Glossary

A Glossary for understanding the Legendborn Cycle series.

A

Abatement

Abatement is the cost of the magic used by an Awakened Scions and their Squires have to endure. They essentially cut their life expectancy in half once Awakened. The result is that they don't live past thirty-five.

Aether

Aeather is what the Legendborn call magic, but different practitioners of magic call it different things.

Ancestral Stream

A plane between death and the living. Mediums travel the ancestral stream, a type of spirit DNA.

Aura

People emit personal energy that reflect the state of their spirit. Auras look like a faint sort of fog or thin mist.

B

Bloodcraft

Bloodcraft is binding magic to their bloodlines permanently. Bloodcraft creates an imbalance of energy, because power taken and not returned incurs a debt, and the universe and the dead will always come to collect, one way or another. Usually takes it by shortening a Bloodcrafter's lifespan considerably, the Legendborns called it Abatement.

Bloodmarks

In the old days, before brokers and paperwork, there was another way for a demon to claim a human bounty for themselves. Especially if that bounty is something they have to wait for, and they don't want any other being trying to claim it in the meantime, they Bloodmark the human(s).

Broker

Brokers help make a deal between humans and demons. They assess the value of each party to calculate the bargain, and ensure that everyone keeps their end of the deal.

C

Cambion

Cambions are part-human and part-demon.

Camlann

Camlann is a massive reckoning. When the Shadowborn grow restless and powerful every few centuries, the Legendborn are made aware through the Awakening of their knights. The more danger there is, the more knights are Called, and the closer they are to Camlann. When Arthur is Awakened, then Camlann has come, and there is an epic battle against the Shadowborn on the horizon.

Concubi

When demonkind cross over, ever demon, greater or lesser, becomes too undead to create life here, except for concubi. Concubi and those descended from concubi are the only demon class that can procreate on the plane of the living, and even then, they can only do so with human beings. Every cambion can trace their bloodline to a concubi.

Mythology:

Concubi are a gender fluid species that can physically change from male to female (and vice versa) and are known for visiting the natural world to drain power from those they seduce.

D

Dark Casting

Dark Casting involves using demon blood including Cambions to create Shadow Gates.

E

Enthralling

Also called: Enthralled, thrall

The process of Morgaine's spirit being passed from one shard bearer to another. The shard is a piece of the Shadow Kings'crown. When another human sorceress who bore a shard of the crown, even if they weren't related by blood, Morgaine's spirit and magical abilities transferred again to the new recipient while a sort of "copy' of Morgaine's abilities remained with the previous user. The embedded shard acted like a receiver as well as a conduit, mimicking the way Merlin's Spell of Eternity uses blood. But unlike the Spell, Morgaine's spirit was forced from one body to the next, by shard and by contact.

F

Focal Item

Focal Item is a term that Rootcrafters use to describe an idem used for aura work. Holding them can help read the dynamic between them and their objective or relationships.

Formal Knights's Quest

William describe it as archaic and outdated journeys. A traditional quest allows for two companions. A second-in-command and an attendant guardian.

G

Granny Woman

A root doctor herbalist.

H

Healer

Healer are Rootcrafters who use root to heal others and themselves.

High Council of Regents

The High Council of Regents are sovereigns temporarily when the Scion of Arthur is not Awakened. They are the leading and governing body of the Order.

I

Incubs

Incubus are concubi, the only demon that can reproduce in the living plane. Incubus in the Legendborn Cycle are known to be fathers, having a Cambion offspring with a human female, like Merlin's father and Elijah and Zoe's father.

Mythology:

An incubs is a demon in male form that seeks to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women.

Latin - "incubu"

"Incubo," meaning "nightmare," which is fitting as these encounters are often described as nightmares or sleep paralysis-like experiences.

Initiation Ceremony

The annual initiation process happens at the start of every school year. Pages take the Oath of Fealty. This makes them official members of their chapter and grants them Sight. It's tradition for Scions to select a Page from the Vassals to their Line.

Institute

The Institute is a secure facility that belongs to the Order.

K

Kingsmage

Only the most powerful Merlin child in a generation is Selected to take the Kingsmage Oath. The child is taken from their family and bound here, in a formal ceremony before the chapter, to a child Scion of Arthur. For the rest of that Merlin’s life, they are the Scion's sworn protector until death.

L

Legendborn

Welsh: Chwedlanedig

A Legendborn is the highest-ranking member of the Order of the Round Table. They are either Scions or Squires, and are the only people in the Order allowed to recruit Pages to become Squires. The Legendborn and the Order exist to hunt and kill Shadowborn.

Suffix - “born”

“Born” define terms in the modern Order of the Round Table. The demons, “Shadowborn” and the non-magical humans, “Onceborn.”

Liege

Lieges are former Scions and Squires.

Lighthouse

A term use by Mediums, they’re ancestors spirit passing request to an older mother.

Lineage

Lineage is a record of ancestry in a direct line from an ancestor to descendent. In the Legendborn Cycle lineage most often refers to the bloodlines of King Arthur, his knights, and Merlin.

Lines

In the Legendborn Cycle the Lines refers to the thirteen Legendborn lines. Everybody in the Order except for merlins and the Regent are apart of the 13th lines whether they are born into the line or pledged.

Lodge

The Lodge is the Souther Chapter Keep for the Order.

M

Mage Seneschals

The three most powerful Merlins. Each reports to a Regent and they make up half of the High Council of Regents with the other half being made up of the Regents themselves.

Mageguard

The Elite Merlin military unit, which acts as the Order's special forces. They fight the deadliest Shadowborn legions until a sovereign is crown. Then the Guard’s sole duty is to protect the king.

Magnifier

Rootcrafters specialize in connecting folks to their own life force, their own vitality.

Medium

Mediums are Rootcrafters who can channel the dead and be channeled by them.

Memory walker

Memory walkers are Rootcrafters who can astrally project themselves into the memories of their ancestors, who they can interact with in a limited capacity. This branch of root allows practitioners to work memories by understanding their energy and power over the present day. They can't see root, but they can feel it. A memory walk is a sort of time travel into a memory of a person's ancestor. It's uncommon for someone from outside the family to be brought along for a walk. A memory walker is an observer only. The people in the memory can't see or hear them.

Merlin Academy

Merlin Academy, a school for Merlins to serve the Order. Located at Asheville, North Carolina (could be more because they are Merlins located all around the world).

Merlins

Merlin is a title, not a person. Merlins are sorcerers that serve as mages for the Order. All Merlins are descendants of Merlin and have demon blood in their veins.

Metaphysical

Metaphysical elements: are human energy (human emotions),and aether. Shadowborn need them to survive in the human plane.

Metaphysical body: refers to someone’s magical inventory, elements inside somebody, including the abilities and magic they were born with, and magic they’ve taken in over time. Likes seeing if someone has an Oath, mesmer, bargain, bloodmarked, or the Spell of Ethernity.

Morgaines

Also called: Line of Morgaine

They are sorcerers who originated from Morgaine and are now rogue from the Order.

N

Nightshade

The Nightshades are members of the Shadow Court.

Northern Chapter

The Northern Chapter is located in Georgia. The Northern Chapter's Keep is a gray-bricked castle set high on a hill.

O

Oath

Oaths are living bonds sealed by speech. Their words pull aether from the air so that the vow becomes a part of a person.

Onceborn

Welsh: Unanedig

Onceborns are regular human people without the Sight. They go about their everyday lives without knowing that demons and magic exist.

Suffix - “born”

“Born” define terms in the modern Order of the Round Table. The demons, “Shadowborn” and the non-magical humans, “Onceborn.”

P

Page

Pages are the lowest ranking in the Order. Pages are sponsored by Scions to compete to become Squires.

Pembray Village

Pembray Village is a large residential development located about twenty miles southwest of the University of North Carolina. It is owned by the Order.

Prophet

Prophets are Rootcrafters who can see the future. They could only see root if they asked their ancestors to lend their eyes, and only for a short time.

R

Reader

Readers are Rootcrafters who can see people's auras, and thus their emotions, intentions, and abilities. Auras are a person's personal energy that reflect the state of their spirit. Auras look like a faint sort of fog or thin mist. Readers could only see root if they asked their ancestors to lend their eyes, and only for a short time.

Regents

They rule the Order when there is no Awakened Scion of Arthur. They have functional control but are Oathbound to comply to Legendborn demands. They assign cases to Merlins, they hold trials and have the capacity to disappear people.

Rogues

Rogues are people outside the Order that use aether. They have been hunted by the Order for decades. Being a rogue magic user is incredibly dangerous.

Root

Root is what Rootcrafters call magic, but different practitioners of magic call it different things. The word comes from the Indigenous people living in North Carolina that were practitioners referred to aether or root as “spirit.”

Rootcraft

Rootcraft believe in balance, that magic is not theirs to own, so they preach borrowing. It involves borrowing power from one’s ancestors through offerings to said ancestors. It is nowhere near as powerful as the magic used by the Legendborn, but is far less dangerous, and won’t take a toll on the caster in the same way. All magic demands a price. Rootcrafters pay it with offerings, which seems to allow them to live long, happy lives.

S

Scions

Scions are the descendants of the original thirteen knights of the Round Table. A Scion can be Called by their bloodline's knight to be Awakened, which means they inherit their knight's aether abilities. A Scion can only be Awakened between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two.

Selection Gala

The Selection Gala occurs after the completion of the tournament. It is a big formal event at one of the campus clubs. Every year, Vassal families come and schmooze with Page and Legendborn families to celebrate the end of the tournament. There's dinner, dancing, and champagne. After dinner the Scions who need Squires announce which Page they've chosen. Those who have earned the title of Squire will take the colors and sigil of their Scion and serve their Scion's Line.

Shadowborn

Welsh: Cysgodanedig

Also called: "crossroads creatures" by Rootcrafters.

Shadowborns are demons born in a diffrent dimension. When they come to the human plane through Gates they become a form of undead and can not be born in the living plane, unlike Cambions.

Suffix - “born”

“Born” define terms in the modern Order of the Round Table. The demons, “Shadowborn” and the non-magical humans, “Onceborn.”

Shadowborn Gate

Shadowborn Gates are portals that demons use to travel to the human world. Gates can only be closed or open with demon blood or half-demon blood.

Sight

Also called: True Sight

Sight is what allows the Order to see Shadowborn and magic. Regular people, called Onceborns by the Order, cannot see, hear, touch, or interact with the Shadowborn in any way; at least not when the Shadowborn aren’t fully corporeal. The Sight allows the Order to perceive the Shadowborn so they can kill them before they are fully corporeal and can terrorize people.

Southern Chapter

Southern Chapter located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at UNC. The Lodge is the Souther Chapter Keep for the Order.

Spell of Eternity

Spell of Eternity, a powerful casting done by Merlin to magnify the remaining knights' abilities and bind their spirits to their bloodline so that their heirs could forever stand against the darkness. This would allow the Table to live on in a form of immortality. When the knights' Scions are Awakened, the knights' spirit lives again.

Succumb

Term - "succumbing to the blood"

Refers to a cambion losing their humanity. Succumbing is known to happen to unbalance cambions, like Merlins.

Mythology:

A female demon who seduces and has sexual encounters with sleeping men.

Squire

Every Scion has a chosen Squire. A Squire is essentially the Scion's partner in battle and protector. Scions and Squires are bonded by the Warrior's Oath, which allows them to know if the other is in danger and feel each other's emotions.

Swyn

In Welsh they are many definition: spell, incantation; sorcery, witchcraft; magic remedy, charm for healing; (magic) charm, amulet, talisman; sign, ceremony, ritual, blessing; charm, fascination.

T

The Order

The Order is short for the Order of the Round Table, from the tale of The Legend of Arthur. The Order has been around since the 6th century, since the time of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Their mission is to hunt and kill the Shadowborn and protect the Onceborn world.

The Order of the Rose

A women's auxiliary founded centuries ago when they couldn't Page, Squire, or Scion. It's mostly ceremonial now and a way for mothers or former Pages to support chapter events. For example, they always supervise catering events during the trials, and they send professional hair stylists for the Selection Gala.

The Rite of Kings

The Rite of Kings is a ceremony in which the Crown Scion of Arthur becomes crowned king and takes control of the Order. The Scion of Arthur must formally and intentionally claim their title before the Regents to initiate the transfer of power officially. The Crown Scion Oath themselves in service to the entirety of the Order, and the Regent takes the Oath of Service back. The Rite takes place is the Cave of the Dragon for the Crown Scion pulls Excalibur.

V

Vassals

Vassals are pledged in service to one of the original thirteen Legendborn bloodlines. The Vassals know about aether and Shadowborn but don’t fight in the war. Instead, their network shores up any gaps in their assigned family’s needs and resources. In exchange, the Order grants them favors.

Viceroy

Viceroy are in charge of overseeing a specific chapter and its territories.

W

Western Chapter

Western Chapter located in Virginia. Out of all the Lines they keep mostly to themselves unless the need is dire.

Wildcrafter

Wildcrafters are Rootcrafters who can manipulate the energy found in growing things like plants, herbs, and trees. Wildcrafters borrow power from their ancestors in order to use the energy of plants. That power is finite ans so is the living energy of plants. Their ability to operate as a vessel.