- Definitions, Concepts, Inductions - - through When True Night Falls -

Note: Spoilers abound as this has been updated to include references from When True Night Falls, so if you haven't read the book, stay away.

Quicklink Directory: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Adept - one who has the inborn ability to see and Work the fae. Thus by definition, all adepts are sorcerers. Adeptitude can never be bestowed, though it can be taken away (see Ciani of Faraday).

Almea Tarrant - beautiful wife of Gerald Tarrant, she is sacrificed by him to extend his life.

Calesta - an Iezu demon of great intelligence, ruthlessness, and ambition. Although he always binds himself to humans, he never stops weaving his own plans to subjugate the human race for his own purposes. . His body is black and angular, with large multifaceted eyes, and his voice is likened to metal scraping against metal. He carries a vendetta against Gerald Tarrant for ruining his plans in the Rahklands.

Canopy - the energy field sustained created by the need for the Rakh to protect themselves from their attempted genocide by humans.

Casca - the smallest of Erna's three moons, named for Ian Casca, a botonist in the colonization party and the individual responsible imprinting the fae so that it is especially responsive to sacrifice.

Church of the Unification of Human Faith on Erna - a religion created by Gerald Tarrant, Neocount of Merentha. The Church was founded in an attempt to galvanize the will of man into a single faith, the collective power of which would be used to tame the fae and make Erna a safe planet for human habitation.

Ciani of Faraday - Loremaster of Jaggonath. An adept and owner/proprietor of The Fae Shoppe before it was destroyed. An older woman who has used the fae to keep the appearance of youth, her hunger for knowledge is boundless, and her skill as an adept very high. Her specialty in particular involves information gathering and the creation of Worked objects. She is the only known human to have survived two trips to the Rakhlands, the first time alone, the second accompanied.

Coldfire - tamed dark fae. This energy is used by the Hunter to fashion his sword. Also used to describe wild dark fae emanating from a Worked object, or from a Working.

Core, Corelight, Corerise, Coreset - the Core, or center, of the galaxy that from Erna appears as a heavenly mass (analogous to the Milky Way from earth) that rises and sets. It provides faint illumination. Corelight is the illumination provided by the Core. It is assumed from this that Erna is at the remote edge of its galaxy.

Damien Kilcannon Vryce - Knight of King Gannon's order of the Golden Flame, Companion of the Earth-Star Ascendant, Reverend Father of the Church. A sorcerer whose skills in working the fae are specialized in Healing (and he's not too shabby with a sword either). Originally from Ganji-on-the-Cliffs in the west, he was sent to the Patriarch in the East to show the promise of how sorcery could be used to further Church goals. His continued companionship with the evil Hunter has strained his faith and relationship to the Church

Dark fae - the most fragile type of fae (moonlight weakens it) and also the strongest (when Worked), dark fae forms in the absence of light. It is the most sensitive of the different types of fae to thoughts, as well as the most responsive. It is unclear how dark fae is generated, but appears to occur naturally. Photons (light rays) in the visible spectrum negate dark fae. Demonlings are formed from negative human emotions by dark fae, but cannot maintain a form in the absence of dark fae.

Demon - a faeborn creature powerful enought to have a permanent physical manifestation. All feed off of humans, whether physically or emotionally. They are categorized into several sub-types, the most powerful of which are the Iezu.

Demonling - a lesser demon whose physical manifestation on Erna is non- or semi-permanent. Demonlings feed physically off of humans and are possessed with a low intelligence.

e

Earth fae - a type of fae that appears to be produced through the inter-activity of Erna's crust (earthquakes, volcanoes). It is most common used in Working, and is the only type visible to Worked vision in the light. Earth fae flows downward, following contour lines, from regions of tectonic or volcanic activity. The strength of earth fae decreases the further it flows from its source. Workings can disrupt the flow of earth fae, even causing it to change course. Workings also function better when working with the currents, than against. Earth fae weakens the further below the planet's surface one descends.

Erna - the planet upon which the Coldfire Trilogy is set. Colonized by human explorers from Earth. Fae is a naturally occurring energy source, responsive to the brain waves of living creatures, that only occurs on Erna. It can also be sumised from the texts that Erna is a very remote planet on the outer edge of the galaxy.

f

Fae - an energy source both generated by and permeating the planet, Erna. There are four known types of fae: earth, dark, solar, and tidal. Each type has it's own characteristics, and all are accessible to varying degrees. It appears that the fae is generated as a byproduct of masses interacting upon each other, much as heat energy is released through friction. Like light, fae displays particle behavior (earth fae follows the contours of the planet's surface) and wave behavior (solar fae radiated from the crystal vial of the Church). Our best guess then is that fae is a natural energy phenomenon like heat. The fae responds to the thought pattern, conscious and unconscious, of all living creatures on Erna. The brain acts as a transmitter, sending impressions into the fae, which responds in harmony to the thought. The strength of the response is directly proportional to the strength of the local fae currents, the strength of the thought (or thoughts if a common idea is envisioned by a number of people). All types of fae can be bound to physical objects to perform a particular function. Such items are known as Worked objects. Only adepts can see the fae unaided, anyone else must Work his sight.

Faeborn - a creature manifested from the fae in response to the negative emotions (fear, terror, hate) of a single human or collective group of humans.

Forest - home of the Hunter. The woodland territory east of Jaggonath Worked over the centuries by the Hunter to fulfill and respond to his needs, yet maintained in a state of perfect ecological harmony. It is kept in darkness by a permanent fog.

Gerald Tarrant - birthname for the Hunter of the Forest, and the Neocount of Merentha. He is an adept who traded his humanity to the Nameless Ones for immortality. He is perhaps the greatest sorcerer who ever lived on Erna and is among other things responsible for the founding of the Church, the creation of unhorses, and the transformation of the Forest. Tarrant exists in a demonic state, and although he can live off blood, feeds most frequently on terror. An aesthetic, he designed Merentha Castle, considered the pinnacle of Revivalist architecture.

Hesseth - Member of the khrast caste in Rahkene society. She travels with Damien Vryce with the mission of eradicating the evil force responsible for transforming Rahk tribes into demons. Her only child was killed prior to her travel to the human lands.

Hunter - alias for Gerald Tarrant.

i

Iezu - the most powerful sub-class of demons. Their power is limited only to illusion, and they feed off of the emotional energy of humans. Many have set themselves up as demi-gods to the humans, complete with temples, idols, and worshippers.

Jenseny - a young adept with the ability to see and manipulate tidal fae. The assassination of her father causes her to flee into the forest where she is abducted by the Terata, followers of Calesta.

Karril - one of the more powerful Iezu who derives sustenance from human pleasure. He is also one of the oldest Iezu and is a longtime friend to Gerald Tarrant. He appears to humans in the guise that they will find the most pleasing to look at.

Key - a phrase used to form a pattern in the fae that will allow a sorcerer to perform a Working. Keys serve as a means for a sorcerer to discipline his thoughts upon the fae, so as to be able to control it. It is most likely the case that keys work because humans as a whole believe they do.

Khrast - a caste of Rakhene society whose tradition it is to know the tongue of humans. Khrast females who travel to the human lands are permanently altered so that they may neither go into heat nor bear children.

Knowing - a Working that allows a sorcerer to divine information about a person, place, or thing. The amount of information gleaned from a Knowing depends on the strength and skill of the sorcerer involved. Knowings may be blocked by an Obscuring.

Loremaster - a sorcerer who specializes in the gathering and impartial dissemination of knowledge. Loremasters swear a covenant of impartiality to both gain access to information and to avoid being persecuted for the possession of it.

Merentha - the neocounty that was first ruled by Gerald Tarrant, and maintained by his line.

Mt. Shaitan - The volcano whose powerful geologic forces produce an immense amount of earth fae. Located north of the Hunter's forest, it is where he makes some of his most powerful workings, and is the font that pours so much fae/power into the forest.

Nameless Ones - collective of formless negative emotions that can under certain circumstances coalesce into a comprehensive whole, from which they can act as a single demon of great power. They are unable to form physical manifestations.

Neocount - a Revivalist title used by early Ernan settlers to designate a landed hereditary ruler, analogous to a Count in Earth's feudal history (Neo is from Latin, meaning new).

Obscuring - a Working whose main purpose is to block, redirect, or confuse a Knowing.

r

Rakh - a native tree-dwelling mammalian species on Erna that quickly evolved into humanoid form. This transformation took place because after humans decided collectively that they were the most advanced species on Erna, the fae responded to that collective belief and made it into a reality. Modern Rakhene are a caste-based society with females holding equality with males. Female Rakh can inherently Work tidal fae.

Rahklands - the lands in which the Rakhene reside. When the humans tried to eradicate the Rakh from Erna, the collective need of the Rakhene for protection caused the Canopy to form into being.

s

Solar fae - appears to be generated from the interaction of solar energy upon Erna's atmosphere. It is the most ephemeral type of fae in that it is inaccessible to humans directly. Like other types of fae, it may be bound to solid objects. Solar fae is particularly devastating to dark fae. The only known users of solar fae is the Church.

Sorcerer - a human who through Keys and Workings manipulates the fae for his own purposes. It was the banning of private sorcery by the early Church that began Gerald Tarrant's fall from being it's Prophet to its most hated person.

t

Tidal fae - like solar fae, is invisible to the naked eye. It appears to be generated through the gravitic forces generated between Erna, her moons, the sun, and to a much lesser extant, the other planets in the solar system. No man has ever been known to be able to access the tidal fae, and the only human known to do so was the adept Jenseny. Rakh women can tap the tidal fae, but only under certain conditions.

U

Undying Prince - The Undying Price was the sorcerer who, in league with Calesta, was attempting to subjegate the eastern continent. His immortality was obtained by keeping his mind alive in a nutrient tank, possesing others' bodies to interact with the world. Becuase of this, he is considered undying rather than undead.

w

Work, workings - the conscious manipulation of the fae by a human. For a sorcerer, this involves the use of Keys, but an adept can Work the fae as an innate natural ability. A Worked object is one that has had the fae bound to it to perform a specific purpose. Gerald Tarrant's sword for instance, has been Worked to serve as a storage device for dark fae.