Naomi G Rivkis asked Marie Brennan:

Do you know (even if Lady Trent won't ever have occasion to talk about it much) the religious history of your world, that led to a schism between pseudo-Jewish Sadducic and Pharisaic origins? Does it basically parallel the Catholic/Protestant schism in our world's Renaissance, or did it happen a different way and at a different time? Or did you never figure out the details, even in your own head?

Marie Brennan I never got super-specific, no. It does parallel the Catholic/Protestant schism, in the sense of being a split that's relatively recent (i.e. centuries ago instead of a millennium or more), and one that acts as a big divide between different countries in Anthiope; there were wars of religion between Magisterial forces and Bayitist ones, just as there were between Catholic and Protestant forces. There was someone along the lines of Martin Luther who lit the powder keg by publicly critiquing the corruption of the Bayitist Temple at the time. But I didn't ever decide what that person's name was or where they lived, exactly what century the schism really took fire, etc. Just as Lady Trent's own era is shaped like the Victorian period without paralleling any specific year and the events thereof, this has a similar shape, but would differ in the fine details.

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