Author: Nick Shepley

Asuun Saar is an abandoned monastery on the Saar Ridge — and beneath it, hidden for forty years, lies the prison of the Elder Norn, mother of the Thartans.

The Thyral stone is one of the three most sacred objects in Firg belief — a conscious fragment of the mountain’s core, capable of absorbing dark corruption and erupting into blinding white fire.

A comet struck the earth. The sun went red for decades. Millions died or fled. The Blood Winter is the catastrophe that broke the old world and made Mordikhaan what it is.

The seat of power in Mordikhaan. Built by the Queen. Described as a great grey spider sprawling across the Kharis Plains. The political prize everyone is racing toward — and the location of secrets no one was meant to find.

Military strategist. Ghothar. The Thartans call her Ih-kay-rahhhh — the Shadowcatcher. She rides out alone to face a Thartan army, and the army parts.

The naive young lord who carried the ring to the Thartans. The story begins with him. What the Thartans make of him in the mountains is one of the series’ great unanswered questions.

Lord High Steward of Mordikhaan. Dying of the shaking sickness — and unable to finish the process. The Queen marked him decades ago and commanded him to live. He is still obeying.

Chamberlain of the Crag. Calculating, rational, and almost certainly right about everything — which makes him the most dangerous person in Mordikhaan’s politics.