All Pathfinder Tales novels are set in the rich and vibrant world of the Pathfinder campaign setting. Below are explanations of several key terms used in this book. For more information on the world of Golarion and the strange monsters, people, and deities that make it their home, see The Inner Sea World Guide, or dive into the game and begin playing your own adventures with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box, all available at paizo.com.
Absalom: Largest city in the Inner Sea region, located on an island far to the south of the Ironbound Archipelago.
Avistan: The continent north of the Inner Sea.
Besmara: Goddess of piracy, strife, and sea monsters.
Boneyard: Pharasma’s realm, where all souls go to be judged after death.
Cheliax: A powerful devil-worshiping nation located south of the Ironbound Archipelago.
Chelish: Of or relating to the nation of Cheliax.
Deep Ones: A race of aquatic humanoids that worship alien entities.
Desna: Good-natured goddess of dreams, stars, travelers, and luck.
Forest of Souls: A forested area on the Isle of Ancestors where ancestor spirits linger to support the living.
Giants: Race of humanoids many times larger than humans.
Gnomes: Small humanoids with brightly colored hair and strange mindsets, originally from the fey realm of the First World.
Golarion: The planet on which the Pathfinder campaign setting focuses.
Gozreh: God of nature, the sea, and weather. Depicted as a dual deity, with both male and female aspects.
Great Beyond: The planes of the afterlife.
Halgrim: Capital city of the portion of the Ironbound Archipelago controlled by the Linnorm Kings. Seat of power for the Linnorm King White Estrid.
Inner Sea: The vast inland sea whose northern continent, Avistan, and southern continent, Garund, as well as the seas and nearby lands, are the primary focus of the Pathfinder campaign setting.
Ironbound Archipelago: Network of cold islands off the coast of Avistan. The largest population center in the Steaming Sea, though the residents are rarely more organized than local villages. Partially independent, with the northern islands controlled by the Linnorm Kings.
Isle of Ancestors: Island where heroes from certain islands in the Ironbound Archipelago go to commune with their ancestors and become wisewomen and shamans.
Leng: A distant, inhospitable realm on another plane of reality, hedged in by titanic mountains and home to creatures that occasionally travel to the Material Plane to collect slaves.
Linnorm Kings: Warrior-chieftains who together rule a nation that includes part of the Ironbound Archipelago, each of whom must defeat a linnorm to claim a throne.
Moon-Beasts: Strange tentacle-mouthed creatures capable of controlling the minds of others.
Ogres: Hulking, brutal, and half-witted humanoid monsters with violent tendencies, repulsive lusts, and enormous capacities for cruelty.
Pharasma: The goddess of birth, death, and prophecy, who judges mortal souls after their deaths and sends them on to the appropriate afterlife; also known as the Lady of Graves.
Pharasma’s Boneyard: Pharasma’s realm.
Seax: Type of short sword or dagger typically possessing a curved and notched blade.
Skinwalkers: Shape-changing humanoids who can magically take on the forms or aspects of particular animals.
Sorind: Small island in the Ironbound Archipelago, devoted mainly to farming and fishing.
Taldane: The common trade language of the Inner Sea region.
Trolls: Large, stooped humanoids with sharp claws and amazing regenerative powers that are overcome only by fire.
Ulat-Kini: Race of fishlike, aquatic humanoids incapable of reproducing without human partners.
Varisian: Of or relating to the region of the frontier region of Varisia, or a resident of that region.
Varisians: Primarily nomadic human ethnic group often characterized as tinkers, musicians, and dancers.
Wizards: Those who cast spells through careful study and rigorous scientific methods rather than faith or innate talent, recording the necessary incantations in a spellbook.