[QCrit] Dark Comedy Fantasy - KHIAN THE KHORKHONIAN - 91K, #1 + 300
Hello everyone,
I'm not ready to pitch this yet since I'm just starting to edit the MS. Honestly, I'm struggling a bit to place it within the market genre-wise and comp-wise. It's predominantly a comedy and even parody, with gratuitous amounts of violence that end up being cartoony in a way. That's why my comps are not really fitting, and the tone of the pitch might not match the tone of the MS.
From the 300 you'll see that I poke fun at naming conventions, lineages, as well as stereotypes, and I don't know if it comes across in the pitch at all, or if it even should.
Still, I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks to anyone who finds the time!
Dear [Agent]
KHIAN THE KHORKHONIAN is a dark comedy fantasy complete at 91k words. Think Conan the Barbarian by way of Jalan Kendeth. It combines the wit and trickster protagonist of Elijah Kinch Spector’s Kalyna the Soothsayer with the dark humor and violence of Joe Abercrombie’s The Devils.
Khian is a swindler, a drunk, and a coward, which wouldn’t be an issue if he wasn’t a Khorkhonian. His people love only three things: drinking and fucking which they are decent at, and war which they excel at. Drinking and fucking are Khian’s favorites, but he doesn’t like seeing his blood anywhere outside of his body. He never held a weapon and doesn’t plan to, which is why his people shun him. Still, he’s able to trick anyone into giving him what he wants, which is usually more to drink.
After a particularly rowdy night, Khian drinks so much he falls asleep in an unmarked grave for three days. Upon waking, he finds the capital of Khork razed to the ground and his people slaughtered to the last. Khian hasn’t felt this happy since one of his brothers caught the cockpox. Finally free, he gathers all the unstolen gold, and ventures forth to drink and whore himself to death in peace.
At least until a tavern brawl breaks out, and when blood is spilled, a particularly nasty, glowing red mark appears on his chest. The Khursed Markh of Siobkhan, Goddess of War who has forsaken the Khorkhonians due to some unknown slight and caused their demise, now brands Khian as the Last Khorkhonian. His legend spreads, and every mercenary on the continent wants a piece of him. Now Khian has to use his gift of gab to stay alive, find Siobkhan, make amends, and lift the curse.
[BIO]
300:
“There’s no man in Dallghathia I can’t outpiss!” Khian shouted as the drunks in the tavern nursed their ale and tried to pay him no mind. “Can’t piss up no more, else it rains for weeks. Pissed on Wharen Thundermane’s thundermane from the battlements, that day we had the third war with him. Or was it the fourth?” he whispered to himself. “Was it Thundermane or Gharghast the Rapist? Either way,” he bellowed, “saved all of Khorkh, I did.”
“Pissed on your father’s name all you ever pissed on,” one of the drunks rebuked, and the merriment in the tavern died to a faint whimper.
Only the detritus of Khorkhonian society missed out on the Whednesdaye war before the Fhridaye drinking, before the Shundaye Pharthenon Roast, and the Mhondaye war. The tavern stank of old farts, septic wounds, and unwashed loincloths, with the assembled haggards and cripples served stale ale, as was befit for Khorkhonians no longer able to hold a weapon. Still they drank out of the skulls of their fallen enemies to feel like they were warriors again.
Khian, while young and able, had never seen battle and they all knew it. “Pissed on your mother too, and your cow, but they’re the same,” he quipped back and burst out laughing, choking down ale between fits and lifting the tension.
He was as ubiquitous in the tavern as the benches and tables, so the drunks forgot he was still Khian, son of Khayne the Khonkeror, fiercest king of the Khorkhon Empire since Khronkh the Khrowned, consort of Siobkhan, Goddess of War and patron of the Khokhnonians. If it were any of his brothers, a slight like that would have been answered in blood, but Khian hated blood, and especially his blood anywhere other than inside his body.
Posted May 28, 2026, 10:55 AM UTC