"The Shattered Chain" presents the Renunciate organization and worldview in greater detail than previous books in the series. The first "free Amazon" character that Bradley created, Kyla Raineach in "The Planet Savers", was a two-dimensional caricature who ended up rather conventionally falling in love with her male employer. As the series developed, the Renunciates evolved into a complex experiment in separatist feminism. The Renunciates are one of the most popular character groups in the Darkover series, resulting in a considerable amount fan fiction, some of which ended up in the .