The world of Fractured Light
Two realms, a pantheon of sealed gods, and a barrier that has held for a thousand years. A spoiler-free guide to the setting of Echoes of the Ancients, starting with the map of the world as the author drew it.
Every emblem is a place from the map. The faded ones are still uncharted. Hover over one, or tap it on your phone.
Thrain's journey in Book One
Kuzur, the Broken World
The mortal realm, and the wasteland where the story begins. Kuzur is ruins, dust and survivors: cities built on the bones of older ones, roads ruled by bandits, and temples that still pray to a Mother whose true name the world forgot. People of ancient blood live here quietly, because the people who once hunted their ancestors never really stopped.
Ashurin, the Immortal Realm
The realm Verdanya made, home of the Tree of Essence and of beings the mortal world calls myths: elves, pixies, satyrs and water sprites. In the elven kingdom of Nytheris, royal bloodlines still carry the marks of the Ancients, and old politics run deeper than old magic.
The Ancients
The gods of this world were never distant. The Ancients made the giants, the shapeshifters, the elves and the faiths, and their bloodlines run through everything that lives. At the top stand the three Primordials: Behemoth of strength and foundation, Verdanya of life and beauty, and Umber of shadow and mystery. Their children, the Upper Ancients, made the rest. Meet them all in the Characterpedia, or trace the line in the family of gods.
The Sealing and the Sundering
A thousand years ago the Ancients were sealed away to hide the world's power from a thing that eats it. The Sealing held, and the world paid for it. In the chaos that followed, the Sundering, ancient bloodlines were hunted, power fell to whoever could seize it, and the balance the gods had kept collapsed into the Broken World of today.
The Hunger
Something vast and patient waits beyond the edge of creation, drawn to power the way a moth is drawn to flame. The Ancients feared it enough to seal themselves away. Now the seal is failing, the sky is cracking, and the barriers between the realms are coming down.
The Edge of the World
Where the realms meet and the seal is anchored, at the far end of everything. Every road in Book One leads there, and so does every choice.
Magic and bloodlines
Power in Fractured Light is inherited, and it always costs something. Giant blood gives strength. The Wolf Ancient line gives a shape that rage or terror can call out. Elven royal marks pass from heir to heir. Seers read stars and blood. The rules are consistent, and every gift carries a price.
Places on the map
Kuzur, the Broken World
- The Wilderness
- Untamed land at the northern edge of the mortal realm, beyond the reach of any road or ruler.
- The Grey Lands
- A wide, colourless expanse across the north of the mortal realm, where little grows and few travel.
- Haven
- A walled human town on the western coast, where most of the mortal realm's people live. One of the few places whose name promises safety.
- Ashvale
- A grey valley of human farms and villages at the heart of the western lands.
- The City of Birds
- A walled city of copper spires and slate roofs in a broad valley of fields, below mountains that smell of snow and pine. It is entered beneath an iron portcullis. Every ledge and archway is crowded with the chattering birds that give it its name, and the name fits in more ways than one: everyone here is watching, and everyone here is listening.
- The Temple Settlement
- A town gathered around a temple of the Mother Eternal. Across the mortal realm, temple keepers are spiritual guides and political rulers both.
- The Waste
- Where the story begins. Dry, broken and cracked like old skin, under a sun that never quite warms. Bandits rule its roads, and no one leaves food in the Wastes.
- The Trading Outpost
- A lone tower and market on the human western coast, where goods, news and secrets change hands.
- Dust Hollow
- A sunken human settlement on the edge of the Waste, half buried by the wind.
- The Crystal Chamber & Weaver Chasms
- Mountains riddled with caves and sheer chasms, crossed only by ledges barely wide enough for a single foot, where rock spiders hunt in the dark. Deep inside lies a cavern whose walls gleam with veins of crystal, throwing rainbows across stone as smooth as glass.
- The Water Settlement
- A human settlement on the southern waterways, where life depends on the water.
- Faren
- The southern lands of the mortal realm, running down to the sea.
Ashurin, the Immortal Realm
- The Outer Lands
- The far north-western reaches of the immortal realm.
- The Outer Bay
- A northern bay on the edge of the immortal realm.
- The Elven Guards' Outer Settlement
- An elven garrison town on the north-eastern frontier, keeping watch over the outer lands.
- The Palace of Nytheris
- Seat of King Hanasar and Queen Helenya of the Undying line, where kings and queens, princes and advisors decide the fate of a realm that is slowly dying.
- The Tree of Essence
- The heart of Nytheris and the source of all life in the immortal realm, made by Verdanya. Its silver trunk is a mile across and its golden leaves are the size of shields, and it dominates the horizon like a mountain.
- Nytheris
- The elven kingdom, split from the mortal realm before the Sealing by its queen, an Ancient herself, to preserve her people. Its folk do not age and do not die, and its royal heirs carry the marks of the Ancients.
- Sylveria
- Lands to the east of Nytheris, deep in the immortal realm.
- Behemoth's Refuge
- Lands bearing the name of Behemoth, the Primordial of strength and foundation.
- The Garden Realms
- Cultivated lands of the immortal realm, green and carefully kept.
- The Bleeding Stone
- A monument to the first death, at the border between the settled lands and the Deep Wilderness. It was built where Ancient blood was first spilled in malice, and the stone itself draws dark things like moths to a flame.
- The Deep Wilderness
- Territory abandoned to the dark. The air feels thicker here, as if it carries the weight of things that should not exist, and the stories say the Deep Wilderness never lets anything stay truly dead.
The seas
- The Passes
- Hidden crossings between the mortal and immortal realms. As an infant, Thrain was smuggled through these passes by people who risked their lives to save his.
- The Edge of the World
- Where all realms meet, and where the Ancients first imposed order on the formless chaos. If the corruption spreading through the seal has a source, it lies here.
- Mist Island
- A small island off the southern coast, lost in fog.
- The People of the Sea
- The largest of the western isles and home of the People of the Sea. The western isles are cultist country.
- Purge Cutta
- One of the cultist isles off the western coast of the mortal realm.
- The Lonely Islands
- Remote islands at the western edge of the known world, held by the cultists of the western isles.
- The Deep Southern Sea
- Off the southern coast of the mortal realm, the waters belong to creatures from far out at sea.
Walk the Broken World
Thrain and Fen's road crosses both realms. Free with Kindle Unlimited, £3.99 on Kindle, or £14.99 in paperback.
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