Map of Tir Tanagiri, drawn by Mary Lace
My first three books are all set in the same universe. It’s a fantasy alternate sixth century Europe. The books are set in the alternate Britain, Tir Tanagiri (from an Irish name for the Otherworld that means “the Land of Promise”) and Ireland (Tir Isarnagiri, Land of Iron.)
Sulien’s world is connected to our world and to many other worlds — it has the same geography and the mythically significant events happen the same way. If they don’t, then the world gets the myth without the event, as with Arthur in our world. The gods hold the worlds together, but the degree to which the gods can affect a world varies. In our world they’re withdrawn, in Sulien’s world they need human will to work through, in other worlds they can do anything they want.
The main other difference between Sulien’s world and ours is the matter of healing and reproduction. They have effective magical healing that makes infant mortality rare and most wounds and diseases survivable. Nobody in that world has more than four children — five in very rare cases, about one in a million. And wombs are magically sealed until unsealed at marriage — so unmarried people can have sex without consequences. Pregnancy before marriage needs direct divine intervention. This means women don’t have to spend their whole lives having a child every year just to keep the population at replacement level, and allows them more active lives.
I’ve often been asked whether all women could serve as armoured knights. The answer is no. They’d have to be exceptionally strong. But so do men to do the same thing. About ten percent of men are capable of it, and about five percent of women. The proportions of women in the alae are about 90/10 male/female at first, rising to 75/25 later.
The King’s Peace, and The King’s Name are both told from the point of view of Sulien ap Gwien, armiger to King Urdo, and are best seen as one thing.
The Prize in the Game is a standalone prequel about some of the Isarnagan characters before they appear in the other books.
At one time I intended to write a sequel to Prize, it is no longer on my list. I have no current plans to write anything else in this world, though I have all its past and future history worked out up to their first Mars colony.
