Halfling: Halflings are Gnomes of Clan Haughlin. They have round features, pot bellies, and curly brown hair (even on the tops of their feet.) While generally well natured, Halflings are averse to manual labor, or indeed anything that isn’t comfortable. Unfortunately, they’re often very comfortable with petty theft.
Heroes’ Guild: An international organization of professional adventurers, who specialize in monster slaying, treasure acquisition, hostage retrieval, and more, the Heroes’ Guild is among the largest and most powerful organizations on Arth. Its wealth rivals many small countries and city-states of the Freedlands.
High Magic: The elemental energy woven through the universe, high magic is called the great weave and is divided into two distinct orders: solamancy and noctomancy (although some also dabble in the abomination that is the now defunct order of omnimancy).
Human: Y’know. Humans. Originally mixed-race men, the first Humans were children of Gnomes and Elves and Sten. In time, they became so common that they married among themselves, and spread throughout Arth. Now they are the most populous race of man, outnumbering all of the old races combined.
Kobold: Kobolds are a diminutive breed of Demi-gnoll, standing just below a man’s knee in height. They have big eyes, a short muzzle, thin limbs, and a severe case of small dog syndrome.
Lawyer-monks of Adchul: A reclusive sect of monks who believe that discipline, law, and study represent a non-exclusive method to obtain enlightenment, with no guarantee of enlightenment or of any other goods and services made by said monks.
Lizardman: One of the monstrous races, Lizardmen are small bipedal lizards that are surprisingly social given their reptilian origins.
Leviathan: A legendary sea monster said to be born of the ultimate evil.
Low Magic: The oldest laws of the universe, the rules of life and death, love and hatred, blood and bone.
Mankind, Man, Races of Man: Legends say the Creator made the four races of Man—the Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and Sten—to make Arth more interesting, and has regretted it ever since.
Mannon: Malice incarnate, the ancient foe of the Creator deceived mankind, created the Shadowkin, and even corrupted some of the gods in ages past. Depending on the temple one visits, it is said that Mannon is either dead, in hiding, or a little bit of him lives in all of our hearts.
Magic: The essential forces of the universe, as understood by those who fiddle with them. Magic is divided into High and Low magic.
Mage: A person able to see and weave High Magic, usually through years of dedicated study and social isolation.
Mercenary: Killers for hire. Specifically, mercenaries are the killers for hire that are not professional heroes. Assassins, soldiers, thugs, goons: they all fall under the general headline of “mercenary.” While more common than professional heroes, mercenaries are less regulated. With some assassins and thugs aside, they’re generally thought to be weaker as well.
Monstrous Races: Humanoids bred for various combat roles by Mannon and Noros to fight in the War of Betrayal, the monstrous races are distinguished from Shadowkin in that they didn’t descend from the races of Man.
Naga: A race of Shadowkin with serpentine traits, Naga were once Clan Nagata, the Iron Gnomes. They resemble green-skinned, scaled men and women from the waist up, but their lower halves are those of serpents.
Necromancer: While all noctomancers can touch the shadowy side of high magic that binds the dead, the word necromancer is reserved for those who have created the undead for nefarious purposes.
Noctomancer: A member of the second order of mages, the Order of the Moon. Noctomancers are Humans and Gnomes that can weave the elements of Air, Earth, and Shadow.
Noros: Once the Gnomish god of dreams, Noros became Mannon’s greatest lieutenant.
Orc: A race of Shadowkin, Orcs were once Elves that sided with Mannon. Hulking, bucket-jawed, green-skinned barbarians, Orcs have a war-torn history and a legacy of brutality.
Order of the Moon: See Noctomancer.
Order of the Sun: See Solamancer.
Owlverine: All the deadly ferocity of an owlbear, packed into a beast no bigger than an owlhound.
Ogre: One of the monstrous races, Ogres are like clubs: big, simple, and made for violence.
Rank (Heroes’ Guild): There’s no way to measure the value of a life, except the life of a professional hero, in which case their rank is an effective metric. As a hero attains ranks in different classes by killing things, it’s essentially a measure of how deadly, and therefore how valuable, a hero is.
Scarg: A vaguely humanoid bat-like creature, the origins of scargs are unknown. Some say they’re naturally occurring monsters, while others say scargs are a monstrous race or a Gremlin experiment gone wrong. They come in many varieties and breeds, most of which are more annoying than threatening to a professional hero.
Scribkin: The Gnomes of Clan Tinkrin, or Scribkin, stand half as tall as most Humans, with stocky builds, bulbous noses, and thick, bushy hair. Industrious and curious, Scribkin are Arth’s most innovative inventors, enchanters, and engineers.
Shadowkin: Legends hold that by the Third Age, many of Arth’s people followed Mannon or the gods loyal to him. Before launching the War of Betrayal, Mannon and Noros corrupted these lost people into more aggressive, poetically ironic shadows of their former selves.
Slaugh: Imagine a Gnome-sized frog walking on its haunches. Now imagine it has a foul temperament and a fouler odor. Now you know why almost everybody hates Slaugh. Technically, they’re Shadowkin descended from the Gnomes of Clan Slaughin, but other Shadowkin are loath to admit as much.
Solamancer: A member of the first order of mages, the Order of the Sun. Solamancers are Humans and Elves that can weave the elements of fire, water, and light.
Sten: The great traitors. Legends say that members of the fourth race of man were long considered aloof and enigmatic before they followed the traitor god Al’Thadan and colluded with Mannon. Gray-skinned, as tall as Elves, and as broad as Dwarves, Sten were masters of low magic. The Agekeepers confirm that they were wiped out in the War of Betrayal.
Tandos: The Elven god of War and Glory, Tandos is the greatest son of Al’Thadan and Al’Matra. It was he who finally struck down his traitorous father, and it was Tandos’s servants who defeated the Sten. Today, he rules over the pantheon as the divine regent in the place of his mother, who is unfit for rule.
Tinderkin: The Gnomes of Clan Kaedrin, Tinderkin are taller than any other Gnomes, standing a little taller than even a Dwarf. They are lithe, graceful figures with sharp, slender features. Tinderkin are nomadic, traveling in small, familial bands. They take their name from the fires they build for nightly gatherings, which are often elaborate visual spectacles.
Troll: Trolls are massive, ape-like Shadowkin, the corrupted remnants of the now-extinct Sten. A Troll is gray-skinned, with a flat, broad-nostrilled face and a shaggy coat of thick fur. They have peerless regenerative abilities, shrugging off mortal blows or regrowing limbs within minutes. Originally bred for war and killing, they are good for little else.
Wizard: A title given to male mages. Its counterpart, witch, fell into disuse during the Age of Darkness.
Wynspar: The mighty mountain that Andarun is set inside is riddled with caves, tunnels, dungeons, and similar dark places for monstrous horrors to lurk.
Wyvern: A variety of drake with leathery wings instead of forelegs, much akin to a bat, and a barbed, venomous tail, much akin to a scorpion. It is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.
Dedication and Thanks
Dedication
To Grace and Madelyn. The more you change, the more my love stays the same.
Acknowledgements
There are a number of reasons I prefer the term “independent publishing” to “self-publishing,” but first and foremost is the fact that this book took the time and effort of many people to become what it is today. I am indebted to all of them.
Karin Cox has been a wonderful editor. She’
s a pleasure to work with, and her gentle corrections make me a better writer.
John Corsi is a remarkably talented art director and graphic designer, and I’m lucky to have worked with him on the print edition of this book.
Thoughtful feedback and encouragement from my beta readers has made this a better story, and I’m indebted to them. Thank you to Nate Bates, Elizabeth Bushnell, Josh Cole, Richard DiPippo, Christopher Kellen, Ariele Sieling, Glen Westerberg, and Talley Westerberg. A special thank you to my friend Kristin Boucher and sister Erin Wallace, who have been reading this story years at the time of publishing, and still provided amazing feedback. I must also make special mention of the work of Mike Tibbals, who not only read the book, but also constructed a wiki, drew maps, and made an excellent attempt at translating Shadowtongue. His work was invaluable, and I dream of one day having fans with that much enthusiasm.
Over the years, many friends have read my work and offered critique and encouragement. Thank you to Eric, Nick, Warren, Ryan, and Al.
Thank you to my parents for the love and guidance, and for always projecting absolute certainty of my eventual success.
Finally, I must extend my deepest gratitude to my wife, Becky, who was my most encouraging beta reader, and whose support and patience make my writing possible.
It was an unusual rat, and not just for its extraordinary size and exaggerated features but also for the vermilion twinges in its coat, like flame dancing in its fur when it moved; the eyes that burned with an otherworldly malevolence; and the unnatural death scream it gave when a dagger pinned it to the bottom of its cage.
For a time, they sat and watched the dead rat.
“And you’re sure where you got this?”
They were.
A moment later, the rat began to hiss like a teakettle that had been left on too long. The air around it thrummed to a climax, and the cage exploded in a flash of light and smoke.
“Interesting.”
An Imp leaped from the wreckage with a burst of minuscule pyrotechnics. The tiny demon cackled falsetto and whisked itself away in a burst of sulfur, presumably to wreak some tiny evil upon the world. Moments later, a rat, bewildered but otherwise unremarkable, crawled from the ruins of the cage, sniffed the air, and skittered away.
Detarr Ur’Mayan sat back to consider the specimen, clasping his skeletal hands in front of a lipless grin. “Very interesting,” he said.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
If You Enjoyed This Book…
Map
Glossary
Dedication and Thanks
Orconomics: A Satire (The Dark Profit Saga Book 1) Page 38