NEW TERMS GENERATED FOR THE STORY “DERIZAN’S JOURNEY”
Term List – this list is formatted in the same way as is the Descending Road Glossary. New terms will eventually be incorporated in the full Glossary.
A
Aeben Teren
the Time Beings, servant aspects of the Creator that grant access for conscious spirits to all scales of time in our universe, from the Planck time of 5.39×10−44 seconds to the duration of the life of a proton, over 1031 Earth years. Ben is one of these.
B
bally, bally rifle
a ballistic rifle used by the militias, the City soldiers, and the corpos (the armed hires of corporations). Useful where beam weapons, more easily detected, more unpredictable in their effects, present threats to their users.
Ben
a Time Being. See Aeben Teren.
Bunjaian
a City militiaman sent to track down and detain deserters from the ranks.
Burunios
a small city on the road between the Great City and the northeastern wilderness.
Burunisil
a small military town on the road between the City and the North Mines.
C
Colline
refers to another person belonging to the same coll, or major clan, of the peoples of Tarnus.
E
Escaondar
a mid-sized underground city in the far north. It is poorly-explored and lightly populated, and it holds many artifacts and their secrets.
Estasil
a town on the rail route from the City, with a road leading to the small northeastern city of Burunios.
.
F
Fiarsinhilh
An alien presence.
.
forevergreen
a small, shrublike, tenacious conifer found in and above the upper tree-line of the whip-pines in the Muathen mountains. A forevergreen is barely recognizable as a tree at all – a typical specimen broadens out much more than it grows upward, so that an observer passing near one of them might easily mistake it for the native rock in which it roots tightly, except for the ring of scattered, stunted limbs bearing profusions of its fat spatulate leaves. These trees have rings ancient beyond the long ages preceding the arrival of humans, but genetic examination of the rings reveals several sudden shifts in their DNA composition over centuries of time after the Colonization, suggesting some kind of genetic-engineering intervention.
Fornonck
a little village at the northwestern fringe of the South Spine Ridge, occupied mostly by the Gellin Sintherou Coll people and an assortment of others, including escaped andros and even a few deserters from the hated Argazindar Coll. It is the easternmost settlement in the great Sleethe forest, with roads and trails fanning out into the trees to other sites from north to west.
G
Galanaisa
a woman of Gellin Sintherou Coll working on the refugee pipeline in the Sleethe forest..
garhawk
a birdlike predator creature, in mountain habitats, akin to the larger migratory orney. Their beaks are toothed. The span of a mature garhawks’s wings is about a meter and a half. They prey on marmots of all sizes such as the sinimalti, on the caolu birds they find lower down, and occasionally on newborn queeves (mountain sheep).
gellincarn
the alien name for a spiritual guardian or protector, given human language shape using coll-name roots.
Great Curl Ridge
a range of high mountains running west from the north end of the Soth Spine Ridge and curling north and then east tracing a ‘C’ with the North Mines at its top..
Guinban
an Arcus Coll deserter from the City militia, of the Yaviures clan, son of Garvea.
H
Hard Road, The
A very-long, very-old highway, broad and usable but heaved, flooded, and broken in places, that runs from Purusil.on the western seacoast through Kiliasil northeastward, passing through the northern sprawl of the Sleethe’s pines and continuing to the North Mines at the edge of the mountains. This road continues on northeastward from the mines toward the underground city of Escaondar, but that stretch is difficult, with many breaches, gaps, and rockfalls.
I
Inkurisar
An Arcus Coll insurgent working to free victims of the forced marches of the City’s relocations. His wife Nakiran calls him ‘Inkui’.
J
Jaman
A corporate soldier, or corpo, serving ArCorp, the great technological and industrial combine under its leader Arlen, with power over much of the City.
K
Kaxukinil
A designation for the mighty forest of Sirathen that runs along the base of the Great South Fall.
.
Kiliasil
A small western city on the Hard Road from the North Mines to Purusil.
L
lakepuss
a feral, swamp-dwelling feline often found living in human homes and farms and feeding on vermin. Very similar to the housecats of ancient Earth in size, temperament, and appearance.
M
Mentrianos
An Arcus Coll fugitive, husband to Tellina..
Mountain wolf
A top predator in the Muathen mountain ranges, hinting the voltiari goats. Similar to the wolves of ancient Earth, but bearing coats with an outer layer of leaflike hairs that repel moisture. Their voices are highly varied. They seem to have minds capable of imaging.
Munizkara
An Arcus Coll woman, fleeing the relocation, sisters with Nakiran.
N
Nakiran
Inkurisar’s wife.
North Line
a long ridge of mountains in the far north of Muathen that begins in the west, north of the Northwest Marshes, ranging east to where it divides into a ridge passing north of the strange city of Escaondar, and a ridge bending south to the North Mines, where it merges with the Great Curl near the North Mines.
O
Oubuson
a creature of consuming power.
P
Piotras
A Darko Hejj Coll deserter from the City militia..
Q
queeve
a mountain sheep common in Muathen’s upper-level mountans. They are easily domesticated, and provide a wool far superior to that of domestic sheep. Their climbing ability helps keep them safe from ranging predators in the high snows and rock faces.
R
Revealer. Revealers
a Revealer is one of a series of beings appearing among the human of Tarnus, in human likeness, but bringing to the societies of an era and area a Revelation from the greater world, representing the will and command of the Creator. The history of human life on Tarnus has been shaped and advanced by these beings, from the beginnings to the present. Here is a list of them and their places in our history.
Revealer |
Revealer Born |
Revealer Coll |
Gender |
Dennasa |
291 NC |
Fandarinn |
F |
Arcalio |
402 NC |
Arcus |
M |
Kaiya |
1523 NC |
Astran Terxil |
M |
Yuyan Jia (Seer) |
1750 NC |
Kai Ren Hau |
M |
Tonn Jikanu |
2201 NC |
Gellin Sintherou |
M |
Tintirex |
3033 NC |
Darko Hejj |
M |
Nurrinais |
3966 NC |
Argazindar |
M |
Pruquinis |
5451 NC |
Incarnastar |
F |
Gonissan |
6140 NC |
Novander Wye |
F |
Bibbiyan |
8398 NC |
Sinantro |
M |
Samantine |
10134 NC |
many |
F |
S
Samantine
The daughter of Tellina and Mentrianos..
shereking
a feline predator of the plains, the largest of its kind, nearly the size and weight of a mid-sized autocart.
sinimalt
a marmot of the Muathen mountains and many other arid settings. There are many different species of sinimalt, but they interbreed so commonly that their morphological, anatomical, and metabolic variations give them some adaptive advantages of accommodation. They feed on all kinds of seeds and fruit, even the nut-hard seeds of the forevergreens in the mountain heights. They are a prime food source for garhawks (in the mountains) and the fehey (lower elevations). Mountain-dwellers among the colls domesticate the larger strains for both food and fur.
Sleethe, the
The greatest of the forests of Muathen extending from the South Spine Ridge in the southwest to the Great Western Bay. The road between Kiliasil and the North Mines traverses the.northwest breadth of the Sleethe.
South Spine Ridge
The high ridge of peaks, running from north to south, that separate Burunisil and the City from the Sleethe forests.
T
Terrenci
A mining engineer of the Gellin Sintherou.
Tempadastra
The great plan of the Creator for human life on Tarnus.
Time Being
See Aeben Teren.
Turtuz
A guard at the Gellin Sintherou.complex. He is a deserter from the Argazindar Coll, a paramilitary force used by the corps for extralegal assassination, murder, sabotage, and terrorism.
V
voltiar
an agile mountain-dwelling herbivore, a mid-sized goat of the heights found in the Muathen ranges along the whip-pine tree line. Distinguished by having one long, large, sharp horn, usually the left one, and one small one opposite, the large horn growing toward the cranial centerline balancing the head evenly, narwhal- or unicorn-style. Voltiari feed on the pine fruit and the chillberries further down. They are the main prey for the mountain wolves.
W
whip-pine
a large, almost-bushy conifer found in the lower ranges of Muathen’s mountain ranges. These big trees, named for their soft, narrow, half-meter-long needles, grow to fifty meters in height and thirty from side to side. They bear squat, round cones that swell during maturation to give edible fruit between the cone’s bracts (The male trees bear fragile pollen sacs instead of fruit.)