Hell's Foundations Quiver (143 page)

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 by the Order of Schueler, which generally errs on the side of conservatism, but it is not unheard of for corrupt intendants to rule for or against an innovation under the Proscriptions in return for financial compensation.

Rakurai
(1)—literally, “lightning bolt.” The
Holy Writ
's term for the kinetic weapons used to destroy the Alexandria Enclave.

Rakurai
(2)—the organization of solo suicide terrorists trained and deployed by Wyllym Rayno and Zhaspahr Clyntahn. Security for the Rakurai is so tight that not even Clyntahn knows the names and identities of individual Rakurai or the targets against which Rayno has dispatched them.

Reformist
—one associated with the Reformist movement. The majority of Reformists outside the Charisian Empire still regard themselves as Temple Loyalists.

Reformist movement
—the movement within the Church of God Awaiting to reform the abuses and corruption which have become increasingly evident (and serious) over the last hundred to one hundred and fifty years. Largely underground and unfocused until the emergence of the Church of Charis, the movement is attracting increasing support throughout Safehold.

Rising
—the term used to describe the rebellion against Lord Protector Greyghor and the Constitution of the Republic of Siddarmark by the Temple Loyalists.

Round Theatre
—the largest and most famous theater in the city of Tellesberg. Supported by the Crown but independent of it, and renowned not only for the quality of its productions but for its willingness to present works which satirize Charisian society, industry, the aristocracy, and even the Church.

Saint Evehlain
—the patron saint of the Abbey of Saint Evehlain in Tellesberg; wife of Saint Zherneau.

Saint Kohdy
—a
seijin
who fought for the Church of God Awaiting in the War Against the Fallen. He was killed shortly before the end of that war and later stripped of his sainthood and expunged from the record of the Church's
seijins.

Saint Zherneau
—the patron saint of the Monastery of Saint Zherneau in Tellesberg; husband of Saint Evehlain.

Salmon
—a Safeholdian fish species named because its reproductive habits are virtually identical to those of a terrestrial salmon. It is, however, almost more like an eel than a fish, being very long in proportion to its body's width.

Sand maggot
—a loathsome carnivore, looking much like a six-legged slug, which haunts Safeholdian 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 well with their sandy habitat, 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.

Scabbark
—a very resinous deciduous tree native to Safehold. Scabbark takes its name from the blisters of sap which ooze from any puncture in its otherwise very smooth, gray-brown bark and solidify into hard, reddish “scabs.” Scabbark wood is similar in coloration and grain to Terran Brazilwood, and the tree's sap is used to produce similar red fabric dyes.

Sea cow
—a walrus-like Safeholdian sea mammal which grows to a body length of approximately ten feet when fully mature.

Sea dragon
—the Safeholdian equivalent of a terrestrial whale. There are several species of sea dragon, the largest of which grow to a body length of approximately fifty feet. Like the whale, sea dragons are mammalian. They are insulated against deep oceanic temperatures by thick layers of blubber and are krill-eaters. They reproduce much more rapidly than whales, however, and are the principal food source for doomwhales and large, deep-water krakens. Most species of sea dragon produce the equivalent of sperm oil and spermaceti. A large sea dragon will yield as much as four hundred gallons of oil.

Seijin
—sage, holy man, mystic. Legendary warriors and teachers, generally believed to have been touched by the
anshinritsumei.
Many educated Safeholdians consider
seijins
to be mythological, fictitious characters.

Shan-wei's candle
(1)—the deliberately challenging name assigned to strike-anywhere matches by Charisians. Later shortened to “Shan-weis.”

Shan-wei's candle
(2)—a Temple Loyalist name given to the illuminating parachute flares developed by Charis.

Shan-wei's footstools
—also simply “footstools.” Charisian name for nondirectional antipersonnel mines which are normally buried or laid on the surface and (usually) detonated by a percussion cap pressure switch. See Kau-yungs.

Shan-wei's fountains
—also simply “fountains.” Charisian name for “bounding mines.” When detonated, a launching charge propels the mine to approximately waist height before it detonates, spraying shrapnel balls in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree pattern.
See
Kau-yungs.

Shan-wei's sweepers
—also simply “sweepers,” Charisian name for a Safeholdian version of a claymore mine. The mine's backplate is approximately eighteen inches by thirty inches and covered with five hundred and seventy-six .50-caliber shrapnel balls which it fires in a cone-shaped blast zone when detonated.
See
Kau-yungs.

Shan-wei's War
—the
Holy Writ
's term for the struggle between the supporters of Eric Langhorne and those of Pei Shan-wei over the future of humanity on Safehold. It is presented in terms very similar to those of the war between Lucifer and the angels loyal to God, with Shan-wei in the role of Lucifer.
See also
War Against the Fallen.

Shellhorn
—venomous Safeholdian insect analogue with a hard, folding carapace. When folded inside its shell, it is virtually indistinguishable from a ripe slabnut.

Sisters of Saint Kohdy
—an order of nuns created to honor and commemorate Saint Kohdy. The last of the “angels” used kinetic weapons to obliterate their abbey and the tomb of Saint Kohdy shortly after the last of the original Adams and Eves died.

Sky comb
—a tall, slender native Safeholdian tree. It is deciduous, grows to a height of approximately eighty-five to ninety feet, and has very small, dense branches covered with holly tree-like leaves. Its branches seldom exceed eight feet in length.

Slabnut
—a flat-sided, thick-hulled nut. Slabnut trees are deciduous, with large, four-lobed leaves, and grow to about thirty feet. Black slabnuts are genetically engineered to be edible by humans; red slabnuts are mildly poisonous. The black slabnut is very high in protein.

Slash lizard
—a six-limbed, saurian-looking, furry oviparous mammal. One of the three top land predators of Safehold. Its mouth contains twin rows of fangs capable of punching through chain mail and its feet have four long toes, each tipped with claws up to five or six inches long.

Sleep root
—a Safeholdian tree from whose roots an entire family of opiates and painkillers are produced. The term “sleep root” is often used generically for any of those pharmaceutical products.

Slime toad
—an amphibious Safeholdian carrion eater with a body length of approximately seven inches. It takes its name from the thick mucus which covers its skin. Its bite is poisonous but seldom results in death.

Snapdragon
—the Safeholdian snapdragon isn't actually related to any of the other dragon species of the planet. It is actually a Safeholdian analogue to the terrestrial giant sea turtle. Although it is warm-blooded, its body form is very similar to that of a terrestrial leatherback sea turtle, but it is half again the leatherback's size, with fully mature male snapdragons running to body lengths of over nine feet. No living Safeholdian knows why the snapdragon was given its name.

SNARC
—Self-Navigating Autonomous Reconnaissance and Communications platform.

Spider-crab
—a native species of sea life, considerably larger than any terrestrial crab. The spider-crab is not a crustacean, but 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 Safeholdian 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. Fully adult male specimens of the larger varieties run to about two feet in body length, with another two feet of tail, for a total length of four feet, but the more common varieties average only between two or three feet of combined body and tail length.

Spike-thorn
—a flowering shrub, various subspecies of which are found in most Safeholdian climate zones. Its blossoms come in many colors and hues, and the tropical versions tend to be taller-growing and to bear more delicate blossoms.

Spine fever
—a generic term for paralytic diseases, like polio, which affect the nervous system and cause paralysis.

“
Stand at Kharmych
”
—a Siddarmarkian military march composed to commemorate the 37th Infantry Regiment's epic stand against an invading Desnairian army in the Battle of Kharmych.

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.

Stone wool
—Safeholdian term for chrysotile (white asbestos).

Sugar apple
—a tropical Safeholdian fruit tree. The sugar apple has a bright purple skin much like a terrestrial tangerine's, but its fruit has much the same consistency of a terrestrial apple. It has a higher natural sugar content than an apple, however; hence the name.

Surgoi kasai
—“dreadful” or “great fire.” The true spirit of God. The touch of His divine fire, which only an angel or Archangel can endure.

Swamp hopper
—moderate-sized (around fifty to sixty-five pounds) Safeholdian amphibian. It is carnivorous, subsisting primarily on fish and other small game and looks rather like a six-legged Komodo dragon but has a fan-like crest which it extends and expands in response to a threat or in defense of territory. It is also equipped with air sacs on either side of its throat which swell and expand under those circumstances. It is ill-tempered, territorial, and aggressive.

Swivel wolf
—a light, primarily antipersonnel artillery piece mounted on a swivel for easy traverse.
See
Wolf.

Sword Rakurai
—specially trained agents of the Inquisition sent into the enemy's rear areas. They operate completely solo, as do the Inquisition's regular Rakurai; they are not suicide attackers or simple terrorists. Instead, they are trained as spies and infiltrators, expected to do any damage they can but with the primary mission of information collection.

Sword of Schueler
—the savage uprising, mutiny, and rebellion fomented by the Inquisition to topple Lord Protector Greyghor Stohnar and destroy the Republic of Siddarmark.

Talon branch
—an evergreen tree native to Safehold. It has fine, spiny needles and its branches are covered with half-inch thorns. It reaches a height of almost seventy feet, and at full maturity has no branches for the first twenty to twenty-five feet above the ground.

Teak tree
—a native Safeholdian tree whose wood contains concentrations of silica and other minerals. Although it grows to a greater height than the Old Earth teak wood tree and bears a needle-like foliage, its timber is very similar in grain and coloration to the terrestrial tree and, like Old Earth teak, it is extremely resistant to weather, rot, and insects.

Tellesberg Krakens
—the Tellesberg professional baseball club.

Temple, The
—the complex built by “the Archangels” using Terran Federation technology to serve as the headquarters of the Church of God Awaiting. It contains many “mystic” capabilities which demonstrate the miraculous power of the Archangels to anyone who sees them.

Temple Boy
—Charisian/Siddarmarkian slang for someone serving in the Army of God. It is not a term of endearment.

Temple Loyalist
—one who renounces the schism created by the Church of Charis' defiance of the Grand Vicar and Council of Vicars of the Church of God Awaiting. Some Temple Loyalists are also Reformists (
see
above), but all are united in condemning the schism between Charis and the Temple.

Testimonies, The
—by far the most numerous of the Church of God Awaiting's sacred 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 describe did, in fact, transpire.