Hehe, living in Europe has a few advantages. :)

So, I have a paragraph to hook you? Niice. *grin*

But I'm not sure Tor does epic historical fiction; I haven't found any specific mention on the website, though it could go under Mainstream (I know it's often shelved under Mainstream in the US, whereas Historical Fiction is a genre in its own right in Germany). Gillian Bradshaw has some books with Tor, and she does both hist fic and historical fantasy.