enrica d’ama said “enn-ree-kah dar-mah” or “enn-ree-ka deh-arm-ah,” lady of the house; chatelaine, woman in charge of the running of a home, wayhouse, hostelry or even a palace, with authority over all the servants and even any guards; not necessarily the owner of the home, wayhouse, hostelry or palace.
equiteer said “eh-kwit-tear”; another name for a cavalryman. Horses are not used in great numbers outside of cities because monsters tend to find them the most tasty of the beasts of burden. Consequently the use of cavalry is limited. If one is to move a squadron of equiteers about the country, one has to be prepared to defend them against curiously hungry monsters thinking with their bellies.
equiteer boots footwear typically worn by equiteers, made of bright-black leather and reaching to the knees. At the top of the boot, coming from the outer side, is a flaring panel of proofed leather called a shin-collar. This protects the knee, especially when bent as the equiteer sits in the saddle. Equiteer boots also have raised heels anywhere from 1 inch to 2½ inches high, which hook on to the stirrup and so provide a better seat in the saddle.
ettin among the largest of the land-living monsters, looking like enormous deformed men (as much as fifty feet tall); strong of limb but not hard to hurt or even slay despite their size. They are not very bright; indeed, many are quite simple to outwit.When they are in a rage, however, they can do great harm, and gangs of them marauding for food in the winter months can be terrible.
Europe, Miss ~ experienced and well-known fulgar, who encountered lahzars in her childhood and was instantly fascinated. This fascination turned to obsession and she ran away from home, traveling secretly to Sinster to be transmogrified by the best surgeon available. Since then she has been all over the world, conquering monsters and men’s hearts wherever she lands. As Rossamünd noticed, the inside of her forearms are lined with tiny X’s, cruorpunxis showing her many-score kills. They are dainty little marks, showing Europe’s distaste for the vulgar, leering faces that are by far more common, their “prettiness” belying the violence and mayhem done to earn them. See fulgar, lahzar, the Branden Rose.
evander, evander water restorative draft that fortifies the body’s capacity to fight disease, infection or poisoning while also giving a lift in spirits.
everymen everyday people; not monsters, which are called üntermen. This includes skolds, sagaars, leers but excludes those who have tampered with their biology in any way, that is lahzars, who are known as ubelmen.
excise master, excise sergeant those working to collect the tolls and taxes lawfully demanded by their lord. See revenue officers.
explicarium spurious list of invented or obscure words drafted to apparently make some fabulous, fabricated tale more palatable.
F
factotum personal servant and clerk of a peer or other person of rank or circumstance. Lahzars have taken to employing a factotum to take care of the boring day-to-day trifles: picking up contracts, collecting fees for services rendered, looking to food and accommodation, writing correspondence, heavy lifting and even making their drafts. When on the road and looking for a place to kip for the night, a master/mistress and his or her factotum may find that restrictions of accommodation or finances mean that only one gets a room (and, consequently, a bed). The factotum must make do, and will usually share floor and bench space with other servants next to a kitchen or common room stove. Such arrangements are typical for most servants.
false-gods mighty monsters standing several hundred feet high who appear only every thousand years or more and are meant to live deep, deep down at the bottom of the vinegar seas. They are reputed to be able to control people’s minds, and each one has secret septs and cabals among everymen, who worship and revere them and seek with ancient sciences to raise them up from the deeps. The Emperor and his regents have special agents whose sole task is to root out and destroy these septs and cabals, for whenever a false-god has risen from the depths it has meant doom for civilization, and history has taught that only the urchins and their kind can drive them back into the sea . . . and it has been a long time since anyone had anything to do with an urchin.
falseman, falsemen also called liedermen; leers who can tell a person’s true emotional state, and so, most usefully, can determine whether or not that person is being truthful. The washes they use to change their eyes make the whites turn bloody red and the irises go a bright pale blue. See leer.
family name also famillinom; the name of your sires that you are born into, the name of your whole family. Among peers this is the most important name, for it declares one’s pedigree. “Bookchild” is often given to orphans and foundlings as a kind of surrogate family name, but really it is a forename.
Farmer Rabbitt happy tiller of the soil and herder of cows who has a smallholding on the edge of the Brindleshaw folklands (land set aside for common use) near Silvernook. He often goes into that town to trade and resupply his rather remote farm. His wife, Judy, is even merrier than he, and they make a jolly couple indeed.
Faustus the red-star and actually a distant planet that nightly moves through the constellation of Vespasio and follows green Maudlin across the sky—who, as legend has it, is his lover—forever chasing and never catching. Faustus is regarded as the Signal Star of frustrated or jilted lovers and of lost causes.
Felicitine, Madam ~ one of the region’s minor gentry, and wife to Mister Billetus, proprietor of the Harefoot Dig. She married young and below her station, and is well aware of it. Painfully alert to the commonness of her surroundings, she works hard against Billetus’ more relaxed attitude to keep the tone of the Dig one befitting a lady. She seldom enters the common room, allowing it to remain as a concession to “Mister Bill’s worldly ways.” Despite all this snobbery and friction, and after over twenty years of marriage, she and Mister Billetus are still very much in love.
fiasco small case or box or compartmented bag in which a woman might keep her cosmetic unctions, beautifying creams and other such applications; sometimes also called a clutch bag.
Fiel, Fiele said “feel” or “fee-ell”; a land so far over the oceans from the Half-Continent it is considered a myth. The few reports that exist of it say it is filled with even more fabulous and terrifying creatures than dwell in the Half-Continent.
firelock any flintlock small arm, such as a musket or pistol. See flintlock musket and flintlock pistol.
first name the very first name a person is given, nominated at birth, the name by which a person is most commonly known and called.
flintlock musket or just musket or firelock; a long-barreled muzzle-loading firearm that fires a round bullet of lead about ¾ inch in diameter called a ball.You can hit what you are aiming at with a musket as long as it is no more than 150 yards from you, though the ball will still travel with ever-diminishing force for about 600 yards. After every shot the musket must be reloaded. The flintlock mechanism that makes this and other such weapons work is a hammer held by a spring, holding a piece of flint. When the hammer is released by pulling the trigger, it flies forward and the flint strikes an upright piece of steel known as the frizzen, which is thrown back, exposing the pan full of fine-grained priming powder beneath it. The flint causes sparks to fly off the steel frizzen and into the pan, catching the powder alight and sending the flash through a small hole in the side of the barrel called a touchhole. This flash ignites the gunpowder packed in the barrel itself, which blasts out the ball. When a flintlock is fired, there is a distinctive two-part flash as first the pan flares and then the barrel itself. The very quick have a chance to dodge the shot when they first see the flash in the pan. If the tales are to be believed, some monsters have also realized this.
flintlock pistol a small arm with the same flintlock mechanism as the flintlock musket; often lavishly crafted, with the butt of the handle typically formed into a club so that, after the weapon has been fired, it can be gripped by the barrel (reinforced for such use) and swung about like a truncheon. An innovation for both the pistol and th
e musket has been the “skold-shot”: a ball treated in certain deadly scripts that make them far more harmful to a monster than a normal bullet, which rarely does any real or permanent harm. The only problem with skold-shot is that its chemicals slowly react with the inside of the weapon’s barrel, wearing it out far more quickly than conventional ammunition. This increases the chance of the weapon bursting, or blowing a hole in its side just when you least expect.The pistoleer is a type of adventurer who specializes in using flintlock pistols; these are dashing fellows with a taste for glamour and high excitement. Armed with skold-shot, they even have some effect as monster-hunters, although they have to earn well, as they need frequently to buy new pistols, worth about twenty-one sequins each.
florin coin money; a 10 guise piece or ½ sequin. fo’c’sle or forecastle; forwardmost section of the upper deck of a ram, between the foremast and the bow. Given that the decks of a ram are flush (that is, flat), the correct term for this part of the vessel is the forward deck. In the vernacular of the vinegaroon, however, the old term remains.
folding money bills of paper obtained from a bank or local ruler, where the equivalent value is purchased in coin and written upon the bill; lighter and more convenient than coins, they are also a whole lot more fragile.
forename name a person takes on or is given or granted in later life. Nobility and the pretentious will give their children a forename as well as a first name when they are born, to show how special and important they are.
foundling(s) also wastrel; stray people, usually children, found without a home or shelter on the streets of cities or even, amazingly, wandering exposed in the wilds. The usual destinations for such foundling children are workhouses, mills or the mines, although a fortunate few may find their way to a foundlingery. Such a place can care for a small number of foundlings and wastrels, fitting them for a more productive life and sparing them the agonies of hard labor.
Fouracres hardy Imperial postman who has been on many adventures while delivering the mail and survived many an encounter with a monster. Sometimes called Fourfields, as a play on the word “acres,” he has also given the name “Quarterfields” as an alias when this has been necessary. Fouracres has worked in the Empire’s service as an ambler (a walking postman) for sixteen years. See Imperial Post Office.
Four Humours, the ~ these are considered the basic parts of a properly functioning pith (metabolism). Each is also paired with a season of the year and corresponds to the other four-part systems of understanding the universe. There is blood, of course, also called sange and represented by the letter A and paired with summer; then phlegm, represented by the letter W and paired with winter; followed by yellow bile, also called choler and represented by the letter M and paired with spring; and finally black bile, also called melanchole, represented by the letter O and paired with autumn.
Four Spheres, the ~ the first and innermost sphere is a person’s soul, his or her internal being. The second sphere is a person’s body. The third sphere is the world. The fourth sphere is the cosmos. Teaching on the Four Spheres also coincides with the Four Humours and the elements as shown in the Körnchenflecter:♦ soul = phlegm = water (W)
♦ body = melanchole (black bile) = earth (O)
♦ the world = choler (yellow bile) = air (M)
♦ the cosmos = sange (blood) = fire (A).
Skolds learn these along with all the other four-parts, so as to gain insight into the functioning of the systems about them and how to interact and alter them through their chemistry.
Fox Hole, the ~ also Voxholte, Hergott for “foxhole,” said “vokshalt”; elegant and refined hostelry in High Vesting famous for its height (seven floors!) and the size and opulence of its rooms. The exceedingly wealthy or famous like to stay there.
Fransitart, Dormitory Master ~ born of unknown parents, Fransitart lived with his little brother as a wastrel on the streets of Ives. The day after his brother died in his arms, Fransitart was hunted and taken by a press-gang, and put aboard the main-ram Adroit as a ship’s boy. There he met Craumpalin, who defended and befriended him, and they have remained true friends and brothers-in-arms since. How it is that Fransitart and Craumpalin have come to be serving in a state entirely different from the ones in which they were born is a story entirely all its own. Fransitart’s affection for Rossamünd has a lot to do with his grief over his younger brother.
Freckle glamgorn bogle; small, tough and friendly-seeming.
Frestonia a small collection of Soutland states, the chief among these being the city-state of Frestony. They have formed their loose confederation in answer to the rising power of the inland states of Castoria, Pollux, Maine, Axis, Isidore and Haquetaine.
frigate smallest of the dedicated fighting rams and the middle of the three rates of cruisers, usually of twenty or twenty-four guns-broad , with only gun-drudges being smaller. Nimble and fast, they are considered the “eyes of the fleet,” running messages and performing reconnaissance. Despite being the smallest rams, the largest frigate can be almost as long as a drag-mauler. These oversized frigates are called heavy-frigates, having up to thirty-two guns on one broadside.They are popular among pirates and privateers. See Appendix 6.
frock coat coat normally worn by men, with a long hem reaching the knees and often flaring out jauntily. With more and more women seeking adventure, it has become fashionable for them to wear frock coats too, often more gorgeously decorated and trimmed, the hems flaring even more extravagantly than the male version. Frock coats for either sex are almost always proofed.
fulgar(s) said “fool-garr,” also astrapecrith (“lightning-holder”); a lahzar whose surgically inserted organs (known as the systemis astraphecum) allow him or her to make, store and release immense charges of electricity. Fulgars have several tricks up their sleeves, which together are known as eclatics. These include:♦ arcing—the most basic skill: simply generating a charge of electricity and releasing it by touching the target. Indeed, a fulgar has to make physical contact to have any effect, for the electricity must be earthed to do its work.
♦ resisting—which can be used in combination with arcing, where a fulgar makes little charges between thumb and forefinger, or hand on thigh, or hand to hand, storing the arcs for a bigger “zap.” In this way the fulgar’s whole body can become charged with electricity, and anyone grabbing it would get the full force of the shock.
♦ impelling—a bizarre potency that requires experience and talent to master, whereby fulgars take hold of people and make them move or not move as the fulgar sees fit. It is done by subtle manipulations of a continuous charge running through the victim and requires a lot of energy to perform. The best results are achieved when the fulgar has a firm grip on his or her foe.
♦ thermistoring—another potency requiring skill and wisdom, it involves bringing lightning bolts down from the sky. This is the only potency that does not need touch to have effect, for the fulgar acts as a channel for the bolt, directing its blast to targets even one hundred yards away. The better a fulgar gets at thermistoring, the greater control he or she has over the bolt’s final direction. Along with this is also a little trick called terading or “grounding,” where they let some of the charge of the lightning earth itself through one arm while letting the rest of the charge out or storing it in the organs. Grounding greatly reduces the chance of a thermistoring fulgar being blown asunder by the bolt.
♦ vacillating—a nifty little eclatic whereby fulgars send a mild arc through themselves to protect from the potencies of a wit. It is a variation on resisting but without storing the charge. The harder a wit tries, the stronger the fulgar needs to make the arc. Vacillating also helps fend off some of the terrors of threwd, although its efficacy is limited and diminishes as threwd becomes stronger.
Fulgars get their name from the artificial organ known as the Column of Fulgis, a jellylike muscle that produces the electrical charges they wield. Most fulgars mark themselves with the spoor of a diamond, which is the universally reco
gnized sign of their kind. See fuse and related topics, lahzar and thermistoring.
fulgaris said “fool-ger-riss”; two poles of differing lengths used by fulgars to extend their reach and give a thermistor control over bolts of lightning. The longer pole is the fuse, the shorter being the stage. Both fulgaris are wound tightly with copper or iron fulgurite wire and capped at each end with ferrules of the same metals.
Fundarum non Obliviscum motto of Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, writ large across the top of the main entrance; a Tutin phrase which means “found [but] not forgotten.” Very touching.
fuse six- to twelve-foot pole of cane or wand-wood, tightly coiled along its entire length with copper wire and capped with copper, brass or iron fulgurite; the longer of the two fulgaris, the shorter being called the stage. A fuse extends the reach of fulgars, allowing them to deliver their deadly jolts while staying out of reach themselves. The second, and more bizarre, use for them is an aid in thermistoring—the calling down of lightning bolts from on high. This can normally be done only on overcast days, as clear weather does not provide the necessary conditions for the generation of lightning. The fulgar sets an arc in the fuse to “call down a bolt from the gray,” that is, to encourage a lightning strike. When the bolt hits, it travels down the fuse and into the fulgar and is either stored within (but only very temporarily, for risk of bursting asunder) or redirected through the hand or the stage, which gives greater control in determining the final direction of the levin-bolt. Fulgars who thermistor often do it at great risk to themselves, and are often called thermistors or thunderers. See fulgar, fulgaris, lahzar, stage, thermistor.
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