ARC Service
They were Rome's clients in southeastern Scotland and the Gododdin of the oldest Scottish poem. Three hundred warriors feasted for a year at Din Eidyn, then rode south. iWrity ARC connects your Votadini fiction with the readers who understand what that feast cost.
Start Your ARC Campaign Free10–40
Verified reviews per campaign
4–6 weeks
From distribution to final posting
100%
Amazon ToS compliant
Votadini fantasy draws on the three-century arc of a people who managed to exist on both sides of the Roman era. During the occupation, their hillfort at Traprain Law in East Lothian was one of the largest settlements in northern Britain, a hub of Roman trade goods and local power. They were clients of Rome, not subjects: a careful, strategic relationship that preserved their nobility's authority while the legions held the Wall.
When Rome withdrew, those same people became the kingdom of the Gododdin, centred on Din Eidyn, the rock fortress that would later become Edinburgh Castle. Y Gododdin, the earliest Scottish poem attributed to the bard Aneirin, records what happened when their king sent 300 warriors south in a raid that ended in complete annihilation. That poem, and the world behind it, is the setting for some of the most historically grounded Dark Ages speculative fiction being written today.
iWrity's network includes readers who have reviewed Dark Ages fantasy, Arthurian-adjacent fiction, and early medieval Celtic narratives. Your Votadini book reaches the people most primed to appreciate the transition from Roman client to Gododdin hero.
The Votadini occupy a narrative position no other tribe quite matches: they lived on both sides of the Roman era. Fiction that follows a single family or dynasty from Traprain Law in the client period to Din Eidyn on the eve of the Catraeth raid has a natural multi-generational arc built in.
Y Gododdin provides what most historical fantasy has to construct from scratch: a named community, a great hall, a long anticipation, and a named catastrophe. iWrity connects you with readers who will recognize the literary weight of that frame and review accordingly.
You do not need an email list or social media following to run a successful ARC campaign. iWrity's reader base is your audience from day one, ready to engage with the people who feasted a year and rode south without coming back.
Votadini and Gododdin fantasy sits at the intersection of Roman historical fiction and early medieval epic. Get your book in front of the right readers, free to start, no credit card required.
Create Your Free AccountThe Votadini were a tribe of southeastern Scotland and northern England, centred on hillforts including Traprain Law in East Lothian. They became Roman client-allies, which meant they traded with Roman merchants, adopted some Roman material culture, and maintained their own power while the legions held Hadrian's Wall to the south. After Rome withdrew from Britain, those same people reappear in early medieval sources as the Gododdin, the subject of Y Gododdin, a Welsh-language poem that commemorates 300 warriors who rode south from the capital Din Eidyn (modern Edinburgh) to attack Catraeth (modern Catterick) and were annihilated. They bridged the Roman and early medieval worlds, and that transition is one of the richest settings in all of British speculative fiction.
Y Gododdin is attributed to the Welsh-language poet Aneirin and is considered one of the oldest surviving Scottish poems, though it is preserved in a 13th-century Welsh manuscript. It commemorates the warriors who feasted for a year in the great hall of Din Eidyn, then rode south in a doomed raid that killed all but one or two of them. The poem is a series of elegies: a name, a virtue, a death. For a fantasy author, it provides an extraordinary frame: a real historical catastrophe, a named community of warriors, a great hall, a long feast, a one-way ride. iWrity connects your fiction built on this frame with readers who will recognize its weight.
iWrity's reader matching engine analyzes each reader's review history and genre preferences. Readers who have engaged with post-Roman Britain fantasy, Dark Ages historical fiction, Arthurian-adjacent narratives, and early medieval Scottish or Welsh settings are prioritized for your campaign. These are readers who understand the specific melancholy of a people who outlasted Rome and then rode into oblivion on their own terms.
Most authors collect between 10 and 40 verified reviews per campaign over 4 to 6 weeks. Campaign size and book-reader match affect the final number. Votadini fiction tends to draw readers with high completion rates: the story of people who chose to maintain their identity through Roman clienthood and then faced the post-Roman collapse is one that readers find personally resonant long after they finish the book.
Every iWrity campaign follows the traditional publisher ARC model. Readers disclose that they received a free advance copy, no specific rating is requested, and the platform is built to stay inside Amazon's current terms of service. You carry none of the account risk associated with grey-area review practices.
