Elira Aurellian was the second ruler of the Aurellian Empire and the first person to whom the Cinderbrand ever passed. Daughter of Gabriel Aurellian and Althea Aurellian, she waited one hundred and sixty-five years as her father's heir before the mark came to her in 4A 190. She reigned thirty-five years and used them to build the machinery of imperial government, founding Ordo Lex in 4A 205 and completing Palace Imperia in 4A 210.

Uriel III Aurellian was the last emperor of the Aurellian Empire, ruling from 4A 441 to 4A 489. He held the throne for forty-eight years and was murdered in Vai'Luthra, the capital of Myrien, on a journey whose purpose he never put before his own council. His killers have never been identified. He left no heir and no Cinderbrand. The throne has stood empty ever since.

Thurga Bakhrim is the Curator Servitus, head of the Order of aid and the only leader of an imperial Order who is not of Meridia. A Khazal of Khazural, she has held the office since 4A 480 and keeps no residence, travelling continually between the houses of the Order across every realm of Arkanthys. She has refused every request to trade what those houses hear, including requests from the regent himself.

Ilaria Venn vi Naeva is the Arbiter Absolvo, head of Ordo Absolvo and keeper of the register of the Aurellian bloodline. A Naeva of the Ashwind Glade, she has held the office since 4A 484 and has personally examined and rejected all nineteen claims to the Cinderbrand brought forward since the death of Uriel III. She holds that the register is complete and that no living Aurellian is unknown to her Order.

Tullia Marcenn is the Procurator Legis, head of Ordo Lex and the highest legal officer of the Aurellian Empire. Born in 4A 431, she was raised to the office by Uriel III in 4A 480. In 4A 489 she issued the finding that the law of the Empire provided a regency in the absence of a marked heir, which is the ruling the whole regency of Servius Livia rests upon. She has defended it for thirteen years and has struck down the regent's decrees four times in the same period.

Ordo Servitus is the Order of aid, sworn to shelter and care for the poor, the wounded, the displaced and the abandoned. It keeps no god and teaches no doctrine. Its members are called monastic for the way they live rather than for anything they worship. Older than its own charter, it began outside imperial authority and was chartered as the sixth Order in 4A 291. It is the only institution in Arkanthys that operates in every realm of the world, Attox alone excepted. Its head is the Curator, styled Curator Servitus.

Ordo Absolvo is the Order of blood and succession, keeper of the register of the Aurellian line and the body that crowns the emperors of Meridia. Founded in 4A 268 after the death of Isolde I broke the first direct line of Gabriel's descendants, it exists because the Empire once could not prove who was Aurellian. Its head is the Arbiter, styled Arbiter Absolvo. Since the vacancy began it has examined nineteen claims to the Cinderbrand and rejected every one.

Ordo Lex is the legal and administrative Order of the Aurellian Empire, holding its courts, its revenues and the ordinary machinery by which Meridia is governed. Founded in 4A 205 by the Empress Elira Aurellian, it is the fourth of the six Orders and the first raised after the death of Gabriel Aurellian. Its head is the Procurator, styled Procurator Legis. It is also the Order that ruled the regency of Servius Livia lawful. Its courts are now full of cases only an emperor could close.

Marcus Torrus is the Dux of Ordo Decimus and the highest military officer of the Aurellian Empire. Born in 4A 444, he made his name in fourteen years on the Frostfang frontier facing the Scivian Ecclesia. Uriel III gave him command of the army in 4A 486, three years before the assassination, so his commission predates the regency and he owes the regent nothing. He is the man who destroyed Domus Carna root and branch in 4A 491. He is also the man who has argued every year since for the reconquest of the north and been refused every year.

Ordo Decimus is the army of the Aurellian Empire, the Order that holds its borders, fights its wars and puts down rebellion against the throne. Founded in 4A 174, it is the largest of the six Orders and the most often seen, raised from the levies every Seal owes the Crown. Its commander is the Dux, at present Marcus Torrus, who commands from the Dux Alba within Palace Imperia. Its greatest defeat remains the Southern War, twenty years spent in Kethra for nothing.

Ordo Imperator is the first and most secret of the six Orders of the Aurellian Empire, composed of the Five, unnatural beings made from the divided remnants of the Pale Crown. Founded in 4A 173 by Gabriel Aurellian and Winrey Auric, the Five have guarded the throne and the Cinderbrand ever since, unchanged across the length of the Empire's history. They are charged above all with bringing the rightful bearer of the mark to Helios when it appears. To most of the Empire they are legend, seen by almost no one and known to fewer still.

Ordo Dominus is one of the six Orders of the Aurellian Empire, the custodian of the broken land of Grimhold and its dangerous inheritance. Founded in 4A 189, it keeps watch over what the Godwar left in the north, guarding against poaching and interference and holding the peril of Grimhold contained. Its custodians are known by their silver armour. In the present age the order stands unusually high, for its leader, the Custos Servius Livia, governs the whole Empire as regent through the Interregnum.

Servius Livia is the lawful regent of the Aurellian Empire, the man who has governed Meridia through the thirteen years of the Interregnum. Leader of Ordo Dominus and a lifelong master of imperial politics, he took the regency as the senior official of the Empire and a close friend of the late Uriel III. At sixty-three he is the most formidable and most respected figure in Meridia, a ruthless politician who knows every law and every use of it. He could seize the throne and does not. He holds it in trust for the one who will finally bear the Cinderbrand.

The Interregnum is the age of the empty throne, the years in which the Aurellian Empire has ruled without an emperor. It began in 489 with the murder of Uriel III, who died leaving no heir and no Cinderbrand behind him. Since then the mark of succession has not appeared upon any of Aurellian blood. The Empire has been held in trust by the lawful regent Servius Livia. Thirteen years have passed with a sealed throne at the centre of the world. Meridia waits to learn whether the Cinderbrand will ever return.

The Seals are the seventy-nine bordered provinces into which Meridia is divided, the territorial foundation of the Aurellian Empire. Most are held by the noble Domii as hereditary property, ruled from their Seats. A few are Crown Seals kept by the throne itself. A few are the holdings of the Orders. The strength of a Domus is measured in the Seals it commands. The whole structure is held of the Emperor, bound to the throne at its summit.

Meridia is the imperial heartland of the Aurellian Empire and the continent that bears its name, the centre of mortal power in Arkanthys. At its heart lies the Crown Seal of Imperox, and within it the sun-city of Helios, from which the Empire has ruled since the fall of the gods. Its land is divided into seventy-nine Seals held by the noble Domii. Its throne passes by the Cinderbrand, a mark that chooses the ruler. In the present age that throne stands empty, held by a lawful regent while the Empire waits for a mark that has not come in thirteen years.

The Bazaar is the lawless free-port of the far southern seas, a floating city of wrecked ships and lashed platforms grown over a sinking island. It lies beyond the reach of the Empire and every other power, shielded by Kethra and treacherous waters. It answers to no law and no master. Here everything is permitted and everyone is welcome, from pirates and smugglers to exiles and the merely free. It is the one place in the world where no one rules.

Jarvik is the grain city of Frelleine, the chokepoint through which all the kingdom's westward grain trade once passed and the most important Seat of Domus Dunn. Its capture by Domus Orsava sparked the civil war. When Albert Orsava's forces took the city they slaughtered the greater part of its people, a massacre meant as a message of what the king intended for the whole of Domus Dunn. Jarvik is held by Orsava now, a scarred and half-emptied city guarding the grain trade its blood was spilled for.

Vel Aster is the capital of Domus Dunn, a modest coastal city on the south-eastern shores of Frelleine and the seat of the self-proclaimed King Erik Dunn. Smaller and less wealthy than Kesseryn, it lives by shipping the kingdom's food to distant markets. With Jarvik and the western route lost to Orsava, that trade now goes the long way through the eastern sea to the southern imperial lands. The costs have risen and the foreign traders come less often, so Vel Aster earns less than it once did.

Kesseryn is the capital of Frelleine and the seat of Domus Orsava, a well-established and prosperous city grown rich on the grain of the breadbasket kingdom. It is comfortable rather than grand, wealthy without the splendour of Bastorren. The civil war has not reached its walls, so the city itself remains untouched and full. Yet a pall hangs over it, for from Kesseryn the grieving King Albert Orsava wages his war against Domus Dunn.

Erik Dunn is the self-proclaimed King of Frelleine and head of Domus Dunn, a young man who never wanted a crown. He was a boy in love with Princess Charlotte Orsava when she was poisoned and he was falsely blamed for her murder. Stripped of his lands and his name, his city of Jarvik taken and its people slaughtered, he proclaimed himself king to survive. He is losing the war. He fights on to reclaim what was taken and to clear a name he never stained.

Albert Orsava is the old King of Frelleine and the lawful ruler of the war-torn kingdom, head of Domus Orsava. Once a competent king, he has been consumed by grief since the poisoning of his daughter Charlotte. That grief has turned to vengeance. He blames Erik Dunn for her murder and wars to destroy Domus Dunn entirely. He will not accept the submission that custom allows a beaten Domus. He wants the Domus erased, a transgression he no longer cares to weigh.

Frelleine is the large eastern kingdom of Rimefang, a flatland breadbasket that feeds much of the north and prides itself on its grain. It is also a kingdom at war with itself. Its two great Domii, Domus Orsava and Domus Dunn, once bound together by marriage, have fallen into open civil war over seized lands and the poisoning of a princess. King Albert Orsava holds the lawful crown from Kesseryn. Erik Dunn, cast out and accused, has proclaimed himself king from Vel Aster. The Ecclesia does nothing to stop the bloodshed.

Duncan Gessan is the old king of Tiguria and head of Domus Gessan, a man deep at peace with his quiet kingdom. In his younger years he fell from the quarry scaffolding and broke his back. He has ruled from a chair, unable to walk, ever since. He wants nothing more than Tiguria as it is. Among the hungry kings of Rimefang, Duncan Gessan is the one who reaches for nothing at all.

Bracca is the port city of Tiguria, known as the Black Port, set on the kingdom's southern coast where a narrow pass from the interior reaches the Vizir Strait. Through Bracca flows all of Tiguria's black marble, shipped west to Khazural, Cadrien, Myrien, Kashar and the imperial Seals. It is a cosmopolitan harbour brimming with foreign ships and traders, the one worldly window of an otherwise sealed and insular kingdom.

Raven's Perch is the sole city and capital of Tiguria, set high on the mountains and built entirely of the black marble its people quarry. Nearly the whole population of the isolated kingdom gathers here, ringed by small villages that work the quarries. It is a holy city by grant of the Ecclesia, honoured though lesser than Caldenn. At its heart stands a colossal black-marble statue of Emeric, tended day and night with candles, flowers and offerings.

Tiguria is the isolated south-western kingdom of Rimefang, a dark highland massif cut off from the rest of the north and the continent's great source of black marble. Its quarrymen and masons ship stone, statues and shrines far beyond Rimefang. Tiguria opposed the Ecclesia and was subjugated into the faith by Kaldrik and Aventhal. The wound was healed when its capital, Raven's Perch, was made a holy city. Now a colossal black-marble statue of Emeric stands at its heart.

The Drall are the feral beasts of Rimefang's frozen far north, savage predators that the folk of Kaldrik hunt as vermin. To the north they are native monsters or an old curse. The truth is known to no one who fights them. The Drall are the Fallen, the god-made horrors of Attox, come north in the age of the gods and long since reduced to mindless beasts. The people of Rimefang have no idea what they truly are.

Hallengar is the great fortress-city on Fennmark's most exposed southern border. Once the greatest trading city in the north, a market wonder where the goods of Rimefang were bought and resold, it was besieged and taken by the Empire in the Unification Wars and bought back by Domus Avaric for a colossal ransom in gold and gems. It was fortified ever after. It guards the border still, a merchant city turned war-city, thick with trade and smuggling both.

Kar Edris is the seat of Fennmark's power, the academy and breeding ranch where the Edrisfari are made. Here the Fenni are bred and then set free to roam the plains. Here riders come to win the meld with a free and dangerous beast, a rite that kills some who attempt it. The elite Fenni riders are trained at Kar Edris. Domus Avaric holds it absolutely and once threw off the Ecclesia's attempt to take a grip on it.

Bastorren is the capital of Fennmark, a grand and wealthy city set deep in the open Fenni plains. The seat of King Darion Avaric and Domus Avaric, it displays the pride and fortune of the great Domus in stone. It is ringed by walls but no great fortress, for Bastorren trusts its defence to the open plain around it and to the Fenni riders who ride out to break any enemy long before the walls are threatened.

Darion Avaric is the King of Fennmark and head of Domus Avaric, one of the most capable and most hated rulers on the continent. Cold, calculating and certain of his own superiority, he bends the Ecclesia with his fortune and drives Fennmark toward ever greater power. His purpose is his Domus, to make Domus Avaric the strongest in the world and to leave his heirs a legacy nothing can undo.

The Fenni are the war-steeds of Fennmark, found nowhere else in the world. Larger and stranger than any horse, they share a single herd-mind across many bodies and meld with one rider for life. Their riders charge blindfolded, trusting the herd to see for them, behind a deep screech that breaks men before the lances land. The Empire lost the Fenni when Rimefang seceded and mourns them still.

Fennmark is the southern kingdom of Rimefang, a flat land of open plains that holds the physical border against the Empire. It is the home of the Fenni, the greatest war-steeds in the world, found nowhere else. Its cavalry is the finest in the north. Ruled by the great and proud Domus Avaric from the capital of Bastorren, Fennmark is the shield that stands between Rimefang and the power that murdered its god.

Morren is the farming town of Kaldrik's fertile south, set below the capital of Valtura. Its grain and cattle feed Valtura and much of the kingdom, the working heart of the gentle half of a hard land. Where the north of Kaldrik fights and freezes, Morren simply grows.

Yesenn is the carved mountain town of Kaldrik's far north, a settlement hewn into the rock itself where the mining shafts and the dwellings are one and the same. In a place too cold and wind-scoured to build upon, its people live within the mountain rather than on it. It is the deepest and hardiest town in the north, warm in the stone while death waits in the wind outside.

Valtura is the capital of Kaldrik, a cold and dirty hill-fortress at the heart of the kingdom, ringed by layer upon layer of walls, towers and palisades. It is the administrative and military centre of the north, the seat of King Roggan Karsk and a hard soldier's city thick with taverns, gambling dens and the halls of the hunting guilds. From here Emeric Scivia once mustered his campaign against the Drall.

Roggan Karsk is the King of Kaldrik, a capable frontier ruler of the lesser Domus Karsk who inherited his crown from his father Kedrick. Trained in war and statecraft and blooded against the Drall, he is a competent king of a hard kingdom. He is also a gambler, a man with dice in his blood who, by his own reckoning, would wager the very throne he sits on.

Kaldrik is the far-northern kingdom of Rimefang, a land of frozen mountains in the north and fertile country in the south, standing as the shield of the north against the Drall. Its people are grim warrior-hunters who hold the northern frontier against the feral beasts, ruled by the lesser Domus Karsk from the hill-fortress of Valtura. It was here that Emeric Scivia led his great northern campaign. Kaldrik has worshipped the unkillable soldier ever since.

The Voice is the supreme authority of the Scivian Ecclesia, a concilium of three that rules the faith of the north as one. The Voice of the Law, the Voice of the Faith and the Voice of the War hold between them the whole power of the Ecclesia. They are the most powerful figures in Rimefang, fanatically devoted to the Immortal and kept hidden from the world they rule.

The Legia Martyris, the Legion of the Martyr, is the holy legion and standing army of the Scivian Ecclesia, Emeric Scivia's legions reborn as an instrument of the faith. Manned by levies the five kingdoms once owed the Empire and now owe the Ecclesia, it carries the word of the Immortal across the north, guards the holy places, enforces the grim justice of the faith and fights the Empire with a fanatic's fury. It answers to the Voice alone.

Stennholt is the high garrison town of Aventhal, perched on a southern peak of the Frostfangs overlooking the imperial lands far below. It is the coldest and highest of Aventhal's towns, a hard eyrie of soldiers who keep watch on the Empire beyond the mountains. Where Merrow Gate guards the tunnel through the range, Stennholt watches from above it.

Vellmoor is the river port of Aventhal, set on one of the rivers that feed the valley. Through it pass the goods of the kingdom, the grain of Harrowmere and the timber and furs of Duncarrow, loaded onto the water and carried toward Merrow Gate and the wider north. It is the busy mercantile artery through which much of Aventhal's trade flows.

Duncarrow is the timber and fur town of Aventhal, set on the edge of the valley's great forests. Its woodsmen, trappers and tanners work the wealth of the woods, the timber, hides and furs that are among Aventhal's chief trades. It is the rough working town where the forest is cut, caught and worked. It was in a trade like this that Emeric Scivia's own family lived.

Harrowmere is the chief farming town of Aventhal, the market heart of the valley's open farmland. Its granaries and stockyards gather the grain and livestock that feed much of the north. It is a plain and prosperous town, unglamorous and vital, one of the quiet engines of Aventhal's wealth.

Merrow Gate is the royal capital of Aventhal, the ancient fortress-city of Domus Luthen and the Seat of the Aventhal Seal. It guards the southern tunnel-road toward the imperial lands, sheltered by a river to the north and a mountain to the south, a hard old stronghold that has held the valley's southern door since imperial days. It is the seat of the crown as Caldenn is the seat of the faith. King Aldous Luthen rules his kingdom from it.

Caldenn is the holy city of the Scivian Ecclesia, the birthplace of Emeric Scivia grown from a poor craft-town into the sacred heart of the north. A sovereign precinct within Aventhal but beyond its king's law, it is governed by the Synod and the Voice and guarded by the Legia Martyris. At its centre stands the leatherworkers' house where the Immortal was born, kept exactly as it was, the holiest place in all Rimefang.

Aldous Luthen is the aged King of Aventhal, head of one of the oldest houses in Meridia and lord of the holy heartland of Rimefang. Pious yet wary of the Ecclesia, he has reigned nearly sixty years and outlived every one of his children. He leaves no heir. By the law of the north his death will hand the fate of his kingdom to the very Church he spent his life holding at arm's length.

Aventhal is the central kingdom of Rimefang, a sheltered river valley rich in timber, farmland and forest, ruled by its own king from the capital of Merrow Gate. Within its borders lies Caldenn, the holy city of the Scivian Ecclesia, a sovereign district beyond the king's law where the Voice and the Synod sit. It is the birthplace of Emeric Scivia and the proud heart of the faith.

The Unification Wars were the nine-year founding wars of the Scivian Ecclesia, fought from 4A 250 to 4A 259 after the execution of Emeric Scivia. The northern kingdoms were first forged into one nation under his name, then driven to break from the Empire. The Empire could not retake the north through the Frostfangs and could not starve it into surrender. Rimefang won its independence and the Scivian Ecclesia was born.

The Execution of Emeric Scivia was the killing of the north's beloved general by the Aurellian Empire in 4A 250, on charges of false divinity and treason with the Kethral. The Empire meant it to end the worship of a living man before it became a new godhood. Instead it made a martyr and lost the north.

The Southern War was the Aurellian Empire's twenty-year attempt to conquer Kethra and open the road to the rich tropical isles beyond it. It ended in total failure. The Empire broke itself against the Kethral and the killing land for twenty years, took nothing and withdrew at last with a generation of its soldiers dead for no gain.

Kethra is the burning southern region of Meridia, an arid and hostile land where the heat, the flora and the fauna all conspire to kill the unwary. It is the home of the Kethral, who roam it clan against clan and build nothing. Among its dead lakebeds stand the ruins of a lost people who came before them. No one knows who they were or where their waters went.

The Kethral are the ancient reptilian people of Meridia's burning south, scaled and cold-blooded, fed by the sun and killed by the cold. They are many clans and no single nation, cunning and patient hunters who fight by poison and ambush and eat all they kill, their own dead among them. They hold the south as their own and bow to no power beyond it.

Emeric Scivia, called the Immortal, was a leatherworkers' son of Caldenn who rose from conscript scout to the greatest general the north has known. He survived a poisoning that killed three hundred and held the poisoned outpost alone for nineteen days. He never lost a battle and outlived every assassin sent against him. The north worshipped him as a saviour. The Empire executed him for it.

The Scivian Ecclesia is the martyr-state of the north, the faith and nation raised over the murdered general Emeric Scivia. It holds Rimefang through the Synod that binds its kingdoms, the Voice that speaks for the dead and the Legia Martyris that carries his word by the sword. It worships Emeric as martyr and god both. It does not forgive the Empire that killed him.

Rimefang is the frozen northern region of Meridia, walled off from the Empire by the Frostfangs and held by the Scivian Ecclesia, the martyr-state that broke from imperial rule. It is a hard land of ice, stone and forest, prowled by the Drall, the feral beasts of the far north. The world does not know that those beasts are the Fallen, carried here from Attox in the age of the gods.

Regina, called the Queen by the garrison, is the only Class IV horror the Ordo Obscurum has ever seen or catalogued. Witnessed just once, in the opening battles of the Godwar, she was the first and only sign of true intelligence among the Fallen, a coordinator that bent the whole swarm to a single guiding will. She has not been seen since. No one knows whether she still lives or how many like her the island may hold.

Evanidus, called the Ghost by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen that is never wholly in the world. Slipping partly out of the physical, it passes through walls, wards and armour as though they were smoke, striking from within a defence that should have kept it out. Only abjuration can hold the Ghost to the world long enough to kill it.

Caligo, called the Pall by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen wreathed in a living darkness that drinks the light around it. Its unnatural dark blinds the line and robs the guns of their aim, letting the swarm close unseen. Worse, the Pall hunts within its own murk, a swift and silent killer that brings its night with it and stalks the blinded soldiers caught inside.

Speculator, called the Watcher by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen that serves as the eyes of the hive. Wherever a Watcher looks, the whole swarm sees, sharing its sight through the shared mind. Blind the Watcher and the Fallen around it are left half-sighted and clumsy. It is the mirror of the Beacon, the sense to the Beacon's will.

Vexillum, called the Beacon by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen through which the hive focuses its will. While a Beacon lives, the swarm around it fights with sharpened purpose and deadly coordination. Kill it and the nearby Fallen fall dull and instinctual. Buried deep in the horde and heavily guarded, the Beacon is the priority the order can seldom reach.

Tempestas, called the Stormcrow by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen that brings the storm with it. Where it flies, black skies and killing weather follow, grounding the cannons' aim and cloaking the swarm's advance. The Stormcrow does not fight the order so much as turn the very heavens against it.

Sporifer, called the Cloud by the garrison, is a drifting horror of the Fallen that takes the form of a vast floating mass of spores. Carried on the wind over the order's walls, it settles behind the line and seeds the ground with new horrors, turning the very air into a means of attack. The Cloud makes no ground safe from what it sows.

Accipiter, called the Stoop by the garrison, is the great aerial horror of the Fallen and the reason the Black Citadel bristles with arcanum cannons. It rules the sky over Attox, striking from above at speeds no wall or trench can stop and killing where the order is most exposed. Against the Stoop the only defence is to command the air itself.

Excoriator, called the Peeler by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen made to defeat armour. Its blade-like claws and prying limbs are built to strip plate from a soldier and open the flesh beneath, undoing the very protection that keeps the order alive. Against the Peeler, heavy armour becomes a burden as much as a shield.

Sputator, called the Spitter by the garrison, is a ranged horror of the Fallen that attacks from a distance. It spits a corrosive bile that eats through armour and flesh alike, forcing the order to fight it before it closes and denying whole stretches of ground. The Spitter makes the open approaches as deadly as the walls.

Saltator, called the Vaulter by the garrison, is a leaping horror of the Fallen that makes walls and trenches meaningless. With a single tremendous bound it clears the order's defences and lands within the line, striking where the soldiers are softest. Against the Vaulter no rampart is ever high enough.

Coactor, called the Drivers by the garrison, is a pack-hunting horror of the Fallen in which the hive mind shows its full cunning. Hunting in coordinated packs, the Drivers flank, feint and herd their prey into killing-ground with visible intelligence. To fight them is to face a single mind wearing many bodies, an enemy that hunts like a general.

Insidiator, called the Quiet by the garrison, is a solitary ambush-hunter of the Fallen that stalks the beautiful wilds of Attox. Silent and patient, it picks off scouts, sentries and stragglers far from the walls, striking once from hiding and vanishing. It is the reason no one walks the island alone, the horror that turns the paradise itself into a trap.

Cataphractus, called the Ram by the garrison, is a massive armoured horror of the Fallen built to break a line by force. Plated in thick bone and driving forward at a full charge, it shatters shield-walls and gates alike and cares nothing for the blows that fall on its hide. Where lighter Fallen probe a line, the Ram simply breaks it.

Bestia Lacerans, called the Render by the garrison, is the definitive killing beast of the Fallen and the horror every soldier of Attox pictures first. A fast and powerful predator that hunts in loose packs, it meets the order blade to blade and kills with tooth and claw. It is the common measure of a true Class II threat, the beast against which a soldier's mettle is proved.

Reptilis Vulgaris, known to the soldiers of Attox as the Crawl, is the commonest of all the Fallen and the lowest threat the Ordo Obscurum catalogues. Small, blind and countless, these scuttling horrors erupt from the ground in floods and kill by sheer number. The hive spends them without care, sending them to die in their thousands so that it may learn from every death. To the garrison they are a daily labour, the endless tide that must be cut down again with each new dawn.

Divisus, called the Splitter by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen that answers force with numbers. Struck hard it does not die but breaks apart into smaller living pieces, each still driven by the hive and still eager to kill. The heavier the blow, the more of it there is. Only fire or careful killing ends the Splitter for good.

Coagulum, called the Clot by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen whose corpse becomes a weapon. When slain its body hardens where it falls into a dense fused mass. In numbers the dead build creeping walls of themselves that shield the swarm and choke the killing-ground. Against the Clot the order's own volleys raise the enemy's siege works.

Ululator, called the Screamer by the garrison, is a frail horror of the Fallen whose death is its weapon. Slain, it looses a cry through the hive mind that sharpens every Fallen around it into a swift and ordered fury. To kill the Screamer first is to make everything else worse. The order learns to leave it for last.

Reviviscens, named the Undead by the garrison, is a horror of the Fallen that rises a second time from its own fresh corpse. Struck down like any lesser Fallen, it lies still, then the hive wakes the dead body once more and sends it on. Soldiers who cut it down and move past it learn their error with its teeth in their backs. To be sure of the Undead the dead must be burned.

Vermis Subterra, called the Upcome by the garrison, is a burrowing horror of the Fallen that strikes from below. Rather than charging the walls it tunnels up through the ground behind the line, erupting among soldiers who thought themselves safe. Weak once in the open, it makes its killing in the moment of surprise. Because of the Upcome no trench on Attox is ever truly held.

The Fallen are the horrors of Attox, a vast hive mind of god-made monsters birthed endlessly from the spawning grounds deep beneath the island. Created by the gods as a living army and left masterless when the Godwar threw them down, they are intelligent, ever-evolving and without end. The Ordo Obscurum has fought them since the fall of the gods, culling the swarm and holding the line, unable ever to destroy a thing the ground itself keeps making.

Cassian Vorne is the current Obscura Princeps, commander of the Ordo Obscurum and the highest imperial authority upon Attox. An imperial soldier and master logistician, he took command after the Breach of Sector A-XI, where he held a catacombs passage alone until the breach was sealed and lost his left arm in the doing. Loyal to the Empire and unbending in his duty, he holds the contested island and presses to reclaim the north the horrors have taken.

The Black Citadel of Obscura is the great fortress of the Ordo Obscurum, raised on a hill overlooking the silent Celestial Gate. A military marvel of spiked walls, high towers, trench-lines and Khazural arcanum cannons, linked to its outposts by underground catacombs, it is fortress, archive, prison and penal colony at once. It holds the south of a contested island, grim and haunted yet unbroken, while the order fights each day to win back the lost north.

The Ordo Obscurum is the elite secret order of the Aurellian Empire raised to guard Attox and contain the horrors it spawns. Founded by Kharos Ashmane and answering now to the Empire alone, it holds the island with soldier and sorcery both, from the Black Citadel and a web of outposts across the continent. Its members are the only souls alive who understand what Attox truly is. Every day they fight to keep its horrors from the world.

The Celestial Gate is the god-made monument upon Attox, formed where the gods first breached into the mortal world and the only stable passage ever made to the Seat of the Pantheon. Towering hundreds of feet in Starstone and flanked by colossal statues of Thalor and Elunys, it has lain dormant since the Godwar. It sleeps rather than dies. Should it ever wake, the world would change.

Attox is a god-made island in the ocean east of Meridia, once the floating bridge between Arkanthys and the Seat of the Pantheon and the gods' own proving ground. Broken in the Godwar and fixed in the sea, it appears a paradise yet hides a lethal wrongness. Empty but for its beasts and the Ordo Obscurum who seal it, it is the forbidden prize the world is beginning to reach for.

DurGhess is the last airship in the world, the single surviving wonder of the golden age of Zarraketh. It is held aloft by the High Cut, a lost order of glyph-work the Deep Cut can no longer match. Zarraketh keeps it hidden and never flies it. Where it rests is a secret known to no one beyond the maker-city.

The Siege of Vael'Vordath is the ongoing assault of the Myrien border fortress by two war-titans of Kashar, begun in 4A 501. It is the first true battle of the Kashar-Myrien war in centuries, waking a conflict that had slept since the Burning of Myriandor. Years on, the fire-titans and the fortress that fire cannot touch remain locked, the siege undecided.

DurAlepp Gehenna is one of the surviving war-titans of Kashar, a DurGehenna half-ruined an age ago and never truly whole since. What walks now is a patchwork of its old core and centuries of grafted repair, running in part on lost principles no living cutter understands. It is a breaker of walls, and it is feared by its own keepers as much as by the enemy.

DurGadarr Gehenna is one of the surviving war-titans of Kashar and the most feared of them, a DurGehenna built as a walking firestorm. Its fire is of a lost kind no craft can now make, unquenchable and fed on a tar the realm can no longer refine. Named among the titans that burned Myriandor, it now stands at the Siege of Vael'Vordath.

The DurGehenna are the war-titans of Kashar, enormous constructs of the golden age that the realm can no longer build. Fire given a body, they were the hammer that burned Myriandor and are the terrible weapon Kashar dares not spend. Only a handful survive, kept and maintained by the Deep Cut.

A Serva is a drone-Zarr, the smallest and most numerous of the constructs. Cheap and simple, they sweep, sort, carry and fetch through every city of Kashar, and the swift runner Serva carry messages between them. They are the constructs a Kashari sees most and thinks about least.

A Greza is a guard-Zarr, the warden and watch-construct of Kashar. It stands at gates, vaults, caravans and market-floors, keeping order and protecting property. Solid and watchful, the Greza are the still figures that guard what the realm has built, though they are not the machines of war.

A Domrra is a house-Zarr, the slender attendant kept in the homes of the rich. Shaped almost like a person, it serves, carries and waits in the households of Joruvin and Morden. The Domrra stand closer to their owners than any other Zarr, and they trouble some who look at them too long.

A Krafta is a crafter-Zarr, the fine and skilled hand of the constructs. Where the Brakuum give strength, the Krafta give precision, working in the shops of Zarraketh and beyond as assemblers, smith-hands and cutters. The finest are the Zarr engineers, whose work is prized across the world.

A Skurra is a tender-Zarr, one of the small constructs that keep the Great Works running. They crawl the cisterns, pipes and refineries of Kashar, scouring, clearing and mending where living hands cannot reach. Unseen and unresting, the Skurra are the reason the realm's machines do not choke and fail.

The Great Works are the monumental automated systems that keep Kashar alive, running the water, the refineries and the pipeline. Each marries the muscle of many Korrvann to a governing mind of cut leaves, so it regulates itself without a hand on every valve. They are the machines the realm cannot live without and can no longer build.

A Brakuum is a labour-Zarr, the heavy muscle of Kashar. Huge, slow and tireless, it digs the tar, raises the cities and bears the burdens no living worker could carry. The Brakuum are the strongest and simplest of the constructs, the most numerous in the pits and on the roads.

A Korrvann is the tar-engine of Kashar, a physical machine that burns refined tar to drive a shaft or a piston. Built to do one task and nothing else, it has no mind and needs none. The Korrvann is the humble foundation on which all Kashari machinery runs.

The Zarr are the soulless constructs of Kashar, made only in Zarraketh from tar and oridian. Given body by tar and a mind by glyphs cut into stone, they labour across the realm in every form their work demands, from huge pit-automatons to slender household servants.

Vokh Darzeth is the Dockmaster of Joruvin, the wealthiest and most charming of the merchant-princes who rule the harbour-city through the Drydock. He answers to coin alone, and has made himself the richest man in Kashar by never once forgetting it.

Vessa Ordavir is the First Cut of the Deep Cut, the master engraver who leads Zarraketh's order of glyph-cutters. Keeper of the deepest secrets of the mind-craft, she decides which minds may be made, and hunts those who cut what is forbidden.

Rauth Kessk, called the Mark, is the High Paperbrand of the Guild of Tar Standards and the most powerful man in Morden. Incorruptible and unbending, he rules the tar trade through the seal that no conglomerate can sell without. His mark has never been bought.

The Tesk Vaskarr are a brotherhood of raiders and zealots of the deep desert who keep the forbidden worship of Drax, the slain god of defiance. Believing the four cities sold their freedom for comfort, they raid to bring that bargain down. They were the enemy behind the Siege of the Dry Wells.

Ressk Vorrek, called the Unbroken, is the current Chancellor of Ushk Nasseth. A pipewright who rose from the cisterns and broke the Siege of the Dry Wells at the cost of an eye and her voice, she rules the water-city by a hard and unbending discipline.

The Siege of the Dry Wells was the gravest threat to Ushk Nasseth in living memory, when the desert brotherhood of the Tesk Vaskarr poisoned the water-city's cisterns. It was broken by the pipewright Ressk Vorrek, who sealed the deep reserves and earned the name the Unbroken.

The Deep Cut is the governing body of Zarraketh, formed of the highest masters of the glyph-craft. It holds the master leaves from which every Zarr mind is copied, and through them it controls the making of all constructs.

The Drydock is the governing council of Joruvin, an assembly of the city's wealthiest merchant families and trade captains. It rules through control of the harbour and answers to coin alone.

The Congress is the governing body of Ushk Nasseth and the power that controls the city's water. A council of engineers and reservoir-masters, it rules through its command of the cisterns rather than through any crown.

The Guild of Tar Standards is the body that governs the tar trade of Morden. It tests, grades and certifies every batch of tar, and no tar may be sold anywhere in Kashar without its mark.

The Black Echo is the smallest and strangest of Morden's five tar conglomerates. Its funding is unknown, its tar unnaturally pure and it is reputed to deal in forbidden work.

The Duneglass Union is the tar conglomerate of Morden's eastern trenches and the only one of the five to call itself a workers' cooperative. It shares its profits among its members, though corruption has repeatedly brought it close to collapse.

The Furnace Coil Consortium is the loudest and most profitable of Morden's five tar conglomerates. It deals in finished tar goods and courts the favour of the city's poor with feasts and fights.

Sablemar Extraction is the most ruthless and mechanised of Morden's five tar conglomerates. It was the first to work its pits with mass Zarr labour and produces more tar than any of its rivals.

The Crucible Accord is the oldest of Morden's five tar conglomerates, descended from the first companies to work the Husavrat fields. It is known for paying its workers in water rather than tar and for growing much of the city's food.

The Five Conglomerates are the great tar companies that divide the city of Morden and the Husavrat Tar Fields between them. Each holds a portion of the pits, a district of the city and a share of the pipelines that carry tar out of the desert.

Joruvin is the westernmost of the four great cities of Kashar and the youngest by far. It stands on the coast where the desert gives way to jungle and sea, a green and temperate place unlike anywhere else in the realm. Joruvin is the trade-city of Kashar, the port through which the realm's tar is carried to the wider world, and it is the wealthiest and most comfortable of the Kashari cities.

Morden is one of the four great cities of Kashar and the centre of the realm's tar trade. It stands over the Husavrat Tar Fields in the interior of the desert, where tar is dug from the pits and refined for use across Arkanthys.

Ushk Nasseth, known as the Yellow City, is the oldest of the four great cities of Kashar. It lies in the southeast of the realm, where rivers cut through sandstone and the desert gives way to workable land. It is built above a vast system of cisterns and reservoirs that supply it with water.

Zarraketh is the maker-city of Kashar, the ancient seat of the craft that gives the realm its Zarr. It stands in the east, in the shadow of the Moon Mountains, drawing tar from the fields and oridian from the deep stone of the peaks.

Kashar is the great desert realm bordering Myrien, a sun-scorched land of tar, water and stubborn survival whose people keep no throne and answer only to the harsh arithmetic of the desert.

The Burning of Myriandor was Kashar's razing of Myrien's World Tree, the greatest atrocity of the age. The fire destroyed far more than the moon-tree. It consumed Vallenmara, the Vyssari realm beyond death, unmaking the millions of dead gathered there and severing the Vyssari from their ancestors forever.

Myriandor was the World Tree of Myrien, the great moon-tree that stood at the heart of the capital Vai'Luthra. It was to the moon-touched Vyssari what Syrandora is to the sun-touched Ambrai, the living heart of their realm and the root of everything they were.

Aveli Marenne of Laughter was the most beloved soul of her age, a luminary of the Harmony of Laughter who taught Cadrien its joy. She was taken by a single shocking act of violence in a realm that had thought itself past murder. Because she died so wrongly, her soul was lost forever, never reaching Syra.

Kaethan Vharo of Wildness is the greatest of the Aurenkaar who ever lived and the most sorrowful legend in all of Cadrien. Long ago, when the armies of Kashar, the desert power that coveted the amber sap, came to seize the source of Solari, it was Kaethan who turned them back, crossing between the worlds as no warden had before him and breaking their host almost alone.

Varek Duthane of Wildness is the current Warden of Syrandora, first and greatest of the Aurenkaar and the master of the crossing between worlds. He has killed more than any Ambrai living and kept the watch longer than any warden before him, a grave and solitary figure who does the realm's violence so that no one else must. He is the blade Cadrien keeps sheathed.

The Aurenkaar, meaning those who come from the soul realm, are the sworn guardians of Syrandora and of all Cadrien against threats from beyond its shores. They are the single most feared force in Arkanthys, though they number only a handful.

Nevaine Corte of Radiance is the deepest soul-walker alive in Cadrien and the living luminary of the Harmony of Radiance. She has followed the path of ecstasy so far that she now dwells more in Aurenmara than in the flesh, surfacing into the living world only rarely. Chosen by no one, she is Cadrien's own reaching toward Syra, as far as an unchosen soul can go. She is a living glimpse of what every Ambrai one day becomes.

Yssaren Volune of Mystery is the living luminary of the Harmony of Mystery and the keeper of the realm's unanswered things. Where others chase certainty, Yssaren guards the questions, holding that some wonders are sacred precisely because they are never solved. In a world racing to explain and possess, Cadrien keeps a place of honour for the one who defends its right to simply not know.

Corvane Marou of Form is the foremost maker of beautiful things in Cadrien and the living luminary of the Harmony of Form. Much of the grace of Syr'Kareth is his work, shaped from the conviction that to make a thing truly beautiful is to make it true.

Maeris Odenne of Lust is the most desired and most dangerous figure in Cadrien, the living luminary of the Harmony of Lust. She has made an art and a devotion of desire itself. She leaves broken and remade hearts wherever she goes, certain to her core that she offers each lover a glimpse of the divine.

Rovan Illeth of Motion is the living luminary of the Harmony of Motion and the most travelled Ambrai alive. He has walked every root-road of Cadrien and never once kept a home, holding that to stop moving is a small death. In a realm with no central rule, he and those like him are much of what keeps the scattered Skyblooms one people.

Sella Yrevane of Laughter is the sharpest wit in Cadrien and the living luminary of the Harmony of Laughter. She mocks the Twelve, the trade and the mysteries of Syra alike. The realm honours her for it, because a people this devoted to its own joys needs someone whose whole purpose is to puncture them.

Ilvane Serrec of Sound is the foremost composer in Cadrien and the living luminary of the Harmony of Sound. Her works move from Skybloom to Skybloom across the realm. She claims she invents none of it, saying she only writes down the vast slow song that Syrandora has hummed since the world began.

Torven Vesk of Wildness is the living luminary of the Harmony of Wildness and the strangest of Cadrien's great figures. Half-feral and rarely seen, he dwells deep in the untended canopy of Syrandora, revered as the one who knows the living tree as a wild thing rather than a temple.

Wenna Halven of Stillness is the most revered contemplative in Cadrien and the living luminary of the Harmony of Stillness. She sits at the heart of the Stillness Skybloom in a quiet so deep that Ambrai from across the realm make the journey simply to sit near her.

Kaevel Duraine of Flame is the most celebrated flame-dancer in Cadrien and the living luminary of the Harmony of Flame. He dances with living fire to the edge of collapse, believing that to burn out at the height of the dance would be the truest passage a child of the Flame could make. The realm expects the fire will take him young. He holds that to be the whole point.

Ravella Ostenne of Indulgence is the foremost steward of the Solari trade and Cadrien's warmest face to the outside world. A daughter of the Harmony of Indulgence, she believes wholly that she is sharing her realm's sacred gift with all who crave it, and cannot quite see how much a lifetime of bargaining abroad has changed her.

Oreva Talunn of Memory is the current Sunevar, the Voice of the Sorne, who has kept Cadrien's bond with dying Myrien for the better part of a century. She long ago loved a Vyssari now gone beyond any soul realm, and has made her home in a grief no other Ambrai carries so closely.

The Voice of the Sorne, known to the Ambrai as the Sunevar, is the one chosen to keep the bond between Cadrien and its dying sister-realm of Myrien. Where the Voice of Syra carries the will of the empress inward to the living, the Sunevar carries Cadrien's hand outward to its oldest kin.

The Voice of Syra, known to the Ambrai as the Solenvoss, is the chosen prophet of Cadrien and the only being of its kind in the living world. Where Syra reigns over the soul realm of Aurenmara and holds no hand in the physical world beyond Syrandora itself, the Voice is how her will reaches the living at all.

Syr'Kareth is the capital and greatest city of Cadrien, grown into the trunk and limbs of Syrandora, the living World Tree. It is a city built within a living thing, its terraces and towers shaped from the amber wood of the tree and lit from within by the glow of Solari.

Syrandora is the living amber World Tree at the heart of Cadrien and the source of everything the realm is. It is the sun-tree of the elves, the living counterpart to Myrien's dead Myriandor.

The Harmony of Radiance is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of ecstasy and transcendence. Those who live by it hold that joy carried to its very height breaks the boundaries of the body and that in such a moment an Ambrai comes as near as any living thing can to becoming light itself.

The Harmony of Mystery is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of wonder and the unknown. Those who live by it hold that some joys are sacred because they cannot be grasped, that a thing half-understood can be holier than a thing explained.

The Harmony of Memory is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of remembrance. Those who live by it hold that joy outlasts the moment that made it, echoing on after it has passed.

The Harmony of Form is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of beauty and visible truth. Those who live by it hold that how a thing appears is the outer rhythm of what it is and that color and shape and adornment are a language by which the self speaks to the world.

The Harmony of Lust is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of sensuality and communion. Those who live by it hold desire to be sacred and touch to be a language.

The Harmony of Motion is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of movement and flow. Those who live by it hold that to move is to live and that stillness left too long lets sorrow settle in.

The Harmony of Indulgence is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of abundance and appetite. Those who live by it hold that joy is meant to be taken in full and never rationed and that to embrace the bounty of the world without restraint is to honor it.

The Harmony of Laughter is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of irreverence and revelation. Those who live by it hold that laughter is the force that tears the veil from solemnity, pretension and cruelty, laying bare the truth beneath.

The Harmony of Wildness is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the verdant roar beneath the calm of the realm. It is the least adorned of the Twelve and among the most alive, a path of instinct and abandon whose people give themselves wholly to the untamed.

The Harmony of Sound is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of vibration and tone. Those who live by it hold that the world is woven of rhythm, that all things begin and end in vibration and that to listen truly is the deepest devotion.

The Harmony of Stillness is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the quiet at the center of the realm. Where most of Syr'Kareth thrums with celebration and heat, those of the Stillness find their rapture in silence and in the clarity of the self when all else grows quiet.

The Harmony of Flame is one of the Twelve Harmonies of Cadrien, the path of passion and combustion. Those who live by it hold that joy must burn to be real, that anything tepid or stagnant is as good as dead, and that to feel deeply and risk everything in the name of creation or love is the truest devotion an Ambrai can offer.

The Twelve Harmonies are the traditions that order physical Cadrien, twelve paths of experience by which the Ambrai live and by which they cross into Aurenmara.

Aurenmara is the soul realm of Cadrien, a real and persistent world projected and sustained by Syrandora, the amber sun-tree.

Cadrien is the eastern elven realm of old Valira, a sun realm built upon and around Syrandora, the living amber World Tree.

Seidrkona is the living continuation of the Seidr, the last safeguard created by the first curators of Arkanthys before their extinction.

Domargan is an artificial sphere of existence created by Altarra Tower during the rule of Archmage Gerek Daktos. It exists outside Arkanthys and serves as the Tower’s highest-security containment site.

The Naeva are an all-female humanoid species originally native to Myrien and now primarily settled within the Ashwind Glade of southwestern Meridia.

Krovnathûl Varnak or The Day the Ravens Blocked the Sun is one of the darkest events in the history of Nifleheim and the wider Skarnn homelands.

Gabriel Aurellian was the leader of the Aurellian Rebellion, the mortal who slew Thalor and is the first Emperor of the Aurellian Empire.

The Vyssari are the elven people of Myrien, the moon-touched race of the western forest realm. They are one of the two elven peoples of old Valira, kin to the sun-touched Ambrai of Cadrien, and they are bound to Myriandor, the World Tree of the moons.

The Ambrai are the elven people of Cadrien, the sun-touched race bound to Syrandora, the amber World Tree of the sun. By blood they are kin to the Vyssari of Myrien, born of the same elven stock, but they have become something no other people is.

Calan Velaine was the last emperor of Valira, a Vyssari of Myrien and the final ruler of the Velaine line. He was a thoughtful and melancholy man who came to believe the empire his family had founded should not outlive him, and when he died in 3A 8012 he left no heir to take it.

Urus Velaine I was the first emperor of Valira and the founder of both the Valiran Empire and the line that bore his name.

Thal'Kosyr is the southern border city of Myrien, set on the very edge of the frontier with Kashar where the forest fails and the desert begins. It is the most exposed city in the realm and the least developed, and it is the one place in Myrien that does not feel like Myrien.

Myr'Sael is the northernmost city of Myrien, built on the southern bank of the River Sael where it widens toward the sea. The Sael is the border between Myrien and the dwarven realm of Khazural, and Myr'Sael is the realm's gateway across it.

Vai'Sorne is the eastern city of Myrien, built on the Sorne falls along the border with Cadrien, the realm's closest ally. It is one half of a shared city. Cadrien holds the far bank as Syr'Sorne, and the two halves are one city in all but name.

Vael'Vordath is the principal fortress of southwestern Myrien and the strongest defensive position in the realm. It guards the border with Kashar and sits between the Silvershade Fields to the north and the Crimson Scar to the south. It was built and is maintained by the Vaelari, Myrien's maker-caste, and is garrisoned by the Thalanir. It has defended the frontier for thousands of years and has never been captured.

Lumara is the western sea-port of Myrien, built where the realm's forests meet the ocean. It is the main point of arrival for travelers and trade reaching Myrien by sea, and the most open and welcoming of the realm's cities. It is held by the Sylveth, the caste of nature-keepers. Outsiders also know it by its common name, the Ladies' Light, after the two moons.

Vai'Luthra is the capital and largest city of Myrien, built where the River Myrien widens in the deep forest. It is the seat of the realm's government and the site of Myriandor, the dead World Tree at its center, and it is widely regarded as the most beautiful city in Arkanthys.

Myrien is the western elven realm of old Valira, a forest kingdom lit by its two moons, Lumea and Elunara. It is one of the two great elven realms, alongside Cadrien, and it is known for its rigid caste society, its refusal of fire, and the loss of its World Tree, Myriandor. Its capital is Vai'Luthra, and its people are the Vyssari.

Thal'Valeth is the western gate-fortress of Myrien, built where the River Myrien narrows between the Great Erynn Forest and the Silvershade Fields. It controls river traffic moving inland from the coast toward the interior of the realm, and it is the point at which Myrien screens and admits outsiders. It is held by the Thalanir, the realm's warrior-caste.

Stenn Helmarr is the enforcement commander of the Elegy, the armed hand of the most feared institution in Grimhold. Where the High Electress Sif Helmarr decides what the order condemns, it is Stenn who ensures the sentence falls.

Drengr Karvandar was the lord of Clan Karvandar before his son Sigvald, and the most celebrated sea-lord the Skarnn have known in generations.

Sigvald Karvandar is the lord of Clan Karvandar, the naval power of the Skarnn homelands, ruling from the fortress-port of Hafnarsvik upon Grimhold's far western coast.

Nhal'Vorim is the name given to whatever lies sealed beyond the Mourning Gate, in the deepest dark beneath Baraz-Darak-Uzul. What it truly is, no living scholar can say.

The Hammer Verses are the holiest scripture of the Deep Rhythm and the foundation of all dwarven faith. The Khazal revere them as the revealed word of Khoran, the Anvil-Father, who is said to have struck the world into being with his hammer.

The Stone Pact, known to the Khazal as the Dûrvund, is the foundational covenant of Khazural, sworn in the First Hallings, that bound the scattered Khazal clans into a single realm and binds them still.

Baraz-Darak-Zulfbar is the second-largest city in Khazural and the primary center of trade, wealth, and economic influence within the dwarven realm. Known as the Golden Vein, it functions as Khazural's principal gateway to the outside world, drawing merchants, envoys, craftsmen, and travelers from across Arkanthys.

Baraz-Darak-Uzul stands upon the eastern flank of the Elderspine, where the stone slopes descend into wide valleys and the first hidden arteries of the Deeproots begin.

Baraz-Darak-Sul is the northernmost dwarven hold in Khazural and the last active watchtower of an ancient defensive ring that once spanned the Elderspine frontier.

Baraz-Kronn is the capital of Khazural and the greatest of all dwarven holds. Entirely subterranean except for the Embergate Market, it stretches for miles beneath the northern Elderspine.

Baraz-Darak-Hirn is the largest military stronghold in Khazural and the primary fortress guarding the southern approaches to the Elderspine.

The Stonebound are an ancient monastic order of the Deep Rhythm, tasked with guarding the deepest thresholds of the Deeproots and preserving the most dangerous silences in dwarven history.

The High King of Khazural is the supreme sovereign of the dwarven realm and the highest political, military, and executive authority within the mountain kingdom.

Dravik Makaar, known among the Frostguard as the Still Flame, is the current commander of the Frostguard and master of Baraz-Darak-Sul, the last operational Lonely Tower of Khazural's northern frontier.

The Frostguard are an ancient northern order sworn to defend the farthest reaches of Khazural from threats beyond the known world.

Velmir Dornbraeth is the current head of House Dornbraeth, master architect of the Forgehouses, and one of the most accomplished structural minds in modern Khazural.

Thorek Thaldrazan, known as the Warchief of Cinders, is the current head of House Thaldrazan, master of the Ashvaults, dominant power behind Khazural's military establishment, and one of the greatest strategic minds in dwarven history.

Maedra Rhund-Khazal, known throughout Baraz-Kronn as the Silent Seal, is the current head of House Rhund-Khazal, Supreme Judge of the Iron Tribunal, and one of the most feared political figures in all of Khazural.

Kazrik Brimgaruun is the current head of House Brimgaruun, master of Khazural's trade networks, chief architect of its foreign diplomacy, and one of the most politically dangerous men in the mountain realm.

Barador Gildhelm is the current High King of Khazural and head of the royal Gildhelm Dynasty, a cadet line originating from House Zarak-Vorr. Ascending the Ember Throne forty years ago following the death of his father, Barak Gildhelm, Barador has presided over one of the longest and most stable reigns in modern Khazural history.

House Thaldrazan is one of the Five Great Forgehouses of Khazural and the living embodiment of the Echo of Endurance, the foundational principle of time, trial, erosion, and transformation through pressure.

House Zarak-Vorr is one of the Five Great Forgehouses of Khazural and the living embodiment of the Echo of Persistence, the foundational principle of memory, legacy, and remembrance.

House Rhund-Khazal is one of the Five Great Forgehouses of Khazural and the living embodiment of the Echo of Bond, the foundational principle of gravity, burden, and obligation, the weight that binds oath to keeper and holds all things to their place.

House Dornbraeth is one of the Five Great Forgehouses of Khazural and the living embodiment of the Echo of Shape, the foundational principle of structure, form, and deliberate creation.

House Brimgaruun is one of the Five Great Forgehouses of Khazural and the living embodiment of the Echo of Consequence, the foundational principle that every action bears cost, every exchange creates obligation, and every strike upon the world yields return.

The Forgehouses are the five great dynastic institutions that form the social, political, and economic foundation of Khazural.

The Needles are a vast dead forest of blackened trunks north of Ravenhold, slain by their own guardian spirit. When grief drove the Crystal Stag Thirion to destroy his dying woodland, Fenrir, the Nature Spirit of Balance, cursed him and bound his soul to the Heartwood. The curse has since been broken, but only the land around the Heartwood has begun to recover.

Chieftains' Grove is one of the most sacred sites in Grimhold, serving as the burial ground of the north's greatest leaders: jarls, clan chieftains, forgemasters, oathkeepers, and the heroes whose deeds shaped the ages.

Bharûm-Drakhal was the most technologically advanced dwarven city ever constructed and the greatest feat of Ungi engineering in recorded history.

Cloudwatch is an ancient observatory perched atop the highest peak of the Pale Spires, the range that rises above the ruins of Sarthengar. It overlooks Grimhold like a silent, watching eye.

The Ocularis was the heart of Oculus: its prison, headquarters, ritual nexus, and the most feared institution of the Pantheon's imperial machine.

Bleakmarsh Fortress is a solitary stone stronghold rising from the frozen wetlands north of Nifleheim. Built upon one of the few stable islands of earth within the marsh, it serves as a refuge for travelers, hunters, scouts, and wanderers crossing the northern routes of Grimhold.

Hafnarsvik is the principal port and seat of Clan Karvandar, and the only permanent settlement along the far western coast of Grimhold.

Ravenhold is a storm-battered coastal city on the southeastern edge of Grimhold, built along black cliffs above violent grey waters.

Stoltengard Keep is the ancestral stronghold and capital of Clan Stoltengard, carved directly into the eastern cliffs of the Antler Hills.

Tham Lorn is the ancestral capital of Clan Grimwulf and the second-largest settlement in the Skarnn homelands, surpassed only by Nifleheim.

Nifleheim is the capital of the Skarnn and, alongside the trade-city of Ravenhold, one of the two great cities of Grimhold.

The Skarnn are the cold-adapted, clan-based people of Nifleheim in southwestern Grimhold. Though imperial record holds they were created by the Saren, the Skarnn reject that origin and regard Grimhold itself as their progenitor.

Stigr Holgata was a Skarnn Fjölkunnir of Clan Grimwulf and a master of tempest magic, he remains one of the most controversial Archmages in the Tower’s history.

Twin Wharfs serves as the capital and seat of Clan Vossk, the smallest yet most politically entangled of the Skarnn clans. The settlement exists entirely within a vast coastal cavern split by a central cliff.

Oculus was the imperial intelligence and enforcement agency of the Sartan Empire, founded in the Second Age to serve as the eyes, ears, and hidden hand of the Pantheon's dominion.

The Elegy is the sole religious and funerary authority of the Skarnn, entrusted with preserving ancestral rites, overseeing burial customs, guarding doctrine, and adjudicating matters of death, sacrilege, and ritual law.

Drakkar is a pan-Grimhold hunter-order dedicated to the tracking, containment, and eradication of catastrophic beasts and existential wilderness threats.

Vigil is Ravenhold's guild of law, order, and investigation, responsible for enforcing civic law, examining crimes, and holding the city's powerful to the same account as its poor.

Heavy Coin is Ravenhold's primary economic authority and the institution responsible for regulating trade, valuing relics, financing expeditions, arbitrating contracts, and maintaining market stability throughout the city.

The Guild of Hollow Eyes is Ravenhold's primary organization for espionage, covert surveillance, intelligence gathering, targeted elimination, and clandestine threat removal.

The Gravetide Company is Ravenhold's foremost organization for the containment and eradication of divine remnants, cursed relics, corrupted terrain, and hostile manifestations born from the Godwar.

Blackram is the iron heart of Ravenhold, a mercenary legion forged in the chaotic aftermath of the Godwar.

Clan Vossk is the smallest yet most politically agile of the four major Skarnn clans. Though limited in land and population, they wield disproportionate influence through control of Nifleheim's southeastern maritime routes and their long-standing diplomatic relationship with the Empire.

Stongaarr Halra-Vossk is the ruling head of Clan Vossk and one of the most politically capable figures in Nifleheim.

Clan Stoltengard is one of the four major Skarnn clans of Nifleheim and the only clan whose ancestral seat endured the Subjugation of the Skarnn.

Clan Karvandar is one of the four major Skarnn clans of Nifleheim, renowned for its mastery of the frozen western seas and its control over Grimhold's far western coastline.

Clan Grimwulf is the dominant political and territorial power of Nifleheim, holding more land, greater military strength, and deeper ancestral authority than any other Skarnn clan. For centuries, the Jarls of Nifleheim have been chosen from the Grimwulf bloodline, establishing the clan as the central pillar of Skarnn leadership.

The Khazal are the dominant dwarven culture of Khazural and the ancestral builders of its great mountain holds, forge-cities, and subterranean fortress-realms.

The Durazhul, or the Deep Dwarves, are a divergent dwarven people descended from ancient Khazal expeditions sent into the Deeproots during the early expansion of Khazural.

Altarra Tower is the foremost arcane institution of the Aurellian Empire and the greatest center of magical study, preservation and containment in Arkanthys.

The Godwar was the defining conflict of the late Third Age, a twenty-three-year war that ended divine rule over Arkanthys.

The Creation of the Saren marks the first deliberate act of divine creation performed by the Pantheon.

The Smiling Knife is the leader of the Guild of Hollow Eyes, Ravenhold’s intelligence network and most secretive guild. Their true name, origin and identity are unknown.

Sigrid Stoltengard is the head of Clan Stoltengard and one of the most influential clan leaders in Nifleheim. She is recognized as one of the most effective hunters among the Skarnn.

Sif Helmarr is the High Electress of the Elegy and the highest spiritual authority in Grimhold. She oversees the Elegy’s temples, courts, inquisitors and formal rites of absolution and condemnation.

Riven Kael is the captain of the Gravetide Company, Ravenhold’s primary force for managing divine remnants, corrupted terrain, unstable relics and post-Godwar anomalies.

Renna Forge is the leader of the Blackram, Ravenhold’s primary martial guild. Under her command, the Blackram changed from a hired fighting force into a structured defensive organization responsible for much of the city’s security.

Rauði Anvarr, commonly known as the Red Snow, is a sanctioned martial institution within Nifleheim responsible for handling blood grievances, personal vendettas and escalating feuds among the Skarnn.

Ráðek Skell is the senior figure within Rauði Anvarr, the Red Snow of Nifleheim. He decides which blood grievances the Red Snow will accept.

Eromin Vetch is the leader of Vigil, the guild responsible for internal order, law enforcement and investigation within Ravenhold.

Belloc Ardane is the long-standing head of Heavy Coin, the wealth-broker guild that controls much of Ravenhold’s trade and financial activity.

Barl Grimwulf is the ruling Jarl of Nifleheim and one of the central political figures of Grimhold.

Algar, known as the White Wolf, is the Archdruid of the Skarnn and the sole custodian of the White Forest, the last untouched primordial woodland in Grimhold.

Rhea Auric was a tiefling inventor active in Sarthengar during the final years of the Third Age. Known for experimental engineering and her partnership with Winrey Auric, she worked outside the boundaries imposed by divine authority at a time when independent invention was increasingly treated as a threat.

Winrey Auric was a Vedalken inventor, engineer and arcane theoretician whose work shaped the Aurellian Rebellion, the Godwar and the early imperial order that followed.

Maya Aurellian was the first child of Gabriel Aurellian and Althea Aurellian. Born prematurely in Sarthengar during the final years of the Third Age, she lived only a short time.

Aria Aurellian was the mother of Gabriel Aurellian and wife of Varys Aurellian. She lived during the final years of divine rule, when labor, poverty and temple obligation shaped much of ordinary life in Sarthengar.

Althea Aurellian was the wife of Gabriel Aurellian and the first Empress of the Aurellian Empire.

Varys Aurellian was the father of Gabriel Aurellian and husband of Aria Aurellian.

Torr Barradan was a Skarnn warrior, smuggler, partisan commander and one of the most important northern figures of the Aurellian Rebellion.

Luceran Voln Halor is the ninth Archmage of Altarra Tower and the current ruler of the empire’s foremost arcane institution.

Valerius Thane Ormont was the eight Archmage of Altarra Tower and one of the most controversial figures in the institution’s history.

Victor Halden was a human Runemaster renowned for his practicality and willingness to make difficult decisions, he inherited an institution facing its most severe financial crisis since its founding.

Serelle Triss vi Naeva was the sixth Archmage of Altarra Tower. A Naeva enchantress renowned for her diplomatic skill and unwavering defense of Altarra's independence, she guided the Tower through one of the most politically turbulent periods of the Fourth Age.

Kharos Ashmane was a Leonin master of Abjuration, remembered for securing Attox, founding the Ordo Obscurum and overseeing the construction of the Black Citadel of Obscura.

Victoria Ossent was a master diviner and member of Domus Ossent of Meridia, she is remembered for transforming the Arcana Matrix from an experimental detection system into one of the Tower’s most important instruments of oversight.

The Axiarchs are the primary practitioners of Axiomancy and serve as the foremost experts on the sphere's unstable laws, containment systems, and anomalous phenomena.

Unlike ordinary magic, Axiomancy does not create fire, heal wounds, summon matter, shape elements or channel the Roil in the usual way. It changes how space, direction, distance, sequence, identity and perception behave inside Domargan.

A master conjurer of exceptional ability, he is remembered for overseeing the most ambitious containment project in Altarra’s history: the creation of Domargan, an artificial sphere of existence beyond Arkanthys.

A master transmuter of exceptional skill, she transformed Altarra from a gathering of survivors, scholars and relic hunters into a functioning imperial institution.

Pyro Carraden was one of the founding figures of Altarra Tower and the architect of its earliest relic containment systems.

The Imperial Orders are the permanent institutional bodies of the Aurellian Empire. They were established to manage the duties no emperor could carry alone.

The Founding of Altarra Tower marks the Aurellian Empire’s first major answer to the problem of magic after the Godwar. The war had ended divine rule, but it had not removed the power divine rule left behind.

At the exact center of Meridia stands Palace Imperia, the imperial palace complex and Seat of the Empire.

The Aurellian Dynasty is the ruling bloodline established after the Godwar, marking the beginning of mortal rule over Arkanthys.

The Age of Dominion began in the final years following the Godwar, marking the transition from divine rule to mortal authority over Arkanthys.

The Age of Strife marks the turbulent middle centuries of the Third Age, when the old imperial balance of Arkanthys finally broke into open rivalry.

The Rise of the Valiran Empire marks the emergence of one of the greatest mortal powers of the Third Age.

The Fracturing of the Sartan Order marks the opening period of the Third Age, when the imperial structure built by the Saren began to turn against the world it had once organized.

The Age of Worship marks the final and longest phase of the Second Age, following the establishment of the Divine Concord.

The Divine Concord was the great covenant established between the Pantheon and the civilizations of Arkanthys during the height of the Sartan Empire.

The Sartan Empire emerged during the middle centuries of the Second Age, after the founding of Sarthengar and the Awakening of the Races. It was the first large-scale political structure in the history of Arkanthys, and the first attempt to organize civilization beyond a single city.

The Awakening of the Races describes the early Second Age period when the peoples of Arkanthys first entered history.

Sarthengar was the first city ever built on Arkanthys and the starting point of organized mortal civilization.

The Founding of Sarthengar marks the birth of organized mortal civilization on Arkanthys.

The Saren were a humanoid species created directly by the Pantheon during the Second Age. They were the first people shaped by divine will and the first race designed for civilization on a large scale.

The Rise of the Pantheon marks the beginning of the Second Age of Arkanthys.

The Seidr were a humanoid species native to Arkanthys and the first living beings to emerge after the departure of the Creators. They appeared before mortal civilization, before recorded history and before the rise of the Pantheon.

The Seidr were the first living beings born from Arkanthys after the departure of the Creators. They came before mortal civilization, before temples, before kingdoms and before the gods rose into power.

Nature spirits are born from the land itself. They emerge when an ecosystem becomes large, old and stable enough to carry its own consciousness.

The Sacred Scars of Arkanthys are wounds of origin, left where the influence of the Creators remains embedded in the world.

The Creators were not gods. They were vast principles of reality made briefly present within the Roil, the unformed arcane chaos that existed before the world.

The Founding of Arkanthys, known only in restricted scholarship as the Age of the Creators, describes the earliest known era of existence.