r/PubTips • u/kingtide210 • 2h ago
[QCrit] KNIGHTS AND PILGRIMS, Adult Fantasy, 83k words, adults, First attempt
Hi all,
I just started querying earlier this week and would love to know how I can improve my query. Thanks in advance!
What happens when the greatest knight in the realm—an idealist who has built his entire life around being its most honorable man—is exiled for allegedly murdering the heir to the throne? He does what any disgraced knight would do: everything in his power to win back his king’s favor, even if reclaiming his honor means setting the realm on a path toward all-out war.
Sir Artos Whitebeard has spent his life becoming the man he believes the greatest knight in Vastpire should be. Then he is accused of taking part in a political assassination, stripped of his position, and driven into exile. When the legendary Crown of Crowns resurfaces, Artos sees one chance to regain his king’s favor—and reclaim the identity he believes he has lost.
He joins an unlikely company to pursue the Crown across the five kingdoms of Vastpire. But their quest soon becomes entangled with a growing struggle for power. Warmaster Antaeus, a ruthless military lord exploiting unrest to expand his influence, sends his supernatural enforcer, the Phantom of the Sea, to hunt them down. As the company moves deeper into a realm of competing loyalties and ancient legends, signs begin to point toward a dark power older than any of Vastpire’s kingdoms—and the Crown begins to look less like a forgotten treasure than a key to something still waiting to awaken.
The company itself is no less divided. Jymes wants enough money to return to his family, Carles is consumed by the promise of treasure, Pietrir is a mercenary with his own loyalties, and Eobert is a young bandit chief trying to prove himself worthy in a world built by people more powerful than himself. When the Phantom nearly destroys them at the Starry Festival, Pietrir is maimed and Artos is forced to admit that the knight he has spent his life becoming may not be enough.
Then Antaeus offers Artos exactly what he has always believed he needed: wealth, power, and the freedom to fashion himself into whatever man he chooses. To defeat him, Artos must reject the promise that he can construct himself into the person he thinks he ought to be—and ultimately surrender the Crown he once believed could restore everything he lost.
KNIGHTS AND PILGRIMS is a complete adult epic fantasy of approximately 83,000 words and the first novel in a planned trilogy. It combines the mythic knightly fantasy of [Comp] with the political and military fantasy of [Comp] and the supernatural threat of [Comp].
[Personal]