Author's note

When I took the wonderful characters of the epic Mahabharata and tossed them into a parallel dimension that was pervasively bleak and nihilistic, it was with the intention of making you, my reader, sit up and gasp on your couch.

The bare bones of Sons of Darkness saw the light after I read A Game of Thrones. My vision was clear. Epic and Grimdark Fantasy was an unexplored bastion of Indian literature, and I wanted Sons of Darkness to be the first to conquer it. And so, I started building a new world on the legacy of scores of hand-drawn maps, character sketches, raw notes, castle plans, detailed fight scenes, caste tattoos, heraldic designs… you name it. And five gruelling years later, here we are, at the threshold of an exciting adventure.

But before you fasten your seat-belts, do give my bipolar invitation below a read. I was asked to draft this Author’s Note because the world of Sons of Darkness is completely different from what you may know about Mahabharata through books and TV shows. You will encounter strange new characters that were not part of the original epic poem. Old, loved characters take unfamiliar journeys and meet untimely ends. Am I thereby abusing my literary freedom? Who can tell? None of us were there when it happened. Then again, if you prefer the unsullied version, just read Vyas’ beautiful, original.

If you are, however, prepared to dive head-first into a chasm of chivalry and cynicism, all I ask is that you leave your helms behind. Forget what you think you know about Krishna. Forget Karna’s backstory. Forget Vyas’ Bharatvarsh. Instead, enter the dark world of Aryavrat. For Sons of Darkness has little to do with the mytho-trope of simply re-writing Mahabharatan reality from a different character’s perspective but has more to do with re-imagining a brave new world that is as disillusioned and ultraviolent as our own reality.

When you enter the world of Sons of Darkness, you enter a vast immersive universe, a Narnia of India, if you will. It is every bit as messy and intricate as our own world. There are no good or bad characters in this book, just real people faced with impossible choices. More importantly, unlike its genre contemporaries, Sons of Darkness does not whittle down the sorcery offered by our lore under the guise of science or realism. Instead, it creates an enchanting magic system, premised on our Vedas in a way I promise you have never seen before. But the uniqueness of Sons of Darkness, in my humble opinion, is that it does not project ancient India yet again as a village stuck in the Age of the Wheel, obsessed with wooden arrows and mud dwellings. Not at all. There are swords, morningstars, battle-axes and war-hammers. There are castles, siege engines, and ports. It is a complex, yet unknowable universe, with threads of its own intricate mythology.

Under every sea hides the ruins of Atlantis. Behind every mountain is an Eden of history. You will not just be a reader, but an archaeologist excavating the history of this world along with its characters.

And with that, I invite you to leave behind the Light, and enter a world of war and riots, cruel intentions and misguided motives, of delicious Darkness, with me.

Gourav Mohanty

October, 2021