Monstrous Races: Humanoids bred for various combat roles by Mannon and Noros to fight in the War of Betrayal, the monstrous races are distinguished from Shadowkin in that they didn’t descend from the races of Man. Examples include Ogres, doppelgangers, and lizardmen.
Musana: Musana is the Elven goddess of light and life. She encourages purity and grace, and honors simple living. Musana’s high ideals make her popular, especially among the Order of the Sun, but many followers often misunderstand her teaching: Musana’s most famous stories depict her humbling those followers who think themselves more pious than others. She is twin sister to Alluna, the Elven goddess of the moon.
Naga: A race of Shadowkin with serpentine traits, Naga were once Clan Nagata, the Iron Gnomes. They resemble scaled men and women from the waist up, but their lower halves are those of serpents.
Necromancer: While all noctomancers can touch the shadowy side of high magic that binds the dead, the word necromancer is reserved for those who have created undead for nefarious purposes.
Noctomancer: A member of the second great order of mages, the Order of the Moon. Noctomancers are Humans and Gnomes that can weave the elements of air, earth, and shadow.
Noros: Once the Gnomish god of dreams, Noros became Mannon’s greatest lieutenant.
NPC: A Noncombatant Paper Carrier is a Shadowkin or monster who has secured noncombatant papers, removing his, her, or its status as a F.O.E. and thereby preventing professional heroes from killing them (legally).
Omnimancer: A mage who wields both solamancy and noctomancy. Omnimancers once comprised the third great order of mages, the Order of Twilight, but they have fallen from grace. Now, omnimancers are the spell casting equivalent of lepers, living on the margins of society.
Orc: A race of Shadowkin, Orcs were once Elves that sided with Mannon. Hulking, bucket-jawed, green-skinned, and ferocious, Orcs have a war-torn history and a legacy of brutality.
Order of the Moon: See noctomancer.
Order of the Sun: See solamancer.
Order of Twilight: See omnimancer.
Owlverine: All the deadly ferocity of an owlbear, packed into a beast no bigger than an owlhound.
Ogre: One of the monstrous races, Ogres are like clubs: big, simple, and made for violence.
Poor Man’s Quiver: An enchanted quiver that always contains exactly one enchanted arrow, no matter how many are pulled from it. After purchasing one, any man would be poor.
Rank (Heroes’ Guild): There’s no way to measure the value of a life, except the life of a professional hero, in which case their rank is an effective metric. As a hero attains ranks in different classes by killing things, it’s essentially a measure of how deadly, and therefore how valuable, a hero is.
Scarg: A vaguely humanoid bat-like creature, the origins of scargs are unknown. Some say they’re naturally occurring monsters, while others say scargs are a monstrous race or a Gremlin experiment gone wrong. They come in many varieties and breeds, most of which are more annoying than threatening to a professional hero.
Scribkin: The Gnomes of Clan Tinkrin, or Scribkin, stand half as tall as most Humans, with stocky builds, bulbous noses, and thick, bushy hair. Industrious and curious, Scribkin are Arth’s most innovative inventors, enchanters, and engineers.
Shadowkin: Legends hold that by the Third Age, many of Arth’s people followed Mannon or the gods loyal to him. Before launching the War of Betrayal, Mannon and Noros corrupted these lost people into more aggressive, poetically ironic shadows of their former selves.
Slaugh: Picture a Gnome-sized frog walking on its haunches. Now imagine it has a foul temperament and a fouler odor. Technically, they’re Shadowkin descended from the Gnomes of Clan Slaughin, but many other Shadowkin are loathe to admit as much.
Solamancer: A member of the first great order of mages, the Order of the Sun. Solamancers are Humans and Elves that can weave the elements of fire, water, and light.
Sten: The great traitors. Legends say that members of the fourth race of Man were long considered aloof and enigmatic before they followed the traitor god Al’Thadan and colluded with Mannon. Gray-skinned and as tall as Elves and as broad as Dwarves, Sten were masters of low magic. The Agekeepers confirm that they were wiped out in the War of Betrayal.
Tandos: The Elven god of war and glory, Tandos is the greatest son of Al’Thadan and Al’Matra. It was he who finally struck down his traitorous father, and it was Tandos’ servants who defeated the Sten. Today, he rules over the pantheon as the divine regent in the place of his mother, who is unfit for rule.
Tinderkin: The Gnomes of Clan Kaedrin, Tinderkin are taller than any other Gnomes, standing a little taller than even a Dwarf. They are lithe, graceful figures with sharp, slender features. Tinderkin are nomadic, traveling in small, familial bands. They take their name from the fires they build for nightly gatherings, which are often elaborate visual spectacles.
Troll: Trolls are massive, apelike creatures, the corrupted remnants of the now-extinct Sten. A Troll is a gray-skinned Shadowkin with a flat, broad-nostrilled face and a shaggy coat of thick fur. They have peerless regenerative abilities and can shrug off mortal blows or regrow limbs within minutes. Originally bred for war and killing, they are regarded as good for little else.
Undead: The bodies and/or spirits of fallen mortals, animated by foul magic to haunt and/or hunt the living. They take many forms, including ghosts, ghouls, liches, skeletons, vampires, wraiths, and zombies.
Ward: A magical barrier, shield, or other protective spell woven by mages.
Wizard: A title given to male mages. Its counterpart, witch, fell into disuse during the Age of Darkness.
Wood Gnome: The most diminutive of Gnomes, members of Clan Fengeld stand just over most men’s ankles. They grow long beards, but all of their hair tends to get lost in the tangle of pelts and scraps they wear. They’re fiercely territorial and will often refuse to surrender land even after another race has built a city atop it. Their squatting habits have led many modern citizens to regard them as a particularly obnoxious form of vermin, and one that is remarkably difficult to get rid of.
Wynspar: The mighty mountain that Andarun is set into. It is riddled with caves, tunnels, dungeons, and various other dark places for monstrous horrors to lurk.
Wyvern: A variety of drake with leathery wings instead of forelegs, much akin to a bat, and a barbed, venomous tail, much akin to a scorpion. It’s every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.
Maps
Map of Arth
For a high-resolution map of Arth, please visit www.jzacharypike.com/arth/map/
Map of Andarun
Acknowledgments
This trilogy has been, up until this point, a lifelong task. I began drafting the earliest concepts of the story when I was sixteen. Then titled “A Fine Hunt,” it was a shadow of The Dark Profit Saga. I’ve changed immensely as a person over the course of writing it, and it’d be impossible to acknowledge everyone who has helped me grow and shape my craft. But I’d be remiss to not list those who have been most instrumental in making it something I can stand by today.
Courtney Rae Andersson of Elevation Editorial is an excellent editor, and this work is better for her attention.
