The series and the book are set in a fantasy universe based on a medieval social model. As might be expected, the status of women in cultures driven by warfare is not very high. Even by medieval standards, the males in this series are particularly reprehensible in their treatment of females. Multiple female characters have suffered rape, torture, or disfigurement at the hands of males. The court library in the House of Wind has become a refuge for those most mistreated during the previous war and was established by Rhys to provide a sanctuary for the traumatized. Even the head librarian, Clotho, did not escape persecution: “Nesta didn’t want to know what had been done to Clotho, the library’s high priestess, to render her thus. To have her tongue cut out and then deliberately healed that way so the damage might never be undone. Males had hurt her” (77).

Another young priestess, Gwyn, talks about the trauma she suffered because of one of the King of Hybern’s generals. Her sister is beheaded right before her eyes, and she is raped multiple times before Azriel kills her persecutors: “‘He beheaded Catrin right there, along with two other priestesses.