Nifadas: 'Lether was born of colonists who came here from the First Empire. That First Empire was then destroyed, the paradise razed to lifeless desert. Yet it was the First Empire in which the Holds were first discovered.

Mappo: 'At the lowest levels of this temple (the Tesem Temple of Shadow) there lies a chamber. Its floor - flagstones - displays a series of carvings. Inscribing something like a Deck of Dragons. Neither Icarium nor I have seen anything like it before. If it is indeed a Deck, it's an Elder version.  Not Houses, but Holds, the forces more elemental, more raw and primitive.'(DG, UK MMPB, p.455)