A Supercharged Renaissance

So, why set a fantasy novel in the Renaissance?

Well, first up, it's important to say that it isn't our Renaissance. It's the equivalent of our Renaissance in a fantasy world, where magical events happen and are expected to happen. It's what's known as a "low magic setting", in that impossible things don't occur all that often - which is lucky if you happen to live there, as a lot of the impossible things are really dangerous.

Such as this.

So, alongside the developments that humanity is making - in engineering, painting, literature and learning about the world - you have a small number of monsters, wizards, fey folk, revenants and other (frequently lethal) beings. Also, while there aren't many people with the magical skill to shoot lightning or turn people into frogs, there are some with the ability to strengthen mechanisms, summon weather, enchant objects and basically supercharge things that would otherwise hardly function into effective machinery. So, with the right enchantments, that clockwork cart that only rolls downhill and is so heavy that it sinks into the ground can potentially become a very useful and stylish set of wheels.

This could really happen!

But still, why the Renaissance?

For one thing, it's hard to pin down one period in one place as "the Renaissance". England barely had one, at least not in the same way as Italy. But we all know what the concept is, and it encompasses some really interesting things. Developments in thought, in scholarship, in art and in understanding man's position in the world really accelerated between 1400 and 1600 (in Europe, at any rate). It was also a time of some truly foul, vicious and crazy behaviour. Of course, I'm talking about something of a caricature, but that's how historical periods tend to be remembered. 

Giulia's world is a condensed and accelerated version of that (it's the magic, you see), in the same way that a lot of epic fantasy uses a condensed and exaggerated version of the Middle Ages (another long and varied time period). That enables a character to have lots of interesting adventures: in Giulia's world (if you had the cash), you could chat to a philosopher, buy a potion from an alchemist to change your appearance, steal a painting from a genius artist and go for a ride in a flying machine - or on a wyvern - on the same day. And then get murdered by a pack of revenants. It's not all perfect.

"I'll distract him with this hourglass while you loot the barrels."

There are other aspects, too: gunpowder was becoming more prevalent (very useful against those undead hordes) and Christianity (or its fantasy equivalent) was in serious turmoil. Both of those enter Giulia's world, in strange and distorted forms.


So you set Up To The Throne in the Renaissance because...

At some level, the answer to a question like this is always "because I think it's cool", and I'm not sure that's much of an answer at all. That aside, I think it comes down to possibilities. The Renaissance itself was a time of possibilities, when mankind's potential for greatness (and badness) was coming into its own in Europe. And Pagalia, where Up To The Throne is set, is a microcosm of that: a city where geniuses cross paths with assassins, and magical creatures clash with the fanatics who would wipe them out. Something really good could come of it - and something truly awful. Aptly, it's a powder-keg. All it needs is a spark...