Home | News | Books | In Conquest Born | The Coldfire Trilogy | This Alien Shore | The Wilding | The Magister Trilogy | About | |
|
Submissions and corrections to the editor are welcome and encouraged. 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.
Copyright © 1995-2024 Merentha.Org |