Lamplighter (67 page)

Eugus Smellgrove
see
Smellgrove, Eugus.

eurinine(s)
said “yoo’rah’neen”; the original
monsters
who were granted the capacity to make life come from the earth. In some texts they are written of as the Primmlings—the first. All the nimuines, tlephathines and cacophrins were once of these kind—or so some antiquated sources say.

everymen
people, humankind.

Evolution Green
also called Evolution Square; the oblong space south of the Grand Mead in
Winstermill
designated for marching and other drills of movement.

evolution(s)
training in the correct movements in marching and the right handling of weapons and other equipment. Evolutions are taken very seriously in military organs, especially in armies, where
pediteers
are drilled over and over and over in all the marches and skills required until they become a habit. Failure to perform evolutions successfully is punished, sometimes severely, and this is usually enough to scare people into excellence. Evolutions form part of a hierarchy of military motion and drill starting with manual exercises (individual drill), evolutions (quarto and platoon movements), great exercises (company and battalion movement), and maneuvers (in concerto movements of regiments or forcces of greater size).To evolve is to be put through drill maneuvers such as marching or handling weapons.

Ex Monsteria
also known as the
Liber Beluafaunis
or “Book of Monsters”; an exceedingly rare tome written by the eminent and assassinated scholar and Imperial
teratologist
Hubritas Whittwornicus of Wörms or, more simply, Wittwornick. It is considered the most learned and thorough study of
theroids,
but is unofficially considered a banned book for the dubious conclusions Wittwornick comes to about the nature of the ancient foe. It is so hard to get, however, that few but the most learned know of it, and fewer still have a copy to read. A thoroughly abridged form exists
—The Incomplete Book of Bogles—
but even this is regarded as containing
sedonitious
information despite the truncation of its contents.

expungeant(s)
another rendering of expunctants; those
scripts
that slay instantly.

Exstinker
the
nullodor
made by Craumpalin for Rossamünd before he left Madam Opera’s, given to him to keep our hero “. . . safe from sniffing noses.” See
Craumpalin’s Exstinker
and
nullodors
in Book One.

fabulist(s)
one practiced in and gaining income from the arts of sleight of hand, juggling and other feats of prestidigitation. Also used to refer to artists and other image makers.

false-fire
potives
that cause kinds of chemical burning and melting; the glowing, often firelike reactions of these same
potives;
chemical “flames” and burning.

falseman
a
leer
whose eyes have been altered so that she or he can detect when another is being truthful or not. See
leers
in Book One.

fascins
said “
fass
’skins,” coming from infula fascia, the retardant-treated bandages or wrappings and covers worn by
scourges
to protect them from the workings of their own chemistries.

fatigue party
group of laborers,
peoneers,
and/or
seltzermen
set to manual labor. If a fatigue party ventures out beyond its protective bounds, it will be accompanied by a
quarto
or more of
pediteers
and maybe a
lurksman
or
leer.
Soldiers so engaged are said to be on ditch duty.

Fayelillian
small northern
Soutland
state, north of
Brandenbrass
and directly west over the River Humour from
Sulk End;
one of the states that during the Dissolutia (see
Gates, Battle of the
~ in Book One) did not venture out against the Imperial Capital. As a reward in HIR 1413 the new dynasty expanded Fayelillian’s borders (much to the disgust of her neighbors), elevated her existing peers, granted patents to the most eminent nonpeer families and bestowed hereditary responsibilities, such as the peerage-marshalsy given to the forebears of the
Lamplighter-Marshal.
To common folk the people of Faylillian have a reputation for gentle simplicity and hospitality greatly at odds with their conquered ancestors, the fierce and indomitable Piltdownmen, who well over a thousand years ago vied with the Brandenards, Burgundians and Wretchermen of aulde for control of lands about the Grume.

fenceland
also called sokes or scutis, fencelands are a marche or region of human habitation, where people have a firm hold of the land but still come into frequent contact with
monsters.
See entry on
marches
in Book One.

fend
any long pike or spear-like weapon with long barbettes or other crossing-pieces protruding perpendicularly at the base of its head or along the shaft, manufactured so to prevent a
nicker
from pushing itself down the shaft.

Fend & Fodicar
wayhouse in
Bleak Lynche
lovingly known by the locals as “the Pointy Sticks” and run by a kindly widow, Goodwife Inchabald—a large, socially fearless and universally genial woman, as all good enrica d’amas should be. As the only wayhouse in the whole
Frugelle,
it actually does a stiff trade despite its remoteness.

fetchman
also fetcher, bag-and-bones man, ashcarter or thew-thief (“strength-stealer”); someone who carries the bodies of the fallen from the field of battle, taking them to the manoeuvra—or field hospital. Despite their necessary and extremely helpful labors, fetchmen are often resented by
pediteers
as somehow responsible for the deaths of the wounded comrades they take who often later die of their injuries. Indeed, they are regarded as harbingers of death, sapping their own side of strength, and as such are kept out of sight till they are needed. Such a thankless task. What we might call a stretcher bearer or orderly.

fettle
mental fitness and stability, general soundness of attitude and emotion.

feuterer(s)
the hundfassers, hound-hands or hundsmen who look after dogs in their kennels, feeding said animals and mucking out their dwellings. Feuterers are usually required only in the care of
tykehounds,
which need special care and calming, raised as they are to be nervous (and so give quick alarm to the presence of a
monster
) and cruel (so that they may not shy from attacking a
monster
). Nevertheless, even a half-decent feuterer and his fellow hundsmen will train their charges to react only to
monsters
and not
everymen.

file
what we would think of as an office, where
clerks
labor and leaders complete all the necessary and burdensome paperwork their positions require.

firing by quarto
a platoon giving fire by division of
quartos,
each
quarto
firing separately while the other two reload.

fish, fishing
common, vulgar term for the sending of a
wit;
a corruption of
frission.

fitch
attachable collar of feathers, themselves proofed or fixed into a gaulded cloth or buff lining and consequently a kind of armor.

flammagon
stubby, large-bore firelock used to fire flares high into the air. In a pinch it can double as a weapon, but it is best suited as a launcher of bright signals.

flam-toothed saw
medical tool used by
surgeons
to saw bones.

flanchardt
similar to
shabraques
but used on oxen, bullocks and other beasts of burden. It is made of lower quality proofing but uses more layers to achieve comparable protection.

flash swell(s)
idle rich young men who carouse and duel and woo the wrong women and are more trouble to the city folk than all the
monsters
combined. See
dandidawdlers
.

fleermare
meaning “the weeping of the sea,” an extraordinarily thick and drenching fog that comes in off the seas, most commonly in more arid places, acting as the “waterer” of the land in the place of highly infrequent rains. A fleermare can be so thick that it leaves everything dripping as if sodden by a good downpour.

Fleugh, Mister
clerk
of
Winstermill,
subordinate to
Witherscrawl
and very much in that man’s sway.

Flint
founded by a collective of
Soutland
states: a small but very wealthy non-Imperial state belonging unwillingly to the Sigismündian hegemony of the
Gotts
and its allies.The first stop on the way inland to
Sinster,
it has grown wealthy on gold and silver mining and on the trade of
gretchens,
which are most commonly found in waters off their coasts, and has recently begun to expand its navy—each vessel having as its aft-lantern a beautiful
gretchen
pearl. This militarism has people alarmed on all sides of the Pontus Canis, for a belligerent state could easily upset the fine balance of power that currently exists in the south of the Half-Continent.

fluff(s)
wealthy people, peers, especially those who dress showily. No one really knows for certain where the term comes from; some suggest it is because of the continuing fashion for the well-to-do to wear all kinds of expensive furs and trim their hats and boots and even parasols with the same. See Appendix 4.

fodicar(s)
(noun) also
lantern-crook,
lamp- or lantern-switch, poke-pole or just poke; the instrument of the lamplighters, a long iron pole with a perpendicular
crank-hook
protruding from one end used to activate the
seltzer lamps
that illuminate many of the
Empire’s
important roads.The pike-head allows the fodicar to be employed as a weapon—a kind of halberd—to fend off man and
monster
alike. The bunting-hook on the reverse side to the lantern-hook can also be employed as a sleeve-catcher, making the fodicar a useful tool to parry and tangle fellow people should the need arise.

fortalice
any small, usually freestanding building built or reinforced for use as a fortification, seldom used to garrison more than a platoon.

frank
to be an accurate or “true” shot with a firelock; to shoot accurately.

Frazzard’s powder
one of a powerful set of repellents known as urticants, Frazzard’s powder affects the mucous membranes and eyes most, reacting sharply with the moisture to sting painfully and even burn, scalding the eyes and rendering a foe permanently blind. Harsh stuff, by convention it is used only on
monsters.

Friscan’s wead
one of the more common
alembant
treacles required to be taken by a
wit.
Its main purpose is to stop those specific organs inserted into the cranium from driving a
wit
mad and vaoriating (See
spasm, spasming
in Book One), witting anyone unfortunate enough to be near.

frission
the collective and general term for the invisible energetic “pulse” of a
wit;
see
wit
in Book One.

fronstectum
what we would call an eye-shade or visor, made of solid felt with a three-quarter-circle band of cloth-covered bone that fixes about the head.

Frugal, the ~
starting in the hills about the lead mines of the Louthe, this small river is noteworthy as the largest water source running through the
Frugelle.
Many tiny tributaries flow into it as it in turn flows into the
Ichormeer,
running right by the wall of
Haltmire
and serving as that fortress’s source of water before bending away to the northeast and on into a great swamp.

Frugelle, the ~
great plain upon the western shores of the
Ichormeer
and the source of many small runnels and creeks that feed the wet of that notorious bog. It gains its name from the lack of arable soil and little rain there, moisture coming to the hardy plants and beasts by way of thick fleermares (fogs) off the
Swash,
the great bay to the south.

fugous cankers
terrible and contagious disease spread by sneezing and showing worst as excruciating, rupturing, suppurating ulcers all over the body. Can be fatal if left unchecked, with the worst sufferers having to be shipped to a pestilentarium or pestifery, isolated houses for the separation of the sick from the living. The best run pestiferies will even treat and heal the sick held there; the worst are no better than prisons.

fulgar(s)
lahzars
that make powerful electrical charges in their body and use them to fight
monsters
. See entry in Book One.

fulminant(s)
potives
that cause explosions and flashes and bursts of fire.

furtigrade
secret staircase hidden in the cavities of a wall. Such things were once built into almost every structure of more decent size, though now they are included only by request of the architect and builder.

fusil
also known as a fusee or carabine or harquebus; a lighter musket with a shortened barrel that makes for simpler loading, is less cumbersome to swing about in thickets and woodland and saves considerable weight. Its shorter length also makes it handy as a club when the fight comes to hand strokes.This makes the fusil a preferred weapon of ambuscadiers and other skirmishing foot soldiers, and also comes a-handy for the drilling of smaller folk in the handling and employment of arms.

g
the symbol for guise, the lowest monetary denomination in common currency of the
Soutlands
. See
money
in Book One.

Gall, Foistin
near relation to the
Lictor
of
Winstermill,
Foistin was not proving to have either much aptitude or inclination for the lictoring trades (in which the Gall family has been a proud participant for thirteen generations) and, after a little “
playing of strings
” by his relation, was afforded a place in the
lamplighters
of
Winstermill.