Episode 00 Glossary
Characters
Solarus: Dead and Buried God of life and light. His contact with Nabell creates the Ithelion, and he later creates the Vey.
Vorax: Dead and Buried God of earth and will. He helps form Tyve and teaches mortals to make weapons using A'feros's fire.
A'feros: Dead and Buried God of fire and passion. She creates Kypheron after mortals weaponize her gift, then relents when the Vey spare him.
Ordos: Dead and Buried God of magic and water who creates the Weave through which arcane magic functions.
Ea: Dead and Buried God of breath, wind, and nature, counted among the six original Gods of Nabell.
Umtheras: Dead and Buried God of death and shadow. The Umtherans preserve a distorted form of devotion to them within the Undying Lands.
Selendra Cassiandros: Marquis of Gavra and ultimate authority within its limited parliamentary government.
Whisper: Twenty-two-year-old rogue raised as a thief by his grandmother. He searches for the unknown inheritance connected to his mother's key.
Ernan Baldomar: Charismatic fighter and musician who travels with Whisper while concealing his history and the chain burns covering his arms.
Bjorn: Former chieftain of Norn who seeks a cure for his niece and struggles with the rage he associates with his people's destruction.
Vyr: Umtheran ethomancer and former Blade of Nos whose forbidden magic draws upon her own life or siphons vitality from others.
Helena: Vanari ranger stranded far from her hidden homeland. A vial of light once guided her people through the mists, but failed within the Undying Lands.
Normandy Borthal: Seventy-three-year-old wizard whose age and adolescent temperament conceal an unrevealed past.
Torrin: Cleric of twilight and survivor of the forgotten Vey, a people absent from all common history.
Gods and Religion
The Dead and Buried Gods: Solarus, Vorax, Ordos, A'feros, Ea, and Umtheras. These six capital-G Gods are dead or absent, leaving only their progeny and scattered influence.
Kypheron: Dragon god created by A'feros to wage war upon mortal life after Vorax taught mortals to forge weapons.
Dragon Gods: Elemental descendants or creations of the original Gods. Nornian tribes continue worshiping them after most cultures abandon the old traditions.
Twilight Faith: Religious tradition associated with Torrin and a goddess of twilight, linking light, darkness, life, and death.
Divine Gifts: Once-per-campaign invocations of the Dead and Buried Gods, described as powers capable of permanently altering a character and the world.
Organizations and Societies
Stewards of Gavra: Dominant House of Scarsden, ruled by Marquis Selendra Cassiandros. They possess Tyve's strongest navy and violently contain the Plague.
Cult of the Iron Chain: Expansionist House that demands submission to its growing chain and attacks communities such as Norn.
Sorcerers of Keph: One of the five great Houses and an exception to the widespread Gavran fear of overt magic.
Plague Artists of Slyphus: One of the five Houses descended from the expeditions stranded within Tyve.
Forgotten Dead of Dragdah: House associated with Dragdah and counted among Tyve's five principal powers.
Blades of Nos: Umtheran hunters charged with killing outsiders who enter the Undying Lands. Vyr served among them before leaving.
Norns: Mainland tribe devoted to the dragon gods. Survivors of the Iron Chain's attack establish New Norn under a tense arrangement with Gavra.
Vanari: Reclusive, nearly immortal descendants of the Di'Nari who live beyond impassable mists in magically abundant lands.
Vey: Magnanimous people created by Solarus after the birth of the Ithelion. Their apparent perfection, mercy toward Kypheron, and later disappearance define Tyve's forgotten history.
Creatures and Nature
The Plague: Deadly mainland affliction apparently restrained by glint light. Gavrans destroy suspected victims immediately to prevent its spread.
Light-Born Monstrosities: Creatures formed when objects block the Ithelion's pure light and its shadows take on terrible substance.
Vented Sea: Warm tropical sea surrounding Scarsden, heated by volcanic vents despite Tyve's otherwise cold climate.
Tyve's Volcanic Wastes: Iron-rich mountains, boiling or vented waters, sulfurous gases, bogs, and desolate terrain created by the continent's violent origins.
The Maelstrom: Impassable storm surrounding Tyve that destroys incoming ships and prevents the inhabitants from returning to the wider world.
Items and Technology
Ithelion: Tangible light born when Solarus touched Nabell within Tyve. A recovered portion powers the Lighthouse of Piln.
Glints: Stones infused with fragments of divine light during the fulmination. They are Tyve's most valuable currency and provide limited protection from darkness and disease.
Glister: Addictive substance distilled from glints and inhaled for its effects.
Lighthouse of Piln: Structure housing the recovered portion of the Ithelion and projecting its light across much of Scarsden.
Whisper's Key: Necklace and final keepsake from Whisper's mother, who called it his birthright without revealing what it opens.
Helena's Light Vial: Vanari vessel whose radiance parts the mists around her homeland but extinguishes within the Undying Lands.
Magic and Cosmology
The Weave: Invisible strings surrounding living things, created by Ordos and manipulated by arcane casters to impose their will upon the world.
Magical Mediums: Natural or physical conduits around which a caster gathers the Weave. Using one's own body as a conduit rapidly burns away life and causes premature aging.
Ethomancy: Forbidden Umtheran magic that converts the caster's life or stolen vitality into supernatural power.
Restricted Resurrection: Ordinary revival and reincarnation magic do not function within the campaign. Restoring the dead requires a place of power and a significant quest.
The Fulmination: Explosion caused by Solarus touching Nabell, sundering Tyve and scattering glints throughout the land.
Shadow from Pure Light: Central paradox of Tyve in which the Ithelion's goodness and purity cause the shadows cast against it to become especially monstrous.
Locations and Realms
Tyve: Isolated continent of Nabell surrounded by the Maelstrom and divided between the archipelagos, plague-stricken mainland, mountain wall, and sealed interior.
Scarsden: Main island of the southern archipelago and homeland of House Gavra.
Gavra: Capital of Scarsden, governed through elected offices that remain subordinate to Marquis Selendra Cassiandros.
The Mainland: Diseased and politically divided portion of Tyve abandoned by Gavra after the destruction of its land bridge.
Dio Ostium: Sealed gate leading into the heart of Tyve. No known traveler has passed through it for centuries.
Undying Lands: Hidden Umtheran realm devoted to death, patrolled by the Blades of Nos, and hostile to Helena's life-giving light.
New Norn: Refuge founded by survivors who fled Norn after attacks by the Plague and Iron Chain.
Dragdah: Territory of the Forgotten Dead and one of the five great powers descended from the early expeditions.
Keph: Domain of the Blood Sorcerers and one of the principal mainland powers.
History and Lore
Creation of Tyve: Vorax and A'feros shape a primordial land of iron, fire, and violent seas.
War of Kypheron: A'feros sends Kypheron against mortal life until the Vey defeat and spare him.
The Lost Vey: Solarus's second people achieve prosperity without recorded war, disease, or death before vanishing from history.
The Ithelion Expedition: Ancient travelers reach Tyve's center, recover tangible light, and become the ancestors of the great Houses.
Formation of the Five Houses: Survivors of the expedition establish rival societies around Tyve's mainland and archipelagos, with some traditions claiming their founders were siblings.
Isolation of Tyve: The Maelstrom cuts the continent off from Nabell while the Dio Ostium and mountain wall seal its interior.
Destruction of the Land Bridge: A recent eruption or deliberate attack destroys the crossing between Scarsden and the mainland, after which Gavra closes the remaining approaches.
Three-Year Interval: The Light of Tyve begins three years after the preceding campaign and far across the ocean from its principal setting.
