"The Warden. Volume One. The Order of the Yellow Flag" by Victor Pelevin, summary

This book is the first part of a duology published in 2015. The key detail of the text is that the author constructs a detailed alternative reality in which the Russian Emperor Paul I faked his own death in order to move to a parallel dimension. Pelevin uses the form of a memoir by a young aristocrat being groomed to rule this illusory world.

The Secret of Idyllium

The narrative opens with an excerpt from the secret diary of Emperor Paul I. The monarch describes secret experiments with the scientist Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmerism, well-known in Europe, served as a cover for extensive esoteric work. Using a special wooden tank with magnetized water and electrodes, Paul and Mesmer learned to transport people to a completely separate space. The emperor orchestrated a fictitious plot against himself, staged his own assassination in St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Castle, and forever retreated into a new reality.

The second chapter introduces the reader to the young nobleman Alexis de Kije. The youth is traveling by carriage to undergo the quick Great Penance. Couriers are taking him to the capital. Along the way, Alexis recalls his harsh monastic upbringing at the Bird and Bear schools. The youth analyzes the structure of their world, Idyllium. The local economy relies on the extraction of happiness, and the main currency is called glitch. Adults hoard coins, although sublimation brings true joy only to children. The population of Idyllium is spiritually cared for by two monastic orders — the Yellow Flag and the Iron Abyss. Separately, there are the soliks — people who undertake the Great Adventure and leave to create personal universes.

Alexis arrives at the capital’s Mikhailovsky Castle. He is received by the Overseer of Idyllium, Niccolo III. The ruler conceals his face behind a black mask. The Overseer informs Alexis of his high destiny. The young man has been chosen by the Angels as the alternate leader. The Overseer openly tells Alexis about the Great Swordsman — a mysterious, destructive entity that regularly assassinates the rulers of Idyllium during the ceremonial ritual of Saint Rapport. Niccolo III instructs Alexis to live as discreetly as possible, avoiding matters of state, and places him under the care of the elderly master optician Galileo.

Life in the Red House

Alexis settles into a cozy summer residence called the Red House. The young man receives three symbolic gifts: a mechanical singing statue of Benjamin Franklin with a colored glass organ, a marble bust of the girl Aniccia, whose face is half-crumbling, and an antique engraving of Paul I depicting a high tower over the sea. On Galileo’s advice, the hero attempts to live the life of an idle member of the elite. The young de Quigé rides in soaring hot air balloons and enormous galleys with golem-like oarsmen, but quickly becomes disillusioned with the empty amusements of the nobility.

The hero decides to find perfect love. Alexis rejects the Marquis de Lomonoso’s mathematical approach, which proposes mentally synthesizing the ideal woman from several real ones. Instead, he turns to Deer Park, a private institution that professionally cultivates flawless life partners, known in society as "greenies."

A beautiful girl named Yuka arrives at the Red House in a sealed palanquin. She is trained to serve her master selflessly and is devoid of selfishness. If such girls fail, they often commit suicide with a special green cord. Yuka instantly captures Alexis’s heart. Their life together in the Red House flows serenely until one day, during a walk in the forest, they stumble upon a mysterious tall tower.

The Overseer’s Discoveries and Death

Alexis and Yuka cautiously enter the stone building. Climbing a winding staircase adorned with insane frescoes, they suddenly emerge into the grand hall of St. Michael’s Castle. Inside, Niccolò III awaits them in a wheelchair. Yuka shocks everyone with her bold and brazen questions about the Overseer’s health, but the ruler genuinely appreciates her humor.

The Overseer decides to reveal the true history of the Idyllium to his successor. He tells of Mesmer’s invention — a special wooden tank known as a baquet. This device allowed connected mediums to create and sustain a persistent collective hallucination. Gradually, this Enchanted Island expanded to the size of a small world. Select aristocrats of the Old Earth began secretly moving there. To keep the Idyllium secret forever, its creators coldly exploited the bloody French Revolution to physically exterminate all uninitiated witnesses on Earth. The Idyllium found itself locked tightly in the shadow of the Old Earth, forced to follow the laws of manifestation and replicate its forms.

A few days later, Galileo urgently removes Alexis from the Red House. In a secret chamber of the Mikhailovsky Castle, they find the Overseer bleeding. The Great Swordsman has animated a marble statue of a spearman, and it pierces Niccolo III with two arrows from a hidden crossbow. Just before his death, the ruler transfers his supreme power to Alexis. An alchemical tattoo of the eight-pointed Pauline cross briefly glows on the young man’s arm. Alexis falls into a trance and sees Paul the Great himself.

The Path Through the Desert

Galileo and the tattooed monk Menelaus take the future ruler by hot air balloon to the deserted outskirts of Idyllium. Alexis swallows a copper meditative resonator and, completely alone, sets out on the dusty Road of the Watchers. Along the way, he encounters a gigantic stone head, resembling in every detail the skull of the murdered Niccolo III. The head constantly shifts its proportions, transforming now into ruins, now into an ancient shrine.

Within this cyclopean stone skull, Alexis undergoes the most brutal test. The hero engages in mortal combat with the Great Swordsman. For the first time, the youth consciously uses the Fluid — the creative energy that animates their entire world. Alexis successfully repels the enemy with a suddenly appearing bamboo pole, but then deludes himself into believing the enemy’s blade is poisonous. He begins to die painfully from his own materialized fear. Suddenly, Yuka appears on horseback. The girl saves him, restoring Alexis’s physical confidence and vitality.

The Chamber of Endless Horror

The hero’s journey leads him to the doors of the Chamber of Endless Horror. Inside, Alexis finds himself in a musty and dreary office space of the old Engineer’s Castle. He encounters the spirit of a St. Petersburg spiritualist named Alexei Nikolaevich. Communication occurs through a strange cardboard board with circles of foil and wires. The spiritualist asserts a monstrous truth: the entire Idyllium is nothing but a centuries-old dream of the mad ghost of Emperor Paul I.

According to the inquisitive Alexei Nikolaevich, Pavel is constantly being reborn within his own ectoplasm and imagines himself to be the new Overseers. Spirit conducts a visual experiment with liquid paraffin. Alexei Nikolaevich forces Alexis to immerse his hand in the warm liquid, proving the absolute immutability of his anatomical imprint over several centuries. Spirit categorically believes the Angels and the entire illusory world around him are merely a lingering hallucination of a lost human soul hiding from the divine light. Alexis leaves the room deeply shaken.

Appointment to office

At the golden doors, the hero is joyfully greeted by his courtiers, including the daring dwarf Donna Alexandrina. The devoted Yuka is also there. The girl takes the young man to her chambers and conducts a mock physics experiment, blindfolding him, to prove to Alexis his solid, corporeal reality. She asks her lover to put the spiritist’s words out of his mind.

A reassured Alexis heads to the palace chapel for an official interview with the Four Angels. Powerful beings, shaped like giant silver faces, judge the new ruler. The Angel of Air and the Angel of Earth express serious doubts about the candidate, pointing to Yuka’s direct interference during the exam. The Angel of Water undertakes to defend the young man. He explains reasonably that Yuka has been officially recognized as a technical projection of Alexis’s mind, and the initiative to train the girls belongs to his department.

After a brief meeting, the Angels finally confirm de Kizhe’s appointment. The young man dons the ceremonial black uniform and heavy tricorn hat of Paul the Great. The Angel of Water delivers a secret casket of jasper and gold to Alexis. From it, the hero retrieves the classified portion of the first emperor’s personal diary, to once and for all uncover the dark secret of his ancient family’s origins.