Shakers—The name given to extreme devotees of Onkis who claim that their fits of shaking are the result of divine possession.
Shanipal, Kemrates (4066- )—The Baron of Hirhamet, a district in south central Conriya.
Shaul River—The second most important river system in the Nansur Empire, after the Phayus.
Shauriatas (c. 1086- )—“Cheater of Gods” (Umeritic) See Shaeönanra.
Shelgal (?-?)—One of the Chieftain-Kings named in the Tusk.
Shemic—The language group of the ancient non-Nilnameshi pastoralists of the southwestern Three Seas.
Shem-Varsi—The language group of the proto-Nilnameshi pastoralists of the southwestern Three Seas.
Sheyic—The language of the Ceneian Empire, which still serves, in debased form, as the liturgical language of the Thousand Temples and as the “common tongue” of the Three Seas.
Sheyo-Buskrit—The language of Nilnameshi labouring castes, a derivative of High Sheyic and Sapmatari.
Sheyo-Kheremic—The lost language of the lower castes of the Eastern Ceneian Empire.
Sheyo-Xerashi—The language of Xerash, a derivative of Xerashi and High Sheyic.
Shield-Breaker, the—A common name for Gilgaöl, God of War.
Shigek—A governorate of Kian and former province of the Nansur Empire. Located on the fertile delta and alluvial plains of the River Sempis, Shigek was the ancient competitor of Kyraneas and the first civilized nation of the Three Seas.
Shigek reached the height of her power during the so-called Old Dynasty period, when a succession of Shigeki God-Kings extended their dominion to the limits of the Kyranae Plains in the north and to ancient Eumarna to the south. Great cities (of which only Iothiah survives) and monumental works, including the famed Ziggurats, were raised along the River Sempis. At some point in the twelfth century various Ketyai tribes began asserting their independence on the Kyranae Plains, and the God-Kings found themselves waging incessant war. Then, in 1591, the God-King Mithoser II was decisively defeated by the Kyraneans at Narakit, and Shigek began its long tenure as a tributary to greater powers. It was most recently conquered in 3933 by the Fanim hosts of Fan’oukarji III. Much to the dismay of the Thousand Temples, the Kianene method of simply taxing non-believers—as opposed to out-and-out persecuting them—led to the wholesale conversion of the populace to Fanimry within a few short generations.
Shikol (2118-2202)—The King of ancient Xerash, famed for sentencing Inri Sejenus to death in 2198, as recounted in The Tractate. For obvious reasons, his name has become synonymous with moral corruption among the Inrithi.
Shimeh—The second-holiest city of Inrithism, located in Amoteu, and the site of Inri Sejenus’s ascension to the Nail of Heaven.
Shinoth—The legendary main gate of ancient Trysë.
Shir—An ancient city-state on the River Maurat that eventually became the Shiradi Empire. See Shiradi Empire.
Shiradi Empire—The first great nation to arise in the eastern Three Seas, where it ruled much of what is now Cengemis, Conriya, and High Ainon for much of Far Antiquity. By c. 500 a number of Hamori Ketyai tribes had settled the length of the River Sayut and the Secharib Plains, becoming more sedentary and socially stratified as they exploited the rich cereal yields afforded by the fertile soils of the region. But unlike Shigek, where the first God-Kings were able to unify the Sempis River Valley quite early, Seto-Annaria, as it came to be called (after the two most dominant tribes), remained a collection of warring city-states. Eventually the balance of power shifted to the north, to the city-state of Shir on the River Maurat, and sometime in the thirteenth century it managed to subdue all the cities of Seto-Annaria, though its rulers would spend generations putting down rebellions (the Seto-Annarians apparently thought themselves superior to their uncouth cousins from the north). Then, sometime in the fifteenth century, Xiuhianni invaders from Jekk ravaged the empire and Shir was razed to the ground. The survivors moved the capital to ancient Aöknyssus (the present administrative capital of Conriya), and after some twenty years managed to oust the Eännean invaders. Centuries of stability followed, until 2153, when the forces of the No-God inflicted a disastrous defeat on the Shiradi at the Battle of Nurubal. The following two hundred years of chaos and internecine warfare effectively destroyed what remained of the empire and its central institutions.
The influence of ancient Shir is evident in many respects in the eastern Ketyai nations of the Three Seas, from the revering of beards (first cultivated by caste-nobles to distinguish themselves from the Xiuhianni, who were reputed to be unable to grow beards) to the continued use of a Shiradi-derived pictographic script in High Ainon.
Shortest Way—See Logos.
Shriah—The title of the Apostle of the Latter Prophet, the administrative ruler of the Thousand Temples, and the spiritual leader of the Inrithi.
Shrial Apparati—The generic term for career and hereditary functionaries in the Thousand Temples.
Shrial Censure—The excommunication of Inrithi from the Thousand Temples. Since it rescinds all rights to property and vassalage as well as to worship, the worldly consequences of Shrial Censure are often as extreme as the spiritual. When King Sareat II of Galeoth was censured by Psailas II in 4072, for instance, fairly half of his client nobles rebelled, and Sareat was forced to walk barefoot from Oswenta to Sumna in contrition.
Shrial Knights—Also known as Knights of the Tusk. The monastic military order founded by Shriah Ekyannus the Golden in 2511, charged with prosecuting the will of the Shriah.
Shrial Law—The ecclesiastical law of the Thousand Temples, which in a labyrinthine variety of forms serves as the common law for much of the Three Seas, particularly for those areas lacking any strong secular authority.
Shrial Priests—Inrithi clerics who, as opposed to Cultic Priests, are part of the hierarchies of the Thousand Temples, and perform the liturgies of the Latter Prophet and the God rather than those of the Gods.
Shrial Remission—A writ issued by the Thousand Temples absolving an individual of sin. Remissions are commonly awarded to those who accomplish some act of penance, such as joining a pilgrimage or a sanctioned war against unbelievers. Historically, however, they are primarily sold.
Shrial Warrant—A writ issued by the Thousand Temples authorizing the arrest of an individual for the purpose of trial in the ecclesiastical courts.
Sign of Gierra—The twin serpents that Sumni harlots must have tattooed on the back of their left hand, apparently in imitation of the Priestesses of Gierra.
Simas, Polchias (4052- )—Achamian’s old teacher and a member of the Quorum, the ruling council of the School of Mandate.
Sinerses (4076- )—A Shield-Captain of the Javreh and favourite of Hanamanu Eleäzaras.
Singer-in-the-Dark—See Onkis.
Siqu—Generally, the term referring to Nonmen who find themselves in the service of Men, usually as mercenaries or in some advisory capacity. Specifically, those Nonmen who participated in the so-called Nonmen Tutelage from 555 to 825. See Nonmen Tutelage.
Sirol ab Kascamandri (4004- )—The youngest daughter of Kascamandri ab Tepherokar.
Skafadi—A Kianene name for the Scylvendi.
Skafra—One of the principal Wracu, or Dragons, of the Apocalypse, finally slain by Seswatha at Mengedda in 2155.
Skagwa—A fiefdom on the Thunyeri Sranc Marches.
Skaiyelt, Hringa (4073-4111)—The eldest son of King Rauschang of Thunyerus and leader of the Thunyeri contingent of the Holy War. Claimed by disease at Caraskand.
Skalateas (4069-4111)—A member of the Mysunsai School, murdered in the Ansercan countryside by the Scarlet Spires.
Skauras ab Nalajan (4052-4111)—The Sapatishah-Governor of Shigek and the first principal antagonist of the First Holy War, slain at Anwurat. A veteran of many wars, he was deeply respected by both his allies and his enemies. The Nansur called him Sutis Sutadra, the “Southern Jackal,” because of his Black Jackal standard.
Skavric—The language
group of the Scylvendi peoples.
Skettic—The language group of ancient pastoralists of the Far Istyuli Plains, a derivative of Nirsodic.
Skilura II (3619-68)—Also called “the Mad.” The most cruel of the Surmante Emperors of Nansur, whose deranged antics led to the Granary Revolts of 3668 and the accession of Surmante Xatantius I to the Mantle.
Skiötha urs Hannut (4038-79)—The father of Cnaiür urs Skiötha, and former Chieftain of the Utemot.
Skogma—An ancient Wracu thought destroyed during the Cûno-Inchoroi Wars.
Skuthula the Black—An ancient Wracu spawned during the Cûno-Inchoroi Wars, one of the few Dragons known to have survived the Apocalypse, though his present whereabouts are unknown.
Snakeheads—An Inrithi epithet for the Cishaurim.
Sobel—An abandoned province north of Atrithau.
Sodhoras, Nersei (4072-4111)—A Conriyan Baron and cousin of Prince Nersei Proyas.
Sogian Way—A Nansur coastal road first constructed in the age of Kyraneas.
Solitary God—“Allonara Yulah” (Kianni) The name used by Fanim to denote the transcendent singularity of their supreme deity. According to Fanim tradition, the God is not, as the Inrithi claim, immanent in existence, nor is He manifold in the way described by the Latter Prophet.
Sompas, Biaxi (4068- )—The General of the Kidruhil following the death of General Numemarius in Nagogris. Sompas is the eldest son of Biaxi Coronsas, Patridomos of House Biaxi.
Sorainas (3808-95)—A celebrated Nansur scriptural commentator, and author of The Book of Circles and Spirals.
sorcerer of rank—Though practices differ extensively between Schools, generally the title given to a sorcerer who is qualified to teach sorcery to another.
Sorcerers of the Sun—A common epithet for the Imperial Saik. See Saik.
sorcery—The practice of making the world conform to language, as opposed to philosophy, the practice of making language conform to the world. Despite the tremendous amount of apparently unresolvable controversy surrounding sorcery, there are several salient features that seem universal to its practice. First, practitioners must be able to apprehend the “onta,” which is to say, they must possess the innate ability to see, as Protathis puts it, “Creation as created.” Second, sorcery also seems to involve a universal commitment to what Gotagga calls “semantic hygiene.” Sorcery requires precise meanings. This is why incantations are always spoken in a non-native tongue: to prevent the semantic transformation of crucial terms due to the vagaries of daily usage. This also explains the extraordinary “double-think” structure of sorcery, the fact that all incantations require the sorcerer to say and think two separate things simultaneously. The spoken segment of an incantation (what is often called the “utteral string”) must have its meaning “fixed” or focused with a silent segment (what is often called the “inutteral string”) that is simultaneously thought. Apparently the thought incantation sharpens the meaning of the spoken incantation the way the words of one man may be used to clarify the words of another. (This gives rise to the famous “semantic regress problem”: how can the inutteral string, which admits different interpretations, serve to fix the proper interpretation of the utteral string?) Though there are as many metaphysical interpretations of this structure as there are sorcerous Schools, the result in each case is the same: the world, which is otherwise utterly indifferent to the words of Men, listens, and sorcerous transformations of reality result.
Soroptic—The lost language of ancient Shigek, a derivative of Kemkaric.
Soter, Nurbanu (4069- )—The Palatine of the Ainoni district of Kishyat.
“[The] soul that encounters Him passes no further.”—A line from The Sagas referring to the Battleplain and the belief that all those who perish there remain trapped.
Southern Columns—Those divisions of the Imperial Nansur Army stationed on the Kianene frontier.
Southron Gates—The series of passes through the Unaras Spur guarded by Asgilioch.
Sranc—The violent, inhuman creatures first created by the Inchoroi as instruments of war against the Nonmen. According to the Isûphiryas, the Sranc are one of the “Weapon Races” created by the Inchoroi to prosecute their war of extermination against the Nonmen and their Emwama slaves.
The motivations of the Sranc seem to be as base as imaginable, in that they seem to find sexual gratification in acts of violence. There are innumerable accounts of the indiscriminate rape of men, women, children, and even corpses. They seem to know nothing of mercy or honour, and though they do take prisoners, very few are known to have survived captivity, which is said to be savage beyond imagining.
They reproduce rapidly. Though no outward physical differences are readily visible, female Sranc seem to have roles identical to those of male Sranc. Apparently, a great number of Sranc in various stages of pregnancy were observed in battle over the course of the Apocalypse. Though generally inferior to Men in individual combat, they are ideal logistically, as they are able to live for sustained periods on little more than grubs and insects. Survivors recount tales of vast tracts of ground overturned and rooted by passing Sranc hordes. Under the command of the No-God they are utterly fearless, and seem to strike with unerring control and coordination.
Typically, Sranc stand no higher than the average caste-menial’s shoulder. Their skin is devoid of pigment, and despite the refined—to the point of repulsiveness—beauty of their faces, their physiognomy is bestial (though hairless), with pinched shoulders and deep, almond-shaped breasts. They are exceedingly fast across both open and broken terrain, and their sheer viciousness is said to compensate for their slight stature.
Mandate scholars are prone to make dire warnings about the present numbers of Sranc in Eärwa. Apparently the ancient Norsirai had reduced the Sranc, pressing them to the margins of Eärwa, and the No-God was still able to summon hosts that reportedly blackened the horizon. Now Sranc dominate half the continent.
Sranc Pits—The famed gladiatorial arena of Carythusal, where human slaves are typically pitted against Sranc.
Stajanas II (2338-95)—The famed “Philosopher-Emperor” of Cenei, whose Ruminations has remained an important work in the Three Seas literary canon.
Stalker, the—A common epithet for Husyelt.
Steppe, the—See Jiünati Steppe.
Subis—A once-fortified oasis in Khemema, frequented by caravans passing between Shigek and Eumarna.
Sudica—A province of the Nansur Empire, largely depopulated by 4111 but among the wealthiest districts of the Kyranae Plain during the ages of Kyraneas and the Ceneian Empire.
“suffer not a whore to live ...”—The passage from Canticles 19:9, The Chronicle of the Tusk, condemning prostitution.
summoning horns—The great horns of bronze used to signal the “prayer watches” to the Inrithi faithful.
Sumna—The site of the Tusk and the holiest city of Inrithism, located in Nansur.
Surmante, House—A former Nansur House of the Congregate, and the Empire’s ruling dynasty from 3619 to 3941.
Surmantic Gates—The great northern gate of Carythusal, whose construction was financed in 3639 by Surmante Xatantius I to commemorate the ill-fated Treaty of Kutapileth, a short-lived military pact between Nansur and High Ainon.
Sursa River—The river system that once formed the crucial frontier between Agongorea and Aörsi before the Apocalypse.
Suskara—A vast region of broken plains and highlands between Atrithau and the Jiünati Steppe, inhabited by numerous tribes of Sranc, some of which are tributary to the so-called Sranc King of Urskugog.
suthenti—The menial castes. See castes.
Sutis Sutadra—See Skauras ab Nalajan.
Swa River—The river that forms the northern frontier of Ce Tydonn.
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