THE WORLD — AESTIS
Mordikhaan
A realm governed by fear. Held together by the memory of catastrophe. Currently falling apart.
Mordikhaan is a realm within the world of Aestis. It sits between the mountains to the north — where the Thartans were sealed away — and the civilised Arclands to the south, which regard Mordikhaan with contempt rather than fear since the Queen’s disappearance.
The realm was shaped by the Blood Winter — a world-shattering catastrophe triggered by a comet strike that caused decades of blood-red skies, cold, and famine. The Queen rose to power on the back of that catastrophe. A traumatised population bowed to her because they feared the chaos of the world without her. When she vanished, the fear did not go away. It just had no focus.
Key locations
The Crag
The seat of power. Fortress of the Lord High Steward. Site of Santaris’s slow death and Lycellis’s investigation. Deep beneath it: the Maw, and Parsifus’s sealed library.
Asuun Saar
An abandoned monastery in the east. Parsifus built a prison beneath it centuries ago to contain the Elder Norn. One mad monk kept watch until Khe arrived.
Talerin Rock
A dilapidated fortress. Site of the book’s climactic battle between Khe, Caston Cleargh, and a Thartan Master. Paglin’s Tor lights the warning beacons here.
Tharwind Canyon
A narrow pass where the combined Vahd/Cleargh army is blocked by massed Thartan forces — until Frangka rides out alone.
Losander Forest
Site of the Battle of Losander Forest — the major military engagement between Cleargh and Vahd forces, ended abruptly by the Thartan advance.
Marakus
A ruined hamlet in the east. Where Karli lives with Paida and Bethesyah. Where the Low Folk are summoned. Where the book ends.