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The Edge Chronicles is a fantasy novel series written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. Originally published in the United Kingdom, the series has since been published in the United States as well.

Setting

Natural Geography

The series is set on The Edge, which appears to be either a huge cliff jutting out of the clouds, or an island floating in the sky.

The Edge is made up of many different environments, the first of which is the Edgelands, the very northern and southern edges of the cliff. It is a barren rocky place forever clouded in mist. There, people may stumble into the Twilight Woods, fall over the edge of the Edge itself, or find the gloamglozer, the most feared of the demons in the Edge. It borders the Mire to the east, the Twilight Woods to the north, The Edge and the Deepwoods to the west. In the tenth book of The Edge Chronicles, there is also a terrain know as Everlasting Hills, another as, The Phraxfields, and the Silver Ravine. A legend exists about Riverrise, a place at the end of the Deepwoods with water that has healing properties.

The second is the Deepwoods, the forest which many woodland creatures, both peaceful and deadly, call home - including the hero of books four to six of the Chronicles. It is the largest area of the Edge; a seemingly endless panorama of teeming life in so many diverse forms. At the western end of the Deepwoods, after the Nightwoods, or Waif Country, is a giant cliff which leads to the bottom Riverrise. Behind the waterfall that is there, there is a staircase, which leads above the clouds, to the top of Riverrise. In the middle there is a pool, which the waterfall at the bottom flows from. Around it, there are hundreds of trees and flowers, making it seem like a huge garden. Another site in the Deepwoods is the Great Shryke Slave Market. There creatures of any kind can come to buy or sell creatures they had captured and sell them as slaves. The whole market is owned and operated by the shrykes, a bird-like race of creatures who live on the Edge. In the Rook saga several large towns are made in the Deepwoods.

Third comes the Twilight Woods, a place of decay and immortality which gives off a strange force that makes anyone who enters forget themselves and be lost forever in daydreams and nightmares. It is a place that robs intruders of their senses and faculties, but never grants the peace of death. Great Storms are attracted to the place to release great bolts of lightning that hit the earth in solid form, as the revered substance "stormphrax", and despite the risks many venture there in search of the powerful crystals. Because perpertual twilight exists there, the Stormphrax is slowly ground down into a powder, called phraxdust. This powder can purify any liquid, making it safe for drinking.

Next is the Mire, a bubbling brownish-white land coated by ooze that resulted from the dumping into it of waste and sludge by nearby Undertown. It is a place of hidden blow holes and sinking quick-mud, and seems perfectly uninhabitable - except for the creeping monsters that hide in the waste. In the Rook trilogy, there exists a great road over the Mire, controlled by birdlike shrykes. At the very edgen in the north, cliff-marble was once mined for the buildngs of Sanctaphrax.

Next are the Twin Cities, the scholarly Sanctaphrax and dirty, Undertown (more Information below)

The final part of the Edge is the Stone Gardens, at the very eastern area of the Edge. The Gardens are where buoyant rocks slowly "grow" from the surface, and eventually float away into the sky. The Garden is guarded by the white ravens, which keep an eye on the cultivation of the strange stones. These stones are used to build great flying boats known as sky-ships; without the stones, transport on the Edge would be a very limited affair. Later in the series, the Stone Gardens are infected with "stone-sickness" - a degenerative disease that brought to an end the "First Age of Flight", (some believed that it occurred because Cloud Wolf had some how infected the Mother Storm) which in turn brought about many other changes to the Edge.

After the Stone Gardens the Edge cliff finally ends and the Edgewater River endlessly tumbles over into the yawning void of Open Sky below.

In the Deepwoods there are a few settlements apart from the normal villages and tribes. There is the Foundry Glade, the Eastern Roost, the Goblin Nations and the Free Glades. The Free Glades consist of The Ironwood Glade, which is next to the South Lake and the Great Lake. Near the edge of the Great Lake there is the Lake Landing, which is near the Waif Glen where the Reckoning takes place and where only the invited can get in. Next to the great lake there is the Woodtroll Timberyards, and in the North Lake there is Lullabee Island. At the very edge of the Free Glades, there is a cliff, which is full of caves where cloddertrogs reside. And most important of all, there is New Undertown. New Undertown, as well as many of the villages, are only seen in the last three books.

Towns and Villages

Undertown

Undertown is to the east of the Mire. It is (until 'Freeglader'), the capital of the Edge. Holding a diverse population, the city is still less than prosperous in many areas, and shanties are pressed tight to its outskirts. Undertown is built on the banks of the large Edgewater River, which splits the city in two. This is the centre of commerce on the Edge, a place of merchants and pirates - each trying to undercut the other. In the second Age of Flight by orders of Vox Verlix and all its inhabbitants placed into slavery. It was destroyed in the book ''Vox'' by a dark maelstorm created by the titular character Vox Verlix.

Weastern Quays the most wealthy part of Undertown. It wasa the home of the wealthy leaguesmen as well as a few successful skypirates. However, by the time of the Rook trilogy it has been buried under tons of ruble from the crumbling New Sanctaphrax rock becoming part of Screetown.

Boom DocksThe main area for sky ships to teather in Undertown to unlod cargo.

Palace of the Leagues the home of the Leagues master and headquarters of the Leagues of Undertown. After the fall of the Leagues it becomes the home of Vox Verlix and is known as the palace of statues. It is destroyed by the Dark maelstrom Vox created.

In the Quint and Twig trilogies Undertown was ruled by the Leagues of Undertown, In the Rook trilogy it was ruled by goblins.

Screetown

When pieces of New Sanctaphrax fell between the Twig and Rook trilogies, the most uptown district of Undertown(The Western Quays), was destroyed, creating Screetown. It is as uninhabitable as the Mire; only rubble ghouls, which suck the moisture out of everything they encounter, leaving it completely dry, can dwell here, also rock demons, as well as the mysterious Ghosts of Screetown.

Rock Demon Ravine A giant ravine inhabited by vicious rock demons.

The Sunken Palace The headquarters of the Ghosts of Screetown. It was formerly the palace of the Verginix family in the western quays.

Sanctaphrax

An enormous buoyant rock is the site of the scholarly city of Sanctaphrax, which teaches students a variety of subjects - mainly concerning the weather and how to predict it. There are Colleges of Raintasters, Cloudwatchers, Mistsifters, and so on. Other scholars also come here to pore over the many texts here for study. Very little use is made of the knowledge acquired in Sanctaphrax; it is largely the home of pedants, each of whom attempts to outdo or destroy his fellows. Sanctaphrax is attached to Undertown by a huge metal chain to prevent its floating away.

Loftus Observatory the tallest tower of Sanctaphrax the Loftus Observatory houses many weather forecasting instruments including several large telescopes.

The Knights Academy the school were young scholars are trained to be knight acedimics. However, there are only thirteen that are chosen to be knight academics at any one time. The rest of the students become Academics in arms: the guardians of Sactaphrax who become catapult workers,swordsmen and a host of other positions that are required for the academics at arms to guard Sactaphrax. The school consists of four main classes which teach the students key subjects to being Knight academics. These are: The hall of storm cloud- subject ship building; Hall of Grey cloud- subject plowgrin handling; Hall of White Cloud- Stormchasing, and the Hall of High cloud- subject weather forecasting.

In Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, the chain holding down Sanctaphrax is cut, and the city floats away.

New Sanctaphrax

Sanctaphrax is replaced by New Sanctaphrax, a second giant rock, which in later books has given in to stone sickness, causing it to sink and almost rot away. It was supported by a forest of support beams, maintained by thousands of slaves. Its only building, as too many buildings could fall off the gradually crumbling rock, is the Tower of Night, originally intended by Vox and Amberfuce to be for everyone, but the sinister Guardians of night used it as their headquarters instead.

The Sanctaphrax Forest the enormous ongoing construction of support beams that holds up New Sanctaphrax. The Forest is inhabited by many dangerous creatures.

The Tower of Night, the head quarters of Guardians of Night, is the most powerful fortress in the Edge. Vox Verlix boasted its construction was so strong it could survive cannonballs and hurricanes. The tower is set on fire at the end of the book 'Vox' after being hit by a lightning bolt, shortly before New Sanctaphrax is destroyed by the Black Maelstorm.

List of Main Characters

The Family

GENERATION I

*Wind Jackal

Father of Quintinius Verginix and captain of the Galerider, a sky pirate ship, he is well known for his successful raids of league ships and his close friendship with Linius Pallitax. His wife, Hermina Lintrax, and children Lucius, Centrix, Murix, Pellius and Martilius died in a fire that razed their palace in the Western Quays. He and Quint later hunt down the arsonist, a certain 'Turbot Smeal'...

*Linius Pallitax

Linius Pallitax is the ex-Most High Academe of Old Sanctaphrax, and he is introduced to us in the first book of the Edge Chronicles, "The Curse of the Gloamgloazer". Linius is Maris Pallitax's father {Maris who later becomes Twig Verginix's mother}, and yet he seems never to have time for his daughter when he became Most High Academe, no matter how hard he tried to balance his life out. Deep in the centre of the rock on which Old Sanctaphrax was located, was the Ancient Labroatory where the old scholars experimented with the creation of life. Linius ends up re-discovering the laboratory, and his curiosity getting the best of him, he starts to do experiments... His experiments are successful, but he ends up creating the most feared creature in all of The Edge {the world of where the chronicles take place}; he creates the Gloamgloazer. See Gloamgloazer.

GENERATION II

*Quintinius Verginix

Quintinius Verginix is the youngest son of the great sky pirate Wind Jackal, captain of the skyship Galerider. After a brief adventure as a Sanctaphrax apprentice/knight academic, Quint later captains his own ship, the Stormchaser, taking on the sky pirate name of Cloud Wolf. He becomes well known as one of the greatest sky pirate captains ever, flying and trading across the vast expanse of the Deepwoods for many years. His son Twig later joins him, but they are sadly parted when the Stormchaser is whirled away over the Edge--with Cloud Wolf at the helm--into the heart of a Great Storm. He gives his sword and miniature painting to twig, who later hands it down to his daughter Keris. Eventually, it makes its way into the hands of Quint's great-grandson, Rook Barkwater.

*Maris Pallitax

Raised by her woodtroll nanny, Welma Thornwood, Maris is said to closely resemble her mother, Yena Vespius, who died in childbirth. Neglected only daughter of the Most High Academe, she nevertheless looks up to her father, and is thus at first jealous of the attention Linius bestows on his new apprentice Quint. A bond soon develops between the pair, however, as they brave the mysteries and horrors of the Sanctaphrax stonecomb to discover the terrible secret that Linius has been harboring. She eventually joins Quint on his adventures after her father's death, and bears a son, Twig.

GENERATION III

*Twig (Arborinus Verginix)

Twig is the son of Maris Pallitax and the sky pirate captain Cloud Wolf. He remains unaware of this for many years, his only link to his heritage being a comfort blanket embroidered with a lullabee tree. As a baby, he is left in the Deepwoods to be raised by a family of woodtrolls, but his sense of adventure leads him to stray from the path, thereby beginning a series of adventures which eventually reunite him with his father.

A natural captain of sky ships, Twig later travels across the Edgeworld from Sanctaphrax to Riverrise, and finally into the Free Glades, where he is known as the Last Sky Pirate.

Twig marries the slaughterer Sinew Tatum and they have one daughter, Keris

*Cowlquape Pentephraxis

Cowlquape Pentephraxis is the son of an incredibly wealthy and brutish leaguesman, Ulbus Pentephraxis. He was sent as an under-apprentice to the great floating city of Sanctaphrax, but when his father dies, he is left with no money to pay for his tuition. Cowlquape meets Twig just as the young sky pirate captain regains his memory, and saves his life. Because of this, Twig, under the protection of the Professor of Darkness, makes Cowlquape his apprentice, saving him from poverty and homelessness. Cowlquape joins Twig on his quest to rescue his missing crew, and in doing so, discovers Riverrise, the lost home of Kobold the Wise. After he and Twig save the Edgeworld, Cowlquape becomes the Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax after the Professor of Darkness floats away with Sanctaphrax itself, and founds New Sanctaphrax. But his power and position is not to last, as he is ousted by Vox Verlix, who names himself the new Most High Academe. After the ascension of the Guardians of Night to power, Cowplquape is taken prisoner by Orbix Xaxis, where he befriends Xanth Filatine, his jailor. Cowlquape later regains his position as Most High Academe after Vox Verlix's demise, and joins the librarians to the Free Glades.

*Vox Verlix

Vox Verlix became Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax after seizing power from Cowlquape Pentephraxis, and begins projects on the Tower of Night and the Great Mire Road. The Guardians of Night later took over the Tower of Night on the New Sanctaphrax rock, and the Shrykes gained control of the Great Mire Road. After this, Vox retreated to Undertown, but the Hammerhead Goblin, General Tytugg, took control of that too. Fat, desperate, and angry, Vox locked himself up in his new home, the Palace of Statues, where he worked on his ultimate tool for revenge. It was a flying bomb made of Bloodoak Acorn dust to destroy Undertown forever, and was launched while both the Goblin and Shryke armies were positioned where they would be easily destroyed. After defeating his enemies, he sends for a ride to the Free Glades with the librarians, but it never comes, for his Waif assistant, Amberfuce, took it in his stead, behind his back. Vox Verlix dies in his Palace of Statues with Hestera Spikesap, his servant.

*Sinew Tatum

Sinew was featured in the first book (Beyond the Deepwoods) after Twig rescued her brother from a hoverworm. Twig returned him to his village to rejoin his slaughterer relatives and in doing so, met Sinew Tatum for the first time. Sinew Tatum died in childbirth while having her daughter, Keris.

GENERATION IV

Keris Verginix

Keris is the daughter of sky pirate captain, Twig (Arborinus Verginix), and slaughterer, Sinew Tatum. She married Shem Barkwater, son of Cal Barkwater, brother of Tem Barkwater, who was featured in both the Quint and Twig books. She is featured in the spin off book, The Lost Barkscrolls.

GENERATION V

*Rook Barkwater

Rook Barkwater is the son of Keris- Twig's daughter, and Shem Barkwater, Tem Barkwater's nephew. He too is at first tragically unaware of his family, as his parents were both killed by slavers when he was a baby. Raised by banderbears during his early childhood, he becomes one of the few characters in the Edgeworld able to communicate with them. He had no knowledge of his life with the Banderbears though, as he was found in the Deepwoods by Varis Lodd when he was very young. Varis brought him back to the librarians' city in the sewers of Undertown, where he served as an under-librarian. He later joins an expedition to the Free Glades, where he studies to become a librarian knight. His destiny, however, takes him on a mission over Screetown, where a terrible crash leads him into slavery. There, he serves under Most High Academe, Vox Verlix, and figures out his plans to destroy Undertown, but he is too late, and Verlix uses a flying bomb to create a dark maelstrom which carries out his plans. Due to the destruction, Rook and the rest of the librarians, Ghosts of Screetown, and Undertowners go to the Mire, where they meet up with Deadbolt Vulpoon, son of Thunderbolt Vulpoon who was in book six (Midnight Over Sanctaphrax), and the rest of the sky pirates in the Armada of the Dead. They later get to the Free Glades, where Rook joins the Free Glade Lancers, bonding with a prowlgrin named Chinquix, and helps defeat the hordes of attacking goblins and glade-eaters attacking the Free Glades. By the end of Freeglader, Rook is apparently the leader of the Lancers, Captain Welt and almost all of his other comrades slain. This is established to be true in The Blooding of Rufus Filatine; he is now Commander of the Third Roost and leads the attack on the Phrax Glade.

*Xanth Filatine

Xanth Filatine was apprentice to Orbix Xaxis, sinister High Guardian of the Guardians of Night. When Xaxis received news of an expedition to the Free Glades (The same one Rook Barkwater went on), Xanth was sent as a spy to go there with the soon-to-be-librarian knights and act as one of their own. Xanth befriends Rook Barkwater and Magda Burlix during his stay, but is found out, and escapes back to the Tower of Night, headquarters of the Guardians of Night. When Xanth returns, the Skyraider attacks the tower with Captain Twig, Rook, and their Banderbear crew on board. During this, Cowlquape Pentephraxis, friend of Xanth and Twig and rightful Most High Academe, escapes from his prison cell in the tower, and goes to the sewers to join the librarians. Eventually Xanth makes a break for freedom with the captive Magda. Before leaving, he sabotages Midnight's Spike, leading to the destruction of the Tower of Night. Xanth later joins the librarians as well, after seeing the error of his, and Orbix Xaxis' ways. He is put to trial for his mistakes, during an event called "Reckoning", and is finally accepted as a Freeglader, and librarian. During the war of the Free Glades, he becomes recognized as a hero due to his leading the rescue from Lake Landing. He later becomes High Master of Lake Landing and has a son, Rufus, who later joins the Freeglade Lancers.

*Magda Burlix

Magda Burlix was selected, along with Rook Barkwater and Stob Lummus, to go on an expedition to the Freeglades. While there, she becomes great friends with her fellow librarian knights. Later, she gets captured by the Guardians of Night while searching Screetown for Rook, who was reported as having crashed there. She escapes with Xanth Filatine, and meets up with Rook and the librarians in the Mire after the destruction of Undertown. There, she leaves on her skycraft, the Woodmoth, and is captured by the Shrykes. After escaping from her captors, she finds her way to the Free Glades, where she saves Xanth by standing up for him at his Reckoning. During the war for the Free Glades, she acts as flight leader of the Grey Team, a section of the librarian knights' air forces.

Sky Pirate Crews

Galerider

The Galerider is an old and durable sky pirate ship- at least sixty years old in Clash of the Sky Galleons. She is also one of the finest of all Sky Pirate ships. By the time she is lost to Open Sky, she has seen at least four Captains- Hurricane Razorflit, Rain Quarm, Wind Jackal and finally Cloud Wolf.

Ramrock (Stone Pilot))
Garum Gall
Grim and Grem
Turbot Smeal
The Stone Pilot (Maugin)
Tem Barkwater
Quintinius Verginix(boy)(captain's son) (later captain)
Wind Jackal (captain)
Maris Pallitax
Hubble the Banderbear
Sagbutt
Spillins
Filbus Queep
Thaw Daggerslash
Steg Jambles
Ratbit
Duggin

Stormchaser

The Stormchaser was originally built for Quint when he became a Knight Academic and was assigned to chase the next Great Storm. However, thanks to Vilnix Pompolnius's policy of banning stormchasing, she was unable to fulfill her true purpose for twenty years. During this time she was captained by Quint, now Cloud Wolf. Her first Stormchasing voyage was to be her last, as the storm was more powerful than any other since the arrival of the last Mother Storm. Cloud Wolf ordered his crew to abandon ship but stayed on board, and was carried out into Open Sky, and the Mother Storm itself. There, she and her master were slowly absorbed by the storm.

Captain: Cloud Wolf
Stone Pilot: The Stone Pilot (Maugin)
Quartermaster: Slyvo Spleethe
Lookout: Spiker
Fighter: Mugbutt (Flat Head Goblin)
Hands: Tem Barkwater
Hands: Stope Boltjaw (also in The Winter Knights)
Holds the deck together Hubble
Ships Boy: Twig

Edgedancer

Paid for by Mother Horsefeather and built to Twig's own specifications, the Edgedancer made only one ill-fated voyage. Twig flew it over the edge and into Open Sky in search of his father. But shortly after he discovered Cloud Wolf, the Mother Storm destroyed the ship. The wreckage bombarded Undertown and the crew were scattered across the Edgeworld. Twig later became captain of the Skyraider.

Twig (Arborinus Verginix) (captain)
The Stone Pilot (Maugin) (Termagent Trog)
Tarp Hammelherd (Slaughterer)
Goom the Banderbear
Spooler (Oakelf)
Woodfish (Water Waif)
Wingnut Sleet (Fourthling)
Bogwitt (Flat-head Goblin)

Other famous Sky Pirate Ships include the Cloudbreaker, captained by the mighty Ice Fox, the fast sailing Maelstrom Seeker, the Windspinner, known for its uniquely powerful catapult, the Drifcleaver which was known for its powerful ram, the Fogscythe which was equipped with several curved blades, and the Thundercrusher, which boasted a huge wrecking ball.

Villains

Quint Trilogy Villains (in order of appearance)

Twig Trilogy Villains

Gloamgloazer
Slyvo Spleethe
Vilnix Pompolnius
Screed Toe-taker (Screedius Tollinix)
Thunderbolt Vulpoon

Rook Trilogy Villains

Vox Verlix
Orbix Xaxis
General Tytugg
Mother Muleclaw the Second
Amberfuce
Mother Muleclaw the Third
Hemuel Spume
Hemtuft Battleaxe
Goblin clan chiefs: Lytugg; Grossmother Nectarsweet; Rootrott Underbiter; Megmewl the Grey

Allies

Animals and plants of the Edge

One of the elements the series is known for is its interesting array of plant and animal life, described in such detail and accompanied by line drawings.

Works in the series

Here is a list of all of The Edge Chronicles so far in the chronological storyline order, with original date of publication. There will be eleven books in all.

The Quint Saga

File:Cotsgamerican.jpg

Clash of the Sky Galleons American cover

The Curse of the Gloamglozer (September, 2002). ISBN 0-552-54733-6
The Winter Knights (September, 2005). ISBN 0-385-60720-2
Clash of the Sky Galleons (October, 2006). ISBN 0-385-60721-0

The Twig Saga

Beyond the Deepwoods (October 1, 1998). ISBN 0-385-40967-2
Stormchaser (November, 1999). ISBN 0-385-60004-6
Midnight Over Sanctaphrax (September 3, 2001). ISBN 0-552-54675-5

The Rook Saga

The Last of the Sky Pirates (September 1, 2002). ISBN 0-385-60200-6
Vox (September, 2003). ISBN 0-385-60461-0
Freeglader (September 2, 2004). ISBN 0-385-60462-9

References

The Edge Chronicles Maps (September 2, 2004). ISBN 0-552-55125-2

The last book, The Immortals (TBD), will reunite all three main characters according to the authors. What they mean is obscure, as the three protagonists live in different ages and Quint had died in Midnight Over Sanctaphrax It is also believed that in the last book The Immortals (TBD) that we will find out what is actually below the edge and many more unanswered questions about the Edge and its characters and creatures.

Also see The Lost Barkscrolls - the latest book which is a combination of four stories including the two world book day books, Cloud Wolf and The Stone Pilot.

External links

Official Random House site
Official Random House United Kingdom site (note: contains books not yet released in the United States of America)
Edge Chronicles fansite
http://www.stewartandriddell.co.uk - covers all the series the pair have written together.