The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven)

by Powderly Jr. , K. G.

  unicorn and tricorn – Considered quasi-dragons, and to be domesticated, these creatures were used as heavy pack beasts and armored cavalry mounts; though many also remained in the wild. Their fossils are the ceratopsian dinosaurs, the unicorn being Monoclonius and the tricorn being Triceratops. The word unicorn is actually of more recent Roman origin (as is the word dragon, from the Saxon draugl). I used it in the story with poetic license.

  U’Sumi – A’Nu-Ahki’s middle son. The biblical Shem.

  Virgin, the – The constellation Virgo, which represents the woman who would bring forth the Promised Seed to deliver humanity from the Curse.

  Watchers – An order of what Jews and Christians would call angels. In terms of fallen angels, a synonym for the “sons of God” that rebelled before the Noahic Flood and married human women to produce corrupt offspring called giants or titans. These creatures are distinct from the original angelic rebels, though only in that they fell a little bit later (according to the Enoch Manuscripts) and were guilty of taking human women as their wives in some sense. The Bible gives no chronology of exactly when the angels fell or if they all fell at the same time or not. I do not claim that the Enoch accounts (which are not canonical Scripture) are necessarily accurate records. They seem to suggest that the pre-Flood world was a time of flux for those we would call angels. Some distortions in the texts seem pretty serious, though there is also some interesting history and legend there. Because of the apparent silence of the Bible on the exact chronology of angelic rebellion, I have gone with some of the more detailed “Enoch” version of these events in as much as they don’t contradict what the Scriptures do say on the subject.

  World-end – A term for two world-destroying cataclysms predicted, according to Josephus (95 AD), by Adam. It is the anglicized fictional root word for the Hebrew mabbul, which is a unique term used only for the global Noahic Flood in Scripture. Other normal floods of the Jordan and Nile that are mentioned in the Old Testament are a different Hebrew word. According to Josephus, Adam predicted that the world would be destroyed twice, once by water and another time through fire.

  wurm – Used in this story as a broad term for carnivorous dragons whose fossils are today categorized as the various therapod dinosaurs from gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex to relatively small Velociraptor. The word itself is ancient Anglo-Saxon in origin. (See recommended reading list.)

  wyverna – A form of bipedal horned or crested wurm, the larger of which are classified today as Gorgosaurus and the smaller as Dilophosaurus. Also derived from an early Saxon taxonomic term for a type of two-legged dragon, though fictionally, the reverse is supposed to be true.

  Y’Raddu – The biblical Irad of Cain’s line in Genesis 4 and his land.

  Zaqen and Zaqenar – The root term for the Hebrew zaken, which means elder. In this story, a zaqen is an elder with governmental authority in a clan. If one is of princely lineage, like A’Nu-Ahki, one becomes a “first tier” zaqen at the age of 350. At 400 one becomes a “second tier” zaqen and gains an additional tier of rank after that for every century they live. A 900-year-old man graduates to the seventh tier, though by that time whatever rank or achievement they have attained in their work has more meaning in terms of real authority. Nevertheless, any seventh tier zaqen is due much symbolic respect—so much so that the plural of the three uppermost tiers use the masculine majestic ar rather than the common im ending. The majestic plural became extinct (in the story) after the Deluge, when languages needed to be simplified after events that will be covered in book 5 of this series.

  THE PALADIN’S ODYSSEY | 367

  Also by K. G. Powderly Jr.

   Dawn Apocalypse Rising – Book 1 of The Windows of Heaven  A Broken Paradise – Book 3 of The Windows of Heaven  The Tides of Nemesis – Book 4 of The Windows of Heaven  Gate of the Gods – Book 5 of The Windows of Heaven (Coming soon)  One Faith – Many Transitions: Worldviews in Church History (Non-fiction)