There are, to put it mildly, a fair few connections between my first series (The Black Hawks and The Righteous) and Tales of the Plains, especially The Hunters. Some of them are fairly significant, lots are utterly trivial, and a fair few you wouldn’t even know as the linking material in question was edited out along the way. Soz. If you’ve read the lot and want to see how many you spotted as you went, keep reading…

Spoilers below

Needless to say, the rest of this post contains spoilers for both Articles of Faith books and The Hunters, so please only continue if you’ve read the lot (or are just past caring).

Really spoilers from here

SPOILERS

Here we go

Ree is Loveless

You probably guessed that one. It’s been 13 years since she rode off in The Righteous, she’s stopped dyeing her hair, but she’s still carrying around her sword and one of Kosh’s prototype crossbows. She also:

• still has her scar (obvs)
• laments to Javani about the time she abandoned her friends
• says “river of shit” in honour of the late Dalim
• re-uses “Are we going to fight or fuck about?” in her duel with Lazant, exactly as she said to Dalim at Wavecrest

Aki and Anashe are Whisper’s children

Whisper’s proper name was Kwayedza, and she was indeed a general. If you got the first one, you probably got this one too. Whisper is the mother they are so keen to learn about.

The blue stone came from Ruumi

The jewel that Javani almost loses in her gambit (then Aki does from the wagon) is the same one that Ree/Loveless took from Reaver Nearly-Queen Ruumi in payment for removing her brother from leadership contention. It also featured in a couple of deleted scenes, and may, perhaps, one day be seen again…

Siavash’s attendant Ulfat used to work for the Rau Rel

Ulfat is in fact Ulfat Founin, former assistant to the Watcher of the Rau Rel. In a deleted scene from The Righteous (not yet available), Chel and the others encountered him on the run, where he swore he would head north into Serica. Turns out, he did.

Zakir Lazant is the cousin of Lord Shirin of Tenailen

Who, thanks to editing, you never got to meet, but you can now encounter via this deleted scene. You can see how the rumours got started.

The Storm Children are Chel’s fault

The “wild and bearded sect” that go out proselytising into the desert are the Storm Children, the slightly nutty bunch who made life difficult for the defenders during the siege of Arowan in The Righteous. They’re also entirely Chel’s fault - their founder was the crazed old woman that he defended from Hurkel and Vashenda in the square at Denirnas Port at the beginning of The Black Hawks. If he’d not got involved, the movement would never have started.

…and so are the Serican upheavals

The Miners’ Guild owe their power and existence to the propagation of blasting powder, which Chel and co brought (via Kosh the Iokaran alchemist) to Arowan at the siege. Their little hand-bows are the latest generation of Kosh’s crossbow engineering.

Moosh’s stories are familiar

Moosh claims his dad was a commander of the Golden Lancers, a champion pit-fighter, and an assassin who worked to topple the corrupt church of the Sink. The first of these could have been Lord Ghiz, the second Foss, the third your pick of Spider or Loveless.

The Commodore is…

...to be revealed in a later book. Keep reading!

So, how many did you get? Did you spot anything else not mentioned here? I’ll be honest, my memory is shot to bits so you really never know your luck…

Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash