Aestis. The world of A Fire in the Heart of Knowing. It has been broken before. It is being broken again.
Most of Book One takes place in and around Mordikhaan — a realm shaped by catastrophe, haunted by an absent ruler, and now facing the return of a threat it thought it had sealed away forever. Use the index below to explore the world.
Characters
KheThe half-Firg mercenary at the heart of the story — over seven feet tall, bound by a code of honour in a world without one.Caston ClearghLord of Talerin Rock — calculating, ambitious, and racing for the Crag before his rivals.Elderne KarosA young, naïve lord whose fatal weakness sets the whole story in motion.Santaris SendusLord High Steward of Mordikhaan, cursed to a half-life by the Queen — his body failing but unable to die.MyskinThe Chamberlain of the Crag — watching the dying Steward and waiting.The Queen of MordikhaanThe realm’s ancient, vanished tyrant — a century-long reign of deliberate misery.The BenefactorA figure of unknown origin who orchestrates events from the shadows — hunting for the lost Queen.LycellisThe captive physician of the Crag — forced to keep Santaris alive.FrangkaA woman of mysterious past whose presence at Yenarinvahl unsettles everyone around her.
Factions & Powers
The ThartansInhuman torturers born from dark magic — sealed in their mountains for a generation, and now marching to free their mother.The NornsAncient supernatural enforcers of the Queen — and the Elder Norn, imprisoned beneath Asuun Saar.House VahdA noble house whose Blood Winter origins gave them the north — rivals of House Cleargh for the Crag.
Places
MordikhaanA realm built on catastrophe and held together by fear — the prize every faction is fighting to control.The CragMordikhaan’s vast fortress-seat of power — a great grey spider of stone sprawling across the Kharis Plains.Asuun SaarAn abandoned monastery on the Saar Ridge — and beneath it, a prison that kept the Thartan threat contained for forty years.