This page provides information on the characters, places and culture that appear in A Pale Box on the Distant Shore, which is a prequel novella in PJ Nwosu’s Red Kingdom series.

Characters

Honnan Skyin

Honnan is a soldier who works at Polity House in Death City. He was born a dust-caste slave in the capital City of Pillars, but was brought to the Frontier and then set free by his former owner Viceroy Bearin. Honnan is loyal to the viceroy.

Viceroy Bearin

In charge of the entire Thousand Island Frontier, Viceroy Bearin is responsible for representing the Red King’s interests across his assigned polity. He lives in the local Polity House, which is located on Death City Island, and he is in charge of many local soldiers who rule the nearby Death City and surrounding areas. He is originally from the capital City of Pillars and is only temporarily assigned to Death City to fulfil his term as viceroy.

Llewellyn

An assistant working for Scholar-Assistant Poplarin at the Death City Polity House. Although she is a woman and former dust-caste slave, Llewellyn has still managed to gain a position at Polity House. This would be highly unusual on the mainland, but on Death City Island the rules are less strict.

Soldier Carpin

Carpin is a local Death City man who works as a soldier at Polity House on the island.

Scholar-Assistant Poplarin

Poplarin works as a scholar-assistant for Viceroy Bearin at Polity House on Death City Island. He manages reports, organisation and generally assists the viceroy with the day to day running of Polity House and the surrounding region. He is a local man.

Honnan’s Grandnannie

An old woman who used to previously be a Dust-Caste slave in City of Pillars. She was owned by Viceroy Bearin until he set her free. Now she makes her own way in Death City, most likely by involving herself with illegal trading.

Noam Treein

A dead bone-miner.

Bone-Miner

A friend of Noam Treein who works on the death giant corpse off the coast of Death City.

Waterin Clan’s Daughter

The Waterin Clan is a powerful and rich merchant family that operate on Death City Island. They style themselves after the elite Sun-Nobles of the mainland, with riches and fashion to match, though really they are of a much lower caste. The Waterins have one grown up daughter.

Waterin Clan’s Mistress

The Mistress of the Waterin tower and the mother of the Waterin Clan’s daughter.

Paloma Birchin

A Death City woman.

Sun-Master Jolyen Sandin

A member of the Sun-Noble caste, Jolyen Sandin is the richest and most powerful man in Death City and has many connections to the elite sun-nobles in the capital of City of Pillars.

Sun-Mistress Shea Sandin

Shea is a young woman of the Sun-Noble caste and lives in Death City. She is the only daughter of Jolyen Sandin.

Roles and jobs

Viceroys

The Red Kingdom is divided into regions called polities and each of these polities is assigned a viceroy to oversee it. A viceroy is the representative of the government and king across that polity. Viceroys are assigned to their polity for a term of service, which they must fulfil. They must be of the Sun-Noble caste. They spend their term as viceroy operating out of their assigned region’s local Polity House. There are many viceroys and Polity Houses across the Red Kingdom.

Scholar-Assistants

Trained in numbers, writing and administration, Scholar-Assistants are aids to those in power. They come from the Moon-Caste rank.

Purge Officers

Operating out of Purge House, which is located in the capital City of Pillars, Purge Officers ensure that the citizens across the Red Kingdom obey the Red Reform laws in all aspects of their lives. Often, the punishment for deviation is death by pyre burning. Purge Officers are like soldiers of the Red Reform. They come from the Moon-Caste rank.

Red Hunters

Another word for Purge Officers, as used by the lower castes.

Crimson Warriors

Crimson Warriors are the elite warriors who run Purge House in the capital City of Pillars. They must sacrifice much to be raised to this high rank, including the loss of their tongue. Mostly, these warriors are Sun-Nobles, though it is possible to be from the Moon-Caste rank also.

Dust-Hunters

Warriors who are tasked with tracking down and recapturing runaway Dust-Caste slaves. These warriors are from the Moon-Caste status group.

Gold Women

Women who work at the many Gold Houses, or entertainment establishments, across the Red Kingdom. It is stated in the Red Reform that gold women must always be masked and painted gold in public to ensure citizens know their profession. These women are from the Dust-Caste group.

Practitioners of the Crooked Beat

A dangerous job outlawed in the Red Reform laws and hunted down by Purge House, practitioners of the crooked beat are women who have the ability to touch the crooked beat. Although almost wiped out of major cities like City of Pillars, practitioners still gather and work in more rural and isolated communities. They offer curse-work and services to citizens who can pay the price, though often also work as mid-wives, medicine women and apothecaries as well.

Bone-Miners

Bone-Miners are exclusive to the Thousand Island Frontier, where a death giant corpse lies just offshore of Death City Island. The red bones of the death giant, and its black heart, are coveted resources, and although it is a dangerous job and many Bone-Miners die, the return is high. Bone-Miners wear the shaggy white pelts of a near-mythic beast, now extinct, with the coats often passed down in each family. As Death City is less strict than the mainland, Bone-Miners can be women or men of any status.

Blubber-Farmers

In Death City, every two years there is an event called the Bloody Harvest. During this time, an enormous number of whales drive themselves onto the island’s shores to die. Many citizens make their living from farming the blubber, bones and other materials from these corpses.

Politic Men

Those Sun-Nobles who work in politics at the Red Palace.

Places

Red Kingdom

After the original name of the land was stolen by the burning Eleventh Daughter during her sacrifice, the land was renamed The Red Kingdom.

City of Pillars

The capital city of the Red Kingdom, and where all the Red Palace and all of the State Organ Houses are located for centralised governance.

The Thousand Island Frontier

The furthest southern borders of the Red Kingdom’s land is called the Thousand Island Frontier. It is a frozen, wild and isolated region of relic bridges and rusted gun towers from ages past. It is the wildest polity in the Red Kingdom.

Death City

Death City is the biggest metropolis within the Thousand Island Frontier and is located on Death City Island. It is a mysterious and superstitious place, and has the Red Kingdom’s only death giant corpse lying half-submerged in the ocean offshore. One half of the remaining bones of the Eleventh Daughter are entombed in a great pyramid in the island’s bay, and it is said her presence is why the island experiences the strange phenomena of the Bloody Harvest every two years.

Ruling Structure

Red Palace

Where the Red King and his Red Family reside, including his five prince sons. The palace is located in City of Pillars. It has always been the strongest force in the kingdom, though lately, with the shift of power toward Purge House, the Red Palace’s control over the land is waning.

Purge House

One of the State Organ Houses, and the most powerful one at that, Purge House is responsible for punishing citizens who do not live in line with the Red Reform laws. They hunt practitioners of the crooked beat, burn forbidden books and set nightly pyres in the great plaza of City of Pillars. Purge House is located in City of Pillars.

Polity Houses

The land is divided into polities and each polity assigned a viceroy to oversee it. The viceroy will complete their term of service operating out of the local Polity House. They are responsible for managing all affairs of their region and also for collecting taxes from the citizens, to be delivered to the Red Palace.

Caste System

Dust-Caste

Slaves. This caste is hereditary. There are both private and state-owned slaves.

Moon-Caste

Free citizens.

Sun-Nobles

The Red Kingdom’s elite and powerful clans.

Superstition and Beliefs

The Crooked Beat

Forbidden by the Red Reform laws, the crooked beat is a mysterious and little understood power that manifests in many women across the Red Kingdom.

Truth of Death

Truth of Death is a book written during the Hundred Year Fall by a priest of the old gods whose name has been stolen. He wrote the book after rejecting all gods, and is now known as the Philosopher. His book of teaching about life and death became the bedrock for the Red Reform laws, and it is the only remaining unburned book. The words ‘What’s dead is dead and all shall die‘ are taken from the original Truth of Death book and uttered by everyone across the Red Kingdom. In some rural parts of the kingdom there are variations to the way these words are used and also their meaning to the citizens.

Death gods

During the Hundred Year Fall, death giants suddenly rose from the sea with the first occurrence of an inverted moon. The death giants walked over the land, killing citizens beneath their feet. After the sacrifice of the Eleven Daughters, the death giants returned to the sea and are now only witnessed on hollow nights when the inverted moon rises. They no longer venture onto land. In more rural and superstitious parts of the kingdom, they are worshipped as gods.

The Daughters

At the end of the Hundred Year Fall, when death giants roamed the land for one hundred years, the eldest daughter of the king visited a church-tower in Moontown to pray. An accident occurred and a passing death giant wreaked enough destruction that the tower was set alight and the eldest daughter of the king burned. Her father was filled with grief and raised a pyramid tomb where she had died. Soon though, citizens noticed that the death giants no longer walked on the land surrounding the pyramid. The king the sacrificed each of his eleven daughters by burning and built pyramid tombs for them across the land. The sacrifices ensured that the death giants returned to the sea and never again stepped foot on land.

The Eleventh Daughter

The youngest daughter of the king, the Eleventh Daughter, was the final sacrifice by burning. As she died she cursed the kingdom using the mysterious crooked beat. She stole all the names. Her own. Her sisters. The names of gods and towns and citizens. These lost names are called relic-names. Purge House and the Red Reform forbid any citizens to speak of the Eleventh Daughter, but in rural areas she is worshipped as a god.

Pyramid Tombs

Thirteen desert-glass pyramid tombs are spread across the Red Kingdom, protecting the land from death giants and keeping the monsters off the shore. These pyramids belong to the eleven Daughters, though the Eleventh Daughter’s remains were split in two and places in Death City and Bird Fortress. The king of that time is entombed in a great pyramid in City of Pillars. He died of grief. Or so the legends say.

The Red Reform laws

Here are a list of some Red Reform laws:

• Fear death or do not fear death. It comes for you. Individual achievement and triumph are transitory. What’s dead is dead and all shall die. Your children shall die. Only the Red Kingdom is lasting. Citizens must obey this teaching.

• Citizens are forbidden from securing the services of a practitioner of the crooked beat. Punishment is death by pyre burning for both client and practitioner.

• Citizens are forbidden to worship. All gods are false. Punishment is death by pyre burning.

• Citizens are forbidden to speak of the youngest Daughter. Punishment is death by pyre burning.

• In death, all are equal. Live modestly, morally, let go of greed or ambition, for nothing of life matters after death. Citizens must live only for the Red King and the Red Kingdom. Citizens must obey this teaching.

• What’s dead is dead and all shall die. Gaze with affection on brother, father, son yet remember all are mortal and all must end. All that matters is the Red King and the Red Kingdom. Citizens must obey this teaching.

• Citizens are forbidden to touch the crooked beat. Punishment is death by pyre burning.

• Dust-Caste status cannot be altered except under the following circumstances: by special decree of the Red King; if the slave’s worth is paid to an agreeing private owner; if a lawbreaker’s conviction, which had resulted in an individual being lowered to Dust-Caste status, is revoked.

• The Red Kingdom owes citizens nothing. Citizens owe all to the Red Kingdom. Citizens must obey this teaching.