Harkana: a desert kingdom, founded by Ulfer, ruled by the Hark-Wadi family.
Hark-Wadi, Arko: the Bartered King, the king of Harkana, the only Harkan king to avoid serving time in the Priory.
Hark-Wadi, Kepina: younger daughter of Arko, king of Harkana.
Hark-Wadi, Koren: father of Arko, former king of Harkana and leader of the second revolt, the Children’s War, now deceased.
Hark-Wadi, Merit: elder daughter of Arko, king of Harkana.
Hark-Wadi, Ren: son of Arko, heir to the Harkan throne, a ransom in the Priory.
Harwen: capital city of Harkana, seat of Harkan power, home to the Hornring and the Horned Throne of Harkana.
hierophant: a priest of any faith who dedicates his life to the interpretation of sacred symbols.
High Desert: west of Sola, an arid region occupied by nomadic tribes.
Horned Throne: the Harkan seat of power, located in the Hornring.
Hornring: Harwen’s keep, home of the Hark-Wadi family and the Horned Throne of Harkana.
Horu: brother of Mithra-Sol, god of death.
Hykso: a nomadic High Desert tribe common to the southern regions of the High Desert, as well as the borderlands between Harkana and Sola.
Jundi: the lowest soldiers of the Protector’s army.
Kiltet: a service cult dedicated to the maintenance and protection of the grounds of the Empyreal Domain.
kingsguard: the black shields of Harkana, the sworn soldiers of the Harkan king.
kite: a large and gray-feathered bird, a sacred animal, worshipped in parts of Feren, the symbol of the Feren king’s divine right of rule.
Kitelord: in Feren, a king or queen who has completed the Waking Rite, a divinely sanctioned ruler of the Gray Wood.
Kiteperch: in the Blackthorn Chathair, the Feren seat of power, a monumental treelike sculpture.
lector: a priest of any faith who dedicates his life to the public recitation of sacred texts.
Llyr: the kitefaethir, the mud god, the lord of chains, the ancient god of Feren, god of the blackthorn and graythorn trees.
lower kingdoms: the four kingdom that serve Sola: Harkan, Rachis, Feren, and the Wyrre.
Middle Kingdom of the Soleri: the Amber Age, the Age of Marvels, the time when the Soleri built the miracles of Solus—the Dromus, the Golden Hall, the Cenotaph, and the Great Circus of Re.
Mithra-Sol: the sun god, father of the Soleri.
Mithra’s Door: a passage reserved for the Mother Priestess, used in the Middle and New Kingdoms, blocked after the War of the Four, this corridor connects the Ata’Sol to the Empyreal Domain.
Mithra’s Fire: a literal trial by fire—if the accused live, they are innocent; if they die, they are found guilty by the sun god.
Mosi, Sevin: captain of Merit’s guard, a man from the Wadi clan, one of Merit’s sworn soldiers.
New Kingdom of the Soleri: the present age, also known as the Imperial Age, includes the time of the Soleri’s sequester behind the Shroud Wall.
Northwoods: the lands north of the Gray Wood, an ancient part of Feren that is now semi-independent.
Odine, Nollin: a boy from the Wyrre, a scribe of the hierophantic order of the Desouk cult.
Old Kingdom of the Soleri: the first age of the Soleri, ends with the unification of Sola and the lower kingdoms.
Ott: Sarra Amunet’s personal scribe.
Plague Road: the road that connects Sola to Harkana.
Priory of Tolemy: also known as the House of Tolemy, a prisonlike school where the noble-born sons of the lower kingdoms are held until their fathers are dead.
Protector’s Tower: also the Citadel of Solus, the seat of power of the commander of the armies, the Father Protector.
Rachis: a mountain kingdom, north of Harkana, east of Feren, home to the mountain lords.
Re: the first of the Soleri, the first to descend from Atum, the first emperor of the Old Kingdom.
Repository at Desouk: the largest library of scrolls in the Soleri Empire.
Rifka: the High City, seat of power of the Feren king, home to the Blackthorn Chathair.
Riksard: the ancient home of the Wyrren people, from the time before the settling of the Wyrre.
Ruined Wall: a Harkan war monument, a fortification destroyed during the War of the Four and preserved by the Harkans as a memorial.
Saad, Amen: the Sword of Mithra, the Father Protector and commander of Sola’s armies.
Saad, Mered: the brother of Raden Saad, Keeper of Seals, Overseer of the House of Crescents, a wealthy citizen of Solus.
Saad, Raden: the former Father Protector, father of Amen Saad, now deceased.
Salt Barrens: a flat and dry region of the High Desert, characterized by salt plains.
San: a nomadic desert tribe common to the eastern regions of the High Desert as well as the borderlands between Feren and Sola.
Scargill: an island, part of the Stone Reefs, at the southern tip of the Wyrre.
scribe: a priest of any faith who dedicates his life to scrollwork.
second death: a body must be whole to pass into the afterlife; if a corpse is dismembered it therefore dies a second death and is denied entrance in to the world of the deceased.
Shadow Gate: an archway in the Shroud Wall, the ceremonial entry to the Empyreal Domain of the Soleri.
Shambles: in Harkana, south of the Feren Rift valley, a desolate stretch of land, the home of the Harkan king’s sacred rite of passage, the Elden Hunt.
Shroud Wall: the barrier that separates the Empyreal Domain of the Soleri from Solus.
Sirra, Tye: the only girl in the Priory, the daughter of a prominent lord of the Wyrre, a friend of Ren.
Sola: the kingdom ruled by the Soleri.
Soleri: a family of god-emperors, descended from Mithra-Sol, twelve in all, a father, a mother, and ten children (five boys and five girls, always interbred).
Solus: the city of light, the eternal city of the Soleri, the capital of the kingdom of Sola, seat of power of the empire of the Soleri.
Stone Forest: also the Cragwood, the site of the Waking Rite, the Feren ruler’s sacred rite of passage.
Stone Reefs: also the Untamed Islands, an isolated chain of islands at the southern tip of the Wyrre.
Temple of Mithra at Desouk: the first temple of the Mithra cult, an ancient open-air structure in the city of priests.
Temple of Mithra at Solus: in Sola, the temple of the sun god, and home to the Ata’Sol.
Thieves’ Moon: the new moon, the time when ransoms are traditionally released from the Priory.
tulou: a ringed desert fortress, characterized by rounded walls made of mudbrick.
turn: a half-crescent coin, part of the Soleri currency.
Ulfer: the first king of Harkana, the first to take the eld horns as his symbol.
Vimur: an island in the Wyrre.
Wadi, Dakar: in Harkana, the warden of the hunting reserve in the Shambles.
Wadi, Nirus: a Harkan king, and later the Harkan emperor, the man who held the Amber Throne during the War of the Four, two hundred years prior to the present.
Wadi, Shenn: the husband of Merit Hark-Wadi, lord of the Wadi clan.