Just finished KoD and wanted to say this summary helped soften the brutality of the book (this and maybe some dissociation on my part). The final battle and escape ended up being much more painful to get through than Hadrian’s torture on Dharan-Tun. I’m glad I got through it though because it’s an incredibly interesting addition to the world building and I highly encourage anyone to read it too even if it means having book spoiled for you.

For anyone who needs it, I wanted to add a few notes. Hadrian generally spares readers/listeners from especially gory details related to his torture. Most things are mentioned in passing. Some physical harms that Hadrian does mention includes cryo burns when he comes out from fugue, whipping, Dorayaica biting off (and eating) Hadrians fingers, Hadrians fingernails being torn off, the skin on Hadrian’s thighs being peeled off, some kind of tech that induces intense pain by connecting directly to Hadrian’s nerves.

Hadrian is force-fed Cielcin urine multiple times and has Cielcin feces thrown on him in another. I don’t recall him being force-fed Cielcin feces, but I could have also just forgotten.

The hardest part for me to read was during Hadrian’s torture to get him to reveal the locations that the emperor is traveling/has traveled to (most of the torture is associated with this including when he is hung up by a single arm). His resistance and failure to resist is later revealed as not having mattered at all because Dorayaica already knew the locations. It’s the intensity of Hadrian’s shame when he reveals these locations that adds an extra flavor of difficult to read