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the novels of the Collegia Magica
The Spirit Lens
The Soul Mirror
The Daemon Prism
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People, Places, and Pronunciations
Glossary
- adagro: (ah DAH grow)oil used to anoint kings and mages;
- angels: winged messengers of the Pantokrator;
- Camarilla Magica: a governing body of master mages who have the sole authority over the certification of magical practice, and to investigate, judge, and punish crimes involving; they once maintained approval/veto power over many aspects of Sabrian life;
- Cinnear: a people even older than the Aljyssians; they left a few ruins like the Rotunda and Great Hall;
- collegia (-ae): residential institution of higher learning dedicated to a single academic pursuit, such as botany, mathematics, or magic;
- Concord de Praesta: agreement between the Crown and the Camarilla that ended the Blood Wars, instigating the quaterns, the Camarilla privileges, the mandatory collaring of mages and marking of blood families;
- Cult of the Reborn: a religious group who believe that saints are men and women who have renounced Heaven, choosing to return to succor humankind; they maintain shrines to lead the Reborn back through the Veil to earth;
- demesne: hereditary lands;
- demesnes major: the ten provinces of Sabria; each is ruled by a duc;
- Aubine: Aubine: south central, wine country, rich agricultural region; includes hot areas that border the Caurean sea;
- Arabasca: east and southeast; rugged wastelands and high shelf land; sheep, grazing; important as a border province; poor;
- Challyat: central; prosperous agricultural and dairy country;
- Coverge: northeast, rugged, impoverished mining country; Covergers have their own crude dialect and scorn Sabrians;
- Delourre: northwest; cold and soggy farming country in winter; borders with Grenville and stretches to Norgand;
- Grenville: north central; rugged, sheep country;
- Journia: east central; high mountains, lakes, home of the current king;
- Louvel: heartland, wine country; location of Merona;
- Nivanne: southwest; vineyards, forests, mountains; heavily influenced by Fassid culture and bandit history; very traditional; the lower, wealthy wine-producing regions are the home of the Sylvaes - Eugenie and Ilario;
- Tallemant: prosperous west coast; shipping; merchants; silk; fish;
- demesnes minor: subsidiary landholdings, from extensive lands to a manor house and vineyard; larger demesnes ruled by a conte, smaller by barones, these lands bound in fealty to the duc of its surrounding demesne major;
- double strike (-ae): coin with two faces;
- escalon: a garden maze;
- Fassid, the: a seafaring race who once ruled Sabria, Aroth, and the lands south of the Caurean sea; remnants exist in far southwestern Nivanne; they left many ruins and a dusky cast to Sabrian skin;
- kente (-ae): Sabrian copper coin;
- kivre (-ae): Sabrian silver coin(s); each equal to a hundred kentae;
- kesole (-ae): Sabrian gold coin(s); equal to a hundred kivrae;
- nitre powder: saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur - gunpowder;
- oldwife: a granny or crone;
- Orcasi: a parochial (from Coverge) term for the common language of Sabria;
- prefect: one of the five mages who head the Camarilla Magica;
- reader or temple reader: low-ranking clergyman;
- saint: in common belief and Temple teaching, an especially good soul who has become an intermediary between humankind and the Pantokrator, aiding petitioners by means of personal inspiration or intercession with the Pantokrator; the Cult of the Reborn believes the true saints, the Saints Reborn, actually refuse the joys of Heaven in order to be reborn into human form to accomplish specific deeds of valor and sacrifice for the benefit of all;
- spall: chip of stone flaked off a tessila; customarily carried in a belt pouch to remind a person of his or her duty to honor the dead;
- temple, the: serene spaces for meditation or remembrance of the dead, for burial and memorials; for religious celebrations in honor of coronations, weddings, and holy days;
- Temple, the: the primary religious governing body in Sabria;
- tessila (-ae): a stone figure, often abstract, sanctified at a person's funery rites; used as a spur to prayer and honorable living in order to forward the dead family member's Veil journey;
- tetrarch: high-ranking clergyman or woman;
- verger: a temple reader who oversees a deadhouse;
- zahkri: a Fassid knife with an angled blade, suitable for killing or digging furrows; commonly carried by the traditional clans of Nivanne;; the family mark and favored weapon of the Cazar blood family;
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Magical Terms
- acolyte: a student of magic who has passed examinations with sufficient knowledge of reading and writing magical texts to progress to learning the practices of magic;
- adept: a student of magic who has passed multiple levels of examinations in both the knowledge of magic and its practice; adepts must be supervised in practice; may serve as tutors in a collegia magica under proper guidance and supervision;
- aspirant: an apprentice, a student of magic who has passed no examinations; a beginner;
- aerogen: a spell of the air: wind magic such as whirlwinds, opacity such as fogs and mists, or pressure such as vacuums and suffocations. In folklore, such spells are personified and given names such as wind-sprites, jinn;
- ancille: a sorcerer’s receptacle for favorite spells, attuned to his keirna, it assists him in spell work, eg. Dante's staff;
- ausculter: one who investigates dreams, a magical psychiatrist; auscultation is the practice of investigating dreams to cure psychological ills or bad luck;
- circumoccule: a circle used to encompass and position particles to be used in spellmaking; it can be small and portable like a simple ring or bracelet, or it can be a large circle gouged in the floor or ground and filled with materials to enhance spellwork;
- courret: a magical artifact that detects danger to the bearer; a change in temperature or color signals the kind of danger; the capability of making courrets was lost in the Blood Wars;
- disentangulation: the process of discerning what kind of spell has caused a particular residue of enchantment;
- divine elements: the five elements - water, wood, air, spark, and base metal - that traditional sorcery claims are the building blocks of all matter; their proportion and balance within a bounding circle, empowered by the magical factors carried in the blood of certain families, is believed to be the sole basis for spellwork;
- engasi: the returned, the dead brought back to life by a necromancer; possessing a solid body, reconstructed from bulk matter [earth, stone, water, corpses] and a reclaimed soul; (see ghost, spectre, revenant);
- gheket: a cheap luck-spell, bound to artifacts like leather cones or wood blocks; can shatter and damage the user;
- ghost: a troubled spirit who has not moved or cannot move beyond the Veil; grief, anger, or its own unfinished business can hold it; (see spectre, engasi, revenant);
- keirna: a term for the unique intrinsic nature of every object, living and non-living; incorporates not only its physical properties, but its history, use, and origins; it is a formal term for cast which is used by uneducated or rural people to mean some kind of magical aura attached to each thing or person in the world;
- mage: a magical practitioner who has passed examination sufficient to allow him or her to practice magic unsupervised; required to wear a magically sealed silver collar about the neck;
- master mage: a mage determined to have skills and understanding at such a superior level as to be permitted to teach unsupervised and/or to serve as a prefect of the Camarilla;
- mule: a person used repeatedly as a source of blood for use to enhance another's power for magic working;
- nireal: a soul mirror; an image of a person’s spirit embedded in an enchanted object;
- noure': a statue erected to memorialize the dead; its eyes are solid black, to prevent its being mistaken for a ghost or living being;
- quartiere: an iron pole with three crosspieces, hung with bones, bells, and laurel, and enchanted to ward off demons;
- revenant: a dead spirit who temporarily possesses a body, created from bulk matter, and an impression of memory and personality; can walk and talk and give the appearance of the departed, yet does not truly live as it possesses no soul; (see ghost, engasi, spectre);
- sorcerer's hole: windowless room lined with cypress and camphor laurel wood and locked with iron, enchanted to be a dead zone for magic of any kind;
- spectre: (a phantasm ) focused energy left by a person passing from life to death, bearing no soul or life; lacks a solid body, but can take on the appearance of the dead person; (see ghost, engasi, revenant);
- spell-trap: an illusion or enchantment that lures a person into the sphere of an enchantment;
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People
- Family de Vernase
- Michel de Vernase: the Conte Ruggiere; a knight without family, raised to the nobility and high councils of Sabria by saving Philippe de Savin-Journia's life when they fought together as young men;
- Madeleine de Cazar y Vernase-Ruggiere: Michel's wife; daughter of a a traditional Nivanne blood family;
- Anne de Vernase: scholarly eldest daughter of Michel and Madeleine;
- Ambrose: a youth with a penchant for poetry and swordfighting;
- Lianelle: a student at Collegia Magica de Seravain;
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- At Court
- Albriard de Maslin-Nivanne: (deceased) Duc of Nivanne and King of Sabria, father of Soren, husband of Antonia;
- Antonia de Foucal y Maslin-Nivanne: widow of the late King Albriard; mother of the late King Soren; adoptive guardian of Eugenie and Ilario; once Duchess of Nivanne and Queen of Sabria, now a lady of the court; regent for a six months of Soren’s childhood, but set aside for a male regent;
- Audric de Neville: an elderly knight, living at Castelle Escalon by sufferance of the king;
- Baldwin de Germile: Philippe's First Counselor in the absence of Michel de Vernase;
- Belinda de Mercier: one of the queen's maids-of-honor;
- Catalin Joliea de Savin-Journia: (deceased) Philippe and Eugenie’s stillborn daughter;
- Cecile de Blasencourt: the dowager duchess of Blasencourt; a girlhood friend of Madeleine de Cazar;
- Desmond de Savin-Journia : (deceased) Philippe and Eugenie’s firstborn who died of illness in infancy;
- Dumont de Foucal-Aubine: Antonia’s nephew, the Duc of Aubine;
- Eleanor de Allonge: Eugenie's gouty lady-in-waiting; Holder of the Queen's Seal and expert on the peerage and great families of Sabria;
- Eugenie de Sylvae y Savin-Journia: widow (at twelve) of King Soren; present Queen of Sabria;
- Ganet de Roussel: Queen Eugenie's physician;
- Henri de Sain: steward’s third secretary;
- Ilario de Sylvae: Chevalier ys Sabria; bastard braother of Eugenie;
- Maura de Vien-Billard: administrator of the Queen's household;
- Philippe de Savin-Journia de Sabria: present king of Sabria;
- Portier de Savin-Duplais: librarian at Collegia Seravain; failed student of magic; fifteenth-degree kinsman of King Philippe;
- Rinaldo de Soinfe: the verger of Castelle Escalon's deadhouse;
- Soren de Maslin-Nivanne y Sabria: (deceased) Duc of Nivanne and King of Sabria; Eugenie's first husband; became king at twelve; died in battle at age twenty-six;
- Rulf de Viggio: Doorward Hereditary of the Queen’s Household;
- Patrice de Enderia: Eugenie's tart-tongued lady-in-waiting; Lady of the Queen’s Wardrobe;
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- Magical Practitioners
- Angloria: prefect of the Camarilla;
- Dante: a master mage unaffiliated with the Camarilla, brought into the queen's consilium by Portier;
- Charlot: the vice-chancellor of COllegia Seravain;
- Fedrigo de Leuve: an adept of the queen's household and private purveyor of charms and philtres;
- Gaetana de Teringia: a mage of the queen's consilium;
- Guerin de Vollen: adept at Collegia Seravain; a tutor in cryptonymics;
- Jacard de Violle: Mage Dante's assistant;
- Kajetan de Saldemerre: Chancellor of Collegia Seravain, Prefect of the Camarilla;
- Nidallo: adept at Seravain; Portier's replacement as librarian;
- Ophelie de Marangel: former student at Seravain found dead at Castelle Escalon; (SL)
- Orviene de Cie: a mage of the queen's household;
- Vernay: a henchman of the Aspirant; along with Merle;
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- Divine Beings
- Dimios the Souleater: the Lord of Discord, First of the Fallen, who lures souls astray so they cannot pass through the Ten Gates; cast out from heaven and earth at the founding of the world; he carries off whoever has not passed through the gates at the end of the world;
- Pantokrater, the: the Creator of Earth and Heaven; also called Father Creator; leaves the management of creation to his angels and saints and humans;
- Sante Ianne: the Saint of Wisdom; the most prominent of the saints honored by the Cult of the Reborn; tales are told of his heroic deeds throughout history;
- Sante Marko: the saint of knights and men-at-arms;
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- Others
- Calvino de Santo: disgraced captain of the Guard Royale;
- Davey and Will Deune: John Deune's sons;
- Edmond de Roble-Margeroux: Lady Susanna's son; a royal guardsman, protege of Michel de Vernase;
- Ella: Anne de Vernase's chambermaid;
- Gruchin: (deceased) a former magic student and former guardsman;
- Guillam: master of the palace stables;
- Hanea: the housekeeper at Villa Margeroux;
- Heurot: Portier's palace manservant;
- John Deunne: Chevalier Ilario's manservant;
- Olivier de Roble: the Conte Margeroux; retired military commander; the first commander for both the late King Soren and King Philippe;
- Pognole: the Warder of Spindle Prison;
- Susanna de Fein y Roble-Margeroux: a noble lady of great beauty; a trusted friend of Philippe's;
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Places
- Abidaijar city in Aroth; home of the Cult of the Reborn;
- Aljyssia ancient empire that encompassed Pytharia, Hematia, and Aroth;
- Aroth: exotic country to the far east; deserts, horsebreeders; subject to Sabria as reparation for past wars; Kadr was its client state;
- Caurean Sea: body of water to the south of Sabria; drainage for the Middle Kingdoms;
- Castelle Escalon: the palace built on the bluffs above Merona; the seat of royal power;
- Hematia: land of temples and ruins and fine brocades;
- Merona: the royal city, built to take advantage of an inland harbor on the river Ley;
- Middle Kingdoms: the geographical reference to the continental lands including Sabria, Aroth Thanitar, Hematia, Pytharia, Norgand, and the Isle of Naasica;
- Naasica: an island off the south coast;
- Norgand: far north; tribal lands that choke seafaring; shipbuilders; pottery; constant border wars with Sabria;
- Palatinate of Kadr desert home of the barbarian witchlords, defeated in the early years of Philippe's reign;
- Pytharia: land to the far southeast beyond the deserts of Kadr; the land of volcanos;
- Spindle Prison: a tower prison built on a rock islet in the deepest channel of the River Ley; build by sorcerers before the Blood Wars;
- Syanar: far eastern land known for porcelain and silk;
- Thanitar: northeast of Sabria, a large country of deep forests, northern grazing lands;
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Cover art by Gordon Crabb
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Copyright © Carol Berg, 2024
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