The Inheritance
short fiction 2000 Realm of the Elderlings
Record
| First published | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | short fiction |
| Canon status |
Synopsis
"The Inheritance" is a Realm of the Elderlings short story by Robin Hobb, set in the Bingtown region before the events of Ship of Magic. Its plot centers on a wizardwood pendant that has been passed down through a family and comes into the possession of a young woman named Cerise, left to her by her grandmother. In a setting where wizardwood carries deep, often dangerous magical significance tied to the liveships of Bingtown's merchant families, an inherited object like this is never simply sentimental. The story uses Cerise's family heirloom to explore what such an object might mean, and cost, for someone connected to Bingtown's trading families, offering an early, small-scale glimpse into the world's magic and mercantile culture that later underpins the larger Liveship Traders storyline.
Where it sits
- Universe: Realm of the Elderlings
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Robin Hobb
Notes
- First published in Voyager 5: Collector's Edition (2000); collected in The Inheritance & Other Stories (2011).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within Realm of the Elderlings (standalone work): position 7 of 24: previous Ship of Destiny (2000) · next Fool's Errand (2001)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hobb_bibliography
- https://www.theplenty.net/wiki/index.php/The_Inheritance_(anthology)
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