Tonken-Wu — A sub-commander warden of the Daeshen palace.
Rin-Lahee — A tahneff engaged to marry Tin-Tsu.
Tiang-Rhu — A priest and childhood friend of Tin-Tsu.
THE TEMPLE
Junari — A former Pashist priest called by the new goddess to lead a pilgrimage to the Forbidden Realm.
Raedalus — A former Pashist priest who is Junari’s closest friend and adviser.
Taksati — Junari’s former Pashist temple servant who follows her on the pilgrimage.
Bon-Tao — A Tanjii soldier responsible for Junari’s security while in that city.
Kuth-Von — A Tanjii Circle Elder.
THE SEER
Kellatra — The owner of an inn in the largest town in the Punderra Dominion and a secret seer with a hidden past.
Rankarus — Kellatra’s husband.
Luntadus — Kellatra and Rankarus’s six-year-old son.
Lantili — Kellatra and Rankarus’s nine-year-old daughter.
Abananthus — A merchant and family friend of Kellatra and Rankarus.
Jadaloo — A young serving woman and family friend at Kellatra and Rankarus’s inn.
THE PHILOSOPHER
Sketkee — A rakthor former ambassador who has chosen against custom to become a natural philosopher.
Kadmallin — Sketkee’s personal guard and oldest friend.
Viktik — A rakthor ambassador and former colleague of Sketkee.
THE CARNIVAL
Leotin — The master of a traveling carnival that traverses the Iron Realm.
Palla — A member of Leotin’s carnival and lead actress in the plays they perform.
Tarak — A roagg scout sent by his people to learn about the human pilgrims and the dreams of the new goddess.
Yeth — A yutan scout sent by her people to learn about the human pilgrims and the dreams of the new goddess.
Shifhuul — A wyrin scout sent by his people to learn about the human pilgrims and the dreams of the new goddess.
Donjeo — A teenage boy who cares for the animals of the carnival.
Jhanal — The leader of a pilgrim band that travels with the carnival for protection.
Ranna — A pilgrim who joins the carnival and becomes Pall’a friend.
THE WITNESS
Ondromead — An ageless old man who has awoken every day for thousands of years in a different place in the world compelled to witness certain events and record them in a black book with endless pages.
Hashel — A speechless ten-year-old boy who travels with Ondromead — the first person to ever do so.
Meraeu — A mysterious old woman who occasionally appears to Ondromead.
MAPS
THE IRON REALM
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ONAIA
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AN ONAIA GAZETTEER
Excerpts from the Travel Journal of Wen Dan Yoth, Elder Ambassador of the Yutan Great Pod.
THE IRON REALM
Indigenous Name: Various
Capital: Various state capitals (see below).
Geography: Forests, plains, mountains, and one small desert.
Trade: Worked metals, ores, grains, spices, herbs.
Peoples: Humans. A hairless breed of middling height that may be a distant, inferior cousin to yutans. A violent people prone to wars and conflict.
Government: Various depending on the dominion (see below).
Language: Three primary languages: Shen, Easad, and Mumtiba.
Religion: Various (see below).
The Sight: Various (see below).
Impressions: “A varied land supporting a diverse people. My first impression of the Iron Realm upon reading of its history of wars and conflicts is a wave of gratitude to the urris for enforcing The Pact and keeping such barbarous people from overwhelming the whole of Onaia. Upon spending years among them, I have not changed this opinion. However, as surely as the humans love war and seeking dominance over each other, they also love their art, architecture, music, poetry, and wildly spiced foods. They are an immature but passionate people, both dangerous and beautiful.”
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THE DAESHEN DOMINION
Capital: Tagu-Lan
Geography: A western coast along the Zha Ocean with farmland, plains, and forests that run eastward to the Rantu-Ting Mountains on the Atheton border.
Trade: Wheat, corn, barley, rye, metals, spices, rare gems.
Peoples: Predominantly Heevin (brown skin, flat noses, dark hair, brown eyes) with some Tollith (brown skin, wide noses, dark hair, brown eyes).
Government: Hereditary monarchy currently ruled by Zhan Kon Tin-Tsu.
Language: Shen — a language shared with the neighboring Tanshen Dominion.
Religion: Kam-Djen. The people worship the god they call Ni-Kam Djen (The True God). They follow the teachings of nine prophets and believe that a savior will arise to usher in the end of the world. They also believe the world has ended many times and a savior has always arisen. The northern Daeshen Dominion follows the Ketolin sect that believes priests must intercede in prayer.
The Sight: Banned as a sacrilegious affront to their god Ni-Kam-Djen.
Impressions: “My time in the Daeshen Palace lasted little more than a year, but I took from those hearty people a lifelong love of fried foods, dry red wines, and the human game of koris. I also departed with an unending bewilderment that two nations, two peoples, might hold such a deep rooted and long lived animosity toward one another over the most minor of theological differences.”
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THE TANSHEN DOMINION
Capital: Tsee-Kaanlin
Geography: Possessed of a western cost along the Zha Ocean and a southern coast along the Tanfan Sea with farmland, plains, and forests in between.
Trade: Wheat, corn, barley, rye, metals, spices, and rare gems.
Peoples: Predominantly Tollith (brown skin, wide noses, dark hair, brown eyes) with some Heevin (brown skin, flat noses, dark hair, brown eyes).
Government: Hereditary monarchy currently ruled by Zhan Taujin Letan-Nin.
Language: Shen — a language shared with the neighboring Daeshen Dominion.
Religion: Kam-Djen. The people worship the god they call Ni-Kam Djen (The True God). They follow the teachings of nine prophets and believe that a savior will arise to usher in the end of the world. They also believe the world has ended many times and a savior has always arisen. The southern Tanshen Dominion follows the Zatolin sect that believes that all worshipers may pray to The True God.
The Sight: Banned as a sacrilegious affront to their god Ni-Kam-Djen.
Impressions: “Like their northern brethren, with whom they most frequently and bloodily quarrel, the Tanshen welcome foreignness with a reserved enthusiasm, treating me both as potential ally and possible foe, all while attempting to feed me so frequently that I began to suspect they might be fattening me for some long lost sacrificial rite to appease their strident god.”
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THE PUNDERRA DOMINION
Capital: Kanhalla
Geography: Forests, plains, and wetlands.
Trade: Rice, spices, silks, cotton, and fruits.
Peoples: A mix of human peoples. Lindosh (dark skin, narrow noses, and brown eyes), Wandis (dark skin, wide noses, brown eyes), Tollith (brown skin, wide noses, dark hair, brown eyes), Heevin (brown skin, flat noses, dark hair, and brown eyes), Naotis (light skin, narrow noses, and various hair and eye colors), Gaotos (light skin, wide noses, wide eyes, dark hair, brown eyes).
Government: Senate of secular leaders, both male and female, elected by the land-owning families.
Language: Mumtiba — a language shared with the neighboring Juparti Dominion.
Religion: Open to all faiths but dominated by Kethism — a syncretic religion that arose as a reaction to the religious wars of the past. The Keth follow the teachings of a man named Keth, who legend says lived at the
Origin Time. Worshipers believe in taking what they call the heart of all faiths. They believe all the gods are real, all the gods can help or harm, and prayers can be made to any and all gods, or to none. While there are leaders, male and female, who are elected to local Keth councils, there are no priests as it is largely a householder faith.
The Sight: Keth councils exist mostly to control the use of The Sight. Only those who join the local Sight Councils can openly practice The Sight, making it rare but not uncommon.
Impressions: “Curiously, the dominion with the most variety of faiths and ethnicities is beset by the least religious and ethnic strife. Possibly this is due to Punderra, and the city of Kanhalla in particular, being the seat of the first human settlement in that age scholars of all realms refer to as the Origin Time. During my stay in this dominion, I participated in ceremonies from all the available faiths, partaking in their rites and rituals, studying their scriptures, and even joining them in prayer. It did not shake my yutan faith, but it did give me an appreciation for what the Keth call The Truth Behind the Many Truths.”
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THE JUPARTI DOMINION
Capital: Tajana
Geography: Forests, plains, wetlands, a southern coastline along the Tanfan Sea.
Trade: Rice, spices, silks, cotton, fruits, and items manipulated through The Sight.
Peoples: A mix of human peoples. Lindosh (dark skin, narrow noses, and brown eyes), Wandis (dark skin, wide noses, brown eyes), Tollith (brown skin, wide noses, dark hair, brown eyes), Heevin (brown skin, flat noses, dark hair, and brown eyes), Naotis (light skin, narrow noses, and various hair and eye colors), Gaotos (light skin, wide noses, wide eyes, dark hair, brown eyes).
Government: A council of priests, merchants, warriors, laborers, nobles, and seers/academics. Council members are elected by their peers. There are twelve council members, two from each group — one male and one female apiece.
Language: Mumtiba — a language shared with the neighboring Punderra Dominion.
Religion: Pashism. Pashists worship many gods. There are fifty-four gods and fifty-four goddesses in the primary pantheon. They have rituals that are for the home as well as for the temple. Religion is something Pashists practice on a daily basis all day long. There are prayers for rising, eating, working, resting, playing, cooking, at sunset, before sleep, and so on. There are male and female priests of equal standing in a wide network of temples.
The Sight: There is a strong secular tradition of cultivating The Sight in Juparti. It is home to the Academy of Sight, the only institution established for the training and study of The Sight in the whole of the Iron Realm, and second in Onaia (the first being the yutan Sight Pod of the Sky Realm).
Impressions: “My first day in a Juparti market, I found myself overwhelmed by the swirl of colors and smells and sounds, as though a battle were being fought, not between armed opponents, but between factions of bakers and butchers and farmers and spicers and herbalists and weavers and street poets, and the very customers themselves, jostling to pay or haggling over the price of some item, shouting, laughing, singing, being so very much alive. The contrast to the staid yutan shops of my youth shook me, making me at once nostalgic for the calm of yutan ways, and at the same time, filling me with a vibrancy that I now miss whenever I frequent a market of any kind elsewhere, for none can compare with the bubbling bazaars of Juparti.”
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THE ATHETON DOMINION
Capital: Tagiciora
Geography: Farmland and forests bordered with the Rantu-Ting Mountains on its eastern border, a northern coastline along the Daefan Sea, and a large forest along its eastern border.
Trade: Rare metals, worked metals, grains, wines, dried fruits, and wool.
Peoples: Predominantly Tollith (brown skin, wide noses, dark hair, brown eyes), Heevin (brown skin, flat noses, dark hair, and brown eyes), and Naotis (light skin, narrow noses, and various hair and eye colors).
Government: A theocratic monarchy. A council of priests select a ruler to serve for life. While not officially so, this often proves to be a hereditary position with a single family dominating the throne for generations. The current ruler is Teyett Tujara Anravez.
Language: Easad — a language shared with the neighboring Nevaeo Dominion.
Religion: Tot Gioth — a faith that worships the goddess Nag Mot Gioth (Mother Creator) and Nag Pat Gioth (Father Destroyer), the spousal gods said to rule the universe in a cycle of birth and death. While initially a splinter sect of Kam-Djen, the faith has evolved into an entirely new religion, one that accepts female priests.
The Sight: Allowed but not cultivated outside the halls of the ruling palace where it is used to further the aims of the throne. All those who practice The Sight outside of the palace must register with the throne’s administrators.
Impressions: “My travels through Atheton, journeying in the company of a roaming carnival, a collection of actors and attractions who wander the entire realm, left me with the impression of a cold dominion. Not for the intemperate nature of the land, although the weather did often dip below freezing that autumn, but rather from the tone and tenor of the people, who tended to express themselves in private with the same reserve they evidenced in the public company of an ambassador from a far-off realm.”
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THE NEVAEO DOMINION
Capital: Janata
Geography: A region of farmland, numerous lakes, and dense forests with the Goha Tayso Mountains on its eastern border.
Trade: Grains, wines, cotton, rare nuts, worked metals, and metal ores.
Peoples: Predominantly Lindosh (dark skin, narrow noses, and brown eyes) and Wandis (dark skin, wide noses, brown eyes).
Government: A clerical theocracy where the priesthood elects eight priests to sit on the Table of Elders for a period of twenty years. These elders then choose one among them every five years to sit at the head of the Table of Elders.
Language: Easad — a language shared with the neighboring Atheton Dominion.
Religion: Tot Gioth — a faith that worships the Goddess Nag Mot Gioth (Mother Creator) and Nag Pat Gioth (Father Destroyer), the spousal gods said to rule the universe in a cycle of birth and death. While initially a splinter sect of Kam-Djen, the faith has evolved into an entirely new religion, one that accepts female priests.
The Sight: The Sight is tolerated but not cultivated within the clerical hierarchy. It is allowed for healing and aiding in farming outside the clerical halls, but strictly forbidden for any other purpose.
Impressions: “Oddly, as a sister nation to the neighboring Atheton Dominion with whom they share a common language, if not a common ethnic stock, the Nevaeo people possess a warmer, more friendly disposition. When traveling between two consulate outposts, I often stayed not in inns along the road, but in the homes of individual families I had previously met along the route. These nights eating at short tables and talking late into the night before small hearths were some of the best moments of my time in the Iron Realm and are among the memories I cherish most from my ambassadorial days.”
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THE KYTAIN DOMINION
Capital: None
Geography: A western desert at the edge of the Tayso Mountains gives way to wide plains that run to the eastern shores of the Nang Ocean and the northern shores of the Daefan Sea. The southern border with Juparti displays the ruins of a great wall built by Zhan Phan-Raa prior to the beginning of the First Great Dominion to contain the Kytain tribes.
Trade: None. The Kytain peoples do not trade.
Peoples: A roughly even mix of Naotis (light skin, narrow noses, and various hair and eye colors) and Gaotos (light skin, wide noses, wide eyes, dark hair, brown eyes).
Government: Tribal male chieftains and councils of men with separate women’s circles. The men’s councils deal with external issues such as war between tribes, and the women’s circles deal with internal issues su
ch as delivering justice to those who break the tribe’s codes of behavior. The various tribal councils and circles meet in a great congress of all tribes once every five years.
Language: Kytain.
Religion: The Kytain people worship a limited pantheon of nature gods and spirits based on the elements and the natural world with a strong tradition of ancestor veneration.
The Sight: Widespread but generally confined to tribal seers.
Impressions: “Among all the peoples of the Iron Realm, and indeed all the peoples of Onaia, I believe I share the deepest kinship with the Kytain tribes of the land they call The Sky Plains. They are a people who look to the past as a means of living the present and preparing for the future. They are more warlike than my ancient yutan ancestors, but engender a similar spirit of freedom and the desire to live in harmony with nature.”
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TANJII – FREE CITY
Capital: Tanjii (an independent city)
Geography: A coastal city on the shores of the Zha Ocean nestled in the valley between two mountains.
Trade: A port city through which trade from various realms flows from the dominions of the Iron Realm.
Peoples: A roughly even mix of Tollith (brown skin, wide noses, dark hair, brown eyes) with some Heevin (brown skin, flat noses, dark hair, brown eyes).
Government: Ruled by a Circle of Elders — nine people selected by lottery every ten years from the most powerful noble houses and merchant families.
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