A Darkness at Sethanon

Infobox Book |
name = A Darkness at Sethanon
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = "A Darkness at Sethanon" first edition cover.
author = Raymond E. Feist
illustrator =
cover_artist = Kinuko Y. Craft
country = United States
language = English
series = "The Riftwar Saga"
subject =
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Doubleday
pub_date = February 7, 1986
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 425 pp "(first edition)"
isbn = ISBN 0385192150
oclc =
preceded_by = Silverthorn
followed_by =

"A Darkness at Sethanon" is the third and final book in "The Riftwar Saga". It details how Murmandamus, a new prince of the Dark Brotherhood, marshals the forces of the Moredhel and invades the kingdom, with the intent of finding the Lifestone, a powerful relic with which he will be able to destroy every living thing in the world, so as to resurrect the Valheru Lords of old. Only Pug and Tomas can stop this new evil, thereby ending the Riftwar.

Plot summary

Arutha, Prince of Krondor, uses an attempted assassination as a ruse to fake his own death so that he may travel north to confront Murmandamus. In his travels to the Northlands, Arutha finds his father's former enemy, Guy du Bas-Tyra, as the Protector of the city Armengar. A historic battle ensues, which ends in the destruction of the city. Murmandamus and his forces then strike south to Sethanon, a city beneath which the Lifestone had been buried in the ancient past.

Meanwhile Pug and Tomas begin searching the world, and eventually beyond, for the famed sorcerer Macros the Black, thought killed when he helped to destroy the rift at the end of Magician. With the guidance of Macros, the history of the universe is revealed to Tomas and Pug. Tomas is told of his complete Valheru heritage and does battle with his former Valheru nemesis at Sethanon.

A battle ensues at Sethanon, during which Pug and Macros work together to prevent the Valheru from re-entering Midkemia. At the same time, Arutha, named by destiny the Bane of Darkness, engages in a duel with Murmandamus. He defeats Murmandamus, discovering in the process that he is not moredhel, but one of the Panthathians, a race of evil snake-men. He had been magically disguised as a moredhel in order to manipulate the Dark Brethren into aiding them in their plan to release Alma-Lodaka, a Valheru who had created the Panthathians and was worshipped as a God by them, by capturing the Lifestone.