The Kharankui

Their cousins in the north will at least hear your offer. These ones were never interested in the conversation.

Maeve's Black Watch and her former ladies-in-waiting, holding the mountains of the Southern Continent — and the Wyrdgate behind them.

The split

Same stock, opposite job

Both populations are Kharankui and both are Valg, and that is where the resemblance stops. The Ruhnn spiders spin the finest thread in Erilea and will negotiate for it at length, in complete sentences, with terms. The Southern Continent Kharankui produce nothing, sell nothing, and have no interest in what you brought. They were Maeve's ladies-in-waiting once — which tells you something about what service to her does over a long enough span — and now they are her Black Watch. The northern spiders take twenty years off a merchant. These ones take the merchant.

What they are standing on

A door, not a border

This is why they matter far past their own pages. The Kharankui keep a Wyrdgate — one of the openings between worlds that the Wyrdkeys were made to command, the same class of door the Valg came through in the first place. Erilea has very few places where somewhere else is genuinely a step away rather than a story told about the old wars, and one of them has spiders on it. Maeve did not post her own former attendants on a mountain in the south for the scenery. Whatever is on the other side, she wants it unopened by anybody but her — and she has never once explained why.

The road nobody takes twice

The practical version

For everyone living on the Southern Continent this is not cosmology, it is a route. There is a way through those mountains and it is faster, and it is also the way people do not come back from. The khaganate's riders know the passes to avoid. The caravans go the long way and consider the extra weeks cheap. A guard post at the edge of the world only looks mythic from a distance; up close it is a stretch of road with a reputation, and everyone sensible has quietly agreed to let it keep it.

Who they answer to

The gate and its queen

Swipe to meet them all

Maeve A Valg queen in a Fae face. They were her ladies-in-waiting first, and her Black Watch after.MaeveTheir queenEnter Maeve →

The Wyrdgate The door between worlds they were posted on — and the reason they matter beyond their own mountain.The WyrdgateWhat they guardEnter The Wyrdgate →

The Stygian Spiders Same Valg stock, in the Ruhnn Mountains, spinning silk and taking twenty years off merchants for it.The Stygian SpidersTheir northern kinEnter The Stygian Spiders →

The Southern Continent The mountains they hold, and the road every caravan has agreed to go around.The Southern ContinentTheir groundEnter The Southern Continent →

The Wyrdkeys The three keys that open and close the gates. The gate is only a wall until someone holds these.The WyrdkeysWhat commands their doorEnter The Wyrdkeys →

What they hold

The post

Not treasure. A door, and the authority to keep it shut.

The WyrdgateA door between worlds, in the mountains of the Southern Continent, with Maeve's spiders sitting on it.Maeve's writThey guard it for her and for nobody else. Whatever she is keeping on the far side of it, she has never said.The empty loomNo silk, no webs strung for trade, no terms offered. The absence is the whole character.

Wielding all three

The File

What they are: Valg, like the Stygian spiders — the same stock, a different assignment
Were: Maeve's ladies-in-waiting, before they were her Black Watch
Where: The mountains of the Southern Continent
What they guard: A Wyrdgate — a door out of this world entirely
For whom: Maeve, and no one else
Trade: None. They spin no silk and strike no bargains
Method: Devour first. The questions were never necessary

If they got under your skin

Kindred

Other things standing between somebody and a door.

The Stygian Spiders The kin who will at least talk to you first — for a price you cannot earn back.

We're Caffeine and Curses. The Library started as my design research — I can't put Aelin on a shirt without knowing which hand holds Goldryn — so we keep the notes here where everyone can use them. The pages are fan-made, not official; the licensed designs are in the shop.

Officially licensed