Marion Bradley - Ancestors of Avalon

Galara – half-sister to Tiriki, daughter of Deoris and Reio-ta, a junior scribe

Greha – Ai-Zir warrior, bodyguard to Heshoth

Haladris – of Atalan; First Vested Guardian in the Temple of Light on Alkonath, formerly an archpriest in the Ancient Land

Heshoth – a native trader

Jiritaren – of Tapallan; priest of Light, astronomer

Karagon – of Mormallor; a chela to Valadur

Khattar – chief of the Red Bulls, high king of the Ai-Zir

Khayan-e-Durr – sister of Khattar, queen of the Red Bull tribe

Khensu – Khattar’s nephew and heir

Kyrrdis – of Ahtarrath; singer and priestess of Light

Lanath – of Tarisseda Ruta; an acolyte, former apprentice to Kanar, betrothed to Elara

Li’ija – of Alkonath; a chela, Ocathrel’s eldest daughter, nineteen years old at the time of the Sinking

Lirini – of Alkonath; a chela in the Scribes’ School, middle daughter of Ocathrel, seventeen years old at the time of the Sinking

Lodreimi – of Alkonath; a Blue Robe priestess in Timul’s Temple

Mahadalku – of Tarisseda Ruta; First Vested Guardian of the Tarissedan Temple of Light

Marona – of Ahtarrath; a Blue Robe priestess and healer

Metanor – of Ahtarrath; Fifth Vested Guardian in the Temple of Light

MICAIL – Prince of Ahtarrath; First Vested Guardian in the Temple of Light

Naranshada [Temple name, ‘Ansha’] – of Ahtarrath; Fourth Vested Guardian in the Temple of Light, an engineer

Ocathrel – of Alkonath; Fifth Vested Guardian in the Temple of Light

Osinarmen – Micail’s Temple name

Ot – one of the three swordsmen known as Prince Tjalan’s Companions

Reualen – of Alkonath; Priest of Light, husband of Sahurusartha

Sadhisebo and Saiyano – saji priestesses in Timul’s Temple, skilled in herblore

Sahurusartha – of Alkonath; priestess of Light, singer, wife of Reualen

Stathalkha – of Tarisseda Ruta; Third Guardian of the Tarissedan Temple, a powerful sensitive

Timul – of Alkonath; second to the high priestess of the Temple of Ni-Terat in Alkonath, head of the Blue Robes in Belsairath

TJALAN – Prince of Alkonath; leader of the colony in Belsairath, cousin of Micail

Valadur – of Mormallor; a Grey Adept

Valorin – of Tapallan; priest of Light in the Temple at Alkonath, a naturalist

Vialmar – of Arhurabath; an acolyte, betrothed to Cleta

Banur – the four-faced god, destroyer-preserver; ruler of winter

The Blood Star – Mars

Caratra – daughter or nurturing aspect of Ni-Terat, the Great Mother; Venus is her star

Dyaus – the Sleeper, also known as the ‘Man with Crossed Hands,’ the force of chaos that brings change; sometimes referred to as ‘That One’

Manoah – the Great Maker, Lord of the Day, identified with the sun; ruler of Summer, and with Orion (‘The Hunter of Destiny’)

Nar-Inabi – ‘Star Shaper,’ god of the night, the stars, and the sea; ruler of harvest time

[A note on Atlantean astrology: Four millennia ago, the sky was different in many ways. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, for instance, the solstices fell in early January and July, and the equinoxes in early April and October. The signs of the zodiac were also different, so that the winter solstice occurred when the sun entered Aquarius, and the spring equinox when it entered Taurus. The constellation names, in the Sea Kingdoms and the ancient civilizations around them, were different as well.]

Ni-Terat – Dark Mother of All, Veiled aspect of the Great Mother, goddess of the Earth; ruler of planting time

The Peacemaker – Virgo

The Sorcerer – Saturn

The Sovereign – Jupiter

The Torch – Leo, also called the Scepter or the Great Fire

The Wheel – Ursa Major, also called the Seven Guardians or Chariot

Winged Bull – Taurus

Ahtarra – capital city of Ahtarrath

Ahtarrath – the last isle of the Sea Kingdoms to fall; home of the House of the Twelve (acolytes)

Ahurabath – an isle of the Sea Kingdoms

Alkona – capital of Alkonath

Alkonath – one of the mightiest of the Ten Island Kingdoms, famed for its seafarers

Aman River – the Avon, in Britain

Amber Coast – coast of the North Sea

Ancient Land – ancestral realm of the Atlanteans, located somewhere near what is now the Black Sea

Atlantis – a general name for the Sea Kingdoms

Azan – the ‘Bull-pen,’ territory of the five tribes of the Ai-Zir, from Weymouth northeast to the Salisbury Plain in Wessex, Britain

Azan-Ylir – capital of Azan, modern Amesbury

Beleri’in [Belerion] – modern Penzance, in Cornwall

Belsairath – an Alkonan trading outpost where Dorchester is now

Belsairath fortress – Maiden Castle, Dorset

Carn Ava – Avebury

Casseritides – ‘Isles of Tin,’ a name for Britain

City of the Circling Snake – capital of the Ancient Land

Cosarrath – an isle of the Ten Kingdoms

Hellas – Greece

Hill of the Ghosts – Hambledon Hill, Dorset

Isle of the Mighty, Isle of Tin, Hesperides – British Isles

Khem – Egypt

Mormallor – one of the Ten Kingdoms, called the ‘holy isle’

Olbairos – an Ahtarran trading station on the continent

Oranderis – an isle of the Sea Kingdoms

The Sea Kingdoms – the islands of Atlantis

Tapallan – an isle of the Ten Kingdoms

Tarisseda – an isle of the Ten Kingdoms

The Ten Kingdoms – the alliance of Sea Kingdoms that replaced the Bright Empire

The Tor – Glastonbury Tor, Somerset

Zaiadan – a land on the coast of the North Sea

Morgaine speaks…

The people of Avalon bring to their Lady their troubles, both great and small. This morning the Druids came to me to say that there has been a rockfall in the passage that leads from their Temple to the chamber that holds the Omphalos Stone, and they do not know how it is to be repaired. Their numbers here are small now, and most of those who remain are old. So many of those who might have renewed their Order were killed in the Saxon wars or have gone instead to the monks who tend the Christian chapel that is on that other Avalon.

And so they come to me as they all come to me, those who remain, to tell them what they must do. It has always seemed odd to me that the way to a mystery that is buried so deeply in the earth begins in the Temple of the Sun, but they say that those who first brought the ancient wisdom to these isles, long before the Druids, honored the Light above all things.

The Sight no longer comes to me as it did when I was young and we fought to bring the Goddess back into the world. I know now that She was already here, and always will be, but the Omphalos is the egg stone, the navel of the world, the last magic of a land sunk beneath the seas so long that even to us it is a legend.

When I was a girl, there were tapestries in the Druids’ Temple that told the story of how it came here. They have fallen to threads and dust, but I myself once followed that passage to the heart of the hill and touched the sacred stone. The visions that came to me then are more vivid now than many of my own memories. I can see once more the Star Mountain crowned with fire and Tiriki’s ship poised trembling on the wave as the Doomed Land is engulfed by the sea.