RAPID FIRE: William King Talks The Tyrion and Teclis Omnibus

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

For this instalment I spoke to legendary Black Library author William King about the latest Warhammer Chronicles release, The Tyrion and Teclis Omnibus – which collects together his classic novels Blood of Aenarion, Sword of Caledor and Bane of Malekith. Read on to delve back into the earlier days of the High Elves in the Warhammer Old World, and then don’t forget to go out and grab your copy of the book, as it’s available to order right now.

Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for your Tyrion and Teclis series?

William King: It’s the story of how two elvish brothers came to be great heroes in the Old Warhammer world.

ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?

WK: Tyrion and Teclis are twin brothers, one a warrior, one a wizard, born in Ulthuan into the elvish nobility, descendants of the first Phoenix King Aenarion and thus blood relations of Malekith, the Witch King of Naggaroth. They become great champions of their people as the world descends into darkness and chaos.

ToW: Where and when do these stories take place?

WK: Mostly they are set on Ulthuan, the island continent of the High Elves a few centuries before what used to be the main continuity in the Old (Warhammer) World, but we also get flashbacks to the time of Aenarion, the creation of the Vortex in the apocalyptic dawn ages. They cover the Dark Elf Invasion of Ulthuan in some detail.

ToW: Are there particular themes running across all of the books that readers can expect to see when reading this series?

WK: The way ancient events play out into the modern world. The Elves are still living with the consequences of the deeds of Aenarion, Morathi and Caledor ages after they occurred. The struggle with Chaos is also foregrounded along with the elvish civil war.

ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend readers check out before reading these books?

WK: Maybe the Old High Elf army books but if I’ve done my job properly you should be able to understand what’s going on without reading them. I hope the lore is woven in seamlessly. If people are really interested in how the books were written (and incredibly patient!) I wrote a bunch of blog posts about writing the first book and about the characters in it and my thoughts on the subject. You can find them here:

• Writing Blood of Aenarion Part One
• Writing Blood of Aenarion Part Two
• Writing Blood of Aenarion Part Three
• Writing Blood of Aenarion Part Four
• Aenarion
• Tyrion
• Malekith
• Morathi
• N’Kari
• High Elves, Dark Elves, All Elves

ToW: Can you recommend any other Warhammer novels to read after this series?

WK: Graham McNeil wrote a pair of great novels set among the High Elves: Defenders of Ulthuan and Sons of Ellyrion. Gav Thorpe did a great job with Malekith in the book of the same name.

ToW: Why these stories? What made you want to write these in particular?

WK: Where to start! I was a minion in the old GW Design Studio when the original Tyrion and Teclis figures were created, and I worked on the background of the original High Elf army books dealing with Ulthuan and the epic events that occurred there. It was an absolute pleasure to get to grips with the twins again and some of the other giants of elvish history such as Aenarion, Morathi, Malekith and Caledor.

ToW: What were your main influences when writing these stories?

WK: Jes Goodwin’s notes on Ulthuan from working on the original High Elf book. Jes had a very clear vision of who the twins were, of how Tyrion used a lot of solar imagery and Teclis used lunar imagery. I used a lot of this when writing about the two. As for the literary influences, it’s the usual suspects – Michael Moorcock, Robert E Howard and Tolkien.

ToW: How do you feel the series as a whole fits together? Did your vision for the whole thing change at all over the course of writing all of the books?

WK: The structure is a bit odd since it covers a couple of centuries, from the period when Tyrion and Teclis were just kids to their roles in the great war with the Dark Elves.

ToW: How does this series compare to the rest of your work? Is it a familiar style, or a departure?

WK: These three books are more epic/high fantasy than the stuff I normally write. Gotrek and Felix or my Kormak books are sword and sorcery.

ToW: Were there aspects of Tyrion and Teclis’ story that you had hoped to continue and write more about?

WK: I can’t think of any of the top of my head. I was very happy with the way these books turned out.

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Thanks so much to Bill for taking the time to answer these questions. I can’t wait to read more about these characters (I always loved the High Elves), and I hope this has inspired you to check out these great books.

Click here to buy The Tyrion and Teclis Omnibus.

Click here if you fancy taking a look at some other Rapid Fire interviews. If you’ve got any questions, comments or other thoughts please do let me know in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.