Fire Sea

16

Haplo’s report on the world of Abarrach, from the files of the Lord of the Nexus.

17

Scrawled on the margin of the report.

1

The Lord of the Nexus underestimated the magical forces that control Death’s Gate and failed to provide Haplo with suitable protection for the journey. The fttryn crash-landed and was rescued by the Geg Limbeck (see Dragon Wing, vol. 1 of The Death Gate Cycle).

2

Haplo characteristically makes no further mention of what he considers to be his failure on Pryan, but it may relate to the fact that he was very nearly killed by of giants whose magic proved far stronger than the Patryn’s (see Elven , vol. 2 of The Death Gate Cycle).

3

Haplo, Abarrach, World of Stone, vol. 4 of Death Gate journals.

Baltazar, Remembrances of My Homeland, a journal chronicling the last years of Kairn Telest kept by the necromancer to the king.

5

A word used by both Sartan and Ratryns to refer to the “lesser” races: humans, elves, dwarves.

6

Sartan have two names, private and public. As Alfred told Haplo previously in the story, a Sartan’s private name can give those who know it power over them. A Sartan’s private name, therefore, would be revealed only to those he or she loved and trusted.

7

A reference to a move in the game of rune-bone in which an opponent is stripped clean of all his runes. The game of rune-bone is vaguely similar in nature to a game known anciently (preSundering) as mah-jongg.

8

Kairn is a Sartan word meaning “cavern,” a variation on the dwarven word cairn, which means “pile of stones.” It is interesting to note that the Sartan had no word of their own for cavern prior to their removal to Abarrach and were forced, apparently, to borrow a word from the dwarves.

9

Fought during the rebellion of the people of Thebis, who refused to pay one-third of their crops in taxes to the dynast. The rebellion failed and almost certainly led to the downfall of a once-great city-state. Fair-minded historians point out that although this tax burden does seem excessive, the people of Thebis thought nothing of charging the dynast and the people of Necropolis a fee of fifty bales of kairn grass per use of the Pillar of Thebis, which supplied much-needed water to the city of Necropolis.

10

diminutive clay model of the dynast himself set within its own miniature duplicate of the palace. As originally designed, the dynast doll was attuned magically to the dynast and portrayed the current time by its position within its play palace. Thus when the doll went to bed, the hour was the dynast’s sleeping hour. When the doll sat down to dinner, it was the dynast’s dining hour. When the magic on Abarrach grew weaker, the dolls began to keep less-than-perfect time.

11

Refer to Magic in the Sundered Realms, Excerpt from a Sartan’s Musings, Vol. 1.

12

Most probably a descendant of the pig, which was brought by the Sartan to this world following the Sundering. A large portion of the diet of the Sartan on Abarrach consists of meat, vegetables being extremely scarce, and the torb is their primary source. Torb graze on kairn grass and are raised in the New Provinces and brought to market in Necropolis.

13

The hour following the dynast’s gaming hour when His Majesty orders the light of the gas lamps to be dimmed. During the dynast’s slumber hours, the gas lamps are turned off completely.

14

From the proper name, Lazarus. Originally, in ancient times, the word was used to refer to a person with a loathsome disease, such as leprosy, considered to be living death. In more modern times, following the Sundering, Sartan practicing the forbidden art of necromancy used the word to refer to those who were brought back from the dead too quickly.

15

A Collection of the Writings of Jonathan the Lazar, compiled by Baltazar, ruler of Necropolis, Abarrach.