Lineages & elements

Lightning

Sekhmet

The comet of lightning carried Dominion. Sekhmet power travels straight: it does not evade, it does not bargain, it overrides. Its colour belongs to the one who wields it, from warm white-gold to crimson.

Zano Raziel Khai

Narok Boreas Ugra

Light

Mithra

The comet of light carried Precision. A Mithra strike leaves one line of consequence and nothing wasted, drawn in hard geometric planes. It is the bloodline of Azurae, the country of the high light.

Tzedek Uras Khai

Shadow

Ahriman

The comet of shadow carried Disruption. Ahriman power does not shine; shadows lengthen the wrong way and light bends away from its users. Its damage accumulates, carried from one blow into the next.

Nyx Drael

Adamas

Fire

Atar

The comet of fire carried Amplification: it grows as it burns, with no plateau in it anywhere. The fire schools use the same word for what an Asè gains by understanding his flame deeply enough to let it grow. Thamari's faith is built on it.

Kanzo Selah Tafar

Dzo

Sazana

Earth

Geb

The comet of earth carried Density. Geb power does not glow; the ground itself breaks and rises. Its fighters barely move while the world moves for them, and only thin seams of ochre show in the stone.

Arash

Wind

Vayu

The comet of wind carried Speed. Vayu power has no colour and gives no warning; it shows only in what it displaces, in ripples, grit and sudden absence. The wind fighters of Kalema carry it.

Zephyra Kael Mwenzi

Lujayn

Water

Tefnut

The comet of water carried Synthesis. Tefnut power borrows its movement from whatever it has touched, and in the hands of a master it moves before its wielder does.

Siris Ishara Vespera

Older than Heka

The Great Beasts

Nine Great Beasts walked the world before there was Heka to name them. Their power shows in what the world around them does, and some old houses count them as kin.

Razana

Glossary

Words of the verse

The Descent: The fall of the seven comets long ago. Each seeded one bloodline of power with an element and a property.
Heka: The substance of power, in two halves: He, mind and will, and Ka, body and force. He leads; Ka follows.
Origin: The core inside each practitioner that produces Heka. It is mortal, and damage to it lasts.
Asè / Asès: Anyone whose power has awakened, said roughly "Azeh". Asè is one; Asès are many.
Atar: The comet of fire, and the word the fire schools use for the growth a fire Asè earns by understanding his flame.
Ater: A power bought in advance with something that can never be earned back: years, sight, the colour of one's own fire. One vowel away from Atar, on purpose.
Baros: The pressure given off by power in use. At its height it bends air and light. Some climb, some hold and then jump, some refuse and then commit.
The seven realms: Seba, Khet, Akhet, Sahu, Duat, Akh and Aten. From Duat upward an Asè begins to bend the natural laws of their element.
Forms, Verses, Sigils: A Form is a sustained transformation with a continuous cost; a Verse is a single technique paid when cast; a Sigil is a mark that keeps working.
Sutras and Versets: Sutras are Thamari teachings on states of fire. The Versets are seven escalating fire techniques held in the Liturgy of Flames.
Tamas: Sacred sites older than every dynasty: altars of rock or crystal cradling sand that changes colour for reasons no one can explain. No Tama carries any house's mark.
The Accord: The institutional empire that holds the centre of the continent from a high plateau. Its sign is the red diamond; in the Accord, gold is the colour of debt.
The Belt: The Accord's council of rival factions: the Old Guard, the Merchant Throne, the Umbaran Seekers and the Mountain Watchers. It does not lead; it keeps the Accord's shape.
Thamari, the Severed Land: The eastern land of red earth, cut off by a canyon with a single crossing. Its old kingdom was destroyed by the Accord two hundred years ago.
Babylon: The Thamari name for the system that oppresses them.
Children of the Seventh Fire: The Thamari movement founded by Kiran and led by Kanzo. Its followers are called kindlings.
The Seventh Fire: The prophecy at the heart of Thamari faith: the Shepherd was betrayed, the flame is the correction, and one day the Seventh Fire will come.
Selah: The sacred pause: the silence between one fire and the next.
The Great Beasts: Nine beasts that walked the world before there was Heka to name them.
The Agojie: The women's regiment of the King's own guard in Old Thamari.