The human settlements within the Blighted Lands are nightmarish. Necromancers don’t need anything beyond magic and life force, so they rarely bother to encourage farmers to grow crops or craftsmen to produce much of anything. The settlements are more like plantations, with a goal of producing as many humans as possible. The inhabitants are effectively slaves, forbidden from leaving and striking out on their own (although the dangers surrounding the settlements are often enough to keep the inhabitants in place without fences and chains). Each settlement has a headman, who serves as liaison between the inhabitants and the local necromancer, and thugs, who serve as basic enforcers. (They often have some magic, although never enough to threaten the necromancer.) The arrangement is permanently unstable, if only because the necromancers are dangerously insane. A headman can be killed at a moment’s notice on a whim or if he angers his master (regardless of how well he serves). Accordingly, none of the settlements are nice places to live... but some are worse than others.
The necromancers themselves have no formal structure. They do not ally with each other, save for a handful of very rare alliances that don’t last beyond one partner seeing advantage in betraying the other. Their society, such as it is, is ruled by force and force alone. A newcomer who overthrows a necromancer and takes his place is, insofar as the rest of the necromancers are concerned, the legitimate ruler. The smarter necromancers realize that fighting another necromancer is often dangerous - the loser will be dead, the winner will be so weakened that a third necromancer could jump him - but, given the nature of necromancy, it can be difficult to avoid a challenge.
The Blighted Lands do not have any formal relationships with outside powers, diplomatic or otherwise. The necromancers simply do not have the long-term focus to try to build relationships, even if they wanted to. There is very little trade between the Blighted Lands and the Allied Lands, almost all of it thoroughly illegal. A handful of merchants do move back and forth, at severe risk of their lives (particularly if they’re caught trafficking in illicit substances or simply anger a necromancer). Refugees are not unknown, but given the dangers of travel and the difficult terrain, rarely seen.
Author’s Note
Before I wrote this book and its immediate predecessor, I wrote Gennady’s Tale and Nanette’s Tale (both of which are referenced within this book) for the first and second Fantastic Schools anthologies. It was our intention that both of the collections would be published before Oathkeeper. As it happened, Fantastic Schools I was only recently released and Fantastic Schools II may only be out after this book. They are not particularly germane to the plot, but they do fill in background details.
Please check those stories out - and the works of other authors on the same theme - by searching for Fantastic Schools online.
CGN, 2020.
About the author
Christopher G. Nuttall was born in Edinburgh, studied in Manchester, married in Malaysia and currently living in Scotland, United Kingdom with his wife and two sons. He is the author of more than thirty novels from various publishers and over fifty self-published novels.
Current and forthcoming titles published by Twilight Times Books:
Schooled in Magic YA fantasy series
Schooled in Magic — book 1
Lessons in Etiquette — book 2
A Study in Slaughter — book 3
Work Experience — book 4
The School of Hard Knocks — book 5
Love’s Labor’s Won — book 6
Trial By Fire — book 7
Wedding Hells — book 8
Infinite Regress — book 9
Past Tense — book 10
The Sergeant’s Apprentice — book 11
Fists of Justice – book 12
The Gordian Knot – book 13
Graduation Day – book 14
Alassa’s Tale – book 14.5
The Princess in the Tower – book 15
The Broken Throne – book 16
Cursed – book 17
Mirror Image – book 18
The Artful Apprentice – book 19
Oathkeeper – book 20
The Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire military SF series
Barbarians at the Gates — book 1
The Shadow of Cincinnatus — book 2
The Barbarian Bride — book 3
Chris has also produced The Empire’s Corps series, the Outside Context Problem series and many others. He is also responsible for two fan-made Posleen novels, both set in John Ringo’s famous Posleen universe. They can both be downloaded from his site.
Website: http://www.chrishanger.net/
Blog: http://chrishanger.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherGNuttall
Oathkeeper (Schooled in Magic Book 20) Page 38
