Rancid: An oily, vicious guard in Garramide; a mutineer.
Rannilt: A much-bullied slave girl, about ten years old, who escaped from Cython with Tali. Rannilt has an enigmatic gift for magery, manifested by displays of golden radiance. In an attack in Lyf’s caverns he appeared to steal much of her gift and she lay near death for some time afterwards.
Rezire: The curator at Tirnan Twil.
Ricinus: A fabulously wealthy house in Hightspall, toppled by the chancellor after the discovery that the basis of its wealth was the depraved trade in ebony pearls. The name comes from the deadly poison ricin, obtained from the castor oil plant.
Riddum: One of Leatherhead’s gang, later one of Rix’s raiders.
Rixium (Rix): Formerly heir to the vast estates of House Ricinus, he was stripped of this inheritance by the chancellor due to the high treason of Rix’s parents. Rix is a brilliant swordsman, and also a masterful artist, though some of his paintings have been disturbingly divinatory. Rix has recently discovered that he’s Herovian, descended from Axil Grandys himself; he is ambivalent about this. Also known as Deadhand.
Rochlis: Lyf’s greatest general. A man with a conscience.
Rufuss: One of the Five Heroes, a tall, gaunt man whose only pleasure is denial.
Rundi of Notherin: A provincial leader, a murderous coward.
Rutherin: An old fishing port on the south-west coast of Hightspall, now in decline because the sea level has fallen and the coast is well offshore of its former position.
Salyk: A compassionate female Cythonian soldier who found Rix’s brilliant portrait of his father, and saved it, disobeying Lyf’s order to burn it. She later rescued Tobry but was put to death by her own people for aiding the enemy.
Seethings, the: A thermal wasteland of boiling pools, chymical lakes and deadly sinkholes.
Shell racer: Small, light sailboats which can also be rowed by four rowers. Very fast and manoeuvrable, but fragile.
Shifters: Vicious, bastard creatures created by Lyf with the blasphemous art of germine, in order to harry the Hightspallers. Shifters come in a number of kinds, such as hyena and jackal shifters, caitsthes and gauntlings. All are prone to insanity. Exposure to their bite or blood can cause others to become shifters.
Shillilar: A foreseeing. It was Wil’s foreseeing that identified Tali as the one who would change the story Lyf had written in his iron book, The Consolation of Vengeance, and thus change the world.
Solaces: A series of books written by Lyf, detailing various aspects of living underground, which he sorcerously transmitted to the matriarchs of Cython. They are held in the Chamber of the Solaces. There, Wil was the first to glimpse the iron book. He had a shillilar or foreseeing about the one (Tali) but the book burned his eyes out, and he never told the matriarchs the truth about her.
Spectible: A device that can see the aura associated with an enchanted object, or with the use of magery.
Squattery: A communal toilet in Cython.
Stink-damp: Rotten egg gas that seeps up from underground. It’s used for lighting in Caulderon though it’s both poisonous and explosive.
Subsistery: The Pale’s dining hall in Cython.
Suden: The large island south of Hightspall, now covered by the creeping ice sheets.
Sulien: Tali’s great-great-grandmother, murdered for an ebony pearl.
Sullen Man, the: A cold-eyed prisoner in Fortress Rutherin.
Sunstone: A kind of rock, mined in Cython. After exposure to sunlight, sunstone emits a bright light for days or weeks. It’s used to provide “sunlight’ in the underground green farms in Cython. Breaking a sunstone releases all its stored power at once, which is deadly to those directly exposed, and Cythonians (but not Pale) nearby but not directly exposed will be knocked unconscious.
Swelt: The castellan of Garramide, a gross-looking man, but loyal.
Swire: A town in Fennery, scene of the Five Heroes’ ride of glory and initial recruitment drive.
Syrten: One of the Five Heroes, a massive, golem-like man.
Tali, AKA the one: The familiar name of Thalalie vi Torgrist, a Pale slave. She was the first person in a thousand years to escape from Cython. Tali’s mother and three other female ancestors were murdered for magical ebony pearls grown inside their heads, and Tali is being hunted because she bears the fifth pearl, the master pearl, which Lyf needs to complete his plan.
Thanneron: The ancestral homeland of the Hightspallers, on the far side of the world. They came from Thanneron in four fleets, two thousand years ago. All contact with Thanneron was lost after the Fourth Fleet, and it is believed to have disappeared under the ice long ago.
Thermitto: An alchymical powder which burns so hot that it can melt rock; used for mining in Cython by the technique known as splittery.
Thom: A wood boy in Garramide.
Tiddler: A giant of a man in Garramide. A hammer-wielding mutineer.
Tirnan Twil: A remote tower, a kind of museum to the Five Heroes and their heritage.
Titane: A light, immensely strong metal. The secret of how to forge it has been lost.
Tobry Lagger: Rix’s brave, clever but disreputable friend, Tobry lost everything when House Lagger fell when he was about thirteen. Tobry had a mortal fear of shifters, and of becoming one himself, because his maternal grandfather became one and stalked the house, and Tobry was forced to kill him to save his father. At the end of Vengeance, Tobry became a caitsthe because it was the only way to save his friends. He survived, but the chancellor subsequently ordered him hurled from the top of Rix’s tower to his death. Rix calls him Tobe.
Tordy: One of Leatherhead’s thugs, whom Rix casts out of Garramide.
Two Hundred and Fifty Years War, the: The war that Grandys began a couple of years after the arrival of the First Fleet. It ended 250 years later (1,750 years ago) with the utter defeat of Cythe.
Vi Torgrist: Tali’s family name. Vi Torgrist is an ancient house which first came to Hightspall on the Second Fleet, but is now extinct except in the Pale.
Vomits, the: A trio of immense active volcanoes, the Red, Brown and Black Vomits, south-west of Caulderon. Cythonian legend holds that a fourth Vomit blew itself to bits in ancient times, creating the vast crater now filled by Lake Fumerous.
Wil, Mad Wil, Wil the Sump: A lowly, blind Cythonian who has shillilars, and is addicted to sniffing alkoyl. Wil is obsessed by the story set down in the iron book; but the story has gone wrong and he wants to set it right by rewriting the prophetic book.
Wiven: An old historian-mage Tali sees while using her gift to spy on Lyf.
Wrythen: The semi-solid shape Lyf’s spirit takes on after he dies.
Yestin: A local lord who helps Rix in the raid on Jadgery.
Yudi: One of Rix’s ne’er-do-wells, a crude fellow.
Yulia: One of the Five Heroes, she is the conscience of the group.
Zenda: Tali’s great-grandmother, murdered for an ebony pearl.