Lore

Notable Figures

The campaign guide names a great many people across sixteen nations, and they are scattered across as many pages. This is the index: who someone is in one line, and where to read more. For terms rather than people, see the Glossary.

The Genesori

The one divine pantheon, who made the world and each hold a piece of it as their domain. See Faith & Religion.

Garioch is the last of them to physically touch the world: the closing blow of the War of the Heavens, which pushed the continent of Rues entirely through it.

The Divine Zeniths

Each Genesori’s eternal half, paired with a mortal counterpart. See Faith & Religion.

Figures of faith

• Exemplar Alessa of Bahadur — headstrong, zealous battlefield healer who went where the suffering was rather than where the fighting was. Her following became the convocation Alessa’s Hand, known equally as healers and as smugglers who will run any blockade to get food and medicine into a siege.
• Ayreaux d’Siniste — an early member of the Revel, and the namesake of The Order of Ayreaux.
• Matriarch Phyllida Vondran — Koreel’s Zenith during the Age of Piety, and the reason Koreel’s divine and mortal Zeniths have shared a body ever since.

Beings of the Realms

See The Realms.

• Fate and Death — parents of the Celestials. Fate’s destruction is the oldest event on the timeline.
• The Gargoyles — Fate’s creations, each watching for a particular gift of the living: Lorekeeper, Tuneweaver, Heartbinder, Oathtaker, Lightseer, and Wayfinder. The Lorekeeper is held to have a special bond with the Salma Archives in L’dahn, and the gargoyles’ tenets are followed as a way of life by the L’Dahn.
• The Celestials — forty-eight children of Death and Fate, each with four seasonal aspects and a constellation, grouped into the Broken City, the Crossroads, the Faraway Isle, and the Killing Fields. They are set out in full on The Realms rather than repeated here.
• Stovaresk — the most powerful secular Oracle in Rues, reached by way of Symonovsk.

The Twelve Regional Spirits of the Vale

Each of the twelve regions of the Vale of Scyllina has its own spirit. Note that the Vale’s elite courtiers wear masks named for these spirits — so a “Goodwin” at court is a masked courtier who can call on the spirit, not the spirit itself.

Rulers and governments

Ophrailes

The deepest roster in the world. See Ophrailes.

The Crown Consulate — Crown Prince Eviar Leonate, advised by Consuls Kavie Austen (Legislative), Avery Wright (Judicial), Johann Dunbarton (Military), Jonathan Morrow (Arcane), Dorander Marcellus (Divine), Edward Bower (Commerce), Adrian (for the People), and Stranach Vitandas (Foreign).

The Assembly of Princes — Sawyer Leonate, Crown Consort, for House Leonate; High Prince Tyrodes Sarraffet, of the wealthiest house; Camden Gofraid, a skilled Shadewalker and a distrustful one; Ameline Hadley; Juan Dunbarton, former General of the Armies and the only prince with a standing militia; the Twin Princes Dhoma and Yesta Morrow, an archmage and a divine practitioner; Urul Crenton, famous for his parties and politically idle; Ulysses Lamorral, who banned fishing in the Great Bonarey and is investigating the western blight; and Skyler Dales, rehabilitating a diminished house and agitating against Leonate dominance.

The Assembly of the People — High Speaker Smythe, a merchant, with Speakers Noel and Roch (craftsmen), Auguste (a mage), and Renée (a farmer).

The Court of Arbitration — Justiciars Balderic, Ebbo, Sethra, Tescelin, and Thegan.

The Gift of Jade Guild — Guildmaster Dhoma Morrow, with Archmages Mortimer Gange Dett (Head Examiner), Hollister See (Chief Librarian), Emilia Thorne (Healer), and Zorander Roshin (Field Study).

Spyndelmere

See Spyndelmere.

• Regent Berkeley Evers — the longest-serving Regent in the nation’s history. He bears Nira’s mark, lit when he broke the Depthless Goblet at twenty-four; sixty years on, it still burns, though age has forced him to cut back.
• Regent Sage Ashfall — the youngest Regent, bearing Ferris’ mark, lit only a couple of years ago. Her grandmother Linden Ashfall was a Regent before her and hoped she would follow.

L’dahn Linenation

The High Council runs fifteen strong — nine Elders and six Primes. See L’dahn Linenation.

• Elders Landry Hale (Advocate), Sol Elfrish (Guardian), and Arden Lockland (Fixer).
• Primes Sybil Driffen (Advocate, year three), Cedar Wuveth (Fixer, year one), and Lianie Oshuni (Guardian, year two), who filled the seat left by Clay Raynar’s death.
• Hollis Lowtrow — served three years as Prime Fixer, stepped down rather than take the Trials, and left for T’barris.

Rues

See Rues.

• Empress Evenia Mercurio Pentratheron — took the Mercurian throne at twenty-six and has ruled its golden age for forty-two years.
• Venius Mercurio — her eldest son, unwed.
• Aspira — her second-eldest, married to Hethryl Mythandros, second princess of the Federation.
• Ayril Mythandros — the Shining Radiant Monarch of the Federated Kingdom of the Selda’nire.
• Jackal — Anbara’s heraldric, who accompanies the Unmasked Monarch to important functions.

T’barris

See T’barris.

• King Y’vain Pelle — a good ruler early on, now increasingly set on retiring and increasingly open to outside influence. Eleven years since the last Diamondback skin was found.
• The Council that Will Be — Pierce Kenbow of the Nettle, Nuane Le’tor of the Azure, Caul Arix of the Sloth, Myra Rimane of the Scaled, and Wixyra Harper of the Golden.
• Ilene Gieger, of the Council that Was, represents the alchemists.

Elsewhere

• Arbiter Ilia Stolarz — head of state of Dovenost, young, healthy, and uninterested in international diplomacy. Rumored to have won the position in a game of chance.
• Arion Galanis of Myos — Monarch of the Myos Islands these four years, and said to be a very competent leather worker. Sofia Kellis is the Steward of recent note, always available to lend a hand or smooth a discussion.
• The Albescu family of Chentva in Merrigor — won the last cycle of the Great Game, and now stand accused of producing works that are literally haunted.
• The Rappnos bloodline holds the throne of the Mists of Eltiel, opposed by the Revenants of Rappnos.

Founders and legends

• The Original Compass Rose — Ignatia, Skylar, Nira, and Ferris, the four adventurers whose deeds gave Spyndelmere its prosperity and whose Knight’s Marks still appear on the worthy.
• Louis Wenform, once Louis Tinker — tamed the wilds around Embervale with his contraptions, making the city of Thornwen possible, and was granted the name for it.
• Agnes Shadowseeker, once Agnes Fletcher — killed a shadow-eyed monster in the southern forest and lost her brother Oliver to its kin. The name passed to her family and is still held in high regard.
• Berolt and Elysande — brother and sister who set out to build their legacies together, quarreled, and parted. She founded Valarmore; he founded the Five Duchies. They reconciled in old age.
• Archibald Dahniley — proposed founder of the L’Dahn way of life, who travelled all his long life after his home was destroyed and never found a place to settle. Lester Leshon, his partner and protector, co-founded the way and built Dahnhelm after he died; their adopted daughter Dihnora L’Dahn expanded its kindness and fairness.
• Devan Khoarst — a L’Dahn Guardian of old who founded the combined-form fighting school that every L’Dahn is said to learn the basics from.
• Isidora Delacroix, “Isidora the Stone” — first leader of the Mellurian Leadership Council and architect of its guild system. The Delacroix Cliffs carry her name. With her came Alaric Borges “the Hammer” (metalworkers’ guilds, and the thin strong steel that marked early Mellurian swords), Thalia Tauser “the Prospector” (miners’ guilds, and said to smell ore underground), Derrick Addington “the Wrench” (the first machinists’ guild; machines never failed around him), and Agoris Kodel, first to infuse materials with magic — a pendant whose light never faded — and namesake of the Kodel College of Alloys. See Melluria.
• Carolin Myosine — the adventuring ship captain who sailed blind through a storm, found the Myos Islands empty, and declared herself Monarch and her crew Nobles.
• Honor Dante — a L’Dahn Fixer whose engineering so improved Melluria’s mining machinery that the Machinist’s Guild invited an outsider to join.
• Kit Jantith — a L’Dahn Advocate, known through the Myosi Islands as fair but shrewd, and for over-indulging in the parties after a settlement.

Figures of history

• Crown Prince Eduard Dales — the only Crown Prince of Ophrailes ever recalled, having nearly caused a civil war two centuries ago. Prince Alistair Leonate led the recall and founded the Assembly of the People and the peasant-protection laws in its wake.
• King Hadley — the last king before Ophrailes was Ophrailes; his daughter Pritan became its first Crown Prince.
• Leyla Maral — a civil engineer who won Dovenost’s eighteenth War of Ascension after a volcano killed most of the other faction leaders, and whose real legacy is roads, aqueducts, and sewers.
• Martin Henrik and Ivan Goran — the last War of Ascension decided by single combat. Goran would not yield and Henrik had to take his head; being dangerously stubborn has been Goranesque ever since.
• Tomasz Bosko — won the only bloodless War of Ascension, during a famine too severe for anyone to fight, and is reckoned among the worst Arbiters Dovenost ever had.
• Sona Zoric — a young Dovenosti mage who tried to open a Gate to her paramour’s house and opened one into a spice shop in Myos Cori instead, ending her nation’s isolation sixty years ago. Claudia Corlevaro, the Myosian mage who untangled it, came back with her and a trade delegation, and Arbiter Aleksandra Fiala granted the Myosians their Gates and docking rights.
• Queen Azari the First — ended poverty and starvation in Anbara.
• Galifel Dyneley — original benefactor of the Atheneum at Valarmore.
• Margus Heyworth — the ranger who found the Howling Cliffs and first hiked the pass.
• Olive Molyngton — first homesteader of the Five Duchies, founder of Northfield in Hare Duchy.
• Captain Easten Fawkes — founded the Foxfall Mercenary Company.
• Zephora Peckham — at 122, the oldest inhabitant the Five Duchies has ever had.
• Clay Raynar — a L’Dahn Prime Guardian killed in the line of duty at Fortune’s Bend, days from becoming the first Prime in twenty-five years to serve a full five. His aunt Viatrix was made ambassador between Fortune’s Bend and the High Council after his death.
• Empress Evenia, Eviar Leonate, Regent Berkeley Evers, King Y’vain Pelle, and the renegade Zenith Ravvin all appear on the historical timeline.

Figures of the Vargoth War

Spoilers ahead. This section covers the war as it has actually been played out at events, not just what the campaign guide prints. If you are new, or catching up, you may want The Story So Far instead and to let the rest reach you in game.

The Vargoth destroyed Valarmore over a decade ago and now press the Five Duchies at the Howling Gates. Their foot soldiers are Husks — the emptied dead of earlier attacks — but some of the people they take keep their minds, and those are the ones with names.

The Turned

• Alice Stormbow — once among the Vargoth’s fiercest opponents, now High Herald of the Vargoth Empire and its chief diplomatic voice. The only one of these figures the campaign guide itself names.
• General Kiernan Jowenys — the war hero who defended Valarmore and called the Farthest Star Council, where he was stabbed. He was later confirmed Turned and rose to become the Empire’s foremost general; he sent Fortune’s Bend a surrender ultimatum under his own name.
• Colonel Fritz Brithoffer, “the Clockwork Butcher” — Eltiel-born, Turned, and mechanically rebuilt, with Fortune’s Bend as his particular assignment.
• Actherion Enruir — a Scyllinari diplomat who chose to die beside his dying sister when Valarmore fell, and was Turned for it. Among the more sympathetic of the Empire’s servants.
• Tuga Kohout — a T’Barrissian among the Turned.

Others of note

• Commander Lesley Longstepper — the ambassador killed at the Farthest Star Council, the attack that began the present war.
• Malkor — an Ophralian mage, Atheneum-trained at Valarmore, who twisted the ritual that let the Vargoth loose and altered his own Purpose. He is held to be seeking godhood by way of the Husks.
• The Sly Fox — a morphose of Spyndelmere, who banished every Vargoth from that nation in exchange for the whole of Fortune’s Bend walking the mushroom path and vanishing for a year and a day.
• The Tyrant — a Celestial who rules the Barred Commots absolutely, and a wartime ally whose four cyclical aspects are set out on The Realms.
• Lady Alyssa Deloach — an information broker who trades knowledge and favours for scrying rights through a person’s eyes for a year and a day. She has bargained for stranger payments than that. Her manservant John handles her business in person.
• The Faustino family, and Lizabetta Faustino in particular — long- running antagonists, who sabotaged the original Fortune’s Bend node specifically so that no heroes could be called to it.
• Lance — former head of the mercenary company the Severed Tongue, revealed as Turned.
• Pru — leads the Unlit Halls, which stayed closed to her for years after a betrayal from within. Newcomers need a patron to vouch for them.
• Valteraxis, the Bloodgiver — a corrupted Gargoyle bound up with the consumption of Purpose.
• The Forgemother — a being met in a shared dream, offering the expertise of her craft.
• The Unwanted Syndicate — Alestair Karth the Ashen Quill, the Vulture’s Tongue, the Hallowed Engineer, the Venerable Architect, and the Guiding Needle, who work to revive old Shade beings and their rituals.
• Reach Lord Sarah Jackson — of Hadley’s Cove in the Principalities of the Reach.

Where the world has only rumour, this page has only rumour too. Several of the figures above are known to Fortune’s Bend by reputation, a decoded letter, or a single encounter, and what is said of them may well be wrong.