Book 3 Glossary

Biological terms:

Flow — ‘native’ word for magic. Mostly used by wermages as it is named by how they feel it.

Spark — the ‘glow’ inside the magical humans that only other magical humans can see.

Wermurk, Murk, Merk — ‘baseline’ humans without any magical abilities.

Werspark, Wer, Bahatur — ‘baseline’ magical humans that possess a Spark and magical strength but unable to use magic directly.

Wermage, Wermaje, Shaman, Spellsinger — mages that can use their Spark to cast spells. Usually have animal features.

Sheyda (Sheydayan), Lamma (Lammar) - Wermage subform. Feline centaurs, male and female respectively, that have four legs and two arms. Chimeric.

Lamura — Wermage subform, Lamias.

Divines — they are to wermages what wermages are to wer ( and wer are to murks) Reclusive, long-living, possess impossible even by normal mages abilities. Individual Divine Families tend to control entire countries with various degrees of involvement. Catriona Emanai Aethil is the Divine Heurisk of Emanai Manorat.

Daimon, Daimonas — Often thought to be a ‘half-step’ between wermages and Divines, or reborn souls of past heroes. Tend to be born with sharp, adult minds and possess powers that verge on divinity.

Cancer, Creature, Thing, Forest Walker — Magical animal indigenous to Tana. Alien (to humans) and thus very much inedible. Finds wermages tasty, wer crunchy, and murks squishy. Has an exoskeleton and multiple limbs (including two long grappling ‘tentacles’) but lacks well-defined internal organs.

Forest - Not to be confused with terrestrial forests. A collective name for the alien flora where Creatures tend to live. Outgrowths tend to form ‘forests’ with tall, thick, intertwined ‘trees’ of white bark and deep red ‘pine needles’, but ‘grass’ regions also exist. Terrestrial and alien floras do not mix easily and tend to suppress one another.

Geographical terms:

Tana - the name of the world where current events take place.

Emanai Manorat - the “main” state where most characters reside in. A rich country that successfully grew between two mountain ranges, protecting it from alien (and human) invasions but has been trying to outgrow past its ‘safe’ borders for some time now with variable successes.

Sefid Mountains - a long mountain range to the west of Emanai Manorat that acts as a natural barrier shielding it from the Forest and Creature expansion from the untamed lands in the far west.

Babr Mountains — a gigantic plateau, shielding most of the Emanai Manorat east borders.

The Bay of Tir — The sea to the north of Emanai. Due to heavy Forest presence in the north there are few cities or villages on its shores and beyond, with the notable exception of Bayan Gol and Hsaca

Hsaca — Clans living across the Bay of Tir that are close and big enough to warrant stable trade. Just as Emanai, they relied on their own mountain range to shield them from the Forest although their region is significantly smaller. Renowned for their metalworking skills and fulad (Damascus) steel.

The Southern Sea — sea to the south of Emanai. Multiple polities exist on its shores, including the Esca city states, the Cities of Hilak, as well as Barsashahr and Sirgan nomads. Opens into oceans on east and west sides.

Esca — Lamurian city states.

Hilak — Once a subject the the Barsashahr nomads, the land was recently ransomed to Emanai for the life of the Barsashahr Divine (Bragge Archomilea the Third). Hilak  denizens tend to have dark, ashen skin and elf-like ears.

Barsashahr — a large collection of nomadic tribes to the far east of Emanai and bayond. The ruling wer and wermages tend to have feline features and tribes are led by sheydayan chieftains.

Samat — Capital of Emanai. Located on its southern shores. Most large Houses have a couple of Manors inside the city. Many Matriarchs permanently live in the city or its hinterlands.

Amul — A city in the centre of Emanai. Strategically located on two major rivers that connect both northern and southern parts of the country. The centre of internal trade and the main residence of Nanaya Kiymetl Ayda (the Kiymetl Matriarch, House of Trade).

Uureg — The third of the ‘three sisters of Emanai’ or ‘three horns of Emanai’ trio of Samat-Amul-Uureg that are linked together by rivers Shara (Amul to Samat) and Nuur (Amul to Uureg). Its proximity to the Border Wall made it natural that Roxanna Kosenya Inayat (the Kosenya Matriarch, House of Defence) made it her residence.

The Border Wall — the local "Great Wall of Emanai". A large (and long) set of fortifications that block the only wide open plain leading into the Emanai between the Babr Mountains and the Bay of Tir, built to prevent Forest from reclaiming the northern regions of Emanai. There were attempts to build a second wall deeper into Forest but so far they have been unsuccessful.

Bayan Gol — Emanai colony city. Built on the edge of Forest grassland and terrestrial steppe to alleviate Emanai tin shortage. Often (sometimes yearly, around autumn) attracts nomadic 'visitors'.

Political terms:

Manor(group) — A basic unit of Emanai high society. Consists of a Domina (the head of the Manor), her immediate family, as well as servants and slaves.

House — A ‘Manor of Manors’. With a Matriarch as its head and her Dominas (often daughters, nieces, cousins, sisters) with their Manors as her subordinates.

Sadaq — a local form of a polygamic union, common amongst Emanai high society. Most Dominas have a sadaq of male husbands.

Pillar — A privileged title of a House that marks their high regard in the eyes of the Emanai Goddess. Pillars are tasked with specific duties to manage Emanai. There are currently eight Pillars in Emanai, each one possessing a magically floating tower (Pillar) in the centre of Samat.

Kosenya - House of Defence,

Kishava - House of Logistics (military logistics and trade),

Kamshad - House of Offence,

Kiymetl - House of Trade (civilian),

Enoch - House of Roads (civilian logistics and infrastructure),

Samat - House of the Capital,

Shebet - House of Records (administration),

Gabal - House of Mines.

I will try to make sure that individual characters are re-introduced properly so that I don't need to list everyone here.