Inro deflected the warchief's thrusting spear with his steel sword, slashing forward with his shadow blade. Crude wicker sliced apart as he sheared through the chief's primitive shield. The man roared in pain as several his fingers fell to the dirt, severed neatly. He swung his spear like a club and Inro's still-injured knee nearly buckled as he ducked the blow.

  No cowards, this last proud band of Lizard Hunters. As one, they echoed their chief's roar and charged into the heart of the One Tribe which outnumbered them, surrounded them, and outclassed them in their glinting layers of painted Limn-clay armor.

  The warchief lay dead moments later, Inro's blade plunged into his chest from one side and Arca's spear the other. Arca yelled for the opposing tribe to surrender as every warrior they could preserve to join their ranks was precious, but these fools demanded to die to the last. Such stupid, impressive courage.

  Wrenching his blade free, Inro turned away from the last bit of butchery and shook his head at the waste. Arca pulled his spear free, his Limn warpaint sparkling except where bits cracked and flaked off during the fighting.

  “Damn that woman at the Battle of the Eight Tribes,” Inro growled, limping over to a boulder and leaning against it. “This knee is going to get me killed some day.”

  “Inro curses bad luck that his wound heal slow when all else would never walk again after.” Arca shook his head and adjusted his eye patch. “No wonder sister Cairin complain Inro not making a good mate.”

  “Sex. Mating. Mate. Related, not the same.” Inro carefully sheathed the Shadow Blade, jerked the lizard-skin headdress from a fallen savage's head, and used it to wipe the blood from his steel sword. “Tell Cairin if she doesn't like it there are a hundred younger women begging to crawl into my tent every night.”

  Arca grinned, rubbed his Limn-painted, freshly-shaved head, and pointed his bloody spear at Inro. “Cairin complain, but also sure she will soon rule Inro as Inro rules the One Tribe.”

  As if on cue, Inro spotted Cairin leading her slingers to join the looting, mercy killings, and post-battle boasting, back pounding, and accountings of the dead and wounded that accompanied every battle Inro'd fought. In their earlier battles to unify the Lizard Walkers, the spear-wielders denied the slingers their share of the loot and glory. Then one particularly loud individual challenged Cairin to a duel over her demands they be treated as equal. She accepted by blasting him to tiny raining shreds of gristle and bone with a single Limn-painted stone before the words had even finished leaving his lips. And, well, that ended that. No one could argue the devastating effect those stones had, ending many battles before the lines even clashed.

  It would be interesting to see how the Legions would stand up to it. Inro didn't envy Baka having to figure out how to deal with it. The thought brought a ferocious grin to his lips.

  Inro shook his head to bring himself back to the present. “I don't rule. Arca is Warchief of the One Tribe, everyone knows this.”

  “Everyone says this. Everyone knows Inro the Valewalker Warchief.” Arca kept his easy smile even as Inro frowned at him. “My friend worry too much. Conquer all Lizard Walkers first time since Ebon descended out the Caves and Inro worry about women and words.”

  After much vain effort, Inro had given up completely on trying to dislike Arca. Such attachment to a menial still troubled him even as he enjoyed the company.

  A realization dawned on him. Pushing off his boulder, he hobbled towards Arca. “This verse belongs to no Dynast. Since no proper Tribunal can be held due to a lack of other Dynasts and my Sunset is lost, I'm declaring this my verse and Arca my First Verser Lord.”

  Arca clearly understood the solemnity of Inro's tone even if he clearly didn't understand the meanings of the words themselves. Realizing belatedly one further necessity accompanied Arca's elevation, Inro gritted his teeth, unbuckled his belt, and dropped the empty scabbard to Arca's feet.

  After a quick wipe down with his now-tattered cleaning rag, he dropped a few drops of precious oil from a nearly-dry flask onto its chipped and marred surface and wiped it again. After a moment's hesitation, Inro held the blade towards Arca hilt-first.

  “Arca not idiot,” Arca said, taking a step back.

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  Inro glowered at him. “What are you on about?”

  Arca mimed kneeling with sword, then drawing it and killing someone. Rising, he held up two fingers. “Twice Inro do this. Arca not be three.”

  It took Inro several seconds before he caught the hint of a smile twitching on Arca's lips. Inro snorted a laugh, slid the sword into its sheath, and tossed it to the dirt at Arca's feet. “There, our ceremony. Feel safe now?”

  Arca tried to play off the gesture as if it were nothing, but no one could miss the reverence with which the man picked up the discarded blade. All the warriors nearby had stopped everything to stare. Mouths hung open. In their expressions, Inro read the mix of pride, greed, and respect as they watched Arca carefully attach the scabbard to his heavy rope belt.

  “Half-dull, gouged everywhere, and will probably break soon,” Inro muttered to himself, stepping back and refastening his own belt. “Not giving him Stone Eater.”

  With slow deliberation, Arca adjusted the belt about his waist. Inro shook his head. “War paint, woven belt, dead lizard on his head, a sword, and naked beyond that. What will they think when I lead you and your savages screaming into the Book?”

  “They will tremble in dresses worn in shame of their flesh,” Arca said, flashing teeth. The man stepped close, tears welling in his eyes.

  Inro limped away before the man could perform some act of sentimental gibberish. Unasked-for memories of loyal officers, grizzled generals, and young Legionnaires ripped apart and bleeding on the fields of Sunset ground Inro's his teeth so hard his jaw locked. Everyone he might have called a friend, companion, or even servant or slave had died there. He couldn't forget them. Wouldn't.

  When he got his jaw moving again, he cleared his throat. “Green People next.”

  Quietly, Arca stepped beside him, looking out as their growing tribe enveloped the conquered survivors of the battle. “Inro wants wood.”

  “Wood. Fuel for kilns for pots to carry Limn and water. Maybe teach you savages how make bronze if we can find some copper and tin. Also for bow staves and spear hafts. Reeds and young branches for baskets. If we're going to march into the Book warriors aren't enough no matter how brave. What good are a thousand Limn-armored troops if they starve after their first battle and can't carry enough Limn to protect them for a second? A freshly-promoted centurion focuses on tactics and formations, a young general focuses on armor and swords, an old general focus on shoes and meat."

  He lifted the head of the dead chieftain. "We won't be facing chieftains leading a band of a few dozen men when we march into the Book. We'll be facing Rega and Baka, perhaps the only other two Dynasts in the Book who can claim expertise anywhere close to my own. Plus dozens of other legions besides.”

  "Then we get wood, expand One Tribe to whole verse, then leave to may One Tribe of whole Book." Arca pointed to the west. “Cowardly Green People closest from here. They not like fearless Lizard Walkers. Run into forests, hide, fight with poison and hidden spikes. Only find by stepping on them. Rot spirits hide everywhere, infest wounds of those they fight. Snakes everywhere.”

  Inro marched back towards the camp, thoughts grinding endlessly in his head harder than his teeth. “We'll find a way. We have to. Aj is still out there and now that it's awake...”

  “Inro says a thousand other Dynasts like Irno. They not kill Aj?” Falling in beside him, Arca rose tall, swelling visibly as more of their warriors spotted the sword at his side and began to cheer.

  Stepping back, Inro let them celebrate Arca's elevation. “They will not kill Aj. The Kiss ended with the thing killing hundreds of us but only the handful of us who are still alive from back then even believe Aj is real. And of them, I'm the only one who knows it's awake. If Aj is to be stopped, it will be us or no one.”

  He looked out over the battlefield, warriors hugging, swapping loot, or tending their few injured. "Let them celebrate our victory, do whatever it is we need do to smooth things in One Tribe to be sure everyone's united, and rest up for the march. When we reach the forests, we'll make the Green People join us or become the Dead People."

  Arca grinned and slapped Inro on the back. "Nothing unite Lizard Walkers like strength. Inro is ten tribes strength even injured. We will be hunting through woods before the Green People even know we come. The cowards will join in rush to not face Inro and Arca with One Tribe behind us."

  "These Green People, they live in tribes like the Lizard Walkers?"

  "No think so," Arca said, spitting with disdain. "They fight selves too much, each family stand only for self. Hunt, kill, even eat others of kind."

  "Cannibals, perfect," Inro muttered. "So they have no leaders to convince, no armies to conquer?"

  "No," Arca said. "Though family all marry within to keep pure. Twisted, bent, mad people in Green People . No trust, no sacred, no holy, no honor."

  "Perfect," Inro said, limping towards Cairin. As the battle-rush faded, he'd always felt the need for a woman and, fortunately, Cairin seemed to have similar opinions about a man. Inro had brutally punished many good soldiers for fraternization in the ranks, but the fact that these were warrior savages and not disciplined Legionnaires eased the indignant part of him busy criticizing their relationship.

  "Enjoy sister and no worry Inro. We rule Green Lands within ten sunsets of One Tribe cut first tree." Arca pounded him on the back and turned as his people gathered to hear their warchief retell them the tale of this battle, laying the seed for the saga their shaman would retell and embellish for generations.

  As Arca walked among his brethren calling out individuals to retell their personal acts of glory, Inro stared off towards the horizon Arca had indicated the . "We better end them quickly or there'll be nothing left outside this verse by the time we leave."

  Next chapter: Aida finally catches up to Eth to get a few dozen questions answered.

  Adonissian: a Phero who poses as a traveling musician. Died of the Wretch Plague in Heaven's Tread.

  Aida: MC. Mother of Exiles. "Ender of Verses?" "Savior of Dynasties?"

  Aj: a long-slumbering, powerful being which annihilated Inro's Sunset Legions. Also "almost destroyed the Dynasty single-handedly six-and-some centuries ago"

  Alerestro: a handsome, multi-talented man from Azure. Partner of Viviana

  Aliasara: servant at Ocyl's villa who befriends Aida

  Anticores: a pair of Sect representatives, off-putting and strange

  Arca: chief of the tribe that "adopted" Inro

  Avani: Hassani's daughter, an albino

  Baka: Dynast of Ziggurat. Huge, massively strong. Tertius.

  "Braid"; a thug who accosted Aida in Jadeye. His face gifted to Aida by Ocyl.

  Broadaxe: large, axe-and-shield-wielding Feral protecting Aida. Killed by Jaxe in Jadeye

  Cairin: Arca's sister, slinger

  Das: Rega's Immanent

  Deai: Hassani's swordmaster, renowned for killing a Paragon

  Denault: Hassani's husband. Shipwright, Kin.

  Eonora: a Legion officer in Ziggurat

  Eth: a young Imminent

  Ghillie: a 3rd Feral who wears a primitive Ghillie suit. Carries cross between kunai and acupuncture needles

  Ghulen: Rega's "pet monster", an Inviolate

  Goboro: a fat, amiable scribe friend of Hassani's in Libriam

  Fallon: Aida's Seneschal. Died killing the Inviolate Rasofi in Jadeye

  Fatma: slaver?

  Feral: a bone-masked woman of violence (Feral) in Aida's service. Knife wielder. Killed by Ghillie in Jadeye.

  Fetriene: Ocyl's soresearer

  Goldilocks: twitchy, spear-and-javelin carrying Feral guarding Aida. Died burning a Wicker Way in Jadeye.

  Hassani: Inviolate agent of the Black Court, sent by Fractious Fraction

  Hue: Vibrant accompanying Simon

  Huspara: minor bureaucrat in Libriam

  Inro: Dynast formerly ruling Sunset

  Izbali: a silent tribal shaman

  Janali: Ocyl's elegant Seneschal

  Jaxe: Dynast of Stacks. "Young" (Secounds), wealthy. Also has "the Pale" (an Albino). Ancient.

  Johine: crude slave

  Kass/Kassenia: mercenary attached to Adonissian. Died of Wretch Plague?

  Maxem: High Parser from Ink, ambassador to Jadeye

  Ocyl: Dynast of Heaven's Tread, powerful and unpredictable

  Parathas: Aida's skinscribe. Also a mountaineer.

  "Professor, The": leader of Aida's Wretches

  Rasofi: Inviolate killed by Fallon in Jadeye

  Reck: Dynast of Chalk, "not witty enough to be clever and takes himself too seriously to be ironic". Paranoid, Fractious Fraction. Tertius. Died to a mob of menials in Jadeye.

  Rega: Inro's sister, Dynast of Monopolis. Septemius

  Riccaro: majordomo of Ocyl's estate. Hung by a looting mob in Heaven's Tread.

  Rustrovan/"Rusty": Eth's old, gap-toothed skinscribe

  Ryk: "the most beautiful man Aida had ever seen", a Paragon

  Sava: Dynast of Libriam

  Savalius: Grand Quartermaster of the Legions

  Semon "Goldtongue": white-haired, one-eyed master of cults. First Disciple of the Mother.

  Stiller: serving boy at Ocyl's estate. Rendered mute by psychological or head-trauma

  "Toothy": leader of a group of thugs who accosted Aida in Heaven's Tread. Killed by Feral in Jadeye

  Valeer: a mentally challenged, unkempt individual able to manipulate Thorns. Died in Jadeye to "Braid".

  Vanyen: A crippled young woman who created the Cult of the Mother. Martyred Prophet of the Mother. Murdered by Semon Dynastic Assassins.

  Venner: Grandmaster of Optimimes in Jadeye, "best in the entire Book"

  Viviana: gorgeous, multi-talented ex-slave from Berujat. Partner of Alerestro.

  Wake: Dynast of Graves, marries even though they all die. Quintus. Isolate.

  White Spiral: an older Feral in Aida's service. Archer. Died protecting Aida in Jadeye

  Adventures of Bubo, The: popular kids story

  All, The: All the verses, even those beyond The Book.

  Ancients: a major Dynastic Chapter, an "elite number", "own Ziggurat" and "run the great bank that is Monopolis"

  Anchorites: individuals capable of creating anchor points affixed to nothing.

  Annalis compound: sprawling complex in Libriam, heart of The Book's bureaucracy. Arrivals 'Dirt' home to new dispatches, Archives 'Dust' storage for old material. Paths and Ways storage for 'nails.

  Anticore: Sect creature which "wears convincing human skins" with "swarming insects... beneath the skin"

  Arborian: gardeners from Groves?

  Ascen, The/The Ascendant: divinities "watching over every verse"?

  Assessor: census-taker

  Audits/"Diggers": Libriam internal affairs

  Autumn: verse rich in gold?

  Aze: swordmaker?

  Azure: A verse?

  Berujat: "fleshmarkets"; primary seat of slave trade and home of most Lineage Masters, owned by Fraction.

  Black Court: a realm of pure darkness. Also, those who rule there. Where Partaking happens.

  Black Court Tribunal: localized Black Court authority?

  Blood, The: imbibed at Partaking, transforms one into a Dynast if they survive

  Book of Verses, The: the 1,000 verses ruled by the Dynasty. "The Kiloverse"

  Broadcliff, Tallmarket: cities in Stacks

  Calms: periods when ever-blowing winds die down in Berujat

  Canyon of Cages: cliff where slaves are held in Berujat

  Cave Dwellers: tribes that live in the underground in Origin, keep others out until "the Return"

  Century Thread: additional threads appearing elsewhere on the body every century a Dynast lives

  Cerebrist: creator of slavants

  Chalk/"Vistas": verse entirely made of chalky cliff, belongs to Reck

  Chant, The/Sacrosanct Chant: some sort of law in the Dynasty?

  Chant of Inoculation: chant supposed to protect against disease, "Mudra of Cleansing"

  Chapters: power groupings among the Dynasts of the Book: predominantly The Ancients, the Fractious Fraction, and Isolates.

  Circular Sea: an ocean abutting the Jadeye segment of Heaven's Tread

  Clock Priest: priests from Gears who track and tell time religiously

  Commu: chewed drug/herb?

  ConMach: convoy? courier? "ConMach drains the very life from the Directory's verses". Supply "ConMach machines"

  Crowmen: buy corpses to return them to life and service as rotters

  Cupola Thorn: the main Thorn in the city Jadeye in Heaven's Tread, a stone dome built over it

  Currence: something valuable inside old coins? "harder than currence"? "Solid current forms currence." Currence melts to watter.

  Currency: money, gold coins once held currence inside to give value, now debased

  Current: some form of energy that powers "artifices"? "Solid current forms currence."

  Directory: "the Directory to Ink is like the Dynasty to the Book", dominating rulers of Ink

  Donative, The: Black Court taxes, taken by Legion if not offered. Don't pay, no Partaking every century.

  Dusa: people with manipulable hair of silver wire, from Gears

  Dynast: individual given rule of a verse if they survive Partaking. Ageless and hard to kill. Regenerative. Sustained by "the Blood"; no food or water necessary.

  Dynast's Tower: a massive tower at the peak of Ziggurat.

  Dynasty: the Dynasts who rule the Book

  Ebon: founder of the Dynasty and Black Court

  Ebon Saga: the tale of Ebon's foundation of The Book and Dynasty

  Ebonese: the language of the Book

  Echoseer shells: devices to allow one to "see" in the Black Court

  El: semi-insubstantial snake/remora-like creatures that follow gods (and sometimes Dynasts) around

  "Emperor of Everything": popular kids story about Inro turning down becoming emperor, then crushing those who elevated a different Dynast

  Feral: bone-masked bodyguards who require the essence of their master to survive. "Damned to Ferals" as a form of capital punishment. "the damned", "damned to a Feral"

  Fetalist: Imminent faction who believe the future is unchangeable

  First Thread/Primus: a fresh Dynast/the first luminescent silver thread etched into their foreheads.

  Fractious Fraction/"DissatisFaction"/"The Renewal": a major Dynastic Chapter who "hate everyone including each other", "entice every freemancer and Lineage Master" ... "to Berujat". For those with "verses deficient in maor ways."

  Gates, The: Inter-verse travel method created by Ebon. Opened with Limn

  God, A: unique, "undying" creatures of immense size, The First Ones

  God's Rote: child's first memorization, what gods are

  God-dwellers: "monks" who live on a god

  God-touched: those who have physically touched a god (and lived)

  Gonist: organ dealers and traders

  Gons: self-sustaining organs capable of living outside a host

  Graves: a verse "Made of the dead by the dead for the dead".

  Groves: a forest verse

  Heaven's Tread: a verse "inside a hollow rolling pin", host to Jadeye, the largest city in the Book

  High Parser: officials from Ink

  Imminent: seers advising Dynasts and shaping course of The Book

  Imminent Prophecy: something about a barbarian Dynast, Ender of Verses and/or Savior of Dynasties?

  Inevitables; faction of Imminent who believe it is their sacred duty to ensure the future comes to pass as seen

  Ink: home verse of the Skeinry, Keens, Directory, and "the Faded People"

  Innoculist: doctors who teach chants "brought from Logos" to cure disease

  Inviolate: agents of the black court who "serve the Black Court, protect the Dynasty, uphold the Chant, root out corruption" with "unlimited, undisclosed, and untraceable budgets"

  Inviolate Vial: carried by Inviolates as badge of office

  Iode: substance that ignites when crushed

  Iris: the giant portals leading between one cylinder of Heaven's Tread to the next

  Isolates: a major Dynastic Chapter with a "unified stand for independence", "cheat the Donative, stockpil[e] currence and watter" "hire Keen mercenaries" "raise own private Legions in secret"

  Jade Eye, The: the "giant emerald" at the middle of Ocyl's Spire in Jadeye

  Jadeye: the largest city in the Book and major trade hub, in Heaven's Trade

  Jar: Name of a "gold" coin now made of brass. Once held currence within.

  Jaxeday: holiday in Stacks with boat carvings, feasts, games of Fishhead, dances, and storytelling

  Jaxestack: a whitewashed stack on Stacks home to Jaxekin

  Jutland Reach: a verse with guns?

  Green People: tribes that live in the jungles of Origin

  Keen: Ink warriors wearing impossibly-heavy iron armor whose power source drains color from the area about it. "Tank knights"

  Kin: descendants of a Dynast, most desperately trying to reach 100 so they can Partake

  Kiss, The: disease that wiped out "hundreds of verses", also name for the time period when Aj became active last and destroyed 100s of verses before halting in Sunset

  Lambent ram: animal whose wool glows?

  Letch: sect bred leech-like creature designed to stop bleeding on wounds

  Libriam: a swampy verse home to the Annalis, heart of The Book's bureaucracy

  Libwe: tribe possessing the "holy" Limn clay bed.

  Limn: "infused clay" bearing some sort of internal power, used by Ebon to found the Dynasty

  Lineage: a line of mancers taught by a Master

  Linemen: workers on the Stacks trolleys who pull the cars along the lines

  Lizard Hunters: Arca's people, walkers of the wastes of Origin

  Logos: "the thought realm"

  Machine Curse: something that stops machines from working between verses?

  Mancers: "no mancers arc (could) affect it", people with abilities beyond human normal, usually trained/implanted by a Master.

  Master's Markets: primary slave market in the Book in Berujat

  Menial: common folk

  Molt: person able to shed skins (see skins)

  Mon, The: "the Outsiders". "exist only to destroy the Book" with their "demonic and monstrous children" from "the Hells beyond"

  Monopolis: the "City of Currency", bank verse ruled by Rega

  Mourne, The: something dangerous that lurks in the Vale, "the why we do not tarry"

  Mune: someone from the Collective on Dost?

  Nameday: when children are named

  Ocyl's Preserve: a garden "beyond the Circular Sea" in Heaven's Tread?

  Ocyl's Spire: the tower home to the court of Ocyl, Dyanst of Heaven's Tread

  One Tribe, The: Arca's new tribe incorporating the Libwe and whomever else is conquered or enticed to join.

  One-Eighth Shithole: Aida's verse. Unfortunately. A desolate place home to volcanoes and a giant dead turtle

  Optomime: gadgeteer

  Origin: the First Verse, from which Ebon originated, containing the "Cities Below". The "first page of The Book"

  Pale, The: light-skinned people, conquered by Ebon during the founding of the Dynasty. Alternately, albinism

  Paragon: warrior who can see the future

  Partaking: the ritual that creates Dynasts (or kills those who try). Performed by some unknown, large creature in the Black Court.

  Phero: Lineage whose scent creates overwhelming attraction

  'pillar: fuzzy Sect-bred giant caterpillar pet

  Porcelain Guard: Ocyl's white-masked Ferals

  Pure Priest of the Ascen/Blind Priests: priests praising the Ascen and back the Black Court

  Reachers: massive, Sect-bred creatures that direct traffic and rescue unfortunates in the Sighted Path in Jadeye

  Reconquest: time four-hundred years ago when Inro "drove [tribals] back into civilization's fold at spear point"

  Rotters: sack-clothed, crudely-masked 'zombies' uses as pack-beasts and simple laborers. Created/sold by Crowmen.

  Royal Strider: giant striders which carry carriages of the wealthy slung underneath them

  Sect, The: breeders of useful insectoid- and/or sauroid-like creatures

  Seericide: seers capable of Knowing everything as they die

  Seneschal: chief servant of a Dynast, bear permanent strings allowing them to speak and understand any language

  Shale: a verse famous for its expensive stone

  Shore Striders: tribes that live along the oceans of Caves

  Shackle Pens: slave pens near Master's Market in Berujat?

  Shrineway: religious section of Jadeye "brailled prayers along the walls ... [and] cobblestones"

  Sighted Path: the zero-g road down the center of Heaven's Tread

  Sixth Tier Rebellion: last major uprising, in Ziggurat a century ago when "half the legions rose up". Put down by Baka

  Skeinry: iron-plated communication centers where Skeiners translate vibrations sent by wyre from other verses

  Skin/Hollow: animate skin of a molt able to move, talk, and share snatches of its experience with its molt

  Skinlife: living tattoos

  Skinscribe: individuals brailled with lore, walking libraries

  Slavant: an individual who "loses much" to be implanted with an ability

  Soresearer: individuals capable of "healing" by cauterizing wounds with their hands

  Stacks: An ocean verse comprised of tall pillars jutting up from the seas. Trolleys run on long ropes between them "affixed by Anchorites to airy nothing"

  Striders: "stilt-legged gray-skinned insect-lizard"s used as fast mounts, large enough to carry several riders

  Strings: worn or implanted wire devices that translate speech

  Stone Walkers: tribes that live in the cold of Origin

  Subterrane, The: inter-verse travel route accessed by Ebon via Limn

  Sunset: the verse where Aj was 'contained', formerly protected by Dynast Inro. The "Prison of Prisons" holds mad Dynasts, monsters and demons... vaults of dangerous relics.

  Sunset Legions/Vault Legions: Inro's Legions, wiped out by Aj in Sunset

  Surgon: person able to remove organs

  Swirl: A verse. "The pleasure barges of Swirl"

  Syphon: machine ConMach uses to "drain the very life" and color from a verse to "fuel... machinery"

  Tangle, The: the jungles of the One-Eighth

  Terminus: "Gates End", a verse?

  Thorn: huge, curling thorns which Valeers can use as gateways to the Vale, doorways between verses. Grow into verses over centuries

  Thrum: guide in the Black Court

  Tribunal: group of three Dynasts coming together to make ruling or pass judgment

  Twine: "one soul threaded through two bodies"

  Unkillable Swordsman: a Paragon killed by Deia long ago

  Vale: "The Place Between". A realm of high-contrast black and white full of thorns and Thorns.

  Vale Walkers: discoverers of verses

  Valeer: people capable of activating Thorns, barely functional of anything else

  Valeer's 'nail: crystals containing wafers that allow travel within the Vale to specific verses without a Valeer

  Venger: muscle man?

  Verse: a pocket universe or world

  Verser Lord/Lady: agents of an individual Dynast who rule part of a verse at the whim of their Dynast

  Vibrant: color-changing individuals from Ink?

  Watter: an energetic liquid. "Currence melts to watter. Watter's current dissipates over time, leaving water."

  Weeping Falls: Jadeye Iris flowing with waterfalls

  Wicker Way: towers of stone, wood, and rope that connect opposite far sides of Jadeye

  Wiz of Berujat: multi-minded?

  World Spear: an immense stack on Stacks

  Wretch: untouchables forced to walk on all fours, "the human refuse that cleans up the literal waste piles"

  Wretch Plague/Dynast's Plague: the flu. A horrific disease spread by Wretches.

  Wyres: lines run through the Vale between verses that allow communication between. A giant Ziggurat