Chimaera

NAMES ( MAIN CHARACTERS IN ITALICS )

Aachim: The human species native to Aachan, once conquered and enslaved by a small force of invading Charon (the Hundred). The Aachim are great artisans and engineers, but melancholy or prone to hubris and arrogance. In ancient times, many were brought to Santhenar by Rulke in the fruitless hunt for the Golden Flute. The Aachim flourished on Santhenar but were later betrayed by Rulke and ruined in the Clysm. They then withdrew from the world to their hidden mountain cities. The ones remaining on Aachan gained their freedom after the Forbidding was broken, when the surviving Charon went back to the void. Two hundred years later, volcanic activity on Aachan had become so violent that it threatened to destroy all life on the planet. The Aachim sought for a way of escape and one of them, Minis, managed to contact Tiaan on Santhenar, because of her amplimet. The Aachim showed her how to open a gate between Aachan and Santhenar. She thought she was saving her beloved, Minis, and a small number of Aachim, but when they came through, they were a hundred and fifty thousand, a host ready for war, in eleven thousand mighty constructs.

Chissmoul: An instinctive thapter pilot, shy but known for her reckless verve at the controller of her machine.

Cryl-Nish Hlar: A former scribe, prober in secret and reluctant artificer, generally known as Nish. Nish has grown greatly since the tale began and is now the trusted confidant of Xervish Flydd.

Daesmie: A farspeaker operator.

Eiryn Muss: Halfwit; an air-moss grower and harmless pervert, he turned out to be the scrutator’s prober (spy) in the manufactory. He vanished, subsequently turned up when Flydd went to the west, but was sent out from Fiz Gorgo on a spying mission and did not return.

Elienor (Clan): Elienor was a great Aachim heroine of ancient times, who almost defeated Rulke when the Hundred invaded Aachan. She was the founder of Clan Elienor, the least of the Aachim clans, who, since coming to Aachan with Vithis, have been ostracised for allowing Tiaan to escape with a construct.

Faellem: A long-lived human species who have passed out of the Histories, though some may still dwell in isolated parts of Santhenar.

Flangers: A soldier and hero in past battles against the lyrinx, he is stricken by guilt for his part in shooting down a Council thapter, and desperate to atone.

Fusshte: A treacherous member of the Council of Scrutators, second to Ghorr.

Fyn-Mah: Former querist (chief of the municipal intelligence bureau) at Tiksi and a loyal supporter of Xervish Flydd, she nurtures a secret passion for him.

Ghorr: Chief Scrutator of the Council of Scrutators, and Flydd’s enemy.

Gilhaelith: An eccentric, amoral geomancer and mathemancer who dwelt at Nyriandiol. Because of his dismal early years he is obsessed with controlling everyone and everything in his life. When unable to do this the stress causes him to have panic attacks. His overriding goal is to understand the nature of the physical world, so as to control it too. He was captured by the lyrinx so he could aid their excavations in the tar pits at Snizort, and subsequently taken to their underground city of Oellyll, beneath Alcifer, from which he has since been rescued (against his will by Tiaan) and taken to Fiz Gorgo. There Yggur, mistrusting him, cast him into prison and Gilhaelith’s geomantic attempts to escape led the scrutators to Fiz Gorgo.

Gyrull: Matriarch of the lyrinx city at Snizort. A powerful, farsighted mancer, profoundly intelligent.

Haani: Tiaan’s adopted sister, accidentally killed by the Aachim in Tirthrax.

Halie: A scrutator on the Council and a former supporter of Flydd.

Inouye: The pilot of Jal-Nish’s air-floater, stolen by Fyn-Mah and now used by Flydd. Inouye is a sad little creature, terrified that her children and her man have been executed because she was forced to ally with Flydd.

Inthis: Vithis’s clan of Aachim, since time immemorial first of the eleven clans (First Clan). All Clan Inthis, apart from Vithis and Minis, were lost when the portal between Aachan and Tirthrax was opened, to Vithis’s unending grief.

Irisis Stirm: Crafter, originally in charge of the controller artisans at the manufactory; niece of Barkus; one-time lover of Xervish Flydd, now a friend and comrade-in-arms.

Jal-Nish Hlar: Acting Scrutator; Nish’s father. He suffered massive injuries from a lyrinx attack and begged to be allowed to die, but Nish and Irisis saved his life. Now, hideously maimed, he has a bitter loathing for them both, and an unquenchable desire to be the greatest scrutator of all. He stole the tears formed by the destruction of the Snizort node but was subsequently eaten by the lyrinx at the battle of Gumby Marth.

Joeyn (Joe): An old miner, Tiaan’s friend, who died in a roof fall.

Kattiloe: A young thapter pilot.

Kimli: A young thapter pilot

Klarm: Scrutator for Borgistry. A handsome and cheerful man, despite his dwarfish stature.

Liett: Gyrull’s daughter, and a lyrinx with unarmoured skin and no chameleon ability; a talented flesh-former and brilliant flier who yearns to lead her people, even though she is regarded as incomplete. She has a turbulent relationship with Ryll.

Liliwen: Daughter of Troist and Yara, twin of Meriwen.

Luxor: A conciliatory Aachim clan leader.

Lyrinx: Massive winged humanoids who escaped from the void to Santhenar after the Forbidding was broken. Highly intelligent, many of them are able to use the Secret Art, most commonly for keeping their heavy bodies in flight. They have armoured skin and a chameleon-like ability to change their colours and patterns, often used for communication (skin-speech). Some lyrinx are also flesh-formers; they can change small organisms into desired forms using the Art. In the void they used a similar ability to pattern their unborn young so as to survive in that harsh environment. As a consequence, they are not entirely comfortable in their powerful but much changed bodies. The lyrinx were forced to abandon their culture and heritage in the void. Their lives are entirely martial, and now some of them are beginning to regret their loss and wonder what to do about it once they’ve won the war.

Malien: A venerable but ostracised Aachim living in Tirthrax. A heroine from the time of the Mirror (also known as the Matah). She helped Tiaan make the thapter, or flying construct, subsequently took her to Stassor and then on to Fiz Gorgo.

Meriwen: Daughter of Troist and Yara, twin of Liliwen.

Merryl: A slave who taught human languages to the lyrinx in Snizort; also known as Tutor. He was kind to Tiaan.

Minis: A young Aachim man of high status; foster-son of Vithis; Tiaan’s dream lover who was forced to spurn her when the Aachim came through the gate to Tirthrax. He feels guilty about his treatment of her, yearns for her, but is totally in thrall to Vithis. Minis is so weak and vacillating that he couldn’t even choose to save Tiaan from Vithis. He was maimed during her escape in a construct.

Mira: Yara’s sister who dwells at Morgadis, embittered after the loss of her husband and her three sons in the war. She communicates with a coalition of like-minded people by skeet. Nish fled her home in fear for his life after a liaison which ended with an unfortunate misunderstanding.

M’lainte: Flydd’s mechanician, the genius who built the first air-floater.

Myllii: Ullii’s long-lost twin brother for whom she had been searching all her life. He was accidentally slain by Nish.

Nish: Cryl-Nish’s nickname.

Numinator, the: A mysterious figure mentioned by Flydd when in his cups, said to secretly control the Council of Scrutators.

Nylatl: A malicious creature created by Ryll and Liett’s flesh-forming. It killed Haani’s aunts and attacked Tiaan. Nish destroyed it after it attacked him and Ullii near Tirthrax.

Orgestre: General Orgestre is Grand Commander of the Army of Greater Borgistry.

Rulke: The greatest of all the Charon, he created the first construct. He was killed at the time the Forbidding was broken.

Ryll: An ostracised wingless lyrinx who captured Tiaan and subsequently used her in flesh-forming. He was an honourable lyrinx and after Tiaan saved his life he allowed her to escape from Kalissin. He later captured her again when she came to Snizort looking for Gilhaelith, and used her in the patterners. After the destruction of Snizort, Ryll went to Oellyll, where he was put to work to create a flisnadr, or power patterner.

Seeker: Ullii. Also, one who can sense the use of the Secret Art or people who have that talent, or even enchanted objects.

Tiaan Liise-Mar: A young artisan; a visual thinker and talented controller-maker. With the amplimet, she picked up Minis’s cry for help, fell in love with him and carried the amplimet all the way to Tirthrax, where she used it in opening a gate to Aachan, to save Minis and his people. She subsequently helped Malien make a thapter in Tirthrax, departed in it, attacked the Aachim camp and later crashed near Nyriandiol when the amplimet refused to do what she wanted. Her back was broken in the crash. She was taken back to Nyriandiol by Gilhaelith, who began to teach her geomancy. When he was kidnapped by Gyrull and taken to Snizort, she followed in the thapter but was captured and put to use in the patterners, to pattern torgnadrs or node-drainers. This was only partly successful, because of her broken back, so the lyrinx flesh-formed it to repair her spine. After Snizort was abandoned, Merryl helped Tiaan to escape the patterners. She was subsequently captured by the Aachim, escaped back to Tirthrax, and travelled with Malien to Fiz Gorgo, ‘rescuing’ Gilhaelith on the way.

Tirior: A manipulative Aachim clan leader.

Troist: An ambitious junior officer in the army destroyed by the lyrinx at Nilkerrand. He formed a smaller army out of the survivors. Troist became a general much loved by his troops. Nish rescued his daughters Liliwen and Meriwen from ruffians, and again when they were lost in an underground labyrinth.

Ullii: A hypersensitive seeker, used by Scrutator Flydd to track Tiaan and the amplimet. She accompanied Nish to Tirthrax in the balloon and found Tiaan, but Malien intervened. Her talent failed her for a while, but subsequently she was used by Jal-Nish at the manufactory, before being rescued by Flydd and taken to Nennifer, then west to help in the war at Snizort. She escaped from Snizort with Flydd and Nish, where they discovered that she had become pregnant to Nish in the balloon. Ullii had just found her long-lost brother, Myllii, whom the scrutators had used to find her, when he was accidentally killed by Nish. Ullii lost her baby and, consumed by a lust for revenge on Nish, was captured by Ghorr and used to hunt down Flydd and his allies, which she eventually did.

Vithis: Minis’s foster-father; an Aachim from Aachan and the head of Inthis First Clan, who led the Aachim to Santhenar. When all First Clan (except Minis) were lost in the gate, he became angry and bitter. He forced Minis to repudiate Tiaan. He subsequently led the Aachim across Santhenar but did not hold to his original purpose, to seize land, instead pursuing Tiaan and her thapter across the continent of Lauralin. After Minis was maimed, Vithis retreated to the Foshorn, seized land there and closed the borders.

Xervish Flydd: The scrutator (spymaster and master inquisitor) for Einunar. He was commander-in-chief of all the scrutators’ forces at Snizort, charged with defeating the lyrinx army there. Secretly, he was also required to sneak into Snizort and destroy the lyrinx’s node-drainer. He, Irisis and Ullii succeeded but the device he’d been given was faulty, destroying both node-drainer and node in a catastrophic explosion. The field vanished, of course, rendering both the army’s clankers and the Aachim’s constructs useless, and the soldiers defenceless against the attacking lyrinx. Flydd was blamed for the subsequent defeat, stripped of his position and condemned to die as a slave hauling constructs out of the mire. He escaped with Nish and after many adventures eventually ended up at Fiz Gorgo. He is determined to overthrow the corrupt scrutators, knowing that they can never win the war.

Yara: A brilliant advocate, wife to Troist.

Yggur: A great long-lived mancer of ancient times, subsequently found to be still living at Fiz Gorgo. After Flydd’s company seeks refuge there, he comes to aid them in their quest to overthrow the scrutators, though he and Flydd will ever be rivals.

MAJOR ARTEFACTS , FORCES AND POWERFUL NATURAL PLACES

Alcifer: The long-abandoned city of Rulke the Charon, in Meldorin. The entire city was believed to have been a magical construct and it still has an aura of barely leashed power.

Amplimet: A rare hedron which, even in its natural state, can draw power from the force (the field) surrounding and permeating a node. Occasionally can be very powerful. Inexplicably, Tiaan’s amplimet shows signs of a crystal instinct or purpose, for in Tirthrax it communicated with the node and woke the trapped Well of Echoes. It also communicated with nodes elsewhere, denied Tiaan control when she wanted to take the thapter to places it did not want to go, and drew threads of force throughout Snizort, including to the node and to Gilhaelith.

Anthracism: Human internal combustion due to a mancer or an artisan drawing more power than the body can handle. Invariably fatal (gruesomely).

Booreah Ngurle (the Burning Mountain): A large, double-cratered volcano in northern Worm Wood with a blue crater lake. It has a strange and powerful double node. Gilhaelith’s home, Nyriandiol, is built on the inner rim of the crater.

Clanker: An armoured mechanical war cart with six, eight, ten or (rarely) twelve legs and an articulated body, driven by the Secret Art via a controller mechanism which is used by a trained operator. Armed with a rock-throwing catapult and a javelard (heavy spear-thrower) which are fired by a shooter riding on top. Clankers are made under supervision of a mechanician, artisan and weapons artificer. Emergency power is stored in a pair of heavy spinning flywheels, in case the field is interrupted.

Construct: A vehicle powered by the Secret Art, based on some of the secrets of Rulke’s legendary vehicle. Unlike Rulke’s, those made by the Aachim cannot fly, but only hover, and therefore cannot cross obstacles like deep, wide ditches, cliffs, very steep slopes or rugged terrain (but see Thapter).

Controller: A mind-linked mechanical system of many flexible arms which draws power through a hedron and feeds it to the drive mechanisms of a clanker. A controller is attuned to a particular hedron, and the operator must be trained to use each controller, which takes time. Operators suffer withdrawal if removed from their machines for long periods, and inconsolable grief if their machines are destroyed, although this may be alleviated if the controller survives and can be installed in another clanker.

Crystal fever: An hallucinatory madness suffered by artisans and clanker operators, brought on by overuse of a hedron. Few recover from it. Mancers can suffer from related ailments.

Field: The diffuse (or weak) force surrounding and permeating (and presumably generated by) a node. It is the source of a mancer’s power. Various strong forces are also known to exist, though no one knows how to tap them safely (see Power). Non-nodal stress-fields also exist, though on Santhenar these are weak and little used.

Flesh-forming: A branch of the Secret Art that only lyrinx can use. Developed to adapt themselves to the ever-mutable void where they came from, it now involves the slow transformation of a living creature, tailoring it to suit some particular purpose. It is painful for both creature and lyrinx, and can only be employed on small creatures, though the lyrinx seek to change that.

Gate: A portal between one place (or one world) and another, connected by a trans-dimensional ‘wormhole’.

Geomancy: The most difficult and powerful of all the Secret Arts. An adept is able to draw upon the forces that move and shape the world. A most dangerous Art for the user.

Hedron: A natural or shaped crystal, formed deep in the earth from fluids circulating through a natural node. Trained artisans can tune a hedron to draw power from the field surrounding a node, via the ethyr. Rutilated quartz, that is, quartz crystal containing dark needles of rutile, is commonly used. The artisan must first ‘wake’ the crystal using his or her pliance. Too far from a node, a hedron is unable to draw power and becomes useless. If a hedron is not used for long periods it may have to be rewoken by an artisan, though this can be hazardous.

Mathemancy: An Art developed by Gilhaelith, though since that time it has been discovered independently by other mancers, notably Bilfis.

Nennifer: The great bastion of the Council of Scrutators, on the escarpment over Kalithras, the Desolation Sink. Nennifer is home to countless mancers, artisans and artificers, all furiously working to design new kinds of Art-powered devices to aid the war against the lyrinx.

Nodes: Rare places in the world where the Secret Art works better. Once identified, a hedron (or a mancer) can sometimes draw power from the node’s field through the ethyr, though the amount diminishes with distance, not always regularly. A clanker operator must be alert for the loss and ready to draw on another node, if available. The field can be drained, in which case the node may not be usable for years, or even for centuries. Mancers have long sought the secret of drawing on the far greater power of a node itself (see Power, Nunar’s General Theory of Power) but so far it has eluded them (or maybe those that succeeded did not live to tell about it).

There are also anti-nodes where the Art does not work at all, or is dangerously disrupted. Nodes and anti-nodes are frequently (though not always) associated with natural features or forces such as mountains, faults and hot spots.

Nyriandiol: Gilhaelith’s home, fortress and laboratory on top of Booreah Ngurle; the entire building is a geomantic artefact designed to protect him, ensure his control and enhance his work.

Oellyll: A lyrinx city in Meldorin.

Patterner: A semi-organic device developed by the lyrinx to pattern torgnadrs and other artefacts used with their Art. The patterner essentially copies a particular human’s talent into the growing torgnadr, greatly enhancing the talent and allowing it to be controlled by a lyrinx skilled in the Art.

Pliance: Device that enables an artisan to see the field and tune a controller to it.

Port-all: Tiaan’s name for the device she makes in Tirthrax to open the gate.

Power: A mancer, Nunar, codified the laws of mancing, noting how limited it was, mainly because of lack of power. She recognised that mancing was held back because power came from diffuse and poorly understood sources. It all went through the mancer first, causing aftersickness that grew greater the more powerful it was. Eventually power, or aftersickness, would kill the mancer using it.

The traditional way around this was to charge up an artefact (such as a mirror or ring) with power over a long time, and to simply trigger it when needed. This had some advantages, though objects could be hard to control or could become corrupted, and once discharged were essentially useless. Yet some of the ancients had used devices that held a charge, or perhaps replenished themselves. No one knew how, but it had to be so, else how could they maintain their power for hundreds if not thousands of years (for example, the Mirror of Aachan), or use quite prodigious amounts of power without becoming exhausted (Rulke’s legendary construct)?

Nunar assembled a team of mancers utterly devoted to her project (no mean feat) and she set out to answer these questions. Mancing was traditionally secretive – people tried (and often wasted their lives in dead ends) and usually failed alone. Only the desperate state of the war could have made them work together, sharing their discoveries, until the genius of Nunar put together the Special Theory of Power that described where the diffuse force came from and how a mancer actually tapped it, drawing not through the earthly elements but through the ultradimensional ethyr.

The ultimate goals of theoretical mancers are the General Theory of Power, which deals with how nodes work and how they might be tapped safely, and ultimately, the Unified Power Theory, which reconciles all fields, weak and strong, in terms of a single force.

Secret Art: The use of magical or sorcerous powers (mancing).

Snizort: A place in Taltid with a potent and concentrated node, near the famous tar pits and seeps. The lyrinx took Gilhaelith there to help them find the remains of a village lost in the Great Seep thousands of years ago. When he did so, they excavated a tunnel into the seep by freezing the tar, and took out a number of crystals, other artefacts and long-dead human bodies. After the node exploded, the tar caught fire and Snizort had to be abandoned.

Strong Forces: Forces which are speculated to exist, though no mancer has yet survived to prove their existence.

Thapter: Tiaan’s name for the flying construct she and Malien created in Tirthrax.

Torgnadr: A device patterned by the lyrinx to drain a field dry, or to channel power from the field for their own purposes. Torgnadrs are extremely difficult to pattern and most attempts fail, though some result in weak devices such as phynadrs which can draw small amounts of power for a particular purpose. Tiaan was used, with her amplimet, to pattern particularly strong torgnadrs, though the patterning was not entirely successful. Related devices include zygnadrs (sentinels), and the flisnadr (power patterner).

Well of Echoes, the: An Aachim concept to do with the reverberation of time, memory and the Histories. Sometimes a place of death and rebirth (to the same cycling fate). Also a sense of being trapped in history, of being helpless to change collective fate (of a family, clan or species). Its origin is sometimes thought to be a sacred well on Aachan, sometimes on Santhenar. The term has become part of Aachim folklore. ‘I have looked in the Well of Echoes.’ ‘I heard it at the Well.’ ‘I will go to the Well.’ Possibly also a source; a great node.

The Well is symbolised by the three-dimensional symbol of infinity, the universe and nothingness. A Well of Echoes, trapped in Tirthrax, is held there only by the most powerful magic.

DATES AND MEASUREMENTS

The Santhenar year has 396 days.

A span is roughly six feet or slightly less than two metres.

A league is about three miles or five kilometres.