THE GHOSTS question & answer
To celebrate the release of GHOST IN THE COUNCIL in ebook and paperback and GHOST IN THE COWL in audiobook this month, I want to do a podcast episode that is a Q&A session about the Caina series.
So leave your questions about THE GHOSTS here, and if we get enough of them, in a few weeks I’ll record a podcast to answer them!
-JM
As I understand it, the setting of the Caina series is the Roman Empire – with magic. Empire = Rome, Kyre = Carthage, Maat = Egypt, Istarinmul = Arabia, Ulkaar = Scandinavia, and at that point I lose congruity. What places are basically creations of yours for this world?
Speaking as a Scandinavian, Ulkaar is primarily based on Slavic Eastern Europe. Scandinavian history, culture and folklore is more closely tied to Germanic Western and Central Europe.
While Norsemen are a very popular feature in fantasy, the only instance I can recall of Moeller using them in his books would be Demonsouled. In this regard, I’ve found that he hews closer to authors like Robert E. Howard, David Gemmell and Henry Kuttner, who featured Norsemen in medieval European settings, but cast them as savage and bloodthirsty heathens, though honourable and stalwarth warriors in their grim fashion, opposed to Christian Celtic and Germanic peoples like the medieval Irish and Anglo-Saxons.
As for questions about Caina and the world of The Ghosts, I am curious about ghostsilver and where it comes from.
Nightmar seems more analogous to Byzantine Rome. New Kyre to Syracuse, Anshan to Sejulk Turkey, Maat is agreed for Egypt. Istarinmul to Arabic peninsula countries. Iramis to Ptolemaic Egypt. Ulkaar seems particularly eastern Slavic. Caerish provinces remind me of the Balkans.
I think that New Kyre is based on Greek City-States, especially Athens; Anshan seems analogous to Parthian or Sasanian (Neo-Persian) Empire. I agree that Ulkaar is based on Slavic Eastern Europe, particularly historical Russia but also Wallachia (historical region of Romania ruled in 15th century by Dracul dynasty).
How far ahead do you plan out the series? It seems like there are setups for future books that are brought up later that I notice on rereads. Also, do you already have the side stories figured out when it’s mentioned in one of the books?
I noticed in previous ghost books that when Caina visits the netherworld to retrieve the Phoenix ashes that time is quicker there and slower in the real world as she is in there a long time but returns a second later in real time, yet later on in the series this seems to have reversed? Did you just have to change this so the story would fit or have I just mis-read?
At the end of “Ghost in the Winds”, Samnirdamnus leaves a piece of himself to heal Caina, and alludes to that piece being useful in the future. Does Caina now have the ability to heal herself?
Or will she end up having an extended life span like Morgant who was also kissed by a jin?