Lexicon

Æthertide: The flows and currents of arcane energy that run through underground streams like veins and arteries deep beneath the surface of Edras. They are the lifeblood of the planet, the source of the Primordials, and the place from which natural magics originate. The leylines that crisscross the surface of Edras generally follow the course of the underground æthertides.
Abomination: An arcane magic user that has been overwhelmed by their biothaumaturgical grafts and as a result has devolved into a bestial monster.
Airship: A flying vessels first developed in Aressea that makes use of Edras’ ley lines to travel through the skies.
Apothecary: One who is trained in the art of chirurgy and biothaumaturgical grafting. Usually, a divine magic user of some type. Licensed by the Circle of 12 Seals.
Ascendant Realm: The planetary bodies that the primordials became as they were forced to flee the surface of Edras. While physical places on the prime material plane, these locations display many of the same properties as immaterial planes and as a result can have effects both terrific and dire on Edras itself as their distance from it waxes and wanes. Monsters are birthed in these ascendant realms and find their way to Edras through various gateways and portals.
Biothaumaturgy: A practice somewhere between science and the occult that was developed in order to bypass the limitations regarding the use of arcane magics. A gross simplification of the process would be to say that it involves the grafting of magically preserved monster parts onto Soulborn bodies, thus allowing the Soulborn to channel arcane magic through these grafts.
The Celestial Canopies: Great magical barriers that surround Edras and the Ascendant Realms of the Primordials. Created by the deities of the Brisingelion, these barriers protect against incursions from beyond - effectively cutting Edras and its orbiting bodies off from all other realms and planes. Breaching the celestial canopies is a blasphemous offense and usually calls down the wrath of the deities.
Culled: The soulborn children of the primordials who turned on their creators in the wake of the Shattering and took up arms to defend the Brisingelion. The adjective form of this noun is 'cullic'.
Deathless: The chosen few Kharagessians who, through their faith, their good deeds, and their accomplishments for the Empire of Bone, have been gifted with eternal life by the necromantic magics of Nimriel. These deathless, venerated ancestors are the elite of Kharagess and their unblinking gaze always watches over the people of bone. Effectively, they are positive energy liches created via divine magic.
Deity: Refers to the extraplanar entities that came to Edras to usurp control of the planet from the Primordials. Their names are Oros, Enmensur, Manem, Arhah, Oolene, Sielach, Nimriel, and Lesu.
Echo: A progeny who, long after the War of Souls, has decided to turn their back on the Primordials and join the Culled races. They vary in nature and temperament, but all of them have some deep-seated reasoning for leaving behind the Progeny. They are generally accepted in the civilizations of the Culled, if not particularly loved or trusted.
Edras: The planet on which the game takes places. Also, the primary continent of the planet.
Emanation: Colloquially referred to as gods by some of the progenic races. Creatures that the primordials created by carving from themselves component souls, in the form of those which the Shining Ones possessed, but infinitely more powerful and imbued with near godlike abilities that would cower even the most powerful of the primordial spawn that had come before. The Emanations went on the create the Soulborn races.
Factory-Cathedral: Traditionally called poiēseion, directly translated as Temples of Creation, in the ancient High Holy Speech of the Shining Ones. They were at once houses of worship and centers of industry, empowered by prayer, the ley lines of Edras (and the aethertides running below them), and strangely divine approaches to energy creation. They demanded great maintenance for their components (various types of orisons) and intense purification from their operators (usually Shining One priests of the highest orders), but in turn were able to produce complex works of reality-bending artifice.
The Four Kingdoms: A colloquial term for the four allied nations of southwestern Edras - Eglarest, Dorwine, Tiriath, and Valonde.
Graft: A type of biothaumaturgical magic item. Grafts are magic items crafted from the remains of monsters that must be implanted directly into the body of a Soulborn in order to function, such as a beholder's eye that might be used as a replacement for a Soulborn's lost eye and allow them to produce eye rays. Overuse of grafts is known to cause madness and mutations.
Ley Lines: Sometimes visible, sometimes invisible lines of ambient magical energy that crisscross the surface of Edras like veins and arteries. They tend to follow the flows and currents of the Æthertide.
Magic, Arcane: The magic of the primordials and their spawn. The Culled are only able to gain access to this type of magic through biothaumaturgical grafts, while the Progeny have other methods for accessing the primordial magics they were cut off from in the Shattering.
Magic, Divine: The magic of the Brisingelion. Granted to their followers in the form of miracles, its use is dependent on the faith of the user and their obedience to the mandates of the deities. The Progeny have virtually no access to this type of magic.
Magic, Natural: The unadulterated magic of Edras itself. Chaotic and untamed, this magic imparts innate desires in those who use it; namely to unmake the primordials and return them to the source, but also the protection of Edras itself and its natural places.
Orisons: Standing stones, usually built of auracite, found in First Age ruins across Edras. In the High Holy Speech they are referred to as araliths, translated as 'prayer stones', or eukheions, translated as 'houses of prayer'. They are works of ancient divine magics that capture prayers and infuse them into physical constructs for myriad purposes.
Primordial: Twelve titanic beings, themselves little more than magical essence given form and function and will, that rose from the primeval well of the planet’s depths. Barely sentient, they were archetypical embodiments of concept and form - omnipotent templates for all the creatures of Edras.
Progeny: The soulborn children of the primordials who stayed loyal to their creators in the wake of the Shattering and seek to destroy the Brisingelion and the Culled. The adjective form of this noun is 'progenic'.
The Shattering: The great work of divine magic performed by the deities when they sacrificed one of their own, the fourth brother of Oros, now known only as The Nameless Martyr, upon the highest altar of Sanctum. The miracle severed the bonds that connected the Soulborn to their primordials.
Skyfell: A floating mote of land that drifts through the vault of heaven below the celestial canopy. Their origins vary wildly depending on the source - parts of an ancient floating continent, remnants of First Age floating cities, magical works of powerful spellcasters, naturally occurring anomalies as a result of Edras' inherent magic, so on and so forth.
Shining Ones: The original servants of the Brisingelion. They were ensouled beings that derived great strength from their faith in the deities and willingly served them as worshippers and warriors. They were said to look like living statues of alabaster.
Soulborn: Humanoid creatures created by the primordials and imbued with souls. They are unique among the primordial creations in that they possess self-determination, the ability to exert their wills and to defy their base natures.
Starmetal: Metals from distant planets and fallen stars are known as starmetals. These metals are extremely rare and very expensive, such that the impact of an meteoroid that has made it through can cause gold rush-style events. There are seven known starmetals, each with its own particular properties.
Testaments: A special type of orison created during the high First Age. Called tropaions in the High Holy Speech, testaments were the greatest accomplishment of the Brisingelion. They were obelisk-like eukheions that served to reinforce the veil between the astral and the physical - preventing thinnings and astral travel within a variable radius.
Thinning: More accurately referred to as an astral rupture into one of the Ascendant Realms of the primordials, thinnings are places where the veil between Edras and the plane-like abodes of the primordials blurs, thins, or even tears. It is through these 'thin places' that monsters pour into Edras, though travel in the other direction is also possible for the foolhardy and unwise. Very few thinnings are permanent; most of them come and go in cycles that loosely reflect the waxing and waning of the ascendant realms' connection to Edras.
The Treaty of Four Kingdoms: The treaty that created the alliance between Eglarest, Dorwine, Tiriath, and Valonde. Signed over 800 years ago, early in the 14th age.
Vestige: A type of biothaumaturgical magic item. Vestiges are self-sufficient magic items crafted from the remains of monsters, such as a sword made from the spine of a demon.