Badlands: range of rough hills in Badlands District, Fan Zirlyn Province. They rise about three thousand feet above the plain to the north of them; in the south they merge with the Twisted Lands. There are many volcanic features in this area, including active small volcanoes, lava flows (the Bisai Lava is the largest), and hot springs. Pink garnets and lina-mai stone are mined in this province. The hills are grown with scrubby oaks, and badlands razorbacks range them.

Bay of Itril: a long narrow section of the Trier Sea which lies west the Skaithvarn Peninsula and east of Lirith Kai. The mouth of the Bay of Itril is more or less opposite Dal Shang City.

Bechoto: a wild pig of the jungle, unusual for the spines or quills along its backbone.

Beggars' Guild: an organization or group of organizations found in all cities and most fair-sized towns of Lirith Kai. The Guild claims that it organizes the beggars, casual laborers, and outcastes in a given area and prevents them making a nuisance of themselves while insuring that each receives at least enough to live on. It is assumed by many that the Beggars' Guild is merely a polite name for a group of thieves, muggers, and the like, a few of whom moonlight as literal beggars to give it an appearance of honesty; it is also assumed by these people that there is only one Beggars' Guild in the country, and it simply has branches all over. Careful research has indicated that in fact the Beggars' Guilds of the different cities and towns are autonomous, though they are aware of and friendly to each other (usually). While some may be the organization of muggers and thieves suggested above, and others composed purely of genuine beggars, most are somewhere in the middle ground; the degree of overall honesty represented by any particular Guild is usually an extension of the honesty of the person or people who controls the Guild in question. Honest beggars or not, the Beggars' Guild has an on-going love/hate relationship with the Thieves' Guild: they are rivals for control of their cities' underworld (usually) but also allies at need.

Beldrio: a minor god or demigod, probably of Drahnoran origin. He still gets some attention today, as his interest in mischief and (unfortunately) petty thievery and trickery appeals to many.

Bell-Fruit: a rare fruit said to bring visions to those strong in hiu. This small blue fruit is about the size of a cherry and grows on a slim tree in areas that are cool, shady, and damp. The scent of the flowers, which are a rosy pink and about two inches across, has been known to cause hallucinations; an incense called tibella and a drug known as blue kiro are distilled from the flowers. Even chewing the fresh bark may have hallucinogenic or vision-inducing effects, but it always causes severe nausea. Botanists say that the tree does not flower every year or fruit after every flowering and that it may be mistaken for a common wild cherry tree when not in flower or fruit. It has never been successfully cultivated and is found only in the high forests of the northern Blue Hills.

Bell River: a fairly important small river (maybe 100 miles long) which reaches the Trier Sea at Dal Shang, named for an ancient set of holy bells in a temple at its source in the Blue Hills.

Bensamin: a former tribal kingdom in the Naowei now incorporated into Dansho-Riba Province. Also called Samanhai. It is also the tribal name for a Lubanese tribe of Samanhai District, Dansho-Riba Province.

Bisai Lava: a young and dangerous lava flow in eastern Badlands District, Fan Zirlyn Province. There are hot springs (some of them poisonous) in the lava, and it is considered a likely location for finding lina-mai stone and pink garnets. Most people who enter the lava fail to emerge from it, and popular rumor claims that it is the home to fearsome monsters.

Bisata: a derogatory term applied to a casteless person who accepts and embraces that state; the word means a "drunk" and implies that the person so described is so casteless and without responsibilities of his own will, a ne'er-do-well. Regardless of any evidence as to their relative sobriety, professional beggars are called bisata. It is a common assumption that a bisata will be dishonest, given the chance. At times the term, in its primary meaning of one who seeks out intoxication, is applied to those who have a caste standing; it is always a term of disapproval and could be said to imply that the person so named is headed for outcaste status.

Black Bear Society: a well-known teva society.

Black Bull: or Black Bull of Hrako, the representative of the Bull God of Pelang.

Blackhorn: a breed of wild cattle, very large, fast and fearless, which is found around the edges of the Twisted Lands. The colors of the beasts are varied, but the horns are always black, long, and very sharp. Blackhorns are hunted, and every year one or more hunters who have miscalculated are killed by them; horses are killed by them even more frequently. Besides being valued as trophies, the horns are sought by apothecaries for use in various preparations.

Black Horses of Kanrao: another name for the Kanrao Horses.

Blackrock Hills: the volcanic region of the Blackrock District in Fan Zirlyn Province. It includes such geothermal features as geysers, hot springs, and boiling mudholes, and there are some small active volcanoes here. A few prospectors bring out blood red garnets from this area, but most who go in do not come out at all.

Black Rose Society: a well-known teva society.

Blackthorn Hills: the very rough hills that lie at the north end of the World's Edge, connecting it with the Twisted Lands. They partake of the nature of the Twisted Lands, being much tumbled about by earth movements and volcanic activity; they are covered with a somewhat patchy forest of dark and thorny trees, wholly inhospitable and having no reliable economic value. If there are ores in these hills, no one has prospected for them, and attempts to use the trees as firewood (a valuable commodity on the treeless Palenian Steppe) has merely resulted in making people sick--they apparently give off unwholesome fumes as they burn. Predators such as darkwolves and stonelions are said to lair here, feeding on such game as may lurk in the forest or coming out onto the plain to raid the herds of the Harinzans.

Bloodbats: a species of "vampire" bat found in Naowei on the far southwestern border of the Empire; they suck blood and may spread disease but are not an "unnatural" creature. They are about the size of a house cat in the body with a wingspan of six to ten feet; not strong fliers, they climb trees making use of their clawed limbs and glide a lot.

Blue Coast Stage Line: runs north and south from Dal Shang along the coast of the Trier Sea; in Dal Shang it stops at the Gatehouse Inn.

Blue Crystal Throne: the seat of the Duelmaster of Dal Shang which is in the arena just opposite the seat reserved for the Lord Governor of the province; the Blue Crystal Throne and the Lord Governor's seat have the best views.

Blue Hills: a range of low mountains on the southwest coast of the Trier Sea, in Dal Shang Province. They are old, worn mountains of folded sedimentary rock (limestone, sandstone, and shale) with some volcanic intrusions which have produced deposits of blue marble. The range is entirely forested with a mixed hardwoods and evergreens. Caves are common, and there are many streams. Although the western face of the mountains descends fairly gently, the eastern side, on the Trier Coast, is generally precipitous. Most of the rivers flowing east to the Trier Sea end in waterfalls plunging to the beach. The highest peaks are in the northern part of Dal Shang Province (there are higher ones yet farther north beyond the imperial border, but they are geologically younger); they rise some four to five thousand feet above the level of the Trier Sea to their main ridge line. In the south, though lower, they are more rugged due to extensive volcanic invasion.

Blue Hills Highway: local name for the Great Western Road, which see.

Blue Kiro: a drug distilled from the flowers of the bell fruit tree which is found in the Blue Hills. In normal doses, blue kiro causes hallucinations; an overdose may lead to delirium and death. It is little used because the difficulty of locating and distilling the flowers (the very scent of the unprocessed flowers may cause hallucination in the susceptible) makes it expensive.

Blue Ridge Road: the forest trail that runs more or less along the crest of the Blue Hills; suitable for two horses abreast for most of the way but not for wagons. (not on map)

Blue Wind: a ship of the Crystal Sea Packet Group which sails from the Crystal Harbor Inn, Dal Shang.

Bol'San Porcelain: characterized by and valued for the purity of its colors and the simplicity of its forms. It is much sought by collectors, though there is little of it still around (the Bol'San Dynasty was about two thousand years ago). Most existing pieces are small--bowls, jars, covered boxes, and the like--and of pale solid colors. The "clouded" pieces, the ones having mottled colors, are especially valuable, and it is said that some collectors would kill for one of the rare plates, especially if it should be of the rarest "firecloud" color, a blood-red mottled with gray and black.

Bolsan-So: the eleventh month of the year, equivalent to November. In common speech it is called Bolso. It is named after the Bol'San Dynasty.

Bolso: common name for the eleventh month. See Bolsan-So.

Bon'ki Nai: member of an unorthodox contemplative sect or cult, a monk. The term is almost never applied to an orthodox contemplative and would be considered insulting if so used.

Bon'Tinis: an herb found growing in the Jade Panther Hills. Its root is processed to make a drug called tinima which causes hallucinations.

Bon'zhang: a "teacher," a leader or fairly important member of an unorthodox religious cult or sect. A bon'zhang is normally regarded with unease by more orthodox people and is frequently suspected of encouraging or even teaching the practice of magic.

Border Legion: the troops raised and supported by the Imperial government and assigned to duty on the borders. They are considered to be an elite, much more so than the Provincials.