Characters, places, Vel-Drath vocabulary, and compound terms. Vel-Drath roots have fixed phonemes — all compound terms and proper nouns built from those roots follow the same vowel values.
| Name | Pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sable Dunmore | SAY-bul DUN-mor | Wrenfolk. Protagonist. Archivist of Ashfen. |
| Burr Dunmore | BUR DUN-mor | Wrenfolk. Sable's cousin. Craftsman. |
| Thessaly Vorn | THESS-uh-lee VORN | Elf. Disgraced linguist. Age 340. |
| Breck Ironhallow | BREK EYE-urn-HAL-oh | Dwarf. Ruin-walker. |
| Mara Ashbone | MAH-rah ASH-bone | Orc. Shaman. |
| Dorn Calder | DORN ASH-wik | Human. Merchant. |
| Vorrath | VOR-rath | Drevari. The First Found. ~14,000 years old. Root: vrath /vrahth/ (firstborn). |
Each agent embodies a different form of controlled forgetting.
| Name | Pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ilyr Vaust | ILL-eer VOWST | The Curator · Central antagonist, Books I–V. Imperial Curator of Continuance. |
| Aldun Stonecroft | AL-dun STONE-kroft | The Keeper · Book III. Keeper of the Deep Record, Kharanor. |
| Captain Renn Arct | REN ARKT | The Pursuer · Books I–II. Imperial Retrieval Commander. |
| Magister Elian Sarev | EL-ee-an SAH-rev | The Scholar-Hound · Books I–II. Imperial philologist. Read Thessaly's paper. Knew she was right. |
| Veylin Dross | VAY-lin DROSS | The Archivist · Books I–II. The Ledger's instrument inside the Grand Linguistic Archive. |
| Sister Calis Vehn | KAY-lis VEN | The Listener · Books I–II. Imperial Confessor. Devastating because she is kind. |
| Tarin Voss | TAR-in VOSS | The Masked Hand · Books I–II. Courier and infiltrator. |
| Prelate Ossin Drae | OSS-in DRAY | The Warden of the Vault · Book II. Guards the first half of the Vel-Kel. |
| Maelor Thane | MAY-lor THAYN | The Null-Touched · Books II–III. Spent too long where the Unmaking is active. |
| Pell | PEL | Sable's uncle. Deceased. His flooded basement is where everything begins. |
Listed alphabetically. Continent and context given for reference.
| Place | Pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Aldenmere Empire | AL-den-meer | Dominant human political power of the Sundered Age. |
| Ashfen | ASH-fen | Market town, Valdenmoor. Sable's home. Where the tablet is found. |
| Ashvale | ASH-vale | Central Valdenmoor. Sister Calis Vehn's homeland. |
| Carath | KAH-rath | Eastern border province, Valdenmoor. Ilyr Vaust's homeland. |
| Denvrath | DEN-vrath | Eastern garrison town, Valdenmoor. Contains root vrath /vrahth/ (firstborn). |
| Durgath | DUR-gath | Deep-ruin capital, Thurak. Older Drevari ruins lie beneath. Root: dur /door/ (stone). |
| Karath Range | KAH-rath | Mountain range, northern Valdenmoor. Drevari ruins. Where Vorrath sleeps. Note spelling difference from Carath. |
| Kazgrom | KAZ-grom | Largest of the three great dwarven stonehalls, Thurak. |
| Kharanor | KHAR-uh-nor | Southernmost dwarven stonehall, Thurak. Also called Ironfast. Root: khal /khahl/ (light). |
| Merrath | MAIR-ath | Town where Thessaly teaches after her expulsion. |
| Port Sellen | PORT SELL-en | Southern Valdenmoor. Tarin Voss's homeland. |
| Solenthar | SOH-len-thar | The forgotten continent. Setting of Books IV–V. |
| Sunderwater, The | SUN-der-waw-ter | Sea separating Valdenmoor from Thurak. |
| Thurak | THOO-rak | Eastern continent. Dwarven stonehalls. Orc steppes. Setting of Book III. |
| Valdenmoor | VAL-den-moor | Western continent. Primary setting of Books I–II. |
| Vel Andurath | VEL AN-doo-rath | Southern tip of Solenthar. Site of the Gathering. Books IV–V. Root: vel, dur. |
| Vel Tharun | VEL THAH-run | Elvish Grand Linguistic Archive, northeastern Valdenmoor. Root: vel, thal. |
| Wrenvale Isles | WREN-vale EYE-ulz | Islands southwest of Valdenmoor. Wrenfolk homeland. |
| Name | Pronunciation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Drevari | DREH-var-ee | The Firstborn. Ancient mineral-bodied race. Withdrew after the Collapse. |
| Wrenfolk | WREN-folk | Small, careful people of the Wrenvale Isles. |
| Veranthi | veh-RAN-thee | As in proto-Veranthi — the mortal elvish adaptation of Vel-Drath script. |
Pronunciations are canonical, drawn from the script reference. All compound terms and proper nouns built from these roots follow the same vowel values.
| Root | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| vel | /vehl/ | Origin · first · source · before-everything. The root from which all concepts extend. |
| dur | /door/ | Stone · body · form · permanence. |
| kel | /kehl/ | Memory · the held thing · that which is carried. |
| thal | /thahl/ | Time · age · duration · the long count. |
| orn | /orn/ | Spoken truth · the named thing. Orns cannot be false. |
| ash | /ahsh/ | Voice · breath · the carried sound. |
| vrath | /vrahth/ | Firstborn. Believed etymological root of the name Vorrath. |
| drath | /drahth/ | Language · the Vel-Drath script itself. |
| an | /ahn/ | Great · vast. The form spans the full available space. |
| khal | /khahl/ | Light · kallite — the luminous mineral. |
| iss | /iss/ | Absence · void · the gap. The gap is the meaning. |
| reth | /rehth/ | Path · passage · through. |
Compounds are pronounced by speaking each root in sequence. Character names in Vel-Drath are assigned by Vorrath — a name is not a label, it is an observation.
| Term | Pronunciation | Meaning & Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vel-Kel | VEL-kehl | Origin-memory. The great Drevari artefact. Sundered at the Collapse. |
| vel-iss | VEL-iss | Origin-absence. The historical extraction of kallite from living Drevari. |
| kel-iss | KEL-iss | Memory-absence. The hollowed state of a Drevari stripped of inherited memory. Worse than death. |
| iss-thal | ISS-thahl | Absence-time. The void. The Drevari name for the Unmaking in its most advanced form. |
| vel-orn | VEL-orn | Founding truth. A truth that was true before time could argue with it. Causes kallite to blaze. |
| kel-orn | KEL-orn | Held-truth · prophecy. Sable Dunmore's Vel-Drath name. |
| vel-ash | VEL-ahsh | First-voice. Mara Ashbone's Vel-Drath name. |
| kel-vel | KEL-vehl | Origin-held. Burr Dunmore's Vel-Drath name. |
| Ash-orn-vel | ASH-orn-VEL | First-voice-of-truth. Thessaly Vorn's Vel-Drath name. |
| Dur-reth | DOOR-reth | Stone-path. Breck Ironhallow's Vel-Drath name. |
| Kel-thal-om | KEL-thahl-om | Held-through-time [completed]. Vorrath's first words on waking. |
| Vel-dur-kel | VEL-door-KEL | World-stone-memory. Second phrase of Vorrath's waking. |
| Kel-ath | KEL-ath | Holds-eternally. Vorrath's word for refusal. |