So…Shifters!
When I started Sons of Britain, I thought it would be a realistic historical (as realistic as these things can be, anyway). That was my intention.
But the more I wrote shifter characters in my other series, the more possibilities I saw for any story involving them. I’d always intended to write historical shifters, but what I’d imagined was two parallel Viking-age series, one realistic and one paranormal. Then I thought, Maybe I should just write a single series, with shifters.
Then I peeked over at Sons of Britain and began to see a lot of seeds already sown in the books that could lead to the introduction of shifters: Arthur and Bedwyr’s connection to animal constellations, Gwalchmai’s name, Morien’s tendency to collect certain things, Safir’s affectionate nature.
There’s also a fitting precedent in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. As part of Arthur’s education, Merlin transforms him into a variety of animals to give him a better sense of the natural world. And of course there are all manner of fantastical creatures in the wider legend.
So I decided to go for it. From here on out, shifting capabilities will be integral to the stories of Arthur and his warriors in this series.
From a structure standpoint, this is the best book to introduce the characters to this aspect of their world. At the midpoint of any story arc—long or short—characters experience a context shift in which they discover something that changes their entire worldview. Because this discovery inspires them to take an irrevocable step forward (a threshold they can’t go back from), the context shift is the biggest pivot point between who they are at the beginning of their story and who they are at the end.
This book, the fifth of a planned nine, is the midpoint of the series and so was the perfect place for Arthur and his men to discover this aspect of their world and pivot them from their starting points as ordinary men to their end points as legends.
This decision may annoy readers who were counting on a realistic series. Maybe that reader is you. I understand, though I believe this turn is the best direction for the series and its characters. I’ll be revising my author’s note for Book 1 to remove any mention of a realistic intent. I hope you’ll give the rest of the books a chance, starting with Cai’s (Book 6), in which his animal form will play a big role in how he meets and initially connects with the man who will become his love interest.
Safir, Morien, and Diversity in Medieval Europe
Though I don’t appreciate a lot of elements introduced to Arthuriana in the 12th and 13th centuries, including some super shitty misogyny, I do appreciate the introductions of Sir Palamedes, Sir Safir, and Sir Morien, as they highlight the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of medieval Europe.
Morien was described as coming from “Moorish” lands, a term (like “Welsh”) assigned by outsiders and not necessarily owned by the people of those lands. In this series, Morien’s boyhood home was in the mountains of what is now north-central Morocco, near Tazekka National Park.
Safir and Palamedes were referred to in legend as Saracen, a term used by Christian writers in Europe’s middle ages to denote, variably, someone from Arabia Petraea (a former Roman province comprising parts of the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas) and/or a follower of Islam. The stories in the Sons of Britain series predate the lifetime and teachings of the prophet Muhammad, so the SoB characters use Saracen in reference to Safir and Palahmed’s boyhood homeland.
As with all the warriors and mercenaries in this series, I’ve left their personal deities and spiritual practices to your imagination. The only shape I’ve given them so far is that the men of Cymru and the north call on multiple gods, while Safir refers to only one, reflecting that he and Palahmed were raised in a monotheistic tradition. In my mind, however, every one of these men practices a faith he’s cobbled together over years of fighting, favoring only the bits and pieces he believes will help him survive from skirmish to skirmish, regardless of formal teachings.
Unfortunately, a faction exists who believe that Europe in the middle ages was populated solely by white people. Some folks have never questioned their assumptions, but others are more insidious, using this image of a lily-white Europe to prop up an ideology of white supremacy.
An all-white Europe was never the case, at any point in history, and we have a lot of evidence in literature and other art forms to support that fact—and celebrate it. I recommend especially the work of Twitter account @medievalpoc for any readers interested in experiencing artifacts surviving from Europe’s very diverse past.
~ Mia