Hail Solo, dear Reader!
 
The chronicler Andrew D.H. Moore and I have recovered from the release of Children of Solo, Steam and Stars Book 1, sufficiently enough that I might return to this blog to bring you part two of the history and mythology of Solvigant. Today, I want to dive into the details of peripatesis. You may remember from part one that the core of Xys throws off waves of aetherial energy. The Yazerites inadvertently destabilized the moon’s core through repeated travel between Xys and Maxon using aetherial magic.
 
I will write more on aetherial magic in the future, but for now, suffice it to say that aetherial magic relies on the transfer of life energy. Repeated massive transfers can have disastrous consequences such as destabilizing a moon’s orbit. The remnants of the Yazerites on Xys were cut off from Maxon and eventually fell to the Deniverian tribes. The tribes themselves were decimated by the geologic chaos that resulted as a byproduct of destabilization. Pockets of tribesmen eked out scant livings on the edges of the Windlass Sea, subject to the cruel whims of a wild planet.

​Xys existed this way from the fall of the Yazerites to the end of the Wars of Succession. Arthur Phaeton, the Sojourner known as the Navigator, enlisted the aid of Pallantier, God of Creation, and powerful lacustrine Ankhimian aetherial mages called life weavers. (Remember, this is well before the Solan Emperors outlawed aetherial magic.) Together they created twelve hieropoles, or aetherial anchors. Think of them as lodestones for aether. These hieropoles were installed in locations where the destabilizing waves appeared the least erratic.
 
Hieropoles consist of long metal rods that incorporate the dust of crushed aether gems, driven into the ground in each of the twelve locations. An Acadian bloodstone floats above it. The artifacts have a dual function. First, they function as lightning rods for aether waves. The locations chosen were the calmest, but they still experience disruption. The hieropole mutes a certain amount of this disruption. Second, they act as indicators. When the aetherial poles of the planet begin to shift, the bloodstone changes from blue to green. 

​The Archdeacon of the Temple of the Nine on Xys is responsible for monitoring the hieropoles according to the Xyssian constitution. In practice, that duty is relegated to the Sons and Daughters of Creation who in turn do this through the Order of Custodians. The Order is a joint venture between the creation priests, Xyssian bureaucrats, and the Society of Astrologia, and monitors all the pilgrimage sites, including the hieropoles. There is much that could be said of the importance of the Order of Custodians, but I will save that, dear reader, for a future post.
 
At any given time, there are multiple safe locations. Though the city proceeds through the sites in a divine order set out by Djinnar, the God of Destruction, at the end of the Wars of Succession. Djinnar did not want his twin, Pallantier, God of Creation, to gain power by claiming two moons, Xys and Acadia, and so the pilgrimage compromise was reached to limit Xys’s growth potential.
 
The duration the city remains in each location is determined by signals from the hieropoles, and Xys’s congressional delegates. (The Solan Emperor has no direct say.) In the opening of Children of Solo, for example, Solvigant is in Veria. The next stop along the route is Amar. If Amar is safe, congress could vote to move the city at any time. If Amar’s hieropole is green, then congress must wait. Thus far, the course set by Djinnar has proved dependable, meaning that the city has never had to deviate from the path. In other words, Amar’s hieropole has always been blue when Veria’s begins to turn green. The longest recorded stop was six years in Falu, the shortest four months in Argent.
 
An astute reader may be asking themselves, what is it about aetherial instability that forces whole cities to continually relocate? This is a fair question. Couldn’t a sufficiently motivated populous employ a combination of engineers, laborers, and mages to build a city durable enough to weather the shifting magical winds? The short answer is no, and not just because of Djinnar’s proclamations. Aetherial fluctuations are waves of life itself. Thus, the contain the power both to create and destroy. Those subjected to elevated levels of aether suffer side effects including physical deformity, tumescent growths, organ failure, brain damage, severe birth defects, clunker malfunctions, conjured demons, gate failure, disappearance, insubstantiation, and death. 

Scholars have written at length about the advantages and disadvantages of the various pilgrimage locales. For a full account I recommend Omar Zaff’s Religious Geography of Xys. I will provide a small summary for you, dear reader, so that you may know Solvigant better.

• Cerul: Sits at the foot of the Quiban Massif, a collection of red rock mountains and buttes that contains the highest peak on Xys, Mount Aratip. Here water seeps pool in sandstone overhangs that have been carved into cisterns. The site takes its name from a blue alga that grows in the pool due to the high salt and mineral content of the water.
• Argent: Situated south of Cerul by about two hundred miles, the locale is the most hospitable of the pilgrimage sites. It is on a wide, mountainous peninsula. To the west is the Silent Sea, the largest body of water on the moon. Beyond that are the sandy wastes. To the east of Cerul is the Windlass Sea, or the Boiled Sea, as it came to be known. The peninsula contains abundant mineral wealth, mostly in silver, which is Xys’s foremost export. The Yazerites built a mining colony, and the residents of Xys tried to make Argent a permanent home, but the aetherial waves prevented large scale development. Now Solvigantians reside amongst the ruins.
• Veria: The setting for Solvigant in the chronicler’s account of Adi Crestone’s adventures. Veria is known for its proximity to two large oases, the Umkit and Brolz oases. It is also within a short terrane ride from the eastern boundary of the Windlass (aka Boiled) Sea. Thanks to the abundant fresh water, the Custodians maintain several parks and green spaces in the area.
  
• Amar: Amar is nestled inside the vast Amarine canyon. The Yazerite explorer Vanyssa Nix, writes of a dying river, choked with debris and shifting sandbanks which she named the Amar after her niece, Amara daughter of her brother Malachai Nix, a member of the Judicial Tribunal, the high judges of Yazerite society. The river dried up before the arrival of the Sojourners, but the canyon’s broad majesty remains. Amar is unfortunately riven with Feverfire sickness such as that which afflicts Lady Tabitha Gambol, the Governor’s wife. Foreigners to Xys seem to be particularly susceptible, while native born Xyssian have some level of immunity.

• Falu: Much has been written about ‘cavernous Falu’ by scholars and poets alike. Situated partially underground, the cave system at Falu was carved by water and magma flowing underground. The caves provide access to the Haman Aquifer and were inhabited by the Deniveran tribes well before the first appearance of Yazerites. The cave system is extensive and, to my knowledge, has not been mapped in its entirety. The system is unstable. The Custodians spend much of their time shoring up the various caverns and tunnels, or as much as they can during the site’s erratic periods. Still, there are many accounts of collapse and numerous lives have been lost.
• Zaff: Named for the aforementioned Omar Zaff, this is the highest spot on the pilgrimage route. The Opteran Mountains, which includes Mount Aratip, tower over the Quiban Massif. Zaff is situated on the flanks of Mount Calyx beside Lake Liban. It can be quite cold in Zaff, and there are historical reports of snow before Pallantier’s disappearance and the fall of Xys into a decaying orbit. Zaff provides easy access to half a dozen aerogates and a handful of gayagates.

 
Hopefully, dear reader, the challenges and adventures of living in a peripatetic city are clearer. The necessity of the pilgrimage route makes for a hard life but provides Solvigant’s citizens with a unique lifestyle and perspective. Their grit and perseverance are the subject of many treatises and polemics on ethics and character. I enjoyed living amongst them, during my time running Drake’s Apothecary on Goldwynd Alley. 

​Hail Solo, dear Reader, and welcome back to Balthasar’s Blog. I apologize for the delay in communication. I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the second installment of the mythology of Solvigant. The life of a dragon is never idle, and these past two months were no exception. My apothecary was struck by an infestation of a nasty type of sand beetle, the desertic coleopteryx papyri. This small horned beetle can wreak havoc on a library. Thus, it was important that I stamp out the incursion with vigor and haste. I did lose a signed, first-edition of Verlansky’s Draconic Astrology and Volumes I and III of Corbin’s History and Significance of Ankhimian Battle Tattoos, (apparently Volume II didn’t taste very good), but neither one is irreplaceable. 

Much time has also been taken in correspondence with the chronicler Andrew D.H. Moore. As readers of this blog know, the beery, bearded, bicycling chronicler is writing a series of books about the troublesome pirate Adison Crestone, formerly Adison Faide of House Azure on the moon Saba. Despite my numerous attempts to discourage him, he is persistent. My entreaties that her story might be better off forgotten lest they reveal certain—astro-aetherial dangers to the wrong reader have fallen on deaf ears.

Since my daughter, Rehka Drake, is complicit in much of the story, I am resigned to aid chronicler Moore to the best of my ability. [This despite his infuriating tendency to fictionalize and dramatize certain elements of the story, but that is historical fiction for you.] For all my cantankerousness, I am pleased to report that Children of Solo will be available to readers April 18, 2025. I for one am grateful for a brief respite in Chronicler Moore’s correspondence, if only to have more time to contribute to other matters, such as these writings. 

To tell a story of this magnitude, with such repercussions for the entire World System is no mean feat. Many evenings have we spent, huddled before the fireplace in the salon of the Imperial Library in Thail sipping Sabaian marsh whiskey or Behlian honey wine, debating the various details. In truth, dear reader, I grow old, even for a dragon, and my memory is not what it once was. Moore’s research has dredged up myriad memories, many of them painful, but I am glad to have had the chance to reminisce. I may even venture so far as to say, we have become friends.

I encourage you to devote some of your own spare time to the investigation of this chronicle. Reach out to me by commenting on this blog or contacting the chronicler himself if there are topics you wish me to address, or questions you may have about the World System. If I do not know the answers, I know where to find them. One of the perks of Chronicler Moore’s fellowship at the Imperial Library, is that he allows me to use his office for my own whimsical research needs. Next week I will return to Solvigant’s history and mythology. In the meantime, if you find yourself with a free Saturday evening and you live within a reasonable distance to the author, join him for a pint of Verdun’s finest. Pat him on the back but remind him to get back to work. Adi’s story is far from over.
 

​Hail Solo!
Welcome, dear reader, to the second installment of Balthasar’s Blog, where we delve into the nitty gritty of the World System. Today we investigate some of the history of the city of Solvigant, the city peripatetic. The city serves as the principal setting for the events in Children of Solo, so it behooves us to deepen our understanding of this unique place. For though there are a handful of powerful cities in the World System that have sworn fealty to House Callire and the Empire, the historical pilgrimage of Solvigant, the way it traverses the surface of Xys, makes this city special.
Let me back up, however. Solvigant’s peripatesis must be understood in the context of the history of Xys, and that begins with an overview of the Yazerites on another moon entirely. The Yazerites were a multicultural, multiethnic civilization founded on the moon Seniphet, now called Maxon. Tourists to Polaris, the capital of the imperial holdings on Maxon, can rent a coach or buy passage on a steam locomotive to visit the excavated portions of the ruins of the Yazerite city. Archaeologists call this city Zeros, after its mythological founder Zeros Therebor.
​
From the crystal throne of Zeros, Yazerite kings expanded their kingdom to include the entire moon over a period of approximately four centuries. They were known for their engineering acuity, their military might, and their multicultural aristocracy. They built an incredible network of ancient roads to crisscross Seniphet’s two continents, as well as massive public infrastructure projects, and vast, manicured gardens. They considered their kings generals and gods. 

​Every citizen completed four years of mandatory military service, and citizenship was open to any willing to serve. The aristocracy encompassed all the known races: Grym, Seraphim, Ankhim, Human, Nefeshi, and even the ancient Jeyan, a now extinct race of giants. (Note 1: Scholars often refer to the Jeyan as the Ancients, but that term is used interchangeably to also mean the Yazerites. I use their accepted racial terminology here to avoid confusion.)
While Solo held sway over the World System at the height of the Yazerite Empire, they had their own pantheon of gods. Solo’s Children were restricted to heavenly Avernus, and their father Corendar was not yet confined to inky Tartyn but roamed the void freely. The Yazerites worshipped their king, who was believed to be the mortal incarnation of Yazuman, God of Day. They considered Solo, a minor deity in the pantheon, perhaps a child herself of Yazuman. Yazuman’s nemesis was Ishti, Goddess of Night.

When all Seniphet lay under Yazerite dominion, their explorers, scientists, and military leaders turned their attention toward the heavens, and the moons that illuminated the night sky. Remember, dear reader, the height of the Yazerite Empire predates, the Homecoming, the arrival of the Sojourner’s, the creation of the gates, and the First Diaspora. (Note 2: The First Diaspora is the first documented diaspora. While there is no written evidence, or archaeological record of earlier movement between moons. As all the races of the World System could not have arisen separately on separate moons.)

Alchemists, mages, astronomers, philosophers, and scientists of the Yazerite Empire began to theorize about travel to other moons. It was not long before Alistair Pradesh started to experiment with aether. [His famous experiments are reconstructed in Kratowski’s Early Days of Aether.] He discovered that he could use quartz to magnify concentrated streams of aether to create a charge that would transport small amounts of material across the void. By refining aether into crystals, the Yazerites established waypoints around the World System to return to Seniphet. They discovered the dragons on Flynt and established diplomatic relations. There is evidence they built early settlements on Behl, which was uninhabited at the time. Their principal destination, however, was the moon Xys.
​
The process of desertification was well underway when the first Yazerites set foot on Xys, but there remained sprawling oases where nomadic peoples congregated before moving on. These people are known as the tribes of Deniver, after Dr. Everett Deniver, the scholar who wrote the definitive treatise on these peoples. Little is known about them, for they left no records, and the sands of Xys have long ago swallowed up evidence of their civilization. Everything we know comes second hand from written accounts of Yazerite explorers, who had a conqueror’s agenda. 

On Xys, the Yazerites built a city to rival Zeros, which scholars call Nix, after famed Yazerite explorer Vynissa Nix. The Yazerites took advantage of Xys’ prodigious mineral wealth, and soon Nix was the wealthiest city in the World System. Civil war eventually broke out between the kings in Zeros, and their representatives in Nix. The war raged on and off for decades and weakened the Yazerites. Rebellions broke out amongst the tribes of Deniver, and certain subjugated peoples of Seniphet believed to be the ancestors of the Maxonian Eldarians.

Unbeknownst to the warring Yazerite factions, they had a much larger problem than internal strife. Their aetherial causeways between moons required a vast amount of energy from the World System. The aetherial scholars did not yet understand the connection between their creations, and the movement of energy. It was not until the arrival of the Sojourner’s three centuries later that the technology around the gates would be further understood and stabilized.

The more the Yazerites traveled between moons, the more natural disasters occurred. Famines plagued Seniphet, feverfire sickness devastated Nix, earthquakes increased in frequency, culminating in the great rift that separates imperial Maxon from the eastern grasslands and the Bosque.

Religious scholars disagree whether it was Ishti, Goddess of Night, or Corendar, God of Chaos, who finally put an end to the arrogance of the Yazerites. Whoever it was, flung open the gates of heavenly Avernus, and released Solo’s children upon the World System. Yazerite myths speak of the clash of gods and men that spelled doom for the already diminished Yazerite empire. Yazuman and Ishti were driven into Tartyn and confined therein. The gods enlisted the aid of the dragons. This alliance marked the beginning of the draconic Wars of Tooth and Claw, which culminated in the extermination of the Jeyan.
​
When the dust settled, Zeros was a ruin, while Nix was reduced to a fraction of its former glory. The gods filled the Void with all manner of beasts, like balechtoplasms and star-eaters, to make Void travel prohibitively dangerous. They cast down the towering aetherial beacons the Yazerites used for navigation and banished the ruling Yazerite families to their rustic colonies on Behl. Then the Children of Solo set about dividing the spoils of war amongst themselves. 

Each divinity claimed a moon for his or her own patronage. Pallantier, God of Creation, made his home on Acadia before it was destroyed in the Wars of Succession, when Kade usurped Corendar as God of the Void. The gods restored the autonomy of the tribes of Deniver as they were a peaceful people and widely believed to be victims of Yazerite colonialism. They kept their own gods. This peace held for ten generations.

Finally, however, the ruling Elder of the largest of the Deniverian tribes, converted to the cult of Pallantier and offered Xys as a second home for the androgyne God of creation. Pallantier’s twin brother, Djinnar God of Destruction, was intensely jealous that his brother might hold sway over two moons. This is why he assisted Kade, the son of the Sojourner’s, in the Wars of Succession.

Djinnar appealed to his parents, Solo and Corendar, but they did not intervene. Djinnar visited the other elders of the other tribes and tried to convince them to reject Pallantier. Finally, a compromise was reached, whereby Pallantier assumed control of Xys, but everything he built must pay homage to Xys’ nomadic roots. Djinnar was satisfied that this condition would prevent the people of Xys from ever growing too powerful. Seniphet, where Djinnar held sway from the ruins of Zeros, was, and still is, the most fecund and fertile moon in the World System. The God of Destruction was confident that his dominion was rich enough to compete with Pallantier’s two moons.

After spending time on Xys, Pallantier discovered that the aetherial causeways used by the Yazerites had created another side effect on Xys. The conquerors had undertaken so many trips between the two moons, and moved so much energy around the World System, that Xys’ core became unstable. The result was fluctuating waves of magical energy released from the interior of the moon. These aetherial waves affected the astral dust around the planet and warped the fabric of the Void. They grew to such intensity that the citizens of Xys noticed, and certain areas of the moon became uninhabitable during aetherial surges. In fear, the people began to congregate in safe places. One of these safe havens would eventually take the name Solvigant.
​
As Solvigant grew, the aetherial waves increased in frequency and intensity. When the Sojourner’s arrived in the World System, Pallantier enlisted their aid, and through their efforts Xys’ core was stabilized enough that the waves came in predictable patterns. Pallantier designed the peripatetic path for Solvigant, now known as The Wandering City. The city moves along a predictable course, to avoid the aetherial waves ejected from the moon’s core, and to honor the bargain Pallantier struck with Djinnar. 

​Hail Solo and greetings, Intrepid Readers!

My name is Balthasar Demetrius Merebor Fumus Vezzarrhuk’ti Balefire Drake. I apologize for dragon names are particularly unwieldy things, more inclined to instruct than to name. The linguistic scholar of both Old and Reformed Draconic, who is familiar with the runic alphabet of the Sojourners, may glean copious information from such an appellation. I realize this is a small group of frumpy individuals that does not include you, dear reader. Take solace in knowing that most dragons are ignorant of the nuances, and name more from tradition than from understanding.

My acquaintances call me Balthasar, and as we are getting acquainted, I invite you to do the same.
You are here because of your interest in the World System, that is Solo the Ringed Mother, and her nine children and the moons they represent. I am delighted to have this opportunity to educate and elucidate the finer points of that system so that you might find yourself immersed in both legend and history. There is nothing so wonderful as a curious mind tempered with academic rigor. To that end, allow me to introduce myself further so that you may feel confident in me as your guide.

By imperial reckoning, I was born on Tyrsday, 52nd of ‘Iberne, deep in Tyrian winter, in the 1478th year post-Sojourner. My father, Demetrius Drake, was a junior member of draconian parliament, and owned a manse in Merebor, a small hamlet outside of Aerodyne, the capital of the moon Flynt. It was there that my mother bore me, her third child and only son.

Tyrsday, 52nd of ‘Iberne 1478 PS is also the date draconian parliament signed the Treaty of Matrimony and Aetherial Regulation, ToMAR, binding the humans of House Callire to the ruling Stormcloud clan of dragons. This treaty recognized the authority of House Callire as Emperors over the moons of Tyre and Flynt and insured that the Empress would always be a daughter of the Stormclouds. Draconian parliament retained the ability to pass domestic legislation, but, more importantly, created a monopoly on aetherial magic and maintained our connection to our dragon forms on the aetherial plane of Holoxia, but I am getting ahead of myself.

​My mother, Cecilia Drake, burdened me with this official draconic name:

1. Balthasar: My unique surname given by the Aelwyfe, a dragon mystic, who consults the liver of a sheep and compares her findings to the astronomical charts.
2. Demetrius: My father’s name, and the male name of my family for twelve generations.
3. Merebor: The village where I was born.
4. Fumus: This name does not come until a dragon turns fourteen, enters the academy, and joins a fraternity.
5. Vezzarrhuk’ti: This is the name of the blue dragon to whom I am bound through the ceremony of Xiamentarisia at the conclusion of the academy. Dragon names themselves are complicated, but briefly the ‘rhuk’ ending indicates the blue color, while the ‘ti’ indicates draconic nobility and is exceedingly rare. Vezzarrhuk’ti is a dragon far outside my station, and the results of my Xiamentaresis were quite scandalous at the time, but that is a story for another day.
6. Balefire: My clan’s name, like Stormcloud, Lightfire, Venomhold, or Bronzewater. Draconian clans fall within a strict hierarchy, and Balefire is a second-tier clan.
7. Drake: My family name within my clan. These are matrilineal and a clan often contains twenty or thirty families.

 
My purpose here is to convince you of my credentials to be your guide through the World System, and so I gloss over my childhood in Merebor, except to say that it was strikingly regular for a young dragon from a second-tier house. My father was ambitious, though not often successful in his ambition. My oldest sister wed into the Bronzewater clan, had two children of her own, and upheld the tradition and honor expected of a noble dragon’s wife. My middle sister refused to marry and became an Aelwyfe. She died tragically when just seventy-three, a very real and very private grief in my family.

After the academy and the bonding with Vezza, I followed in the footsteps of my middle sister, which is to say I disappointed my parents by not following my father into politics, but rather I accepted a fellowship to the Academy of Alchemical Sciences on the moon Highgaard. I was a studious pupil and rose quickly from neophyte to acolyte to apprentice. I earned the golden crucible, an indication of a first-level master in just twelve years, the fastest any student ever earned such accolades.

​I returned home after I burned the remaining bridges. My father was ailing, and my mother needed help in looking after both him and the estate. My surviving sister secured a professorship for me at the Mechanical University of Aerodyne, where I authored fifteen books including:

• Blood of Gold: The transmutation of gold and aether and its applications in golems.
• Aerodyne: A Pre-Imperial history of blimps, dirigibles, and other airships
• Life Among the Stars: Theoretical applications of astro-aetherial alchemy with trans-World System repercussions.

A small, very erudite audience read the books, but it guaranteed tenure at the University, and it brought me back into good standing among the political elite in Aerodyne enough that marrying Sofiya was only a minor scandal.

I write now from Drake’s Apothecary in Goldwynd Alley in the peripatetic city of Solvigant on the moon Xys. My daughter Rehka and I first arrived here twenty years ago during a particularly tumultuous time in draconian politics and in my relationship with her mother. To this day, I cannot quite put my finger on what drew me to the traveling desert city, but over the last twenty years, Solvigant has become my home. My apothecary keeps me busy and connected to the overlapping worlds over magic, scholarship, and alchemy. It has been a second home to my daughter, Rehka, and a wonderful place to watch the empire grow and morph without my affecting my work.

​As you, Intrepid Reader, prepare for the coming story in Steam and Stars Book 1: Children of Solo by the World System chronicler Andrew DH Moore, I am excited to have this space to delve deeper into the mysteries of the World System. The mysteries, magics, and lands of the moons of Solo are vast, and every day brings new discoveries. Join me in exploring this beautiful web of life, so that we may all better understand the characters like Adison Faide, Theodore Vanguard, and Solomon Broc who populate our stories and fill our lives with adventure.