Wights

Travelling around the Carpet are the nomadic Wights, who seem to be spiritually connected to the Carpet, "remembering" everything in their own life, including the future but they must follow the "thread" of their lives. As a result of this they are almost incapable of making a choice and dread the unknown. The Wights can work all elements of the Carpet: grit, sugar, bronze, varnish, wood, hairs and dust and incorporate these into their spiritual beliefs. They represent time in a series of Chay's, each represented by one of the above elements showing how the next period will be seen; such as the chay of Growth represented by Dust.

They are said to be the First people of the carpet, they travelled across the tiles to bring back fire and discovered the secrets of smelting varnish. They travel in groups of seven, twenty-one or fourty-nine (no one knows what happens to the extras) and are led by a master. They offer varnish smelting services to the locals but they are not considered part of the Dumii Empire, living apart from other tribes and not participating in the counting.

They wear dark (almost black with a crisscross pattern) robes with a deep hood. Very rarely a Wight is born who is a Thunorg.

It is interesting to note that, in the original 1971 edition of the book, Culaina is male and known as 'Culain'.

Named Whites

• The Master
• Neral The Kilnmaster
• Alham the Kilnmaster
• Derna
• Culaina - Thunorg
• Tarillion the Minemaster