Ship Manifesto - Marek/Solya from Uprooted

TOXIC YAOI THOUSANDS KILLED!! Let me tell you why!

Tropes: Sun and moon, Foils, Lord and retainer, Battle couple, Mutually beneficial partnership, Make each other worse, Doomed love

Warnings: Spoilers for almost the entirety of Uprooted by Naomi Novik (which is a lovely and quick read, if you like fantasy or romance go read it!) and discussion of sexual assault (not between the shipped characters)

Quick recap of their role in the book

• Book is about Agnieszka fighting the Wood that terrorises her village and later the entire country of Polnya, with the help of Sarkan the Dragon, a wizard.
• The Wood is the primary antagonist. It’s malicious and can corrupt living beings to do its bidding.
• Marek and Solya are secondary antagonists. They both really piss off Agnieszka throughout the book. But also are a source of plot events.
• Marek is a prince and Solya a royal wizard. It’s likely they have fought together to defeat monsters and in battles against Rosya, Polnya’s neighbouring country. That is all we know about their history together.

Marek

Introduction (alone)

A man came ducking out of the belly of the carriage: tall, golden-haired, broad-shouldered, with a long cloak all of that same brilliant green; he jumped down over the steps which had been put out for him, took with one hand the sword which another of his servants held across the palms, and strode quickly between his men and up to the door even as he belted it on, with no hesitation.

• Marek is the second prince of Polnya and a beloved war hero.
• He frees his mother from the Wood and defends her from suspicion that she’s corrupted.
• After his father dies, we discover he wants to override his older brother to become king. He ends up leading an army against the Dragon’s tower in order to seize control of the children directly in line to the throne.
• Ultimately he’s unable to see that his mother is actually possessed by the Wood, and she kills him.

Solya

Introduction (with Marek)

Finally the knock came, the hard pounding of a mailed fist. The Dragon crooked a finger and the doors swung inward: Prince Marek stood on the threshold, and beside him another man, who despite being half as wide across managed to be an equal presence. He was draped in a long white cloak, patterned in black like the markings of a bird’s wings, and his hair was the color of washed sheep’s wool but with roots of black, as though he’d bleached it. The cloak spilled back from one shoulder, and his clothes beneath were in silver and black; his face was carefully arranged: sorrowful concern written on it like a book. They made a portrait together, sun and moon framed in the doorway with the light behind them, and then Prince Marek stepped into the tower, drawing off his gauntlets.

• Solya the Falcon is a powerful war mage that serves the royal family of Polnya… and he’s Marek’s henchman. We almost never see Marek without Solya nearby (although we see Solya without Marek plenty).
• He is the reason Marek’s actions in the book matter. Whether it’s by assisting him in political manoeuvres, giving him extra military power or just agreeing to protect him when he goes into the Wood.
• He is part of the reason Marek refuses to see that his mother is possessed - not because he’s in league with the Wood but because it would be politically inconvenient to have to deal with that right now.

Notes on their characters

Marek

• A lot of his character stems from when his mother was lost to the Wood. It was thought that she entered the Wood because she had been seduced by the prince of Rosya; as a result his father the king refused to make an attempt to rescue her. Everyone else including his elder brother was able to move on from her loss, but he never gave up.
• From this we can see why he begrudges his father and brother, would work to gain military power and public support, and might want to be king himself, so he can get revenge on Rosya and find his mother in the Wood.
• He has no qualms about hurting others in pursuit of his various goals. This seems to involve a degree of self delusion. In his first appearance he nearly raped Agnieszka because he was convinced she would want him and didn’t want to hear her protests (don’t worry, she brained him). He sacrificed nearly thirty of his best soldiers in exchange for his mother’s return, and thus couldn’t accept that she wasn’t truly returned. He spent more soldiers' lives attacking the Dragon’s tower later in a display of his own power, convinced he was rescuing the children despite how implausible it would be for Agnieszka and the Dragon to be corrupted by the Wood.
• What makes him dangerous is his charisma. All those soldiers followed him to their deaths, and he had a chance at taking the throne because he really was so popular.

Solya

• It seems that the only thing he wants is to be important… and his method for achieving this is to attach himself to someone even more important
• We can see this in how he’s Marek’s henchman but also in how he incessantly tries to be Agnieszka’s ally because he can see how significant she’ll be. After Marek’s death he also comes and attaches himself to Agnieszka and the Dragon instantly. Even his hilarious cameo at the end, proposing to Kasia once she becomes important, is kind of an example of this.
• It seems that he and Sarkan the Dragon have some history together, and that Solya is frustrated that Sarkan is the stronger wizard. Perhaps this inferiority is part of his motivation for trying to become the most important wizard of Polnya via political means.
• He’s constantly fine tuning his image and always quick to say whatever will get him an advantage or paint him in a good light. Where Marek has sincere charisma, Solya has fakeness and cunning. And tbh, I don’t even think he is good at it, since everyone else dislikes him. Agnieszka is always calling him shameless LOL.
• Seems pretty amoral. However, throughout the book he is opportunist about pursuing his goals, rather than actively doing bad things.

We aren’t told how it connects to his character, but he was born a commoner; he mentions that the king knighted his father and gave him lands once his powers manifested. We don’t know his age (wizards are immortal and look young forever) but if he was referring to the current king, that would imply that he’s still only lived within a mortal lifespan. This might explain why the other wizards tend to underestimate him, because he’s so young by their standards. Also it would be funny if he dyed his hair white to look older.

Moments from their dynamic

Preparing for the Wood

We almost immediately see Marek being as tired of Solya’s politicking as everyone else, at least when it comes to the Wood. Marek is truly so fixated on beating the Wood and saving his mother. In this section Solya is very much subordinate to Marek although we see how they are used to relying on one another.

Examining an escapee of the Wood

“Come look at her,” he said over his shoulder, to the Falcon.

“Your Highness,” the Falcon began, coming to his side. “It is plain to any—”

“Stop,” the prince said, his voice sharp as a knife. “I don’t like [the Dragon] any better than you do, but I didn’t bring you here for politics. (…)

When confronted with a different man possessed by the Wood

Prince Marek was staring at him, his hand clenched on his sword; the Falcon had backed away to his side.

The possessed man unnerves Marek by mimicking his mother’s voice

Marek flinched bodily as if something had struck him in the gut, three inches of his sword-blade coming out of its sheath before he stopped. “Stop it!” he snarled. “Make it be silent!”

The Falcon raised a hand and said, “Elrekaduht!” still staring and appalled. Jerzy’s wide-mouthed cackles went muffled as if he’d been closed up inside a thick-walled room, only a faint distant whine of “Marechek, Marechek” still coming through.

Marek throwing a fit when Solya suggests giving up on curing the possessed man

“We agreed!” Prince Marek said, wheeling around to him in urgent protest.

“I agreed it was a risk worth taking, if Sarkan had really found some way to purge corruption,” the Falcon said to him. “But this—?” (…)

(…) Prince Marek seized the Falcon’s arm and dragged him aside, whispering angrily.

No, I wouldn’t ship them based on just this stuff, but we are establishing a baseline! Baselines my beloved.

In the Wood

Now Marek is getting what he wants (to rescue his mother), there’s no more arguments between them, they’re just working together to survive the dangerous environment.

When the Dragon warns Marek that more soldiers will die in creepy ways

Marek looked up at him, his face for the first time open and uncertain; as though he’d just seen something beyond his understanding. I saw the Falcon beside them looking back along the line of the men with unblinking eyes, his piercing eyes trying to see something invisible. Marek looked at him; the Falcon looked back and nodded very slightly, confirming.

Ah, nonverbal communication born of long familiarity.

Fighting to survive in the Wood

The Falcon and Prince Marek alone of the soldiers remained, fighting back-to-back with ferocious skill, Marek’s sword lit with the same white fire the Falcon held. The last four walkers crowded close. They made a sudden rush; the Falcon whipped them back with a circling lash of fire, and Marek chose one and leapt for it through the blaze (…)

Ah, fighting back to back trope.

After they get the Queen out

In the cases where the problem can’t be solved by hitting it with a sword, they are also able to cooperate in manipulating others. Even if Marek isn’t always enthusiastic.

Arguing with the Dragon about what to do with the rescued queen

Marek kept his fixed smile, but it trembled on his face, and his hand worked open and shut upon his sword-hilt. The Falcon smoothly inserted himself between them, laying a hand on Marek’s arm, and said, “Your Highness, while Sarkan’s tone is objectionable, he isn’t mistaken.”

(…)

“Very well,” Prince Marek said at once, even though he was talking through his clenched teeth: a rehearsed answer. They had worked it out between them, I realized in dawning outrage.

Putting on a show for the court

Marek continued the movement, swung the sword around all the room, turning: the breathless crowd drew back from the point. “The queen of Polnya has the right to a champion!” he shouted. “Let any wizard stand forth and show any sign of corruption in her! You there, Falcon,” he said, whirling and pointing up the stairs, and the whole court’s eyes turned towards us, “lay a spell upon her now! Let all the court look and see if there is any spot upon her—” The whole court made a sound together, a sigh that rose and fell, ecstatic: archdukes and serving-maids as one.

(…) the Falcon swept forward, his long sleeves trailing down the staircase, and coming to the floor made the king an elegant bow. He had obviously made ready for this moment (…)

I just think these rehearsed back and forths are cute especially with a character like Solya who is literally introduced as having a voice ‘like a fine actor’s’.

Okay, now we are going out of chronological order and focusing on each character.

Solya’s investment in Marek

It might seem like Marek is just Solya’s pawn in his schemes for significance, after all who better to manipulate than a prince desperate for power?

The Dragon’s comment on Solya

In any case, he knows very well what the prince wants, and all being equal he’d prefer to give it to him.

Solya recognises the Wood as a major threat, even admitting his own inability to purge corruption, yet he’s willing to risk his life as part of the party rescuing the Queen. I could list all sorts of incentives he has to do that, but what’s certain is that it’s the only way he can remain Marek’s trusted ally. At this point in the story Marek doesn’t have patience for anyone or anything unless they will help him with the Wood. Solya decided Marek was a risk worth taking.

His insistence that the Queen is uncorrupted later on is also a risk he takes for the sake of keeping Marek onside. Only once she’s safe would Marek be able to dedicate himself to the coup. Incredibly shortsighted considering how corruption spreads and would take out the entire kingdom unchecked. What on earth was his endgame??? Maybe he had no endgame and just couldn’t bear to admit he had failed to detect her corruption himself.

Anyway, yes, Solya took all those risks. He even backed Marek to attack the Dragon and Agnieszka at the tower, which was by no means an obvious victory, although his own confidence in his war magic skills and desire to fight the Dragon probably played a part there.

But in the end, Marek was the one who paid the price for it all.

Just after Marek’s death

We hadn’t taken him prisoner; he’d just followed us out, trailing after us with a puzzled look, like a man who knew he wasn’t dreaming, but felt he should have been.

When they meet some of Marek’s soldiers after the battle

They edged back from us wide-eyed, but then they looked at Solya: they recognized him, at least. “Orders, sir?” one of them asked him, uncertainly.

He stared back blankly a moment and then looked at us, just as uncertainly.

Until now Solya’s every action has been performative, but now he gets the chance to put his own spin on the end of the battle, he can’t think of what to say!?

If there’s one thing to prove Solya’s attachment to Marek as more than a pawn, this is it: even in the middle of a huge conflict, he never planned for any outcome which involved Marek’s death.

Oh, remember what Agnieszka said?

Agnieszka’s narration on Marek’s death

He’d caught us all in his own certainty. For a moment we were all shocked into stillness. Solya inhaled once, stricken.

I suspect another reason Solya was so short-sighted was Marek’s own conviction and charisma. As much as he was manipulating Marek, he couldn’t escape Marek’s effect on him in turn.

Marek’s motivations

I don’t think that Marek is naturally a very scheming and power-hungry person. He speaks through gritted teeth when he and Solya are tricking the Dragon into letting the queen go back to the capital. Contrast that to how he convinces his own soldiers: honesty and sincerity.

When soldiers start dying to the Wood

“Well, I won’t swear to you now I’ll bring you out alive; but you have my oath that every man who does come out with me will have every honor I can bestow (…)

They must have known, by then, that Marek himself didn’t know what would happen; that he hadn’t been ready for the shadow of the Wood. But I could see his words lift some of that shadow from all of their faces: a brightness came into them, a deep breath.

Marek’s motivations are always tied to the people around him. His only actions for most of the book are rescuing, and then defending his mother; afterwards, even his going to war against Agnieszka and the Dragon is on some level justified to him because he’s protecting his niece and nephew.

So… What was his motivation for wanting to be king again? If his mother has already been saved… what is left as his purpose in life?

The mirror scene

The scene where Agnieszka finds Marek and Solya together in Solya’s rooms is the only one we get really focused on the two of them and their relationship. It’s the first time we see them candid, with no one else around and offers a window into their dynamic.

Oh, it also offers this:

Implication that it’s normal for the maids to find Marek in Solya’s room in the early hours of the morning

Solya said, “We don’t need the fire tended, Lizbeta: just bring us some hot tea and breakfast, there’s a girl,” when I opened up his door.

Anyway. Until now everything we’ve seen of them has been Solya working to fulfil Marek’s desires; and indeed this could be more of the same, Solya using scrying magic to get Marek an update on the battle with Rosya. But instead we get these little details:

A round table stood in the middle of his room, and Marek was sitting at it next to Solya, sprawled long and sulky in a chair with his boots up, in a nightshift and fur-edged dressing-gown over his trousers.

Solya was looking into the mirror intently, a hand on the frame and his eyes nothing but black wells of pupil, absorbing everything; Marek watched his face. Neither one of them noticed me until I was at their elbows, and even then Marek barely glanced away.

In this scene Marek and Solya are conspiring for the throne. But Marek doesn’t seem very much like a leader here, more like a sulky boy in pyjamas. He says he wants to know the status of the battle and wants to be on the battlefield, but he’s not looking into the mirror. Instead, he’s focused on the human element - Solya. Meanwhile Solya doesn’t have eyes for him, only for the mirror. (What does he see in the mirror… politics! What do you see in a mirror symbolically… yourself!)

We also see exactly how Solya is able to control him, because as we’ve seen, when Marek is uncertain about something, Solya is the one he turns to:

When Agnieszka wants to try and prove that the Queen is corrupted

(…) The Summoning will show us—”

“What?” Marek snapped, standing up. “What do you think it will show us?”

Solya denies it

(…) There’s no need to imagine dark causes when we have one already known.”

“And the last thing Polnya needs now is more black gossip flying around,” Marek said, more calmly; his shoulders were relaxing as he listened to Solya, swallowing down that poisonously convenient explanation. He dropped back into his chair and put his boots up on the table again.

But, back to the question of Marek’s motivations.

After Marek learns of his older brother’s death

Marek had gone silent. His face was bewildered more than anything. (…) Finally Solya reached up and drew a heavy cloth down over the mirror. He turned to look at Marek.

The bewilderment was fading. “By God,” Marek said after a moment, “I would rather not have it, than have it so.” Solya only inclined his head, watching him with a gleam in his eye. “But that’s not the choice, after all.”

“No,” Solya agreed softly.

Solya really puts him under pressure to respond in a certain way to the news, huh?

I think his motivation for trying to gain power and become king was personal too… whether he was convinced into it by Solya, or if he felt that he needed to live up to Solya’s expectations.

What is their appeal as a ship?

As a pair they make for one of my favourite antagonists ever. They exemplify one of my favourite things about Uprooted as a whole: there is no ‘evil’ in the book, no cartoon villains, no one is malicious or cruel for the sake of it. Marek and Solya’s worst crimes were simply not caring about ordinary people. And yet it’s made clear how monstrous that is, and how that alone (or that combined with the number of bystanders who said ‘well, they’re not evil, so it’s fine’) was enough to deal enormous damage.

For me it’s fascinating how the effect they have on each other is what led to all their wrongdoings in the book. It’s hard to blame either one of them alone; just Marek would have far more reason to hesitate about pursuing his goals, while just Solya would be busy henchmanning for someone else, presumably.

No, it’s their relationship itself, the way they fueled each other’s ambitions and pressured each other not to show doubts, that led both of them down this path… which ultimately led to Marek’s death and Solya relegated to insignificance by the end of the book. I like that tragic aspect.

As for specifically them having a romantic or sexual relationship, uhhhhhh it’s a fertile ground for your imagination LOL there is not much to suggest what exactly their feelings for each other might be outside of ‘you are very useful for my purposes’. However, it’s implied - and the author of Uprooted did confirm, if Word of God means anything to you - that they slept together just before the mirror scene. (Why was Marek so sulky if he just got laid lol. What a missing scene to dangle in front of us)

My take.

My personal favourite flavour of them is… consensual mutual manipulation. My eyes were opened by this fic. Anything along the lines of ‘It would be beneficial if you had feelings for me, and I know you know that I’m trying to get you to have those feelings, but you’re doing the exact same thing for your own reasons so we’re even. And we will end up with feelings for each other but let’s not worry about that’ is just such a vibe.

I like that this ship can take advantage of Solya’s immortality to have him being a mentor/servant figure to Marek over his entire lifetime. To what extent has Marek been shaped by Solya’s influence? However, given the small clue that Solya is still within a mortal age range, it’s even possible they met as children. So many possibilities!

However, the more likely canon option is that their bond was first forged on the battlefield. The high expectations they have for each other fit with that trope of “If we’re going to fight together I need to be able to trust you and your abilities absolutely”. And we’ve seen them fighting back to back, a giant symbol of trust.

Yep those are the main ideas I have. Thanks for reading if you got this far, read Uprooted if you haven’t (I spoiled hardly any of Agnieszka’s story!) and uuuhhhh message me if you create/have created any sort of fanworks for them because my god i want to see