- binder, bindsman, bindswoman
- A mage who prepares casting materials and sings
a wordless melody over an inscribed, illuminated manuscript to complete
a casting. Binders also bind their triads, psychologically and sometimes
by blood relationship. Binders may play a variety of other roles—healers,
herbalists, producers of scribing materials, singers, scholars—but
magecraft is their primary trade.
- bonedays
- Three days a year (one in each season) when the
dead are remembered and offerings are left for the bonefolk or donations
given to the needy. Observances differ regionally. Binders often chose
bonedays to harvest skins for vellum and parchment, before those materials
were outlawed.
- bonefolk
- Mysterious fringe folk who dispose of the carcasses
of people and animals, leaving nothing behind but any metal or stone.
Bonefolk group together according to the forms they have facility
with: earth (vegetable and mineral), air, and water. They were the
original denizens of Eiden Myr and perhaps its creators.
-
- Brightfire
- A minor holiday also known as Spindle Day or
Pledge Day; the night before is Wantons' Eve. Considered the start
of summer in some Souther areas and on Khine. We would call it May
Day.
- casting
- Applied magecraft; a crafting actuated by magelight.
Equated with the working of a touch and the gleaning of a visant.
- Celyrian
- The primary language and scribing system used
for magecraft and scholarship. An ornate, flowing, alphabetic script.
- cheit
- A hooked, magecrafted dagger carried by a kenai.
Also known as the tooth. Plural "cheitla."
- Eiden
- The animating and personified spirit of earth.
Masculine in aspect. The human-shaped landmass on which the realm
of Eiden Myr resides is considered to be Eiden's body.
- Eiden Myr
- Formerly, the world; now the island continent
on which a magecrafted society existed in isolation for twice nine
nonned years, and the current society it has developed into.
- ennead
- Historical term for three mage triads working
together, administratively or in a casting, at the top of a hierarchy
of mages. Once referred to a single, increasingly corrupt group of
nine in the Head holding, now called the old Ennead or the last Ennead.
Since that ennead's downfall two nineyears ago, a more general term
for any three triads working a large casting together.
- Frostfire
- A minor holiday also known as Acorn Day; the
night before is Candlenight. Considered the first day of winter in
some Souther areas and on Khine, it falls in harvestmid farther north.
Candlenight is similar to our All Hallow's Eve.
- Galandra
- Galandra na Caille le Serith, the mage who founded
Eiden Myr 1476 years ago(twice nine nonned plus two nineyears). Also,
still, a mythological figure: the mother of all human beings, Eiden's
pledge, and the mother and protective spirit of mages.
- Ghardic
- The primary scribing system for messages, recordkeeping,
and trade. A straightforward syllabary that's easy to learn
- gibe
- Any of the weapons of terror assaulting the periphery
of Eiden Myr in the war of the coast. Launched by unknown enemies.
A shielder response is a retort.
- gleaning
- A visant's seeing. In practical terms, usually
the verbalizing of information uniquely knowable by a visant, and
the process of the visant acquiring that information. Equated with
the casting of a mage and the working of a touch.
- Great Trines
- Seekers have long maintained that history is
full of trines, critical connected events that come in threes, and
that there are three Great Trines, which have not yet seen their completion.
- Greenfire
- A minor holiday, sometimes known as Milk Day
(nine moons after Brightfire and Wantons' Eve) or as Lambsday. In
Souther areas and on Khine, the first day of sowmid.
- harvestmid
- Autumn (one side of midder). The three seasons
are winter, summer, and midder. In most of Eiden Myr, harvestmid runs
from Ve Eiden to Longdark. On Khine, it starts on Moonfire.
- heartlight
- A loose term for a touch's shine.
- hein-na-fhin
- "One of three." A dangerous, powerful casting
in which three mages combine into one being. Such a casting was how
Galandra's triad died, in order to create the warding that kept Eiden
Myr isolated for twice nine nonned years, and how the leading triad
of the last Ennead died, trying to subvert that warding.
- holdings
- Centers of learning and discipline. There are
three holdings, occupying the sites of the Triennead holdings of old,
each associated with a particular group: the Head (scholars), the
Haunch (runners), and the Strong Leg (menders).
- illuminator
- A mage who receives an inscribed leaf from a
wordsmith and materials (ink, pigment, brushes, pens) from a binder,
and illuminates the leaf with patterns, illustrations, and kadri.
Many illuminators are also carvers, ropemakers, weavers, portraitists,
illustrators, artists.
- kadra
- An ideographic symbol enclosed in a triangle.
Plural "kadri." Used by illuminators. Some kadri have been borrowed,
sometimes in simplified form, as symbols for various disciplines,
crafts, and groups.
- kenai
- A blademaster; also, the magecrafted longblade
(or greater blade) carried by a kenai. Plural "kenaila." Working together,
blade and blademaster have the power to destroy any material object
wielded as a weapon. Historically, the kenai blademasters were magelight's
shadow; they protected and served, taking the stain of killing upon
themselves so that mages would never have to. Over generations of
peace, most blademasters were dismissed; but the tradition continued
among a handful who continued to train prentices and pass their blades
to them at death. Now only one kenai blademaster remains.
- light
- The indication that one has the powers of a mage,
touch, or visant, visible only to others who possess the same light;
people of different lights can't see the lights in each other. The
light of mages is a golden yellow, the light of touches a coppery
red, the light of visants a silver blue.
- lightstone
- A pale, semitranslucent substance with a consistency
somewhere between wax and stone; it emits a low whispering sound.
Veins of it run through the Aralinn Mountains like mineral deposits.
Formerly called magestone, because it glows a silvery white, like
moonlight, when mages are near. Its whispers get very loud when visants
are near, and if a touch holds a piece of lightstone for a while,
it becomes malleable as warm wax.
- Longdark
- The winter solstice. Also, the nine-day festival
culminating in the shortest day of the year.
- Longlight
- The summer solstice. Also, the nine-day festival
culminating in the longest day of the year.
- mage
- A worker of magecraft. Mages cast in triads using
illuminated manuscripts, and when possible wear pewter triskeles to
identify themselves as mages. Their magelights, which show in the
sixth or seventh year (age five or six), are visible only to one another,
as a yellow or golden luminosity. Mages prentice for a dozen years,
pass a trial, then sometimes journey before settling into a triad.
Among other things, their craft controls the weather, calms earthquakes,
preserves food, wards crops against blight, fireproofs and weatherproofs
materials, and passages the dying to the spirit realm.
- the man who could not die
- A tellers' tale immensely old. Stories recount
his adventures through various imaginary realms, such as the land
beyond the mist, the land beyond the rain, the land beyond the shadows,
and so on.
- mender
- Any of a group of healers, herbalists, agriculturalists,
scribes, cartographers, engineers, and so on based in the Strong Leg
holding and roaming throughout Eiden Myr. Menders consolidate and
disseminate practical knowledge. Originally formed from remnants of
the old Ennead's warders, the menders wear white.
- midder
- Considered one season, though it occurs in part
between winter and summer and in part between summer and winter, midder
is the time between the other two seasons.
- mindlight
- A loose term for the silvery blue glow shown
by a visant. Equivalent to a mage's magelight and a touch's heartlight.
- moon
- The three ninedays in which the moon progresses
through the visible phases of waxing, full, and waning. Before the
waxing half moon, the moon is considered new; after the waning half
moon, it's considered old.
- Moonfire
- A minor holiday. In Souther areas and on Khine,
the first day of harvestmid. In Norther climes, the day the last of
the sheaves come in from the harvest, and known as Sheaf Day.
- Morlyrien
- The animating and personified spirit of water,
and more specifically the sea. Either masculine or feminine in aspect.
Sailors and those who make their living from the sea are children
of Morlyrien.
- nonned
- Nine nines (81). Twice nine nonned is 1458.
- parchment
- The skin of a sheep, lamb, goat, or kid used
as a writing material. Because its manufacture requires the death
of an animal, parchment is no longer produced in Eiden Myr and is
no longer used in magecraft, but parchment codices still exist.
- pethyar, also bet-jahr
- The next proximate level of the spirit world,
after the half-realm that haunts inhabit.
- pledge
- To pledge someone is to vow a lifetime romantic
and sexual partnership. Someone you have pledged is known as your
pledge or pledgemate. No pledgings were cast by magecraft for many
years, but they were entered into nonetheless and are respected as
though magecast.
- proxy
- Historical term for a mage who worked on behalf
of the old mage Ennead, either as a reckoner in the field or a warder
in the Holding. Proxies wore black if they were reckoners and white
if they were warders, nine-colored Ennead cloaks, and silver rings
engraved with three circles inside a triangle.
- public house
- An alehouse serves ale, a spirit house serves
distilled spirits, a tavern serves various alcoholic beverages but
no food, a public house serves food as well as alcoholic beverages,
and an inn is a public house that also lets rooms.
- reckoner
- Primarily an historical term for a proxy, trained
in the old Ennead's Holding, sent into the field to manage other mages
and report to the Holding (through the proxy circle or reckoners'
chain) on weather conditions. Reckoners cast in threes but did not
form permanent triads. They wore black.
- retort
- Any counterattack launched by the shield in the
war of the coast, but more specifically applied to the mangonels,
trebuchets, and other catapult-type contraptions they've developed
to hurl projectiles.
- runner
- A professional message bearer. A network of runners,
consisting largely of former reckoners, formed out of the remains
of the proxy circle. They continue to wear black, and are based in
the Haunch holding.
- scholar
- Formerly a resident on the Isle of Senana, where
the collections of ancient codices salvaged from the Ennead's Holding
were kept; the scholars are now based in the Head holding. Scholars
are usually seekers or former mages (especially wordsmiths), dedicated
to research, maintenance, and decipherment of the codices, their history,
and their languages. They wear gray.
- sedgeweave
- Papyrus-like writing material made of laid strips
of reeds. All magecraft is now practiced using sedgeweave, which has
led some former mages, trained in the old ways, to denigrate the current
practice of magecraft as "sedgecraft."
- seekers
- Itinerant folk, suspicious of superstition and
convention, who try to discern large truths by applying rigorous logical
inquiry to stories, legends, and empirical observations. Once considered
crackpots, they now have standing, but they continue in their previous
informal social behavior: they associate loosely with each other,
usually arguing a lot, and they put a silence on themselves when they
need time to think. Some are visants. Many are not.
- sheddown
- Down collected where it has fallen.
- shielder
- A person skilled in the use of arms and dedicated
to the protection of Eiden Myr from attack and invasion. The shield
was developed by Verlein n'Tekla from the horde of fighters with which
she stormed the old Ennead's Holding to end that Ennead's reign of
corruption. For 15 years, in the absence of the invasion expected
when Galandra's warding was broken, it functioned as a ring of sentries,
dwindling to a bare minimum of weary, lonely watchers along the shore.
Then a growing incidence of apparent mirages escalated into a deadly
attack on the entire coast, and the shield rallied to defend the shores
they had guarded. Because killing for any reason is culturally taboo,
the shield has become a place of exile. Shielders wear no particular
colors; they are distinguished by their blades and other weaponry,
and also reputedly by the stain of killing.
- shieldname
- A moniker of exile. Forbidden from ever returning
home, those who join the war of the coast abandon their family names
and acquire nicknames.
- sowmid
- Spring (the other side of midder). In most of
Eiden Myr, sowmid runs from Ve Galandra to Longlight. On Khine, it
starts on Greenfire.
- spirit days
- The dark of the moon. Spirit days do not correspond
to any phase of the moon (the moon's three phases are waxing, full,
and waning).
- spirit house
- A place where only distilled spirits are served.
- stewards
- Support staff in any of the holdings and in the
shielders' coastal none's-land. Called lightless, as any powers of
light they possess are considered negligible and cannot actuate a
casting, working, or gleaning.
- stones
- Any of various table games, played with pretty
colored stones that would be called jewels elsewhere.
- Stonetree
- A runic system. When inscribed upright as discrete
glyphs on a flat leaf, the runes look like trees, and each rune is
named for a tree (frostwood, ironwood, mistwood, bonewood, thorn,
etc.). Can also be inscribed as hash marks off a continuous horizontal
or vertical line, more in keeping with the oldest examples, which
were carved along the edges of squared or triangular stones. Also
known as Lir-Wor, for its first and last glyphs, or Lir-Geis-Saor,
for its first three glyphs. It contains no vowels.
- strophe
- A stanza or stave within a wordsmiths' verse.
- Sylfonwy
- The animating and personified spirit of air,
and more specifically the winds. Of neutral gender, though masculine
and feminine pronouns are used in reference.
- tain
- A magecrafted longknife, saxe, or messer carried
by a kenai. Also known as the lesser blade. Plural "tainla."
- three
- The number of power. There are three seasons
(winter, summer, midder), three phases of the moon (waxing, full,
waning), three base elements (earth, water, air), three base forms
(animal, vegetable, mineral), and so on.
- threft
- A yard; contraction of "threefoot."
- touch
- A person of coppery red light who can lay hands
on flesh or other matter and heal, strenghten, or craft it. Any physical
harm a touch does results in immediate physical harm to the touch.
- trees
- Flamewood is like our field maple. Ironwood is
like our beech. Stonewood is like our hornbeam. Bonewood, mistwood,
frostwood, and spiritwood trees are indigenous to Eiden Myr.
- triad
- Three mages (wordsmith, illuminator, and binder)
who form a temporary threesome to do a casting; also, three mages
cast into a permanent threesome by more experienced mages. Now, though
sometimes considered a misnomer, also a working unit formed by any
three people of the same light; but touches rarely have need to combine
their powers, and it's commonly assumed that visants cannot.
- Triennead
- A postulated historical structure of three mage
enneads, each maintaining a holding in a different region of Eiden
Myr. The current holdings occupy what are believed to be the sites
of the Triennead holdings. Why the Triennead fell, leaving only one
holding (in the Head) for many nonneds of years, is still in dispute.
- triskele
- The pewter pendant worn by a mage, shaped as
three arms curving from a solid center into a shared circle.
- Ve Eiden
- The autumnal equinox. Also the three-day celebration
with the equinox as its middle day.
- Ve Galandra
- The vernal equinox. Also the three-day celebration
with the equinox as its middle day.
- vellum
- The skin of a cow or calf used as a writing material.
Like parchment, vellum is no longer produced in Eiden Myr and is no
longer used in magecraft, but codices of bound vellum leaves still
exist.
- verse
- The poetic form used by wordsmiths in a casting.
Most castings consist of one verse, sometimes with variations. A verse
consists of any number of strophes (stanzas), although three and nine
are the most common number; a strophe consists of any number of lines
from one to nine. There are eighty-one verses in the core wordsmiths'
canon, and nine times that in the extended canon.
- visant
- A seer; a savant; someone who shows a silver-blue
light. Visants' powers are not well known. Some are reputed to be
able to read minds and foretell the future. Because they are shy and
secretive, and many appear to be quite mad, they are widely misunderstood;
because they wield a relatively new, mysterious, and possibly threatening
power, they are sometimes feared.
- vocate
- Historical term for an exceptional mage, usually
a young, newly triskeled journeymage, called to serve in the old Ennead's
Holding. Vocates trained for three turns of the moon or so—working
together, bonding, and learning to think collectively—then were
sorted into reckoners and warders, known as "earning the ring" for
the silver proxy ring they were then awarded as a sign of status.
They wore gray.
- warder
- Primarily an historical term for a proxy, trained
in the old Ennead's Holding, who remained in the Holding to assist
the Ennead in managing the weather and maintaining the physical premises
of the Holding itself. Warders formed permanent triads and wore white.
- wordsmith
- A mage who inscribes the manuscript leaf in a
casting. Wordsmiths are linguists, poets, and master calligraphers,
combining canonical verse, situational artistic improvisation, and
the shape and properties of inked glyphs to work castings actuated
by magelight.
- working
- Applied touchcraft. Sometimes a healing, sometimes
the production of a preternatural piece of physical craft such as
a carving. Also the process of touchcraft. Equated with the casting
of a mage and the gleaning of a visant.
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