Habubu

I received my copy of the three-volume novel. Having never ordered any print-on-demand product before, I had my reservations about the quality of the printing. Everything seems fine, however. The print is clear and sharp, the paperback binding appears to be perfectly adequate. It looks and feels like a real book. Reading it in PDF form did not prepare me for how massive the thing is. Chapter one doesn't start until page 71, for goodness sake! (That's not a complaint, by the way; epic fantasy is at its best when there's a certain degree of narrative sprawl)

It's a brief scene from Book of Urgrayne. The pdf. and epub. versions of the final section of Black Heart have been uploaded on Patreon. Apparently the Kindle version is delayed a bit due to Amazon's layout software being a pain in the ass to work with. There doesn't seem to be any precise info as to when the book will be released commercially in one piece. The work on the sequel will have to wait; Mark's switching gears to work on the second edition of the RPG system and finishing Geographiae (the encyclopedic atlas/lore book that features some really nice looking illustrations).

Probably not Speaking of royal fathers and hidden progeny... I went to have a look at both appearances of Urgrayne (in Artesia and Book of Urgrayne). Here's what she says about Artesia's role/parentage/future etc.: "Anger fills my veins when I think of your mother. What she was. What se could have been. What she could have made you. You wallow in blood and steel and shit. In the mundane, in the world of men... when you could have climbed the Heavens." Is she talking about Argante or Artesia becoming Spring Queens or just demi-gods? Is it even possible to bring back the Golden Realm or would it be as likely as raising Númenor from the sea? "Twice more shall Artesia and I meet as I told her... Though I did not tell her the when. Not the how. Do you think she believed me? Once on her path to Heaven, to Yhera's celestial palace, and once at her deathbed, on her final journey to the Underworld. Yet I have so much to tell her. So I will tell you, as we keep each other company, yes? So that upon her return you can tell her about her mother and who her father really was." Three things: 2. It sounds like Bran's decapitated head, Artesia's spy in Daradja, is going to spill the beans on everything he's seen or heard once Artesia comes back (which might not be for a long while -- I have a feeling that the campaign will take her across the Known World). So that's when she's supposed to learn of her father, I guess. Of course, that might not be when the reader learns about it, as you suggest. 3. The past tense suggests that the father is not alive anymore. Are there any clues in Historia Mundi as to which notable men died after Artesia was born? Also, what's with the rune-skinned vulture? Is Artesia supposed to rule in the Underworld? Aren't the some of the demons supposed to be vulture-headed?

Here's the section I was referring to: Horned Man, Ishraha etc. might go a long way to explain the Riven Tower that comes up in the Book of Dooms reading. From the RPG: Then again, another likely explanation for the card is all the conspiracies against Artesia (King Renham's plot, the Middle Kingdom plot to put her on trial for adultery, king Euwen's assassination attempt). So the card might not necessarily prophesy Artesia's ambition/hubris. Seems to me like Stjepan is also on the same path. He has nothing but contempt for the current regime and thinks he can run circles around others. Yeah, a fae connection would make the most sense the context of the setting. It occurred to me that if Artesia's magical abilities are due to her being the daughter of one the greatest witches in history, her father need not be divine or superhuman. What if she's a nobleman's daughter? If so, she might have a "legitimate" claim to the throne of one of the Middle Kingdoms. If the news of it were to spread, it could jumpstart the rebellion that has been brewing in the Middle Kingdoms for some time. Another option is that she's like the sultan Agameen: someone who is not entirely aware of the greatness of their bloodline. In other words, it doesn't matter who the father is, it matters what the father's lineage is. Agreed! The epilogue seems to indicate that Artesia knows more than she lets on and might have been manipulating people around her for some time. Is this the path that came to her in an epiphany when she found the sword in the forest?

No idea, to be honest. If Byron of An-Athair is not Artesia's real father, it would explain why her brother's Stjepan and Justin aren't destined to "climb the heavens" as Ugrayne put it. On the other hand, that exclusion could be attributed to the fact that the Athairi are a matrilineal people and the power of the Spring Queens runs in the female line. (Might explain why Ugrayne is frustrated that she's wasting her potential). According to the RPG system, the lineage of Morfane is only supposed to yield the gifts of Imperious Tongue (speaking with surety and command), Spellbinding Form (people find you alluring), and Second Sight ("Show me the world"). The lineage doesn't seem to explain Artesia's spirit familiars, her considerable magic talent, or why she is favoured by so many divine powers. Her father could be fae (which isn't unlikely considering that they seem to be frequent visitor's in Argante's neck of the woods). However, Dürace has fae parentage, and it seems unlikely that the big reveal about Artesia would be something that's similar to what we already know about Dürace -- unless Argante had a dalliance with a prince of one of the fae courts. The Known World is less divine than it used to be in ages past. Some of the gods have become meta-powers, part of the fabric of reality. Others are bound to the Underworld or Heaven. Ariahave and Ugrayne seem to be the biggest meddlers in the matter's of mortals. I got the impression from one the Reddit Q&As that it's quite possible to encounter Bragea and Daedekamani in the Known World; they aren't bound to any particular level or reality, they don't embody a natural phenomenon, and they don't exist outside of time and space. So I guess it's possible one of them might be Artesia's father, but I'm not feeling it.

One could say that the novel... Yeah, it'd be nice to see them in some ill-advised caper they barely make it out of alive. I'd also like to read more about the cult of Hathalla in the Highlands. This chapter seems to indicate that the next book will show us...

The last chapter was released yesterday in the final hours of January. It's an Artesia chapter helping to bridge the gap between the novels and the comics. The craziest thing is that Mark's entertaining the idea that the World Entire could be cube-shaped! He's clearly embracing the Gloranthan roots of the setting* -- creating a world where myth can explain the natural order of things better than science. *The Known World started out as a RuneQuest campaign.

I would reread The Barrow first. Black Heart is a direct continuation of the story, picking up only a couple of days after the events of Azharad's barrow. There are lots of little tidbits of lore and plot sprinkled throughout the first book that are important to the story of Black Heart. Things such as: 1. Who is the rebel baron and what's up with him? 2. Who are the Urgoars and how are they connected to Lord Arduin's Midnight Ride? 3. Who was this Azharad guy again and what do the various members of the expedition want out of his barrow? 4. Who or what is the King's Shadow? etc. etc.

Smylie posted an end-of-the-year update on Patreon. The second epilogue will be released sometime in January 2022: He also answered my question about how much of the third book, Bright Sword, he has outlined. I'll hide his answer behind a spoiler button, but the biggest takeaway is that the events of Bright Sword happen concurrently with the first Artesia comic collection.

That seems to be the case. According to Historiae Mundi, the first novel, The Barrow, takes place in the year i1471 while the events of Artesia begin to unfold in i1472. Historiae Mundi timeline Stjepan meets up with Artesia in Daradja in the first trade (after the Black Sun rises and the Wild Hunt rides by), which means that whatever Stjepan's role in Bright Sword is, it's already over by that point.

I feel like eventually he'll have to come to terms with the fact that there's no way to continue the main storyline (the Ghurkish Thessid-Golan invasion, the grey dream, and the Isliklids) without completing Book of Dooms one way or the other.

Black Heart, the second novel, is close to being finished: The third book will be called Bright Sword.

Smylie released a new chapter on Patreon today. The release contradicts his earlier publication "road map" a bit -- he seems to be rearranging the order of the chapters. There are some interesting tidbits in this chapter about the goings-on in the Middle Kingdoms. Blessed Rumour gives grounds to believe that the story of the third book...

Oh, how I wish. Especially since it's apparent that the problem is not a lack of ideas. I've owned the three trades (Artesia, Afield, and Afire) for ages, but I only recently read Besieged (thanks to this thread). I took multiple screenshots of the pages and sent them to a friend saying "See this? This is how you illustrate a fantasy comic! This is how you do pacing in a battle sequence!"

The last few chapters released on Patreon have been really fun. Erim is coming into her own as an active participant in the events, and we finally get to peek behind Stjepan's veil of secrecy. There's action and some long-awaited story exposition in equal measure. It's a shame that Smylie has to rely on donations to finish the book -- it's got top-of-the line world building (with interesting metaphysics that bring to mind Bakker's exploration of sin and virtue in the Second Apocalypse) and a story that is constantly surprising and engaging. Sure, the over-the-top sex scenes are not everyone's cup of tea, but other than that it's great epic fantasy from an author who seems to know exactly what he's doing.