The original plan was to write The Second Apocalypse (am I weird for loving that title as much as I do?) as a trilogy. Since the first installment, The Prince of Nothing turned into a trilogy in itself, I'm assuming the same thing will happen with the sequels.
Nimil, which is the artifact of millennia of Nonman craft and metalurgy, is actually stronger than Dunyain steel, which in turn is stronger than the best Seleukaran steel in the Three Seas.
Earwa is actually some four or five times the size of Europe. I put that allusory analogue of the Norwegian coast along the top as a sneaky way to guage the land masses involved.
If everything goes to plan, TTT will include a number of appendices, including additional maps and an 'Encyclopaedic Glossary.' It all depends on how much secondary material I can polish up before my deadline.
Your other questions regarding the metaphysics of Earwa and the place of sorcerers in the cosmic scheme of things is something that is also threshed out in TTT. Sorry <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt=":roll:" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: -->
Thanks :), unless you specifically meant to compliment someone named Wilshere(?). In which case, I totally missed the reference.