GLOSSARY
NAMES (MAIN CHARACTERS IN ITALICS)
Aachim: The
human species native to Aachan, once conquered and enslaved by a
small force of invading Charon (the Hundred). The Aachim are great
artisans and engineers, but melancholy or prone to hubris and
arrogance. In ancient times, many were brought to Santhenar by
Rulke in the fruitless hunt for the Golden Flute. The Aachim
flourished on Santhenar but were later betrayed by Rulke and ruined
in the Clysm. They then withdrew from the world to their hidden
mountain cities. The ones remaining on Aachan gained their freedom
after the Forbidding was broken, when the surviving Charon went
back to the void. Two hundred years later, volcanic activity on
Aachan had become so violent that it threatened to destroy all life
on the planet. The Aachim sought for a way of escape and one of
them, Minis, managed to contact Tiaan on Santhenar, because of her
amplimet. The Aachim showed her how to open a gate between Aachan
and Santhenar. She thought she was saving her beloved, Minis, and a
small number of Aachim, but when they came through, they were a
hundred and fifty thousand, a host ready for war, in eleven
thousand mighty constructs.
Chissmoul: An
instinctive thapter pilot, shy but known for her reckless verve at
the controller of her machine.
Cryl-Nish
Hlar: A former scribe,
prober in secret and reluctant artificer, generally known as Nish.
Nish has grown greatly since the tale began and is now the trusted
confidant of Xervish Flydd.
Daesmie: A
farspeaker operator.
Eiryn Muss:
Halfwit; an air-moss grower and harmless pervert, he turned out to
be the scrutator’s prober (spy) in the manufactory. He vanished,
subsequently turned up when Flydd went to the west, but was sent
out from Fiz Gorgo on a spying mission and did not return.
Elienor (Clan):
Elienor was a great Aachim heroine of ancient times, who almost
defeated Rulke when the Hundred invaded Aachan. She was the founder
of Clan Elienor, the least of the Aachim clans, who, since coming
to Aachan with Vithis, have been ostracised for allowing Tiaan to
escape with a construct.
Faellem: A
long-lived human species who have passed out of the Histories,
though some may still dwell in isolated parts of Santhenar.
Flangers: A
soldier and hero in past battles against the lyrinx, he is stricken
by guilt for his part in shooting down a Council thapter, and
desperate to atone.
Fusshte: A
treacherous member of the Council of Scrutators, second to
Ghorr.
Fyn-Mah: Former
querist (chief of the municipal intelligence bureau) at Tiksi and a
loyal supporter of Xervish Flydd, she nurtures a secret passion for
him.
Ghorr: Chief
Scrutator of the Council of Scrutators, and Flydd’s enemy.
Gilhaelith: An
eccentric, amoral geomancer and mathemancer who dwelt at
Nyriandiol. Because of his dismal early years he is obsessed with
controlling everyone and everything in his life. When unable to do
this the stress causes him to have panic attacks. His overriding
goal is to understand the nature of the physical world, so as to
control it too. He was captured by the lyrinx so he could aid their
excavations in the tar pits at Snizort, and subsequently taken to
their underground city of Oellyll, beneath Alcifer, from which he
has since been rescued (against his will by Tiaan) and taken to Fiz
Gorgo. There Yggur, mistrusting him, cast him into prison and
Gilhaelith’s geomantic attempts to escape led the scrutators to Fiz
Gorgo.
Gyrull:
Matriarch of the lyrinx city at Snizort. A powerful, farsighted
mancer, profoundly intelligent.
Haani: Tiaan’s
adopted sister, accidentally killed by the Aachim in
Tirthrax.
Halie: A
scrutator on the Council and a former supporter of Flydd.
Inouye: The
pilot of Jal-Nish’s air-floater, stolen by Fyn-Mah and now used by
Flydd. Inouye is a sad little creature, terrified that her children
and her man have been executed because she was forced to ally with
Flydd.
Inthis:
Vithis’s clan of Aachim, since time immemorial first of the eleven
clans (First Clan). All Clan Inthis, apart from Vithis and Minis,
were lost when the portal between Aachan and Tirthrax was opened,
to Vithis’s unending grief.
Irisis
Stirm: Crafter,
originally in charge of the controller artisans at the manufactory;
niece of Barkus; one-time lover of Xervish Flydd, now a friend and
comrade-in-arms.
Jal-Nish
Hlar: Acting Scrutator;
Nish’s father. He suffered massive injuries from a lyrinx attack
and begged to be allowed to die, but Nish and Irisis saved his
life. Now, hideously maimed, he has a bitter loathing for them
both, and an unquenchable desire to be the greatest scrutator of
all. He stole the tears formed by the destruction of the Snizort
node but was subsequently eaten by the lyrinx at the battle of
Gumby Marth.
Joeyn (Joe): An
old miner, Tiaan’s friend, who died in a roof fall.
Kattiloe: A
young thapter pilot.
Kimli: A young
thapter pilot
Klarm:
Scrutator for Borgistry. A handsome and cheerful man, despite his
dwarfish stature.
Liett: Gyrull’s daughter, and a lyrinx with unarmoured skin and
no chameleon ability; a talented flesh-former and brilliant flier
who yearns to lead her people, even though she is regarded as
incomplete. She has a turbulent relationship with Ryll.
Liliwen:
Daughter of Troist and Yara, twin of Meriwen.
Luxor: A
conciliatory Aachim clan leader.
Lyrinx: Massive
winged humanoids who escaped from the void to Santhenar after the
Forbidding was broken. Highly intelligent, many of them are able to
use the Secret Art, most commonly for keeping their heavy bodies in
flight. They have armoured skin and a chameleon-like ability to
change their colours and patterns, often used for communication
(skin-speech). Some lyrinx are also flesh-formers; they can change
small organisms into desired forms using the Art. In the void they
used a similar ability to pattern their unborn young so as to
survive in that harsh environment. As a consequence, they are not
entirely comfortable in their powerful but much changed bodies. The
lyrinx were forced to abandon their culture and heritage in the
void. Their lives are entirely martial, and now some of them are
beginning to regret their loss and wonder what to do about it once
they’ve won the war.
Malien: A
venerable but ostracised Aachim living in Tirthrax. A heroine from
the time of the Mirror (also known as the Matah). She helped Tiaan
make the thapter, or flying construct, subsequently took her to
Stassor and then on to Fiz Gorgo.
Meriwen:
Daughter of Troist and Yara, twin of Liliwen.
Merryl: A slave
who taught human languages to the lyrinx in Snizort; also known as
Tutor. He was kind to Tiaan.
Minis: A young
Aachim man of high status; foster-son of Vithis; Tiaan’s dream
lover who was forced to spurn her when the Aachim came through the
gate to Tirthrax. He feels guilty about his treatment of her,
yearns for her, but is totally in thrall to Vithis. Minis is so
weak and vacillating that he couldn’t even choose to save Tiaan
from Vithis. He was maimed during her escape in a
construct.
Mira: Yara’s
sister who dwells at Morgadis, embittered after the loss of her
husband and her three sons in the war. She communicates with a
coalition of like-minded people by skeet. Nish fled her home in
fear for his life after a liaison which ended with an unfortunate
misunderstanding.
M’lainte:
Flydd’s mechanician, the genius who built the first
air-floater.
Myllii: Ullii’s
long-lost twin brother for whom she had been searching all her
life. He was accidentally slain by Nish.
Nish: Cryl-Nish’s nickname.
Numinator, the:
A mysterious figure mentioned by Flydd when in his cups, said to
secretly control the Council of Scrutators.
Nylatl: A
malicious creature created by Ryll and Liett’s flesh-forming. It
killed Haani’s aunts and attacked Tiaan. Nish destroyed it after it
attacked him and Ullii near Tirthrax.
Orgestre:
General Orgestre is Grand Commander of the Army of Greater
Borgistry.
Rulke: The
greatest of all the Charon, he created the first construct. He was
killed at the time the Forbidding was broken.
Ryll:
An ostracised wingless lyrinx who captured
Tiaan and subsequently used her in flesh-forming. He was an
honourable lyrinx and after Tiaan saved his life he allowed her to
escape from Kalissin. He later captured her again when she came to
Snizort looking for Gilhaelith, and used her in the patterners.
After the destruction of Snizort, Ryll went to Oellyll, where he
was put to work to create a flisnadr, or power
patterner.
Seeker: Ullii.
Also, one who can sense the use of the Secret Art or people who
have that talent, or even enchanted objects.
Tiaan
Liise-Mar: A young artisan; a
visual thinker and talented controller-maker. With the amplimet,
she picked up Minis’s cry for help, fell in love with him and
carried the amplimet all the way to Tirthrax, where she used it in
opening a gate to Aachan, to save Minis and his people. She
subsequently helped Malien make a thapter in Tirthrax, departed in
it, attacked the Aachim camp and later crashed near Nyriandiol when
the amplimet refused to do what she wanted. Her back was broken in
the crash. She was taken back to Nyriandiol by Gilhaelith, who
began to teach her geomancy. When he was kidnapped by Gyrull and
taken to Snizort, she followed in the thapter but was captured and
put to use in the patterners, to pattern torgnadrs or
node-drainers. This was only partly successful, because of her
broken back, so the lyrinx flesh-formed it to repair her spine.
After Snizort was abandoned, Merryl helped Tiaan to escape the
patterners. She was subsequently captured by the Aachim, escaped
back to Tirthrax, and travelled with Malien to Fiz Gorgo,
‘rescuing’ Gilhaelith on the way.
Tirior: A
manipulative Aachim clan leader.
Troist: An
ambitious junior officer in the army destroyed by the lyrinx at
Nilkerrand. He formed a smaller army out of the survivors. Troist
became a general much loved by his troops. Nish rescued his
daughters Liliwen and Meriwen from ruffians, and again when they
were lost in an underground labyrinth.
Ullii: A
hypersensitive seeker, used by Scrutator Flydd to track Tiaan and
the amplimet. She accompanied Nish to Tirthrax in the balloon and
found Tiaan, but Malien intervened. Her talent failed her for a
while, but subsequently she was used by Jal-Nish at the
manufactory, before being rescued by Flydd and taken to Nennifer,
then west to help in the war at Snizort. She escaped from Snizort
with Flydd and Nish, where they discovered that she had become
pregnant to Nish in the balloon. Ullii had just found her long-lost
brother, Myllii, whom the scrutators had used to find her, when he
was accidentally killed by Nish. Ullii lost her baby and, consumed
by a lust for revenge on Nish, was captured by Ghorr and used to
hunt down Flydd and his allies, which she eventually
did.
Vithis: Minis’s foster-father; an Aachim from Aachan and the
head of Inthis First Clan, who led the Aachim to Santhenar. When
all First Clan (except Minis) were lost in the gate, he became
angry and bitter. He forced Minis to repudiate Tiaan. He
subsequently led the Aachim across Santhenar but did not hold to
his original purpose, to seize land, instead pursuing Tiaan and her
thapter across the continent of Lauralin. After Minis was maimed,
Vithis retreated to the Foshorn, seized land there and closed the
borders.
Xervish
Flydd: The scrutator
(spymaster and master inquisitor) for Einunar. He was
commander-in-chief of all the scrutators’ forces at Snizort,
charged with defeating the lyrinx army there. Secretly, he was also
required to sneak into Snizort and destroy the lyrinx’s
node-drainer. He, Irisis and Ullii succeeded but the device he’d
been given was faulty, destroying both node-drainer and node in a
catastrophic explosion. The field vanished, of course, rendering
both the army’s clankers and the Aachim’s constructs useless, and
the soldiers defenceless against the attacking lyrinx. Flydd was
blamed for the subsequent defeat, stripped of his position and
condemned to die as a slave hauling constructs out of the mire. He
escaped with Nish and after many adventures eventually ended up at
Fiz Gorgo. He is determined to overthrow the corrupt scrutators,
knowing that they can never win the war.
Yara: A
brilliant advocate, wife to Troist.
Yggur: A great
long-lived mancer of ancient times, subsequently found to be still
living at Fiz Gorgo. After Flydd’s company seeks refuge there, he
comes to aid them in their quest to overthrow the scrutators,
though he and Flydd will ever be rivals.
MAJOR ARTEFACTS, FORCES AND POWERFUL NATURAL PLACES
Alcifer: The
long-abandoned city of Rulke the Charon, in Meldorin. The entire
city was believed to have been a magical construct and it still has
an aura of barely leashed power.
Amplimet: A
rare hedron which, even in its natural state, can draw power from
the force (the field) surrounding and
permeating a node. Occasionally can be very powerful. Inexplicably,
Tiaan’s amplimet shows signs of a crystal instinct or purpose, for
in Tirthrax it communicated with the node and woke the trapped Well
of Echoes. It also communicated with nodes elsewhere, denied Tiaan
control when she wanted to take the thapter to places it did not
want to go, and drew threads of force throughout Snizort, including
to the node and to Gilhaelith.
Anthracism:
Human internal combustion due to a mancer or an artisan drawing
more power than the body can handle. Invariably fatal
(gruesomely).
Booreah Ngurle (the Burning
Mountain): A large, double-cratered volcano in
northern Worm Wood with a blue crater lake. It has a strange and
powerful double node. Gilhaelith’s home, Nyriandiol, is built on
the inner rim of the crater.
Clanker: An
armoured mechanical war cart with six, eight, ten or (rarely)
twelve legs and an articulated body, driven by the Secret Art via a
controller mechanism which is used by a
trained operator. Armed with a rock-throwing catapult and a
javelard (heavy spear-thrower) which are fired by a shooter riding
on top. Clankers are made under supervision of a mechanician,
artisan and weapons artificer. Emergency power is stored in a pair
of heavy spinning flywheels, in case the field is
interrupted.
Construct: A
vehicle powered by the Secret Art, based on some of the secrets of
Rulke’s legendary vehicle. Unlike Rulke’s, those made by the Aachim
cannot fly, but only hover, and therefore cannot cross obstacles
like deep, wide ditches, cliffs, very steep slopes or rugged
terrain (but see Thapter).
Controller: A
mind-linked mechanical system of many flexible arms which draws
power through a hedron and feeds it to
the drive mechanisms of a clanker. A
controller is attuned to a particular hedron, and the operator must
be trained to use each controller, which takes time. Operators
suffer withdrawal if removed from their machines for long periods,
and inconsolable grief if their machines are destroyed, although
this may be alleviated if the controller survives and can be
installed in another clanker.
Crystal fever:
An hallucinatory madness suffered by artisans and clanker
operators, brought on by overuse of a hedron. Few recover from it. Mancers can suffer
from related ailments.
Field: The
diffuse (or weak) force surrounding and permeating (and presumably
generated by) a node. It is the source of
a mancer’s power. Various strong forces are also known to exist,
though no one knows how to tap them safely (see Power). Non-nodal stress-fields also exist, though
on Santhenar these are weak and little used.
Flesh-forming:
A branch of the Secret Art that only lyrinx can use. Developed to
adapt themselves to the ever-mutable void where they came from, it
now involves the slow transformation of a living creature,
tailoring it to suit some particular purpose. It is painful for
both creature and lyrinx, and can only be employed on small
creatures, though the lyrinx seek to change that.
Gate: A portal
between one place (or one world) and another, connected by a
trans-dimensional ‘wormhole’.
Geomancy: The
most difficult and powerful of all the Secret Arts. An adept is
able to draw upon the forces that move and shape the world. A most
dangerous Art for the user.
Hedron: A
natural or shaped crystal, formed deep in the earth from fluids
circulating through a natural node.
Trained artisans can tune a hedron to draw power from the field
surrounding a node, via the ethyr. Rutilated quartz, that is,
quartz crystal containing dark needles of rutile, is commonly used.
The artisan must first ‘wake’ the crystal using his or her
pliance. Too far from a node, a hedron is
unable to draw power and becomes useless. If a hedron is not used
for long periods it may have to be rewoken by an artisan, though
this can be hazardous.
Mathemancy: An
Art developed by Gilhaelith, though since that time it has been
discovered independently by other mancers, notably Bilfis.
Nennifer: The
great bastion of the Council of Scrutators, on the escarpment over
Kalithras, the Desolation Sink. Nennifer is home to countless
mancers, artisans and artificers, all furiously working to design
new kinds of Art-powered devices to aid the war against the
lyrinx.
Nodes: Rare
places in the world where the Secret Art works better. Once
identified, a hedron (or a mancer) can
sometimes draw power from the node’s
field through the ethyr, though the
amount diminishes with distance, not always regularly. A clanker operator must be alert for the loss and
ready to draw on another node, if available. The field can be
drained, in which case the node may not be usable for years, or
even for centuries. Mancers have long sought the secret of drawing
on the far greater power of a node itself (see Power, Nunar’s General Theory
of Power) but so far it has eluded them (or maybe those that
succeeded did not live to tell about it).
There are also anti-nodes where the Art does not work at all, or is dangerously disrupted. Nodes and anti-nodes are frequently (though not always) associated with natural features or forces such as mountains, faults and hot spots.
Nyriandiol:
Gilhaelith’s home, fortress and laboratory on top of Booreah
Ngurle; the entire building is a geomantic artefact designed to
protect him, ensure his control and enhance his work.
Oellyll: A
lyrinx city in Meldorin.
Patterner: A
semi-organic device developed by the lyrinx to pattern torgnadrs and other artefacts used with their Art.
The patterner essentially copies a particular human’s talent into
the growing torgnadr, greatly enhancing the talent and allowing it
to be controlled by a lyrinx skilled in the Art.
Pliance: Device
that enables an artisan to see the field
and tune a controller to it.
Port-all:
Tiaan’s name for the device she makes in Tirthrax to open the
gate.
Power: A
mancer, Nunar, codified the laws of mancing, noting how limited it
was, mainly because of lack of power. She recognised that mancing
was held back because power came from diffuse and poorly understood
sources. It all went through the mancer first, causing
aftersickness that grew greater the more powerful it was.
Eventually power, or aftersickness, would kill the mancer using
it.
The traditional way around this was to charge up an artefact (such as a mirror or ring) with power over a long time, and to simply trigger it when needed. This had some advantages, though objects could be hard to control or could become corrupted, and once discharged were essentially useless. Yet some of the ancients had used devices that held a charge, or perhaps replenished themselves. No one knew how, but it had to be so, else how could they maintain their power for hundreds if not thousands of years (for example, the Mirror of Aachan), or use quite prodigious amounts of power without becoming exhausted (Rulke’s legendary construct)?
Nunar assembled a team of mancers utterly devoted to her project (no mean feat) and she set out to answer these questions. Mancing was traditionally secretive – people tried (and often wasted their lives in dead ends) and usually failed alone. Only the desperate state of the war could have made them work together, sharing their discoveries, until the genius of Nunar put together the Special Theory of Power that described where the diffuse force came from and how a mancer actually tapped it, drawing not through the earthly elements but through the ultradimensional ethyr.
The ultimate goals of theoretical mancers are the General Theory of Power, which deals with how nodes work and how they might be tapped safely, and ultimately, the Unified Power Theory, which reconciles all fields, weak and strong, in terms of a single force.
Secret Art: The
use of magical or sorcerous powers (mancing).
Snizort: A
place in Taltid with a potent and concentrated node, near the
famous tar pits and seeps. The lyrinx took Gilhaelith there to help
them find the remains of a village lost in the Great Seep thousands
of years ago. When he did so, they excavated a tunnel into the seep
by freezing the tar, and took out a number of crystals, other
artefacts and long-dead human bodies. After the node exploded, the
tar caught fire and Snizort had to be abandoned.
Strong Forces:
Forces which are speculated to exist, though no mancer has yet
survived to prove their existence.
Thapter:
Tiaan’s name for the flying construct she
and Malien created in Tirthrax.
Torgnadr: A
device patterned by the lyrinx to drain a field dry, or to channel power from the field for
their own purposes. Torgnadrs are extremely difficult to pattern and most attempts fail, though some result
in weak devices such as phynadrs which can draw small amounts of
power for a particular purpose. Tiaan was used, with her amplimet,
to pattern particularly strong torgnadrs, though the patterning was
not entirely successful. Related devices include zygnadrs
(sentinels), and the flisnadr (power patterner).
Well of Echoes,
the: An Aachim concept to do with the reverberation
of time, memory and the Histories. Sometimes a place of death and
rebirth (to the same cycling fate). Also a sense of being trapped
in history, of being helpless to change collective fate (of a
family, clan or species). Its origin is sometimes thought to be a
sacred well on Aachan, sometimes on Santhenar. The term has become
part of Aachim folklore. ‘I have looked in the Well of Echoes.’ ‘I
heard it at the Well.’ ‘I will go to the Well.’ Possibly also a
source; a great node.
The Well is symbolised by the three-dimensional symbol of infinity, the universe and nothingness. A Well of Echoes, trapped in Tirthrax, is held there only by the most powerful magic.
DATES AND MEASUREMENTS
The Santhenar year has 396 days.
A span is roughly six feet or slightly less than two metres.
A league is about three miles or five kilometres.