EXPLANATION of PRONUNCIATION

ä is said as the “ah” sound in “father” or “car”

æ is said as the “ay” sound in “hay” or “eight”

ë is said as the “ee” sound in “scream” or “beep”

é is said as the “eh” sound in “shed” or “everyone”

ö is said as the “er” sound in “learn” or “burn”

ü is said as the “oo” sound in “wood” or “should”

~ine at the end of pronouns is said as the “een” sound in “bean” or “seen”; the exception to this is “Clementine,” which is said as the “eyn” sound in “fine” or “mine.”

Words ending in e, such as “Verline” or “Grintwoode”: the e is not sounded.

EXPLANATION of ITALICS

A word set in italics indicates that you will find an explanation of that word also in the explicarium; the only exceptions to this are the names of rams and other vessels, and the titles of books, where it is simply a convention to put these names in italics.

SOURCES

In researching this document the scholars are indebted to many sources. Of them all the following proved the most consistently sourced:

& extracts from the Vadè Chemica

AOWM an acronym used as the symbol of the skolds, taken from the symbols of the Elements in the Körnchenflecter. It represents the four-part systems of their discipline and learning. See the Four Humours, the Four Spheres, the Körnchenflecter and skolds.

apprentices persons working in training under the tutelage of their employer. Often abbreviated to “’prentices.” A person serves and learns as an apprentice to a master for four years, after this time becoming a journeyman or companion working independently and gaining experience. When they have worked at this for no less than six years, apprentices have the right to become masters and to take on apprentices themselves.

Arius Vigilans “the vigilant ram.” The emblem or sigil representing the state of Hergoatenbosch and its capital Boschenberg, and revered for its obstinacy and hard-headedness.

army the states of the Empire are not allowed to have large standing armies, usually no more than ten thousand soldiers. These are considered enough for various guarding duties about the walls of cities and major rural centers. As a consequence there are many mercenary regiments (which are not illegal) roaming the lands; the states employ these to do their fighting for them. Sometimes certain states manage to gain dispensation from the Emperor to have a standing army of greater than ten thousand men if their lands are extensive—a nice little loop-hole which has allowed some to amass sizable forces. Their neighbors, of course, do not like this. They have their ministers complain in the Imperial Parliament, from which the Emperor may or may not order a reduction, and so the cycle of rivalry and envy goes on. Meanwhile the mercenaries get richer. The army referred to in the story would be Boschenberg’s standing army, though mercenaries also seek recruits from such places as Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls.

ashmongers dealers in corpses and products made or gained from dead bodies; the middlemen of the dark trades, taking the dead bodies that the corsers steal and the smugglers smuggle, and passing them on—for a modest fee, of course—to their grateful, benighted customers. They also trade in monsters, alive or dead, and their parts. Because skolds and scourges frequently use their services, they have been legitimized, but everyone knows that they are agents for those working outside the law.

Axles, the ~ the mighty rivergates that guard the northern and southern entrances of the Humour River as it flows past Boschenberg. The northern Axle is known as the Nerid Axle, and the southern the Scutid Axle. Heavily defended with great-guns and soldiers, the gates prevent riverine traffic from moving through without paying tolls for cargo and/or passengers, plus a tax for the craft itself. If the master of the vessel does not get the right forms filled in when passing through both Axles, he is likely to be charged twice, once for each rivergate. See rivergates.

baldric also called broadstraps, brightly decorated with mottle and sometimes even a coat of arms or sigil. Baldrics are the favorite way for most everymen to advertise their allegiances. Often a favorite weapon is hung from your baldric. Other similar items of clothing are sashes—made of silk; and cingulum—a more gorgeously decorated variety of baldric worn only in pageants, processions and galas (dances). See mottle.

bard, barding a set of proofing worn as armor. See harness.

barge any rivergoing gastriner.

bargemen workers of rivergoing craft as opposed to vinegaroons, who sail the high seas and work on rams and cargoes. Vinegaroons consider bargemen to be lesser creatures, not as skilled as sailors, and the bargemen resent this strongly. As far as they see it, a boat is a boat, and still needs to be handled well to keep its trim in the water, wherever that water might be.

Barthomæus, Instructor ~ said “bath-o-may-uss”; one of the staff at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. His main responsibility is to teach the children physical skills such as harundo and swimming and rowing. A retired yardsman, he is not as old as Fransitart or Craumpalin, having arrived at the foundlingery only a couple of years ago.

Bases and Combinations the foundational chemicals from which all scripts (potives and drafts) are begun. Each realm or script has its selection of Bases. For example bezoariac, used in making Cathar’s Treacle, is one of the Bases of the realm known as alembants—scripts used to alter someone’s physique. The most common Base for all realms is water. Combinations are the ways in which both Bases and their resulting scripts might be combined for more potent or varied results.

baskets derogatory term meaning base and unworthy fellows, especially monsters.

Battle of the Gates see Gates, Battle of the ~.

Battle of the Mole see Mole, Battle of the ~.

beast-handlers or, more properly, tractors or feralados; people who feed, clean, bridle, train and control the many beasts used in warfare. They are especially used to care for and control the bolbogis, the dogs-of-war, great gudgeon monsters like the Slothog, keeping them in check with thick chains and carefully applied potives. Tractors lead their beasts into battle, working up their rage with the pricking of goads till they are near the enemy lines. With the enemy close, the beasts are released to storm off into the foe. Occasionally the monsters “malfunction” and turn on their own army, doing great harm till they can be subdued.

belladonna also called pratchigin in the south and sweet-lass in Boschenberg and its lands; a powder made from the root of the deadly nightshade bush. In small doses it is used to relieve stomach complaints. A slightly stronger dose can give a slight uplift to one’s spirits. Too much belladonna, however, can put you into a coma or, even worse, kill you. It is sometimes added to Cathar’s Treacle to help with digestion and make takers feel a bit better about themselves. It is not essential, however, and Cathar’s Treacle works just as well without it.

bells of the watch aboard rams and other watergoing craft, and in any naval college or school, a bell is rung on every half hour of a watch: 8 bells are rung at the beginning of each watch, then 1 bell after the first half hour, 2 bells after an hour, 3 bells after an hour and a half and so on until 8 bells are reached again and a new watch called. Exceptions to this are the two dogwatches, where only 3 bells are rung before ringing out 8 to begin a new watch once more. See watches.

Best Cuts the expensive dishes on a menu; those meals said to be fashionable. The strange thing is that after a few seasons they may well find themselves listed under the Rakes instead, and meals once considered common and cheap make their way back into the Best Cuts. Ah, the vicissitudes of fashion. See Rakes.

bezoriac, bezoariac, besorus one of the Bases; a thickish liquid, usually clear but sometimes straw-colored; used in the making of Cathar’s Treacle and many other scripts that change the way the body functions and also for antidotes.

biggin wooden cup or flask in an oiled leather case, with a lid of the same which fastens shut and helps hold in most of whatever the biggin is holding. For traveling, water- and wineskins or canteens are more common, but a biggin will do over a short journey.

Bill of Fare what we would call a “menu,” fare meaning “food,” bill meaning “list.”

billet-boxes the cheapest accommodation in a wayhouse or hostelry: little more than a cupboard set into a wall containing a cot and some space to store one’s things. They might range as high as four billet-boxes up a wall, with a ladder to access those above the first. Cramped and uncomfortable for anyone over six feet tall.

Billetus, Mister ~ owner and proprietor of the Harefoot Dig, along with his wife Madam Felicitine. He inherited the Dig from some distant part of the family when he was young and single after a short stint as a cooper’s apprentice, and has run the wayhouse ever since.

birchet restorative draft used to reduce swelling and numb pain. Its powerful reaction with the body when first swallowed is thought to help against the rise of a fever as well. See scripts.

black coney pie a pastry made from rabbit meat stewed in a mixture of herbs that makes the flesh go dark—almost black—as it cooks.

boatswain also bosun; standing officer of a vessel, which means he stays with the craft no matter what, whether it is at sea or laid up in ordinary. With the assistance of the boatswain’s mates, he is responsible for bunting (flags), rigging, blocks, cables, anchors, any other ropes or cords, a vessel’s boats, the seamanship of the vinegaroons working the vessel including those under the gastrineer, turning the watches and ensuring the gunwale and sides of his vessel are clean and at all times clear of clotheslines, stray ropes, caulking and any other foreign matter. One of the most learned and experienced sailors on board a vessel, he is paid anywhere from forty-six to sixty sous a year.

bogle(s) the most commonly used term for monsters generally; it can also be used to mean the smaller varieties of monster, those of less than a human’s height, including nuglungs, nimbleschrewds, glamgorns and that white creature Rossamünd sees in the waters of the Humour. Even a small monster is deadly dangerous and very hard to kill. Anyone wishing for a long life will treat even these with a great deal of care.

boobook, boobook owl small white and brown owl with large black eyes and a pleasant woodwind call. It is said that they are mortally afraid of monsters, and so to hear one is a happy sign.

book child any child raised in an orphanage, foundlingery or any other institution for the housing or care of stray or unwanted children. They are called book children because their names are always entered into some kind of book when they arrive at the institution. As a consequence it is customary for the children to take on the family name of “Bookchild” when they grow up and move on, especially if they do not know their original family name.

Bookday the day Madam Opera holds once a year to celebrate the lives of all the foundlings living under the roof of her marine society. One day does all and passes for a kind of birthday, even if the actual date of birth is known. Madam Opera would rather that no child get any lofty ideas about being more special than the others, though she does not enforce this policy on her staff strictly.

bookhouse another name for a foundlingery or a marine society. So named from the book its occupants’ names are written into.

Boschenberg said “bosh-en-burg”; the great city of the people who now call themselves the Hergotts, and who are descended from the fierce tribes that were native to the region, the Bosch, who were eventually conquered by the Empire.The name means “the hill or mount of the Bosch” where, as legend goes, the last of the Bosch made their mighty yet doomed stand before the might of a long-dead emperor’s armies. See Hergoatenbosch and Hergott.

Boschenberger(s) those living in or coming from Boschenberg.

bosun’s whistle or pipe; a whistle with a distinctive three-note call used by a vessel’s boatswain (bosun) to order those under his authority to their respective tasks. In the marine society it is used in much the same way by Master Heddlebulk, piping the children to various tasks. The bells let them know what time it is.

bothersalts popular potive used to drive away monsters. It smells terrible, and even worse to bogles, affecting the mucous membranes, such as inside the nose and throat, and also the eyes, stinging powerfully and even causing (temporary) blindness. There are no flashes or bangs with bothersalts, just a puff of the powder and much stumbling and screaming from the victim. One of the remarkable things about them is that even if they get wet, bothersalts will dry back into fine crystals ready for use again, unlike many other repugnants of its kind. This makes them popular among vinegaroons and bargemen and this is why Craumpalin knows how to make them.

bower maid maid who looks after a bower (bedroom) and the bedding, washing and clothing needs of whoever might occupy that room. In the Harefoot Dig, the bower maids simply attend to the ablutions and comforts of the guests staying in their rooms. Bower maids can be privy to some very delicate information, as they serve their masters and mistresses in the most intimate room of the house. Consequently, some bower maids have been forced to betray the master or mistress by bribes, threats or pain, while certain master spies use such a disguise to do their nefarious work.

boxthorn medium to large bush with small dark hardy leaves that grows all about the Soutlands, especially in remoter places. It gets its name from the roughly boxlike shape it gains as it matures, and for the one- to three-inch thorns sticking from trunk, branch and twig. As with all thorny plants, rural folks regard them as ill luck, attracting and hiding monsters. They are thought to be a favorite hidey-hole for bogles and are often pruned and lopped if found growing too near civilization.

Branden Rose, the ~ name by which Europe is known throughout much of the Soutlands, the vast southern lands of the Empire. She has this appellation because she has spent so much time in Brandenbrass that she is mistakenly believed to have originally come from that city.

Brandenbrass enormous city well to the south of Boschenberg, and one of its main rivals for trade and prominence. Situated on the north-western shores of the Grume, Brandenbrass is known for the great size of its navy and the adventurous roving of its sea captains and merchants. Even though it controls very little land, after centuries of strong and enterprising trade Brandenbrass has become a significant power. Its standing army is tiny—no more than three thousand souls, yet such is its wealth and fame that several of the most elite mercenary regiments use Brandenbrass as their headquarters, being granted protected lands—or parks—by the city’s walls to billet and train. This is a convenient and perfectly legal arrangement that gives the city first pick of many thousands of the land’s best soldiers should they ever be needed. At the time of Rossamünd, Brandenbrass is ruled in the Emperor’s name by the Archduke Narsesës and his loyal Cabinet.

Brigandine, the ~ a collection of little kingdoms far to the northeast of the Half-Continent, past Mandalay and Tumbalay, across the Bay of Bells (Sinus Tintinabuline). Each one is ruled by a cunning pirate-king, supremely successful corsairs who have amassed enough wealth and loyal following to establish themselves as minor potentates of their own realms. Some pirate-kings are secretly sponsored by certain states or kingdoms on the understanding that they will leave that state or kingdom’s own vessels alone but freely harry all other shipping. In exchange the sponsoring power allows clandestine access to its own ports and markets, thus allowing a pirate-king or -queen and his or her rascally hoard to flourish.

brigands also called bog-trotters, along with smugglers; robbers, highwaymen and ne’er-do-wells, desperate men living in the semi-wilds and rural lands, looking to waylay passers and rob them, beat them or even murder them. A brigand’s life is tough and usually short, contending with both the officers of Imperial Law (such as the lamplighters) and the monsters that lurk all about them. The best chance a brigand has of surviving is by gathering with others of his or her kind in a violent gang or band, the bigger the better. Such a gang is ruled by the most ruthless of them, and together they can cause a lot of anguish and trouble to both man and monster. If a band of brigands do not have a skold in their midst, they will commonly kidnap one and force him or her to work for them under threat of death—another risk the humble skold has to run. Brigands work hard to keep their dens secret, taking convoluted paths to and from their lairs. For, if a brigand’s den is discovered, or even a hint of it is known to the authorities, they descend upon the murderous band with merciless alacrity. Truly, only the most destitute and desperate would ever venture on a life like this. One of the favorite weapons of brigands for hand-to-hand fights and making threats is the carnarium or “flesh-hook,” such as that used by butchers. It is their distinctive item, almost a badge of the job.

bright-black highly polished black leather; what we would call “patent” leather.

bright-limn lanternlike device used to illuminate homes, streets and ships. Its glow comes from a certain species of phosphorescent algae known as glimbloom or just bloom, which glows very brightly when soaked in a certain soup of chemicals called seltzer. These chemicals cause the algae to glow strongly. When the algae are out of the seltzer, they cease to give off light. The glass panes of a bright-limn are always arranged hexagonally and the stem of bloom hangs off-center, which means that to “turn a bright-limn off,” you simply lay it on the side opposite the stem of bloom, which leaves it out of the seltzer. Gradually it will dim down as the algae dry and become dormant. To “turn” it back on, you stand the bright-limn upright or roll it to its opposite side and very soon it will begin to glow again. The great advantage of a bright-limn is that it has no flame, and so there is no chance of an accident causing some part of the very wooden cities of the Half-Continent to burn down—just a puddly mess and a funny smell. They are also low maintenance, in that there is no wick to trim or oil to change. In fact a bright-limn can be left to glow continuously day and night without any ill effect. The seltzer does, however, slowly go off, changing from a pale yellow to a deep orange; when it is completely bad, it becomes a dirty, toxic green and begins to be harmful to the algae. When the deep orange is turning filthy brown, it is time to change the seltzer.

Brindlestow Bridge, the ~ ancient bridge on the Vestiweg, which crosses a gorge at the bottom of which runs the Pill, a small stream that empties into the swampy lands at the mouth of the Humour. Originally built by the ancient Tutins, the Brindlestow Bridge has been refurbished several times and, as an obvious choke point, is a favorite ambush of the monsters, and even brigands. At least once a season some kind of pugnator has to be sent out to clear the bridge or the road of bogles.

Brindlewood, the ~ or the Brindleshaws; a broad forest of pine and turpentine, beech and myrtle on the hilly southwestern tip of Sulk End (a region known as the Sough). The Vestiweg passes right through it, entering at the northwest corner and joining the Gainway in the forest’s sparse eastern fringes. Though regarded as ditchlands, and largely given over to the monsters, the Brindlewood is tame as ditchlands go and several brave folk still make homes there. These Shawsmen live in lonely manors or dwell in towns such as Herrod’s Hollow—a logging town—to work the nearby sawmill, or Silvernook, and are frequent patrons of the Harefoot Dig.

broadside side of a ram or other vessel of war; also the name for the simultaneous firing of the guns on one side of a ram.

Bucket kitchen boy employed at the Harefoot Dig.Whenever he has a free moment, he likes to play at cards with the other boys working at the Dig.

buff, buff-leather soft, untanned leather, still strong and durable; the type of leather favored by gaulders, making very tough proofing indeed.

“by the precious here and vere” exclamation of surprise, wonder, amazement or exasperation, meaning “by the precious west (here) and east (vere).” In the Half-Continent, although the usual north, south, east and west are more common terms, directions of the compass are given classical names used by great peoples of the past:

cannon muzzle-loading guns charged with black powder wrapped in cloth or paper canisters and usually solid iron round-shot, fired by a match through a primed touchhole or by use of a flintlock mechanism. They come in a range of weights: the small-guns—3, 4, 6 and 9 pounders; the long-guns—12 and 18 pounders; the great-guns—24, 32, 42 pounders; and the siege-guns or cannon-royal—50 and 68 pounders. The numbers denote the approximate weight of the shot fired from the cannon. The guns themselves are much heavier (for example, a 32 pounder weighs between 2 tons and 2¾ tons and is roughly 9 feet 8 inches long). A typical cannon is also called a culverin, long-barreled with a decent range.There is also a stocky short-barreled cannon known as a lombarin or lombard, named after the Lombards of the island of Lombardy who invented it. Though their shorter barrels mean a significant reduction in accuracy, it means that they can fire a much bigger shot of metal than a culverin of the same weight. So, a lombard weighing about 2.8 tons, roughly the same weight of that 32 pounder culverin mentioned earlier, would be a 50 pounder, firing 50 pounder shot. Lombards are more popular on the cruiser class of ram—the frigates and the drag-maulers—where they allow these smaller vessels to blast out a considerably higher “weight of shot,” as it is called, than if they were armed with just culverins. The loss of range is compensated for by the superior agility of these lighter ironclads.

cargo(es) boxlike gastrine vessels that carry goods and even passengers all about the vinegar seas. Cargoes sit much higher out of the water than the low and menacing rams, having two more decks above the water than a ram. All decks are used as hold space, although cargoes do carry a small battery of cannon on the topmost deck. Cargoes move appreciably slower than rams of the same tread of gastrines, which makes them easy prey for pirates and privateers. Consequently they usually travel in convoys with an escort of two or three rams—typically drag-maulers or heavy frigates. The largest cargo, the grand-cargo, is as big as the biggest ram, the main-sovereign, and dwarfs most other vessels, yet it is slow and will not leave a port without a strong escort. These vessels are costly to build in both money and time, and their owners are loath to lose them. Cargoes require about one tenth of the manpower required to work a ram. See gastrines.

carlin coin money; a silver ten sequin piece or five eighths of a sou. See money.

Cathar’s Treacle or plaudamentum; draft drunk by lahzars; its main function is to stop all the surgically introduced organs (mimetic organs) and connective tissues within a lahzar’s body from rejecting their host. The nature of the ingredients and the way in which they react means that Cathar’s Treacle does not keep for very long at all, a few hours at best, and has to be made afresh each time. It must be taken twice a day, or the lahzar risks spasming. If lahzars go more than a few days without the treacle, their organs start to rot within them, and after a week without it the lahzar’s doom is certain. The parts, or ingredients, for Cathar’s Treacle are as follows:

There are other drafts that a lahzar must take periodically, but Cathar’s Treacle is the most important. For fulgars the next most important is a daily dose of fulgura sagrada or saltegrade. For wits it is a daily drink of iambic ichor; Friscan’s wead every two days; and two tots of cordial of Sammany three times a week plus other traces throughout their lives. Such dependency is a trade-off for the immense power they possess. A physician would also recommend a dose of evander every so often to lift the wind and fortify the pith.

chain mail despite the advent of proofing, chain mail is still made and worn. It might not be bulletproof like gaulded clothes, but it is effective against the raking claws and snapping teeth of bogles, and if some kind of proofing is worn beneath, then the protection is excellent—a kind of troubarding. See harness.

Chassart also Chastony or Chassault; one of the southernmost city-states of the Frestonian League, famous for its soaps and perfumes.

chemicals the main way people have used to confront the threat of monsters of the millennia. These chemicals come in all manner of exotic concoctions and brews. See scripts, potives and drafts.

Chief Harbor Governor the most senior pilot of a port and harbor, in charge of all the other pilots and of the movements of shipping into and out of his jurisdiction; they have a universal reputation for being irascible and rude, which probably comes from dealing with egocentric captains and masters all day.

“chiff-chaffing lobcock” talkative fool, someone who says or talks too much, a “flabbermouth.”

city-state(s) the lands of the Empire are divided into distinct domains, each dominated by a city and ruled by a regent in the Emperor’s stead. These regents are all dukes, duchesses or earls, as the Empire will not allow anyone to hold the title of “king” or “queen” and so get lofty ideas (the only exception to this is the Gightland Queen).

claret a usually cheap red wine mixed with apple or pear pulp. It has become fashionable for the more jauntily rich to drink it, part of a whole adventure of slumming it with the lesser folk.

Clementine capital city of the whole Empire, where the Emperor has his three palaces, each housing one of the Three Seats (Imperial thrones). Situated in an ancient region called Benevenetium, upon the edge of the Marrow—a great gorgelike trench or drain dug a millennium ago from the capital to the sea, 2,300 miles to the east. A massive city, it is home to two million souls and the Imperial Parliament, where representatives of all the member states and realms and conclaves bicker for a bigger share. It was built aeons ago on an even more ancient granite plateau; a massive citadel of marble and granite with ponderous fortifications and fourteen huge gates and equally huge drawbridges, famous and named with appropriately lofty names: the Immutable Port, the Port Aeternus, the Immortal Gate, the Undying Door, the Sempiternal Gates, the Amaranthine Gate, the Port of the Elect, the Perdurable Door, the Doors Inviolable, the Stout Gate (Door), the Port Indomitable, the Impenetrable Gates, the Doors of the Potential, the Sthenic Gate. It has been described as “. . . a heap; a rambling urban palace of tall marble and spired granite, its towers sharing spaces with the clouds. It has become a place of corrupt opulence and epitomizes all that is broken in its far-spread kingdom . . .”

clerk’s sergeant noncommissioned officer in charge of military clerks; a common rank among revenue officers, where they are often far more active than their title of “clerk” might suggest.

Closet head cook of the Harefoot Dig, with only a modicum of ability as a cook. If he was not an old chum of Billetus, he would probably have been replaced by Uda a long time ago. As one of the live-in staff, part of his pay is given as accommodation in the staff quarters.

Clunes one of the southernmost realms of the Empire, famous for the skill and sweetness of its singers; they are said to have gained such talent from their contact with the reclusive and musical folk of Hamlin and Cloudeslee.

Cockeril, the ~ privately owned thirty-two-guns-broad heavy-frigate in harbor at High Vesting.

concometrist also metrician; one of a highly trained group of fastidious researchers and soldier-scholars whose sworn charter is to measure and record the length and breadth of all things. Trained for five years in colleges known as athenaeums, they are released on the world bearing two precious gifts awarded to them upon graduation. The first is a calibrator, a yard-long ruler of hardened wood marked with feet and inches, either end being capped with brass ferules. The calibrator is both a tool of the trade and a trusty weapon. Concometrists can be recognized by the calibrators they carry. The second award is the mysterious numrelogue, a large book two to three inches thick, to be filled with the cryptic formulas and strings of ciphers that only their kind know, recordings of all a concometrist has seen, investigated and measured. When a numrelogue is full, it is handed back to the concometrist’s governing athenaeum and he or she is handed a new one to fill. Navigators, surveyors and metricians (measurers) are all types of concometrist. They also make good clerks because of their attention to written detail. See Appendix 4.

conductors also trunk roads; major roads between cities maintained at the expense and energy of the local rulers; these were originally made to allow easier marching for armies but are now just as busy as routes of trade. See highroads.

conduit(s) major roads between cities maintained at the expense and energy of the Emperor, originally built by the soldiers of the Empire as they forged their way into new lands. See Imperial Conductors and highroads.

Conduit Vermis the Wormway, running from Winstermill to Wörms and passing through the Ichormeer. Once the Conduit Vermis enters that swamp, it quickly becomes one of the most dangerous roads to travel, oppressed by powerful threwd and haunted by a great variety of monsters. All attempts to civilize that stretch of the Wormway have failed, often disastrously.

corsers grave robbers, tomb raiders and suppliers to the dark trades. They provide corpses and body parts for the growing demand of benighted laboratories all about the land. It is dangerous, putrid work: corsers run a continual risk of falling foul with the authorities and monsters (those bogles who creep about in cemeteries and tombs are among the most vicious and violent), yet the money earned in this line of work makes the risks worth the while taking.

Corvinius Arbour one of the more powerful family houses in Boschenberg, connected with the mighty Saakrahennemus clan of Brandenbrass, whose ancient lineage has sprouted many of history’s prominent figures.

counteroffend counterstrike move in harundo; one of the many moves that are part of the Hundred Rules of Harundo.

coxswain petty officer in charge of the small boats aboard a ram or cargo such as the jolly boats and the captain’s launch; paid about thirty-six sous a year.

Craumpalin, Master ~ said “krorm-pah-linn”; dispensurist working at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, attending to the medicinal needs of children, other staff, Madam Opera herself and even many folks who live and work in the neighborhood of the marine society. Trained as a dispensurist by the navy, he served with his old friend and messmate Master Fransitart. When Fransitart was pressed into service as a boy, it was a young Craumpalin who befriended him first and has stayed true to him since. If you ask him, Craumpalin will tell you he was born in the Patricine city-state of Lousaine.

Craumpalin’s Exstinker a potive Craumpalin makes for Rossamünd, to hide his smell from noses that do not need to know. See nullodours.

cromster(s) one of the smallest of the armed, ironclad river-barges, having three-inch cast-iron strakes down each side and from four to twelve 12-pounder guns (see cannon) upon each broadside. Generally single-masted, though the biggest may have two masts. Below the open-deck is a single lower deck called the orlop. Forward of amidships (the middle of the craft) is typically hold space for cargo. Aft of amidships the orlop is reserved for the gastrines and their crews. Cromsters sit low in the water and are generally suitable only for rivers and the inshore currents of sheltered bays. You might find cromsters much further up a river than any gastrine craft, yet only the most foolhardy or brave (between which there is seldom any difference) will take them out into the deeps of the vinegar seas. Their short keels make them ideal for shallow waters; however, large swells can wash over the deck dangerously and capsize them. Though not as fast as other gastrine vessels (six knots at best), cromsters are small, sturdy and maneuverable and one will find them the most commonly used of all rivergoing craft. The crew of a cromster, as with all other riverine craft, are known as bargemen. See Appendix 7.

cruorpunxis spilled-blood punctures, said “kroo-or-punks-sis”; the proper name for a monster-blood tattoo.

cudgel or fustis; any wooden stick, heavy, sometimes bound or studded with iron or another metal and usually of no more than four feet in length; usually fashioned straight from the branch of a tree and used in the martial training of harundo and other stick-fighting disciplines. Types of cudgel range from the smooth and straight stock to the knot-and-knuckle-headed knout; they include the excessively knobbly knupel, the gabelüng (“fork in the road”) with its two-pronged head, the stang (or quarterstaff) and the overlong prugel-staff. Cudgels are normally preferred over swords because heavy, blunt blows do more harm through proofing than the cut or stab of a blade. They also serve well as walking sticks.

cudgel-master person who has won the right to bear a knupel, and so is deemed skilled enough to teach others.

culix said “cyoo-licks”; blow with the butt end of a cudgel or stick: one of the many moves that are a part of the Hundred Rules of Harundo.

curtain wall surrounding walls of a city, so called because they go straight up and down like a curtain. This makes them vulnerable to cannon fire but provides an impenetrable barrier to adventurous bogles. Curtain walls built in the last few hundred years, however, may have a sloping outer face called a scarp, to help deflect shot from cannon. Each city will have several rings of curtain walls, a new line built as the population expands beyond the previous ring. The older the city, the more encircling curtain walls it will possess.

Dank day-watchman of the Harefoot Dig, having charge over protecting the wayhouse, its guests, owners and employees against attack from brigands and highwaymen and, most importantly, monsters. He hands over his responsibility to Teagarden when the evening watch begins.

dark trades, the ~ clandestine trafficking of illegal goods, but most particularly corpses of people, body parts of man and monster and whole monsters, dead or alive. It is exceedingly dangerous for those involved, from the corsers and trappers, the ashmongers in the middle to the various secret clients, yet the demand for the products of the dark trades is the highest it has ever been and the money to be had makes the dangers endured entirely worthwhile.

day-clothes also schmutter; any garment not proofed.

days of the week the first is Newich—the “new watch,” then Loonday—the “moon’s day,” Mareday—the “sea’s day,” Midwich—the “middle watch,” Domesday—the “family’s day,” which is a day of rest, followed by Calumday—the “sky’s day,” and finally Solemnday—the last day of the week, when people stop work two hours earlier to go home and celebrate the closing of another successful seven days. See months of the year and Appendix 1.

Dido ancient Empress and founder of the Empire of the Half-Continent, from whose line was reckoned the Emperors until the Haacobins usurped the Three Thrones. Great-granddaughter of the legendary Idaho of the Attics, she was betrayed by her ministers and fled to save her life, gathering about her other remnant races from the fall of the Phlegms to begin the Empire in which this book takes place. The Didodumese are her scattered descendants, and most peers—especially the Antique Sanguines (see social status)—claim some link to her and so to her glorious great-grandmother.

Dig, the ~ nickname used by locals for the Harefoot Dig.

dispensurist(s) said “diss-pens-yoo-rist”; “lesser” kind of skold, concerned only with potives and drafts that help and heal. Six months at a rhombus and two years as an apprentice dispenser under a fully qualified dispensurist will get you your license to practice. Dispensurists are liked and trusted, even more than skolds. They are also considered to be habilists.

ditchlands as far as men reckon it, the world is divided into five distinct regions or marches. Ditchlands are “frontier territory,” the fourth-most region or march and the outermost domain of man, just before the wilds (where everymen seldom go and never dwell). Ditchlands are the “front line” of humankind’s push to civilize the whole world. In ditchlands populations are small and live very close for mutual strength, always behind walls, with windows permanently barred and doors kept locked even at the height of day. Chimneys here are built highest of all. No one goes anywhere without wearing proofing, even indoors during the day. Everyone keeps stores of potives supplied by skolds and carries some on all excursions out of doors. Many ditchland communities are supported by a sturdy military presence of either pediteers (soldiers) or lamplighters or both. Small fortresses built along the main road in the region typically form the hub of a settlement and are the last places of refuge in event of some major attack by monsters. See marches.

dolatramentis(tum) said “doll-la-truh-men-tiss(tum)”; any mark made on the skin to show one’s skills and heroic feats, either spoors or monster-blood tattoos.

Domesday said “doams-day”; fifth day of the week, and typically a day of rest. See days of the week.

draft(s) • any concoction meant to be taken and have effect by swallowing, as opposed to potives, which work externally. See scripts. • the depth to which the hull and keel of a boat or ship descends into the water. A vessel with a shallow draft can negotiate shallow waters.

drudge the smallest of the oceangoing gastriners, employed to tug and tow other larger vessels about the crowd of a harbor. Some are armed with cannon and work to guard their port. These are called gun-drudges. See rams.

eekers folk who, because of poverty or persecution or in protest, live in wild or marginal places, often alone and scrounging what life they can from the surrounding land. Many eekers are political exiles, sent away from, or choosing to leave, their home city because of some conflict with a personage of power. It is often marveled upon by other folk just how it is that eekers survive in the haunted places where they are forced to live. It is commonly held that most have sedorned themselves, that is, become despicable sedorners, so that the monsters will leave them be. They are already mistrusted and despised for their eccentric ways, and such a suspicion only makes them doubly so.

Elements, the ~ the basis of the four-part system of understanding used by skolds, physicians and other habilists. Simply put, the Elements are earth, air, fire and water and have many accompanying corollaries. See the Four Humours, the Four Spheres, the Körnchenflecter.

Emperor the supreme ruler of an Empire, in this context the Empire of the Half-Continent; the original line of Emperors was descended from Dido, the founder of the Empire and great-granddaughter of Idaho, the mythic hero-queen of the Attics. The current Emperor is Scepticus XLV Haacobin Menangës, who is working to reconcile the Didodumese and their supporters to his dynasty’s claim.

Emperor’s Billion, the ~ name of the shiny gold oscadril coin given to any person as an incentive to enter the Emperor’s Service and become an Emperor’s Man. This type of payment is called “coat and conduct” money, promised to anyone who wishes to join up, whether to serve the Emperor, or some realm’s navy, or even a mercenary regiment. From this coat and conduct money new recruits are meant to pay for their travel to their new job and for parts of their kit when they get there. A billion is any coin that is the largest denomination of a realm’s currency (for example, the sou is the billion of Soutland money). See money.

Emperor’s Highroads, the ~ see conduits.

Emperor’s Man, an ~ any person working for the Empire and therefore the Emperor. Lamplighters are Emperor’s Men because they are employed by the Empire to watch the Emperor’s Highroads.

Empire, the ~ also called the Haacobin Empire, the Old Empire, the Benevenetian Empire or the Empire of the City-states. When the Sceptic Dynasty (said “sep-tik”) ruled, it had been called the Sceptic Empire. The imperial domains of the current Haacobin Dynasty are divided into three parts (pars regia magna). In the north is the Seat, where Clementine, the Imperial Capital, is, and includes the western lands of the Stipula, the agricultural lands of the Leven and the Table, which extends right along the southern wall of the Marrow. In the east is the Verid Litus, made up of the old inheritance of the Orprimine on the coast, and the mining lands of the Sink beneath. In the south is the Soutlands extending from Catalain and the western edge of the Ichormeer, across to Hergoatenbosch and Thisterland, and down along the Grume, the Patricine and the Lent, reaching as far inland as Maine and ending at the northern edge of the wildlands known as Dusthumlinde (the Dusthumës). These lands are divided up into city-states, the boundaries of each being fixed in the Henoticon—the Formula of the Division of the Land drawn up in HIR 1011 by Empress Quintinia Excrutia Scepticus. Heavily amended, the document still stands as the legal blueprint of borders and border rights and is constantly invoked as states wrestle with each other for mutually coveted lands and their resources. The original Henoticon is kept in the subterranean vaults of the Quintessentum (the Imperial Archive in Clementine). Control is maintained through its sprawling conquests with the aid of the subcapitals: cities of grandeur built by the Haacobins to keep an eye on their restive subjects so far from the friendly gaze of Clementine itself. In the Soutlands are the subcapitals of the Considine and the Serenine. On the Verid Litus is the Campaline. They are gorgeous places and an essential part of the “Grand Tour,” attracting tourists from all the lands.

enrica d’ama said “enn-ree-kah dar-mah” or “enn-ree-ka deh-arm-ah,” lady of the house; chatelaine, woman in charge of the running of a home, wayhouse, hostelry or even a palace, with authority over all the servants and even any guards; not necessarily the owner of the home, wayhouse, hostelry or palace.

equiteer said “eh-kwit-tear”; another name for a cavalryman. Horses are not used in great numbers outside of cities because monsters tend to find them the most tasty of the beasts of burden. Consequently the use of cavalry is limited. If one is to move a squadron of equiteers about the country, one has to be prepared to defend them against curiously hungry monsters thinking with their bellies.

equiteer boots footwear typically worn by equiteers, made of bright-black leather and reaching to the knees. At the top of the boot, coming from the outer side, is a flaring panel of proofed leather called a shin-collar. This protects the knee, especially when bent as the equiteer sits in the saddle. Equiteer boots also have raised heels anywhere from 1 inch to 2½ inches high, which hook on to the stirrup and so provide a better seat in the saddle.

ettin among the largest of the land-living monsters, looking like enormous deformed men (as much as fifty feet tall); strong of limb but not hard to hurt or even slay despite their size. They are not very bright; indeed, many are quite simple to outwit.When they are in a rage, however, they can do great harm, and gangs of them marauding for food in the winter months can be terrible.

Europe, Miss ~ experienced and well-known fulgar, who encountered lahzars in her childhood and was instantly fascinated. This fascination turned to obsession and she ran away from home, traveling secretly to Sinster to be transmogrified by the best surgeon available. Since then she has been all over the world, conquering monsters and men’s hearts wherever she lands. As Rossamünd noticed, the inside of her forearms are lined with tiny X’s, cruorpunxis showing her many-score kills. They are dainty little marks, showing Europe’s distaste for the vulgar, leering faces that are by far more common, their “prettiness” belying the violence and mayhem done to earn them. See fulgar, lahzar, the Branden Rose.

evander, evander water restorative draft that fortifies the body’s capacity to fight disease, infection or poisoning while also giving a lift in spirits.

everymen everyday people; not monsters, which are called üntermen. This includes skolds, sagaars, leers but excludes those who have tampered with their biology in any way, that is lahzars, who are known as ubelmen.

excise master, excise sergeant those working to collect the tolls and taxes lawfully demanded by their lord. See revenue officers.

explicarium spurious list of invented or obscure words drafted to apparently make some fabulous, fabricated tale more palatable.

factotum personal servant and clerk of a peer or other person of rank or circumstance. Lahzars have taken to employing a factotum to take care of the boring day-to-day trifles: picking up contracts, collecting fees for services rendered, looking to food and accommodation, writing correspondence, heavy lifting and even making their drafts. When on the road and looking for a place to kip for the night, a master/mistress and his or her factotum may find that restrictions of accommodation or finances mean that only one gets a room (and, consequently, a bed). The factotum must make do, and will usually share floor and bench space with other servants next to a kitchen or common room stove. Such arrangements are typical for most servants.

false-gods mighty monsters standing several hundred feet high who appear only every thousand years or more and are meant to live deep, deep down at the bottom of the vinegar seas. They are reputed to be able to control people’s minds, and each one has secret septs and cabals among everymen, who worship and revere them and seek with ancient sciences to raise them up from the deeps. The Emperor and his regents have special agents whose sole task is to root out and destroy these septs and cabals, for whenever a false-god has risen from the depths it has meant doom for civilization, and history has taught that only the urchins and their kind can drive them back into the sea . . . and it has been a long time since anyone had anything to do with an urchin.

falseman, falsemen also called liedermen; leers who can tell a person’s true emotional state, and so, most usefully, can determine whether or not that person is being truthful. The washes they use to change their eyes make the whites turn bloody red and the irises go a bright pale blue. See leer.

family name also famillinom; the name of your sires that you are born into, the name of your whole family. Among peers this is the most important name, for it declares one’s pedigree. “Bookchild” is often given to orphans and foundlings as a kind of surrogate family name, but really it is a forename.

Farmer Rabbitt happy tiller of the soil and herder of cows who has a smallholding on the edge of the Brindleshaw folklands (land set aside for common use) near Silvernook. He often goes into that town to trade and resupply his rather remote farm. His wife, Judy, is even merrier than he, and they make a jolly couple indeed.

Faustus the red-star and actually a distant planet that nightly moves through the constellation of Vespasio and follows green Maudlin across the sky—who, as legend has it, is his lover—forever chasing and never catching. Faustus is regarded as the Signal Star of frustrated or jilted lovers and of lost causes.

Felicitine, Madam ~ one of the region’s minor gentry, and wife to Mister Billetus, proprietor of the Harefoot Dig. She married young and below her station, and is well aware of it. Painfully alert to the commonness of her surroundings, she works hard against Billetus’ more relaxed attitude to keep the tone of the Dig one befitting a lady. She seldom enters the common room, allowing it to remain as a concession to “Mister Bill’s worldly ways.” Despite all this snobbery and friction, and after over twenty years of marriage, she and Mister Billetus are still very much in love.

fiasco small case or box or compartmented bag in which a woman might keep her cosmetic unctions, beautifying creams and other such applications; sometimes also called a clutch bag.

Fiel, Fiele said “feel” or “fee-ell”; a land so far over the oceans from the Half-Continent it is considered a myth. The few reports that exist of it say it is filled with even more fabulous and terrifying creatures than dwell in the Half-Continent.

firelock any flintlock small arm, such as a musket or pistol. See flintlock musket and flintlock pistol.

first name the very first name a person is given, nominated at birth, the name by which a person is most commonly known and called.

flintlock musket or just musket or firelock; a long-barreled muzzle-loading firearm that fires a round bullet of lead about ¾ inch in diameter called a ball.You can hit what you are aiming at with a musket as long as it is no more than 150 yards from you, though the ball will still travel with ever-diminishing force for about 600 yards. After every shot the musket must be reloaded. The flintlock mechanism that makes this and other such weapons work is a hammer held by a spring, holding a piece of flint. When the hammer is released by pulling the trigger, it flies forward and the flint strikes an upright piece of steel known as the frizzen, which is thrown back, exposing the pan full of fine-grained priming powder beneath it. The flint causes sparks to fly off the steel frizzen and into the pan, catching the powder alight and sending the flash through a small hole in the side of the barrel called a touchhole. This flash ignites the gunpowder packed in the barrel itself, which blasts out the ball. When a flintlock is fired, there is a distinctive two-part flash as first the pan flares and then the barrel itself. The very quick have a chance to dodge the shot when they first see the flash in the pan. If the tales are to be believed, some monsters have also realized this.

flintlock pistol a small arm with the same flintlock mechanism as the flintlock musket; often lavishly crafted, with the butt of the handle typically formed into a club so that, after the weapon has been fired, it can be gripped by the barrel (reinforced for such use) and swung about like a truncheon. An innovation for both the pistol and the musket has been the “skold-shot”: a ball treated in certain deadly scripts that make them far more harmful to a monster than a normal bullet, which rarely does any real or permanent harm. The only problem with skold-shot is that its chemicals slowly react with the inside of the weapon’s barrel, wearing it out far more quickly than conventional ammunition. This increases the chance of the weapon bursting, or blowing a hole in its side just when you least expect.The pistoleer is a type of adventurer who specializes in using flintlock pistols; these are dashing fellows with a taste for glamour and high excitement. Armed with skold-shot, they even have some effect as monster-hunters, although they have to earn well, as they need frequently to buy new pistols, worth about twenty-one sequins each.

florin coin money; a 10 guise piece or ½ sequin. fo’c’sle or forecastle; forwardmost section of the upper deck of a ram, between the foremast and the bow. Given that the decks of a ram are flush (that is, flat), the correct term for this part of the vessel is the forward deck. In the vernacular of the vinegaroon, however, the old term remains.

folding money bills of paper obtained from a bank or local ruler, where the equivalent value is purchased in coin and written upon the bill; lighter and more convenient than coins, they are also a whole lot more fragile.

forename name a person takes on or is given or granted in later life. Nobility and the pretentious will give their children a forename as well as a first name when they are born, to show how special and important they are.

foundling(s) also wastrel; stray people, usually children, found without a home or shelter on the streets of cities or even, amazingly, wandering exposed in the wilds. The usual destinations for such foundling children are workhouses, mills or the mines, although a fortunate few may find their way to a foundlingery. Such a place can care for a small number of foundlings and wastrels, fitting them for a more productive life and sparing them the agonies of hard labor.

Fouracres hardy Imperial postman who has been on many adventures while delivering the mail and survived many an encounter with a monster. Sometimes called Fourfields, as a play on the word “acres,” he has also given the name “Quarterfields” as an alias when this has been necessary. Fouracres has worked in the Empire’s service as an ambler (a walking postman) for sixteen years. See Imperial Post Office.

Four Humours, the ~ these are considered the basic parts of a properly functioning pith (metabolism). Each is also paired with a season of the year and corresponds to the other four-part systems of understanding the universe. There is blood, of course, also called sange and represented by the letter A and paired with summer; then phlegm, represented by the letter W and paired with winter; followed by yellow bile, also called choler and represented by the letter M and paired with spring; and finally black bile, also called melanchole, represented by the letter O and paired with autumn.

Four Spheres, the ~ the first and innermost sphere is a person’s soul, his or her internal being. The second sphere is a person’s body. The third sphere is the world. The fourth sphere is the cosmos. Teaching on the Four Spheres also coincides with the Four Humours and the elements as shown in the Körnchenflecter: Skolds learn these along with all the other four-parts, so as to gain insight into the functioning of the systems about them and how to interact and alter them through their chemistry.

Fox Hole, the ~ also Voxholte, Hergott for “foxhole,” said “vokshalt”; elegant and refined hostelry in High Vesting famous for its height (seven floors!) and the size and opulence of its rooms. The exceedingly wealthy or famous like to stay there.

Fransitart, Dormitory Master ~ born of unknown parents, Fransitart lived with his little brother as a wastrel on the streets of Ives. The day after his brother died in his arms, Fransitart was hunted and taken by a press-gang, and put aboard the main-ram Adroit as a ship’s boy. There he met Craumpalin, who defended and befriended him, and they have remained true friends and brothers-in-arms since. How it is that Fransitart and Craumpalin have come to be serving in a state entirely different from the ones in which they were born is a story entirely all its own. Fransitart’s affection for Rossamünd has a lot to do with his grief over his younger brother.

Freckle glamgorn bogle; small, tough and friendly-seeming.

Frestonia a small collection of Soutland states, the chief among these being the city-state of Frestony. They have formed their loose confederation in answer to the rising power of the inland states of Castoria, Pollux, Maine, Axis, Isidore and Haquetaine.

frigate smallest of the dedicated fighting rams and the middle of the three rates of cruisers, usually of twenty or twenty-four guns-broad , with only gun-drudges being smaller. Nimble and fast, they are considered the “eyes of the fleet,” running messages and performing reconnaissance. Despite being the smallest rams, the largest frigate can be almost as long as a drag-mauler. These oversized frigates are called heavy-frigates, having up to thirty-two guns on one broadside.They are popular among pirates and privateers. See Appendix 6.

frock coat coat normally worn by men, with a long hem reaching the knees and often flaring out jauntily. With more and more women seeking adventure, it has become fashionable for them to wear frock coats too, often more gorgeously decorated and trimmed, the hems flaring even more extravagantly than the male version. Frock coats for either sex are almost always proofed.

fulgar(s) said “fool-garr,” also astrapecrith (“lightning-holder”); a lahzar whose surgically inserted organs (known as the systemis astraphecum) allow him or her to make, store and release immense charges of electricity. Fulgars have several tricks up their sleeves, which together are known as eclatics. These include:

Fulgars get their name from the artificial organ known as the Column of Fulgis, a jellylike muscle that produces the electrical charges they wield. Most fulgars mark themselves with the spoor of a diamond, which is the universally recognized sign of their kind. See fuse and related topics, lahzar and thermistoring.

fulgaris said “fool-ger-riss”; two poles of differing lengths used by fulgars to extend their reach and give a thermistor control over bolts of lightning. The longer pole is the fuse, the shorter being the stage. Both fulgaris are wound tightly with copper or iron fulgurite wire and capped at each end with ferrules of the same metals.

Fundarum non Obliviscum motto of Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, writ large across the top of the main entrance; a Tutin phrase which means “found [but] not forgotten.” Very touching.

fuse six- to twelve-foot pole of cane or wand-wood, tightly coiled along its entire length with copper wire and capped with copper, brass or iron fulgurite; the longer of the two fulgaris, the shorter being called the stage. A fuse extends the reach of fulgars, allowing them to deliver their deadly jolts while staying out of reach themselves. The second, and more bizarre, use for them is an aid in thermistoring—the calling down of lightning bolts from on high. This can normally be done only on overcast days, as clear weather does not provide the necessary conditions for the generation of lightning. The fulgar sets an arc in the fuse to “call down a bolt from the gray,” that is, to encourage a lightning strike. When the bolt hits, it travels down the fuse and into the fulgar and is either stored within (but only very temporarily, for risk of bursting asunder) or redirected through the hand or the stage, which gives greater control in determining the final direction of the levin-bolt. Fulgars who thermistor often do it at great risk to themselves, and are often called thermistors or thunderers. See fulgar, fulgaris, lahzar, stage, thermistor.

Gainway, the ~ very old road and the main way between Winstermill and High Vesting. It continues farther north beyond Winstermill, heading far into Sulk and eventually finding its way to Proud Sulking. These days the southern stretch of the Gainway is often considered a part of the Wormway. As the Gainway approaches High Vesting, it becomes a beautiful broad avenue lined with tall ancient oaks and a marvel of the region in autumn, when people might travel just to see the red and golden glory.

Gallows Night traditional night for many executions by hanging, prisoners being kept specially for then. A great public spectacle, it is not to the taste of some.

gander slang for a guise, the smallest denomination of money in the Soutlands, and used mostly in Brandenbrass and its neighboring areas. A play on words: guise sounds just like “geese,” while gander is a male goose.

gastrine(s) engines that turn the screws (propellers) of rams and other vessels. A gastrine is a big box of wood bound with metal, inside of which great musclelike organs (called gastorids) have been grown about a metal section of treadle-shaft (what we would call a “camshaft”) or shaft-section within the box. On the organ deck of a vessel these boxes are put in a row, their shaft-sections connected by great pins, making a whole treadle-shaft that runs the length of the vessel. Each line of gastrines (know as a “gastrine pull” or just a “pull,” which includes its accompanying limbers) is attached to a set of gears and great levers called a dog-box, which allows the gastrineer to determine the level of power of each pull and where it is used: all on one screw or two screws, or even three for the biggest rams and cargoes. The muscles of a gastrine are made by learned people known as viscautorists (“gut-growers”) especially for this purpose. They are raised inside each gastrine box from basic living matter, like a kind of senseless animal. Inside the box are many wooden protrusions called bones, onto which the muscles fix as anchor- and leverage-points. Once a gastrine is “fully grown,” the muscles inside and the whole box itself are one complete organ. To open the box is tantamount to surgery. In this fully grown state the gastrine is taken from the test-mills (“laboratory-factories”) to the dockyards to be lowered into the bowels of the receiving vessel. There its shaft-section is fixed to those of the gastrines on either side as each is integrated into the pull. When stimulated by their limbers, the gastrines’ muscles begin to move, gaining momentum until they work on their own to push and pull at the treadle-shaft, which turns the gears, which turn the screw and so moves the ship. Like ships themselves, gastrines are often referred to as “her” and “she.” Through special chutes and hatches a gastrine is fed a series of “meals” each day, comprising a nutritious, lumpy soup called pabulum. Beneath the pull is a sluice-way that allows the waste expelled from the gastrines by discrete pipes to wash down the middle of the vessel into the bilge to be pumped out into the sea.With all this pabulum soup and waste sloshing about, the organ deck can smell almost like a butcher’s shop. Nadderers (sea-monsters) love the taste of gastrines and are attracted by the slick of grime and effluent that trails in the wake of a gastrine-run vessel. A large part of a vessel’s crew is devoted to the care of the gastrines, their limbers and the pull they are a part of. In fact gastrines and the rest have precedence over the men serving them, being fed first and cared for first; without your gastrines the crew quickly becomes irrelevant. In the course of its working life a gastrine might die from disease, old age or from damage sustained in a fight or a storm. Sometimes when this happens, the gastrine seizes up, interfering or even stopping the movement of the screw. This is known as clearing, and when it occurs the gastrineer’s mates grab great axes hanging from the walls, chop into the side or top of the gastrine box and, up to their armpits in ichor, hack the stiffened muscles away from their part of the treadle-shaft to allow free movement of the screw again. As you would expect, this is to the ruin of the gastrine itself, which must be replaced as soon as possible. It is best to replace all the gastrines of a pull at once, but this is expensive both in money and time; it is far more usual for single gastrines to be replaced as needed. When this happens, the remaining gastrines behave sluggishly for a while. Some say it is because they are mourning the loss of a fellow. Others say this is daft. The longest a gastrine will live is about twenty years, if its life is easy and its work even and steady—like a cromster on the river Humour. A gastrine working in the pull of a vessel like a drag-mauler—speeding up, slowing down, stopping abruptly as something is rammed, enduring mountainous seas, taking shocks as the vessel is hit by cannon balls or assaulted by sea-monsters—such a gastrine will survive only about five years before needing to be replaced. There is almost no sound made by a working gastrine, more a silent pound-pound-pound that throbs right through a person’s body. When a gastrine vessel such as a ram passes you by, all you will hear is the hiss of the water parted by the bow and running down either broadside, and feel a faint throbbing in the air about. Just as a vessel under the power of sails is said to be “sailing,” so a vessel under the power of gastrines is said to be “treading,” the past tense being “trod.” When a vessel is at anchor, it will usually have its gastrines treading over slowly without the screw being engaged, keeping them ready for a quick start if a threat or startling news makes it necessary. See gastrineer and limbers.

gastrineer petty officer on a vessel, of the same rank as a boatswain and in charge of the healthy running of the gastrines and limbers. On large vessels the gastrineer will have a sizable crew under his command, the most senior of these being the gastrineer’s mates, all working to make sure the gastrines are fed, healthy and working well. Even a half-decent gastrineer will be well aware of the strange quirks of his gastrines, even naming them, knowing for example that No. 3 is sluggish on extremely cold days, that “Lillith” (No. 6) is inclined to work too hard, making Nos. 5 and 7 lazy, and so on. He passes this knowledge on to his mates so that they might learn the ways of a gastrine pull and go on to serve their own vessels. A gastrineer earns about fifty to seventy sous a year, not including prize money.

gastriner any vessel powered by gastrines.

gater or gatekeeper; person who guards and watches a gate, allowing or refusing people thoroughfare.

Gates, Battle of the ~ considered the great battle of the current age, fought in HIR 1395 (the last year of the Sceptic Dynasty) between the armies of the Empire, the Soutland City-states and the Turkemen. The battle forms part of a time known as the Dissolutia, where one dynasty fell and another rose to take its place. At the time the southern city-states, known as the Soutlands, had gained such power and relative independence that they formed a league, the Stately League, to petition the Emperor, Moribund Scepticus III, for greater say in the running of the Empire. This petition was denied and consequently the Stately League or Leaguesmen determined to gather a grande army, march the dangerous miles north and force a “yes” from the old stinker. Moribund Scepticus III caught wind of this and knew his own army of eighty thousand, though tough and experienced, was no match for the League’s army of several hundred thousand citizen-soldiers and mercenaries. So, as the peers and marshals and soldiers of the Stately League started on their great enterprise, the Sceptic Emperor called for help from the only source of sufficient strength, his great rival the Püshtän, the Lord of the Omdür and Emperor of the Turkemen. The Turkeman Emperor eagerly took the chance to aid his anxious cousin and rapidly mobilized a grande army of his own, conveniently camped on the northern border of the wildlands dividing the two powers. This duly arrived, ahead of the Leaguesarmy—as the Stately League forces were being called. With gratitude and rejoicing the terrified people of Clementine lowered the gates of the great bridges that guard the crossings of the Marrow, the mighty drain that protects the northern borders of the Empire, and let the Turkemen across. It was a great day for the Püshtän, for no Turkeman army had ever won across the Marrow, and now they were being invited like so many guests. No sooner had his soldiers completed the daylong crossing of the bridges (such was the size of his army) than they immediately stormed the outer walls and districts of Clementine and put the middle and inner city under siege. The battle raged all night in the suburbs and along the walls as Turkemen infantry and their horrifying bolbogis, giant monsters bred for war, wrestled from street to desperate street with the Empire’s elite regiments. Moribund Scepticus III had been betrayed. Heralds were sent by the dozen to the approaching Leaguesarmy, though only three made it through alive to tell them of the Emperor’s distress and the threat of defeat by the hated Turkemen. What had begun as an expedition of conquest had now become a quest of salvation, not just of the Imperial Capital but of all the Stately League held to be distinctly their own. Without rest the Leaguesarmy night-marched the final miles. By the dour, gray afternoon of the next day they were deploying their first battalions for assault upon the rear of the Turkemen force. With Clementine skillfully invested, the confident marshals of the Püshtän turned their attention to defending themselves against the arrival of the Leaguesarmy. Moribund Scepticus III, his family and attendants watched from the highest minarets as the two great armies faced each other across the field before Clementine’s famous gates. Both he and the Turkemen marshals below were amazed at the size of the Leaguesarmy. Almost half a million soldiers of the proud Soutlands had arrived, and before their trailing columns had even arrived upon the field, the Leaguesman marshals began the attack. The massive artillery parks of the Turkemen roared, sending hundreds of Leaguesmen to an immediate end. The terrible bolbogis were sent forth bellowing, barely restrained by their panicking beast-handlers, musket ball and cannon shot of the Leaguesarmy stopping only a meager few. Strutting proudly behind these gudgeon beasts came the Turkeman infantry—the heavy-armored ghirkis and musket-wielding infantis. To meet them strode two hundred thousand haubardiers and troubardiers, hundreds of skolds and scourges and with them a company of lahzars, only recently arrived in society and used for the first time in war. Wherever the Turkemen bolbogis were left unchallenged by scourge or lahzar they prevailed, destroying whole battalions of their enemy. But where they met a knot of scourges or a lone lahzar, there they ultimately met their end. The Emperor watched in horrified wonder as the first deadly bolts of lightning stuck down, summoned by the fulgars, startling everyone but the fulgars themselves. And though the scourge Haroldus is credited as the great hero of the day, it was these newcomers, the fulgars, who most quickly bested the bolbogis, while the wits dismayed whole companies of Turkemen under the agony of their frission.When the two armies were fully engaged, the Emperor’s survivors, who had remained quiet till then, stormed from sally ports with Haroldus at their head, besetting the besiegers and attacking the right flank of the Turkeman army. Surrounded, the hard-pressed Turkemen fought valiantly on. Their most mighty bolbogis, the Slothog, still stood and shattered one hundred men with every blow. The Leaguesarmy line began to falter where the Slothog raged. The few lahzars that remained were not near enough to help, the rest all gone to their dooms and with them all the scourges and any skold who could make a stand. Even as the right and center of the Leaguesarmy began to crush their enemy, the left was on the verge of crumbling. In the nick of time Haroldus and the Clementine elites struck home, rolling up the Turkeman right flank and driving them in on the center in a rout. Though the legend has it that the “great skold” challenged the Slothog alone, he was in fact supported by the doughty battalions of both Clementine and the Stately League. There, after a grisly struggle, Haroldus sent the Slothog to its doom, losing his own life in the process. But the deed was done and with the death of the Slothog, the Leaguesmen pushed forward and the Turkemen, their last gambit played and ruined, ran headlong into the ravine of the Marrow or fled into the wildlands that surround the capital, and few ever made it back to their homes or the smiles of loved ones. The Empire had won—or had it? The original order of business had not been settled, the League had not had its demands heard. Their marshals conferred with their ministers and their peers and offered parley to the Emperor if he would just hear them out. Here now was an opportunity for Moribund Scepticus III to save himself and his own dynasty, to share some of his power and remain on the three thrones. For no matter what reformations the Stately League would force, the Empire would survive. But, with his remnant army looking to him to be still strong in the flush of first victory, while the Leaguesarmy seemed exhausted, at an end, Moribund became obstinate. He was not going to be some lapdog to the states, bending and twisting to their whims: he was the Emperor Supreme, as his sires had been before him. He ordered his troops to the attack, shut the gates and went to the baths in a glow of false security.With surprise in their favor the Emperor’s army prevailed for a time, but as they pushed the Leaguesmen back, they encountered a third of the Leaguesarmy’s strength, including twenty battalions of troubardiers, held in reserve. With a rataplan of drums and the cry of war these reserves pressed into the fight, the Imperial Army breaking against them like so many waves. With their force on the brink of annihilation, the Imperial marshals quickly capitulated and their entire weary army, still forty thousand strong, were taken captive. They did not stay captive for very long. The next day, and unknown to the Emperor, a delegation did arrive at the tents of the lords and marshals of the Stately League. In its number were many disaffected and jealous ministers and peers who, either fed up with the flaccid corruption of their incumbent master or wishing to rule for power’s sake alone, had formed an uneasy alliance against their Imperial master. They received the complaints of their southern brothers and a compact was quickly made: if the Leaguesmen backed their cause and their candidate for a new dynasty, then their new Emperor, once safely installed, would make sure their needs were answered. Till all this was accomplished, the southerners would remain as Clementine’s and the new Emperor’s guard. Thinking he was loved by all his subjects, convinced of the unfailing loyalty of his ministers, Moribund Scepticus III sat secure in his inner palace, confident of the impregnability of Clementine’s ancient walls. Yet that very night, as the Leaguesmen upstarts were let tamely into the city, he was violently slain by agents of the new compact, and their chosen replacement, the conniving Menangës of the family Haacobin, thrust into his place. Moribund Scepticus III’s sons and daughters, granddaughters and grandsons, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews and distant cousins too were arrested, to be either slaughtered, imprisoned in the deepest dungeons and so forgotten or sent into distant exile. Over two hundred people suffered or died that night, each one of them of the same family line. So began the reign of the Haacobin Dynasty. So ended the line of the Sceptics.

gauld, gaulding chemicals and processes that make many different kinds of cloth and other organic materials highly resistant to tearing, cutting or puncturing—“bulletproof” if you wish—yet not much heavier than the original fiber and still almost as flexible. Any garment like this is called proofing or, less commonly, gaulding or gauld-cloth. Each gaulder has his own secret recipe, inherited and vigilantly guarded, and, though some recipes are more effective than others, the end result is much the same: cloth, leather and such once soaked, boiled, baked, dried and resoaked and so on in a series of solutions will by the end of the process be extraordinarily toughened. Combined with panels of multilayered gauld-leather or plates of steel, and backed with pokeweed padding, proofing can keep the wearer very safe indeed. Another of the advantages of gaulded clothing is that it is incredibly hardwearing—even the cheaper kinds. Consequently, the uniforms of soldiers on campaign and wayfarers out on the road typically last for years rather than months. In fact it has become more common for those who can afford it to wear proofing more than day-clothes. While proofing will stop a sword thrust or a musket ball, it cannot, unfortunately, stop bruising or bones being broken beneath it as they take the shock of a blow, or internal ruptures from heavy hits to the chest or abdomen. This is why blunt and heavy weapons like cudgels are so popular. And all gaulded cloth will eventually wear out. Fibers being struck repeatedly begin to crush and tear till the proofing is useless. Damage like this appears slightly darker and scuffed, and the cheaper the gaulding is, the quicker this “wearing out” in battle occurs. Small areas of light scuffing can be re-treated and “healed” by a gaulder who knows his business, but once the damage to your proofing goes beyond this, you know it will soon be time to replace your harness. Gaulded clothing that is new and in good repair is said to be “bright,” a term left over from the days when metal armor was the norm.

gaulded treated with the gaulding process.

gaulder craftsperson who makes gauld and uses it to make proofing.

Gauldsman Five one of the best gaulders in Boschenberg; he has been supplying high-quality proofing to most of the city’s wealthiest peers and magnates for over four decades. With a good reputation comes high prices, though even Gauldsman Five’s cheapest garments offer excellent protection for the money.

generalities geography, general knowledge and common sense.

Germanicus, Mister ~ agent of Winstermill Manse, who is waiting for Rossamünd in High Vesting to take the boy on to his new masters. Mister Germanicus is a patient man, but even he has his limits.

Gibbon boatswain’s mate and bargeman aboard the cromster Hogshead; his big hope is to one day own his own vessel and press his crew to do his dastardly doings.

Gightland Queen, the ~ common name given to the Queen of Catalain, because much of that realm’s lands are taken over by the swamp known as the Gight. She is the only “king” or “queen” allowed within the political structure of the Empire. No one remembers how this liberty was secured, and the records of it are kept utterly secret, yet every Emperor or Empress has allowed the title to remain while the best a regent of any other state can hope for is grand duke or archduke or duchess. It is boasted that traditions maintained in the Gightland Queen’s courts are a faithful continuation of the ancient rites of the Attics, the long-gone ancestors of the Empire.

glamgorn or glammergorn; one of the smaller kinds of monster, a true bogle; they come in all manner of shapes, pigmentation, hairiness; big eyes, little eyes; big ears, little ears; big body, little limbs; little body, big limbs; and all the variations in between. Often feisty and jittery, certain kinds can get downright nasty, the worst of them being known as blightlings. One of the bizarre idiosyncrasies of glamgorns is that they like to wear clothes, everyman clothes pinched from washing lines and unguarded trunks. There are rumors that, dressed like this, glamgorns—and worse yet blightlings—have been able to sneak into the cities of everymen to spy and cause mischief.

Gluepot, the ~ another name for the Ichormeer, an enormous swamp and fen on the western borders of Wörms, through which the Conduit Vermis runs—a very dangerous and threwdish place.

Gosling (Gosling Corvinius Arbour) foundling at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Being born of nobility, he truly thinks he is better than the common “plugs” he is forced to bunk with at the foundlingery. He is just biding his time until he is allowed to leave—not long now—and then he will show us all just how superior he is. Then we will all be sorry we ever thought we were even worthy of breathing the same air as he.

great-guns another name for cannon, especially those firing twenty-four-pound shot and heavier. See cannon.

green-fire name for the electrical sparks and arcs made by a fulgar.

Gretel bower maid at the Harefoot Dig, born in Boschenberg but now one of the live-in staff at the Dig. She is cheerful and chatty and has a “thing” for Doctor Verhooverhoven.

Grinnlings, the ~ name Rossamünd gives to the nimbleschrewds because of their broad, apparently wickedly grinning mouths. See nimbleschrewds.

Grintwoode, the ~ Hergott name for the Brindlewood.

Grume, the ~ said “groom”; the bay of milky olive water on which High Vesting and Brandenbrass have their ports and harbors.

grummet least-skilled and lowest-ranked ship’s boy aboard a vessel; an offensive term when used against anyone of higher rank or standing. Because of their special instruction, children from a marine society are automatically of a higher rank than these when they arrive to serve on a vessel. To use this term of them is very insulting.

gudgeon said “gudd-je-onn” or “gud-jin,” also made-monsters; any monster that has been made by men, by necrologists, black habilists and taxidermists out of parts of real monsters, people, inanimate objects and animals. Usually the most vicious of any creature. Rever-men are a type of gudgeon, as are bolbogis like the Slothog; it is also argued that lahzars are gudgeons too.

guildhalls headquarters of the local arm of a guild. Guilds are composed of tradesmen of a particular trade who once, many centuries ago, got together to make sure that the quality of their work was uniformly high, and that prices were always fair. They have grown to have significant monopolies, wrestling with mercantile corporations over markets, with peers over self-governance and even with the Emperor over the running of the Empire. At their worst they fix prices, hold suppliers to ransom and in some cities force nonmembers out of their trade. At the same time they do well at protecting their own from exploitation.

guise said “geez” or “gees”; coin of smallest value of the Soutlands, made of bronze.Worth one three hundred and twentieth of a sou or one twentieth of a sequin or one four hundred and eightieth of an oscadril. It is represented by the letter g. See money.

Gull friend and gormless stooge of Weems; foundling at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls.

gun-broad, guns-broad a description of the number of cannon down just one broadside of a vessel of war.

gun-drudge drudge fitted with a small battery of cannon. See drudge.

guns the measure of a vessel’s strength in cannon; the entire battery of cannon carried by a vessel.

Haacobin, Haacobin Dynasty said “har-koh-bin”; the current family and court ruling the Empire. They overthrew the old Sceptic Emperor immediately after the Battle of the Gates and have ruled ever since.

Haacobin Empire another name for the Empire in which Rossamünd is a citizen; so named for the current ruling dynasty, the Haacobins, who seized power in Clementine two centuries ago. Before them was the Sceptic (said “septic”) Dynasty, which held power for half a millennium.

habilist(s) “clever people”; what the citizens of the Half-Continent think of as a “scientists,” who study and are involved in one, some or all of the pursuits of habilistics. Includes dispensurists, skolds, scourges, physicians, surgeons, viscautorists (“gut-growers,” those who grow organs such as are required in sthenicons and gastrines, a process known as viscautory), even taxidermists. The darker students of habilistics are the black habilists or morbidists: the necrologists (those who raise corpses to life); the cadavarists (those who make monsters from parts, an illegal discipline called fabercadavery); the therospeusists (who grow monsters from living matter, an illegal art known as therospeusia, said “ther-rosspew-zee-ah”); or the transmogrifers (surgeons who operate on people to make lahzars, a process known as transmogrification or clysmosurgia). Though these dark philosophies are illegal throughout the Empire, they are welcomed in other realms, such as Wörms or Sinster (yet their secret work continues unabated). Habilists are sometimes derogatively called cankourmen, for all their dabbling about with chemicals, and this term is often used to especially mean a black habilist.

habilistics or natural philosophy; “science” as the people of the Half-Continent understand it, involving the studies of how things work and perhaps even why they work. Mostly it involves lots of reading of ancient or even secret texts, dissections of corpses of men and monsters, making lots of potions (scripts), watching the stars wheel about the heavens and searching for the most powerful chemical in the cosmos. Each domain of study is called a philosophy.

hair-tine ornamented “needle” of wood or cane used to hold hair in place; often lacquered and richly decorated at one end.

Half-Continent, the ~ also called the Haufarium, Sundergird or Westelünd; broad oversized peninsula where, in one small part, this story takes place.

hanger or sometimes sea-hanger; slightly curved military sword with the narrow yet heavy blade favored by the navies of the Half-Continent; not to be confused with the infantry hanger, which is more typically called a jacksword and has a straight blade.

Harefoot Dig, the ~ “rabbit-footed” (as in “fast-footed”) girl; wayhouses such as this are typically given names taken from a locally famous event or person or object.

harness also called barding; another term for a set of proofed garments. The most basic is a proofed weskit and jackcoat or frock coat or platoon-coat, and as a set is called half-harness. After that comes threegauld or trebant, comprising a more solid, close-fitting garment called a haubardine which reaches the top of the thighs, from which hangs tassets or plates of proof-steel that cover the upper leg, over which is worn a well-proofed jackcoat or frock coat. The most complete harness is known as true or full harness or troubarding, and usually incorporates a haubardine with tassets and metal chest and even arm armor as well. Anything less than half-harness is known as dog-, jack-, or parlor-harness, a make-do of bits and strips of gaulded cloths, and is considered as useless as not wearing any proofing at all. See proofing and gauld.

Harold (Haroldus, the Great Skold ~) actually a scourge, he is lauded as the hero of the Battle of the Gates, even though he died in that fight and was on the losing side. In the unsettled times that followed the battle, the new Emperor needed a hero to focus attention on positive things, and the greatest advantage that Harold presented was that he was not alive to argue or disappoint. Ah, such is propaganda. See the Battle of the Gates.

harundo a form of bastinado (or bastinade art) or fustigating, that is, stick-fighting or cudgel-play. There are other types of bastinado, including a wild version called gyre and a graceful form from Tuscanin called fustigio. Harundo is popular because of its elementary yet effective moves. It is capable of taking on most other forms but lacks their distinctive or flamboyant strikes.

haubardier(s) said “haw-bard-ear”; foot soldier or pediteer wearing threegauld harness of a haubardine with platoon-coat and tassets. On their heads they wear their telltale miter, a tall tapering hat with a flat crown. Their main weapons are the musket with bayonet and a jacksword. Designated heavy infantry. See pediteer and harness and Appendix 2.

haunted frequented by monsters, home to nameless fears; infected with threwd.

Heddlebulk, Master of Ropes ~ master and teacher at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. As his title suggests, his main responsibility is to teach the knots, splices and rope-work required of little vinegaroons ready for service to their regent. He is an old bargeman who used to work the Humour aboard cromsters and monitors and on the piers.

Hergoatenbosch said “herr-goh-ten-bosh”; the vast protectorate lands of grain fields and pastures stretching west from the shores of the Humour and Boschenberg, and under the control of that city.

Hergott(s) race of people who live in Boschenberg and Hergoatenbosch. It is also another name for Bosch, the language they speak; though, as true children of the Empire, they more commonly use Brandenard, the language of trade throughout the Soutlands.

Hermenèguild canal-side suburb of Boschenberg, crowded with merchants and their shops.

Hero of Clunes famous actress and singer who comes from Clunes, and whose reputation for beauty of face and voice are well deserved.

High Vesting originally a harbor guarded by a fortress with a score of eekers as neighbors. In the 150 years since its founding it has grown into a city of one hundred thousand souls. It was sited and built by Brandenbrass as a harbor exclusively for an expanding navy. After the Battle of the Mole the rams were moved closer to home, while many Boschenbergers began to settle behind its walls, using it as a welcome port of trade free from the strictures of the Axles. A power shift inside the city gave the more numerous Boschenbergers control of the city and immediately placed it under the protection of their old home. The Dukes of Boschenberg were only too happy to oblige. Though perfectly legal, this understandably infuriated the regent of Brandenbrass and his subjects, who built the Spindle in retaliation.

highroads also called conductors; major ways of traffic between cities. Imperial Highroads, or conduits, are those sponsored and maintained by the Empire, while ordinary highroads are tended by the states they travel through. Any one highroad will be in various states of repair along its path: anything from paved to bare earth that becomes a quagmire in the wet. The farther a highroad travels from civilization, the worse its condition becomes. Some, like the Felicitine Way connecting Clementine with the Soutlands, almost disappear. The Felicitine Way becomes little more than a rutted footpath as it goes through the Grassmeer before emerging again in friendlier lands. See conduits and conductors.

HIR stands for “Horno Imperia Regnum” (this year of Imperial Sovereignty) and is a designation of years of the current age reckoned from around the time of the Empire’s first establishment.

Hogshead, the ~ slow, run-down cromster of six guns-broad. See Appendix 7.

hogshead large barrel holding about fifty-four gallons. A normal barrel holds about thirty-six gallons.

Humour, the River ~ ancient waterway draining out of the swamps of the Gight in Catalain and running south to empty into the Grume. It is the main line of communication for great cities such as Catalain, Andover, Boschenberg and Proud Sulking, as well as many smaller towns and fishing villages. Once threwdish and haunted by all kinds of monsters , the Humour has been tamed by centuries of use by everymen, making it safer, although not monster free. Sometimes also called the Humourous.

Hundred Rules (of Harundo), the ~ rules encompassing the movements and countermovements of the bastinade (stick-fighting) art of harundo, as learned by Rossamünd at the marine society. As a part of these Hundred Rules are the names given to each of the moves or positions. These include:

These can be employed in combinations, including the obturamentum, a defensive routine with counterstrikes, or the flagellum, a series of quick strikes, and many others. To have even a basic facility with harundo, you are expected to know every one of these names.

Hurlingstrat Hergott for “hireling street,” where those looking to ’prentice themselves out to a master or those seeking an apprentice can go at certain times of the year to a public market held for the purpose. Found in the suburb of Bleekhall.

ichor any fluid of the consistency or color of blood such as monster blood, or like a discharge of pus.

Ichor shortened, poetic form of Ichormeer.

Ichormeer, the ~ proper name for the vast swamp also known as the Gluepot or Sanguis Defluxia, taken from the vile, dark, bloodlike color of the waters and bogs. It is said that parts of the Ichormeer are so threwdish that they can drive a person mad. With a great loss of life, the Wormway was cut through its southern reaches and the Ichorway joined to it in the hope of taming the swamp. These roads have done little, however, to curb the threwd or cow the monsters that make the Ichormeer their home. Full of festering bogs and farting ponds, it is shunned now by men, and any who travel through it along the Wormway do so seldom, very quickly and under heavy escort.

Imperial Capital capital city of the whole Empire. See Clementine.

Imperial Post Office a rather excellent service provided by the Emperor and his bureaucracies; a mail-delivery service mostly done by coaches along highroads between cities and major rural centers. For places off the highroads, the Emperor kindly provides amblers—walking postmen who get into all the nooks where people sequester themselves. An ambler’s life is dangerous; they are typically skilled at avoiding or protecting themselves against monsters. Frequent customers of skolds, amblers invent clever and slippery ways to make sure the post always gets through. Mortality rates are high among them, however, and the agents who employ them prefer orphans, strays and foundlings who will not be missed by fretting families.Your lowest-ranked ambler can earn about twenty-seven to thirty sous a year.

indexer mathematicians trained to keep large lists of numbers in their heads, and to have sharp memories that can be accessed in much the same way you or I might go through a filing cabinet.

Indolene said “inn-doh-leen”; fellow gater with Teagarden, guarding the Harefoot Dig during the bitter night. She is actually a sagaar, a combative dancer who has slain more than a handful of monsters in her time, several of them in the act of assaulting the Dig, as is proved by the cruorpunxis marked upon her arms. Indolene hails from a large Soutland state called Isidore.

Inkwill, Mister ~ one of the registry clerks at Winstermill, recording in triplicate all documents and forms received by or sent from the manse. Inkwill is actually a concometrist who did his five years’ training at the Pike Athenaeum in Brandenbrass. As concometrists and mathematicians are old rivals, Inkwill and Witherscrawl do not get on very well at all.

Instructor Barthomæus see Barthomæus, Instructor.

ironclad • (adj.) to be covered in riveted strakes (sheets) of cast iron thick enough to stop a cannon ball. A strake will stop any cannon shot, though it might buckle some under the blow of a sixty-eight pounder. Repeated hammering from many hits can, however, weaken the great rivets holding the plates to the side to the vessel, eventually causing them to come away. The exposed wooden planks beneath, while sturdy enough to repel a few shots, become a weak point and a target. For ram captains who prefer a straight shoot-out, this is the goal of their tactics, to pound off an opponent’s strakes and leave him vulnerable and ready to “strike his colors” (lower his flag and give in). • (n.) another name for rams or any other craft covered in iron sheet armor. These iron sheets are coated in a protective chemical known as braice, which makes the metal turn dark brown and stops the caustic waters of the vinegar seas from corroding it.

Ives one of the larger city-states of Frestonia and Fransitart’s place of birth.

jackboot high boot reaching over the knee and having a flaring “collar” about the top, but being open behind the knee.They are usually made of bright-black leather.

jackcoat differs from a frock coat in that its frock is not as long and does not flare out as far. The materials used to make a jackcoat are cheaper or less fine. It is more a commoner’s item of clothing.

jacksword or infantry hanger; straight single-edged sword with a short, heavy blade and heavy handle; as much good as a club or a sword, and favored by soldiers.

jakes, the ~ latrine, loo or water closet.

john-tallow repugnant potive kneaded into an oily clay whose main purpose is to smell so good to a monster that it draws it more than the scent of a person. Given that smell is one of the subtler senses of a monster, that they can tell the difference between everymen and their own kinds by smell, deluding them in this way is very effective but also very difficult. Used in conjunction with other odor-alterants, it can make for some powerful effects. See scripts.

Juice-of-Orange though we might take orange juice for granted, for the poor and rustic of the Half-Continent it is typically unheard of and a rare treat indeed. The growing of particular fruits can be a mildly difficult task, as orchards attract certain monsters. As such it makes the price of these fruits prohibitive for the less well-to-do.

knupel said “noo-pull,” also called a virga; the most rough and knobbly of all the cudgels, it is often awarded to those who gain mastery of a bastinade (stick-fighting) art such as harundo.A knupel is about 4½ feet to 5 feet long, thick at the hitting end and thinner at the strap-bound handle. Regarded as a “battlefield” weapon, a knupel can cause horrendous injuries.

Körnchenflecter, the ~ said “kern-chen-flek-tr”; also called the Parts-wheel or Principia Circum: a table showing how the Four Elements react to or retard each other. From this is made a complex set of tables known simply as the Reactive Index, where all the Sub-Elements are shown in their reactions to each other. With it a habilist will plan combinations and experiments accordingly. The Körnchenflecter is valued not so much for the information it displays but as part of a skold’s history, a treasured symbol of the trade. See Appendix 3.

kraulschwimmen said “krowl-shwim-men”; some of the biggest and most cantankerous of the nadderers (sea-monsters), usually resembling enormous, grotesquely deformed fish. Intelligent and cunning, they spend most of their time warring with the false-gods over control of the Deeps. Many also have a sweet tooth for vinegaroons and the muscles inside gastrines and will come to the surface to hunt for these along the cargo lanes of the world’s oceans.

ladeboard left side of a ship if you are facing the front or bow, the side of a vessel usually put against a wharf or pier; corresponds to our “port.”

laggard a leer who can see through things, into dark and hidden places, and look at things far off. The name comes from the word “lag,” which means to scour or scrub something. The washes they use to change their eyes make the whites turn olive-brown while the irises become a deep yellow. See leer.

lahzar(s) sometimes spelled in old texts as “lazhar,” said “luhzar”; also called catharcriths, thanatocates (“death-bearers”), orgulars (“haughty ones”—the name once given to the heroes of old), spooks-and-pukes or just spooks.Though no one knows for sure, it is commonly held that lahzars first appeared in the Empire around HIR 1263, over a century before the Battle of the Gates. They were said to be among the survivors of a race of previously unknown peoples from far northwest beyond the Half-Continent who called themselves the Cathars. It was rumored that these Cathars were fleeing the destruction of their realm by the rise of one or many false-gods. Settling in the far west beyond Hamlin and Pechenneg, and in the once small stronghold of Sinster in the east, these Cathar refugees brought with them their ancient surgical knowledge, techniques unknown in the Half-Continent except to a learned few. These techniques were called clysmosurgia and involved grafting into a person’s body special organs—called mimetic organs—harvested from beasts, altered and grown in vats. Once put inside a person’s body, these mimetic organs could give the subject unheard-of abilities; the power to generate deadly arcs of electricity inside the body (the fulgar), or send forth brain-frying waves of invisible energy (the wit). Clysmosurgia was quickly rejected by the conservative as a form of “dark” or “black” habilistics (also called morbidology) and it was declared illegal throughout the Empire. Yet since their refuges were, and still are, beyond the Imperial jurisdiction, the Cathar surgeons continued their work. To put a person through clysmosurgia is called transmogrification, and a person so transmogrified is called a “lahzar,” a Cathar word meaning “those who have returned (from the grave),” called so because of the long period they are under the surgeon’s knife. One side effect of having these impostor organs within them is a constant dull ache, occasionally sharp. For wits it manifests itself behind the eyes and in their skulls; for fulgars it hurts in their arms and shoulders and down in their guts. Even a lahzar’s scars might ache on cold days. Another problem is gauntness caused by the overworking of their pith—what we would call “the metabolism” and “immune system,” as their bodies strive to accommodate the intruding flesh; this can bring on mood swings and even psychotic episodes. Lahzars might be powerful, but they are far from happy folk. It took almost three quarters of a century before people began to catch on to just how much more effective these new lahzars were against monsters. During that period lahzars were outlawed in Imperial lands. Their success at the Battle of the Gates, employed in disobedience to Imperial law, won them a grudging acceptance in society. Since then, while clysmosurgia remains an illegal realm of habilistics, lahzars themselves have been legitimized, their labors rivaling and even eclipsing the work of the traditional skolds. Because, however, lahzars have so many alien organs stuck into them, it is still a topical parlor-room debate as to whether or not lahzars are actually a kind of gudgeon. This is an idea that lahzars find completely offensive and refute utterly. As a consequence of this question, their foul moods and strange drafts, lahzars are still considered pariahs, a necessary evil. Even with an expensive set of proofing, nonlahzars would find them extremely difficult to beat in a fight, and this has granted them a status that is not low but simply outside the existing social ranks. This unique status has made becoming a lahzar popular with the fashionably bored young sets of the gentry and the peers, and they spend large chests of their mama and papa’s sous to make the trip to Sinster and seek out the best transmogrifer they can afford. A surgeon of average skill will perform clysmosurgia for about 1,200 sous; the best will do it for about 3,000 sous. Payment can be made in advance, or over a period of time from the lahzar’s earnings as a monster-slayer, soldier or bodyguard. After an initial period of interviews and testing, a subject is either refused or allowed to proceed. A refused subject is free to seek another surgeon. If accepted, it takes several days to complete the operations to make a person into a lahzar (transmogrify them). The whole time the subject is kept drugged and strapped to the cutting table. Once the transmogrification has been done, and the lahzar has been “made,” it can take anywhere from one month to half a year for a person to recover. During this recovery they receive training from the surgeon’s aides (called articles) in the ways of a wit or a fulgar. From time to time it is common for lahzars to return to their surgeon for observation and “repairs”—operations to mend damage caused by illness, organ rot, spasming or violent injury. These repairs require only a day or so under the knife and a fortnight at the most for healing afterward. The “skills” or “abilities” or “powers” their organs give to a lahzar are called potencies (sing. potency). It is these potencies that make a lahzar so effective against monsters (and people too for that matter). The arcs and lightnings of a fulgar and the mental and sensory assaults of a wit are much more consistent in their deadly power and easier to deliver than a skold’s or scourge’s potives. Despite this lahzars are regarded less as civilization’s heroes and more as a distasteful new “fad.” Obviously lahzars will charge for their services, commanding high prices for the efficacy of their labors: In a quiet year they can earn around two hundred sous; in bumper years when monsters are overactive this can rise to five hundred sous. See fulgar, wit, Sinster and surgeon.

lahzarine said “lazz-er-reen” and also orgulous; of or pertaining to a lahzar; concerning all things to do with lahzars.

laid up in ordinary vessel that has been emptied of most of its crew and its stores, taken up out of the water onto a dry dock to be careened (have its hulled cleaned), thoroughly repaired, overhauled, refitted and made ready for another lengthy service on the vinegar waves.

lambast(s) great rope-and-steel sprung engines of war used to hurl large harpoonlike projectiles known as bastis. The bladelike tips of these bastis are typically treated with toxic scripts designed to especially harm monsters. A thick chain attached to powerful steel arms is wound back with a large winch that takes several men to operate. When the chain is wound right back, it is locked with a trigger and the bastis is laid into a special groove or track. When all is ready, the trigger is tripped and the bastis is flung out as far as three hundred yards. Lambasts are most usually found on rams, where their main job is for use against kraulschwimmen and other nadderers (sea-monsters ), but they are also used to throw harpagons, great grappling hooks made to ensnare other vessels, or as a last resort when the shot lockers are empty and the powder all used.

lamplighter(s) essentially a kind of specialized soldier, mostly employed by the Empire, though some states also have them. Their main task is to go out in the late afternoon and evening to light the bright-limn lamps that line the conduits and conductors (highways) of the Empire, and to douse them again in the early morning. They are fairly well paid for soldiers, earning about twenty-two sous a year.

Lamplighter-Marshal most superior officer of the lamplighters; the one that Rossamünd is going to serve under is in charge of the whole of the Wormway from Winstermill to Wörms and the lamplighters who work along it.

lamplighter’s agent clerks and the like seeing to the business of the manse and the Lamplighter-Marshal in far-off cities and other lands. Their main tasks include visiting and delivering dispatches to other manses and Lamplighter-Marshals, organizing supplies and suppliers from the suppliers’ end, seeking new recruits, hunting down leads on smuggling rings, appealing to the Emperor in Clementine itself for more pay or resources and so on.

landaulet said “land-or-let”; open-topped, four-wheeled carriage usually drawn by a single horse and having two seats within that face each other. A folding top divided into two parts may be drawn completely over to protect from inclement weather. Used in the cities where horses are safer; only the foolish or those capable and willing to defend their trusty nag dare take a landaulet out beyond.

leer(s) also called perspicriths (“sense-holders”), cognisters or vatiseers; a creepy lot trained in seeing small and otherwise missed detail, remembering faces, following scents and trails, spying, shadowing and all such prying arts and the use of the sthenicon and olfactologue. They soak their eyes over a period of months in special potives collectively called washes or opthasaums, which irreparably change the colors of the eyes and permanently alter the abilities of their sight. The first of these opthasaums prepares the eye for transformation and is called Saum of Adparat or adparatic syrup. After a month of soaking in this wash, one hour each day, the leer spends another month soaking his or her eyes in either of two washes: Bile of Vatës will make the more common leer known as a laggard with brown and yellow eyes, and cognistercus or Swill of Cognit the less common falsemen, with red and pale blue eyes. The whole process of changing a person’s eyes is called adparation, and one can tell a leer by these weirdly colored orbs. Each also takes particular kinds of drafts to enhance his or her capacities in day-to-day duties. Leers are highly sought after: laggards in the wild places to warn against monsters and other lurking dangers and to track brigands, smugglers and escaped prisoners; and falsemen in the cities to work for the wealthy and for government, wheedling out the dishonest and sycophantic and interrogating the suspicious. Though they alter their biology in a chemical way, they are not regarded with nearly as much suspicion or loathing as lahzars and are not questioned as potential gudgeons. See falsemen and laggards.

left-decede to decede is to step aside quickly, 90° to the line of attack, while turning to face your attacker as, it is to be hoped, he or she stumbles past you. A left-decede is a rapid sidestep to the left with a half turn to the right—a defensive move that is part of the Hundred Rules of Harundo.

Lentine grand-cargo massive cargo vessel that comes from the ports of a distant southern coastal region known as the Lent.

letter of introduction letter written for you by a significant person of rank and merit, saying who you are and your qualities (and flaws), recommending you to whomsoever should read it. It is often sealed with a wax seal, to add a sense of veracity. An excellent letter of introduction can open many doors.

letters, to have your ~ to be able to read and to write competently—neatly and with correct spelling—more than a few words or simple scrawled sentences. Those who can read but have never been taught to write are called partly lettered. (“I can read me letters, sir, but a cain’t make ’em.”) levin-bolt another term for lightning.

Liberum Infantis Tutin for book child.

Licurius said “ly-kyew-re-us”; a leer and factotum for Europe. Originally one of the lifeguards of the Duchess of Naimes, he has served Europe for over ten years. Licurius has left his sthenicon on too long, letting the organs within grow up into his nose and face. Leers who let this happen are known variously as breach-faced leers, aspexitors or leerbrechts; and any biologue that is allowed to grow unchecked like this is said to be exitious (said “eck-zi-shoos”) or ruinous. During his time with Europe, Licurius’ thoughts have become darker, more suspicious and bitter, and his hatred for monsters has grown. More recently the two of them have begun doing wicked and infamous things, things they will not talk about, and somehow it has been Licurius who has led in them.

limbers small versions of a gastrine, metal-bound boxes of wood in groups of twos or threes down either side of each gastrine. They are used to warm up and loosen the muscles of the much bigger counterpart to make them ready for operation. If a gastrine is not massaged by a limber first, it could tear, become swollen and infected, thereby reducing its performance and even occasioning its death. The limbers themselves are warmed up by the gastrineer’s mates, who crank long handles in the limber-box that turn a much smaller version of a treadle-shaft within called a maiden. Once the revolutions of the maiden have reached a certain rate, the muscles of the limber, having been nicely massaged by this turning, will take over and by a series of jointed levers, repeat this process on a greater scale with the gastrines. If a vessel needs more speed it may put some or all of its limbers to work, helping the gastrines to turn the main treadle-shaft. There is a risk of permanent harm being done to the limber, but because they are much easier and cheaper to replace, this risk is often taken. The best a captain could hope to get by putting “all limbers to the screw”—as it is called—is an extra knot or, at best, two. This may not seem like much, but at the relatively slow speeds of all watergoing craft of the Half-Continent, one to two knots can equal the difference between success or doom. See rams, gastrines and gastrineer.

limn-thorn bright-limn fixed to a pole, or hanging from the same.

Liquor common collective name for the vast expanse of deep ocean or gurgës to the east of the Half-Continent, beyond all the smaller pontis (seas) and mares (oceans).

Little Dog quiet page boy in service to the Harefoot Dig. He is the bottom of the rung and it is his job to fetch and carry and run messages to wherever he is sent, even the dangerous countryside. Although Little Dog is well aware of the risks he endures and lives in constant dread of being sent out on wild nights, no one else seems to consider this, and he finds himself dashing about in the unfriendly dark bearing little more than an RSVP to a dinner. Poor little fellow—he has faced many terrors for a boy so young, and has survived each one so far . . .

long johns outer underwear made from wool; leggings for warmth and protection, with reinforced knees. Some have socks sewn onto the ends and are referred to as sock-johns or smockjacks.

longshanks shorts with legs reaching to the knees, often proofed and very hardwearing. Typically worn with long johns as is the fashion, longshanks are preferred to breeches, and are certainly more fashionable. looby fool, idiot, stupid person, ignoramus. A lubber.

Loquor said “loh-kor”; a distant land far to the east, beyond Wörms and the mountains of the Tausengramdornin (“thorns of a thousand tears”). It is said to be deadly threwdish and filled with the most fearsome utterworsts.

lubber or landlubber; a derogatory name given by vinegaroons to any landsman, or anyone clumsy or dangerously awkward.

Madam Felicitine see Felicitine, Madam.

Madam Opera see Opera, Madam.

Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls marine society run by Madam Opera. See marine society.

main-sovereign largest of all the rams, with a minimum of one hundred great-guns running down one broadside (not including lambasts or tormentums); enormous and slow and needing drudges to help them maneuver. See rams and Appendix 6.

manifest list of the cargoes carried by a vessel.

manse fortress or large fortresslike house that serves as the headquarters for lamplighters, and a place of final refuge should it be needed.

marches also called bounds, extents or parts (partitions), or the precincts of man. The division men have given to their domains, calling them rather grandly the Exculta Hominum Vita Partitio or “divisions of civilization.” They are based on the perceived safety of each region from monsters and the effects of threwd. There are five marches, starting with the safest or “quietest,” as it is commonly referred to: urbis (city) > paris (parish, canton or pagis) > scutis (soke or fenceland) > fossis (ditchland) > horridas terrestrum (the wilds).

The first four marches, from the city to the ditchlands, are known as the termina hominis, “the precincts of man,” and are seen as radiating out from each city in a series of expanding rings. The wilds remain the horridas terrestrum, “the rough (or frightening) lands,” and are all the wide, shapeless places beyond the four rings of the precincts, uncharted and untamed. Of them it can easily be said, “here be monsters.”

marine society institution established to teach children the rudiments of naval life and so prepare them for the ever-needful navy. In a typical marine society, life is divided up into watches, just as it is on a ram or cargo, and for several years, until they reach the age of work, each child is taught ropes and knots; watches and routines; signal sending and reading; hoisting flags; scrubbing, swabbing, holy-stoning and mucking (that is, cleaning); climbing ratlines; recognizing ranks, types of vessels and their descriptions (tabulation); letters (making a marine society child highly prized); simple cosmology (the positions of stars); and reading charts. Extra subjects peculiar to different marine societies might include bastinade (stick-fighting, of which harundo is a part); stowing and setting hammocks; rowing; matter (history); and generalities (geography). Marine societies are run by an owner, or someone appointed by the naval board of that realm. Typically they are staffed with semiretired vinegaroons seeing out the last of their days in continued service to their regent. It is one of the few pension options offered to sailors past their prime, and to get a position at a marine society is considered a great stroke of fortune or Providence.

Marrow, the ~ also called the Würtem-way, among many other names. Just above Clementine is a massive man-made gorge, a huge moat to keep all the terrors of the foul lands beyond from invading Clementine land. It represents the northernmost extent of the Empire, and was started in a time before it even existed. In its early days the Empire took up the work of finishing the Marrow, taking another two hundred years to do so. This required vaults of money and several thousand lives, with laborers lost to accidents, brutal punishments and attacks from the ever-present monsters. The Marrow runs west to east for 1,200 miles from the Foeder Cidës to the Pontus Cadmia (“yellow sea”). At the bottom of this gorge is a clogged, trickling stream that started in a swamp and flowed to nowhere, cutting a groove in the granite plateau. It was along this eroded waterway that the moat was begun, and now the waters of that stream flow from the swamp to the Spout, a collection of pipes protruding from the cliffs along the Pontus Cadmia far away to the east. All along the Marrow are giant fortresses known together as the Ortygometra (“land-rail”) linked by a conduit called the Geometra. These fortresses keep watch on the Empire’s northernmost border, while its pediteers march patrols along the Geometra. Though not very beautiful, the Marrow is recognized as one of civilization’s great wonders, a testament to man’s determination against the monsters, and seeing it is a part of the Grand Tour.

matter the subject in school we would call “history.”

Maudlin said “moord-lin”; a planet and one of the brightest lights in the night sky, having a distinct greenish tinge. The largest planet, it can be seen as a tiny yet definite disk. Away from city lights, you might also spot Maudlin’s largest moon, Jekyll, circling the planet in retrograde orbit (opposite to the direction of orbit of almost all the other planets and moons). Maudlin rises late and so is a mark of the passing of midnight and the approach of morning. She is said to be fleeing Faustus, who chases her each night across the cosmic dome, and so is held as the Signal Star of the suffering, the desired and the desirable.

Meesius said “mee-see-us”; one of Gauldsman Five’s many fitters and a retired vinegaroon who once fell foul of Fransitart and Craumpalin. In the solution of his predicament, Meesius found himself owing them a great debt they have never previously claimed.

mess-kid small wooden pail with high sides for eating food out of.

Messrs. Idby & Adby, Mercantile & Supercargo mercantile company which, having lost one too many oxcarts of goods on the Vestiweg, hired Europe to do her deadly work for it in the Brindleshaws.

Midwich the “middle watch.” See days of the week.

milt the depth of one’s self; the core of one’s soul and convictions, deeper even than the heart.

Misbegotten Schrewd, the ~ average-sized ettin said to haunt the Brindleshaws.

Mole, Battle of the ~ great naval battle near a small navigation island call the Mole. It was fought over thirty years ago between a collection of states including Brandenbrass called the Solemn League and the islands of the Wretchwater and their supporters, the mercenary state of Lombardy and a third mysterious ally. The conflict was one of many over the long-contested rights of use and passage of two bodies of water: the Gullet, the narrow strait between Coursing and the mainland; and the Quimpermeer, that part of the Grume northeast of the Gullet. Strangely, Quimperpund, the state these rights worked against most, though part of the Solemn League, did not send rams to the conflict. This was a profound betrayal, and though the Solemn League won the battle, it resented Quimperpund’s treachery and, so many years later, still do. Fransitart and Craumpalin were both present at the battle, serving on board the eighty-eight guns-broad main-ram, the NB (“Naufustica Branden”) Venerable, with Fransitart directing the fire from the first gun deck, while Craumpalin served at one of the guns and handed out restoratives when there was a lull or a desperate need. That was back in the time before they joined the Boschenberg navy. See the Surprise.

money most currencies of the Empire have three denominations: the billion—the biggest coin, representing the most amount of money; the dollion or dollar—the middle or secondary coin; and finally the common or comma, which is the smallest coin in size and worth. For example, the most used currency is that of the Soutlands, used in almost all interrealm and international transactions. It is divided into:

With the Imperial oscadril it works like this:

There are many, many more currencies around the Half-Continent, some left over from pre-Imperial times and still used among locals, especially in more remote or rustic places. It can be very complicated, and money changers have made a very profitable industry out of unraveling the mysteries of currency exchange.

monitor(s) twenty-four to thirty-two guns-broad rivergoing vessels of war, similar to rams in that they have an enclosed gun deck, yet sitting lower in the water. They are ironclad and powered by gastrines. The heavy keel is much reduced in size and the vessels have a much shallower draft to allow for the shallower depths of rivers and shoreline waters. They handle poorly in stormy seas, although this does not prevent them being taken on patrols close to shore. With their shallow draft they can bring their guns to bear alarmingly close to land.

monster(s) also called üntermen, nickers, bogles, beasties, bugaboos, baskets, sprigs, kraulschwimmen, nadderers, nasties and many other names; any creature not considered human or a dumb animal. The most basic division is into two:

What distinguishes a monster from a person is that it is often more grotesque, bent, disproportioned (this is a human perspective, of course), possessing claws and fangs and spines and a murderous intent to kill people. What makes monsters different from the dumb animals that walk the earth is harder to define, although it is agreed by most scholars of the Half-Continent that clear rational intelligence and the capacity to speak (even the rudimentary gruntings of the dumbest ettin) are the most important difference. For nickers (land monsters) it is also agreed that a common difference is that many nickers walk about on two legs and have two (or more) arms. This is not absolute, however. For nadderers (or sea-monsters) it is generally their cleverness and cunning and their enormous size that distinguish them from the fishes, the sharks and the whales. No one knows where the monsters came from, but for as long as history records, humankind has been locked in a war with them—the Hyadthningarvig or Luctamens Immensum or the Immerwar—the Everlasting Struggle, not just in the Half-Continent but all the world over. As humans seek to expand their empire, their grip and control of the land, so the monsters resist them, plaguing and spoiling. Yet monsters find it hard to live where men have gained control, and the more people living in one place the fewer monsters there will be, although there are always some. This makes the cities the safest places for people to dwell, and from them everymen wage their side of the war. There are rumors of some realms that live in understanding or even cooperation with the monsters, but this is unthinkable for those dwelling in the Half-Continent; such a thing would be the act of vile sedorners (monster-lovers) and a crime against humankind. No one knows absolutely where monsters come from. Old histories say that there have been many—urchins, the false-gods, many nuglungs and kraulschwimmen—who have been in existence since before humankind. These they call the primmlings (“the first”). However, it is known too that new monsters keep appearing, made after this prehistoric time. Theories abound as to where they come from. Probably the most unusual is found in the Vadè Chemica, which suggests that they are knit together in mud and slime made fertile by threwd and the sun’s warmth. Habilists name this hot threwdish mud “gravidia lutumi” (“pregnant slime”) and theorize that the stronger the threwd is in a place and the muddier it is, the more likely that place is to spawn monsters. This whole process is known as spontaneous self-generation, and monsters who are born in such a way are called sprosslings (“born ones”). See nuglung, glamgorn, nicker, kraulschwimmen, bogle and gudgeon.

monster-blood tattoo also cruorpunxis; tattoos given to someone who has just slain a monster, and made with some of the siphoned blood of that same monster. Once pricked into the skin, the monster’s blood reacts strangely with everyman blood, causing a quickly festering, throbbing sore that eventually sloughs off its scab to reveal permanently port-red to blood-brown marks beneath. These tattoos are usually a highly stylized face based on the bogle the person slew. Those who make a profession of marking tattoos in monster blood and making spoors are called punctographists. The best punctographists—those who make the most impressive images and do it with the least pain—earn themselves a comfortable living. A decent cruorpunxis, say about two inches by two inches, will set you back about two sous. Punctographists are most likely to be found in busy rural centers where monsters haunt the lands about, and in cities where wealth and fashion keep them in demand. Saved monster blood (called cruor or sometimes ichor) will remain usable for a little over a day before congealing. Kept cool and hidden, it can last for almost three days. This gives the victorious pugnator a little time after slaying the nicker to bottle its blood and make for the nearest major town to get a tattoo.

monster-hunters those whose work it is to defend the realm of humans against the realm of monsters. See teratologists.

monster-lover being of such a disposition is a terrible crime. See sedorner.

months of the year there are 16 months in the Half-Continent year, most of 23 days, with 3 having 22 days. This means that there are 4 months in each season. For summer there is Calor (22 days), Estor (23 days), Prior (23) and Lux (23). For autumn there is Pilium (23), Cachrys (23), Lirium (23) and Pulchrys (23). For winter there is Brumis (22), Pulvis (23), Heimio (23) and Herse (23). For spring there is Orio (23), Unxis (23), Icteris (23) and Narcis (22). The year always ends with a day to spare, Lestwich, the last day of the year. This means that the new year always starts on a Newich, and therefore the dates of the year always fall on the same days year in, year out. Farmers, fishermen and other folk working by the seasons and the evolutions of the moon like this calendar a lot: its predictability makes their lives that little bit simpler. See days of the week and Appendix 1.

morbidity putrefaction or bacterial breakdown and decay.

Mortar, the ~ suburb in Boschenberg famous for its proofing.

mottle patterns and colors of allegiance shown on clothes, harness, flags, baldrics and other sashes and ribbons. Every state, realm or organization has its own mottle, a distinctive combination of two or more colors (or tinctures) arranged in immediately recognizable patterns. Tinctures have definite meanings and are used accordingly. For example, the colors of the Empire are rouge and cadmia with leuc (red and yellow with white), meaning “justice, honor, wisdom”; the mottle of Boschenberg ocher and sable (brown and black), meaning “hardiness and wisdom (shrewdness)”; Brandenbrass sable and leuc (black and white), meaning “wisdom and integrity.” The following list shows the colors used in mottle, their proper or technical name, positive meaning and negative meaning: When flying flags, negative meanings are shown by hoisting a pure black strip (the black rider) beneath them. For example, a fortress succumbing to the effects of threwd might fly an orient (purple) flag with a “black rider” to show that the place is overcome with madness. By using the same device, one could pass insults to an enemy across the field of war.You can say a lot with colors.

muck hill pile of poo.

mules square-heeled slipper with no heel piece or quarters; any flat-heeled, soft shoe that is fastened to the foot and leg with ribbons.

Mullhaven, the ~ harbor and roads (safe anchorage) before High Vesting. Its name is Hergott for “sandy harbor.”

musket see flintlock musket.

musketeer foot soldier or pediteer wearing half-harness of a weskit with platoon-coat and a thrice-high; his main weapon is the musket fixed with bayonet. Designated medium infantry. See pediteer and harness.

Naimes said “naymz”; moderately large Soutland city-state found in the southwestern corner of a fertile farming region known as the Villene (said “vill-enn”), a region inland of Frestonia. Naimes has grown rich on the trade of timber, meat and certain semiprecious metals and gems. Being pinched, however, between the great powers of Haquetaine, Maine, Westoverin and Castoria has limited its growth. Its regent, the Duchess of Naimes, has suffered no little embarrassment at the wayward behavior of her daughter, her only child and heiress.

nasties one of the many euphemisms for monsters.

nativity patent official document that declares the place and time of birth and bears an official seal and signatures. The record of all the places a person might live and any citizenship he or she might be granted is also recorded on a nativity patent.Without one, it is hard for a person to establish his or her identity and almost impossible to get decent work or even be allowed into most cities.

navy unlike standing armies, the states of the Empire are allowed to have navies as big as they can afford them to be, and so the states do just that. These standing navies are known as fleets-in-being and serving in them is the single most common occupation, with only the merchant marine coming anywhere near as close (after this comes serving the bureaucracies of the Empire). Navies are mostly made up of rams, which are massive ironclad vessels of war. These are employed for various integral tasks:

Universally calling themselves the Senior Service, the navies of the states are always looking for new recruits. They put up posters promising great rewards, fete famous or valorous captains to keep their popularity high, press vagrants, foundlings and merchant vinegars (men serving on merchant vessels) into service, offer convicted criminals a berth in place of serving in the notoriously foul prisons, pinch or entice the crew from the rams of other states; in short, do whatever it takes to keep their ships fully manned. Life in the navy is tough, and vinegaroons often die younger than landlubbers (or just “lubbers,” as vinegaroons will say), affected by the caustic sprays that wash over their rams and pit and scar their skin.Yet the pay is higher for equivalent work on land and the chance of prize money very real. Though vinegaroons do not wear uniforms, their rams have distinct collections of flags, unique for each state or realm, called bunting. The biggest piece of bunting is the enormous rectangular flag known as the spandarion, showing the mottle and sigil of the state to which the ram belongs. A fleet decked out in full bunting flapping proudly in the breeze is a most beautiful sight. There are also cypher flags or burges—used to communicate from vessel to vessel—run up on lines between the masts. By these a commodore or admiral can give orders to his squadron or fleet, and vessels can relay simple information. A typical navy consists of twenty to thirty capital rams including three to five main-sovereigns, sixty odd cruisers (see Appendix 6) and many schooners and other small sailers for observation and running messages (advice boats). It is usual for a city-state to support more rams than it could ever shelter in its harbors. This is because about two thirds of any navy is at sea at any one time. Maintaining even a half-decent navy costs mind-bogglingly immense amounts of money, money that a state may not always have in its coffers. Consequently, navies will be involved in their own private enterprises, or invest in companies and seek investors from among those who benefit most from their labors. Naval agents are responsible for all this wheeling and dealing, and great clouds of them bustle about the Half-Continent in pursuit of funding for their masters. See rams and vinegaroons.

nicker(s) general name for all monsters that live on land (sea-monsters generally being called nadderers), and also used more specifically of those monsters who are the size of a person or larger. See monsters.

nimbleschrewd(s) type of blightling (the worst sort of glamgorn) who runs about in gangs. As with many other glamgorns, they like to dress in human clothes and adore making mischief wherever and however they can. A nimbleschrewd’s idea of mischief goes far beyond just simple pranks (these they will do); what they like best is making everymen miserable and wretched and even killing them. See glamgorns.

nostrum scripts that are not part of the common lexicon (popular and well-known scripts). Instead they are the unique or rare concoctions of a specific skold or school of skolds.

nuglung(s) small but very powerful kind of bogle, often having a head like a twisted version of an animal’s. It is said that nuglungs serve the urchins, the lords of the monsters, as messengers and spies, and are often found sneaking and prying into the deeds of men. They are notoriously tough to kill, although most potives work just as well on them as on any other monster. The worst, most violent and cruel of the nuglungs are called pernixis. See monsters.

nullodour a collection of potives designed to hide or confuse or fake certain smells. Their most common use is to mask the distinctive odor of a person so that he or she remains unnoticed by monsters. Used in conjunction with john-tallow, it offers you an excellent chance to throw off pursuit and escape with your life.

old salt one of the many names for a sailor of the high seas. See vinegaroon.

olfactologue “smell-machine”; a biologue (biological device) used to make smells profoundly more noticeable while also increasing the wearer’s ability to discern subtle differences in odors otherwise impossible to sense. Made of a simple wooden box strapped over the nose and mouth but leaving the eyes unobstructed. See sthenicon for a detailed description of the parts that make up an olfactologue. As with a sthenicon, if you wear an olfactologue for too long, the organs inside will start to grow up your nose and into your face. After about a week, the box could still be taken off, though you would find tendrils up your nose that would tear out painfully. After a month of wearing an olfactologue (or a sthenicon), it could not be removed without surgery and the loss of the front of your face. Used most by leers, who swallow special drafts beforehand to help make their senses sharper and sniff exotic powders to retard the invasion of the biologue’s organs.

Opera, Madam ~ third daughter of middling gentry. In her twenties, Madam Opera Gelderwine found true love with a daring equiteer officer of superior breeding and charm only to have a scandal (so serious that few still know anything about it and Madam Opera will never tell) dissolve the engagement and leave the young agonized Opera forever unwilling to try at love again. Taking on the title “madam” anyway, to put off any more suitors, of which there were several, she set off on the Grand Tour and traveled the known world for several years seeking solace in glamorous cities. Running out of money, she finally returned to Boschenberg, the city of her birth, to find all that remained to her was an old mansion in a run-down part of the city. With no income and no prospects she took up one of many navy contracts being offered at the time to run a marine society, the first unmarried woman to have ever done so. Hiring pensioned vinegaroons as her staff (who received their pay from the navy rather than from the madam, and included Fransitart and a year later Craumpalin), she began her Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. She is a lonely, middle-aged lady who spends most of her days stalking about the marine society seeing who she might catch at “knavery and misdeeds!” as she calls it, or sitting in her private rooms receiving guests and dictating letters for Verline to take down. To the children Madam Opera seems grand, calculating and sour.To any of the young men who act as agents for the various services seeking to hire marine society children, she seems an obvious flirt.

operasigis pain-marks or grief-signs, said “oh-por-ah-sij-jiss”; another name for spoors.

Ormond one of the Signal Stars; the fourth-brightest light in the night sky, preceded by the white planet Penelopë and followed by purple Hadës. Ormond rises even later than Maudlin, and its appearance shows that the night is old and dawn approaching.

oscadril also oscar or owl; the largest coin of the Empire, made partly with gold and worth 1½ sous. On one side is a relief of the Sagacious Owl (the symbol of Clementine’s mint) and on the other a Pillar or two Pillars entwined with a sash (a symbol of the Empire itself). If you were to toss a coin for a test of luck, you would say, “We’ll flip for it! You tell me—the Pillar or the Owl?” Various Emperors have tried over the centuries to make the oscar the standard currency throughout their domain.Yet somehow it has never worked and the sou remains the merchant, and therefore most common, coin.

Padderbeck, the ~ one of the many quays in Boschenberg, situated along the banks of the Humour; small quay built along a narrow canal called the Stoorn, coming off the main flow of the river to increase the access of trade. Other similar canals include the Humrig, Glastornis and Glachtig.

Padderbeck Stair, the ~ walkway about and steps leading down to the Padderbeck itself, though the two names are often used interchangeably.

pamphlets large many-paged periodicals, a cross between what we would call “newspaper” and “magazine,” often filled with scandalous and fabulous stories of current politics and past events. The pamphlets that Verline kindly buys for the marine society are paid for by her sister the Lady Praeline, who has the money to afford them.

panniers baskets or boxes with fastenable lids that are borne by animals or fixed to carriages for carrying stores and goods.

parlor maid usually a maid-servant who waits at the meal table. In Verline’s case, however, though she is called a parlor maid, her responsibilities and chores involve much more than just serving Madam Opera meals.

Parts, the ~ or just lowercase: parts; all the Elements, Sub-Elements, chemicals and minerals and other ingredients that are used to make scripts.

patchouli water water in which the petals of the patchouli flower have been soaked. The water is then strained to leave a pleasantly scented liquid for dabbing about oneself or dripped into a kerchief to be wafted about the room.

pediteer said “ped-it-ear”; the common name for a foot soldier, as opposed to an equiteer or cavalryman. Musketeers, haubardiers and troubardiers are the three most common pediteers. Along with them are the ambuscadiers, frankarms and other light infantry.

peer(s) the nobility, those considered or considering themselves to be of highborn blood: ancient kings and queens, dukes, duchesses and the rest. All of the regents of the states of the Empire are peers; indeed, you can never be a regent unless you are a peer.There are certain bloodlines within the peerage that are considered superior to others, such as the Corvinius Arbours of Boschenberg or the Saakrahennemus of Brandenbrass. Probably the most superior is a broadly scattered bloodline: those of a group called the Didodumese (said “dy-dod-dyoo-meez”), a lineage not reckoned in the person’s name but by their birth and nativity patent. The Didodumese are all those descended from Dido, the founding Queen of the Empire who ruled 1,600 years ago. There are even some without a peerage who belong to this illustrious set, scattered and squabbling across the whole Half-Continent and beyond. The current Haacobin Emperor is not one of the Didodumese, who hold that the supreme leader of Dido’s realm must be one of her descendants. He often contends with their political arm in the Imperial Parliament and their spies and assassins in the palaces.

peregrinat almanac made hardwearing and even waterproof for use by wayfarers and other travelers.

Phoebë the most common name for the moon, the governing orb of the night sky.

physic, physician well liked and well respected, physicians train for four to six years at physacteries, spending a further year or two in a sanatorium (hospital) before being granted their full degree. With this they are allowed to be called “Doctor” and are free to practice their trade in the wide world. There they tend to all the aches and sprains of the ailing public, bleeding, balancing the humours, diagnosing and recommending drafts to be sought from dispensurists or procedures needed from surgeons. Physicians will even attempt a little surgery, which they are qualified to do, and folks are much happier to be under a physic’s knife than those butchers the surgeons. Physicians charge for each attendance and can earn about three hundred sous a year.

physics the study and practice of caring for the sick and injured; what we would call “medicine.”

Pike, Mister ~ boatswain of the Hogshead; a very quiet and obedient man who yet manages to control the crew set under him.

Pinsum, Master ~ the most bookishly learned of Madam Opera’s employees and master of matter, habilistics and generalities at the foundlingery . He has never been a sailor nor even seen the vinegar seas, but rather was a small-time actor before serious lumbago (chronic muscular pain in the legs) made it impossible for him to continue in a job that required so much standing up. Answering a petition of employment put out by Madam Opera, he began work at the foundlingery while Rossamünd was still a baby. He also teaches letters.

piped to bed one of the many signals given by the masters of the foundlingery upon the bosun’s whistle to tell the children to go to bed. Once it is blown, the foundlings have fifteen minutes to be beneath their blankets. See bosun’s whistle.

Pirate-kings of the Brigandine, the ~ pirate-kings associated with the Brigandine Coast, northeast of the Half-Continent, beyond the Liquor. There are other pirate-kings sitting in their strongholds in other lands, but those of the Brigandine are the most infamous.

pith also pluck or constitution; what we would call “metabolism.” It also means intestinal fortitude or “guts.” plaudamentum see Cathar’s Treacle.

Poéme once-fashionable suburb in Boschenberg, now given over to factories and warehouses; where Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls is also found; now famous for not much at all.

pokeweed or pockweed; a reedy plant that grows in swamps, and best in threwdish swamps, from whose stems is made a tough, durable fiber of the same name. It takes well to gauld and is prized as padding in proofing.

Pontoon Wigh, the ~ a main street in High Vesting that runs parallel to the coast. Clean and possessing a glorious square, it is an address much sought after by the best corporations and mercantiles.

Pontus Nubia the “black sea,” whose acrid waters are quite literally black like ink.

poop or poop deck; rearmost section of the upper deck of a ram, between the aft mast and the stern. Given that the decks of a ram are flush (that is, flat), the correct term for this part of the vessel is the aft deck. In the vernacular of the vinegaroon, however, the old term remains.

portable soup flat, unappetizing-looking oblong slats of black material about the size of a man’s hand. They are made from a brothlike soup of beans that is strained, mixed with powdered bone and dried till it is hard. It is then etched with the manufacturer’s mark, wrapped in greased paper and shipped off to sell. Soaking one slat in hot water for about half an hour (or three hours for cold water) will cause it to dissolve into the black goop it was to begin with. Not very tasty, but light, nutritious and it takes up little room, making it an ideal wayfood. It can even be eaten as it is, though you would have to bite and chew very carefully or risk cutting up your mouth and tongue.

potive(s) any concoction meant to have an effect externally, that is, not by swallowing or some other introduction into the body, as opposed to drafts, which need to be swallowed to work. Some potives still have to touch exposed skin to have an effect. See scripts.

Poundinch, Rivermaster ~ master of the Hogshead; he has served on many vessels on the vinegar seas and gained a lot of experience on the behavior and temperaments of both people and ships.

Praeline or properly the Lady Praeline, said “pray-leen”; younger sister of Verline. Her locally famed beauty allowed her to marry well above her station, much to the shame of both families. His parents see her as a grasping upstart; her parents (now passed away) saw her as getting “hoity” and too big for her own boots. Her sister is just happy her husband treats her fairly.

prattling hackmillion person who talks big but cannot back it up with action; “hackmillion” is a term used of someone who makes many swings and showy stabs at an opponent with a sword or other weapon but to little or no effect: all show and no results.

precincts of man, the ~ see marches.

prize(s), prize money typically they are the capture of another ram or a cargo, or even a seaside town or city; the taking of some significant person worth ransoming; or the proven slaying of a sea-monster (the bigger it is, the better the reward). Prize money is paid as an incentive for heroic endeavors and is distributed to the whole crew of a ram by their government in amounts deemed appropriate for the deed accomplished. This distribution, however, is very uneven, with the captain of the vessel getting far and away the largest share, the rest trickling down till the lowest yonker (cabin boy) or grummet might receive barely more than an extra day’s pay. It really does depend on the quality of the prize taken. There have been occasions where the capture has been such a haul, like a fleet of treasure ships bound for Turkmantine, that the prize money earned by the entire crew is enough to set each one up for life. The smaller rams—the frigates and drag-maulers (see Appendix 6)—are more active, and on average their crews can expect to double their year’s pay with prize money. The vinegaroons of the larger rams—iron-doughts, main-rams and main-sovereigns (see Appendix 6)—will normally earn prize money equal to about half their annual pay. For a fee, naval or prize agents will take care of the tiresome and punctilious work involved in securing a crew’s prize money, and naval offices are bustling with them all year round. Prize money is also offered to landed folk for the killing of monsters or capture of criminals.

proofed treated with gauld to turn into proofing. See gauld, gaulder.

proofing any garment proofed, or treated with gauld, so that it has become sturdy cloth armor as good as, if not better than, any ancient metal suit. See gauld, gaulder.

Proud Sulking also called Schmollenstolz; the major city of the farming region known as Sulk, situated on the east banks of the river Humour. A quiet rival of Boschenberg, it offers access to its ports and cheap land transport so that barges might discharge their cargoes and avoid the high tolls of the Axles. It is also becoming the preferred river-port for the taking in of produce from Sulk—grains, vegetables, cotton, flax, limestone—for export to the rest of the world. This was once Boschenberg’s monopoly.

prow front, pointed part of a vessel forming part of the bow. On a ram the prow curves down and forward into a beak called a ram, from which these vessels take their name.

pugnator said “pug-nay-tor”; a common, some consider vulgar, term for monster-hunter. See teratologist.

“Pullets and cockerels!” exclamation of disgust or surprise or astonishment; it means, quite literally, “hens and roosters!”

quabard said “kwe-bard” or “kay-bard”; a shorter version of a haubard; like a weskit only lined with gaulded-leather plates and fitting more tightly, fastened with buckles at the side or back rather than buttons. See harness .

quarto also quarter; any body of soldiers significantly smaller than a platoon, which is roughly thirty men. Typically a quarto is around ten souls.

’quins slang for sequins.

Rabbitt, Farmer ~ see Farmer Rabbitt.

Rakes, the ~ items on a menu considered to be common and unfashionable; food for rough and rustic folk to eat; the cheap part of the menu. See Best Cuts.

ram(s) also rams-of-the-main, men-of-war and sometimes grandly called naufustica; the ironclad, gastrine-powered ships of war used by most of the navies of the Half-Continent. The forwardmost tip of the prow is pushed forward in a great iron “beak” called the ram, giving these vessels their name. With their iron hulls blackened or browned with special chemicals to stop corrosion (called braice) and sitting low in the water, rams look sinister and powerfully threatening. Yet though the outside might be dark iron, within a ram is a world of wood: beams, posts, planks, bulkheads, smelling strongly of creosote, gunpowder and sweat. Rams are generally divided into two types: the smaller, lighter, faster, less heavily armed called cruisers; and the big, heavily gunned and armored and slower kind known as capitals, rams-of-the-main or just rams. Cruisers have only one gun deck and no more than three masts. They are the workhorses of a navy, used most in escort, reconnaissance and running messages. They are the eyes and ears of the fleet, roving out from the main battle (fleet) to find the enemy’s position. The lightest cruiser is the gun-drudge, followed by the frigate, the largest being the drag-mauler. This cruiser has the largest ram of all, and is built to charge monsters and other vessels and survive the impact. Drag-maulers are the fastest rams at about 14 to 16 knots. The quickest ever, Scythe 36, achieved an unheard of 18½ knots in a fair wind with all limbers to the screw. Frigates are only a little slower at about 13 to 14 knots. Gun-drudges can manage only about 11 knots. Capitals or rams have two gun decks, with the heaviest cannon arranged on the second or lower gun deck. Essentially floating batteries, capitals line up stem to stern one after the other in a fight. This is called the line-of-battle, and in this formation enemy fleets will pound away at each other for hours until a decision is reached. Cruisers are considered too small to take a place in the line-of-battle and patrol behind their own line to protect its flanks. The lightest capital is the iron-dought, whose upper gun deck extends only two thirds the length of the vessel and travels as fast as 11½ to 12 knots. The next is the main-ram. Achieving no more than 11 knots, they are still by far the most common of the capitals, forming the backbone of all serious navies. The largest of all rams are the main-sovereigns, which are so large they can do little better than 8 knots and often require gun-drudges to help them maneuver. Different captains will employ their rams in different ways, concentrating one or a combination of the three basic tactics:

Though a captain may train his crew as he wishes, there will be a preferred method for the whole fleet as set by the lords of that particular navy. Commonly, states who build their own rams are more inclined to board or shoot, for they know how much it takes to make one. States that buy rams from others and from private manufacturers will as happily sink a vessel by ramming it as blast away at it with guns. It is interesting to note that the larger a ram is, the more its captain will be paid to work her. When a ram is commissioned (officially named and launched), it is quickly crewed and sent to sea. There it will spend the rest of its days, returning to its home port only occasionally and rarely staying for long. See frigate, navy and Appendix 6.

reagents any of the ingredients used for potives and drafts; also called parts or the Parts.

realm • a specific group of scripts, all with similar effects. See scripts. • in the politics of the Empire and its neighbors, a realm is any region controlled by a king or queen.

red must edible fungus from the must family. Not all musts are toothsome, and some are downright poisonous. One of the great advantages of red must is that it keeps a very long time, squashes without bruising, is very light and very good for you. This makes it ideal wayfood.

repellents typically a combination of the realms of scripts (repugnants, fulminants and discutants) incorporating all chemistry designed to dissuade and drive monsters (and people) off. Bothersalts is one of the more popular repellents, though not the most powerful. Others include Salt-of-Asper, Frazzard’s powder, glitter-dust, trisulxis, bombast’s ash, boglebane and green-flash or gegenshein.

restorative scripts concerned with reviving and healing. See scripts.

revenant, rever-man, rever what we would call “zombies,” “the walking dead”; some are whole reanimated corpses, others are made from bits and pieces of different corpses and even animal parts. They take a lot of learning and skill to make properly. If not well preserved, their stink gives them away. If their brains are not reconstituted correctly, they are wild and unmanageable. The best quality revers are used as assassins, often dissolving to puddles of untraceable filth when the dastardly deed is done. Occasionally one breaks free of its everyman masters and terrorizes a community for a while or escapes into the wilds, where it gets short shrift from the local monsters, who hate such abominations and are hated by them in return. See gudgeons.

revenue officers employed by almost every state or realm, they are used to gather the duties and taxes of imported and even exported goods. Revenue officers have a mandate for search and seizure, and go on patrols and raids. Usually efficient and zealous, they have the power of state and Empire behind them and the fear of the gallows or Catherine wheel at their employ. They are the harriers of smugglers, corsers, ashmongers and all those involved in the dark trades. Such as these guard both the Axles and the Spindle, and work closely with lamplighters to catch the crooks.

rhatany one of the ingredients in Cathar’s Treacle, made from the poisonous black rhatan bloom, which is native to many of the most threwdish and haunted swamps and bogs, particularly the Ichormeer. The whole flower is dried and crushed very finely to make the powder. On its own it is very poisonous.

rhombus a place where skolds go to learn their craft. In their two years there the student skold, called a rhubus, learns the basic scripts, and from these how to prepare his or her own nostrum and vulgum. In this they are taught the Elements and Sub-Elements, the Bases and their Combinations, Körnchenflecter, the Four Spheres and the Four Humours. They also study the Vadè Chemica and many other forbidden books on habilistics , ancient and new, as well as matter (history). People are not allowed to attend a rhombus unless they already have their letters, that is, they can read and write.

rivergates great fortifications built across rivers and broader streams to protect a certain valuable place or as an outworking of a city’s more terrestrial embattlements. Certain riverside duchies and principalities have long used their rivergates to control trade, not just into their own domains but into domains beyond as well. Though the cause of wars and great resentment, ancient Imperial Concessions that allowed these states to legally inspect and tax riverine trade under Imperial observation were kept when the Haacobin Dynasty seized the Imperial Seats. This has been much to the disgust of other states who have suffered the tollways for centuries—and a bitter disappointment too: it had been hoped that the Haacobin Emperors would bring a new kind of justice to the Empire. Since then, a handful of more aggressive states have successfully lobbied the Emperor for the right to build their own rivergates, and so to have their share in the great profits. This has meant that some rivers have two or three or even four such structures choking them, as their owners rant and politick and threaten the others—for example the troubles on the river Humour between Boschenberg and its ancient Axles, and Brandenbrass with its smart new Spindle. Many of the less honest have devised ways to get by rivergates, especially those engaged in the dark trades or others wanting to avoid the taxes and tolls they charge.

rivermaster the most senior officer aboard a barge or any other rivergoing craft; not always the owner of the vessel; lower in rank than a captain.You have to serve on the vinegar waves to be allowed that rank.

rock salt salt mined like a rock from the earth. Fulgars suck or chew on lumps of the stuff to keep the concentration of salt in the blood high, thus making them better conductors of electricity.

Rossamünd said “ross-uh-moond”; awkward boy-hero and under-grown foundling of Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls.

Rupunzil, the ~ fine cromster of sixteen guns, owned by Rivermaster Vigilus.

sagaar(s) dancers and fighters whose skills and art came originally from lands far to the north beyond the Marrow—Samaarkhand, Mansuûng and Ghadamése—and were first encountered by the Empire as it came into conflict with the kingdom of Wenceslaus. There are many forms and styles of sagaris (the skill of the sagaar) more complex and varied than harundo and the other bastinade arts. Sagaars live to dance, to attain a state known as “the Perpetual Dance,” where every action, every tiny lift or twitch, is all part of one unbroken, lifelong dance. In the lands of their origin they are court-entertainers and the prime teratologists (monster-hunters), employing their extreme flexibility, nimbleness and speed with varieties of potives even older then the skolds’. In the Empire, sagaars are thought of only as teratologists and find many opportunities to hunt and drive off monsters. Yet all sagaars would just prefer to dance. Sagaars usually wear tight-fitting clothes to allow unhindered movement of limb and those of the Empire also mark themselves with spoors in the form of spikes radiating down and around one cheekbone, just under the eye (usually the left). It is well known that sagaars and lahzars do not like each other very much.

sailer vessel under the power of sails rather than gastrines; not to be confused with a sailor, a fellow who works on a ship at sea.

Sallow Meermoon reluctant fugelman skold of the communities around the Brindleshaws. Being forced by her parents and fellow citizens to train as a skold at the rhombus in Wörms, she has recently returned and is very unhappy with her lot in life. Despite this she has still been very thorough about being a skold, even down to getting the vertical-stripe spoors that are a mark of her trade. A fugelman is a teratologist employed by a community to be available to defend it from monsters. Candidates for this task are usually local, and most are proud to serve their homeland in such a way. Fugelmen are traditionally skolds, but wealthy communities have taken to sending their candidates off to be transmogrified into lahzars.

scourge also exitumath or orgulars (“haughty ones”—the name once given to the heroes of old; this is a title also given to lahzars); a skold who specializes in monster-hunting exclusively, making and using the most powerful, dangerous and deadly potives: potives that melt things on the spot, or cause them to almost instantly rot or turn to carbon or even petrify living things to stone. Scourges are typically covered from head to toe in special bandages and wear quartz-lensed spectacles to protect them from their own chemicals. Though they are preferred to a lahzar, scourges are still regarded as a bit unhinged and unmanageable, and live a life of violence much the same as their lahzarine rivals.

screw(s) what we would call a propeller; a method of propulsion used by gastrine vessels. Gastrines turn the shaft which drives the screw that in turn pushes the ship forward.

script(s) also called thaumacrum; the name for all the chemical concoctions made by dispensurists, skolds and scourges. They are divided into basic “types” or realms:

There are four recognized physical states these realms can come in:

scrutineers another name for revenue officers, sometimes used to especially mean those who have the power of search and seizure.

Sebastipole, Mister ~ leer and agent for the Lamplighter-Marshal of Winstermill; has served there for over half of his life. His mother coming from Pollux and his father from Sebastian, Sebastipole was raised in the small southeastern kingdom of Burgundia. He is sharp-minded, efficient and fiercely loyal to the Lamplighter-Marshal. About ten years ago, Sebastipole became a leer at the request of his superiors. He appreciates the power of his augmented sight but finds the wearing of a sthenicon repulsive. Therefore, although he possesses one, he uses it only seldom, when duty calls for it. His eyes give him away as a falseman. See leers.

sedonition the state of being a sedorner; loving monsters, or at least not hating them, as most folks do.

sedorner official and most insulting and incriminating name for a monster-lover. Anyone having any sense of friendship or understanding with monsters is said to be under the influence of outramour—the “dark love.” Those worse affected by this outramour are apparently meant to run off into the wilds to spend the rest of their short lives with the bogles they so admire. To be heard even trying to understand monsters from a sympathetic point of view can bring the charge upon you. Different communities and realms deal with sedonition to different degrees of severity, but it is not uncommon for those found guilty to be exposed on a Catherine wheel or even hanged on a gallows.

Senior Service, the ~ the name the navy gives itself; service in the navy is considered superior to service in the army, as a lamplighter, in an Imperial post or anything else. See navy.

sequin second-highest value coin of the Soutlands, made of a silver alloy.Worth one sixteenth of a sou or twenty guise or one twenty-fourth of an oscadril, it is represented by the letter q. See money.

she-oak medium to tall tree with a single straight trunk and possessing long needles instead of leaves that droop to the ground and hiss musically in even the lightest breeze; tough trees that grow in almost any environment.

Shunt, Mister ~ gastrineer of the Hogshead and probably one of the nastiest fellows you are ever likely to meet. He speaks little and uses his knife a lot.

Signal Stars, the ~ also called the Superlatives. The nightly glowing orbs that are said to show one’s way through life and the land. They include the Signals of Paths (also known as the Atrapës), which aid navigation (probably the most important and genuinely useful); the Signals of Ardence, meant to aid those in love; the Signals of Lots, apparently watching over those making important choices or testing their fate, and so on. The stars that do not have these mystic or informative qualities are called the Luminaries.

Silvernook large town between High Vesting and Winstermill made rich and bustling by the silver mine nearby opened over a century before and still proving to be a plentiful source of the precious metal.

Sinster city where lahzars are made; remote, built on the fork of two threwdish rivers in the region known as Burgundis. It is divided into two parts: Sinster Major and Later Sinster. Sinster Major is the original city founded before the beginnings of the Empire by a community of Burgundians. When, centuries later, the survivors of the fall of Caathis (the Cathars) arrived, they were welcomed, and expanded the city, building Later Sinster. It is from here that they perform their blasphemous surgeries to turn people into lahzars. Ironically, the notorious surgeons of Sinster are also the best, and despite their reputation as black habilists, have secretly saved the life of many of the Empire’s loftiest peers.

Sitt footman and bootblack—or shoe polisher—working at the Harefoot Dig. As it was once so excellently said, “A scuff, madam, is a terrible thing!”

skold(s) also habilist or zaumabalist (“soup-thrower”) or fumomath, the term for a teratologist who does the work of fighting monsters using chemicals and potions known as potives. They throw these potives by hand, pour them from bottles, fling them with a sling or fustibal (a sling on a stick), fire them from pistols know as salinumbus (“salt-cellars”), set traps, make smoke and whatever else it takes to defeat and destroy a monster. We might call them “combat chemists.” They typically wear flowing robes and some kind of conical hat to signify their trade. The most common hat is the overtap, which folds back slightly over the wearer’s head (see page 201). More serious and aggressive skolds will mark themselves with distinctive spoors, a vertical bar running over the eye (or both eyes) and down the face from hairline to the jaw; or a horizontal bar from one earlobe across the mouth to the other earlobe. Skolds learn their arcarnum (“secret knowledge”) and the skills peculiar to their trade at one of many organized “colleges” throughout the Empire called a rhombus. It takes at least two years to properly prepare a person as a skold, and any more years spent after that hone their knowledge and some skills still further. Entry into a rhombus is expensive and difficult, and places are limited.The best have waiting lists over twenty years long. The forerunners of the skolds were the self-taught rhubezhals (said “roo-beh-zaal”), the monster-hunters of the ancient people know as the Skylds. In fact the word “skold” is a corruption of “Skyld,” a name given to those rhubezhals who ventured beyond their lands to serve ancient foreign kings. These expatriate rhubezhals learned new skills and scripts in those foreign lands, and began formalizing their knowledge, writing it in books. Finally they formed guilds with each other—the rhombuses—and began to train recruits. And so the skolds as they are recognized today were founded. Skolds earn a good portion of their living also making potives to sell to everyday folk, so that they might also protect themselves from and even fight the monsters. Scripts made for this common use are called vulgum; scripts that skolds keep secret to themselves are known as nostrum. Your basic vulgum potive like bothersalts sells for about 1 guise for one dose. The average skold will earn about 180 sous a year in prize money, monster-ridding contract fees and sales of their vulgum. Used broadly, the name skold can mean one of five different trades:

Small groups of skolds might gather themselves into a tight group known as a school, sharing recipes and developing their own special nostrum.

Slothog, the ~ a famous bolbogis or dog-of-war used by the Turkemen; it was one of the largest ever made and met its end at the Battle of the Gates. Its back and shoulders were covered in four- to six-foot spines which it could burst out just once in a battle to do terrible execution. Like most of the best quality made-monsters, when it died it dissolved into a useless puddle, preventing the enemy from learning the secrets of its creation. Most bolbogis live for only a dozen years or more. The Slothog, at the time of its demise, had been alive for an unprecedented forty-three years, causing misery and destruction for forty-one of them. Bolbogis are more common north of the Marrow, that is, outside of the Empire, especially ones of the Slothog’s size. In the Empire smaller kinds like rever-men and the schtackleschwien (“shta-kell-shween”) can be found, usually employed as “guard dogs” or for hunting criminals. In the Empire, making such creatures is illegal but owning them is not. Other general names for bolbogis include bollumbogs, teratobellum and carnivolpës. See gudgeon and monsters.

smugglers also called bog-trotters, along with brigands. Many goods are illegal in one city-state or another, banned in the Empire or some other realm, and the smugglers see it as their task to provide relief from the tyrannies of such policies. There is nothing a half-decent smuggler will not secret across borders, carry from one city to the next. They lubricate the dark trades, trafficking all those blasphemous bits about. A smuggler may even turn to piracy if the rewards are high enough. Their main foes are weather, monsters and revenue officers, whose major task is to catch them. Even lamplighters play their part in bringing smugglers to justice. As with most things illegal, the promise of a lot of money makes the danger well worth it.

Snarl once one of Rossamünd’s fellow foundlings, Snarl was employed a year ago by the Boschenberg navy and considers himself to have reached the acme of all that there is to wish for as a once-rejected foundling. His time at Madam Opera’s was spent bullying and teasing those smaller than himself (almost every other child), but not with anywhere near the vigor or cruelty of Gosling.

social status comprising ten recognized positions or “situations,” the first two being known as the Peers, the next two the Quality, then the Lectry, the Commonality and lowest of all, the Varletry.

Those of a higher situation have the power to influence the lives of those below them. Lahzars occupy a strange place in society, and no one is at all sure where to put them. Highborn lahzars rely on their inherited situation, yet those of lower status at birth seem to be accorded a grudging respect similar to their noble fellows. It is all very perplexing and forms a common topic of many a parlor-room gathering.

Sooning Street street in Boschenberg that leads out of the suburb Poéme and down to the canal-side suburbs and the Padderbeck.

soporific any potive or draft designed to make people become woozy or sleepy, or put them to sleep.

sou(s) said “soo”; the highest-value coin of the Soutlands, made of a gold alloy; worth 16 sequins or 320 guise or two thirds of an oscadril—the Emperor’s Billion. It is represented by the letter S. See money.

Sough, the ~ said “sow”; the hills and more particularly the fenlands right at the southwestern tip of Sulk End and forming the eastern flank of the mouth of the river Humour. The fenlands of the Sough are untamed, despite the presence of the Arxis Sublicum or Pollburg in its midst, a fortress established by the Empire under the pretext of providing protection, but there really to watch over trade coming in and out of the Humour.

Soutlands, the ~ also the Soutland City-states, said “sowt-lands” or “sutt-lands,” depending on what part of the Empire you are from; all the southern conquests of the Empire situated south of the great threwdish plains of the Grassmeer. They were systematically subdued by the Imperial armies over one thousand years ago and are now home to the racially mixed descendants of the old combatants, many of whom still claim racial distinction from their neighbors.

spasm, spasming wretched condition where a lahzar’s body rebels for a moment against the foreign organs squeezed within it and the organs fight back. This happens when the mimetic (introduced) organs are being used and is usually as a result of not taking one’s Cathar’s Treacle and the rest. It is, however, a risk (very slight) that lahzars run all the time, whether they have taken their concoctions or not. The results of spasming can be various, from a slight strain within that goes away after a few hours to severe internal hemorrhaging and serious organ damage. After spasming, a lahzar often needs to return to his or her transmogrifier (lahzar-making surgeon) for observation and even further operations. See lahzar and Cathar’s Treacle.

Spindle, the ~ rivergate built by the city-state of Brandenbrass as a rival to the Axles. Sanctioned by the Emperor, its presence has added another half to the cost of doing trade on the Humour, making life difficult for all those cities further upriver, including (and most importantly) Boschenberg. Petitioning and debate rage among the two cities’ Imperial ministers and their regents, and for a student of history it all sounds like the rumblings of yet another war.

spoors marks worn by teratologists and other folk of violence as signs of their trade, made using a milky liquid known as rue-of-asper, or just rue (not to be confused with the repellent “Salt-of-Asper” ), carefully painted onto the skin in whatever shape is desired. Apparently, it stings like lemon juice in a paper cut. Left for about an hour, and stinging the whole time, the rue-of-asper is then washed off with a solution of vinegar and cloves, leaving a deep blue mark. Alternatively, the rue can be washed off with a solution of dilute aqua regia, causing it to leave a white mark. sprig(s) type of monster, small and nasty and often plaguing homes and homemakers, and so its use as an insult is obvious.

Spring Caravan of the Gightland Queen, the ~ seasonal peregrinations of the Gightland Queen, forced to move from one of her six palaces to another as the stench of the piles of rotting food scraps and backed-up excrement from overused sewers becomes too much to bear or mask. She and all her possessions, family, servants, retainers, ministers, clerks, house guards and spurns (bodyguards) take to the road in a long, gorgeous procession, making their way to the next palace and leaving behind an army of servants to clean the previous one. The comfort and opulence of these caravans are seen as the epitome of all things comfortable and luxurious, as is everything the Gightland Queen is supposed to do. See Gightland Queen.

stage shorter of the two fulgaris at three feet to four feet long and used by fulgars to help in directing a lightning bolt in the right direction once it has been “thermistored” from the clouds. It is also a convenient baton to extend a fulgar’s reach and parry blows from opponents’ weapons. It is not considered politic to “come to hand strokes” (enter into a hand-to-hand fight) with fulgars, for any metal weapon that touches them will carry a deadly charge back to the wielder, and although wooden weapons do not conduct an arc so easily, they can be burst to bits instead. A better way to fight fulgars is to hit them with the long reach of a flintlock musket or pistol. Indeed, the best way, it is said, to fight a fulgar—or a wit for that matter—is to be on the other side of the Empire and have someone else do it for you.

steerboard right-hand side of a vessel if you are facing the bow; corresponds to our “starboard.”

sthenicon said “s-then-i-kon”; a biologue—a biological machine; device used to seek out tiny or hidden smells and to show things difficult to see—whether hidden or far off—more clearly. Usually a simple, dark wooden box, with leather straps and buckles. The back, which goes against the face, is hollowed out and sealed within with a doeskinlike material. On each side of this protrude stubby brass horns. Air and the attendant odors enter through these hornlets and, by the organics inside, are rendered more odoriferous. If the compactly folded membrane inside that enhances smells so effectively was spread out, it would stretch around 120 squares of feet. At the middle of the top of the box is a modest lens, through which vision is received. Upon the sides of the sthenicon, at the same height as the lens, are three slots, which the user can push in and out in various ways to alter the nature of how he sees. A small hole in one of the lower corners is bored into the front of the box, apparently to render the user more audible when talking, so that the device need not be removed to allow the wearer to speak. Another slot in the bottom of the box allows soups, thin stews and special drafts that augment the use of this tool to be slurped with only minor inconvenience. The whole kit is fastened to the head—over nose and mouth—with the straps and buckles mentioned earlier. If a sthenicon is worn for too long, the organ within can begin to grow into the user’s own nasal membrane and even into the face. Used mostly by leers.

stock • or calmus; the straight stick used by beginners in harundo and other stick-fighting arts. • an elaborately high neckerchief, wrapping about the whole neck and throat.

strake(s) large cast-iron sheets riveted to the wooden sides of an ironclad vessel. One sheet of a uniform length is one strake, so that someone spotting a ram at sea could count the number of strakes down one broadside and, with a little arithmetic, have a good idea just how big she is.

stramineous the color of straw.

“stuck between the stone and the sty” to be faced with two equally unpleasant choices or situations.

Sub-Elements, the ~ all the metals, earths, liquids and gases that make up the Four Elements. It is the Sub-Elements that form the cosmos, the earth and all that is in it. Some of the many Sub-Elements include fire-flash (hydrogen), fire-damp (methane), small-air (helium), aeris regia (oxygen) and so on.

Sugar of Nnun one of the more notorious ingredients, it is in its own right a deadly poison whose constituents only “those wicked men of Sinster” know anything about. It is rumored that one of its constituents is corpse liquor, a filthy deep-brown ichor that comes from the rotting of bodies and is highly illegal within the Empire. Sugar of Nnun is used for many of the more dangerous or powerful scripts, particularly those used by scourges. It is Sugar of Nnun that makes Cathar’s Treacle go oily and black, and its combination with the other ingredients that renders it helpful rather than harmful.

Sulk, the ~ broad flat lands all along eastern banks of the river Humour and south of Gightland (Catalain) extensively farmed by a cooperation of many states and also dug with several quarries, providing many building materials and minerals for much of the Half-Continent.

Sulk End southwestern tip of the vast breadbasket of the Sulk; probably the least populated part of that region, although the land is well tamed, becoming only middlingly threwdish as it nears the Smallish Fells in the east and the Sough in the southwest. Sulk End is famous for its lettuces and strawberries and the giant windmills that grind most of the region’s grain and much of its powdered earths as well.

surgeon(s) sometimes called butchers, because they poke and dig and carve into people, or sectifactors (coming from sectification, “to operate on a living creature”). Surgeons are seen as the dark cousin to the physicians. Most surgeons train at the same institutions as physicians , but concentrate more on the autopsy and workings of human and monster than theories and cures and higher knowledge. A surgeon’s main tasks involve amputation of gangrenous or ruined limbs; simple surgeries like appendectomies; the removal of bullets and splinters or teeth and spines from monsters. If anyone in the Half-Continent were bothered to view the statistics, they would find that more people survive the ministrations of a surgeon than of a physician. Yet despite all the seemingly miraculous work surgeons might do, they are still mistrusted; and this is primarily for their connection with lahzars, and with fabercadavery and therospeusia (the making of monsters) and all the worst excesses of black habilistics. Because of this surgeons are far less common than physicians or dispensurists. People prefer, if they must deal with a surgeon, to have a physician or even a dispensurist act as a go-between. Indeed, in many realms it is illegal for a surgeon to practice without the presence of a physician. It is rumored that the current Emperor will not even let a surgeon touch him. As with many other professions, there are various grades of surgeon:

A strange little twist that goes some small way to salvaging the surgeons’ generally bad reputation is that they are prepared to attend duels and there tend wounds, while any self-respecting physician would never be party to such knavery.

Surprise, the ~ 28 guns-broad frigate of the Boschenberg navy, which has been in service for a century. Formerly part of Brandenbrass navy, it was captured by Boschenberg shortly after the Battle of the Mole. It has a glorious history, taking many prizes of pirates and sea-monsters, making successive generations of crews wealthy. At the Battle of the Mole, while still serving Brandenbrass, it played a significant role in the fighting. For much of the battle the frigate had served as all smaller rams do, trawling behind the main line of battle in support, picking up survivors, towing larger vessels that had been immobilized, watching exposed flanks. For several hours its captain, a certain Mister Codmoss, had been watching his confederates in the Solemn League’s combined navy being ground to a stalemate by the Wretcherman fleet: an immovable line of the 23 main-rams centered on the cumbersome Sucathia, an enormous main-sovereign of 156 guns-broad. For the Solemn League a stalemate was a loss: Wretch could still dictate the terms of its waterways and hold the Grumid states to ransom. At a critical moment Captain Codmoss spied a break in the Wretcherman line as a rising swell shifted the well-founded positions of the enemy rams. Though it was not its role, the courageous Captain Codmoss could see that there were no capital rams available to seize this opportunity. Signaling another frigate to follow his lead, Codmoss sent the nimble Surprise dashing through the fortuitous gap into the waters beyond the enemy line. As it passed the stern of the main-ram Caldbink 74, it sent a volley of raking fire from its 32-pounder lombarins, crashing through the main-ram’s vulnerable stern windows. The crew of the Surprise who survived would recall the horrid sound of their shots smashing down the length of the Caldbink’s gun decks, causing great execution to her startled gun crews. Once clear on the other side, the quick-thinking Codmoss spied the Sucathia and came about in a wide arc, avoiding the determined attentions of enemy frigates and gun-drudges as he did. Putting all limbers to the screw, the Surprise gained all possible speed and rammed the mighty main-sovereign just slightly forward of amidships. The clamor of the impact—of rending, tortured metal and splintering beams—was said to be heard over the muffled din of battle by those watching the distant battle through spyglasses from the Foulmouth on the northernmost tip of Wretch. Indeed, the force of the impact was enough to tip the Sucathia sharply to its left, listing dangerously to the ladeboard side, pointing the guns on that broadside uselessly into the water, while the unengaged guns of the steerboard poked into the sky. The valiant Surprise was even worse off; now taking on water, its ram and bow were staved almost completely in and stuck fast in the shattered side of the main-sovereign. With half its crew sustaining serious injury in the collision, worse was yet to come. As the gun crews of the Sucathia recovered, they quickly learned their predicament and turned their attention and their guns to the diminutive upstart protruding from the ram’s steerboard side. Cannon-muzzles were traversed as low as possible and soon enough a murderous fire was pummeled down onto the exposed wooden decks of the Surprise. In less than one quarter of an hour the valiant frigate was smashed to a useless hulk. But this was all the Sucathia could do, for even in such a ruinous condition the Surprise could not be pried free, and the main-sovereign was unable to contribute any more to the fight. With the Sucathia neutralized by a vessel almost one sixteenth its size, the main-rams fighting against her were released to bring pressure to other points along the enemy line. After only another hour the Battle of the Mole was over, with the Solemn League the winner.With this victory the easy passage of their cargoes was secured. As for the heroic, hapless Surprise, with three quarters of her crew dead or dying (including Captain Codmoss) and nothing more than a ironclad shell of splinters and blood, she was towed back to Brandenbrass by the 80-gun main-ram Director. There she was left for several years, rusting in the shallows off the Silt Mounds, before a private contractor, in a fit of patriotism, took her into dry dock and remade her anew to be employed as a marquelin (a privateer vessel—see navy). It was in this capacity that she was captured by the Boschenberg navy, which quickly took her into its service, proud to have won such a noble vessel for its fleet.

sustis pure determined defense, with cudgel held up; one of the many moves that are part of the Hundred Rules of Harundo.

swamp oak dark, scruffy tree that grows tall in bogs and fens; the presence of swamp oaks is said to indicate the presence of monsters, and so they are chopped down when found in the precincts of man.

swine’s lard oily fat of dead pigs, boiled and used for cosmetics and scripts alike.

Teagarden gater, head of the night watch and chief yardsman at the Harefoot Dig. The chain mail he wears, though a little old-fashioned, is an heirloom that has passed through twelve generations to make it to him. He wears it with pride, but is a practical man and so has a stout haubardine beneath (see harness).

teratologist(s) also pugnator, monster-hunter, theroscaturgis (“beast-destroyer”) or catagist(~is) (“destroyer”). Strictly speaking, a teratologist is one who studies monsters. The term is used, however, to mean anyone with a professional interest in monsters, especially those who simply want to destroy them. Teratologists include: lahzars—both fulgar and wit; skolds and scourges; sagaars (the dancers); and filibusters or venators, everyday folks with no particularly unusual skill, just a bunch of potives bought from a skold, a sturdy brace of weapons, a keen eye and a cunning mind.

Different teratologists have different reputations:

teratology technically it is the study of monsters and anything to do with them (such as threwd); more broadly it also means the study and practice of theroscaturgy (“beast-destroying”); that is, monster-hunting.

test shortened from testle (“appliance, apparatus”); the place where a skold or scourge or any other habilist makes potives and drafts; what we would call a “laboratory.” Confusingly, it can be anything from a building to a cart or portable box.

thermistor • act of thermistoring. • the name for a fulgar who thermistors—that is, causes lightning to strike from an overcast sky. They do it at great risk to themselves, and because thermistoring can only be done on cloudy, rainy days, thermistors have a reputation for being gloomy and dour—which, as it happens, is often true. Sometimes also called thunderers. See fulgar, fulguris, lahzar, stage.

thermistoring the action of using a fuse to make lightning strike from the sky. See fuse for a more detailed description of how this is done. See fulgar and thermistor.

thew the body; one’s strength of limb and health, including pith, one’s metabolism.

threwd also called the Horrors; threwd is the sensation of watchfulness and awareness of the land or waters about you. Although no one is certain, the most popular theory is that the land itself is strangely sentient, intelligent and aware, and resents the intrusions and misuses of humankind. Paltry threwd, the mildest kind, can make a person feel uneasy, as if under unfriendly observation.The worst kind of threwd—called pernicious threwd—can drive a person completely mad with unfounded terrors and dark paranoias. Many expeditions of several thousand sent to tame certain regions of terrible threwd have disappeared without a trace. Once or twice a survivor or two has returned, ravening and broken. Not even a lahzar’s potencies can protect from the most pernicious threwd. It is well known that wherever threwd occurs, there monsters are too. Some teratologist scholars go so far as to suggest a mutually beneficial relationship between all monsters and the threwd. It has even been posited by the more eccentric natural philosophers that threwd is not just strong and weak, but also good and bad. Such an idea borders on sedonition and is not taken seriously. Several old books have said that there are those monsters powerful enough to have their own threwd, the power to terrify, drive mad or control weak minds at will, and that the worst of them can project such threwd far beyond themselves to take a whole place under their control—a forest for example. In fact the mind-control exercised by the false-gods is thought to be a kind of threwd.

threwdish possessing or radiating threwd; haunted; frightening or terrifying, especially because of the threat of monsters.

thrice-high taller variation of a tricorner hat, with its three angled brim-panels protruding straight rather than curving in toward the crown.

Tin Drum Lane main thoroughfare of the Mortar in Boschenberg, where some of the city’s, even the region’s, best gaulders can be found. The stink of boiling gauld in all its varieties hangs over the street like a cloud.

Tochtigstrat Hergott for “windy or breezy street.”

tomahawk small-headed ax with a hollowed blade on one side and a broad spike on the other; the handle is often entirely bound with leather or sergreen (sharkskin); light, effective in a fight and good for throwing too.

tormentum(s) essentially large catapults used to throw great hollow metal shells called censers at any threatening monsters, especially the bigger kinds. These four-foot-diameter censers are filled with prodigious amounts of fizzing, smoking potives and are flung in fuming arcs at any oncoming nicker. They are especially popular in harbor defenses, for gigantic nadderers (sea-monsters) have the nasty habit of rising out the depths at certain times each year.

treacle shortened form of Cathar’s Treacle.

trews either long, thick woolen stockings or tight-fitting leggings of the same material, worn as an undergarment.

troubardier said “troo-bard-ear”; foot soldier or pediteer wearing full-harness of a haubardine with tassets, a testudo (metal back-and-breastplate) and sometimes pauldrons (metal shoulder armor). They protect their heads in distinctive full-faced metal helmets such as bascinets, sallets or the odd-looking hundshugel. Main weapons are the poleax (actually a hammer and a bec-de-corbin on a pole), langrass (huge two-handed sword) or clauf (long metal-studded club). Designated assault infantry. See pediteer and harness.

tuck • or tuckin; small tin-silver coin worth two sequins or one eighth of a sou. • name given to a small foldable knife.

Turkemen, the ~ said “tur-keh-men”; not in this current story. The Turkemen, their ruling caste the Omdür and their Emperor the Püshtän rule a vast empire to the north of Clementine and the rest of the Haacobin Empire. For many centuries they have had their thoughts bent on conquering the Haacobins. The threat of the Turkemen is the main reason the various rivaling parts of the Empire remain in uneasy unity.

turnery eating utensils made of wood instead of cuttle, that is, pewter.

turpentine tall, broad-spreading evergreen tree with a rough dark gray trunk and small dark leaves, associated with threwd and monsters. Its sap and wood are strongly resistant to the caustic waters of the vinegar seas, making it favored for the construction of wharves and other harbor structures. Great forests of turpentine are grown to meet the demand for lumber, and these plantations attract all sorts of skulking bogles and nickers.

Tutin said “tyoo-tin”; a race of people who conquered the Soutlands and beyond, the most senior being the Emperor, who rules from Clementine. Also the language spoken by them, which is very close to Latin in our own world (to the purists I give my deepest apologies).

tyke another name for urchin.

tyke-oil potive that works in the opposite way to a nullodour, in that it intensifies your smell while making it as foul to a monster as possible. The idea is to make you repulsive and seemingly inedible. It is a last measure when you know there is no getting away from a monster.

Uda said “yoo-dah”; second cook of the Harefoot Dig, serving under Closet. Most people would say that Uda is a better cook, that you can tell when she has made a dish and when she has not; so much so that some regulars ask for her to cook their meal, which she hates because Closet finds it so offensive. Once or twice Closet has ignored these requests and has been caught out each time. Uda has even been employed by local nobles to cook for their grand dinners.

umbles one’s gizzards and guts.

Unhallows Night another name for Gallows Night.

urchin(s) also tyke; among the most powerful of monsters, having humanlike bodies but heads like different kinds of animal. Very rarely seen by people, if at all in modern times, they are said to be almost indestructible. Ancient texts suggest that the lords of the monsters are among their number and that there was once, many thousands of years ago, free communication between everymen and urchins. Probably the best known is one called the Duke of Crows, an urchin-lord or nimuine, ruling an enormous threwdish forest called the Autumn of Sleep.

utterworsts • the wildest, most black-hearted of monsters; • anything considered the worst kind of evil.

Vadè Chemica said “vay-dah kem-i-kah”; ancient book on habilistics, particularly the making of scripts (called scryptia or scryptics). Said to contain destructive, forbidden information, it was apparently written by a group of unknown authors from a now-lost race who were so far in advance of current “technologies” that it is still an authority today. Indeed, most have trouble fathoming exactly what large parts of it mean. In the Empire it is illegal to have a copy of the Vadè Chemica, though many people have secret copies of excerpts from it, including a small seven-volume series called the Seven Nephthandous Tomes. Outside of the Empire it is held in higher regard. The rhombus in Wörms, for example, has well over a dozen copies and its apprentices study it closely the entire duration of their training. The skolds from Wörms are thought to be the best in the Half-Continent.

venison ragout spicy dish made of cubes of deer-meat and various vegetables, cooked in a thick, rich sauce till they are so tender they almost fall apart.

Verhooverhoven, Doctor ~ local physician of the Brindleshaws, a fellow in his early thirties who enjoys the good favor of the peers and gentry of that region. Born in High Vesting of poor parents, he scraped together enough to pay for his own training in the physic arts, working for four years as a surgeon’s assistant onboard various rams of the Boschenberg navy.

Verline said “verr-leen”; parlor maid to Madam Opera and the eldest daughter of a proud serving-family, who see service as an honor and a dignity. Tender and caring of almost all of the children of the madam’s Marine Society, Verline has a soft spot for Rossamünd: something in his awkwardness reminds her of herself as a child. Her role is to tend to the needs of Madam Opera, though she is often caught up in some mission of tenderness for some child or other. Almost as beautiful as her younger sister Praeline, Verline is the darling of the all-male staff at Madam Opera’s, who often leave her little gifts and do whatever she asks. Verline herself would never dream of abusing such affection, and returns it wholeheartedly to the men she calls “those dear old salts.” Praeline (or more properly the Lady Praeline, for she has married well above her station) provides the money to her older sister to buy such small luxuries as pamphlets.

Vespasia also Vespasio; constellation sitting high in the night sky. At certain times the red planet Faustus will appear like an eye in the midst of Vespasia. This is regarded by the superstitious as a sign of ill fortune.

Vestiweg, the ~ or Vesting Way; road running from Proud Sulking, parallel with the river Humour, meeting with the eastern bastion of the Spindle before going through the Brindleshaws to a junction with the Gainway.

Vigilus, Rivermaster ~ master and owner of the fine sixteen-gun cromster Rupunzil.

vigorant(s) scripts concerned with reviving and healing. See scripts.

vinegaroon(s) common term for a sailor at sea but not on a river (bargemen), whether working a ram or a cargo, and of any rank. Two things that make a vinegaroon stand out in a crowd is the clumsy, rolling walk that comes from moving around decks constantly pitching and yawing with the sea; and red, pitted and blotchy skin, especially on the face, damaged by the caustic sprays and spindrift of crashing waves and wind-whipped waters. The life of a vinegaroon is hard and they often die young; for one to live into his sixties is a remarkable feat.

vinegar seas, vinegar waves also the acerbic seas, the lurid seas, the soda-seas or the Main; sometimes also called simply “the vinegar,” “the deeps” or even just “the sea” or “the ocean,” of course; named for the sharp, sour-wine smell of their waters, caused by the exotic salts that dissolve up from the ocean floor. Although these salts smell similar, they make the seas and oceans distinctly different colors: bright yellow, orange, red, violent blues, murky greens, white and even black. The acrid nature of the seawater is inhospitable to people. After half an hour in the water, your skin will become red-raw and sting sharply. After about three quarters of an hour, painful blisters will form and even pop. After an hour and a half in the vinegar, the salts in the water will have leeched into your body, retarding and even stopping the precise chemical reactions in your cells that keep you alive. Shock sets in, and soon after this your end will come. The creatures that make the vinegar seas their home, including the nadderers (sea-monsters), are made to live in it and thrive. Anything caught from the oceans for eating has to be soaked in brews known as dulcifiers (said “dool-sih-fy-ers”), which neutralize the poisonous salts and (apparently) improve the flavor of the meat. This process is known as “soaking,” and can take a long time to do properly. Fortunately, there are several types of fish that do this naturally within their own bodies and can be caught, cooked and eaten straightaway. Most of these, however, do not taste nice.

Vlinderstrat Hergott for “butterfly street”; Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls is an address upon its crumbling walks.

Voorwind, Clerk’s Sergeant ~ revenue officer in charge of one of the many gates of the Axle. His pay does not stretch far enough to properly provide for the needs of his twelve children (aged between four months and eight years old—one set of triplets and two sets of twins), and so he has taken to receiving bribes as additional income.

watches there are 7 watches in a day, the day starting at 12 noon. Each watch is 4 hours long, except the two dogwatches, which are only 2 hours each and were devised to make sure that people working by the watches do not have to do the same ones over and over. A bell is often rung or a drum beaten or a bugle sounded every half hour of a watch; 1 bell (or rataplans or blasts) for the first half hour, 2 bells for the second half hour, 3 bells for the third and so on; 8 bells signals the beginning of the next watch, even for the dogwatches.

See bells of the watch.

Way, the ~ a rather poetic term for roads and a life lived wandering them.

waybill piece of paper granting the bearer access to any of the states or cities marked on it.You are allowed to enter a state not marked on it provided your other documents are in order and you get permission from the appropriate bureaucracy of the new state and the correct entry on your waybill as soon as possible.The best kind is an Imperial waybill, which declares you a “Citizen of the Empire,” and gives the right to cross from one state to another within the Empire, without needing particular permission from that state’s regents or representatives.

wayfarers also hucilluctors (said “hyoo-sil-luk-tor,” meaning “one that goes hither and thither”); frequent travelers of highroads and byroads. A rugged and tough lot, hardy and knowledgeable in outdoor survival and thrival; usually good at running away—from the authorities and monsters. Too much skulking about can become irksome, and many a wayfarer, in country that demands constant tiresome wariness, longs to be able to stroll down the road in the broad day with happy pace and an easy whistle. The term can also mean any traveler on the road. See Appendix 5.

wayfoods foods prized for their lightness, nutrition and long life, and therefore by wayfarers (travelers), vinegaroons (sailors) and pediteers (soldiers). Fortified sack cheese, portable soup and red must are all common wayfoods; the whortleberry is among the most expensive and the most remarkable.

wayhouse what we might call an “inn,” a small fortress in which travelers can find rest for their soles and safety from the monsters that threaten in the wilds about. The most basic wayhouse is just a large common room with an attached kitchen and dwelling for the owner and staff, all surrounded by a high wall. Indeed, the common room still forms the center of a wayhouse, where the stink of dust, sweat and repellents mingles with wood-smoke and the aromas of the pot. The Harefoot Dig is large as wayhouses go, with stables and carriage sheds, a carvery as well as a common room, a reading room, many kinds of bedrooms to suit different purses, a large staff and full-time guards.

Weegbrug Hergott for “weighbridge”; a busy street in Boschenberg, being the address of many warehouse and store yards.

Weems fellow foundling living at Madam Opera’s.Taller than Rossamünd even though he is younger, and apt to pick on our boy.

weskit proofed vest. See harness.

whortleberry one of the best and most expensive of wayfoods. They are prized because one small berry can give an adult enough energy to last much of a day and even revive the spirits like a good restorative. Whortleberries come from (not surprisingly) the whortleberry bush, small with dark thorny leaves; it is found only on the western side of the Half-Continent. The semi-independent farming region of the Patter Moil has grown wealthy and powerful cultivating them, as have the kingdoms of Wenceslaus and Stanislaus (the Lausid states). Yet these “cultivated” plants do not produce nearly as powerful a fruit as those found in wild and threwdish places. Brave pickers still venture into the wilds to collect this better harvest.Those who survive can make twice as much for the same amount as the orchard-grown variety. They are best picked when pink and fresh; typically they are dried to increase their keeping. Another method of preserving them is to make whortleberry jam, carried in clay jars and eaten with one of the many hard-breads available as wayfood. Their amazing properties work just as well in any preparation of the berry and all keep for a very long time. They apparently work for monsters just as well, and the orchards in Patter Moil and the Lausids are heavily guarded.

wilds, the ~ places beyond the civilizing influence of humankind; places where monsters abound and threwd is strong, and plants grow fecund and free. People do not live in the wilds, and pass along quickly if traveling through them, normally in groups with a solid guard or powerful potives. Acquisitive everymen ogle the wilds greedily, desiring more land, more room, more wealth, and so they periodically send expeditions to tame some part of it, fighting with monsters, building fortresses and outposts. If all this goes well, they then invite settlers to make a home, the desperate seeking a better life, to try to make the wilds into a ditchland. These expeditions fail as much as they succeed. See ditchlands and marches.

wind the soul or spirit of a person; feelings of well-being and other emotional states, the psyche; associated with one’s milt.

Winstermill modern fortress built shortly after the Battle of the Gates to declare the new Emperor’s firm grip on things. It now serves as the manse (headquarters) of the battalion of lamplighters serving on the Wormway.

Winstreslewe ancient name of a fortress built by the Tutins to guard what were once the southeastern borders of their realm. Winstermill was erected upon its foundations, which already included the tunnel through which the Gainway and the Conduit Vermis pass and meet.

wit also called neuroticrith (“holder of a distorted mind”) or strivener; a kind of lahzar, a wit’s potencies (skills or powers) cannot be seen like the sparks and flashes of a fulgar, but are rather felt. Collectively called antics, these potencies are subtle and more sinister, affecting the victim’s mind, brain and nervous system. They are all variations on an invisible bioelectrical field, a “pulse” of energy called frission, that wits make with their surgically introduced organs. The use of frission is called witting or strivening:

A wit who is “green” has little control over the direction of the frission and it tends to radiate all about. With practice wits gain control over the area and direction of their frission till they can send it to a particular point. Most wits need to see what they are aiming at, but the most talented need only gently send (wit), find the target and afflict it from afar. Wits must be careful with all their potencies; if they overreach themselves and push too hard, they risk a violent bout of spasming. Excessive use of any of the antics will leave them exhausted and prone to illness. Along with this, after only a few months’ strivening, wits will begin to lose their hair until they become completely bald. Some then show their baldness with pride; others cover it with often brightly colored and jauntily styled wigs. Either is a telltale mark of a wit. They also mark themselves with the spoor of an arrow on the arch of an eyebrow, between the eyes or the corner or lower lid of one or both eyes; this is the universally recognized sign of their kind. Wits are trusted even less than fulgars, and their surly demeanor (due in some part to the constant pain they suffer) does little to help their grim reputation. See lahzars.

Witherscrawl, Mister ~ sour indexer of Winstermill; punctilious, fastidious, intelligent and rude to those he deems of less worth than himself. Clever enough to write with both hands without having to look. As an indexer, Witherscrawl is a type of mathematician, and therefore a rival to Inkwill.

wordialogue collection of words; a lexicon, normally upon a particular subject or set of subjects.

work docket small cardboard book marked with the Empire’s or your own city-state’s seal, in which your work history is recorded: the date you started your job, the date you left it and any outstanding points good or bad your employer feels beholden to mention. A “good” work docket can get you almost any job you wish; a “bad” one relegates you to the meanest of labors. The seal they bear makes them hard to forge.

Wörms ancient city in the east, beyond the Ichormeer, situated on the western flanks of the mighty Wormwood forest; made mostly of black stone, with its walls topped with spikes and gallows, and built right in the midst of land that is still threwdish even after centuries of effort, Wörms is a grim place full of serious, intense people and renowned for the quality of its skolds, especially its scourges, and for the proofing made there. It was the second city founded by the Skylds—an ancient people who fled over the Mare Periculum to the Half-Continent (which they call Westelünd) many thousand years ago. The people of Wörms still proudly call themselves Skylds, and their oldest and most powerful houses reckon their descent from those early times.

Wormway, the ~ the Conduit Vermis, the Imperial Highroad that runs from High Vesting to Wörms; it runs through the Smallish Fells, along the top of Hurdling Migh and right into the red horror of the Ichormeer. The region immediately surrounding the Wormway is a ditchland known as the Idlewilds: a collection of colony towns, fortresses and cothouses (the homes of the lamplighters) each founded and sponsored by different powers, including the Empire, Boschenberg and Brandenbrass.

wurtembottles lazy, fat black flies living as maggots in the putrid bogs of the Wurtemburg Foulness beyond the Imperial boundaries and flying south when transformed from a pupa. Some see them as carriers of foul diseases.

xthylistic curd said “zy-lihss-tik” curd; one of the ingredients for Cathar’s Treacle, being made from the glandular secretions of certain sea-monsters combined with the dried marrow and a powder of well-seasoned bones. See Cathar’s Treacle.

yardsman one of a number of people responsible for the protection and order of a driveway and accompanying yard outside a wayhouse or manor-house or palace or any other such place. Your average yardsman earns from between twenty-five to thirty-five sous a year depending on his or her abilities.

Oh, my bursting knees! There is no entry for z at all.