Red Rising Saga Quotes

"The tragedy of the gifted is the belief they are entitled to greatness, Lysander. As a human, you are entitled only to death."

"Beasts must stop for water. I carry mine."

"I believe we all begin equal parts light and dark. I fear you think your strength lies in your darkness. But the measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends."

"Daxo taught my son to build castles in the sand. Pax cried when the waves came in. Your brother sat him on his knee and told him that’s all life is. Moments you build only to see washed away. But that doesn’t mean it’s all for nothing. The key is having a long memory for the sweet, and a short one for the bitter. I will miss your brother, Thraxa. But he isn’t gone."

"Gold was seldom generous in victory. The genocide that followed the Battle of Peitho consisted not just of mass culling, but social and cultural reengineering. A domestication of a wild breed into a more…sustainable and predictable stock. Technophobia was introduced as well as other paradigm alterations. Allfather became Allmother. Mongol sociological structure became Norse. Patriarchy became matriarchy, an inversion of the division protocol they used on Reds."

"It wasn’t until Octarius that the first Kuiper Obsidian was spotted, and the name Ascomanni began to circulate. At first, they were of little concern. Further reconnaissance suggested nomadic caravans of ice miners, subterranean dwellings, sparse populations, and fractious tribal dynamics. It seems the Ascomanni even managed to take some carvers with them. Their skin was said to be red, possibly from genetic sculpting with Deinococcus radiodurans, an extremophilic bacterium highly resistant to deepspace radiation, vacuum, dehydration, and cold."

"Could be someone the Fear Knight helped to power. A translation discrepancy. Or maybe Atlas’s ships were damaged and he lost coms for ten years and tucked tail. Whatever the case, if this Volsung Fá exists, it would be highly unlikely Martian or Terran Obsidians who turned raiders would have any interaction with true Ascomanni. They’re years away on the ships they have. People just gave the pirates the name because people like legends. But it makes you wonder, what if they have met with their long lost brethren? What if they are coordinating and Volsung Fá rules not just the far Obsidian, but the pirates too?"

"Gray. So frail on our own. So impregnable when we lock arms."

"My people have a word, rahgschni. There is no translation in the Common tongue. As close as can be said is: the sorrow one feels in seeing fresh morning snow, knowing its beauty cannot last."

"What think you the dead are? Why, dust and clay, What should they be? ’Tis the last hour of day. Look on the west, how beautiful it is Vaulted with radiant vapours! The deep bliss of that unutterable light Perhaps the only comfort which remains Is the unheeded clanking of my chains, The which I make, and call it melody."

"Cry not, mortal child,” a voice says in the darkness. “They come on wings of sable, to rend your precious flesh, and send you to the doom which lies beyond this realm of pain."

"Dwell not on me, mortal. Nocturnal devils are afoot. Awake, arise, or be forever fallen."

"Time hath no tide but must abide The servant of Thy will; Tide hath no time, for to Thy rhyme The ranging stars stand still— Regent of spheres that lock our fears Our hopes invisible, Oh ’twas certes at Thy decrees We fashioned Heaven and Hell!"

"Got caught stealing said frizeé and was gonna get cuffed real bad by the local urbanes, when a man piped up for me. Said I was with him. The urbanes gave him one look, a long salute, and went on their way. He was a Gray. Looked such a legend, leaning on the fountain like he owned it. Had a Titan Rain badge on his chest, a shattered Rhea beneath, a shower of golden teardrops on his face, inky in Legio XIII blacks. You weren’t around then, but even Golds gave that sort a nod.” I roll my burner in my hands. “Smoked that burner like the unimpressed footman of a god. I remember that clear as day. Jove, he looked slick. He gave me my first. Like I’m giving you yours. I asked him if he was a hero, and he looked me dead in the eyes”—Pax looks over—“and he said, ‘Fuck heroes, kid. It’s all about being slick enough to squeak through. That’s the last man standing.’ Took that to heart. And here I bloody am."

"I don’t hate him. I mean I do, but I don’t. If that makes sense. I hate him for leaving for Venus, but not for Mercury. At his best, he’s how men should be. So maybe that means it’s the world that’s flawed."

"They do not see your worth. But I do, Horn. I see fear in you. Most run from that fear. But you, you spit in its face.” She lowers her face to mine. “As do I. As do I."

"I find your face disturbing. It is soft. Like goat cheese. But I do not complain."

"Gift from the gods.” I roll my eyes. “We’re flying in a spaceship. Your ancestors were made in test tubes. The nightgaze by a drunk Violet. And you believe in gods? Hell, I get the racket. For a man you’ve done right fine by yourself with the matriarchs. But stop trying to con a conman."

"Here lie Martians all Thralls of the Slave King Who thought with wicked delight to take your planet’s treasure and break their Master’s might All ye who enter here: witness their work, and despair"

"Sometimes it’s better to let a wheel squeak than break the cart trying to fix it."

"The more blessed the creature, the less they question life."

"Cruelty is the heart of myth."

"What I have seen was no trick. Fire and ash will come. And end of worlds. Serpent will strangle wolf. Lion will battle lion. Darkness will battle light. Sister murder brother. Son murder father. Father murder daughter. This is what the fire told me. All I have seen has come true. As others are consumed, Sefi will rise from the ashes to bind the Obsidians, to become one with Red, to found a kingdom watched over by a gray fox. Watched over by you."

"The Allfather speaks one truth, and that is might."

"Only blinded do liars finally see."