Rike: a class who lead the island kingdom of Kenatos. They are often mistaken as a priesthood of Seithrall, but in reality they are more like academics, physicians, and lawyers. While many believe them to possess magical powers, their power comes from the artifacts created by the Paracelsus order. With such, they can heal injuries and cure Plague victims. They are frequently dressed in a black cassock, but the most telltale sign is the ring that they wear. It is a black stone that purportedly gives them the ability to detect a lie spoken in their presence as well as to compel a weak-willed person to speak the truth.
Romani: a class that has no country or kingdom. Romani can be of any race. They control the caravan routes and deliver goods between kingdoms with the strongest allegiance to the Preachán city of Havenrook. They are forbidden to enter or to operate within Silvandom. Romani are known for kidnapping and organized crime. Starting at age eight, they are sold into service at ten-year increments. Their value increases in age and training and usually diminishes with age and disability. Each decade of servitude corresponds with an earring that they cannot remove under pain of death. Their freedom may be purchased for a single, usually large, lump sum.
Seithrall: a quasi-religion existing in the island kingdom of Kenatos. The term is a transliteration of the Vaettir words for “fate” or “faith,” as one being under the thrall of one or the other. While the Rikes of Kenatos do not suggest that the term connotes a specific religion, the populace of the city have given it a mystical quality, as it is not possible to lie to a Rike who wears the black ring.
Shaliah: a class of Silvandom known for the keramat of healing. This ability is innate and comes from their closeness to nature and the ability to share their life force with others.
Sylph: a spirit creature of Mirrowen that is tiny and can travel great distances and provide warnings of danger and healing.
Talisman: a Druidecht charm, fixed to a necklace, which is presented to them by the spirits of Mirrowen upon achieving a sufficient level of respect usually achieved by the age of adulthood. The emblem is a woven-knot pattern, intricately done, and it purportedly allows a Druidecht to commune with unseen spirits.
Tay al-Ard: spirit beings of great power that possess the gift of moving people and objects great distances in mere moments. It is considered a keramat to be able to induce such spirits to perform this feat.
Uddhava: a Bhikhu philosophy and way of life. It centers around the observation and discernment of the motives of others, and then acting in a way that validates or rejects the observation. Life is a series of intricate moves and countermoves between people, and a Bhikhu who can make the observations and reactions faster than an opponent will win a confrontation.
Vaettir: a race from Silvandom that values life above all. They are generally tall and slender, dark-skinned, with black hair. They do not eat meat and seek to preserve life in all its various forms. Their magic is innate and the wise use and practice of it is known as keramat. When they inhale deeply, their bodies become buoyant and can float. When they exhale deeply, their bodies become more dense and solid and they sink.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
There are many sources of inspiration that writers draw on. For this story, it goes back to my college years at San Jose State. Being a medieval history major, I remember studying about the Black Death, the terrible plague that ravaged Europe repeatedly. I still have my college book by David Herlihy (The Black Death and the Transformation of the West ) and have read it several times. I was also inspired by some of my ancient history classes, especially reading Julius Caesar’s The Gallic Wars. There were many interesting descriptions in that book of the various “races” of Europe and also details about the Druids of Gaul, which I used to create the Druidecht.
For the development of the magic system in the book, I turned more to modern times. In fact, it was my experience working in a semiconductor factory at Intel that inspired it. The high-tech industry spends billions of dollars constructing factories that organize and exploit the atomic properties of certain elements. I grew up in Silicon Valley, and it has always amazed me how brilliant engineers can turn something simple—sand—into microprocessors that power enormous data centers. I worked for a while as a night-shift supervisor in the Ion Implant area of the factory (or “fab,” as we call it in my industry) and was amazed at the machines invented to control basic atomic elements. The processes are so complex that experts exist in specific functional areas with strange-sounding names: litho, etch, diffusion, implant, thin films, planar. These folks are the modern-day Paracelsus. Learning about the technology and the small scale it operates on bends your mind. Granted, I’m not sure individual phosphorous or boron atoms are sentient and mind being trapped in silicon wafers, but that is how the idea came to me.
Only in a writer’s imagination can ancient Roman history mix with mass epidemics and modern technology to create a new fantasy series.
I’m off to breakfast with Possidius at Mel’s.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS