Lamplighter (63 page)

 

 

 

SOURCES

In researching this document the scholars are indebted to many sources. Of them all the following proved the most consistently sourced:

The Incomplete Book of Bogles
Weltchronic
The Book of Skolds
& extracts from the
Vadè Chemica

abinition
spontaneous generation of life from muds and clays warmed by the sun in powerfully threwdish places. Such soils are called fecund or abinitive muds, or in the uncommon vernacular, life-loams. Some more extreme theories hold that these life-loams, these dipherbiosës (literally “seats of life”) can exist even in the heart of an urban park or rural lumber plantation, that where plants flourish (even domesticated varieties)
threwd
can concentrate in boggy dells and the ground become fecund. When known beyond the esoteric provinces of the teratological habilists this concept is generally rejected as being too terrible to contemplate.

Accord of Menschen, the ~
what we would think of as an “international” agreement upon the rules of conduct in warfare, standardizing procedures of victory, surrender, the treatment of the loser and of neutrals; a reratification of a much older document known as the Usages of War, a set of dogma governing behavior to foes, prisoners, noncombatants, and the wounded and infirm during war.Though it was primarily drawn up in reference to land warfare, naval officers will also cite it, though they have their own accord—the Articles of Conduct; however, this is not as comprehensive in its statutes.

“ad captandum vulgus”
a
Tutin
political term literally meaning “toward courting the crowd” but used more in the sense of doing things to please the people, to inspire confidence.

alembant(s)
broadly speaking,
scripts
that alter the biology of a person, such as the washes that make a
leer’s
eyes. Specifically, the term can be used to refer to the
potives
taken by
lahzars
to keep their surgically introduced organs from vaoriating (spasming).The best known of these is Cathar’s Treacle. See
lahzar
in Book One.

almonder
assistant to a
dispensurist
or a skold, who does much of the fetching and carrying and reordering and other less glamorous work.

alternats, the ~
catch-all name for the secondary or subcapitals of the
Haacobin Empire,
being the
Considine
and the Serenine in the
Soutlands,
and the Campaline on the Verid Litus.

amanuensis
clerk
who takes minutes, makes duplicates and triplicates of documents and writes notes on the details of official conversations.

Approach, the ~
steep “driveway” that leads up to
Winstermill
from the
Harrowmath.
It is actually split in two, one way continuing east down to the
Pettiwiggin
and the other curving south to join the Gainway.

Arabis, Arimis
son of a poor
peltryman,
Paddlin Arabis from
Fayelillian
way, who died of exposure on a desperate winter’s foray along with his crew of trappers. Raised by his mother in deep squalor, Arabis was first prenticed to another
peltryman;
when things turned foul he escaped, living by his wits and making his gradual and circuitous way to the capital. There he chanced upon a recruitment drive for the
lamplighters
of
Winstermill,
and took the Emperor’s Billion there and then.

ash-dabbling(s)
working with organs and other parts of corpses.The “hobby” of
massacars
and other
black habilists,
taking this name from “ash” as a synonym for the remains of a person.

Ashenstall
last
cothouse
east before the
Wormway
descends out of the highlands of the
Placidine
down onto the
Frugelle
and the start of the “
ignoble end of the road
,” taking its name from the gray land about it, and perhaps from the local stone of which it is mostly built.

ashmonger(s)
part of the chain of supply in the
dark trades.
When stocks of body parts are low, the worst of these will stoop to abduction and murder to get the required items. If such items need to be of a certain “ripeness” to be useful, they will achieve this artificially, with chemistry. Stolen bodies are sometimes called anthropelf. See entry in Book One.

aspis
as stated, this is a
venificant,
a highly toxic contact poison that allows the often harmless blows of a person against a
monster
to have rapid and deadly effect. The only problem with such
potives
is that they are deadly to people too, one touch being enough to cause some great discomfort in the very least. Aspis is one of the more preferred
venificants
because it is a little slower to act, meaning that accidental touch will not do much harm, although it is deadly once a good dose of it has entered a body’s system.

Assimus
surly, sandy-haired, pinch-faced lampsman 1st class serving at
Winstermill.
In semiretirement owing to the early onset of arthritis, this
lighter
has been granted the easiest stretch of the
Wormway
on which to work and see out his days. Along with his old mate
Bellicos,
he has seen service on most of the inner stretches of the highroad, even enduring a spell at the
“ignoble end of the road.”

astrapecrith
the correct technical term for a
fulgar.
The equivalent for a
wit
is
neuroticrith.

Atopian Dido
reference to the time when Dido, the great ancient queen and founder of the
Empire,
was without a home, wandering the region once known as Opera and the Witherlends, driven to flight through the attempt on her life by jealous ministers wanting power for themselves. For several years she wandered from kingdom to kingdom, staying where she might, till the monarch of Patris took her in and rallied in support of her as the last surviving shoot of Idaho’s line.

Attic
language of the ancient people of the same name, a mighty race of great learning and sophistication, the direct inheritor of Phlegm’s cultural, technological and sociopolitical legacy. Much of what they knew is now lost, the remnants still considered the acme of wisdom and habilistics. Idaho is considered their greatest ruler, and Dido, her great-granddaughter, second only to her. The language itself is based on the real Attic (otherwise known as classical Greek), and with this comes the author’s usual apology for any offense his current usages might incur.

Aubergene
Lampsman
1st class billeted at
Wormstool
and a native of Burgundis, he is renowned for his steady aim even in the most trying situations. Though little is said of it now, early last decade he earned deep respect and not a few
cruorpunxis
when defending a search party in the
Ichormeer.
These foiled rescuers had been attempting to find the lost family of the Warden-General of
Haltmire,
who disappeared in the terrible swamp. Few traces found could be followed, and those that could led only to disaster as the swamp swallowed men whole and its denizens preyed on them like cats in a mouse plague. As part of a rear guard, Aubergene’s deadly shots bought space for the retreating party, who found only one child—the middle daughter—to take back to her agonized father. For his deeds the young
lighter
was awarded the Carpa Virtus (the Hand of Valor), the highest honor available to a mere
lighter.

aufheitermen
said “owf ’
high
’ter’men”; the Gott word for
lamplighters,
meaning literally “the gloom lighteners” or “those who bring lightness to the gloom.”

august
ruler of a single
calendar clave;
typically a woman of some social stature, perhaps a
peer,
or noble, with a social conscience. To have any chance of affecting their surrounds,
calendars
need money and political clout, and those with high standing socially possess these attributes natively. A
clave
that does not have ranking gentry or nobility at its head and core, or at least as a sponsor, will most certainly be marginalized. Augusts are seconded by their
laudes,
who are their mouthpieces and their long reach. With a well-organized and talented
clave
with her, an august can be a daunting and influential figure in Imperial politics and society. Within her own
clave
the august is often referred to as the
senior-sister.

aurang
in the Half-Continent’s version of a card deck the aurang is the fourth station (card value) in the house of brutes (animals), below the daw (3) and above the crocidole (5). An aurang is what we would call an orangutan, being found on the smaller islands of the northern
Sinus Tintinabuline
and found in the Half-Continent usually only in books, though wide-faring vinegaroons may well have seen one or two.The aurang lends its name to one of the winning hands in the card game
pirouette,
“Kindly Ladies Watch the Happy Aurangs Again.”

auto-savant
a person who, by the exercise of extremely sensitive and attuned intuition, is supposed to be able to tell a person’s thoughts and needs. Most of these are rejected as humorless fakers and
fabulists
by those of the more serious habilistic turn of mind.

auxiliary, auxiliaries
in this circumstance the people in support of
Winstermill
and her
lamplighters,
including the house guards of musketeers,
haubardiers
and
troubardiers; leers
and
lurksmen
and other “creepers”; skolds and other
thaumateers;
and the artillerists tending the great-guns on the walls.

ax-carabine
also called axe-carbine or fusiscuris, a
combinade
made of a
fusil
-like firelock with an ax-blade attached to the muzzle.

bane
teratologist
who is both
wit
and skold, either beginning as a skold then choosing the
neuroticrith’s
path to increase his or her power, or beginning as a
wit
and becoming adept at
skolding.
This second path is not uncommon: a
wit
has to take many more concoctions than a
fulgar
to keep healthy—and many of these are more complex to make than Cathar’s Treacle.
Wits
may well opt to make these themselves rather than be tied to other suppliers, which is said by some to be a risky business as far as consistency of quality and efficacy are concerned. In the way of learning their own
scripts, wits
may well discover that it is within their abilities to make other potives, and branch out into skolding. A bane is therefore considered more versatile and greater in power than a plain
wit.

bastion-house
strongly fortified house or other such dwelling reinforced to withstand the rigors of conflict.
Cothouses
are often a form of bastion-house.

Baton Imperial of Fayelillian, the 8th Earl of the ~
the
Lamplighter-Marshal’s
proper title, the hereditary rank granted to his
Fayelillian
family by Menagës Scepticus Haacobin I, the usurper of the Sceptics and the original Emperor of the current dynasty. Even so the
Lamplighter-Marshal
will not allow others to address him by any other title than “sir,” as befits his military rank.

bee’s buzz, the buzz
gossip and rumor, so called for the buzzing sound of folks engaged in hushed mutterings about another.

Beggar Sea
the body of water off the
Stander Lates
and the southern coasts of Hagenland, the Stafkärlsstig or “wandering beggar” in Brandenard. In the Half-Continent it is known as the Pontus Mendicus.

Bellicos
one of the three semiretired
lampsmen
who look after the
prentices
as they practice at lighting along the
Pettiwiggin.
A little younger than his two compatriots, Bellicos is probably the surliest of the three, though he is generally forgiven this for the feats of valor he performed during his full service out
Ashenstall
way.

bellpomash
mild restorative which, though drunk, is said to help the clotting and healing of wounds by fortifying the body’s functions from within.

belugig(s)
also belungs; large
monsters,
especially ettins or even the great beasts of the mares.

Benedict, Under-Sergeant-of-Prentices ~
red-haired assistant to
Lamplighter-Sergeant Grindrod.
Benedict’s carrot-colored hair is remarkable in northern
Soutlands,
showing his Wretcherman heritage. He and his sweet little wife, Daisy, live down in the
Nuptarium
in the Target Row, on Target Street.

benthamyn
constituent of
Craumpalin’s Exstinker;
a distillation of oils found only in the rock of certain regions of the
Sinus Tintinabuline,
Wretch and the Gottskylds, with the best quality part coming from the Heilgolands.

Berthezene
artist sometimes going by the name of Berthezar, once a native of Turkeman, come to the
Sundergird
in flight from the husband of a mistress, and shopping his considerable skills as an imagineer (an illustrator) to any buyer, including pamphlet makers both reputable and disreputable. His talent is lauded by some as the most remarkable of the age, rivaling even the legendary Gouche, though that fellow’s admirers disagree.

besomer(s)
broom-makers.

Biargë the Beautiful
(said “bee-
arr
-gee”—with a strong
g
as in “get”); common, easier to pronounce form of
Ingébiargë
(said “
Ing
’ga’bee’arr’gee”), the name of the cannibalistic monster
-
woman of Hagenland’s southern shores, also known as Biargë the Salt-skold or, in Gott folklore, as Beogerthë the Cruel. Of the few manikins known to history, Biargë is perhaps the best documented, though few ordinary folk know her origin—or even know of her. Her origin is found in times long gone, in the lands of the Skylds, during a period of particular and morbid conflict there between human and
monster
known as the Volkammerung—a time of decay after the Heldinsage when heroes prevailed and civilization flourished. A faithful servant and yrrphethäl (“
earr
’feh’tharl,” equivalent to a rhubezhal—see
skold
in Book One) to Ulfe Pytr (said “
Ull
’fer
Pie
’ter”—the great Hagen king who drove the Skylds from their rightful land), Biargë was hailed for her cold beauty and treacherous use of her great skill to aid the
Hagenards
against her own people. As time passed, and well after the Skylds had fled west across the Gramlendenmeer (“The Sea of Heavy Sorrows”) Biargë became noted most of all for the longevity of her beauty, and it was soon rumored that she had brewed a potion of powerful virtue to prolong life and youth. Puzzled as to her own juvenescence, Biargë encouraged this rumor, yet it doubled back on her: Uthoedë (said “yoo’
tho
’dee”), Ulfe Pytr’s wife, pressed her husband mercilessly to insist that their court’s beauteous concocter make this tender brew for the queen as well. Many times he cajoled, remonstrated with and railed against
Ingébiargë
, and each time he was refused, first with kind excuses then with outright obduracy. On each occasion he had to return to a furious wife and a night spent banished from the conjugal bed. Goaded by her imperturbable obstinacy, Uthoedë went herself to Biargë’s
test
, taking with her a number of mighty men of the Volkammerung—Skarphethinn (said “
Skar
’feh’thin”) and Grettir preeminent among them. They took Biargë into custody, ransacked her home, turned up no vital
potive
and imprisoned the rhubezhal in the darkest depths of Steindurom, the regal stronghold. There, under pain of torture, Biargë confessed that there was no potion of youthfulness, that she did not know why she was still young after so long. Väkr, the royal
signifer
(“watcher of stars”) tested her for
threwd
. On finding its subtle but definite presence, he renamed Biargë the Tvymadthrmaen—the twice-false maid—and she was declared a samligr (something akin to a sedorner). Uthoedë screamed for her doom and Ulfe Pytr sentenced Biargë to be executed at next moon’s dark.Yet not all were against her. One Freyr, brother and equal of Grettir and nephew to Ulfe Pytr, was besotted with the long-lived beauty, and when time came for her burning, contrived to set her free. In their flight Väkr was slain by the chemistry of the damned maiden and many houseguards with him. The two lovers fled to the Illr and lost themselves in that haunted land; not even Skarphethinn, Biarkamil, Syfyrd, Gudbrand or the wounded and anguished Grettir nor any other of the men of renown would follow after. So Biargë and One Freyr wandered in the wilds, aided by strange and inscrutable folk—the haustayr or hausti, the autumn-folk that men were forbidden to converse with—till they made their home across the Leith Fol, on the Stendrlaeti (see the
Stander Lates
), the shores of the Linden Finné. Here Biargë suffered the deep grief of watching her young love One Freyr age, and decrepitude approach, while she stayed forever young. In bitterness and grief her thoughts blackened, and she cursed the cosmos and plotted useless revenge—for all but Biarkamil, the warrior-poet, had withered and died. She searched and brewed and scoured the lands, trying to find the secret of the vital brew she had once been so mistakenly condemned for making. She terrorized communities and stole their parts and
potives,
slew young men out of spite or abducted them to test and refine her concoctions. Many of these poor subjects did gain a kind of prolonged life, but each one was twisted and broken by the experiments he endured. No matter what the increasingly crazed Biargë tried, she failed utterly to find the perfect elixir to keep her lover and rescuer whole and by her side for always.The common end for Freyr is that he went the way of all people, yet awed stories remain that, among the many walking, shuffling horrors that make the Stendrlaeti an impossibly dangerous place, is the moldering mindless hanuman of One Freyr, aching with longing he no longer understands. As for Biargë, she is said to live still, her skin gone gray with time and her eyes red and yellow from centuries of
skolding—
utterly mad and insatiably ravenous, seeking to devour all men she can find, wanting in twisted love to take them unto herself, where they might continue on and not wither with age. She is said to have devised many ways to lure vessels and their crews onto the risky shores of the
Stander Lates,
whereby she desires to consume each one. The best source of information on Biargë can be found in that ancient
book
of horrors, the
Derereader.