The Gryphon Clerks: Mike Reeves-McMillan

Archives: Wiki Pages

  • Elves

    Height: Average: 5’6″/165cm Range: 5’/150cm to 6’/180cm
    Life stages: Puberty 20
    Marriage 30-50, average 40
    Eldership 81
    Life Expectancy 130 (M), 135 (F). A few live to 150.
    Appearance: Slim, pale; pointed ears; no facial hair. Metallic-coloured hair after which their groups are named: Silver Elves (mainly northern), Gold Elves (mainly southern), Copper Elves (mainly central). Originally, these were marks of social class.
    Relations with Other Races:
    Dwarves: Often in conflict over pollution, etc. in the past; now little contact
    Humans: Were former slaves; trade with very occasionally, Copper Elves raid humans when they think they can get away with it.
    Merpeople: Trade with.
    Elves look down on all other races as inferior. Since the Fall of the Elven Empire, they have had reduced contact with other races.
    Origin: Ancient race
    Location: Northern archipelago, Southern peninsula, central jungles and forests.

    Elves use their considerable magical abilities to shape their living environment, such as enormous trees which they encourage to grow into houses. Their historic fights with the dwarves generally involved a dwarvish mine emitting polluted water into the forest. Up to about 500 years ago, when they were more numerous, the Elven Empire extended its hegemony throughout the continent, though its rule was not universally acknowledged (by the dwarves, for example). There was a strong streak of cruelty running through the Empire, including human (and we do mean human) sacrifice to the Moon and stars. This is officially denied by the remaining present-day civilized elves, namely the Silvers of the far north and the Golds of the far south, though it’s suspected that some of the tribal Coppers of the central jungles still practice it on occasion.

    The Empire elves were divided into three castes, marked by the colour of their hair and other, subtler differences. The Gold Elves, the tallest, constituted the ruling class. The Silver Elves, who had the greatest manual dexterity and sensory acuity and often slightly larger heads in proportion to their bodies, took care of skilled work such as advanced magic, the shaping of plants and animals, the arts and intellectual pursuits, administration of the Empire, manufacturing and trade. The Copper Elves, the strongest and heaviest, formed the labouring class and the bulk of the army (under Silver officers).
    The caste divisions were deliberately magically engineered from the base elf stock, and it was possible (though uncommon) to be taken up, or under shameful circumstances sent down, to another caste. This involved a magical ceremony and the ingestion of special preparations which transformed the hair colour, though it did not give the other physical markers. However, this was not just a transformation of the individual; the changed hair colour bred true in descendants.
    Interbreeding between castes was strictly forbidden. Occasionally, for the sake of love an elf would go down into a lower caste in order to marry someone of that caste. Any children of the illegitimate mingling of castes who were discovered were sent down to the lower of the two castes.
    There is only one historical example of an elf taken up twice, that is, one who began his life as a Copper and ended up Gold (in fact, ended up as the Empiregold). In a time of civil strife, the elf later known as the Red General was promoted from Sergeant to officer, and hence taken up to Silver, when he led his unit back largely intact from where an incompetent Silver lieutenant had stranded them behind enemy lines. (The exact fate of the lieutenant was not closely inquired into under the press of events, otherwise he might have been court-martialled instead of promoted.) He rose rapidly through the ranks because of his tactical brilliance, became a general, and seized the opportunity to become Empiregold, whereupon he was taken up to Gold.
    At the breakup of the Empire, the elves withdrew to the forests of the Northern Archipelago and the far South, and the jungles of the equator, with the three castes largely going their separate ways. The Southern contingent was made up of Golds, the escaping remnant of the Imperial aristocracy, with a few supporting Silvers and Coppers. Most of the Silvers elected to go north, taking a larger number of Coppers with them but stranding most of the rest. The remaining Coppers, with a few Silvers left behind in the panic, were either killed by humans or took refuge in the equatorial jungles, where the Silvers became their leaders and the keepers of tradition and magic.
    The equatorial elves have lost most, and the southern elves much, of their high culture; the elves of the north preserve the greatest remnant, since the Silvers were always the keepers of culture in any case. The elves tend to interact with other races as little as they can manage. When they do, they are shocking snobs, but not actually malicious; their snobbery is completely unconscious, part and parcel of their disconnection from other people’s realities.
    Elves in ancient times were extremely hierarchical, and it was considered quite usual for two elves of approximately equal rank to spend several hours indirectly maneuvering to establish which of them outranked the other, based on a complicated code of relationship and attainment, meanwhile avoiding the use of any pronouns for each other since all the available second-person pronouns conveyed hierarchy. The Silvers retain a remnant of this elaborate etiquette, but keep it for formal occasions. There are few enough Silver Elves that everyone knows who outranks whom, so the dances of protocol are a thing of the past, but notable ones are still celebrated in story and occasionally re-enacted.
    Elven Magic differs from dwarven in both style and substance, and is rather theatrical, involving a lot of chanting and gesturing. It is strongly bound by tradition; elves do not often create new spells, but the ones they have are very reliable. They are particularly skilled with living plants and animals, though only the northern Silvers retain enough knowledge to create entirely new forms.
    Elves, in contrast to dwarves, can see some way into the ultraviolet but can’t distinguish colours much below orangey-red. The colours of their clothing and decorations frequently look somewhat “off” to human eyes as a result and may be decorated with patterns that are not distinguishable to humans (or dwarves, even more so). An ancient elven method of keeping information from human slaves was to write in ultraviolet ink, as Hope at Merrybourne discovered. They have 27 named colours, three of which are not perceptible by humans.

  • Elven Magic

    The elves recognise three kinds of magic (three being their sacred number): mindmagic, lifemagic and a third category derisively called “the magic of dead things”, which takes in the whole of Dwarven Magic.

    Elven magic tends to involve a lot of words, chanting, elegant gestures and ritual threes. Circles and triangles, organic-looking interweaving shapes, and geometric figures may also feature.

    Humans have continued to practice magic based on the elven model since the Fall of the Elven Empire.

  • Earthist Religion

    Earthism is believed by those who study such things to be descended from the original religion of humans in their lost homeland.
    Practiced mostly in the country, it has colourful seasonal ceremonies connected with the agricultural cycle and the sun, and a number of fairly superstitious practices aimed at propitiating small spirits of place such as hearth spirits, stream spirits or the spirits of notable trees.
    In Earthist cosmology, there are five concentric worlds: from inner to outer, the body world, the soul world, the spirit world, the world of the honoured ancestors and the highest world. Most people can only perceive the body world directly, accessing the soul world through it, but a shaman’s training gives them the ability to first perceive, then manipulate, and finally enter the soul world, and eventually the spirit world. Ceremonies work by increasing the depth and complexity of soul linked to a person, place or object, then attracting the spirits to the pattern so prepared.
    The soul world is perceived symbolically and works by relationship and analogy rather than by the rules of the body world. For example, distance in the soul world is not physical distance but relational or emotional distance. Your lover who is a thousand miles away in the body world is right next to you in the soul world. Even relatively inexperienced mystics can perceive these connections between people (though, since the physically distant people look nothing like they look in the body, if the mystic doesn’t know both their body and soul appearance they won’t be able to tell who the connected person is). They can see if you’re lying or afraid or angry, as well.
    The worlds are closely linked in people, of course – that’s more or less a definition of “people” to an Earthist shaman – so healers can see (and advanced healers can manipulate) the health and general state of the body through the soul world.
    How the soul world appears differs between different people, because it’s symbolic. However, inexperienced shamans tend to see it rather dimly and in terms of shadows, while experienced shamans see it much more clearly and in terms of light. Who you are looking at also makes a difference: an experienced shaman will seem much sharper and brighter, even to an inexperienced shaman, than an ordinary person.
    Shamans are expected to look for potential students, whom they identify by their soul appearance. These are postadolescent boys and girls, who lose their clan name when they apprentice to the shaman. While meditating alone, the student who has properly prepared will be approached by an animal which will touch him or her somewhere on his or her body. The name of the animal then becomes a name of affiliation. A kind of magical picture of the totem animal, like a tattoo but made without ink and raised up above the level of the skin, appears at the point that the animal touched. This is generally taken as a form of guidance on what powers the mystic will primarily develop. The limbs indicate body powers, while the head and torso indicate soul powers. Those marked at the hip or shoulder are likely to be equally strong in both.
    The student will train with a teacher of their own gender (usually; exceptions are occasionally made under unusual circumstances) for approximately 10 years, by which time they will be ready to receive their totem animal and go out on their own. Later, in another meditative trance, they receive the revelation of their totem plant, and the image of its leaf, flower, root or other distinctive part appears on their body opposite the animal mark. (It is marked on the left if the animal mark is on the right, on the front if the animal is on the back, and so forth). They add the plant name to their name of affiliation after the animal name, and are considered a full shaman. It isn’t necessary to be a full shaman in order to take an apprentice.
    Shamans have no possessions apart from their clothing, a single piece of cloth wrapped around them for the sake of modesty (but in such a way as to leave the totem mark visible). In places where water is scarce, they may also carry a water gourd. They traditionally sleep outside, since they have control over their body processes and can keep themselves from freezing even on the coldest of nights.
    Earthist shamans are not any kind of clergy. They don’t tend to participate in the popular seasonal ceremonies, for example, and when they do they seldom take a prominent role. They are healers, counselors, diviners, holders and teachers of wisdom, celebrants and assistants at life’s transitions (such as birth, puberty, eldership and death), and consecrators of important objects, places and people. They are supported by the community, but as professionals who provide specific services at specific times to specific people, not as leaders of a permanent congregation. As in Asterist practice, and probably derived from it, enactments such as marriages are performed by the heads of households or extended families or by community leaders. (Thus, it’s particularly difficult to marry without the consent of one’s family, at least without leaving the community to go elsewhere, which is what people do.)
    The small spirits of place, despite their special connection to a point in the body world, basically inhabit the spirit world, but can descend into the soul world if they want. They can meet the mystics there and communicate with them. It is hotly debated whether they are servants, manifestations, descendants or creations of the great spirits described by the Asterists, most of whom are now acknowledged also by the Earthists, though usually under different names and aspects.
    The spirit world is, for humans, uncommunicable and indescribable, since it is a realm of pure being and identity. Shamans believe that by practicing their spiritual disciplines of concentration, renunciation and attention they can come to experience this aspect of reality, though of course they can’t say anything about it because words are inapplicable.
    When a person’s body dies, their soul, no longer anchored in the body world, is drawn towards the spirit world. However, if there is something in the soul world that holds them, they may hang about until it is resolved. If they are very strong or determined, they can cause effects in the body world in pursuit of their resolution. (They’re ghosts or unquiet spirits, in other words, and a shaman will generally be called upon to find out what they want so that they can move on.)
    The fate of souls which are no longer anchored to the earth differs depending on their history. If the soul is one with living descendants to carry on its lineage, it moves through the spirit world to the world of the Honoured Ancestors, who watch over the community and, through the shamans, communicate with it. “Descendants” means “descendants of the soul”, so shamans, who rarely marry, qualify as ancestors if they have trained students and those students are carrying on the lineage, while a man who fathers a bastard child and never knows of it or raises it will not become an Honoured Ancestor. Souls which do not qualify as Honoured Ancestors return in another body to try again. The Honoured Ancestors also facilitate the creation of new souls to send into bodies and eventually rejoin them, having learned the lessons of life; the greater spirits must, however, breathe life into these souls before they can incarnate.
    Shamans are believed to have returned from the world of the Honoured Ancestors in order to assist the community, an act of great merit. At the death of the second body, they are thought to begin the transition into the highest world, the world of the greater spirits.

  • Dwarvish Language

    The Dwarvish language is spoken with little variation over a wide region, because of the dwarven policy of exogamy and a careful reinforcement of norms through the education system.

    Gnomes speak a slightly different version, more a class accent than a dialect.

    For the alphabet, see Writing Systems.

    A typical Dwarvish syllable is structured XYX, where X is a stopper and Y is a slider. The first stopper is softened to put a verb into the past tense, the second stopper to put it into the future tense, and both to indicate continuous aspect. The slider is softened to indicate a plural noun.

    There are 64 affixes of the form YX, with various meanings. Most are prepositions, conjunctions or determiners.

    Dwarvish is written, and as far as practicable spoken, without vowels.

    Examples of Dwarvish:

    • dsht: concealing how you really feel (used by gnomes)

    • dln: work done by gnomes (“labour”)
    • gms: work done by dwarves (“craft”)
    • gmsglvk: “craftfocus,” concentration on doing a task properly
    • gnr: a (female) elder – plural gnhr
    • gstn: a calming warm drink, drunk at bedtime to help one sleep
    • krb: fermented yeast extract, with the appearance of axle grease and a salty, savoury taste, given to young gnomes by their mothers and still enjoyed in adulthood
    • tshk: start (used to start magical machinery)
    • tspvk: victory
    • prdvk: freedom
    • gshnvk: mana, standing, status, worthiness of respect in society
      (the -vk ending indicates an abstract noun)
    • tshk: start (often used as a magical command)
    • fzgrd: an expression of thankfulness for good fortune

  • Dwarves

    Height: Average: 4’/120cm, Range: 3’6″/105cm to 4’6″/135cm
    Life stages:
    Apprenticeship 10
    Puberty 20
    Graduation from Apprenticeship 30
    Marriage 35-60, average 45
    Maturity/Mastership 60
    Eldership 85
    Life Expectancy 120 (M), 125 (F).
    Appearance Stocky and muscular; adult males bearded, adult females have long sideburns. Usually red- or black-haired.
    Relations with Other Races: 
    Centaurs: Employ in trading caravans as porter/guards.
    Elves: Often in conflict over pollution, etc. in earlier times; avoid each other
    Gnomes: Servant race.
    Humans: Trade with for food and cloth; employ for caravan escort.
    Origin: Ancient race
    Location: Underground throughout the supercontinent.

    In many ways – certainly economically and technologically – the dwarves are the most powerful race of the Great Land. They do not choose to rule the aboveground races, however, and they are dependent on trade with them to obtain most of their food. Dwarves’ underground lifestyle and complete lack of agricultural interest or talent prevents them from growing or catching food for themselves (it’s said that “the only thing a dwarf can grow is his beard”), and even the mushrooms and fish which are sourced within their underground homes are harvested by the Gnomes or Lizard People.
    Dwarves are unparalleled crafters and have a powerful grasp of energy and matter magic.

    Dwarves can see some way into the infra-red, though they can’t perceive colours much above purplish-blue. They have 32 distinct colour names spaced across this spectrum, and can distinguish clearly between them, which is advantageous when heating things to precise temperatures. They use the blue (or as blue as they can see) to indicate “good” and orange to indicate “bad” on gauges and so forth.

    The trading networks of the mid-continent are run by dwarves, not only to trade for food and other aboveground resources such as cloth and leather, but also to maintain the strict exogamy of their clans.

    Dwarf clans are matrilinear, matrilocal and in many respects matriarchal. That is, a dwarf’s clan derives from his or her mother, and the clan holding is defined as where the female dwarves of that clan live. At puberty (around 20), which coincides with the conclusion of his basic education, a male dwarf is expected to depart his mother’s clan with a trading party, and not return until after his marriage (usually 15 or more years later), if then. Upon his marriage he enters his wife’s clan, but has a dual tie to his original clan; an unmarried male dwarf will describe himself as “of Clan A”, but a married one “of Clan A and B”, A being his birth clan and B his wife’s clan.

    The (female) elders of the clan govern it in all non-craft-related matters, such as marriages, civil rewards and punishments and the overall policy and projects of the clan. They do so in what seems to outsiders to be an indirect and informal way. A female dwarf, on reaching approximately the age of 85, may (if she is considered sensible) begin to be consulted occasionally by the recognised elders of her clan, and also by her descendants. If her responses meet with approval, she will be consulted more frequently. This, and not any formal ceremony, constitutes her becoming an elder. The elders do not meet at set times in formal session with an agenda, but consult informally among themselves and mention their conclusions to their husbands and daughters. These are expected to transmit the rulings to the younger male and female inhabitants of the clan hold, respectively. This system supports a very stable (and intensely conservative) social structure.

    A dwarf accused of wrongdoing will be shunned until he or she goes to the most closely related elder and either confesses, or swears an oath that he or she is innocent. In the latter case, the elder will investigate, informally speaking to witnesses and other elders, and make known a judgment. Usually this will consist of a recompense to be made to the victim or the victim’s family (in the case of a false accusation, by the accuser to the accused). This may take the form of unpaid work, the crafting of a useful object or payment of existing treasured objects or simply of money. Occasionally for recidivist offenders (male and, very rarely, female) the sentence is of exile for a period. An exiled dwarf can easily get work among humans as a craft worker, and will be well paid, but as intensely clan-oriented people they usually feel the pain of exile keenly.

    The other allegiance of a dwarf, besides clan, is craft. A dwarf’s initial apprenticeship (age 10) is in his or her father’s craft, though it is increasingly acceptable to move to another craft at a later time. All dwarves are given what is considered by dwarves “basic training” in the major crafts present in their clan hall of origin. This “basic” level is, by human standards, very competent (after all, a dwarven apprenticeship lasts 20 years, of which the first 10 are undertaken in the originating clan and the following 10 elsewhere, in the case of males). They are also given a thorough general education, strong in history, languages, economics and trade, magic, engineering, applied mathematics, design and technology.

    At puberty the male dwarves set out on their travels, working in the trade caravans, getting experience of the above-ground world, learning skills and techniques from other clans and seeking a place to settle down and marry. The female dwarves remain in the clan hold their whole lives; it is considered scandalous for a female to go above ground, except when trekking in order to establish a new clan, and even then they travel in windowless carts.

    At puberty also, the males begin to grow their beards. By craft graduation around 30, the beards reach the waist. At this point, the young dwarf may braid his beard. The braids become increasingly elaborate as the hair grows longer and the dwarf obtains more status.

    After about another 30 years, the dwarf may attain craft-mastership and be permitted to vote on craft matters, such as the election of Senior Masters, who head up the subcrafts within a craft and together elect the Craft Master for their craft and hold. Both male and female dwarves have votes in this arena, and both can be Senior Masters, but the Craft Masters are traditionally male. In contrast to the elders, the Senior Masters meet in formal session, and have an elaborate ceremony to recognise the granting of their status. Their rulings are written down and transmitted to all clan holds where their craft is practiced (where they are regarded as advisory rather than binding). However, one specific clan hold, or sometimes several in close proximity, will usually be the headquarters for the most respected Senior Masters of a particular craft, and their rulings are taken very seriously by the Senior Masters of that craft in other clan holds.
    The ranking within dwarf crafts goes as follows:

    0 Any gnome regardless of skill or experience
    1 Apprentice
    2 Craftsdwarf
    3 Mastercraftsdwarf
    4 Senior Master
    5 Craft Master

    Most dwarf crafts are specialized by gender. The current craft organization is as follows:

    • Jewellers
      • Devicers M
      • Personal Jewellers and Boxmakers F
    • Engineers
      • Delvers, Builders, Stonemasons and Sculptors M
      • Enginemakers M
      • Metalsmiths, Weaponsmiths and Armourers M
      • Toolsmiths F
      • Blacksmiths and Ironfounders M
      • Alloyers, Coppersmiths, Brazers and Bronzers F
    • Mages
      • Matter mages M
      • Energy mages F
    • Substancers (chemists)
      • (formation of subcrafts currently under debate) M/F
    • Traders
      • No subcrafts M

    The establishment of a new craft is tremendously political and may be preceded by years of factional fighting, maneuvering, deal-making and light blackmail. For this reason, some reasonably significant crafts are part of another craft.

    Extensive turf wars are prosecuted between the various crafts; the debate on what size a device has to be before it is an engine has occupied the Devicers and the Enginemakers for decades. (The rule of thumb is that a device a dwarf can readily carry belongs to the realm of the Devicers, but the definition of “readily” is hotly argued.)

    Working with any form of organic material (apart from a few substances used in jewellery, like amber) is considered gnomes’ work, and not a “craft”.

    The dwarven trading caravans reach all parts of the continent, even those inaccessible except by ship, despite the well-known distaste of most dwarves for sea travel.

    Once the Dwarven Railroads are built, the sea-travel problem is partly overcome around the Waist. The railroads include subterranean tunnels stretching for hundreds of miles, bypassing the impassable equatorial jungles and swamps. Consequently, travel between many clan holds becomes very much more rapid than formerly, and in some cases females can travel without having to go to the surface. This brings about social shifts with which the more conservative elders and craftmasters are uncomfortable, despite the fact that maintaining cohesion and communication between the clan holds has always been one of their primary goals. (See New Dwarves.)

    Because of the trading, clan, craft and friendship linkages fostered between the various Dwarf Holds by the practice of requiring young males to leave their clan hold of origin and travel, there has not been a serious war of dwarf against dwarf for a couple of millenia. The Dwarvish Language and Dwarven culture is also highly unified.

    Dwarven wealth has always been built partly on the gnomish underclass. See Gnomes. The gnomes are the equivalent of the ancient Elvish Copper caste (see Elves), but more separated. Dwarves are the equivalent of the Elvish Silvers, and there is a saying, “Dwarves have no Golds”. This is true in the sense that there is no hereditary nobility, and decisions are made not by a governing caste but by dwarves who have won their positions by seniority.

  • Dwarven magic

    Dwarves scorn mindmagic and lifemagic and don’t include them in their schema, which is based around their sacred number: four. They recognize matter magic, energy magic, and space and time magic, although the last two are largely theoretical.

    Dwarven magic, though it often uses spoken words to trigger it, is mostly achieved through sigils created from the square Dwarvish alphabet. Any dwarven magical device will be engraved with sigils, a great many of them in the case of more complex magic, often worked into a larger diagram.

  • Dignified Printer

    The Realmgold Victory‘s “clever man”. Mother died when he was young, he was apprenticed to his father (a printer) and maternal uncle (an inkmaker). Because of his improvements to their printing machinery and processes, the Realmgold Glorious‘s agents determined that they were the source of seditious material, and raided them, arresting Dignified (then aged 15) and his father. His uncle, out of the house at the time working on bombs, attempted to free his brother-in-law by explosive means, killing himself, Dignified’s father and several others in the process. Dignified then spent a number of years in prison, until freed by Victory’s amnesty on the 81st day of her reign.

    While in prison he learned mathematics from an Asterist scholar, magic theory from a mage-minor, and mechanical engineering and the Dwarvish Language from Gizmo, all fellow prisoners.

    After his release he became the centre of the Clever Man’s Works.

    Responsible along with Hope at Merrybourne for creation of the farviewers and farspeakers.

    Thin, with no social skills to speak of, but an outstandingly brilliant inventor and theorist.

    Oathmate: Rosie Printer.

  • Determined

    Determined to Triumph Over Adversity Stonygates, Realmgold of Denning, elected as a compromise candidate on the sudden accidental death of his uncle (horses and wine were involved).

    Formerly a student of history at the College of Ancient Turfrae. Also holds mage-minor rank in mindmagic, and has studied law and government. Particular interest in the Code of Willing. He is slight, bookish and pale.

    Great-great-grandmother: Prudence, who put the Provincegolds in charge of collecting and reporting the realmtax.

    Another predecessor, Realmgold Might, swore an oath with her faithful maid Waterspring which served as the model for Reliable‘s oath to Determined.

    Through his oathbond to Victory, becomes co-Realmgold of the United Realm of Koslin.

    Personal seal: a pelican.

    His personal Gryphon pilot’s name is Brightness.

  • Denning

    Realm to the north-west of the Koslin River. Combined with Koskant into the new realm of Koslin at Unification by its Realmgold, Determined.

    Compared to Koskant, it is a backward realm, in which the people are poorly educated and not generally prosperous, and generations of weak central government have resulted in Localgolds becoming effectively robber barons.

    It has six provinces (see Provincegolds), and more than 90 counties.

    The seal is a spreading tree.

  • Courageous

    Captain in charge of the military presence in the lands of the beastheads. He personally led the relief of Snakemouth.

    No longer a young man, but fit, and insists on fitness in his troops.