The Dark King (The Weeping Gods of Manipur)
Fiction
2025
The Dark King is a high fantasy novel by Hijam Monarsingh Dallo Rihmo, published in August 2025. Set in an imagined world of collapsing empires, forbidden magic, and shadow entities, the narrative follows multiple characters including King Dalasav, the sorceress Tuturin, the shaman Baruba, and the spellcaster Kumalin as they navigate political betrayal, metaphysical warfare, and spiritual decay.
At the heart of the novel lies the mythical artifact known as the Black Tear—a source of immense power and destruction, born from the death of a dragon and capable of absorbing or unleashing all forms of magic. As dark portals begin to open across the realm and shadow creatures drain the life force from armies and cities alike, the characters are drawn into a fatal struggle between ambition, prophecy, and survival.
Written in elevated poetic prose, the novel fuses high fantasy with allegorical commentary on identity, fragmentation, and the collapse of nationhood. It presents a richly layered cosmology of emperors, shamanic orders, corrupted spellcasters, and noble conspiracies, while subtly reflecting on real-world themes of imperial disintegration, political violence, and moral decay.
The Dark King is a standalone work of epic fantasy that also functions as a philosophical and political allegory, contributing a unique voice from Manipur to contemporary Indian and global speculative literature.
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63 books from Manipur catalogued here.
