Wendy - You Asked.
The plot planning for these volumes goes back for a very huge number of years. It began with a pretty simple "seed" - two half brothers, opposites, one "light" one "shadow" who are cursed by fight by a mistwaith, and the one who is dark will NOT represent the traditional view - black = evil.
From there, it grew limbs in all directions…as you've seen. I actually did 17 drafts of the "start" of Mistwaith - some beginning the generation previous, some starting even later, before arriving at the mix you see today.
The depth and complexity, I think, were always there. Once the idea "woke up" - it defined itself. Often enough, in the early stages, something odd would "crop in" and I'd say "what in heck is THAT?" and That would immediately start to unravel, conceptually, and plunge its thread into the rest of the whole ball of string…these sorts of multi layered epiphanies are what creativity is all about. They Happen - by inspiration - and I think, on some level, we all know our stories inside out. We just have to sit here and bring them in, bit by bit, linearly. Yet their origins cannot be linear. They leap and bound into being.
For Vol. I, by the time I'd sifted down to knowing what this story was about, I had to make a LOT of compromises in what could be shown all at once. Obviously such complexity would have been boggling if, say, you were presented with the Fellowship's purpose and philosophy all at once - or any of the other factons' agendas, for that matter.
Therefore: I had to set the beginning "off world" so you could discover thru the characters' own eyes - learn of Athera with them. I also had to "ground" the first bits of the tale in presumed backdrop - so as not to overwhelm readers. I lent the "illusion" of a normal fantasy type world with the "usual" medeval heirarchy - since that was what was "expected" it freed readers to concentrate on the interrelationships between the characters, Foremost.
But I knew these balloon presumptions would get blasted, bigtime, later. Therefore I made SURE to tell the tale as it WAS GOING TO BE. Leaving in those bits that let you, later, see through the cracks in the "facade" I allowed at the start.
Therefore as you go back, the wiser, you will see what was really in front of your face the whole time.
I've said: everything IS in volume one. You just aren't yet aware enough to view widely or deeply enough into it. Yes, you should continue to see stuff emerge in Vol I, throughout the rest of the sequence. All five arcs.
Working with a huge idea takes blindfold courage - not to denigrate your nice words of admiration - but really, it's about Trusting. Leaping into the unknown with your muse, and trusting your inner creativity to work it all out far BETTER than logic and calculation ever could.
So it has been, with Athera.
And - ACK! - I expect to be done well before ten years!!! For one thing, I've got an impressive number of projects lined up, waiting. 