ram(s)
also rams-of-the-main, men-of-war and sometimes grandly called naufustica; the
ironclad, gastrine
-powered ships of war used by most of the
navies
of the
Half-Continent
. The forwardmost tip of the prow is pushed forward in a great iron “beak” called the ram, giving these vessels their name. With their iron hulls blackened or browned with special chemicals to stop corrosion (called braice) and sitting low in the water, rams look sinister and powerfully threatening. Yet though the outside might be dark iron, within a ram is a world of wood: beams, posts, planks, bulkheads, smelling strongly of creosote, gunpowder and sweat. Rams are generally divided into two types: the smaller, lighter, faster, less heavily armed called cruisers; and the big, heavily gunned and armored and slower kind known as capitals, rams-of-the-main or just rams. Cruisers have only one gun deck and no more than three masts. They are the workhorses of a
navy,
used most in escort, reconnaissance and running messages. They are the eyes and ears of the fleet, roving out from the main battle (fleet) to find the enemy’s position. The lightest cruiser is the
gun-drudge,
followed by the
frigate,
the largest being the drag-mauler. This cruiser has the largest ram of all, and is built to charge monsters and other vessels and survive the impact. Drag-maulers are the fastest rams at about 14 to 16 knots. The quickest ever,
Scythe
36, achieved an unheard of 18½ knots in a fair wind with all
limbers
to the
screw
.
Frigates
are only a little slower at about 13 to 14 knots.
Gun-drudges
can manage only about 11 knots. Capitals or rams have two gun decks, with the heaviest
cannon
arranged on the second or lower gun deck. Essentially floating batteries, capitals line up stem to stern one after the other in a fight. This is called the line-of-battle, and in this formation enemy fleets will pound away at each other for hours until a decision is reached. Cruisers are considered too small to take a place in the line-of-battle and patrol behind their own line to protect its flanks. The lightest capital is the iron-dought, whose upper gun deck extends only two thirds the length of the vessel and travels as fast as 11½ to 12 knots. The next is the main-ram. Achieving no more than 11 knots, they are still by far the most common of the capitals, forming the backbone of all serious navies. The largest of all rams are the
main-sovereigns,
which are so large they can do little better than 8 knots and often require
gun-drudges
to help them maneuver. Different captains will employ their rams in different ways, concentrating one or a combination of the three basic tactics:
♦ gunnery—simply standing off another vessel and blasting at it with your
cannon
till it submits. Rams rarely sink under a barrage of shot but their masts and upper works are typically smashed and their strakes (iron plates) always in need of serious repair.
♦ ramming—where the ram is moved into a favorable position to gain momentum and strike another vessel with its beak. Ramming is most likely to sink a vessel.
♦ boarding—involving getting in close, launching harpagons (see
lambasts
) and drawing alongside the enemy so that your crew armed with pikes, axes, hangers, blunderbuss,
bothersalts
, grenadoes and pistols can drop gangplanks and leap the gap between. Boarding is the best way to keep a ram intact for recommissioning into your own
navy.
Though a captain may train his crew as he wishes, there will be a preferred method for the whole fleet as set by the lords of that particular
navy
. Commonly, states who build their own rams are more inclined to board or shoot, for they know how much it takes to make one. States that buy rams from others and from private manufacturers will as happily sink a vessel by ramming it as blast away at it with guns. It is interesting to note that the larger a ram is, the more its captain will be paid to work her. When a ram is commissioned (officially named and launched), it is quickly crewed and sent to sea. There it will spend the rest of its days, returning to its home port only occasionally and rarely staying for long. See
frigate, navy
and Appendix 6.
reagents
any of the ingredients used for
potives
and
drafts
; also called
parts
or
the Parts
.
realm •
a specific group of
scripts,
all with similar effects. See
scripts
. • in the politics of the
Empire
and its neighbors, a realm is any region controlled by a king or queen.
red must
edible fungus from the must family. Not all musts are toothsome, and some are downright poisonous. One of the great advantages of red must is that it keeps a very long time, squashes without bruising, is very light and very good for you. This makes it ideal
wayfood
.
repellents
typically a combination of the
realms
of
scripts
(repugnants, fulminants and discutants) incorporating all chemistry designed to dissuade and drive
monsters
(and people) off.
Bothersalts
is one of the more popular repellents, though not the most powerful. Others include Salt-of-Asper, Frazzard’s powder, glitter-dust, trisulxis, bombast’s ash, boglebane and green-flash or gegenshein.
restorative
scripts
concerned with reviving and healing. See
scripts
.
revenant, rever-man, rever
what we would call “zombies,” “the walking dead”; some are whole reanimated corpses, others are made from bits and pieces of different corpses and even animal parts. They take a lot of learning and skill to make properly. If not well preserved, their stink gives them away. If their brains are not reconstituted correctly, they are wild and unmanageable. The best quality revers are used as assassins, often dissolving to puddles of untraceable filth when the dastardly deed is done. Occasionally one breaks free of its
everyman
masters and terrorizes a community for a while or escapes into the
wilds,
where it gets short shrift from the local
monsters,
who hate such abominations and are hated by them in return. See
gudgeons
.
revenue officers
employed by almost every state or
realm,
they are used to gather the duties and taxes of imported and even exported goods. Revenue officers have a mandate for search and seizure, and go on patrols and raids. Usually efficient and zealous, they have the power of state and
Empire
behind them and the fear of the gallows or Catherine wheel at their employ. They are the harriers of
smugglers
,
corsers
,
ashmongers
and all those involved in the
dark trades
. Such as these guard both the
Axles
and the
Spindle
, and work closely with
lamplighters
to catch the crooks.
rhatany
one of the ingredients in
Cathar’s Treacle
, made from the poisonous black rhatan bloom, which is native to many of the most
threwdish
and
haunted
swamps and bogs, particularly the
Ichormeer
. The whole flower is dried and crushed very finely to make the powder. On its own it is very poisonous.
rhombus
a place where
skolds
go to learn their craft. In their two years there the student
skold
, called a rhubus, learns the basic
scripts,
and from these how to prepare his or her own
nostrum
and vulgum. In this they are taught the
Elements
and
Sub-Elements
, the
Bases
and their
Combinations
,
Körnchenflecter
, the
Four Spheres
and the
Four Humours
. They also study the
Vadè Chemica
and many other forbidden books on
habilistics
, ancient and new, as well as
matter
(history). People are not allowed to attend a rhombus unless they already have their
letters
, that is, they can read and write.
rivergates
great fortifications built across rivers and broader streams to protect a certain valuable place or as an outworking of a city’s more terrestrial embattlements. Certain riverside duchies and principalities have long used their rivergates to control trade, not just into their own domains but into domains beyond as well. Though the cause of wars and great resentment, ancient Imperial Concessions that allowed these states to legally inspect and tax riverine trade under Imperial observation were kept when the
Haacobin Dynasty
seized the Imperial Seats. This has been much to the disgust of other states who have suffered the tollways for centuries—and a bitter disappointment too: it had been hoped that the
Haacobin Emperors
would bring a new kind of justice to the
Empire
. Since then, a handful of more aggressive states have successfully lobbied the
Emperor
for the right to build their own rivergates, and so to have their share in the great profits. This has meant that some rivers have two or three or even four such structures choking them, as their owners rant and politick and threaten the others—for example the troubles on the river
Humour
between
Boschenberg
and its ancient
Axles
, and
Brandenbrass
with its smart new
Spindle
. Many of the less honest have devised ways to get by rivergates, especially those engaged in the
dark trades
or others wanting to avoid the taxes and tolls they charge.
rivermaster
the most senior officer aboard a
barge
or any other rivergoing craft; not always the owner of the vessel; lower in rank than a captain.You have to serve on the
vinegar waves
to be allowed that rank.
rock salt
salt mined like a rock from the earth.
Fulgars
suck or chew on lumps of the stuff to keep the concentration of salt in the blood high, thus making them better conductors of electricity.
Rossamünd
said “ross-uh-moond”; awkward boy-hero and under-grown
foundling
of
Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls
.
Rupunzil
, the ~
fine cromster of sixteen guns, owned by
Rivermaster Vigilus
.
S
sagaar(s)
dancers and fighters whose skills and art came originally from lands far to the north beyond the
Marrow
—Samaarkhand, Mansuûng and Ghadamése—and were first encountered by the
Empire
as it came into conflict with the kingdom of Wenceslaus. There are many forms and styles of sagaris (the skill of the sagaar) more complex and varied than
harundo
and the other bastinade arts. Sagaars live to dance, to attain a state known as “the Perpetual Dance,” where every action, every tiny lift or twitch, is all part of one unbroken, lifelong dance. In the lands of their origin they are court-entertainers and the prime
teratologists
(
monster-hunters
), employing their extreme flexibility, nimbleness and speed with varieties of
potives
even older then the
skolds’
. In the
Empire
, sagaars are thought of only as
teratologists
and find many opportunities to hunt and drive off
monsters
. Yet all sagaars would just prefer to dance. Sagaars usually wear tight-fitting clothes to allow unhindered movement of limb and those of the
Empire
also mark themselves with
spoors
in the form of spikes radiating down and around one cheekbone, just under the eye (usually the left). It is well known that sagaars and
lahzars
do not like each other very much.
sailer
vessel under the power of sails rather than
gastrines
; not to be confused with a sail
or
, a fellow who works on a ship at sea.
Sallow Meermoon
reluctant fugelman
skold
of the communities around the
Brindleshaws
. Being forced by her parents and fellow citizens to train as a
skold
at the
rhombus
in
Wörms,
she has recently returned and is very unhappy with her lot in life. Despite this she has still been very thorough about being a
skold,
even down to getting the vertical-stripe
spoors
that are a mark of her trade. A fugelman is a
teratologist
employed by a community to be available to defend it from
monsters
. Candidates for this task are usually local, and most are proud to serve their homeland in such a way. Fugelmen are traditionally
skolds,
but wealthy communities have taken to sending their candidates off to be transmogrified into
lahzars
.
scourge
also exitumath or orgulars (“haughty ones”—the name once given to the heroes of old; this is a title also given to
lahzars
); a
skold
who specializes in
monster
-hunting exclusively, making and using the most powerful, dangerous and deadly
potives: potives
that melt things on the spot, or cause them to almost instantly rot or turn to carbon or even petrify living things to stone. Scourges are typically covered from head to toe in special bandages and wear quartz-lensed spectacles to protect them from their own chemicals. Though they are preferred to a
lahzar
, scourges are still regarded as a bit unhinged and unmanageable, and live a life of violence much the same as their
lahzarine
rivals.
screw(s)
what we would call a propeller; a method of propulsion used by
gastrine
vessels.
Gastrines
turn the shaft which drives the screw that in turn pushes the ship forward.
script(s)
also called thaumacrum; the name for all the chemical concoctions made by
dispensurists
,
skolds
and
scourges
. They are divided into basic “types” or
realms
:
♦
restoratives
or vigorants—healing and well-being, such as
birchet
or
evander water
♦ fulminants—explosions and flashes and makers of fire, such as
Licurius
uses
♦ discutants—concusives, closely related to fulminants, though not causing fire
♦ pestilants or venificants—poisons
♦ mordants—corrosives such as special kinds of acid used by
scourges
♦ abruptives—preventative measures such as
nullodours
♦ repugnants—scripts that repel like
bothersalts
and those that attract, like
john-tallow
♦ alembants—scripts that alter the biology, such as the washes that transform the vision of a
leer’s
eyes.
Cathar’s Treacle
comes under this heading too
♦ expunctants or obliterants—scripts that utterly destroy or slay instantly, many of which are theoretical “superweapons.”