It seems to me that the work in hand is to make of the world a great book, to be written in gold on vellum.

The following is an encyclopædic reckoning of the known lands of Armenground, comprising the lands north of the Living Venom and the isles that lie thereabout, as they were known in the Year of Greater Starlight, the seven thousand three hundred and eighth Dawn-year.

ARKENWEN.     The god of galder. Though at the first he joined himself unto the Twelve, in time he began to mislike that they should use mortal men as pawns in their high and heavenly quarrels. In what he held to be an act of evenhanded justice, he bestowed the use of galder—spendable godhead drawn immediately from Owil, an art wherein he alone was perfect—upon a certain few of the first mortals, chiefly Morwendel. Since that time he has maintained the mystery of galder in Armenground, and is held as the special patron of galderlocks. The exercise of this divine bounty by mighty mortals in the service of other gods has won him some credit again among the Twelve; yet the very nature of his gift is uncertain to most. Whether a bolt of lightning-galder is derived from Arkenwen or from Gluthrim, for example, is much disputed. Welvan, in his chronicle, claims that it is of both, Gluthrim being the willing message, Arkenwen the willing messenger, and the caster the willing mark and place of arrival.

CAULRIM.     The god of all waters fresh and salt-laden. With eyes seeming themselves painted as the sea, he guides sailors to safety and calms the tempests of Olsevor. He committed the task of protecting beaches unto his son Sholnim. Fond of living beings but especially appreciative of their recognition, Caulrim is often paid Caulrim’s tax: some wary seafarers “pay” for safe passage, casting a small part of their goods into the deep. The commonest fashion of his image is as of an elder man, blue-eyed and sandy-haired, contrasting with the merry and more presumptuous countenance of Sholnim.

Ehmárávinkuda.     Ehmara’s-bight. A little fishing village set in an inlet south of Waternake along the Hursten Shore. Nestled in a quaint cove, it lies undercover, veiled from initial view compared to its busier trade-ripe neighboring port-town.

FELSEVA.     The gidden of savageness, daughter unto the fury-god Olsevor. In the unruled brunt and striving of nature, she finds a crooked kind of beauty: the ordered rule of the strongest. She is without ceasing pursued by Felwilven, who she views as shackling the wild world. To confound and mar the natural order, she wields the Talons of Primordial Chaos—a pair of gauntlets infused with a mighty and boiling store of chaotic force.

FELWILVEN.     The gidden of the hunt, daughter unto Hardol, the war-god. She views killing as an act of primal beauty, of the return of divinity to the universe by way of death-god Grimmil, with whom she shares a close bond. Her iconic weapon is a spear of walnut, headed with an iron point, wherewith she pursues without ceasing Felseva and all her works. Reverence of her varies by nation, but in many, at the first opening of the hunting season a solemn first chase is held, of whose yield a part is burnt in offering before her image, or before some other token and sign of her.

Gidden.     Designation for a god who most often appears in feminine form, i.e. a goddess.

GALDER.     Also dwimmer (of illusions), magick, shinelock (derogatory). Mutable, spendable concentration of the same godhead of which the gods and giddens are derived. The calling and guiding thereof was an art first made possible by Arkenwen, who framed a secret chamber within the brains of mortal men, which might afterward be unlocked by other sorcerers, or by divine occurrences, to move and order galder; thereby he hoped to yield unto mortals a greater mastery over their own destinies. Morwendel, the Lady of Magick, was the first and chief paragon of this power. He that is skilled and lettered in the use of galder is called a wytch or a wysard, and whatsoever is wrought by such art is said to be galdered. They that, either by birth or by gift of a god, are imbued with singular virtue in the channelling of galder are named galderborn. When galder is fastened unto a weapon, it is oft termed gale, and the act of laying such an enchantment upon it is to begale.

Gluskmoss.     A red, flowerless herb, found cleaving in matted tufts unto a few scattered pools of the tide along the Hursten Shore in small number. It is little searched or written of, partly for the rarity thereof. The drinking of a thinned extract of gluskmoss is known to work strange alterations upon the body of the user: veins and eyes exhibit a faint red shining, like unto the plant’s own light, and a nearly dissociative state of heightened strength and bodily prowess is induced.

HARDOL.     The god of war and struggle. Predictably, he prizes little but strength, and holds the branching forth of the world into beauty and accord far lesser than the utter overthrow of the God-Foes. The choking out of chaos and the subduing of evil is Hardol’s chiefest charge. His children include hunt-gidden Felwilven and blade-god Shoakil. A severe warden of that which he deems the natural order, he stands as patron to law-clerics, judging well-framed polity and ordered cities among the few redeeming works of mortal kind. His booming, gravelly voice and rent and jagged harness have cultivated an idealized warrior’s image, and Hardol is, perhaps, the most universally evoked deity. Many soldiers, before battle, are known to cut their palms to let their blood fall upon the field in his name; and such as return with victory set their blood-stained blades at his images, and leave them there through the night that follows their triumph.

Honeylanders.     The folk of Honnerich and Suthrim and their Mathel-speaking culture. Regarding the ancient hero Wendelwen as the progenitor of their nation, Honeylander culture honors settled life and sets highest esteem upon art, architecture, and valor. The greatest cities of the Honeylanders are Lissfall and Wenrouth; and of all their artifices, the most prized are long heroic verse, choral singing, and such shows of bodily strength and skill as jousting and swordplay. Worth and valour among Honeylanders are betokened by the styles Har for men and Harren for women, signs of knighthood. Honeylanders generally have disdain for displays of wealthy ostentation and distrust money. Monarchs are expected to dress finely, but not gaudily, and their ceremonies, however stately, are kept in a certain plainness. The gods most worshipped among them are Bleewen, Grawmil, Hardol, Selthwen, and Simbelwin; some officers, nobles, and diverse men of war commend themselves unto Clenwel.

HONNERICH.     The ancient realm of the Honeylander issue of the first-century king Furnelm, called the House of Furnelming, which lies in mid-western Armenground. Bounded on the north by Morrethel, and on the south-east by Suthrim, it is a land of temperate air, with easy-sloping woods and clearings. The old and customary seat thereof is at Lissfall. Toward the northwest it climbs into mountains as it draws near to the sea; toward the north it swelleth into hills against Morrethel; and southward, where it falls down into Suthrim and the Meadows, the clime grows more warm. In the midst of these stands the very heart of Honnerich, a various country of well-marked seasons, whose chief delight is the fair and quiet lake Honnen. In the course of many ages Honnerich has been ruled by a line of kings in the right of kindred, the succession now and then broken by wars, inroads, and doubtful claims unto the crown. The estate of nobility has shifted much in sundry times; yet, for the most part, it signifies rather an order of officers set over lands and charges under the king, than bare titles of worship or license to lord it at their own will. At present, the kingship is borne by Undelm.

THE HURSTEN SHORE.     The sunny, sea-blown eastern peninsula of Armenground. The Hursten Shore’s coasts are warm, bordering on arid, though the climate can be wetter in the hills and mountains which run along its middle. The Shore is home to a network of trade cities, owing to the favorable inlets and deep natural harbors of the region; the largest is Waternake, a port home to a suzerain with much control over regional seafaring. The regional trade language is Kilavic, in which the Shore is known as Thuraynádu (i.e. harbor-land).

Kilavic.     கிளவி. A Sunhursten tongue of the farthest eastern bound of the Hursten Shore, chiefly used in and about the city of Waternake. Renowned for the whirling characters wherein it is graven upon leaves of palm, and for an ancient treasure of philosophic and technical writings, it has now become a common speech and means of commerce throughout the whole Shore.

LISSFALL.     The gleaming, hill-set capital of Honnerich. It is the heart of the Kingdom’s trade, riches, and art, and is numbered among the most prestigious cities in all Armenground. First founded by Wendelthrim, its history stretches back nearly to the First Dawn. Its idyllic appearance is owed to the native wonder of the western hills of Honnerich, and to the steadfastness of them that dwell therein. The city saw several notable assaults of the powers of Chaos, and notwithstanding has kept itself a harmonic seat of manhood and valour. Within it is most renowned university in all Honnerich, called the School of Lissfall; and in a well-trimmed garden-quarter, called the Holywood, are many churches reared unto the gods and giddens of Armenground. Upon the city’s highest height is set the Lisskeep, the chair and hold of the Furnelmings, that is, the descendants of Furnelm. Beneath it lies the Hall of the Foeslayers. A fair dale parts the city from the hill-top bath-town of Flutterfell, and many little farming thorps are strewn about the city’s outlands.

Mápatnam.     Mango-port. An orchard town along the easternmost coast of the Hursten Shore.

Mathel.     Also Common, Main Speech, &c. The primary language in Armenground, owing to the central geographical positioning of the Honeylanders, its native speakers. It is spoken as a trade tongue in virtually every region.

SHOLNIM.     The god of the beaches, son unto Caulrim, the sea-god. In his likenesses, he is depicted as a youth with hair like the sand and eyes like the ocean, clad in plain white garments. Being charged to slow and temper the storms of Gluthrim and Olsevor as they draw upon the shore, he is contented by the admiration of mortal men. He appears to companies of men by the sea-side more oft than any other deity, though this has drawn upon him reproach from the other gods, who accuse him of vanity. Sholnim’s worshippers nevertheless etch runes and patterns into the sand upon the beaches to strive for his attention.

Staff of Deathless Green.     The divine wand used by Tosnawil to animate the ents. A great gnarled staff ensnared in roots, vines, and leaves, it was a creation of her own divinity. Soon after the birth of the ents, Tosnawil passed ownership of the Staff to the Elder Grove, where it remains.

Sunhursten.     The native folk of the Hursten Shore, a people of the sea-coasts, for the most part raven-haired and of a middle to swart complexion. They speak diverse languages, including the regional common speech of Kilavic, and are born seafarers, devout in the worship of Caulrim, Sholnim, and Tosnawil, who in the Kilavic tongue are called Pannikadal, Mannalnaday, and Cháyakoday.

Thirumáyichitay.     Thirumáyi’s-pyre. A mountain town of the Hursten Shore perched along sloping terraced farms of tea and cardamom. It was built in the place of an earlier settlement, Mégamalay, after its headwoman burned that town from within as a final defense against dark encroachments millennia ago.

TOSNAWIL.     The gidden of trees and of the greater growths of the earth, and one of the Three Siblings, those three deities to whom the governance of the soil is committed. Being much given to sudden fantasies, she, with the Staff of Deathless Green, did quicken the ents unto life, to be her fellows in solitude; she is hence called the Entmother in many writings, and is called the patroness of the tree-elves. She was humbled, however, at the First Dawn, when the other gods chastised her for the frivolity of her works and charged with ents in aiding her in the husbandry and keeping of the earth. She thus left the Staff in the keeping of the first ents of the Elder Grove. Nevertheless she was not left friendless, for her niece Selvenna, taking a shape more like unto hers, upheld her plenteous and unfeigned love of creation.

Vataram. Red-date-tree. A fishing village south of Ehmárávinkuda, itself south of Waternake. A red date orchard overlooks the town and is the evident source of its name. It was known in past ages as Vátanaram, of which Vataram is perhaps a folk reinterpretation.

WATERNAKE.     The most peopled city-state of the Hursten Shore, home to six hundred and thirty-three thousand souls. In Kilavic, the local language, it is known as Verunír. Founded in antiquity, it has passed through many courses of rise and ruin, but has prospered in recent centuries. It abounds with many wares of surpassing worth, being the greatest port on the southeastern shores of the known continent. Much merchandise from the Far South is brought into its wide harbor, and therefrom it sends forth more exports than any other place upon on the Shore. Its shipbuilders are the most skillful and renowned in the known world, and the guilds of that craft wield powerful influence within the city; the various merchant guilds choose a governing suzerain, who is now the shipbuilder Kadalnéyan.

Welvan of Aylfield. 5365–5459.     A sixth-millenium Honeylander scholar and philosopher. His chief labor, and his only full work that has escaped the spoilage of time, is entitled A Chronicling of the Heretofore-known Histories of the Great Nations of Man. It has since more often been called The Chronicle of Welvan. Composed at Lissfall, the Chronicle endeavors to chart all of mortal history with respect to the Honeylander nations, whereof Welvan himself was born. His style of prose, together with the portraitures of his making, were greatly commended by readers and writers alike, and the book remains a principal and much-noted authority for the first ages of Honnerich, Morrethel, and Suthrim.