recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Dunch

A **Dunch** is a well-known monster in the World. It is extremely dangerous compared to its low level, so fighting a Dunch is hardly worth the risks involved. Willingly fighting a Dunch in close quarters, especially grappling it, is considered foolhardy or even "twisted".

## Appearance

It is a multi-headed level-5 monster that is largely immune to magic, and has spongy, cheese-like flesh covered in chitin. As it has a beak and tentacles, it may look like an octopus, but unlike one of these, it makes noise, gives off a horrible stench, and has an enormous health bar. Instead of suction cups, the Dunch's tentacles are covered in duck-like webbed feet.

## Bistory

Early on his adventurering days, Staavo lost one of his feet to a Dunch, which ended his career as a front-line fighter.

Two of the Accolades gained from the Crimson Swords originated from a Chemical Lair that was called *The Dunch Pit*.

Even Ameliah shuddered when thinking about encountering one, despite being a Silverplate.

Rain eventually sought out a Dunch in the Soggy Bottom parts of Eastspar: despite the monster infesting a populated area, not one of the many Awakened in the city - including the ruling class of Gold-ranked individuals - were ready to deal with it, apparently for a while already.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 215
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 213
3. ↑ Chapter 64
4. ↑ Chapter 139
5. ↑ Chapter 136
6. ↑ Chapter 158
Kenth Matagar

Lord **Kenth Matagar** is the deputy ruler in the DKE city of Eastspar.

He is the brother of Citizen Eastspar and has an entirely different build than him. He was the first official that *Temerity* met before even approaching Eastspar, and he assigned them their docking place.When he found out that Ascension had information on the disappearance of the Citizens, he tried to claim *Temerity* for his own purposes, but was prevented from doing so when Halgrave publicly joined Ascension in his presence.

## Appearance and build

In his usual public Demishifter appearance, Lord Matagar is a feather-winged man, wearing green with the silver three-pointed star sigil of Citizen Eastspar on his chest. He has broad wings with brown-and-white plumage that sprout from his shoulders, essentially giving him six limbs. In this form, his arms act like the talons of the winged creature that he transforms into, ending in sharp pointed talons. His feet are *also* scaly black talons. He has - literally - piercing Hawk-eyes.

When on the ground, Matagar deals with his wings by folding them on his back, or by cloaking his body with them. He has a smooth and dispassionate voice, and is clearly able to discern the presence and rough levels of other Awakened. He can move lightning-fast.

His demeanor makes it clear that he considers himself above the Silverplate captain of Ascension, but an equal to Goldplate Guilder Halgrave, and that he ranks just below a Citizen. *This is plausibly the case, as Citizen Eastspar rules an important city and likely has awakened most of the family members - with his brother also close or above level 50.*

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 211
2. ↑ Chapter 213
Class (speculations)

/All information within this page is mere speculation and will be subject to change as the story progresses./

{much of the information collected here, especially the formulas were created thanks to or by the work of "Set (She/Her) | The Shallow" for which she is recognized}

## Class Levels and Rarity Levels

* Common (Rl=0)
* Uncommon (Rl=1)
* Rare (Rl=2)
* Legendary (Rl=3)

* Bronze (Cl=0)
* Silver (Cl=1)
* Gold (Cl=2)
* Platinum (Cl=3)

The maximum eligible rarity level (Rl) appears to be equal to [2+Cl] in initial and subsequent class selections.

## Class Benefits

classes as a rule seem to give a total stat boost (boost to non-combat skills for worker classes) of [(50%\*2^(2×Cl+Rl-NF)], this boost can be spread between stats in any order.

It seems that the jack classes have an additional 20% (×1.2) boost to the total boost (if this is correct Uncommon jack boost is [(50%×2^(2×0+1-0))×1.2] = 120% (40%×3))

a +x rank\_caps type effect grants [3\*(2\*Cl+Rl)] rank\_caps and this Boost can be distributed in any order to any number of skill trees (this formula is incorrect because [Deep Vengeance] does not follow it, so use this formula only as a guide but do not get carried away by it (it will be readjusted soon))

some classes can create/maintain skill trees

In silver the awakened get [2+Rl] Specializations when they select their second class (the Rl of the selected new Class is used for earning specializations).

## Notes

Rl refers to Rarity level | Cl refers to Class level

NF refers to number of effects

rank\_caps boost effects to skill trees are an effect

the effects of creating and/or maintaining the new skill trees is an effect
Flamewood Tortoises

**Flamewood Tortoises** are a reptilian monster type and possible encounters in the underbrush of Heat Biomes like the Ashen Jungle.

## Overview

At Level 15, they have around 400 Cold resistance, 1'000 Heat resistance, and 30'000 health.

They are slow, but also the size of cars and are able to breathe flames as attacks. They may also bite in melee combat. While they behave like actual turtles in lots of ways, their anatomy is different in that they possess a distinct spine which is not part of their shell.

They are particular vulnerable to Runic Powersmith Cervidians, however.
Nibs

**Nibs** is Romer's cat, and a member of Ascension since the company's founding.

Nibs is a female tabby cat, and likes to occupy Romer's lap. In 3060, she was the only cat in Ascension.

Dozer likes to play with Nibs, and cally Nibs "picky-picky". Like other animals that accompany Ascension, Nibs has gained intelligence through constant exposition to the Winter aura. Nibs is allowed to ride on Clouds back occasionally.

Warden Vatreece's braincopy confirmed to Rain that Nibs was intelligent enough that his soul would be able to become awakened. His soul is a dark purple one resembling ink, just like his owner Romer. The intelligence of the cat is obvious too, when she helps her master at work, like holding down his notes for Romer.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 115
2. ↑ Chapter 128
3. ↑ Chapter 113
4. ↑ Chapter 152
5. ↑ Chapter 173
6. ↑ Chapter 222
7. ↑ Chapter 223
Clubbs

**Clubbs** is a former farmhand from around Fel Sadanis and a founding member of Ascension.

He has a stocky build, and is scary good in games like Ranks and Chess. In fact, so scarily good that Rain stopped playing against him and instead trained with Ameliah and Tallheart to become better first. However, Clubbs then held Rain's breakfast hostage and demanded they play all or nothing. Rain suspected him of cheating.

He volunteered to become a Hydromancer and was chosen to become awakened via the Essed lair core. When the icy core couldn't be broken by the Unawakened, Clubbs even tried licking it, predictably without success.

He proved to be effective with mudwork, when combined with geomancer Corrin.

He was promoted to Entrusted in order to participate in Ascension's testing of Unity.

## Build

He has a Level Cap of 9, and was still classless when leaving from Vestvall. He became a Hydromancer.

He has Condense, Hydrodirection, Internal Reservoir, Blinding Fog, Channel Mastery, and Mana Manipulation all at level 10. He also has Squid Kata. Those are all the skills he has that are shareable with Unity.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 113
2. ↑ Chapter 126
3. ↑ Chapter 127
4. ↑ Chapter 124
5. ↑ Chapter 179
6. ↑ Chpater 252
7. ↑ Chapter 173
8. ↑ Chapter 194
9. ↑ Chapter 252
Endurance

**Endurance** is one of the six base stats. Endurance influences the Stamina capacity.

The base formula is:

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{\displaystyle (total\\_endurance) \times 20 = Max Stamina}

 Known benefits

1. Increases total stamina pool.
2. Increases range of ability to resist damage.
3. Increases all resistances by 1 for every 10 points.

## Known detriments

1. (Speculation) Lowers sense of feeling at higher levels.
2. (Speculation) Lowers dexterity or ability to move at higher levels with poorly balanced stats.

## Quirks

1. Tortugo, the monolith class based around Endurance, is one of the least frequently used monolith classes.
Fire Eater

The **Fire Eater** is a stealthy, mid-level monster that apparently hunts open flames instead of living prey. It's shy and only bothers showing itself and attack when it's cornered.

## Description

At a size of twice that of a house cat, it is a comparatively small monster, but at level 13 it can be ferocious. It is quick and agile, has Force and Arcane resistance and a Dark elementary aspect. It can turn its own body into dark smoke to become incorporeal and to extinguish flames with it. It is weak to the light element however and seems unable to use its extranatural abilities while in direct light.

It has beady black eyes and needle-thin teeth in a rat-like face, it's covered by fur, has (probably four) claws and a short, stubby tail. When seeing the creature, Staavo was reminded of the *cat-snakes* from Rain's world which he had mocked and dismissed so far... which does not mean that the Fire eater actually looks like that mythical cat-snake. It's cry sounds like a squeak.
Darkmane

The **Darkmane** was one of the Sea Kings of Three Cliffs. She was an elderly silver-level Hydromancer of some form and an unpleasant person all around.

When the other Sea Kings apparently fled town in Spring 3061, the Darkmane remained in the city, doing construction on her new ship. She *borrowed* Lellermen Green, a Green Mage in the services of Captain Bakal, to help growing a tree plantation atop the cliffs. For that purpose, she had a rickety stairway to the salt plains constructed. Green wasn't treated well in her forced employ, but likely better than her regular slaves. Bakal didn't exactly like her.

She was still in town when the Fist of Progress attacked. Like Velika, she brought some fight to the Adamant ship, helped to pierce the barrier, and damaged the wooden mage-platform on top of the ship. She was killed in retaliation by the Imperials, but Velika managed to sink the ship by cleaving it in half.

The Darkmane left behind a large manor with many books (among them *Sammeter’s Lair Atlas*) and a rich Rune-secured vault that contained the huge fortune of 504 silver bars.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 184
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 189
3. ↑ Chapter 186
4. ↑ Chapter 194
5. ↑ Chapter 187
Breggeh

**Breggeh** is a woman from Fel Sadanis.

## Overview

She is an middle-aged woman (possibly in her thirties) and was (besides Kettel) the other non-noble in the awakening party that went into The Fells with Citizen Sadanis and Rain. She had a husband and some daughters in Fel Sadanis.

Breggeh isn't new to combat, knowing how to use her mace effectively. She also knows Common Hand Code. She knocked out the guards who blocked her from joining the awakening party. She is a mace-and-shield user and possessed rusty chainmail.

She became a guard in the employ of Velika, but was freed from that duty by Rain. She evacuated to Jarro soon after Fel Sadanis' teleportation pads were working again.

## Build

Her build was not detailed in the story yet, but she chose a close-combat one that relied on Katas.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 98
2. ↑ Chapter 89
3. ↑ Chapter 84
4. ↑ Chapter 110
Ander

**Ander** is a grey haired elderly Cervidian. Ameliah guessed his age at around 50.

He is the father of Stoneriver, Proudrock and Camaya, in that order. He is also the grandfather of Greenbriar.

He lived in the hidden village that Snowlilly and Tallheart founded, until he was taken captive and involuntarily awakened in 3061 by the Menovik family. After the death of his son Proudrock, he was then rescued from the nobles by Ameliah.
Recovery

**Recovery** is one of the six base stats. Recovery influences health regeneration (H. Regen).

The base formula is:

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{\displaystyle (total\\_recovery)\times 10=H.Regen/day}

 Known benefits

1. Increases health pool regeneration.
2. Increases healing speed.
3. (Speculation) Slows aging process.
4. Decreases hunger / amount of food needed

## Known detriments

1. Doesn't lessen pain of wounds, only heals them faster.

## Quirks

1. Vivificants have an extremely high tolerance or even immunity to health overuse soulstrain because of high Recovery and the class boost to the effectiveness of the stat.
Lerith Singer

**Lerith Singer** is the former lover of Ameliah, whom she worked with in Brightside.

## Allusions before Chapter 171

Ameliahs memories retrospectively paint him as the villain of her backstory, but she notes that she herself wasn't a hero either, at that time: She retrospectively calls herself a power-hungry monster, yet she still regrets not having killed him back then, implying he has since taken a turn to the worse.

Young Ameliah and Lerith tried together, for more than half a a year, to discover the lair that Ameliah's deceased father had already searched for. Only with the help of a competent team did they eventually succeed, and reach a new level cap of 31. They both let themselves be corrupted by power, and finally, Lerith would betray Ameliah's trust. She gave him her invaluable accolade from that very lair, and he absconded with it, deeply hurting her.

It has been heavily implied that Lerith was in fact a healer, and that he knew of high-tier spells that were able to *alter a soul*.

## Full story

... is available in the form of Chapter 171. Lerith was revealed to have been an unscrupulous Freelord who abused and eventually abandoned Ameliah. She has found no trace of him since she left Brightside, but there are rumours of deformed monsters that he might have left in his wake, as he is able to mold people's appearances. (This is also a backstory to explain Ameliah's negative reaction to the shapeshifter Egan Urs.)

## Current location

A person called the **Fleshsinger** is hiding in Rellagia, in the Entin Theocracy where he "works secretly for the queen".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 170
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 158
3. ↑ Chapter 161
4. ↑ Chapter 146
5. ↑ Chapter 208
Lady Sale

**Lady Sale** was the only awakened member of House Sale, which was again one of the three noble family of Vestvall, who suffered from paranoia and hid in her heavily trapped basement after the Shift happened.

The old crone had thin, stark-white hair, skeletal features, and dry, splotchy skin. She had been awakened in the Sale family lair, possessed a level 9 Axe Warrior class, and wielded a two-handed crescent axe despite her old age. Her own grandson was at some point in time killed as an adventurer, but he had also a son, Lady Sale's great-grandson Emerton. Since she considered her son's demise a disgrace, Lady Sale didn't acknowledge the man as being from her bloodline, but trusted him enough to make him the captain of her household guard. She considered herself as the last member of her doomed house; but was also a "prepper" and was convinced she would be able to defend her household against all comers.

She owned a device that Myth and Reason suspected was a Limit Spiker, a weapon she deployed against Rain in a desperate attempt to kill him.

When she took her great-grandson Emerton hostage in another attempt of overpowering Rain, this time emotionally, Rain killed her with a Radiance Nova. Emerton was almost killed by her, but Rain rescued him.

It is unclear if Emerton really took the name of the family despite her wishes (making him "Lord Emerton Sale"), or if he chose to renounce her legacy, become "Freelord Emerton" and thus seal the end to House Sale. Nevertheless, when Ascension evacuated Vestvall, Emerton regained all of his Lady's possessions, including the accolades and treasures of Lady Sale, as well as the command of his loyal household guard. He joined Ascension.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 169
2. ↑ Chapter 170
Mazel

**Mazel** (locally famous as **Mazel Strongarm**) is the aunt of Carten.

## Background

She is a former Caravan Guard and spear wielder, previously working together with her sister Carnilla and became quite famous around Fel Sadanis. For example, Vanna and Smelt knew of her. She is a very large woman, being nearly three strides tall (~> nearly 2.5 meters), which led to her reputation. She had to abandon her job when she was badly injured in a battle, and now Mazel lives off the coin her still working sister sends her way. She can only walk around under immense pain, and got some other nicknames including *Old Mazel*, *Mazel the Cripple*, *Mazel the Fat* etc.

Carten loves to tell stories about his aunt: According to him, she has become wider than a grizzly bear in old age, yet remained about that dangerous, especially when she realizes she is out of spiced ale. He also says she is allergic to milk, but still devours whole wheels of cheese, with smelly results.

She proved her mettle when The Shift hit Fel Sadanis, becoming one of more prominent defenders of the city and helping guarding the perimeters. When Rain founded Ascension, Mazel did the physical testing of the non-awakened applicants: They had to fight her and get her approval; a win against her wasn't required. Mazel herself chose *not* to join the company though, as she felt she was too badly crippled. Yet, Rain had wanted her to join, citing her combat experience and discipline.

After the evacuation of Fel Sadanis, Mazel and Carnilla made it to Eastspar eventually, where they rejoined with Carten.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 104
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 100
3. ↑ Chapter 54
4. ↑ Chapter 55
5. ↑ Chapter 101
6. ↑ Chapter 113
7. ↑ Chapter 213
Depth Gauge

A **depth gauge** is a "simple" mechanical or magical device that measures an the rank of an area. If the device measures essence or mana or some other quality, has not been revealed - just that it works.

These devices are used by awakened delving in the depths, but also on the surface in ranked areas. Low-ranked awakened who don't venture into ranked zones often, may not be acquinted with them, at all, so they are fairly esoterical especially to Unawakened.

Depth gauges have varying qualities and may often be inaccurate, especially in environments that are of too high level to be measured by the device - most depth gauges only cover low-rank zones anyway, as only high-level adventurers should even dare to venture into environments of higher level.
Lyn Aleuas Draves

**Lyn Aleuas Draves** is a noblewoman from Fel Sadanis. She liked to be formally referred to as **Lady Draves**, but in Ascension is now simply called **Lyn**.

## Biography

Lyn grew up as the youngest child of her noble parents, and as their only daughter. Feeling that she needed to prove herself even when she was still unawakened, she participated in arena matches as a Chasm duelist.

In the Shift, her entire branch of the family died (she still has more distant relatives), and she chose to join Rain's newly founded group, Ascension. She was more used to people of her own station and uncomfortable with commoners, yet she still tries. She had some problems with long marches, despite her belief to be well-trained. Unlike Samson Darr, she never renounced her family and still considers herself a noble, although that means nothing in Ascension.

Together with Tahir, she was one of the two still unawakened party members in the lair raid of the Essed Frostburrows, accompanying Rain, Carten, Mlemlek, Val, Jamus and Samson. During that raid, Jamus saved her life. For helping secure the blue, Lyn and Tahir got priority in choosing their awakened role, and she decided to become a Staff Combat Defender.

She became Ascension's instructor on staff combat afterwards, and held classes on the topic even after the evacuation of Vestvall.

She went after the Fire Eater several times. First, she went with Fredek, Telen, Corrin, Evonna, Ruce, Mereck and Mahria, but they didn't encounter it, only other monsters. The next time, she was in a party with Staavo, Jamus, Hanes, Val, Carten, Mlem and Tahir, and they defeated the Fire Eater, with her delivering the final blow.

She has become close friends with Mahria, and it has been implied that there is more to that relationship. Together with Val, she advocates for tournaments between the Awakened of Ascension.

Lyn and Mahria were part of the foward team of Ascension that Rain sent to Yelfenn.

## Build

She picked Intrinsic Strength (needs a long time to level) and the Gazelle Kata as her starting skills.

In Vestvall, she had reached level 5, but hadn't chosen her class yet because her skills (now also including Weighted Staff, Forceful Sweep and Projectile Deflection) hadn't yet reached level 5. Her stats are mostly in Endurance, Strength, and Vigor. In a party, her place is on the front line, using her staff, but she also has a sword as a backup. Her equipment includes a Frost Resistance ring, as a standard equipment in Ascension.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 114: PoV Chapter
2. ↑ Chapter 113
3. ↑ Chapter 120
4. ↑ Chapters 164, 168
5. ↑ Chapters 118-122
6. ↑ Chapter 127
7. ↑ Chapter 173
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 132: PoV chapter
9. ↑ Chapter 133
10. ↑ Chapter 139
11. ↑ Chapter 172
12. ↑ Chapter 193
13. ↑ Chapter 175
14. ↑ Chapter 215
15. ↑ Chapter 123
Chapter List

The following is a list of all released chapters of the story of Delve, written by SenescentSoul, together with the release date and links.

See also Chapters (for short summaries) and Timeline (tracks time in more detail).

## Remarks

1. ↑ Trivia: Chapter names have been one-word titles, except for chapter 2 (three words) and chapters 179 and 213 (two words)
2. ↑ Timestamps in CET as per RoyalRoad
3. ↑ All audio chapters are **fanwork**, spoken by **Keval Shah**
4. ↑ Check out Units#Times\_and\_Dates
5. ↑ please correct if errors are there. Please don't add lengthy summaries, those can be put into Chapters.
6. ↑ please point out or correct possible errors. Underscored PoV means it's a single-character non-Rain chapter.
7. ↑ The original name for this chapter was 085: Guide . It was changed because chapter 174 was also named Guide.
8. ↑ The original name for this chapter was 136: Focus . It was changed because chapter 036 was also named Focus.
9. ↑ Chapter 216, "She’d already made one change yesterday, taking Purify not long after arriving in the city. She hadn’t bothered with more than that, busy helping Samson and the others get set up."
10. ↑ Chapter 216 "At the end of the valley as the sun was setting"

then

"Two hours later",

Chapter 217 "Today was the first day I dared to leave the mine, and only because I had no choice."

Thus chapter 216 ends on the same day it began and Chapter 217 is still on that same day.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 SenescentSoul\_Quotes#Dates\_for\_chapters\_quote\_1
Legends of the Green Wood

The **Legends of the Green Wood** is a collection of fairytales in the world of Delve.

## Overview

There are parables about honor and glory, mixed in with straightforward tales of excitement and adventure, even the fighting of dragons. The system is omnipresent in many of them as a plot device, depicted in different ways, and with differing degrees of believability. Rain obtained a copy of these stories for five Tel.

## Specific Tales

Some of the tales are cultural reference points that are just common knowledge to everyone.

* Wix is the name of a legendary place. (details in the specialized article)
* The legend of **Gimmen's Folly** is that of a miner who discovered a fabulous lair where even the walls were made out of gold. He mined enough of it to overload a donkey-cart with the precious metal, and then brought it to the nearby village where he ruined the local community with his wealth. When the gold from the lair dissolved into nothing three days later, the villagers killed Gimmen.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 83
2. ↑ Chapter 118
Reason

## Myth

**Reason** is a Chemist and founding member of Ascension. He is partners with Myth.

Meloni calls him Bop.

## Appearance and Personality

Reason is slightly shorter and stockier than Myth. He has dark hair and eyes. He dresses in a matching outfit to Myth, except all in black. His coat was mirrored, buttoning up on the right side instead of the left.

He tends to form flowery sentences that accent his mystical approach, but that seems mostly a facade for customers. Reason, like Myth, is not very good with business.

## History

Myth and Reason are from Rellagia, and come from a part where they speak Vejik as mother language. Still, they are fluent in common as well. They have been part of the *Ten Thousand* in Ter'karmark but eventually left when they couldn't get up in society.

They eventually settled in Fel Sadanis, opened a combined alchemist & chemist shop called Myth and Reason. Due to their lack of business acumen, including a refusal to charge inflated prices, it was kept afloat by their more business savvy assistant Meloni as well as credits from the Bank to which the pair was indebted.

The couple is kept together by some very private, personal secret that makes them undesirables in most societies but they keep a close lid over *whatever* secret they might hide.

Their shop got ruined during the calamities that befell Fel Sadanis, but they joined the efforts to get the situation under control, by creating more Evertorches and Everfluid and investigating the noxious chemical moss that overgrew the city after the Shift.

They joined Ascension to get away from the mess in Fel Sadanis. They contribute a lot by doing the craftsmenship within the company, and offering al/chemical knowledge as well as knowledge from Rellagia, but they had declined the rank of "Entrusted".

The couple brewed *Ald's Wondrous Waterbreathing Potion* in Three Cliffs, based on a tried recipe.

At the camp near Yelfenn, Myth and Reason approached Rain to become Entrusted members. However, Reason also tested Rain on his willingness to let people leave Ascension, and was surprised Rain had no problems with letting him and Myth go if that was what they desired. Since the pair were on a pre-approved list, they were immediately made Entrusted on the spot.

## Abilities

Reason is a level 6 Chemist. His known skills include Chemical Intuition, Nonreactivity and Fume Control.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 72
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 109
3. ↑ Chapter 103
4. ↑ Chapter 113
5. ↑ Chapter 173
6. ↑ Chapter 192
7. ↑ Chapter 220
8. ↑ Chapter 100
9. ↑ Chapter 103

Reason had PoV paragraphs in #103 and #109. See the full list of chapters which includes PoV breakdowns.
Bosco Deitrich

**Bosco Deitrich** is a young noble from Fel Sadanis.

He is a spear-wielder, having an enchanted weapon he has named *Mercy*. He wears a helmet without faceplate. He is older than twenty, but younger than Rain himself.

He took part in the expedition into The Fells, led by Citizen Sadanis and Rain. He proved competent with his spear there. Rain disliked his pompous attitude, calling him *Costanca*, but at least Bosco was less volatile than his fellow Arlo Rill.

After the Fells, Bosco was on guard duty for Citizen Sadanis until Rain freed the freshly awakened from that duty. Bosco remained in Fel Sadanis for a while during the evacuation, but ultimately didn't join Ascension: Only Kettel and Samson did so.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 85
2. ↑ Chapter 98
3. ↑ Chapter 110
Essence Monster

**Essence Monsters** are also colloquially referred to as **Blues**, for the coloration of their names when viewed.

Defeating them is the most commonly known way to get Awakened.

## Overview

Essence monsters are usually stronger than normal monsters and come in all shapes and sizes. Every participant in an essence monster kill undergoes a change in level cap to the level of the essence monster (unless the monster's level was below their level cap). Unawakened participants in the kill will be awakened. Essence monsters are most common in lairs, but not always as the strongest monster in the lair.

### Rules and Requirements

* Only one party (of up to eight members) can be granted the experience of the kill, which is not the one who dealt the most damage, but the one who deals the killing blow.
* Only members who participated in the kill, are rewarded.
	+ Participation requirements outside of a lair are "being in the party", although some sort of contribution is probably required, like spotting, buffing, aggroing, healing, distracting the essence monster or (maybe?) just being close to the other party members.
	+ Participation requirements inside a lair are having landed a hit that dealt damage to the monster. That is because inside lairs, contribution works differently in all fights.

These restrictions prevent the awakening of large numbers of people in a short time.

## Examples

* Rain did basically nothing against the Musk Wolf (besides attracting it) and still achieved enough participation credit to awaken and get the level cap increase.
* Val killed the Dire Darkmonk in the Everdeep Fortress 100% on his own (meeting his class requirement).
* In both the Essed Frostbarrows and the Sale family lair, a suppression party conquered the lair, captured and immobilized the essence monster, and then an unsupervised awakening party made of fully unawakened people went in to kill the essence monster on their own.

## "Lucky Blues"

It is called a "lucky blue" when a person becomes awakened "by accident" when they were not seeking out an essence monster, or encounter a surprisingly strong one and manage to kill it. This usually happens out in the wild. As bad luck often has it, several people of a group often don't survive such monster encounters, and the survivors are doubly lucky just to have survived.

Rain's awakening would count as a lucky blue, but other examples may be Jamus and Carten, who were among the survivors against a Face Stabbing Face Stabber, and got awakened with a Level Cap of 12. Another case is Ameliah's awakening, or that of Khurt.

Planned Awakenings are more common than lucky blues. They are usually undertaken with higher-leveled Awakened to safeguard the Unawakened through an essence monster kill, with the chaperones often charging a high price for their service.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 101
2. ↑ Chapter 32
3. ↑ Chapter 171
4. ↑ Chapter 98
Alarus

**Dominus Alarus** is the commander of at least one Legion of the Empire of Adamant.

## History

Alarus has been the commander of an insignicant imperial garrison on the frontier several years back, until he was faced with Snowlilly and Tallheart whom he could drive off. From Tallheart's timeline, that life-changing encounter happened between 3052 and 3058. It can't be said for sure if the encounter was the same that Tallheart told of, which would have been one of their earliest encounters with the Empire, back in 3052. However, it started Alarus' career, as he got Called afterwards.

Alarus was sent to Fel Sadanis during the Empire-DKE war in late 3060, where the Empire destroyed the now shielded and renamed Citadel Sadanis. He was apparently the replacement officer for Dominus Bekerim who had failed to capture the city a month earlier.

Alarus made a name for himself when he razed the city of Ellis in early 3061, and it appears from the Guild's reports he is the highest commanding officer of the imperial forces that operate closer to the Empire's borders.

Dominus Illus doesn't think highly of him, openly insinuating that Alarus can't distinguish active opposition under his command from sheer incompetence. This distinction also indicates that there are not many Dominuses within the Empire, given that Bekerim was likely demoted or executed for his failures.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 167
2. ↑ Chapter 60
3. ↑ Chapter 88
4. ↑ Chapter 193
5. ↑ Chapter 199
Hababa

A **Hababa** is a monkey-like Monster type with magical attacks.

## Overview

Hababas resemble furless, grey-skinned monkeys with six limbs: two legs and four arms that are apparently arranged all at the same height of the torso (likely one arm-pair on front-shoulders, one arm-pair on the back-shoulders), with a relatively small head on a short neck centered between the shoulders. Their skin looks too tight for their muscular bodies.

They are large beasts, with arms as thick as a human torso and towering over humans.

They are able to walk erect, but are faster when they move on four limbs while wielding weapons with the remaining two arms. They are proficient at climbing and traveling through trees.

## Semi-Society and Weapons

Hababa are considered reaper-class monsters, as they are stronger, faster, tougher and smarter than their level would suggest. All regular Hababas Ascension met in the Ashen Jungle were level 19, and able to survive in a level-15 environment.

They are not particularly weak to any element, but are smart enough to adapt their tactics to enemy attacks. They possess an inborn sonic attack which causes Force Damage.

Hababas build huts out of wood and bones, and live in villages they created by clearing areas of the forest. They may carry crude Deepstone or wooden clubs, or even Adamantium swords as large as an adult human. They are able to dual-wield their weapons, and either spawn with their weapons or the weapons appear later, as if the Hababas had crafted them. Rain's group spotted a Hababa wearing a wooden crown who appeared to be a chieftain or shaman, despite not yet having a distinct monster-title.

In the Ashen Jungle, the Hababas formed a cult around Ahbahabam. While they are not capable of communicating with humans, they may speak among themselves, or at least exchange grunts, cheers and war-cries. Some Hababas are able to cast magic by performing ritualistic war dances.

## References

Chapters 145 and 147

1. ↑ Ameliah described the arms using her own body, and she's not the lithe type either.
Orman

**Orman** is a capital city of the Democratic Kingdoms of Ekrustia, sitting inland in the Northwest of the continent. Its neighboring cities connected via major trade routes are Magabor to the north, Westbridge to the southeast and Gamon to the south. In the northeast of Orman is also the city of Tem, obstructed from road access by a river, a major forest and the largest interior lake of the DKE.

Orman has a sizeable Watch presence, as prospects are raised there. Sana apparently was raised in Orman, or at least finished her Prospect training there, and was then taught Reading by Guardian Nem.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 191
2. ↑ Chapter 209
Luna Olentu

President **Luna Olentu** is the ranking Bank's representative in Eastspar, and the fourth-wealthiest Banker in his organization.

## Appearance

He is a broad shouldered man in his forties with black hair, a strong nose, and the overall appearance of an ambitious politician. For the meeting with Rain, Luna dressed in sharp blue trousers and a buttonless waistcoat to match, topping his appearance with a luxuriant fur cape. Mentioned accessories include golden rings (two per finger) and magical spectacles.

To Rain's soul senses, Luna appeared to have a strong orange soul.

Luna is a smoker of tobacco cigars.

## Build

Nothing is known about his build, but his plate marks him as having surpassed Level 50. He was studying Rain via a Scrying Frame, but the device with its *Scrying Pool* was operated by a female aide, probably Seeker Kan.

## History

Luna is #4 in the Bank's hierarchy, but with a considerable margin between him and the ranking three board members. He is responsible for managing the Bank's branch in Eastspar. He personally owns three Goldships (among them the *Luxuriant*, the Goldship that followed the Temerity from Barstone to Eastspar). *His duties might also include a wider responsibility for the Bank's business in the DKE, but if that is the case, it has not been brought up in the story*. He is the boss of Seeker Kan and Enforcer Gena.

Luna has the ambition to become Director of the Bank, i.e. the leader of its board. Upon the arrival of Ascension at his doorstep in Eastspar, he quickly scrambled his research and found out enough about the company to see the chance of a lifetime: Led by a silverplate and with mostly low-level members, the company had several trade secrets he detected thanks to Scrying and his corporate espionage network: Ascension was operating an ice-covered metal vessel akin to the Bank's Goldships but operating on a different engine; Luna was brought a crystal of previously unknown properties (Rain's Detection Aura Anchor); and he acquired a bulky "flashlighter" that operated on "lectons" and produced light without magic; as well as a dagger made out of extremely light but refined metal. He (probably rightly) assumed that such novelties would upend the established markets of his wealthiest rivals in the Bank's Board, and offered Rain to join him as a Banker, with Rain basically handing over Ascension's business to him in exchange for being made wealthy beyond belief.

As this proposal was diametrically opposed to Rain's goals with Ascension, he flat-out rejected Luna's offer: Ascension had merely come to Eastspar to acquire a charter flag, and to legally operate in the DKE and Bank territories. The company still made a deal with Luna eventually, much closer to what Rain had intended, and it included the charter flag and the permission to operate around Splendor. Meanwhile, Luna managed to place a spy within Ascension, nominally a level-three swordswoman.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 212
2. ↑ Chapter 211
3. ↑ Chapter 224
Essence

**Essence** is the stuff that souls are made of. It also exists in the environment.

It can take several forms: Chaos, Potential, and Soul.

## Chaos

Chaos, more technically known as Uninvested Unordered Essence, is essence as it exists outside of souls, wild and unstructured. To quote Warden Vatreece, "Chaos is fundamentally different from ordered essence."

The process of refining potential from chaos is quite basic, it is done via simple compression. When chaos is refined, only rank 0 potential is produced.

## Potential

Potential, more technically known as Uninvested Ordered Essence, is the result of "compressing" chaos, refining it and instilling it with order.

Potential can be willed into potential of the next highest rank, by pushing it into a higher-level pattern. Potential will dissolve anything of a lower level trying to contain it.

To create a unit of Rank X potential, one needs two units of Rank X-1 potential. Since this scales exponentially, to create a single unit of level-25 potential unit, one needs 225 essence units. Going by uncompressed volumes, creating a milliliter (1 ml, ca. 1 raindrop) of 25-level potential requires 33'554 liters (33.5 m³) of raw essence. With a "filled-Hoover-Dam" volume of raw essence, it is possible to create about a shot glass (3.1 cl) of 50-level potential. With a "world's ocean" volume of raw essence, it is possible to create about a shot-glass (3.5 cl) of 75-level potential.

## Soul

Soul, more technically known as Invested Ordered Essence, is the result of shaping Potential, stabilizing it and turning it into objects and structures within a soul.

Higher level soul is more dense and real in the soulscape than anything of a lower level.

Higher-tier soul constructs require moving potential nearby, or they eventually break down.

## Measurement Units

To quantify essence Rain uses a measurement system of his own creation. The base unit is the ESS. Multiples and submultiples of the ESS are indicated using the standard metric prefixes, so a GESS is 109 ESS and a µESS is 10-6 ESS.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 222
2. ↑ Chapter 238
Dystees

**Dystees** is a goddess of the World who is mostly seen as a benevolent force within the Pantheon.

She is foremost seen as the goddess of Light (as in the elemental light). She is revered above all in Xiugaaraa as the head of the pantheon, with even the elder god El demoted into the role of her steward. Most other places see her as a senior goddess, but put El in charge of heading the gods.

She is also affiliated with goodness, heaven and healing., and the healer/support of the Rousers was a Priest of Dystees.

Dystee followers call the soul a "*Divine Envelope*".

In Elish wedding ceremonies, it is the role of Dystees (represented either by acting priests or preferential by summoned light spells) to guide the couple towards El, where the god Karum then is supposed to forge their wedding bond.

1. ↑ Chapter 178
2. ↑ Chapters 88 and 111
3. ↑ Chapter 122
4. ↑ Chapter 97
5. ↑ Chapter 180
Bakal

**Captain Bakal** is one of the Sea Kings of Three Cliffs. To his own chagrin, he gets called the **Barge King** by most people.

Bakal is a very tall guy, estimated by Rain to be taller than 210 cm. He is also ridiculously overweight, but still maintains some athletic demeanor, granted to him by his stats. He has long wavy grey hair and maintains a puffy, cleanly shaven face.

Bakal's personal colors are a rich blue and green, which is also the color of his robes. His clothes are clearly enchanted, as are the rings on his left hand, and the silver circlet that holds back his hair.

As a pirate captain, Bakal has had an eventful life, which included a sailing trip on the open ocean which he says none of his crew but himself survived. From his voyages, he retained several close confidants whom he keeps as staff: He freed some of them from servitude or slavery (or so the statements go), and financed others' awakenings. While still dependent on him, his staff in his lavish mansion are apparently free men and women. Bakal has chosen retirement in his grandiose and well-warded mansion, where he keeps a bountiful garden that always provides him with fresh fruit and honey, among other things. He keeps an extensive staff of guards and retainers: Among these are Tamin, possibly a former crewmate and freed slave; and the guards Femar and Nemen, as well as Lellermen Green.

Bakal caught Val when he tried to sneak onto his property, when Ascension scouted out Three Cliffs. Ameliah and Rain had to retrieve the budding Light Mage from Bakal, and accept a quest to repay Bakal for the courtesy of not harming Val.

That quest was freeing the Nature-mage Lellermen Green from the vault of the Darkmane, a 'fellow' Sea Queen of Bakal.

Captain Bakal joined the fight against the second Adamant invasion as well, fighting a landing group of 100 imperials down at the shoreline. Owing Captain Rain his life, he offered to join him in battle against the adamants, and transported Rain, Vanna, Stint, Dust, Thrast and Cessa to the *Temerity* as well as helped killing an imperial Incarn. Doing so, he left his mansion and his friends in Three Cliffs behind.

## Build

Bakal has some kind of hydromancer / warrior build, and has an arcane resistance too powerful for Ameliah to overcome. He doesn't wear a personal weapon.

He has Water Manipulation, and a (possibly divergent?) variant of Internal Reservoir which allows him to draw on the water in his body which lets him shrivel until he can replenish it. He can summon a protective water shell, and with a different skill (below level 4) he can summon water tentacles in his defense. Bakal has also Surf, and another water skill allowing for mass transportation without a physical vessel, instead being able to construct a blocky "Barge" with Hydromancy/Force magic.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chapter 186
2. ↑ Chapter 201
3. ↑ Chapter 187
4. ↑ Chapter 198
5. ↑ Chapter 200
Memory Cube

A **Memory Cube** is a device in use by the Watch. It can seal recent memories of those who touch it. This allows for sensitive training secrets like Reading to be compartmentalized.

During Sana's training in Orman under Nem, her accumulated Reading training sessions were blocked by a memory cube, and eventually were sealed after she completed her training. Warden Vatreece unlocked her memories of that training to enable her training Rain in turn.

*This description indicates that the memory cube does not store the memories, but just acts as a trigger instrument to block or unblock them. Alternatively, the Warden was prescient enough to bring the memory cube with Sana's memories with her, in order to restore her memories.*
There is a rumor that Warden Vatreece made the cube, but since Reading is a skill older than her, this may not be true.

There has been no mention how many such cubes exist, or how large they are.
Citizen Bluecrest

**Citizen Bluecrest** is the ruler of the northern coastal city of Bluecrest in the Democratic Kingdoms of Ekrustia.

The Aspect Elemental is one of the strongest fighters in the DKE. In his combat form, he looks less like a man, and more like a scarecrow constructed of blades of translucent, razor-sharp ice. It is a strange fusion of Arcane transformation, secondary-elemental ice, and sword combat forms, startlingly effective for single combat.

The Aspect was part of the striking force of the DKE, where he was in coordination with Citizen Jarro from afar, and fought together with Citizen Northharbor, Citizen Greenfield and Citizen Bowcraig against Lightbreaker near Fel Sadanis. He easily defeated an Incarn, but the offensive was thwarted by Lightbreaker's Mirage. Northharbor and Bowcraig perished in the battle.

Bluecrest was active in more battles of the Empire-DKE war, for example in the razing of Ellis and the failed recapture of Shinevale. He was the only Citizen present in all three of these battles mentioned.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 94
2. ↑ Chapter 193
Rankin

**Rankin** worked at the Adventurers Guild in Fel Sadanis.

He is an elderly man, a former Bronzeplate adventurer himself (exact level and build unknown) and second-in-command of the Fel Sadanis Guild branch. He handled the tedious day-to-day workings of a guildmaster that Halgrave loathed to do himself. He followed his duties meticulously, but was also a miser on behalf of the Guild, not willing to spend Guild funds for anything too luxurious. He was, at least, in charge of the Guild's maintenance budget, if not all the Guild's finances in Fel Sadanis.

Rankin was regularly around the guildhalls. He was the first employee of the Guild whom Rain met, in the night he arrived at Fel Sadanis: "a reedy old man" who showed him the bunkroom. Rain later learned Rankin's name when he worked out a deal with him to Purify the guild in exchange for board in the common bunkroom - a deal that fell through when Halgrave fined and banned Rain. Rankin was later not willing to renegotiate it, after Rain was reinstated as Guild member.

Rankin was an opportunist who rolled over to Citizen Sadanis when she took power over the city. He readily accepted her pin as he was named leader of the Guild in Halgrave's absence. That didn't exactly earn him the favor of his fellow guildmembers, but nobody besides Jaks was willing to confront him on the matter. Rankin remained even more unpopular with the Guild after Citizen Sadanis left, and only held nominal power over the remaining adventurers.

Rain had long suspected Rankin as the main suspect of who embezzled Guild funds, keeping the Fel Sadanis branch poor. That suspicion was proven when Rain and Ameliah found the true Guild ledgers of the years 3058 to 3060 in the basement of Rankin's private house, together with 53'000 Tel in a metal box. Rankin was proven guilty thanks to the testimony of Gus, the evidence presented by Rain, and by Watch officer Bartum.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 62
2. ↑ Chapter 4
3. ↑ Chapters 17 and 18
4. ↑ Chapter 77
Breathless Wasteland

The **Breathless Wasteland** is a arcane aspect Lair located in the Bloodmarsh. It is a beige colored wasteland, with a crumbling ruin inside. While inside, the wasteland seemingly extends in all directions, with only a faint shimmer apparent where the lair boundary is when you get close to the edge. The ruin is roughly a two minute walk from the lair boundary where Staavo entered the first time. The most challenging feature of the lair to deal with is that the atmosphere inside is pure hydrogen.
Drywood

The **Drywood** is a dry region on the southeast coast of Bellost. The trees in the Drywood were killed by a toxin. According to reports read by Rain, that toxin is now fading.

It and the bay to its southwest were considered as one of the options for Ascension's destination after leaving Ekrustia. The Drywood was rejected in favor of the Bloodmarsh because it was too obvious a choice. Instead they disseminated it as a false destination to their members, knowing it would leak.