Jon Cronshaw – The King of Nobledark
Author of epic fantasy with heart, grit, and moral weight. Where hope bleeds, but never dies.
Nearly finished Two of Swords! This week I talk writing progress and how Meta’s smart glasses are helping me navigate the world as a visually impaired author.
This week I’ve nearly finished Two of Swords, with just three chapters left to draft.
I also share my thoughts on using Meta’s smart glasses and how they’re proving surprisingly useful for someone like me with a visual impairment.
Broken Wings, Part Ten of The Ravenglass Throne, is out now on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited, as the hidden conflict erupts into open war and the sisters face impossible choices.
I am pleased to announce the release of Broken Wings (The Ravenglass Throne: Part Ten) on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
This episode marks the moment when the conflict can no longer be contained.
What began as hidden pressure and quiet manipulation breaks into open war.
Nothing remains theoretical.
The Guardians move without disguise.
Wyverns are turned into weapons.
Riders are stripped of choice and reduced to instruments of control.
The Kingdom is no longer bracing for impact.
It is already burning.
Elana must rally allies who no longer trust one another.
Irmin fights a brutal battle in the sky, knowing every decision costs lives.
Adelinde reaches for power she barely understands, risking herself to hold the line.
The sisters have always been stronger together.
This time, unity demands sacrifice rather than comfort.
Broken Wings drives the series toward its endgame, where survival depends as much on trust as strength.
Broken Wings is available now on Kindle.
It is also included with Kindle Unlimited.
This is Part Ten of The Ravenglass Throne and is best read as part of the ongoing series.
Thank you to everyone who has followed the story this far.
The final chapters are close now.
The Ravenglass Chronicles is back! This week I reveal my secret project, post Ace of Swords to Patreon, try Meta’s Smart Glasses for vision aid, and talk about finishing Stranger Things.
This week I reveal my long-hinted secret project—I’m back writing The Ravenglass Chronicles!
The first two chapters of Ace of Swords is now live on Patreon, and I’m deep into Two of Swords.
I also tried out Meta’s Smart Glasses, a game-changer for accessibility, and share my thoughts on the Stranger Things finale.
Kat returns in Ace of Swords, the next chapter of the Ravenglass Chronicles.
A new Empress faces political enemies, hidden conspiracies, moral consequence, and a crown that already threatens to break her.
Read exclusive chapters on Patreon as the story unfolds.
I have some exciting news…
Kat is back.
After a five-year break, I have returned to the next arc of The Ravenglass Chronicles.
I have started posting chapters of Ace of Swords, set just three weeks after Kat takes the throne.
Now the crown is testing her in ways steel never did.
Her right hand is bound in a sling, useless when she most needs control.
The wyvern who destroyed her family has vanished, leaving only fear and unanswered questions.
Her court is no longer united.
The conservative houses sense weakness and begin to circle.
A foreign prince arrives without warning, charming, observant, and impossible to read.
Every decision costs her something.
Every pause gives her enemies room to move.
Kat is hunted by forces she cannot see.
She is haunted by dreams she cannot explain.
She is isolated by duty, injury, and a crown that grows heavier each day.
This is a story about power after victory.
It is about the cost of moral certainty.
It is about what happens when doing the right thing is only the beginning.
I am posting three chapters per week, exclusively to Patreon.
Patreon is where you can discuss events, speculate, and follow Kat’s struggle as it unfolds in real time.
If you have been waiting for Kat’s return, this is it.
If you want to experience her reign from the very first fracture, I would love to have you there.
Thank you, as always, for reading and for supporting my work.
Visit: patreon.com/joncronshawauthor to continue Kat’s epic journey.
Back to writing after the holidays! Updates on Guild of Assassins 4, Ravenglass Guardians 3, a Patreon vote, and January releases including Broken Wings and a new Ravenglass Throne boxed set. Plus audiobook news!
This week I’m back to writing after the Christmas break.
I’m working on Guild of Assassins Book 4 and the third Ravenglass Guardians novel, this time focusing on the Seekers faction.
On Patreon, I’m letting readers decide what gets posted next—options include:
– Guild of Assassins 4
– The Silent Watcher
– The Sentinel’s Mercy
– A wacky side-project
I also talk about upcoming January releases, including:
– Broken Wings (Ravenglass Throne: Part 11) – January 19
– The Ravenglass Throne: Parts 5–8 Boxed Set – January 30
– The Ravenglass Throne: Parts 1–4 audiobook now live on Audible
Join the community on Patreon at patreon.com/joncronshawauthor
With Churchill’s Dragons complete, readers can vote on what I write next, from Guild of Assassins Book 4 to new Ravenglass Guardians novels, by visiting my Patreon poll.
I’ve just wrapped up Churchill’s Dragons and I’m letting readers decide what I start sharing next.
I’ve put a poll up on my Patreon so you can have a direct say in what comes next.
The first option is Guild of Assassins Book 4, shared as a work in progress for those who like seeing a novel take shape.
The second option is Silent Watcher, a dark, brooding psychological thriller set in the Ravenglass Universe.
The third option is Sentinel’s Mercy, a nobledark military fantasy following the Guardians in the Ravenglass Universe.
The fourth option is a mystery side project in the Ravenglass Universe that may get a little wacky.
If you’d like to influence what I focus on next, head over to my Patreon and cast your vote.
Visit: patreon.com/joncronshawauthor
Your choice will determine what starts posting first.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you there.
Nobledark fantasy places moral weight at the heart of brutal worlds. Learn how it differs from grimdark and why hope still matters when everything costs.
Nobledark fantasy places moral responsibility at the centre of a harsh world.
It accepts violence, injustice, and suffering without softening them. It insists that individual choices still matter, even when doing the right thing costs everything.
Where grimdark strips meaning from morality, nobledark tests it under pressure.
Grimdark asks whether decency was ever real. Nobledark asks whether decency can survive contact with power.
Hope has weight in nobledark fantasy. It does not arrive as rescue or reward. Characters choose it, often at personal loss.
The world remains cruel. Systems of power rarely improve. Victories come partial, temporary, or morally compromised.
What persists is the belief that refusing to become worse still matters.
A nobledark protagonist understands the cost of action and inaction. They act anyway.
In The Ravenglass Throne, the three sisters—Irmin, Adelinde, and Elana—each bring different skills to a kingdom rotting from within. Irmin commands wyvern riders and answers threats with steel. Adelinde uncovers dangerous truths buried in ancient texts. Elana navigates a court where every ally might be an enemy. None of them can fix the corruption alone. None of them stop trying.
Grimdark fiction runs on moral exhaustion. Every ideology collapses into self-interest. Kindness exists only to be punished. Power belongs to those willing to abandon restraint. Survival replaces ethics as the highest good.
Nobledark accepts that darkness. It refuses to accept moral emptiness as the final answer.
Characters in nobledark stories believe lines exist, even when crossing them would be easier. Those lines are personal rather than institutional. Breaking them costs the character something real—not just plot consequences, but identity.
Ragnar Wolfsbane in Ravenglass Legends rises through the ranks of the empire that destroyed his homeland. He earns honours, titles, and influence. The system rewards him. It also demands he become someone his younger self would not recognise. Every step forward narrows his path back.
His sister Maja fights from the other side. She allies with people she cannot trust because survival leaves no better options. She fears what accepting their help might turn her into. Neither sibling escapes the war unchanged.
Nobledark is mistaken for grimdark because it offers no comfort.
There are no clean victories. No perfect leaders. Death carries weight. Trauma does not vanish between chapters.
Readers sometimes expect hope to look like triumph. In nobledark, hope looks like refusal.
Refusal to abandon responsibility. Refusal to dehumanise completely. Refusal to let brutality define identity.
Noblebright fantasy imagines worlds where goodness is rewarded and institutions function under virtuous leaders. Evil is external and identifiable. Sacrifice leads to renewal.
Nobledark removes that safety net.
Institutions remain flawed even when good people rise within them. Reform is slow, contested, and frequently reversed. Characters are rarely thanked for doing the right thing. They continue anyway because not doing so would cost them who they are.
The sisters of The Ravenglass Throne inherit a kingdom their father held together through force of will. His assassination exposes how fragile that order always was. Irmin, Adelinde, and Elana each discover that the throne they fight to protect may not be worth saving—and that walking away would doom thousands who have no choice but to stay.
Power is never neutral in nobledark stories. It demands compromise. Authority isolates. Violence leaves marks that do not fade. Magic carries cost rather than convenience.
Characters gain influence only by risking corruption or loss. The tension comes from how far they go before they stop recognising themselves.
Leadership becomes burden rather than prize.
Nobledark stories run on consequence rather than spectacle.
Every major decision narrows future options. Every survival choice creates debt. Characters remember what they have done. They carry guilt, responsibility, and doubt forward rather than resetting at the next arc.
This continuity of consequence creates gravity. No choice is free.
Maja Wolfsbane learns this when she sparks a rebellion. The fire she starts burns people she never intended to harm. She cannot undo it. She can only decide what she does next.
Classic epic fantasy contains nobledark DNA.
The Lord of the Rings presents a world where victory demands irreversible loss. The Shire survives, but its innocence does not. Frodo’s courage saves others while breaking him. That cost is never undone.
Modern fantasy sharpens this approach. A Song of Ice and Fire examines power and cruelty with grimdark intensity, but nobledark emerges when characters choose loyalty or mercy despite the odds. The Broken Earth grounds its hope in survival, care, and responsibility rather than victory or restoration.
These works show that darkness and moral seriousness are not the same thing.
Nobledark resonates because it reflects adult ethical tension.
It mirrors the experience of living in systems that feel unfixable. It acknowledges that good intentions can still cause harm. It refuses simple reassurance.
Readers drawn to nobledark care less about who wins than who remains human. They want stories that respect uncertainty. They want meaning without sentimentality.
Character always comes before outcome in nobledark fantasy.
Plots exist to test belief rather than reward virtue. Heroes fail without becoming villains. Antagonists may be sincere without being right. Relationships fracture under pressure. Loyalty costs more than betrayal.
The story’s tension comes from whether the character can endure the consequences of their own values.
Irmin of The Ravenglass Throne commands soldiers who trust her with their lives. When she discovers the corruption threatening the kingdom runs deeper than assassination, she must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice—and how much she is willing to ask others to sacrifice—for a throne that may already be lost.
Violence in nobledark fantasy is never the point.
It is functional, costly, and often regretted. Acts of force close doors rather than opening them. Characters learn that survival achieved through brutality reshapes them.
The absence of celebration creates space for reflection rather than escalation.
Hope in nobledark fantasy is fragile by design.
It exists in small acts rather than grand resolutions. A promise kept when breaking it would be safer. A life spared when killing would simplify matters. A truth spoken that creates danger instead of relief.
These moments rarely change the world. They change the person making the choice.
That change is the point.
Cynicism assumes moral effort is pointless.
Nobledark rejects that assumption. It accepts that effort may fail. It still argues that effort matters.
The value lies in resistance, not outcome.
This separates nobledark from despair-driven storytelling.
As fantasy matures, nobledark offers a path that avoids both comfort fiction and nihilism.
It allows writers to engage with power, trauma, and injustice without surrendering meaning. It trusts readers to sit with discomfort. It respects complexity without mocking belief.
In a genre pulled between optimism and brutality, nobledark holds the line.
It insists that choosing to care is still an act of courage.
Even when it costs everything.
If you’re ready to explore nobledark fantasy, the Ravenglass Universe offers multiple entry points:
The Ravenglass Throne — Three sisters fight to hold a fractured kingdom together after their father’s assassination. Political intrigue, wyvern bonds, and impossible choices.
Ravenglass Legends — Siblings torn apart by empire. Ragnar rises through the ranks of the conquerors. Maja sparks rebellion from the shadows. Neither will emerge unchanged.
Claim your free starter library — Three prequel novellas delivered to your inbox.
Nobledark fantasy is a subgenre where morally grounded characters navigate brutal, unforgiving worlds. The setting offers no guarantees of justice or reward, but characters maintain personal codes and make choices that matter—even when those choices cost them dearly.
Grimdark presents worlds where morality is meaningless and self-interest always wins. Nobledark accepts the same harsh conditions but insists that ethical choices still carry weight. In grimdark, hope is naive. In nobledark, hope is earned through sacrifice.
Noblebright fantasy features good triumphing over evil in worlds where virtue is rewarded and institutions can be trusted. Nobledark removes those assurances. Good people still exist, but systems remain broken, victories stay partial, and doing the right thing rarely comes with thanks.
The Lord of the Rings carries nobledark DNA—victory costs Frodo everything. A Song of Ice and Fire contains nobledark moments when characters choose honour despite the consequences. The Broken Earth trilogy grounds hope in survival and care rather than triumph. The Ravenglass Universe by Jon Cronshaw explores nobledark themes across multiple series.
Not quite. Dark fantasy is a broad category covering any fantasy with darker themes, horror elements, or morally complex characters. Nobledark is more specific—it requires both a harsh world and protagonists who maintain moral weight despite that harshness.
Readers are drawn to nobledark because it reflects real ethical tensions. It acknowledges that systems are often broken, good intentions can cause harm, and doing the right thing is rarely simple. It offers meaning without false comfort.
Yes, but happiness is earned and often incomplete. Characters may survive, protect what matters, or hold onto their humanity—but rarely without permanent cost. The ending honours what was sacrificed rather than erasing it.
Yes.
The complete first arc of The Ravenglass Throne is now live on Audible, narrated by Emmy Coates, bringing together political intrigue, wyvern-bond magic, and three sisters fighting to hold a kingdom together after their father’s assassination.
I’m very excited to share that The Ravenglass Throne – Parts One to Four is now live as an audiobook on Audible.
This release brings together the complete first arc of the series in audio for the very first time.
The audiobook is narrated by the brilliant Emmy Coates, who also voiced The Ravenglass Chronicles audiobook.
Her performance gives real weight, warmth, and tension to the story, and I could not be happier with how it turned out.
If you enjoy epic fantasy that leans hard on character, politics, and consequence, this is a great way to experience the story.
The Ravenglass Throne – Parts 1–4 follows three royal sisters trying to hold a fractured kingdom together after their father, the King, is assassinated without naming an heir.
Each sister faces the crisis from a different front.
Irmin commands the skies as a wyvern rider, ready to defend the realm with force.
Adelinde searches for dangerous truths within the ravenglass bonds that link rider and mount.
Elana battles intrigue and betrayal in the court as the noble houses begin to turn on one another.
Separated by rivalry and mistrust, the sisters must learn to act as one before the rot inside the kingdom destroys everything they are sworn to protect.
This edition collects the entire opening arc of the series, from the King’s death to battles fought across sky and stone.
If audiobooks are your preferred way to read, this is the ideal entry point into the Ravenglass world.
The audiobook is available now on Audible.
The ebook is also available in Kindle Unlimited, and a paperback edition is available for readers who prefer print.
Thank you, as always, for supporting my work and for following these stories wherever they go next.
In this first Author Diary of 2026, I share writing updates, new short stories on Patreon, and upcoming releases including The Prince and the Fool, boxed sets, and Ravenglass Throne on Audible.
It’s a brand new year, and in this week’s Author Diary I share my plans for 2026.
Over the Christmas break, I wrote several short stories, including a new Soren tale set in the Guild of Assassins universe, now live on Patreon.
I’m currently on Chapter 7 of Guild of Assassins Book 4, and looking ahead to the spring launch of The Prince and the Fool. I’ll also be wrapping up The Ravenglass Throne releases this year—with Book 1’s audiobook now live on Audible!
Other updates include:
– RAF Dragon Corps will remain a Patreon-exclusive for now
– Ravenglass Guardians series continues—two books finished, third underway
– Boxed sets coming in 2026 for:
– Punks Versus Zombies
– The Ravenglass Throne
– Ravenglass Legends (Books 1–3)
– Guild of Assassins (Books 1–3) My release schedule for retail will depend on fitting around my wife’s editing availability, as she’s kindly squeezing me in between her paid clients.
In this year-end episode, I reflect on my author journey throughout 2025—month-by-month wins, struggles, and lessons—and share my hopes for a successful 2026.
In this special year-end episode, I take a look back at 2025, reflecting on the high points, challenges, and key milestones in my author career.
I walk through the year month by month, revisiting the projects I launched, the goals I met (and missed), and everything I’ve learned along the way.
Thank you for being part of the journey—wishing you all the best for an exciting and creative 2026!
