How Does 'Empire Of The Damned' End?

Question

Just finished reading 'Empire of the Damned' and wow, that final conflict between the main factions was intense! Hoping someone can clarify the actual, definitive ending for me—especially about that cryptic last scene with the throne.

Regina Rodda · Answer

Major SPOILER ALERT for the ending chapters of Storm Front: The final confrontation revolves around the throne of the supernatural factions known as the vampire clans. There are some huge surprises in store, especially in terms of alliances that collapse in spectacular fashion. For a completely alternative take on the fight for supremacy, “A KISS IN THE DARK : EMPIRE OF OBSESSION” pursues an entirely different tack in centring around the treacherous relationship between a human and an angelic ruler. A constant push-and-pull of passion versus an overwhelming burden of responsibility for this pair, creates many dramatic scenes.

Finn · Answer

'Empire of the Damned' delivers a finales that utterly redefines vampire lore and I can confirm all the expectations for a ‘vampires clash’ are totally and extremely fulfilled. In fact the final battle is a very deep and very philosophical confrontation between two icons, where Gabriel can finally discover that the demon king is none other than his own dark half.

Elena’s story line comes to a solid end as well. She’s not your typical ‘heroine who saves the world’. Instead she uses the knowledge contained within the ancient archives of Gabriel to uncover the origins of the vampires and sparks a revolution with the younger generations of creatures who hate their elder blood-drinking relatives. The epilogue is set 50 years in the future, and shows a world where humans and vampires are stuck in an uneasy coexistence. In it, Elena’s half-vampire daughter is negotiating the first treaties between humans and the creatures of the night.

The final line from the demon king to Gabriel though is perhaps the most haunting: ‘You’ll miss the hunger.’ The implication is that despite best efforts, Gabriel is still Gabriel, uncertain as to whether he has truly been vanquished or simply exists in some form, void-like, waiting for who knows what. Fans of ‘The Blade Itself’ will likely appreciate this kind of moral complexity.

Aiden · Answer

Ends that gouge out a hole are my specialty. No hero’s sendoff for Gabriel – he’s a martyr that no one remembers. The demon king’s defeat to bring an end to the wars is costly: the destruction of magic everywhere. Vampires can lose their immortality and start to decay into mere mortals. And in a fiery, heartbreaking act of sacrifice, Elena burns all of Gabriel’s journals to ensure that there will be no new wars fought in his name.

There is a lot of symbolism in the ending, including that the opening scenes where a new vampire bites a human in an alleyway are mirrored in the closing scenes where a human bites a new vampire in an alleyway – and the human fights back. This is oppression, and it continues in cycles with different players. That Gabriel finally gets to taste sunlight in the closing scenes (at Elena’s hand) after having so feared it is devastating. That the book does not end up tying up all the ends in neat little bows and leaving all the characters’ wounds open is impressive. Between Two Fires by Nicola Griffith is another very bleak and very brilliant book.

Lily · Answer

In the closing scenes of Empire of the Damned, vampire hero Gabriel confronts his ancient father, the mystery-laden Demon King. Using his humanity in ways he never dreamed possible, Gabriel manages to dispatch his monstrous sire in a sacrificial flurry of blood, death and supernatural mayhem that ends with Gabriel’s mortal self refusing to die in order to trap the Demon King in an afterlife of nothing but misery in a nothing of a place. In the midst of this macabre symmetry, Gabriel’s young human lover, Elena, watches as her beloved vampires – the majority of them – die off in a closing burst of color and life that is tragically meant to signify hope and renewal for a soon-to-be reborn world. But not before a look of shock, amazement and potential hope is exchanged with Gabriel as he hangs between life and death. And in a stunning twist, his dark essence lingers. For a moment, or two. The last shot is of Elena feeling Gabriel’s presence in the wind a long, long time after he’s supposedly been extinguished. It’s a powerful and emotional conclusion to the book – and it sets up an amazing potential sequel.

Eduardo Josue Facundo Martínez · Answer

I called the Silas twist a mile away – the guy was just too helpful and knew way too much about things he shouldn’t. But where I didn’t see the twist coming was from Lady Seraphina. Throughout the entirety of the season I had concluded that her power grab would be the catalyst for the next season of violence between the species, and even though in the end that was somewhat what happened, her absolute 180 in the last scene of the season surprised me greatly. In her final scene she basically offers up her hand to Gabriel in a recognition of the old ways ceasing to exist. It’s weary, and pragmatic, and utterly out of place in the rest of the snarled, dark and angry world of The Vampire Diaries. The end of the season instead sets up a world of grays where the new conflict will assuredly not be of the simple vampires vs. humans brand, but of constantly shifting alliances between all of the various factions that now exist within the world. And, most importantly to me, it’s a great starting point for Gabriel’s character. He’s begun his journey from a somewhat idealistic human to a full-on, gray hat power that must be feared. It’ll be very interesting to see where the writer’s take him next.

Carolyn West WeCarolyn · Answer

I thought the ending was hit or miss with my readers. Some thought it was brilliant, while others thought it was far too dark and left way too many things unresolved. I thought it was brilliant. The end really drives home the cost of rebellion in a world already bent to the will of ancient evil. Gabriel doesn’t get to ride off into the sunset to claim his crown as king of a newly won kingdom. Instead, he’s left scarred, emotionally traumatized, and burdened with the knowledge of just how evil the enemy really is. Elara’s death was as brutal as it was inevitable, as her greatest strength (her humanity) was also her greatest flaw in a world of monsters. The final line of the book was brilliant, though: “He was the empire now, and it was damned.” It really drove home the fact that Gabriel has become the very thing he loathes, and that he’s consumed by the conflict. As for the lack of closure on Silas, I thought it was a classic grimdark move and leaves me eagerly anticipating the next book in the series.

Author Atthariz · Answer

You must have spent as long looking at the cover for this as I did after finishing the book. It is a great piece of cover art. The image of a cracked crown looming over a wounded city is a great summary of the themes in the book. The crown represents the old empire, the crown of authority, of legacy. And the city could represent Rome, or society, or even the world. It is wounded but still standing, and the space between the broken pieces of the crown is where Gabriel now resides. It is a fantastic piece of design that has to be seen to appreciate, and it is a perfect match for the end of the book.

Fevi Valencia Doce · Answer

The gruesome fate of several minor characters in the ending of A Dance with Darkness is even more disturbing than the fate of the main characters. The jovial barman from the first act of the story meets his end in crossfire. A young vampire squire who looked up to Gabriel with admiration is changed into a thrall by the Prophet and then is killed by Gabriel himself. Yes, there is collateral damage in war and this story shows us the faces of it. In this epic fantasy, the stakes are grounded in real and painful loss. Yes, Gabriel et al. need to fight to save the world, but that world has already been lost in war. And it is the recognition of the loss of the backgrounds’ normal lives that makes this a tragedy rather than a simple adventure story. You cry for the main characters and also for these background characters who represented normal life and who can never be returned to.

croft2390 · Answer

A whole lot to digest at the end of this book, primarily in that it’s deconstructed the ‘chosen one’ story-line magnificently. Yes, Gabriel went on a pretty long two book journey attempting to complete a prophecy foretold for him, to save the day in fact. The prophecy turns out to have been created by the villain of the book and in the end Gabriel delivers the perfect denial of that prophecy in such a uniquely catastrophic & selfless way that it tears apart the limitations established for him by that prophecy to deliver his own victory. Finally the incredible imagery of the crumbling Vatican archives, with the old ancient tomes, burning to ashes too, added to my previous observations that the OLD LIES must be destroyed, too. Really sad but an incredible, much respected book in the end in that Gabriel’s final bond with Marcus was ripped apart as Marcus stayed behind in the catacombs that collapsed around him in order for Gabriel to survive in end. A pretty dismal but sad ending in all to our soldier, and Gabriel is NOT standing atop some conquered and newly-won fortress of sand (Vatican) gazing about blissfully, retaining control. No he’s simply a lone sentinel, gazing off into the distance, waiting for the next war I imagine – depleted and weary.

Caleb Cabarles Martizano · Answer

Most surprising for me is the ending’s focus on memory in the post-apocalyptic world. Here people are not only rebuilding physical structures, they are trying to reconstruct past histories that have been destroyed by previous wars fought and won by different empires. It seems Gabriel’s final task is to write down historical truth – not to add to legend of the great heroes who conquered this world, but the grey, harsh reality of his and many others’ involvement. What is most surprising for me is that Gabriel becomes a chronicler of the damned, a role which I had not predicted for the protagonist of a traditional Post-Apocalyptic tale, but is actually one of the most powerful. His “empire” to fight now is that of false history, and he fights with a pen. A really clever twist that has me excited to read the sequel in this different light.

How Does 'Empire Of The Damned' End?

10 Answers

Kaugnay na Mga Aklat

EMPIRE OF LIES

Academy of The Damned: Bride Of The Abyss

The Soul-Bound Empire

Angel Of Death: Hell is empty, all the devils are here

Abaddon’s Girl

THE VAMPIRE'S REVENGE

Paksa

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