Ashes of the Sun

by Django Wexler

  cognomen—Humans in the former Chosen Empire have either only a given name, or a given name and a family or clan name for city dwellers and elites. In addition, some people have a cognomen, a third name that describes some aspect of their history, character, or appearance. Cognomen are granted by general acclamation, not chosen, and trying to pick one’s own cognomen is the height of arrogance and opens one to mockery. Cognomen are not always complimentary but can be very hard to shake once applied. They are often two-word compounds: Rottentooth, Boldstep, Halfmask.

  For centarchs, cognomen have a greater significance. They are granted, not by the centarch’s peers, but by the Kyriliarch Council when an agathios reaches the status of a full centarch. The cognomen matches the way the centarch manifests deiat, and the Council often chooses names held by past centarchs, with the oldest names conveying the most favor and honor.

  construct—a semiorganic autonomous servant created by the ghouls using dhaka. Constructs come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, but many are roughly humanoid, with specialized construction for their particular role, such as armor, weapons, or extra limbs. They are typically built of artificial muscle and tissue layered over a metal skeleton, and sometimes resemble plaguespawn, although the latter are much more chaotic and strange. A device called an analytica provides the construct’s ability to understand instructions and make decisions, but only the ghouls understood how these function.

  Dawn Republic—A nominally democratic state created by the Chosen as their numbers dwindled during the Plague. Originally, the Republic encompassed all the land that had been part of the Chosen Empire, but in the four hundred years since the Plague, much of the territory has broken away, forming smaller polities collectively known as the Splinter Kingdoms. Even so, the Republic remains the most powerful nation in the known world, with its capital at the old Chosen city of Skyreach.

  The Republic has a sometimes uneasy relationship with the Twilight Order and its centarchs. The Order was charged by the Chosen to defend the Republic and humanity, but not to rule it, and so normally stands apart from the daily running of Republican politics. However, the centarchs collectively wield unmatched power, and in addition the Republic’s elite military forces, the Legions, rely on Chosen-built weapons and armor that only the Twilight Order can maintain. The upshot is that the wishes and suggestions of the Order carry considerable weight with the Republican government, and centarchs are legally empowered to dispense justice and commandeer any necessary resources in pursuit of their missions.

  The Republic is ruled by a Senate, which is theoretically elected, but the franchise is restricted to the wealthy, and senators almost always come from a small group of powerful families. The Senate elects two consuls every year to serve as chief executives. The Senate appoints a dux as military commander and chief magistrate to the various regions of the Republic, typically one per major city. The duxes command the Auxiliaries, who handle policing and local defense, with the Legions retained under the consuls’ direct control or seconded in small detachments as needed.

  Deepfire—A city deep in the Shattered Peak mountains. Deepfire is an exclave, considered Dawn Republic territory in spite of being far outside the Republic’s borders, connected by a Gate under the Chosen fortress known as the Spike.

  Originally, the mountain that stood where Deepfire is now hosted a major ghoul city—perhaps the ghoul capital, though stories are conflicted. The Chosen deployed a weapon of unparalleled destructive power against it. While the nature of the weapon is unknown, it blasted the mountain into a kilometers-wide crater and left a giant fissure in the rock known as the Pit. Immediately afterward, the Chosen’s forces began a systematic purge of the ghoul tunnels in the area that had survived the blast.

  As the Chosen died out, the Twilight Order continued the purges. Humans from the surrounding areas flocked to the crater, since heat from the Chosen weapon—still burning at the bottom of the Pit—kept it warm in the depths of winter, and the Order and Legion presence provided protection from plaguespawn then devastating the former Chosen Empire. Scavenging in the tunnels eventually became a major industry, and the Order maintained their presence to manage it even after the ghouls had been wiped out.

  Modern Deepfire is a divided city. The crater has long since been filled with buildings, and the edge of it marks the formal boundary of the Republic. Beyond that, the mountain is riddled with tunnels, and the people who live in them are called tunnelborn. Tunnelborn are not Republic citizens, and manufactories set up to exploit their cheap labor have become the city’s second primary industry. Tension between the tunnelborn and the Republic citizens living aboveground is common, exacerbated by the plentiful opportunities for smuggling and corruption available to Republic officials.

  deiat—the power of creation, identified with the fire of the sun. The Chosen could draw energy from deiat to accomplish a wide range of spectacular feats, from destructive manifestations like balls of flame or bursts of raw force to defensive barriers and more. It could also be used to create unnatural substances, like the indestructible unmetal. More advanced uses of deiat required specialized tools, now called arcana. These devices, when powered by a deiat wielder, could accomplish wonders—the Gates that wove the Empire together and the skyships and skyfortresses that hovered overhead are notable examples, in addition to more mundane tools like blasters, watch charms, water treatment facilities, and so on.

  Deiat does have limits. It manipulates physical objects and properties—force, temperature, and so on—and does not interact with biological systems at any level except the crudely destructive. Deiat tools also require a continuous flow of power, either from a wielder or a storage device like a sunsplinter, and cannot operate without the will of the wielder. In particular, the autonomous constructs used by the ghouls are impossible to create with deiat.

  With the Chosen wiped out by the Plague, the only wielders of deiat remaining are the centarchs of the Twilight Order, who can use their haken—themselves a deiat-created tool—to draw deiat power, though more weakly than the Chosen could. Why some humans have the ability to wield deiat and others do not is unknown. Centarchs are typically limited to a particular class of effects—fire, ice, force, and so on—although all can use deiat to power arcana such as Gates and panoply belts. Only the most primitive of construction techniques are still known, but existing unmetal can be reforged and reshaped, allowing the creation of the armor of the centarchs and the Legions.

  dhak—Originally, this term referred only to ghoul arcana produced using dhaka. In the centuries since the Plague War, its meaning has expanded and is now synonymous with unsanctioned arcana—arcana not in the very narrow categories approved for safe use by the Twilight Order. Possession of dhak is illegal in the Dawn Republic and grounds for immediate imprisonment or even execution, at the discretion of the arresting official.

  dhaka—a form of supernatural power, distinct from the use of deiat, originally wielded by the ghouls. Dhaka allows a wielder to influence biological systems and processes, to accelerate, change, or even give a semblance of life to nonliving things. It can heal wounds and alter living creatures and was used by the ghouls to create a great variety of living and semi-living tools—light sources, weapons, even vehicles. The most noteworthy were constructs, automata that could accept orders and act independently, a type of creation impossible even for the Chosen.

  Any human can learn to wield dhaka, though the practice can be very dangerous, and much knowledge has been lost. After the Plague War, the dying Chosen created the Twilight Order, and one of its central commandments was to stamp out the knowledge and practice of dhaka forever. This has proven difficult, and the Order pursues dhakim down to the present day.

  dhakim—a human wielder of dhaka. Illegal under penalty of death in the Dawn Republic, and even in the Splinter Kingdoms, often shunned and likely to be hunted down by centarchs. Dhakim are widely seen as mad, conducting gruesome experiments and creating horrible diseases. Adding to this
perception is the fact that dhakim can exert influence over plaguespawn, bringing the mindless creatures under their command. Very occasionally, a dhakim will establish a reputation as a healer and come to be accepted by their community.

  Elder—something of the time before the Plague War, approximately four hundred years ago, when the Chosen ruled an empire and the ghouls lived underground. As most common people are hazy on the distinction between various types of arcana and ruins, Chosen and ghoul remnants alike are often referred to generically as Elder.

  Forge—The headquarters of the Twilight Order, a mountain fortress not far from Skyreach. Built with the help of the Chosen at the Order’s founding, it is a colossal complex, large enough to accommodate the entire Twilight Order even at its height. As the numbers of centarchs have shrunk over the centuries, the Forge is now largely empty. It has three Gates, the only location to house more than one. The Order’s training, storage, and support facilities are located here, as well as the seat of the Council.

  Gate—A Chosen arcana that allows instantaneous transport from one location to another. A Gate looks like a freestanding unmetal arch big enough to admit a wagon. When activated and powered with deiat, it fills with a silvery curtain and connects to a target Gate, allowing free passage between the two simply by stepping through.

  Because Gates require a connection to deiat to power them and set their destination, only a centarch can activate one, and the Gate network is exclusively used by the Twilight Order. Many Gate locations are kept deliberately obscure, to prevent enemies of the Order from setting ambushes. In times of extreme danger to the Dawn Republic, the Order has used the Gates to transport Legions, giving the Republic military unmatched strategic mobility.

  ghouls—One of the Elder races, along with the Chosen. Information about them was suppressed by the Chosen and later the Twilight Order, so little is known. They were masters of dhaka, produced many constructs and biological arcana, and lived largely underground. Depictions of ghouls generally show humanoids with bestial features. They rebelled against the Chosen, beginning the Plague War, and released the Plague, which eventually drove the Chosen to extinction. In retaliation, the Chosen wiped them out. The ghouls are also believed to have created the plaguespawn as weapons for use in the war.

  glowstone—An inexpensive light source resembling a glassy stone, producing a dim blue light when shaken hard. An alchemical creation and generally sanctioned arcana.

  haken—the most powerful Chosen arcana, and the signature weapon of the centarchs. Haken resemble bladeless swords, usually adorned with crystals. In the hands of a human with the right potential, they allow access to the energy of deiat. The wielder can generate a blade of pure energy, shaped according to the manifestation of their talent—fire, wind, force, and so on—and draw power to create a variety of effects or activate other Chosen arcana.

  The haken were created by the Chosen in their final days to arm the Twilight Order and allow human civilization some access to deiat, and the secret of their construction has been long since lost. Fortunately, the centarchs have an instinctive ability to sense haken in general and their own in particular, so when they are lost the Order can generally recover them.

  hardshell—A tortoise-like creature used as a beast of burden. Hardshells resemble common tortoises, but on a massive scale, standing nearly two meters tall at the shoulder and three meters at the top of the shell. They are rare and expensive and have to be trained from the egg to be responsive to their handlers’ commands. Though slow, they can pull enormous loads and are capable of subsisting on little water and poor forage. They are mostly used in deserts and other badlands where fodder is difficult to find.

  human—Humans have always formed a vast majority of the population, both in the former Chosen Empire and beyond. After the Plague War and the destruction of the Elder races, humans are all that remain.

  In the lands formerly ruled by the Chosen, the human inhabitants display some differences from baseline humans in the rest of the world. They display a much wider range of hair, eye, and skin tones, are highly resistant to disease, and heal quickly. Women have control over their fertility and must consciously invoke it in order to conceive.

  A tiny minority of humans have the ability to wield deiat with the assistance of a haken, and these are sought out as children by the Twilight Order to be trained into centarchs. Humans are capable of learning dhaka, though the Order works to suppress this as much as it can.

  Inheritance, the—The founding text of the Twilight Order, written by the Chosen to provide guidance after their extinction. It gives a brief history of the Chosen, the Plague War, and the destruction of the ghouls, lays out the ideals and precepts of the Order, and establishes its basic structure and laws.

  Kyriliarch—One of the twelve members of the Council that leads the Twilight Order.

  Legions—One of the two branches of the Dawn Republic military, along with the Auxiliaries. The Legions are small in number but highly trained and equipped with arcana weapons and armor. They use blaster rifles and distinctive white unmetal armor, giving them power that no conventionally armed force can match.

  Though they form the core of the Republic’s military and are concentrated against particular threats, the majority of the Legions at any given time are dispersed, sweeping for plaguespawn. The much more numerous Auxiliaries handle local defense, policing, and other duties.

  Since only the Twilight Order has the ability to recharge sunsplinters, reshape unmetal armor, and perform other needed maintenance, the Legions are ultimately dependent on the Order’s centarchs to sustain themselves. This makes the Republic as a whole reliant on the Order, which has sometimes rankled Republic leadership. Legionaries are often seconded to the Order for duty combating plaguespawn and dhakim when the centarchs are spread too thin.

  loadbird—The most common beast of burden in the former Chosen Empire, loadbirds are large flightless birds capable of pulling plows or wheeled vehicles. They look something like emus, standing roughly four feet tall at the shoulder, with a long neck that raises their undersized head much higher. Their legs are overdeveloped and heavily muscled, and their wings are small and vestigial.

  Like their cousins warbirds and swiftbirds, loadbirds are controlled by a combination of reins and whistle commands; the better trained and more amicable a bird is, the more likely it can be directed by whistles alone. Loadbirds can be ridden but are slow and uncomfortable. Bred for strength, they can pull heavy weights alone or in teams.

  Loadbirds eat mostly seeds and insects. They dislike thickheads, and clashes between the two species are notorious for causing problems.

  Order—The Twilight Order.

  panoply—A type of Chosen arcana that creates a defensive barrier, called a panoply field, around the user, absorbing incoming attacks. A panoply needs a constant supply of deiat to operate and so is not useful to anyone other than centarchs. It will deflect any energy blast or fast-moving object, drawing deiat energy from the user in the process.

  A centarch using a panoply is impervious to normal weaponry, and the field will even stop blaster bolts or the blade of a haken. However, the energy drain to maintain the field in the face of sustained attack will quickly exhaust the centarch’s capacity to draw on deiat. Drawing too much power in too short a time will render a centarch unconscious and leave them unable to access deiat for several hours. Duels between centarchs are typically fought wearing panoplies, with the loser being the first to be knocked out in this manner.

  Physically, the most common form of panoply is a broad belt of thin silver fabric, worn around the midsection, but other varieties exist with the same function.

  Plague—a virulent illness that affected the Chosen during the Plague War. It was released by the ghouls in their rebellion against Chosen rule, and in spite of enormous efforts at combating it ultimately proved completely fatal to the Chosen, although it had no effect on humans. It is commonly associated with plaguespawn, who appeared around the
same time, but the connection is not understood.

  plaguespawn—Unnatural creatures created with dhaka that have afflicted the former Chosen Empire since the Plague War. It is commonly believed they were originally created by the ghouls as living weapons during the conflict and have run amok ever since.

  Plaguespawn have almost infinitely variable forms. They appear as an assembly of organic parts into a vaguely animal-like shape, mostly muscle and bone, from a variety of mismatched sources. They can be as small as mice or as large as elephants, and there are stories of even bigger monsters. In spite of their hodgepodge, ramshackle appearance, they are universally vicious, fast, and deadly.

  While they use animal matter in their bodies, plaguespawn are not biological creatures in the normal sense, and are powered by dhaka. They do not eat, excrete, or reproduce as true animals do. Instead, their sole drive is to find and kill animals, the larger the better, and humans preferentially above all others. After killing, the plaguespawn disassembles the corpses using dhaka and incorporates them into itself, sometimes completely altering its own form in the process. Plaguespawn thus grow larger the more they kill, though there may be an ultimate upper limit on this process.

  It’s not well understood how new plaguespawn come into existence. Small plaguespawn have been observed to “bud” from larger ones, and areas infested with plaguespawn tend to become more infested over time. On the other hand, areas swept clean and safe for years can suddenly be subject to plaguespawn outbreaks. One theory is that the Plague itself is still present in the atmosphere and periodically causes plaguespawn to form spontaneously. The Twilight Order maintains that plaguespawn outbreaks are caused by dhak and dhakim, and hunts them relentlessly.

  Dhakim do have a connection to plaguespawn through dhaka, and can exert control over them. Absent this control, the monsters are nearly mindless, driven only to hunt and kill. The more powerful the dhakim, the more and larger plaguespawn they can control.