


As the series progresses the scope of the series widens to encompass the entire continent, including the Britain-like island of Alba to the west, Salia (France) to the south-west, Darre (Rome) to the south, the Arthousan (Byzantine) Empire to the south-east and the Quman (Tartars) tribes of the east.

When her father dies, a churchman named Frater Hugh takes an unseemly interest in Liath and the secrets her father possessed. Our two principle characters are Alain, a foundling who may (or may not) be the bastard son of Count Lavastine who is adopted into the count's household after the destruction of the local monastery, and Liath, a young woman who has spent her life on the run with her father, whose knowledge of astrology is coveted by many. As civil war threatens, the kingdom is also being heavily raided by the Eika (nonhuman but still Viking-like raiders from the north) and tensions between the followers of the dominant religion and those who seek to use magic sorcery are also rising. Set in a (very) lightly-fictionalised version of Europe called Novaria, the series opens with the united kingdoms of Wendar and Varre (effectively Germany) being riven by internal conflicts, most notably between King Henry and his scheming half-sister Sabella, who disputes both his claim to the crown and the legitimacy of his son and increasingly likely heir, Sanglant, born of a union between Henry and an Aoi (elf) woman. Originally published in seven volumes between 19, Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series is, at first glance, a conventional epic fantasy.
