The majority of Chimerae live in and around the White Waste, Haven’s largest desert and site of the world’s worst magical catastrophe. … Natural philosopher Marius Thane, who has risked his life to study the Couatl, believes that they await the hatching of the “Paragon”, a being that will lead them in the retaking of Ghost.

Haven dreamed herself. She dreamed herself in many forms. She dreamed her skies and oceans, mountains and valleys. She dreamed parts of herself with their own free will and their own dreams. In short, she dreamed her people…

It is within the ability of most educated people on Haven to learn the structure of Koro-go, the Korobokuru language, but about half their vocabulary is incomprehensible to non-Koro. Koro-go has words for colors beyond red, for combinations of magnetic field characteristics beyond just polarity and strength, and for complex emotional interactions. Conversely, the language has few ways to describe deliberate deception, such as lying, because it’s very difficult to do in Koro society.

“When I recovered from being nearly drowned and trampled by ghosts, there was one ghost left at my side, Uncle Beau. As I huddled with everyone else in the reeking SuperDome, he slowly told me about how the storm took out more than just the levees, but the magical wards that had kept all kinds of evil locked up in this town. Now that evil was running amok all over the South, and as his heir, it was my job to find those old monsters wherever they hid, bring them back…”