Open continuity notes

Places where the Book 2 drafts or outline don't yet match Book 1, plus decisions still open. None of these are resolved; the drafts are shown as written.

Clashes with Book 1

1. Where Book 2 opens
Ch1
Book 2: Ch1 reopens in Millbrook, the morning after the battle, with Depthspire's doors at the edge of town.
Book 1 canon: Book 1 ends days later, on the road north past the Boundary Bridge — "Book Two begins at the gate."
2. Aslin vs Aldric
Ch1–4, outline
Book 2: Aslin, a battlefield surgeon who joins after the Millbrook battle.
Book 1 canon: Book 1's Millbrook surgeon is Aldric, who walks on with the party. Aslin looks like Aldric renamed; Aldric is never mentioned in Book 2.
3. Puddle and Jasper written as strangers
Ch1
Book 2: Both arrive as new faces; Puddle says he doesn't know any of the party.
Book 1 canon: They met the party in Book 1 Ch8 (the Copper Ladle), where Jasper set a rendezvous.
4. Serana in the dungeon
Outline Ch4–5, supplementary outline Ch12
Book 2: The outline gives Serana roles in Ch4–5 (anchoring zones, reversing petrification) and refers to "her god".
Book 1 canon: Serana is not in the Book 2 party — she left for the east in Book 1 Ch10 — and her deity is a goddess.
5. Thornik's direction
Supplementary outline Ch12
Book 2: Thornik is sent east.
Book 1 canon: In Book 1 Thornik went north (the northern road home to Deepstone Hold).
6. Caelin's scale becomes an "ember shard"
Ch3–4
Book 2: In Ch3–4 it is an ember shard hanging against his sternum/chest.
Book 1 canon: The dragon's scale is bound into Caelin's right forearm (Ch1–2 of Book 2 still match this).
7. Vex's injury drifts
Ch3–4
Book 2: Vex favours an injured leg ("her good leg", Ch3; "her injured leg from Book 1's final act", Ch4).
Book 1 canon: Her Book 1 injury is her ribs.
8. Depthspire's age
Ch1, Ch3, Ch4, outline
Book 2: Three hundred years (Ch1), a three-thousand-year-old dungeon (Ch3), prisoners of 412 and ~400 years (Ch4), three centuries (outline).
Book 1 canon: Book 1's epilogue says the prison had worked for eighty years.
9. Durgan called an assassin
Outline
Book 2: The outline calls Durgan an assassin.
Book 1 canon: Canon says soldier ("soldier of a fallen empire").
10. Chapter 4 title
Ch4
Book 2: The Ch4 draft is titled "The Void Husks".
Book 1 canon: The outline titles Ch4 "The Forgotten Ones" ("The Void Husks" is its Act II).

Open decisions

Aslin's fate
Survives intact / seriously wounded but lives / dies saving Durgan / becomes a semi-permanent series medic.
Aethelcrag's end
Destroyed / freed from the Seal's corruption and dies at peace / recurring spectral intelligence / transfers his essence into Durgan. The current outline uses "freed and dies at peace".
Order of the three paths
The outline runs Shadow → Stone → the vault approach, but notes this is flexible.
Thane's coalition
Do they survive the collapse and reach the surface? Scholar and Brick could become recurring characters.
Jasper's profile and the Jasper/Puddle material
Jasper's profile still to settle, along with the Ch8 / Act III material for Jasper and Puddle.
Background-character interludes
Where the four interludes go. Proposed: Elowen after Ch3, Thornik after Ch5, Serana after Ch8, Nyxara after Ch10. None are written.