In a little over twenty days the final book of The Chorus of Dragons series, The Discord of Gods by Jenn Lyons will release. Although the cast of No Page Unturned, a book podcast, received advance reader copies of the book from Tor Books we decided to make our predictions for how the series will end before ever cracking open to page one. Here are our predictions. Be warned. This does contain spoilers for the series so far.

Joshua: So my first prediction for the last book of The Discord of Gods is judging by the title, no longer needing gods at all. The veil, the demons, and Val Korath, who was resolved in the last book as Kihrin merged with S’arric’s soul, will be resolved in the last book and thus the reason the Eight Immortals were created in the first place will no longer be warranted. By the end of The Discord of Gods, with no need for Eight Immortals, whoever of them is still alive will be turned back to voras or human and get to live normal lives again. What do you think, Steph? Christina?

Christina: I think there will still be a need for the Eight Immortals (Xivan and Talea’s transformation in the last book seems too significant, and it’s such a good thing I don’t want to see it reversed–my sweet ladies are back together!), especially because I think everyone is going to start dismantling the empire and trying to live in better harmony with the world that people all but destroyed so many thousands of years ago. The Daughters of Laaka are native to this world, and so are many other species–and we know they’re sentient and capable of having mutually respectful relationships (Drehemia counts! I want my sweet monster babies to be happy…), and the newcomers (voras, vane, vordreth, voramer, or whatever they are now) need to uphold that end of the respect. 

The only thing I’m really stumped about is the demons. We know Xaltorath was probably the first–she figured out how to make herself a demon, so what’s the endgame there? Is she on this world’s side somehow, trying to fix the broken sky? She seems almost too ambitious for simple world domination. 

Okay, one of two things. I’m still not sure what Talon’s endgame is. I think she’ll be a hero at the end, maybe a little Gollum-style? She’s got the ultimate self-sacrificer Kihrin as a part of her now…

Steph: Hmm you guys are making me think: so the Eight Immortals were originally given their powers to fight the demons.  And the dragons were created when Relos’Var was a jealous dick who couldn’t handle his brother literally having more gold stars than him.  What if in these books there comes a way to reverse those rituals?  Josh, presumably there will be for the Immortals if your prediction comes true.  But what about the dragons?  They’re still a pretty big problem, and more or less uncontrollable.  At the end of The House of Always, Drehemia gets her Cornerstone back, but we don’t stick around long enough to really see the results of that.  So maybe the dragons just all get their Cornerstones back and become sane?  Plus what is sane to a dragon?  The dragons never went into this with good intentions, but maybe thousands of years of dragon-ing will make them more sympathetic to the human cause?

Also Quur itself, the Hellwarriors are prophesied to destroy it, but again what does that mean?  The Empire is trash, but also we LOVE the current Emperor Tyentso.  I feel confident that the Quur we know is definitely in for some changes, maybe losing some territories.  I would be fine with the Royal Houses being out on their asses but that seems unlikely, although we do have Galen and Sheloran maybe making a change there?

I do agree that the biggest problem is Xaltorath, being that they want to eat the whole universe.  That’s inconvenient and that’s one I feel like I can guarantee will get solved in this book.

Oh, also I hope the dreth show up.

Joshua: I not only want to see the dreth but see what their civilization is like underground. On Quur, maybe it’ll exist as just a kingdom and not an empire with much-needed changes in place? Here’s hoping so Tyentso can stick around as Emperor while fixing everything that is wrong with the Empire. I guess that would mean she would need a different title.

Christina: Hell yes to the dreth. (It rhymes so it’s true.) Also, did the dragons have bad intentions at their core? I thought it was just Relos Var who tricked them, but maybe their remorse will be unbearable. 

Also, speaking of dragons, how will Ayen’arric respond to her multiply-reincarnated parents being pregnant again? Someone, please draw a gigantic ice dragon with the button I got when my younger brother was born, a pink shiny thing that said: “I’M A BIG SISTER!”

Also, we know that Taja and Thaena are in the process of being replaced by Talea and Xivan. Who’s going to be Galava and Argas, the other two deceased gods?

Joshua: I think Relos Var has some control over the dragons? So maybe once they get their cornerstones back they can just live their lives how they want with glamours as people? Like metallic dragons sometimes like to do in D&D perhaps. Which of our main characters are really into plants? And what is Argas the god of again?

Okay, here’s my second prediction. Relos Var is either going to be forced to or voluntarily choose to go to the dimension humanity abandoned on the other side of the Nythrawl Wound, the rift that they opened up to escape their dying dimension to go to this one. If forced I imagine he’ll either be tricked by the Hellwarriors or Xaltorath. If he volunteers it’ll have something to do with resolving whatever real issues he has with his brother S’arric.

Steph: Ohhh I think that makes a lot of sense.  As for Argas (god of invention) and Galava, I wouldn’t entirely be surprised if we don’t see them replaced?  We barely saw them previously anyways.  But my only vague candidate so far would be Janel because she’s pregnant and making life?  I don’t know.  Valathea would probably be a dope god and I suppose she was a scientist. But I think she also knows better than getting involved in that.

Christina: Just to be truly unhinged, I’m going to say that Talon ends up as the god of invention. 

Steph: Well that’s terrifying.  Do you guys think any of the other mimics will show up?

Christina: I… I don’t even know if I hope they do or really hope they don’t. Talon is a lot. Let’s say I hope we learn what happened to the rest of them. Or like if one of them just gave up and sells surfboards off a tropical coast, sure, I want to hear about that. 

Steph: I honestly hope that’s how Talon ends up.  No more murder, maybe just eating ceviche?  That’s the closest to raw brain I can think of.

Joshua: I think Relos Var may have one as a minion since they’re so useful for espionage and have lived so long so he’s had time to make relationships with at least one of them. 

Okay, my third prediction, the cycle of people being reborn so often will diminish because the millions of souls from the demons will be freed. Demons are supposed to be many souls and they eat souls that stay inside them like a hivemind. When Relos Var or the Hellwarriors achieve what they have to with the demons those souls will go into the cycle of being reborn making the likelihood of past lives being an issue for people like Kihrin, Thurvishar, Janel, and Teraeth less likely to occur.

This also means if one of our beloved characters dies it may be a long time before the rest would see them again, especially if my first prediction comes true. 

The only complication with that is Xaltorath who is out of the loop of time and technically has the souls of two Galavas within her. What does repeat souls being freed do I wonder?

Steph: Oh man, demon time makes my brain hurt.  Xaltorath also has a couple of god-kings in them if I recall?  Maybe Vol Karoth Kihrin will suck Xaltorath dry and use that power to beat Relos Var or close the dimension hole?

Joshua: Maybe all those souls Xaltorath has is key to our throuple getting the happy ending they want.

Steph: Don’t make me dream!

Christina: My brain also hurts. But god souls are still voras or vane or so forth souls–their godliness is tied to concepts that Xaltorath never ate, so I’m not sure she gets all that tenyé. 

You know, we’ve talked about wanting to see the dreth lands, but it occurs to me with all this talk of demons that we’ve never seen the Pure Lands either. Considering that hell is an actual place, what about this quasi-heaven? It feels very abstract to me in a universe full of concrete things. I wonder if that will have a part to play…?

Steph: Everything we’ve seen so far that would typically be considered mythological places are absolutely real, so it would make sense that the Land of Peace would be real as well.  I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if a few of our characters “retire” thereafter, they’ve certainly earned a rest.