As for the math, there is more of that to come as well, including an engineering problem that, if I had a massive federal or corporate grant, I would try to solve in my basement. In Eldarn, magic can pinch hit for an electromagnet. Here in Virginia, well, I just don’t make that much money.
Q: Did you have any particular society in mind, cultural, historical period, etc. when you created the world of Eldarn?
Jay and I established a few written-in-blood rules that we followed religiously. One of the most important was that people behave according to what they value. This rule had to hold true for any culture we created, because without it, readers would be less inclined to feel sympathy for the characters.
In turn, I suppose there are aspects of Eldarni culture that are rooted in the most fundamental tenants of our western values, traditions, beliefs, myths and behaviours. Yet, Jay and I didn’t select a particular culture or time period to act as Eldarn’s template. Actually, we were deliberate about jumping around a bit. The architecture, the weaponry, the agriculture, the economics and commerce, and especially the shipping industry are all shadowy reflections of different time periods in western history.
It presupposes the fact that Larion senators had been making trips back and forth for some time, but it also provides for 980 Twinmoons (about 135 years) of Nerak’s personal, dictatorial values to impact Eldarn’s citizens. Steven notices it in Orindale the moment he sees the Malakasian flagship, The Prince Marek. There is an astonishing incongruity between the technologies of war and shipping – two of Nerak’s priorities – and the technologies of Eastland farming or architecture, for example.
980 Twinmoons is enough time for Eldarn to forget many of the innovative technologies and resources the Larion Senate introduced from Sandcliff Palace. It is ample time for Nerak’s military and economic priorities to diffuse through the cultural fabric of the occupied lands. As well, it is ample time for the people of Eldarn to lose sight of what it meant to be free. Steven and Mark notice almost immediately that apart from the Resistance, Eldarn’s people act like a beaten people. Bringing them hope is a charge the partisan group will need to address before the end of the series.
Article comments
1 - pam holby
I was wondering if you could give me the e mail of Robert Scott the author of Like Father Like Son This is in regards to the crystal stedman murder. Thank you very much
2 - Margaret
Good review. Good interview. Thank you. I am waiting in impatient anticipation of Lessek's Key and the Larion Senators. The Hickory Staff I read over a week-end; could not put it down.
Thanks for your review.