Cadderly the warrior-priest discovers a magical book whose secrets may help him to defeat the Chaos Curse once and for all Cadderly’s spiritual and moral wrestlings reach a crescendo upon his discovery of the mysterious Tome of Universal Harmony. While he is eager to defeat evil, his battles against the Chaos Curse have taken him far from his scholarly inventor’s life, and the magical book from his priestly order calls to him in ways he cannot fully comprehend. But adventure isn't finished with the young cleric yet. Cadderly and his friends face great danger from a sinister killer and the assassins of the Night Mask, all of whom lurk in the streets of the city of Carradoon. With the dreaded Chaos Curse still at large and new enemies at every turn, can Cadderly find both his faith and his warrior’s courage before it’s too late?

When her hometown is overtaken by a crime syndicate, the daughter of a disgraced Harper agent fights to free the local merchants from their underground overlords When Alias crosses swords with the underlings of the cunning, heartless lord of Westgate’s criminal guild—known only as the Faceless—he vows to destroy her. Accepting the challenge to rid Westgate of the maleficent Night Masks, Alias gathers old allies and new: the saurial paladin Dragonbait, the halfling Olive Ruskettle, the street performer Jamal, the sage Mintassan, and the charismatic Victor Dhostar, son of Westgate’s governing official. Yet even as Alias thwarts the nefarious efforts of the Night Masks, she becomes ever more entangled in the web woven by The Faceless—a web whose silken threads are spun from intrigue, political machinations, and murder. Masquerades is the tenth book in a series of loosely-connected novels about the Harpers.

The young people of the Cameroon Grassfields have been subject to a long history of violence and political marginalization. For centuries the main victims of the slave trade, they became prime targets for forced labor campaigns under a series of colonial rulers. Today’s youth remain at the bottom of the fiercely hierarchical and polarized societies of the Grassfields, and it is their response to centuries of exploitation that Nicolas Argenti takes up in this absorbing and original book. Beginning his study with a political analysis of youth in the Grassfields from the eighteenth century to the present, Argenti pays special attention to the repeated violent revolts staged by young victims of political oppression. He then combines this history with extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Oku chiefdom, discovering that the specter of past violence lives on in the masked dance performances that have earned intense devotion from today’s youth. Argenti contends that by evoking the imagery of past cataclysmic events, these masquerades allow young Oku men and women to address the inequities they face in their relations with elders and state authorities today.

When Kalen Dren and Myrin Darkdance investigate a friend's disappearance in Westgate, they find that all is not as it seems At long last Kalen “Shadowbane” Dren has given up a life of crime to join Myrin on a journey to the city of Westgate. But although Kalen is leaving his vigilante past behind, his high-stakes adventures are far from over—and there are enemies who still yearn to see him fall. Moreover, rumor has it that others have adopted his guise and now deal with violence on their own terms. The two adventurers leave Luskan for Westgate in search of Kalen's former apprentice, who they fear is dead. As the pair scours the city, seeking answers to Kalen's disappearance and to their own destinies, they find that the rumors about the vigilantes are true. But who are these wannabe "Shadowbanes" who wield the vaunted sword Vindicator? Myrin and Kalen have no idea that a game is being played in which they are only pawns.

This remarkable study explores the use of the visual and performing arts to promote nonviolence and social harmony in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on Gelede, a popular community festival of masquerade, dance, and song, held several times a year by the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. Babatunde Lawal, an art historian and African scholar who has taught in Nigeria, Brazil, and the United States, is himself a Yoruba and has taken an active part in Gelede. He writes from the perspective of an informed participant/observer of his own culture. Lawal bases his book on extensive field research--observations and interviews--conducted over more than two decades as well as on numerous published and unpublished scholarly sources. He casts significant new light on many previously obscure aspects of Gelede, and he demonstrates a useful methodological approach to the study of non-Western art. The book systematically covers the major aspects of the Gelede spectacle, presenting its cultural background and historical origins as preface to a vivid and detailed description of an actual performance. This is followed by a discussion of the iconography and aesthetics of costume, and an examination of the sculpted images on the masks. The book concludes with a discussion of the moral and aesthetic philosophy of Gelede and its responsiveness to technological and social change. The Gelede Spectacle is illustrated in color and black-and-white with over 100 field and museum photographs, including a rare sequence on the dressing of a masquerader. It offers, in addition, more than 60 Gelede song texts, proverbs, and divination verses, each in the original Yoruba as well as in translation. Lawal's interpretations of these pieces indicate the rich complexities of metaphor and analogy inherent in the Yoruba language and art.

In this book I tried to create a useful guide where you will find not only a list of face mask recipes, but also all the information you need to create your own.That’s right! No one can actually cover all the combinations, they are probably unlimited. Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to combine ingredients and make your own recipes? This is why I included two lists at the end of the book. The first one is a list of several skin problems and needs; at least the most common. Next to each skin issue, you will find some ingredients with the suitable properties. For example: Puffy eyes: cucumber, chamomile, avocado. This way, you can easily find what meets your special needs. Next, follows another list, which includes the ingredients that have been used in the recipes in this book. Next to each ingredient you will find some of their most beneficial nutrients, as well as how they benefit the skin; Easy, quick, economic and most of all: natural and safe! After all, could you apply on your face something safer than your food?