by David Weber
Rhobair, Vicar—see also Rhobair Duchairn.
Ropewalk, Colonel Ahdam, Charisian Royal Guard—CO, Charisian Royal Guard.
Rowyn, Captain Horahs—CO, Sir Dustyn Olyvyr's yacht Ahnyet.
Rustmyn, Edymynd—Baron Stonekeep; King Gorjah III of Tarot's first councillor and spymaster.
Sahdlyr, Lieutenant Bynzhamyn, Royal Charisian Navy—second lieutenant, HMS Dreadnought.
Sandyrs, Mahrak—Baron Green Mountain; Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm's first minister.
Seafarmer, Sir Rhyzhard—Baron Wave Thunder's senior investigator.
Seamount, Baron—see Sir Ahlfryd Hyndryk.
Seatown, Captain Wahltayr—CO of merchant ship Fraynceen, acting as a courier for Prince Hektor's spies in Charis. See also Lieutenant Fraizher Maythis.
Shandyr, Hahl—Baron of Shandyr, Prince Nahrmahn of Emerald's spymaster.
Sharpfield, Earl—see Sir Lewk Cohlmyn.
Shumakyr, Father Symyn—Archbishop Erayk Dynnys' secretary for his 891 pastoral visit; an agent of the Grand Inquisitor.
Smolth, Zhan—star pitcher for the Tellesberg Krakens.
Somerset, Captain Martin Luther, TFN—CO, TFNS Excalibur.
Staynair, Bishop Maikel—Bishop of Tellesberg; King Haarahld VII's confessor and adviser.
Staynair, Commodore Sir Domynyk, Royal Charisian Navy—specialist in naval tactics; CO Experimental Squadron; Crown Prince Cayleb's second-in-command; younger brother of Bishop Maikel Staynair; later admiral.
Stohnar, Lord Protector Greyghor—elected ruler of the Siddarmark Republic.
Stonekeep, Baron—see Edymynd Rustmyn.
Stywyrt, Captain Dahryl, Royal Charisian Navy—CO HMS Typhoon.
Symmyns, Tohmas—Grand Duke of Zebediah, senior member and head of Council of Zebediah.
Tallmyn, Captain Gervays, Emerald Navy—second-in-command of the Royal Dockyard in Tranjyr.
Tanlyr Keep, Baron—see Donyrt Qwentyn.
Tayt, Queen Sharleyan—Queen of Chisholm.
Thiessen, Captain Joseph, TFN—Admiral Pei Kau-zhi's chief of staff.
Thirsk, Earl—see Lywys Gardynyr.
Tohmys, Frahnklyn—Crown Prince Cayleb's tutor.
Tillyer, Lieutenant Henrai, Royal Charisian Navy—High Admiral Lock Island's personal aide.
Tirian, Duke—see Kahlvyn Ahrmahk.
Trynair, Vicar Zahmsyn—Chancellor of the Council of Vicars of the Church of God Awaiting; one of the so-called Group of Four.
Tryvythyn, Captain Sir Dynzyl, Royal Charisian Navy—CO, HMS Royal Charis.
Tyrn, Archbishop Lyam—Archbishop of Emerald.
Urvyn, Archbishop—see Urvyn Myllyr.
Wave Thunder, Baron—see Bynzhamyn Raice.
Whaite, Captain Styvyn—CO, merchantship Sea Cloud, a courier for Prince Hektor's spies in Charis. See also Robyrt Bradlai.
White Castle, Baron—see Tohmys Bahrmyn.
White Ford, Baron—see Gahvyn Mahrtyn.
Wyllym, Archbishop—see Wyllym Rayno.
Wyllyms, Marhys—the Duke of Tirian's majordomo.
Wylsynn, Father Paityr—a priest of the Order of Schueler, the Church of God Awaiting's intendant for Charis.
Wynstyn, Lieutenant Kynyth, Corisandian Navy—first lieutenant galley Corisande.
Yowance, Ehrnaist—Rayjhis Yowance's deceased elder brother.
Yowance, Rayjhis—Earl of Gray Harbor, King Haarahld's first minister and head of the Privy Council.
Zebediah, Grand Duke—see Tohmas Symmyns.
Zahmsyn, Archbishop Halmyn—Archbishop of Gorath; senior prelate of the Kingdom of Dohlar.
Zahmsyn, Vicar—see Zahmsyn Trynair.
Zhansan, Frahnk—the Duke of Tirian's senior guardsman.
Zhaspyr, Vicar—see Zahmsyn Clyntahn.
Zhasyn, Archbishop—see Zhasyn Cahnyr.
Zheppsyn, Captain Nyklas, Emerald Navy—CO, galley Triton.
Zhessyp, Lachlyn—King Haarahld VII's valet.
Zhoelsyn, Lieutenant Phylyp, Tarotisian Navy—second lieutenant, King Gorjah II.
GLOSSARY
Anshinritsumei—literally "enlightenment," from the Japanese. Rendered in the Safehold Bible, however, as "the little fire," the lesser touch of God's spirit. The maximum enlightenment of which mortals are capable.
Borer—a form of Safeholdian shellfish which attaches itself to the hulls of ships or the timbers of wharves by boring into them. There are several types of borer, the most destructive of which actually eat their way steadily deeper into a wooden structure. Borers and rot are the two most serious threats (aside, of course, from fire) to wooden hulls.
Catamount—a smaller version of the Safeholdian slash lizard. The catamount is very fast and smarter than its larger cousin, which means that it tends to avoid humans. It is, however, a lethal and dangerous hunter in its own right.
Commentaries, The—the authorized interpretations and doctrinal expansions upon the Holy Writ. They represent the officially approved and sanctioned interpretation of the original scripture.
Choke tree—a low-growing species of tree native to Safehold. It comes in many varieties, and is found in most of the planet's climate zones. It is dense-growing, tough, and difficult to eradicate, but it requires quite a lot of sunlight to flourish, which means it is seldom found in mature old-growth forests.
Cotton silk—a plant native to Safehold which shares many of the properties of silk and cotton. It is very light weight and strong, but the raw fiber comes from a plant pod which is even more filled with seeds than Old Earth cotton. Because of the amount of hand labor required to harvest and process the pods and to remove the seeds from it, cotton silk is very expensive.
Council of Vicars—the Church of God Awaiting's equivalent of the College of Cardinals.
Doomwhale—the most dangerous predator of Safehold, although, fortunately, it seldom bothers with anything as small as humans. Doomwhales have been known to run to as much as one hundred feet in length, and they are pure carnivores. Each doomwhale requires a huge range, and encounters with them are rare, for which human beings are just as glad, thank you. Doomwhales will eat anything . . . including the largest krakens. They have been known, on extremely rare occasions, to attack merchant ships and war galleys.
Dragon—the largest native Safeholdian land life forms. Dragons come in two varieities, the common dragon and the great dragon. The common dragon is about twice the size of a Terran elephant and is herbivorous. The great dragon is smaller, about half to two-thirds the size of the common dragon, but carnivorous, filling the highest feeding niche of Safehold's land-based ecology. They look very much alike, aside from their size and the fact that the common dragon has herbivore teeth and jaws, whereas the great dragon has elongated jaws with sharp, serrated teeth. They have six limbs and, unlike the slash lizard, are covered in thick, well-insulated hide rather than fur.
Five-day—a Safeholdian "week," consisting of only five days, Monday through Friday.
Fleming moss—(usually lower case). An absorbent moss native to Safehold which was genetically engineered by Shan-wei's terraforming crews to possess natural antibiotic properties. It is a staple of Safeholdian medical practice.
Grasshopper—a Safeholdian insect analogue which grows to a length of as much as nine inches and is carnivorous. Fortunately, they do not occur in the same numbers as terrestrial grasshoppers.
Group of Four—the four vicars who dominate and effectively control the Council of Vicars of the Church of God Awaiting.
Hairatha Dragons—the Hairatha professional baseball team. The traditional rivals of the Tellesberg Krakens for the Kingdom Championship.
Insights, The—the recorded pronouncements and observations of the Church of God Awaiting's Grand Vicars and canonized saints. They represent deeply significant spiritual and inspirational teachings, but, as the work of fallible mortals, do not have the same standing as the Holy Writ itself.
Intendant—the cleric assigned to a bishopric or archbishopric as the direct representative of the Of
fice of Inquisition. The intendant is specifically charged with assuring that the Proscriptions of Jwo-jeng are not violated.
Kercheef—a traditional headdress worn in the Kingdom of Tarot which consists of a specially designed bandana tied across the hair.
Knights of the Temple Lands—the corporate title of the prelates who govern the Temple Lands. Technically, the Knights of the Temple Lands are secular rulers, who simply happen to also hold high Church office. Under the letter of the Church's law, what they may do as the Knights of the Temple Lands is completely separate from any official action of the Church. This legal fiction has been of considerable value to the Church on more than one occasion.
Kraken—generic term for an entire family of maritime predators. Krakens are rather like sharks crossed with octupi. They have powerful, fish-like bodies, strong jaws with inward-inclined, fang-like teeth, and a cluster of tentacles just behind the head which can be used to hold prey while they devour it. The smallest, coastal krakens can be as short as three or four feet; deep-water krakens up to fifty feet in length have been reported, and there are legends of those still larger.
Kyousei hi—literally "great fire" or "magnificent fire." The term used to describe the brilliant nimbus of light the Operation Ark command crew generated around their air cars and skimmers to help "prove" their divinity to the original Safeholdians.
Langhorne's Watch—the thirty-one-minute period immediately before midnight in order to compensate for the extra length of Safehold's 26.5-hour day.
Master Traynyr—a character out of the Safeholdian entertainment tradition. Master Traynyr is a stock character in Safeholdian puppet theater, by turns a bumbling conspirator whose plans always miscarry and the puppeteer who controls all of the marionette "actors" in the play.
Narwhale—a species of Safeholdian sea life named for the Old Earth species of the same name. Safeholdian narwhales are about forty feet in length and equipped with twin horn-like tusks up to eight feet long.
Prong lizard—a roughly elk-sized lizard with a single horn which branches into four sharp points in the last third or so of its length. They are herbivores and not particularly ferocious.
Proscriptions of Jwo-jeng—the definition of allowable technology under the doctrine of the Church of God Awaiting. Essentially, the Proscriptions limit allowable technology to that which is powered by wind, water, or muscle. The Proscriptions are subject to interpretation, generally by the Order of Schueler, which generally errs on the side of conservatism.
Rakurai—literally "lightning bolt." The Holy Writ's term for the kinetic weapons used to destroy the Alexandria Enclave.
Sand maggot—a loathsome carnivore, looking much like a six-legged slug, which haunts beaches just above the surf line. Sand maggots do not normally take living prey, although they have no objection to devouring the occasional small creature which strays into their reach. Their natural coloration blends with their sandy habitat well, and they normally conceal themselves by digging their bodies into the sand until they are completely covered, or only a small portion of their backs show.
Sea cow—a walrus-like Safeholdian sea mammal which grows to a body length of approximately ten feet when fully mature.
Seijin—sage, holy man. Directly from the Japanese by way of Maruyama Chihiro, the Langhorne staffer who wrote the Church of God Awaiting's Bible.
Slash lizard—a six-limbed, saurian-looking, furry oviparous mammal. One of the three top predators of Safehold. Mouth contains twin rows or fangs capable of punching through chain mail; feet have four long toes each, tipped with claws up to five or six inches long.
SNARC—Self-Navigating Autonomous Reconnaissance and Communication platform.
Spider-crab—a native species of sea life, considerably larger than any terrestrial crab. The spider-crab is not a crustacean, but rather more of a segmented, tough-hided, many-legged seagoing slug. Despite that, its legs are considered a great delicacy and are actually very tasty.
Spider rat—a native species of vermin which fills roughly the ecological niche of a terrestrial rat. Like all Safehold mammals, it is six-limbed, but it looks like a cross between a hairy gila monster and an insect, with long, multi-jointed legs which actually arch higher than its spine. It is nasty tempered but basically cowardly, and fully adult male specimens of the larger varieties of spider rat run to about two feet in body length with another two feet of tail. The more common varieties average between 33 percent and 50 percent of that body/tail length.
Steel thistle—a native Safeholdian plant which looks very much like branching bamboo. The plant bears seed pods filled with small, spiny seeds embedded in fine, straight fibers. The seeds are extremely difficult to remove by hand, but the fiber can be woven into a fabric which is even stronger than cotton silk. It can also be twisted into extremely strong, stretch-resistant rope. Moreover, the plant grows almost as rapidly as actual bamboo, and the yield of raw fiber per acre is seventy percent higher than for terrestrial cotton.
Surgoi kasai—literally "dreadful (great) conflagration." The true spirit of God, the touch of his divine fire which only an angel or archangel can endure.
Tellesberg Krakens—the Tellesberg professional baseball club.
Testimonies, The—by far the most numerous of the Church of God Awaiting's writings, these consist of the firsthand observations of the first few generations of humans on Safehold. They do not have the same status as the Christian gospels, because they do not reveal the central teachings and inspiration of God. Instead, collectively, they form an important substantiation of the Writ's "historical accuracy" and conclusively attest to the fact that the events they collectively describe did, in fact, transpire.
Wire vine—a kudzu-like vine native to Safehold. Wire vine isn't as fast-growing as kudzu, but it's equally tenacious, and unlike kudzu, several of its varieties have long, sharp thorns. Unlike many native Safeholdians species of plants, it does quite well intermingled with terrestrial imports. It is often used as a sort of combination of hedgerows and barbed wire by Safehold farmers.
Wyvern—the Safeholdian ecological analogue of terrestrial birds. There are as many varieties of wyverns as there are of birds, including (but not limited to) the homing wyvern, hunting wyverns suitable for the equivalent of hawking for small prey, the crag wyvern (a small—wingspan ten feet—flying predator), various species of sea wyverns, and the king wyvern (a very large flying predator, with a wingspan of up to twenty-five feet). All wyverns have two pairs of wings, and one pair of powerful, clawed legs. The king wyvern has been known to take children as prey when desperate or when the opportunity presents, but they are quite intelligent. They know that man is a prey best left alone and generally avoid areas of human habitation.
Wyvernry—a nesting place and/or breeding hatchery for domesticated wyverns.
A Note on Safeholdian Timekeeping
The Safeholdian day is 26 hours and 31 minutes long. Safehold's year is 301.32 local days in length, which works out to .91 Earth standard years. It has one major moon, named Langhorne, which orbits Safehold in 27.6 local days, so the lunar month is approximately 28 days long.
The Safeholdian day is divided into twenty-six 60-minute hours, and one 31-minute period, known as "Langhorne's Watch," which is used to adjust the local day into something which can be evenly divided into standard minutes and hours.
The Safeholdian calendar year is divided into ten months: February, April, March, May, June, July, August, September, October, and November. Each month is divided into ten five-day weeks, each of which is referred to as a "five-day." The days of the week are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The extra day in each year is inserted into the middle of the month of July, but is not numbered. It is referred to as "God's Day" and is the high holy day of the Church of God Awaiting. What this means, among other things, is that the first day of every month will always be a Monday, and the last day of every month will always be a Friday. Every third year is a leap year, with the additional da
y—known as "Langhorne's Memorial"—being inserted, again, without numbering, into the middle of the month of February. It also means that each Safeholdian month is 795 standard hours long, as opposed to 720 hours for a 30-day Birth month.
The Safeholdian equinoxes occur on April 23 and September 22. The solstices fall on July 7 and February 8.
THE END
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