Dark Lord of Derkholm (1998)

The Dark Lord of Derkholm, simply Dark Lord of Derkholm in the United States, is a fantasy novel by the British author Diana Wynne Jones, published autumn 1998 in both the U.K. and the U.S. It won the 1999 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature.

The novel is a parody, for its setting is a mock high fantasy world, similar to that Jones covered in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (U.K., 1996), a humorous travel guide on the Rough Guides model. The story continues in Year of the Griffin, and the two novels have been called the Derkholm series (which the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFB) does not explicitly link to The Tough Guide).

Plot introduction

The narrative is set in a fantasy world whose economy and society are controlled by an interdimensional tourism industry. An organization called "Mr. Chesney's Pilgrim Parties" coordinates annual tours for visitors from the real world to participate in various fantasy tropes, including interactions with wizard guides, attacks by winged predators, and confrontations with designated "Dark Lords". These events cause widespread environmental damage and casualties among the local population.

The head of Wizards University, Querida, determines a way to end the tours. The apparently incompetent wizard Derk will be the next Dark Lord, and his son Blade the Wizard Guide for the final tour. Querida overcomes objections all around and the plan is underway.

The Wizard Derk has seven children with his wife the Enchantress Mara: Shona and Blade, the former being the older; Kit (black with gold eyes), the oldest griffin and a magic-user; Callette (brown with green-grey wings), who makes all 126 of the Dark Lord's "gizmos" with Mr. Chesney's world's technology; Don (gold), who is a rather forgotten griffin who doesn't really do much special; Lydda (gold), who is a great cook (her food is called "godlike snacks" by the rest of the family) and long-distance flier who plants the Dark Lord's "clues" that lead to his lair; and Elda (also gold), the youngest, with the most cat cells, and who is discovered to be a strong magic user as well.

Plot

In a meeting about the Pilgrim Parties, High Chancellor Querida takes a wizard, a high priest and a thief to see the Oracles, who determine that the next person the group sees will play the role of the Dark Lord, and the second person will be the Wizard Guide that they need. They meet Wizard Derk, who has taken his son Blade to see the Oracles, who say that he will be coached by Deucalion.

Derk undertakes to "evil-fy" his home, Derkholm, for its role as the Dark Lord's capital. He summons a demon to bind there, but it escapes. An ancient dragon mistakes him for a ruling Dark Lord, takes offense when it learns the commercial truth, and burns Derk so badly that he cannot play Dark Lord or help with other arrangements. His children take over.

The eldest griffin and most commanding personality among several human and griffin children, Kit takes the lead. With the dragon's help, they manage to settle the Dark Lord's soldiers (Violent and drugged criminals whom Mr. Chesney contracts to get rid of) in permanent camp. Meanwhile, Derk is convalescing back at Derkholm/The Dark Citadel but his wife, Mara, seems to be on the brink of leaving him, enjoying too much playing the part of the Glamorous Enchantress.

Blade and Shona, Derk's human son and daughter, take charge of the Pilgrim Party that Blade was assigned to as the wizard guide. Among other things, they must deal with their own attractions to tourists, and with unwanted affections, and with tourists helplessly in love with each other. The party gets lost in the wastelands, Blade and two tourists get separated from the group, and Shona leads the rest toward Derkholm.

Blade's trio discovers a mining and export operation run by Mr. Chesney. The magical properties inherent in plain fantasy earth make it a valuable power source in Chesney's world. Blade is captured by guards and sent off to fight as a gladiator, where he meets in the arena his griffin brother, Kit, captured in battle.

Back at Derkholm, father Derk is badly depressed by the apparent death of Kit, and does not carry out any of the Dark Lord's duties, nor eat, sleep, or wash. Pilgrims are camped in the valley, having been barred from the Dark Citadel by Derk, and many denizens of fantasyland (Dragons, Elves and Dwarves) have gathered in the Dark Citadel or its vicinity, by the time Mr. Chesney arrives to assess the situation and determines to levy fines. Deucalion, the dragon, helps the demon in Mr. Chesney's pocket escape and return to its mate, the one that Wizard Derk summoned. The gods, which Mr. Chesney had demanded to appear, show up and shrinks him, and leaves with him.

The arrival of the Final Pilgrim Party precipitates a showdown and the successful consummation of Querida's plan. Her retirement from the university sets the stage for a sequel, Year of the Griffin, when Derk's youngest daughter goes for training in magic.

Main characters

Wizard Derk is a wizard specialising in genetics, especially the creation of new animals. He is considered by others to be an incompetent bungler, but really is just a different sort of magic user from everyone else. He is selected as this year's Dark Lord.

Mara is Derk's wife and is this year's chosen Glamorous Enchantress.

Mr Chesney is an off-worlder who runs the Pilgrim Parties. Cruel and unrepentant, he doesn't really think that Blade's world is real, and therefore has no hesitation in exploiting everyone in it.

Querida is one of the most powerful wizards in the world and runs the University of Magic. She is rather amoral, causing Mara to leave and not understanding why Derk is devastated when he believes Kit and Blade to be dead.

Derk and Mara have five griffin children and two human children: