Dictionary Definition
slaughterer n : a person who slaughters or
dresses meat for market [syn: butcher]
User Contributed Dictionary
Related terms
Translations
a person who slaughters
- German: Schlächter
a butcher
- German: Schlächter
Extensive Definition
The Edge Chronicles is a children's
fantasy
novel series by Paul
Stewart and Chris
Riddell. Originally published in the United
Kingdom, the series has since been published in the United
States as well.
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
- 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
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.
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 'The Freeglades'), 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.Western 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 unload 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 where young
scholars are trained to be knight academics. 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 Sanctaphrax who become catapult workers,swordsmen and
a host of other positions that are required for the academics at
arms to guard Sanctaphrax. 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
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 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 , 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 ; he creates the Gloamgloazer. See Gloamgloazer.
GENERATION II
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.
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
falls in love with Quint during these adventures and kisses him
near the end of
Clash of the Sky Galleons. She eventually joins Quint on his
adventures after her father's death, and bears a son, Twig.
GENERATION III
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 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 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 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 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 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 three
(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 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 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
The 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
- Pies.Gobble
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.See also
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.
slaughterer in German:
Klippenland-Chroniken
slaughterer in French: Chroniques du bout du
monde
slaughterer in Hebrew: קורות קצעולם
slaughterer in Japanese: 崖の国物語
slaughterer in Russian: Воздушные пираты (серия
книг)