What follows is a guide to the persons, powers, and places of the Vanyanan Cantos, for the reader who finds themselves in need of one.
The Gods
- Ainofiriano
- The silent god. The highest. He was there before the First Father, though the First Father came before him — this is a great mystery. He makes no benedictions. His promises are few: victory, and his vow of hatred for Isil, the Green God, the Red God, and Estelune above all. He will speak once. Not yet.
- Isil
- The moon. She was there before the world. She delivers what she promises, which is more than can be said for most. She is also faithless, and has been known to deliver her lovers to Estelune as readily as she leads them anywhere else. The Wise Ones served her. Orëveriel follows her still.
- The Green God
- Also called the strange god, the metal god, the machine god. Born after the death of the First Father, to the delight of the Wise Ones. He offered both wealth and poverty, wonder and terror, the end of suffering and new sufferings yet unnamed. The first of the gods to openly deny Ainofiriano. His benedictions flowed freely and the Calloléra loved him for it. He was slain by the Red God while he slept, drunk and content.
- The Red God
- Also called Multitude. Born from the seed of Estelune, rising in anger from the bitter defeat of those who followed the earth. He never drank wine, never rested, labored always, and in the bitterness of his labor came upon the Green God sleeping and killed him. He promised the Calloléra the blessings they were accustomed to. He labored still more.
- Estelune
- Also called Esteluna. He was cast out of the outer darkness before the world was made, by the Antecedents. He drinks blood. He sleeps deeply, and wakes, and sleeps again. When he is awake he whispers envy and bitterness to whoever will receive him. He drinks deep wherever the Calloléra turn on one another. At the end of days, he will drink the world itself.
The Peoples
- The Calloléra
- The people. Through them, men became man; through them also, men remained beasts. They have fought four Great Wars. They are, in all likelihood, who you are.
- The First Father
- Lord of Hosts. Lord of the Calloléra. From his lips no falsehood. He served Ainofiriano and did not find lordship a thing to be grasped. Through his victories the world was begotten. He died.
- The Wise Ones
- Foremost among the Calloléra. They served Isil and had the faith of the First Father, and he theirs. They wrote the scriptures on the hearts of the Calloléra. One by one they died, and on the day the last of them died, the Calloléra turned on each other for the first and only time.
- The Antecedents
- They were before the world, before Ainofiriano, before the First Father. They cast Estelune out. They fought the Ents. Nothing else is known of them with confidence.
- The Ents
- Ancient enemies of the Antecedents, dwelling in the outer darkness. Estelune poisoned their thoughts against the Calloléra and against the world, and so they rose. Against everything they rose. They fell in bitter defeat and the world rejoiced, and Estelune drank deeply of the bloodshed and dreamed scarlet dreams.
- The Eldar
- Loved by Ainofiriano. The Ents bore out their fury against them.
- The Last Father
- He has not yet come. Father of lies. He will grasp at lordship and will not release it until the flames consume him. He will honor Isil above all others. He is the mirror of the First Father in every respect, and not one of them is flattering.
- The Foolish Ones
- They accompany the Last Father as the Wise Ones accompanied the First. They bray in the name of Ainofiriano. Ainofiriano will not answer them either.
The Characters
- Vanyánan
- The narrator of these cantos. Born in the latter days, after the fall. He has served Ainofiriano and betrayed him. He has been loved by Liswamírë and betrayed by her. He has sat in dungeons and been visited by Orëveriel and found no comfort in it. He writes these things down.
- Orëveriel
- A shape-shifter. A trickster. She follows Isil. She visits Vanyánan often, usually uninvited, and is helpful approximately as often as she is not. She appears as a pixie with multicolored hair, or as a giant calico cat in a rain jacket, or as a tall woman. Whatever form she takes, she always looks exactly like herself.
- Liswamírë
- She was Vanyánan's. She made a tempest and was caught by it and carried away to the desert whisper. The wind she summoned had old and dark friends among the gusts, and it brought Yelloturë on it. She is gone.
- Calemorinna
- Also called Gwethlir. She came from the Sea. Wherever she goes, song follows. She is out of favor with Ainofiriano, though she may not fully know it. At the end of days she will weep and despair of the next world.
- Fof
- Also called Kanda. He was born crippled and was nearly sacrificed at birth. He is the escort of Calemorinna and a knight of the Order of Sarnidac, because he once carried a woman who was greater than his own weight, at a time when he could barely carry himself.
- The Lady Mother
- Her wisdom was acquired before the creation of the world. She is frail now, and fell once, and was saved by Fof.
- Fion
- He heard Ainofiriano's whisper and repeated it. He gathered hundreds of followers, learned all their names, and told them they were alone together and this was the point. He died. Those who followed him spread outward across the world, carrying a shared name for those without names, and Ainofiriano was silent.
- nariel
- She has been seen kneeling beside Orëveriel before an altar to Isil, singing the Untold Myth.
- Yelloturë
- A king whose name came on the wind of Liswamírë's tempest. The wise say he himself serves a darker god — Esteluna.