Michael J. Sullivan hosts a Q&A discussion

Also, how did you go about building the magic in the books? Like, did you write out a magic system, or just kind of wing it as it was needed?

Great question. Magic and fantasy is very tricky thing...at least I think so. Because it can really upset the balance of things. There are many writers who construct great "magic systems," Like Brandon Sanderson did with metals in his Mistborn series or Brent Weeks with colors in his Lightbringer series.

I'm not really as sophisticated as them by any stretch of the imagination. I wanted there to be very little magic in my world so most of it has been lost to mankind when the first empire was destroyed. There are other races that have magic. In Calais the Tenkin have what can best be described as witch doctors and seers. And the elven empire has always been very adapt at magic. So the approach I took was to have very little interactions with those cultures.

In the series, the Tenkin show up primarily in The Emerald Storm (book 4 - which is the second story in Rise of Empire). As to the elves, that all happens in the last book, Percepliquis (book 6 - which is the second story in Heir of Novron).

As to mankind there are only a few people in my book who know magic. Esrahaddon - who is an ancient wizard of the original empire. The only reason he is alive is he was locked in a prison that suspended time for 1,000 years. He was very powerful "in his day" but I limited his magical abilities by having his hands cut off after his capture.

The only other magic user is Arista, who was a student of Esrahaddon's. Through most of the book she doesn't know how to do magic, and much of what she does is trial and error. Fear for "screwing up" keeps her from "trying to use it." For instance, during a battle she's afraid that she could loose as many men in her army as the enemies. Later she starts figuring it out more and then she could upset the balance...so again I had to put in checks and balances. In Arista's case it is the seduction of the power is very overwhelming so she only uses it when absolutely necessary, because each time she does there is a risk she may loose herself in the process.