The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (59 page)

kapar –
A watertight cement made from distilled pine bitumens, pumice and other fine ground stones set with natron; also developed as an artificial rock and pavement by the prediluvian ancients. It is transliterated into the “gopher” of the gopher-wood ark mentioned in Genesis 6 and a less
advanced form of it was used by the Sumerians, where it was signified by the cuneiform letters for
KPR
. The
kapar
process (in the story) was used in conjunction with conventional wood-hardening techniques by the technology of this novel and produced a leather-thin petrified shell on the wood as well as an additional shell from the
kapar
cement. Hence “gopher-wood” is not a type of tree but a specially processed and hardened wood. This is also the Semitic root of the Hebrew
kippur
, as in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This word came to mean
covering
as in a covering over sin.

Khavilakki –
The pre-Flood biblical land of Havilah from Genesis 2. It was known for its gold, lapis lazuli, and onyx. Not to be confused with the post-Flood Havilah or
Haweilan
in what is now Saudi Arabia.

Kherub, Kherubim,
and
Kherubar –
A representation of biblical Cherubim, which were originally visualized by the ancient Assyrians as winged lions with man-like heads and later by the Hebrews as messengers of Yahweh.

Khumi –
The youngest son of A’Nu-Ahki. The biblical Ham.

Ki –
The earth, as in the sum of all lands, in Sumerian.

Kush –
The land mentioned in Genesis 2 through and around which the river Gihon flowed. Not to be confused with the post-Flood Cush that became the father of the Ethiopians and others.

L’Mekku –
The Lemech of Cain’s line in Genesis 4 – not to be confused with Lemech the father of Noah.

Leviathan –
The constellation
Cetus,
and one of the
Basilisk’s
chief vassals. Also any large flesh-eating marine reptile of the
Plesiosaur
or
Mosasaur
variety. Some had long necks; others (like the
Mosasaur
) were more fish-like or crocodilian in shape.

Ley of the Brothers Lost –
The epic of Qayin’s murder of Heh’Bul (in the story), a version of which survives in a Mosaic redaction as the part of Genesis 4 that tells the story of Cain and Abel.

Lilitua, the Lost Daughter –
The planet we call Mercury, named for the wife of Qayin, who founded the great eastern and northern civilizations of the pre-Deluge world (in the story). She is remembered in Hebrew tradition, albeit with much distortion, as Lilith, the wife who rejected Adam and was doomed to wander, and in Sumero-Akkadian myth as the Lili demons that seek sexual contact with men. I have instead made her the eldest daughter of Adam and Eve, the wife of Cain, which makes more redemptive sense.

Lumekki –
The biblical Lemech of Seth’s line and father of Noah.

Mnemosynae
and
Lethae
– Priestess psycho-technicians of Aztlan. The titans Mnemosyne and Lethe of Greek Mythology, who had power over memory and forgetfulness.

Muhet’Usalaq –
The biblical Methuselah.

Nae-fillim –
Common plural of
Nae-fil
, fictional root word of the real Hebrew
nephil
and
nephilim
. It means
fallen one
and is closely associated with the Greek
gigantes
, which means
earth-born
or
giant
.

Nhod –
The desolate region where Qayin was doomed to wander. A falling star blasted the area and poisoned the soil there (see the apocryphal Book of Jasher). The pre-Flood biblical land of Nod (see Genesis 4).

Orchard of Aeden –
The biblical Garden of Eden.

orichalcum –
A gold alloy tinted towards the red, though not copper. In Plato’s Criteus and Timaeus, the smiths of Atlantis forged
orichalcum
.

Pandura –
Techno-priestess of Aztlan. The Pandora of Greek mythology.

Pisunu –
The pre-Flood River Pishon of Genesis 2.

Prime Zaqen –
The chief patriarchal elder of a city-state in Seti.

Promised Seed
or
Woman’s Seed, the
–
The messianic deliverer promised at the dawn of time. Often viewed in A’Nu-Ahki’s culture (and later) as the greatest of monster slayers, who would suffer a poisoned wound but vanquish his serpentine or dragon foe in the end. The pure version of that promise is preserved in Genesis 3:15. Many ancient civilizations had corrupted versions of it
reflected in their mythologies and views of the constellations. The deeper spiritual dimension of this figure was often lost upon the people of A’Nu-Ahki’s generation. The ultimate fulfillment of this archetype comes in the death, resurrection, and Second Coming of Christ.

Psydonu
– A fallen Watcher and his chief
titan
son in Aztlan. He is remembered in Greek myth as Poseidon.

Pyra T’Qinna
– Novice priestess granddaughter of Pandura. The Pyrhha, daughter of Pandora in Greek mythology, who marries Deucalion and survives the Greek
version
of the global flood.

Q’Enukki –
The Great Seer and ancestor of A’Nu-Ahki. A representation of the biblical Enoch of Seth’s line who was “translated” and taken alive to be with God. (See Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11.)

Q’Unukku –
The biblical Enoch son of Cain, for whom an early city was named. Not to be confused with the Enoch of Seth’s line or the Great Seer.

Qayin
– The biblical Cain, who murdered Abel.

quickfire –
What we today would call electricity.

Ram, the –
What is today called the constellation of
Aries
.

Seraf
and
Serafim –
A lower order of heavenly being associated with the winged fire-serpent and the fallen Watcher Samyaza. Biblically, a
seraph
or
seraphim
, which is a form of angelic being with a fiery aspect.

Seti –
The biblical Seth, son of Adam.

Shining One –
The biblical Lucifer that became the Serpent or Satan.

skel –
A weight measure etymologically related to the later Hebrew
shekel
.

sons of God, the –
An Old Testament term for angels;
bene elohim
. In
The Windows of Heaven
it is another term for the fallen Watchers of the Second Insurrection led by Samyaza and Uzaaz’El—The Shamhazai and Azazel of ancient extra-biblical Hebrew legend. This term also shows up in a modified form as
sons of the gods
, though this version of the name speaks more of the hybrid offspring of the
bene elohim
of Genesis. Lumekki, who uses the “sons of the gods” version in speaking of the Watchers in Book 1, was probably doing so because he had picked up the habit from a non-Setiim source during the foreign wars he fought. Because
elohim
(God) is in the plural form it can be translated either way. Strictly speaking
,
however, the sons of God are not the same as the giants or
nephilim
they
are said to have
spawned.
Also referred to as “sons of A’Nu”

Star Signs, the –
The constellations of the zodiac and in this novel series, their original divinely inspired interpretations. The interpretations were later so grossly corrupted and confused that the zodiac became a form of idolatry.

Straticon –
A military rank at which strategic level decisions are made. Loosely similar to a modern general or field marshal.

Sword of the Breaker –
The comet of A’Nu-Ahki, observed to approach from out of the Dragon Breaker constellation, which we call
Perseus
.

Tacticon –
An army officer in charge of tactical level decisions, loosely analogous to a colonel.

Tiamatu –
Root of the Sumero-Babylonian water monster
Tiamat
, out of whose divided carcass
Marduk
supposedly created the present world after slaying the beast. In this story,
Tiamatu
is also the former fifth planet, the remains of which make up many of the asteroid fields and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. While this theory is not popular any longer among many astronomers who hold to the various accretion theories of planetary development, accretion theories themselves have serious difficulties with the laws of physics and have not yielded good scientific predictions about the nature of planetary bodies. (See recommended reading list after
Book 4
.) The 5
th
Planet is only one of many Catastrophist theories and not a necessary agent for Dr. John Baumgardner’s Runaway Subduction model of the Flood, which looks at other causal possibilities.

titan –
A term for the hybrid offspring of the Watchers and human women before the cataclysm. The term arises out of Greek mythology, where it was a class of god or giant that preceded the pantheon led by Zeus and Hera. Of course, even within Greek
mythology,
there are contradictory versions of who Zeus is and the
titans
are. The Greeks also had a deluge in their legends in which Deucalion and his wife Pyrhha escaped in a large wooden box. The
titans
lived before that deluge. The word
satan
is linguistically derived from a
common
root word with
titan
:
titan
–
thaitan
–
shaitan
–
satan
.

Tubaal-qayin –
The biblical Tubal-Cain, father of the metallurgy of hard common metals like bronze and iron. He is also called
T’Vul-qayin
in the Aztlan dialect and
‘Baul-qayin
in Kush.
A memory of him in pagan myth as
Hephaestus
among the Greeks and Vulcan among the Romans.

‘
tween-ager
–
A pre-Flood adolescent. Because of the difference in lifespans, the story has youngsters hit puberty at around ages 25 to 35 and a biological adolescence that lasts to age 55 or 60.

Ufratsi –
The pre-Flood River Euphrates of Genesis 2, which probably had no geographic correlation with the post-Flood river of that name.

Na’Amiha
–
A’Nu-Ahki’s second wife. The biblical Naamah, sister of Tubal-Cain from Genesis 4.

Underworld –
The place of the dead. Analogous to the Hebrew
sheol
or the Greek
hades
and
tartarus
.

unicorn
and
tricorn
– Considered quasi-dragons, and to be domesticated, these creatures were used as heavy pack beasts and armored cavalry mounts; though many also remained in the wild. Their fossils are the ceratopsian dinosaurs, the unicorn being
Monoclonius
and the tricorn being
Triceratops
. The word
unicorn
is actually of more recent Roman origin (as is the word
dragon
, from the Saxon
draugl
). I used it in the story with poetic license.

U’Sumi –
A’Nu-Ahki’s middle son. The biblical Shem.

Virgin, the –
The constellation
Virgo
, which represents the woman who would bring forth the Promised Seed to deliver humanity from the Curse.

Watchers –
An order of what Jews and Christians would call angels. In terms of fallen angels, a synonym for the “sons of God” that rebelled before the Noahic Flood and married human women to produce corrupt offspring called
giants
or
titans
. These creatures are distinct from the original angelic rebels, though only in that they fell a little bit later (according to the Enoch Manuscripts) and were guilty of taking human women as their wives in some sense. The Bible gives no chronology of exactly when the angels fell or if they all fell at the same time or not. I do not claim that the Enoch accounts (which are not
canonical Scripture) are necessarily accurate records. They seem to suggest that the pre-Flood world was a time of flux for those we would call angels. Some distortions in the texts seem pretty serious, though there is also some interesting history and legend there. Because of the apparent silence of the Bible on the exact chronology of angelic rebellion, I have gone with some of the more detailed “Enoch” version of these events in as much as they don’t contradict what the Scriptures do say on the subject.