IRON CURTAIN THREAD—Centaur artisans use it to weave material strongly resistant to penetration by foreign objects. It is very good for protective vests.
ISTHMUS—A narrow corridor of land leading to Mundania.
IVORY TOWER—A lighthouse on the Gold Coast, built by the Sea Hag, whose inhabitants may know a great deal, but are not in touch with the real world. Rapunzel was one of these.
IVY—Daughter of Dor and Irene, a Sorceress whose magic causes the qualities she perceives in those about her to intensify. She is a bright, insatiably curious and somewhat imperious girl. Wherever Ivy is, there is bound to be mischief.
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JEWEL—A rock Nymph specializing in precious stones. It is her responsibility to see that all gems are properly planted in the ground, for others eventually to find. She rides a diggle, and her talent is Smells: how she smells is how she feels. She married Crombie the Soldier, and when there is a suggestion of his wandering, she smells of burning wild oats. But because she is a Nymph, she can not truly grasp anything evil, which is a problem for her daughter Tandy, when pursued by a lecherous demon.
JOAN—A male fairy, misnamed.
JOHN—The female fairy who got the name intended for the male, and vice versa. She is a pretty little female figure with sparkling mussed hair and thin iridescent wings with scenic patterns. She finally finds the one with her name, so they can exchange—and they fall in love.
JONATHAN—A zombie, an old friend of Millie the Ghost.
JORDAN—A barbarian adventurer, betrayed by a cruel lie, who becomes a ghost for 400 years before being reanimated. He is tall, broad-shouldered, hank-haired, big-footed, and naïve about women: in short, the very model of a modern fantasy hero.
JUMP-AT-A-BODY—A creature all hair and legs and glower, who came across from Mundania not too long ago when the Mundanes stopped believing. J-A-A-Bs don’t have the courage to do anything bad; they just jump out to scare people, then run away.
JUMPER—A spider who inadvertently accompanies Dor in his Tapestry travels. Classified as Phidipus Variegatus, of the Family Salticide, he’s a jumping spider. He has eight hairy legs, six green eyes scattered about his head, and sharp fangs projecting from his mouth parts. His fur is green, his legs gray. In short, he’s a most handsome creature. His talent is the making of silk, and by using that he can suspend himself from high places, and even fly. He becomes a close friend and mentor to Dor. He is not, despite impressions, large; it just happens that when they meet, Dor is small, being in the adventure of the Tapestry.
JUSTIN TREE—A man who was transformed by Evil Magician Trent into a tree. His leaves are like flat hands and his trunk is the color of tanned flesh. His talent is voice projection, so he can converse with untransformed folk. Given the chance to change back to man-state, he elects to remain a tree.
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KING—The King of Xanth must be a Magician. For a long time only men were Kings, until a loophole in the sexist wording of the law was discovered, and Sorceresses were allowed to become Kings too. At one extreme point Mare Imbri, a night mare, was King.
KINGFISHER—A bird that fishes for kingfish.
KISSIMMEE—A river that kisses and tells. It also exists in Mundania, where it doesn’t tell.
KITTY-HAWK—A small winged feline with the feathers and tail of a raptor.
KNOCK-KNEED KNIGHTS—Figures in metal armor who reside in caverns adjacent to the pasture of the Cowboys and use the latter for their violent entertainment. They are from a far place called “Kon-Krete” where things are very hard, and without honor they are nothing.
KNOTWEED ELF—Member of the tribe of Flower Elves.
KRAKEN—A seaweed monster, always dangerous.
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LACUNA—Twin sister of Hiatus, daughter of the Zombie Master and Millie. Her talent is to form print on anything, which she can change at will. She messed up the Humfrey-Gorgon wedding by changing “until death do you part” to “the few measly years you hang on before you croak.” That sort of thing.
LAKE OGRE-CHOBEE—A big lake in southern Xanth where chobees and curse fiends live.
LASTWAVE—Occurring about 150 years ago, it was a Mundane invasion so savage that the people of Xanth decided to prevent any further invasions. King Ebnez adapted a magic stone of great potency to project a deadly shield that killed any creature passing through it. The Lastwave originated in A.D. 1231 Mundania, where Mongols thought they were invading the Korean peninsula. (There is no consistent ratio between time in Mundania and Xanth.)
LATHE ELF—A guard of the Tool Tribe of Elves.
LEXICON—Compiled by three curious Mundanes who wished to recall readily all the properly forgotten things of Xanth. They were aided by a dryad and a querulous Secretary Bird prone to lethargy spells.
LIGHTNING BOLTS—The weapon of storms. A fresh bolt is devastating, but after lying and cooling on the ground for a few hours it can be used to bolt walls together.
LINES AND BOXES—A game played in Xanth and Mundania, in several forms.
LOAN SHARKS—Big fish with colored fins, eager to make loans requiring the repayment of an arm and a leg.
LOOKOUT ROCK—It isn’t very high, but its situational magic makes it seem elevated, so that much of Xanth can be viewed from it.
LOOP—An opening to the nether realms of Xanth.
LORD OF FLIES—The King of the Flies, currently reading a book called The Sting by Wasp.
LOVE BUG—An insect that exists in both Xanth and Mundania. Its major propensity needs no explaining.
LOVE SPRING—Any of a number of springs whose water causes the drinker to fall instantly in love with the first creature of the opposite sex encountered thereafter. Such springs have had considerable impact on evolution in Xanth.
LUTIN—A foul-tempered, shape-changing creature.
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MAENADS—The Wild Women of Parnassus. Stay clear of them.
MAGIC COMPASS—A disk within which a needle of light shows, pointing to something. A variant exists in Mundania.
MAGIC DUST—Dust that is highly charged with magic that wells from the nether caverns of Xanth. Magical effects are especially strong in its presence, and its diffusion throughout Xanth helps account for the nature of this land. A village is near its main site; the villagers pulverize the magic rocks and employ a captive roc-bird to blow the dust into the sky. The concentration of dust accounts for a region of madness there.
MAGIC SHIELD—See SHIELD
MAGIC SNIFFER—A creature with a long limber snout with snorts out flutelike music and smells magic. It feeds on magic berries, and is harmless.
MAGIC SPRINGS—Waterholes with various magical properties. Some are love springs, some have healing elixir, some bring forgetfulness, and one is the Fountain of Youth.
MAGIC STONES—Enchanted stones. In one case they cause water flowing over them to flow uphill, and even make a loop in air. In Mundania this effect is called anti-gravity, and is much sought after.
MAGIC TALENTS—Every human person in Xanth has one magic talent, and two are seldom the same. Talents range from minor, such as making a yellow spot on the wall, to Magician-caliber, such as transforming any creature instantly to any other creature.
MAGIC WAND—A stick that levitates the object it points at. Presently encoded to respond only for GG, or Goldy Goblin.
MALLET ELF—Member of the tribe of Tool Elves.
MANTICORA—A monster the size of a horse, with the head of a man, body of a lion, wings of a dragon and tail of a scorpion. Its more horrendous features include triple rows of teeth and blue eyes.
MARE IMBRIUM—A night mare who originally resided in the gourd and carried bad dreams to deserving sleepers. The “Sea of Rains” on the moon is named after her, and her hoofprint shows a moonscape with that feature highlighted. By special dispensation, she was able to go out in daylight, where she resembled a solid black horse, though she could still dematerialize in darkness. She communicates by projecting dreamlets to people that
may show her as a young woman in black; in the dreams she can talk normally. She was a major figure in the defense of Xanth during the Nextwave invasion, and at one time was the Mare King, but gave her physical life in the effort. Now she is a day mare, bringing pleasant daydreams to people; she likes this job better than that of nightmaring. The author’s daughter Penny has a horse that resembles Imbri, and the volume Night Mare is dedicated to her.
MELT SPELL—An old spell Ichabod found while cataloguing spells for Arnolde. It melts the Horseman’s sword.
MERMAIDS—Female creatures with human upper parts and piscine tails, related to Naiads (freshwater Nymphs), Nereids (sea Nymphs) and Oceanids (Ocean Nymphs). The siren is related, being able to convert between Nymph and mermaid forms.
MERMEN—Male creatures, human above, fish below, also called Tritons. They carry wicked triple-tipped spears (tridents) and are related to Naifauns and Nereifauns.
MIDAS BUG—A Gold Bug: a fly with the talent of turning everything it touches into gold. Dangerous.
MIDNIGHT SUNSTONE—The rarest of all jewels, it shines only in the presence of magic. Dor gave it to Good King Omen of Onesti, in exchange for Irene.
MILLIE THE GHOST—Once a chambermaid at Castle Roogna, she was ensorceled by Vadne and became a ghost for 800 years. Her body was formed into a book titled The Skeleton in the Closet. She was restored in modern times, and married the Zombie Master. Her talent is Sex Appeal, which makes her popular with men, less so with women. Mother of Hiatus and Lacuna.
MINOTAUR—A hero of bovine past, who went to Mundania to seek his fortune, believed to have acquitted himself very well in labyrinth competition in Kon-Krete.
MOAT MONSTERS—A requisite for every respectable moat, guardians of castles. Huge serpentine creatures.
MONSTER OF THE SEA—A sadly maligned liberator of damsels in distress who once tried to rescue the Mundane maiden An-Dro-Meda, but was misunderstood.
MONSTER UNDER THE BED—See SNORTIMER
MORRIS—A merman who marries the siren. They have a son, Cyrus.
MOUTH ORGAN—A structure the size of a tree, made up of mouths. Big mouths blast out low notes, and small ones the high notes. It is a natural musical instrument, part plant, animal, and mineral. Its seeds sprout little mouth organs, some of which drift into Mundania and are frozen in that immature state, but can still make music.
MUNDANIA—The land beyond Xanth, largely devoid of magic, and of little interest. It is almost impossible for Mundanes to reach Xanth, while Xanthians can readily reach any time or place in Mundania via the Isthmus. Mundanes regard this as unfair. The Mundane State of Florida has a suspicious resemblance in outline to Xanth.
MURPHY—An old time Magician whose talent is making things go wrong. He lost the contest for the crown to Magician Roogna, but his power remains undiminished in Mundania, where it is known as Murphy’s Law.
MUSES—The nine patrons of the arts and sciences, who reside on Mt. Parnassus. Clio, the Muse of History, seems like a sensible woman, though somehow her texts on Xanth keep leaking out to Mundania, where they are called fantasies. It’s an insult to a careful scholar.
MYS-TREE—A tree that is difficult to figure out.
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NEEDLE CACTUS—A plant with needles it can shoot at enemies. It tends to shoot first and ask questions later.
NEXTWAVE—The latest of the devastating Mundane invasions of Xanth. This one is composed of Carthaginian mercenaries, circa 500–1000 B.C., led by Hasbinbad.
NICKELODEON—A boxlike creature that sings as it consumes nickelpedes. Harmless, if you can stand the noise.
NICKELPEDES—Ferocious insects five times as big as centipedes, with pincers of nickel. They attack anything moving in shade or darkness, but can not function in direct sunlight.
NIGHT MARES—Dream equines who deliver bad dreams to deserving sleepers. They have a bad reputation, but are only doing a necessary job. They travel only at night, and their hoofprints are maps of the moon with the moon features associated with individual mares highlighted. Included in the herd are Mares Australe, Crisium, Frigoris, Humerium, Necaris, Nubium and Vapors. Mare Imbrium (Imbri) figures prominantly in Xanth history. Night mares can travel almost anywhere, and evidence of their presence has been noted in nocturnal Mundania.
NIGHT STALLION—The leader of the herd of night mares. He is a huge, wingless horse of midnight hue, also known as Trojan or the Dark Horse. He assigns the dreams to be delivered. He tried to warn King Trent about the dangerous Horseman.
NIX—A sprite, part human, part satyr, part fish. When he says “NIX” water turns to ice; when he says “NOX” it becomes too thin to swim in but too thick to breathe.
NORTH VILLAGE—Original home of Bink, and one-time capital of Xanth. It was evacuated during the Nextwave invasion. King Emeritus Trent retired there, and the author of these novels lives near it.
NOSE LOOP BUSH—Magical bush with loops that contract to quarter-size when an animal passes through, trapping it. In Mundania they are very small, trapping nematodes instead.
NYMPHS—Lovely nude young women, counterpart to the male Fauns. There are a number of varieties. DRYADS live in trees, having leaf-green hair; NAIADS are water Nymphs, with seaweed hair; OREADS live in mountains. Some are general-purpose Nymphs living elsewhere. Jewel the Nymph is in charge of gems.
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OARY—Called the Imposter or Usurper King, he stole the throne of the Kingdom of Onesti from his nephew, King Good Omen. Has a private army of Avar mercenaries.
OCNA—The second largest castle in the Kingdom of Onesti, where Ocna Dungeon is located.
OGRE-FEN-OGRE FEN—The present home of ogres, who migrated there from Lake Ogre-Chobee.
OGRES—Humanoid monsters, twice the height of a man, gross and violent. They typically speak in rhyme, and lack facility with pronouns, which they take to be edible roots. Ogres are the strongest and stupidest and ugliest creatures of Xanth. The face of an ogress looks like a bowl of overcooked mush that some one has sat on, and her direct stare would rot the moon. Babies are called ogrets. The author was accused of being an ogre at fan conventions. (See FANTASY FANS), but at that time he had never attended one. So he wrote a novel with an ogre as the hero, then went to tear up the fans.
OLD ROATS—A form of breakfast cereal, somewhat backward.
OLEANDER ELF—Of the tribe of Flower Elves.
OMEN—Good King Omen, of the Kingdom of Onesti, who was displaced by his bad uncle Oary. A stunning young man who radiates charisma.
ONESTI—The Kingdom of Onesti, Mundania, seventh century A.D. in what is now known as Rumania, at the juncture of the Carpathian Mountains and the Transylvanian Alps, reached by way of the Black Sea and a tributary of the River Danube, the Siret. Beset by Avars, Khazars and Bulgars, it was in need of magic, hence was ready to trade with Xanth. Dor, a poor speller, located it by his spelling of “honesty,” something he believes in. Evidently this contact was successful, as Onesti can still be found in some Mundanian atlases.
ONE WAY BRIDGE—One of the Gap Chasm crossings; like some paths, it only exists in one direction.
OPTICAL BUSH—Covered with bright glass disks that make contact with the eye: contact lenses.
ORACLE—The Cave of the Oracle is located on the south peak of Mt. Parnassus, and was originally guarded by the Python.
OUROBOROS—The monster serpent who circles the world, grasping its tail in its teeth. It served for a time as a guardian of Humfrey’s castle. (Every type of creature owes the Good Magician for Answers!)
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PANDORA’S BOX—One of the oddments the Good Magician accumulated. It was empty except for Hope, and Mare Imbri took that and now spreads it about in daydreams.
PARNASSUS—Home of the Muses, and a very strange place. No one of intelligence has ventured there in decades. On the north peak is the Tree of Immortality; on the south peak, the Tree of Seeds, guarded by the Simurgh. The Python and the Maenads, or Wild Women, are also there.
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SION FRUIT—Avoid eating this when in the wrong company.
PASSPORT—A little book that transports a person instantly to the place marked on it. It doesn’t work very well in Mundania, so is much used there.
PATHS—They come in all types. Some are enchanted, so that no one can be hurt on them, and some exist in only one direction, and some lead to tangle trees.
PEACE FOREST—In this region, people become so peaceful they lie down and sleep—forever. The best way to get through it is to have an unpleasant companion, such as a harpy.
’PEDES—A whole family of creatures. Centipedes are not worth two cents. Nickelpedes are five times as big and bad, dimepedes are slightly smaller but twice as bad as nickelpedes, quarterpedes are five times as bad as nickelpedes, and dollarpedes are a hundred times as big, but are not fierce at all, because they are made of greenish paper with or without a silver backbone, and have little staying power. As you might expect, it is the dollarpedes that are most prized by Mundanes, who collect them.
PEDESTAL—What men put women on, not entirely to the latter’s discomfort. But little Sorceress Ivy put Stanley Steamer on a pedestal, changing his nature entirely.
PEEK—A female ghost horse with lovely eyes used by the Knock-Kneed Knights until freed by Jordan. Mate to Pook, and Puck’s dam.
PEEPHOLE—See HYPNOGOURD
PHANTOM LAND—The home of those who remain too long in the hypnogourd.
PHOENIX—A bird of fancy feathers who lives 500 years, burns itself to death, and rises anew from the ashes.
PICKLEPUSS—Feline creature with a green prickly snout and eyes moist with brine, who pickles those who touch it.
PLANTS—In Xanth, plants are not necessarily passive. They have endless variety and magical powers. The most prominent are ones like the tangle tree and needle cactus, but there are useful ones like the shoe trees and blanket bushes. Castle Roogna has a whole orchard with ones like the cherry trees and pie trees and the guardian trees that move their branches to interfere with enemies of the castle. In addition there are curse burrs, fruitcups, knotweeds, the kraken weed, nosegays, pillbox bushes (for headache pills), pomegranates (with rockhard fruit) and snapdragons. Irene makes much of plants, as her talent is to make them grow rapidly.