The Shadow of Gloom

? Glossary

Prominent Places – The Nathgardian Wall (runs between Ustgard and Wyneir), The Old King's Road (a passage between Ustgard and Krak near Aulander in Krak and Nathgar in Ustgard)

Misonte (Meh-son-teh): Ruled by the House of Miltos (Mill-toes), a long-standing royal family that is led by Queen Silvana and her brother Prince Cassian of Eddin. Silvana never married as she believed her power would be stolen if she were to wed, rumor has it that she had a son outside of marriage and to keep his identity a secret she had him sent to the Nathgardian Wall in Ustgard. Prince Cassian only has one son, Atticus, while Cassian's wife perished in childbirth.

Prominent Cities – Carn (capitol), Eddin (the dominant city beside the ocean that controls Misonte's ports)

Prominent Places – To be added

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[ Important Names for Context Purposes ]

Valrog (Val-rog): The lord of demons, creator of the Vale, and master of corruption. For years he and his demons ruled Laelmos until mages powerful enough to defeat him were able to end his reign, giving way to freedom in Laelmos until Queen Isolde. 

Airulai (Ay-rue-lie): The father of bridges between realms. His enchantment had been said to give a creature the ability to move between realms without harm to them, but nobody could ever prove the existence of his enchantment except for Kiin who was said to have used it to defeat Valrog. 

Kiin (Kee-in): An elder mage that is revered in all of Laelmos. She is akin to a Goddess in the eyes of the people as she saved Laelmos from being overtaken by demons ages ago. She is known for defeating Valrog and having him displaced by Laelmos, but no one knows where.

Isolde (Ee-sol-de): A century after Valrog's destruction, a fanatic of demons and the Vale was born. Isolde hailed from Eyrin and was once a beloved Princess of Kalle until her experiments with the Vale went array, resulting in the death of her husband and only son. Distraught and forsaken by her own family, she secluded herself in Valrog's lair, succumbing to madness and grief as she looked for a way to control the Vale. Her emotions were so volatile and uncontrollable, they spiraled out and disrupted the seasons of Laelmos, leaving winter the forever season. Isolde become known as the Ice Queen and held Laelmos gripped tight in her fist until her reign ended a hundred years after it had begun when Archimage Aki from Krak battled her on a peak in Wyneir. The battle ended in Aki's ruin as he used his own magical aura to create a prison for Isolde, binding her in it for nearly two hundred years before she broke free again and laid waste to Laelmos's seasons. 

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[ Terms ]

Karas (Kah-rass): An affectionate term for one's partner. 

The Remnant: Once a society of mages that hadn't succumbed to the Vale and had thus taken up arms to destroy every shard that exists in Laelmos.

Saesi (Say-see): Like sweetheart, darling, etc. 

Shards of the Vale: In brief, the Vale is darkness in its whole form, making up a demon or dark energy. It can possess a person and kill the host after promising the host an end to their suffering or grant them a wish.

The complex description is that it is a dark, potent glass-like crystal taken from Valrog's lair. According to mage belief, a shard of the vale can enhance a creature's magical abilities whilst stripping them of humanity and emotion by force only after the host has succumbed to the Vale. Resistance is possible but involves a long-lasting battle of the darkness that the Vale brings out, often coming in forms of one's greatest wishes, deep dark secrets, or hidden thoughts. However, the truth is that the Vale is the essence or aura of a demon (of the darkest side of a person) and what is left after they have disintegrated. That aura (power) can be transmitted into another mage and can battle the mage for control.

Valemen: Non-demonic creatures whose auras were shattered in the process of the Vale (or demon essence) seizing control of them, in the end it leaves them as frozen hollow corpses that can be manipulated, like puppets. Not all those that become infested with the Vale turn into valemen, some can turn into full fledged demons or stay cursed and resistant to the darkness. 

Demons: Described as "corrupted mages" by those in Laelmos but are more complex than that. Demons can be naturally born (only by Valrog) or artificially created through possession of a host. They have the natural ability to multiply (spread the Vale to more creatures), harness, and use the Vale without the drawbacks that non-demonic creatures receive.

Hybrids: A spawn of a demon and a human, creating a demon that holds the humanity of a human but with the ability to siphon and use the Vale for themselves. Hybrids cannot multiply the Vale; they can only feast on the Vale and use it as a power source for themselves.

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[ Explanation of Ages ]

Mages live from 600-750 years, humans live up to 50-70 years, elves live up to 800~. Cathains, and many from Eyrin, typically live longer due to their lineage being made up of elf and mage.

• Mages are a race of people in this world and are not human. They also age differently, meaning 60-80 years is a teen, 90-150 is a young adult, etc. Anything above 600 is considered an elder. 

• Life expectancy increased for all creatures after the demons were destroyed.

**This is all fantasy (a.k.a made up), please don't take it extremely seriously. Everything is my original work, with borrowings from various cultures (Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Old Norse, etc. to name a few). I do not pretend to know more than I do, but do take many creative liberties as that is how all fantasy is**