The Core by Peter V. Brett
Description: Smaller cousins of rock demons—who form through faces of pure rock—stone demons feature armor with the mottled appearance of conglomerate rock. They tend to be squat and slow, but are among the strongest and most indestructible of demons.
Requiring less specialized environments to rise, stone demons are more common than rocks. A group of stone demons is called a conglomerate.
SUCCOR
Description: The succor ward is a general ward of protection taught to children. Not as powerful as wards keyed to individual breeds, succor wards create a general field of discomfort that is enough to drive most corelings away unless prey is in sight. Very large or powerful wards can form a forbiddance. The ward is used in the Thesan dice game Succor, as well as its Krasian variation, Sharak.
SWAMP DEMON
Description: Swamp demons are native to swamps and marshy areas and are an amphibious form of wood demon, at home both in the water and in the trees. Swamp demons are blotched in green and brown, blending into their surroundings, and will often hide in trees, mud, or shallow water to spring on prey. They spit a thick, sticky slime that rots any organic material it comes in contact with. A group of swamp demons is called a muck.
WATER DEMON
Description: Water demons are seldom seen. They come in various forms and sizes. Some are man-sized, sleek and scaly, with webbed hands and feet, tipped with sharp talons. Others are large enough to pull three-mast ships beneath the surface with their thick, horned tentacles. Others are bigger still, leviathans able to leap above the water and splash down to create tremendous waves. Water demons can only breathe underwater, though they can surface for a short time. A group of water demons is called a wave.
WIND DEMON
Description: Wind demons can stand as tall as six feet at the shoulder, but have head fins that rise much higher, topping eight or nine feet. Their great sharp-edged beaks hide rows of teeth. Their skin is a tough, flexible armor that can turn most any spearpoint or arrowhead. It stretches out from their sides and along the underside of their arms to form the tough membrane of their wings, which can span three times their height. Clumsy and slow on land, wind demons have tremendous power in the sky. The thin wing bones are jointed with wicked hooked talons. Their preferred attack is a silent dive; they then open their wings with a great snap just before impact, severing a victim’s head. They grab the body in their hind talons and fly off. A group of wind demons is called a flight.
WOOD DEMON
Description: Wood demons are native to forests. Next to rock demons, they are the largest and most powerful demons, averaging from five to ten feet tall when standing on their hind legs. They have short, powerful hindquarters and long, sinewy arms, perfect for climbing trees and leaping from branch to branch. Their claws are short, hard points, designed for gripping through the bark of trees. Wood demons’ armor is barklike in color and texture, and they have large black eyes. Wood demons cannot be harmed by normal fire, but will burn readily if brought in contact with hotter fires, such as firespit or liquid demonfire. Wood demons will kill flame demons on sight, and often hunt in groups called copses.
OFFENSIVE (COMBAT) WARDS
Combat wards repurpose magic for various effects. Some Draw power directly from the demon they strike, while others are powered by batteries such as demon bone, also known as hora.
COLD
Description: Cold wards reduce thermal energy, rapidly reducing the temperature of their target area to below freezing. Powerful cold wards can shatter steel or even rock demon armor.
CUTTING
Description: Cutting wards, when etched along the length of a blade, can enhance its sharpness, allowing the weapon to cut cleanly through even coreling armor and flesh. Cutting wards siphon power from the demon as they strike, weakening armor, strengthening the blade, and sharpening down to a near-molecular level.
FIRESPIT/COLDSPIT
Description: These wards are used as defense against flame demons, turning their firespit into a cool breeze. When drawn in reverse, they turn the coldspit of a snow demon into a warm breeze.
GLASS
Description: When etched on glass and charged with magic, these wards effect a permanent change, making glass harder than diamond and stronger than steel without changing its weight or appearance. Warded glass is widely used to create near-indestructible windows, vials, weapons, and armor.
HEAT
Description: Heat wards increase thermal energy, converting magic directly to heat. Objects painted with heat wards are consumed when the wards activate unless highly resistant to temperature extremes.
IMPACT
Description: These wards turn magic into concussive force. They can be used alone, or to augment the blow of a blunt weapon. When used to strike a demon, they siphon magic like cutting wards, weakening armor even as they multiply force. The stronger the original impact, the more power is generated.
LECTRIC
Description: These wards convert magic directly into electricity that can be directed at an object or creature. The wards can also be linked to form circuits.
MAGNETIC
Description: Magnetic wards charge their target area, drawing iron like a powerful magnet. They are sometimes used to increase the accuracy of iron cannonballs.
MOISTURE
Description: Moisture wards attract moisture from the air or nearby bodies of water. They can be used to ensure that plants get the necessary water without human care, to fill a small reservoir, or to quench a flame demon. Powerful moisture wards can drown or, if reversed, dehydrate a victim.
PIERCING
Description: Piercing wards Draw from the point of impact on a demon’s body, weakening coreling armor even as they focus magic into a weapon’s point for maximum penetrative power.
PRESSURE
Description: Pressure wards exert a crushing force that builds in heat and intensity the longer they remain in contact with a demon. The Warded Man has one on each palm, and has been known to squeeze a demon’s head with them until it bursts.
PERCEPTION WARDS
Perception wards create magical effects that can alter the senses of demons and sometimes humans.
BLENDING
Description: Blending wards pull from their surroundings to camouflage their target area. Unlike unsight wards, which only work on demons, blending wards can hide things from human senses, as well. Sudden or quick movement can negate a blending ward’s power.
CONFUSION
Description: Confusion wards radiate a field of disorientation that can cause creatures to become dizzy and lose their sense of direction. Unless prey is in sight, affected coreling drones will often forget what they are doing, wandering away harmlessly.
LIGHT
Description: Light wards convert magic to pure white light. Depending on the power source, the light can be anything from a soft glow to a blinding glare.
PROPHECY
Description: Carved into the alagai hora of the dama’ting, prophecy wards read the currents of magic to make predictions about the future. Their magic pulls the demon bone dice out of their natural trajectories to answer questions spoken in prayer to Everam. The processes used both to make the dice and to read them are closely guarded secrets of the Krasian priestesses; it is death to share them with outsiders.
UNSIGHT
Description: Rediscovered by Leesha Paper, wards of unsight can make objects invisible to demons, provided those objects keep relatively still. Hundreds, even thousands of wards of unsight are used to make Cloaks of Unsight that protect humans in the naked night.
WARDSIGHT
Description: When worn around the eyes and charged, these wards can allow surface creatures to see in the magical spectrum. As a result, the creatures can see in complete darkness as easily as clear day, watch the flow of ambient magic, judge the relative power of wardings, and see the auras given off by all living things. A skilled practitioner can “Read” these auras to tell what others are feelin
DEMON CYCLE BOOKS BY PETER V. BRETT
NOVELS
The Warded Man
The Desert Spear
The Daylight War
The Skull Throne
The Core
NOVELLAS
The Great Bazaar
Brayan’s Gold
Messenger’s Legacy
Barren (forthcoming)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PETER V. BRETT is the internationally bestselling author of the Demon Cycle series, which has sold more than two million copies in twenty-five languages worldwide. The novels in the series are The Warded Man, The Desert Spear, The Daylight War, The Skull Throne, and The Core. He spends too much time on the Internet but occasionally unplugs to practice kickboxing and dad fu. He lives in Manhattan.
Visit Peter online at petervbrett.com or follow him:
Facebook.com/PVBrett
Twitter: @PVBrett
Instagram: @PVBrett
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Peter V. Brett, The Core
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