N. Jemisin - The Broken Kingdoms

Order of New Light:An unauthorized priesthood dedicated to Bright Itempas, comprised mainly of former members of the Order of Itempas. Colloquially known as the “New Lights.”

Paitya:A godling who dwells in Shadow. The Terror.

Pilgrim:Worshippers of the Gray Lady who journey to Shadow to pray at the World Tree. Generally High Northers.

Previt:One of the higher rankings for priests of the Order of Itempas.

Promenade, the:Northernmost edge of Gateway Park in East Shadow. A site popular with pilgrims, due to its view of the World Tree. Also the site of Art Row and the city’s largest White Hall.

Role:A godling who dwells in Shadow. The Lady of Compassion.

Salon:Headquarters for the Nobles’ Consortium.

Script:A series of sigils, used by scriveners to produce complex or sequential magical effects.

Scrivener:A scholar of the gods’ written language.

Senm:Southernmost and largest continent of the world.

Senmite:The Amn language, used as a common tongue for all the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Serymn Arameri:An Arameri fullblood, husband of Dateh Lorillalia. Owner of the House of the Risen Sun.

Shadow:Local/colloquial name for the largest city on the Senm continent (official name is Sky).

Shahar Arameri:High priestess of Itempas at the time of the Gods’ War. Her descendants are the Arameri family.

Shustocks:A neighborhood in Wesha.

Sieh:A godling, also called the Trickster. Eldest of all the godlings.

Sigil:An ideograph of the gods’ language, used by scriveners to imitate the magic of the gods.

Sky:Official name of the largest city on the Senm continent. Also, the palace of the Arameri family.

Strafe:A city along the northwestern coast of the Senm continent.

Teman Protectorate, the:A Senmite kingdom.

Time of the Three:Before the Gods’ War.

T’vril Arameri:Current head of the Arameri family.

Velly:A cold-water fish, normally smoked and salted. A Maroneh delicacy.

Wesha:Local term for West Shadow.

White Hall:The Order of Itempas’s houses of worship, education, and justice.

World Tree, the:A leafy evergreen tree estimated to be 125,000 feet in height, created by the Gray Lady. Sacred to worshippers of the Lady.

Yeine:One of the Three. The current Goddess of Earth, Mistress of Twilight and Dawn. Also called the Gray Lady.

(Interview conducted and originally transcribed by First Scrivener Y’li Denai/Arameri, at Sky, year 1512 of the Bright, may He shine upon us forever. Recorded in fixed messaging sphere. Secondary transcription completed by Librarian Sheta Arameri, year 2250 of the Bright. WARNING: contains heretical references, marked “HR.” Used with permission of the Litaria.)

FIRST SCRIVENER Y’LI ARAMERI: Are you comfortable?

NEMUE SARFITH ENULAI: 1Should I be?

YA: Of course. You are a guest of the Arameri, Enulai Sarfith.

NS: Exactly! (laughs) I suppose I should enjoy it while I can. I doubt you’ll have many more Maro guests here in the future.

YA: I see you’ve decided not to use the new word. Maroneh 2—

NS: Three words, actually, in the old tongue. Maro n neh. Nobody says it right. Too much of a mouthful. I was Maro all my life; I’ll be Maro ’til I die. Not long, now.

YA: For the record, would you be willing to state your age?

NS: The Father has blessed me with two hundred and two years.

YA: (laughs) I was told you liked to claim that age.

NS: You believe I’m lying?

YA: Well… madam—I mean, Enulai…

NS: Call me what you like. But remember that enulai always speak the truth, boy. Lying is dangerous. And I wouldn’t bother lying about something so trivial as my age. So write it down!

YA: Yes, madam. I have done so.

NS: You Amn never listen. In the days following the War, 3we warned you to respect the Dark Father (HR). He is not our enemy—we told you—even if he is Bright Itempas’s. Before the War, he loved us better than Enefa (HR) herself. The things you must have done to him, to fill his heart with such rage.

YA: Madam, please. We do not speak… that name you mentioned, the—

NS: What? Enefa? (shouts) Enefa, Enefa, Enefa!

YA: (sighs)

NS: Roll your eyes at me one more time.

YA: My apologies for disrespecting you, madam. It is only… The absolute dominance of Itempas is the fundamental principle of the Bright.

NS: I love the White Lord as much as you do. It was my people He chose as the model for His mortal appearance (HR), and we were the first to receive His blessing of knowledge (HR). Mathematics and astronomy and writing and—all of that, all of it, we did it before any of you Senmites, or those ignorant bastards up in the north, or that bunch of pirates on the islands. Yet for all He gave us, we have always remembered that He is one of Three . Without His siblings, He is nothing (HR).

YA: Madam!

NS: Report me to your family head if you like. What will he do, kill me? Destroy my people? I have nothing left to lose, boy. That’s the only reason I came.

YA: Because the Maro royal family is gone. 4

NS: No, fool, because the Maro are gone. Oh, if we get to making babies, there might be enough of us to limp along for a while longer, but we’ll never be what we were. You Amn will never let us get that strong again.

YA: Er, yes, madam. But specifically, it was the duty of the enulai to serve the royal family, was it not? As, ah, let’s see, bodyguards and storytellers—

NS: Historians.

YA: Well, yes, but much of that history… I have a list here… legends and myths…

NS: It was all true.

YA: Madam, really.

NS: Why did you bother to invite me here?

YA: Because I am a historian as well.

NS: Then listen . That’s the most important thing any historian can do. Hear clearly with just your ears, not with ten thousand Amn lies garbling everything—

YA: But, madam, an example, one of the enulai stories recorded… the tale of the Fish Goddess.

NS: Yes. Yiho, of the Shoth clan, though they’re all dead now, too, I suppose.

YA: The tale speaks of her sitting by a river for three days during a famine and causing schools of ocean fish to swim up the river—from salt water to fresh water—and fling themselves into nets.

NS: Yes, yes. And ever since then, those breeds of fish have continued to swim up the river to spawn, every year. She changed them forever.

YA: But that’s… Is the tale from before the War? Was this Yiho a godling?

NS: No, of course not. She dies an old woman at the end of the tale, doesn’t she?

YA: Well, then—

NS: Though the gods had many children.

YA: (pause) My gods. (sound of a blow) Ah!

NS: That’s for blaspheming.

YA: I don’t believe this. (sighs) You’re right, my apologies. I forgot myself. I was only… You’re suggesting that the woman described in the tale was… was a half-breed, a child of the gods—

NS: All of us are children of the gods. But Yiho was special.

YA: (silence)

NS: (laughs) What’s that I see in your pale eyes, boy? Have you suddenly started listening? Figures.