Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

The Blending Series is a sequence of 8 fantasy novels (5, then 3) by Sharon Green. The first one is called Convergence: Book One of the Blending. Although out of physical print, the books are available in ebook in some regions, and somewhat available in libraries or secondhand.

The premise: The Empire is always ruled jointly by five adepts, each of whom is the master of a different discipline of elemental magic. And more: to rule as a Blending, they must be able to perfectly combine their powers.

Every twenty-five years, for Reasons, the current ruling Blending have to step down and a new Blending of five adepts must be enthroned instead. For Reasons, the new rulers are (supposedly) chosen by random strangers being thrown together into a group with the right magical distribution, and then taking part in competitions, to find out: Will They Blend?

I want to say that these books are good if, and only if, the specific plots and tropes in them are your literary catnip. But I also just want to say, "Please do not expect these books to be good." If you love them wholeheartedly, then I'm sorry for the following, but I basically love them as trashy nonsense, so you might want to give up on the rest of this promo comment. Here's a much kinder review I generally agree with.

What these books have

-Underdogs
-Evil rulers
-Much scenery chewing
-Magical training montages
-An elemental magical sorting system with power rankings
-Elaborate competitions with secret stakes!
-Absurd rigging of same
-Truth drugs
-Mind control
-Telepathy
-Being sold into slavery
-Good conspiracies within the evil conspiracies
-Extremely trashy villains
-Extremely pretty and righteous protagonists
-Woobie backstory drama
-Extremely glamorised sex workers
-Unlikely Group Must Learn To Work Together...
-but even more than that, fucking makes their magic stronger, which means...
-poly house drama that rivals any reality TV.

What these books do not have

-Good pacing
-Consistent worldbuilding
-Consistent characterisation
-Distinct character voices, other than what can be achieved with slightly spelled-out dialect
-Nuanced villains (some are pretty rapey, fyi)
-Any sense of restraint.

Apparently you should not judge a book by its cover, but I think the following is illustrative.

This (click for larger) is the original print cover of Book 5. Honestly, I think it's beautiful. This is what you think you're getting.


This (click for larger) is the lurid option of the cover currently available on Kindle. It is truth in advertising.

What I'm requesting

-Worldbuilding; I basically see this as a crack played straight request. How do all these conspiracies keep from toppling over? If the Seated Five did really work as a system of government, how would they earnestly handle the 25-year turnover? What do middle or high adepts do, especially when it's nowhere near, or just after, a Competition year?
-Original characters: the drama of "we've been placed in a mansion together and now we must train together to win or die!" is both absurd and compelling to me, especially when combined with the ridiculousness of "also we must sleep together." (The books only have het sex. Boooooooo. I look forward to subversions of that, and plenty of other ways not to play it straight. Maybe your group figures out how to be a Blending and then successfully runs away.)
-Jovvi/Tamrissa: These two women are very supportive of each other and, apart from some Tamrissa character assassination in book 4, are the most sympathetic to me. Maybe some canon divergence in the first series, or some closeness within their polycule-whatever in the second series?


To fill my request, you can probably get away with skimming the first four books. I will consider you as noble and glorious as a Tom Cantry cover.

NB: I think I gestured to most of the major warn-worthy content, but it includes rape, domestic violence, sexually sadistic murder (in the background), slavery, mind control, very tropey treatment of sex work, and protagonist centred morality.

Full set of titles:

Convergence: Book One of the Blending
Competitions: Book Two of the Blending
Challenges: Book Three of the Blending
Betrayals: Book Four of the Blending
Prophecy: Book Five of the Blending

Intrigues: Book One of the Blending Enthroned
Deceptions: Book Two of the Blending Enthroned
Destiny: Book Three of the Blending Enthroned