Requiem (57 page)

Aedric:
First Captain of Rudolfo’s Gypsy Scouts.

Androfrancine Order:
Formed when the followers of the scientist-scholar P’Andro Whym and the behaviorist Franci B’Yot merged. The Androfrancines were the last bastion of order during the Age of Laughing Madness and led the settlement of the New World. The Androfrancines maintained strict control of the magicks and mechanicals they mined from the Old World.

Age of the Crimson Empress:
The era of healing foretold in the gospels of Ahm Y’Zir.

Age of Laughing Madness:
The 500 years that followed the destruction of the Old World by the Wizard King Xhum Y’Zir. This period was marked by chaos, anarchy, and an 80 percent insanity rate until the fourth generation of children. The madness was gradually eased among most peoples of the New World by the application of Franci behaviorism, though the Marshfolk are still considered effected by it.

Agnes:
The Daughter of Ahm who Vlad meets in the Waste of Espira who was given charge of the Vessel of Grace.

Ahm:
A land in the Old World ruled by the youngest of the Wizard King’s seven sons. It was destroyed with the rest of the Old World by the Seven Cacophonic Deaths.

Ahm’s Glory:
Capital city of Y’Zir Empire. Home of the Crimson Empress and the Y’Zirite religion.

Ahm Y’Zir:
The seventh son of Xhum Y’Zir, long thought dead. Spared by P’Andro Whym and smuggled out of the Homelands by the first Rudolfo, he raised a hidden empire and created a faith based on his teachings. Alive but now mad, Ahm Y’Zir is sustained by blood magicks and preserved by technology scavenged from the Beneath Places.

Ahmir:
Magister General of the Y’Zirite Empire.

Al Shadyk:
The Y’Zirite name of Som Li Tam, leader of the Knives of Tam.

Alyn:
A lieutenant among the gypsy scouts.

Amal Y’Zir:
Younger daughter of Raj Y’Zir. Beloved of the Last Weeping Czar, Frederico. Her “fall” from the moon preceded the Moon Wizard’s invasion. Later, she bargained alongside Frederico, with the last of the Elder Gods, that light once again be sown in the darkness.

Amara Y’Zir:
The Crimson Empress and daughter of Ahm Y’Zir. Her union with the Child of Promise is prophesied to heal the world.

Amylé D’Anjite:
The hidden daughter of the Younger God D’Anjite, a captain of the Younger God Whym’s army during the Downunder War.

Anbar:
A month in the Delta city-states calendar.

Andrys:
A lieutenant of the gypsy scouts assigned to Winters after her exile from the Marshfolk and return to Rachyle’s Rest.

Ansylus:
The crown prince of Turam. Died during the Machtvolk attack on Rudolfo’s Firstborn Feast.

Arch-scholar Ryhan:
An arch-scholar of the expeditionary force during Petronus’s papacy. Ryhan was involved in the discovery of the Seven Cacophonic Deaths.

Argum:
A month in the Named Lands.

Aric:
A Machtvolk priest.

Arys:
One of Vlad Li Tam’s aides.

Aubert:
The Entrolusian overseer before Sethbert, and his father. A paranoid and problematic man, he was once removed from the papal palace for threatening the Pope’s hospitality staff.

Aver-Tal-Ka:
Last of the Keeper’s Hatch, and last of the People’s Builder Warriors. The Keepers were an arachnid human hybrid species genetically designed to help protect and care for the People on worlds made to serve them.

B

Balthus:
A former gray guard, set to keep watch on Petronus at Caldus Bay after Sethbert’s trial.

Bargaining Pools:
The silver-colored blood of the earth in the Beneath Places. It is believed that blood and anguish could be used to purchase power and favor via these pools.

Barrens of Espira:
The ruins of Espiria, where the Last Weeping Czar lived in exile before the Moon Wizard’s invasion.

Baryk:
Rae Li Tam’s husband, a war priest of the southwest lands of the Emerald Coast.

Behemoth:
The gigantic mechanical guardian of the Moon Wizard’s Ladder. A segmented serpentine creature designed to carry passengers and cargo.

Ben Li Tam:
Vlad Li Tam’s father, who brought the worship of the Wizard Kings and their blood cult back to the Named Lands. When he realized he was wrong, he also initiated a plan to bring about an end to the Y’Zirite empire.

Beneath Places:
The underworld of Marsher legend, where the dead wander in search of home. Based on the great labyrinth of the Younger Gods beneath the surface of Lasthome.

Benoit:
Rudolfo’s house physician, one of the Physicians of Penitent Torture.

Berende:
One of the Entrolusian city-states.

Blood Guard of the Crimson Empress:
The elite Y’Zirite imperial scouts, trained in hand-to-hand combat, blood magicks, and casting in the aether with dream-stones.

Blood Magick:
Magick born in dark places, brokered and purchased with human blood mingled with the blood of the earth. Expressly forbidden in the Named Lands by the charter of the Androfrancine Order and the articles of kin-clave.

Blood Temples:
The ancient houses of power that connected with the bargaining pools far beneath, allowing the Wizard Kings access for their magicks. In later years, the cuttings became more ritualistic in nature.

Book of Dreaming Kings:
The cumulative history of the Marsh King’s prophecies and revelation. It is over half a league long.

Brint:
A city state guard at Windwir.

B’Rundic Script:
A type of writing used during the Age of Wizard Kings.

C

Calaphia:
One of the Entrolusian city-states.

Caldus Bay:
The fishing town that Petronus grew up in and eventually returned to after faking his death.

“Canticle of the Fallen Moon in B Minor”:
Supposedly composed by Frederico, the last czar before the era of the Wizard Kings. In actuality, it is the Homeseeker’s song, the People’s Song of the Sowing, taught to Frederico by Ama Y’Zir.

Canimn powder:
Used as a truth serum.

Carpathius:
An artist of the first millennium who was commissioned to paint a series of paintings celebrating the settling of the New World and the great migration.

Carthos:
One of the Delta city-states.

Cavern of Sleeping Kings:
The catacombs where the Marsh Kings are buried.

Cervael:
A minor noble of the Emerald Coast who conspired to destroy the second library along with Rudolfo and his family.

Chamber of the Book:
The cavern housing the Book of Dreaming Kings.

Charles:
Arch-engineer of Mechanical Science for the Androfrancine Order, and mechanical genius who was instrumental in recreating the mechoservitors from Ruffello’s Notes and Specifications.

Charter of Unity:
Founding document of the Entrolusian city-states.

Child of Promise:
The Y’Zirite title for Jakob, the son of Rudolfo and Jin Li Tam.

Churning Waste:
The ruined lands of what was once the Old World, before Xhum Y’Zir sent his death choirs singing destruction across the lands.

Compendium of Historical Remembrance:
A companion to the Whymer Bible.

Congius:
a unit of volume measurement that is approximately two liters.

Continuity Engine of the Elder Gods:
A mechanism created by the People to keep their species alive. It shut down as a result of Y’Zir’s uprising and the resulting Downunder War.

Cousin Wars:
A series of wars amongst the People known as the Elder Gods after they left Firsthome.

Courtyard of Imminent Grace:
In Ahm’s Glory, the main courtyard of the city, at the east end is the great temple of the Daughters of Ahm, north is the military headquarters, west lay the imperial palace, and the south is open.

Crimson Empress:
Amara Y’Zir, product of more than two millennia of careful breeding to produce the daughter of Ahm Y’Zir. Y’Zirite scripture prophesies that her union with the Child of Promise will heal the world.

Cyril:
An arch-scholar of the Turam Francine House.

Czarist Lunar Expedition:
A party sent to explore the moon, including the inventor Rufello and Lord Felip Carnelyin, that discovered the existence of Raj Y’Zir.

D

Daedrek:
A Gypsy Scout.

Dagya:
A friend of Marta’s.

D’Anjite:
A captain in the army of General Whym during the Downunder War. He left his sleeping daughter protected behind on the moon. After the death choirs of Xhum Y’Zir were sent into the world, the cataclysm supposedly awakened him and he placed a bridge across the gaping chasm so the fleeing survivors could arrive in the Named Lands.

D’Anjite’s Bridge:
The bridge placed by the Younger God when he awoke.

Danver:
One of the Gray Guard in the Beneath Places.

Dayfather Ulno Shalon:
A chieftain on one of the scattered isles that Vlad Li Tam initiated kin-clave with during his self-imposed exile.

Days of Gathering:
The 500 years prior to the opening of the New World to the survivors of the Old by the Androfrancine Order.

Death Golems:
One of the Seven Cacophonic Deaths.

Deepest of Deeps:
Location of the last of the Elder Gods, place where Frederico and Amal bargained for the light to “once more be sown in the darkness that contains us all.”

Detras:
Arch-scholar of the Franci school.

Divided Isle:
A divided island made up of independent counties, among the oldest non-Marsher, non-Gypsy settlements in the Named Lands.

Dragon’s Spine:
The wall of mountains that protects the Named Lands from the North.

Drea Merrique:
Countess Merrique, the younger sister of Rafe Merrique and former ruler of Merrique County.

Dreaming Well:
An access shaft to the Beneath Places hidden in the Churning Waste and containing Frederico’s silver crescent.

Drusilla:
A sister-mother of the Daughters of Ahm.

E

Earth Magick:
Magicks created from what can be found on the surface of Lasthome. Defensive magicks (like scout powders) are only sanctioned during times of war, never to be used by the nobility in accordance with kin-clave.

Eastern Rises:
The region of the Churning Waste where the last parchment containing the Seven Cacophonic Deaths was found.

Eastern Watch:
The keep that protects the Whymer Way from the Wastes.

Edrys:
A sergeant among Rudolfo’s Gypsy Scouts. Present at the raid on the Papal Summer Palace. Later, first among the scouts at the Wall.

El Anyr:
Emissary sent from Y’Zir to Rudolfo to bear the terms and conditions of the treaty between Y’Zir and Lord Jakob, Rudolfo’s father.

Elsbet:
Chief Mother of the order of the Daughters of Ahm Y’Zir. Assigned to Jin Li Tam as a tutor in language, history, custom, and eschatology; and spy and guide during her time in Y’Zir. A one-time lover of Ben Li Tam.

Eliz Xhum:
Blood Regent of Y’Zir and entrusted with the throne of the Crimson Empress until her age of majority.

Emerald Coast:
The region of the Named Lands known for a tropical climate, spicy foods, silks and independent city-states largely influenced by House Li Tam.

Enoch:
A historian who wrote the largely apocryphal
History of the Wizard Kings
and also the designation of a first generation mechoservitor.

Erlund:
Sethbert’s nephew and the Entrolusian Overseer that took power from his uncle in a deal brokered by House Li Tam.

Errant Gospels:
Gospels attributed to P’Andro or T’Erys Whym that contain information of an apocryphal or heretical nature.

Esarov the Democrat:
An Androfrancine turned actor turned leader of the populist rebellion in the United City States of the Entrolusian Delta.

An Exegesis of Select Lunar Prophecies as Recorded in the Book of Dreaming Kings:
Tertius’s book from his time among the Marshers.

Exercise in Holiness:
A papal decree closing Windwir to outsiders for a year.

Ezra:
Keeper of the Book for Mardic and earlier his father’s time. Herald of the Machtvolk Queen and prophet of the Crimson Empress.

F

Fargoer’s Horn:
The cape formed by the Keeper’s Wall on the western side of the Churning Wastes that is occasionally sailed (illegally) by pirates.

Fargoer Station:
The Androfrancine outpost at the Keeper’s Gate.

Fargoer’s Steel:
The strange metal the Pope’s ring is made of, also called Firstfall Steel.

Fargoer’s Town:
A waste village in the shadow of the Keepers Wall who had once traded with the Androfrancines.

Feris:
A Gypsy Scout led by Jin Li Tam into the Machtvolk lands.

Final Dream:
The pages cut from the Book of Dreaming Kings that together form the final Homeward Dream of the Marshfolk.

Firespice:
A powerful liquor favored on the Emerald Coast.

First Assertion of T’Erys Whym:
“Change can be forced by careful design and thoughtful effort.”

First Gypsy War
: Two hundred years after settlement, during which the Entrolusian city-states first united under an Overseer.