Lore

Of the making of the world, and of what waited outside it

How the Kindlers sang Aetheria out of the Aether, set the stars as watchfires on its walls, and went down into the world to hold it together. And of the Hollow, and the hunger in it.

Of the firstborn peoples, the Wyrm in the root, the Lullaby and the Drowning

The waking of the elder peoples; the white towers of Vaelmere and the deep halls of Hammerdeep; the dragon born of a drop of the Forgefather’s fire; and the night the elves tried to wake a god, and the sea came up to meet them.

Of the black tower, the burning of Hammerdeep, the lost moon and the endless storm

How an archmage tried to bind the Wyrm Eternal and the Wyrm bound him instead; how Hammerdeep burned and its king stayed at the anvil; how a moon was eaten in a night; and why it has thundered over the Stormreach for nine hundred years.

Of the coming of Men, the Ravenhold March, the Grey Tithe, and the Charter of Banners

Men come out of the west with a hundred ships and found Highcrest. A lord makes a bargain to hold the wood and holds it after death. A plague raises the dead, and some of them refuse to obey. The Tusk Wars end in a Concord, and an empty treasury hands the old wars to the guilds.

Of the ten peoples who fill the guild halls of Highcrest, and why each is as it is

Humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, orcs, trolls, the Unquiet, minotaurs, goblins and the Tidekin of the Reaches: where each came from, what each is good at, and which callings each will not take up, and why.

Of the thirteen orders of arms and arts, and the traditions behind them

Where the warriors, paladins, druids, priests, shamans, mages, rogues, rangers, necromancers, bards, tinkers, hexers and corsairs of Aetheria learned their trade, and the schools within each.

A gazetteer of the mainland and its isles, from the crest of Highcrest to the Stormreach

Highcrest and the Greenmeadow; Whisperwood and its hungry hollow; the drowned towers of Mistveil; the Ashfen and its temples; the smugglers of the Saltwind; the fire of Sunscar; the ruins of Frostspire; and the thunder of the Stormreach.

Of the sea beyond the sea, its Navy and its Brethren, the Maw, and the drowned places

Saltmarrow and its Admiralty; Rumhollow and the Brethren; the storm-belt of the Maw and the beasts that the Dreamer dreams into it; the fortress the Siren sang under; and the lighthouse still burning at the bottom of the sea.

Of fire above, the deep below and the dark beyond, and of the Turning of the Week

Ysmera’s last letter, and the three seals that hold the world: the Wyrm, the Dreamer and the Starving Dark. Why each one the guilds bring down opens the way to the next, and why, so far, the world has always mended faster than the guilds can break it.

Of the verses sung in the halls of Aetheria, its proverbs, and the tales told in its taverns

The unfinished Lullaby of the Hush; the ballad of Varric’s watch; the dwarves’ lament for Hammerdeep; a shanty of the Reaches; the counting-song the children of Starfall sing; the proverbs of the peoples; and the tavern tales of the great beasts that roam the wilds.