Lamplighter

by D M Cornish

  and see the world a’passing;

  Thou shouldst wait for me,

  For I would come with thee.

  And if I catch a morbid ill,

  From Heilgoland’s most wretched chill,

  And spend my days on Death’s doorsill

  till morning turns to mourning;

  Wouldst thou stay with me,

  As I wouldst stay with thee?

  J

  jakes, the ~ toilets, also called heads (navy), or garderobe, water closet, the gong and the rest.

  Josclin said “joss’lyn”; scourge of Winstermill. Hailing from Brandenbrass yet said to be descended from Cloudeslee stock, that quasi-mystic land beyond the southern bounds of the Haacobin Empire, reputed to be populated with sedorners and most famous for its deadly accurate archers—or toxothetes. Josclin does not elaborate on his heritage and, as a scourge, has chosen a profession quite at odds with the principles of his reputed forebears. He trained at the Madrigoll, the much-vaunted rhombus in Maubergone, rather than at the Saumagora—or “Soup Pot”—in Brandenbrass, won by the former’s well-earned reputation for producing first-rate scourges. He so rarely ventures forth without his fascins that though he has served with the lighters at Winstermill for nigh on a decade, only a few of his fellows know what he actually looks like.

  K

  knave(s) • (noun) the opposite of a spurn; broadly any teratologist who hires services out to the highest bidder or any other paying customer, but used in reference to lahzars particularly—a nonlahzarine monster-slayer is sometimes called a hack, because these nonsectified gallants have to “hack” at a monster to battle it (as with a sword or cudgel or the like). How this includes skolds (which it does) is unknown and also unquestioned. • (verb) to hire oneself out, especially as a teratologist; to sell one’s services.

  knavery offices where a person can go to hire a teratologist or three or as many as are needed. Such establishments gain their name from the term “knave,” that is, any person who sells services to any paying client, as opposed to a spurn, who serves a retaining lord or master. When entering a region for the first time, a teratologist may register at the local knavery to make it known that he or she is about and going on the roll offering services. In doing this monster-hunters are agreeing not to shop their skills through other neighboring knaveries or their own advertisement, thus denying the knavery its commission.The knaving-clerk will take a request from a customer and offer a selection of monster-hunters they believe will solve the dilemma. Once the teratologist has been selected, he or she is approached with an Offer of Work, which may be accepted or rejected. Work is more steady for teratologists who use the knaving system, though they usually make less money for service rendered.

  L

  lackbrained empty-headed, slow-witted, not very bright or clever.

  Lady Dry-stick vulgar term for an uptight, unfriendly, upper-class woman.

  Lady Vey, The ~ see Vey, the Lady ~.

  laggard(s) leers specializing in the detection of hard to see things and things far off, getting greater use out of a sthenicon, which is made in part to enhance such senses, than a falseman.

  lahzar(s) said “luh’zahr”; the premium monster-hunter, gaining peculiar and deadly abilities through surgery. See entry in Book One.

  lale short afternoon break usually held at 4 P.M., where the lantern-watch ready themselves to depart, taking a small meal to help them on the road. The word is an antiquated rendering of “lull,” a time of quietude.

  lambrequin simple proofed cover-all armor, worn over the top of normal clothing, like a kind of heavy gaulded poncho.

  “Lamp East Winst(ermill) x West Well(nigh House) y” system for designating the placement of a great-lamp on a highroad, x and y being the number of lamps away from a cothouse or other fortification.

  lamplighter(s) pediteer responsible for the lighting and dousing of lamps along highroads, low-roads and any other roads in between. One of the benefits of experience is knowing just how many winds it takes for each lamp to be fully wound out, for not every great-lamp requires the same number of lift-and-drops to bring out the bloom. Upon joining as a prentice, a lighter is issued with the following items:

  ♣ 1 quabard, Imperial mottle

  ♣ 1 sash, twin-pattern, rouge blank and rouge and cadmia checks

  ♣ 1 fodicar, Scutid pattern

  ♣ 1 thrice-high, felt, black, with gaulded band

  ♣ 3 shirts, linen, white

  ♣ 3 longshanks, proofed, black

  ♣ 3 pair undergarments, white

  ♣ 3 pair trews or stockings

  ♣ 1 trencher, wooden

  ♣ 1 cup, tin

  ♣ 1 set turnery or cutlery

  ♣ 2 blankets, woolen

  ♣ 1 pillow, hay-stuffed

  ♣ 1 clasp-knife (for paring toe- and fingernails, cleaning fouled equipment)

  ♣ lug-pipe, pewter (used in the cleaning of firelocks)

  ♣ 1 ox trunk

  Of course, if fellows possess equivalent items of their own, then these are employed instead, and they may expand their equipment as they wish. At some cothouses each lighter is also issued with charges of repellents or blastes (such as bothersalts, Frazzard’s powder, salt-of-asper and the like) and given a little training in how to use them, thus acting as his own skold. Every second lighter is also issued a record: a small book in which the disrepair of a lamp can be recorded and left for the seltzermen to read and act upon. See entry in Book One and Appendix 7.

  Lamplighter-Marshal, the ~ his correct title is the Eighth Earl of the Baton Imperial of Fayelillian. Though he comes from a well-to-do family, an entire life spent in military service in close association with the common pediteer has meant the Marshal has picked up their less-than-couth manners. He is the kind of leader who shows by example and has fought several stouches in the front with his men, gaining himself their deep respect, several gruesome scars and no small number of cruorpunxis. The rank itself is the highest possible for a lamplighter, an Imperial commission that is usually only granted to peers—with the heroic Protogenës being a notable exception. In order for the Lamplighter-Marshal to succeed at his tasks he is heavily reliant on the cooperation and skill of the Comptroller-Master-General and with him the Master-of-Clerks to keep the more bureaucratical gears of the lighters’ world turning efficiently.

  Lamplighter-Sergeant Grindrod see Grindrod, Lamplighter-Sergeant.

  lamps collective noun for all lights, and particularly those that give light to streets and roads.

  “A lamp’s worth is proved by its color” also “a lamp’s weal (health) is proved by its color,” an old lamplighter truism meaning that someone’s moral value is proved by his or her actions, or “actions speak louder than words.” It comes from the idea that you can tell a seltzer lamp’s condition by the color of the light coming through the seltzer.

  lampsman 3rd class the lowest rank of a properly qualified lighter, being the rank prentices are promoted to once prenticing is done. See Appendix 6.

  lampsmen another name for lamplighters, meaning generally the non-officer ranks.

  lamp-watch also called the lantern-watch; the nightly duty of moving along a stretch of road to light the lamps and then spend many hours on watch in your bastion-house till early morn when you go out once more and put all the lamps out again. After this it’s a well-earned sleep during daylight hours.The term also refers to the folk involved in the performing of the lamp-watch.

  landgrave a rank of peer in the Lauslands, equivalent to somewhere between a duke and an earl of the Haacobin Empire; essentially the now hereditary rulers of their lands, the ranks formerly granted by a long-gone dynasty of kings when the Lauslands were once a part of Ing. Now they elect for themselves a valastin (chief elector) from among their own, who rules for a set period and is responsible for those troubles of state that require centralized governing. The Haacobins and the Sceptics before them have long coveted these fertile western lands of the landgraves and
have long waged war to get them. Yet they have never been able to prevail over their western neighbors.The soldiers on those failed campaigns have claimed that the monsters of those lands are actually working in the favor of the landgraves and their peoples; the ministers back in Clementine dismiss this as an excuse.

  landsaire also spelled landtseir, an organized group of lesquins of battalion strength or greater. Sometimes they include “legio” or “legion” in the names, after the Tutin armies of old.

  lantern-crook another name for a fodicar.

  lantern-span distance between great-lamps on a highroad, the agreed standard being 400 yards, though the lamps themselves can be anything from 200 to 600 yards apart, depending on where in the road they are situated.

  lantern-stick(s) mildly deprecating name for prentices given them by full-ranked lampsmen. It comes from the name for the lighter wooden practice-crooks that are sometimes employed to help young would-be lighters in winding a great-lamp’s mechanism. It is also an insulting nickname infrequently given to fodicars by nonlighters.

  lantern-watch another rendering of lamp-watch, used especially to refer to the period of duty itself rather than the group of lamplighters.

  lark-lamp also called a swadlimn, a 1:6 to 1:10 scale model of a great-lamp, used to instruct lamplighters on the workings of the lights used along the Emperor’s highroads. They are lights in their own right, fully functioning, with the bloom capable of being wound in and out of the seltzer. Unlike bright-limns, however, they do not suffer being tipped about, such action generally causing them to spill seltzer water and foul up the fine gears of their workings.

  laude assistant, voice and rod of the august of a calendar clave who knows all the comings and goings of the local area. It is to her and her assistants that all appeals, requests and visitors must come before being referred to the august for final arbitration. Highly capable and dangerous in her own right, a laude is the deliverer of all the censures and commendations of her august and clave.

  leakvane kind of tarbinaire, a potive composed of two parts that combine to make the required reaction. Leakvanes themselves are small elongated boxes of thin light wood, designed to break apart, divided into two wax-sealed halves between which is a heavy film of treated velvet that protrudes from the top of the box. When this tab is pulled the two potives kept separate in either half mix together, and after anywhere from a few seconds to a minute they will react with the desired effect. The best tarbinaires will have the expected time for reaction stamped on them, and it is recommended never to shake one, as this can cause an almost instantaneous effect while the device is still in your hand.

  ledgermain(s) person who has learned skolding from books and not from another skold. Ledgermains are considered grossly inferior to the genuine, once-prenticed article.

  ledgerstone stone carved with pretty words commemorating the life of some noteworthy individual. They are usually used as part of a floor or path, and sometimes are actually placed over the remains of the great personage.What is remarkable about this is that the body is typically laid right out rather than placed vertically or crouched in the fetal position. The latter is the common practice in cities not wanting to dispose of the beloved dead outside the city walls where monsters can dig the corpses up and corsers too, and where they need to conserve space in the tight confines of the city itself.

  leer(s) people who soak their eyes in remarkable concoctions to achieve extraordinary feats of sight. See entry in Book One.

  lentum shorthand for a post-lentum or any other covered and enclosed carriage of four wheels.

  lesquin(s) • (noun) honored mercenary regiments and brigades of the obdacar or freebooter (mercenary) class, wandering the lands or stationed in home cities waiting for the highest-paying master. They are special societies of soldiers with elaborate initiation ceremonies that emphasize loyalty to the particular landsaire (a lesquin legion). Much used in the squabbles between cities because they are a way—a loophole—around the stringent recruiting restrictions of the Accord of Menschen (where numbers within a state’s standing army are limited). The use of lesquins also allows a certain amount of immunity from accountability should it ever be required by the Emperor—“So sorry, your Imperial Highness, the lesquins got out of control and we were not able to stop them,” or that kind of thing. Lesquins dress as gaily as lahzars and calendars, though with differences that make them immediately recognizable, wearing such things as sammosh (big baggy hats) with guirlandes (enormous dyed feathers worn on the head), plunderhose (baggy pants tied off at the knee), exotic hide proofing such as crocidole (reptile skin), and favoring exotic weapons, especially combinades. Lesquin legions, or landsaires, originating from nonsignatory countries (Gottingenin,Wörms, the Lausid States and anywhere north of the Marrow and the Foullands) are preferred, though their numbers may still be stocked from Old World (meaning “Imperial”) populations.They will often charge their fee in accordance with their reputation. Still, less expensive landsaires have their uses—most notably affordability. The elite regiments are marked out with fancy mottle accoutrements: ospreys and other hackles, ailettes, and bonnets to rival a calendar’s dandicomb. Champions, known as machismards, are awarded harness and gear of exceptional manufacture, beyond regular issue, to recognize their prowess and encourage such ambition among brother fighters. Lesquins make excellent soldiers, rivaled only by a few standing armies or, more particularly, units within the same. Contests with such as these are fought bitterly to prove, of course, who is best. Ragtag bands of ill-trained, ill-equipped, ill-led and very cheap mercenary regiments are called foedermen, and are not considered worthy of the lesquin name. • (noun) card game commonly played by serious gamblers between a dealer (known as the colonel) and any number of wagerers. It is based on matching cards, and who holds what card determines whether the colonel or wagerers get the pot or ante. It takes its name from the soldiering lesquins, for some mistakenly believe it was invented by these sell-swords, but it is more likely that the lesquins are responsible not for its invention but for spreading it about the known world. They are certainly among its most frequent players.The prentices of Winstermill would be playing it to feel all manly and brave; the lighters on the Wormway would be playing it because all soldiers the lands over do.

  letter-fall that is the apt sequence, or “fall,” of the letters as they are in what we would call the alphabet; alphabetical order.

  liaphobe(s) see gretchen(s), gretchen-globe(s).

  libermane potive used to prevent the cruor of a monster from clotting too quickly as it is stored in a bruicle. Useful as this is, it also affects the quality of the blood, thinning it and making the cruorpunxis it is used for pale, less distinct.Therefore libermane is used only when a teratologist is more than a couple of days’ journey from a punctographist. Another function of libermane is its application on swords, knives and other blades of war to make a wound flow more than it ought, though by the Accord of Menschen this practice is deemed unacceptable in modern conflict.

  Lictor person in charge of punishment and discipline, the deliverer of the lash, the clapper of irons, the locker of stocks, pillories and durance doors; the tightener of the noose or the cords of a Catherine wheel. In more extreme regimes, the Lictor is also the chief torturer.

  lighter(s) shortened name for a lamplighter.

  limes short, universal morning interval designed purely to make certain pediteers get some citrus juice into them. After the discovery by Callio Catio (reputed—along with Asclipides and others—to be the founder of modern physics) of the prevention of scurvy and other nutrition-related diseases, military organizations the lands over have fastidiously ensured their men take their lime or lemon juice (Juice-of-Orange is a more recent advent, reserved for those who can afford it and not your ordinary foot slogger).

  limulight(s) small box-light whose source of effulgence is living bio-luminescent mosses and lichens. See moss-light.

  linen package wrapped parcel containing one’s u
nderclothes.

  liripipium hat with a peak that hangs down at the back in a “tail.”

  locum usually a physician in training or someone working as assistant to a physic with a view toward attending a physactery and gaining a full qualification.

  long-rifle smooth-bore musket with an extraordinarily long barrel to provide greater accuracy.The name is a misnomer, for the bore is not in fact “rifled,” but left smooth, though the great length of the barrel does make for very true shots.

  loomblaze powerful repellent that is also part fulminant. Because it both poisons and burns with false-fire, it is regarded as a very versatile agrise (violent potives; as opposed to palliates—helpful, healthful potives ; or obstrutes—most other potives), useful against both human and monster. The nature of its violence means its use is recommended only when deadly force is required.

  lordia mild restorative that is meant to balance the humours (see Four Humours, the ~ in Book One). Balancing the humours restores equilibrium to intellect and soul, pith and thew, calming the imbiber and setting agitations to ease. Its mild efficacy is matched only by its small expense; a cheap pick-me-up that has been said to be the cause of addiction in some.

  lorica also known as a corslet, a proof-steel back-and-breastplate, worn most by troubardiers and the few heavy equiteer regiments in the Half-Continent. Its front is fairly steeply peaked to allow shots from a firelock to more easily ricochet. It is a common practice to adhere lour or soe or villeny to the metal or to black it in order to eliminate or reduce shine.

  Lornstone, the ~ also known as the Heptafornix or “seven arches,” a bridge and causeway built as part of the great project to run a road through the Ichormeer. The causeway that runs east from it was built on the pattern of the Pettiwiggin and had been intended to carry the road all the way through the Frugelle. The attrition of economies and a lack of desire meant this ambition was soon abandoned after only a few miles of raised-road were completed. The first of many small failures that dogged the great work of the laying of the Conduit Vermis.