Chapter I
ᛗ ⌬ ᛟ
The Drowned Continent
Three kingdoms once kept faith with the Celestial Spire. Two are now reefs. The third forgets, slowly, by act of will.
ᚨᚢᚱ
Auré · lit. 'gold drowning' — formal name of the continent
Chapter I.i
Geography
A continent the sea did not finish swallowing.
Auré is the last visible kingdom — a peninsula tilted northwest, its eastern half submerged, its central spine of cathedrals half-collapsed. What remains is a thin coastline of fishing villages and one inland city, Vellan, kept upright by an act of stubbornness no one is willing to investigate too closely.
Field annotations
ᚹᛖᛚᛚ
Vellan
the inland capital; means 'pact-keeper' in old liturgy
ᛏᛁᛞ
Tide
in this dialect, both 'sea' and 'punishment'
ᛋᛈᛁᚱ
Spire · the central column. Also the verb 'to listen, expecting nothing'
Chapter I.ii
The Spire
A god that has stopped answering, and is offended that you noticed.
The Celestial Spire was the central pillar of every faith in Auré. Three hundred years ago it fell silent. Two hundred years ago its outer scaffolding collapsed. The clergy did not stop. They simply began answering on its behalf.
Field annotations
ᛗᚨᛋᛋ
Mass
the Last Mass (year 0) when the Spire stopped replying
ᚹᛟᛁᛞ
Void · the place between worlds; literally 'thin water'
Chapter I.iii
The Tides That Were Not Sea
There are seven dimensions, and they are leaking into each other.
When you die in Auré, you do not always wake in Auré. Some die into the cinder-realm beneath, where the Iron Cantors hold their last position. Some wake in the salt-glass reefs of Vesh. The Voidwalker is the only known being who walks between them on purpose — and only just.
Field annotations
ᛒᛟᚱᚾ
Born
to wake elsewhere after a death; not a metaphor
Chapter I.iv
The Cathedral of Ruin
One stone left on another. They say a hymn ended that war.
The Cathedral of Ruin is not a building any longer. It is a discipline — a method of surviving by remaining still in places where stillness is forbidden. The Iron Cantors hold the central nave. Their hymns, sung in canon, double as tactical instructions. The Voidwalker passes through here, eventually.
Chapter I.v
The Reefs of Vesh
A drowned city that learned to keep speaking.
The reefs hum at low tide. The Untongued — those who climbed down rather than flee — left messages in salt-glass and coral. Most are warnings. A few are jokes, which the survivors of Auré find harder to forgive than the warnings.
⌬ Section II — Factions
Four orders survive. None of them in the manner intended.
⌬
Auré · Western Reach
The Heron Court
Diplomats who outlived their nation. They keep the ledger of treaties no one remembers signing.
✦
Drowned Marches
The Lampbearers
An order of plague-priests who carry sea-fire in clay lanterns. They are not feared. They are pitied.
𓂃
Reefs of Vesh
The Untongued
Mute pilgrims who climbed down. They write back, sometimes, in coral and salt-glass.
ᛟ
Cathedral of Ruin
The Iron Cantors
Soldiers who survived the Last Mass. Their hymns now serve as tactical commands.
⌬ Section III — Tongue
A language too old to be wrong.
The Aurén tongue has nineteen runes. Eight are spoken; the rest are gestures, marks scored into stone, or silences observed for a counted breath. Every glyph is below.
ᚨ
án
to walk
ᛒ
bret
stone
ᚲ
kor
to mourn
ᛞ
déi
the sea
ᛖ
eth
to listen
ᚠ
féi
salt
ᚷ
geo
to wake
ᚺ
haz
to fall
ᛁ
is
still
ᛃ
jur
before
ᚲ
kál
lantern
ᛚ
lem
wound
ᛗ
mer
kingdom
ᚾ
nár
to forget
ᛟ
óth
ruin
ᛈ
péi
iron
ᛉ
zál
between
ᛊ
siv
tide
ᛏ
tús
the Spire
“Walk on. The map will be wrong by the time you reach the next page.”