Although I won’t be writing book 4 of the Elves of Lessa Series until next year, I thought I’d talk about where the series is going so I can clear up some expectations.
Book 4 is titled Accidental Enchantment, and it will finish off this current timeline/arc as it follows the adventures of Blaise and Seer Ringali’s currently-unnamed son. (Yay! You’re finally getting a human heroine and elf hero couple!)
I’ll be blunt, the High Elves do not come back in Blaise’s book.
I’m aware a bunch of you Champions were hoping that they’d come back. You might even think it makes more sense. But as the author of the story, there’s some things about the High Elves return–and what they bring back with them–that I know, which made me decide from the moment I started writing Tari’s book that if I kept writing in this world, the High Elves would have to return a long time after the age of Tari, Arion, Fyn, Ben, Myth, and Arvel.
Why? Because if the High Elves came back now…Lessa and Calnor would fall.
The Elves of Lessa series (By which I mean this current arc.) is all about Calnor and Lessa coming together. It’s about the relationship between the two countries, and essentially follows how they moved from two very separate, isolated countries, to such close allies that their people intermingle. And because the countries are only just now–with this generation–really coming together, that’s why it would be a disaster if the High Elves returned.
I’m big on trying to include realism in my fantasy books–it’s why I make such a big deal out of budgets, include a variety of governmental departments, and even why I was excessively careful with the language barrier between Lessa and Calnor. As it stands, less than 1% of the population of both countries can speak both Calnoric and Elvish. There is only one elf capable of using High Elf magic, and the Evening Stars are very limited in number. Calnor just started accepting female guards in the past few years, and Lessa has barely begun to take strides to move its government to Haven.
Only the royal families are truly capable of interacting and speaking together, and the Translator’s Guild is already stretched past its limits. Heck–the human wizards and the elf enchanters can’t even communicate!
If the High Elves came back now, they’d slaughter them. Lack of communication is a huge deal–or the governments won’t be able to work together, much less the general populace.
So what— you may be thinking Then have everyone learn the language–it’s fixed! But my love of realism means it can’t work that way. The best way I can describe it is to say it’s like cars.
These new, open lines of communication, Fyn discovering she can use High Elf magic, Myth opening up new lines of trade, all of that is like the original Ford Model T car produced in the early 1900s. The model T was a huge leap forward for humanity as it was the first car built with the intention of being more widely available, but it had immense limitations and is excessively rudimentary if you compare it to something like one of the newest Tesla models from today.
Just like it took over a century of innovations to get from the Model T to the newest Tesla model, it’s going to take Lessa and Calnor a lot of time to be at a point where they can face the High Elves, and the trouble they bring with them. To begin with, Lessa and Calnor both need to be better versed with magic, with fighting together, and most importantly, they need the average citizens to be able to talk to each other. And none of that can change in a mere decade. As it is with my car example, it’s the kind of thing that takes generations to fix.
Looping this back to book 4, Accidental Enchantment will be the final nail in bringing humans and elves together, and it will loop back to the events of the first book as Blaise struggles to uncover the secrets of Nodusigm. It’s the culmination of bringing Lessa and Calnor together, and the hero and the heroine’s actions will have a lasting impact on both countries, and change the course of their future.
Whew! I hit you with some pretty heavy discussion topics there, Champion. Thanks for hanging in there with me! 😀 I still have one more Elves of Lessa themed post you can expect to see next week! Until then, thanks for reading!