by Adam Browne
Royal Jelly: Mysterious waxy substance rarely produced by great bee queens that is said to have medicinal properties.
Sun Spider: Not a true spider, the sun spider, or solifugae, is a predatory arachnid that lives in dry desert conditions. It has long hairy legs, an armoured head and two vicious sets of pincer-like mouthparts. The abdomen is softer and Watchers know to attack the beasts there, not front-on.
Sting: Usually white-imperium, purified, measured and packaged for Howler use alone, but on the street can mean any imperium sealed in a glass phial for injection.
Taubfene: A potent painkiller derived from Everdor poppies; it is addictive and best used sparingly. Overdosing is an effective means of euthanasia sometimes employed to save a dying Howler the pain and indignity of slowly rotting.
The Teich: The sea to the east, separating Felicia and the Feline Continent from Lupa and Lupine Continent.
Territory: In the context of a pack, the entirety of their land over which they have dominion to apply taxes and by-laws which do not contravene any overriding Lupan Laws agreed at the Pack Summit.
THORN: The Hyena Organisation for the Recognition of Nationhood are what wolves would call a terrorist cell; they would call themselves freedom fighters.
Ulf: The old god of wolfkind, mostly forgotten but for expletives, though some still adhere to the old religion. Those who study history believe he is a semi-mythical figure, a beast who existed and did great things. They attribute Ulf’s supposed magical powers and impossible deeds to an early case of the rot. Other races tell similar stories, the rabbits believing in Briar, a trickster; the bears and hogs in the overarching Gaia, spirit of the whole world; whilst hyenas see the Erde, Sun, Wind and Sky as separate deities, and even revere bugs as lowly as dung beetles.
Valerio: One of the few wolfen families with ancient links to the Feline Continent. Traditionally red furred and graceful, it is thought they brought rapiers to the Lupine Continent, which the artful Bloodfangs adopted. Some say they are the original Bloodfangs, before the waters were muddied by interbreeding.
Valours: The cat equivalent of Howlers, almost unseen on the Lupan Continent, save in Queens Town.
Venom: In the context of imperium a slang term for the contents of a sting, usually meaning white-imperium, but can refer to the lesser blue and purple.
Wall Slums: The shanty towns clinging to the outside of Lupa like parasites. Beasts who are not true citizens gather here waiting for a chance to enter the city, either legitimately by interviews and work permits, or by paying smugglers to slip them through the gates and set them up with forged papers.
Watchers: Most packs have one Watcher District managed by a single Elder Watcher, though the Eisbrands have two, simply because they alone own two city gates. Watchers oversee all imports and exports of goods and beasts through the Lupan Wall. They are necessarily tough wolves, having to deal not only with ruthless smugglers and Wall Slum gangs, but the imperial centipedes that stalk the Ashfall. Den Fathers who started as Watchers are rare, though Thorvald Strom is one such wolf.
White-imperium: The rarest naturally occurring form of imperium known, it contains plentiful energy and has minor negative effects whilst residing in the bloodstream, provided one does not overdose. The initial rush of white-imperium entering the blood and combining with black-imperium and other contaminants can cause a release of energy, even going so far as to make a Howler’s corona briefly coil out of control.
Wolfkind: The race of wolves as a whole. Also Lupans, though this often refers to non-wolfen citizens of Lupa.
Yellow-imperium: Poisonous and unstable, yellow-imperium reacts and explodes even as you dig it up from the ground. Pure crystals form only in airless environments, such as bogs and river clays, but ores are plentiful. The Greystones alone have devised means of manipulating and even stabilising this most fickle state of imperium and thus process and sell it to the other packs in many forms, including powder for guns, shrapnel grenades and, most important of all, supplying the self-lighting tips for millions upon millions of embers.
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Cover artist:
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About the Author
Adam Browne lives and works with his partner in Kent, England. Besides writing, his other pursuits include natural history, human history, futurism, and blocky old video games.
