Hi,

Good points, here's my thoughts:

#1 New Etonia is governed by the Holy Etonian Emperor and the 4 High Pontificates of each church. Very important to note this isn't the same as the gods.

One thing we started to see in book ii was that the "Church" and the "Heavens" aren't always on the same page. In book II, Hilda etal basically doesn't trust the "Church" to be honest in accounting for the screw up. We will start to see more detail on this in book iii as Stevos and Teragdor have to work with the church offices to setup ground operations to watch for a D'Orc invasion. Basically the heavens and the church are not currently talking to each other.

We also see this in the fact that the Church in its alliance with Oorstemoth has not at all mentioned said operation to the Heavens. You can be absolutely certain that if the Archons knew about the Inferno and a planned church invasion of the Abyss, they would (will) have a freak out.

There are huge Compacts regulating interaction between pantheons and the Abyss. Lillith and friends are in clear/huge violation of this already and Oorstemoth, Church of Tiernon in Astlan are going to also violate it.

But back to the Council. A lot depends on the current members of the Council and the current Emperor in terms of the balance of power. We will start to see some of this in book iii...but I am not sure when/how exactly it comes in.

There is a lot of interesting stuff going on, but including it gets distracting to a lot of people (see too many POV/storylines) I am debating on how to spin off other shorter "sideline" series (E.g. The Seas of Astlan for the Captain Asmeth story cut from book ii). Who knows some of it may not get told until after the fact.

#2 This is actually a good question and stuff that should go into the library. I don't have all that written yet, nor resolved with it. I've been a bit more focused on the Abyss' creation mythology and the other stories and trying to reconcile all with the "real" story of creation or some version of it that could be consistent across multiple religions.

The idea for me, of course, is to make them semi-consistent with specific pantheon versions focusing on their side of the story. This is something that was always complicated when different societies merged and their pantheons had to be reconciled historically. Unfortunately, when there is NO question that the deities are real people, you can't just easily write them off and forget the ones that are inconvenient to your narrative.

#3 Actually, civilization in Astlan is evolving very differently than on Earth, but is not static. The last few thousand years have seen a lot of progress thanks to better formalization and dissemination of wizardry across the globe. So from a technology point of view, Astlan is pretty close to on par with Earth, but with Wizardry being the Technology.

What is not so evolved is the democratic distribution of that technology, that is slower, but still better than it used to be. Astlan has very high levels of income and wizardry inequality. Wizardy works very well for the rich and powerful, but the trickle down to the masses is much slower/worse than technology on earth.

This is in large part because of politics and this is because Astlan is still pretty feudal and that is because they have some serious disparities in power between individuals. E.g. Gods, Archdemons, Clerics, Super Wizards, Anilords etc all are hugely powerful, and don't require an industrial base.

That was the big thing on Earth. In order for the Nation Powers to advance and get more powerful, they had to build powerful industrial bases which in turn led to more wealth distribution and democratization of power.

In Astlan, Gods, Demigods, Elves and Dwarves etc (with their advanced technology) and the Anilords and powerful wizards did not require the same industrial base in order to lay waste to their enemies. There were/are still huge inequalities in power.

It's these huge inequalities that make Astlan seem backward or more static than Earth. It's like urban vs rural in much of the second and third worlds of Earth. In large parts of our world, there are very advanced cities with iphones, high speed internet, MTV, but in the countryside you have people using oxen and living by candles or lanterns and cooking on wooden fires.

North Korea is one rather insane example of this but you see it a lot in other regions as well.

Yeah that was basically the intention with the title; but as comments revealed I had to get a strong Tom story in as well. But really, the distribution of action from first half to half was due to Tom being in the cave, which was very boring, so the Hilda story (hopefully not boring) took front and center. Otherwise it would probably have been more evenly balanced.

Yes, on the short stories or novellas; the other "series" I am percolating on are:

• Seas of Astlan: (First book tentatively called: Red Sky at Dawn)
  Asmeth, and the guys who stole the book which could then spin off the backstory of the heist. Starts by expanding on deleted book II material. Who knows I suppose I could start going all the way back to the heist but then this book gets to be as long as a DoA volume.

• Chronicles of Astlan: (no title for v1 yet)
  This is the story of Kristof Torson, Prince of Etonia; the youngest son of the Holy Etonian Emperor who is currently planned to show up in DoA III, or IV at the latest.

• Oak Orcs of the Antilles:
  This is the story of Trig Bioblast, one of Tom's shamans who is: Second Shaman of the OCSS SkullCrusher (Oak Clan Starship Slayer)
  

• Legends of Astlan:
  Short story collections and novels of historical events in Astlan/localverse

• Tales of the Demon Bard:
  This is Antefalken's story(ies) not sure on overlap between this and Legends of Astlan, I might have Antefalken narrate LoA stories, in which case these merge.
  

Some of these I see as short novels that I write while subject to writer's block on the main story.

Anilord stories would be either of the later ones.

Also as I've mentioned, I'd like to see about others writing in the universe either as free fan fiction or as anthologies or "official/canonical" jointly published work.

Edited by user Wednesday, December 9, 2015 12:26:40 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I have no idea who this Kristof guy is...OK...maybe a little. I've got stuff from T-A-G to post in the Library. Look for new information to follow last nights map update later today.

You can maybe tell a little now from the House of Torson family tree which went up yesterday; the map update had names for the larger towns in the Wilds of Eton and a section on it is coming today.

Of course, Iume knows what happens to Lesteroth and Bellyachus...it was in the earlier drafts but got moved to the beginning of book iii

But it won't spoil too much by telling you that they will be back in Volume III.

In fact I just came from where they are and Bellyachus was living up to his name....

Oh, they were able to get his head out of his butt though! I suppose that's the important thing. But jeez those horns of his really had to hurt going in, and coming out.

Owww! I didn't think of the horns at all! That must have hurt.

Ok, I can't get the Lethal Weapon image out of my head.

Bahahahaha!!! <jiggle> <jiggle>

You know, that's not the first book I've read that particular trick in. I can't for the life of me remember WHICH book I read it in, but I remember it.

Really nasty when you think about it. Humans sure are inventive figuring out ways to DIS-figure each other.

<mutter> No, that was hot wire mesh to the hands. That book was knives under the skin, not skinning. Maybe that book? No, that was just beatings and sleep deprivation. Which book was it? </mutter>

Well I've read about salt poured into the wounds to increase the pain in torturing in early times.

Lilith is growing on me...kinda like a fungus, but still.

Exadork...not so much.

Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It requires passion as well as perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms–that man would not have achieved the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that, a man must be a leader, and more than a leader, he must be a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that resolve of heart which can brave even the failing of all hopes. This is necessary right now, otherwise we shall fail to attain that which it is possible to achieve today. Only he who is certain not to destroy himself in the process should hear the call of politics; he must endure even though he finds the world too stupid or too petty for that which he would offer. In the face of that he must have the resolve to say ‘and yet,’—for only then does he hear the ‘call’ of politics.

–Max Weber, Politik als Beruf (1919)

Riffing on your idea of Tom turning evil, I presented a scenario through which this could be possible.

To expand on the Max Weber quote a bit, Tom now has his capital city up and running, and if I had to guess, is going to populate it next, with a motley crew of miscreants and the dregs of demon society. You know, the kind of people who are too preoccupied with building things to properly fight for power.



The problem with meeting this many people to provide them with leadership is that you start seeing the weaknesses in human, and demon, nature. That's what Max was talking about. It's easy to draw apart from the people you wish to lead. To start considering people as means to an end, and worse, an end separate from those people.



To retain your respect of the people after meeting them is heroic, that's what Max is speaking of. Not all main characters in fantasy novels have that kind of heroism in them.

Edited by user Wednesday, February 17, 2016 3:26:44 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified