Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence.

In A Court This Cruel and Lovely, those in positions of power—whether political, magical, or personal—abuse their authority and leave the vulnerable to suffer and fight for survival, and this pattern is central to the main conflicts of the story. This callousness is present in the kingdom’s oppressive regime, the manipulation of magic, and even the relationships between characters, particularly the dynamic between Prisca and Lorian.

The story is set in the kingdom of Eprotha. Its king, Sabium has created a regime that crushes any individual or group that defies the monarch’s central authority, and the most visible manifestation of this can be seen in the kingdom’s blatant mistreatment of those who possess magic. Anyone found to have skirted the rules against magic, like Prisca, is labeled as “corrupt,” hunted down, and executed by burning. Sabium uses the religious guise of cleansing the “corrupt” to justify his violent regime, but this practice is a thinly veiled means of consolidating power and eliminating any threat to his control. The Taking and Gifting ceremonies, during which those with powers are stripped of their magic, are framed as a sacrifice in the name of maintaining order, but this is later revealed to be a lie.