Lore of the Craft¶

A compendium of the saga’s magic: speech, signs, price and oath

“Write down what the craft costs, and you will have written down everything else.”

[The saga’s invention] Marginal note in the amber-keepers’ tally-book.

This compendium gathers the rules of the saga’s magic in the manner of an appendix: scholarly in tone, with in-world excerpts, tables and worked examples from the books. Everything that is the saga’s own invention is labelled [The saga’s invention]; claims about real Baltic religion and folk practice are labelled [Historical record], and where the sources are doubtful the page says so.

The system on one page¶

Overview diagram. Three stacked layers: the gods, the forces, and the Senovės Kalba craft. Beside them the six schools of asked power (Kalba, charms, signs, herbs, amber, oaths) and the five elements with their zeniths (Stars at Kūčios midnight, Fire at Rasos noon, Water at the full moon and ice-break, Earth at Dagotuvės dusk, Wind in storms and Vėlinės). Along the bottom the cost flow: ask, time, the caster pays, surety, unpaid debts compound. — The craft at a glance: three layers (gods, forces, craft), six schools, five elements and the cost flow¶

The nine chapters¶

Chapter	What it covers
The Ancient Speech	How a working is asked: the formula, the five voices, naming and the cost clause
Signs and Wards	Twelve carved signs, with a glyph chart
The Five Elements and Their Zeniths	Stars, Fire, Water, Earth and Wind, and the calendar of their zeniths
The Price	The Law of Balance, eight worked bills, surety and unpaid debts
Amber Craft	Amber as a medium; the pebble as barometer of truth
Oaths and Pacts	Priesaika, the Silent Pact, the Pack’s Word and what follows a breach
Schools and Practitioners	Six schools, six tiers, the last žyniai
What Magic Cannot Do	Limits, taboos and why history cannot be bent
Reading the Craft	A spoiler-aware guide to spotting the rules in scenes

Where to begin¶

New readers should start with Reading the Craft, which keeps spoilers under book headings. Readers of the whole series can begin at The Ancient Speech and follow the chapters in order. The encyclopedia pages remain the reference for single entities: Senovės Kalba, the Silent Pact and the elements.

History and invention¶

History and the Saga distinguishes documented anchors from later traditions, supernatural explanations and deliberate changes to historical circumstances. It contains spoilers for all six books.