Lamplighter (69 page)

hand strokes
close combat where blows with hand arms such as swords or cudgels are exchanged. The opposite is to “stand a pull,” that is, to trade shots (“pulls”) over a distance.

harlock
means, quite simply, “white hair.” See
Hermogenes
,
Cot-Warden~
.

Harrowmath, the ~
wide, boggy plain upon which
Winstermill
is situated, gaining its name from an ancient intention to drain the area and replant it with crops. However, all attempts to run off water from it and mow it failed: the water just kept seeping back and the grass resprouted stubbornly no matter what was done. Now it is left alone, home to frogs and salamanders and small water snakes, egrets, herons and screaming curlews, coties (small quail) and tiny hopping mice, and mown only occasionally to prevent it from becoming a perfect matted hiding place for
monsters.

Harrowmath Pike, the ~
another name for the
Pettiwiggin.
It gained the name “pike” from the time when people were taxed a toll for its use, levied at
Wellnigh House
when travelers went to pass through in either direction.

haubardier(s)
essentially a heavily armored musketeer. See entry in Book One.

hauncet(s)
very heavy barreled pistol that takes great skill and strong wrists to fire and delivers a heavy, crushing blow of a shot. Loaded with
skold-shot
they become deadly tools against the
monsters.

hedge, hedgeman
“part skold,
dispensurist
and
ossatomist
”; often not especially well versed in any of the three trades, or particularly talented at one while offering the others out of need or sheer mercenary intent; one of the many types of
gyrovague
wandering the Half-Continent and indeed the entire world offering services to any paying person.

Heil glassware
high-quality glassware coming predominantly from the city of Tüngasil in the fabled southern marches of Tüngusia in Heilgoland, the huge continent and empire south of the Gurgis Magna—the great southern ocean. The glass is made from the extra-fine sands mined from beneath the permafrost of the steplands on the borders of Magog.

heldin(s)
mighty folk of ancient history who fought with the
monsters,
employing their infamous
therimoirs
to keep the eoned realms of humankind safe; known by many collective titles, including beauts (common), haggedolim (Phlegmish), herragdars (
Skyldic
), heterai (
Attic
), orgulars (
Tutin
), sehgbhans (Turkic): what we would call “heroes.” The time of their supremacy, when they were relied upon to stand in the gap between
everymen
and
üntermen,
is known as the Heldinsage. Said to have begun with the Phlegms—those most ancient of forebears—and ended with the
Attics,
their heirs, it was the time of Idaho, the great queen of the
Attics,
and of
Biargë the Beautiful,
among many other glorious and infamous folk and their usually tragic stories. Not all of the weapons of the heldins were destroyed in the violent cataclysms that punctuated and finally concluded that time: many are said to remain, and are most highly prized by collectors and combatants.

Herbroulesse
also known as the
Dovecote
or
Columbris;
the home of the
calendars
of the
Right of the Pacific Dove.
The original name of the old, moldering fortress that the
Right
occupied when they first moved into the region at the
Idlewild’s
beginnings.

hereward
westward. In the Half-Continent, although the usual north, south, east and west are common terms, directions of the compass are often given more classical names:
See
“by the precious here and vere”
in Book One.

Hermogënes, Cot-Warden ~
said “Her-
moj
-anees”; once a native of Seville, far to the north, he has carried with him for a long time the name
harlock
, which means simply “white hair,” having been born with those unusually pallid locks. Cot-Wardens are the senior-most sergeants (sergeant-master) of a cothouse.

Hinkerseigh
said “
Hink
-ker-see”; a small city/large town in the
Idlewild
whose founding state is the Sangmaund state of Maubergonne. It gets its name from its most prominent founding family, the Hinkers, and their grand fortified high-house (a
seigh
). Hinkerseigh is most noted for its many water-driven mills and heavier industry, a small copy of the original city of its founders—one of the more industrialized of the
Soutland
states.

hirsuite
partially cured animal leather with the hair left on, the hair usually being shaved or trimmed short but not removed. See
rimple.

hob-rousing
also known as sheboggery, or pit-fights; a recent invention of the affluent bored and a major customer of the
dark trades.
Hob-rousing is the practice of pitting a
gudgeon
and
nicker
against one another and betting on the outcome. Under the charge of a
rouse-master
, gents known as pit-bobs (or
tractors
) wrangle these beasts together into a pit (10-plus-foot deep x 12-plus-foot wide), initially separated by bars. This barrier is removed and the two allowed to
stouche
it out until one is left alive (with
gudgeons
usually proving the more aggressive but the less robust).
Gudgeons
that survive for many bouts can gain a kind of fame among the hob-rousing regulars (the gamers or cubes, who come to watch and wager, and the nullards or pigeons, who come only to watch), gaining names like “the Matschig Mauler,” “Old Feisty” and such like, “Mary’s Long-Dead Mother” being one of the more gruesome and ironic appellations. Indeed, even some
monsters
who have survived for many fights have gained grudging admiration. The
rousing-pits
are typically maintained by either a peer or magnate or by a cartel of mercators (
dark trade
bosses)—someone with the will and money to establish and maintain such a place.They will be found deep in the foundations of a manor house (with tunnels and their entrances leading well away from the host) or some abandoned hall or cave out in the country. Hob-rousing is a big money-spinner for the organizers, with fights sometimes rigged in the
rever-man’s
favor to give the spectator some much-needed satisfaction against the monstrous foe. Of course, if a
rousing-pit
is secreted out in the wilds, any
gudgeon
kept there will eventually attract
nickers;
this, although highly risky, usually suits the organizer/owners, who will try to trap any
monsters
lurking near and use them in the next fight.

Hognells, the ~
broad gray escarpment regarded as the natural division between the
Idlewild
proper and the poor lands of the
Paucitine.
They form part of the range of hills rich in mostly as yet untapped ores: lead, copper and, some say, even silver. Fossickers can often be seen ranging about the surrounding lands, sent by the big states to find sources of these precious metals.

horrors, the ~
• (noun) common term for
threwd.
• (noun) lingering and malingering effects of
pernicious threwd,
the sufferers remaining in a fragile, frightened and broken state. Some folks hold that those touched by the horrors have a greater sensitivity to threwdish things and are more aware of the monstrous in the world around them. More sensible people dismiss this as arrant rustic nonsense. The horrors are related to the blue ghasts, which is a more darkly depressive state.

house-major
more properly titled
Major-of-House,
this is the most senior officer of a
cothouse
with charge over all the doings therein and along the span of road put under his responsibility. If something happens to or along that span, then it is his duty—and the duty of those he commands—to initiate a solution, whether it is road repairs, clearing the verge, rescuing stranded travelers, hunting
lurchers
or brigands or
monsters.

house-watch
permanent staff of a
cothouse
who do not go out on the
lantern-watch.
These can include the
house-major,
the
day-clerk, uhrsprechman,
the kitchen staff (if present) and the various trades and laborers required for daily tasks such as
tinkers, proofeners, seltzermen
and the like. Some
cothouses
were once manned well enough to possess a large house-watch of
pediteers
as well to relieve the
day-watch
at intervals and provide them with extended rest.

hucilluctor(s)
said “hyoo-sil-luck-tor”; a wayfarer. The word comes from the
Tutin
term meaning “hither and thither.”

hugger-mugger
one of the many synonyms for
monster,
referring to a common manner of attack among the üntermenschen, which is to leap from an ambush—to “hug”—and grapple closely with their prey—to “mug.”

huque
said “hyook”; a long cloak with split sides to allow the wearer’s arms free movement.

ichor
when talking of
cruorpunxis,
a
monster’s
blood when still inside it is known as ichor, and when extracted by a
sprither
into a
bruicle
it is called
cruor.

Ichormeer, the ~
great threwdish swamp to the east of Sulk and west of Wörms said to be the origin of
monsters,
the place where they are “born” from to terrorize the
Soutlands.
See entry in Book One.

Idesloe
calendar
purrichin of the
Right of the Pacific Dove,
originally coming from
Flint,
and once speardame to Sophia Idaho II, its ruling Duchess. The eldest purrichin, she is the mentor of the other
sagaars
of the
Right,
going into a
stouche
bearing her ancient
therimoir,
a sword-of-wire called Glausopë—or “Asp’s Tongue,” a relic of the Heldinsage.

Idlewild, the ~
officially known as the Placidia Solitus, a gathering of client-cities (colonies) along the Imperial Highroad of the
Conduit Vermis.
Each town, village or fortress is sponsored by a different state of the
Empire—Brandenbrass,
Hergoatenbosch, Quimperpund, Maubergonne, Termagaunt, even Catalain. Established in the late fifteenth century HIR, it is the latest great project of what is grandly termed
cicuration—
taming by farming;
purgation—
taming by force; and
bossetation
—taming by landscaping, originally proposed by
Clementine
itself. The Inner Idlewild or
Placidine,
from
Tumblesloe Cot
to the
Wight,
was declared “regio scutis”—a
fenceland—
over a decade ago. This heralded a brilliant success of the great labor of pushing back the
monsters
and the
threwd.
The marches from the
Wight
to
Haltmire—
otherwise known as the
Paucitine
(also the
Frugelle
)—are still considered
ditchland.
These two divisions of
Placidine
and
Paucitine
are known as
themes,
or military districts, the western governed by
Winstermill,
the eastern by
Haltmire,
with the
Wight
situated at their meeting and concerned only with the taxation of trade from Sulk.

“ignoble end of the road”
title given to the remote and dangerous stretch of road that runs along the flat of the
Frugelle,
beginning at the
Hognells
and ceasing at
Haltmire,
and to the
cothouses
found thereon.

IMIR
In Ministerium Imperia Regnum (or Rex), meaning either “In Service to the
Empire
” or “In Service to the Emperor”; the motto of any ministry or body working for the
Haacobin Empire.

Imperial fumomath
scourge,
skold or
dispensurist
in the direct employment of the
Empire;
the term can be used to refer to such skolds and
scourges
that are employed at
Winstermill
and elsewhere, but more properly means those who serve in the Emperor’s courts in
Clementine,
especially those tending to the Emperor himself.

Imperial Prerogative
a mandate from the Most Serene Emperor granting limited yet often far-reaching rights to certain individuals or groups (such as many
calendar claves
) allowing them to operate outside the governances or interference of state or other local authorities. It can even be pushed (some might say abused) to allow things contrary to the Imperial interest to proceed unhindered, such as the breaking of an Oath of Service.

Imperial Secretary
highest ranked of all the
Haacobin Empire’s
bureaucrats; men and women of great influence and power, not so much because of their own rank, but because of the status of the ears and minds they have such ready access to—the senior ministers of the Emperor, and even the great man himself. The favor of an Imperial Secretary can be the making of you, their disfavor your ruin. Though often of common birth, they are typically courted and feted by peers, especially the lowly ranked, and by gentry and magnates too, eager for some kind of advancement or boon. One does not strive to be an Imperial Secretary for dreams and hopes of reform, but for the sake of pure ambition and ego.

In Columba Alat
meaning “a dove’s wing” or “the wings of a dove,” and also known as the Columbinale; the
cantus
(or creed) of the
calendar clave
known as the
Right of the Pacific Dove
to which each adherent must ascribe and swear: