World guides · spoiler-light

The world of The Pale Dominion

Magic here follows relation — names, wounds, promises, duties, and doors. It is not an element assigned at birth and it is not a score. These guides explain the parts of the system the first book makes available.

The novel's own Glossary of the Veil opens with a warning worth repeating here: its definitions state only what Book One makes available, and mystery is not a defect the glossary exists to repair. These pages keep to the same limit.

One rule runs underneath everything else. Recognition creates access. It does not create permission — not between people, and not between a person and a road.

The full Glossary of the Veil, the illustrated maps of hidden New York and the Keep, and the Cast of Characters are printed in the book.

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Read the glossary and the maps in full.