The Archon's Assassin (61 page)

BAREK THOMAS

Knight of the White order from Oakendale.

BARTHOLOMEW SHIN

Grand Investigator of the Templum Judiciary. Son of Bardol Shin.

BEATRICE

Galen’s horse.

BENT HORRIGAN

Poet and playwright.

BEZALEEL

Homunculus.

BIG JAKE

Member of the Night Hawks in New Jerusalem. Formidable arm-wrestler.

BIRD

Homunculus shapeshifter.

BRINK

Town in Malkuth on Aethir.

BROKEN BRIDGE

Village in Sahul, neighboring Oakendale.

BUCK FARGIN

Guild-member of the Night Hawks. Father of Nils.

CADMAN, Dr. Ernst

A liche. His body was taken over by Sektis Gandaw in Book 2:
Best Laid Plans
. His essence was sealed in a test tube within the Perfect Peak.

CALEDON

Horse given to Shader by Heredwin.

CANE, Exemptus

Elderly Exemptus of the Templum. Based in Aeterna.

CARSON

Soldier of the Great West, stationed in Britannia.

CAUSA SALUTIS

“The cause of our salvation.” Inscription on the pendant Shader was given by the dying “Fish” in New Jerusalem (book 3:
The Unweaving
).

CHAROS

A moon of Aethir.

CLETO

Crewman of the
Aura Placida
.

CORDANA (CORDY)

Dwarf woman. Old friend of Nameless, and wife of Thumil.

CYNOCPEHALUS, the (Si-no-seph-alus)

Dog-headed ape. Son of the Demiurgos and Eingana. Creator of Aethir and the hybrids. Maker of Gauntlets of Strength, a Shield of Warding, and Armor of Invulnerability, with which he sought to protect himself from his own nightmares, and his father, the Demiurgos.

Afraid of the Jötunn, giants he dreamed into being, he gave his gauntlets to Sartis the fire giant, who used them to destroy his own kind.

The darkest recesses of his mind open up onto his father’s abode, the Abyss. He was once terrorized by the Liche Lord, Otto Blightey, who stole his armor.

DAME CONSILIA

Society beauty, past her prime, from New Jerusalem. Appalling actress. Married to the guild boss, Koort Morrow.

DAVE THE SLAVE

Mysterious hunchback who claimed to be the Voice of Nous. Killed at Arx Gravis by Deacon Shader in Book 3:
The Unweaving
.

DAVY FANA

Brother of Ilesa.

DEACON SHADER

Former knight of the Templum Elect. Shader was born in Britannia and educated by the philosopher, Aristodeus.

DEAD LANDS, the

The desert of bone dust that surrounds the Perfect Peak, Sektis Gandaw’s mountain.

DEAD MAN’S TORCH

A beacon tower in Sahul. Used as a hideaway by Dr. Cadman.

DEMIURGOS, the (Demi-ur-gos)

The Deceiver. The Father of Lies. Fell through the Void with Eingana and the Archon. Raped his sister, Eingana. Father of the Cynocephalus. Driven to the brink of the Void by the Archon for his crime against Eingana. Sustained himself with the creation of the Abyss, where he is frozen in ice.

DREAMERS

Indigenous people of Sahul.

DREAMING, the

“
Visionary” world of Sahul’s Dreamers. The world of Aethir.

DWELLER, the

A demon of the Abyss. First-begotten of the Demiurgos.

DYBBUKS, the

Guild of rogues in New Jerusalem. Led by Master Plaguewind.

EDDIE

Thecla Cawdor’s husband.

EINGANA (Ay-in-gar-ner)

Creator Goddess of the Dreamers. Sister of the Archon and the Demiurgos. Takes the form of an enormous snake. Also worshipped as a goddess of death, believed to hold all beings in existence by a thread.

Gave birth to the Cynocephalus by the Archon cutting her womb open with the Sword,
Vade in Pacem
.

Fled from the Technocrat Sektis Gandaw in the form of a snake. Protected by the Hybrids and the dwarves led by Maldark. Betrayed by Maldark to Sektis Gandaw and was petrified in amber.

The Statue of Eingana was used by Huntsman to inaugurate the Reckoning.

EKYLS

Savage from the Mamba Tribe of Malkuth, Aethir.

ELIAS WOLF

The Bard of Broken Bridge. Former hippy musician from the Ancient world. Entrusted with the body of the Statue of Eingana, which prolonged his life. Killed by Dr. Cadman in book 2:
Best Laid Plans
, when the liche opened up a chasm to the Abyss, and Elias rode his motorcycle into it.

ELECT, the

Order of fighting monks within the Templum.

ELGIN

Knight of the White Order in Sahul.

ELPIDIO

Young lad. Crewman on the
Aura Placida
. Killed by mawgs in book 2:
Best Laid Plans
.

ENNOI

A moon of Aethir.

ERLSTEIN

Legendary hero of the Elect.

EUGEN

One of Lorgen’s Verusians. A tracker.

EXEMPTUS

Clerical title in the Templum. Second in rank only to the Ipsissimus.

FENCIBLES

Volunteer army. Home defense force.

FISH

Derogatory term for practitioners of “the Way” in New Jerusalem.

GALEN

An Elect Dragoon assigned to protect Adeptus Ludo.

GASTON RAYN

Leader of the White Order. Killed by the Sicarii in Book 2:
Best Laid Plans
.

GAUNTLETS OF SARTIS, the

Made by the Cynocephalus to double his own strength, but later given to the fire giant Sartis to enable him to destroy his own race.

GEHENNA

Underworld on Aethir that reaches to the core of the world. Gateway to the Abyss. Accessed through gorges across Malkuth and Qlippoth.

GEORGE

Resident of Wolfmalen in Verusia.

GILBRUM

Elf from Qlippoth charged with slowing the spread of the Sour Marsh into Malkuth.

GLADIUS

Short sword. The Sword of the Archon is a gladius.

GLOBAL TECHNOCRACY

Sektis Gandaw’s corporation on Earth.

GOBLINS

Creatures of Aethir dreamed by the Cynocephalus.

GORDIAN KNOT, the

A complex knot on the Nousian prayer cord that is considered impossible to untie. Nousians meditate by undoing knots of various degrees of difficulty, but the Gordian knot’s primary purpose is to maintain humility.

GORD PELHAM

Oakendale lad. Member of the White Order.

GRALIA SHADER

Foster mother of Deacon Shader.

GRAY ABBOT, the

Formerly Alphonse LaRoche. Founder of the Abbey of Pardes in Sahul. Rapidly aged and died in Book 1:
Sword of the Archon
after Callixus took his segment of the Statue of Eingana.

GREAT WEST, the

Large continent on Earth.

HAGALLE

Emperor of Sahul.

HEREDWIN

A daemon connected with the South of Britannia.

HILDA

A resident of Wolfmalen in Verusia.

HOMESTEAD, the

Tabletop mountain in Central Sahul. Most sacred site of the Dreamers.

HOMUNCULUS (plural, Homunculi)

Creatures of the Demiurgos. Begotten, not made. Sometimes called “deep gnomes”.

HUNTSMAN

Dreamer shaman. Formerly Adoni (“the Sunset”). Inaugurator of the Reckoning using the power of the Statue of Eingana to unleash the creatures of Qlippoth upon the Earth.

HUSKS

A name Malkuthians use for the nightmare creatures from Qlippoth.

IGNATIUS GRYMM

Grand Master of the Elect. Killed by one of Sektis Gandaw’s “metal men” at the Battle of the Homestead (book 2:
Best Laid Plans
).

IKRYS

A gargoyle of the Abyss.

ILESA FANA

Shapeshifting assassin from Portis. Member of the Dybbuks guild in New Jerusalem.

IPSISSIMUS

Title of the supreme ruler of the Nousian Theocracy and undisputed head of the Templum.

IRONBELLY’S SPECIAL BREW

A notoriously bad dwarven beer.

JAL CRIMSON

Merchant from New Jerusalem.

JANKSON BRAU

Long-lived mage and unofficial head of the bandit communities outlying Malfen.

JARL SHADER

Foster father of Deacon Shader.

JEZEEL

A homunculus.

JOAG BERFIK

Albert’s getaway driver. A Night Hawk.

JORAKUM

Capital city of Sahul. Heart of the Zaneish Empire.

JÖTUNN, the

Race of giants on Aethir. Creatures dreamed by the Cynocephalus.

KARA

Thecla Cawdor’s daughter.

KEEPER, of the Archon’s sword

Title of the Elect knight who wins the tournament for the Sword of the Archon. Head of the Saphra Society.

KELVIN, Brother

A friar of Brinwood Priory, Britannia.

KOORT MORROW

Guild boss in New Jerusalem. Married to Dame Consilia.

KRYEH

Meldings of Sektis Gandaw: women with bat’s wings.

LACUNAE (Lah-koon-ay)

Void stuff. Creatures of nothingness. Empty spaces.

LATIA

A country in Nousia. Home to the City of Aeterna, heart of the Templum.

LICHE

A powerful undead creature who has defied death by magical means.

LICHE-LORD’S ARMOR, the

Made by the Cynocephalus to ward off all attacks below the head. Utterly invulnerable. Stolen by Otto Blightey, whom it enabled to walk through the Black River of the Abyss.

LIZARD-MEN

Meldings of Sektis Gandaw, half human, half lizard.

LONDINIUM

Capital city of Britannia.

LORGEN

Leader of the rebels opposed to Otto Blightey’s rule in Verusia.

LUDO, Adeptus

Nousian cleric and a former tutor of Deacon Shader.

LUMINARY

Title for a Nousian saint.

MAGWITCH THE MEDDLER

A mad magician from New Jerusalem. Magwitch ekes out a living supplying magical security systems and inventing contraptions from scraps of Scarolite he scavenged from the Perfect Peak after the fall of Sektis Gandaw.

MALDARK THE FALLEN

Dwarf of Aethir. Leader of the Guardians of Eingana. Betrayed Eingana to Sektis Gandaw. Later realized his error and helped to rescue her. For his penance, sailed through the Abyss and passed through a portal to Earth. Continued to sail the waterways for hundreds of years. Killed by mawgs when he came to the aid of the Templum fleet (book 2:
Best Laid Plans
). His hammer concealed a piece of the statue of Eingana.

MALKUTH

The Light Side of Aethir. Divided from Qlippoth by the Farfall Mountains. Home to indigenous creatures of Aethir who are the dreams of the Cynocephalus. Also home to those Sektis Gandaw kidnapped from Earth.

MARESMEN

Husk hunters, entrusted by the Senate of New Jerusalem with preventing incursions from Qlippoth into Malkuth. The maresmen themselves are part husk.

MAWGS

Meldings of Sektis Gandaw. Flesh-eating creatures who flourish on the Anglesh Isles of Earth.

MEPHESCH

A homunculus. Leader of the Sedition.

MILO

A luminary.

MOUNT SARTIS

Volcano on Aethir. Home to Sartis.

NARCUS

A luminary.

NEW JERUSALEM

The capital city of Malkuth on Aethir, and once considered the last bastion of the free against the rule of Sektis Gandaw. The city’s gigantic Cyclopean Walls were a penance and parting gift of the dwarves following their betrayal of Eingana and the whole of Creation. New Jerusalem is presided over by an elected Senate, and fashions itself to a great extent on the mythical past of the city of Aeterna on Earth.

NIGHT HAWKS, the

Guild of rogues in New Jerusalem.

NILS FARGIN

Son of Buck Fargin from New Jerusalem.

NOUS (Noos)

Deity. The
Son of Ain. Worshipped by the Templum under the Patriarchate of the Ipsissimus. Individual worshippers are known as Nousians. Symbolised by an endless knot, said to contain all the mysteries of Creation—all eminently reasonable, but beyond human ability to unravel in their entirety. Wisdom only comes through the Sword of Faith, which cuts the infinite knot.

NOUSIA

The combined lands of the Nousian Theocracy. The Templum Empire.

OAKENDALE

Village in Western Sahul.

OTTO BLIGHTEY

The Liche Lord of Verusia. First of the Nousians. Once a contemplative in the Old Religion at the time of the Ancients, roughly equating to our middle ages, Blightey had a succession of dark visions (having penetrated the veil between Earth and Aethir through the austerity of his devotion and contemplation). The dreams showed him ways to draw upon the magic that spilled forth from Aethir’s dark side, and whispering voices promised him great power and eternal life. He had heard the voice of the Dweller, the first begotten of the Demiurgos.

Blightey prolonged his life at the expense of others—initially tentatively, leaching on their psychic energies, but finding his needs ever greater, until he needed their deaths. He left the Old Religion to pursue his hunger—both for lives and for wisdom. He discovered much of the nature of things through alchemy and later science. He also discovered something of the ontological secrets of the cosmos.