(this is my long-winded reply to ericf -- I'm not forgetting about you scalem, and I'll answer you in the next message)
Actually, the answers to some of your questions are somewhat related, and while I have dropped some hints here and there regarding Ouriána, I don’t want to say too much at this time, because some of these things are supposed to come as a kind of revelation to the readers as the trilogy progresses -- and frankly I’d rather not spoil that.
So I’ll just give you some of the background information, and you can try to fit some of the pieces in the first book into the larger puzzle if you wish -- but I hope there won’t be any actual spoilers, for you or anyone else who reads this. (Although anyone reading this far should be warned that what follows may provide spoilers that I don’t intend.)
There are, as I hope I’ve indicated here and there, ancient entities in the world of my story, powers neither good nor evil, whose nature is almost wholly destructive. They are even beneficial in the long term (the very, very, very long term -- think eons and eons) because they clear the way for change and renewal. Sometimes, however, a human magician (or other sentient creature) will tap into some of their power, accidentally or intentionally, and begin to channel it. Then the processes they represent accelerate far beyond what is natural -- and the magician involved is never really in control, whatever he or she thinks. These powers care nothing at all about their human or other tools and will use them and throw them away as suits their purposes; humans and other organic life forms just aren’t relevant to them on any level that would equate to good and evil as we know it.
In the early days of the Empire, great wizards like Mallion Penn struggled against these forces. They did succeed in banishing, binding, or imprisoning some of the creatures particularly associated with these Old Earth Powers -- dragons, giants, etc. -- but they could do nothing against the Powers themselves, which are just too tremendous, too far beyond the scope of the human mind to compass. (Which is actually a good thing, in the long run, because if the wizards could have banished them, that would have created an unnatural stasis.) So the Earth Powers linger on. And of course, as we have seen, the bindings that wizards put on their creatures are not unbreakable either. Certain actions taken by Ouriána (and possibly even by those who are trying to oppose her) are weakening those bindings, and more and more of those are going to break if the war goes on and nothing is done to stop her. She, by the way, has an imperfect understanding of some of these forces and what they represent, and she thinks she can use these processes to create a better world in her own time. Probably thousands of people will perish, but that’s just an unfortunate side effect. The weak are a drain on the strong in any case. Only the best will survive. (And so on and so forth.) Her ego feeds all this, of course, but there is also an element of ignorance. Unlike her sister, Nimenoë, she was not trained as a wizard on Leal. She had to learn most of what she knows on her own, and from corrupted and dangerous sources. Before her father died and she ascended the throne, she spent some time sifting through the ruins in some of the great cities of Otöi and managed to dredge up two or three grimoires of the maguses.
Some ancient civilizations attempted to appease the Earth Powers with sacrifices. (Sindérian’s experience in the boat is a kind of psychic flashback to that era.) But they can’t be appeased. Their hungers are too vast for men to satisfy them, even temporarily. Nor do they, as a general rule, recognize human beings as distinct individuals, except when it’s one of the few people with whom they establish a link and channel their power. Even then, it’s like the owner of the flea circus who recognizes his own little performers by what he’s taught them to do, but all the other fleas in the world are just fleas.
In the later books there will be more encounters with relics of past ages when the Earth Powers were more noticably active through their human and other agents, and when people recognized them, worshipped them, and tried to appease them. Some of these relics tie more directly into the story, some are just part of the background, to provide more depth, so that the characters aren't acting against a flat piece of scenery. (And sometimes, because my writing is an organic process, things end up meaning more than I think they are going to mean when I first put them in. There may be some things I can't tell you about because even I don't know them yet.)
So there you are, a long answer to some brief questions, and it may or may not answer anything to your satisfaction. I couldn’t tell all of this in the first book without a vast quantity of info dump, but I did try to imply or set the stage wherever I could without slowing down the action or giving away too many secrets.
Actually, the answers to some of your questions are somewhat related, and while I have dropped some hints here and there regarding Ouriána, I don’t want to say too much at this time, because some of these things are supposed to come as a kind of revelation to the readers as the trilogy progresses -- and frankly I’d rather not spoil that.
So I’ll just give you some of the background information, and you can try to fit some of the pieces in the first book into the larger puzzle if you wish -- but I hope there won’t be any actual spoilers, for you or anyone else who reads this. (Although anyone reading this far should be warned that what follows may provide spoilers that I don’t intend.)
There are, as I hope I’ve indicated here and there, ancient entities in the world of my story, powers neither good nor evil, whose nature is almost wholly destructive. They are even beneficial in the long term (the very, very, very long term -- think eons and eons) because they clear the way for change and renewal. Sometimes, however, a human magician (or other sentient creature) will tap into some of their power, accidentally or intentionally, and begin to channel it. Then the processes they represent accelerate far beyond what is natural -- and the magician involved is never really in control, whatever he or she thinks. These powers care nothing at all about their human or other tools and will use them and throw them away as suits their purposes; humans and other organic life forms just aren’t relevant to them on any level that would equate to good and evil as we know it.
In the early days of the Empire, great wizards like Mallion Penn struggled against these forces. They did succeed in banishing, binding, or imprisoning some of the creatures particularly associated with these Old Earth Powers -- dragons, giants, etc. -- but they could do nothing against the Powers themselves, which are just too tremendous, too far beyond the scope of the human mind to compass. (Which is actually a good thing, in the long run, because if the wizards could have banished them, that would have created an unnatural stasis.) So the Earth Powers linger on. And of course, as we have seen, the bindings that wizards put on their creatures are not unbreakable either. Certain actions taken by Ouriána (and possibly even by those who are trying to oppose her) are weakening those bindings, and more and more of those are going to break if the war goes on and nothing is done to stop her. She, by the way, has an imperfect understanding of some of these forces and what they represent, and she thinks she can use these processes to create a better world in her own time. Probably thousands of people will perish, but that’s just an unfortunate side effect. The weak are a drain on the strong in any case. Only the best will survive. (And so on and so forth.) Her ego feeds all this, of course, but there is also an element of ignorance. Unlike her sister, Nimenoë, she was not trained as a wizard on Leal. She had to learn most of what she knows on her own, and from corrupted and dangerous sources. Before her father died and she ascended the throne, she spent some time sifting through the ruins in some of the great cities of Otöi and managed to dredge up two or three grimoires of the maguses.
Some ancient civilizations attempted to appease the Earth Powers with sacrifices. (Sindérian’s experience in the boat is a kind of psychic flashback to that era.) But they can’t be appeased. Their hungers are too vast for men to satisfy them, even temporarily. Nor do they, as a general rule, recognize human beings as distinct individuals, except when it’s one of the few people with whom they establish a link and channel their power. Even then, it’s like the owner of the flea circus who recognizes his own little performers by what he’s taught them to do, but all the other fleas in the world are just fleas.
In the later books there will be more encounters with relics of past ages when the Earth Powers were more noticably active through their human and other agents, and when people recognized them, worshipped them, and tried to appease them. Some of these relics tie more directly into the story, some are just part of the background, to provide more depth, so that the characters aren't acting against a flat piece of scenery. (And sometimes, because my writing is an organic process, things end up meaning more than I think they are going to mean when I first put them in. There may be some things I can't tell you about because even I don't know them yet.)
So there you are, a long answer to some brief questions, and it may or may not answer anything to your satisfaction. I couldn’t tell all of this in the first book without a vast quantity of info dump, but I did try to imply or set the stage wherever I could without slowing down the action or giving away too many secrets.
