Here’s a problem nobody talks about.
Most historical fantasy is just modern characters wearing period clothing. They speak like us. They think like us. They have the same moral instincts we do (e.g. “slavery is bad!”). And the moment that happens, the illusion collapses.
The reason it keeps happening is that writing a character with a genuinely foreign psychology is hard. The Janissaries in Brotherhood of the Wolf are elite slave soldiers. That means they are Christian boys taken from the Balkans as children, converted to Islam, raised as the Sultan’s warriors. They don’t want to escape. They don’t dream of “freedom”. They think like products of the devshirme system, because that’s what they are. Getting that right required serious research. Most writers don’t bother.
We bothered.
Practically speaking, we took the Ninja Turtles and dropped them into The Witcher. So you get a tight crew, brutal world, magic built on Islamic mysticism and some Balkan folklore. The villain they’re building toward is Dracula. Not the Bram Stoker version but the historical one.
If you’ve read this far, you already know whether this is for you.
The Blood Tax arc is available now. Most readers who pick up the Collector’s Bundle (both physical issues plus the False Light novella for $28.98) say the novella is what made them fully commit to the series.
https://talesofkhayr.com/blood-tax/
One more thing.
If someone came to mind while you were reading this: maybe a Witcher fan, maybe a history buff, maybe someone who’s complained about lazy fantasy writing…trust that instinct. Forward them this email.
They’ll know immediately if it’s for them.
-Wes