The Unholy Consult
Age of Warring Cities—The era following the dissolution of Kyraneas (c. 2158) until the rise of Cenei as a dominant power in 2349, characterized by perpetual warfare between the cities of the Kyranae Plain.
Aghurzoi—“Cut Tongue” (Ihrimsû). The language of the Sranc. It was long disputed among the Cûnuroi whether the Sranc could be said to possess any language at all given their lack of souls. Among those who had long, hard experience of the Sranc, their possession of language was a murderous fact. But Quya sages such as the venerated Yi’yariccas asked how Sranc words could mean given their lack of experience altogether. What could a language without meaning possibly be? The answer that eventually became dogma was that the Sranc tongue was a form of “Dark Speech,” speaking without consciousness of speaking, exchanging “Dark Meaning,” which, although nowhere allowing reflection, or choice of words, served the bestial requirements of the Sranc quite fine. Damial’isharin—a Siolan Ishroi who found himself trapped for five days (hidden in a dead fall) in the heart of an itinerant clan camp—famously claimed the Sranc possessed social customs and regimes very nearly as complicated as their own. Based on his account, several scholars (such as the famously heretical Lurijara) went so far as to argue that all language was dark, and that meaning was the province of the sorcerer and the Gods alone. Few lent credence to such extreme views, however.
Agmundr—A province of northeastern Galeoth, located beneath the Osthwai Mountains, south of Bayal.
Agnotum Market—The main bazaar of Iothiah, dating back to the days of Cenei.
agoglian bulls—Ancient Kyranean symbols of virility and fortune. The most famous examples are found in the Hagerna opposite the Vault-of-the-Tusk.
Agongorea—“Fields of Woe” (Kûniüric). The famed “Field Appalling” in the days of the Ancient North. The blasted lands to the west of the River Sursa and north of the Neleost Sea. Given extant Nonman accounts of Arkfall, most Three Seas scholars believe (as, indeed, their Far Antique counterparts believed) that Agongorea was an unnatural consequence of the debris thrown up by the impact of the Incû-Holoinas.
Agonic Collar—A sorcerous artifact of the Ancient North, reputedly crafted by the Mihtrûlic Gnostic School. According to Mandate scholars, the purpose of the Agonic Collar was analogous to that of the Uroborian Circle utilized by the Anagogic Schools of the Three Seas, namely, to inflict excruciating pain on the wearer should he attempt to utter any sorcerous incantation.
Agonies—The name for the Gnostic Cants of Torment, a reputed specialty of the Mangaecca.
Ainoni—The language of High Ainon, derived from Ham-Kheremic.
Ajencis (c. 1896—2000)—The father of syllogistic logic and algebra, held by many to be the greatest of all philosophers. Born in the Kyranean capital of Mehtsonc, he is reputed to have never once left his city, even during the horrific plagues of 1991, when his advanced age made his death a near certainty. (According to various sources, Ajencis bathed on a daily basis and refused to drink water drawn from city wells, claiming that these practices, combined with a distaste for drunkenness and a moderate diet, were the keys to his health.) Many commentators, both antique and contemporary, complain that there are as many Ajencises as there are readers of Ajencis. Though this is certainly true of his more speculative works (such as Theophysics or The First Analytic of Men), his work does possess a discernible and consistent skeptical core, primarily exemplified in The Third Analytic of Men, which also happens to be his most cynical work. For Ajencis, Men by and large “make their weaknesses, not reason or the world, the primary measure of what they hold true.” In fact, he observed that most individuals possess no criteria whatsoever for their beliefs. As a so-called critical philosopher, one might have supposed he would eventually share the fate of other critical philosophers, such as Porsa (the famed “Philosopher-Whore” of Trysë) or Kumhurat. Only his reputation and the structure of Kyranean society saved him from the vicissitudes of the mob. As a child, he was allegedly such a prodigy that the High King himself took notice of him, granting him what was called “Protection” at the unprecedented age of eight. Protection was an ancient and hallowed Kyranean institution; the Protected were those who could say anything without fear of reprisal, even to the High King. Ajencis continued speaking until he suffered a stroke and died at the venerable age of 103.
Ajokli—The God of thievery and deception. Also known as the Four-Horned Brother. Though listed among the primary Gods in The Chronicle of the Tusk, there is no true Cult of Ajokli, but rather an informal network of devotees scattered across the great cities of the Three Seas. The lack of any organizing institutions has transformed the Cult into the skulking, criminal embodiment of its skulking, criminal Master. The high priests of the Cult, insofar as it possesses any, are its Narindar, the most deadly of the most deadly assassins.
Ajokli is oft mentioned in the secondary scriptures of the different Cults, sometimes as a mischievous companion of the Gods, other times as a cruel or malicious competitor. In the Mar’eddat, he is the faithless husband of Gierra. In the Book of Gods he is nothing less than the dread enemy of mankind, the one God too hungry to remain in the Outside. In the Book of Hintarates he is the same, but depleted for his endless grasping, and so reduced to craft and insinuation. The fractured image presented in the scriptures is expressed in the sheer number of names used to reference him or his work: the Trickster, the Thief, the Four-Horned Brother, the Bald-faced, the Grinning God, Immortal Malice, the Prince of Hate, the Rake, among others.
Ajowai—A mountain fastness in the north Hinayati Mountains that serves as the administrative capital of Girgash.
akal—The defunct base monetary unit of Kian.
Akeokinoi—The fortress watchtowers the Nonmen raised upon certain peaks of the Occlusion during the Second Watch.
Akirapita, Shoddû (4099—4123)—Eldest son of Shoddû Rapita III, King of Nilnamesh, and perhaps the most brilliant and resourceful Orthodox general of the Unification Wars.
Akkeägni—he God of disease. Also known as the God of a Thousand Hands. Scholars have oft noted the irony that the Priesthood of Disease provides the primary repository of physicians for the Three Seas. How can one at once worship disease and war against it? According to the scriptures of the Cult, the Piranavas, Akkeägni is a so-called Bellicose God, one who favours those who strive against him over sycophants and worshippers.
Akksersia—A lost nation of the Ancient North. Though the White Norsirai of the north shore of the Cerish Sea lacked any sustained contact with the Nonmen, they gradually became the second great seat of Norsirai civilization. Akksersia was founded in 811 by Salaweärn I, following the dissolution of the Cond Yoke. Though originally confined to the city of Myclai, her commercial and administrative capital, the nation gradually extended its hegemony, first along the length of the River Tywanrae, then across the plains of Gâl and the entire north shore of the Cerish Sea. By the time of the First Great Sranc War in 1251, it was the largest of the ancient Norsirai nations, incorporating almost all the White Norsirai tribes save those of the Istyuli Plains. It fell to the No-God after three disastrous defeats in 2149. Akksersian colonists on the Cerish Sea’s heavily forested south shore would form the nucleus of what would become the Meörn Empire.
Akksersian—The lost language of ancient Akksersia, and “purest” of the Nirsodic tongues.
Akkunihor—A Scylvendi tribe of the central Steppe. As the tribe closest to the Imperial frontier, the Akkunihor are the traditional brokers of Three Seas rumour and knowledge among the Scylvendi.
Algari (4041—4111)—A body-slave to Prince Nersei Proyas.
Alimir—“Divider” (Ihrimsû). The legendary ensorcelled sword of the Kûniüric High-Kings, famed for possessing the Edge Peerless, and when wielded with skill, capable of halving mammoths. Lost at the Battle Eleneöt with Anasûrimbor Kelmomas in 2146.
Alkussi—A Scylvendi tribe of the central Steppe.
“All heaven cannot shine through a single crack …”—The famous li
ne attributed to the poet Protathis suggesting that no man can be trusted with divine revelation.
Allosian Forum—The great judicial galleries located at the foot of the Andiamine Heights.
Allosium Mandala—Famed Nilnameshi prayer-tapestry prominently displayed in the Allosium Forum, famed for being the first to incorporate concentric design motifs.
Am-Amidai—A large Kianene fortress located in the heart of the Atsushan Highlands, raised in 4054.
amicut—A ration used by Scylvendi warriors on the trail, consisting of wild herbs and berries beaten into dried sections of beef.
Amiolas—Sorcerous, face-encasing helm allowing the wearer to understand Ihrimsû, widely regarded as one of the most powerful Emilidic artifacts. Despite the miracles of sorcery, translation had (and has) remained stubbornly impervious to arcane facilitation. The genius of Emilidis was primarily metaphysical: he grasped the continuity of meaning and souls, how a sorcerous understanding of Ihrimsû entailed a sorcerous unification of disparate souls. Inventing new forms of sorcery as he proceeded, Emilidis imbued his helm with the soul of Immiriccas Cinialrig, the infamous Malcontent, an Injori Ishroi condemned to die by Cu’jara Cinmoi, and given the choice by Nil’giccas between risking the Hells or dwelling forever as an amputated, interpreting soul.
The Amiolas surfaces in human histories at several junctures, including protracted periods where Kings and Grandmasters refused to wear what the Umeri called the Embalming-Skull, and the Kûniüri, the Cauldron, fearing it to be a weapon (which it almost certainly became on occasion). According to Sohonc scholars, the Amiolas melted the contents of Immiriccas into the warmer waters of the wearer’s soul, creating a composite, a morass that would dry out for some, deepen for others. Ihrimsû would come effortlessly, only twisted in every respect about the hard fibre of the Malcontent, the architecture of his ancient old soul. Though no records exist of wearers admitting to what had to be a profound transformation of identity, Mandate scholars report that Seswatha forever regretted demanding it from Nil’giccas, even though the information it provided allowed him and Nau-Kayûti to steal the Heron Spear, and so save the World.
Ammegnotis—A city on the south bank of the River Sempis, raised during the Kyranean New Dynasty.
Amortanea—The merchant carrack that bore Achamian and Xinemus to Joktha.
Amoteu—A governorate of Kian, located on the southern edge of the Meneanor Sea. Like all the nations in the shadow of the Betmulla Mountains, Amoteu, or Holy Amoteu as it is sometimes called, grew in the influential shadow of Old Dynasty Shigek. According to extant inscriptions, the Shigeki referred to both Xerash and Amoteu as Hut-Jartha, the “Land of the Jarti,” or as Huti-Parota, the “Middle-Lands.” The Jarti were the dominant Ketyai tribe of the region, to which the Amoti and several others were tributaries before the Shigeki conquest. But with the extensive cultivation of the Shairizor Plains, and the slow rise of Shimeh and Kyudea along the River Jeshimal, the balance of power slowly shifted. For centuries the Middle-Lands found themselves the battleground between Shigek and her southern competitors, Eumarna across the Betmulla Mountains and ancient or Vapartic Nilnamesh. In 1322, Anzumarapata II, the Nilnameshi King of Invishi, crushed the Shigeki and, in an effort to secure his conquests, transplanted hundreds of thousands of indigent Nilnameshi on the Plains of Heshor, an act that would long outlive his brief empire (the Shigeki reconquered the Middle-Lands in 1349). With the collapse of Shigeki regional dominance in 1591, the Jarti attempted to reassert their ancestral control—with disastrous consequences. The resulting war gave rise to a brief Amoti Empire, which reached the length of the Betmulla to the frontier of the Carathay Desert. All the Middle-Lands would fall under the power of Kyraneas in 1703.
With the dissolution of Kyraneas, c. 2158, Amoteu enjoyed its second—and last—period of independence, though now the Xerashi, the descendants of Anzumarapata’s settlers, had become its primary competitors. This second “golden age” would witness Inri Sejenus, and the slow growth of the faith that would eventually come to dominate the Three Seas. After a brief period of Xerashi occupation, Amoteu would suffer a long succession of foreign overlords, each leaving its own stamp: first the Ceneians, who conquered the Middle-Lands in 2414, then the Nansur in 3574, and finally the Kianene in 3845. Despite the peace and prosperity enjoyed by other conquered provinces, the early years of Ceneian rule would prove particularly bloody for Amoteu. In 2458, while Triamis the Great was still in his infancy, Inrithi fanatics led the province in a vicious rebellion against Cenei. As punishment, Emperor Siaxas II butchered the inhabitants of Kyudea and razed the city to the ground.
Amoti—The language of Amoteu, a derivative of Mamati.
Amrezzer the Black (1753—1897)—Legendary Surartu Grandmaster responsible for securing the river fortress of Kiz in Far Antique Carythusal, c. 1800, called the “Black” for his propensity to burn down the homes of those opposed to him.
Anagkë—The Goddess of fortune. Also known as “the Whore of Fate.” Anagkë is one of the primary “Compensatory Gods,” which is to say, one who rewards devotion in life with paradise in the afterlife. Her Cult is extremely popular in the Three Seas, especially among the higher, political castes.
Anagogis—A branch of sorcery that turns on the resonances between meanings and concrete things.
In Kellian metaphysics, there is the meaning that is being, the meaning that is your angle upon the world, and then there is the meaning that inflects being, merely. This latter we know as everyday writing and speech, whereas the former is the province of sorcery and religion. To be a soul is to be at once an angle on the world and to be the world, but one small angle that existence possesses on existence—on itself. The so-called Many, given their blindness to being, cannot close the circuit of thought and being. The Few can see the onta, however, and so can, given the proper rigour and training, close the circuit of thought and being, work what appear to be miracles. As it turns out, there are two quite different ways of deriving being from thought, one analogical (as with the Anagogis and the Iswazi) and the other inferential (as with the Gnosis and Metagnosis). So where the Gnosis deals directly with abstract forces, the Anagogis deals with substances embodying those forces. The Anagogis is, once again deferring to Kellian metaphysical parlance, a phenomenological sorcerous art, relying on the densities of experiential meaning as described to drive the manifestations. The Gnosis, by contrast, is a formal sorcerous art. Both rely on the same intellectual gymnastics (essentially, speaking and thinking different yet intricately interrelated things simultaneously), but they draw their semantic force very different sources, much as poetry and mathematics do.
Throughout history, the Scarlet Spires has consistently been the most innovative of the Anagogic Schools, which is why a good fraction of the Anagogic Canon is derived from their research, Cants such as the infamous Dragonhead or Houlari Twin-Tempests.
Analogies—An alternate name for Anagogic sorceries.
Anasûrimbor Dynasty—The ruling dynasty of Kûniüri from 1408 to 2147. See Apocalypse.
Anaxophus V (2109—2156)—The Kyranean High King who wielded the Heron Spear against the No-God at Mengedda in 2155.
ancestor scroll—A scroll kept by most pious Inrithi, bearing the names of all the dead ancestors who might intercede on their behalf. Since the Inrithi believe that honour and glory in life brings power in the afterlife, they are particularly proud of renowned ancestors and ashamed of known sinners.
Ancient North—The name given to the Norsirai civilization destroyed in the Apocalypse.
Ancilline Gate—One of the so-called Lesser Gates of Momemn, located to the immediate south of the Girgallic Gate.
Andiamine Heights—The primary residence and principal administrative seat of Nansur Emperors, located on the seaward walls of Momemn.
Anfirig, Thagawain (4057—4114)—Man-of-the-Tusk, and the Galeoth Earl of Gesindal.
Angeshraël (?—?)—The most famed Old Prophet of the Tusk, responsible for leadin
g the Five Tribes of Men into Eärwa. Also known as the Burnt Prophet for bowing his face into his fire after confronting Husyelt at the foot of Mount Eshki. His wife was Esmenet.
Angka—The ancient Norsirai name for Zeüm.
animas—The “moving force” of all existence, typically analogized as the “breath of God.” Much ink has been spilt over the question of the relation between animas, which is primarily a theological concept, and the sorcerous concept of “onta.” Most scholars are of the opinion that the latter is simply a secular version of the former.
Anissi (c. 4089—4113)—The favourite wife of Cnaiür urs Skiötha.
Ankaryotis—A demon of the Outside, one of the more manageable Potents controlled by the Scarlet Spires.
Ankharlus—A famed Kûniüric commentator and high priest of Gilgaöl.
Ankirioth—A province of south central Conriya.
Ankmuri—The lost language of ancient Angka.
Ankulakai—The mountain on the southern limit of the Demua that cradles the city of Atrithau.
Anmergal, Skinede (4078—4112)—Man-of-the-Tusk. A Tydonni thane, slain at the Battle of Tertae Fields.
Annals of Cenei, The—The classic treatise of Casidas, covering the history of Cenei and the Ceneian Empire from the Imperial City’s legendary foundation in 809 to the time of Casidas’s death in 3142.
Annand—A province of north central Conriya, known primarily for its silver and iron mines. “All the silver in Annand” is a common Three Seas expression, meaning “pricelessness.”
Anochirwa—“Horns Reaching” (Kûniüric) An early mannish name for Golgotterath.
Anphairas, Ikurei—See Ikurei Anphairas I.
Anplei—The second-largest city in Conriya after Aöknyssus.
anpoi—A traditional drink throughout the Three Seas, made of fermented peach nectar.
Ansacer ab Salajka (4072—4116)—The Sapatishah-Governor of Gedea. The Black Gazelle is his totem.