Novel: Five Hundred Years After

Overview
Five Hundred Years After continues Paarfi of Roundwood's exuberant telling of Dragaeran history, acting as the second of the Khaavren Romances. The novel follows a group of veteran heroes who have already seen glory and now face the more complicated wars of intrigue and politics. It blends swashbuckling adventure, courtly maneuvering, and a panoramic sense of history into a tale about duty, loyalty, and the slow changes that alter empires.

Plot
An insidious conspiracy surfaces within the Imperial Court, aimed at reshaping power in ways that threaten the stability of the Empire. Khaavren and his loyal companions are drawn into investigation and counterplots, alternating between clandestine inquiry and full-throated confrontation. As secrets are peeled away, several strands of treachery reveal ties to longburied grievances and ambitious factions seeking advantage by any means necessary.
Khaavren's band pursues leads that take them through corridors of power, gambling halls, and back-alley meeting places, encountering treachery and tests of skill that require more than raw strength. The story moves from tense diplomacy to blade-and-blood duels and finally toward a climax where personal honor and public consequence collide, leaving the heroes to reckon with the immediate victory and the cost paid by the Empire's future.

Main Characters
Khaavren stands at the center as an aging but indomitable figure, a commander whose reputation and moral code anchor the narrative. His companions are a mix of seasoned fighters, clever schemers, and steadfast friends, each contributing a distinct temperament that balances gallantry with weary pragmatism. The Imperial Court itself functions as a character, its shifting alliances and hidden ambitions shaping the choices the protagonists must make.
The antagonist forces are less a single villain than a web of opportunists and ideologues, their motives ranging from personal vengeance to ideological realignment. This diffuse threat highlights the ways institutional rot and private grievances can combine into a perilous conspiracy.

Style and Voice
Paarfi's ornate, conversational narration gives the novel its distinct flavor: grandiose, digressive, and full of witty asides. The prose is deliberately Dumas-like, luxuriating in parenthetical commentary, affectionate mockery, and long rhetorical flourishes that turn even exposition into entertainment. This narrative voice frequently reframes events as if they were historical chronicles, lending the adventure a tone that mixes earnestness and playful self-awareness.
Scenes of swordplay and courtly banter are rendered with equal relish, the narrator delighting in both the technical particulars of combat and the delicious ironies of political life. The novel rewards readers who enjoy luxuriant language and the pleasures of an attentive, opinionated storyteller.

Themes and Resonance
The book examines loyalty under strain, the compromises demanded by governance, and the bittersweet recognition that heroism ages and institutions endure or decay. Friendship and honor are tested against the pragmatic needs of statecraft, and the characters must decide whether to preserve personal codes or to adapt for the greater good. The title's temporal echo suggests an awareness of historical consequence: the immediate choices of these heroes will reverberate well beyond their lifetimes.
By combining intimate character drama with sweeping political consequences, the novel offers both the pleasures of a rousing adventure and a meditation on legacy. The result is a layered tale that entertains while probing how empires are defended, undermined, and remembered.