by Kat Ross
Daēvas
Avas Danai (Children of Earth)
Darius. A daēva of House Dessarian who was born in the Empire on the other side of the gates.
Delilah. Victor’s wife and Darius’s mother.
Galen. Victor’s son with Mina. Half-brother to Darius.
Mithre. Victor’s second in command.
Mina. A Danai hostage at Val Moraine.
Rafel/Nikias. A daēva who was kidnapped by the Pythia.
Tethys. Victor’s mother, head of House Dessarian and one of the Matrium.
Victor. Darius’s father.
Avas Valkirins (Children of Air)
Culach. Once the heir to Val Moraine, he was blinded and lost his power.
Daníel/Demetrios. Halldóra’s grandson and heir, he was abducted and brainwashed by the Pythia.
Eirik. Culach’s father and the former lord of Val Moraine.
Ellard. Galen’s friend. Raised as a hostage at House Dessarian in exchange for Mina.
Frida: Halldóra’s second in command.
Gerda. Culach’s great-great-grandmother.
Halldóra. Mistress of Val Tourmaline.
Katrin. Culach’s former lover.
Petur. Culach’s best friend. He tried to kill Nazafareen and was killed by Galen.
Runar. Lord of Val Petros.
Stefán. Lord of Val Altair.
Sofia: One of Halldóra’s riders.
Avas Marakai (Children of Water)
Kasaika. Captain of the Asperta. Selk Marakai.
Mafuone. Captain of the Chione. Sheut Marakai.
Mebetimmunedjem, a.k.a. Meb the Mouse. A 12-year-old orphan of the Selk who does grunt work on the Asperta.
Sakhet-ra-katme. The oldest Marakai and one of the original talismans. A distant ancestor of Meb.
Avas Vatras (Children of Fire)
Atticus. Nicodemus’s younger brother.
Domitia, a.k.a. The Pythia, a.k.a. the Oracle of Delphi. Gaius’s daughter.
Farrumohr, a.k.a. the Viper. Gaius’s advisor. Haunts Culach’s dreams.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, a.k.a Caligula. Former king of the Vatras.
Romulus and Remus. Two of Gaius’s Praetorians.
Nicodemus. A survivor of the Kiln.
Maenads
Kallisto. Head of the Cult of Dionysius, she seeks to protect the talismans from harm. Her followers are Rhea, Charis, Cyrene and Megaera. Two others, twins named Alcippe and Adeia, were killed by the Pythia’s soldiers.
Glossary
Abbadax. Winged creatures used as mounts by the Valkirins. Intelligent and vicious, they have scaled bodies and razor-sharp feathers to slash opponents during aerial combat.
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Adyton. Innermost chamber of the Temple of Apollo, where the Pythia issues prophecies and receives supplicants.
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Anuketmatma. Worshipped by the Selk Marakai as the spirit of storms, she takes the form of a small grey cat with dark stripes. The Selk carry her on their ships and lull her with milk and honey.
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Avas Danai. Children of Earth, known for their dark hair and eyes and strength in earth power. The Avas Danai are divided into seven Houses located in the Great Forest of Nocturne. Their primary trade commodity is wood. Qualities of earth: Grounded, solid, practical, stubborn, literal, loyal.
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Avas Marakai. Children of Water. Dark-skinned and curly-haired, they are the seafaring daēvas. They make their home in the Isles of the Marakai and act as middlemen between the mortals and other daēva clans. Their wealth derives from the Hin, equal to one-tenth of the goods they transport. No one else has the skill to navigate the Austral Ocean or the White Sea, so they enjoy a monopoly on sea trade and travel. Qualities of water: Easygoing, free, adventurous, cheerful, cunning, industrious.
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Avas Valkirins. Children of Air. Pale-skinned and silver-haired, they live in stone holdfasts in the mountains of Nocturne. The Valkirin Range is the source of all metal and gemstones in the world. Qualities of air: Quick to anger, proud, changeable, passionate, ruthless, rowdy, restless.
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Avas Vatras. Children of Fire. Red-haired and light-eyed. No one has seen the Avas Vatras for a thousand years, since they tried to burn the world and were imprisoned in the Kiln. The only clan with the ability to forge talismans. Qualities of fire: Creative, ambitious, generous, destructive, curious, risk-taking.
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Bond. The connection between a linked pair of talismans that allows a human to control the power of a daēva. Can take the form of two matching cuffs, or a bracelet and collar. A side effect of the bond is that emotions and sensations are shared between human and daēva. A bond draws on fire and will only work in Solis, not in Nocturne.
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Breaker. See negatory magic.
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Chimera. Elemental hunting packs, they’re made from water, earth and air, seasoned with malice, greed, sorrow and fear. Chimera cannot be killed by any traditional means and will track their quarry to the ends of the earth.
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Daēva. Similar in appearance to humans with some magical abilities. Most daēvas have a particular affinity for earth, air or water and are strongest in one element. However, they cannot work fire, and will die merely from coming into close proximity with an open flame. Daēvas can live for thousands of years and heal from wounds that would kill or cripple a human. Regarding clan names, val means mountain, dan means forest, mar means sea, vat means fire. Avas means children of.
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Darklands. The slang term for Nocturne.
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Diyat. “The Five.” The governing body of the five Marakai fleets.
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Dominion, also called the gloaming or shadowlands. The land of the dead. Can be traversed using a talisman or via gates, but is a dangerous place for the living.
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Druj. Literally translates as impure souls. Includes Revenants, wights, liches and other Undead. In the Empire, daēvas were considered Druj by the magi.
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Ecclesia. The popular assembly of Delphi. Open to all male citizens over the age of twenty. Elects the Archons and votes on matters of law and justice.
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Elemental magic. The direct manipulation of earth, air or water. Fire is the fourth element, but has unstable properties that cannot be worked by most daēvas.
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Empire. A land reached through gates in the Dominion, it is a mirror world of Solis and Nocturne in many ways. Nazafareen and Darius come from the Empire. It is the setting of the Fourth Element Trilogy.
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Faravahar. The symbol of the Prophet, revered by the Persians. Its form is an eagle with outstretched wings.
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Gale. The impassable line of storms created to imprison the Avas Vatras in the Kiln.
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Gate. A permanent passage into the Dominion. Temporary gates can also be opened with a talisman.
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Gorgon-e Gaz. The prison on the shore of the Salenian Sea where the oldest daēvas were held by the Empire. Victor Dessarian spent two centuries within its walls before escaping.
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Great Green. What the Marakai call the collective oceans.
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Hammu. A giant carp that causes undersea earthquakes and tsunamis. Worshipped by the Jengu Marakai.
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Infirmity. Called the Druj Curse in the Empire, it is the physical disability caused to daēvas by the bonding process.
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Khaf-hor. Giant fanged eel with slimy, viscous skin. Worshipped by the Nyx Marakai.
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Kiln. The vast, trackless desert beyond the Gale where the sun sits at high noon. The prison of the Avas Vatras.
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Lacuna. The period of true night that descends when all three of Nocturne’s moons are hidden. The timing of the lac
una varies from seconds to an hour or more depending on the lunar cycle.
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Magi. Persian priests who follow the Way of the Flame.
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Moons. Selene, Hecate and Artemis. Selene is the brightest, Hecate the smallest, and Artemis has the longest orbit, taking a full year to complete. The passage of time in both Solis and Nocturne is judged by the moons since they’re the only large celestial bodies that move through the sky.
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Matrium. The seven female heads of the Avas Danai houses.
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Nahresi. Skeletal horses that gallop across the waves. Worshipped by the Khepresh Marakai.
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Negatory magic. A rare talent that involves the working of all four elements. Those who can wield it are known as Breakers. Negatory magic can obliterate both elemental and talismanic magic. The price of negatory magic is rage and emotional turmoil. It derives from the Breaker's own temperament and is separate from the Nexus, which is the source of all elemental magic.
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Nocturne. The dark side of the world.
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Parthenoi. Virgin warriors. See Maenads.
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Rock of Ariamazes. The fortress-palace of the Kings of Samarqand. It was scorched in the Vatra Wars but never destroyed.
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Sat-bu. Like the mythological monster Charybdis, she makes a whirlpool in the deep ocean that sucks ships down. Tentacled and faceless, she is worshipped by the Sheut Marakai.
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Shadowlands. See Dominion.
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Shepherds. Hounds of the Dominion, they herd the dead to their final destination at the Cold Sea. Extremely hostile to anything living, and to necromancers in particular.
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Shields of Apollo. The elite unit of Greek soldiers that hunts and captures daēvas.
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Solis. The sunlit side of the world.
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Spell Dust. A sparkling powder; when combined with spoken words, it works like a talisman to accomplish any number of things. Only trained alchemists are fluent in the language of spell dust. Extremely addictive when consumed directly. Source unknown (except to the Persian merchant and dust dealer Izad Asabana).
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Stygians. Mortals who dwell in the Isles of the Marakai. They’re the only humans to live in the darklands, surviving by fishing and diving for pearls. The Stygians worship a giant oyster named Babana.
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Talismanic magic. The use of elemental magic to imbue power in a material object, word or phrase. Generally, the object will perform a single function, i.e. lumen crystals, daēva cuffs or Talismans of Folding.
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Talismans (three daēvas). They ended the war with the Vatras by creating the Gale and sundering Nocturne into light and dark. Their power passed on through the generations.
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Umbra. The twilight realm between Solis and Nocturne.
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Water Dogs. Paramilitary force of bonded pairs (human and daēva) that kept order in the distant satrapies of the Empire and hunted Undead Druj along the borders.
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Way of the Flame. The official religion of the Empire, and also of Samarqand and Susa. Preaches good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Embodied by the magi, who view the world as locked in an eternal struggle between good and evil. Fire is considered the holiest element, followed by water.
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Wight. A Druj Undead with the ability to take over a human body and mimic the host to a certain degree. Must be beheaded.
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Wind Ship. A conveyance similar to a hot air balloon, but with a wooden ship rather than a basket. Powered either by burners or spell magic.
Acknowledgments
To Deirdre, Christa and Laura for spot-on story advice and editing, I’d be lost without you.
As always, to Jessica Therrien and Holly Kammier at Acorn Publishing (and all my fellow authors there), the seed you planted has grown into something big and wonderful!
