Children of Chaos

Preface

THE GODS

The true rulers of the world are the Bright Ones:

Anziel, goddess of beauty

Cienu, god of mirth and chance

Demern, god of law and justice

Eriander, god-goddess of sex and madness

Hrada, goddess of crafts and skill

Mayn, goddess of wisdom

Nastrar, god of animals and nature

Nula, goddess of pity

Sinura, goddess of health Ucr, god of prosperity and abundance

Veslih, goddess of the hearth and home

Weru, god of storm and battle

(There is also Xaran, goddess of death and evil, whose name is not spoken.)

IMPORTANT MORTALS

Hrag Hragson begat a daughter, Saltaja, and four sons, Therek, Karvak, Stralg, and Horold.

Piero, the doge of Celebre, had three sons, Dantio, Benard, and Orlando, and a daughter, Fabia.

Karvak died in Jat-Nogul and Dantio in Skjar.

HELPFUL NOTES

12 Werists make a flank.

4 flanks and a packleader make a pack.

5 packs and a huntleader make a hunt.

5 hunts and a hostleader make a host, 1,231 men.

A pot-boiling is the time needed for a crock of cold water to come to the boil on an open fire, roughly one hour.

The unit of counting is one sixty, which therefore takes a singular-form plural: e.g., "four sixty," as we say "four hundred" or "four dozen."

SOME OBSCURE VOCABULARY

Chthonian: Related to the underworld

Corban: An offering sworn to God

Menzil: The distance a caravan travels in one day

Henotheist: A person who worships a single god without denying the existence of others (on Dodec, usually a member of a mystery cult)

Polytheist: A person who worships many gods (as most people on Dodec do)

Extrinsic: An outsider (used by members of a mystery to indicate a nonmember, either a polytheist or a member of another cult)

THE WORLD

The Dodecians' image of their world is a physical impossibility. I have summarized the logic in an appendix at the end of the sequel volume, Mother of Lies. Until you have a chance to read that, please be charitable. It is not so very long ago that most people thought the Earth was a flat disk. The Dodecians may be mistaken, but they are not crazy enough to believe anything as absurd as that.