Wraeththu Constantine began her serious writing career by writing a novel which became the
Wraeththu Chronicles and included
The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit,
The Bewitchments of Love and Hate, and
The Fulfillments of Fate and Desire. Working as a librarian at the time, she decided to focus on writing when she came to the following realization: "This is it for the rest of my life. I've got to do something about it." Constantine had been working with the concept and characters of Wraeththu since the late 1970s. In 1993,
Tor released the trilogy in omnibus format in the United States. The trilogy developed a
cult following, particularly in the Goth subculture and among those interested in fiction tackling alternative sexuality. Beginning with the initial trilogy, and continuing on to subsequent novels, novellas, and short stories, the Wraeththu stories follow the rise of a race of
hermaphrodites /
androgynes transformed from humans. This new race takes possession of a world decline, a slow
apocalypse, and then rebuilds the world into something better. The structure and plot of the Wraeththu Chronicles revolves around three characters: Pellaz ("Pell"), Swift, and Calanthe ("Cal"), who are (in that order) the first-person narrators. Their intertwining stories begin with Cal meeting Pell and whisking him away to a town where he is incepted and becomes har. Eventually the couple, deeply in love, encounter Swift, a Wraeththu child living in the home of a high-ranking tribal leader. Shortly after their visit, Pell is killed. All is not as it seems, however, and Pell is "reborn" and becomes the Tigron of Immanion, ruler the Gelaming tribe. Swift's narrative, a coming-of-age story, tells the tale of what happened after Pell and Cal left, and then what happened when Cal returned, devastated by the loss of Pell. In the third book, set a couple of decades later, Cal pieces together the shattered memories of his life and embarks on a quest to reunite with Pell, who, as he has learned, is alive. At the end of the book, Cal arrives in Immanion and claims Pell once again as his own. Pell has already bonded with another har and sired. And although the other har is angry, by the finale, the three hara become joint rulers of the Gelaming and by extension the Wraeththu race. In subsequent works, including a trilogy intersecting with the first, several novels, and many short stories, Constantine further developed Wraeththu, in particular their evolution into fully realized, androgynous beings. After beginning their lives as rebellious teenagers and subsequently inheriting the world, they must take responsibility. In a 2016 interview, Constantine reflected: a convention held in Stafford for fans of Wraeththu and related fiction and topics. Subsequently, Constantine participated in numerous conventions, including
Lunacon and
Dragon Con in the United States, plus many others in the United Kingdom. Constantine was accepting of fan fiction, and once she began to read what her fans had written, actively encouraged it. == Immanion Press ==