Episode 41 Glossary

Characters

• Normandy Borthal: Becomes the new bearer of the Deathless Flame, commands an undead depth crawler, destroys Mathias's book, and emerges from Dragdah young but visibly touched by death.

• Mathias Ephelthine: Drains Normandy's life and tries to possess Vyr through his book. The book is destroyed, but the Harbingers cannot confirm whether Mathias himself is gone.

• Emrys Valakar: Creator of the Deathless Flame. A vision shows him using his own life to ignite a soul forge and ordering its destruction after his death.

• Calem del Mortez: Knight Reverend of the Grey Knights of Ithelias. He accepts death under sacred law to sever every other knight's oath and free the order to choose its future.

• Elos del Mortez: Calem's son and intended heir. He suspects the Harbingers of causing Angelos's death and fears that they are taking away his legacy.

• Cass: Squire who wants the Grey Knights to serve a living purpose. She challenges the Harbingers to act honestly and heroically before asking the order to follow them.

• Angelos: Keeper of Secrets found burned to cinders beside the Tome of Stars after the Harbingers arrive beneath Tch'nev.

• Valence Avorinth: Central figure in the Veyan tableau that seals a Crystallic fragment within Dragdah's catacombs.

Gods and Religion

• Ithelias: Goddess of stars and patron of the Grey Knights. The order's sacred law governs the oaths Calem invokes and the punishment he accepts.

• Sethis: Goddess associated with twilight and with the dangerous knowledge preserved by the Tome of Stars.

• Veyan Light and Shadow: The catacomb tableau presents Valence between opposing Veyan responses to light and shadow, requiring both sides to release the Crystallic fragment.

• Oathbreaker Rite: Sacred procedure allowing Calem to sever the bonds of those sworn beneath him by accepting their punishment in his own body.

Organizations and Societies

• Harbingers of Light: Escape Dragdah with a Crystallic fragment, conceal the truth about Normandy and Angelos, offer to carry the Tome of Stars beyond the Dio Ostium, and gain the Grey Knights' support.

• Grey Knights of Ithelias: Dying order bound to remain in Tch'nev and guard the Tome of Stars. Calem's sacrifice releases roughly forty surviving knights to choose their own path.

• Inner Circle of the Grey Knights: Four senior captains who hear the Harbingers' petition, execute Calem's chosen punishment, and transfer the Oathbreaker Helm.

• The Vey: Ancient people whose hidden catacomb mechanism protects another shard of the Crystallic.

• Lightless: Shadow-aligned remnants massed within Dragdah's catacombs. They attack the depth crawler and are frozen by the Veyan mechanism before the flame destroys the chamber.

• Dregda Moor: Ancestral barbarian people whose buried stronghold, armor, catacombs, and magical infrastructure survive beneath the glacier.

Creatures and Nature

• Depth Crawler: Colossal dead sea creature reanimated by the Deathless Flame. Normandy commands it through the catacombs, where its final eruption destroys the surrounding lightless.

• Undead Rock Bird: Enormous distant creature Rue sees flying near the collapsing glacier after the group reaches Tch'nev.

• Lightless Horde: Hundreds of hostile beings occupying the lower catacombs. They swarm the depth crawler and threaten the Harbingers until the hidden Veyan seal is opened.

• Collapsing Glacier: The ice around Dragdah melts and caves inward after the plinth array releases its power, threatening communities downhill.

Items and Technology

• Deathless Flame: Soul-bearing chartreuse fire now bound to Normandy. It reanimates the depth crawler, transforms Normandy's spells, reveals its origin, and powers Dragdah's buried mechanisms.

• Mathias's Book: Focus of Mathias's influence over Normandy and Vyr. Normandy burns it to nothing after it possesses Vyr.

• Crystallic Fragment: Black metal shard sealed inside the Veyan tableau. Torrin, Bjorn, and Vyr operate its three figures together to recover it.

• Tome of Stars: Dangerous, self-sustaining book guarded beneath Tch'nev. The Harbingers propose carrying it through the Dio Ostium to seek a way to destroy it.

• Oathbreaker Helm: Calem's helmet, handed to the Harbingers after his execution. Its bearer is named the Oathbreaker and carries the sign of the knights' release.

• Dragdah Plate Armor: Hidden ancestral armor recovered while the Harbingers search the stronghold. Bjorn wears it despite its imperfect fit.

• Plinth Array: Network of stone pedestals and a central basin activated by Normandy's flame. It drains away much of his uncontrolled fire and triggers Dragdah's destruction.

• Black Cloak: Garment left by the former flame bearer. Normandy finds it strangely comforting and wears it after his transformation.

Magic and Cosmology

• Revenant Transformation: The Deathless Flame keeps Normandy's soul within his dead body, gives him a skeletal dread form, and fills his voice with echoes of earlier bearers.

• Flame-Bound Command: Normandy can direct the reanimated depth crawler and channel chartreuse fire through magic that formerly appeared as ordinary eldritch force.

• Soul Forge: Device ignited by Emrys Valakar using his own life as the catalytic fire. The process creates or releases the Deathless Flame instead of ending with his death.

• Succession of Bearers: After Emrys's servant touches the flame, Normandy sees three lives consumed by it, with his own identified as the fourth.

• Threefold Veyan Seal: Mechanism requiring the central figure of Valence and figures aligned with light and shadow to be activated together.

• One-Way Passage: Buried plinth beneath Dragdah that transports the Harbingers to Tch'nev but cannot carry them back.

• Memory Sustaining the Tome: The Grey Knights believe knowledge of the Tome of Stars helps it continue to exist, which is why the order intended to die without successors.

Locations and Realms

• Dragdah: Buried Dregda Moor stronghold whose lowest halls hold the Deathless Flame, ancient catacombs, Veyan ruins, and a one-way escape route.

• Dragdah Catacombs: Vast burial complex filled with lightless and concealing the tableau that protects a Crystallic fragment.

• Tch'nev: Fortress settlement of the Grey Knights. The Harbingers arrive in its forbidden underground prison chamber after escaping Dragdah.

• Prison Chamber Beneath Tch'nev: Hidden room containing the arrival plinth, the Tome of Stars, and Angelos's burned body.

• Eilinor: Northern settlement endangered by the glacier's collapse. The Harbingers estimate that its people may have only one or two days to escape the flooding and debris.

• Dio Ostium: Sealed divine gate the Harbingers intend to open. They hope something beyond it can destroy the Tome of Stars.

• Ithelion: Legendary destination beyond the Dio Ostium and the center of the Harbingers' proposed route with the Tome.

History and Lore

• Creation of the Deathless Flame: Emrys Valakar sacrifices himself to ignite a soul forge, but the chartreuse flame preserves consciousness beyond death and passes into a servant.

• Fourth Bearer: Normandy's vision shows three lives consumed by the flame and identifies his own life as the fourth.

• Release of Dragdah: The plinth array consumes the flame's excess power and collapses the glacier that concealed the stronghold for centuries.

• Death of Angelos: The Keeper of Secrets burns at the same time that the Harbingers escape through the plinth, suggesting an unexplained connection between Dragdah's flame and Tch'nev's prison.

• Last Oath of Calem: Calem uses the order's own law to assume the punishment of every sworn knight. His death ends their inherited obligation to remain and die at Tch'nev.

• Legacy of Elos: Calem declares the freed order to be his son's legacy, rejecting the idea that Elos must inherit a life of isolation and extinction.

• Choice of the Grey Knights: Once released, the surviving knights choose to stand with the Harbingers of Light rather than disperse or remain passive.