The Nightmen

The Nightmen

Physical Description

• A foot or two taller than the average Rislandian, with broader shoulders and greater muscle mass; bred for pure strength, much stronger than humans
• Dark blue skin, taking on a blue-brown color in some individuals; darkens when angry; described as strange and blue by surface-world observers
• Small sharp tusks protruding from the lower jaw
• Long, sharp, contorted fingernails
• Eyes that glow like beacons in the dark and sparkle in shade or darkness; described in The Iron Wedding as bright white eyes with red pupils; their senses have adapted to darker environments
• Dark-colored blood
• Larger, stronger, and faster than humans
• Described as calculating, sinister, and eager to satiate their bloodlust

Spoiler: The Steam Knight 2Click to reveal

Society

The Nightmen are the dominant people of their underground cavern cities, built inside hollowed-out dormant volcanoes. Their society is organized around raiding, slavery, and arena combat. They did not value human life, thinking of humans only as tools.

Government: The Nightmen are governed by a council of councilmen. They also employ commandants as military officers. Rhys, a human, served as one such councilman before defecting to Rislandia.

Language: The Nightmen have a language of their own, though they can speak the common tongue; not all of them necessarily do.

Economy and Subsistence: The Nightmen cannot produce much of their own food beyond mushrooms and fungus. They rely on raids of surface villages to obtain food and labor. Miners among them expand the cavern and obtain stone and lighter metals. The Nightmen also practice organized farming; Rhys observed their farm management methods during his time among them, and later based his anti-serum distribution system on those same methods.

Arena Culture: Arena battles to the death are held as cherished festivities and rewards for the people. In The Blood of Giants, James Gentry fought in the Nightmen Arena and killed the arena champion Takala. The Nightmen maintained an arena on Zenwey where they kept slaves.

Raiding Culture: Warriors, called raiders, venture out into the blasted lands and surface jungles to bring back spoils, villagers, and slaves. They are described as treating humans without any semblance of humanity. Their tactics involved swooping down on bat-gliders to create confusion and then capturing slaves.

Population: Estimated at approximately 500,000 across multiple cities.

Mythology: The Nightmen's own legends hold that they are descended from a giant and a human princess who ran away together. Surface-world sources identify these figures as Takala and the High Maiden. Surface-world peoples describe the Nightmen in children's tales as demons, mages, witches, and trolls. They are also described in some sources as descendants of the same giants found underground on the Wyranth continent.

Homeland

The Nightmen's primary known city is located inside a hollowed-out dormant volcano, accessible via bat-gliders flying in and out of the cavern. They also operate throughout jungles on the surface during raids. Their homeland region is associated with Zenwey and the broader Zenwey continent. In The Blood of Giants, the transport vessel used during the attack on the Liliana was destroyed when lava from the volcano struck it.

Military

• Curved blades: Carried for hand-to-hand combat; one warrior was noted to carry two curved blades.

• Electric staffs: Carried by guards within the city.
• Strength-enhancing serums: Used in battle. (See also Giant's Blood Serum.)

The Nightmen have an upper hand in grappling due to their size and strength, but in The Blood of Giants they were noted as not being accustomed to opponents adept at aerial combat, and fell back when confronted by the Liliana's full force.

Technology

The Nightmen have preserved more giant knowledge than any other people. Their technological achievements include:

• Bat-gliders for steam-powered aerial assault and raiding, with wings that flap mechanically in a stilted manner
• Large troop-transport bat-gliders
• Crystal-powered weapons and crystal magic
• Electric staffs used by guards
• Strength-enhancing serums
• Mechanical catapults

Spoiler: The Steam Knight 2Click to reveal

• Advanced understanding of ancient giant technology

Spoiler: The Crystal ConspiracyClick to reveal

• Organized farm management systems, the methods of which were later adapted by Rhys for Rislandian counter-serum distribution

Spoiler: The Steam Knight 2Click to reveal

For a more detailed treatment, see Nightmen Technology.

The Invasion of Areth

The Nightmen launched a continental-scale invasion of Areth, landing forces along both Rislandian and Wyranth coasts. Their stated goal was the enslavement of all humans on the continent. They sent an ultimatum: "Surrender or face the wrath of a thousand suns." In The Blood of Giants, Zaira, having read her father's logs, reflected that in the ten years since his expedition the Nightmen may have spread further across the continent, and they may be the threat from the north referenced in the father's logs.

It was later established that the Nightmen would not have known about Rislandia and Wyranth if not for Zaira von Monocle's expedition to Zenwey.

Following the attack on Carnait Cove in The Iron Wedding, captured Nightmen prisoners were smug and stated that the assault had been only a scouting expedition, warning that a much larger Nightmen invasion was yet to come and that it would only be a matter of time before all humans would be enslaved.

Events in The Blood of Giants

In The Blood of Giants, the Nightmen attacked a village on the Zenwey coast using bat-gliders, chasing away the Baron's crew to gain easier access to the villagers. Their foot soldiers pursued the group through the jungle but lost interest after several minutes.

Later, Nightmen forces operated a transport vessel and bat-gliders in an assault on the Liliana. Soldiers performed land jumps from the transport onto the Liliana's deck, engaging the crew in hand-to-hand combat. The transport was ultimately destroyed by lava from the volcano. Both bat-glider pilots were shot and their craft drifted away.

During the escape from the Nightmen City, a group of approximately twenty warriors returned from a raid and pursued the group in the hangar and on the runway. Nightmen flooded onto the arena floor armed when the theft of a glider was announced, and a line of riflemen fired on the glider inside the arena. One Nightman gripped the bottom of the craft and pushed inside, kicking James Gentry in the head. Nightmen also pursued the group in bat-gliders through the tunnel.

James Gentry fought and killed the arena champion Takala during the events at the Nightmen city.

Events in The Fight for Rislandia

In The Fight for Rislandia, the Nightmen were referenced as a foreign and enemy-aligned power. Rhys, who had formerly been a powerful councilman among them, had left to live in Rislandia. During a rooftop confrontation, Zaira von Monocle recalled the Nightmen's explosive bags and wished she had access to them; she had not yet reported the existence of these weapons to her father.

Rhys also revealed that his system for distributing the Counter-Serum was modeled on methods he had observed the Nightmen use to manage their farms, demonstrating that Nightmen agricultural organization had a direct influence on Rislandian military planning.

Events in The Iron Wedding

In The Iron Wedding, the Nightmen were identified as a known threat by Zaira von Monocle, who had previously encountered them during an expedition to Zenwey and had written a report about them that her father read. Zaira had also previously been held in the Nightmen's slave quarters, an experience she compared to captivity in the Wyranth dungeons.

During the wedding ceremony at Carnait Cove, Nightmen forces arrived on bat-gliders and in transport ships. Zaira recognized them immediately and warned everyone to evacuate. The attacking force numbered five hundred in total. They dropped explosive bags from their gliders during the assault. Their landed vehicles collapsed when the ground gave way. Zaira used the earth crystal against the attackers, killing approximately 150 of them.

Nightmen prisoners taken after the battle were defiant, declaring that the assault had been only a scouting expedition and warning of a far larger invasion to come, stating it would only be a matter of time before all humans would be enslaved.

Events in The Steam Knight

In The Steam Knight, the Nightmen were referenced as a people from the Zenwey continent. James Gentry had previously encountered them on the Zenwey continent. They were described as strange and blue, and their bat-gliders were specifically identified as steam-powered.

Key Figures

Spoiler: The Crystal ConspiracyClick to reveal

• Takala: Arena champion of the Nightmen, descended from the legendary giant of the same name; killed by James Gentry in the arena.
• Rhys: A human who served as a powerful councilman on the Nightmen city council before defecting to Rislandia. Rhys also practiced a science he called genetics, using it to extrapolate and recreate ancient creatures from fossilized bones. His knowledge of Nightmen farm management later informed Rislandian counter-serum distribution strategy.

In the short stories

In Island of the Fae, Theodore's crew have "all personally encountered the Nightmen of Zenwey". The Rislandian Timeline dates the story to the 3rd Year, earlier than the Zenwey expedition.

In City Duty, Nightmen are described as "strange blue-skinned men from halfway across the world", landing on Rislandia's western coasts, with ships rumoured in the bay north of Traveler's Rest. A red-eyed Nightman assassin with a dagger creeps along the palace roof to kill Queen Reina, hissing, "Your people are weak. They will all become our slaves." James Gentry burns him with a jetpack, and he falls to the courtyard.

In A History of Rislandia

According to A History of Rislandia, the Nightmen are treated as a major historical and ongoing threat to all human civilizations on Areth, discussed in the context of the Malaky Dynasty's later reigns and the broader geopolitical situation facing Rislandia and the Wyranth Empire.

Origins and Nature

According to A History of Rislandia, the Nightmen are descended from interbreeding between ancient Giants and humans, making them the people carrying the strongest giant heritage of any living folk on Areth. The sourcebook describes them as looking like men who are half-beasts — larger and stronger than humans, with blue-tinted skin, prominent tusks, and a muscular build. Their eyes glow faintly in darkness. The sourcebook gives their average height as 6–7 feet tall and states that their lifespan exceeds 100 years — details not established in the novels.

The sourcebook also refers to them by the alias "Savages of Zenwey", a name not used in the novels.

According to A History of Rislandia, the Baron's crew did not know the Nightmen were called "Nightmen" at the time of their first encounter — the name was given to them later (consistent with the novels' account that Seeva provided the name).

Cities and Society

According to A History of Rislandia, the Nightmen inhabit multiple underground cities across the Zenwey continent, built inside dormant volcanoes, cave systems, and hollowed-out mountains. The largest known city is located inside a dormant volcano in northern Zenwey — the sourcebook specifies the northern location, which the novels do not. Their cities are governed by city councils composed of the strongest warriors and shamans. Primary industries include mining, crystal technology, slave labor, and military production.

The sourcebook describes the Nightmen as living in a brutal hierarchy based on strength, with a warrior elite class and shamans who wield crystal magic. They believe themselves to be the rightful rulers of the world.

The Invasion and Its Wider Impact

According to A History of Rislandia, the Nightmen invasion is treated as a defining event of the later Malaky Dynasty, with Queen Reina I currently facing their invasion while simultaneously rebuilding from the Wyranth wars. The sourcebook frames the Rislandia–Wyranth alliance against the Nightmen in Years 493–494 as unprecedented cooperation between ancient enemies.

Spoiler: The Steam Knight 2Click to reveal

The sourcebook describes the Nightmen threat as posing an existential risk: if they were to win, the result would be post-apocalyptic survival scenarios for the peoples of Areth. Their defeat is noted as a possible future story direction.

According to A History of Rislandia, the Nightmen invasion has had wide geopolitical consequences beyond Rislandia and Wyranth:

Juiyan's Betrayal

According to A History of Rislandia, Juiyan betrayed the crew of the Liliana to the Nightmen in Year 19, after which the Nightmen captured the crew and sold them to different masters. This is consistent with the novels but the sourcebook provides the specific year of the betrayal (Year 19).