Hell's Foundations Quiver (142 page)

Hand of Kau-Yung
—the name applied by agents of the Inquisition to the anti-Group of Four organization established in Zion by Aivah Pahrsahn/Ahnzhelyk Phonda.

Helm Cleaver
—the name of
Seijin
Kohdy's “magic sword,” and also the name assigned by Nynian Rychtair to the covert action organization created in parallel with the Sisters of Saint Kohdy.

High-angle gun
—a relatively short, stubby artillery piece with a carriage specially designed to allow higher angles of fire in order to lob gunpowder-filled shells in high, arcing trajectories. The name is generally shortened to “angle-gun” by the gun crews themselves.

High Hallows
—a very tough, winter-hardy breed of horses.

Highland lilly
—a native Safeholdian perenial flowering plant. It grows to a height of 3 to 4 feet and bears a pure white, seven-lobed flower 8 to 9 inches across. Its flower is the symbol of martyrdom for the Church of God Awaiting.

Highland lily
—a tulip-like native Safeholdian flower, found primarily in the foothills of the Langhorne Mountains and the Mountains of Light. Its snow-white petals are tipped in dark crimson, and it is considered sacred to martyrs and those who have fought valiantly for Mother Church.

Hikousen
—the term used to describe the air cars provided to the
seijins
who fought for the Church in the War Against the Fallen.

Hill dragon
—a roughly elephant-sized draft animal commonly used on Safehold. Despite their size, hill dragons are capable of rapid, sustained movement. They are herbivores.

Holy Writ
—the seminal holy book of the Church of God Awaiting.

Hornet
—a stinging, carniverous Safeholdian insect analogue. It is over two inches long and nests in ground burrows. Its venom is highly toxic to Safeholdian life-forms, but most terrestrial life-forms are not seriously affected by it (about ten percent of all humans have a potentially lethal allergic shock reaction to it, however). Hornets are highly aggressive and territorial and instinctively attack their victims' eyes first.

Ice wyvern
—a flightless aquatic wyvern rather similar to a terrestrial penguin. Species of ice wyvern are native to both the northern and southern polar regions of Safehold.

Inner circle
—Charisian allies of Merlin Athrawes who know the truth about the Church of God Awaiting and the Terran Federation.

Insights, The
—the recorded pronouncements and observations of the Church of God Awaiting's Grand Vicars and canonized saints. They represent deeply significant spiritual and inspirational teachings, but as the work of fallible mortals do not have the same standing as the
Holy Writ
itself.

Intendant
—the cleric assigned to a bishopric or archbishopric as the direct representative of the Office of Inquisition. The intendant is specifically charged with ensuring that the Proscriptions of Jwo-jeng are not violated.

Journal of Saint Zherneau
—the journal left by Jeremy Knowles telling the truth about the destruction of the Alexandria Enclave and about Pei Shan-wei.

Jungle dragon
—a somewhat generic term applied to lowland dragons larger than hill dragons. The gray jungle dragon is the largest herbivore on Safehold.

Kau-yungs
—the name assigned by men of the Army of God to antipersonnel mines, and especially to claymore-style directional mines, in commemoration of the “pocket nuke” Commander Pei Kau-yung used against Eric Langhorne's adherents following the destruction of the Alexandria Enclave. Later applied to all land mines.

Keitai
—the term used to describe the personal coms provided to the
seijins
who fought for the Church in the War Against the Fallen.

Kercheef
—a traditional headdress worn in the Kingdom of Tarot which consists of a specially designed bandana tied across the hair.

Knights of the Temple Lands
—the corporate title of the prelates who govern the Temple Lands. Technically, the Knights of the Temple Lands are
secular
rulers who simply happen to also hold high Church office. Under the letter of the Church's law, what they may do as the Knights of the Temple Lands is completely separate from any official action of the Church. This legal fiction has been of considerable value to the Church on more than one occasion.

Kraken
(1)—generic term for an entire family of maritime predators. Krakens are rather like sharks crossed with octopi. They have powerful, fish-like bodies; strong jaws with inward-inclined, fang-like teeth; and a cluster of tentacles just behind the head which can be used to hold prey while they devour it. The smallest, coastal krakens can be as short as three or four feet; deepwater krakens up to fifty feet in length have been reliably reported, and there are legends of those still larger.

Kraken
(2)—one of three pre-Merlin heavy-caliber naval artillery pieces. The great kraken weighed approximately 3.4 tons and fired a forty-two-pound round shot. The royal kraken weighed four tons. It also fired a forty-two-pound shot but was specially designed as a long-range weapon with less windage and higher bore pressures. The standard kraken was a 2.75-ton, medium-range weapon which fired a thirty-five-pound round shot approximately 6.2 inches in diameter.

Kraken oil
—originally, oil extracted from kraken and used as fuel, primarily for lamps, in coastal and seafaring realms. Most lamp oil currently comes from sea dragons (
see
below), rather than actually being extracted from kraken, and, in fact, the sea dragon oil actually burns much more brightly and with much less odor. Nonetheless, oils are still ranked in terms of “kraken oil” quality steps.

Kyousei hi
—“great fire” or “magnificent fire,” from the
Holy Writ.
The term used to describe the brilliant nimbus of light the Operation Ark command crew generated around their air cars and skimmers to “prove” their divinity to the original Safeholdians.

Langhorne's Tears
—a quartet of alpine lakes in the Mountains of Light. Langhorne's Tears were reportedly known as Langhorne's Joy before the destruction of Armageddon Reef.

Langhorne's Watch
—the 31-minute period which falls immediately after midnight. It was inserted by the original “Archangels” to compensate for the extra length of Safehold's 26.5-hour day. It is supposed to be used for contemplation and giving thanks.

Levelers
—a reformist/revolutionary Mainland movement dedicated to overturning all social and economic differences in society.

Marsh wyvern
—one of several strains of Safeholdian wyverns found in saltwater and freshwater marsh habitats.

Mask lizard
—Safeholdian equivalent of a chameleon. Mask lizards are carnivores, about two feet long, which use their camouflage ability to lure small prey into range before they pounce.

Master Traynyr
—a character out of the Safeholdian entertainment tradition. Master Traynyr is a stock character in Safeholdian puppet theater, by turns a bumbling conspirator whose plans always miscarry and the puppeteer who controls all of the marionette “actors” in the play.

Messenger wyvern
—any one of several strains of genetically modified Safeholdian wyverns adapted by Pei Shan-wei's terraforming teams to serve the colonists as homing pigeon equivalents. Some messenger wyverns are adapted for short-range, high-speed delivery of messages, whereas others are adapted for extremely long range (but slower) message deliveries.

Mirror twins
—Safeholdian term for Siamese twins.

Moarte subită
—the favored martial art of the Terran Federation Marines, developed on the colony world of Walachia.

Monastery of Saint Zherneau
—the mother monastery and headquarters of the Brethren of Saint Zherneau, a relatively small and poor order in the Archbishopric of Charis.

Monkey lizard
—a generic term for several species of arboreal, saurian-looking marsupials. Monkey lizards come in many different shapes and sizes, although none are much larger than an Old Earth chimpanzee and most are considerably smaller. They have two very human-looking hands, although each hand has only three fingers and an opposable thumb, and the “hand feet” of their other forelimbs have a limited grasping ability but no opposable thumb. Monkey lizards tend to be excitable,
very
energetic, and talented mimics of human behaviors.

Mountain ananas
—a native Safeholdian fruit tree. Its spherical fruit averages about four inches in diameter with the firmness of an apple and a taste rather like a sweet grapefruit. It is very popular on the Safeholdian mainland.

Mountain spike-thorn
—a particular subspecies of spike-thorn, found primarily in tropical mountains. The most common blossom color is a deep, rich red, but the white mountain spike-thorn is especially prized for its trumpet-shaped blossom, which has a deep, almost cobalt-blue throat, fading to pure white as it approaches the outer edge of the blossom, which is, in turn, fringed in a deep golden yellow.

Narwhale
—a species of Safeholdian sea life named for the Old Earth species of the same name. Safeholdian narwhales are about forty feet in length and equipped with twin horn-like tusks up to eight feet long. They live in large pods or schools and are not at all shy or retiring. The adults of narwhale pods have been known to fight off packs of kraken.

Nearoak
—a rough-barked Safeholdian tree similar to an Old Earth oak tree. It is found in tropic and near tropic zones. Although it does resemble an Old Earth oak, it is an evergreen and seeds using “pine cones.”

Nearpalm
—a tropical Safeholdian tree which resembles a terrestrial royal palm except that a mature specimen stands well over sixty feet tall. It produces a tart, plum-like fruit about five inches in diameter.

Nearpalm fruit
—the plum-like fruit produced by the nearpalm. It is used in cooking and eaten raw, but its greatest commercial value is as the basis for nearpalm wine.

Nearpoplar
—a native Safeholdian tree, very fast-growing and straight-grained, which is native to the planet's temperate zones. It reaches a height of approximately ninety feet.

Neartuna
—one of several native Safeholdian fish species, ranging in length from approximately three feet to just over five.

NEAT
—Neural Education and Training machine. The standard means of education in the Terran Federation.

Nest doll
—a Harchongian folk art doll, similar to the Russian Matryoshka dolls in which successively smaller dolls are nested inside hollow wooden dolls.

New model
—a generic term increasingly applied to the innovations in technology (especially war-fighting technology) introduced by Charis and its allies.
See
new model kraken.

New model kraken
—the standardized artillery piece of the Imperial Charisian Navy. It weighs approximately 2.5 tons and fires a thirty-pound round shot with a diameter of approximately 5.9 inches. Although it weighs slightly less than the old kraken (
see
above) and its round shot is twelve percent lighter, it is actually longer ranged and fires at a higher velocity because of reductions in windage, improvements in gunpowder, and slightly increased barrel length.

Northern spine tree
—a Safeholdian evergreen tree, native to arctic and subarctic regions. Spine tree branches grow in a sharply pointed, snow-shedding shape but bear the sharp, stiff spines from which the tree takes its name.

Nynian Rychtair
—the Safeholdian equivalent of Helen of Troy, a woman of legendary beauty, born in Siddarmark, who eventually married the Emperor of Harchong.

Offal lizard
—a carrion-eating scavenger which fills the niche of an undersized hyena crossed with a jackal. Offal lizards will take small living prey, but they are generally cowardly and are regarded with scorn and contempt by most Safeholdians.

Oil tree
—a Safeholdian plant species which grows to an average height of approximately thirty feet. The oil tree produces large, hairy pods which contain many small seeds very rich in natural plant oils. Dr. Pei Shan-wei's terraforming teams genetically modified the plant to increase its oil productivity and to make it safely consumable by human beings. It is cultivated primarily as a food product, but it is also an important source of lubricants. In inland realms, it is also a major source of lamp oil.

Operation Ark
—a last-ditch, desperate effort mounted by the Terran Federation to establish a hidden colony beyond the knowledge and reach of the xenophobic Gbaba. It created the human settlement on Safehold.

Pasquale's Basket
—a voluntary collection of contributions for the support of the sick, homeless, and indigent. The difference between the amount contributed voluntarily and that required for the Basket's purpose is supposed to be contributed from Mother Church's coffers as a first charge upon tithes received.

Pasquale's Grace
—euthanasia. Pasqualate healers are permitted by their vows to end the lives of the terminally ill, but only under tightly defined and stringently limited conditions.

Persimmon fig
—a native Safeholdian fruit which is extremely tart and relatively thick-skinned.

Prong lizard
—a roughly elk-sized lizard with a single horn which branches into four sharp points in the last third or so of its length. Prong lizards are herbivores and not particularly ferocious.