Episode 02 Glossary

Characters

• Helena: Remembers an expedition into the Undying Quiet Lands that ended in an attack by the Blades of Nas. In the present, the group's morally uncertain choices cause darkness to spread through her vial.

• Vyr: Keeps the first watch with Helena, helps investigate the infected farm, and uses her shadow magic against the plague-mutated horse.

• Whisper: Guides the party toward Ephthalas and identifies the members of the farming family. The leader of the black-armored knights recognizes him by name and orders him to kill the group.

• Ernan: Travels with Whisper and guides the newcomers through Scarsden. He remains apart from the infected farm but helps the party flee toward Ephthalas.

• Normandy Borthal: Continues protecting Aggie during the journey and helps destroy the plague-mutated horse with his magic.

• Rue: Enters the infected farmhouse, kills Victor and Margaret when the Plague makes them violent, and tries unsuccessfully to use pure glint to help Philip. A vision of a Veyan war briefly restores enough of his former power to banish the black-armored knight.

• Bjorn: Recognizes the Plague from the destruction of his homeland and initially attempts to burn the farm without approaching it. He later kills Sandra, gives Philip a painless death, and reunites with his wolf, Odo.

• Aggie: Continues toward Ephthalas so that her family can receive the burial rite connected to the Sarexian Eclipse. As the group nears the falls, she admits that she is afraid to face her past.

• Captain Silas Palligref: The Gavran militia captain whose appearance is now worn by the leader of the seven black-armored knights. The figure carries the Scepter of Astarius and appears to recognize Whisper.

• Captain Itharos: The commander of Helena's earlier Vanari expedition. He fights the Blades of Nas after the company's light begins to fail within the Undying Quiet Lands.

• Cleo: One of Helena's Vanari companions. A Blade of Nas kills him after his weapon shatters against her sword.

• Trish: A member of Helena's expedition who wanders from camp after hearing her dead mother. Helena attempts to rescue her as the Blades of Nas attack.

• Victor and Margaret: The infected parents living at the isolated farm. Their advanced illness makes them violent before Rue ends their suffering.

• Philip: Victor and Margaret's young son. Although less advanced in the Plague than his parents, he is believed incurable and dies after Bjorn gives him a poisonous mushroom.

• Sandra: The farmers' daughter. She reveals that an unknown seller in Andros gave her a barrel of black glints disguised as seed before the Plague transforms her.

• Rupret Cunningham: The flamboyant owner of Cunning Hands Needlework. He meets the travelers upon the road while journeying toward the Festival of Drowning with his wife, Evie.

Gods and Religion

• Sarexian Eclipse: A rare alignment approaching as the travelers near Ephthalas. Aggie's family must be honored during the eclipse, and Helena's birth beneath an earlier eclipse remains connected to prophecy.

• Vanari Faith in Light: Helena's people follow and worship the light. Her invocation of their unity and fearlessness awakens a burst of daylight as the Blades of Nas overwhelm her companions.

Organizations and Societies

• Blades of Nas: An elite force from the Quiet Lands that attacks Helena's Vanari expedition. Their black weapons appear capable of drawing the light or souls from their victims.

• Vanari Expedition: The six companions who accompany Helena into the Undying Quiet Lands in search of her missing brother. Their vials fail one by one before the Blades of Nas attack.

• Seven Black-Armored Knights: The warriors encountered after the farm burns. Their leader carries the Scepter of Astarius, wears Silas Palligref's face, and nearly kills Bjorn while pursuing the party.

• Gavran Militia: The military force previously led by Captain Silas Palligref. The familiar appearances of the black-armored knights suggest that something has happened to the patrol from the coast.

Creatures and Nature

• Odo: Bjorn's wolf, raised from a pup and regarded as his son. Odo tracks Bjorn to the camp after months apart and joins the travelers.

• Plague-Mutated Horse: The farm's horse, transformed into a massive, malformed predator by the Plague. It nearly kills Rue before the group destroys and burns it.

• Infected Wheat: The farm's grain after its color and life have been consumed. The corruption kills a spider placed upon it and recedes slightly from Rue's glint.

• Abyssal Falls: The strange waterfalls pouring from Ephthalas. From a distance, the water appears black with pinions of light despite flowing clear at its source.

Items and Technology

• Black Glints: Obsidian-like glints found in the barrel beneath the farm. Sandra claims that an unknown man in Andros sold them as seed, and their arrival appears connected to the renewed Plague. The party leaves them beneath the burning farmhouse.

• Pure Glint: Rue's unusually flawless piece of glint. It brightens in his hand and pushes the corruption within the wheat away slightly, but it does not cure Philip.

• Scepter of Astarius: The golden scepter activated by Captain Silas at the coast. The leader of the black-armored knights now carries it and uses its green light while commanding the others.

• Helena's Vial: The vessel once containing the Light of the Night. Darkness spreads through it after the party abandons or ends the lives of the infected family.

Magic and Cosmology

• The Plague: A contagious and incurable corruption that drains color, produces black ichor, causes violent transformation, and ultimately kills its victims. It has returned to Scarsden despite nearly twenty years without a known case.

• Veyan War Memory: Rue's vision of armored Vey fighting beneath a burning sky against a black knight resembling the present attacker. The memory temporarily restores abilities from Rue's forgotten life.

• Banishment: The power Rue recalls during the fight with the black-armored knight. It phases the attacker partly out of existence and gives the travelers time to flee.

• Vanari Daylight: A brilliant light Helena releases during her memory of the Quiet Lands. It answers her invocation of Vanari unity after the light in her vial begins to fail.

Locations and Realms

• Undying Quiet Lands: A white, ashen realm where the weakening veil exposes travelers to visions of the dead. Helena's earlier expedition is attacked there by the Blades of Nas.

• Ephthalas: A vast stone formation sacred to the original inhabitants of Scarsden. The party reaches sight of it shortly before the Sarexian Eclipse.

• Isolated Farm: The home of Victor, Margaret, Philip, and Sandra. The party burns the farmhouse, windmill, crops, and contaminated glints after finding the family consumed by the Plague.

• Andros: The port where Sandra obtained the barrel of black glints and where Whisper and Ernan's abandoned job was meant to occur. The travelers continue away from it toward Ephthalas.

History and Lore

• Return of the Plague: The infected farm is the first known case in Scarsden for nearly two decades. The presence of black glints suggests that the outbreak may have been deliberately carried from Andros.

• Fall of Helena's Expedition: Helena remembers the Vanari losing their light and being attacked by the Blades of Nas in the Quiet Lands. Her sudden eruption of daylight ends the memory before their fate is known.

• Rue's Forgotten Warfare: The black armor awakens a memory of Rue as a powerful Veyan warrior. His recognition suggests that the knights and his lost identity share an ancient history.