recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Nora Boole

Nora Boole, a young woman with gravity-defying orange hair that stands up like the flame of a candle. Spell formula expert who tutors at Cyoria's Royal Academy of Magical Arts with too much enthusiasm. Also teaches the advanced mathematics elective which Zorian chose in the first restarts.

She gave Zorian extra lessons in spell formula in the restarts after Zorian managed to impress Ilsa Zileti and Ilsa convinced Nora that Zorian is worth teaching.

Later, Zorian sought her help with his spell formula designs. As a result, she "couldn't shut up" about Zorian's "talent". Zorian attracted attention when he learned from her earlier, so probably she advertised him in that restart too.

She was made a temporary looper. During that time, she (among other things) discussed spell formula with Filigree Sages (which have their own tradition of that). She was killed by the Guardian of the Threshold after the exit from the time loop was opened .

## Trivia

Nora is a real world name.
There was a real world mathematician named George Boole.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 2
2. ↑ chapter 10
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 chapter 11
4. ↑ chapter 18
5. ↑ chapter 56
6. ↑ chapter 85
7. ↑ chapter 87
8. ↑ chapter 91
NORA AI
## Navigation

 Third year students
Primordial

**Primordials** in Mother of Learning are very powerful flesh-and-blood creatures imprisoned by the gods in special prisons (pocket dimensions) long before the start of the story. One of them, Panaxeth, plays a major role in the plot as the Cult of the Dragon Below seeks to release him from his prison (being helped by Ibasans).

A banned text describes a creature, "the Golden-Feathered Worm", which Zorian identifies as a primordial and states "The path of the Golden-Feathered Worm is the path of the self as the universe" and "Indeed, the rest of his kind is also as such: each one a world unto itself, their flesh but a thin, porous cloak to hide the depths beneath", which Zorian interprets to mean that they are "like living miniature universes".

Primordials, according to Batak, "spawn smaller, weaker primordials in their death throes", and that is the reason why gods imprisoned them rather than killing them. This is shown when Zach, Zorian and temporary loopers breach Panaxeth's prison to create an exit from the time loop: a piece of Panaxeth's body sticks out from the breach, and, after being cut off from the main body, reforms itself into a beast.

The Sovereign Gate requires a primordial to work and "somehow twists the primordial in question into the time loop". The author stated that the Sovereign Gate can use any imprisoned primordial, based on proximity.

The author stated that it's possible to become "a very weak primordial";

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 chapter 26
2. ↑ chapter 65
3. ↑ chapter 77
4. ↑ chapter 91
5. ↑ chapter 90
6. ↑ Comment thread on a worldbuilding post
7. ↑ Comment thread on a worldbuilding post
Cirin

**Cirin** is a town in Eldemar where Kazinski family home is. Zorian Kazinski (the protagonist) and most of his family: Father, Mother, Fortov and Kirielle begin each restart there.

Cirin is described as "a glorified village in the middle of nowhere" by Zorian. When Zorian is forced to stay there one restart, he found even the summer festival to be "the same as it was every year: incredibly dull".

One of Zorian's neighbors, an old lady who lost her husband and both sons to the Weeping, blamed the Kazinski family for their deaths, claiming the Kazinskis cursed them.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 2
2. ↑ chapter 36
3. ↑ chapter 11
Nasıl İndirilir?

MStar’ı oynayabilmen için www.trmstar.com üzerinden üyelik oluşturman gerekiyor.  Facebook ile giriş yapabilir ya da "Ücretsiz Üye Ol" butonuna tıklayarak karşınıza çıkan formu doldurabilirsiniz.

***Oyunu İndir!***

Üyelik işlemlerinin ardından tamamen ücretsiz olarak MStar’ı indirmek için, MStar Ana Sayfasında bulunan «HEMEN OYNA»  ya da sağ üst köşede bulunan «OYUNU İNDİR» butonuna tıklamalısın.

Karşına, Kurulum Yöneticisini indirebileceğin ekran çıkacak, "Direkt İndir" butonuna basarak devam et.

Son olarak “MStarKurulumYöneticisi.exe” dosyasına çift tıklayarak MStar’ı bilgisayarına indirmeye başlayabilirsin.

***Oyunu Kur!***

Kurulum dosyasını nereye indireceğinizi seçin ve "İleri" seçeneklerini takip edin. Son olarak "Kur" butonuna bastığınızda MStar Kurulum Sihirbazı çalışacak ve MStar’ı oynanmaya hazır hale getirecek.

***Oyuna Gir!***

Kurulum tamamlandığında ‘Bitir’ butonuna basarak ya da  masaüstünüzde bulabileceğiniz MStar ikonuna çift tıklayarak Mstar’ı çalıştırın. Açılan pencerede MStar üye bilgilerinizi (kullanıcı adı ve şifreniz) yazıp «Oyunu Başlat» butonuna tıklayın.

MStar dünyasında iyi eğlenceler!
House Denen

A small House whose main branch suffered greatly in the aftermath of The Splinter Wars and The Weeping. Jornak Dokochin is a distant relative of House Denen but currently the closest person to the main branch alive. However, he was outstripped of his heritage by a better connected impostor.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 105
2. ↑ Chapter 75
Necromancer's War

A war between Eldemar and various necromantic nations, won by Eldemar.

In the background there were many succession crises from people who realized they would never rule because their parents or siblings were undead. The common people hated being ruled by undead. Eldemar was getting involved in wars to prove their supremacy.

Sulamnon rose in rebellion against their crown, supported by Reya and Namassar, and lost. Eldemar then tried to force them to ban necromancy.

The necromancers in Sulamnon refused to accept the treaty and raised an army of their own, bolstered by the part of Sulamnonian military that still felt they had a chance to win if they continued fighting. Soon, they were joined by other forces that resented Eldemar's growing power - the remaining Khusky tribes that still retained some military might, the remains of witch covens, the undead aristocracy of other countries that saw the way wind was blowing and wanted to overrule the precedent that would see them similarly disposed of, as well as a number of opportunistic actors that felt they had more to gain by siding with the necromancers than with the king of Eldemar. The Necromancer's War had begun.

The necromancer's brutality and cruelty quickly swayed neutral parties against them, weakening their coalition.

Eldemar's general Fert Oroklo defeated the necromancer's army led by Quatach-Ichl, thereby destroying them as a coherent force, the continent sighed in relief. The kingdom of Eldemar rewrote the map in their favor, and were seen as heroes for it instead of tyrannical aggressors, and the surviving parts of the necromancer's army fled to the frozen island in the north that would be henceforth known as the isle of the exiles - Ulquaan Ibasa.
Kilnfather

Kilnfather is a fire elemental that lives in a fairly famous cave system surrounding an ancient volcano in the mountains of Southern Altazia. He has "children" that he cares for very much, and will be deeply offended and hostile towards anyone that hurts them, regardless of the circumstances. So long as his "children" are unharmed, he is fairly friendly towards humans and will agree to talk with them.

## Appearance

Kilnfather looks like a giant gecko made out of cooling lava. He is black, with cracked skin that pulses with inner fire, dimming and brightening in a regular rhythm. His eyes are big, yellow, slitted and shining. He modeled his look after his creations, so his children seem like tiny copies of him, although they are actual living beings and not elementals.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 chapter 73
Kilnfather AI
Grandma of Zorian

The maternal grandmother of the Kazinski siblings, amateur witch, and potion maker. Left by her husband, she raised her daughter, Cikan, by herself. However, being a witch eventually created a mutual dislike between her and Cikan. Taught Zorian some potion making.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 72
2. ↑ chapter 3
3. ↑ chapter 28
Pocket dimension

A **pocket dimensions**, also known as a **hidden world**, is a sort of "container" for a predetermined space, which is by default larger than the one seen at first glance. Depending on the creator mage's skill, the pocket dimension might hold just a little more than it's original volume, or there might be an immense difference between the outside volume and the inside volume, like seen in the imperial orb. Silverlake's home is another complex pocket dimension shown in the story, although it's not as impressive as the orb.

Magic involved in creation of procket dimensions is considered to belong to the magical discipline of dimensionalism.

## Creation of pocket dimensions

Creating a pocket dimension is deceptively simple. The basic idea is to stretch and fold a chosen volume of space into a miniature spatial bottle and then sort of cap it. This ‘cap’ is called the anchor point and it prevents the folded space from snapping back into its natural form the moment it is no longer being forced into shape, as space is naturally wont to do. After that, the pocket dimension can be gradually inflated to the maximum size the anchor point can bear.

The creation of an anchor point is the most important part of pocket dimension creation. It is the place where the dimension is connected to the main reality, and serves as both an entrance and as a foundation upon which the stability of the dimension ultimately rests. Its size, power and sophistication determins how big and stable a pocket dimension can be. If it is ever destroyed, the dimension attached to it will quickly meet the same fate.

## Types of pocket dimensions

The most common and easiest method of creating a pocket dimension involves using **rigid containers**, like boxes and chests, and expanding their internal volume beyond what their outside form would suggest. Anchoring a pocket dimension to an internal space of a hollow, inflexible object is a relatively simple task, for this discipline, at least.

A more advanced procedure is to use dimensional magic to expand the interior of more **flexible containers** like bags, backpacks and pockets. Although this sounds rather convenient, fabric is relatively fragile and hard to imbue with spell formula. After a few years of use at most, such objects inevitably fall apart, sometimes causing catastrophic failures when least expected.

Lastly, objects like the imperial orb are containers with no expanded interior at all. They are **self-contained pocket worlds anchored to an object**. Accessing the contents of such a self-contained space is tricky without dimensional magic, which drastically reduces the amount of people that can use them, but they are incredibly stable. They can be inflated to downright ridiculous sizes, if one has a sufficiently stable anchor object.

## Known mages who can create pocket dimensions

* Silverlake
* Zorian Kazinski (taught by Silverlake)
* Zach Noveda (taught by Silverlake)
* Quatach-Ichl

## References

1. ↑ chapter 69
2. ↑ chapter 74
3. ↑ chapter 85
Story

The story follows Zorian Kazinski as he goes to Cyoria magic academy. During the summer festival an invasion happens and he and a classmate are got up in a spell and causes Zorian to join a time loop. The loop begins on the first of Chariot (the month) which is coincidentally the day he chooses his electives and leaves for school. The loop ends 2 am after the day after the summer festival.
Soulseizer chrysanthemum

A very dangerous species of flowering plants found in the Northern Forest. It is capable of using soul magic together with limited mind magic against its opponents, and is one of the ingredients requested by Silverlake from Zorian and Zach for an alternative soul perception potion which Zorian needed. Eradicated by humans wherever they settled. Zorian put a tank with a soulseizer chrysanthemum in Mrva. Observing its attack inspired Zorian to work on a spell allowing to target mind-blanked opponents with mind magic, which Zorian used to target Red Robe and Zach Noveda.

## Trivia

*Some argue that* the soulseizer is a reference to Flowey the flower from the game Undertale.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 75
2. ↑ chapter 103
3. ↑ chapter 106
The Splinter Wars

They started when the Old Alliance fell apart after a hundred years of peace. The states fragmented and Eldemar decided to attack its neighbors in order to regain control. The bigger states were expected to absorb the smaller ones, but instead they took massive casualties from the unexpected use of guns that overwhelmed the larger more potent mage armies.

Before the war guns had been considered mostly useless and couldn't compete with a trained archer, even less so a capable mage. The thing is, the technology behind guns had grown greatly from its early days where the weapons were very unsafe and hard to use. Even if a single gun couldn't compete with a trained soldier it didn't matter, firearms could be mass produced and used by an untrained militia and crush reckless mages with mass attacks, snipers and cannons. It took some time before the larger states realized they would also need to use firearms rather than just trained armies, but the damage had already been done by that point.

At the beginning of the wars it was considered prestigious for a House to have many battlemages and most of them decided to send their members to forefront. Due to this many great Houses took massive losses and were greatly reduced. The Weeping then followed and wiped out what was left of them, House Noveda being an example of this.
She Who Eats Fire & Sees Gold

The Illustrious Gem Collectors Matriarch. She in return for trade deals gives Zorian the names of various webs he could visit. The Rose Labyrinth Dwellers, Yellow Cavern Guardians, Filigree Sages, River Navigators and Luminous Advocates and later the Talisman Bearers, Ghost Serpent Acolytes and Silent Doorway Adepts after he brings a golem along. She explains a great deal about Aranea culture.
Altazia

The continent where Eldemar, the main setting for the story, and the rest of the Splinter states are. The south is dominated by humans while the northern forest and mountain ranges are still monster infested. Native Altazians were conquered by Ikosian refugees coming from Miasina after the desertification called the Cataclysm wrecked the Ikosian empire.
Zach Noveda

by pocketsleuth

Zack is an Immensely powerful time looper, with massively enhanced mana reserve and reasonable control. He is raven-haired. He is a classmate of Zorian Kazinski. Zorian describes him as charming, confident and handsome. Zorian also says that Zach has never been mean or inconsiderate to him.

### History

He is the only heir to Noble House Noveda, socially powerful, though his family was weakened by deaths. They fared poorly in the Splinter Wars because they underestimated firearms and because they had a strong military tradition and a deep connection to the royal family that led many of them to conscript. The Weeping damaged them further resulting in only a single survivor (Zach) representing the whole house. He doesn't get along well with Tesen Zveri (his guardian), and sometimes beats him in fights at the start of loop in earlier chapters, claiming this is due to "personal disagreements". The reason for that is later revealed: Tesen Zveri siphoned wealth out of House Noveda.

Zorian suspects someone has modified his memory and as such he is not a reliable source of aid to him earlier in the loops, but did accept Zach teaching Zorain the spells magic missile, flamethrower and shield.

It is later found out that someone has erased his memory of a particular student, Veyers.

### Magical Ability

Extremely skilled, but before the time loop he was a pretty crappy mage. Could cast 232 magic missiles without running out at one moment, presumably can cast a few more after the time loop. Here is a quote that sums it up.

> Zach didn't even try to avoid the monsters, simply plowing through them like an angry god out for vengeance. At one point they were even attacked by a horde of skeletons and an enemy mage, but Zach simply made the earth beneath their feet open up and swallow them.
>
>

 During one loop he even killed a powerful dragon. He knows many combat spells and various other spells such as "create mud people". He also has extensive knowledge of alchemy and spell formula, but only the parts that interest him, mostly combat magic related. He eventually became aware of his own soul enough to cast simulacrum.

How he can have such huge reserves and still maintains shaping skills enough is initially unknown. Some people suspected this to be an effect of the Noveda bloodline, which would show up irregularly. His impossibly huge mana reserves are later confirmed to be due to a blessing given by the angels, as part of his contract with them.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 50
2. ↑ chapter 8
3. ↑ chapter 4

## Gallery

by pocketsleuthby pocketsleuthby Sydorow(?)Official art of Zach by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarter
## Navigation

 Third year students
Kiana

One of Zorian's classmates. During a party at Zach's house she was seen with Neolu, Maya, Jade and Elsie. Taiven described the groups a giggly and didn't want to interact with them, but because of the group's desire to nose into their classmates' business she had to talk to them anyway. She knows that Raynie is a shifter, but she refuses to tell anyone about it. When Zorian asked to talk to Raynie after class, she participated also. She once tried to turn in a paper late (along with Neolu and Jade). Zorian refused and she decided that they should leave their papers there and let him decide what to do with them latter. Instead of grading them he marked them not turned in on time and let the teacher decide what to do with them.

1. ↑ chapter 21
2. ↑ chapter 41
3. ↑ chapter 25

 Third year students
Jornak Dokochin

A lawyer deeply associated with the Cult of the Dragon Below. He is not a member, but he has helped them on a number of occasions and is known to be sympathetic to their cause.

## Appereance

Jornak is young, in his mid-twenties, and has a very handsome, boyish face.

## History

### Background

Jornak was a relative of a small House that went extinct some time ago. Although not a true member of the House, he was the closest thing to a descendant and was supposed to inherit their wealth and properties, but a new claimant suddenly appeared, claiming even closer relations. His proof of his lineage was probably fake and all the documents likely forgeries, but he was better connected than Jornak and in the end, courts assigned everything to him and left Jornak with nothing. This caused Jornak to resent him and his House, and was likely a traumatic experience for him.

### Time loop relevance

#### Red Robe origin

Red Robe is a copy of Jornak; originally he had a temporary marker, enabling him to persist for six extra restarts.

#### After Red Robe leaves the time loop

Presumably, Jornak finds Veyers' dead body on the first morning of every restart, and hides him inside an icebox while he decides what to do with the body. In the restarts where he wasn't disturbed by Zach or Zorian's actions, he presumably went on with his life as normal and Veyers' body remained in the ice box. Alanic's investigation based on Sudomir Kandrei's information discovered the corpse, and he called Zach and Zorian to interrogate Jornak using Zorian's mind magic abilities. The interrogation was just as unofficial as that of Sudomir, as representatives of House Boranova and the mage guild arrived and took Jornak away, after which Alanic or Zorian were unable to interrogate him. Zach and Zorian barged into his home early in the next restart, subdued Jornak, searched his home and interrogated him again, but found out very little of note.

After the end of the time loop, Jornak and Veyers are evacuated out of the house by Red Robe, and Jornak (the original) is not seen again.

## Relationships

### Veyers Boranova

Jornak met Veyers almost a year before the month of the time loop, when the later came to him for legal help regarding the situation with his House. Jornak empathized with him because he also had his birthright stolen from him, and they became friends.

Before the start of the time loop, Veyers was expelled from the Academy and begged Jornak to let him stay with him for a few days, saying he needed a place to hide for a while and think about what to do with things. Jornak agreed, although they weren't very close.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 chapter 75
2. ↑ chapter 105
3. ↑ chapter 76
4. ↑ chapter 92
Jornak Dokochin AI
Vazen

Owner of Vazen's General Store, a shop in Knyazov Dveri.

Zorian is hired by Gurey Cwili to steal Vazen's secrets and fails. In the next restart, Zorian learns from Lukav Teklo's thoughts that Vazen hired one of the mages sent to murder Alanic. Zorian attempts to steal the contents of Vazen's safe again but fails again. In the next restart, Zorian successfully steals various documents from the safe and finds out he had dealings with Sudomir (mostly buying illegal materials and hiring "shady people"). Sudomir once paid Vazen by handing him valuable information via members of the Esoteric Order of the Celestial Dragon.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 chapter 30
2. ↑ chapter 32
3. ↑ chapter 33
4. ↑ chapter 34
Ritual

The word "ritual" is used in the novel text in several meanings.

## Ritual spells

**Ritual spells** are a way of performing magic. It is contrasted in the text with "an invocation", and, presumably, unstructured magic is also excluded from the definition of a ritual spell.

### Differences from an invocation

* Can require material aids which are not the target of the spell (such as a spell formula circle made of salt and quartz dust).
* Can take a lot more time than an ordinary invocation. For example, some soul protection rituals are stated by Alanic to take up to two hours.
* Can sometimes work around the requirement of the caster having soul perception (or even awareness of own soul); however, the cost is greatly increased casting time.
* Presumably, can allow multiple mages to cast it, as normally, shaping another mage's personal mana is extremely difficult.

### Examples

#### Other rituals

* Teleportation rituals (see there for more). They allow greater range than normal teleportation spells.
* Transformation rituals.
* Marker tracking ritual, used by Zorian to track Zach (uses a ritual circle drawn with salt and powdered quartz).
* A ritual designed to enhance awareness of one's soul, by ejecting it from the body and attaching it to a magical brain without any senses so there's no distractions, but tethering it so it cannot move to the afterlife.
* A ritual to release Panaxeth designed by the cultists. Requires sacrifice of shifter children.
* A ritual for exiting the time loop. The ritual setup is somewhat similar to the above one, but uses the Sovereign Gate instead of children.

#### Other magic that is presumably ritual spells

* Ritual killings to obtain soul perception.
* Artillery spells. The author stated that they require rituals.

## Other uses of the word "ritual"

For an angel summoning in the Triumvirate Church, "There were lots of chanting and arcane rituals being performed, such as burning of incense and ritualistic bell ringing. Very little of it resembled structured magic as Zorian understood it." "Did all these little rituals count as proper contact procedure or was this just empty tradition that the Triumvirate Church insisted on following?"

## References

1. ↑ chapter 12
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 chapter 32
3. ↑ chapter 62
4. ↑ chapter 31
5. ↑ chapter 59
6. ↑ chapter 60
7. ↑ chapter 91
8. ↑ chapter 16
9. ↑ chapter 74
10. ↑ Comment on a worldbuilding post
11. ↑ chapter 96
House Noveda

House Noveda had been fundamentally a military house, even if they were active in a lot of other fields as well. Every male member was expected to serve at least a few years in their youth. Quite a lot of female members enlisted as well. Very closely connected to the Eldemar royal family and very traditionalist in attitude, the Noveda supported Eldemar's military ambitions in the Splinter Wars, losing many members. The Weeping killed all the remaining members except Zach, after which the Crown appointed Tesen Zveri as the caretaker of the Noveda estates.

Tinami claims Tesen siphoned wealth from the House by paying himself large "caretaker fees" out of House Noveda money and selling off its possessions to his friends for low prices. Zach and Tesen do not get along.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 21
2. ↑ chapter 49
3. ↑ chapter 50
Silver One

The **Silver One** is a winter wolf which Sudomir Kandrei made into a shifter as part of Sudomir's shifter experimentation. Specifically, Sudomir "grafted a human soul onto a winter wolf, granting him increased intelligence and ability to turn human if he so wished".

Vani stated that "A few years back, when the winter wolves first started acting up, there was an attempt to organize a wide scale cull and a large hunting party was organized. It ended… poorly. According to stories, several winter wolf packs worked together to lure the hunters into traps, separating them into smaller groups that were then defeated in detail. They acted more like an army than a group of wild animals, and survivors claimed they were led by a huge winter wolf with a shiny silver pelt".

Zorian met the Silver One when he approached Iasku Mansion.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 52
2. ↑ chapter 29
3. ↑ chapter 34
Death pact

In Mother of Learning, a *death pact* is a kind of agreement between a weak side and a strong side (angels or a primordial)
with an automatic enforcement mechanism killing the weak side in case of violations. "Pact" can refer to just the enforcement mechanism, attached to the weak side's soul.

## Examples in the story

Three examples are seen in the story: pacts made by Red Robe and Silverlake with Panaxeth, and a pact Zach Noveda made with the angels.

### Pacts with Panaxeth

The terms of Red Robe's and Silverlake's pacts were apparently similar: they had to breach Panaxeth's prison within a month or die. The contract would expire at the end of the month. They received new bodies by Panaxeth, which were extremely strong and with great regenerative capabilities thanks to Panaxeth's essence (see Shifter). These abilities apparently extended to Red Robe's simulacrums as well.

Silverlake was killed in a fight before she could fulfill the terms of her pact. Red Robe failed and was killed by the pact.

### Pact with the angels

It was definitely revealed in chapter 98 that Zach made a pact with the angels to prevent the release of Panaxeth during the month, while keeping the terms of the pact and the existence of the time loop secret *at the end of the month* and obeying many other restrictions. It was referred to as a "death pact" by Silverlake only; otherwise it was usually referred to as "contract".

Zach failed to contain the knowledge of time loop's existence, thus violating the contract. However, the contract was truly self-enforcing only with regards to keeping Panaxeth imprisoned; Zach would be killed by the enforcement mechanism only if Zach knew or suspected that someone knew about the existence of the time loop, but not if he was unaware of it.

Ultimately, Zorian used an illusion (maintained by him, his simulacrums and many aranea using the telepathic relay network in Cyoria to connect themselves and feed to Zach the views of the city constructed from what the city inhabitants saw and heard, and their minds) to make Zach believe he managed to fulfill the part of the contract regarding time loop knowledge; the angels stated they're willing to ignore that violation.

## Other uses of the word "pact"

The word *pact* is also used in the title of chapter 18 ("The Pact is Sealed"), but refers to an ordinary agreement, enforceable neither by an automatic device nor by any non-parties such as courts, and in chapter 22 ("Complications") "pacts with various spirits" are mentioned but not elaborated on.

## Notes

1. ↑  the secrecy of the contract's terms was enforced by preventing Zach from speaking about it and from being read by mind magic from surface thoughts; the pact placed a compulsion on Zach to either erase the memories or kill anyone who tries to learn about the pact by means of so called deep memory scan; and inferring the terms of the pact by observing Zach's reactions when questioned about the pact was not prevented at all, which was what Red Robe (although he was not using a red robe yet) did.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 106
2. ↑ chapter 96
Nochka Sashal

by pocketsleuth

Little girl who recently moved to Cyoria with her family. Originally Zorian met her before he become a time traveler when he helped her get her bicycle from the river. He didn't see her again until he returned to Cyoria after being gone for a year and a half because of the Red Robe incident. This time he had his sister, Kirielle, with him, and Kirielle and Nochka became friends.

Nochka is eventually revealed to be a cat shifter. This is foreshadowed by a scene in chapter 11, where Zorian meets a "small-ish cat" at the same spot where he met Nochka in one of the previous loop iterations. Presumably the cat is actually Nochka, though this is not stated.

Nochka is kidnapped for sacrifice to release Panaxeth in many iterations of the time loop.

## Trivia

"Nochka" is a diminutive of "night" in Serbo-Croatian. The word is the same in many other Slavic languages.

## Gallery

by Rizaki717by pocketsleuthOfficial art of Nochka by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarter

## References

1. ↑ chapter 1; she is not named
2. ↑ chapter 39
3. ↑ chapter 60
Byrn Ivarin

He rides the train with Zorian at the beginning of several restarts and outside the time loop. He is talkative and likes company. He is the only child of some first generation mages and his mother is a librarian.

Tells Zorian that there exist library divination spells for searching books, and that Zorian could "probably" get a job at the academy library to learn those spells. (Zorian gets this job  and learns the spells). Later, Zorian accompanied him to the academy under a rain barrier, thus the barrier failed before Zorian and Kirielle could reach Imaya's house. Later Kirielle drew a portrait of Byrn. In a later restart, Zorian claimed Cult of the Dragon Below plans to summon demons in front of Ibery Ambercomb and Byrn. Finally, outside the time loop, Byrn told Ibery, Zorian and Kirielle the news about the attack on Zach (unaware that Zorian helped to repel that attack).

## Trivia

In the second half of chapter 93, his name is consistently misspelled as "Bryn" (as of 2021-07-03).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 chapter 6
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 chapter 14
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 chapter 24
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 chapter 93
5. ↑ chapter 9
6. ↑ chapter 18

 Third year students
The Weeping

The Weeping occured in the aftermath of the Splinter Wars. It was an illness spread among the soldiers which anybody could catch. The disease was a death sentence, as no cure was found and magic could do nothing to stop it.
Once contracted one would first suffer from a strong fever which would incapacitate them, delirium would follow and then blindness. In its final phase, blood would start leaking out of the victim eyes before they finally died.

The epidemic took 8-10% of Altazia's population, it spread with seemingly no rhyme or reason and destroyed some families while leaving others untouched. Both its origin and the reason for its disappearance are a mystery.

The Weeping cost the Triumvirate Church a lot of goodwill since they were considered the foremost experts in the healing arts, but were completely unable to stop it.

## Plot relevance

The Weeping killed yet more battlemages, besides those already killed in Splinter Wars. (For example, Zach Noveda became the only living member of his House.) As a result, Cyoria's Royal Academy of Magical Arts started admitting more students. This, however, also led to a simplification of the curriculum.

The Weeping happened less than four years before the events in the story, as Kana Tverinov is stated to be three year old, and her mother died in the Weeping; it happened more than two years before, as Akoja Stroze states the academy would never admit her before the Weeping.

### Characters which are known to be killed by the Weeping

* Fria Tverinov.
* Namira Tverinov.
* All remaining members of House Noveda except Zach.
* Husband and two sons of an unspecified woman from Cirin.
* Veyers Boranova's parents and other unspecified members of House Boranova.
* Sudomir Kandrei's wife.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 chapter 21
2. ↑ chapter 20
3. ↑ chapter 64
4. ↑ chapter 28
5. ↑ chapter 50
6. ↑ chapter 11
7. ↑ chapter 61
8. ↑ chapter 47
Miasina

A continent to the south of the main character's continent, Altazia. Originally contained the Ikosian Empire, the center of human civilization which later colonized Altazia. Xlotic was later transformed into a great desert in the wake of the Cataclysm, ruining the Ikosian Empire. The southern part, Koth, is covered in jungles and is being explored by Daimen and visited by Zorian's parents. Miasina was once the center of the human civilization, but the fall of Ikosia and the creation of the Xlotic Desert has greatly reduced its global importance.

The old Majara language that is still traditionally used for chants of soul magic spells, for example by Quatach-Ichl (an ancient lich) when he cast soul meld spell at Zorian and Zach, was spoken there, and many of the ruins of Koth have inscriptions in old Majara.

## References

1. ↑ Continents overview (worldbuilding post)
2. ↑ chapter 6
Cranium rat

Cranium rats (cephalic rats) are hive mind organisms consisting of a swarm of normal-sized rats, which have a somewhat unique appearance – the top of their heads appear to have been sawed off, exposing the brain to open air. In reality, the brains are not nearly as exposed as they appear – there is a tough transparent film covering the brain matter, stopping dirt and such from entering the brain easily.

All individual cranium rats are telepathically connected into a single shared consciousness. The more rats there are in a swarm, the more intelligent the shared hive mind becomes. There is a limit, however, and a swarm that gets too big will eventually splinter into two or more smaller swarms, each with their own hive mind. It is rumored that bigger swarms are frighteningly intelligent, far outstripping the thinking power of a single human being, but this is hard to confirm – cranium rat hive minds are very alien in their thinking, and find humans just as bizarre, making communication difficult. Regardless, the average swarm is clearly comparable to a human in intelligence.

Cranium rat swarms are powerful mind mages, and can easily survive the loss of as much as half of their component rats. This, coupled with their ability to spread their rats over large areas, makes eradicating them difficult. Fortunately, cranium rats don’t have any special animosity towards humanity – though not exactly friendly, the swarms are content to live and let live most of the time. The swarms also largely view each other largely as competition, so it’s rare to see two or more swarms cooperating on a single goal.

Aranea and cranium rats covet similar territories, and both specialize in mind magic. This has led to frequent clashes between the two species, which have been steadily going worse for the cranium rats as time goes by. This is partially because araneas have gotten proficient in structured magic as well as their innate psychic powers, but also because the aranea have been far more adept into recruiting human mages to help them against the cranium rats. As a consequence, some swarms have actually begun to share information between each other and coordinate their anti-aranean activities.

## Trivia

They have been renamed from "cranium rats" to "cephalic rats" in the November 2021 revision of the novel text, as they were obviously borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons.
Ilsa Zileti

by Daniel Govar

Ilsa Zileti is a teacher at the Cyoria's Royal Academy of Magical Arts. She is the Academy representative who comes to Zorian's house at the beginning of each restart to discuss electives and (lack of) mentor choice before the official start of the school year. When Zorian first meets her (at home), she is described as a "bespectacled woman dressed in expensive-looking khaki-colored clothes".

She specializes in illusionism, alteration, animation and conjuration. Has some knowledge in dimensionalism (can teleport, including taking others, and summon objects) and spell formula. Her unusual combination of specialties were developed in the pursuit of her dream; to rediscover the ability to create matter like the mages of old.

Zorian was eventually able to get good enough for Ilsa to agree to become his mentor, and to teach him teleportation. Ilsa, in return, required Zorian to give her hours of service a day running classes and doing random chores such as reading his classmates' homework and giving grade recommendations.
When Zorian was looking for mind magic to memorize Kael's notes at the end of each restart, Ilsa suggested a pair of spells for alteration specialists: one spell lets one create in one's memory a blueprint of an object, and the other spell recreates the object based on the mental blueprint. After Zorian demonstrated his mana shaping skills, she ultimately taught him the spells.

She was made a temporary looper, and killed by the Guardian of the Threshold just after the exit from the time loop has been opened.

## Gallery

by Rizaki717Official art of Ilsa Zileti by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarter
## References

1. ↑ chapter 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 chapter 23
3. ↑ chapter 6
4. ↑ chapter 2
5. ↑ chapter 25
6. ↑ chapter 39
7. ↑ chapter 85
8. ↑ chapter 91

## Navigation

 Third year students
Soul mage slaughter

A conspiracy where a number of soul magic users are assassinated by mages and soldiers, supported by the mayor of Knyazov Dveri and the Cult of the Dragon Below. Targets include Alanic Zosk, Lukav Teklo, an unnamed familiar mage, a herbalist lady, and possibly others.

It is later revealed that this was masterminded by Sudomir Kandrei, the mayor of Knyazov Dveri, in a large scheme to kill anyone who would discover his soul collector at his mansion which gave off a soul sucking aura an experienced soul mage could detect. This device collected souls of dead people into a large trap, and the mass killings in Cyoria would empower it. This would give Sudomir the power to save Eldemar from the attack on Cyoria and thereby legalize necromancy and ensure a long immortal (un)life for him and his wife.
Name origin

Many proper names in Mother of Learning are taken from the real world or constructed like one except from an invented root instead of a natural one.
This page collects the notes on the origin of proper names which do not have their own articles.

 Gepid | 78 | Possibly from "Gepids" (name of an Eastern Germanic tribe)

### Other name trivia

* "Fearsome Catfish" alliterates in the author's native language, Croatian.

## References

1. ↑ In author's words: "2. It’s the height of summer, so I was thinking August. Which is Kolovoz in Croatian, hence me taking about ‘first of Chariot’ in the story, since it made sense in my head." [1]
2. ↑ In author's words: "the Triumvirate Church has lots of branches, and a fairly extensive hierarchy. I won’t lie, the Catholic Church was my primary inspiration here." [2]
Tunneler toad

The magical creature called a tunneler toad, lives deep within the Xlotic desert. They live in a series of hidden worlds left by some forgotten ancient civilization, called Ishmali Reservoirs by the ancient Ikosians, because they seem designed primarily as water reservoirs. They're basically large caverns full of water, enclosed in their own pocket dimensions. The reservoirs are largely uninteresting, but the tunneler toads themselves have a curious ability to detect pocket dimensions and enter them with ease. In their natural habitat they use this to pass in and out of the Ishmali Reservoirs as they please, using them as a hidden nesting ground, but the ability is said to be usable on any pocket dimension they come across.(ch.87)
Giant brown salamander

Giant Brown Salamanders are a species of magical creatures that do not die from old age. They are fairly weak, however, and rarely reach a hundred years. They naturally possess a sort of regenerative essence that allows them to regrow any part of their body that has been lost, as well as repair any damage done to them, and if they are carved carefully enough both halves will regrow into healthy, functional copies.

Because of their strong regenerative essence, a hundred-year-old, whose regenerative essence has by that point reached the necessary concentration, is one of the main ingredients of Silverlake's youth potion.
Angels

Angels hail from the spiritual plane, which is detached from the world during the time loop. They are responsible for being the messengers when the gods went silent. They have been known in the past to provide legendary divine artifacts and divine blessings left behind by the gods. Their appearances are usually inhuman. They usually don't meddle into the affairs of the material realm, having lots of constrictions and limits into what they can do regarding the physical plane, but will do so if it is ultimately necessary.

## Role in the Story

Write the first section of your page here.

## Abilities

Write the second section of your page here.

## Gallery

by dracolichknightby Drakannonby yomikomaOfficial art of higher angel by Daniel Govar from the Arc 1 kickstarter
Ashirai family

The Ashirai family consistently produces soul-bonded twins as their descendants. They are trying to become an official House with their own magical specialty centered around their soul bonds, and are probably quite knowledgeable about soul magic and soul bonds.

Aneka and Armie Ashirai, the heirs of the Ashirai family, are Zorian's classmates. He describes them as unreliable and giggly, and says they're the kind of people who take nothing seriously and wouldn't keep quiet even if he paid them.
Fria Tverinov

Kana Tverinov (grandaughter)

Silverlake

A witch who lived in northern Eldemar who taught Kael Tverinov magic, including alchemy and some soul magic. She's his mother in law, and her condition for teaching Kael was to marry her daughter, Namira, so that she may gain a heir to whom she could teach her art. She was an acquaintance of the witch Silverlake. She died due to the Weeping, along with her daughter.

## References

1. ↑ chapter 16
2. ↑ chapter 50
3. ↑ chapter 28
Altazia's Central Valley

The most prominent and inhabited region of Altazia. It's the most densely populated and developed part of the continent. Practically speaking, this area was the heartland of the Old Alliance and if any of the Splinter States managed to conquer it they could steamroll all other opposition on the continent and become the leader of a new Alliance.

The best contenders for this are Eldemar, Falkrinea and Sulamnon, while the other countries located in this region are considered Splinter States and too weak to do anything substantial to the major powers of the region.

Geographically, the Central Valley is a plain surrounded by hills and mountains on the northwest and southeast, the Ishekatara Sea to the southwest, and the ocean to the northeast. Towards the northwest, there's also the Great Northern Forest, which is located in the northern hills and mountains.

## References

1. ↑ Nobody103's deviantart post about the Central Valley
Pearl of Aranhal

The **Pearl of Aranhal** is the airship which Zach and Zorian steal in several restarts to get to Ziggurat of the Sun and Blantyrre. It is not completely built yet, requiring Zorian to obtain construction documentation, translate it (with the help of Zenomir Olgai) first, and then manufacture and install the missing parts every restart where they steal it.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 chapter 79
2. ↑ chapter 84
3. ↑ chapter 78
Tesen Zveri

Tesen Zveri is a seventh circle mage. He is a high ranking politician and one of the Elders of Eldemar. He is also Zach's guardian. Zach hates him because while it is not widely known he sold off nearly everything Zach's family owned to his friends and associates for pocket change while paying himself a huge caretaker fee. Zach beating him up at the start of a restart is a rather routine occurrence.

### Details about him screwing Zach

"The appointment of Tesen Zveri to the position of Zach's caretaker was completely devoid of controversy at the time the decision was made. Tesen Zveri was the patriarch of Noble House Zveri, who had been close allies of House Noveda, and his reputation had been quite good at the time. Thus, when Tesen nominated himself for the position of Zach's caretaker, few people had any objections. He was a high-ranking nobleman, a powerful mage and an ally of the House that he was supposed to care for – who could really contest his appointment?" He got away with it because House Zveri was largely intact and the crown didn't want to alienate one of their major remaining allies at a time where they could ill afford to do so. Plus Tesen gave a lot of the wealth to the crown and was rather generous about spreading the Novedas’ wealth around in general.

Another reason he got away with it is that Tesen was always going to end up selling of a lot of Noveda properties and halting many of their activities, even if he had been acting in good faith. The problem was more about who he sold things to and at what prices. He was supposed to slim down Noble House Noveda down to a strong, manageable core. Instead, he used virtually all of their wealth to enrich his family and further his political career, leaving only a tiny sliver to Zach. But that’s not something that is immediately obvious to casual inspection. You would have to launch an investigation into the matter to prove anything, and that would give Tesen plenty of time to mobilize his connections and shut you down before you get anywhere. Zach might not have know about all this before the time loop.

### The Sovereign Gate

The Sovereign Gate was a heirloom of Zach's family before Tesen gave it to the crown. Now it is being studied in the time magic research facility deep beneath Cyoria.

## Trivia

"Zveri" is an inflected form of "zver", which means "wild beast" in Serbo-Croatian.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 chapter 10
2. ↑ chapter 49
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 chapter 50
4. ↑ chapter 54