Wander West, in Shadow

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Aela Ghostfoot: A member of the Crosscraw, mountainfolk split up into many clans who live off the land. Aela is, in a single word, passionate: she loves quickly and fiercely, and feels both happiness and despair very keenly. A huntress, she is very skilled at the use of her bow, living off the land, and moving quietly and without leaving a trail, Her fondness for others leads her to often promise things that she cannot necessarily deliver; she enjoys making other people happy, particularly her friends and loved ones.

Elyse: A half-daemon, half-human witch. Strong-willed and sharp-tongued, with a bit of a temper but mature enough to know when to rein it in. Despite her prickly exterior, she does have a gentler, caring side to her as well; her mother kept her isolated from men for most of her life, and her curiousity about them can make her come across as more flirtatious than she intends. She has decided for her own reasons to follow after Martimeos, along with her familiar Cecil; a large, protective cat with no small skill in hunting, who Elyse considers her dearest companion. She has knowledge of healing, glamours, charm-making, and some sigils.

Liam Kells: Normally simply going by 'Kells', Liam was a guard in the town of Twin Lamps. Formerly the son of a member of the White Queen's court, Liam had a troubled childhood after his father was killed, often lashing out in anger. However, raised by Roark, the Captain of the Twin Lamps guard, he learned to accept the hardships of life with stoicism and good cheer. Easygoing for the most part, Kells nevertheless manages to keep a level head in dangerous situations, though it is not impossible to provoke his anger. He prefers to fight with polearms.

Martimeos Cobblespur: A half-fae, half-human wizard. Martimeos is secretive and tight-lipped with those he doesn't trust, has a tendency to get lost in thought, and in general tries to remain level-headed - though he does have a streak of mischievousness and trouble-making in him. On a quest to find his brother, Amalciano, he is accompanied by his familiar Flit; a pompous but faithful, brave, and fiercely loyal cardinal. Martimeos has skill in the manipulation of fire and earth, the creation of glamours, and some knowledge of sigils. Particularly fond of tobacco and his pipe.

OTHER CHARACTERS/MINOR CHARACTERS/CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN PASSING

Minerva: The apothecary of the village of Silverfish, she lends her shop to Elyse and Martimeos for a time. A stout and stern grayhair, but not unkindly.

Ritter: The innkeeper of Silverfish, though he hardly gets any business these days. A former soldier of some kind, clearly, though he does not speak his tale; despite his advanced age, he still keeps an air of discipline and authority about him. A friend of Zeke's.

Zeke: A wizard of no small skill, who had taken up residence in some ruins nearby the village of Silverfish to conduct his research there. Some years ago, he traveled to the Outside, and came back as a glimmerling.

Theodore Roark: The Captain of the Twin Lamps guard, and adoptive father of Liam Kells. An ugly man, with a short temper and a rough disposition. But a very good man, as well; despite his rank, he insists on continuing out on patrol with his men, unwilling to put them where he himself will not go, and fiercely protective of the citizens under his care. Slain by a bogge-man.

Nielson: A Twin Lamps guard who developed an infatuation with Elyse in the short time he knew her. Slain by a bogge-man trying to protect her.

Taavetti Bartuk: The mayor of Twin Lamps; an owlish, shrewd politician. A former wagon-driver who plied the roads with trade, he was successful enough to become a merchant of merchants, with a reputation for ruthlessness. He is generous with his wealth, however, and used his considerable wits to maintain a degree of independence for Twin Lamps during the White Queen's reign.

Madame Rouchard: Also known simply as Madame Ro, she is the haughty, overdressed innkeep of the White Queen inn, in Twin Lamps. Though she clearly values coin and her luxuries, it cannot be said she is dishonest; she prides herself on her inn providing excellent service. In truth, she is a former slave, a captive of the peddlers of flesh from the City of Bells; many years ago she was rescued by Theodore Roark when the slavers tried to travel through the lands of Twin Lamps. Ashamed of her past, she swore Roark to secrecy, and set about building her fortune as a free woman.

Harald: The silent, mysterious guard hired by Madame Ro for the White Queen inn.

Elyse's Mother: Though we do not know her name, we know from Elyse's memories that her mother was a cruel and vindictive woman; a necromancer and a consort to Outsiders, who forbade Elyse from speaking to or even going near men. According to Elyse, she fell ill and died not so long ago, and Elyse has been travelling on her own since.

Bertrand: A logger from the village of Pinemoss, one that Elyse formed a particular attachment to as she spied on the men there. Slain by Elyse's mother.

Vincent: A handsome, mysterious young farmer in the town of Twin Lamps. Vincent seems very good-natured, though a little standoffish at first; he busies himself with keeping the farmers driven off their lands by the bogge-man out of trouble, and doing his best to make sure they stay fed. He gifts Elyse with a reaping-hook as thanks for helping defeat the bogge-man that haunted the town.

Liam Kells' father: Although we also do not learn his name, we know some of Kells' biological father. He was a knight in the service of the White Queen, and a noble of middling rank, sent to usurp the command of the guard of Twin Lamps, as the White Queen had grown suspicious of Taavetti Bartuk, the mayor there. He raised Kells on his own after his wife died, though he often had to leave his son in the Queen's court as he left to fight in the war. Slain by Amalciano Cobblespur.

Anne: A maid in the White Queen inn, and a friend of Liam Kells. She comforts Kells after the death of Theodore Roark, and takes him as a lover.

Maddie: A witch, apprentice of Grizel, and one of the three Crosscraw who fled to Twin Lamps, bringing the attention of a bogge-man upon the town. The eldest of the three, she feels the most responsible for her two companions; she also feels the most guilty for the fact that their presence is getting the 'lowlanders' killed.

Inna: A Crosscraw woman who fled the Witch-Queen's range, and the second-eldest. While she's no fan of lowlanders or Queensmen, she softens after seeing them defend her.

Petra: One of the three Crosscraw women who fled to Twin Lamps, and the youngest of the three. Glad to be out from under the boots of the bogge-men, she nevertheless seems a bit distraught at the idea of spending the rest of her life as a farmer.

Sorcha: A Crosscraw huntress, found nailed to a tree by Martimeos, Elyse and Kells, as they journeyed up the mountain.

Marsail: A Crosscraw woman who guarded the entrance to Dun Cairn. Killed by the Bogge-King.

Brindelwine: A mysterious, blue-winged fairy who has some history with Martimeos; she apparently tried to steal his memories as a child. She seems to have a predatory attraction to the wizard, or just enjoys making him uncomfortable; she trades him his freedom for a kiss.

Maol-Manos: The Chief of the Crosscraw, now the 'Clan of All'. An old, frail, but clever Crosscraw man, formerly of the Foxtooth clan. He was among the first to realize the fight against the bogge-men was helpless, and lead his people to safety; as a result, many of the surviving Crosscraw are Foxtooth. Despite his age, and his position, he is less fond of the "old ways" - the culture of honor and blood debt of the Crosscraw - than most, seeing it as destructive and pointless now that they have been reduced to near-extinction; the Foxtooth clan in general is generally less beholden to the old ways. He is diplomatic enough to take the advice of the remaining clan leaders, but he holds much sway with the Crosscraw; they think it is largely thanks to his cleverness that so many of them still live.

Grizel: An old and powerful Crosscraw witch, formerly of the Moonmouth clan, though she had abandoned her clan before the bogge-men even appeared. Eccentric and tempermental and perhaps a bit mad, she's fond of spending much of her time inhaling the fumes of hallucination-inducing plants. Regardless, she's well-versed in the Art of Dreaming, glamour, fortune-telling, necromancy, healing, and can manipulate the winds. It is thanks to her calling upon the spirits of the ancient Crosscraw that Dun Cairn and some other select places upon the Witch-Queen's range are safe from the bogge-men.

Mors Rothach : Aliases: Stonetooh (by ogres)

A great black bear of truly legendary size, he served as Grizel's familiar - though he would snort at the idea that a familiar is meant to 'serve' in any way. He is largely independent, communicating with Grizel by dreams as she remains holed up in Dun Cairn while he stalks the slopes and crags of the mountains. Cruel, uncaring for the plight of most Crosscraw, and condescending and dismissive towards humankind outside that of his witch. He was powerful and large enough that he feared none on the mountain, save for the Bogge-King - even the bogge-men feared to approach him. Years ago, he had half his face burnt off by Amalciano Cobblespur.

Mors harbored a jealousy and bitterness towards the Bogge-King, who he saw as usurping his role as the most feared creature upon the mountains, but feared to fight him. In the end, though, when he encountered the Bogge-King in a weakened state - the daemon without its blade, and with its claws broken - Mors chose to fight him. In the ensuring battle, both the Bogge-King and Mors were killed.

Torcull Ghostfoot: The brother of Aela Ghostfoot. Torc might have, in another life, eventually become the Chief of the Ghostfoot clan. Instead, he joined the Queen's War, and during that time found himself crippled, losing an arm when he participated in the brutal raid against Pike's Green. Martimeos eventually discovered that Torc had taken part in the slaughter of his folk, and took the Crosscraw man's other hand as well.

Torc always harbored a debilitating guilt for the things he had done and the innocents he had killed during the Queen's War. When he discovered that Aela had joined with Martimeos in order to strike down the Bogge-King, in order to pay her blood debt to the wizard, it was too much to bear. He chased after her; a harrowing journey to make alone and crippled, and a miraculous one as well. In the end, Torc sacrificed himself to distract the Bogge-King from his sister.

Sile: Torc's pregnant wife; she begged Martimeos to have mercy upon her husband. Attempted to kill Martimeos once she learned that Torc had been killed by the Bogge-King.

Uther Ironclaw: Considered by many to be the last legendary warrior of the Crosscraw. Chief of the Ironclaw clan, he was a man of truly unbelievable strength. After fighting in the Queen's War and surviving, he returned home only to immediately lead the way in the last hopeless war against the Bogge-King. Considered slain, or turned into a bogge-man, along with every last member of his clan.

Tomag Ironclaw: Son of Uther Ironclaw, and a former lover of Aela Ghostfoot. The two met during Aela's clan trial, where she had been tasked with stealing something from Ironclaw clan. Tomag caught her, and the two fell to talking as he held watch over her, and after that Tomag was hopelessly in love. The two might have been married if Tomag had not gone off to join the Queen's War; he never returned. Aela says he was not merely strong, but clever as well, and intensely interested in his people's history.

Sooremah, Reekort and Kortonsoo: A trio of ogres encountered by Martimeos, Elyse and Kells as they traveled through the Witch-Queen's mountains. Kortonsoo was killed and had his heart devoured by Mors Rothach.

Jabhok Lotsoo: An elder ogre of nearly twenty years, Jabhok was one of the rare ones whose wisdom was seen as valuable enough to prevent him from being eaten. He seems irritated by the presence of humans in his camp, and tries his best to trick them away; but in the end he cooperates, smart enough not to cross Mors.

Isabella: A strange witch found in the holy ruins of the ogres, serving the Dolmec daemons Lock and Key. If, indeed, a witch is all she is. She claims to be impossibly old, and seems incredibly knowledgeable about the Art.

Key: A fox-headed Dolmec, first dwelling outside of Silverfish, where he gets Martimeos to assist in the retrieval of a dagger of Dolmec Iron from the wizard Zeke. He seems more sly and willing to make deals than his brother, Lock.

Lock: A snake-headed Dolmec that dwelt in the Witch-Queen's mountains. Creator of the Bogge-King. Lock seems much more quick to anger and willing to resort to violence than his brother, Key.

The White Queen: Aliases: The Witch Queen, The White Rose, The Queen in the West, Hollowheart (by beasts)

Standard: A white rose on a dark blue field

A mysterious sorceress who rose to power decades ago, it was her war - commonly called the Queen's War - that left much of the land scarred and ruined. Particularly devastating was her talent to summon blizzards with the Art, which she would use to great effect to starve and freeze those who opposed her. Tyrannical and egotistical, she often named landmarks after herself, and would punish those who used their previous names. The cruelty of her forces inspired the opposition of the independent townships she tried to unite, however, and her advance was eventually stopped by the Durnholde Concord, a loose alliance of these free towns. What followed then was the most brutal and bitter part of the war, however; where the front lines were pushed back and forth, and many, many killed as towns were conquered, liberated, and re-conquered.

She was eventually defeated, however, and killed along with her seven daughters - although how this came to be is unclear; some say she was slain in battle by a wizard, and others say her own folk rose up against her. The last of her forces were pushed back into her lands in the Batle of Black Waters, and what little domain she claims as still hers has grown dark and eerily silent since the war's end.

Princess Cascadia: The youngest daughter of the White Queen, and the childhood friend of Liam Kells. Like all of the White Queen's daughters, a sorceress.

Reinhast: Aliases: Reinhast One-Eye (By the Crosscraw)

The right hand of the White Queen, Reinhast was responsible for the command of her forces during the Queen's War, and rose to a level of villainy in the minds of the conquered second only to the Queen herself. He was, by all accounts, a brilliant strategist, and forever the bane of the Durnholde Concord, who attempted more than once to have him assassinated. But it is said he had a sense of justice about him; he was not above hanging his own men if he discovered they had engaged in brutality and abuse, though not often enough to stop them. He is hated in particular by the Crosscraw for the betrayal he dealt to them at the Battle of Black Waters.

Grimwold: A mysterious wizard of some renown, known well for his travels through these lands in his youth; even now his name is sometimes used as a byword for 'powerful wizard.' He resides now in a tower in the midst of a pine barrens, doing whatever research such mad wizards do. Rumors abound about him: Some say he is a necromancer; others say he was the father of the White-Queen's daughters. What is certain is that most stay well clear of him.

Nathaniel Cobblespur: The father of Martimeos Cobblespur and Amalciano Cobblespur. A simple cobbler who somehow found himself married to a Fae.

Amalciano Cobblespur: Aliases: The Black Stag

A half-fae, half-human wizard, and brother of Martimeos Cobblespur. He and his companions set out to join the war against the White Queen after the attack on Pike's Green, years ago, and he has not been seen since. However, tales of his exploits have been heard. He is, by all accounts, an unusually powerful wizard.

Hadley Silversmith: Aliases: The Bogge-King, The Twisted King (by beasts), Mad Father (by ogres)

Hadley Silversmith was one of the companions of Amalciano Cobblespur, when the latter left to fight in the Queen's War.

Before the war, Hadley was one of Amalciano's closest friends, and a very kind man; apprenticing beneath his father to become the blacksmith of Pike's Green. During the attack on Pike's Green, he lost nearly all of his younger siblings, and was wracked by guilt for failing to protect them.

What happened after he left was unknown, but what seems clear is that the war changed him. What is known is this: Sometime shortly after the Queen's War ended - or sometime shortly before - he traveled to the mountains of the Witch-Queens range and made a pact with the Dolmec known as Lock. This pact changed him into the Bogge-King, a monstrous, daemonic creature with the ability to create bogge-men, which he used to wreak terrible revenge against the Crosscraw, driving them nearly to the point of annihilation.

He was still Hadley, however; as warped as his mind might have been, he still remembered his old life. And it was these memories, and his fondness for Martimeos, that undid him. He invited Martim into his home, in the Land of Dim, only to find that his blade and forge-hammer - magical artifacts given by the Dolmecs - were stolen. He pursued Martimeos in order to retrieve them, and was confronted by the great bear Mors Rothach. Weakened, and without his blade, he was slain.

Vivian Silversmith: The younger sister of Hadley Silversmith, childhood friend and former lover of Martimeos Cobblespur. Hadley would always help them sneak off together when they were younger, as Vivian and Hadley's parents did not approve of Martimeos.

Harkheim: A huntsman, and one of the companions of Amalciano Cobblespur. He lost his lover and best friend, Kassandra, during the attack on Pike's Green.

Daveth Pike: The youngest son of the Pike family, the closest thing Pike's Green had to nobility. Trained by his father, he was very skilled with a blade. One of the companions of Amalciano Cobblespur.

CREATURES

Outsiders: In general, creatures from any world not of your own. They can range from the very familiar - an Outsider might be indistinguishable from a human - to the utterly alien. Some Outsiders are so strange, so clearly do not belong, that they can be detectable from great distances; the world strains against their presence.

Daemons: There is no one source that is capable of distinguishing what is truly a daemon or not; and thus sometimes the lines of what gets called a daemon can be a bit blurry. But generally, daemons are seen as strange, alien Outsiders, but ones that are nevertheless intelligent and capable of communication. Another commonality with daemons is that deals may be struck with them, and they always seem to want something from mortal folk. While some people fall into the trap of dealing with them, daemons are thought to be capable of such great destructiveness and violence that they are almost always feared. Folk will not necessarily go hunting them down - depending on the type of daemon, it might be considered better to leave well enough alone - but neither would they tolerate them in their midst.

Dolmecs: A type of daemon, with all the capricious violence and vindictiveness associated with their kind - but one seen as more than willing to make deals with mortals for items of Dolmec Iron. Dolmec Iron is a mysterious metal - none know from where it was mined, or how to forge it - that makes dark black blades that are said to be razor sharp, easily punching their way through good steel. And a mere scratch from the stuff will doom someone - for it will slowly but surely turn you to stone, and there is no knowledge of the Art that can save you; none but the Dolmecs themselves can. Strange in appearance, they have animal heads of various species, but with eyes of glittering black metal; and four pale, human arms of rotting flesh. The rest of their form is mysterious, for they hide it beneath bulky robes. While Dolmecs are seen as certainly dangerous, due to their willingness to make deals with humans - and their general disinterest with harming mortal folk unless they are actively sought out - dealings with them are more common than dealings with other daemons.

Glimmerlings: A practitioner of the Art who has traveled to the Outside, and come back wrong. A glimmerling might be barely distinguishable from a normal human, or they might be strange-looking enough to be mistaken for a ghost. Glimmerlings are dangerous, for - in addition to being users of the Art - coming back wrong distorts their perception of reality; they might kill and maim folk without even realizing that was what they were doing.

Mirrit: A strange creature from the Land of Death's Door; it looks like a snake of black feathers with a gigantic crow's beak, undulating on an unseen breeze in the air. Said to plague those who suffer lingering deaths, and try to devour their souls before they make their way to the afterlife. Their beaks can deliver a deadly poison that turns the entire body of the victim black, before dragging their souls to the Land of Death's Door. Their call sounds like the tolling of gigantic iron bells.

The Fae: Utterly mysterious, it is not even known if the Fae are Outsiders are not. Some even call them daemons. They have a reputation for looking like beautiful folk, usually bearing some animal features about them - antlers, feathers, animal ears - and dwelling deep in lonely forests where it is all too easy to lose the path. Fickle and flighty, they are said to have beautiful singing voices, and to enjoy 'games' with normal folk - though the games and pranks they play might be dark indeed; luring folk to their deaths, kidnapping children. While they are often said to hide deep in the unmarked and unexplored forests of the world, it is not unheard of to meet fae in a more civilized locale - for they are changelings, and can easily disguise themselves. Fae are also associated, in some manner, with the Land of Dreams, though none know how or why.

Fairies: In appearance, a fairy looks like a human with the wings of some kind of insect - very often butterfly wings. Though often they are small, even diminutive, size does not seem to be a constant among them; there are some fairies that are as tall as normal humans. Considered a subset of the Fae, they are different enough that they warrant their own category, for even the Fae themselves are wary of them, though they often travel in their company. Sometimes called the Fae of the Fae, all that is true about the Fae is more extreme in fairies; fickle, capricious natures and dark impulses. In addition, however, fairies are almost always considered dangerously skilled in the Art, including fae magic that very few understand. Stories are divided on them; there are tales of good fairies that grant wishes to those in dire need, and of more malevolent fairies who seem to relish in extended suffering. If faced with a fairy, it is suggested that one never tries to fight; you play whatever strange little game it wants to play, and hope you make your way out alive.

Will O' Wisps: Also called 'wisps'; strange, dancing green lights that appear in forests at night. Some say they are a form of daemon; others consider them a trick of the Fae. They sing a strange, lilting tune, in a wordless hum, and while little is known about them, they are considered dangerous, for the sheer fact that there are no tales of anyone ever having interacted with them.

Bogge-Man: Aliases: Twisted Ones (By beasts), Bone-brothers (by Ogres)

A Bogge-man is tall, taller than most folk by at least a head. Hard-skinned, so that - other than at weak points around their necks and armpits - blades generally cannot pierce them. Fiercely strong, very capable of easily killing a human with their bare hands. Their very presence inspires dread and fear, and they carry with them cruel, hooked blades; blades that, when they use them to behead someone, that person's body will rise as walking undead shortly after, their spirit bound to their headless form. Some can speak our tongue, though they only do so with great difficulty; others cannot at all, and communicate in some manner through the severed heads of their victims. They can disappear through doorways, and are occasionally seen riding a Bogge-Horse; a nightmarish black steed with fangs like a wolf, one that seems to constantly drip blood and whose hooves can sink through stone. Some of them can also place a mark upon folk; they will begin to appear in a person's memories, usually ones associated with fear, and eventually come to dominate a person's every thought, driving them mad and into servitude to the bogge-man, who they think of as some all-present, inescapable force. In appearance, they look like tall humans, wearing a helm made fromt he skull of some animal with a long, black cloak attached, and burning yellow eyes. In reality, a bogge-man was human, once. A human who had the helm they wear forced upon them; a creation of the Dolmecs. The helm slowly changes and twists them into some new, wretched shape.

The Walking Tree: In a tale told by Taavetti Bartuk, a tree that would somehow grow closer to you every time you did not look at it. For years it seemed disconcerting, but utterly harmless - upon inspection, it just seemed a normal tree. Plenty of folk touched it, or even slept beneath it, with no ill effects. Until, one day, a young woman touched it, and immediately found her arm pulled into the bark. Bartuk and his men did their best to free her, only to find that the tree bled human blood when they took their axes to it, and caused the woman pain. They were too late to free her; in the end, all they could do was give her a quick death and flee. Bartuk never did figure out why that young woman, of all those he had seen touch the tree, had provoked it.

Little men of the earth: In every place in the world where men burrow into the ground to mine, there are tales of little men in the dark and dirty tunnels; ones that hide just out of sight, who flee into the darkness, disappearing seemingly straight into the stone, when pursued. In some of the tales, the little men are pranksters - stealing tools, throwing pebbles. In other stories, they are much more monstrous in appearance, and delight in capturing miners and dragging them into deep, deep caves in the stone, far deeper than any human could ever hope to free themselves from, where the little men of the earth make their towns and villages.

Grave-Mimics: Bizarre creatures that look like gigantic, rotting heads with four arms extending from the tops of their skulls. They speak in the voices of folk's dead loved ones in an attempt to lure people into the dark, though they are clearly capable of learning to mimic the voices of the living as well. Thought to be some strange Outsider from the Lands of Death.

Ogres: Cannibalistic giants, though they also enjoy eating the flesh of the smaller races as well. In fact, they seem to think it a great sacrilege that someone might die without having their flesh subsequently consumed. Despite this love of flesh, ogres are known to survive off of almost anything, including eating just dirt and rocks. Most of their children are born too twisted and broken to live; those that do survive grow to maturity very quickly, within three years. Ogres are seen as too simple to have social structures beyond family; where they gather in numbers greater than a dozen, they are often little more than various ogre families living next to each other. Ogres are somewhat humanoid in appearance; though they stand at least head and shoulders above the tallest of men, and have overlarge mouths of bulging teeth. They are generally incredibly ugly and broken-looking, but the most peculiar feature is their heads: their skulls have a large seem right down the center, down nearly to the bridge of the ogre's nose.

The Locust-Men: Little is known about the locust-men, other than that they were the ancient enemies of the Crosscraw - though whatever war took place between the two happened so long ago that any memory of them has since faded. What is known can be gleamed from the carvings of the ancient Crosscraw: They were men with heads like locusts, who wielded strange weapons and rode gigantic war-carriages. According to Crosscraw legend, the locust-men were defeated when they ascended into the sky to try to strike down the spirits of the ancestors themselves. Only recently was a corpse of these locust-men discovered; according to a brief examination by Liam Kells, they had "guts made of metal."

PLACES

Pike's Green: The home village of Martimeos Cobblespur, named after one of the oldest families there. Some years ago, it was ravaged by the forces of the White Queen, largely the Crosscraw, and has never been quite the same since. Martim has described it as a happy, particularly colorful farming village, surrounded on all sides by forests. It seems to have some unusually close relationship to the Fae for such a small place.

The Swamp of Rue Ouest: The swamp in which Elyse grew up; just her and her mother in the midst of brackish waters and rotten trees, living in a yurt that seemed far larger on the inside than it had the right to be.

Pinemoss: A village that lay somewhat near to the Swamp of Rue Ouest; Elyse would spy on the loggers they sent to the borders of her home, until one day her mother attacked and slew many of them, driving them off.

Silverfish: A small, lakeside village, named such for the delicious fish that it was more widely known for in happier times. It lays much abandoned now, having suffered a curse that drove most folk of child-rearing age away. Much of it lies in ruins, the abandoned buildings the victims a fire that its current residents did not have the energy or will to clear up.

Calais: A port town somewhere far to the east that sends traders and merchants to places such as Pike's Green and Twin Lamps. Known in particular for its cattle farming.

Durnholde: What could be considered the "capital city" of the Durnholde Concord, the loose alliance of free towns that opposed the White Queen. In truth it was nothing special; the leaders of the Durnholde Concord chose Durnholde as a base of operations because it happened to be home to an ancient fortress and was easily defended. Nowadays, Durnholde is a shell of its former self; much of it still lies in ruins after the battle of Durnholde fields, and its population is perhaps a quarter of what it once was.

Twin Lamps:

Standard: Two black suns, one above the other, on an orange field

A large, fortified town, almost a city; a center of trade and commerce in the heart of seemingly endless fields of farmland. Twin Lamps is so named for the mysterious lamps that lie at the heart of the town; lamps that glow with odd and beautiful colors, that were there since the town's founding. None know how they were built, or by whom. The town was technically beneath the rule of the White Queen while she reined, but retained a degree of autonomy and independence.

The Witch-Queen's Range/The Crosscraw Bluffs: An extended mountain range; in many areas craggy and inhospitable enough that it is nigh-impossible to pass. It is much better to rely on the trails that had already been forged through it. Home to the Crosscraw, bogge-men and ogres, The Witch-Queen's Range is dotted with ruins - some left behind by the ancient Crosscraw, some by folk so old and gone so long that their names have been forgotten.

Dun Cairn: The ancient mountain fortress of the Crosscraw; used in times of peace as a sort of neutral meeting ground for clans at war. Far more grand than anything the Crosscraw of today could produce, it seems to have been carved into the very mountain itself, and with such skill and care - and a little bit of the Art - that its enormous statues and grandiose living quarters still stand, alongside luxurious baths.

The City of Bells: A city that lies far enough to the west that folk in these lands have only heard tale of it through merchants. It had a reputation for depravity and slavery, though recently tales come of a new King that has risen in the city that has outlawed the selling of flesh.

CONCEPTS

The Outside

All worlds that may lie outside this one.

Travel to the Outside, any world of the Outside, is seen as dangerous; and even coming back might be dangerous as well. However, there are places in the world that might lead you naturally to the Outside, and some parts of the Outside are said to be closer to ours than others; such that our world might slip or merge partway with these. In places where much death has occured, it is said that the Lands of Death grow near; some lonely, quiet paths in the woods are said to lead to the Land of Dreams or the Land of the Fae (if it exists.)

As such, it is difficult to know what the Outside encompasses in its entire; nevertheless, there is some knowledge available. There seem to be the following broad categories:

Worlds like Our Own: Close reflections of the world in which we live, with perhaps some small changes - a different lover here, a friend who died of plague a year earlier when in our world he still lives. Strangely enough, despite their similarities to our world, these are said to be some of the most elusive, most difficult worlds to travel to - with one exception. 'Empty' worlds - worlds full of buildings, landscapes, everything, very similar to our own - but devoid of people. Some of these worlds are said to be so close to ours that taking action in them can have consequences in this one; knocking over a vase in one might lead to the vase falling in this one, as well.

Example:

The Land of Mirrors: Supposedly able to be accessed through any reflective surface if one knows how, it is said to be an exact duplicate of our world - just with everything mirrored. Despite its similarity, the Land of Mirrors carries sinister undertones; stories abound of those killed and replaced by their reflection.

Worlds Unlike Our Own: Covers a wide variety of worlds, basically any that are not a close reflection of ours: the lands of the gods, the places where your soul goes when you die, the Lands of Outsiders, the Land of Dreams. While they might be strange in character and nature, they are still clearly - in some way - understandable.

Examples:

The Lands of Death: There are many stories about what happens to you when you die; generally, these are not seen as contradicting each other. Instead, they are, in general, referred to collectively as the Lands of Death; the place where mortal souls roam once their body has failed them. One of these, for example, is the Hells: The place where sinners go where they die, to face long, eternal torment.

The Land of Dreams: Said to be the 'True' Dream, the Land of Dreams is poorly understood. But it is said, in every dream, there is a pth to the True Dream; a place of collective unreality, where the world might be warped by ones own unconscious, internal thoughts.

The Land of Dim: Little is known about the Land of Dim. Said by Dolmecs to be 'Half-dream, half-real', and described as a 'failure', it seems similar to the Land of Dreams at first - a place that might be controlled by the subconscious thoughts of those who inhabit it - only that what nightmares may arise there are actually real and might make their way to the real world. It also seems unstable; in most places lacking color, and with a sun that shivers and wobbles in the sky.

The Daemon Worlds: Never traveled to. In these worlds, all bets are off - the Art and even physical reality may simply not make sense. There may be entire worlds made of nothing but humming light; worlds where stone flows like water, or worlds where matter as we know it cannot even exist. While these worlds are never traveled to, that does not stop the denizens of these worlds from traveling to ours.

The Art

In a word, magic. The Art in this world is a matter of knowledge; though some are more skilled at it and learn it easier than others, there is no inner store of power, no inborn skill that gives you access to it. To use the Art, in general, you must learn - though there are those creatures whose minds are so particularly attuned to it that it seems like nearly second nature to them. There is not much in the way of formal learning with the Art, however, for it comes with a price: those who practice it are struck with a sort of wanderlust, which drives them across the world. A practitioner of the Art, as they age, may settle down in one place or another for a time, particularly as they get older. But free from any responsibilities, they will find the urge to wander in them growing strong once more. Another eventual price, it is said, is that the Art drives those who use it mad - though this is generally seen more as a sort of obnoxious eccentricity, rather than a dangerous sort of madness. The Art is an extremely complicated thing; one could spend a lifetime considering it and not reveal even the smallest fraction of the whole. And practice of the Art is highly subjective; it often involves the use of mental visualizations which are unique to each person. Two Art users, both creating the same effect, might visualize it in entirely different ways.

These factors combined makes formal learning of the Art difficult. Those who practice it rarely come together in large organizations to collaborate, and their journeys take them often to dangerous and deadly places. The world is littered with the corpses and grimoires of Art-users who, in fact, might have known things about the Art that nobody else knew; but even were their notes to be discovered, other Art-users might have trouble understanding their contents: the greater part of the effort of learning new Art from another person's grimoire is just trying to figure out exactly what it was they were saying. This makes the use of the Art - though there is no barrier to anyone learning it - both common and rare. It would not be unusual for an aged merchant, for example, to have, over the course of his entire life, learned a trick or two. But those who truly dedicate their lives to the Art's study are very uncommon, and usually they get their beginnings by apprenticing beneath another.

Those who dedicate themselves to the Art are those most susceptible to the wanderlust; and it comes with another, little-understood effect: the attraction of familiars, animals of unusual intelligence, who bond with Art-users. The experience of familiars varies as well; birds in general consider it a great honor to be someone's familiar, and may seek out those who practice the Art. Some Art-users have bonds much more emotional and intense with their familiars than others. The wide variety of experiences and lack of common ground makes it difficult to know, exactly, the cause behind this effect; though it should be noted that not ALL Art-users have familiars.

There is little known about the limits of the Art, but listed here are some of the various effects it can be known to cause:

Manipulation of the elements: The changing, by the Art, of the world around the user. Fires may become blazes; earth may crumble, a gentle breeze might become a gale, placid ponds might become whirlpools, metal might bend and crumple, wood may splinter. One thing that is generally considered impossible is the creation of something out of nothing; you might pull a stone from the ground, but you cannot create one out of thin air.

Healing and affliction: The mending of living things by the Art; also closely linked with the affliction of living things with disease. A particularly difficult practice. It is said that the more you know another's body, the easier it is to heal them; and so one who practices the Art would find it much easier to heal a lover than a stranger.

Dreaming: The Land of Dreams, considered by some to be another world altogether, is closely linked with the Fae, the telling of the future, and the Art. The Art may be used to travel more easily to and from the Land of Dreams, and to force others into sleep against their will.

Glamour: Considered one of the most useful forms of the Art for battle. While other schools of the Art might be limited to the environment that surrounds them, the only limit to glamour is ones own skill and ones own imagination. Though, it is said, it is easier to create an illusion of something people are expecting to see, or fear to see, than to create one of something entirely alien and strange.

Necromancy: A dark Art, involving manipulation of the bodies and spirits of the dead, though not all cultures consider it so universally terrible so long as certain lines are not crossed. Still, it is looked down upon enough that texts dealing with it are difficult to come by; they are often destroyed. What little can be found makes it clear that even within Necromancy there are schisms: Base necromancy speaks of what happens to the soul after the destruction of the body; there is something darker still called True Necromancy that involves the destruction of the soul itself, and what happens to - whatever is left of someone - after this is done.

Transmutation: The changing of one object into another. This can be as harmless as the eternal dream to attempt to change worthless metals into gold, or as dark as forcefully changing a human being into a new form - like a tree, or a moth. Seen as one of the things the Fae are particularly knowledgeable about.

Sigils: Called the 'written word of the Art'; Sigils involve the inscription of runes on a surface that might have a particular effect. Often these are used as traps or wardings, though this is certainly only one of the many uses they might have.

Users of the Art are called many things, often with a gender division between their titles. Given that the Art is such a large, complex topic, some names are associated more with particular uses of it. These terms are also not universal; some names are much more common in some lands than others, and in some lands a particular name might carry connotations that in other lands it does not.

Men might be called:

Wizards - A common name generally seen as neutral, it might be combined with other terms: A male Art-user might be called both a 'wizard' and a 'necromancer' interchangably, for example. It does carry with it a reputation for being more interested in the external world than the internal, though.

Mage - More closely associated with the manipulation of the elements. In some places, 'mage' is considered gender-neutral.

Warlock - Associated with the Land of Dreams and the Outside in general.

Sorceror - Associated with the Outside and the manipulation of elements; a relatively uncommon term (in the lands we have seen.)

Women might be called:

Witch - A common term, though in many places it carries negative connotations; associated with healing and disease, necromancy and the Outside.

Sorceress - A common term, and more associated with the manipulation of the elements and the Outside.

Enchantress - An uncommon term, and with no real male equivalent; associated with seduction over any type of Art. A female Art-user, no matter what she practices, might find herself labeled an enchantress if she develops a reputation as a rapacious lover.

In addition, some of these carry diminutive terms - mageling, or witchling - usually used in a slightly insulting manner, to mean 'young, inexperienced, weak, or unskilled.'

Practice of the Art is seen in different ways in different lands; in some places it is praised, in others it is feared - though rarely does the fear rise to the level where folk will actively try to hunt down and kill Art-users in an organized manner. In addition, many folk have a poor understanding of where the borders of the Art lie; some consider mere knowledge of esoteric topics, or skill with herbs, to make one a user of the Art. In addition, the Art may be practiced in many ways - there are those who are said to weave their spells through song, for example, though in the lands we have seen that is fairly rare.

The Gods

Gods are - at least, in the part of the world we are familiar with - seen as neither omniscient nor omnipotent; in fact some of them might not even be thought to be immortal. Usually Gods are said to embody certain concepts, and while there might not be a clean demarcation between the concepts of good and evil that they embody, for the most part even the stranger ones are seen as benevolent. Religious fervor is not really a thing, at least among the generally practical farmfolk we have seen thus far; it would be seen as strange for a man to dedicate his life to a god, or the gods in general. Regardless, they are worshipped, in some places more openly than others: here is a list of gods, or god-like concepts, that are common to the lands in which we are familiar with.

Woed: By far the most commonly worshipped god here. Usually portrayed as an old man with a straw hat and a sheepdog by his side, carrying various forms of farm tools. Woed is associated with farming - though more specifically, the tools and folk side of it; he is not really seen as a god of nature as much as he is a god of farmers themselves. Associated with farming, harvest, farm tools and stubborness, Woed is generally seen as a benevolent and kindly god - though he asks of his followers for stoicism in hard times.

Fortune: Seen in a way as a sort of divine concept, more than a god. It means, in a way, a cosmic sense of 'luck' or 'fate'; those with good luck are 'Blessed by fortune' or 'fortune's favored'. Though it certainly has its general usages, Fortune has a particular association with merchants, who may have adapted the broad concept as a sort of general tip of the hat to the divine as they travel through lands of many different gods.

The Stone-Mother: A mysterious Goddess of the ogres, said by them to be imprisoned beneath the earth. According to the ogres, if one travels deep into the earth far enough - from any point - they will eventually come upon the Stone-Mother's prison. The nature of her prison is uncertain, unknown even by her worshippers; it is simply said that she created the ogres from the stone itself. Curiously enough, she is not portrayed as an ogre; instead, their scrawlings of her show her as a woman with flowers in her hair, within a sort of blue square representing her prison.

Ysonne: One of the darker gods, and very rarely worshipped in the lands we have seen; still, she is known. While she has a dark reputation, Ysonne is not necessarily seen as malevolent. Instead she is seen as frivolous and nihilistic: She is a goddess of slow poisons, excessive revelry and suicide. Someone who has given their life over to be destroyed by drink might be said to be seduced by Ysonne, though whether they actually offer up prayer to her is another question: one must embrace a destructive lifestyle to worship her, not merely be tempted into it against your better judgement. Ysonne is usually shown as a nude, curvaceous woman with her skin covered in strange tattoos of snakes and skulls, with long, flowing black hair and a shawl that falls to her ankles, with smooth skin where her face should be. She carries a black bottle - said to be a legendary liquor called Ysonne's Kiss. According to some tales, she will gift it to a follower, who will find that the bottle will never run empty for a week straight, during which all who drink it will give themselves over to nonstop revelry - but all who partake in it will die within a year after it runs out. The worship of Ysonne was said to be particularly popular in the City of Bells.

Old Scratch: Not truly worshipped so much as feared; still, Old Scratch will be implored sometimes to punish the wicked, and some of those obsessed with justice might keep a small statue of him within their homes. Old Scratch is said to be the god responsible for dragging the souls of the wicked to the Hells, a place of eternal punishment and torture for their deeds in this life. There are those who say that Old Scratch is responsible for actively tempting people into wickedness so that he might claim more souls; but for the most part he is seen as merely fulfilling a grim but useful task.

The Ancestors: Some folk - as we have seen, the Crosscraw, for example - acknowledge the existence of gods, but build their worship more around a reverence for their ancestors. This can take a variety of forms, from a general admiration for the deeds of those who came before, to thinking that the spirits literally watch over them, to thinking that one is actually descended from folk who have become gods. The Crosscraw variant falls more into the second category, and they have interacted enough with lowlanders that some farmfolk have a version of it themselves; a farmer might think that the spirit of his great-grandfather watches over his farmhouse, for example, and not really be seen as strange.

PEOPLES

The world in which Martimeos and his friends live is strange; history is difficult to keep track of. Not for lack of information, but rather, from an overabundance of it: Events that go back more than a few generations are not sparsely recorded, but rather, history is a mess of dozens of conflicting explanations, many of which do not make sense. This flood of strange, conflicitng information makes it difficult for people to form historical identities. But, racially, here is what is known.

The lands in which Martim has traveled is a mix of different peoples who range from pale and fair to olive-skinned, from blonde-haired to dark, and everything in between. While there may be a higher concentration of one set of features in an area than in another, generally, these races are mixed enough that it would be considered strange in most places to distinguish between them in a meaningful way, and for the most part they are mixed among the social strata enough that governments and identities are not forged along racial lines. However, there are two races that stick out for their distinct appearances, cultural differences, and recent political associations.

The Crosscraw: Aliases: Foxhairs (by beasts and ogres)

A race of fair-skinned, red-headed mountainfolk who live semi-nomadic lives in the mountains of the Witch-Queen's range, broken up into various clans that at times wage small wars against each other, until their recent near-extermination at t he hands of the Bogge-King. They build an identity around the grand ruins of their ancestors, ruins that none today truly know how to replicate. Though they live a lifestyle quite different from most of the 'lowlanders', they are not completely unfamiliar with them: they have a history of launching raids from their mountains, or hiring themselves off as mercenaries. They sold themselves as mercenaries to the White Queen during the Queen's War in return for the right to plunder, and were often used as forward strike troops, their ability to live off the land invaluable for pushing the advantage when supply lines were at risk. They have a particular idea of honor culture and blood-debt, though it should be said, this idea was weakening even before they found themselves in the current circumstances; there are many older Crosscraw who mourned that selling themselves as mercenaries to lowlanders had begun to change their ways.

Most recently, between the horrific casualties of the Queen's War, the subsequent predations of the Bogge-King, starvation and disease, the vast majority of Crosscraw have been killed off. Their clan structure broke down as they all took refuge in the mountain fortress of Dun Cairn; by official proclamation of their elders, they are all one clan now. However, despite this, some still hold on to their former clan identity. Some examples of clans are:

Ghostfoot - Known for stealth, trickery, and thieving. Current living members: Aela Ghostfoot.

Foxtooth - Known for traps, cleverness and silver tongues. Current living members: Maol-Manos

Ironclaw - Known for their great strength; the last great warriors of the Crosscraw before they fell to the bogge-men. All deceased.

Six Stones - Known for hunting and fishing.

Stonecaller - Known for their songs; they claimed to be the descendants of those who had built the grand structures of the Crosscraw, though the art had been long lost to time.

Moonmouths - Known for their association with the Art, though it was hardly as if every member of them practiced it. Former members: Grizel.

Sunhammer - Known for their mysticism, and their red-gold hair.

Queensmen: The second of the distinctive races of the lands in which Martimeos has traveled. In appearance, they are particularly pale, usually lithe or lanky, with dark black hair and striking gray eyes. Before the rise of the White Queen, they were usually seen as a reclusive folk hostile to outsiders - unusual in that they actually were suspicious of other races and strove to keep them out of their lands, though they engaged in trade often enough and weren't exactly fanatical about racial purity. Still, this slight xenophobia and their relative geographic isolation kept them racially homogenous for the most part, and gave them them a slight air of mystery. Their government was understood to be a monarchy with a strict hierarchy of nobility ruling beneath it. When they became expansionist beneath the reign of the White Queen, they quickly gained a reputation for a cold ruthlessness and brutality in battle, and for cruelty towards those they conquered. Nowadays, the sight of a Queensman is quite rare.

BATTLES

The Battle of Grimwold's Barrens

Grimwold's Barrens is a pine forest home to the tower of the somewhat notorious wizard Grimwold. With a reputation for power and knowledge, Grimwold had remained neutral throughout the entirety of the Queen's War - and the White Queen, for whatever reason, did not force the issue, even though there were those who whispered that it must mean that she feared him. Despite this, his lands became the scene of a minor battle more noted for its strangeness than its impact on the war. A nearby battle led to some of the White Queen's forces being cut off: Roughly a hundred men, fearing that they'd be overrun, fled into the barrens.

For the next two nights, the woods were full of strange lights and shrieking. The forces of the Durnholde Concord camped uneasily nearby, unwilling to enter the barrens in pursuit of their enemy. After two days, their quarry began stumbling out of the woods: Many of them naked and gibbering, some with strange burn marks on their bodies; others stricken blind or with hair turned pure white. Those that had the wits about them could only stammer about the 'Singing lights dancing with the shadows' and tales about strange little men who stole their clothes.

The commander of the forces of the Durnholde Concord sent a message by pigeon to Grimwold's tower, thanking him for his effort in the war. The only reply he got, a day later, was the same pigeon being sent back with a simple note: 'Go away.'

The Battle of Durnholde Fields

Widely regarded as the most savage, brutal battle of the entire Queen's War. In an effort to break the resistance against her, the White Queen launched a large attack against the center of its power: The town of Durnholde, looked over by a large fortress. She attended the battle personally, bringing down blizzards cold enough to freeze a man to death.

There were many stages of the battle that took place over months: An initial siege, fighting in the fields outside the town, a breakthrough by the Queen's forces into the town itself, a pushback by the townsfolk - during the fighting, it was said that Durnholde was conquered and liberated half a dozen times.

In the end, it was considered a major turning point in the war, though it was somewhat of a pyrrhic victory for the Durnholde Concord. They successfully pushed back the forces of the White Queen, though at a heavy cost that stalled further offensives for quite some time. Much of the town of Durnholde itself lay in ruins; over half of the townsfolk had been killed during the fighting, whether from battle itself, or starvation, or cold, or disease, and many more would die even after the victory, as the farmlands around Durnholde lay in ruins as well. But for all that they had lost, the White Queen had lost much more; so many men had she poured into the battle in her stubborn wrath to capture Durnholde that never again was she able to regain her footing. After the battle of Durnholde fields, once the offensives began again, the Durnholde Concord steadily pushed her back.

The Batlte of Black Waters/The Battle of Wygand Bridge

Known as the Battle of Black Waters by the Crosscraw, and The Battle of Wygand Bridge by everyone else, it was the last battle of the Queen's War. By this point, the White Queen was already dead - though none knew how, she and her daughters no longer aided her forces in the field, and whispers and rumors abounded about her own folk pulling her down, or her entire family having been slain during battle - perhaps blasted to smithereens by Grimwold himself. Either way, all that remained was a long retreat by the White Queen's forces, led by Commander Reinhast, as the tattered remains of her army abandoned their territories and fled back home.

The Queen's River - or Black Waters - served as a demarcation into the Queen's Lands; a small slice of her original territory that had not been conquered and taken from other people, a land that for good or ill had been truly her own. Wygand Bridge was a grand stone bridge that served as the main route into these lands - it was across this bridge that her armies had first marched, so many years ago. Now they marched again, but in the opposite direction; fleeing the wratheful folk who had for so long suffered their abuses.

There are some who say Reinhast had tried to negotiate a surrender and a peaceful retreat, only to have his terms rejected - with the firm upper hand, now, the Durnholde Concord was taking their revenge, hounding the Queen's forces to the very end. Reinhast led his Queensmen across the bridge, and then - with the Crosscraw still on the other side - by some means destroyed it, in a series of massive explosions - some say the work of a powerful wizard or witch.

Many died as the bridge itself was destroyed; but it was nothing compared to the slaughter that began once the Durnholde Concord realized that many of the Queen's forces were now trapped on this side with them. They pushed their advantage, outnumbering the largely Crosscraw force by dozens to one, and many, many Crosscraw men died - if not from battle, then drowning, trying to swim the rough waters of the Queen's River in their desparation to flee.

In the end, the Durnholde Concord was left with countless corpses, and their freedom. And no sign nor word has come from the lands of the White Queen since.