Hi!
Codex Alera has been my favorite fantasy series for some years now, so a couple friends and I pooled our questions.
1) Sextus is a consummate politician. When Septimus was murdered the logical move (once he got over the immediate pain of losing his wife and heir) would be to pick one of the High Lords for a designated heir, use that as a political alliance to solidify the support and try to prevent a civil war, and if it's one of Septimus's friends they can maybe work together to finally pin it on them. It seems almost negligent not to have done so, which is not like him. Why didn't he?
2) We hear almost nothing about Septimus's mother, though it seems like Sextus cared about her a lot. Do you know anything else about her and her history with Sextus?
3) Will Desiderius be an only child, or will there be a horde of tiny half-Marat Gaius children to terrify I mean entertain everyone?
4) Do you have any details about the races on Carna we hear the Alerans exterminated, or any of the undoubtedly many we didn't get to see?
5) I love the idea of the mural and Alera herself, and the deep connections between it, her, and the minds of the House of Gaius. Will Tavi build a new mural once Appia is built up enough to move there, will he decide that's part of the whole 'way we did things wasn't working, let's try something new' outlook?
6) Do you have a timeline to share, whether for the long-term history, just the history of the books, or general 'recent history relevant to the books' (like about Sextus, Septimus, and their lifetimes)?
7) Will Max and Veradis get married?
8) Will Tavi ever find out Ehren manipulated Attis into getting killed, and if so, how does he react?
Wow, that was more questions than expected. Thank you so much for doing this and for writing excellent books to entertain us all. We hugely appreciate it and your craft.
P.S.: You should totally write more things on dares.