Guest Post: Reign of Ash: Who Are You When the World EndsIn Ice Forged and my new Reign of Ash, society has collapsed after a devastating war not only destroyed the ruling class and the infrastructure, but also the magic upon which the civilization relied. Along with such overwhelming loss also comes the destruction of something less tangible—all the markers by which individuals determine who they are and where they stand.
Social identity in most societies is determined by a
number of markers: who one’s parents are, one’s gender and geographic location,
as well as social roles, feudal obligations, nationality, religious/ethnic
affiliation, profession, and for fantasy, other categories, such as the ability
to do magic.
The Cataclysm that happens in Ice Forged and carries
forward into Reign of Ash destroys the old order. There is no authority, no one
to dole out punishment or reward. In this void, survivors must decide whether
to try to recreate the old order, or remake society into something completely
different. Between the war dead and those who died in the Great Fire when magic
was destroyed, even the hierarchies in towns and hamlets have been uprooted.
People who based identity on their role in a family or a town are left adrift.
In the case of my Ascendant Kingdoms, the king and
most of the nobility have been destroyed, and inadvertently, magic along with
them. Only two of the former Lords of the Blood, the nobles to whose bloodlines
magic was tethered, still exist: one is an unrepentant, convicted murderer and
the other is a wraith. From this, Blaine McFadden and his convict friends begin
to create a network of alliances that may help them restore order and bring
back magic.
What Blaine discovers is that while some seek to
restore the old ways at any cost, others see opportunity in the chaos. Social class, feudal obligations, the status
quo and the basis of power are all up for grabs. In this vortex, some seek to
right old wrongs. Others avenge old grudges.
We forget that freedom is frightening. When all the
social structures which help us regulate behaviour and which protect the majority
from predators are stripped away, might makes right and most will perish in an
every-man-for-himself atmosphere. The tension between community and individual,
between personal and corporate identity is always at the heart of social
issues, but never so much as when all of society’s structure has been stripped
away.
And yet,
the void begs for invention and reinvention. During the 1400s, the Black Plague
killed so many people, it forced the survivors to renegotiate the bond between
landowner and hireling, to revise age-old ways of utilizing land, water and
other resources. In general, such an upheaval favors newcomers over the
established powers. Everything is up for grabs.
As the
society wrestles with big-picture chaos, don’t underestimate the personal
turmoil of re-thinking gender and social roles, marriage eligibility and
preferences, barter and trade rates, and personal power at every level of
society.
Only in
such a void could a disgraced lord return from exile to save a kingdom, raise
an army, and draw together the living and undead in a bid to restore magic—or
die trying.
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I’ll
be celebrating the launch of Deadly Curiosities the whole week of June 22-29
with more than 30 different guest blog posts, a Facebook launch party featuring
prizes, guest authors and surprises, podcasts, three different excerpts, a
Reddit give-away/AskMeAnything and a Goodreads party/give-away. Get all the
details at www.DeadlyCuriosities.com, follow me on
Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms or on Twitter @GailZMartin!
And
I’ll be signing Deadly Curiosities in major cities across the U.S. and in
England, Wales and Scotland this summer—the full book tour schedule is on my
website, so please stop by and say hello!
About
the Author: Gail Z. Martin writes epic and urban fantasy, steampunk and short
stories. She is the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series, the
Fallen Kings Cycle series and the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga series of epic
fantasy books, as well as the Deadly Curiosities urban fantasy world and coming
in 2015, Iron and Blood, a Steampunk
novel, co-written with Larry N. Martin. Gail is a frequently contributor to US
and UK anthologies. She also writes two series of ebook short stories: The Jonmarc Vahanian Adventures and the Deadly Curiosities Adventures.
Find her
at www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com, on Twitter @GailZMartin, on
Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms, at DisquietingVisions.com blog and
GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com. She leads monthly conversations on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/GailZMartin and posts free excerpts of her
work on Wattpad http://wattpad.com/GailZMartin.
An original novella set in the Deadly Curiosities universe, The Final Death, is available free on
Wattpad here: http://www.wattpad.com/story/15334006-the-final-death
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