Ask the Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Answered Questions (1483)
Lois McMaster Bujold
The actual answers to most of your questions are "not developed yet". Applying a bit of off-the-cuff logic, it does seem probable that any unhatched malices would be killed by another's blight. When blight recovers, it spawns no more malices, so that notion is supported. By the same logic, the Great Blight would indeed be malice-free once it recovers, whenever. Not a fast process.
Ta, L.
The actual answers to most of your questions are "not developed yet". Applying a bit of off-the-cuff logic, it does seem probable that any unhatched malices would be killed by another's blight. When blight recovers, it spawns no more malices, so that notion is supported. By the same logic, the Great Blight would indeed be malice-free once it recovers, whenever. Not a fast process.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've a notion there are survivors beyond the Great Blight and whatever lies athwart it, on the west coast. Some farmer navigator will discover it someday, circling the south coast. No, I don't know anything more than that.
The logical options for other continents are: fully blighted, slowly recovering but unpeopled; partly blighted, and fighting by some means magically related to what we've seen; or unblighted or fully cleaned, peopled, and keeping all other continents in quarantine. Or, some of each.
(When a malice had fully blighted its bounded region, a continent at the largest, but also possibly a closed circle or wall of other blight and, say, seacoast, it will die of starvation.)
I have a very dim memory of some reference to other continents on old maps somewhere in the tetralogy, but I couldn't for the life of me find it now.
Ta, L.
I've a notion there are survivors beyond the Great Blight and whatever lies athwart it, on the west coast. Some farmer navigator will discover it someday, circling the south coast. No, I don't know anything more than that.
The logical options for other continents are: fully blighted, slowly recovering but unpeopled; partly blighted, and fighting by some means magically related to what we've seen; or unblighted or fully cleaned, peopled, and keeping all other continents in quarantine. Or, some of each.
(When a malice had fully blighted its bounded region, a continent at the largest, but also possibly a closed circle or wall of other blight and, say, seacoast, it will die of starvation.)
I have a very dim memory of some reference to other continents on old maps somewhere in the tetralogy, but I couldn't for the life of me find it now.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Making it up as I go, of course. Yes, some Father's saints are canonically able to detect lies, and some Mother's saints to do healing. Other abilities not yet specified. Cazaril, Ista, and Umegat you've met. Cazaril was a full-on saint of the Daughter of Spring, with a boost from the Bastard. Note in this world being a saint, i.e., channeling a god, is a temporary job not necessarily a permanent identity.
That poor shaman who got buried under the rockfall in "Penric and the Shaman" was probably as close to being a saint of the Son of Autumn as it's possible to get.
Ta, L.
Making it up as I go, of course. Yes, some Father's saints are canonically able to detect lies, and some Mother's saints to do healing. Other abilities not yet specified. Cazaril, Ista, and Umegat you've met. Cazaril was a full-on saint of the Daughter of Spring, with a boost from the Bastard. Note in this world being a saint, i.e., channeling a god, is a temporary job not necessarily a permanent identity.
That poor shaman who got buried under the rockfall in "Penric and the Shaman" was probably as close to being a saint of the Son of Autumn as it's possible to get.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not developed yet.
New developments are constrained, of course, by not contradicting prior ones. One way to sneak something new in might be to set it in a location the stories have not yet visited, of which there are potentially many.
I'd really love to have 5-gods-India Temple dancers, for example, but have never settled where to put an India analogue. Or a China one. Northern hemisphere, land mass quite disconnected from the southern cod-Europe, probably -- I very much fancy a very off-course and storm battered Chinese Imperial fleet limping into Visping Harbor about 1491-equivalent. Extra points if it is commanded by an eunuch admiral. So much xianxia tosteal be inspired by...
5GU Lithuania and points east are another possibility for interesting local magics. And the steppe lands also to the east, already established as existing, and contiguous -- lots of interesting early Church histories to draw on there, as the Greek church missionaries penetrated Rus, less well-known than the war/conquest histories of the region.
Many possibilities, no decisions. A story must pass through it for a setting to be generated. And I really can't make up stories in advance of making up stories.
Ta, L.
Not developed yet.
New developments are constrained, of course, by not contradicting prior ones. One way to sneak something new in might be to set it in a location the stories have not yet visited, of which there are potentially many.
I'd really love to have 5-gods-India Temple dancers, for example, but have never settled where to put an India analogue. Or a China one. Northern hemisphere, land mass quite disconnected from the southern cod-Europe, probably -- I very much fancy a very off-course and storm battered Chinese Imperial fleet limping into Visping Harbor about 1491-equivalent. Extra points if it is commanded by an eunuch admiral. So much xianxia to
5GU Lithuania and points east are another possibility for interesting local magics. And the steppe lands also to the east, already established as existing, and contiguous -- lots of interesting early Church histories to draw on there, as the Greek church missionaries penetrated Rus, less well-known than the war/conquest histories of the region.
Many possibilities, no decisions. A story must pass through it for a setting to be generated. And I really can't make up stories in advance of making up stories.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
My young-Midwesterner-dragged-to-church background has been supplemented by a lifetime of assorted reading, and now online Great Courses. After a whole bunch of church history from Roman and medieval European times, a surface acquaintance with Buddhism and Shinto, tiny bit on Hinduism, Chinese mythology which is in a class by itself. Ancient Egyptian gets a lot of coverage if one watches archeology programs. Pre-Christian Saxon/Germanic religions are, or were, hard to find much on back when I was researching _The Hallowed Hunt_; access may have improved since then. Other bits and bobs along the way.
I've done some reading of the writings of genuine mystics, most memorably (my memory is a sieve these days) St. Augustine and Thomas Merton, and a few deep meditative practices outside of the Christian sphere. What struck me most was their commonality, as if all were zeroing in on the same underlying thing, even if it was just the 60-cycle hum of their own biology.
When first setting up the 5 gods, it was not planned in advance, but rather, something I felt my way into as I wrote _The Curse of Chalion_. A few things I figured out very early on. I wanted a structure that resisted dualism, the easy good/evil divide that has caused so much trouble through history. Hence 5, a prime that can't be evenly divided, though of course humans being perverse like we are we immediately got dualism again with the Quadrene heresy.
Lots of fives in biology -- fingers, senses, some flowers, and on. It's very natural.
Another major initial reversal was that the 5 are not creator gods, but arise out of the workings of matter like everything else, a sort of World Overmind. They are inside time, and they _evolve_. They are thus neither omniscient nor omnipotent -- but the term omnisentient seems very apt.
Emergent properties were also much on my mind, talking of things that resist dualism. The mind-body or body/spirit problem, and all its logical snarls, drops away when body and mind are all part of the same thing. Take the fundamental structure of the universe, from which emerges physics, from which emerges chemistry, from which emerges biology, then brains, then consciousness -- take it up one fantasy step farther, and you can get plausible gods emerging. Endow them as well with perfect memories as well as perfect perceptions of Their pasts, and all pasts, and something pretty impressive... emerges.
Also, for life after death, the 5 are the only game in town.
A whole lot of the structural underpinnings of all this are drawn from biology, if you want another clue card. Because we are all biological organisms -- another only-game-in-town.
Many thoughts too on entropy, and how life temporarily resists it by, as someone put it, "climbing up the mast of a sinking ship". This comes out most in the magic.
Also, don't forget Narrative Constraints.
I talk about all this stuff scattered through many many interviews -- no way to auto-collate, I'm afraid, but there's this: https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...
But I will certainly never be writing a textbook on all this invention -- I'd much rather spend my limited creative energy writing more fiction. (And I suspect you'd rather it, too.)
Ta, L.
My young-Midwesterner-dragged-to-church background has been supplemented by a lifetime of assorted reading, and now online Great Courses. After a whole bunch of church history from Roman and medieval European times, a surface acquaintance with Buddhism and Shinto, tiny bit on Hinduism, Chinese mythology which is in a class by itself. Ancient Egyptian gets a lot of coverage if one watches archeology programs. Pre-Christian Saxon/Germanic religions are, or were, hard to find much on back when I was researching _The Hallowed Hunt_; access may have improved since then. Other bits and bobs along the way.
I've done some reading of the writings of genuine mystics, most memorably (my memory is a sieve these days) St. Augustine and Thomas Merton, and a few deep meditative practices outside of the Christian sphere. What struck me most was their commonality, as if all were zeroing in on the same underlying thing, even if it was just the 60-cycle hum of their own biology.
When first setting up the 5 gods, it was not planned in advance, but rather, something I felt my way into as I wrote _The Curse of Chalion_. A few things I figured out very early on. I wanted a structure that resisted dualism, the easy good/evil divide that has caused so much trouble through history. Hence 5, a prime that can't be evenly divided, though of course humans being perverse like we are we immediately got dualism again with the Quadrene heresy.
Lots of fives in biology -- fingers, senses, some flowers, and on. It's very natural.
Another major initial reversal was that the 5 are not creator gods, but arise out of the workings of matter like everything else, a sort of World Overmind. They are inside time, and they _evolve_. They are thus neither omniscient nor omnipotent -- but the term omnisentient seems very apt.
Emergent properties were also much on my mind, talking of things that resist dualism. The mind-body or body/spirit problem, and all its logical snarls, drops away when body and mind are all part of the same thing. Take the fundamental structure of the universe, from which emerges physics, from which emerges chemistry, from which emerges biology, then brains, then consciousness -- take it up one fantasy step farther, and you can get plausible gods emerging. Endow them as well with perfect memories as well as perfect perceptions of Their pasts, and all pasts, and something pretty impressive... emerges.
Also, for life after death, the 5 are the only game in town.
A whole lot of the structural underpinnings of all this are drawn from biology, if you want another clue card. Because we are all biological organisms -- another only-game-in-town.
Many thoughts too on entropy, and how life temporarily resists it by, as someone put it, "climbing up the mast of a sinking ship". This comes out most in the magic.
Also, don't forget Narrative Constraints.
I talk about all this stuff scattered through many many interviews -- no way to auto-collate, I'm afraid, but there's this: https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...
But I will certainly never be writing a textbook on all this invention -- I'd much rather spend my limited creative energy writing more fiction. (And I suspect you'd rather it, too.)
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, demonic possession is a very old idea, both in fantasy as a reading genre, and in traditional folklore and (some) religion. In the World of the Five Gods, I'm just doing my own very different take upon the idea, because the underlying theology is so different from that of historical Europe, or indeed from any other real-world religion I've yet read about.
I explore my own construction in much greater depth in the Penric & Desdemona series, starting with the novella "Penric's Demon", if you've not got to that yet. (Show don't tell 'n all that.)
Ta, L.
Well, demonic possession is a very old idea, both in fantasy as a reading genre, and in traditional folklore and (some) religion. In the World of the Five Gods, I'm just doing my own very different take upon the idea, because the underlying theology is so different from that of historical Europe, or indeed from any other real-world religion I've yet read about.
I explore my own construction in much greater depth in the Penric & Desdemona series, starting with the novella "Penric's Demon", if you've not got to that yet. (Show don't tell 'n all that.)
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
"Penric and the Demonic Ox" has been offered to Subterranean for their usual limited edition hardcover; I'll make a blog post if/when we get a contract. (As of this moment, August 2025, Blackstone Audio already has it in their production pipeline, release planned for October.)
I'm presently considering whether to put the remaining Pen & Des stories into my own print-on-demand collections. Much will depend on how the upcoming _Two Tales_, the little collection of stray Vorkosiverse novellas, does when we finally get it out via the Ingram's program, through which we've already done "Knife Children" and _The Spirit Ring_.
There are doubtless publishers who would take the remaining potential collections, but apart from the sales volume problem, they all want e-rights, which I'd be an economic idiot to give up. I do like the flexibility of the ala carte e-publication, that make dropping in prequel tales much less of an issue.
Ta, L.
"Penric and the Demonic Ox" has been offered to Subterranean for their usual limited edition hardcover; I'll make a blog post if/when we get a contract. (As of this moment, August 2025, Blackstone Audio already has it in their production pipeline, release planned for October.)
I'm presently considering whether to put the remaining Pen & Des stories into my own print-on-demand collections. Much will depend on how the upcoming _Two Tales_, the little collection of stray Vorkosiverse novellas, does when we finally get it out via the Ingram's program, through which we've already done "Knife Children" and _The Spirit Ring_.
There are doubtless publishers who would take the remaining potential collections, but apart from the sales volume problem, they all want e-rights, which I'd be an economic idiot to give up. I do like the flexibility of the ala carte e-publication, that make dropping in prequel tales much less of an issue.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No.
The demons are a controlled leakage from the Bastard's hell, or hand, to balance the life in the world between the cold death of ice (stasis) and the hot death of fire (chaos.) Too much of either is bad.
The underpinnings of this theology _really_ are not based upon that of our Earth historical religions, and trying to draw 1:1 parallels between them will frequently go awry. (Though given the wild variety of human-devised religions through history, I am willing to be better advised.)
All information being lost, the source of one blob of chaos is not distinguishable from any other blob of chaos -- soul-plasma as it were, or quark soup. Entirely interchangeable.
Ta, L.
No.
The demons are a controlled leakage from the Bastard's hell, or hand, to balance the life in the world between the cold death of ice (stasis) and the hot death of fire (chaos.) Too much of either is bad.
The underpinnings of this theology _really_ are not based upon that of our Earth historical religions, and trying to draw 1:1 parallels between them will frequently go awry. (Though given the wild variety of human-devised religions through history, I am willing to be better advised.)
All information being lost, the source of one blob of chaos is not distinguishable from any other blob of chaos -- soul-plasma as it were, or quark soup. Entirely interchangeable.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Wonderful!
I recently received through my agent a scan of the cover, which I thought quite good. I figured to post it on my blog closer to the pub date -- do you know when that is? With luck all around, the Ukrainian publisher plans to follow it up with Barrayar.
bests, Lois.
Wonderful!
I recently received through my agent a scan of the cover, which I thought quite good. I figured to post it on my blog closer to the pub date -- do you know when that is? With luck all around, the Ukrainian publisher plans to follow it up with Barrayar.
bests, Lois.
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is similar to the question you just asked, but since Goodreads randomly sorts the Q&A, unless you select newest-first, I'd better repeat the relevant parts of the answer here.
To quote myself: "The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into Themselves to become part of Themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)
Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.
No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. ... Note that this [sorting] is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into."
"Punishment" is something humans do, sometimes with good reason to protect their communities. They project this style of thinking onto their god/s; possibly that's where the Father of Winter has acquired His bias in a more literal fashion.
Which makes the evolution/differentiation of the gods a somewhat circular process, each self-selecting souls to become more Themselves over time.
Ta, L.
This is similar to the question you just asked, but since Goodreads randomly sorts the Q&A, unless you select newest-first, I'd better repeat the relevant parts of the answer here.
To quote myself: "The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into Themselves to become part of Themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)
Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.
No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. ... Note that this [sorting] is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into."
"Punishment" is something humans do, sometimes with good reason to protect their communities. They project this style of thinking onto their god/s; possibly that's where the Father of Winter has acquired His bias in a more literal fashion.
Which makes the evolution/differentiation of the gods a somewhat circular process, each self-selecting souls to become more Themselves over time.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Bastard's Hell is simply insta-sundering, a soul boiled down to chaos, all information lost. Humans for whom this does not seem revenge enough make up more artistic interpretations to tell each other, for consolation or threat, but that's not from the gods.
The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into themselves to become part of themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)
Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.
No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. It follows that most souls taken in the death miracle are such toxic persons. (It's technically possible for both souls to be insta-sundered, or rendered, and also for both to be sorted to gods who want them, but far more often the supplicant-soul just goes on to unite with the Bastard like any other of His portion, and the target-soul is boiled down.) Note that this is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into.
As for "how many", you are asking me to decide how many people there are or ever have been in this world, and make a god's eye taste-test of each, which seems too large as task before my second cup of tea.
(If you are asking "what proportion", the taste-test problem still applies. But the gods do try not to waste their food.)
Ta, L.
The Bastard's Hell is simply insta-sundering, a soul boiled down to chaos, all information lost. Humans for whom this does not seem revenge enough make up more artistic interpretations to tell each other, for consolation or threat, but that's not from the gods.
The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into themselves to become part of themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)
Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.
No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. It follows that most souls taken in the death miracle are such toxic persons. (It's technically possible for both souls to be insta-sundered, or rendered, and also for both to be sorted to gods who want them, but far more often the supplicant-soul just goes on to unite with the Bastard like any other of His portion, and the target-soul is boiled down.) Note that this is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into.
As for "how many", you are asking me to decide how many people there are or ever have been in this world, and make a god's eye taste-test of each, which seems too large as task before my second cup of tea.
(If you are asking "what proportion", the taste-test problem still applies. But the gods do try not to waste their food.)
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, parasitizing my blog is a pretty smarmy way to try.
If this is actually a serious question, you'd do better to Ask Google. I'm sure you could get about 10,000 answers.
None of which will be "write books good enough that readers will recommend them to each other", which is the only way I've found that works over time. (Also the only way that will continue to work after one is dead, I reflect.)
Ta, L.
Well, parasitizing my blog is a pretty smarmy way to try.
If this is actually a serious question, you'd do better to Ask Google. I'm sure you could get about 10,000 answers.
None of which will be "write books good enough that readers will recommend them to each other", which is the only way I've found that works over time. (Also the only way that will continue to work after one is dead, I reflect.)
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
It varies with the demon. With one that's transferring from another human, as long as it takes to "put down roots" in its new host.
With a new elemental, a little can depend on the intelligence of the animal from which it came, and how deeply that was imprinted. Weeks or months, typically, to begin talking, longer to gain fluency.
Atto is a peculiar case, in that it, for all practical purposes, never had any host but Otta, and so can hardly be differentiated from her. The two are so nearly one as to be conjoined. That will of course change on the next transfer.
Ta, L.
It varies with the demon. With one that's transferring from another human, as long as it takes to "put down roots" in its new host.
With a new elemental, a little can depend on the intelligence of the animal from which it came, and how deeply that was imprinted. Weeks or months, typically, to begin talking, longer to gain fluency.
Atto is a peculiar case, in that it, for all practical purposes, never had any host but Otta, and so can hardly be differentiated from her. The two are so nearly one as to be conjoined. That will of course change on the next transfer.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Accidentally on purpose. I can't recall if I'd been thinking about Wyn's future when I wrote that passage, but I already had it in mind from very early in my thoughts about Pen's and Nikys's future children. Before I had any ideas for Rina, or Otta was even thought of.
Ta, L.
Ta, L.
Accidentally on purpose. I can't recall if I'd been thinking about Wyn's future when I wrote that passage, but I already had it in mind from very early in my thoughts about Pen's and Nikys's future children. Before I had any ideas for Rina, or Otta was even thought of.
Ta, L.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, my agent and I have been trying for years to get that typo corrected. Amazon Help, which isn't, keeps sending us around in circles. I can't correct it because I wasn't the originator-of-record of the placement, and am not allowed; my agent can't because of some other argle-barge about content-versus-label, and Amazon won't, at either of our requests. Very frustrating.
It's strictly a Kindle problem, not any of our other vendors.
Gnash, L.
It's strictly a Kindle problem, not any of our other vendors.
Gnash, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I imagine if one of their Favorites is causing that much carnage, he will shortly become unfavorite. See: the eventual fate of the Golden General.
The gods are omnisentient, though perhaps not omniscient (and certainly not omnipotent) as they are inside time. There is nothing alive that They do not know, inside and out, all at once, all the time.
Ta, L.
I imagine if one of their Favorites is causing that much carnage, he will shortly become unfavorite. See: the eventual fate of the Golden General.
The gods are omnisentient, though perhaps not omniscient (and certainly not omnipotent) as they are inside time. There is nothing alive that They do not know, inside and out, all at once, all the time.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can only definitively answer the last of these -- yes, the gods can communicate with each other. Doubtless in ways and depths humans can barely understand.
Technically, what regulates the number of deaths the gods receive is the number of births. Strict 1:1 ratio, at all times and in all places. Nothing ever changes that.
Ta, L.
I can only definitively answer the last of these -- yes, the gods can communicate with each other. Doubtless in ways and depths humans can barely understand.
Technically, what regulates the number of deaths the gods receive is the number of births. Strict 1:1 ratio, at all times and in all places. Nothing ever changes that.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Wonderful to hear!
Ta, L.
Wonderful to hear!
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
There are indeed large farmer towns, but not yet up to the size of what we consider cities. 20k would be at the top of the range. 10k - 20k, probably several.
Lakewalker encampments have smaller upper limits, due to food economics, plus the perpetual drain of fielding patrols, tho' I expect the sessile ones in the south will be growing beyond that.
Ta, L.
There are indeed large farmer towns, but not yet up to the size of what we consider cities. 20k would be at the top of the range. 10k - 20k, probably several.
Lakewalker encampments have smaller upper limits, due to food economics, plus the perpetual drain of fielding patrols, tho' I expect the sessile ones in the south will be growing beyond that.
Ta, L.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep. The answer to the problem is a saint, unhappily for the demon.
Joen's demon, from Paladin of Souls, might be an example of what happens when such a demon manages to avoid any saint for too long. See also, Tigney.
Ta, L.
Joen's demon, from Paladin of Souls, might be an example of what happens when such a demon manages to avoid any saint for too long. See also, Tigney.
Ta, L.
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