“To the east of Malkona, beyond the eternal turmoil of the Seething Depths, a chain of devastated islands smolders with hundreds of volcanoes. Their jagged, spike-lined shores and cracked, barren lands are all that remains of the legendary Flammarg. Yet, the old tales whisper that not all flammars perished in the Ocean’s wrath—perhaps some of the Flame-Winged still plot their revenge, hiding among the shattered remnants of their empire.”

Here and beyond, I present excerpts from the epochal work “Notes on Taliskarn, Its Wonders, and the Creatures That Inhabit This World.”

Core Themes and Ideas of the Shards

• Fire, lava, wastelands
• The winged, untamed flammars—”children of fire and war”
• Rivers of molten glass and glasslike, fluid monsters
• Constant dangers
• The legacy of a destroyed and drowned empire of the past (everyone should have one, and I want one too!)