60 pages • 2 hours read
All This Twisted Glory
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Themes
The Complicated Cost of the Devil’s Bargain
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence.
In the series, Iblees (the devil) offers a deal to every new ruler: He gives the ruler something they desire, but extracts a cost. For instance, King Zaal, Kamran’s grandfather, sought a long life since Kamran was not yet ready to inherit his kingdom. However, to prolong that life, Zaal gruesomely fed on the brains of young children, orphans killed for that express purpose. The grotesque conditions of Zaal’s longevity illustrate that dealing with the devil deeply corrupts one’s soul. Though Iblees is positioned as an external foe, by succumbing to the temptations he offers, rulers like Zaal show that evil lives inside humans as well. The text uses Iblees as a metaphor for the cost of unbridled greed and lust. Such greed always demands a cost. While the Zaal-Iblees story is a direct parable about the cost of dealing with the devil, Cyrus’s case complicates the simple equation, raising interesting questions about free will.
While making a bargain with the devil is framed as an act of free will, Cyrus’s case shows that the concept of free will itself is complicated. Humans may have the freedom to choose to some extent, but social, cultural, economic, and other contexts often influence their choices. Although the narrative never discloses Cyrus’s reason for striking a bargain with Iblees, it hints that Iblees gave him an impossible choice. When Cyrus meets his teacher in the Part 1, Prologue, Rostam suggests as much when he says that Cyrus’s choice is between the death of a few and many. The narrative implies that by killing a few, such as Ardunia’s Diviners and King Zaal, Cyrus may be averting a greater catastrophe. Cyrus’s actions are described as compulsive, desperate, and annihilatory throughout the novel, which implies that free will is an illusion for him. Even Cyrus’s love for Alizeh is not initially his choice: Iblees makes him dream of Alizeh as a ministering angel, so Cyrus feels bound to her even before he has met her.
Thus, the text suggests the concept of free will is not as clear as it may seem. At the same time, humans do have some resistance against the forces of evil. It should be noted that Cyrus dealt with Iblees not for personal gain, but for a larger good. Submitting to the devil under these circumstances itself is an act of resistance. Alizeh, too, resists Iblees’s influence in her own way, her body physically incapable of absorbing dark magic. As the trio of Diviners tell Cyrus, Alizeh’s body would rather consume itself than partake in black magic. These acts of resistance show a more realistic way of dealing with the devil—or the evil forces in the world. Although one may not be able to reject the devil’s bargain in some circumstances, they can do the right thing within their constraints.
The Redemptive Power of Love
Love, particularly romantic love, is the central theme of the novel, with the ardor between Alizeh and Cyrus portrayed in intense and sweeping terms. This vision of romantic love is rooted in Persian, Arabic, and Sufi traditions, where passion serves as a metaphor for spiritual union. In the case of Sufi versions of the famous love story of Laila and Majnu, Laila signifies mystic purity for Majnu. Similarly, Alizeh symbolizes salvation for Cyrus. Cyrus’s inability to bear Alizeh’s presence shows the extent of his love for her, which comes close to spiritual or divine rapture, a common motif in mystical love stories of the Indo-Persian tradition. Cyrus frequently refers to Alizeh as an “avenging angel,” someone who will be serene as she cuts his throat. The juxtaposition of love and death indicates the depth of Cyrus’s love for Alizeh: He will love her even if she murders him. Thus, the text does not merely position Alizeh and Cyrus as romantic heroine and hero in the conventional sense; rather, it draws on the long, cultural tradition of romantic, selfless love as an allegory for spiritual salvation to inform the portrayal.
Through their mutual pure, self-sacrificing love, Alizeh and Cyrus redeem and transform the other. The two romantic leads are depicted as isolated, despite being the leaders of their people. Alizeh has long been in hiding and lost her parents early. Cyrus has been considered odd since childhood and is feared and reviled by his mother. It is love which assuages the sense of isolation these characters experience, especially in the case of Cyrus. Cyrus does not believe in Alizeh’s tenderness toward him because he is simply not used to being treated gently. Because of his fearsome reputation, Cyrus is used to being misunderstood. In this scenario, Alizeh’s love is an allegory for divine grace, which sees the best in every sinner. Thus, Cyrus often refers to Alizeh as “angel,” a benevolent, supernatural presence. For Alizeh, Cyrus’s appealing aspect is respecting her authority. Although Cyrus is portrayed as the conventional romantic hero—hypermasculine, brooding, and handsome—he also freely offers his kingdom to Alizeh. Cyrus does not want Alizeh to rule with him, he wants her to be the only ruler. Traditionally, men want to hold onto socioeconomic capital. Cyrus’s willingness to forego this capital shows Alizeh the purity of his love.
The depth of romantic love in the novel is also proved by self-sacrifice and self-abnegation. While Alizeh freely puts herself in the way of Kamran’s arrows to save Cyrus, Cyrus makes the extremely dangerous blood oath to safeguard Alizeh even from himself. Another key feature of the love Cyrus and Alizeh harbor for each other is that it is both carnal and romantic. True love, therefore, encompasses all aspects of the human experience. Love’s redemptive power is clear from the fact that Alizeh recovers from black magic despite coming close to death, while Cyrus survives the blood oath. The survival of the lead characters despite their many perils indicates that selfless love can transform and save.
Though much of the novel focuses on romantic love as a source of redemption, the love between friends and found family also provide redemption and safety for the characters. For example, Alizeh’s forgiveness of Omid after he tries to rob her leads to a devoted friendship between Omid, Alizeh, and the rest of the friend group, allowing him to reform his ways. Hazan’s love and honesty for Kamran, too, provide opportunities for the immature and selfish young prince to improve his behavior and grow up. Further, like Cyrus, Huda is rejected by her family but finds love and acceptance with Alizeh and her friends.
Cultural Heritage as a Source of Power and Conflict
Characters in the novel are sharply aware of their cultural inheritance, drawing power from it. At the same time, their place in history can be confining, a sense of destiny constraining the quest for an individual identity. When weaponized, history and culture also act as tools of oppression, as in the case of the Jinn. By illustrating both the benevolent and gray aspects of cultural heritage, the narrative examines how it is simultaneously a source of strength and conflict. An example of this dual aspect is the case of Kamran: while his inheritance makes Kamran feel a sense of duty toward his people, the duty often eclipses his ethics and desires. When Cyrus informs Kamran about the terms of his marriage proposal to Alizeh, Kamran’s sense of betrayal is quickly replaced by political expedience. If Alizeh marries Kamran after Cyrus’s death, Kamran will have access to Tulan’s mountains and rivers. The water will be a godsend for Ardunia, “desperate […] for a direct line to fresh water” (201). Kamran’s thought process here is that of a ruler who will do anything to protect his people and his legacy, but it limits his agency as an individual.
In Alizeh’s case, her cultural heritage is portrayed as a source of legitimate and righteous power. Alizeh represents power at its purest because she seeks to disrupt the exploitative status quo. This aspect of her power is underscored by how Alizeh interacts with the Jinn, going to them without a care for her safety. Instinctively understanding the needs of her parched community, Alizeh tells them: “My dear people, let me bring you water” (22). Unlike Kamran, who wants to walk ahead of his people, Alizeh wishes to immerse herself in them. Her model of rule suggests a dissolution of boundaries between subject and queen. Alizeh’s pride in her culture is emphasized by her manner of communicating with Miss Huda, Omid, and Hazan, hugging them and using a common language. Thus, she uses cultural and historical heritage to forge a sense of community.
While Alizeh uses her heritage to strengthen her marginalized people, the novel also explores how vested interests can exploit cultural narratives to create conflict. This is most evident in the justification for the Jinn’s mistreatment. The entire Jinn community is targeted for Iblees’s faults: in the real world too, the actions of a few people are often used as an excuse to stigmatize whole groups. Buoyed by cultural lore, the oppression against the Jinn is extreme: Cyrus notes that while Tulan, and to some extent, Ardunia, offer Jinn comparative freedom, in other empires, Jinn are “plainly hunted in the streets […] or forced into prison camps where their power is controlled by magicked shackles and systematic dehydration” (241). Thus, the culturally prevalent notion that Jinn are to be feared and controlled leads to oppression and conflict. It is only when cultural heritage serves to forge a sense of community and distribute resources fairly that it can be a source of power.
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