Glossary: Deities

  Alignment: Good

  Portfolio: Light, the sun, healing, truth, protection, the banishing of darkness and undeath.

  Symbol: A clean radiant disk, often shown as a haloed sun above a spear-point or horizon line.

  Worshippers: Healers, watchfolk, judges, travelers who prefer the day road, and those who stand against terrors of the dark.

  Teachings: Solvarn’s light reveals what is hidden and shelters what is fragile. Lies and cruelty thrive in shadow; mercy must be as persistent as the dawn.

  Holy days: Firstlight Vigil (the annual night-watch before the longest dawn), and the Day of Clear Skies, when oaths are sworn in public sunlight.

  Alignment: Good

  Portfolio: Agriculture, fertility, seasons, home, family, livestock, and shared prosperity.

  Symbol: A sheaf of grain bound with red thread above a small hearth-flame, or a sun-warmed field seen from above.

  Worshippers: Farmers, herders, midwives, village elders, cooks, orchard-keepers, and anyone who measures life by the turning year.

  Teachings: Halwen blesses patient effort, good soil, and good neighbors. Food hoarded while others starve is a wound in the world.

  Holy days: Blessing of First Furrows (spring planting rites) and The Full-Table Feast (post-harvest gratitude).

  Alignment: Good-Neutral

  Portfolio: Earth, stone, growth from hardship, home-keeping, ancestral memory, caves and foundations.

  Symbol: A spiral root or branching tree set within a stone circle.

  Worshippers: Builders, miners, stonemasons, homesteaders, and those who tend graves or family lines.

  Teachings: Myrra is the patience beneath all things. What endures is what is tended quietly.

  Holy days: Stone-Blessing (new homes and halls) and The Long Remembering (ancestral rites).

  Alignment: Good-Neutral

  Portfolio: Peace, reason, restraint, diplomacy, justice without cruelty, and the ending of feuds.

  Symbol: An open hand over calm water, or a balanced circle with no sword drawn.

  Worshippers: Mediators, scribes, oath-keepers, weary soldiers, judges who mistrust vengeance.

  Teachings: True strength is the ability to stop the blade. A victory that poisons the future is not a victory.

  Holy days: The Quiet Accord (treaty season) and Candlefast, when temples go dark for a night to remember war’s cost.

  Alignment: Neutral

  Portfolio: Magic, knowledge, invention, careful curiosity, and the hidden architecture of reality.

  Symbol: A closed eye set among stars, or a silver mask etched with runes.

  Worshippers: Wizards, scholars, artificers, archivists, and those who believe questions are sacred.

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  Teachings: Wisdom is earned through doubt and experiment. Power without understanding is childish; understanding without compassion is hollow.

  Holy days: Night of Lantern-Drafts (inventors’ vigil) and The Unsealing, when old libraries open to the public.

  Alignment: Neutral

  Portfolio: Merriment, song, festivals, chance meetings, travel, stories, and harmless pranks.

  Symbol: A raised cup beneath a smiling mask, or a road-knot tied with bells.

  Worshippers: Bards, innkeepers, revelers, caravaners, lovers, and those who keep hope alive through laughter.

  Teachings: Joy shared is a shield against despair. Rest is holy. Wit without kindness curdles into cruelty.

  Holy days: The Turning Cup (midwinter feast of equals) and Borrowed Faces Day (mask-festival of forgiveness).

  Alignment: Evil

  Portfolio: Spiders, domination, treachery, ambition, hierarchy through fear, and the sanctity of cruelty.

  Symbol: A black widow on a broken crown, web lines radiating like a halo.

  Worshippers: The priestesses and Houses of Nethershade, assassins, oath-breakers who call betrayal “truth.”

  Teachings: All bonds are webs. The strong are holy because they survive; the weak exist to be used or remade.

  Holy days: Threadfall (a night of sanctioned coups) and Crowning of Silk, when new matriarchs rise through blood.

  Glossary: Magic Items

  Soft-soled boots enchanted to swallow sound. Wearers move with unnatural quiet, leaving only the faintest whisper of footsteps even on stone or dry leaf. Silentstride boots are prized by scouts, thieves, and anyone who must cross hostile ground unseen.

  A hooded cloak woven with subtle glamour that blurs the wearer’s outline in dim light and natural terrain. The fabric seems to drink color from its surroundings—moss-green in forests, soot-grey in city alleys—making a still figure easy to overlook.

  A plain band of dark metal set with a smoky gem. When invoked, it draws a thin shroud of unreality around the wearer, causing sight and sound to slide away as if refusing to acknowledge them. The effect fades quickly if the wearer causes obvious disturbance.

  Pair of rune-etched bracers that harden the air around the forearms into a subtle defensive field. Blows seem to deflect at the last moment, and stray strikes glance away as if a hidden shield had risen between weapon and flesh. Often worn by duelists and lightly armored spellcasters.

  Glossary: Peoples

  An elven people of the deep world of Nethershade, adapted to life beneath stone and fungus-light. Nhalyri skin ranges from ash-grey to obsidian, and their eyes are often pale or faintly luminous, suited to dim places.

  Their society is traditionally matriarchal and House-bound, with power earned through cunning, conquest, and the favor of Vorlith, Queen of the Widow-Throne. Among the Nhalyri, betrayal is often framed as proof of strength, and faith is measured by success rather than mercy.

  Nhalyri exiles are uncommon but feared: leaving the Houses is viewed as heresy or ambition too dangerous to allow. Those who flee upward carry a reputation for razor politics, shadow-craft, and a fierce hunger for autonomy—whether that becomes redemption or a new kind of tyranny depends on the exile.