witches—The name given to women who practice sorcery, despite their persecution by both the Thousand Temples and the Schools.
wizards—The name given to men who practice sorcery independent of any School, despite their persecution by both the Thousand Temples and the Schools.
World Between—The world as it exists “between” our perceptions of it, or “in itself.”
World-Breaker—A name for the No-God. See No-God.
World-Curse—“Urimculis” (Ihrimsû). Name given to the etching upon the Incû-Holoinas.
Worldhorn—A ceremonial sorcerous artifact belonging to the Aörsic House of the Anasûrimbor and lost in the destruction of Shiarau in 2136.
Worm, the—A vernacular name for the great slums of Carythusal.
Wracu—“Serpent” (Ihrimsû, wracu’jaroi, or “firesnake”). Also known as Dragons. Immense, fire-spitting, winged reptilian monstrosities created by the Inchoroi during the ancient Cûno-Inchoroi Wars to destroy the Nonmen Quya, then subsequently wielded by the No-God during the Apocalypse. Very few are thought to have survived.
Wreoleth—The capital of the ancient Aorsi province of Illawor, and for a time, the commercial capital of the Far Antique nation. Overrun in the Fall of Aorsi in 2136, a good many refugees dared return to the city during the Investitures of Golgotterath in the time of the Generals. More than half the population had returned when System Initiation occurred in 2142. Most still believed Golgotterath was doomed when the No-God and His Horde engulfed them, trapping them in what would come to be called the Accursed Larder-of-Men, a tract where the Sranc could not go, allowing them to eke out a hard living on that hard land, so that they might be picked as ripened fruit, and fed to whomever—whatever—needed them.
Writ of Psata-Antyu—The proclamation issued by the high clergy of the Thousand Temples at the Council of Antyu (3386) that limits the power of the Shriah. The Writ was motivated by the cruel excesses of Shriah Diagol, who held the Seat from 3371 until his assassination in 3383.
Wutmouth River—The immense river joining Lake Huösi to the Meneanor Sea.
wutrim—A Scylvendi word meaning “shame.”
Wutteät—The legendary Father of Dragons, the Unholy Archetype used by the Inchoroi to culture and brood all other Wracu. Also known as the Black-and-Golden, the Terrible.
X
Xatantian Arch—The triumphal arch marking the ceremonial entrance to the Scuäri Campus, which depicts the military exploits of Emperor Surmante Xatantius. See Xatantius I.
Xatantius I (3644—93)—The most warlike of the Surmante Emperors of Nansur, Xatantius enlarged the Nansur Empire to its greatest extent, pacifying the Norsirai tribes of the Cepalor and for a time even managing to hold the far southern city of Invishi (though he failed to entirely subdue the Nilnameshi countryside). Despite his military successes, his continual wars exhausted both the Nansur people and the Imperial Treasury, inadvertently laying the groundwork for the disastrous wars against the Kianene following his death. See Nansur Empire.
Xerash—A governorate of Kian and former province of the Nansur Empire. Located north of Eumarna on the Meneanor coast, Xerash is primarily known, through The Tractate, as the violent and debauched neighbour of Amoteu during the time of Inri Sejenus. See Amoteu.
Xerashi—The lost language of scriptural Xerash, a derivative of Vaparsi.
Xerius—See Ikurei Xerius III.
Xiangic—The language group of the Xiuhianni peoples.
Xijoser (c. 670—c. 720)—An Old Dynasty God-King of Shigek, known primarily for the Ziggurat bearing his name.
Xinemus, Krijates (4066—4112)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Conriyan Marshal of Attrempus.
Xinemus, Nersei (4121— )—Only son of Nersei Proyas, heir to the throne of Conriya.
Xinoyas, Shressa (4081—4119)—Orthodox Palatine of Etara-Anplei, famously butchered before his own children by the Aspect-Emperor.
Xir’kirimakra—Inchoroi name for the Inverse Fire, which, according to Nonmen sources, apparently translates into the nearly nonsensical, “immersive post-material interface.”
Xiuhianni—The black-haired, brown-eyed, olive-skinned race that still dwells beyond the Great Kayarsus. One of the Five Tribes of Men, who, according to The Chronicle of the Tusk, refused to follow the other four tribes into Eärwa.
Xius (2847—2914)—The great Ceneian poet and playwright, famed for The Trucian Dramas.
Xoägi’i—A Sranc tribe from the Plains of Gâl.
Xothei, Temple of—The primary edifice of the Cmiral temple complex, famed for its three great domes. Built of black basalt.
Xunnurit (4068— )—The Scylvendi chieftain of the Akkunihor tribe.
Y
yaksh—The conical tents of the Scylvendi, made of greased leather and poplar branches.
Yalgrota Sranchammer (4071—4121)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Thunyeri groom of Prince Hringa Skaiyelt, famed for his giant stature and ferocity in war.
Yasellas—A prostitute acquaintance of Esmenet.
Yatwer—The Goddess of fertility. One of the so-called Compensatory Gods, who reward devotion in life with paradise in the afterlife, Yatwer is far and away the most popular Cultic deity among caste-menials (as Gilgaöl is among caste-nobles). In the Higarata, the collection of subsidiary writings that form the scriptural core of the Cults, Yatwer is depicted as a beneficent, all-forgiving matron, capable of seeding and furrowing the fields of nations with a single hand. Some commentators have noted that Yatwer is anything but revered in either the Higarata or The Chronicle of the Tusk (wherein “tillers of soil” are often referred to with contempt). Perhaps this is why Yatwerians tend to rely on their own scripture, the Sinyatwa, for their liturgical rites and ceremonies. Despite the vast numbers of adherents enjoyed by the Cult, it remains one of the more impoverished, and seems to generate a large number of zealous devotees as a result. Commonly referred to as the Mother-of-Birth or the Dread Mother in her more vengeful guises.
Yawreg—Easternmost mountain in the Urokkas.
Year-of-the-Tusk—The primary dating system for most mannish nations, which takes the legendary Breaking of the Gates to be year zero.
Years of the Crib—A common term for the eleven years of the No-God’s manifestation during the First Apocalypse, wherein all infants were stillborn. See Apocalypse.
Yel (4079— )—One of Esmenet’s Kianene body-slaves.
Yellow Sempis River—A tributary of the River Sempis.
Yimaleti Mountains—An extensive mountain range located in the extreme northwest of Eärwa. High Norsirai derivation of the Viritic Ihrimsû, “Im’valaral” (“Horizon-has-teeth”).
Yinwaul—Land famed for bordering Agongorea and hosting Dagliash. The contested frontier of Aörsi in the centuries preceding the First Apocalypse.
Yoke—A Consult Sranc Legion, so called for the way the Sranc belonging must be chained one to the other to be deployed with anything resembling order. Yokes would be driven to strategic positions, then loosed once the creatures could smell their foes on the wind. Even Yoked, however, the creatures proved unruly, forcing Aurang to continually rely on feint and subterfuge. His Mannish foes responded with a combination of wariness and daring, transforming many of the battles into tests of cunning and patience as much as ferocity and will. At the Battle of Twenty-Yokes in 2142, Aurang managed to lure General Sag-Marmau into Agongorea by concealing his ambush within a false ambush, only to watch his Horde destroyed by the Kûniüric adoption of the Aörsic spear-barred shields (which allowed the Sohonc to wreak enormous damage).
Ysilka—The wife of General Sag-Marmau in The Sagas, whose name is often used as a euphemism for “adulteress” in the Three Seas.
yursa—A Galeoth liquor made from fermented potatoes.
Yursalka (c. 4065—4110)—A Scylvendi warrior of the Utemot tribe.
Yutirames—A sorcerer of rank in the Scarlet Spires, slain by Achamian in the Sareötic Library.
Z
Zabwiri (4025—4101)—Long time Grandmast
er of the Mbimayu, scholar of Memgowa, and Malowebi’s master early in his sorcerous training.
Zarathinius (3688—3745)—The famed author of A Defence of the Arcane Arts.
Zaudunyani—“Tribe of Truth” (Kûniüric). The name taken by Kellhus’s followers during the First Holy War.
Ze, Nurbanu (4105— )—Ordealmen, Palatine of Jekk, adopted son of King Nurbanu Soter, general of the Jekki contingent of the Great Ordeal.
Zealot Wars—The prolonged religious conflict (c. 2390—2478) between the early Inrithi and the Kiünnat, which eventually led to the ascendancy of the Thousand Temples in the Three Seas.
Zenkappa (4068—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Captain of Attrempus, formerly a Nilnameshi slave belonging to the household of Krijates Xinemus, slain at Iothiah.
Zerxei, House—A former Nansur House of the Congregate, and the empire’s ruling dynasty from 3511 to 3619, when Zerxei Triamarius III was assassinated by his palace eunuchs.
Zeüm—A mysterious and powerful Satyothi nation beyond Nilnamesh, and the source of the finest silks and steel in the Three Seas.
Zeümi—The language of the Empire of Zeüm, a derivative of Old Zeümi.
Zeümi Sword-Dancers—The members of an exotic Zeümi Cult that worships the sword and has developed sword fighting to an almost supernatural level.
Ziek, Tower of—The prison, located in Momemn, used by the Nansur Emperors to incarcerate their political foes.
Ziggurats of Shigek—The immense stepped pyramids found to the north of the Sempis Delta and raised by the ancient God-Kings of Shigek to serve as their mortuary tombs.
Zikas—The women taken as secondary wives by Anasûrimbor Kellhus, all of whom, according to rumour at least, died in the course of childbirth. The name derives from the small libation bowls used on Ascension.
Zirkirta—See Battle of Zirkirta.
Zohurric—See Aghurzoi.
Zursodda, Sammu (4064—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Palatine-Governor of the Ainoni city of Koraphea, claimed by disease at Caraskand.
APPENDIX
TWO
The False Sun
Beasts only show the white of their eye in terror. Men show it always.
—GOTTAGGA, The Book of Chalk
For I have seen the virtuous in Hell and the wicked in Heaven. And I swear to you, brother, the scream you hear in the one and the sigh you hear in the other sound the same.
—Anonymous
1119, Year-of-the-Tusk, the North Shore of the Neleöst Sea.
Like many great and dangerous Men, Shaeönanra was despised for many things, his penchant for mongering spies not the least of them. The rules that bound the Norsirai were unforgiving in those days. Trysë, the Holy Mother of Cities, was little more than a village huddling behind ruined walls of stone. The God-Kings of Imperial Ûmerau stared blindly from overthrown stone, moss-covered and almost forgotten. The Cond ruled the cities of the River Aumris, an empire they called the Great All, and few people were so proud or so headstrong. They divided the Ground between the Feal and the Wirg—the weak and the glorious. They adhered to a simplicity that was at once a fanaticism. And they judged the way all Men were prone to judge in those Far Antique days, without patience or mercy.
Shaeönanra, for his part, celebrated the Cond hatred of spying. What did it matter if they declared him Feal, so long as he knew their secrets? He knew what stout the All-King drank, and what slave decanted it for him. He knew what was bellowed in counsel and whispered across pillows.
Most importantly, he knew what was plotted.
So he stood waiting before the gate of his cyclopean tower, Nogaral, staring southward across the heaving leagues of the Neleöst Sea, knowing that soon—very soon—a light would stride across the moonlit waters.
To the west lay the River Sursa, whose rusty waters bloomed far into the Sea during day. Beyond it, the wastes of Agongorea plaited the horizon, chapped and cracked like untanned leather. Low mountains knotted the north and east, domes of bald granite rising from forested slopes: the hunchbacked Urokkas.1
Nogaral stood upon the westernmost summit, Iros, a mountain that was a mass grave. Little more than a ramp of blunt granite, it climbed from the River toward the Sea, where it ended in scarped confusion. Ruins made gums and teeth of its heights, structures obliterated in an age that Men could not recollect for ignorance and savagery.2 Nogaral was both squat and rotund, resembling a monstrous byre more than a proper tower. Only the grand, central chamber could boast any architectural splendour. Otherwise, it was cramped and labyrinthine, the lower levels pillared as densely as a forest, the upper levels celled like a hive.
The construction of the tower had caused an uproar in Sauglish two centuries previous. The Sohonc, in particular, had objected, seeing in it the designs of their old rival, Cet’ingira. Even then they had suspected. But suspicions were not enough to sway an All-King who had grown to prize the Mangaecca and their disdain of scruple.
Nogaral, they named it, the “High Round.”
“They are called the Barricades,” the Nonman says. “The Artisan himself fashioned them.”
The Man gazes in wonder at the configurations of nimil and light. “So that none might enter …” he murmurs.
Cet’ingira lowers his porcelain face in assent. “So that none might enter.”
Shaeönanra almost stumbles, so dazzling is the sunlight across the immense curvatures of gold, so deep is the pitch of the surrounding fall. The Nonman steadies him with a firm hand.
“This was what my master sought? To tear down the Barricades?”
“And his masters before him,” the Nonman replies. “For more than two hundred years.”
He studies the mad Nonman. “And what lies within?”
The black eyes did not waver. “The truth my brothers could not bear.”
At last he glimpsed it, a point like a failing star.
Shaeönanra stood immobile. The Wind came from the north, answering the Sea’s long inhalation. It made lunacy of his hair and braids, slapped his robes with a snared thrush’s fury. The distant light blinked through it, a white glitter from across the black back of the Sea, vanishing and reappearing as faraway rollers plucked the nocturnal line of the horizon.
The Wind howled about the tower, made moaning flutes of the surrounding ruin. And it comforted Shaeönanra even as its violence forced him to lean against his toes: always at his back, always rushing south, across the Sea and over the Painted Cities, into the eyes of his witless enemies.
The distant spark became more constant, gathered both luminosity and portent as it crept above the blind line of the Neleost. Clouds like scrapes formed a skein across the starry vault. The star the Nonmen called Imburil3 cast his shadow over the cobble before him, and Shaeönanra considered the wildness of his windblown outline. The Wind and the Nail, Shaeönanra thought in elation. Both would be at his back.
This had been an old habit of his, identifying and assessing omens, born of days when he still walked paths that the Gods could reckon. Had he not known who was about to darken his threshold, he would have cursed himself for a fool for indulging it.
The light gathered brightness all out of proportion to its approach, and despite the Stain, Shaeönanra found himself wondering at its brilliance. Then finally he saw him … Little more than a region of blackness at first, a shadowy glimpse behind the luminous corona. Then more substantial … more human.
Titirga.
The Sohonc Archideme walked the low sky, holding high the Diurnal, the famed Day Lantern, a fan of mirrors that reflected the Sun even in the deepest night. The glare climbed as he neared, and Shaeönanra watched the great oblong of illumination—impossible daylight—slip across the stony expanses, reaching out toward Nogaral. It seemed miraculous, the weightlessness of light, the way whole fields of detail and swinging shadows could be dandled in the thin-fingered hands of a man. The Day Lantern scrolled over the rising slopes, then at last caught Nogaral’s western curve, where it paused as though fixed. And fr
om night, Shaeönanra found himself staring into day—the pitch and scrawl of ruin, the black mortices sketching the stones of the tower’s ponderous wall, the knots of scrub and hanging weed. For the first time he saw how shadows were simply pieces of night.
And even though he knew as profoundly—as fanatically—as only a member of the Holy Consult could know, he found himself wondering how it had come to this …
Shaeönanra could not but marvel. The Sun! The Sun itself raised in the hands of a Man.
Squinting, he could see him, Titirga, his outline gilded in the manner of those peering into the bright outside from the recesses of a dark room. The great Hero-Mage come to deliver his ultimatum. The legendary Archidemu Sohoncu, the Glorious Pupil, perhaps the most powerful sorcerer the Ground had ever known.
At last Titirga saw him below, and the Diurnal answered his sudden attention. Shaeönanra could no more look at the man than he could look into the sun. He raised his arms like a slave in summer fields, and for the first time he witnessed the magic of the Diurnal from the inside. Blue skies had been pulled across the void of night. His skin pricked with the promise of sunburn. It was a sight so miraculous as to almost blot the Stain, the premonition of deceit that marred all things sorcerous.
He watched the false sun set in the false sky, then stop, low and bloody as sunset, throwing shadows outward along lines the Nonmen could describe in arithmetic. Titirga had set the Day Lantern down, he realized. The Hero-Mage would deny the advantages that night bestows upon cunning …
No matter.
The shadow of the walking Archideme reached Shaeönanra long before the man.
“The Diurnal,” Titirga called, still a silhouette in the sun’s cauldron. “Emilidis gave it to me.”4
“Archideme,” Shaeönanra said in numb greeting.
“Shaeönanra,” Titirga replied, coming to a stop mere paces from him. He was tall, broad of shoulder. He wore a Pircondi cloak over his black woolen robes, two wolf-skins sewn together, so that the tailings of the face fluttered side-by-side below his groin. His hair was white, spun with the odd memory of gold. It matched his physique, holding something of its cascading form even in the Wind. But it was his high blunt face that commanded attention: shallow of nose, thick of brow and cheek.