Part 1 – Plot questions
Part 2 – Character questions
Part 3 – Gotham questions
Part 4 – Pelletier questions
Part 5 – World questions
Part 6 – Gripes

Gotham questions

Okay, so the Gothams were living in secret until 1970-something, when a man named Alexander Wingo wrote a bestselling book about them. Suddenly every conspiracy freak in the country was coming to Quarter Hill to look for superpowered people. Why didn’t the Gothams just pack up and move to another state?
Because it’s not so easy to move a thousand people without being noticed. If anything, it would confirm the public’s worst suspicions about them.

So instead the Gothams took their business underground, and made damn sure to never use their powers again on the surface.

How could they have created such a massive underground haven and not have anyone know about it? You’d need skilled workers. Lots of them.
True. I assume the Gothams paid their workers at least ten times the going rate to keep them loyal and quiet. Maybe they used threats. Or maybe the augurs identified which workers were most likely to blab, and then the turners erased their memories. The Gothams had lots of options.

How did they get to be so filthy rich?
Augurs make good investors. They’ve been trading smartly on the stock market since the 1930s. They were also early investors in temporal technology, a decision that turned them all from millionaires to billionaires.

If they’re all so wealthy, then why are some families (like the Sunders and Whittens) considered superior to others?
For the Gothams, it’s all about temporal power. The families with the strongest timebenders are the ones with all the status. That’s why there are so many arranged marriages in the clan. The patriarchs and matriarchs want to make damn sure that they’re bringing only the best chronokinetics into their bloodline.

If the Gothams only mate amongst themselves, wouldn’t there be some inbred children by now?
There are 44 different lineages in the clan, and only four generations of breeding. There’s still plenty of room to play the mating game without putting cousins together.

Yeah, but wouldn’t all the Indian and Asian families be mixed-race by now?
Some families, like the Tams, have become completely multiracial. Others, like the Lees, have used selective breeding to keep their bloodline purely Asian.

Some of the families only breed by power type. Ninety percent of the Whittens are lumics, and they’re determined to keep it that way.

Okay, so the Gothams are still an ethnically diverse bunch. Why won’t they let black timebenders into their clan?
If you asked the Gothams, they’d swear they’re not racist. But at some point in the 1930s, the founding Gothams turned their backs on their African-American brethren, sparking the creation of two different clans.

Will we ever meet this other group of timebenders?
Oh hell yes. The Majee play a pivotal role in The War of the Givens.

How many power guilds are there in total?
Seven: the tempics, the lumics, the augurs, the swifters, the turners, the thermics, and the travelers. There’s technically an eighth guild for Gothams with unique or unclassifiable powers, but they don’t meet very often. They’re pretty much the misfits of the clan.

Peter and Michael Pendergen joined the Gothams as teenagers. How did they exist outside the clan?
Not all of the world’s timebenders have found their way to the Gothams or Majee. There are still scattered pockets of outsiders, most of them half-breeds with minimal ability.

But Peter and Michael had true talent, enough for the Gothams to feel their presence in Ireland. A small team traveled abroad to recruit them. The rest, as they say, is history.

Why were the Gothams so unprepared for a government invasion? They knew damn well that something like that could happen.
Yes, but they also believed that their augurs would see it coming, and would warn them weeks or months in advance.

Why didn’t the augurs warn them again?
Because the Pelletiers wanted the invasion to happen, and they have full control over what the augurs say and don’t say.

Some of the Gothams seem completely unconcerned about the impending apocalypse. Why is that?
Denial and wishful thinking. These people have lived rich, blessed lives. Things have always gone their way. Some of them genuinely believe that the trouble would work itself somehow. How could it not?

Everything changed for the Gothams at the end of The Song of the Orphans. They lost ten percent of their clan in the invasion. Integrity now has free reign over their home. And the Pelletiers have offered them a devil’s bargain to stay alive after the apocalypse. What can we expect from the group in Book 3?
The Gothams will continue to play a major role in The War of the Givens. As always, some will be more helpful than others. The Pelletiers’ offer will create a major schism among the surviving members of the clan. Some will see the benefit of working with Azral, Esis, and Semerjean. Others will want to fight them. One of those factions will make a very bad decision that will have terrible consequences for everyone.

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Plot questions | Character questions | Gotham questions | Pelletier questions | World questions | Gripes

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