Anwurat—A large Kianene fortress to the south of the Sempis Delta, constructed in 3905.
Anyasiri—“Tongueless Howlers” (Ihrimsû) An early Cûnuroi name for the Sranc.
Aöknyssus—The administrative and commercial capital of Conriya. Once the capital of the long-lost Shiradi Empire, Aöknyssus is perhaps the most ancient of the Three Seas’ great cities, with the possible exception of Sumna or Iothiah.
Aörsi—A lost nation of the Ancient North. Aörsi was founded in the 1556 partitioning of Greater Kûniüri between the sons of Anasûrimbor Nanor-Ukkerja I at his death. Even contemporaries recognized Aörsi as the most warlike of the ancient Norsirai nations, though her ambitions remained uniquely defensive rather than expansionist. Sparsely populated save for the regions surrounding her capital, Shiarau, Aörsi faced considerable and unrelenting pressure from the Sranc and Bashrag tribes of the Yimaleti Mountains to the north, not to mention the Consult legions of Golgotterath across the River Sursa to the west—a challenge that would spur the construction of Dagliash, the greatest fortress of the age. It is no accident that the word sursa came to mean “front line” across the Ancient North.
Aörsi’s history is one of ingenuity and determination in the face of never-ending crises. Perhaps it is fitting that her destruction in 2136 (see Apocalypse) was due more to the betrayal of her southern Kûniüric cousins than to any real failure on the part of Anasûrimbor Nimeric, her final King.
Apocalypse—The protracted wars and atrocities that obliterated the Ancient North. The roots of the Apocalypse are many and deep. Mandate scholars (who, popular opinion to the contrary, are not the recognized authorities on the subject) argue that they are older than recorded history. More sober accounts reach back no further than the so-called Nonman Tutelage, which eventually led the Gnostic School of Mangaecca to the site of the Incû-Holoinas, the Ark-of-the-Skies, where it lay protected, hidden by Nonmen glamours in the shadow of the western Yimaleti Mountains. Accounts are incomplete, but it seems clear that what were called the Great Sranc Wars were a consequence of the Mangaecca occupation of what would come to be called Golgotterath.
Traditionally, scholars date the beginning of the Apocalypse with Anasûrimbor Celmomas’s call for a holy war against Golgotterath, his Great Ordeal, which is to say, with the beginning of the accounts found in The Sagas, the primary historical source text for this cataclysmic event. Legend has it that Nonmen Siqu informed the Grandmaster of the Sohonc (the pre-eminent Sauglish School) that the Mangaecca, or Consult as they had come to be called, had uncovered lost Inchoroi secrets that would lead to the world’s destruction. Seswatha in turn convinced Celmomas to declare war on Golgotterath in 2123.
There has been much debate regarding the next twenty years, and much severe criticism of the pride and bickering that would eventually destroy the Ordeal. What most fail to realize is that the threat facing the High Norsirai of Kûniüri and Aörsi at this time was entirely hypothetical. In fact, it is surprising that Celmomas was able to hold his coalition, which included Nonmen as well as token contingents of Kyraneans, together for as long as he did.
The first great battle, fought in 2124 on the Plains of Agongorea, was indecisive. Celmomas and his allies wintered in Dagliash and forded the River Sursa the following spring, catching their foe unawares. The Consult withdrew to Golgotterath, and so began what would be called the Great Investiture. For six years the Ordeal attempted to starve the Consult into submission, to no avail. Every assault proved disastrous. Then, in 2131, after a dispute with King Nimeric of Aörsi, Celmomas himself abandoned his own Holy War. The following year disaster struck. Consult legions, apparently utilizing a vast subterranean network of tunnels, appeared in the Ring Mountains to the rear of the Ordeal. The coalition host was all but destroyed. Embittered by the loss of his sons, Nil’giccas, the Nonman King of Ishterebinth, withdrew altogether, leaving the Aörsi to war alone.
The following years witnessed a string of further disasters. In 2133 the Aörsi were defeated at the Passes of Amnerlot, and Dagliash was lost soon after. King Nimeric withdrew to his capital of Shiarau. A year passed before Celmomas acknowledged his folly and mobilized to relieve him. By then it was too late. In 2135, Nimeric was mortally wounded in the Battle of Hamuir, and Shiarau fell to the Consult legions the following spring. The Aörsic House of Anasûrimbor had perished forever.
Now it was Kûniüri that stood alone. His credibility destroyed, Celmomas was unable to rally any allies, and for a time the situation seemed bleak. But in 2137 his youngest son, Nau-Cayûti, managed to rout the Consult at the Battle of Ossirish, where he earned the name Murswagga, or “Dragonslayer,” for killing Tanhafut the Red. His next victory, within sight of Shiarau’s ruins, was more complete still. The Consult’s remaining Sranc and Bashrag fled across the River Sursa. In 2139 the young Prince besieged and recaptured Dagliash, then launched several spectacular raids across the Plains of Agongorea.
Then, in 2140, Nau-Cayûti’s beloved concubine, Aulisi, was abducted by Sranc marauders and taken to Golgotterath. According to The Sagas, Seswatha was able to convince the Prince (who was once his student) that she could be rescued from the Incû-Holoinas, and the two of them embarked on an expedition that is almost certainly apocryphal. Mandate commentators dispute the account found in The Sagas, where they successfully return with both Aulisi and the Heron Spear, claiming that Aulisi was never found. Whatever happened, at least two things are certain: the Heron Spear was in fact recovered, and Nau-Cayûti died shortly after (apparently poisoned by his first wife, Iëva).
In 2141, the Consult returned to the offensive, wrongly thinking the Kûniüri crippled by the loss of their greatest and most beloved son. But Nau-Cayûti’s mead-brothers proved themselves able, even brilliant, commanders. At the Battle of Skothera, the Sranc hordes were crushed by General En-Kaujalau, though he died of mysterious causes within weeks of this victory (according to The Sagas, he was another victim of Iëva and her poisons, but again this is disputed by Mandate scholars). In 2142, General Sag-Marmau inflicted yet another crushing defeat on Aurang and his Consult legions, and by the fall of that year he had hounded the remnant of their horde to the Gates of Golgotterath itself.
But the Second Great Investiture proved far shorter than the first. As Seswatha had feared, the Consult had been merely playing for time, nothing more. In the spring of 2143 the No-God, summoned by means unknown, first drew breath. Across the world, Sranc, Bashrag, and Wracu—all the obscene progeny of the Inchoroi—hearkened to his call. Sag-Marmau and the greater glory of Kûniüri were annihilated.
The effect of his coming cannot be overestimated. As numerous independent accounts attest, all Men could sense his dread presence on the horizon, and all infants were born dead. Anasûrimbor Celmomas II had little difficulty gathering support for his Second Ordeal. Nil’giccas and Celmomas were reconciled. Across Eärwa, hosts of Men began marching toward Kûniüri.
But it was too late.
Celmomas and his Second Ordeal were destroyed on the Fields of Eleneöt in 2146. The Heron Spear, which could not be used because the No-God refused to give battle, was lost. Kûniüri and all the great and ancient cities of the River Aumris were destroyed the following year. The Nonmen of Injor-Niyas retreated to Ishterebinth. Eämnor was laid waste the year after, though its capital, Atrithau, raised on anarcane ground, managed to survive. The list continues. Akksersia and Harmant in 2149. The Meöri Empire in 2150. Inweära in 2151, though the city of Sakarpus was spared. The Shiradi Empire in 2153.
The Battle of Kathol Pass, fought primarily by the remnants of the Meöri and the Nonmen of Cil-Aujas in the autumn of 2151, would be mankind’s only victory during these dark years, one which was entirely undone when the Meöri turned on their benefactors and sacked the ancient Nonman Mansion the following spring (which gave birth to the myth that the Galeoth, the descendants of those Meöri refugees, were forever cursed with treachery and fractiousness).
Though defeated at the Battle of Mehsa
runath in 2154, Anaxophus V, the High King of Kyraneas, managed to save the core of his host and fled southward, abandoning Mehtsonc and Sumna to the Scylvendi. The Tusk was evacuated and brought to ancient Invishi in Nilnamesh. Though the historical record is scant, Mandate scholars insist that it was at this time that the High King admitted to Seswatha that his knights had rescued the Heron Spear from the Fields of Eleneöt eight years previously.
Perhaps no single event from these dark times has inspired more acrimony and debate among Three Seas scholars of the Apocalypse. Some historians, the great Casidas among them, have called this the most monstrous deception in history. How could Anaxophus conceal the only weapon that could defeat the No-God while the greater part of the world died? But others, including many belonging to the Mandate, argue precisely the opposite. They admit that Anaxophus’s motive—to save Kyraneas and Kyraneas alone—was more than a little suspect. But they point to the fact that had he not hidden the Heron Spear, it would surely have been lost in the catastrophes following the Fields of Eleneöt and the destruction of the Second Ordeal. According to extant accounts, not once did the No-God expose himself to battle during this time. It was the years of attrition that forced him to intercede in the Battle of Mengedda.
Whatever the case, the No-God, or Tsuramah as the Kyraneans called him, was destroyed by Anaxophus V in 2155. Freed of his terrible will, his Sranc, Bashrag, and Wracu slaves dispersed. The Apocalypse had ended, and Men set out to recover what they could of a ruined world.
apples—Galeoth slang for severed heads gathered as trophies.
Araxes Mountains—A range forming the eastern frontiers of both Ce Tydonn and Conriya.
Architect—An epithet used by skin-spies to describe their Consult makers.
Arithmeas—The Prime Augur to Ikurei Xerius III.
Ark-of-the-Skies—See Incû-Holoinas.
Arweal (4077-4111)—One of the Nascenti, formerly a client thane of Earl Werijen, claimed by disease at Caraskand.
Ascension—The direct passage of Inri Sejenus to the Outside as described in “The Book of Days” in The Tractate. According to Inrithi tradition, Sejenus ascended from the Juterum, or the Sacred Heights, in Shimeh, though The Tractate seems to suggest that Kyudea and not Shimeh was the location. The First Temple was purportedly raised on the very location.
Asgilioch—“The Gate of Asga” (Kyranean from Kemkaric geloch) The great Nansur fortress, dating back to Far Antiquity, guarding the so-called Southron Gates in the Unaras Spur. Perhaps no Three Seas fortress can claim such a storied past (which includes, most recently, stopping no fewer than three Fanim invasions). Over the years the Nansur have coined many epithets for the famed stronghold, among them Hubara, or “the Breakers.”
Aspect-Emperor—The title taken by Triamis the Great in the twenty-third year of his rule (when the Shriah, Ekyannus III, formally institutionalized the so-called Emperor Cult) and adopted by all his successors.
Athjeäri, Coithus (4089- )—The Earl of the Galeoth region of Gaenri, and nephew to Coithus Saubon.
Atkondo-Atyoi—The language group of the Satyothi pastoralists of the Atkondras Mountains and surrounding regions.
Atkondras Mountains—Perhaps the greatest range west of the Kayarsus, running from the Sea of Jorua to the Great Ocean, and effectively sealing Zeüm from the rest of Eärwa.
Atrithau—The ancient administrative and commercial capital of what was once Eämnor, and one of two Norsirai cities to have survived the Apocalypse. Atrithau is peculiar in that it is built upon what is called “anarcane ground,” which is to say, ground that renders sorcery impotent, found at the foot of Mount Ankulakai. It was originally founded c. 570 as the fortress Ara-Etrith (“New Etrith”) by the famed Umeri God-King Carû-Ongonean.
Atrithi—The language of Atrithau, derived from Eämnoric.
Atsushan Highlands—The arid hill country of the Gedean interior.
Attong Plateau—“Missing Tower” (from Kyranean att anoch) Also known as the Attong Gap. The famous opening in the Hethanta Mountains, and the traditional invasion route of the Scylvendi.
Attrempus—“Tower of Respite” (Kyranean) The sister fortress of Atyersus, founded in 2158 by Seswatha and the nascent School of Mandate, and held in trust by House Nersei of Conriya since 3921.
Atyersus—“Tower of Warning” (Kyranean) The sister fortress of Attrempus, founded in 2157 by Seswatha and other Gnostic survivors of the Apocalypse. Atyersus is the primary stronghold of the Mandate.
Auja-Gilcûnni—The lost “ground tongue” of the Nonmen. See Languages of Nonmen.
Aujic—The lost tongue of the Nonmen Aujan Mansions.
Aumri-Saugla—The language group of the ancient Norsirai peoples of the Aumris Valley.
Aumris River—The primary river system of northwest Eärwa, draining the greater Istyuli basin and emptying into the Neleöst Sea. The River Aumris is also the cradle of Norsirai civilization. Over a relatively brief period of time, the High Norsirai tribes that settled the rich alluvial plains along the lower Aumris founded the first cities of Men, including Trysë, Sauglish, Etrith, and Ûmerau. As the result of trade with the Nonmen of Injor-Niyas, the power and sophistication of the Aumris River civilization grew quickly, culminating in the Trysean Empire under the God-King Cûnwerishau in the fourth century.
Aurang (?- )—A surviving Prince of the Inchoroi and Horde-General to the No-God during the Apocalypse. Very little is known of Aurang, save that he is a ranking member of the Consult and the twin brother of Aurax.
Aurax—(?- )—A surviving Prince of the Inchoroi. Very little is known of Aurax, save that he is a ranking member of the Consult and the twin brother of Aurang. Mandate scholars speculate that it was he who first taught the Tekne to the Mangaecca.
Auvangshei—Famed Ceneian fortress on the extreme western frontier of Nilnamesh, often symbolically invoked as the limit of the known world, which is to say, the Three Seas.
Avowels—The classic text by Olekaros, which poses as a “spiritual exploration” but is in actual fact little more than a collection of wise sayings from various thinkers in various nations. Its Sheyic translation enjoys widespread popularity among caste-noble lay readers in the Three Seas.
B
bagaratta—The “sweeping way” of Scylvendi sword fighting.
Bajeda, Straits of—The straits separating the southwestern tip of Nron from the southeastern extremities of Cironj.
Balait urs Kututha (4072-4110)—A Scylvendi warrior of the Utemot tribe, and Cnaiür urs Skiötha’s brother-in-law.
Bannut urs Hannut (4059-4110)—A Scylvendi warrior of the Utemot tribe, and Cnaiür urs Skiötha’s uncle.
Bardic Priest—In the traditional folk religions of the Ancient North, a type of wandering priest who earned his living reciting scriptural lays and performing priestly functions for various gods.
Barisullas, Nrezza (4053- ) The King of Cironj, at once admired and maligned throughout the Three Seas for his mercantile ingenuity. He is notorious for surviving and managing to reverse Shrial Censure not once but three times.
Batathent—A ruined fortress-temple dating back to pre-classical Kyraneas, and destroyed by the Scylvendi shortly after the fall of Cenei in 3351.
Battle-Celebrant—An honour bestowed by the Gilgallic Priesthood on those most responsible for victory in battle.
Battlemaster—Among the Inrithi, the traditional rank assigned to those commanding coalitions.
Battle of Anwurat—A pivotal battle of the First Holy War, fought in the summer of 4111 about the fortress of Anwurat south of the Sempis Delta. Despite early setbacks, the Inrithi under Cnaiür urs Skiötha managed to rout the Kianene host of Skauras ab Nalajan, allowing the subsequent conquest of southern Shigek and opening the road to Caraskand.
Battle of Caraskand—Sometimes called the Battle of Tertae Fields. The desperate and pivotal battle in 4112 between the host of Kascamandri ab Tepherokar, the Padirajah of Kian, and the First Holy War under Anasûrimbor Kellhus, where the F
anim, despite outnumbering the diseased and starved Inrithi, found themselves incapable of slowing or stopping the First Holy War’s general advance. Many attribute the Inrithi victory to the intercession of the God, though a more likely explanation is to be found in the revelatory events immediately preceding the battle. Nersei Proyas is particularly effective in his descriptions of the maniacal morale enjoyed by the Inrithi as a result of the Warrior-Prophet’s Circumfixion and subsequent vindication. That the Kianene were overconfident is amply demonstrated by the Padirajah’s decision to allow the First Holy War to assemble its ranks unmolested.
Battle of Eleneöt Fields—The great battle between the Horde of the No-God and the Second Ordeal on Kûniüri’s northeastern frontier in 2146. Despite having assembled the greatest host of their age, Anasûrimbor Celmomas and his allies were unprepared for the vast numbers of Sranc, Bashrag, and Wracu gathered by the No-God and his Consult slaves. The battle was an unmitigated catastrophe, and signalled the eventual destruction of Norsirai civilization.
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