War

War is a major and dominant theme in the novel "Shadow and Bone" by Leigh Bardugo. War appears in the novel in the forms of both external and internal threats, and drives the actions of various characters.

In terms of external threats, the nation of Ravka is poised for war with the nations of the Shu Han and the Fjerdans. Indeed, the Border Wars have been raging for over a hundred years with these nations, and Ravka is slowly being worn away. Modern weapons make the powers of the Grisha irrelevant, and it is from both the threat of war and modern weapons that in part drives the Darkling to seek to control the Shadow Fold, which he himself originally created, but failed to control.

Indeed, it is the Shadow Fold and the Darkling's determination to control it that also beckons internal war, when the Darkling threatens to...