by D M Cornish
R
Red Scarfe rural center considered a part of Sulk End, though many of its inhabitants have family and associates in the Idlewild and so consider themselves as being part of the westernmost end of the Idlewild. It gets its name from the red bricks that were originally used to make its encircling, sloping walls (a scarfe or scarp).
revenant simply a more formal, educated rendering of rever-man.
rever-man “zombielike” gudgeon, and the most human-looking of the same. See entry in Book One.
Right of the Pacific Dove, the ~ calendar clave found in the historied fastness of Herbroulesse, led by Syntychë, the Lady Vey. The clave-members are usually called columbines, from the Tutin word “columbarium,” meaning “dovecote.” Originally dwelling in Brandenbrass, the Right—as it is called by its own—was founded over three hundred years earlier in the time of the Sceptic Dynasty. After too many rivalries with local lords, as well as with another, better connected clave, they had their charter to exist in that city revoked. Acquiescing meekly, the Right moved to remoter lands, finding Herbroulesse, where it has endured ever since. Their motto is “Semper Fidelis”—“always faithful.”
rimple a curious-looking hairy-leather purse made from the entire skin of a small rodent, shaved, with a drawstring at the neck hole, and the skin of one limb sewn back on itself as a loop to fix on to a belt. Actually looking like some bloated rat, a rimple is all the fashion as a coin-bag among the wayfaring classes.
Roughmarch, the ~ the combination of two deep gorges cutting through the southern tip of the Tumblesloe Heap, worn down into the rock and earth by the action of two ancient, now-dry waterways: one running roughly west, the other east.
Roughmarch Road, the ~ road that runs through the Roughmarch gorge, running along the serpentine wendings of the dry streambeds. The middle part of the road is straightest where Imperial peoneers and road-builders blasted and cut the small spur of rock that separated the two original gorges to allow the road to continue through. The threwd is never far gone from this place, and the thorny plants that grow along its edges are in need of constant pruning and lopping. Fatigue parties are sent out at least every two months to do this, thus preventing a monster from having a place whence to ambush passing traffic.
rouse-master one in change of a rousing pit. See hob-rousing.
rousing-pit(s) holes in the ground with stalls or stands or make-shift seats about and in which gudgeons and bogles are set to fight to the death while the spectators above wager on the outcome. Such pits are usually situated well away from prying authorities and common paths, kept hidden and secret to all but to those initiated into the local rousing brotherhood.
ruttle to clear the throat; the sound of mucus in the windpipes.
S
sabine expensive weave of soft wools from the small kingdom of the same name, found beyond the northern shores of the Sinus Tintinabuline. It would be held as mythic by southern folk but for the existence of its exquisite wools, and there are many imitators of their product, some so good only a connoisseur can tell the difference.
sagaar(s) the combatant teratologist dancers who use their nimbleness, the prescribed movements of their chosen “dance,” and therimoirs to defeat the nickers and the bogles. See entry in Book One.
salinumbus meaning “salt-shaker” and also called a salt-gun; a straight-handled pistol made to fire special potives designed for the purpose. The inside of its barrel is treated with coatings to reduce the corrosive damage done by the chemistry of its shots.
Sallowstall a cothouse on the Wormway situated in a small dell, by a ford-crossing on the Mirthlbrook. Sallowstall is thickly surrounded by a small wood of maples and ancient willows, and gains its name from the thicket of willows—sallows being the local name for willows—that grow about it and along the banks of the Mirthlbrook on which it is built. It is actually a cot-rent, with a few extra, cramped rooms where non-lampsmen can stay for modest board.
salpert(s) small, fragile sacks of cloth that hold potives, especially those that need to burst when they are thrown and hit something. A fair amount of care must be taken when handling them, and the recommended method for carting them is inside some kind of padded box such as a stoup or digital.
salt-bag(s) simple name for a salumanticum, and so called because it is designed to hold the parts or “salts” of a skold or other habilist or - parts-dealer.
salt-horse a useless person, taken from the idea of a horse that is so old it is no longer good for anything but being turned into dried, heavily salted meat.
salumanticum (Tutin, meaning “salt-bag”) also known as a salt-bag, usually a satchel with various pockets, flaps and slots for holding potives in all their varied forms. The arrangement of a salumanticum should facilitate easy access to the right chemical at the right time, and skolds will know and recall the inside of their salt-bags better than their own birthdays.
Scale of Might, the ~ originally an anecdotal reckoning of the number of everymen it takes to best an ünterman, it has since been extensively codified by Imperial Statisticians, but simply put it is deemed possible for three ordinary men armed in the ordinary manner to see off one garden-variety bogle, and for about five to handle your more common nicker. Add potives or teratologists to the group and this number fluctuates significantly—depending on the quality of potive or skill and type of monster-slayer.
scarlet-powder what we would think of as washing detergent, bright red flakes of crystalline surfactant that lose their color as they form suds in water. Seeing them for the first time you might expect the water in which they are placed to turn red too, but it remains clear.
scourge(s) skold who specializes in the use of the most potent scripts known. See entry in Book One.
scratch-bob short, powdered wig with dainty curls at the sides and a short tail of hair hanging at the back. Usually referring to those of cheap manufacture, but a common term for all such items of apparel.
script(s) potives or the “recipes” for their making. See entry in Book One.
scrubber(s) very large tubs made from the halves of old brewing butts and used as washing basins to clean dishes or clothes or any other thing that needs a lot of room for a good scrubbing.
Sebastipole, Mister Lamplighter’s Agent of Winstermill and telltale to the Lamplighter-Marshal. See entry in Book One.
sectifactor(s) transmogrifying surgeons; that is, those people who conduct the surgeries that make a person into a lahzar.
sectithere said “sek’tih’theer,” kind of therimoir; knives made by a profoundly ancient method, used for the effective cutting of monsters, who are otherwise hard to harm with more mundane blades. They were once the standard weapon of the heldins—the mighty folk of renown from obscure history—and the weapons of these near-mythical folk are prized relics today, as the quality of manufacture cannot even be approached currently. In more recent times sectitheres are the tools of sagaars and therlanes (“monster-butchers” from the Tutin “therilanius”) and some punctographists. They are very hard to make, which means they are prohibitively expensive, and as such, very uncommon. The best kind, of course, are the relics. Some sectitheres come in the form of scissors. The blades are made of spiegeleisen (also vitrine or festverglas): a highly refined, almost glasslike ceramic containing powerful mordants, expungeants and pestilents such as gringollsis. This is applied over metal, or allowed to soak into wood which is then fired many times till it is tempered-steel hard. Different woods give different results: the best woods for the strongest, most potent blades are made from now near-mythical almugwood or exceptionally rare black elder. Wood so treated is known as glanzend (Gott for “gift-glass”) or giftwood.
Secunda Loca the “bottom half ” of the Haacobin Empire, encompassing the lands south-southwest of Tuscanin and Catalain, down to and including the Lent, reaching west as far as the Patter Moil and east to the shores of the Ichormeer. The “top half ” is the Prester Regnum, and includes the Seat and the Verid Litus.
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nbsp; seigh the local Sulk and Idlewild name for the more fortified high-houses built in wilder places.
Sellry, wine-of ~ constituent of Craumpalin’s Exstinker, a fairly common decoction made from the juices of several common plants that, when put together, have the qualities required by a wide variety of fluid potives. Mildly poisonous, it is most frequently used as a base for repellents, though it is seldom seen in nullodors.
seltzer, seltzer water salts-infused “waters” used to cause bloom to give off light. Depending on the origin of the very first bloom from which your stock was raised, the constituency of your seltzer will need to vary to allow for the different marine environments from which each kind of bloom was once retrieved. This knowledge tends to be possessed only by seltzermen, the suppliers of bright-limns, and some skolds, who can tell what breed of bloom they might have before them and what mix of seltzer to nourish it in. Generally the composition of seltzer water is:
22 parts brine
5 parts chordic vinegar
3 parts wine-dilute penthil salts
2 parts spirit-of-cadmia
1 1/2 parts bluesalts
Some seltzermen might also include varying parts of ethulate, of which there are different varieties for the particular breeds of bloom.
seltzer lamp larger version of a seltzer lantern, though the terms are interchangeable.
seltzer lantern any lamp that uses bloom-and-seltzer to give light, but most particularly a portable light of larger size than a bright-limn.
seltzerman, seltzermen tradesman responsible for the maintenance of all types of limulights. Their main role is to make and change the seltzer water used in the same. Among lamplighters, seltzermen have the duty of going out in the day to any lamp reported by the lantern-watch (in ledgers set aside for the purpose) as needing attention and performing the necessary repair.This can be anything from adding new seltzer, to adding new bloom, to replacing a broken pane or replacing the whole lantern-bell. See seltzer, seltzer water.
Senior Service the navy—a name it gives itself; see entry in Book One.
senior-sister the name clave members use among themselves to refer to their august, being the highest active “rank” among them. Carlins are the revered “retirees” who often no longer actively serve but live lives of quiet contemplation or—if they are peeresses—return to the glamour of their former lives as wise old dames.
Sequecious pronounced “seh’kwee’shuss”; enormous, easygoing and almost unquenchably jovial, he is a native of the independent realm of Sebastian, a direct western neighbor of the Seat, the heartland of the Empire. A war over the fertile lands of the downs of the Agrigentum and the plateau of the Stipula has been waxing and waning between Sebastian and the Haacobins (and the Sceptics before them) for centuries. Sequecious was a camp cook for an eminent Sebastian officer and was captured when the baggage train of that officer’s regiment was am-bushed and ransacked by Imperial ambuscadiers. Spending time first in a war prison, he was processed and sent out to serve as a soldier-slave—as with so many of the Haacobins’ prisoners of war—on the Empire’s more southerly borders, despite his size. This found him as the cook for the lighters of Wormstool, as remote a post as you could want for. The good dealings he has in the hands of the lighters give him hope for a better life as a citizen of the Empire, as does the promise of actual pay he is due should he become a native of the Haacobin domains.
sequestury, sequesturies places of quiet and contemplation well within the protecting walls of a calanserie, originally established to provide well-to-do women with a refuge to which to retreat from undue attention or unpeaceful lives. Accommodated in their own apartments, these anchoresses (hermit women) are granted the rights of their degree and live in familiar worldly comfort. They are the great benefactresses of the calendars the world over and with their support sequesturies are able to take in battered wives, destitute widows, good-day gala-girls and other ladies of poor repute fleeing their handlers and seeking a better life. They also seek social justice for women as a sex in general.
sergeant(s) second highest rank of non-commissioned officer, below master but above under-sergeant, involved in the training, evolving and supervision of the lives of their charges. A good sergeant will play “mother” to a lieutenant’s or captain’s “father”, tending to the welfare of his subordinates.
sergeant-lighter alternative to Lamplighter-Sergeant, a slightly less formal way of addressing one of that rank and normally allowed only to those of equal or higher rank.
shabraque(s) proofed coverings for horses, commonly made of panels of buff (gauld-leather), fixed together by rivets or points (reinforced ties) or both, flexible yet solid. Every time a horse goes out with its shabraque, the proofing is smeared or splashed with a nullodor, either deadening the horsy odor or transmuting it to smell like some other less tasty creature. Over all this may be hung a couvrette, a colorful, sturdy blanket in your chosen mottle and even marked with sigils, a purely decorative feature and the kind of excess insisted upon only by the conspicuously wealthy.
♣ chaffe or equiperson: a mask covering poll, forelock and forehead, down to the nostril and over the cheeks with holes for the eyes. Not often used, as it limits a horse’s vision.
♣ crinarde: covers mane, neck and often hangs over the points of the shoulders as well.
♣ petraille: covers withers, shoulder, chest and foreparts of ribs down to the knee.
♣ crouppere: covers back, loin, flank, croup, thigh and buttock, down to the hock, and typically leaving the tail free.
sheer crane or winch used to lift loads up and lower them down.
showing away boasting or showing off.
siccustrumn any script used to staunch a flow of blood from a wound. This is achieved by pastes, fast-setting liquids and powders. The better siccustrumn will not only stop a flow quickly, but will act like sutures and keep the wound from opening and bleeding again. Best results are achieved by a siccustrumn combined with bandages.
signifer(s) the distinct parts of a scent or other trail that aid leers or lurksmen in their work. One of the more remarkable applications of a signifer is a group of potives known as anavoids, which leers use to mark someone or something they want to trail, following the distinct scent wherever it may lead.The best anavoids will last for weeks even in water and are hard to detect by fellow leers and other “box-wearers,” seeming more like a natural smell to all but the person who used it. It has been known for talented and well set-up leers to follow an anavoided trail even over waters from one harbor to another.
sillabub honey-sweetened milk mixed with either strong wine or, in a Skyldic twist, with vinegar—a taste for the dead of mouth and strong of stomach.
Silvernook miners’ town on the northern edge of the Brindleshaws. See entry in Book One.
Sinster the best place to go to be made into a lahzar. See entry in Book One.
Sinus Tintinabuline called the Sin Tin for short, and meaning the Bay of Bells, it is the great body of water to the northeast of the Half-Continent, its western shores home to the ports of the Turkemen, its east coast hiding the pirate-kings of the Brigandine States. The Sin Tin gets its name from the many, many buoys and markers with their warning-bells that have been moored by the myriad of submerged hazards for as long as history records. These buoys are freely maintained by all who use the waters of the Bay; even the pirate-kings play ruses with them only very occasionally, otherwise doing their part to tend the ancient warning system.
sis edisserum Tutin term, loosely meaning “please explain,” this is an order from a superior (usually the Emperor) to appear before him and a panel of peers forthwith, to offer reasons, excuses, evidence, testimony and whatever else might be required to elucidate upon whatever demands clarity. A sis edisserum is normally seen as a portent of Imperial ire, a sign that the person or people so summoned are in it deep and must work hard to restore the Emperor’s confidence. A sis edisserum is a “black mark” against your name, and very troublesome
to remove.
Skillions, the ~ south-eastern corner of the Low Gutter in the fortress of Winstermill. It gains its somewhat derogatory name from the many small, wood-built single-story sheds, warehouses and work-stalls found there. These are a recent addition to this part of the Gutter, previously being the site of a stately old building designated for multiple uses, including the growing of bloom and the making and storing of all lanterns. This reputedly burned down in mysterious circumstances two generations ago, outside of any current occupant’s memory.
skilly gruel or broth made from scrap meat and leftovers from the previous evening’s mains.
skittle-alley what we would think of as a “fun-parlor,” where folks pay to play at skittles (obviously), hoop-a-ring, bowlers (essentially carpet bowls) and pegstops (a game that involves using batons known as pegs to knock your opponent’s pegs down and get a ball into their “goal”). The best skittle-alleys also possess billiard tables.
skolding practices and arts of a skold; to work as a skold or to go out hunting monsters with potives. See skold(s) in Book One.
skold-shot leaden balls fired from either musket or pistol, and treated with various concoctions of powerful venificants known as gringollsis, particularly devised for the destruction of monsters. These potives are corrosive, damaging the barrels of the firelocks from which they are fired and eating gradually, yet steadily, away at the metal of the ball itself. Left long enough, a skold-shot ball will dissolve completely away. Very effective against most nickers and bogles, some of the best gringollsis actually poison a monster to the degree that it becomes vulnerable to more mundane weapons.
Skyldic coming from or of the Skylds. In modern parlance it is used in reference to the people of Wörms or Frissia.
