The Saga of Pliocene Exile (or the Saga of the Exiles) is a series of science/speculative fiction books by Julian May, first published in the early 1980s. It consists of four books: The Many-Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King and The Adversary.
The story spans two time periods: the near future, where humans inhabit over 700 planets as part of the Galactic Milieu, an empire of five space-faring species, and the Earth six million years in the past at a time when the Strait of Gibraltar is closed and the Mediterranean Sea is dry and empty. The Many Colored Land and The Golden Torc are set in mainly in Europe just before and during the rupture at Gibraltar. The rupture and the rapid filling of the Mediterranean, based on the geological event known as the Zanclean Flood, form a Wagnerian climax to The Golden Torc, in which aliens and time-traveling humans are caught up in this cataclysm.
Main story The Saga of Pliocene Exile is a narrative of the adventures of a group of late 21st and early 22nd century outcasts who travel through a one-way time-gate to Earth's Pliocene epoch for a variety of reasons. However, the reality the travelers find in Pliocene Europe is far from their expectations as it is already inhabited by a dimorphic race of aliens ('exotics'), Tanu and Firvulag. These exotics, who have fled their home galaxy because of religious persecution, were marooned on Pliocene Earth when their "living" ship crashed on Earth.
The Tanu and Firvulag have metapsychic powers and are extremely long-lived. The Tanu use a torc-like device to bring their wide variety of latent metapsychic abilities into a partial operancy, while the Firvulag are naturally operant metapsychics, but have a limited range of abilities compared to the Tanu. The Earth was selected by the living ship as a new home for reasons that are unknown but are speculated to relate to either a prophecy by the ship or because the primitive Pliocene hominids are genetically compatible with the Tanu/Firvulag. Over time, both races (but especially the Tanu) were found to have difficulty reproducing on Earth due to the higher levels of terrestrial and solar radiation relative to their home world. When the time-traveling humans started to arrive in the Pliocene, the Tanu enslaved many of them in an effort to overcome this problem, interbreeding with the humans who have latent metapsychic abilities and soon incorporating humanity into their Pliocene society. The Firvulag are, in the main, more robust than the Tanu and are less affected by the higher levels of radiation on Earth. The Firvulag choose to not interbreed with humans and disagree with the Tanu's decision to integrate humans into their society, preferring to preserve the traditions of their home world. Some humans escape the Tanu's benevolent enslavement and choose to live freely in small hidden villages. They are referred to as 'lowlives' by both exotic races and integrated humanity as well.
The plot follows a group of time travelers beginning with the events that caused them to seek exile from the future and the disruption they bring to the established societies in the Pliocene.
The Pliocene Gateway While the discovery of time travel is a great scientific achievement, its practical application is limited. After the initial discovery, it is soon found that due to its very specific geographic and other requirements, the time gate only works in one location and one point in time in the past. The device can be used to transport people, animals, and objects back in time to the Pliocene era intact, but any attempt to travel forward in time from the Pliocene by the same method ages the traveler or object by six million years instantaneously. This effectively makes the portal a one-way trip for any living being and other organic objects. This limitation also made communication from the time travelers almost impossible, making it a blind one-way trip. After the death of the inventor, his widow finds herself inundated with a steady stream of late 21st and early 22nd century misfits/outcasts begging to be allowed to escape the modern world for a chance to start over in the imagined simplicity of the Pliocene. The widow finally gives in and eventually establishes a regular training program for the "groups" making the trip to ensure they have the basics for survival and a trade in the Pliocene era.
To prevent any contamination of the past, the Galactic Milieu sterilises all females by salpingectomy before allowing them to go back to the past and does not allow any advanced technology that will not decompose after around a hundred years to be taken. The Milieu also bars any operant metapsychics.
Pliocene races
Tanu and Firvulag The exotics inhabiting the Pliocene Epoch, despite being separated from the appearance of humans on Earth by millions of years, closely resemble the Tuatha Dé Danann and Firbolg of Celtic Mythology.
The exotics are known as the 'Tanu' and the 'Firvulag', and together constitute a single dimorphic race. The Firvulag are the 'metapsychically operant' [see below] members of that race, and the Tanu are the 'metapsychically latent' half. However, the majority of Firvulag have only weak mental powers, whereas the Tanu wear torcs, which are also mind-amplifying devices to allow use of their mental powers. The Tanu are generally much longer lived than the Firvulag. The four books of the Saga of Pliocene Exile abound with Tanu who are more than a thousand years old, who were not born on Earth, and who are called 'first comers' because of the fact. Examples of 'first comers' include King Thagdal, Celadeyr of Afaliah, and Dionket Lord-Healer. The Firvulag are not usually as long lived, although they have a few first-comers of their own (King Yeochee and Palloll One-Eye among them), but are physically hardier and more resistant to Earthly radiation than the Tanu.
The Tanu and Firvulag are sworn enemies, with each race routinely attacking the other. The only exceptions to this are in the month before and the month after the ritual Grand Combat, a gladiatorial combat that pits Tanu against Firvulag. These two months are called The Truce and allow for trade between the two races and time to safely travel to and from the White Silver Plain or Field of Gold, depending on where the Grand Combat is hosted. (The winners of the previous year's Combat host the next.)
Firvulag babies are frequently born to Tanu mothers carrying recessive Firvulag genes. These babies are cared for until they can be handed safely over to the Firvulag. Firvulag never produce Tanu babies.
Both Tanu and Firvulag can be killed by objects made of iron, which they call "blood-metal." Its use in weapons is forbidden by their battle code and all iron objects are confiscated from time travelers and destroyed. Since the exotics are otherwise extremely difficult to kill, lowlife humans take advantage of this weakness once it is discovered.
The Tanu The Tanu (e.g., Nodonn Battlemaster, Kuhal Earthshaker, Minnanon the Heretic, et al.) are extremely tall, slim and beautiful, and live in large cities across southwest Europe. They tend to have fair hair and green or blue eyes. Their women have long pendulous breasts reaching as far as their waistline. Their latent metapsychic abilities, once brought to operancy by the Torcs, are on average stronger and display a wider range of abilities than those of the Firvulag; however, the Firvulag outnumber the Tanu considerably, which for a long while meant that there was a balance between the two races.
In the forty years before the start of the first book in the series, however, the Tanu have claimed ascendancy. Their use of humans to augment their reproductive capacity means that their numbers are rising, albeit with Tanu/human hybrids rather than true Tanu. They also bolster their ranks with large numbers of grey-torc wearing humans. This gives them an advantage in the Grand Combat (the annual ritual war between Tanu and Firvulag), since these "half-breeds" fight on their side. The Tanu have won the Combat without fail for the past forty years, because of their use of humanity and human innovations, such as the grey-torc shock troops and the use of horse-like chalicotheres (known as 'chalikos') as riding animals giving the Tanu cavalry that the Firvulag lack.
Tanu/human hybrids Because the Tanu use humans to reproduce, a number of the 'Tanu' are in reality Tanu/human hybrids (e.g., Bleyn the Champion, Alberonn Mindeater, Katlinel the Darkeyed, et al.). It is generally accepted amongst the Tanu that provided a person looks like a Tanu, they are one, in the same way that humans with gold torcs are considered to be honorary Tanu. However, there is a certain amount of discrimination against them from more conservative Tanu.
There are some differences between pure Tanu and hybrids. Hybrids tend to be hairier, darker, have coarser features and less of the ethereal beauty of the Tanu. They also have a much more muscular figure, and often have stronger metapsychic powers. Unlike the Firvulag and the Tanu, hybrids are not poisoned by iron and are not as affected by Earth radiation levels, nor are they as likely to give birth to Firvulag or black-torc babies (incompatible with the mental amplifiers known as golden torcs that enable the Tanu to utilize their otherwise latent metafunctions).
Firvulag The Firvulag (e.g. Fitharn Pegleg) are, on the whole, small, dark and less good-looking than the Tanu, although this is not always the case and there are some giants among them. Some Firvulag are large enough that they would not look out of place on a present-day street, while the greatest heroes and leaders amongst the Firvulag (i.e. Pallol One-Eye, Betularn the Whitehand, Medor Battlemaster, etc.) – who also have the most powerful mental abilities – are true giants, from 8 to 12 feet tall, and massively strong. The giants often self-identify as 'ogres' and the smaller Firvulag as 'gnomes' or 'goblins'. The Firvulag mostly live in mountains and caves, far away from the Tanu, and regard both humans and Tanu with disdain. The ogres in particular consider humanity to be tasty prey first and foremost. At the beginning of the series, they have a shaky treaty with the 'lowlife' human escapees of the Tanu regime.
The Firvulag are primarily creative adepts, spinning horrific illusions around themselves and projecting confusion and pain in battle to terrify their opponents. They are merciless fighters and when working together are capable of driving a human or weak Tanu mind completely mad with their illusions.
The Firvulag martial tradition is very conservative. They do not ride chalikos into battle, unlike the Tanu and their human cavalry. They wear obsidian armor and fight using obsidian-bladed swords and obsidian-tipped spears. In battle, they fight like an unorganized mob of infantry. They usually throw their spears in the first rush of battle, then close in using their swords and mind powers. For the last 40 years, the Firvulag have lost every one of the Grand Combats because their unorganized and undisciplined infantry cannot withstand the shock of a heavy cavalry charge. Exiled humans introduced the concept of heavy cavalry to the Tanu and helped them mentally tame the chalikos.
Because of their constant Grand Combat defeats, the Firvulag have recently been growing desperate, and have been willing to take on lowlife humans like Madame Guderian as military advisors. The Firvulag under new rulership later in the series are beginning to employ more and more human military tactics and equipment to the detriment of the Tanu and humans alike.
The Howlers