Discrimination

While the novel critiques the racism and tribal divisions that exist in Daevabad, it asserts that friendship and love can still exist between members of different races and tribes and that discrimination can be overcome.

The sheer number of conflicts and racist characters in the novel is overwhelming. The main tension is between the Daevas, who worship their ancestors the Nahids, and the shafit, the daevas who are part human. The conflict is an ancient one that stems back to when the daevas were still fire creatures whose interactions and interbreeding with humans caused chaos because they produced shafit offspring that had neither training nor control over their own magic. As a result of the chaos, a human, Suleiman, was born who punished them severely by denying the fire creatures their natural form and trapping them with human bodies. Fearing another such punishment should daevas continue...