King of Adarlan

For four books he is the great evil of the age. He is also, the entire time, a man screaming inside his own body with no way to be heard.

The King of Adarlan is the conqueror who banned magic and razed Terrasen, and Dorian Havilliard's father, from Throne of Glass — a Havilliard who opened a sealed crypt with a Wyrdkey and let a Valg wear him. He is the villain who is also a prisoner, and the reader only learns which one near the very end.

At a glance

KIND: Human — House Havilliard, host to a Valg demon
TITLE: King of Adarlan; conqueror of Erilea
LOST: The man he was, the day he opened Erawan's crypt
DID: Banned magic; razed Terrasen; sentenced Celaena to Endovier
SECRETLY: Drained magic to hide living hosts — chiefly his son
FATHER OF: Dorian Havilliard, whom he collared with a Valg prince
KILLED BY: Dorian, who broke free and freed him in death
LEFT PARALYSED: Chaol Westfall, from the waist down

Bound to

The son, and the thing that wore him.

Swipe to meet them all

Dorian Havilliard Dorian HavilliardThe son he could never reach through the collar.Enter Dorian Havilliard →

Erawan ErawanThe Valg king who wore him for decades.Enter Erawan →

The one who ruled him.

The one who ruled him

Freed only at the end — long enough to give his life to the Lock.

Swipe to meet them all

Erawan The Valg who wore himErawanHe earned every fear the continent held — and never held his own crown. Erawan's demon did.Enter Erawan →

The man beneath the collar

What was still his

For decades the hands were his and the will was not. A Valg king wore him like a suit and did unforgivable things with his body, and the man underneath — a prisoner in his own skin — could do nothing but watch. None of that unmakes what those hands did. It also was never the same as the man they belonged to.

His sons
He loved Dorian and Hollin the whole time his hands were doing otherwise. The collar never reached that part of him. It just never let him near them either.
Being awake for all of it
He wasn't gone. He was a prisoner in his own body for decades — present, conscious, watching everything the thing wearing his face chose to do, and unable to reach the surface to stop a single second of it.
His crown, on a leash
The conquest and the terror an empire ran on were run through his throne, in his name, by his hands — and none of it was his idea. The Valg never needed a monster. It needed a king, and it kept one collared.
The Lock
Freed at the very last, he forged it — and died forging it. One act the Valg never got its hands on, at the very end, when there was almost nothing left of him to give. His own.

The son

The one he could never reach

The father was there behind the collar for all of it, and could not cross the room. At the very end Dorian was one of the two hands that finally opened it — freedom, at last, and only enough of it left to forge the Lock and be gone.

The long versionRead his whole storyEverything, in one place.Enter the full story

His glass empire AdarlanAn empire built on conquest and fear, its magic outlawed and paid for in blood, ruled from the glass castle at Rifthold. The land learned to dread the throne — and never knew the thing on it was a prisoner in his own skin, the cruelty a Valg hand wearing a king's face. The screaming man behind the eyes changed nothing for those it killed.Enter Adarlan

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put Manon on a shirt without knowing which way the iron teeth snap — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

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