The Unholy Consult
Sketti Empire—Norsirai empire arising from the collapse of the White Cond in Myclai in 1097, extending along the northern coasts of the Cerish Sea.
Skilura II (3619—68)—Also called “the Mad.” The most cruel of the Surmante Emperors of Nansur, whose deranged antics led to the Granary Revolts of 3668 and the accession of Surmante Xatantius I to the Mantle.
Skin Eaters—Famed company of Scalpers.
Skinny—Scalper argot for Sranc.
Skiötha urs Hannut (4038—79)—The father of Cnaiür urs Skiötha, and former Chieftain of the Utemot.
Skogma—An ancient Wracu thought destroyed during the Cûno-Inchoroi Wars.
Skûlsirai—“Shield-People” (Aorsic). Common epithet used by the Aorsi to describe themselves.
Skuthula the Black—An ancient Wracu spawned during the Cûno-Inchoroi Wars, one of the few Dragons known to have survived the Apocalypse, though his present whereabouts are unknown. Widely thought to have inspired the Nonman use of “Snakes” to refer to the species given his elongated form and serpentine movement.
Skûtiri—Name of the nine-hundred and ninety-nine ensorcelled plates of bronze girding the stoneworks of the Turret, the great citadel of the Library of Sauglish, in Far Antiquity.
Skûtsa the Elder (4053—4129)—Girgallic Priest from Sorweel’s childhood.
Sky-Beneath-the-Mountain—Name of the iron platforms that famously gird the downward face of the Ilculcû Rift in Ishterebinth. See Hanging Citadels. Also referred to as the “Sky-Beneath.”
Slave Laws—Canon of Imperial decrees laid out by Anasûrimbor Kellhus in 4124 extending a variety of legal and religious protections to slaves. Subsequently repealed by Anasûrimbor Esmenet in 4132 in an attempt to control the Great Yatwerian Sedition.
Slog—Scalper slang for expeditions against the Sranc.
Slough, the—Sickness suffered by those too near the Scalding of Dagliash, characterized by convulsions, hair loss, anal or oral expulsion of blood, severe ulceration, and blindness—all symptoms suffered by the Nonmen at the beginning of their ancient wars with the Inchoroi, according to some deepest verses in the Isûphiryas:
The Vile hath called the very Starving down upon the Bone of the Land, mountains of fire cast upon our Eight Holy Mountains, breaking into black vapour that delivers woe unto our Slaves, who clutch themselves wailing, breaking red blood, holding fast their falling skin.
Snakeheads—An Inrithi epithet for the Cishaurim.
Sobel—An abandoned province north of Atrithau.
Sodhoras, Nersei (4072—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Conriyan Baron and cousin of Prince Nersei Proyas.
soggomant—Name (possessing no known origin) of the gold-hued, but otherwise impenetrable, metal used to construct the Incû-Holoinas.
Soggomantic Gate—See Minror.
Sogian Way—A Nansur coastal road first constructed in the age of Kyraneas.
Soholn—Ancient road constructed by Nanor-Ukkerja I that once ran from Trysë to the province of Ûnosiri.
Sohonc—Premier ancient Gnostic Schools, proprietor of the Library of Sauglish.
Solitary God—“Allonara Yulah” (Kianni). The name used by Fanim to denote the transcendent singularity of their supreme deity. According to Fanim tradition, the God is not, as the Inrithi claim, immanent in existence, nor is He manifold in the way described by the Latter Prophet. The transcendental nature of Yulah is the primary reason Inrithi theologians dismiss Fanim apologia as mere hokum. If God is set apart from Creation, they argue, then God is merely a moment in a larger, unexplained system. Pokariti mystical traditions, however, hold that Yulah is an infinite function, that transcendental divinity possesses no being, and thus moots the “Mereology Problem.” Yulah is the force that makes all things happen. Inrithi critics reply by simply asking how functions are not parts of a greater whole. The problem with Fanimry, they contend, is the inability to countenance the fact that the God of Gods can be unconscious. This perpetually strands them with a partial concept of deity, and therefore countless questions they have no means of answering. The Pokariti mystical tradition generally responds by demonstrating the way various Inrithi critiques actually presuppose the transcendental functions of Yulah, which they require as necessary conditions of coherence.
Somarae—Archive containing the accumulated accounts and studies of Seswatha’s Dreams in Atyersus.
Sompas, Biaxi (4068— )—Man-of-the-Tusk, general of the Kidruhil following the death of General Numemarius in Nagogris. Sompas is the eldest son of Biaxi Coronsas, Patridomos of House Biaxi.
Song-cage—Legendary Iswazi artifact able to imprison souls.
Song-of-Iswa—Iswazi counterpart of an Anagogic Cant.
Song of the Violet Ishroi—Also known as “Song of the Bloody Ishroi.” A Cûnûroi epic verse work (in the Illessa tradition, no less) of unknown origin, purporting to relate the life of Cu’jara Cinmoi in his voice.
Soptet, Rash (4088–)—Ordealman, Palatine-Governor of Shigek, General of the Shigeki contingent of the Great Ordeal of Anasûrimbor Kellhus, referred to as “Lord of the Sempis,” for his successes against the Fanim during the Unification Wars.
Sorainas (3808–95)—A celebrated Nansur scriptural commentator, and author of The Book of Circles and Spirals.
Soramipur—One the greater cities of western Nilnamesh.
sorcerer of rank—Though practices differ extensively between Schools, generally the title given to a sorcerer who is qualified to teach sorcery to another.
Sorcerers of the Sun—A common epithet for the Imperial Saik. See Saik.
sorcery—The practice of making the world conform to language, as opposed to philosophy, the practice of making language conform to the world. Despite the tremendous amount of apparently unresolvable controversy surrounding sorcery, there are several salient features that seem universal to its practice. First, practitioners must be able to apprehend the “onta,” which is to say, they must possess the innate ability to see, as Protathis puts it, “Creation as created.” Second, sorcery also seems to involve a universal commitment to what Gotagga calls “semantic hygiene.” Sorcery requires precise meanings. This is why incantations are always spoken in a non-native tongue: to prevent the semantic transformation of crucial terms due to the vagaries of daily usage. This also explains the extraordinary “double-think” structure of sorcery, the fact that all incantations require the sorcerer to say and think two separate things simultaneously. The spoken segment of an incantation (what is often called the “utteral string”) must have its meaning “fixed” or focussed with a silent segment (what is often called the “inutteral string”) that is simultaneously thought. Apparently the thought incantation sharpens the meaning of the spoken incantation the way the words of one man may be used to clarify the words of another. (This gives rise to the famous “semantic regress problem”: how can the inutteral string, which admits different interpretations, serve to fix the proper interpretation of the utteral string?) Though there are as many metaphysical interpretations of this structure as there are sorcerous Schools, the result in each case is the same: the world, which is otherwise utterly indifferent to the words of Men, listens, and sorcerous transformations of reality result.
With great power, however, comes grave consequences. Given these perspectival revisions of being are necessarily incomplete, they constitute desecrations of being, and so appear as the aesthetic violation called the Mark, while heaping damnation on the sorcerer responsible. In this sense, sorcery could be said to be, in the immortal words of Zarathinius, “Hell’s most toilsome and tedious route.”
Soroptic—The lost language of ancient Shigek, a derivative of Kemkaric.
Soter, Nurbanu (4069–)—Ordealman, Believer-King of High Ainon, leader of the Ainoni contingent in the Great Ordeal of Anasûrimbor Kellhus. Originally Palatine of the Ainoni district of Kishyat when he joined the First Holy War, but made “King-Regent” of High Ainon as reward for his role in the Unification Wars. Renowned for his pragmatic brut
ality.
“[The] soul that encounters Him passes no further.”—A line from The Sagas referring to the Battleplain and the belief that all those who perish there remain trapped.
Southern Columns—Those divisions of the Imperial Nansur Army stationed on the Kianene frontier.
Southron Gates—The series of passes through the Unaras Spur guarded by Asgilioch.
Spiderface—Scalper argot for skin-spies.
Sranc—The violent, inhuman creatures first created by the Inchoroi as instruments of war against the Nonmen. They are the weakest, yet most numerous of the accursed Weapon Races. The chroniclers of the Isûphiryas write:
And they forged counterfeits from our frame, creatures vile and obscene who hungered only for violent congress. These beasts they loosed upon the land, where they multiplied, no matter how fierce the Ishroi who hunted them. And soon Men clamoured at our gates, begging sanctuary, for they could not contend with the creatures. ‘They wear your face,’ the penitents cried. ‘This calamity is your issue.’ But we were wroth, and turned them away, saying, ‘These are not our Sons. And you are not our Brothers.’
The motivations of the Sranc seem to be as base as possible, in that they seem to find sexual gratification in acts of violence. There are innumerable accounts of the indiscriminate rape of men, women, children, and even corpses. They seem to know nothing of mercy or honour, and though they do take prisoners, very few are known to have survived captivity, which is said to be savage beyond imagining.
They reproduce rapidly. Though no outward physical differences are readily visible, female Sranc seem to have roles identical to those of male Sranc. Apparently, a great number of Sranc in various stages of pregnancy were observed in battle over the course of the Apocalypse. Though generally inferior to Men in individual combat, they are ideal logistically, as they are able to live for sustained periods on little more than grubs and insects. Survivors recount tales of vast tracts of ground overturned and rooted by passing Sranc hordes. Under the command of the No-God they are utterly fearless, and seem to strike with unerring control and coordination.
Typically, Sranc stand no higher than the average caste-menial’s shoulder. Their skin is devoid of pigment, and despite the refined—to the point of repulsiveness—beauty of their faces, their physiognomy is bestial (though hairless), with pinched shoulders and deep, almond-shaped breasts. They are exceedingly fast across both open and broken terrain, and their sheer viciousness is said to compensate for their slight stature.
Mandate scholars are prone to make dire warnings about the present numbers of Sranc in Eärwa. Apparently the ancient Norsirai had reduced the Sranc, pressing them to the margins of Eärwa, and the No-God was still able to summon hosts that reportedly blackened the horizon. Now Sranc dominate half the continent.
Sranc Pits—The famed gladiatorial arena of Carythusal, where human slaves are typically pitted against Sranc. Though often likened to an inverted ziggurat, the tiers of the pit are so precariously arranged that spectators must rope and hook themselves to avoid tumbling to the killing floor. The spectacle of thousands hanging out over the carnage of the killing floor (or the “Purple Coin”), combined with several other curious customs (such as urinating in zurigants to cast upon the combatants below), has rendered the Sranc-Pits famous throughout the Three Seas, as well as a common literary figure.
Stajanas II (2338—2395)—The famed “Philosopher-Emperor” of Cenei, whose Ruminations has remained an important work in the Three Seas literary canon.
Stalker, the—A common epithet for Husyelt.
Starving—Alternate translation of the Nonman (Ihrimsû) “tilis,” or “sky.”
Steppe, the—See Jiünati Steppe.
Stone Hags—Renegade scalper company notorious for attacking other companies.
Stump—Campsite frequented by scalpers passing through the Mop, consisting of a series of platforms raised across an enormous felled tree.
Subis—A once-fortified oasis in Khemema, frequented by caravans passing between Shigek and Eumarna.
Sudica—A province of the Nansur Empire, largely depopulated by 4111 but among the wealthiest districts of the Kyranae Plain during the ages of Kyraneas and the Ceneian Empire.
“suffer not a whore to live …”—The passage from Canticles 19:9, The Chronicle of the Tusk, condemning prostitution.
Sûjara-nin (?— )—Injori Ishroi, a Dispossessed Son of Siol, famed for his exploits in the Three Seas, where he was known as the “Red Ghoul” given the crimson of his famous, ensorcelled armour, the Immaculate Rim.
Sumajil ut Hest (4093— )—Ordealman, Kianene Grandee of Mitirabis.
Summer Stair—See Insirinis.
summoning horns—The great horns of bronze used to signal the “prayer watches” to the Inrithi faithful.
Sumna—The site of the Tusk and the holiest city of Inrithism, located in Nansur.
Suönirsi—Trading entrepot on the frontier of ancient Sheneor.
Suortagal (c. 1300—c. 1360)—Sauglian author of the Epimeditations.
Surmante, House—A former Nansur House of the Congregate, and the Empire’s ruling dynasty from 3619 to 3941.
Surmantic Gates—The great northern gate of Carythusal, whose construction was financed in 3639 by Surmante Xatantius I to commemorate the ill-fated Treaty of Kutapileth, a short-lived military pact between Nansur and High Ainon.
Sursa River—The river system that once formed the crucial frontier between Agongorea and Aörsi before the Apocalypse, and often referred to as the Harsunc, or “Fish Knife,” in Bardic literature.
Suskara—A vast region of broken plains and highlands between Atrithau and the Jiünati Steppe, inhabited by numerous tribes of Sranc, some of which are tributary to the so-called Sranc King of Urskugog.
Sûthaugi—“Earthsnake” (Ûmeri). Ancient Kûniüric epithet for Dragons.
suthenti—The menial castes. See castes.
Sutis Sutadra—See Skauras ab Nalajan.
Swa River—The river that forms the northern frontier of Ce Tydonn.
Swaranûl—“Oath Tower” (Ûmeri). Isolated hill in the ancient Kûniüri province of Akirsuäl, crowned by the ruins of the Hiolis, a shrine commemorating the legendary and likely mythical Alotting, where the Gods allegedly apportioned lands to the different Chieftains of the High Norsirai tribes.
Swarjuka (4061—4112)—The Sapatishah-Governor of Jurisada.
Swayal Sisterhood—The first School of Witches, based in the fortress-complex of Orovelai in Holy Amoteu. Named after Swayal, the famed maiden who rebuked the amorous advances of Gilgaöl and was condemned to live all eternity as a Golden Swan. The New Covenant declared by Anasûrimbor Kellhus in 4114 was widely thought to include two major revisions to traditional Inrithi dogma, the Rehabilitation of Sorcery, rescinding all Shrial and Tusk condemnations of sorcerous activity, and the Manumission of the Feminine, rescinding all traditional restrictions of female conduct. Several scholars have noted (with approval, in some cases) that for all the fundamental transformations wrought by the first, the latter possessed only a nominal effect on the lives of women in the New Empire—with the notable exception of the caste-nobility (because of the expansion of property rights) and most famously, witches. According to rumour, agents of the Aspect-Emperor had already begun recruiting witches in anticipation of the New Covenant. Their successes were only marginal at first: the horror of every mother was to discover her daughter possessed the Gift of the Few, and the practice of concealing the identities of those engaging in witchcraft was arguably as old as the Tusk’s condemnation of sorcery. Only when the first of the Swayali themselves began recruiting that their numbers began to swell. Within ten years, the last of the male Mandati teachers at Orovelai were sent back to Atyersus, and the Sisterhood became independent of all save Imperial concerns. By the time of the Great Ordeal, the Swayali Sisterhood was easily the match of any other Major School in the Three Seas, including the Mandate, whom they outnumbered almost two to one.
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nbsp; Though officially dedicated to teaching and researching the Gnosis, the Sisterhood is also committed to the preservation of the myriad “folk sorceries” developed by generations of witches across the Three Seas.
swazond—The ceremonial scars used by Scylvendi warriors to denote foes slain in battle, believed by some to be markers of stolen strength.
Swazond Standard—The name given to Cnaiür’s banner at the Battle of Anwurat.
Sweki River—“The Sacred” (Kianni). The so-called “miracle river,” revered as holy by the Kianene, who claim that its waters arise from nothing by the will of the Solitary God. Before the first Jihads, Nansur cartographers made several attempts to locate its headwaters in the Great Salt, none of them successful.
Synodine—Chamber on the Andiamine Heights housing the Imperial Synod.
Synthese—Artifacts of the Inchoroi Tekne, thought to be living “shells” specifically designed to house the souls of senior Consult figures.
syurtpiütha—A Scylvendi euphemism for life, meaning “the smoke-that-moves.”
T
talent—The base monetary unit of the Nansur Empire prior to the Zaudunyani conquest.
Tamiznai—A fortified oasis two days south of the River Sempis, frequented by caravans.
Tarpellas, Biaxi (4101— )—Ordealman, Patridomos of House Biaxi, General of the Nansur contingent of the Great Ordeal of Anasûrimbor Kellhus.
Tears of God—See Chorae.
Tekne—Also known as the Old Science. The non-sorcerous craft of the Inchoroi, used to mold abominations out of living flesh. According to various Nonman sources, the Tekne proceeds on the presumption that everything in nature, including life, is fundamentally mechanical. Despite the absurdity of this claim, few dispute the efficacy of the Tekne, as the Inchoroi and the Consult after them have time and again demonstrated the ability to “manufacture flesh.” Mandate scholars claim that the fundamental principles of the Tekne have been long lost, and that the Consult can only proceed in a trial-and-error fashion, on the basis of an incomplete understanding, and using ancient and ill-understood instruments. This ignorance, they claim, is all that preserves the world from the No-God’s return.