DragonThrone02 The Empire of the Stars

by Alison Baird

  barometz: in medieval lore, the barometz or Vegetable Lamb of Tartary was a species of mythical sheep that grew on a tree. The word is here used for the planet-creatures of Temendri Alfaran.

  Celestial Empire: the realm of the Archons. The constellations in Mera’s night sky were seen as hegemonies of these divine beings, the star-states in which they dwelt. Later mythologies during the Dark Age came to describe this stellar empire as a mystical country in the sky.

  cherubim: gryphons; winged creatures who serve the heavenly powers as steeds and guardians. The word cherub comes from ancient Hebrew mythology, and was used for a divine gryphonlike creature (not to be confused with the Renaissance version, a cupidlike winged figure).

  demon: an Elaia: spirit closely linked to the plane of matter. The word is here used at times in its classical sense, the “daimon” of Greek myth being a supernatural, but not necessarily malevolent, being; very different from our modern understanding of demons.

  Disaster, the: I have translated the great cataclysm of 2497 N.E. as the “Disaster,” since it literally involved an “evil star.” Approximately ten millennia ago, a small “rogue star,” probably a brown dwarf, entered Mera’s solar system and became caught in the sun’s gravitational field. In passing through the cometary cloud, it sent dozens of comets plunging towards the inner planets. This bombardment continued sporadically over thousands of years. From descriptions of the Disaster in Mera—“stars falling from the sky,” earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, dust-clouds obscuring the sun (hence the appellation “Dark Age”)—it would appear that one or more fragmented cometary nucleii impacted with the planet. The damage to the moon and other planets is also consistent with a cometary bombardment.

  This accords well with the mythical account, in which the god Modrian-Valdur sent his lieutenant Azarah to destroy the world; all such higher spirits being associated with stars. Azarah also brought with it a single planet, the ill-omened Azar of Elei lore.

  dracontias: according to folklore, a “magic stone” or jewel that lies inside the head of a dragon. There is in fact a crystalline substance located in, and extruding from, the Loänan braincase, which is said to amplify the creature’s extrasensory powers.

  dragon: the oldest intelligent race in the known universe, the dragons or Loänan are giant saurians that do not in the least resemble the monsters of Western myth but are closer to the lung dragons of China: supremely wise, almost godlike beings, benevolent in nature (with a few exceptions). They are able to shape-shift, can exercise power over the elements, and may live for a thousand years or more. They come from the area of the galaxy known to Merans as the constellation of the Dragon, and travel between the stars by entering a hyperspatial dimension known as the Ethereal Plane.

  dragonet: the juvenile form of a dragon. The youngest have not yet developed legs or wings.

  eidolon: on the Ethereal Plane, the illusory “body” of a spiritual being that enables it to interact with other such bodies; also anything on the Ethereal Plane that resembles something on the material plane.

  Ether: a dimension of pure energy beyond or “above” the material plane.

  glaumerie: an illusion cast by faerie beings on mortals. Some human sorcerers are also able to create illusions.

  Mandrake: (man + drake) English equivalent for the Maurish name Jargath, “dragon-man.”

  ornithopter: literally “bird wing,” a term for any craft that flies through the air by mimicking the wingbeats of a bird. In our world such craft are not practical on a large scale, but the flying ships of the Elei stay aloft in part through sorcery.

  quintessence: The “fifth element” in old Meran cosmology, a substance superior to the four material elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Celestial objects and divine beings were believed to be composed of quintessence. The term most likely derives from the old Elei concept of elothan, what we might call “pure energy.”

  Sibyls: prophetesses; holy women of the Elei faith who are believed to commune with the gods and receive from them visions of the future.

  Translation: the process whereby a mortal bodily enters the Ethereal Plane, becoming a being of pure quintessence (energy).

  Tree of Life: the ambrosia tree; also, the symbolic representation of the universe as a tree.

  venudor: a gemstone that shines with its own inner radiance.

  ypotryll: in heraldry, a beast with the body of a camel, boarlike head, and serpentine tail. Possibly inspired by an Arainian creature, for whom the word is here used.

  About the Author

  Alison Baird is the author of The Hidden World, The Wolves of Woden, The Dragon’s Egg, and White at the Waves. She was honored by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Choice Award, is a Silver Birch. Award regional winner, and she was a finalist for the IODE Violet Downey Book Award. She lives in Ontario. Her Web site is: http://webhome.idirect.com/~dbaird.