Aelthiric
The principal surviving elven language tradition. Modern Aelthiric remains spoken; High or Ancient Aelthiric survives in old texts, ritual, songs, and ruins.
Aelthirien
The elven name for the Elderwood, traditionally translated as The Place Where the World Still Remembers.
Aldara
The vast western continent containing Durakhal, Tharakai, Karthain, Valemere, Ardaren, Solvarra, and the Elderwood. Travel is largely pre-industrial and crossing major regions can take weeks or months.
Arcrail
Caelora's saltstone-powered continental rail system.
Ardaren
A pragmatic human-majority Aldaran monarchy associated with rivers, cavalry, agriculture, merchants, guilds, and tension between urban change and older noble or rural traditions.
Aureon
A major god worshipped especially in Solvarra. Public titles include Father of Man, First King, Perfect Form, Lord of Human Flame, and Unbroken Light. His church teaches order and hierarchy and in some forms human primacy.
Beastfolk
A broad category containing many lineages with animal-like traits. Beastfolk do not possess one universal culture, language, faith, or temperament.
Caelora
A continent-sized eastern Steward Monarchy built around the Common Standard, public infrastructure, multicultural citizenship, and saltstone magitech.
Common
The major international language. It has strong regional dialects including Solvarran Common, Ardaren Common, Valemerian Common, Standard Caeloran, and Shattered Common.
Common Standard
The Caeloran political guarantee of basic housing, food, water, medicine, education, utilities, transit, and legal protection.
Crown Standard Time
The single time standard used by Caeloran rail, national administration, Signal Line, and other long-distance systems.
Demonkin
The Common-language outsider term for the people who form the majority of Tsukara. They are native mortals of Veyra, not infernal beings.
Durakhal
The independent dwarven mountain realm north of Tharakai, organized as a confederation of Holds and known for mining, engineering, memory traditions, metalwork, and ancient stonecraft.
Elderwood
See Aelthirien.
Elyra
One of the Four Old Gods, associated with Life: growth, healing, transformation, adaptation, animals, plants, and becoming.
Fixed Gift
One of the two ordinary expressions of the Gift. Divine inheritance takes one stable supernatural form. Fixed-Gift characters normally do not possess a Mana pool or ordinary spellcasting.
Gift
The supernatural inheritance revealed during Coming of Age. It manifests as either a Fixed Gift or Open Gift in nearly all modern mortals.
Ilyratha
The Great Tree at the spiritual heart of the Elderwood. It is not regarded as a monarch or god.
Karthain
A northern Aldaran kingdom with strong beastfolk influence, mixed communities, clan traditions, honor, hospitality, hunting, trade, craft, and martial culture.
Karthic
The traditional language of Karthain, historically related to Tharic but distinct.
Khordic
The principal dwarven language tradition associated with Durakhal. Spoken forms vary by Hold; formal written Khordic changes slowly. Old Khordic survives in ancient records and inscriptions.
Mana
The personal magical reserve available to Open-Gift characters. Current formula: (Intellect + Vigor) × 2.
Mark
The visible sign that the Gift has awakened. Each major people bears a different form. The structure of the Mark reveals Fixed versus Open Gift; human Marks additionally reveal broad divine resonance.
Miasma
The common term for corrupting supernatural phenomena increasingly associated with ancient temple failures. Miasma can mutate living things, create monsters, destabilize magic, and destroy settlements.
Morthain
One of the Four Old Gods, associated with Death: endings, memory, remains, ancestry, stillness, decay, preservation, and passage.
Nyvara
One of the Four Old Gods, associated with Dark: dreams, intuition, secrecy, shadows, hidden knowledge, emotion, protection, stars, and concealment.
Old Gods / The Four
Solenne, Nyvara, Elyra, and Morthain. Their worship predates modern kingdoms. They disappeared from ordinary direct mortal life around the Sundering.
Open Gift
One of the two ordinary expressions of the Gift. Divine inheritance remains flexible, producing Mana and the capacity to learn true magic.
Saltstone
A pale magical crystal used extensively by Caelora for transportation, medicine, industry, infrastructure, research, and defense. Its true origin is not public knowledge.
Shattered Isles
Politically fragmented islands in the Shattered Sea. They contain fishing communities, trade ports, salvage camps, research stations, military outposts, ruins, and competing foreign interests.
Shattered Sea
The sea between Aldara and Caelora created by the Sundering.
Signal Line
The Caeloran long-distance written communication network using wired saltstone relay stations.
Skybarque
A Caeloran saltstone-powered airship used for flexible remote travel, scouting, emergency response, official movement, and prestige transport.
Solenne
One of the Four Old Gods, associated with Light: truth, revelation, knowledge, precision, direction, order, and illumination.
Solvarra
A southern Aldaran monarchy closely allied with the Church of Aureon. It is orderly, martial, highly structured, human-dominant, and restrictive toward nonhuman communities.
Stonewake
A large Caeloran saltstone-powered naval or commercial vessel.
Sundering
The catastrophe roughly one thousand years ago that broke the ancient land, separated Aldara and Caelora, created the Shattered Sea, devastated civilizations, and coincided with the disappearance of the Old Gods.
Sundering Reckoning (SR)
The international civil and scholarly dating system using the Sundering as Year 0. Current year: 1004 SR.
Tharakai
A far-northern beastfolk-dominated warrior kingdom centered on clan, ancestry, hunting, strength, loyalty, and Varesh-centered traditions.
Tharic
The major traditional language of Tharakai, historically related to Karthic but distinct.
Trade Silver
An international bookkeeping value used to compare currencies and prices. It is a reference standard, not one universal physical coin.
Tsukara
A southern island empire, predominantly Demonkin, known for maritime skill, regulated foreign access, precision engineering, medicine, navigation, strong naval institutions, and limited dependence on saltstone.
Tsukari
The principal language family of Tsukara. Imperial Tsukari is the standardized formal and administrative form; many island dialects exist.
Uncrossed Mists
The eastern and western limits of the known world. Saltstone, instruments, magic, and even perceived distance become unreliable near or within them. No publicly verified expedition is known to have crossed and returned.
Valemere
A diverse central Aldaran crossroads associated with trade, banking, shipping, diplomacy, multicultural communities, and close ties to both Caelora and the Elderwood.
Varesh
A major divine figure particularly influential in Tharakai. Titles include the First Beast and Thousand-Formed. Varesh is not the universal god of all beastfolk.
Waning
The long pre-Sundering decline during which new genuine lesser-god traditions ceased appearing. The deeper metaphysical explanation is not ordinary public knowledge.