As in every story of creation, the world was the first thing to be created. The sprawling, expansive lands that the Den of Shadows series inhabits (and other yet to be published titles) was painstakingly constructed before work began on any of the stories situated in it. The goal? Authenticity. After all, just making everything up as the stories go along is a recipe for trouble. Information becomes conflicting, characters act out of their remit and accuracy becomes a casualty in the pursuit of word count.

Beneath the surface of everything you see are foundations. Economic foundations, social foundations, ecological foundations, spiritual foundations, all these things underpin even the slightest throwaway line or minor action. Before long, this resulted in entire notebooks stuffed with sketches, concepts, myths and so very much more. They rest collected together until the day I digitise them.

In the meantime, the Byford Encyclopedia serves as a window into this secret knowledge. Here, we’ll touch upon the characters, their motives and plenty of the constructs that influence their fates. If you’ve ever wanted to know a little more about something in particular, this constantly updating resource is the right place to find it.