Story Codex
The people, places, and lore of BONDS, connected in a growing story encyclopedia. Explore character profiles, follow their histories, and trace each entry back to the manuscript. Open the labeled story revelations when you are ready for the full journey.
For the whole world, explore the CompendiumSylas Blackthorn
A trained fighter and practiced smith whose search begins with the unanswered questions in his mother’s journal.
Brann
A caravan warrior whose great axe, quick humor, and watchful judgment make an immediate impression on the road.
Elara
A quick-witted traveling bard whose music, attention, and practical judgment help hold a caravan together.
Lirael
A precise, observant practitioner whose understanding of magical pressure is matched by a willingness to do difficult work.
Vahrenai
A guarded fire-wielder whose roadcraft and sensitivity to magical resistance make her an exacting traveling companion.
Selyna
An Elunari apprentice from Elarisel whose knowledge of old records becomes practical help on a dangerous road.
Mythrien
An Elunari guardian who has spent a century tracing pieces of the pattern linking wounded crossings.
Elowen Blackthorn
Sylas’s missing mother, whose meticulous observations of the ley leave a trail of places and unfinished questions.
Torin Stonefist
The dwarf who raised Sylas, teaching him the discipline of the forge and the responsibilities that accompany strength.
Althar
The longtime family steward who followed Sylas to Durnhollow and remained a steady presence in the life built there.
Tavian Brenwick
The resourceful, talkative artificer whose supply run brings Sylas and his first companions together.
Thorek Deepvein
A dwarf whose local knowledge, friendships, and practical help make him a vital contact in Branloch.
Eryndor
A Faelari guardian whose knowledge of the Eldergreen is matched by a practical concern for the people defending it.
Vaeril Myrthadar
The ruler whose name haunts the ruins of Myth Celador and the dangers beneath them.
Draaven Voss
A watchful figure whose interventions suggest an interest in the company’s progress and the timing of dangerous work.
Durnhollow
The dwarven fortress-city that raised Sylas, sustained by smithing, mountain freight and the roads between holds.
Branloch
The mining town repeatedly marked in Elowen’s journal.
Thunderdelve
An old cave system in the eastern hills where strange resonance draws the company below ground.
Dawnwatch Hold
A mountain stronghold whose records, wards, and working rooms preserve the discipline of an older watch.
Elarisel
An elven city whose bridges, wards, and archives are woven into the ley.
Ael’Tharun
The ancient living keeper deep inside the Eldergreen, known as the Allfather Oak and Breath of the First Dawn.
The Heartwood
Ael’Tharun’s living talisman, whose response depends on the bond among the companions.
Myth Celador
A ruined elven city at the heart of the questions BONDS brings into view.
Sentinels of Flame
The company whose founding gives the trilogy its name.
Eldarûn
The world of BONDS, encountered through Sylas’s home, his companions, and the roads ahead.
Roaringwater
A working river town where the Ashrun and Shimmerbrook meet.
Eldergreen
The ancient forest that holds the Allfather Oak.
Human Peoples
Valen, Valthen, and Veydran are among the human peoples named in BONDS.
Elunari
Sylas’s elven people, also encountered among Elarisel’s scholars and elders.
Veydran
Brann’s people, introduced through his clan identity, strength, and quick recovery.
Dwarves
The people whose stronghold, workshops, and care helped shape Sylas’s upbringing.
Ley Lines
The buried currents Sylas senses beneath stone, root, and road.
Magic
Sensitivity, fire, music, and careful wardcraft appear in the companions’ different ways of working.
The Veil
A boundary whose condition is closely tied to the dangers the companions investigate.
Sentinels of the Dawn
An older guardian order whose practical records and surviving structures enter the journey.
Evermark
A small, timber-defended waystation on the caravan road beyond Durnhollow.
Yandir
A stone-built settlement on the road between Evermark and Trifang.
Lorchel
A cliffside settlement on the approach to Daybreak Pass.
Varlari
An elven people encountered among Elarisel’s guards, elders, and scholars.
Faelari
The people represented in BONDS by Eryndor of the Green Regents.
The Zodiac Knights
The name preserved in songs for the ancient Circle of the Sign.
Lunethyr
A language used in Elarisel’s remembered ritual phrases.
Seralyth
A sacred name connected with Eldergreen and its guardians.
Deran Hollowmantle
The older elf outside Branloch who remembers Elowen and knows the route to Thunderdelve.
Sister Serelle
The shrine keeper who records Branloch’s dead and missing, even as their names begin to fade.
Brask
A ferryman who watches the crossings and gives travelers a sign of trusted recognition.
Palla
A local runner whose knowledge of routes and observers makes the road out of Roaringwater less blind.
Brother Aelric
The chapel keeper who shares an old route toward the mountain watch-stairs.
Daybreak Pass
A pass whose main eastern road and northern watch-stairs lead to different demands on the company.
Trifang
A busy meeting of trade roads that links the caravan route with the road south toward Westcross.
Infernari
The people introduced in BONDS through Vahrenai’s embodied heat and fire magic.
Shroud of Mourning
The organization whose deliberate workings turn magical wounds, fear, and silence into a spreading threat.
The Threefold Ward
A practical warding sequence preserved in Dawnwatch’s manuals and machinery.
The Thunderdelve Orb
The pulsing crystalline object recovered from a ritual beneath Thunderdelve.
Elowen’s Journal
Elowen Blackthorn’s maps and observations give Sylas his first leads into her unfinished work.
The River-ward
Brask’s river-stone token identifies a traveler as vouched for by a trusted local contact.
Stormcleaver
The heavy war axe Brann carries, maintains, and uses throughout the journey.
Velmorras
The place associated with the Blackthorn estate and Sylas’s earliest memories.
Westcross
A road settlement reached south of Trifang on the company’s journey toward Bellard.
Bellard
A town where road survivors find shelter and the Shroud’s name begins to clarify the threat.
Darik
A wounded fugitive whose rescue in the Eldergreen gives the company a new source of dangerous knowledge.
Lord Erlan Duirsar
The elder who receives the companions before Elarisel’s divided Hill Council.
Elder Arannis
An Elarisel elder whose requests for old maintenance records draw Selyna’s attention.
Councillor Elandor
An Elarisel councillor whom Selyna identifies as an opponent of the dangerous faction within the council.
The Green Regents
Eryndor’s rangers defend the living forest through scouting, patrols, and carefully chosen fights.
The Containment Lattice
A diagram of ley branches, junctions, and pressure routes that reveals how distant wounds can become connected.
The Whispering Vale
The wooded river country traveled between the mountains, Parthal’s fields, and the approach to Elarisel.
Parthal
A settled town beyond Daybreak Pass, important for ordinary supplies and preparation for the Wastes.
Xer’Arun Wastes
A harsh desert crossed along surviving black roadstone, old cairns, and uncertain water sources.
The Onyx Road
A surviving trade route through the wastes, the Edgewood, and the country beyond Arrow Falls.
Line-keeper Songs
Maintenance songs preserve timing, breath, and fragments of old access knowledge.
Onyx Syndicate
The historic organization behind roads, waystations, and stabilizing works later encountered in damaged form.
Crescent Accord
Ward-mages, archivists, and old-family envoys who gather reports about dangerous changes in the ley.
The Fulcrum
A word for the person or place that carries enough weight to let a damaged pattern move.
The Shattered Nexus
The damaged ley convergence that draws the company’s investigation toward Myth Celador.
The Gate of Grief
A chamber whose original channels survive beneath later attempts to control them.
The Edgewood
The dense forest on the Onyx route between Xer’Arun and Arrow Falls.
Arrow Falls
A guarded river town reached after the company’s passage through the Edgewood.
Vorlarr
A fortified trading town where supplies and local warnings become essential.
Arrowdale
The old river country crossed by the Onyx Road beyond Vorlarr.
Forest of Arcorion
The forest road connecting the edge of Myth Celador with the Nightsea Ride.
The Nightsea Ride
The broader road that carries the company toward Ashaford.
Ashaford
A working town on the Nightsea Ride, with grain fields, an inn, and a healer.
The Obsidian Shard
A relic whose behavior raises new questions in the Epilogue.
A reader’s companion to BONDS. Follow each article’s references into the story; explore the Compendium for wider world lore.