Book One · The Empire of the South Seas

The Rising Tide

What if Māori exploration had not stopped with Aotearoa — but pushed on toward iron, silk, and empire?

Cover of THE RISING TIDE by William F. Porter.
1300 AD

In the year 1300, eighty Māori survivors land a single waka on an unknown shore. They carry the rivalries of Hawaiki with them — and their chief makes the one decision that changes everything: to leave the old quarrels behind and turn their attention to the horizon instead.

What follows is a history that never happened. Gold and iron. Sails made of silk to speed their ships to the crocodile coast of the great dry land, the spice islands, and the trading ports of Java. A young man named Whetu, who keeps asking what else might be possible.

But the wider world does not give up its riches freely. There are famines, grasping kings, pirates in the strait and cannon on the water. Every league sailed brings its own risk.

This is a world that might have been. Sail into it.

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Grounded in the real Pacific

Wayfinding

The voyage draws on real Polynesian navigation — reading swell, stars, and reef patterns — and the documented wind reversals that likely made the original settlement of Aotearoa possible.

Trade & material culture

Pounamu, tūhua, kūmara, and the real archaeology of Pacific exchange networks sit alongside genuine historical detail from Java's Majapahit-era ports.

A nation, tracked

Every chapter closes on a running ledger of the growing motu — population, alliances, and wealth — charting exactly how a civilisation compounds, one decision at a time.

The thesis
Exploration plus Technology plus Trade equals Nation.
"Gold makes a man rich. Iron makes kingdoms." — the line the novel, and its tagline, were built around.

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Inspection copies and a companion study guide are available on request.

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