Lita Burke

Tredan’s Bane explores the magical politics between two rival factions: the Enchanters and the Churchies.

In Sye, magical power has been formally split between the two camps. Enchanters create magical essence that all persons (and many creatures, such as dragonettes) need for survival. The Church magicians see to the matters of moral living, marriage magic, orphans, hospitals, ghosts, and the afterlife.

The Fields of Yalu

In the fantasy world of Wrath and Tredan’s Bane, powerful wizards can visit the afterlife (called The Fields of Yalu), interact with the dead, and return intact to the living world of Sye. Marriage partners with a strong loving bond may unintentionally pull their willing spouse with them into the afterlife, especially if one of them dies traumatically.

The Fields of Yalu is a bright and beautiful city, but filled with perils for the living. The ghosts surround their homes with lush gardens, but no creatures inhabit the Fields of Yalu. A vast stony desert filled with puzzling gravel paths surround the city of the dead, and all paths lead to its borders. Tredan’s Bane describes one of the few ways to return.

Ghosts and Sciomancers

The Church’s speciality magicians for crypt and ghost spells are Sciomancers. They can call ghosts at will and bind them to prepared niches in the catacombs, or hold them in bewitched amulets.

The Sciomancers, along with a town’s Priest, make sure that the deceased’s crypts are properly attended in the sprawling Burial Yards. Just like the gardens that surround the homes of the dead in the Fields of Yalu, lavish crypts huddle in the rich forests and manicured lawns of Sye’s Burial Yards. The oldest crypts fade from Sye and reappear in the Fields of Yalu. Enchanters returning from the city of the dead describe endless green hills filled with the dead’s relocated crypt homes.

Book of the Dead

Another Sciomancer magical talent is transcribing copies of the Book of the Dead–it is a tome containing poems, songs, and advice for the deceased in the Fields of Yalu. The book also has guidance for the living person on proper magical and moral conduct–this will keep their soul undammed for the Hall of Two Judgements.

Avoiding magical temptation is the biggest struggle. Enchanters, with their delicious-tasting magical essence that no one can survive without, are tempters and the greatest threat (according to the Church magicians) to a person’s soul.