Edge of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  Granwell, Archwizard and Conjurer, friend of Featherdown.

  Rumple, Gnome leader of the gnome settlement and gatekeeper.

  Helix, Roach-like Traveller bug, Arch mind wizard friend of Aquitain’s Granddad, Fount and holder of the Key of Knowledge

  Heteronymous, High Druid and King of Mudrun

  Hypothet, Principal Healer of the Mentarin.

  Ignatius Sproggle, Mentarin Arch mind wizard Engineer

  Ironwood, sentient tree guardian of Moonbeam.

  Ishteth, Yith high priest of Lithgala.

  Jacintra, the Chaos Cat, chaotic spirit Power.

  Jaztrix Boonswoggle, female gnome illusionist, Featherdown’s apprentice.

  Kami, shaman of the Jancintra clan of purple-scaled (air/fire) Little People.

  Katarina, Mentarin, a tutor of Miranda when she was young.

  Kelnor, Newman high priest Church of Spiritual and Financial Harmony.

  K’wala, the spirit totem of the brown-scaled (yellow, stone) bear people.

  Lash, Melanie’s name and persona on Moonmist after she had her mind altered.

  Lithgala, Minor Power and mother of Aquiveritas, servant of the Lady.

  Llanlorian, Llanllean gatekeeper of Astaria.

  Llalorax, Llanllean Royal Wizard to Queen Aurora.

  Loopis, the wolf spirit totem of the white-scaled (air/water) Little People.

  Loma, chief of Barra tribe of reptilian Little People.

  Mask of Chaos alias Jacintra’s Image, powerful sentient magic mask designed to cause trouble, occupied by the spirit of Erastius a mad chaotic mind wizard.

  Melanie Darmon, Zephira, Rob’s cousin’s name on Panmagica.

  Miranda, a young druidess, Aquitain’s girlfriend, Princess of Argenta.

  Miranlla, alias Miranda after her coming of age.

  Moonbeam, mind altered dream child persona of Miranda.

  Moonmist Collective, collective mind of Moonmist.

  Navarro, newman leader of the anti-Mentarin underground.

  Obphiscon, Energonian (elemental) collector and historian.

  Warden of Moonmist, title bestowed on Aquitain by Moonmist Collective.

  Pellum, God of the Rock Elementals and the Hidden Ones.

  Peter Darmon, Aquitain’s uncle, Melanie’s father, a merchant wizard.

  Pondglow, Elendari Lord

  Prendergrass, Newman house wizard of Darkmantle estate.

  Quab, Senior druid for area around Twin Towers, Miranda’s mentor.

  Qan, the chaotic action oriented part of Aquitain’s mind.

  Qin, the thinker / planner /body part of Aquitain’s mind.

  Rosanllea, Llanllean master healer with the Hidden Ones.

  Schlum, evil chaotic Mentarin spirit.

  Shastritara, female Little Person, self-proclaimed most fearless and last of the red scaled Little People tribe, priestess of Lithgala.

  Sindel, former High Druid of Mudrun, Snowbelle’s newman name before she was reincarnated as a nymph.

  Slivver, the puppeteer minder placed on Aquitain by Llanlorian.

  Snowbelle, a powerful nymph druidess with a strange past, Queen of Argenta.

  Somanller, Llanllean clan leader.

  Squalash, Elder Water elemental and Waverider of the Great Sea

  Rob Theolaur, Panmagican name of Aquitain.

  Rori, courageous young assistant shaman in Jeti tribe of reptilian Little People.

  R’ptor, the eagle spirit totem of the blue-scaled (air) Little People.

  The Brightest, the leader of the Rock elementals at the Quartz shelf on Moonmist.

  The Orc, tough alien fighter in Zephira’s expedition.

  The Lady, The Lady of the Jungle, The Goddess of Nature. The druid’s deity.

  The Omen, a magical sentient wand of great power in the possession of the Barra people.

  The Rat Catcher, curious feline servant of Llanlorian then Aquitain and Tigerlilly.

  T’K’wala, translates as The Enlightened one; the name of the Bear of Chaos.

  Teena Theolaur, Aquitain’s mother, a powerful mind wizard healer.

  Tigerlilly, Aquitain and Miranda’s wooden bodied daughter.

  Tuatara, the fire lizard sprit totem of the red-scaled (fire) Little People.

  Whooshoo, Elder Air Elemental, Master of the East wind

  Sanson, Crin Enforcer, Captain of Queen Snowbelle’s guard.

  Xentos, Crin Taskmaster of Queen Beatrice, friend of Miranda.

  Yllandril, Royal healer, imprisoned Llanllean wife of Llalorax given a small stone spider body by Aquitain to escape. Llanlorian’s sister, Mirada’s true mother

  Zephira, (Melanie), a young female wizard protector, Aquitain’s cousin.

  Terminology

  aberration, an unnatural hybrid creature resulting from interbreeding of two greatly dissimilar creatures.

  Agent of Chaos, a creature employed to perturb the balance of nature.

  antimagic zone, an area in which magic spells and spell effects will not work.

  aura, the visual image of a creature’s spirit.

  aura sight, a spell or spell-like ability that allows a creature to see the aura of another creature.

  barra, a large two pace long vicious predatory fish.

  barra people, a clan of green-scaled Little People whose sprit totem is Barra the barra fish spirit.

  bear people, a clan of brown-scaled Little People whose sprit totem is K’wala the bear spirit.

  body container, a creature’s body that houses its spirit.

  buckler shield, small shield about size of a dinner plate often fixed to forearm.

  chaos matter, also called mind clay, a clay-like material that can be mentally manipulated by mindwizards to form objects. Its origin is unknown.

  charm, magical way of influencing another person’s actions to your advantage.

  city mind, an innate telepathic method of communication similar to a mindlink used by the Crin allowing them to be in continual contact with their Queen.

  cohabitation, two sentient spirits living in a single body container with the permission of the owner.

  collective mind, a mind composed of a large number of small pieces donated by a group of sentient creatures. It behaves more or less like a committee rather than an individual.

  collector, a long-lived sentient creature who exists to collect and compile data and knowledge but is unable to use that knowledge for themselves or others.

  construct, a magically created living machine, often Newman shaped, that is capable of following simple instructions (a living robot).

  Creator,(the Maker) the being responsible creating the universe.

  creature, an autonomous living unit comprising a sentient or non-sentient spirit occupying and controlling a body container capable of independent movement and decision making.

  Crin, a species of newman-sized sentient ant-like creatures.

  crystal sight, a form of sight available to Aquitain which allows him to see the structure inside crystals. (similar to the stone sight that stone elementals use to navigate underground).

  dead magic zone, an area made of rock that avidly absorbs magic essence.

  dispel magic, a spell effect that causes other spell effects to be countered, removed or terminated.

  Divine Power, a god-like Power or deity.

  Divinity Seed, a small piece of divine knowledge forbidden to mortals but highly desired by Powers who seek to become divine.

  domination, magical way of taking absolute control of another person’s mind so that you may force them to do your commands.

  draconic, language used by the dragons, language in which spells are written.

  druid, a sentient creature devoted to preserving nature especially animals and plants. A servant of the Goddess of Nature locally on Mudrun called the Lady of the Jungle or just The Lady. Druids are given spells by praying to the Lady each morning at sunrise. The spells allow them to assume the shape of animals, converse with animals, heal thems
elves and others and adapt to the environment in which they work. They can use the elements for both protection and offence if necessary. Their devotion to nature allows them an extended life. They generally work by themselves and assume responsibility for an area. The druids on Mudrun have all been recruited from other worlds by the Inter-world Druid Council and work under the local rules of the Mudrun Druid’s Council.

  Druid Council of Mudrun, the governing body of Mudrun.

  ectoplasm, a form or energy/matter that that spirits are composed of.

  elemental, a creature whose body container is composed of fire, water, stone or air and uses magic essence as food.

  elements, the five elements, fire, water, stone, air and ectoplasm.

  Elendari, race of white skinned Moonmist sentients closely related to newmans.

  fey, an organic creature that can use magic essence as food.

  fairie world, alternate trivial name of Moonmist.

  Fount, also Fount of Wisdom, legendary creatures with strange powers.

  Gatekeeper, Lord and controller of the gates of a gateworld

  gateway or gate, a magic portal allowing instant transport to a second portal located on a different world. Permanent gateways are hugely expensive to create and are closely controlled with restricted access. Temporary gateways require great magical skill to open and only exist for very short durations.

  gateworld, a miniature world created by a Power, hosting permanent gateways to several locations.

  gatherer, a sentient creature or non sentient creature or plant that exists to gather raw data, most living things.

  glamour, a semi-permanent magical illusion used by the Elendari to cover their bodies.

  herder, an aquatic form of a green-scaled (water) Little Person who is able to communicate with and control barra fish.

  isoform of magic, one of the four physical states of magic essence.

  innate ability, a spell-like ability that all individuals of a specific, often non-sentient creature type are born with and can use for offence or defence.

  Little People, several clans of different coloured small sentient reptilian people with a mysterious past. Each clan has a spirit animal totem.

  jeti, a sleek black jungle cat.

  K’wala people, clan of Little People whose spirit totem is the bear.

  Jeti people, clan of purple-scaled (air/fire) Little People whose spirit totem is the jeti (jungle cat).

  Llanllean, a sentient shape changing spider that lives on Moonmist (pronounced thanthean).

  Logicon, a newman sized sentient intelligent slime creature that has evolved a complex logic based society and uses polyhedral mobile body shells as a mode of transport, protection and status.

  magic essence, a form of energy/matter that can be manipulated to do work. It exists in gaseous, liquid, solid and ectoplasm isoforms.

  mask, alias Mask of Chaos alias Jacintra’s Image, powerful sentient magic mask designed to cause trouble.

  memory crystal, a small walnut sized crystal that contains a small bit of the users mind.

  memcrystal, an abbreviated name for a memory crystal.

  mantras of Yith, seven sacred methods of mind manipulation. 1st mantra is a method of remembering, 2nd mantra is a method of forgetting.

  meta-elemental, a creature showing mixed elemental and organic features.

  mind clay, also called chaos matter, a clay-like material that can be mentally manipulated by mind wizards to form objects. Its origin is unknown.

  mind wizards, magic users who have the ability to use their minds to control magic essence drawn from an internal font called the Source, to create spell-like effects called powers. Mind wizards are rare because the religious groups on all worlds declared the practice of mind magic to be illegal and heretical. No one is quite sure why. This has driven the few remaining mind wizards into hiding.

  mindlink, a mind wizard method of private bi-directional mental telepathy.

  mindspeak, local name for mental telepathy, unidirectional mind to mind communication.

  Moonmist, a primitive magic rich world linked to Mudrun in a strange way.

  mothra, local name for moth radiants. Tiny meta- elementals with a curious ability to form collective minds.

  Mudrun, a world of vast oceans and two continents covered in jungles with a mysterious past.

  Newman, race of human-like people excelling in magic technology that spread throughout the universe in search of the ultimate knowledge.

  nymph, an alluring sentient female fey creature reputed to lure unwary male Newmans and Elendari to their deaths by excessive sexual pleasure.

  organic, creatures that can live without magic essence, most animals and plants.

  owl-bear, an magically engineered monstrous aberration.

  pace, a newman measure of distance about 90cm

  Panmagica, the city-state of knowledge, hub of the universe.

  perturber, an Agent of Chaos, a creature employed to perturb the balance of nature.

  Trixie, genetically changed yellow scaled Little People on Moonmist.

  plasm, the structural element of the universe.

  possession, two spirits living within the same body container; one without the permission of the owner and often controlling the owner’s body.

  power, a magical ability; a spell-like effect produced by a mind wizard.

  Power, a sentient creature of great magical ability.

  power stone, a storage crystal containing one or more powers that can be mentally discharged by a mind wizard. Similar to a scroll used by wizards.

  preserver, a creature devoted to preserving the balance of nature (eg druid).

  priests, members of religious orders that use spells given to them by Divine Powers.

  prime directive, the most important rule set that governs the life of a Logicon.

  psychic parasite, (puppeteer) a small sentient leach-like creature that fixes itself on the back over the spinal chord of a creature and sends down nerve tendrils that connect it to the hosts nervous system. It can read the hosts thoughts and control the hosts body if it wishes.

  Pure Heart, special spell-like power given to the Warden of Moonmist to protect him from, fear, domination and charm spells; also blocks people trying to read his aura.

  radiant, tiny meta-elemental flying creature that has a newman female-like appearance (looks like the classical fairy).

  reincarnation, the process of rejoining or rebirth of a newman spirit in the body container of an animal.

  resurrection, the process of rejoining a spirit with a new or repaired body container of the same kind.

  Rod of Lordly Might, a magnificent weapon made at great expense for King Thoras of the Elendari as a sign of his status as Champion of the Elendari.

  seeker, a sentient creature that is free to discover and use any knowledge they find. Newmans and Yith are seekers.

  scroll, a piece of paper, cloth or skin used to store a written version of a single spell that may be discharged by a magic user with the appropriate knowledge.

  scry, to use a spell to create a remote eye (like a web camera) that can be used to observe distant events.

  scrying pool or crystal, devices used to receive the signal from the scrying eye.

  sentient, a creature that is self-aware, that can think and reason.

  skill crystal, a crystal used to store knowledge of a skill.

  soul crystal, a crystal used as a container to hold the spirit of a creature

  Source, the font of crystalline magic essence held within the spirit of a mind wizard/ mind wizard and other creature with similar type spirits.

  spell, a recipe or set of instructions used by sentient creatures to control the effects of magic essence.

  spell-like ability, a natural ability under conscious control that uses magic essence in a similar way to a spell.

  spirit, an autonomous membrane-thin sack made of ectoplasm encoded with the instructions for interacting with a body container.
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  telepathy, locally called mindspeak, one way mind to mind communication.

  teleport, a magical essence driven method of instant transport from one location to another within the same world. Generally expensive, potentially dangerous and limited to more experienced wizards and mind wizards.

  Truth radiant, Powerful physical collective of mothra created by a Power for specific purposes.

  Templewood, largest of the three main towns in Mudrun, home of the Druids Council of Mudrun.

  Turtlehaven, Smallest of the three main towns in Mudrun, home of the dragon turtle.

  Twin Towers, One of three main towns in Mudrun, home of Featherdown and the commercial gateway.

  Unity of Wisdom, council of wizards and religious faiths that govern Panmagica.

  wand, a short rod containing several spells of the same type that may be discharged by a magic user with the appropriate knowledge.

  wizards, magic users who use learned spells derived from experimentation to control the effects of free magic essence taken from the environment.

  Yith, a sentient but violent militaristic lizard race.

  Yithmardu, a Yith druid.

  zenostruct, a construct made by a dream-weaver out of dream matter.

  Magic spells and effects

  acid storm spell, a magical effect that causes acid to rain from the sky over a target area for a short period of time.

  air shield, a magical effect that creates a shaped, almost invisible shield of compressed air around an object or area.

  anti-magic zone, an area in which magic spells and spell effects will not work. (cannot be dispelled).

  aura sight, a spell or spell-like ability that allows a creature to see the normally invisible aura of another creature.

  chaos matter, also called mind clay, a clay-like material that can be mentally manipulated by mind wizards to form objects.

  charm spell, a magical way of influencing another person to be friendly in order to influence their actions to your advantage.

  city mind, an innate telepathic method of communication similar to a mindlink used by the Crin allowing them to be in continual contact with their Queen. (blocked by dispel for short time).

  control sound spell, a magical effect that allows a wizard to create and modify the sounds in an area around an object.