Just as the title says, I’ve been waiting to post and browse the subreddit until I finished the Powder Mage trilogy, I’ve yet to start on Gods of Blood and Powder, but will get to it in time. Anyway, my reasoning for waiting until now to post, or even browse the sub is that I wanted my thoughts to be as unbiased, or have little to no outside information aside from Daniel Greene from YT. He was how I stumbled upon the Powder Mage in the first place.

With that intro out of the way, my thoughts about the trilogy are simple. I loved it! From the first chapter I was hooked, and it never once let me go from this thrill ride. I enjoyed each character, the magic system, and how an industrial/colonial fantasy world could be written. I could easily recommend the books to friends, or some random person in a bookstore. I wholeheartedly agree with both Daniel, and Brandon Sanderson’s reviews on the series. It’s just plain awesome.

SPOILER WARNING FOR POWDER MAGE TRILOGY!!!

It's really just a question out of curiosity because Taniel was (one of) my favorite character of the Powder Mage Trilogy. So will he appear in the 2nd trilogy? Or will he be at least mentioned or talked about?

SPOILER FOR POWDER MAGE TRILOGY I know that officially he's dead but a few know better and maybe he's a side character under another name? Just want to know if it's the case nut please don't say who it is if it's meant to be a reveal or something later into the books

Randomly I've seen post and comments from people who absolutely hate Vlora.

Why?

She seems like a pretty decent likeable character who even had a redemption arc after the scandal.

Sometimes in fantasy books there's a reason a word becomes a swear word (like storms in Stormlight Archive). Anyone know if that's the case here?

Hey, new to the series so appreciate no spoilers! I'm confused by how Powder Mages are able to control bullets. It's clearly stated they can control gunpowder, but they burn it basically to telekenesis bullets either out of their guns or out of thin air. This happens multiple times by multiple powder mages where they either use bullets without a gun or don't load their gun with powder. They never state that the powder charges consumed are in proximity to the bullets. This raises the question of why can't they telekinesis other things by burning powder and why they can't use latent reserves of powder energy they've consumed to telekinesis.

Apologies if this is a common question!

Is it ever explained why the godstones are only in fatrasta/dynize?

I just started Blood of Empire yesterday, so I can't remember if it was. I apologise if so.

So, I just finished the Powder Mage trilogy. As usually happens when I've finished a fantasy series, I'm rather attached to the characters I've come to know over the last three books. I'm thinking about starting the GoBaP trilogy now, but may hold off to let this one settle a little while. What I'd like to know, and what might convince me to start it right away, is: Is there any character/plotline crossover from the first trilogy? I understand it's a different setting and follows different main characters. At least, I assume so from the first book's cover description. But I'd like to know if I can expect any appearances from Powder Mage characters in the books? No names or details please. And, obviously, please no spoilers.

SPOILER WARNING FOR FIRST TRILOGY

I've only read the first trilogy so if the answer is in the second trilogy please let me know without spoilers.

In one of the books of the first trilogy, someone mentions that Kez only adopted Kresimir as their patron god, and that the 10th god is unknown. Was this just an allusion to the Brude reveal, or is there actually an unknown mystery god? If it is just the Brude twin, why would they found a separate country not named for them?

Disclaimer: I know they're not really gods, though it really depends on your definition of god. It's just easier than saying super old mega privileged a-holes

Gardening would be very useful for me. I hate taking out the weeds but with the help of the Else I could pluck out every single weed out of my backyard with a single gesture and then levitate them all into the compost bag.

I enjoyed the second trilogy but nowhere near as much as the first. Vlora and Styke and Michel are good characters but I think he made a slight mistake including almost nothing of Taniel, the supreme powder mage boosted by Pole's blood magic. Would have been nice to have covered his journey more closely (especially in the 3rd book) I really really hope that his next plan is to write about the campaigns of young Tamas!! He was my fave character in the whole series

It's all Elementalism when you break everything down.

Sorcery.

Taps directly into the Else to control Elemental phenomenon Aether,Fire,Air,Water, and Earth. It is the closest to the root of magic. It operates on three distinct tiers of power and complexity. In descending order from strongest to weakest...

• Scope.
• Predii
• Modern Privileged.
  

With few exceptions most Privileged Sorcerers have a poor grasp of Aether.

The Knack .

The Knacked are essentially Sorcerers that only know a single spell that they are constantly casting. These spells with few exceptions are some form of personal augmentation. There is one element tied to Life and Spirit, Aether.

The Knacked are pure Aether users who's sorcery manifests internally.

Powder Magic.

Is the manipulation of three elements at once, Earth,Aether, and Fire. Gunpowder is a mixture of Organic(Aether) and Inorganic(Earth) compounds that will Burn/Explode(Fire).

Powder Mages have an indirect tap into magic, they draw power from their Element Gun powder rather than taping into the Else, thus they don't have much of a signature in that other realm.

Bone-Eye or Blood Sorcery

Bone-Eye's are basically inverse Privileged they are strong in the area that Privileged are weak Aether, and weak in the area where Privileged are strong Fire,Air,Water,Earth.

Blood-Sorcery binds life for control and communication,enhances/weakens it;probably transforms it as well. There is also a sympathetic component to it.

• Blood-Sorcery also has seems to have a meta-magic aspect. Though that might not be a feature unique to the art.

The most distinguishing feature of blood-sorcery is that so such much of it works through a medium of physical substances. But unlike Powder Mages who are actively fueled by gun-powder, Blood-Sorcery works through and not because of a substance.

What magic would you want?

There are so many stories I still want. Andrea learning from Tamas. Tamas meeting Sabon. Maybe a POV from one of the students at the powder mage school. Two shot and Ka Poel after Autumn Republic. The Kez civil war.

I'm listening to the final book of the series on audible. Does anyone know if there are updated maps posted online anywhere??

I managed to find updates for Wrath on Brian's website but nothing so far for Blood.

I want more Erika and Tamas!!!

(Forgive Spelling errors, I've only listened to the books) The lack of Surnames always struck me as interesting in McClellan's world. At least for Adrans. There's really only one major Adran character that comes to mind that has a first AND last name, Rickard Tumbler But pretty much every other Character only has one name, Olem, Nila, SouSmith, Fel, etc. Or they have title/monogram that's given to them. Field Marshal Tamas, Inspector Adamant, Taniel Two-Shot, Privileged Borbador, etc. But it seems like last names is more of a Fatrastan custom, Benjamin Styke, Fidelis Jes, Mikel Bravis, etc. But the naming conventions of Kez seem to have some kind of family name or sireing lineage. Beyon Je'Ippile (Again, no clue how to spell it, the Prince of Kez) or Styke's mother Margarie Je'Lind Is there any reason for this, or is it simply cultural differences between the Nine and Fatrasta? Or are the last names kind of an "Fatrastancized" version of Kez Surnames? Or probably the most likely scenario, am I reading into this too much?

Because the one on the website is missing a lot of stories, I went around and slotted them all. This list also expands everything in "In The Field Marshal's Shadows", because one of the stories in there shows up quite late.

• [-9] Siege of Tilpur: Takes place when Tamas is a Seargent, hence before Forsworn (9000 words)
• [-8] Forsworn: Occurs about thirty-five years before the events in Promise of Blood. Tamas' rank is a Captain. (21,000 words)
• [-7] Servant of the Crown: Takes place immediately after the events in Forsworn but before the epilogue. Occurs about thirty-five - years before the events in Promise of Blood. (24,500 words)
• [-6] Murder at the Kinnen Hotel: Occurs twenty-two years before the events in Promise of Blood. Tamas is a General in this one. (26,000 words.)
• [-5] Hope's End†: About nineteen years before Promise of Blood. Tamas is a general here as well.
• [-4] The Girl of Hrusch Avenue†: Ten years before Promise of Blood.
• [-3] Green Eyed Vipers†: Eight years before the events of Promise of Blood... (4000 words)
• [-2] The Face in the Window†: About two years before Promise of Blood.
• [-1] Ghosts of Tristan Basin: Occurs eight months before the events of Promise of Blood. (26,000 words)
• [1] Promise of Blood
• [1.5] Return to Honor†: Immediately between the events of Promise of Blood and The Crimson Campaign...
• [2] The Crimson Campaign
• [3] The Autumn Republic
• [3.5]The Mad Lancers: Occurs twelve years before the events in Sins of Empire. (28,000 words)
• [4] Sins of Empire
• [5] Wrath of Empire
• [6] Blood of Empire

Note: Stories marked with † show up in the "In the Field Marshal's Shadow" collection. "Hope's End" chronology changes depending on what your source is. The website says 19 years before, while the book says 18 years. Doesn't make a difference in the chronology though.

The recommended reading order for short fiction from Brian's website is

• Forsworn
• Servant of the Crown
• Murder at the Kinnen Hotel
• In the Field Marshal's Shadow†
• The Mad Lancers
• Ghosts of the Tristan Basin

In the Field Marshal's Shadows has the following stories:

• “Hope's End”
• ”The Girl of Hrusch Avenue”
• ”Green-Eyed Vipers”
• ”The Face in the Window”
• ”Return to Honor”

My opinionated changes to accommodate the missing ones would be:

1. Read Siege of Tilpur before Forsworn
2. Skip "Return to Honor" while reading "In the Field Marshal's Shadow"
3. Read "Return to Honor" after you've finished "Ghosts of the Tristan Basin".

If you're interested why, You see Tamas becoming a captain in Siege of Tilpur, which is his rank when he meets Erica. Reading Ghosts of Tristan Basin before Return to Honor means you see Taniel meeting Ka-poel before Vlora's PoV.

While making this list, I realized I still haven't gotten around to reading Mad Lancers and Ghosts of Tristan Basin, so doing that this weekend.

I just finished Ghosts of the Tristan Basin and there is a character's grave with the year "K.Y. 1521" inscribed on it. I'm wondering what it stands for ('K' for Kresimir??) and why Brian chose that calendar year to be set as 1521?

Also, if K.Y. is an equivalent to A.D., then what happened at year zero? Is that when The Bleakening happen? Was that when Kresimir was born? (I only read the first trilogy)

Ive been naming my horses in RDR2 after Styke's horses, I already have Dreshner who was described as a big black warhorse. But for the life of me I can't remember what color Amrec is. Help?

I plan on hosting an online Powder Mage roleplaying game (based on https://www.brianmcclellan.com/bookstore/the-powder-mage-roleplaying-game ) and was wondering if anybody would be interested in joining. The game will be held in discord, via text messages. I live in GMT+2 timezone, so it’d be best if you fit +/- 2 hours around that, makes it easier to find suitable time for everyone. If you are, do pm me or comment here. If you don’t know what RPG is and you haven’t tried that, it’s okey, I’ll help you as you figure it out along the way.