Part 49 (1/2)

Broken Lands - Regions of fractured landscape left over from the Cataclysm. Such regions are scattered apparently at random across the world, but may be subtly connected. One of the five great ancient cities moves between various Broken Lands, changing location every few years. The relocation has never been witnessed by human eyes.

Cataclysm - The catastrophe that marked the beginning of the world as understood by Sky Warden and Stone Mage, and other chroniclers of human events. The cause of the Cataclysm, along with knowledge of the times that preceded it, is lost. Much has been said about it, and such stories, along with speculation concerning their veracity, have been collected in the multi-author account known as The Book of Towers.

Conclave - The term used to refer to the Sky Warden community as a whole. The Conclave maintains a strict hierarchical structure within itself, dominated by three family lines: Air, Cloud and Water.

Divide - A vast, jagged, human-made canyon that separates the Interior from the Strand. Its origins stretch back to the days shortly after the Cataclysm, when the world was rife with the Change and the chaos it brought. Some say it was created to keep Stone Mage and Sky Warden teachings separate, others that it served as a repository for the new and dangerous creatures that walked the Earth. Whatever purpose it serves, bridges cross it at only two points, Tintenbar and the Lookout, and both are heavily charmed against hostile use of the Change.

Fundelry - A small but locally important fis.h.i.+ng village on the section of the Strand known as Gooron.

Ghost - The common name for the bodiless minds imprisoned in the Haunted City. On two occasions in recent times, a ghost or ghosts contacted human residents of the island and used them to facilitate a bid for freedom. On both occasions, the ghosts turned on their liberators, with lethal results.

Golem - When a Change-worker over-exerts themselves, they run the risk of vanis.h.i.+ng into the Void Beneath and becoming the opposite of a ghost: a body without a mind. Such empty bodies can be inhabited by golems, fleshless minds with a hunger for experience. Such inhabitation is invariably fatal in the end, for the golem's human host.

Haunted City - The capital of the Strand. A mysterious place, which humans inhabit only by default, its crystalline towers are cages for ancient ghosts who seek forever to escape.

Interior - The vast inland state to the north of the Divide, dominated by large, underground cities and people with light-coloured skin.

Keep - A prestigious school for Stone Mages situated in a cliff-face retreat connected to the city of Ulum by a s.p.a.ce-bending Way. The Van Haasteren family, with their hereditary recall, has administered the school for generations. The current princ.i.p.al is the ninth in the line.

Man'kin - One of the many castes of intelligent beings to walk the world since the Cataclysm. Animated, self-aware statues with an ability to see all times as one, the man'kin have occasionally been tricked into acting as advisers for their human *masters'. Rogue man'kin are feared everywhere, as their strength and indifference to human affairs make them capricious and formidable foes.

Nine Stars - The ancient, arcane city deep in the desert of the Interior where the Stone Mage Conclave meets every full moon to make decisions and cast judgments.

Novitiate - The training ground for those with talent in the Strand. It is situated on the same island as the Haunted City and currently overseen by Master Warden Risa Atilde.