before that god’s demise; commander of the Stepsons; cursed with a fatal
inability to give or receive love.
WALEGRIN, Rankan army officer assigned to the Sanctuary garrison where his
father had been slain by the S’danzo many years before.
The Gods
DYAREELA, A goddess whose worship in Sanctuary predates the Ilsigi presence and
which has been outlawed many times since then.
HARRAN, Physician and priest to Siveni Gray-Eyes, now part of her four-fold
divinity.
MRIGA, Mindless and crippled woman elevated to four-fold divinity with Siveni
Gray-Eyes.
SABELLIA, Mother goddess for the Rankan Empire.
SAVANKALA, Father god for the Rankan Empire.
SIVENI GRAY-EYES, Ilsigi goddess of wisdom, medicine and defense, now
transformed into a four-fold diety.
SHIPRI, Mother goddess of the old Ilsigi kingdom.
STORMBRINGER, Primal stormgodlwargod. The pattern for all other such gods, he is
not, himself, the object of organized worship.
JIHAN, Froth Daughter. His parthenogenic offspring, betrothed to the Stepson’s
mage, Randal.
The Beysib
SHUPANSEA; SHU-SEA, Head of the Beysib exiles in Sanctuary; mortal avatar of the
Beysib mother goddess.
POWER PLAY
Janet Morris
Tempus, a mercenary general in the service of Ranke’s new emperor, was knee-deep
in the bloody purges marking the first winter of Theron’s accession to the
Rankan throne when the sky above the walled city began to weep black tears.
By the time dawn should have broken, ashen clouds massed to the very vault of
heaven so that not even the Sun God’s sharpest rays could pierce the arrayed