Andomhaim Worldbuilding Questions
I had some worldbuilding questions about Andomhaim from FROSTBORN lately, so I thought I would answer them here.
1.) Why hasn’t the Heptarchy invaded Andomhaim again?
Money, basically.
Remember, the ultimate purpose of the Heptarchy is to provide an endless supply of sacrificial victims for the Seven Temples’ altars so the seven urdmordar who rule the Heptarchy can endlessly feed. Those seven urdmordar don’t have much interest in day-to-day governance, so their spiderling priestesses essentially run the Heptarchy as an exceptionally malignant theological bureaucracy.
However, while the priestesses are evil, they are efficient, and very good at their jobs. In practice, the Heptarchy tends to operate more like an imperial confederation or a very loose federal government than an actual empire. Kingdoms, tribes, and city-states have a great deal of autonomy so long as 1.) taxes are paid on time, and 2.) sacrificial victims are taken to the Temples on time. To help encourage this, all the various local rulers in the Heptarchy tend to have priestess advisors who make sure that the rulers make the “correct” decisions. Should things go awry, the Seven Temples have a wide array of tools to deal with difficulties, from assassinating and replacing truculent rulers with more tractable successors all the way up to exterminating entire populations and settling new colonists upon the depopulated lands.
The difficulty of the Heptarchy is that the seven urdmordar are gluttons, and gluttony is impossible to satiate. So when the Heptarchy learned of Andomhaim and the possibility of an entirely new land to conquer and feed upon, of course they had to conquer it. The priestesses built an enormous fleet and gathered a vast army, and sent it three and a half thousand miles across the ocean to Andomhaim. Of course, if you’ve read the DRAGONTIARNA series, you know that this didn’t go well. The Heptarchy seized the Isle of Kordain and had early successes in Andomhaim, but Agravhask, the commander of the invasion force, was secretly a disciple of the Warden of Urd Morlemoch, and he seized control of the Heptarchy force and used it to further the Warden’s goals. (The Visionary foresaw this happening, but didn’t care because it gave her an opportunity to try and capture her old enemy Tarmyntir.)
So the Heptarchy didn’t conquer Andomhaim, and then ten years later they lost control of the Isle of Kordain, their only stronghold near Andomhaim.
To put this situation in contemporary terms, this is a significant geopolitical setback.
Or to put it in popular vernacular, “taking a massive L.”
The Seven Temples spent a colossal fortune on the invasion force, and in return got back exactly nothing. Even evil sorcerous empires are bound to the laws of economics (in the GHOSTS books, the Umbarian Order failed to figure this out), and it would take a while for the Heptarchy to pay for and assemble another invasion force of that size. And since the first invasion force had failed, there wasn’t much appetite for putting together a second one.
So now the official policy of the Heptarchy towards Andomhaim is quiet CIA-style subversion. The Spider Cult was founded to secretly bring nobles and wealthy merchants to the worship of the Seven Temples. It might take a century or so, but the plan is to eventually place a Spider Cultist on the throne of Andomhaim and then send this sympathetic ruler an army to back him or her up.
Of course, the Brotherhood of the Ravens is aware of this, and has been fighting the Spider Cult in the shadows.
So that is why the Heptarchy hasn’t tried to invade Andomhaim again – it costs too much, the outcome is uncertain, and the priestesses have decided that careful subversion (which costs much less than an invasion) will work out better in the long run.
2.) Is BLADES OF RUIN really inspired by the English civil war of 1138-1153 AD
Yes.
Why? Because alcohol and boats are a very bad combination. 🙂
In the 12th century, the kings of England were also the Dukes of Normandy, and were often more interested in Normandy than in England, so they spent a great deal of time on both sides of the channel.
In November of 1120, King Henry I wanted to return to England, but allowed much of his retinue to travel on another ship. That included his heir and only legitimate son William, several of his bastard children, and numerous high-ranking members of his court. Everyone on William’s ship was quite drunk, including the crew, and decided it would be a good idea to overtake King Henry’s ship.
On the English Channel. At night. In November.
Remember how I said alcohol and boats were a bad combination? William decided that he wanted to overtake his father’s ship, and since a significant portion of everyone on the ship was drunk, they ended up crashing into some rocks, the ship sank, and most of the passengers and crew drowned, including William.
For Henry, this was an absolute disaster, since he had put a lot of work into setting up William as his heir. Henry then settled on his daughter Matilda as his heir, and forced his vassals to take oaths that they would support her as his successor. When Henry died in 1135, Matilda assumed the throne, but her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the crown instead. Many of the lords of England were leery at the idea of a female monarch, and Stephen was amiable and well-liked. Matilda was also imperious and had a knack for offending people.
The resultant civil war became known as the Anarchy, and it ebbed and flowed until 1153. Both Stephen and Matilda held the upper hand at various times, but could never manage to achieve a total victory. Many of the nobles went local warlord, raising their own forces and building their own castles to protect themselves from their neighbors, which led to widespread chaos and violence. Finally by the end of the 1140s most of the nobles were sick of the war and were putting increasing pressure on Stephen and Matilda to find some sort of negotiated solution. Matilda’s vigorous son Henry began to assert himself, and he convinced Stephen to name him his heir. When Stephen died, Henry became the undisputed king in 1154, and the war was over. Henry II would prove to be a vigorous king, but his inability to share power with his sons would cause him a lot of trouble in the final years of his reign.
So you can see how Zelos Pendragon and Rhamnousia Pendragon are very loosely based on Stephen and Matilda, though with some differences. Stephen and Matilda were cousins, while Zelos and Rhamnousia are half-siblings. For that matter, Henry I died of natural causes, and was not assassinated by a sinister cult of sorcerers who wanted to engineer a civil war for nefarious purposes. 🙂
3.) Were the Free Companies in BLADES OF RUIN inspired by Glen Cook’s THE BLACK COMPANY?
First of all, THE BLACK COMPANY is a fantasy classic, and everyone should read it.
But the Free Companies in BLADES OF RUIN weren’t inspired by THE BLACK COMPANY, they were inspired by the Hundred Years’ War between England and France from 1337 to 1453.
Medieval warfare relied heavily on knights and vassals, but it had always used mercenaries. One of the problems in the Anarchy were the large numbers of Flemish mercenaries infesting the country, who frequently turned full brigand. But feudalism was based on holding land, and as the Middle Ages progressed, money and the cash economy became more and more important while knighthood became increasingly performative and ceremonial. Professional soldiers were generally more useful and more reliable than arrogant and headstrong knights.
These trends played a big part in the Hundred Years’ War, and every time the kings of England campaigned in France, they frequently hired mercenaries, and they generally let the mercenaries rampage through the French countryside and plunder whatever they wanted since that was cheaper than feeding them.
The Free Companies really got going after the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The French were decisively defeated, King John II of France went back to England as a prisoner, and the national government in France essentially collapsed. The English discharged many of their mercenaries, who formed into companies and began looting the French countryside. When official hostilities broke out between the English and the French again, the English hired the companies back. As the fortunes of France and England waxed and waned during the war, some of the companies wandered to Italy, and made good money playing the Italian city-states against each other.
One of the most famous of the companies was the White Company, commanded by Sir John Hawkwood. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed off Sherlock Holmes so he could turn his attention to writing historical fiction about the White Company. This was less than financially successful, so Doyle went back to writing Holmes after a few years, though he always regarded his historical novels as better than his Holmes stories.
Rannister and the Grand Company in BLADES OF RUIN were loosely based off Werner von Urslingen and the Great Company. Von Urslingen’s personal motto really was “The enemy of God, the enemy of Piety, the enemy of Mercy”, and he apparently had those words inscribed on his breastplate. The Great Company spent a lot of time fighting in Italy and extorting money from the city-states until the White Company defeated them in the Battle of Canturino in 1363.
In Real Life, of course, the Free Companies did not have orcs in their ranks, or sorcerous advisors. However, the Real Life Free Companies were just as brutal and rapacious as those in the BLADES OF RUIN series, since they essentially were organized bands of brigands.
Eventually, in the wake of the Hundred Years’ War, stronger national governments arose in England and France, and the concept of the Free Companies gradually became obsolete. Kings found their own professional armies to be much more reliable than the Free Companies, though of course the idea of mercenaries never went away and remains to this day.
Though standing armies would cause their own problems.
4.) How did the warlocks of Vhalorast conquer Urd Maelwyn if the dark elves are so much more powerful than orcs?
Two reasons. First, the warlocks of Vhalorast were a lot more powerful than anyone suspected. The Sovereign and the high Maledicti priests were strong enough to keep the Vhalorasti warlocks in check and compel them to obedience (saying no to someone like Khurazalin from SEVENFOLD SWORD was a spectacularly bad idea), but after the final defeat of the Sovereign, the Vhalorasti orcs were free to do as they liked.
Second, the dark elves are chronically unable to work together without betraying each other constantly. The dark elven love of cruelty often manifests as a love of treachery, with frequently leads them to making very stupid decisions. In Real Life, you often see people who are addicted to various lusts, vices, and addictions making bad decisions, and the dark elves often took that up to eleven.
By contrast, while the warlocks of Vhalorast are very bad people, they are orderly and organized, and they don’t often betray each other. Indeed, “brother & sister warlocks” are supposed to extend respect to each other, and the Council of Masters harshly punishes anyone who violates certain rules of conduct. So the warlocks of Vhalorast can cooperate a lot more effectively than the dark elves.
To put it in Dungeons & Dragons terms, the dark elves are chaotic evil, sometimes verging on Stupid Evil, but the Vhalorasti warlocks are firmly lawful evil.
When the Visage seized control of Urd Maelwyn, she thought to rebuild the Sovereign’s empire and forced a confrontation with Vhalorast. That ended with the Vhalorasti orcs and warlocks destroying the Visage’s army, seizing Urd Maelwyn, and taking the Visage herself back to Vhalorast in chains.
Of course, the warlocks had help from the Disciples of Vhalzarok, but more on that will be revealed in BLADES OF RUIN. 🙂
5.) Why aren’t there any dwarves in Owyllain?
None of them settled in Owyllain. The dwarves first came to this world slightly before the urdmordar, about fifteen thousand years ago when the dark elves were frantically summoning new kindreds to throw into battle against the high elves. The dwarves came to Andomhaim somewhere near the Torn Hills close to Urd Morlemoch. The dwarves who sided with the dark elves became the dvargir, and promptly began cheating the dark elves at every turn because they were better organized. Like, the dvargir became to the dark elves the sort of military subcontrator who overcharges and under-delivers.
The dwarves founded nine different underground kingdoms, and most of them are relatively near Andomhaim. Only three of them still survive to the modern period.
6.) Why aren’t there any orcish Swordbearers or Soulbearers?
Two reasons. First, Ardrhythain would be reluctant to make soulblades for orcs because orcs already have battle fury, and the soulblades inspire a hatred of dark magic in their bearers. There’s a chance an orc with a soulblade would go absolutely berserk when fighting an urvaalg or a dark wizard.
Second, the orcs didn’t actually ask. Due to their threefold law, the high elves are very limited in how they can interact with other kindreds. Ardrhythain created the soulblades and founded the Magistri among the humans of Andomhaim because the Keeper of the time specifically asked. Ridmark was only able to command the high elves of Cathair Ereniel in THE SHIELD WAR because he was the Shield Knight. The high elves can only help if asked, and then only provide the specific help requested if it is in accord with the threefold law. The temptation within them to simply rule over weaker kindreds “for their own good” is very strong, but if they do that, they turn into dark elves.
To get around that problem is one of the reasons Ardrhythain created the Swordbearers. Andomhaim definitely would have been destroyed centuries ago if not for the Order of the Soulblade. That’s also the reason Ardrhythain created the Guardians, to help protect both nations and places of power that the high elves otherwise could not protect directly.
7.) Is Andomhaim very different in Talembur’s time as it was in Ridmark’s?
Andomhaim is at a slightly more advanced technological level as of the BLADES OF RUIN series, but it is a good deal richer and more prosperous than it was in Ridmark’s time.
Part of that is that Accolon Pendragon’s successors ruled wisely and well, and Andomhaim avoided the sort of destructive civil war that is currently afflicting Owyllain. Andomhaim also hasn’t had to face an external war on the scale of the Frostborn or the Heptarchy in that time. Granted, there have been wars with outside adversaries like the Mhorites, but nothing like the Heptarchy war.
Additionally, adding the Isle of Kordain to the realm and the discovery of the sea compass let Andomhaim’s mariners travel a lot farther and more reliably than they could before. Ships of Andomhaim have made their way to various island kingdoms south of the Isle of Kordain, and begun a lively trade with them. This has brought new prosperity to Andomhaim.
Granted, this might have long term problems. The coast of Andomhaim and the cities of Cintarra and Tarlion are getting a good deal richer and more powerful than the rest of the realm, and a clever adversary (like the Spider Cult) might find a way to use that to their advantage.
8.) Did Calliande actually create the fountain in BLADE OF THIEVES?
No. It’s just a legend that grew up around her. Neither Ridmark nor Calliande ever came near Stonegate. That was why Ridmark didn’t like bards very much, since they always embellished and made things up.
So those are some recent Andomhaim questions I have received.
-JM