The Viridia Lexicon | Steve Mager

❧ The World & Its Beliefs

Cycle of Eight

The faith of most Feralians. It holds that a pantheon of eight gods created Viridia in the Age of Creation, set the eight seasons in motion, and gave the world its eight xylas, and that each god is bound to a xyla, a tree, and a titan. The gods most often named in Silvion are Lignia, whom many believe planted Verduron; Adurian, the god of fire and creator of the Ignius xyla; and Ioeis, god of the Astrum xyla. A smaller faith worships a single goddess, Sylvinia, whose name turns up in everyday oaths even among skeptics. Eight gods, eight seasons, eight xylas: the number runs through nearly everything on Viridia.

Genesis Storm

A cataclysm that rains magic across Viridia and drives every living thing to evolve at a startling pace. Six storms have been recorded, and each has left the world more lethal than the last. Many Feralians believe the storms erupt from the Wellspring of Provenance when it overflows. Some fear the coming of the seventh storm, and dread the eighth even more.

Season Cycle

The Feralian measure of the passing years. Ages, eras, and lifetimes are all counted in seasons and Season Cycles. Feralians are forbidden to touch xyla before their sixteenth.

Viridia

The world itself. It is a savage, ever-evolving wilderness where nature rules with iron supremacy and the weak are purged from the land. The Feralians often speak of Viridia as a living force, and many fear that she is turning against them.

❧ Peoples & Clans

Clans of Silvion

Feralian society is divided into twelve clans. Each clan keeps its own glen branching off the Heart of the grove, carries its own sigil, and is home to many families. The Moonfuries, for example, are one of the oldest of the Moon clans. The six Radiant clans dwell to the north of Silvion and the six Twilight clans to the south, and the clans send their voices to the Council of Twelve.

The Radiant Clans (north)

Sun The Sun clan's glen lies on the north side of the grove. Its families include the Sunfury, Sunfeather, and Sunstrider lines.
Day Home to the Daywhisper and Daywatcher lines.
Dawn The Dawn clans gather in the Dawn haven. Its families include the Dawnwalkers, Kynex and Atraxia among them, and their close kin the Dawnstriders.
Cloud Home to the Cloudshaper line.
Light Home to the Lightbringer line.
Wind Home to the Windfury, Windsong, and Windstalker lines. Naesalia Windsong devised the Primordius. The Wind clans have long held that the Feralians must adapt with Viridia, not shield themselves from her.

The Twilight Clans (south)

Moon The Moon clans gather in the Moon Glen. Its families include the Moonfuries and the Moonwhispers.
Night Home to the Nightsong and Nightbender lines.
Star Home to the Starcaller and Starbender lines. Their homes lie along the way from the Moon Glen to the Dawn haven.
Dusk Home to the Duskwalker and Duskstrider lines. Dusk clan members are known to run the wagering on Primordius day.
Dark Home to the Darkrunner line.
Storm Home to the Stormsong, Stormchaser, and Stormbreaker lines. The Storm clan's leader is often the swing vote on the Council of Twelve.

Dawnwalker Clan

One of the oldest and most respected Feralian clans. Its sigil shows a sun with a tree inside it, ringed by golden leaves that ripple with light. The clan has produced Kynex and Atraxia, but in more than five thousand seasons no Dawnwalker has ever been named Lignum Magnus. Its feud with the Moonfuries reaches back to the Age of Unification, so long ago that only legend remembers what began it.

Feralians

The people of Silvion. They are tall and long-eared, with skin of many hues, including hazel, chestnut, emerald, sapphire, ebony, and iridescent. They are stronger, swifter, and hardier than Viridia's other races, and many live for centuries. Thousands of seasons ago the wild overran their ancestral home in the Feralia Jungle, and they fled to the Living Grove.

Imperion

A race that withdrew into the Fractured Peaks to the northwest when the peoples of Viridia split apart millennia ago. They have lived in complete isolation ever since, and they think little of the Feralians.

Moonfury Clan

One of the oldest of the Moon clans. Its crest is a crescent moon with two crossed arrows. The Moonfuries currently hold the Savage Throne, ten of their line have served as Lignum Magnus, and they count Eredar the Defiant as their own.

Nocturnis

A hairless people half the height of a Feralian, with hunched, powerful bodies, iridescent skin, black eyes, and sharpened teeth. They adorn themselves with feathers, bones, and furs. They live underground among great root systems to the south, near the Bog of Marague. Their hunting parties are a known peril beyond Silvion's southern border.

Terralis

A race that exiled itself to the lands west of the Fractured Peaks. There they dwell in a synthetic forest of their own making. Feralians believe the Terralis would gladly see Silvion burned to the ground.

Zagaris

A feral, savage race with little more than instinct for a mind. They are dangerous chiefly for their sheer numbers.

❧ Notable Figures

Described as readers first meet them.

Astrid Nightsong

The Phyllos Regina, head of the Guild of the Golden Leaf. She is haughty and sharp-tongued, with ashen black-and-grey hair and dull scarlet skin. Her looks suit her Ignius lineage and her devotion to Adurian, god of fire.

Atraxia Dawnwalker

Lignum Altus of the Order of the Iron Branch, and Champion of the Grove in the Primordius for five straight seasons. Children adore her and rivals fear her. She is called the Iron Tempest for cutting down dozens of Nocturnis in a single ambush. She shaves the sides of her head beneath an emerald plume, with runes on one side and three jagged scars on the other. A bark Graft on her arm gives her crushing strength, and she rides her vaeryx, Varona. She fights with twin cleavers of Feralian steel and miriconite that never need sharpening.

Emmalyse "Emmy" Starcaller

An Arbormancer of the Guild of the Golden Leaf. Few in the grove know more of Viridia's magic. She has fair emerald skin, twin crimson braids, and crimson eyes. The golden leaf grafted to her shoulder lets her call vines from a handful of seeds, and she shoots with Windreaver, a Starcaller family heirloom bow. She is a devout believer in the Cycle of Eight and an unrepentant teller of puns.

Eredar the Defiant

The Moonfury Paragon and the most revered hero in Feralian memory. He led his people out of the Feralia Jungle when the wild overran it. His name is spoken in prayers and curses alike ("Dear Eredar!"), and his likeness stands in the Hall of Champions, where Silvion's greatest heroes are carved in oak.

Fyrrha Moonfury

The Clan Mother, who presides over the Council of Twelve from the Savage Throne. She is towering and silver-haired, with pale iridescent skin, and wears the Feral Crown. Her knowledge of Viridia's magic is unmatched in the grove. She is mother to Rhaegon and Sylare.

Kendral Windfury

The Nemus Apex, leader of the Conclave of the Celestial Crown. He is a master of astral projection who can fight entire sparring bouts through his projected self while his body stands still.

Kronia the Butcher

A legendary warrior and Atraxia's childhood hero. She gave Atraxia her twin cleavers. Her own story is told in The Butcher's Blessing.

Kynex Dawnwalker

The greatest living Feralian warrior, more than seven hundred seasons old, and the wielder of the Witchbreaker, which he carries in the form of a colossal hammer. He has deep black skin, an ashen braided beard, and a necklace of sarcorex teeth, and he speaks in the thick Crocean accent of a bygone age. He slew the hydra Skyrender and claims to have seen three titans. He is also, the Arborum's keepers will tell you, a notorious duskdew thief.

Rhaegon Moonfury

Lignum Magnus of the Order of the Iron Branch, and the elder of the Moonfury brothers. He is fearless, brilliant in a fight, and supremely sure of himself. He has ebony hair, iridescent skin, and a bark Graft over his heart that hardens his skin into wooden armor. He carries the heirloom sword Mooncleaver. He is fond of wine, exotic fruit, and danger, and he hopes one day to wield the Witchbreaker.

Scardor

An enormous storm-grey bear, scarred from countless battles. Unlike nearly every other beast on Viridia, he has not evolved. Rhaegon names him and brings him home. On his belly is a birthmark in the shape of the Moonfury crest, and no one can explain it. He answers most questions with a "Harrumph."

Sylare Moonfury

Rhaegon's younger brother, a warrior of the Order of the Iron Branch. He lost an eye in his youth, and his brother's recklessness was to blame. A shard of bark grafted over the empty socket gives him senses far keener than sight. He is a disciplined traditionalist with a hot temper. He fights with an axe, rides the vaeryx Mirri, and has never forgiven his brother.

Torgarr Moonfury

Father of Rhaegon and Sylare. He is old and walks with a limp, but his oaken face and colossal frame are surpassed only by Kynex. He has been a lifelong rival, and a trusted comrade, of Uriel Dawnwalker.

Ulyssa Duskwalker

The Radix Mater, leader of the League of the Twisted Root. She and Kynex are the two eldest of the Feralian people, and the only ones who remember an animal as it was before the Genesis Storms changed it.

Uriel Dawnwalker

Atraxia's father, and one of the wisest voices on the Council of Twelve, where he represents the Dawn clans. He has a leafy green complexion and a craggy brown beard. He is forever nudging his daughter toward Bonding and toward politics.

Vaegar Sunfury

Sylare's best friend since childhood. He is a Theriomancer of the League of the Twisted Root and is happiest as a giant wolf. He has alabaster hair and skin, and a root grafted to his neck. He once stayed shifted too long, and ever since he has spoken almost entirely in alliteration.

❧ The Four Orders & Their Ranks

Chroniclers

The keepers of Feralian history. Their Chronicles and Archives preserve everything from the deeds of heroes to drawings of animals no living Feralian has seen.

Conclave of the Celestial Crown

One of the four Orders, its members steeped in mysticism. They are the grove's masters of astral projection. A meditating member of the Conclave has been known to dismantle a seasoned Predator in single combat without moving from where they sat. It is led by the Nemus Apex.

Guild of the Golden Leaf

The Order of Viridia's magic. Entry demands deep knowledge of the xylas and the passing of grueling trials. Its members wield fire, lightning, and the growth of living things, and they experiment endlessly, and often explosively, with enchantment. Its ranks include Initiate, Arch Magus, and Grand Magus, and its leader is the Phyllos Regina.

League of the Twisted Root

The third of the four Orders, and by far the strangest. Its members specialize in shapeshifting and in brewing odd and exotic xyla concoctions. Most are Theriomorphs, who favor root Grafts at the neck, and they work deep within the Twisted Root hollow. Its leader is the Radix Mater.

Lignum Magnus

Commander of the Order of the Iron Branch and the grove's foremost war leader. The Order's second-in-command is the Lignum Altus.

Menders

Feralian healers, who work out of the Mender's Alcove, a house ringed with plumarian flowers. Elixirs can mend bones and cuts, but even a Mender cannot regrow a lost eye.

Order of the Iron Branch

The warrior Order of Silvion, sworn to the grove's defense, with a history of more than five thousand seasons. Its sigil is a round shield with twelve branches spiraling upward, one for each clan. Each new member is inducted with a bark Graft. The Order is led by the Lignum Magnus and the Lignum Altus.

Predator

A seasoned warrior of the wilds, assigned the most dangerous hunts and missions beyond Silvion's borders. Young Feralians train first as Hunters, and most rise from Hunter to Predator before they may join the Iron Branch.

Sentinels

Silent watchers who patrol Silvion's border from the trees and bridges above. Slipping past them is nearly impossible.

❧ Magic: Xyla, Elixirs & Grafts

Aeris

The rarest and most powerful of the xylas. It is restricted, and only the Clan Mother may release it, and then only in war or emergency. It is gathered on far-off Mistral Isle. Shapeshifters covet it because it lets them hold a form far longer.

Altus

The xyla of cold and deep water. A strong enough Altus elixir is said to leave its target frozen where they stand.

Anima

The xyla of the soul. Overuse brings a sickness of hallucinations. Combined with Astrum, it grants astral projection.

Arbormancy

The Feralian art of combining and using the eight xylas. Its practitioners, called Arbormancers, can command growth itself, bursting seeds into vines and binding beasts in living prisons.

Astral Projection

The art of projecting a ghostly copy of one's arm, or one's entire self, through a blend of the Astrum and Anima xylas. A novice might pluck a fruit from an arm's length away. The masters of the Celestial Crown fight whole duels this way.

Astrum

The starlight xyla, sacred to the god Ioeis. Only those of Astrum descent can gather it without falling ill. Where it pools thickly, as in the Twilight Hollow, it warps perception and emotion.

Chloro

The earthen-green xyla, produced at the core of the semperion oak. It fuels growth and strength, and it is used to bind every Graft, but it leaves its user heavy with exhaustion.

Crocean

The xyla of sight, distilled into Dayvision and night-vision elixirs. Take too much and it can blind you, or burn out your eyes entirely.

Ebenus

A xyla drawn from the dark ebenus birch, among whose roots the Nocturnis make their homes. It is also called the Luna xyla. It is banned outright in Silvion, and not even a warrior of the Iron Branch may use it. Only those of Luna descent can gather it safely.

Enchantment

The slow and temperamental craft of steeping an object in xyla until it takes on magical properties. A single attempt can take decades, and most attempts fail, some of them spectacularly.

Graft

A shard of a Feralian's own bonded tree, coated in Chloro and fused to the body at their induction into an Order. The ceremony is agonizing and permanent. Where the Graft is placed shapes its gift: bark on the chest hardens skin into armor, a Graft on the arm grants strength, and a root at the neck steadies a shapeshifter's mind. A Graft at the eye, the Second Sight, lets its bearer see in the dark and far into the distance. When a Graft is called upon, it flares green.

Ignius

The fire xyla, created by the god Adurian. It fuels fireballs, lightning, and battle-fury. It also overheats the body, and the children of Silvion are warned with the tale of Yaralian, who took too much and burned himself up.

Nullifier

A Feralian whose Graft can disperse all magic in the area in front of them. A Nullifier's pulse can stop a shapeshifter mid-prank, and it would kill a magical creature outright.

Theriomorph

A shapeshifter who combines xyla elixirs with the blood of an animal to take its form for a short time. Those who specialize in the art are called Theriomancers. Stay shifted too long and the beast's mind may never let you go.

Xyla

The magical essence drawn from Viridia's trees. Eight xylas exist, each acquired from a different tree. Xyla is prepared as elixirs, carried in vials, and taken a few drops at a time: the dose and the dilution decide everything, and the price comes later. It is the root of nearly all Feralian magic and is guarded in the Arborum. Stealing or misusing it breaks a Prime Law.

Xyla Lineage

Over the ages, each of Viridia's peoples has become infused with a particular xyla, which marks their looks and their gifts. Kynex's Crocean lineage gives him his deep black skin, for example, and Astrid's Ignius lineage gives her scarlet skin.

Xyla Sickness

The toll of xyla use. Its symptoms include fevers, exhaustion, hallucinations, and worse, and they often strike days after the dose. Every warrior who returns from the wilds pays it.

❧ Beasts, Spirits & Titans

Cerviron

Once an elk, now a monster three times a Feralian's height. It has a fifty-six-point rack of antlers, crooked scarlet eyes, three rows of teeth, and a hide harder than the finest Feralian leather.

Diochron

The only known poisonous bird on Viridia. It is colossal, with a venomous spined tail and a hive mind like a bee's. Diochron flocks have long been drawn to the sweet tamarinds of Silvion, and they are growing bolder.

Dygon

The puzzle master of the Pantheon of Oak, five sentient spirits that roam Viridia and challenge whoever they find to a trial; the others are Drogor, Denag, Dahon, and Dinar. Dygon wears a face of writhing roots, with blood ruby eyes. He traps travelers in his riddles and games, and, by his own account, has grown terribly lonely over ten thousand seasons of wandering.

Luspina

A wolf of Thornbriar Valley that hunts in large packs.

Revarion

A bird whose wings beat so softly that only the keenest Graft can hear them part the air.

Rhadrox

The largest known animal on Viridia, taller than ten Feralians. Its skin is jagged ebony miriconite laced with searing red lines, it has a ragged scarlet mane, and five horns twist from each side of its head. No Feralian has ever killed one.

Sarcorex

The most fearsome predator known to Feralians. It is ten times their height, armored in emerald scales and wooden spikes, with mahogany tusks flanking its jaws. Every Hunter is taught the same law: if you see a sarcorex, run.

Titans

Eight colossal beings that the Cycle of Eight teaches are among the first creations of Viridia. Each is bound to a xyla, a god, a season, and a tree. Legend names Eratul the Wanderer, Petradon the Monolith, Rhoradon the Ascendant, Moragul the Leviathan, and Irontusk the Zealous. Most Feralians live and die without ever seeing one.

Vaeryx

Once jungle cats, now the prized mounts of the Feralians. A vaeryx stands as tall as its rider, with front legs twice the length of the hind ones. Each paw has seven claws as long as a hand, strong enough to fling the beast from tree to tree, and the cat has manes like the fletching of an arrow. Famous vaeryx include Atraxia's Varona, Sylare's Mirri, and Rhaegon's Argen.

Verasaur

A squat, bulky lizard about as tall as a Feralian. Its hide is armored in petrified wood. It is generally docile, but its tusks make it a fair challenge for a young warrior, and its hide makes fine leather armor.

❧ Plants, Food & Materials

Duskdew

Shimmering golden globes that hang from the duskwillow only at dusk, then vanish with the night. The duskwillow's trunk is as black as night and as hard as marigon stone. Duskdew is one of the few substances on Viridia that can negate magic, it is a delicious delicacy, and it is perpetually stolen.

Incindious Maple

A tree with a mahogany trunk and blazing scarlet leaves veined in amber, so that it seems to hold a flickering flame. It is Rhaegon's bonded tree.

Miriconite

One of the hardest minerals on Viridia. Blended with Feralian steel, it makes blades that are nearly indestructible and never need sharpening.

Semperion Oak

A towering oak whose deep, interconnected roots are thought to reach toward the Wellspring of Provenance. It is the source of the Chloro xyla, and many believe it is the reason Silvion lives.

Tamarind

A sweet fruit that grows abundantly in Silvion, and the likely lure that draws diochrons to the grove. In a pinch it doubles as a projectile.

❧ Places

Arborum

Silvion's guarded storehouse of xyla, a perfectly cylindrical chamber with shelves grown from roots. Its keepers, the Collectors, stock it and hand out its elixirs.

Archaia Lake

A lake so deep that no one has ever explored its full depth. Some believe it hides caverns that lead to the Wellspring of Provenance. Kynex slew the hydra Skyrender here, in what witnesses still call the greatest feat they have ever seen.

Bog of Marague

A swamp to the southeast, near Nocturnis territory, and the site of many bloody battles.

Feralia Jungle

The Feralians' ancestral home. Thousands of seasons ago its savage denizens overran it, and Eredar led the people out.

Fractured Peaks

The mountains of the northwest. The Imperion dwell there, and many believe the Wellspring of Provenance lies in a deep chasm among them.

Heart of Silvion

The center of the grove, home to its schools, places of worship, and recreation, with the twelve clan glens branching off from it. Silvion's other districts are the Trade Terrace to the west, where its trades and professions are found, and the Union Quarter, where the four Orders are stationed.

Mistral Isle

An isle off Viridia's eastern coast, beyond the cliffs where Verduron grows. It is the only known source of the Aeris xyla. Kynex's tales of the place have kept anyone else from going back.

Ripglen

A narrow valley of cavernous tunnels far to the north in the Fractured Peaks. It is rumored to be one of the last places where animals that have not evolved still survive.

Severed Coil

A jungle that is alive but has no mind. Its vines and thorns constantly twist themselves into bodies and shapes, and it shreds most who enter. No one but Kynex dares venture in alone.

Silvion, the Living Grove

The home of the Feralians, a forest with a single shared awareness. Silvion grows homes, bridges, and gardens on request. It shifts its colors at will and opens its walls of trellis and thorn only to those it knows. When a Feralian dies, their spirit rests forever in their bonded tree.

Thornbriar Valley

A valley in the wilds beyond Silvion, home of the luspina wolves.

Twilight Hollow

A violet forest of lavender willows across Archaia Lake, so rich in Astrum xyla that it warps the minds of those who pass through. It is the domain of the Willow Dryads. Like Silvion, these tree spirits are aware, but each acts on its own and can step briefly out of its tree. Travelers who wander into their thicket feature in many grim tales.

Vale of Ichor

A barren forest of ivory trees without a single leaf. Let one drop of blood touch its floor and the Vale bursts into crimson life, filled with the savage spirits of everything that has ever died there.

Verduron

The tallest tree on Viridia. It rises among the clouds on a rocky outcrop above the Raging Expanse, the endless seas to the east, and it is crowned with prismatic leaves. The Witchbreaker was made from its roots.

Wellspring of Provenance

The fabled source of all magic on Viridia, believed to lie near the world's core, deep beneath the Fractured Peaks. Many believe it gives rise to the Genesis Storms, and that Silvion's roots drink from it.

❧ Relics, Weapons & Regalia

Immortal Flame

A sword that has burned without stopping since an enchantment nearly succeeded more than a century ago. No one has ever found a way to put it out. It stands in the Hall of the Golden Leaf.

Mooncleaver

The Moonfury family's heirloom sword, a crescent blade as long as a warrior's arm. The runes of all eight gods are inlaid along its inner curve. Torgarr gave it to Rhaegon when Rhaegon was inducted into the Iron Branch.

Savage Throne

The seat of the Clan Mother or Clan Father. Silvion grew it from the floor of the council chamber: a towering throne of oak, bramble, and vine, leafed in scarlet, gold, and emerald. Its holder wears the Feral Crown, a crown of leaves and brambles. On ceremony, they wear a headdress instead, lined with prismatic leaves from Verduron and set with antlers from the first beast the united Feralians ever killed.

Witchbreaker

The most formidable weapon of the Feralian people, made from roots of Verduron. Bonded at Verduron to its chosen wielder, it draws on the wielder's own life-force and takes whatever form they choose. Kynex wields it as a colossal hammer, its handle a living tangle of roots and vines that winds up his arm. Only a handful of Feralians in all of history have carried it.

❧ Customs, Laws & Sport

Bonded Tree

The tree each Feralian claims at coming of age, which Silvion grows on request. The tree supplies the bark for their Graft, and it becomes their living tomb, where their spirit will rest for all eternity. A Feralian joining of two lives, much like marriage, is likewise called a Bonding.

Council of Twelve

The governing council of Silvion, where representatives of the clans meet around a table of pure wood. The Clan Mother presides from the Savage Throne.

Prime Laws

The gravest laws of Silvion. Leaving the grove before coming of age breaks one, and so does stealing or misusing xyla. Breaking a Prime Law can cost a Feralian their place, or worse.

Primordius

The Feralians' favorite sport, and with the Prasnicon Games, the grove's preferred way to settle grudges. It is a brutal, breakneck vaeryx race through a course that Silvion grows in real time, so that no two races ever run the same way. Riders choose gear such as nets, staves, harnesses, and nepetria, a plant that gives a vaeryx a burst of speed. A rider wins by crossing the finish line with at least five Halorians, rings of silvery leaves hung along the course, or by collecting six dismounts and six Halorians. A rider who is thrown loses at once.

The Trials

The tests a young Feralian must pass before induction into an Order and their Grafting.

The Song of the Savage, Book One of The Witchbreaker Saga

Enter the Living Grove

Meet Rhaegon, Atraxia, Emmy, and the savage world of Viridia in Book One.

Read Book 1 on Amazon

This lexicon covers only what is revealed in Book One. Meet Kronia the Butcher in the free story The Butcher's Blessing (read it here).