The Hillfolk
Ever since I read The Grim Gray Hills, which I admire and envy, because I want to be able to harrow readers like this - it begins This is what it means, to be a noble in the Hill Country: you are a traitor to your people. - I’ve started twitching every time a Tortall book mentions the Hill Country. I am all “It is the hillfolk, the conquered and
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Also, do you recalls if there's any internal evidence in the Tortall canon about whether the current Hill nobles are the descendants of Hillfolk who sided with the Tortallan invaders, or the descendants of Tortallan knights installed by Jasson? Either could be plausible, and either would make a good story, but if we have definite evidence for one of the other I don't want to contradict it.
indeed, it's pretty likely that it's a mix of the two: Jasson kept the Hill nobles who came quietly, installed Tortallan knights into the fiefdoms of the ones who resisted to the bitter end, and since then they've intermarried.
This would definitely be in keeping with the ALL THE ANGST approach. No matter what Lerant does, he'd be betraying SOMEONE.
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No internal evidence that I recall--there's really almost nothing about the Hillfolk in canon, so Ankhiale and I have largely been creating theories out of whole cloth.
Jasson kept the Hill nobles who came quietly, installed Tortallan knights into the fiefdoms of the ones who resisted to the bitter end, and since then they've intermarried.
That's my thought.
Does this mean you're going to write angsty Hillman!Lerant fic?
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Yes, probably!
Also angsty Lerant who has an unrequited crush on Raoul, and angsty Lerant who realizes that he is beginning to like Kel against his will. ALL THE LERANT ANGST.
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Thinking about this a bit more - it's really astonishing that the Hill theories hold together so well, because it's clearly not an intentional subtext: the books are so utterly unconcerned with the Hillfolk as anything but an impediment to Tortallan visions of grandeur.
Possibly that's why, once you see it, it's such a convincing portrayal of empire: because "these people don't matter except for how they figure in our plans" is such an imperial way of thinking.
These books have such a compromised liberalism, it's really rather disheartening.
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There's a sense, I think, in which the Tortall novels over time became sort of a fantasy version of American imperialism, filtered through a liberal lens--Tortall isn't actively imperialistic anymore (but it's odd that Jon seems to have more respect for his blatantly imperialistic grandfather than his peacemaking father), but it Holds Its Borders; it's the best most progressive country apparently in the world, and it got there remarkably fast, solely by benevolent monarchs imposing change on the populace.
I don't feel that way about SOTL, but by the later book, Pierce seemed to embrace writing Issuefic, and did so in a not always thoughtful way--and her feminism and liberalism are in general, I think, not very consciously examined.
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I always think SotL happened way before PotS, because there's such a different feeling to the world. But no, it's only like twenty years. Social change can happen awfully fast, so I suppose this shouldn't really surprise me?
Anyway, maybe Jon yearns to go on imperialist adventures, but he's barely holding the borders as it is, so he refrains. For now.
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I always think SotL happened way before PotS, because there's such a different feeling to the world. But no, it's only like twenty years. Social change can happen awfully fast, so I suppose this shouldn't really surprise me?Yeah, although it's not just the social change that affects the feeling of the world (or the Immortals everywhere, although they kind of break things for me). I mean, yes, social change can happen awfully fast, but...I don't know, in a feudal society, and some of the things shown as normal in POTS (women being clerks, blacksmiths, etc.) seem to have been established for a lot longer, suggesting that maybe the Women Are Ornaments only applies to the nobles. Except there are occasional efforts, even in SOTL, to show that noblewomen have other skills...and I have a bit of a problem with a medievaloid society where women have all kinds of rights and jobs available to them...except for fighting. It seems narratively convenient ( ... )
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The rights and jobs things seems to be rather cobbled together. Like, exactly what powers do the Goddess's warriors have? Supposedly they can go after nobles who abuse women, but if so, why don't they go after Joren for Lalasa's kidnapping?
Probably they're technically allowed to go after nobles, but in practice rarely can make that stick.
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And yeah, the rights of women are all over the place.
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