Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The Age of Shattered Empires


The World Age Gazetteer of Kane
Version 2.0

Adessa Wells:---a Sandotneri frontier garrison located on the savannah 20 miles south of Tregua Spring and 10 miles north of Meritavano. (Dark Crusade)

Altanstand Mountains:---a great, rocky mountain range that lay west of the Inland Sea, stretching northward into the vast heart of the Great Northern Continent. (Dark Crusade)

Altbur Keep:---a provincial fortress destroyed in the Chrosanthian civil war 200 years prior to the events in Mirage. The vampire Nairchoryss was the mistress of the ruined ghoul-haunted keep, high in the Altanstand Mountains above Chrosanthe. (Mirage)

Altharn Keep:---a fortified stronghold that lay on a pass running through the Altanstand Mountains, between Harnsterm and the frontier beyond. (Misericorde)

Ammuria:---a coastal city-state whose exact location is not recorded, although it apparently lies along the southwestern edge of the Lartroxian continent. This independent seaport is not a member of the South Lartroxian Combine. (Darkness Weaves)

Andalar:---a fabulous city-state of eastern Lartroxia, lying south of Lomarn. Andalar was the wealthiest city on Earth at its time. The god, Inglarn, founded it. Andalar lay amid tropical jungles and a river gorge ran close to it. Kane so utterly destroyed the city that 100 years later the jungle was just beginning to return. The ruins of the city are known as "Andalar the Accursed". (The Other One)

Antamareesi Mountains:---a low, broken range of mountains that lay to the east of the Herratlonai wastelands, approximately 1000 miles from the cities of man. They were once home to a race of giants. There were immense caverns beneath them, the burial place of their kings. Rolling plains lay to the east of the range. Kane thought the mountains looked like a row of worn, discolored teeth. (Two Suns Setting)

Arellarti:---a wondrous, imposing citadel, built millennia prior to the story Bloodstone, by a non-native elder race called the Krelran on the island of a great inland bay that cut deep into the Southern Lands of its day. Arellarti was a circular city of seven radial avenues that measured nearly three miles across. At the center of the city was a colossal domed edifice a thousand feet high, housing a crystalline entity called Bloodstone. The city lasted only a year, destroyed by a coalition of elder races, reputedly the Scylredi, Tuhchiso, and Brveen. The Krelran never recovered and degenerated into the bestial Rillyti. The sea surrounding Arellarti receded, until it was encircled by the vast, cold, salt marsh called Kranor-Rill. Arellarti was finally destroyed by a witch-tide summoned by the Daughters of Shenan. (Bloodstone)

Arestellia:---a coastal country, boasting a professional navy. Its location was not recorded. (The Treasure of Lynortis)

Ashertiri:---an ancient city-state that lay on the southern shore of the Great Northern Continent. It was destroyed, a millennia prior to the events in Dark Crusade, by the sorcerers of Carsultyal after an ill-fated attempt to claim the bulk of the continent. The ruins of Ashertiri lay near the city of Intantemri, on the shores of the Southern Sound. At the time of Reflections, there were still scholars that understood the archaic language of Ashertiri. Kane was a sorcerer, and at one time possibly the king, of Ashertiri. (Dark CrusadeReflections for the Winter of My Soul, Darkness Weaves)

Bavostni:---a Southern Kingdom that lay on the Eastern Sea. It shared part of the marches of Shapeli. It supplied men and equipment to the Dark Crusade. (Dark Crusade)

Bern's Cove:---a small fishing village that lay on the eastern shore of the Inland Sea. (Dark Crusade)

Brandis:---a town of the tropical forests of Shapeli, one of the first in the region to fall to the Dark Crusade. (Dark Crusade)

Breimen:---a Wollendann city-state that lay on the River Clasten west of a great, old oak forest. It was considered the fastest rising city-state in the Southern Lands. The people were mostly blonde or red haired. The city lay north of the independent city-state of Selonari and shared a border at the Macewen River. The city was mostly destroyed during the events of Bloodstone-it is not known if it was ever rebuilt. (Bloodstone)

Brvenn:---an elder race that dwelt in the cliffs where the Serpent's Head dropped down upon the salt marshes. They participated in the first destruction of Arellarti. They were humanoid beings that fluttered through the air on moth-wings. Their angular bodies were clothed in shaggy scales, and their faces were set with great compound eyes, that resembled glittering mosaics. (Bloodstone)

Burwhet:---a city of Lartroxia, where Gaethaa the Avenger took on Olidi and his gang of raiders. The city was destroyed in the fight. (Cold Light)

Carrasahl:---the capital city of a northern kingdom that lay west of the principality of Rader. It was once a northern province of the Serranthonian Empire. It was considered somewhat of a backwater nation consisting of a number of provinces ruled by barons. The Halbrosn Mountains lay between Carrasahl and Rader. The road leading to Rader forks to the south along the western edge of the mountains. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Carsultyal:---the capital city of a great empire that was the center of man's exploration of the elder knowledge of the "Golden Age" of vanished pre-human civilizations. Carsultyal was mankind's first great city. A former fishing village, it lay in the settled northwest crescent of the Great Southern Continent. It's "clustered, star-reaching towers were whispered to be overawed by cellars where depths plunged further still". Building on the knowledge collected by Kethrid on his voyages of discovery, Kane became a sorcerer, eventually becoming one of the most powerful in the city. He was finally driven out by fellow sorcerers alarmed by the alien direction his studies had taken. By the time he left, Carsultyal had grown stagnant, its spirit of discovery and renaissance burned out. At the time of Bloodstone the city was in decline, past its days of glory. During this period, the sorcerers of Carsultyal fought a war of annihilation with the nation of Ashertiri. The longsword favored by Kane was forged in Carsultyal. The secret of its manufacture was lost with the city's strange fall. By the time of Raven's Eyrie, Carsultyal was only a memory, long buried by sand and sea and time. (Undertow, Two Suns Setting, Bloodstone, The Dark Muse, Dark Crusade, Raven's Eyrie)

Castakes:---a city on the northern coast of the Southern Lands. (Darkness Weaves)

Ceddi:---a fortress found in the city of Ingoldi that incorporated into its design the ancient black Tower of Yslsl. The name "Ceddi" meant "the Altar". The worshippers of the demonlord Sataki controlled the fortress. (Dark Crusade)

Charia's Wells:---the northernmost Sandotneri outpost located on the savannah 25 miles south of the Shapeli city of Sembrano. (Dark Crusade)

Chectalos:--- a city-state south of Carrasahl on the Great Northern Continent. At the time of Reflections it was at war with the city-state of Enseljos. (Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Chrosanthe:---a kingdom that lay to the east of the forested Altanstand mountain range on the Great Northern Continent. The mountainous realm lay to the northwest of the Southern Kingdoms. Once a southern province of the vast Serranthonian Empire, an imperial university was located there. The kingdom was part of a region where racial features tended to dark hair and lean wiriness. At the time of Misericorde, Chrosanthe was in the midst of a particularly fierce civil war, mentioned during the events of Mirage, some 200 years later. The dead from that war attracted ghouls to the outlying areas of the kingdom. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese, Misericorde, Mirage)

Churtannts:---a city-state that was home to the philosopher-sage Monpelloni. It had lain in ruins for over a century at the time of Cold Light, and its location was not recorded. (Cold Light)

Citadel of the Red Three:---an ogre stronghold on the continent of Lartroxia. The lands surrounding the citadel lived in abject terror of the "Red Three", Omsell, Gesell, and Dasell. Gaethaa the Avenger and his army destroyed the citadel. (Cold Light)

Clasten River:---a tributary of the Macewen River of the Southern Lands. It flowed past Breimen and entered the Macewen twenty miles downstream from the Macewen's confluence with the Neltoben River. (Bloodstone)

Cold Forests:---a sea of giant, blue-green evergreen trees lying in the Southern Lands south of Kranor-Rill. It stretched far to the south, ending at last at the Ice Sea. This heavily forested area seldom felt the tread of man. (Bloodstone)

Combine Cities:---See the entry under the South Lartroxian Combine

Cotras River:---a watercourse of Lartroxia South, the source of the river was the cold springs and tiny streams from high in the Myceum Mountains. The river cut a twisted path through miles of rocky foothills, then upon reaching the lowlands, ran 50 miles of navigable channel through fertile farmland, finally emptying into the Western Sea. (Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Dan-Legeh:---the black citadel of the lords of Pellin. It lay in the city of Prisarte. The citadel was built from the ruins of an ancient Scylredi castle. (Darkness Weaves)

Demonlands, The:---see the entry under Hell

Demornte:---a plague-haunted ghost-land that lies between the great deserts of Lartroxia West and Lomarn to the east. At one time it was a fertile land of gently rolling hills and cool lakes, a giant oasis surrounded by desert. The land was the center of a vast east-west caravan trade until the day twenty years prior the story Cold Light, when a caravan brought plague to Demornte. Cut off from the world as it was, the nation became a tomb where there were not enough survivors to bury the dead. The capital of Demornte was the city of Sebbei. (Cold Light)

Desdrinel:---a Southern Kingdom that lay south of Ripestnari and west of Sandotneri. It was conquered by the Dark Crusade. (Dark Crusade)

East, The:---a colloquial term used to describe the eastern reaches of the Lartroxian continent. This area is the source of an unusual type of sword called a scimitar. (Darkness Weaves, The Treasure of Lynortis)

Eastern Sea:---a massive ocean of saltwater that lay to the east of the Great Northern and Great Southern continents. One thousand leagues across the azure waves lay the continental mass of Lartroxia (of course, the Lartroxians call it the Western Sea). Ships could and did cross this great span of ocean, but such crossings became less and less common as both of the northern continents lapsed into barbarism during the "Age of Shattered Empires". (Dark Crusade)

Ebony Shipwreck:---lay on the seacoast of the Great Southern Continent, 100 miles north of Carsultyal, the shipwreck was the remains of a ship of Elder Earth that was beached for perhaps a millennia. The ship was constructed of a black metal both harder and lighter than steel. Kethrid of Carsultyal salvaged, rebuilt the ship, and called it Yhosal-Monyr, which means Light Reborn in the Old Tongue. Kethrid used the ship on his voyages of discovery. (In the Wake of the Night, Bloodstone)

Eden:---a sterile paradise created for the race of Man by their Creator-God. After Kane's rebellion, mankind was scattered across the earth and Eden was destroyed by fire. Its location is not recorded. (In the Wake of the Night, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul, Darkness Weaves)

Emleoas:---a city of the tropical forests of Shapeli that was looted by the Dark Crusade. (Dark Crusade)

Enseljos:---a city-state south of Rader, located on the eastern shore of the Great Northern Continent. Once the sprawling capital city of Halbros-Serrantho, Enseljos presumably became the capital of the vast Serranthonian Empire. During the final century of the Empire, the wool-fair previously held in Rader had to be moved to Enseljos, due to the Dualist Heresy. At the time of Reflections it was at war with the kingdom of Chectalos. (The Dark Muse, Sing a Last Song of Valdese, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Fisitia:---one of the eight major islands of the Thovnosian Empire, some 2000 to 3000 square miles in size. It lays directly south of Pellin. (Darkness Weaves)

Giants:---an elder race that dwelt on the Great Southern Continent near the foothills of the Antamareesi Mountains. They were humanoid beings that looked like perfectly proportioned, eighteen-foot tall men and they spoke a language called the "Old Tongue". The giants lived on the fertile grasslands of Herratlonai during their "Heroic Age", before a war between two unnamed elder races created the cold wasteland. After the destruction, part of the race migrated overseas to the Southern Lands. Eventually, the race went into decline, living a semi-barbaric existence in the lands not frequented by mankind. (Two Suns Setting, Bloodstone)

Gillera:---a walled city that lay in the forests of Shapeli. It was conquered through Sataki magic. (Dark Crusade)

Great Northern Continent:---a large landmass lying over one thousand leagues west of the Lartroxian super-continent, and north of the Great Southern Continent. To the east lies lay the Eastern Sea, to the south was the Southern Sound, west was the Western Ocean, and north was the Northern Ice Sea. Starting in the tropical forests of Shapeli, the continent curved westward as a broad region of savanna around the Inland Sea to the north and the Southern Sound on the south - then northward past the western shore of the Inland Sea, where at last the grasslands rose into the great rocky mass of the Altanstand Mountains. Beyond this mountain range the greater portion of the continent sprawled out over some 4000 miles, eventually ending at the Northern Ice Sea. In the southwestern portion of the continent were jungles swarming with army ants and whose rivers were infested with piranha. The first attempt to lay claim to the continent resulted in Ashertiri's ill-fated war with Carsultyal in mankind's earliest days. Centuries later, the line of Halbros-Serrantho attempted to unite the northern region as the vast Serranthonian Empire, but was ultimately brought down by religious wars. The centuries following its fall were known as the "Age of Shattered Empires", an age of anarchy where men reverted to barbarism. It was at this time when the Dark Crusade smashed its way across the southern portion of the continent. (Dark Crusade)

Great Serpent's Head:---presumably the aboriginal name for the eastern end of the Ocalidad Mountain range in the Southern Lands. (Bloodstone)

Great Southern Continent:---a large landmass that lay across the Southern Sound from the Great Northern Continent. Once home to a prehistoric race of giants, the land saw rise to the first great city of mankind, Carsultyal. The cold wastelands of Herratlonai were a notable feature of the interior, stretching over a thousand miles east to west. The mountains of Antamareesi lay to the east, beyond which were gently rolling plains. In the south of the continent was an unnamed mountain range that was home to a tribe of blonde-haired barbarians. (Undertow, Two Suns Setting, Dark Crusade)

Halbros-Serrantho:---a vast kingdom that lay on the Great Northern Continent. At the time of Dark Muse, it is embarking on building an empire from the multitude of city-states on the vast, northern land. (The Dark Muse)

Halbrosn:---presumably one of the founding city-states of the Serranthonian Empire. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese)

Halbrosn Mountains:---a mountain range of the Great Northern Continent. Several centuries prior to the story, Kane had a fortress from which he held the mountains under his thrall for a hundred years. The combined armies of the Serranthonian Empire finally pulled it down around his head. There was a road running along the western edge of the mountains that forked, eastward to Rader and westward to Carrasahl. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese)

Harnsterm:---a city in the realm of Chrosanthe. It lay west of the capital, in the foothills of the Altanstand Mountains. (Misericorde)

Hell:---also known as the Demonlands and as the Seven Hells, it is a series of huge caverns found deep beneath the surface of the Earth. In the caverns are smoking plains of shattered rock, angry lava pits, and lakes of black fire. Hell is inhabited by "dark creatures of blighted beauty - demons with leathery wings and beautiful faces". The Fallen Angels - the Demonlords, are the rulers of these subterranean lands. (Undertow, Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Herratlonai:---a cold, wind-etched wasteland of gravel that lay southeast of Carsultyal. It stretched over a thousand miles, until it ended at the foothills of the Antamareesi Mountains. It was rumored to border on one of the prehuman realms of lost antiquity. There were tales of cities impossibly ancient buried beneath the gravel dunes. At one time a fertile grassland populated by giants, a war between two elder races created the wasteland. At the time of Dark Crusade, nothing lived there anymore. (Two Suns Setting, Dark Crusade)

Ice Sea:---an ice-bound stretch of water that lay south of the Southern Lands. (Bloodstone)

Ingoldi:---an indolent, sprawling city that lay in the tropical forests of Shapeli, on the Great Northern Continent. An edifice called the Fortress of Ceddi could be found there. The city was the home of a yearly Guild Fair, being at the center of the trade routes that crossed Shapeli. Orted-Ak-Ceddi, the Prophet of Sataki, built the city into the powerful capital of his "Dark Crusade". The city was razed by the army of the "Grand Combine" and it is not known whether it survived. (Dark Crusade)

Inland Sea:---a great equatorial sea, famed for its sudden storms, located in the southern region of the Great Northern Continent. The sea was an extension of the vast Eastern Sea. It was bounded on the east by the forestlands of Shapeli, on the south by savannas, and on the west and north by the bulk of the Great Northern Continent. (Dark Crusade)

Intantemri:---a stronghold of the Southern Kingdoms that lay on the Southern Sound. The ruins of Ashertiri lay nearby. (Dark Crusade)

Jadenbal:---an independent city-state that lay on the western coast of the Southern Lands. (Bloodstone)

Jhaniikest's Tower:---an ancient spire of basalt that jutted above a sheer cliff thousands of feet above the coastal plains below. It was located on the eastern coast of the Southern Lands. The tower was the realm of Jhaniikest, the ageless child of a priestess of a vanished pre-human race and the winged god they had worshipped. The tower was the temple of an ancient ruined city and the race that had dwelt there, possibly the Brveen. (Bloodstone)

Josten:--- one of the eight major islands of the Thovnosian Empire, some 2000 to 3000 square miles in size. (Cold Light, Darkness Weaves)

Kamathae:---a large, prosperous city-state, ruled by a baron, presumed to be on the Lartroxian continent. Gaethaa the Avenger hailed from here. (Cold Light)

Kranor-Rill:---a treacherous cold-swamp in the Southern Lands described as a "tangle of slime and mud, vine and cypress, insects and vermin". The mist-covered swamp was virtually impenetrable except for the ruins of an ancient stone causeway. Not far from its southern limit the Cold Forest began. There was a lost city within Kranor-Rill called Arellarti that was home to a race of frog-like humanoids called the Rillyti. Kranor-Rill drained into the Western Sea through a break in the Lesser Ocalidad range at a place called the Serpent's Tail. It was destroyed, scoured clean by a witch-tide summoned by the Daughters of Shenan. (Bloodstone)

Krelran:---the ancient alien race that built the citadel of Arellarti housing Bloodstone. They had peaked skulls, were taller and more erect than the Rillyti they degenerated into after the destruction of Arellarti. (Bloodstone)

Krussin:---a port on the western shore of the Inland Sea. (Dark Crusade)

Lartroxia:---also spelled Latroxia, the kingdom that lent its name to the entire Lartroxian super-continent. The kingdom brews tasty white wine. (Cold Light, Mirage)

Lartroxia Bay:---an arm of the Western Sea that lay on the western coast of Lartroxia South. The Combine cities are ranged around it. (Darkness Weaves)

Lartroxian Super-continent:---a huge, ill-defined continental mass that was located mostly in the northern hemisphere, 1000 leagues east of the Great Northern Continent. To the west of it lay the depths of the Western Sea, to the south, the Middle Sea. Regions named Lartroxia North, West, and South are mentioned in the saga. Lartroxia North is described as a land of dense forest and wind-blown wastelands. The only kingdom mentioned in the saga was that of Demornte. Lartroxia West was described as an uninhabited land of great deserts. The best-defined region was Lartroxia South. The Myceum Mountains roughly paralleled the west coast, protecting the cities of the South Lartroxian Combine from the rest of the region. Southeast of the Myceum Mountains lay jungles and veldts. At the southern edge lies the forestlands of Waldann. Platinum is worked here, and tigers are hunted in the areas to the south of Demornte.(Bloodstone, Lynortis Reprise, Cold Light, Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Latroxia:---see the entry Lartroxia.

Lomarn:---a great desert wasteland and the kingdom that lies on its eastern edge. It is located in the eastern regions of the Lartroxian continent. (Cold Light)

Lynortis:--- a fortress city carved from the top of a spire of sandstone that tapered thousands of feet above the plain before it and the Myceum Mountains behind it. There had been a city on the peak as long as memory recorded, although the city of Lynortis was raised but a few hundred years before its destruction. The earliest human inhabitants of the city were a former nomad race of plunderers, who subdued the earlier inhabitants and decided to adopt the location as a fortress city. The construction of the city of Lynortis took about three decades to complete. Long thought to be unassailable, the lords of Lynortis ruled the great valley stretched below for centuries. Masale of Wesvetin put the city under a siege lasting two years, until it fell at last by treachery. All that remains of Lynortis are its ruins. (The Treasure of Lynortis, Lynortis Reprise, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Macewen River:---a deep, swift-flowing watercourse of the Southern Lands. It sprang from the mountain streams of the Greater Ocalidad range, cut southwest through the forests until it reached the Western Sea at the Serpent's Tail, flowing through the same great fault through which drains Kranor-Rill. The Macewen marked the border between Breim and Selonari and lay nearly 80 miles south of the former and 90 miles north of the latter. (Bloodstone)

Marsarovj:---a frozen, subarctic province of the kingdom of Carrasahl that lay to the northwest of the principality of Rader on the Great Northern Continent. A baron ruled the province and the abundant game made the hunting excellent. (Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Matnabla:---a city that lay on the Bay of Lartroxia, up the coast from Nostoblet. It has an academy with pedants. (Darkness Weaves)

Meritavano:---a village of the northern grasslands of Sandotneri. South of the village was an expanse of reedy bog and water-meadow. (Dark Crusade)

Middle Sea:---the body of waters that separates the continents of Lartroxia and the Southern Lands. The islands of the Thovnosian Empire lay in the southwestern reaches of the sea. (Darkness Weaves)

Montes:---one of the lesser islands of the Thovnosian Empire. The island consisted of sheer, rocky cliffs with little beach, but a good defensible harbor. Two centuries prior to Darkness Weaves, Kane arrived from the Southern Lands and erected a pirate empire controlled from his island fortress of Montes. The scourge known as Red Kane the Pirate Lord, and his Black Fleet terrorized the islands, as well as burning and pillaging cities on the Lartroxian coast. The combined fleet of the newly formed Thovnosian Empire eventually destroyed his empire, burning the citadel after a siege of months. Kane was rumored to have died at Montes, but his body was never found. (Cold Light, Darkness Weaves)

Myceum Mountains:---a high, nearly uncrossable mountainous region that protected the plains and cities of Lartroxia South. It lay far to the east of Nostoblet. The range was the location of the legend of the Demonlord's Moon. Kane performed sorcerous experiments on the local natives 5 years prior to the events in Cold Light. As a bandit-chief, he terrorized the region for nearly 10 years. (Cold Light, Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Neltoben River:--- a tributary of the Macewen River of the Southern Lands. It flowed past Selonari and entered the Macewen twenty miles upstream from the Macewen's confluence with the Clasten River. The Neltoben had a south branch that flowed into Kranor-Rill, but it was usually little more than a mud-choked creek. (Bloodstone)

Northern Ice Sea:---an ice-packed ocean that lay to the north of the Great Northern Continent. (Dark Crusade)

Nostoblet:---a city of the South Lartroxian Combine. It was an inland river-port, receiving exotic trade goods from the Western Seas, as well as the wealth of the eastern mountains. It had a university, and slaves were traded there. (Cold Light, Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Obray's Station:---a place in Lartroxia well north of the Combine Cities' authority. (Raven's Eyrie)

Ocalidad Mountains:---a huge, forest-covered mountain range that protected the interior forestlands of the Southern Lands. The Greater Ocalidad range guarded the northern coast, while the Lesser Ocalidad range ran along the western coast. The original inhabitants of the continent may have called this range the "Serpent Mountains". The Ocalidad were infamous for its bandits since "long before the blonde seafarers of the coast migrated through its passes to carve out cities from the great forests of the south". (Bloodstone)

Olan:---one of the lesser islands of the Thovnosian Empire, considered somewhat of a backwater realm. (Darkness Weaves)

Old City:---the former capital of Halbros-Serrantho, the Old City was a forest-buried ruin that lay outside of Enseljos. It was abandoned to the forest two centuries prior to the events in Dark Muse. Kane's knowledge of the city implies that he spent some time there previously. (The Dark Muse)

Omlipttei:---a city of the Lomarn desert, somewhat hostile to the country of Lomarn to the east. (Cold Light)

Parwi:--- one of the eight major islands of the Thovnosian Empire, some 2000 to 3000 square miles in size. (Darkness Weaves)

Pellin:---the ill-starred northern island of the Thovnosian Empire. The island is large, nearly 3000 square miles and covered with cyclopean citadels of marvelous antiquity. The main city on the island is the capital of Prisarte. North of the island lay the deepest part of the Western Sea, called the Sorn-Ellyn. The island regularly raided Lartroxia's hinterlands. Pellin lays 5 days sail from Thovnos. (Cold Light, Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Prisarte:---the capital city of the island of Pellin. (Darkness Weaves)

Quarnora:--- one of the eight major islands of the Thovnosian Empire, some 2000 to 3000 square miles in size. (Darkness Weaves)

Raconos:--- one of the eight major islands of the Thovnosian Empire, some 2000 to 3000 square miles in size. (Darkness Weaves)

Rader:---an independent principality on the Great Northern Continent. It was once the northernmost province of the Serranthonian EmpireThe abbey of Thoem fell to the Dualists during the Dualist Heresy, and its wool-fair shifted south to Enseljos. Rader was cut off after the dynastic wars destroyed the strength and wealth of the central states and the caused the extinction of the line of Halbros-Serrantho. At the time of Reflections, it had been independent for about a century, and ruled by a motley succession of warlords. Orted-Ak-Ceddi was the ruler until Kane killed him. The Halbrosn Mountains lay to the west of the region. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Raven's Eyrie:---an inn, once a caravanserai, that sat on a pass through the Myceum Mountains. It lay on a bluff overlooking the gorge of the River Cotras. A raid Kane made on the inn 8 years previously was the catalyst for the story. (Raven's Eyrie)

Raven's Knob:---also called Raven's Bald, it is a peak or prominence in the Myceum Mountains. (Raven's Eyrie)

Rillyti:---a race of mottled, batrachian humanoids that were the degenerated remnants of an alien race called the Krelran. They lived in the Southern Lands in a large cold-swamp called Kranor-Rill. The Rillyti raided surrounding farmsteads for human victims to sacrifice to their crystalline god, Bloodstone, at the ruined city of Arellarti. They were taller than humans, with webbed hands and yellow eyes set in frog-like faces. They were somewhat intelligent, using bronze-alloyed armor and weapons that were harder than steel. They coated the heads of their spears with a deadly type of poison. The Rillyti died out with the destruction of Kranor-Rill. (Bloodstone)

Ripestnari:---a Southern Kingdom that lies on the eastern shore of the Inland Sea. It shares its eastern border with Sandotneri, its traditional enemy. It was presumably conquered by the Dark Crusade. (Dark Crusade)

Salt Desert:---an arid wasteland that lies upon the Southern Land's eastern coast. Tribesmen in this area skirt the desert. (Bloodstone)

Sandotneri:---one of the Southern Kingdoms, it lay across a hundred miles of savanna from the southern border of Shapeli. It was located in the equatorial part of the Great Northern Continent. Sandotneri defied the army of the Dark Crusade and as a result, was totally destroyed one year later, the first of the Southern Kingdoms to fall to the "Sword of Sataki". (Dark Crusade)

Scylredi:---one of the oldest of the elder races. They built an immense civilization at the bottom of the Western Sea. They participated in the first destruction of Arellarti. The Scylredi fought a Great War with another race of Elder Earth and the greater part of the Scylredi race was destroyed. After a time, the oceans receded, and their remnants withdrew into their castles in the depths of the Sorn-Ellyn. The Scylredi somewhat resemble humanoid octopuses. Instead of legs they have six tentacles, two more tentacles in place of arms, and instead of a head, they have a projection with six or more eyes and a large, toothless cavity that acts as a mouth. They can jet water through their gills to propel themselves at great speed through the water. They seem to be particularly fond of eating humans. (Bloodstone, Darkness Weaves)

Sebbei:---the former capital of the nation of Demornte. Once a walled city of 10,000 people, after plague decimated the populace fewer than a couple of hundred remained alive to bury the dead. It became a city of ghosts, with hundreds of empty, abandoned houses. (Cold Light)

Selonari:---an independent city-state that lay along the Neltoben River in the west-central region of the Southern Lands. It lay to the south of the Wollendann city-state of Breimen, and shared a border at the Macewen River. The cold-swamp of Kranor-Rill was found in the southernmost part of the kingdom. The inhabitants of Selonari were descended from the original race of men civilizing the Southern Lands and spoke the aboriginal language. The people tended to have mostly dark hair. The Selonari had legends of giants and demons stalking the forestlands before the arrival of men. (Bloodstone)

Sembrano:---a city that lay on the southern edge of the forests of Shapeli. It became the staging area for the Dark Crusade's invasion of the Southern Kingdoms. (Dark Crusade)

Serpent's Tail:---presumably the aboriginal name for the southern end of the Lesser Ocalidad Mountain range in the Southern Lands. The Macewen River and Kranor-Rill emptied through a great fault in the Serpent's Tail into the Western Sea. (Bloodstone)

Serranthonian Empire:---an empire of the Great Northern Continent ruled by the line of Halbros-Serrantho. The empire started to the west of the Inland Sea and extended far into the northern part of the continent. It lasted several centuries, enlisting Kane's help at several times in its imperial conquests. The Dualist Heresy fanned the flames that eventually destroyed the Empire. Dynastic wars destroyed the strength and wealth of the central states and this caused the extinction of the line of Halbros-Serrantho. The Serranthonian Empire had collapsed a century prior to the time of the story, Reflections. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese, Dark Crusade, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Seven Hells, The:---see the entry under Hell

Shapeli:---a peninsular subcontinent of tropical forests that lay on Great Northern Continent, northeast of the Southern Kingdoms. The great Inland Sea lay on its western shore, the Eastern Sea to the north and east. Hundreds of miles of savanna lay between Shapeli's southern border and the rich cities of the south. The capital of this region was Ingoldi. (Dark Crusade, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

Sorn-Ellyn:---a region of the Western Sea that in some archaic tongue translates as "bottomless sea". It is the deepest area of the sea, and sailors in the area tell tales of ghostly lights glimpsed at night from the floor beneath the sea, of an eerie droning that drives men insane, and of horrible sea monsters called Oraycha that can drag a ship beneath the waves. The elder race called the Scylredi live in great castles beneath it. It lies north of Pellin and southwest of Lartroxia. (Darkness Weaves)

South Lartroxian Combine:---a region on the southwestern coast of the Lartroxian supercontinent, well known for its marvelous vineyards. The Combine Cities were an alliance of the cities of Lartroxia's coastal plains. The cities were located on a wide belt of lowland plain that surrounds the great Bay of Lartroxia. The alliance was managed by the Merchant's League. The only cities of the Combine mentioned were Nostoblet, Lartroxia, and Matnabla. North and east of the coast were hills scarred by great outcroppings and stone cliffs rose hundreds of feet above the valleys, creating an almost uncrossable barrier that protected the plains of South Lartroxia. (Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Southern Kingdoms:---a region of the Great Northern Continent that lay between the Inland Sea and the Southern Sound. Scattered across a 2500-mile stretch of sun-scorched veldt, they numbered between fifty and a hundred, depending on marriages and inheritances, annexations and secessions, alliances and civil wars. Fierce border wars and deadly court intrigues were hallowed traditions. The cities of the south were considered more prosperous than those of the northern lands. (Dark Crusade)

Southern Lands:---a small, cold, heavily forested continent that lay close to the earth's southern polar region. The continent was bordered on the west by the Western Sea, on the south by the Ice Sea, and on the north by the Middle Sea. There was a long mountain range (Ocalidad) that protected the heart of the continent on its northern and western coasts. The great pine forests of the interior gave way to a virtually uninhabited salt desert in the eastern regions. Originally inhabited by an aboriginal race, it was civilized by man nearly 500 years prior to the events in Bloodstone. Several centuries later, the blonde-haired seafarers of the northern coast crossed the mountains and built a confederation of city-states in the northern interior called Wollendan. (Bloodstone)

Southern Sound:---a sun-baked stretch of water that lay between the Great Northern and Great Southern continents. (Dark Crusade)

Thovnos:---the powerful island-capital of the Thovnosian Empire, it lies nearly 500 miles to the southwest of Nostoblet. It is a large island, over 3000 square miles in size. Its capital city was Thovnosten. Thovnos has ruled the Empire for over 200 years. (Raven's Eyrie, Darkness Weaves)

Thovnosian Empire:---an island federation that lay south and east of the Lartroxian coast, beyond the Middle Sea that separates the continent of Lartroxia and the Southern Lands. The "Island Empire" was formed 200 years prior to Darkness Weaves, from a broken sub-continent of eight major islands, some 2000 to 3000 square miles each-along with a dozen or so smaller islands and countless bits of land to small to mention. Kane's Black Fleet terrorized the islands that became the Thovnosian Empire 10 years prior to the events in Cold Light. The largest, most powerful island, Thovnos, was the seat of the Empire for most of its history. (Cold Light, Darkness Weaves)

Thovnosten:---the capital city of the island of Thovnos and the Thovnosian Empire. (Darkness Weaves)

Tranodeli:---a country or region of rolling hills, presumed to be located on the Great Northern Continent, south of the Inland Sea. (Cold Light)

Tregua Springs:---a small village that lay on the veldt between the forests of Shapeli and the northern border of Sandotneri. (Dark Crusade)

Tresli:---one of the eight major islands of the Thovnosian Empire, some 2000 to 3000 square miles in size. (Darkness Weaves)

Tuhchiso:---an elder race that dwelt in far (from the Southern Lands) deserts. They participated in the first destruction of Arellarti. They were chitinous, spider-like creatures, large as horses, and clicked across the stones on four spindly limbs. Four more limbs thrust forward from an upward curling cephalothorax. The creature's limbs ended in clashing, metallic claws. (Bloodstone)

Vegliari:---a Southern Kingdom that lay south of Desdrinel and southwest of Sandotneri. It was conquered by the Dark Crusade. (Dark Crusade)

Vlad's Cove Inn:---an inn of the northern Halbrosn Mountains, it lay on the road between Rader and Carrasahl. A famous rape and murder occurred here 49 years prior to the story. (Sing a Last Song of Valdese)

Waldann:---a forestland of blonde barbarians, who lived far to the south on the continent of Lartroxia. Its people were a warrior race who earned their livelihood as mercenary soldiers. Legends claimed that the inhabitants ate only raw flesh. It is presumed the Waldanns were the seafarers that settled the north coast of the Southern Lands and founded the tribes of the Wollendann. (Bloodstone, The Dark Muse, Lynortis Reprise, Cold Light)

Western Sea:---a massive ocean of saltwater that lay to the west of the continents of Lartroxia and the Southern Lands. The islands of the Thovnosian Empire lay amid the waters of the Western Sea. One thousand leagues across the azure waves lay the mass of the Great Northern and Great Southern Continents (of course, they called it the Eastern Sea). Ships could and did cross this great span of ocean, but such crossings became less and less common as both of the northern continents lapsed into barbarism during the "Age of Shattered Empires". (Bloodstone, Dark Crusade, Darkness Weaves)

Wesvetin:---a kingdom on the northern slopes of the Myceum Mountains. It raised an army to carve an empire out of Lartroxia North, and lost most of it in the siege of Lynortis. (Lynortis Reprise)

Wollendan:---a confederation of barbarian clans that lay in the northern part of the Southern Lands. It stretched from the north coast, across the Ocalidad Mountains, into the deep forests as far south as the Macewen River. It is unknown whether the great old forest of Wollendan took its name from the region's tribes or vice-versa. (Bloodstone)

Yhosal-Monyr:---means Light Reborn in the Old Tongue, the organic, streamlined Yhosal-Monyr was shaped like some impossibly huge whale. The long, sleek black hull tapered toward either end, with the stern slightly more rounded. It had a curved keel, shaped somewhat like a sharks dorsal fin. The ship was a leviathan, built by some impossibly ancient elder race (see Ebony Shipwreck). Kethrid of Carsultyal restored the ship and sailed it on his voyages of exploration. Kethrid sailed Yhosal-Monyr on the strange seas of man's birth, explored unknown coasts, new lands, and found the fallen cities of Earth's elder races. On his various voyages he brought back fantastic stores of information that overnight lifted mankind from the semi-barbarism which followed the fall of the Golden Age, to an advanced state of civilization. His adventures were epic. Of the final voyage of the Yhosal-Monyr, nothing is known. Neither Kethrid nor his ship was ever seen again. (In the Wake of the Night, Bloodstone)

Yslsl's Towers:---the two black-stone towers that connected the lair of the demonlord, Yslsl, to earth. One was located in the city of Ingoldi on the Great Northern Continent, the other was hidden in the forests of Lartroxia. The towers were round and somewhat over a hundred feet tall. Inside the tower at the top of a winding staircase was a door. At its base lay a jet-black carving of a sunburst. The door could be opened, with the correct spell, into the Lair of Yslsl. (Dark Crusade, Reflections for the Winter of My Soul)

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