SPOILER FREE QUESTIONS
* How many total books will there be in the world of Elan? Not sure at this time. What I know for sure is (a) Drumindor (the 5th Riyria Chronicle) will be releasing in the summer of 2024. There will also be at least one more book in that series to called Blythium Castle. The "post Revelations" project that has been eluded to elsewhere may or may not be published, and it's too soon yet to know how many books it will be. I'm thinking three but many of my trilogies turned into 6 books so that is likely.
* Is there any plans for a film or television show? This is one of the most frequently asked questions, and the answer isn't an easy one. There are many steps between "story" and "film" and all of them take a very long time (in most cases). The first step is getting an "option" - which is really just giving the rights for someone to try to put things together (get financial backing, find a director, get a script written, get some actors attached). Generally the option gives the producer a given amount of time (and the ability to extend the option), in exchange for some up-front cash to the creator of the story for keeping everyone else at bay. Options are fairly common and most books that you have heard of have had one or two options over the course of their existence but only a VERY small fraction of those move onto the next steps. As for my works - There was one option for everything: Riyria, Legends, and Rise and Fall, that resulted in a terrible script for the opening of a television show for Riyria - and because we had some creative control we were able to squash that and the option expired. At the present time we are negotiating a contract for the option for the first Riyria book (Theft of Swords which include The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha) and once that is signed they will have one year to put things togehter and the ability to extend that time period for a year.
* How much did you have in mind when the original Riyria books were written vs what developed after the fact? Both a lot and a little. When writing the original Riyria books there was hundreds of pages of background information - things about the world, historical figures, the nature of the gods, that was all designed out before I started writing. But I use the "iceberg method" where only a small part of that is exposed to the reader and most of it is known only to me. In particular I knew that there was a big difference between what we learn about history from the victors, and what really happened. Did I think I'd ever have a chance to uncover the parts that lurked below the water? No not at all. When I started wriing these books I had no plan on publishing them, so I certainly didn't have plans to write prequels and sequels. But thanks to the popularity of those first books, I WAS able to tell the truth about many things I lied about in the Riyria books - and for that I am grateful. There were three specific areas that were asked about when this question was asked the answers to them can be found in the first three spoiler questions below.
SPOILER QUESTIONS
* A question about the origin of Yolric: Do not click the spoiler tag unless you have read all of Riyria Revelations AND Legends of the First Empire
Question: Yolric was mentioned briefly in the original books - was he always Trilos, or did the idea of Trilos not even come about until after the original books? The two brothers in the series (a) Yolric (aka Trilos) and (b) Nimbus (aka Turin, Malcolm, Kile, Uberlin) were a part of my original idea. In other words there were always two "gods" where one brother (Turin) tried to kill the other (Trilos). And there was other baggage there related to other "bad deeds" and the need to determine if Turin still existed and if he did how could he be found. Yolric was the "one dangling string" that I didn't tie up in a bow that made it possible to write the entire Legends of the First Empire series. I had to use a different name for him in Legends and so the word "Trilos" came later - but the existence of the "character" is part of the cannon of the story that existed even before I wrote Riyria.
* A question about the origin of the Gods: Do not click the spoiler tag unless you have read all of Riyria Revelations AND Legends of the First Empire
Question: The gods are mentioned in the original books - wre they always defiend or did their true nature come about until after the original books? A little bit of both. The concept of the five various sibling gods: Yolric/Trilos, Kile/Uberlin, Mari (aka Maribor), Ferrol, and Drome. Always existed. There was a lot of lies in this area and that is why they are so different in Riyria than in Legends. But they didn't "transform" between the books - I just kept a lot of what I knew secret until Legends and I could give "the reset of the story." For instance, in Riyria I lied when I said Kile raped his dauther Muriel and produced Uberlin. The truth, as anyone who has read Legends knows, is that Kile WAS Uberlin and he was the originator of all that was evil. Besides inventing war and killing his three siblings and locking them in Phyre, he also separated his brother Trilos from his love (Muriel - who was also his daughter. But some aspects solidified during the writing of Legends. For instance the concept of Erebus being the "father of the gods" was changed to be the original city where all the races lived before the war. And the parents of the main gods (Eton - father of the sky) and (Elan - mother of the earth) became mor prominent and their relationship fleshed out more - for instance the jealousy that Eton experience when Elan loved her children more than him. And Alurya was always a "concept" but she got solidified more through writing the Legends books - so I'd say a good foundation was in during the writing of Riyria but all the nitty-gritty details were codified in Legends.
Stolen story; please report.
* A question about the Horn of Gylindora: Do not click the spoiler tag unless you have read all of Riyria Revelations AND Legends of the First Empire
Question: Was the politics behind the horn of Gylindora always known when writing the Original books? Or was it something that came later. Most of what we know about the horn such as (a) it keeps the elves from killing one another (b) it is use to decide who rules (c) it is blown to indicate a challenge to the ruling bloodline (c) that it becomes necessary at the death of the elven ruler or 3,000 years (d) when it is blown all elves can heare it (e) that only one of elven blood can blow it, and many more aspects were all known (and integral) to the Riyria Revelations, and much of what we learn about in Legends is me either exposing stuff that only I knew the full details to, or solidifying up some aspects that I hadn't worked out completely. For instance, that the Aquilia picks the challenger and the Curator holds the horn were details that came later. In Revelations I knew that Mawyndulë was tricked into killing his father - but part of wriitng that series was laying out all the details of how that came about - such as the existing of Imaly and Makaretta and the Grey Cloaks etc.
* A question about when Esrahaddon first meets Royce: Do not click the spoiler tag unless you have read all of Riyria Revelations AND Book #3 of The Rise and Fall (Esrahaddon)
Question: In Theft of swords it sounds like Esrahaddon knew that Royce was the heir. My question is did he? And how?!?? When Esrahaddon first sees Royce he "thinks" there was a 99% chance that he is directly descended from Novron. There are several reasons for this. (1) His appearance is similar to Nevrik and Nareon. (2) It relates to how Royce responds to Esrahaddon's question about who he is. Royce responds, "Who me? I'm nobody." This question/answer is a "running gag" where Elan herself (or powerful ancient beings born of her) lets on that there's something afoot). In particular there are several important times it is used in the book Esrahaddon. Upon first meeting Nevrik, the kid proclaims he is nobody to both Jerish and Esrahaddon. And in the second case, the wizard gives him the same response he later gives Royce ("Perhaps — perhaps not"). And this exchange is also played out when Esrahaddon is questioning "the painter" who responds with the familiar, "Me? I'm nobody" to which Esrahaddon astutely responds with, "Whenever anyone says that, it's never true." And while I don't want to include spoilers to the Legends of the First Empire books - those who have read that series know who the painter is. I should also mention there are a few other times that "I'm nobody" is used in the book Esrahaddon. Look for it in these instances: Niblick (Esrahaddon's soon-to-be-uncle), and Elinya (Esrahaddon's love).
Based on his almost certain belief that Royce is the heir - Esrahaddon puts as much distance between himself and Royce as possible to throw the Patriarch and the church off his scent. Later, when there is a need to open Avempartha (a tower that Esrahaddon locked over 1,000 years ago), Royce proves Esrahaddon's suspicion because only someone with Novron's bloodline was able to do what the thief accomplishes.