The Banned and the Banished

The "Banned and the Banished" novel series by James Clemens is about a girl named Elena, "who ripens into the heritage of lost power". She goes on a journey to defeat the Dark Lord and to find herself.

*Book One: "Wit'ch Fire":On a fateful night five centuries ago, three mages made a desperate last stand, sacrificing everything to preserve the only hope of goodness in the beautiful, doomed land of Alasea. Now, on the anniversary of that ominous night, a girl-child ripens into the heritage of lost power. But before she can even comprehend her terrible new gift, the Dark Lord dispatches his winged monsters to capture her and bring him the embryonic magic she embodies.

:Fleeing the minions of darkness, Elena is swept toward certain doom--and into the company of unexpected allies. There she forms a band of the hunted and the cursed, the outcasts and the outlaws, to battle the unstoppable forces of evil and rescue a once-glorious empire . . .

*Book Two: "Wit'ch Storm":Elena bears the mark of the wit'ch upon her palm, the crimson stain that testifies to an awesome power of unimaginable potency: wild, seductive, difficult to control. Only a mistress of blood magick can stand against the foul minions and all-corrupting evil of the Dark Lord. But Elena is not yet the mistress of her magick. Protected by an ageless warrior and a band of renegades, she quests for a lost city where prophecies speak of a mystic tome that holds the key to the Dark Lord's defeat. But if the Dark Lord finds her first, Elena will become his most fearsome weapon . . .

:Deep in the ocean, a race called the mer'ai live a symbiotic life inside a gigantic creature called the Leviathon. The mer'ai bond with dragons when they reach puberty, and are then joined forever. The daughter of a mer'ai elder, Sy-wen, is reluctant to choose a dragon, preferring to remain friends with her mother's dragon, Conch. When she is playing near the surface one day, she and Conch are captured by fishermen, and Conch is wounded.

:One of the sailors has a tattoo on his cheek of an eagle, that casts a spell over him and Sy-wen, causing him to do Sy-wen's bidding. With the help of an old seaman called Flint they make their way to A'loa Glen, where Conch is healed. When they are there they meet Joach and help uncover a deception that the Praetor is not who he seems: he is, in fact, one of the mages who helped create the Blood Diary, and who is now the right-hand man of the Dark Lord. Sy-wen inadvertently summons the dragon Rag'nark who attacks Shorkan (the Praetor) and helps Sy-wen, Kast, Joach and Flint to escape A'loa Glen and meet up with the rest of the group.

*Book Three: "Wit'ch War":The book starts many hundreds of years before the rest of the events in an upper room in a town called Winterfell, where three mages are combining their power to create the Blood Diary - a relic that can save them from the oncoming power of the Dark Lord's armies. The rest of the books tell the story of Elena Morin'stal, a young girl from the fictional land of Alasea, who suddenly finds herself as the descendant of a powerful and feared female mage, Sisa'kofa - the first woman to ever wield magical power. As Elena's family begins to be cruelly killed by agents of the Dark Lord - her mother and father, her aunt, her uncle - she flees with her brother, Joach, who is then captured by the Dark Lord and imprisoned by an evil mage at A'loa Glen. Elena continues and meets strange travelers: a nyphai called Nee'lahn, an el'vin called Meric, a half-ogre called Tol'chuk, shapeshifting twins called Fardale and Mogweed, a mountain man called Kral, and a one-armed swordsman called Er'ril who tells her that she must make her way to A'loa Glen to get the Blood Diary, which he has hidden there. They set out, fighting fearsome creatures called skal'tum and mul'grotha.

:In her hands, the young wit’ch Elena holds the awesome energies of blood magick, and the destiny of Alasea. For the fate of that fabulous kingdom hinges on her recovery of the Blood Diary. Only by mastering the secrets recorded in its pages can Elena defeat the evil magicks of the Dark Lord. But the Diary lies hidden in A’loa Glen–the fabled city that belongs to Shorkan, chief lieutenant of the Dark Lord, and his fearsome army.

:With the help of her allies, including the ocean-dwelling Sy-wen and her great dragon, Elena prepares a desperate invasion of A’loa Glen. At her side stands the one-armed warrior Er’ril, who knows how to unlock the wards that surround the Blood Diary. But unknown to Elena, Er’ril is the brother of the dreaded Shorkan. Will he continue to act as her protector, or will he choose to betray her?

*Book Four: "Wit'ch Gate":In a spectacular feat of daring and magic, Elena and her army of outlaws and rebels have defeated evil’s minions and released the mystic secrets of the Blood Diary. But the malevolent Dark Lord has unleashed the Weirgates–black wells of ferocious energy that are his greatest source of power. Now Elena’s bravest allies are sent to find and destroy the Gates. As they face their own demons along the way, Elena herself must journey to Gul’gotha. Daring to venture into the enemy’s lair, she must emerge victorious if she is to reveal the secret of the Dark Lord’s identity–and the shocking nature of his vast powers.

*Book Five: "Wit'ch Star":The three deadly Weirgates are destroyed but the threat of the Dark Lord remains. And so Elena and her companions have gone their separate ways to prepare for what is yet to come. Elena herself has journeyed to the beautiful city of A’loa Glen, there to recover her strength and spirit.

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* James Rollins is another pen name used by the author