Liner Notes for The Trial Of Cat Step Walker
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It’s fantasy time! Cat Step Walker was a side-character in my serial Tapping The Admiral, the roguish elf as opposed to his sister Lost Decider, who was archer and navigator. Why bring him back?
The first and obvious reason is that an existing character and setting has bits and pieces ready to go. I don’t need to develop the elven court from scratch, I have a version that already exists.
I didn’t get as deep into the elves as I wanted in Admiral, in part because they didn’t turn up until half way through. I didn’t want them involved in my war, so put them in another ocean, and the story only reached them when peace came and the characters were out exploring the wider world.
So immortality. Or at least longevity. Eventually you’ll have been everywhere and done everything. In the story we have a few of Cat Step Walker’s adventures discussed. He’s dealt with a haunted sword, and an undead incursion. He’s stolen a boat. He’s joined a religious order, and he’s been to the court of the Lord Of The World. And that’s just his latest trip outside the elf domains.
My idea for elf government is that they mostly try to do without it. This obviously causes problems, which they settle through general agreement with the community, with tradition, with responsibilities known and fulfilled by one or other elf. And if you fail, then everyone pitches in and helps, and then blames whoever failed. And on top of that, sometimes you need someone to act in an emergency, or break a deadlock, or just to open and close a debate. Hence the elf-lord.
The elves are not really interested in human crimes (except when they are). They don’t like it when an elf brings trouble down on other elves by being a rogue in the mortal world, but on the other hand mortals are odd and prejudiced so what can you do? They are much more concerned by Cat Step Walker causing trouble at home. He stirs things up (see later stories). So with the excuse of left off responsibilities, and his better respected (though equally troublemaking) sister missing they have an excuse to send him away again.
Readers of Tapping The Admiral know what happens next. As for what happened previously, that’s what this serial is about.
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