Elisha Mancer Launch Day! With footnotes. . .
Elisha Mancer, Book 4 of The Dark Apostle, is now available in bookstores everywhere! And you can find sample chapters for this, and all of the books in the series, at TheDarkApostle.com When you love it, you can click through and buy the book.
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cover of Elisha Mancer, by the amazing Cliff Nielsen
As you may know, this blog exists in part to serve as the footnotes and research comments for my historical fantasy novels. Herewith, are the “notes” for this volume. I don’t think any of them contain direct spoilers, but they do serve as some indicators of the historical goodies that influence the plot. If you are concerned about spoilers, you may wish to go read the book, then return here for more juicy details.
I hope you enjoy this introduction to the settings, characters and events from history that find their way into Elisha Mancer.
This book takes place all over Europe, including Heidelberg and Trier, Germany. With references to some cool medieval technology like the Kranen, and a visit to one of Bavaria’s salt mines. There’s also a stop in Koln, to visit the Bones of the Magi because, let’s face it, I couldn’t pass that up. But there was at least one great city, Aachen, I planned to use and never did.
My visit to Aachen did help me to learn more about the Holy Roman Empire, and its two emperors during my period, Charles IV and Louis the Bavarian (whom I have called Ludwig to distinguish him from the numerous other Louis in the area. . .) Succession was often a problem, and not always, as many believe, based on primogeniture.
This book also introduces one of the Great Characters of the Middle Ages, Cola Di Rienzo, the madman who ruled Rome.
He could rule Rome because the pope wasn’t there–but kept planning to return. The church retained a lot of power, internationally, and at its heart in Rome itself, due, in large measure, to the holy relics found there.
and this volume brings 1347 to a close, with a world-tour you may already be expecting. But there is still one more volume to go. . .
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Thanks for reading! I found a couple of different period spellings for Cola's name, and this is the one we went with. It's one of the difficulties of the historical period, when spelling was not standardized, and depending on whose reference you rely on, the same individual may have a couple of different spellings. In some cases, I used a variant name to avoid confusion in an era when many people had the same name, like Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig, who is more commonly referred to as Louis, a name he shares with a wide variety of noblemen in the era, one of whom also invaded Italy. . .
...we are also hoping for more Thomas time in the next book!!