what is SEVENFOLD SWORD: SERPENT going to be about?

After finishing SEVENFOLD SWORD: SORCERESS, a few people have asked what SEVENFOLD SWORD: SERPENT will be about.

Well, let’s have some spoiler-free previews!

The main villain will be Lord Tycharon. We haven’t actually met him yet.

We’ll also be spending some time with the xiatami. Of course, Evil Snake Men are a staple trope of fantasy, and I’ve done them before with the San-keth in DEMONSOULED. But the xiatami are a little different. They’re not malicious the way the San-keth are. Rather, they’re more aloof, arrogant, and generally apathetic and prone to lassitude. The xiatami don’t want to conquer the world because that would be too much work. (Their attitude was to let the Sovereign conquer the world and give him just enough to be left alone otherwise.) They regard all other kindreds as hot-blooded and ruled by their animal passions, whereas the cold-blooded xiatami are not governed by base emotional impulse and can therefore consider matters with calm deliberation. Their relationship with their god is exactly the opposite of the San-keth in DEMONSOULED.

We’ll see more of the Maledicti as well. But since the Maledicti have been in every single SEVENFOLD SWORD book to date, I don’t think that constitutes a spoiler. 🙂

-JM