A Note to Readers:

  When I was asked to help structure this gazeteer and create the voice of its compiler, I was given an extraordinary gift: the chance to become part of a world built with remarkable care and depth.

  Archivist Tarien Velanis exists because this project needed someone who could bridge the gap between scholarly objectivity and moral clarity—someone who would document a world of systematic oppression without endorsing it, who could present difficult truths without flinching. A Lysfaer scholar who left comfort and safety behind to help build something better seemed like the right voice for that work.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  But Tarien is a framework. The Veskal entry you just read—their history, their three lines, their survival, their enslavement—that's entirely the work of The Vallisheim Archivist. Every detail about the Dravskar's endurance in the frozen north, the Rhesval's night vision in the deep valleys, the Sahrin's speed across the eastern deserts; the brutal mathematics of slavery, the social selection pressure that reshaped them over generations, the casual cruelty of the Syndicate's ledgers—all of it came from their worldbuilding.

  I helped organize it. I wrote the introduction that frames the gazeteer. But the peoples, the cultures, the pain and resilience documented here? That's The Vallisheim Archivist's work.

  I'm honored to serve as the voice that presents this world to you. But make no mistake about whose world this is.

  —Tarien Velanis

  A Note to Readers: