Flamewind Appendicies

Writers Note - What follows are the developing appendicies that accompany my 'under-development' Fantasy Epic "The Book of Commencement"  As the story develops, more detail will be added to the entries below and new ones made. Help would be appreciated in finding any continuity/spelling errors etc.

Any notes in red indicate the intended direction that the item will take

{bThe Book of Encyclos

The original Book of Encyclos was actually a collection of a hundred leather bound volumes. All of these have been a long time lost from the great library citadel of Pedia when it was plundered and raised to the ground in 3845 EY. It was a text written by the wisest and most learned of the scholars of the Elves, Humans and Dwarves, containing the sum of all they knew of the world and their crafts. It took hundreds of years to write and it was said that, if a Human were to begin reading it from their birth, they wouldn’t have even made it halfway through by the time of their death, an expected 70 years later.

All that is left of this book are a few tantalising transcripts made by scholars over the years. Accuracy in these is often dubious as the scholars have often leant their own opinions to the events, or the transcripts themselves are age worn and hard to read by even the sharpest eye. Many have also been translated from a myriad of languages, some of which are now nearly forgotten to the inhabitants of Terra-planos

Never the less, the knowledge they provide of the ancient times is of indescribable value and has been faithfully reproduced from as many texts as could be found.
Terra-planos

Terra-planos is the name that has been given to the world. It is a common factor in all the known languages of the world and scholars have assumed that it was either, given to all the species of the world by Aeos, or given by the Aerdin.

It is, for the most part, a beautiful world with varied terrains. In the north and south poles, huge ice covered continents hold vast stored of wealth that is all but beyond the reach of most peoples. There are a few isolated colonies of the Ketrăan empire huddled around vents that draw heat from the very depths of the world, and that supply the smiths of their forges with some of the best jewels and metals which further adds to this empire’s massive financial and military might.

Most of the other six continents are a mix of verdant grasslands, dense forests, snow capped mountains with a band of dessert running around the equator, almost unbroken from landmass to landmass except at Tyrria, where the worlds only tropical jungle exists.

Lands of Terra-planos

The world was, for over a thousand years, divided into two hundred and thirty six countries covering much of the land mass. There were, of course, islands that were undiscovered and many of the lands knew little or nothing of most of the others. Regardless, there were twenty-six nations that had prominence above the others, either due to their military might, economic wealth or artistic influence. Most of these were gathered in the north of the world cantered upon the largest two continents and a few islands between them.

Details on some kingdoms will eventually appear here

Tolos

A walled village in the grassland valley of Dowinster, properly called Tolos’s haven. It has a relatively short history, founded in SY 3876 by Tolos, a retired adventure that wanted to start a farm and raise a family. When Tolos had left home from the neighbouring community of Irneot’s meet he had been a hell raiser. But twenty years of bloody battles had not hardened him; rather his travels with a druid had opened his eyes to other possibilities. The druid, who’s name has now been lost to time, upon seeing this remarkable change in attitude, gifted to Tolos a small pouch of very fine dust. He was told that, wherever he sprinkled the dust, plants and crops would be plenty and animals would come to graze there. So, returning to the little, settled and harsh valley that he had left, he sprinkled a fair amount of the dust in the place he would make his home. Then he walked up the mountains and threw the last of the dust into the air so that it flew over the valley and made its rocky and barren surfaces teem with life in the coming spring. When the villagers knew that it was Tolos behind their change in fortune, they built for him an impressive house and surrounded it with other smaller houses and dwellings to create a fair village as a centre of new hope. It was still within Tolos’s life that a band of mercenaries came to the valley and began ransacking the outlying settlements. Though he was now old, Tolos still picked up his armour and sword and rode out to meet this threat to the stable home he had helped build, but not before he had instructed all the villages to build themselves defences. Having access to a quarry nearby that had been opened to build the village thirty years previously, the village of Tolos built defences that were of stone rather than a simple wooden palisade, renaming it Tolos’s haven. A haven that came in handy when Tolos was slain by the thieves. The women and children used the walled village to shelter in while the men took up arms to drive the invaders from their home. Within ten years, the thieves were mostly dead or had run away and the valley had returned to normal life not to be threatened again till SY 3969 when another band of thieves and mercenaries entered the valley. However, the villagers had learnt from their history and each village had at their disposal a weapons master. Someone who had trained in the ways Tolos had taught the first defenders of Tolos’s haven. These weapons masters banded together and raised a force to drive the invaders away by the end of the season.

Characters of Flamewind

As can be expected when you are exploring an entire world through its stories, there is a mass of people whom inhabit the tales. Some are of little overall note while others have lent such importance to events that they are likely to be remembered for many generations in legends, stories, poems and songs.

Divinities

Aeos

Also known as ‘The Divine’ and ‘Lord of All’. Nothing is known of where he came from or of how long he existed before his first appearance in the written history of the Elves. If there is a one god, then Aeos is the most likely candidate. It has never been known for him to manifest physically on the planet and his supposed involvement in many of the tales in the world is subject to much debate among the learned. What is known is that he is the one who created the Aerdin, gracing them with a part in a grander design that, even now in these enlightened times, is a mystery beyond the fathom of even the wisest of the wise.

The Aerdin

The Aerdin are as gods. They were the first to walk upon the world and since they have used their will to shape it in their hearts image, bringing the wasteland that it was to be the bountiful land it now is for many. They were born as parts of the will of Aeos, but were also created separate from him so that each has its own mind and thoughts.

For an unknown time, they had no purpose other than their existence, though a few have surmised that this time was used to their benefit as they grew less like Aeos and more into their own character.

Outline of the creation of the Celedrin

Then, again before the counting of time, they were given purpose and allowed to create. What they forged, following the example of Aeos, were the Ätollme.

At their birth, there were over 100 Aerdin. Over the ages, some of them have passed away from the knowledge of the living having little or no part to play in the world. Others have found themselves slain in the Divine War, presumably going back into the Vastness and to Aeos, though this is not known and may never be. What follows is the most complete list of the Aerdin at the time of the forging of the Atollme and as many details as is known of their history and part in events.

What follows is actually a list of periodic elements which will, in the course of time, be altered slightly to represent character names and personalities

Helios

Also known as the sun god. It was he who devised the idea of a sun to “light the land with the power of a thousand candles.” It was not, however, for many many years after the rise of the Elves that he fashioned a way of performing this task. Indeed, for the time before, he was content to dream about his golden globe while he worked alongside the other Aerdin to create a twilight land of beauty. Eventually, after the rise of the moon, Helios realised that his dream of a searing orb in the sky was one of necessity. Evil had begun to grow in the dark and was moving around the lands freely. So it was that, after the war of the Dark and the victory over The Fallen, and after the stars had been raised to the sky, that Helios said to the other Aerdin that he had worked out how to light the sky to stop the spread of the evil raised by The Fallen.

So it was that he fashioned a golden chariot that shone with the light of a thousand candles and as he sat on it, the light became even more marvellous and constant so that even the Aerdin were marvelled by the light that reminded them of the beauty of the first light.

The other names of the gods and their history willbe devised from the names of atoms and other things...

Lithium
Beryllium
Boron
Carbon
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Fluorine
Neon
Sodium
Magnesium
Aluminium
Silicon
Phosphorus
Sulphur
Chlorine
Argon
Potassium
Calcium
Scandium
Titanium
Vanadium
Chromium
Manganese
Iron
Cobalt
Nickel
Copper
Zinc
Gallium
Germanium
Arsenic
Selenium
Bromine
Krypton
Rubidium
Strontium
Yttrium
Zirconium
Niobium
Molybdenum
Technetium
Ruthenium
Rhodium
Palladium
Silver
Cadmium
Indium
Tin
Antinomy
Tellurium
Iodine
Xenon
Caesium
Barium
Hafnium
Tantalum
Tungsten
Rhenium
Osmium
Iridium
Platinum
Gold
Mercury
Thallium
Lead
Bismuth
Polonium

The Celedrin

The Celedrin are some of the creations of the Aerdin. Little has been done about their development so far

The Derdaine

The Derdain are the fell creations of the Fallen Aerdin. The first among them was Dragnignazzo, the fell dragon, and was forged of all the evil and hate that the Fell Aerdin could muster. Their creation was fearful indeed, having power greater than any of the creators separately and becoming more like a god among them than their weapon. Dragnignazzo learnt all he could from his creators before abandoning them just before the attack of the Aerdin on their stronghold in the south of Terra-planos in the land now known as ???.

Alichino: Female deity: ‘The Allurer'
Barbariccia: The malicious
Calcobrina: The grace-scorner
Caynazzo: The snarler
Cirato Sannuto: The tusked boar
Dragnignâzzo: The fell dragon
Farfarello: The scandalmonger
Grafficans: The doggish
Libicocco: The ill-tempered
Rubicante: The red with rage
Scarminglions: The baneful

Times in Flamewind

There have been a multitude of calendars used across recorded time.

Sun Years (SY)

There have been a multitude of calendars used across recorded time.

Sun Years (SY)

The Sun Years calendar is the most common of all. This calendar dates from the rise of the first sun and was created by the Elves to reflect the change in their perception of time that came with the cycle of day and night. In the SY calendar, the date of the founding of the world is suspected to be at least 10,000 years prior to the rise of the Elves, though for obvious reason, the exact date is not known and the Aerdin who have conversed with the Elves on such matters tend no to dwell on the subject of events before the rise of the people of Terra-planos.

Important dates in the SY calendar include

SY 309 –

Moon time (MT)

A far older calendar than that of the Sun Years, it dates from the time that the moon, which was the construct of the fallen Aerdin in their attempt to forge their own world rose into the sky.

Under development

Pronunciation in Flamewind

There are a multitude of languages that are in current use in the world of Terra-planos, many of which share some common foundations in the language of the Elves who were the first literate people on the planet. Where notes have been included on language, pronunciation is specific and should be followed. Where no notes have been provided then there is no standardised pronunciation method between the languages and any can be used while still having the word retain its language value.

For example, Grafficans can be pronounced either as Gr-a-ff-I-cans (where the a is pronounced as it would be in ‘fat’, or as Gr-ah-ffecans (where the a is pronounced as it would be in ‘bah’)

This has the potential to be a huge section rivaling a dictionary. Words will be added on a case by case basis, or general rules established to cover groupings of words