The Potter’s Gambit, written by Eliasz Domagala, is a fiction novel following the tale of a pottery artisan as his workshop is visited by an envoy from an imperial army demanding 80,000 clay pots for carrying water across a vast savannah without springs or rivers. The army is about to go on campaign to a distant land, and the potter doesn’t have nearly enough time to fulfil the order. But when all hope seems lost, a wandering priest comes to him, and they make a plan to rely on God for aid. Can they complete the order in time and avoid execution? Shouldn’t all things be possible through God?

The novel was a pleasant read and I can firmly recommend it, but TPG and Domagala are making the rounds in the literary circles because of a few choice decisions.

An imperial army? Which empire does this army belong to, and against whom are they campaigning? While Peldor did conquer a savannah somewhat recently, it’s nowhere near the size required, or as dry as the novel implies. So where does this story take place?

When asked if he intended for his novel to take place in Reul Tomala’s Far Reaches fictional world, Eliasz responded: “I simply didn’t include those details because they weren’t relevant to Aleks’s (the Potter’s) story in finding faith.”

When asked to comment on this seeming coincidence, Reul Tomala said: “At no point in my works have I described such a vast savannah. However, if the Far Reaches truly is a world of endless conquest, certainly the Elven Empire conquered a region like that at some point. It’s even thematic if such a conquest was made eons ago and subsequently forgotten.”

Many are interpreting this statement as subtle support for authors to write stories within The Far Reaches.