The Blinding Knife (108 page)

binocle:
  A double-barreled spyglass that allows the use of both eyes for viewing objects at a distance.

Blackguard, the:
  The White’s bodyguard. The Blackguard was also instituted by Lucidonius both to prevent the Prism’s overreaching power and to guard the Prism from external threats.

blindage:
  A screen for the open deck of a ship during battle.

Blood Plains, the:
  An older collective term for Ruthgar and Blood Forest, so called since Vician’s Sin caused the Blood War between them.

Blood War, the:
  A series of battles that began after Vician’s Sin tore apart the formerly close allies of Blood Forest and Ruthgar. The war was seemingly interminable, often starting and stopping, until Gavin Guile put an end to it following the False Prism’s War. It seems there will be no further hostilities. Also known as the Blood
Wars among some scholars who differentiate between the various campaigns.

Blue-Eyed Demons, the:
  A famed company of bandits whose king Gavin Guile killed after the False Prism’s War.

blunderbuss:
  A short musket with a bell-shaped muzzle that can be loaded with shrapnel. Useful at short distances only, such as against mobs.

brightwater:
  Liquid yellow luxin.

Brightwater Wall:
  Its building was an epic feat. This wall was designed by Aheyyad Brightwater and built by Prism Guile at Garriston in just days before and while the Omnichrome’s army attacked.

Broken Man, the:
  A statue in a Tyrean orange grove. A Ptaru relic?

caleen:
  A diminutive term of address for a girl or female slave, like “girl” but used regardless of the slave’s age.

Cannon Island:
  A small island with a minimal garrison between Big Jasper and Little Jasper.

cavendish:
  Tobacco-like fruit leather.

Cerulean Sea, the:
  The sea at the center of the Seven Satrapies.

cherry glims:
  Slang for red-drafting second-year students.

chirurgeon:
  One who stitches up the wounded and studies anatomy.

Chosen, Orholam’s:
  Another term for the Prism.

Chromeria, the:
  The ruling body of the Seven Satrapies; also a term for the school where drafters are trained.

Chromeria trained:
Those who have or are training at the Chromeria school for drafting on Little Jasper Island in the Cerulean Sea. The Chromeria’s training system does not limit students based on age, but rather progresses them through each degree of training based on their ability and knowledge. So a thirteen-year-old who is extremely proficient in drafting might well be a gleam, or third-year student, while an eighteen-year-old who is just beginning work on her drafting could be a dim.

•
darks:
Technically known as “the supplicants,” these are would-be drafters who have yet to be tested for their abilities at the Chromeria or allowed admission to the school.

•
dims:
The first-year (and therefore lowest) rank of the Chromeria’s students.

•
glims:
Second-year students.

•
gleams:
Third-year students who are fairly advanced.

•
beams:
Fourth-year students.

cocca:
  A type of merchant ship, usually small.

Colors, the:
  The seven members of the Spectrum. Each originally represented a single color of the seven sacred colors, and could draft that color, and each satrapy had one representative on the Spectrum. Since the founding of the Spectrum, that practice has deteriorated as satrapies have maneuvered for power. Thus a satrapy’s representative, though usually appointed to a color corresponding to his abilities, could be appointed as Luxlord Green, but not actually draft green himself. Likewise, some of the satrapies might lose their representative, and others could have two or even three representatives on the Spectrum at a time, depending on the politics of the day. The term is for life.

color matchers:
  A term for full-spectrum superchromats. Sometimes employed as satraps’ gardeners.

color-sensitive:
  See superchromat.

color wight:
  A drafter who has broken the halo. They frequently remake their bodies with pure luxin, rejecting the Pact between drafter and society.

conn:
  A title for a mayor or leader of a village in far northern Atash; more common in Blood Forest.

Corbine Street:
  A street in Big Jasper that leads up to the Great Fountain of Karris Shadowblinder.

corregidor:
  A Tyrean term for a chief magistrate; from when Tyrea encompassed eastern Atash.

Counselor to Kings, The
:
  A manuscript, noted for its advocating ruthless treatment of opponents.

Cracked Lands, the:
  A region of broken land in the extreme west of Atash. Its treacherous terrain is only crossed by the most hardy and experienced traders.

Crater Lake:
  A large lake in southern Tyrea where the former capital of Tyrea, Kelfing, sits. The area is famous for its forests and the production of yew longbows.

Crossroads, the:
  A kopi house, restaurant, tavern, the highest-priced inn on the Jaspers, and downstairs, allegedly, a similarly priced brothel. Located near the Lily’s Stem, the Crossroads is housed in the former Tyrean embassy building, centrally located in the Embassies District for all the ambassadors, spies, and merchants trying to deal with various governments.

cubit:
  A unit of volume. One cubit is one foot high, one foot wide, and one foot deep.

culverin:
  A type of cannon, useful for firing long distances because of its heavily weighted cannonballs and long-bore tube.

dagger-pistols:
  Flintlock pistols with a blade attached, allowing the user to fire at distance and then use the blade at close range or if the weapon misfires.

Dagnu:
  God of gluttony, associated with red. See Appendix, “On the Old Gods.”

danar:
  The currency of the Seven Satrapies. One danar at an expensive inn on Jasper Island buys a cup of kopi. The average worker makes about a danar a day, while an unskilled laborer can expect to earn a half danar a day. The coins have a square hole cut in the middle, and are often carried on square-cut sticks. They can be cut in half and still hold their value.

tin danar:
Worth eight regular danar coins. A stick of tin danars usually carries twenty-five coins, that is, two hundred danars.

silver quintar:
Worth twenty danars, slightly wider than the tin danar, but only half as thick. A stick of silver quintars usually carries fifty coins, that is, one thousand danars.

den:
One-tenth of a danar.

darks:
  See Chromeria trained.

Dark Forest:
  A region within Blood Forest where pygmies reside. Decimated by the diseases brought by invaders, their numbers have never recovered, and they remain insular and often hostile.

darklight:
  Another term for paryl.

dawat:
  A Parian martial art.

Dazen’s War:
  An alternate name of the False Prism’s War, used by the victors.

Deimachia, the:
  The War of/on the Gods. A theological term for Lucidonius’s battle for supremacy against the pagan gods of the old world.

Demiurgos:
  Another term for a Mirror; a half-creator.

dey/deya:
  A Parian title, male and female respectively. A near-absolute ruler over a city and its surrounding territory.

dims:
  See Chromeria trained.

discipulae:
  The feminine plural term (also applying to groups of mixed gender) for those who study both religious and magical arts.

drafter:
  One who can shape or harness light into physical form (luxin).

drafter-tailor:
  A profession that disappeared overnight during the Guile brothers’ childhood. These tailors could, with enough will, craft luxin flexible enough to be fashioned as clothing and seal it.

Elrahee, elishama, eliada, eliphalet:
  A Parian prayer.

Embassies District:
  The Big Jasper neighborhood that is closest to the Lily’s Stem, and thus is closest to the Chromeria itself. It also houses markets and kopi houses, taverns, and brothels.

epha:
  A unit of measurement for grain, approximately thirty-three liters.

Ergion:
  An Atashian walled city a day’s travel from Idoss.

Everdark Gates, the:
  The strait connecting the Cerulean Sea to the oceans beyond. It was supposedly closed by Lucidonius, but Angari ships have been known to make it through from time to time.

evernight:
  Often a curse word, it refers to death and hell. A metaphysical or teleological reality, rather than a physical one, it represents that which will forever embrace and be embraced by void, full darkness, night in its purest, most evil form.

eye caps:
  A specialized kind of spectacles. These colored lenses fit directly over the eye sockets, glued to the skin. Like other spectacles, they enable a drafter to see through their preferred color, allowing them to draft more easily.

False Prism, the:
  Another term for Dazen Guile, who claimed to be a Prism even after his older brother Gavin had already been rightly chosen by Orholam and installed as Prism.

False Prism’s War, the:
  A common term for the war between Gavin and Dazen Guile.

Fealty to One:
  The Danavis motto.

Ferrilux:
  God of pride, associated with superviolet. See Appendix, “On the Old Gods.”

firecrystal:
  A term for sustainable sub-red, though a firecrystal doesn’t last long when exposed to air.

firefriend:
  A term sub-red drafters use for each other.

Flame of Erebos, the:
  The pin all Blackguards receive, it symbolizes sacrifice and service.

flashbomb:
  A weapon crafted by yellow drafters. It doesn’t harm so much as dazzle and distract its victims by the blinding light of evaporating yellow luxin.

flechette:
  A tiny projectile (sometimes made of luxin), with a pointed end and a vaned tail to achieve stable flight.