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L.L. Stephens

@triempery.bsky.social

1.8K followers 570 following 1.8K posts

L.L. Stephens, author of epic fantasy Triempery Revelations series and other SF&F fiction. SFWA member. Player of board games and painter of minis!

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · May 10

Five out of six books are now published! I'm hip deep in editing Book 6 for release in early 2026...

◾️Gods coming of age
◾️Transformations
◾️ Betrayals
◾️ Everything will be on the line

#epicfantasybooks #Sordaneon

Graphic shows all five published books of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens: (from left to right) SORDANEON, THE KHELD KING, THE SECOND STONE, THE GOD SPEAR, THE WALLED CITY.

The main heading says "What changes him changes EVERYTHING.

The subheadings say (from left to right above each book): Dorilian inherited a god... Stefan a throne... Hans wanted to fix what they broke. He thinks maybe he did. Dorilian is about to find out.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · 16h

📝 400+ pages
🥀 urban fantasy
🌃 set in washington state
🔥 slow burn
🤍 romance and angst
🗡️ demons and vampires
📕 first in a duology

🔖 universal link: mybook.to/D3rL5
💌 itch.io link: rebecca-crunden.itch.io/the-wish-and...
📖 goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...

Cover for The Wish and the Demon, book one in the Half Swallowed by Shadows duology, by Rebecca Crunden. Cover shows three men's silhouettes standing in the middle of a road in winter. There's dark red trees and snow on the ground. One figure is approaching the other two, surrounded by shadows.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Gregory Kontaxis @gregkontaxis.bsky.social · 12h

Signed & numbered editions of The Return of the Knights and The Fall of the Giants — my first two novels — are available now from @TheBrokenBinding.

Each set is hand-signed, individually numbered, and limited to just 100 bundles(link in first comment).

Pre-orders are open!!!

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 16h

This week's Thursday snippet comes from Wooing the Witch Queen, which is on sale in the UK this month for only 99p! Snap up my sweet, nerdy hero and the terrifying witch queen he falls for: stephanieburgis.com/books/wooing-the-witch-queen

#romancelandia

An image of the front cover of Wooing the Witch Queen shows a sinister witch queen in a spectacular beaded dress embracing her handsome and adoring new librarian (in a black wizard's robe) inside a library of magic filled with crows and masks and flying books. Above and beside it is this snippet from the book:
Felix had never been more grateful for his concealing mask and cloak than when he'd emerged onto the tower roof to find Queen Saskia with her head thrown back, lips parted, a cloud of crows swirling around her and energy crackling so intensely through the air that it lifted the hair at the back of his neck.
It should have been a terrifying sight: the wicked witch of Kitvaria no doubt summoning a terrible storm of magic to rain down upon her enemies.
But it had stopped his breath for quite a different reason.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 17h

#WIPSnips The word for October 9th is BATTERY

There are battery equivalents in the Triempery universe, but not one use of the word "battery." However, so I found this snip in THE RILL LORD in which Emyli tells why her feelings toward Dorilian are so hardened.
#WritingCommunity #WriteSky

Screenshot of text excerpt from THE RILL LORD, sixth and final book (April 2026) of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Snip is part of a conversation Hans has with his mother, Emyli, and the wizard Marenthro about why Emyli's feelings against Dorilian are so hard:

To Hans’ surprise, Marenthro interceded. “Not overlook—forebear,” he advised quietly. “They both were wounded by that battle. Dorilian survived not because he won, but because he withdrew.”
Visibly seething, Emyli turned, her own pain evident beneath an overlying bitterness. “Yes, he could withdraw. I will not smile upon him for it. He could throw the force of his Highborn birth, his station and his Hierarchate, his Rill and his brilliance against a man who was struggling just to hold onto his crown and his people’s way of life. Dorilian could batter and bleed Stefan and Essera, humiliate and goad and leave no ground for compromise—and then he could withdraw. Because he is Sordaneon, descended from his own gods; because he inherited the greatest fortune in three empires; because he brought the Rill to Teremar and knew it, and no one can take what he is or what he has away from him—he could withdraw! He could lay down that sword because he never had to take it up in the first place! It was always his choice.” She sighed and shook her head. “Do not ask me to approve of what he’s done.”

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 17h

#OctoberWorldbuilders 9: Board games in my book's world?

Readers can follow a chess game (yes, a single game) through the entire series. The game is begun by two characters and moves continue to be made by others, mirroring aspects of the plot.

I had a lot of fun with it. ♟️

Yellow highlighted text on a background of brown and autumn trees; text offers a list of daily worldbuilding prompts for writers of fantasy fiction.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 17h

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 9: Favorite paranormal creatures

Well, unicorns. Of course. Because magical horse.
And I'm rather partial to basilisks. 😉

The amaru of Inca legend is awesome, dragon-like and mysterious. But not as fun as a unicorn.

White text on a dark spooky background bordered by ghosts, blood, and ghouls; text offers a list of daily writing prompts for authors of fantasy fiction.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Tru Skies @trudieskies.readindiefantasy.com · 1d

Not done a #WIPSnips in a while, but we just happen to have a couple of dungeons in the end game 😂

A screenshot from my WIP, The Chosen Con, with the following text:

“If you’d come with us, sir,” said one of the Argents.
What now? They’d escort me to [redacted]—my—rooms and let me run riot alone? Lock me inside? We took the elevator down to the second level and entered a nondescript corridor lined with rooms.
No. Cells.
Oh, they’d brought me to the fortress dungeons. Of course, the Archons had their own private dungeons. Why wouldn’t they?

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

[email protected] @darkspires.bsky.social · 1d

Kindle and Kindle Unlimited on all Amazons. Paranormal Romance with a twist.. Who is good and who is not? Will the seemingly evil kill? Or will the apparently good? One path leads to life, but which? www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...

Darkspire Reaches

Amazon.com: Darkspire Reaches eBook : Lesley, C.N.: Kindle Store

www.amazon.com

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

By the events of the final book readers witness the world's most disastrous arranged marriage, genocide, sorcery unleashed against cities and armies, and some affirming romances and friendships. One friendship changes Dorilian forever... and maybe it will be enough to save the Second Creation. Fin.

L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

Dorilian starts the series as a teen but grows into a man. His life sees the crumbling of a great empire--the Triempery--and the rise of a malevolent Aryati-imprisoned god. Along this path emerge other characters, evil Rill-obsessed cartels, a Time-spanning Wall (another of the Three), and trouble.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

Leur and a human, Amynas, sought to grow the Leur godhead by creating a human-god hybrid, the Highborn. Dorilian is a descendant of that effort. The Highborn have gifts tied to the original hybrids, the Three. Dorilian's bloodline ties him to the Rill, a god-machine inhabited by one of the Three.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

The series starts in Sordan, one of the Five Cities. Only three Cities are left. They were created by Leur, the Creation god, for an extinct race, the Aryati. The Aryati got too big for their britches age ago and destroyed the Creation. Leur sacrificed much of its godhood to create a Second World.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

The main character of the series is Dorilian Sordaneon. The story follows him from his mother's murder (which he witnesses) when he is seven. Dorilian is... unusual. He is godborn, not completely human. But he is a little human and maybe human enough to not become a tyrant-god.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

Sorry to get to this late. I could not imagine doing this on a phone.

My WIP is the Triempery series. Five books published (and you've been there for most of that journey) and the sixth book will be published in April. I'm wrapping things up!

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

After you look it up--it's quite a fascinating sport--take a look at the novel THE HORSEMEN, by Joseph Kessel. That book is the source inspiration (for me) for this game. I read the book as a teen and it left quite an impression!

L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is STRONG

Below is a key scene from SORDANEON, first book of the Triempery Revelations series. In it, Marc Frederick--a man Dorilian has considered an enemy--counsels him about strength and its price.

#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #Sordaneon #bookqw

Left side of image is book cover of SORDANEON, Book 1 of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. Cover shows a small lone figure facing a golden, fantastic city with a core of shining power.

Left side is a text excerpt from SORDANEON, showing a scene between Dorilian, the young MC, and older, wiser Marc Frederick:

“You are crueler than any blade to deliver hope only when hope is gone. He would have ruled this land in a way I never could, been truly just in a way I never could be. He would not have had to fight the way I did.” When Dorilian looked away, Marc Frederick laughed hollowly in recognition of the reason. “Oh, you think I fought because I wanted to, don’t you? You would think that, given your history. But think again—and take a good, long look at yourself when you do. Because you are less like him than you want to believe, and much—much—more like me. You fight because you can, because you are strong and tough and have the stomach for battle that others do not. Because others will look to you to fight their battles for them—and you will do it, because they will have convinced you that you must. You will fight until you have killed or enslaved or silenced them all, every perceived enemy, every people that does not speak and think and act as you think they should—and then you will step back one day and see what you have wrought. You will see that you are alone. You will have wanted to create a world for people like you, only to find that there are no others like you and never will be. But then it will be too late. You will have destroyed even hope.”

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

#WIPSnips The word for October 8 is DUNGEON

"Dungeons" come up a few times in the series but just this once in THE RILL LORD. Interestingly, Dorilian has not yet ended up in a dungeon--though he's often threatened with being tossed into one. As is recalled here...
#WritingCommunity #WriteSky

Screenshot of a text excerpt from THE RILL LORD, sixth and final book (April 2026) of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. The snip shows post-battle Dorilian relaxing with Robdan and relating his thoughts about the palace they've just taken:

With a sigh, Dorilian flung himself back upon the rumpled bed covers, the wings of his Armor spread across his broad chest like those of an exhausted eagle. He stared up at the flickering shadows on a ceiling traced with gold. “Have you noticed that this palace is a cold place? The ones who lived here are all dead now. All gone.”
Surprised by such melancholy, Robdan wondered what demons strove with the shadows of Dorilian’s memories. Stefan perhaps. It had been here, after all, somewhere in this vast palace, some tower room or deep dungeon, that Stefan had planned to incarcerate him—the same palace in which the ill-fated Sordaneon Hierarch Labran had ended his world-weary days. But Dorilian was thinking along different paths.
“This palace is hollowed, Robdan Aelfricson. One generation has passed, and all its history is unwritten.”
Robdan wished he had wise words to put to rest that sense of a past being lost. Even for him, Stauberg’s past dissolved into inconsequence, doomed by the finite limits of human memory. For Khelds the Malyrdeons had left behind only ancient, hallowed halls that, empty now, spoke in echoes of antiquity.
“Do you know,” Dorilian asked in a voice filled with pain, “I still hear his footsteps?”

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

#OctoberWorldbuilders 8: Does my MC play a sport?

Pelekys. This game played on horseback is loosely based on a combo of polo and buzkashi, with an ax instead of a goat.

A full game of pelekys is described in SORDANEON. Dorilian gets to play and tactics are on display. It's brutal. #epicfantasy

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 1d

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 8: Spooky month book recs

As a book vibe, "spooky" does nothing for me, so I read little in that vein. Here are two books that have stuck with me:

Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz
Pet Seminary, by Stephen King

White text on a spooky background bordered by ghosts, blood and ghouls; text offers a list of daily writing prompts for authors of fantasy fiction.

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Rob J. Hayes - author of The God Eater Saga @robjhayes.bsky.social · 2d

As always seems happen, I published my list and immediately get an influx of books being published. :D

I've just updated the October list with 4 more new releases. Check it out.

robjhayes.co.uk/self-publish...

Self Published Fantasy Releases – October 2025

Visit the post for more.

robjhayes.co.uk

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Reposted by L.L. Stephens

Lucienne Diver @luciennediver.bsky.social · 2d

OMG, there is not enough caffeine in the world today.
Also, Read Banned Books!
pen.org/banned-books...

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 2d

I think that's a good thing? I mean, it's the final book of the series so the stakes are pretty high! 😊

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 2d

#WIPSnips The word for October 7 is SAFE

The opposite of "safe" is "danger" and in THE RILL LORD nearly every use of safe spoiled an imminent or in-progress danger. But I did find this bit where Hans tells Aubrey why Dorilian gave him a sword... and more.
#WritingCommunity #WriteSky #epicfantasy

Screenshot of text excerpt from THE RILL LORD, sixth and final book (April 2026) of the Triempery Revelations series by L.L. Stephens. This snip is part of a scene where Hans recovers after a battle... and comes to full grips with his heritage.

“Yes,” Aubrey said. Her skirt swept around the chair as she came to stand at his side. “A great many secrets are coming home to roost this day.” Looking pensive, she touched the curved hilt of the Gweroyen Sword Hans had leaned against the arm of his chair.
“He gave it to me.” Hans understood why she touched it. The chicken he was eating suddenly tasted like sawdust and he set it back on the plate. Wherever Dorilian was right now, he wasn’t eating a chicken dinner. He sought the right words. “Marenthro told me it belonged to Amynas Malyrdys a long time ago, before the Return. I don’t think Dorilian knew that; I think he believed it was Derlon’s sword, but he showed me how to use it. He said he wanted me to be safe.”
Aubrey gave him a tremulous smile. “Levyathan told me he was generous. I—I never thought of him that way.”
“He gave me this damn Kingdom, think of that.”

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 2d

#OctoberWorldbuilders 7: Clothes/dance/music from desert society

The Triempery books don't focus on the desert lands but in a few books readers get a sense of Lahgael culture: flowing garments, white robes embellished with bright color, snips of poetry, hints of defiant music. #epicfantasy

Yellow highlighted text on background of dark and autumnal trees; text offers a list of daily worldbuilding prompts for writers of fantasy fiction.

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L.L. Stephens @triempery.bsky.social · 2d

#FantasyIndiesSpooktober 7: Villain's goals

Nammuor's goals evolve as the series progresses. Kill the rulers and take over is just a starting point. The god infesting the Undying Crown wants to destroy much more.

Chyralane, of the Seven Houses, wants control of the Rill... at any cost.

White text on a dark and spooky background with ghosts, blood, and ghouls; text offers daily writing prompts for authors of fantasy fiction.

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