Citadel of Citadels—One of many epithets given to the Library of Sauglish in Far Antiquity.
City of Robes—One of many epithets given to ancient Sauglish.
Ciworal—The famed redoubt of Dagliash.
Cleansed Lands—A Kianene epithet for nations where Fanimry is predominant.
Cleric—See, Incariol.
Cmiral—The great temple complex of Momemn, located near the heart of the city, adjacent to the Kamposea Agora.
Coffers—The legendary treasury of the ancient Library of Sauglish.
Coithus, House—The ruling dynasty of Galeoth.
Cojirani ab Houk (4078—4112)—The Grandee of Mizrai, famed for his enormous strength and size, slain by Prince Nersei Proyas at the Battle of Caraskand.
College of Luthymae—The College of the Thousand Temples responsible for spying and intelligence, unique in that it answers directly to the Shriah, and notorious for recruiting those of the Few who do not practice sorcery. Not surprisingly, no Collegians are more despised or feared by Schoolmen.
College of Marucee—A College of the Thousand Temples destroyed in the Sack of Shimeh in 3845.
College of Sareöt—A College of the Thousand Temples dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, destroyed in the Fall of Shigek in 3933.
Colleges—Organizations of priests directly subordinate to the Thousand Temples, with mandates ranging from caring for the poor and sick to the collection of intelligence.
come after, to—For the Dûnyain, “to come after” means to be victimized by events over which one has no control. See Dûnyain.
come before, to—For the Dûnyain, “to come before” means to master the passage of events. See Dûnyain.
Commerce of Souls, The—Ajencis’s classic treatise on politics. For Ajencis, famously, market vendors are the best exemplars of politics, which he famously called “the obscure art of deriving two favours for one.” More alarmingly, he extols slavery as the truest expression of political governance—a provocation that many have used to dismiss him over the centuries. These critics entirely overlook the satirical nature of the text, which argues, in sooth, that exploitation and coercion belong to the very logic of the political. As he famously puts it, “the coin stands as close to the lash as to the bread,” revealing the “commerce of souls” as a network of substitutions, all mediated by currency, all bound into a single system. This is why, “there is always bounty, be it bread or lash.” Where harvests fail, wars succeed.
This argument remains a perilous one. Even granted the ancient rite of “Protection,” Ajencis had to fear for the well-being of his (apparently large) extended family, and like so many great intellects, took care to disguise his words with subtlety.
Compendium, The—Heretical treatise written by Drusas Achamian, one-time Holy Tutor of Anasûrimbor Kellhus, following his exile from the Three Seas in 4112. Much has been made of the fact that Anasûrimbor Kellhus exempted Drusas Achamian from Excision (removal from all records), especially following the appearance of The Compendium in 4119. The book itself was criminalized, but since Drusas Achamian yet retained the status of Holy Tutor in the scriptural canon, it amounted to a perpetual scandal, and so was doomed to be shared and copied across the Three Seas (and beyond). Some argue that the Blessed Empress, a former lover of the apostate Schoolman, was responsible, but such accounts merely explain Drusas Achamian’s exemption from execution, not his exemption from Excision. This has led others to suspect that Anasûrimbor Kellhus I saw some advantage in the covert dissemination of The Compendium. The apparent absurdity of the charges leveled by the former Mandate Schoolman, coupled with the repudiation of the standard demonizations of the Aspect-Emperor, the argument contends, likely had the effect of confusing the Fanim and Orthodox Inrithi opposition.
Concavity—The immense, spherical throne-room of the Nonman King of Ishterebinth excavated by Nil’giccas, who had the history of his Race and Mansion engraved upon the walls to compensate for the Dolour.
Cond—Ancient High Norsirai pastoralists inhabiting the Istyuli Plains. The Cond first enter recorded history in c. 350, as the antagonist in a series of wars (the First Cond Wars) fought by all the greater cities of the Aumris against their barbaric cousins to the east. The destruction of Sauglish would galvanize the remaining cities under the leadership of Ûmerau, as opposed to Trysë, thus laying the groundwork for the eventual rise of the Ûmeri Empire. The Second Cond Wars would see the Ûmeri humiliated, forced to pay tribute for an entire generation. Finally, in 917, under the leadership of Aulyanau the Conqueror, the Cond sacked Ûmerau and became masters of the River Aumris and the age often referred to as Pseudo-Ûmeri, given the degree to which the Cond were assimilated.
Condic—The language group of ancient pastoralists of the Near Istyuli Plains.
Conditioned, the—A term used to refer to the Dûnyain.
Conditioning, the—Specifically, the arduous physical, emotional, and intellectual training undergone by Dûnyain monks, though the term has more general and far-reaching connotations as well. The Dûnyain believe that everything is conditioned in some way, but they draw a principled distinction between the arbitrary conditioning of the world and the rational conditioning of Men. Conditioning in the light of the Logos, they believe, allows more such conditioning, which in turn leverages more such conditioning, and so on. This virtuous circle, they believe, finds its apotheosis in the Absolute: the Dûnyain believe that, using reason, they can condition themselves to the point of becoming unconditioned, a perfect, self-moving soul. See Dûnyain.
Cond Yoke—Name given to the age following the Condic overthrow of ancient Ûmerau.
Confluence—In Neuropuncture, the structures of the brain most closely bound to the soul.
Congregate—In the Nansurium, the body of government expressing the legislative will of the great families of Nansur. In its New Imperial incarnation, the body of government tasked with informing and advising the Holy Aspect-Emperor.
Conphas, Ikurei (4084— )—Man-of-the-Tusk, nephew of Emperor Ikurei Xerius III and heir apparent to the Imperial Mantle.
Conriya—A pre-eminent Ketyai nation of the eastern Three Seas, located south of Ce Tydonn and north of High Ainon, founded in 3374 (after the collapse of the Eastern Ceneian Empire) around Aöknyssus, the ancient capital of Shir. Of the four successor nations to the Shiradi Empire (Cengemis, Conriya, Ainon, and Sansor), none has worked so hard to reclaim and preserve its ancient traditions. Nowhere are the caste divisions more rigidly observed, and nowhere are the codes governing caste-noble behaviour more strict. Though many, particularly the Ainoni, scoff at what they consider the affectation of antique ways, there can be little doubt that the resulting social discipline has served the Conriyans well. Since gaining independence, Conriya has successfully weathered innumerable incursions, invasions, blockades, and embargoes, almost all of them due to the machinations of High Ainon.
Conriyan—The language of Conriya, a derivative of Sheyo-Kheremic.
Consult—Name given to the Unholy Triumvirate of Men, Nonmen, and Inchoroi intent upon exterminating all souls in a bid to save their own souls from eternal damnation. The sheer age of the cabal, let alone its devotion to secrecy, renders its origins murky. Though the Gnostic Schools of Sohonc and Mangaecca are referenced as Far Antique contemporaries, the Mangaecca is the older of the two schools, as well as the one possessing the deepest Nonman affiliations—affiliations which would prove instrumental to the School’s transformation into the Consult. Mandate scholars agree that Cet’ingira (Mekeritrig) revealed the location of the Ark to the Mangaecca at some point in the eighth century, seeking Mannish assistance in his mad attempt to gain entry into of the Incû-Holoinas. Nil’giccas had sealed the High (or Upright) Horn the age previous, first by heaping titanic amounts of debris upon impregnable soggomant from the inside, and then by commanding Emilidis to raise the Barricades across the only remaining portal high upon the heights. For centuries, the cunning of these impediments had denied
every attempt to surmount them, until the year 1111, when Shaeönanra finally managed to bring down the Barricades.
The Mangaecca raised Nogaral upon Viri soon after, pretending to plumb the destroyed Nonman Mansion while in fact plumbing the Upright Horn—the intact heart of the Incû-Holoinas. At some point in their exploration they discovered and awakened the Last Inchoroi, Aurax and Aurang, at which point Cet’ingira ceased being Siqu and Shaeönanra ceased being Grandmaster of the Mangaecca, and the Unholy Consult of the Halaroi, Cûnuroi, and Inchoroi was born, a pact between the most brilliant and fearsome souls of all three races, an oath to destroy the World.
Though most Mandate scholars suspect Consult involvement in the death of the celebrated Sohonc Grandmaster Titirga some time around 1119, one hundred and fifty years would pass before the nations of Men began to suffer their efforts. The calamity of the First Great Sranc War, for instance, was almost certainly due to their efforts to breed and control Sranc. But it was not until the Apocalypse that the Far Antique World would learn of the true danger they represented.
Corrunc—Infamous northern “Tower of Ûgorrior,” a great bastion of Golgotterath, cursed as the Eater-of-Sons in The Book of Generals.
“courage casts the longest shadow …”—Zeumi saying signifying how the courage of one man is also the shame of another.
Coyauri—The famed elite heavy cavalry of the Kianene Padirajah, first organized by Habal ab Sarouk in 3892 as a response to the Nansur Kidruhil. The White Horse on Yellow is their standard.
Croimas, Sristai (4082— )—Ordealman and Lord Palatine of Kethantei, the second born son of Sristai Ingiaban, Holy Veteran of the First Holy War.
Csokis—A derelict Inrithi temple complex located in Caraskand.
Cuärweth—A province of interior Ce Tydonn, located to the north of Meigeiri.
Cuäxaji (4069—4112)—The Sapatishah-Governor of Khemema, thought lost at Shimeh.
Cubit—Catch-all phrase for the myriad units of measure used throughout Eärwa, generally indicating a length from the tip of the finger to the elbow, but also notoriously problematic, as with the Near Antique translation of Nonman utils (literally translated, “ten”) into “cubits.” Even the Nonman “cubit proper,” or priror, is more than twice the length of a Mannish cubit, consisting, as it does, of the height of the waist from the floor.
Cu’huriol (?—?)—“White Burning” (Ihrimsû). King of Siol prior Arkfall, and grandfather of Cu’jara Cinmoi.
Cu’jara Cinmoi (?—?)—“White Shining Spear” (Ihrimsû). Issue of Cet’moyol and Linqirû, the scandalous son and daughter of Cu’huriol, King of Siol, who would raise the boy as his heir following the execution of his own children. Even as a young boy his beauty and charisma were legendary: “Perfection breathes,” a nameless scribe writes of him in the Isûphiryas, “and we must assure it never bleeds.” Ferocious in war, his renown only grew, reaching even those Mansions possessing little or no congress with Siol. The scandalous circumstances of his birth had merely anointed his legend, resonating, as it did, with the scriptural coupling of Tsonos and Olissis.
The death of Cu’huriol signalled the death of his popularity, and not simply because of the general hatred of Siol. As King of the House Primordial, Cu’jara Cinmoi quickly revealed an arrogance and ambition more characteristic of Men than Nonmen. The tenor of the Isûphiryas changes in the span of three cantos: “In him,” one entry reads, “verily, purity hath become perversion.” Across those Mansion Reaches bounding that of Siol, the blood of Ishroi began to flow. The King of Siol became the Tyrant. His name dominates the lays and records surviving from that period, such was his celebrity. Arkfall, and the catastrophes that ensued, would merely serve to make him tragic, if not reviled. (For an account of his role subsequent to Arkfall, see Cûno-Inchoroi Wars). He possessed, as one contemporary muses, “all Ishroi prized, all they called glory, only in proportions that cracked hearts and mountains.”
Cu’jara Cinmoi was doomed to be the darling of myth and legend, by his nature as much as by his circumstances. Though the wont of Mannish poets is to see him as the cipher for the Nonman more generally, it serves to remember that he is extraordinary precisely because he is unlike any other Nonmen (more recognizably human) living in the age of his Race’s destruction.
“Cû’jara Cinmoi is dead …”—Ancient Siqu saying roughly meaning, “Seize the day.”
Culling—Epithet given to the slaughter of Sranc worked daily by the Schools as the Horde retreated before the advance of the Great Ordeal.
Cultic Deities—See Hundred Gods, the.
Cultic Priests—Those priests, usually hereditary, devoted to the service and worship of one of the Hundred Gods.
Cults—The collective name of all the various sects devoted to the individual Gods of the so-called Kiünnat. In the Three Seas, the Cults have been administratively and spiritually subordinate to the Thousand Temples since Triamis I, the first Aspect-Emperor of Cenei, declared Inrithism the official state religion of the Ceneian Empire in 2505. See Kiünnat.
Cu’mimiral (?—4132)—Injori Ishroi called Dragon-gored and Lord Limper who stood among the last of the Intact in Ishterebinth.
Cumor, Haarnan (4043—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, High Cultist of Gilgaöl in the Holy War, claimed by disease at Caraskand.
Cûno-Halaroi Wars—The wars between Nonmen and Men following the Breaking of the Gates, of which very few accounts exist. See Breaking of the Gates.
Cûno-Inchoroi Wars—The protracted series of wars between the Nonmen and the Inchoroi following the ancient arrival of the latter.
According to the Isûphiryas, the Incû-Holoinas, the “Ark-of-the-Skies,” plunged to earth to the west of the Sea of Neleost in land ruled by Nin’janjin, the Nonman King of Viri. The letter sent by Nin’janjin to Cû’jara Cinmoi, the King of Siöl, is recorded as follows:
The Sky has cracked into potter’s shards,
Fire sweeps the compass of Heaven,
The beasts flee, their hearts maddened,
The trees fall, their backs broken.
Ash has shrouded all sun, choked all seed,
The Halaroi howl piteously at the Gates,
Dread Famine stalks my Mansion.
Brother Siöl, Viri begs your pardon.
Rather than send aid to Nin’janjin, Cû’jara Cinmoi assembled an army and invaded the lands of Viri. Nin’janjin and his Ishroi capitulated without battle; Viri became a bloodless tributary of Siöl. The western lands of Viri, however, remained shrouded in cloud and ash. Survivors from the region spoke of a fiery vessel streaking across the skies. So Cû’jara-Cinmoi commanded Ingalira, a hero of Siöl, to lead an expedition to find this Ark. What happened to Ingalira on this expedition is not recorded, but he returned to Siöl some three months later and presented two inhuman captives to Cû’jara Cinmoi. Ingalira called these captives Inchoroi, or “People of Emptiness,” both because the sounds they made were empty of meaning and because they fell from the emptiness of the sky. He spoke of flattened forests and gouged plains, of mountains thrown into a ring, and of two golden horns rearing from a molten sea, so mighty they brushed the clouds.
Repelled by the obscene aspect of the Inchoroi, Cû’jara Cinmoi had them put to death, and set a Watch upon the Incû-Holoinas, the Ark-of-the-Skies. Years passed, and the power of Cû’jara Cinmoi and the High Mansion of Siöl waxed. The Mansion of Nihrimsul was subdued, and her King, Sin’niroiha, “First Among Peoples,” was forced to wash the sword of Cû’jara Cinmoi. With the subsequent conquest of Cil-Aujas to the south, Siöl and her High King commanded an empire that ranged from the Yimaleti Mountains to the Sea of Meneanor.
During this time, the Watch was kept on the Ark. The land cooled. The skies cleared.
Either because of original inconsistencies or because of subsequent corruptions, extant versions of the Isûphiryas are unclear as to the subsequent order of events. At some point a secret embassy of Inchoroi reached Nin’janjin at Viri. Unlike the Inchoroi brought to Cû’jar
a Cinmoi by Ingalira, these possessed the ability to speak Ihrimsû. They reminded Nin’janjin of Cû’jara Cinmoi’s treachery in his time of need, and offered an alliance to break the yoke of Siöl over Viri. They would undo, the Inchoroi said, the misfortune their coming had wrought upon the Cûnuroi of Viri.
Despite the warnings of his Ishroi, Nin’janjin accepted the Inchoroi terms. Viri revolted. The Siölan Ishroi within its halls were slain; the rest were enslaved. At the same time, the Inchoroi swarmed from the Ark, overwhelming the Watch. Only Oirinas and his twin, Oirûnas, survived, riding hard to warn Cû’jara Cinmoi.
Sil, the Inchoroi King, and Nin’janjin assembled their hosts to meet Cû’jara Cinmoi on the fields of Pir-Pahal, which Men would call Eleneöt in a later age. According to the Isûphiryas, the Nonmen of Viri were dismayed by the sight of their allies, who wore fierce and festering bodies as garments of war. Gin’gûrima, the greatest hero among them, pointed to Nin’janjin and declared, “Hate has blinded him.” This treason within a treason was repeated by others, until it became a thundering chorus. Nin’janjin fled, seeking protection from Sil. The Inchoroi then turned upon their allies, hoping to destroy the host of Viri before Cû’jara Cinmoi and the great host of Siöl could close with them.
Overmatched by the Inchoroi and their weapons of light, the Nonmen of Viri were driven back, with horrendous losses. Only Cû’jara Cinmoi and his Ishroi Chariots saved them from utter destruction. The chroniclers of the Isûphiryas claim the battle raged through the night and into the following morning. Eventually, all but the most powerful of the Inchoroi were overwhelmed by the valour, sorceries, and numbers of the host of Siöl. Cû’jara-Cinmoi himself struck down Sil, and wrested from him his great weapon, Suörgil, “Shining Death,” which Men in a latter age would call the Heron Spear.
Much reduced, the Inchoroi fled back to their Ark, taking Nin’janjin with them. Cû’jara Cinmoi hunted them within sight of the Ring Mountains, but was forced to abandon his pursuit when word of further disasters reached him. Emboldened by Siöl’s distraction, Nihrimsul and Cil-Aujas had revolted.