World Index

Table of Contents

Glossary of Terms

Fauna

Flora

Nations and Important Places of Zenkon

Glossary of Terms Ignityal

Ignityal is the biofluid naturally produced in dragon bodies, as well as some subspecies of drakes, the Faormyrs, and, according to historical records, the feldroks as well. Ignityal contains a high amount of its own oxygen and can thus burn in a vacuum or at 100% of air volume (similar to Ethylene Oxide). Ignityal has a moderately high Lower Explosive Limit compared to ETO, and it could also be fairly compared to hydrazine (rocket fuel). That said, ignityal is discovered to be non-toxic to humans, at least in small amounts, and has a sort of smoky-sweet flavor that has a stimulating effect, though it could be adrenaline from knowing what it is. Ignityal burns hot enough, especially when amplified with magic, to melt through most metals and stone at a very rapid pace, and is said to be one of the possible ingredients in revival potations.

Potations

Separate from potions used in the east, which are alchemical concoctions, potations are an alcoholic brew infused with magic, granting them powerful effects, but dangerous side effects. The alcohol-making process produces an extraordinarily harsh and unpalatable flavor, and for certain potations, the ABV (alcohol by volume) percentage is so high, even a single potation can be deadly to its users, such as children, goblins, and imps. Even gatonines and dattakoriens must limit their intake lest the very thing intended to save them end up killing them from alcohol poisoning.

Sharmelkolle

Sharmelkolle is a wonder metal first known to Daniel on Zenkon. Its exact composition is unknown to most, as it is an alloy, and there are a couple of slightly varied iterations that can have drastically different outcomes. In general, sharmelkolle is considered to be one of the few materials in the world that is ‘truly’ indestructible, but it is later learned that void artillery spells and Zuzia are capable of damaging or disintegrating it under the right conditions. However, pure force alone is generally not enough to overcome the bonds of Sharmelkolle, especially as it’s form gets thicker and thicker. Due to this indestructible property, though, once alloyed, sharmelkolle virtually cannot be reformed, meaning the only way to make specific shapes with sharmelkolle that have any sort of structural integrity would be to magically form it, which takes an immense amount of magical power capable only in the Citadel for anything larger than a pencil eraser.

Dawnseeing/Dawnsight

Dawnseeing is a method of foresight where a practitioner, or ‘Dawnseer’ as they’re called, enters a dream-like state in tune with the world’s mana, where future events can be seen to some extent. However, Dawnseeing is not a guaranteed future nor a prophecy, it is a warning of a major shift in the world’s mana. Though it is a highly-respected art that can provide crucial time to prepare, there are times that the preparations can be the very cause of the event being avoided. In a sense, the warning received is closer to a “Hey, there’s this [Danger], and it has a very good chance of happening.” A skilled practitioner of Dawnseeing knows to use this information with caution, and to try to look at the events coming together in addition to the foresight being provided, lest they fail to avoid it or make the situation worse.

Cleansing War

The so-called Cleansing War happened in the Second Era, and it lead to the direct founding of Mattarglos as it stands today. During the Cleansing War, a human king received a Dawnsight that he believed was giving him divine instructions to purge all other sapient species from the continent. During this time, it was common for Shenwulves and Gatonines to be convinced to shave their tails and even cut off their ears to appease the humans growing in power. However, the Grand Zenkon Empire made an agreement with gathering beast-kin being cornered in the semi-barren lands that would become Mattarglos, such that the Empire would never allow the extermination of other species. The King who was leading the Cleansing War had used a forbidden technique in Dawnseeing where the caster attempts to ‘force’ a suggestion into the Dawnsight, but this is as good as taking lucid control of a dream, instantly shifting the Dawnsight’s attempt to warn into a total fiction. As such, he believed he was seeing a necessary future, and due to the abuses of Dawnsight by his kingdom, the Empire united with the beast-kin to smash down the Kingdom, breaking it apart into what became parts of Ahmpur, Bromlund, and Mattarglos for their assistance in defending the beast-kin. As such, Mattarglos has become the effective homeland of all non-human species, as any species or race is welcome in Mattarglos, and the only expectation is a person’s merit, not their bloodlines or their species.

The Cleansing War is considered the major event that was able to over-flare any inter-species hatred and unite everyone against the now-defunct Kingdom leading the charge. Though there are some rivalries and occasional prejudices, virtually all of the sapient species of the east get along, and are even rather easily tolerant of the ‘demon-kin’ species, since both sides of the war are over territory and resources, rather than species or creed.

Fauna Faormyr

A species of nearly-extinct ‘super-dragon’s, the Faormyrs had fallen into myth even more than the feldroks, and as such, were believed to be higher drakes, since the last surviving member of the species, Yaulwembor, was known to be a feral member of the ‘Three Terrors of Mattarglos’, a hyper-territorial monster that essentially claimed a large swath of the Mattarglosian wilderness for herself. However, after being captured by the Fievegal and managing to find a way to communicate with her, it’s learned that the faormyrs are, indeed, sapient beings, and Yaulwembor, the apparent last of her kind, exterminated them in self defense when they believed she was a monster due to her inability to process sounds into understood words. Yaulwembor herself produces a natural sub-alloy of sharmelkolle in her scales, making her physically durable against magic and physical attacks so long as her scales remain attached to her skin, but it is unknown if other faomyrs share this trait.

Feldroks

The feldroks are a near-extinct species of fox- or wolf-like draconids said to have been the pinnacle of evolution on Zenkon. For a long time, they were a peaceful species, governing much of the known world from the Citadel, their ancestral home, built with cutting edge magic that put it centuries ahead of the rest of the world through advanced magic. Though the feldroks were welcoming of other races as students of magic, they still remained perched high above.

Credit or blame are given to Morthybargaron, the red dragon lord, for betraying and exterminating the feldroks, but the more that is learned, there are missing pieces to that formula, which would have required a swift assault Morthybargaron and his most loyal allies would not have had the power to accomplish.

Dragons

Dragons are a sapient species of avian reptilians capable of flight, powerful magic rivaling the elves and Uhl’tall, and breathing fire with a substance known as ignityal, which can burn hot enough to melt stone and most metals. Dragons are typically very prideful and will not hesitate to hoard treasures and any other valuables that they find fascinating, which can include statues, books, plants, and even living things. That said, after being defeated by Daniel at the Citadel, most of the dragons have become subordinate allies to the human from Earth after he uses the Citadel to break an ancient curse on the dragons that has prevented any dragons from being successfully born and living past a certain age since Geirahoel. This curse was inflicted upon the dragons as a last-ditch effort to ensure the destruction of the dragons in retaliation for Morthybargaron’s betrayal and subsequent extermination of the feldroks. Dragons are typically born at a higher ratio of females than males when their population is relatively stable, though males are much stronger and grow much larger than females.

Dragons are capable of living for more than 10,000 years, but there are few that reach this age due to their massive caloric requirements and a ‘decline’ that startens to weaken them at this extreme age. It is unknown what happens to dragons after reaching the decline, as most will wander off into the wilderness to disappear, and the last two known dragons to reach an advanced age were Shiaulvolgarro, who is believed to have been over 10,000 years old when he was last seen, and Sayrdarralouche, who was believed to be around 8,000 years old when he disappeared as well.

Many of the others ranging between just shy of 1,000 years old and 8,000 years scattered to the winds after the feldroks were destroyed, with some of them having ended their own lives due to the curse or fleeing out over the sea. Though Neith has proven that the sea can be crossed, he was quite ‘young’ when he did so, and thus, small enough to avoid the notice of the Strylak, so long as he remained high enough in the sky.

Dattakoriens

A race of anthropomorphic felines (humanoid, but with distinctly animalistic appearances) primarily native to the western side of the mountains separating the continent of Stoerykame. Dattakoriens are strong and have keen hearing and senses of smell, often considered more adept than gatonines at tracking and guerilla tactics. While humanoid in body form, dattakoriens have light fur on most of their bodies, more rounded, tiger-like ears, and slightly more thickly-furred tails than their gatonine counterparts. Gatonines are believed by some to be the evolutionary descendants of dattakoriens, as dattakoriens retain more of the feral, tiger-like traits than gatonines, who could almost pass for human if their tails and ears were hidden. Dattakoriens typically live in tribes, with some maintaining a more nomadic lifestyle through large regions of mountains and valleys. They favor a carnivorous diet, but do require some fruit and vegetable intake to remain healthy.

Shenwulves

Shenwulves are one of the most ‘feral’-looking beastkin considered ‘human-kin’ in the eastern nations. Shenwulves are fierce and loyal, and of the known races, they have the best sense of hearing and smell, with their only challengers for one or the other being the feldroks for hearing and a rare species of bear-kin for smell. Shenwulves are stronger than humans or gatonines, often compared more directly with dattakoriens one-for-one, but are less agile than their feline counterparts. That said, Shenwulves are natural team-players and often find themselves welcome in leadership roles for their instincts towards organization and strategy in the heat of the moment. While they don’t typically favor large scale planning and logistics, for fortress defense or squad-based combat, Shenwulves excel in most situations where their instincts and means of communicating a lot of information with very short signals let them shine.

Gatonines

Gatonines are possibly the second to humans in terms of the largest population in the eastern territories, and it’s remarkably close. Gatonines generally function well in societies or alone, but are far more sociable than their dattakorien counterparts. Their agility is second to none, such that they have sports and even combat techniques that make use of their fearlessness towards heights and their surefootedness. An example of one such sport is ‘Rush Jousting’, where gatonine knights stand on the backs of buckrokhs being guided either by themselves through training or by a rider tasked with guiding the buckrokh while the jousters attempt to dislodge each other at high velocity with acrobatic attacks and dulled swords. Even as dangerous as it would be for any other species, including dattakoriens, rush jousting done properly by gatonines with experience rarely ends in fatality, though severe injuries are common enough.

Gatonines are well-regarded in most human-led territories several generations after the ‘Cleansing War’ due to their bravery, ability to fight where humans can’t, and their keen night-vision, which makes them excellent for night shift roles in both labor and military applications. If put in a room together, gatonines would have a friendly rivalry with the shenwulves, since they generally fill different roles overall, but they would have a more antagonistic rivalry with dattakoriens, because dattakoriens can match gatonines in most of their talents, while being slightly larger and stronger.

Boruans

Boruans are moderately anthropomorphic humanoids with bovine features, including cow-like horns, hooves, and a slender tail ending in a tuft. Their faces also take more of a cow-like shape than human, but they otherwise have the majority of human-like skin. Some legends suggest that boruans are descendants of the mythical minotaur, but as no one has seen a minotaur on Stoerykame in any official historical records, this is believed to be a myth.

Boruans are rather social, and as a species, they are sexually dimorphous, meaning the males are a little larger than humans and much more muscular, but the females grow almost twice as large as their male counterparts when fully grown. The females take on a very rotund build meant to support the carrying of and healthy birth of particularly large offspring, with plenty of boruans ending up with twins. That said, even though the female boruans would appear ‘obese’ by human standards, they are stupendously strong, and in many cases, when not carrying children, they tend to be physically stronger than any other species short of the dragons and tougher monsters. A female boruan can grow to be 9-10 feet tall (~3 meters), and weigh upwards of 500 pounds or more, depending on their build. Though not as agile as a human, a boruan should not be underestimated because of their size, as they can be a relatively unstoppable force if they are allowed to charge, and a powerful swing from their weapons can easily break bones.

If magic and ignityal were taken out of the equation, a well-trained boruan would have some chance of wounding a lesser dragon like Magnir or Roetta with a properly sturdy sword.

Crawgistes

A sapient species of crawfish- or lobster-like people native to the northern regions of Mattarglos, mostly near the sea, but they can live in fresh water rather comfortably. Cragistes are intelligent and hardworking making them absolutely integral to water-based operations, though the Strylak’s existence restricts sea travel. Crawgistes stand about five feet tall, but in a sort of ‘lobster-taur’ posture, where they have six of their articulated legs on the ground, and their foreclaws and first set of mini-claws as their ‘hands and arms’. In the water, Crawgistes are virtually unchallenged as warriors, but out of the water, a strange phenomenon comes over them. As long as their gills are still wet, Crawgistes are possibly the most dangerously-powerful race in terms of physical strength. It is almost like they gain an adrenaline rush when first emerging from the water, and with no water to restrict their movements, they can unleash lightning fast strikes with their claws and tailor-made weapons that can devastate the front lines of their enemies or even make short work of certain species of monsters.

Crawgistes struggle to speak the Eastern Imperial Trade language, and they are one of the most alien-looking species in the Eastern Alliance. However, they are well respected for their merits at construction, repair, and, when needed, combat. Many castles have had Crawgistes defending their moats and have held back massively superior forces, especially if any of the Crawgistes are skilled mages.

Elves

Elves are one of the closest species to humans in terms of appearance, but generally have a more “default beauty” associated with them. They are long-lived and skilled in magic, but have slowly faded from the continent. Part of this is due to their extraordinarily low libido, as well as many elves developing a sort of malaise towards immortality that leads them to focus on more personal, philosophical endeavors than the trials and tribulations of the other races. As such, it’s assumed that the elves have generally not died out from Stoerykame, but have gathered in reclusive settlements beyond the reach of normal means.

This all said, some regions where slavery is still thriving will often reward the capture of elves with an immense value, so every now and then, an elf will appear in the slave markets as either a powerful magic ‘tool’ or for other, more sinister purposes, the latter of which often leads to a few half-elves here and there. Since the elves have enough trouble with their own fertility rates, they generally don’t welcome hybrids into their society for fear of their bloodlines being diluted down even more.

Archoneldwyn

Archoneldwyn are an ancient, fairly long-lived race of ‘pseudo-elves’. Though they have similar pointed, leaf-shaped ears and beautiful features, the archoneldwyn are generally considered ‘scruffy elves’, because they can grow facial hair (males), and their hair can take on virtually any shade. The archoneldwyn are believed to be nearly extinct, though the reasons why are unknown. The last known survivors appeared as Brosjak, Doephluev, and one other male, but there are a few others scattered around here and there. The archoneldwyn are regarded with suspicion by those who know them well, since they tend to have a proclivity for thievery, assassination, and espionage, especially when aided by a secret ancient method of magic runes that can help hide their real magic prowess and give them secretive abilities.

Goblins

Goblins stand about 3 feet tall (~1 meter) and are an extremely prolific race in the west. They tend to have green-skin in the most common bloodlines, but there are a few tribes of goblins in remote regions that have different skin tones, including a grey-blue and even a violet-hued color.

However, they live fast and die fast, meaning they rarely have the patience to be highly educated, while eagerly fighting and stealing to gather treasure. They are capable of living more than fifty years with ease, even having very little natural mana potential, but the average goblin lifespan due to the effects of often being used as sword-fodder or their own infighting tends to be closer to twenty. As such, Daniel giving them ‘structured bloodlust’ with equalizing weapons and ensuring they have targets that they can show no mercy to, primarily monsters or bandits with violent tendencies, the goblins of the Fievegal have started to move into a separate category, and even identify themselves as ‘proper goblins’, while those who retain the more savage, barbaric ways of old are considered ‘dumbgobs’.

In spite of not being especially intelligent as a sapient race, goblins are generally considered fearsome fighters, especially in large groups, and generally won’t retreat unless ordered to do so, or they are met with such overwhelming force, they actually realize how hopeless the fight is. They are also born fairly precocial, such that goblin children can generally talk at less than one year old, walk, and scavenge for food. Though, in a social environment that encourages filial care, goblin children can actually thrive and be raised to have skills and talents exceeding their ancestors.

In spite of their lifestyles, goblins are believed to be completely immune to disease of any kind, and they have a high resistance to toxins, including toxic gases. In their description of ‘Alkus Gristak’, which is one of the few ‘universal’ concepts goblins revere as a sort of hell, the truth of Alkus Gristak seems more in line with digging too deep and accidentally reaching a magma pocket.

Ogres

One of the largest races of the west, ogres are powerful, muscular demon-kin standing eight feet tall. They are often used for destroying a fortress gate that has already been besieged. They are relatively unintelligent, since they have next to no concept of education, are weak in magic, and generally make their own tribal decisions through contests of strength. A diplomatic meeting between two ogre tribes will almost certainly end in an all-out brawl.

And both sides will be perfectly content with accepting the outcome.

Orcs

Orcs are a little larger than humans with dark grey or green skin, an impressive amount of strength, and a heavily strength-oriented system of respect and ‘diplomacy’, similar to the ogres. However, unlike ogres, orcs are capable of producing skilled mages, though they generally don’t have a means of being taught by their own tribes. But, many orcs will be self-taught or manage to learn from their tribemates in how to resist magic attacks of all kinds, making most orcs nearly immune to a succubi or eastern mages hypnotic or other mind-affecting spells.

Oni

Oni are a race of demon-kin that have mostly human-like features, but one or two horns protruding from their foreheads. They are skilled mages, and they generally fill the upper-middle ranks of demon attack groups, commanding goblins and imps while often being led by one or more Uhl’tall and Chi’rinnis, typically. Oni are intelligent and generally compare to the upper-ranking mages among humans.

Imps

Imps are a feisty race of small, winged demon-kin similar in many ways to goblins, but not nearly as fearless or aggressive. Imps are generally considered cowardly by many of the demon-kin races, and even after the fracturing of the Demon Covenant and the Demon Hegemony, the imps have mostly retreated to their tribes further west and minimized involvement with the Fievegal.

Though not true ‘demons’, they are skilled at entering upper-levels undetected, and can sometimes cause terror in castle defenders, depending on how they attack. Like goblins, though, imps are not especially intelligent, and because they’re not well-respected by the other species, they are mostly used as sword-fodder and suicide attackers.

Uhl’tall

One of the most powerful races of ‘demon-kin’, often colloquially called ‘the true demons’, Uhl’tall are a generally peaceful sapient species with fairly humanoid features, but with two regal horns rising from the sides of their head, and as they age, these horns may sometimes start to separate into two prongs, showing status and elegance. The Uhl’tall are deeply spiritual, believing in the spirit of the world itself, and often use a method similar to Dawnseeing to ‘tap into’ the world’s mana and see the past, parts of the present, or even the future to a limited degree. They are deeply in tune with magic, and are often considered to be rivaled only by the elves and feldroks in terms of magical prowess.

Though peaceful, the Uhl’tall took charge of uniting the various tribes in the west to try to fight off the Devourer and to force their way eastward to avoid being destroyed by the ever-encroaching force of doom that the Devourer was.

After the defeat of the Devourer and the fracturing of the Covenant, many of the Uhl’tall followed Vaergraes to the Fievegal, while others have attempted to restore their own pseudo-aristocracy centered around their system of Archpriestess and priestesses to resume their old ways.

Chi’rinnis

The Chi’rinnis are said to be the ‘Children of Kirin’, a supposed forest god that taught them magic and how to thrive in the wilderness. The Chi’rinnis have some similar beliefs to Amazonians of Earth mythology, not least of which is surrendering oneself to someone who bests them in battle, especially in cases of the opposite sex. This is intended to promote strong bloodlines, though the practicality can easily be called into question. Regardless, Chi’rinnis are powerful mages, especially in terms of manipulating nature. Together, they can summon storms, and alone, they are often powerful healers and short-range area-attackers. And, in Kera’tai’s case, she is able to use some summoning magic, though she mostly focuses on her attack spells.

Succubus

The succubi are a race of exclusively female demon-kin possessing mostly human traits, but with vibrant hair colors, such as pink, violet, and blue, and they have a slender tail that often leads to a ‘winged’ point. Succubi are comparable to upper-middle rank battle-mages in terms of magic capacity; not quite to the level of strong mages, but capable fighters with magic alone. Their true danger comes in their specializations towards hypnotic and illusory magic, as they are masters of placing targets into fugue-like or even dream-like states and prey on them either in the dream world or leave them vulnerable to attack.

Succubi are not a particularly aggressive race, though. Often, they are brought in as support units, because they are often better suited for interrogation after a fight, rather than relying on them in battle.

Cambion

Cambions are essentially the ‘mutts’ of the demon-kin. They don’t necessarily share any one appearance or trait, because they are heavily hybridized chimeras. It’s unclear why so many species and races on Zenkon end up being compatible with each other, but when they are, a sub-race like the cambions appear. They inherit traits based on their own parentage, and in some cases, such as Zolorad, they can benefit from hybrid vigor, growing larger and stronger than any of their ancestors and possessing massive amounts of mana they can call upon. But, cambions are often disparaged for one reason or another, often being forced to prove themselves through action, because more often than not, cambions are generally weaker than their weaker parent, regardless of what form their body takes.

Drake

Drakes are non-sapient reptiles similar to Komodo dragons that grow to at least the size of a small whale and can breathe fire, depending on the subspecies and age. Though drakes have a finite age somewhere around five hundred years, as long as they maintain a healthy diet, they never stop growing, and will grow at a rate that is proportional to their diet, slowing only as their massive size starts to compound towards the Square-Cube Law. Though many creatures of Zenkon seem to defy this law, likely counter-balanced by some unknown mechanism of magic, drakes are one of the few natural creatures to grow as large as they do without being mutated by magic. Drakes are sometimes believed to be the ancient evolutionary ancestors to the dragons, and a drake that starts to approach ancient status is often able to seem very nearly-sapient.

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Wingdrake

Wingdrakes are mostly found in the west, and are a species of non-sapient winged reptiles capable of being raised and tamed as mounts, especially by races skilled in calming and hypnosis magic. Wingdrakes can fly rather fast and can carry an average of two human males in weight. A well-trained wingdrake can be used to engage even the dragons in battle, since they are capable of developing a trusting bond with their riders. After all, if the wingdrake goes down, there’s a very low chance of its rider surviving.

Wyvern

Though not common on Stoerykame, wyverns are often called ‘wild dragons’. Their natural form has wings that are also their forelegs/forearms, but they are powerful firebreathers and aggressive aerial hunters. It is likely they were hunted to extinction from Stoerykame by the sapient avians of old consisting of the dragons, the feldroks, and before their near-extinction, the faormyrs.

Gulpox

Gulpox are massive, elephant-sized mammalians that have a massive ivory plate over the tops of their muzzles and heads. They are fairly territorial and semi-aggressive herd animals, and for a long time, were used as livestock to feed the dragons in Shialvolgarro’s Hoard. Many of the gulpoxen have been reclaimed for the Citadel, but they require a great deal of skilled mages to keep them in check, in case their impulses to stampede are triggered for any reason.

Buckrokh

Buckrokhs are possibly the most common beasts of burden on Stoerykame. They are easily trained and powerful; sharing a build similar to a rhinoceros of Earth, but with a longer neck and head similar to a horse. Males grow moderate horns similar to a ram, and thanks to their size and strength, buckrokhs can easily carry two or three people, especially if otherwise unladen, and still run at most of their top speed. Because they grow larger than horses, they are obviously a bit more expensive to take care of overall than horses would be, so horses are often considered more expendable, and are thus, used for lower-priority tasks, where Buckrokhs are favored for the most important purposes due to their all-around versatility, strength, and speed. The average buckrokh is as fast as the average horse, and the fastest buckrokhs are faster than all but the absolute fastest of horses.

Benki

Benkis are small, ferret-like creatures that have a somewhat otter-like appearance. They are skilled bug-eaters, as well as any other small pests, so they are generally allowed to run free in castles and towns. They rarely cause harm to a person’s home, and they almost never try to break into human food stores, as they generally have no interest in grains or dried meat. Benkis are considered extremely gentle towards people, and because of their rather mutual non-interference, they have grown to be rather unfazed by people being around, using only a base level of caution to remain out of reach.

For those caught sleeping outside, they’ll sometimes wake up to being licked by benkis, likely after the salt in a person’s sweat.

Wiuben

Wiubens are beautiful songbirds with impressive plumage that can be seemingly any possible color and combination of colors. They have beautiful singing voices, but are often kept as pets only to learn that they will sing constantly, and often at random times throughout the day. This can make them more annoying than one would assume, and occasionally, the owners will silence them. This has become the source of the rather derogatory term ‘silent wiuben’, which is a term referring to a trophy wife of a noble-woman; seen, but not heard. Meant to look pretty on her owner’s arm, but to keep her thoughts and her songs to herself.

Naturally, the Wiuben bird that cannot sing does not live a long and happy life after being silenced.

Spheranterus

An often forgotten monster so forgotten, a certain author will have to eventually address its existence. The Spheranterus resides in the mountains that the nomadic tribes of the dattakoriens have inhabited, and it is an extremely dangerous creature that little is known about. It tends to follow its prey back to its village or encampment and wipe them out, seeming to be a malicious manhunter of a creature. It is a highly evasive creature, such that its appearance, actual abilities, and even whether or not it truly exists are all unknown.

Mantarouck

A sort of crustacean in the loosest terms, a mantarouck has many of the appearance traits and body form of a manta ray, but also has massive, crab-like legs that it can ambush prey on shore by lunging out of the water, and then retreating with ease. To aid in this, mantaroucks have large, lobster-like pincers capable of crushing bones and dragging even large prey into the water. Due to their ray-like bodies, their wing-like fins can allow them to glide a surprisingly long distance out of the water when they have enough speed.

When mutated by magic into their monstrous forms, they tend to gain a natural talent for water magic, and can even cause a localized rain shower around themselves.

Shalma

A species of livestock native to the fjords for which Reeffjord in the Grand Zenkon Empire is named. These animals are generally slow moving, peaceful beasts similar to oxen or aurochs (the ancestors of cows). They have since been domesticated through the long history of the Empire and its predecessors, and their appearance is that of a thickly-furred or even wooly sheep, but the size of large cows, and without the focus on sure-footedness. They have complex knees and padded feet that make them slow-but-reliable at climbing steep hills and rocky cliffs, nearly emulating the ‘grip’ of a gecko through surface area and meticulous ‘foothold selection’. On open ground, their feet tend to lose their ‘flex’ in favor of cushioning, and, like ‘gourmet pig’s feet’, there is a rather large amount of usable eat in the pads of their feet. Because of their size and chosen environment, they don’t have many natural predators, can swim well enough to cross the fjords, and will generally form tight-knit herds for additional safety.

Wild shalmas have short, coarse hair like an otter or a moose, possessing a ‘hollow’ structure and the oil which gives them buoyancy while also allowing the water to run right off of them when they leave the water. Over the centuries, domesticated shalmas have been selected for the softer ‘down’-like adolescent wool that is much softer and more comparable to cotton than to traditional wool. They also grow fatter and have less dangerous tail spikes that are still prized for their ‘discount ivory’ look and feel.

Ivorram

These are the Zenkon equivalent to an elephant. They are relatively gentle giants with a massive ivory ‘plate’ over their skulls, similar to gulpoxen, from just above their nose to the rounded center of their crown, much like a pachycephalosaurus, but made of ivory instead of bone. They use it as a bashing instrument to knock fruit out of big trees, break through giant brambles, and even smash through fallen trees that are in the way. Their habitat, in spite of their size, is generally vine-entangled forests rich with fruit-bearing trees and vines, flowers, and other large flora that their ramming skull is designed to crack open and make easier for them to eat.

Deiracore

A rumored beast of the west that is extremely rare, since they are extremely territorial, but only the males are aggressive. Females are almost never seen, and often disputed to even exist. The creature has the features of a snow-leopard, but with fingered wings like a wyvern, and a spined tail similar to a porcupine. They tend to swoop down on prey, tackle it in a vicious roll, and claw it with their back legs like cats do, tearing flesh apart before the creature even really knows it has been pounced on. They are adept at a sort of hybrid flight through heavily wooded areas, and male deiracores are ferocious hunters. Like zebras or apes, deiracore males keep a harem of females that they will hunt for, primarily, while the females usually hunt smaller prey. Several females in heat are fairly easy to detect for males from far away, meaning that a dead deiracore male is quickly replaced. They live in the south directly west of Reeffjord, and the rumors of their existence mostly come from scouts of the fort stumbling across a rare encounter, usually having seen females that have strayed too close to their males’ territorial border. Those that have tried to follow any deiracore, especially the ‘passive and timid’ females have gone missing. Because such attacks are so rare, and the existence of deiracores is always in doubt, especially so close to a military fortress, many assume the missing are either deserters or were killed by any other number of things, especially when blood does happen to be found. The males do avoid sapient species and races, but if they decide they can take a person, they’ll attack, usually from an ambush position. A typical male deiracore is about twice the size of a lion at the largest, while the females are closer to an North American Mountain Lion.

Kaepina

Kaepinas are small livestock similar to goats endemic mostly to the central region around the mountains, especially in what used to be Phenglegorn territory. The babies, particularly, often have a ‘fainting response’ when they become intimidated or startled, as well as something they’ll simply do in play with each other. The adults end up having a rather flavorful meat that essentially fills the role of ‘easy beef’, since kaepinas reproduce and grow quickly enough to make them a competitive livestock for buckrokhs and cattle for eating. Their milk is adequate, but not favored among the nobility because it has a sort of ‘grass’ taste to it. The adults are fairly docile, though they are known to bite if they are anxious. In some reasons of the Phenglegorn territory, including when Aramellianna was a child, children would tie a couple of kaepinas to pieces of a certain kind of tree bark to make a sleigh, and they’d ride it around their yards and gardens.

Shaelhund

A wolf-like creature that is a notoriously tactful predator, in spite of being rather solitary (as opposed to the wolves of Earth). They will cooperate at times if several happen to approach an abundant hunting ground at the same time, since fighting can only serve to scare off the prey. They are capable of naturally using some magic, and have been around since the founding of the Empire, which is why their nicknames will sometimes be ‘witch wolves’.

Garatin

A monotreme (egg-laying) mammal of Zenkon that is somewhat like an armadillo with a fixed shell. It has a slow metabolism and moves slowly, mainly feeding on vegetation and insects, which are attracted by a sweet smell garatins produce naturally. The shell is attached, and it ‘folds’ itself inside when retreating into the shell, claws forward in order to defend itself from predators, namely wyverns and drakes.

Zaftamben

An insect-like monster that appears occasionally east of the mountains. It looks sort of like a praying mantis, using large foreclaws to snatch prey and slash at enemies. It can also create a shrill sound similar to a cricket, but loud enough to create a small pressure wave that is especially effective on gatonines, shenwulves, and other races with keen hearing. Zaftambens can fly for short distances, which given their large size, is actually quite a long ways compared to a human-kin’s ability to escape.

Pol’vapporr

An aquatic omnivorous ambush predator that typically resides in pools of water that are heavily vegetated in Chi’rinnis territories. In times of prey scarcity, pol’vapporrs will parasitize hardwood plants near their home body of water. While they are primarily aquatic, they can reside outside of water while parasitizing trees and shrubs. However, unlike their monster-evolved counterparts, which can grow to titanic proportions if they live long enough, a ‘large’, naturally occurring pol’vapporr is no longer than a German Shepherd. They have a snake-like head, a strange, somewhat squid-like ‘tail’, which has two mantles on top and bottom with unique and powerful fins that can create a water jet by closing the mantles together and directing the propulsion out behind it. And, for attacks, climbing, and navigation through plants, the pol’vapporr has ten arms each with a 3-fingered webbed ‘hand’ that possesses a rudimentary eye capable of detecting motion and direction to a degree, and which further allows the animal to catch fish, insects, crustaceans, and even rodents above and below the water’s surface. The mana-mutated monster loses its size restraints, capable of growing as large as an adult dragon, and the ‘palm-eyes’ become capable of nearly-full visual acuity and light sensitivity. Monster pol’vapporrs have excellent night and dark vision, and they reside in dark-water swamps to help hide their large forms.

Slormontu

A rather alien and ugly creature that possesses a LOOSELY primate-like posture with green fur dyed by algae that grows in their fur like sloths. They have a head without a mouth, as their true mouth is attached directly to their stomachs in a kangaroo-like pouch on their bellies. Their head is similar to a barreleye fish in that the majority of the head after the skull portion is a transparent dome-shape filled with a transparent fluid, and their vertically-positioned binocular eyes can pivot almost a full 180 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees vertically. They have strong arms each possessing four-fingered ‘hands’ with short tentacles that have a powerful ‘snap-band’ muscle in them for latching onto branches and prey. A specialized proboscis attached to a miniature digestive system in each wrist can be used to drink sap and juice from trees and fruits, as well as blood from prey, when necessary. For larger meals, the slormontu simply shoves meat, fruits, and small branches and leafy greens into the kangaroo-like pouch in their belly, which is lined with ‘shredder’ hooks similar to a squid’s tentacles that grind the food before it is ‘swallowed’ directly into the stomach. Slormontus have been known to feed each other when sick or injured, which can keep even thouse wounded in the head alive beyond what would paralyze or kill a typical creature of fairly standard terrestrial build. They create noise reminiscent of monkeys by blasting air through their large, down-facing nostrils on their heads, which can constrict and flare to generate a wide range of sounds.

Lurewaifs

Lurewaifs are forest nymphs that behave much like mermaids of certain Earth mythologies; luring sapient beings into the woods to ‘devour’ them in more ways than one, which grants their offspring greater abilities based on their ‘prey’. They’re widely believed not to exist, but they do appear in remote parts of the continent, including the forest of Kernuules, though Kernuules itself has driven them deep into hiding after approaching extinction.

Lurewaifs are almost exclusively unrepentantly evil in that they have no regard for their prey, child or adult, male or female, and will use any means of trickery to lure them into a trap to be devoured; as food unless they’re male, then also for ‘essence’ before becoming food. They enjoy killing other sapient races, and were it not for their natural habitats being invaded or destroyed for various reasons, they would slowly consume the whole world.

Glalia

A species of ‘hairy’ or ‘furry’ serpents that produces the most luxurious andexpensive ‘wool’ in the world. While called a wool, the fibers are extremely fine, long, and sturdy, allowing it to be crafted in a manner similar to silk, but with a much higher level of temperature control, a high natural gloss making metallic colors easy to create, and a softness comfortable for long periods of wear. Originally, glalias are slain to harvest the wool, since they’re large enough to and absolutely will eat people, being ambush predators and highly defensive of themselves. Daniel urges Aramellianna to pursue shearing methods, which prove to be fairly easy once her willing wool merchants employ the tranquilizer lobsters used on Yaulwembor (in much smaller does, of course) to put the glalias to sleep so they can be sheared and kept alive, with an obvious goal towards eventual domsetication. They become especially lazy if food is abundant, and grow fat and slow if well-fed, such that they become much less aggressive towards their handlers, though caution must still be exercised.

Masonrahms

Known by Daniel as ‘wall breakers’, masonrahms are humongous, four-legged mammalians that can be used as beasts of burden, but they are extremely slow and easy targets. They can rear up with relative ease and smash through walls with their hammer-like front hooves. Tyror was a weisperant variant of a masonrahm, capable of ice magic and growing to the size of an extremely large mammoth.

Flora Laugur Flower

A flower with a toxin that, in extremely small and carefully prepared doses, can serve as a pain-killer and a sleeping agent. However, handling of the laugur itself is extremely challenging, because the toxin itself is secreted by the flower and stem, and it is a highly irritating substance, similar to poison ivy or poison oak, but worse. Laugur rashes will badly blister with or without scratching, and are said to be one of the most excruciatingly painful things a person can experience, meaning the only ones who typically have a practical use for it are assassins, who have learned to carefully dose the laugur toxin such that it becomes a powerful forever-sedative that is difficult to trace.

Nightcote

A type of plant that glows in the dark via bioluminescence, but many denizens of Zenkon assume it is mana, since the plant truly is abundant in its own mana. They grow notoriously fast, especially up the walls of buildings, but they aren’t stranglers, so much as symbiotes. They attract insects and mammals that clear out more nutrient-greedy weeds that can choke out saplings of various species of trees.

Nations and Important Places of Zenkon Stoerykame

Stoerykame is the continent where much of the story has taken place. One of its most notable features is the large mountain range spanning from north to south roughly near the half-way point separating the ‘Imperial Alliance’ of the east from the ‘Demon Wildlands’ of the west. Much of the west has been consumed by a creature known as the Devourer, which has since been slain by Daniel, leaving a massive wasteland and crater scarring the land.

Grand Zenkon Empire

A very old united Empire currently headed by the young and only legitimate heir, Sundenelle kos Lindenmorg. The Grand Zenkon Empire is considered the most powerful nation in the eastern part of the continent, and they have held an alliance together between the majority of eastern nations in an effort to prevent the Demon Covenant from crossing the mountains, the last major stronghold against invasion. But, just because it is a very old and stable Empire, the GZE is not infallible. Corruption and Rot have started to appear, and the rise of the Fievegal has started to threaten everything everyone thought they knew about the endless war with the demons.

Demon Covenant

The Demon Covenant, once headed by the Uhl’tall Archpriestess Vaergraes, was a major union between all of the known tribes of the western ‘Demon Wildlands’. Though a bit of a misnomer, most of the species and races of the Demon Covenant are not actual demons. Even the Uhl’tall, the so-called ‘true demons’, are closer to elves than to murderous, evil monsters. The Demon Covenant quickly fractured once Vaergraes fled from an assassination attempt, with a cambion named Zolorad attempting to scrape it all back together as the short-lived Demon Hegemony, a more formalized empire that was hoping to be the iron fist that would keep the various tribes inline.

Demon Hegemony

A direct descendant grouping of the so-called ‘demon-kin’ led by Zolorad, who attempted to rule by force what Vaergraes barely managed by diplomacy. As such, while Zolorad was able to attack the Citadel, this prompted a retaliation on the Orbicharium, an ancient stronghold of the Demon Covenant that was swiftly destroyed, along with Zolorad. The actual ‘Hegemony’ effectively dissolved without Zolorad, though remnants launched one final near-successful attack on the Citadel when the Citadel barrier was down.

Fievegal

The rising nation led by Daniel and Hekate, as well as their other closest friends and new family, the Fievegal is built on the backbone of Daniel working to forge modernized weapons for his soldiers using the immense technological prowess of the Citadel. Much of the Fievegal’s relatively small population consists of stragglers from various demon-kin tribes, including goblins, dattakoriens, ogres, orcs, Uhl’tall, imps, and the dragons.

Shiaulvolgarro’s Hoard

Colloquially known as ‘the Dragon’s Keep’, this location was once believed to have been a temple or a mine of some kind, conquered and held by the dragons, and which served as their home for hundreds or thousands of years. After the defeat of the red dragon lord Morthybargaron at the Citadel, the Fievegal absorbed Shiaulvolgarro’s Hoard and claimed most of the riches inside, with only a few mysteries remaining behind doors that require powerful magic to open. The original creator of that magic is believed to have been Shiaulvolgarro himself, a black dragon who vanished around the time of the feldroks being slain, leaving some of those mysteries potentially sealed forever.

The Citadel

The ancient fortress of the feldroks, having fallen into disrepair when Morthybargaron was driven out by the enraged and shockingly powerful infant Feral Feldrok, later named Lugrae by Hekate. Lugrae likely absorbed enough of the mana from his fallen ancestors, and potentially even the spirits themselves, allowing him to defend the Citadel for generations, until Daniel was able to defeat him. The Citadel is full of ancient secrets about magic, much of which have only barely been tapped by Daniel and his allies, but what power they have been able to make use of has helped jumpstart the Fievegal into an impenetrable force securing the area around them.

The Citadel is said to be ‘a mountain unto itself’, as it was home to the potentially gigantic feldroks, who never stop growing with age, so it’s said. As such, parts of the Citadel can actually be hidden by the clouds at times, and much of the fortress itself are unexplored, since entire towns can often be built into some of the larger chambers inside.

The Citadel possesses a magic barrier believed to be impenetrable when it’s operating at full power, though the advent of nuclear weapons, which behave as a sort of ‘anti-magic’, has brought that into question.

Kingdom of Mornistae

Mornistae is the Kingdom that Daniel and Rikuto first arrive in upon being summoned by the Divine Summoning ritual. While this ritual was, for the longest time, exclusive to Mornistae by all accounts, it is actually heavily reliant on the artifact that has since come into the possession of the Fievegal. The ritual can be performed without, but has a very high mortality rate for the dozens of mages required for casting it. More mages does not, necessarily, mean the mortality rate is avoided.

Regardless, Mornistae is a relatively small, but mostly-secure kingdom that, until the collapse of Bromlund granting an opportunity to gain gulf access, was landlocked. They have a fairly stable economy, but were struggling to keep up with the needs of the Imperial Alliance, and so, attempted the Divine Summoning ritual that brought Daniel and Rikuto to Zenkon.

Ruled by the Mornistae family, Rikuto was made king in order to shortcut his path to being able to implement modern Earth farming techniques, economic strategies, and tax systems that have mostly stabilized the Kingdom, but they have since entered into a relatively weakened position due to events involving the Fievegal, not least of which is the annexation of the Stalvaltan Grand Duchy, representing almost half of the Kingdom’s total land and more than half of their raw wealth, and the Peace Conference after Rikuto attempted to assassinate the Fievegal’s leadership at Fort Twilight in a desperate fear of the weapons the Fievegal has been confirmed to produce; nuclear bombs.

Mattarglos

Mattarglos is a nation occupying a massive landmass along roughly the northern half of the mountain range and extending a similarly wide range eastward towards Mornistae and former-Bromlund. Mattarglos is one of the few nations where humans are a total minority, having been the region of last stand during the Cleansing War for many of the beast-kin races, including shenwulves, gatonines, crawgistes, boruans, and more. Dwarves and elves are generally considered ‘human enough’, that it’s speculated they would have made it through the Cleansing War without being purged, but many dwarves didn’t take the chance and migrated to the lands that would become Mattarglos to help with the war effort. Similarly, though the fate of the elves is unknown for certain, it is believed that many villages or even hidden cities of elves exist deep in the furthest reaches of Mattarglos that remain relatively unexplored.

Mattarglos doesn’t have a king or Emperor, but instead, a Grand Premier, currently held by Grand Premier Kalegrynten. Technically, anyone can challenge Kalegrynten at any time to take over the position of Grand Premier, but there are rituals that one must go through to get approval from the elders, lest constant duels be challenged and chaos reign. Mattarglos heavily favors merit over bloodline, so many of those considered nobles and granted noble titles within Mattarglos have earned the title in some capacity or another, or have been able to honorably hold onto their family titles. Mattarglos is highly compatible with the Fievegal’s similar favor towards talent and skill over dynasty, and after helping with ‘The Three Terrors of Mattarglos’, Rohgattobor, Tyror, and Yaulwembor, the Fievegal has entered a favorable alliance with Mattarglos, being further united in friendship with the betrothal of Daniel to Veiranoei, Kalegrynten’s granddaughter. Though she secretly held as an “Empress in Name Only”, Veiranoei is granted the authority of one of the many Empresses of the Fievegal, and she is allowed to dress and live far more comfortably than she would ever be allowed to normally.

Mattarglos is the second largest nation on Stoerykame in terms of landmass and population, rivaled for now only by the Grand Zenkon Empire. While functional, Mattarglos does have a lot of difficult land to use for farming and travel, and they have a massive abundance of monsters that make it a challenge to mine and trade within the country. However, Daniel sees it as fertile ground for fighting back the wilderness and taming the natural resources present, though with a goal towards a safe balance so that the wilderness may remain wild where he doesn’t need to reach.

Empire of Lorih’nimbael

An Empire on a continent that is not Stoerykame once visited by Neith. The name ‘Lorih’nimbael’, in their language, means ‘Of the Divine Moons’, worshipping the three ‘moon goddesses’ of the sky.

Neith stumbled upon the Princess of the Empire as she was about to take her own life, and through a series of events, he helped her become the Empress and ruled for a time as her ‘Divine Dragon Husband’ until her reign was stable. It is unknown what became of the Empire after Neith’s departure, but at the time of his initial arrival, dragons were present and far more numerous than Stoerykame, but they had become an extremely weak species that could defeated by human ‘Dragonslayers’ who possessed a power comparable to an average Stalvaltan Battlemage. The dragons of Lorih’nimbael were of a slave status, and thus, of no concern to Neith, but they were later freed by Empress Meliarte to become proper citizens of the Empire when she ascended to the throne.

Fort Peony

A fortress guarding the western end of the northernmost major valley passing through the mountains, Fort Peony is often called ‘The Flower Garden’ due to a tradition of staffing the fortress with almost exclusively women. Fort Peony is in a difficult to navigate region of the mountains, meaning attacks are extremely rare, typically, and it provides a sort of status symbol more than a defensive fortification. Regardless, the women of Fort Peony are brave fighters, and only when a dragon marches on the fortress do they follow normal protocol and retreat with haste to Castle North Wall at the eastern side of the valley, a much larger and better-stocked fortress. Fort Peony is technically controlled by the Empire, but it actually resides firmly in Mattarglos territory.

Fort Twilight

When it stood, Fort Twilight was the largest defensive fortress in the mountains standing as a bulwark against the Demon Covenant. All three mountain fortresses, Twilight, Peony, and Reeffjord, were controlled by the Empire directly, but Twilight was surrendered to the Fievegal as an apology for an unprovoked and miscommunicated attack that the Fievegal drove back with ease. However, fearing the Fievegal had nuclear weapons that they would use against the eastern alliance, Rikuto sent his newly-developed void artilleries to attack Fort Twilight, and as a result, Twilight was virtually erased, becoming a hemispherical crater with a nearly-polished surface.

Fort Reeffjord

Like Fort Peony, Fort Reeffjord is relatively restrictive when it comes to troop movements for either side, so it is not often attacked. It is squarely in Imperial Territory, and primarily guarded directly by the Grand Principality of Strylaph, which is commanded under the Empress by Grand Prince Yaulander. Fort Reeffjord is so-named for the nearby ancient fjords formed from reefs that have since shifted up out of the waterline due to geological shifts over the millenia, making it difficult to marge in large combat units such as drakes, masonrahms, and gulpoxen.