). Talasyn, as the Lachis’ka of Nenavar, regards her grandmother Urduja as a potential ally in the fight against the Night Empire, but the Amirante has a more nuanced understanding of the political playing field. Though the Nenavar Dominion is explicitly not on the side of the Night Empire, they are also not necessarily on the side of the Sardovian Allfold. Urduja is an exacting, pragmatic leader who will not make an alliance unless it benefits her people.
Even once the tacit alliance is made between the Sardovians and the Nenavarene, at the expense of Talasyn’s freedom, Talasyn begins to realize that no alliance can make her truly safe. Her lady-in-waiting Jie tells her, “Most dangers come from inside the palace walls, Lachis’ka” (151). Talasyn wields political power as the Lachis’ka, but this power stems ultimately from Queen Urduja as the Dragon Queen. The palace in Eskaya is not a place of guaranteed safety for Talasyn, because the power she holds is dependent on others and on the fragile alliance she’s made with Urduja.
Alaric’s power also stems from his father, who hands him the position of Emperor, but his power is less fragile than Talasyn’s, who thinks, “But [Alaric] had no idea, he could never have any idea, about the position that she was really in, this precarious balancing act that was contingent on remaining in Urduja Silim’s good graces” (229). If Talasyn steps out of line and fails in her role as Lachis’ka, her Sardovian friends could lose their asylum in the Storm God’s Eye; the fragile alliance with Urduja is dependent on Talasyn’s continued compliance.
The alliance between Talasyn and Urduja is not the only fragile one. Even though Alaric and Talasyn go through with the wedding to forge the alliance between Nenavar and Kesath, Gaheris has no intention of keeping the peace. When Alaric returns to the Citadel near the end of the novel, Gaheris seeks to rob Talasyn of her power and overtake the entirety of Nenavar, telling Alaric, “Kesathese Enchanters need to catch up to the Dominion’s technology and surpass it. And because your wife is a Lightweaver and a former Sardovian, and this is how we will find a way to rid her of her magic […] We will rule the Continent and Nenavar” (470). Urduja and Talasyn privately plot to overthrow the Night Empire, and in return, the Night Empire plans to steal Nenavarene technology to continue their imperialist conquest. Outwardly, the alliance seems solid after the picturesque wedding, but beneath the surface, the struggle for political power continues.
Political Conflict as an Intensifier of Romantic Love
As a romantasy novel, The Hurricane Wars centers on the romantic relationship between Talasyn and Alaric. Guanzon constructs an enemies-to-lovers relationship by placing Talasyn and Alaric on opposite sides of the Hurricane Wars, making them each the heir to an empire on the brink of violent conflict. They find themselves drawn to each other even as they engage in battle against each other. Early in the narrative, Talasyn acknowledges that she seeks Alaric out, thinking, “Alaric had the habit of eclipsing everything else, making her throw caution to the wind for the sake of crossing blades and wits with him on the battlefields they’d fought over” (192). Conflict is central to Talasyn and Alaric’s relationship, and it is the foundation upon which their early interactions are built. They fight each other fiercely, but they do not kill each other, illustrating that though they know they are enemies, they cannot bring themselves to destroy each other.
As their relationship builds, Talasyn begins to see Alaric as more human, as she thinks about “how he’d scratched at his jaw in a rare, unguarded moment. It jarred her that the Night Emperor, the dark warrior she’d met on the ice, could be capable of such a human gesture” (228). Alaric’s humanity is hidden behind the mask of the Night Emperor. In intimate spaces, this mask slips, and Talasyn realizes that he’s not just the Night Emperor, but “the boy who had shared her loneliness […] the man who had chucked her under the chin, who had so patiently taught her how to make a shield, whose dry remarks had sometimes made her laugh […] her first kiss, the first time someone else’s hands had touched her and made her burn” (408). Her growing intimacy with Alaric allows her to know him as an individual instead of an emblem of his father’s despotic empire, which in turn allows their romance to grow.
As their relationship deepens, Talasyn begins to look to Alaric as a beacon of peace in the chaotic world that surrounds them. At their wedding, even with hundreds of eyes on them and the weight of two nations on their shoulders, Alaric makes Talasyn feel comforted, as she thinks, “He centered her, in this beautiful, treacherous place, where he was the only one who had known her in the time before, where he was the only thing she could honestly say that she knew” (426). Talasyn feels seen by Alaric, because he truly knew her before she became the Lachis’ka; in turn, because of their shared emotional intimacy, Talasyn truly sees Alaric for who he is, outside of his title as Night Emperor. Even as their nations ready for covert conflict in A Monsoon Rising, Talasyn and Alaric’s relationship continues to grow in romantic intensity, despite the notable obstacles in their way.
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