foster mothers the text gives two foster mothers (Silk’s and Blood’s, both nameless), a quasi-foster mother (Auk’s Maytera Mint), and a possible foster mother (Swallow’s teacher).
Fraus a word uttered by Spider as a tessera (IV, chap. 8, 152).
Myth: (Roman) goddess of treachery.
French a foreign language used in passages of the Chrasmologic Writings (IV, chap. 5, 89).
Fulmar “member of Incus’s circle of black mechanics” (II, list; II, chap. 10, 257).
Zoology: a gull-like bird.
G
Galago, Councillor “a surviving member of the Ayuntamiento” (IV, list), and its expert on diplomacy and foreign affairs. First mentioned (II, chap. 5, 131); passed in a corridor on the submarine, where he is deep in conversation with Potto (II, chap. 12, 316).
Zoology: bush baby, primate.
Gam Nettle’s pet name for her grandmother (IV, chap. 16, 353).
gammadion the voided cross, a religious symbol worn by augurs. An instructor once told Silk that “There was a secret in the empty, X-shaped space . . . a mystery far beyond that of the detachable arms . . . used to test and tighten sacred connections” (I, chap. 4, 112), but what that secret was, the man never said. In addition to being a symbol, it is also a tool for testing, adjusting, and repairing electrical devices, primarily sacred windows, but also smaller “glasses” (terminals) and even chems. Silk uses his in “testing connections with an angled arm” (I, chap. 2, 43) and later to “remove the dead man’s face plate” (II, chap. 10, 263). Incus uses his to work on reviving Hammerstone (III, chap. 2, 56).
Ganymedia a minor god (I, chap. 6, 142). One icon of a pair in Blood’s villa (the other is Catamitus).
Myth: (Greek) another name for Hebe, a spring goddess, a goddess of young people. Ganymedia was a Cup Bearer for the Olympian Gods.
Gaur “one of Urus’s convict crew” (III, list) in the tunnels (III, chap. 3, 110).
Zoology: Bibos, the large wild ox of India.
Gayfeather “one of the older (pubescent) girls at the palaestra” (III, list; III, chap. 3, 94).
Botany: the common name for Liatris scariosa and spicata, an ornamental plant with purple flowers shaped like stringy stars. Also known as blazing-star, and related to aster.
Gecko, Captain an officer on Oosik’s staff (III, chap. 5, 206), probably the “captain” at Oosik’s building during Silk’s stay (III, chap. 5, 167). He writes Silk’s speech (III, chap. 8, 296).
Zoology: a lizard.
Gelada “the bowman in Urus’s crew who shoots at Chenille” (III, list; mentioned III, chap. 3, 108; met 118). Mandrill is his cousin. Auk kills him shortly after meeting him. See also ELODIA.
Zoology: Theropithecus, genus of large, baboon-like primates of southern Abyssinia.
Gens a foreign city where, according to rumor, the people have tails (II, chap. 5, 131).
Latin: a clan or sept; a number of families united by the ties of a supposed common origin.
Gib bouncer at (and part owner of) the Cock (I, chap. 3, 79). A giant of a man, he is one of Mint’s volunteers in the big charge, along with Goral, Kingcup, Marmot, and Yapok, as witnessed by Scleroderma. During the charge his horse is shot out from under him, and in falling he breaks his arm (IV, chap. 11, 216). He later shows up at the Grand Manteion. He is likely on the first lander, the one that left from Mainframe and went to planet Green with Auk and Chenille.
Zoology: tomcat; common house cat.
Commentary: when Orchid asks her girls about the owner of the murder weapon as being a man named Cat or something like that, Gib would be one of the likely suspects.
gibbe castrate, said usually of cats (I, chap. 1, 24).
Ginger “one of the older (pubescent) girls at the palaestra” (III, list). First seen (I, chap. 2, 47), she loses a hand in the fighting (III, chap. 10, 336). Later she is in the group heading for the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369).
Botany: the rhizome of the tropical plant Zingiber officinale.
gipon a tunic, frequently worn under the hauberk (III, chap. 3, 118).
gleaned gathered or picked up in small quantities (I, chap. 4, 99).
gods of the Whorl there are nine major gods of the Whorl, being Pas, his wife, and their children. This set seems to have been crafted in the pattern of the Olympian gods of ancient Greece, but beneath this surface it seems that the more significant patterns come from the pre-Olympian Titans and the gods of ancient Egypt. (For more on this aspect, see TYPHON THE FIRST.)
In addition to the nine major gods, there are a few dozen minor gods. When Silk tells Orchid about Mainframe, the home of the gods, he mentions that Pas invited “a few friends to share it with him” and his immediate family (I, chap. 10, 248). The Chrasmologic Writings mentions 63 gods (I, chap. 3, 66), which implies that there are 54 minor gods in the Vironese faith. Still, it seems that the Outsider, by definition, does not live in Mainframe—his is the realm “outside.” So the Outsider, in his various names, cannot be counted among the population of gods living in Mainframe.
Minor Gods
• Ah Lah—another name for the Outsider.
• Calendar gods—eleven in addition to Nemesis.
• Catamitus—cupbearer of the gods.
• Dark Son of Thyone—god of wine (Dionysus).
• Fraus—goddess of treachery.
• Ganymedia—goddess of spring.
• Kypris—goddess of love.
• Nemesis—goddess of vengeance.
• The Outsider—god of the realm outside the Whorl.
• Thetis—goddess of lost travelers.
• Thyone—goddess of fortune-telling.
Gold Street one of the roads into the Palatine. It has the following locations: Liana’s barricade on the flats (III, chap. 6, 249); the jewelry shop on the slope; and the intersection 100 paces uphill from the jeweler’s, where a talus guards. Gold might have one or more of the following: Ermine’s Hotel; the Grand Manteion (IV, chap. 11, 206); and/or the Prolocutor’s Palace.
Goldcrest “a former classmate of Nettle’s” (II, list). First seen riding Silk’s shoulder after the ball game (I, chap. 1, 12), later in the group heading for the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369).
Zoology: golden crested wren.
Goral “an unemployed hostler, one of Mint’s volunteers” (III, list), with her in the charge (III, chap. 5, 162). See also GIB, KINGCUP, MARMOT, SCLERODERMA, and YAPOK.
Zoology: Naemorhedus, genus of ruminants in the family Bovidae, includes gorals, several species having certain features of both goats and antelopes. Grazing in China to the southern Himalayas, the goral is rather similar to the chamois.
Gosseyplum a student of the palaestra who lives in a building on Hat Street where one of the first Silk slogans was chalked (II, chap. 1, 25; not on lists).
Botany: a not uncommon typo for “gossypium,” a genus of shrubs in the mallow family, the cotton plants included. For example, a ship called “Gosseyplum” was struck by lightning in New Orleans on July 27, 1842.
Grian “the Flier who escaped the Trivigauntis” (IV, list), a male in the team sent by Tartaros to find Auk (IV, chap. 5, 83). He alone escaped, by launching back up into the air (86). See also AER, MEAR, SCIATHAN, and SUMAIRE.
Irish: [GREE-an] sun, solar.
Grison one of Blood’s drivers (I, chap. 1, 21). Willet is another driver.
Zoology: genus of Central and South American terrestrial weasel-like mammals.
Guan “the man with the slug gun, a subordinate of Spider’s” (IV, list; IV, chap. 6, 109). Guan kicks Mint in the thigh (IV, chap. 8, 156). Later she takes the needler from his corpse and gives it to Remora (155).
Zoology: a South American bird.
Gulo, Patera “a young augur” (II, list), “Silk’s acolyte” (III, list), who is sent by Remora to spy on Silk. Gulo graduated with a prize in hierologics. Remora offers Gulo the Prolocutorship of any other city beside that of Viron, and settles on Palustria. Gulo takes the note Hyacinth sent
to Silk and shows it to Remora (II, chap. 7, 185). Incus jokes that Gulo is in love with Silk (198). At the manteion, Gulo gets Pike’s room (III, chap. 4, 127).
Gulo goes around Tarsday night, chalking up Silk slogans (III, chap. 2, 53). Later he joins Mint’s volunteers, where he leads several thousand rebels (III, chap. 9, 328) and captures his own uncle, a military man.
Zoology: wolverine (from Latin word for “glutton”).
Gurnard friend of Kalan, he was going to knife Gib at the Cock tavern, but Gib clubbed him (I, chap. 3, 81). Not on lists.
Zoology: one of the marine fishes of the genus Trigla or family Triglidae, characterized by a large spiny head with mailed cheeks and three free pectoral rays.
H
Hadale, Major “the officer who places Saba under arrest” (IV, list) on the airship (IV, chap. 9, 179). She left the airship with most of the pterotroopers to capture a caravan (IV, chap. 15, 328).
Arabic: cooing.
Hammerstone, Corporal the chem corporal from H company (IV, chap. 10, 186), also known as “Stony.” He seems to have fallen in love with a chem maid named “Moly” back in the earliest days of the Whorl. While he slept for centuries in storage, she lived out her life.
He meets Silk in the tunnels, turns him over to the Councillors. Later he encounters Auk, Chenille, and Incus in the tunnels, and Incus reprograms him such that he becomes “Incus’s dearest friend” (IV, list).
He marries “Moly” (Marble/Rose). When Marble/Rose is taken prisoner in the airship raid (IV, ch. 13), Hammerstone goes to Ermine’s to talk to Siyuf. He explains how Potto, Mint, Bison, and Oosik have plans to wipe out the Trivigauntis before reinforcements can arrive. He urges them to release Silk who can stop this attack. But the airship has already left, so Hammerstone’s squad leader Sand takes Siyuf and Violet hostage to exchange for Marble and Silk (IV, chap. 14, 300).
Onomastics: in archaeology a prehistoric stone used as a hammer, which is used to make other implements.
Hare “Musk’s assistant” (II, list), helping with the kite project (I, chap. 9, 241; II, chap. 7, 95).
Zoology: a mammal much like a rabbit but usually larger and with longer ears.
Hart “a young layman of Silk’s manteion” (III, list; III, chap. 3, 94). A friend of Horn’s, he is wounded in the fighting (IV, chap. 16, 369). Later he is in the group heading to the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369), and he leaves a note to point the way to Horn (IV, My Defense, 376).
Zoology: adult male deer.
Hat Street one of two sites where the chalked slogan “Silk for caldé” appeared (II, chap. 1, 25). It is close to the Sun Street manteion since one of the palaestra kids, Gosseyplum, lives at that building. Hat Street also has a manteion, presumably the nearest from the Sun Street manteion, as Mint gives directions: “Toward the market and turn left. It’s not far” (III, chap. 2, 39). This proximity makes it likely to be the manteion of Patera Pard.
Hide “one of Nettle’s twin sons” (IV, list) born on Blue (IV, Afterward). The other twin is Hoof.
Zoology: the skin of an animal.
Hierax (god) “a major god, the god of death and patron of the fourth day of the week. Particularly associated with carrion birds, jackals, and (like Tartaros) black animals of every kind” (II, list). He forbids the dead to return (I, chap. 10, 269). He is one of the rebel gods (III, chap. 4, 156).
He “inherited his father’s virile indifference to the physical sensations of others to the point of mania. . . . He allowed himself to be seduced by it, to the point that he came to care for nothing else and while still a child slaughtered thousands for his amusement” (II, chap. 12, 300).
Greek: hawk.
Commentary: his name suggests he plays the part of Horus (the hawk god) to Pas as Osiris, but in fact his role is more like Set, the god who kills Osiris.
Hierax (bird) Musk’s pet bird. It attacks Silk on the roof of the villa, scarring his arms. He throws it off the roof and it falls to its death, unable to fly since its wings were clipped. Silk refuses to refer to it by its name, considering it blasphemous.
Commentary: Silk kills the namesake of the rebel god, enacting his role as Horus killing Set, avenging his father Osiris.
hierologics related to hierology, the religious lore and literature of a people (II, chap. 4, 86).
highrider a type of vehicle at Blood’s villa, distinct from floaters (I, chap. 4, 114; chap. 6, 154). It seems to be something like a hover-cycle. Blood has five, and they are part of the recovery team searching for the downed Flier (II, chap. 6, 140).
Holly “one of the older (pubescent) girls at the palaestra” (III, list), present at Echidna’s theophany (III, chap. 3, 94). Last seen in the group heading for the lander (IV, chap. 16, 369).
Botany: a plant of the genus Ilex; originally and especially the common European holly, I. Aquifolium.
Hoof “one of Nettle’s twin sons” (IV, list) born on Blue (IV, Afterward). The other one is Hide.
Zoology: the horny sheath covering the foot of some mammals, including cattle, horse, sheep, and goats.
Horn the boy playing against Silk in the game when Silk becomes enlightened (I, chap. 1, 9); “the leader of the older boys at Silk’s palaestra” (II, list). Horn is the tallest boy in the palaestra (II, chap. 1, 13). He gets in trouble for imitating Silk, and during his detention, Silk asks him if he chalked the slogan “Silk for Caldé” (II, chap. 1, 25). The author/narrator of The Book of the Long Sun: “I burst into the room” (IV, chap. 13, 282). Later husband to Nettle, father of Sinew, Hoof, and Hide.
Myth: in the Aeneid, Virgil writes that the world of the dead has two gates to the world of the living. The Gate of Horn is the portal for shadows that are true by the light of day and the Gate of Ivory is for shadows that are not true. In a twist that still causes argument, Virgil’s heroes leave the underworld by way of the Ivory Gate.
Zoology: one of the hard, usually permanent structures projecting from the head of such mammals as cattle and antelopes.
Hossaan Willet’s (true) Trivigaunte name. See WILLET.
Arabic: cognate of name “Hussein” or Arabic word for “horse.” Hassan means “handsome.”
hus a critter on Blue (IV, My Defense, 374).
Greek: pig. “Hus Kalydonios” = the Calydonian Boar; “Hus Krommyon” = the Crommyonian Sow.
Hyacinth a prostitute who stays at Blood’s villa, and the owner of both the azoth and the needler that Silk acquires (I, chap. 6, 160). Hy has green eyes (I, chap. 12, 304), black hair (I, chap. 6, 155), and large breasts. She usually cries before sleep and sometimes during sleep (IV, chap. 11, 222).
Hy was born on the east side of Viron (a link to “H. orientalis”), and there is another girl (Poppy) at Orchid’s from the same quarter (II, chap. 5, 126). Hyacinth’s father is a head clerk in the Juzgado (II, chap. 5, 125). Hyacinth has a low opinion of her father, saying, “he’s a pig’s arse” (IV, chap. 3, 65).
Chenille tells how Hyacinth was seduced by a commissioner (probably Simuliid or Trematode) at age 14, then she lived for a while with a captain (Captain Serval), “but there was some sort of trouble. . . . Then she came to Orchid’s” (II, chap. 5, 125).
Hyacinth became a prostitute at Orchid’s place. She was flat-chested before she met Crane (II, chap. 5, 126). When Chenille moved in, they fought with fists twice: Chenille says she won the first time but Hy paid her back (IV, chap. 15, 324). Hy is secretive about this with Silk (IV, chap. 15, 325), which has a curious link to the scene in the Sun Street manteion arbor (II, chap. 5, 124–134) where Chenille, ridden by Kypris (III, chap. 4, 84), tells Silk and Auk how much she likes Hy (II, chap. 5, 125).
Hy left Orchid’s a couple weeks after Chenille moved in (II, chap. 5, 125), taking up her residence at Blood’s villa, where Colonel Oosik bedded her and perhaps fell in love with her (III, chap. 8, 206).
Hy gathers intelligence for Crane (II, chap. 13, 333), which Crane admits, but he maintains that giving the azoth to Silk was Hy’s idea (II, chap. 13, 339), even
though his spy message makes it seem like it was his idea (I, chap. 13, 318). She has reason to hate men, especially the rulers of Viron who sexually used her as a child, and her father who sold her for his own bureaucratic advancement. Sounds like a potential Vironese amazon, but she might be more than that: she might even be a ranking Trivigaunte agent (IV, chap. 14, 286). Hy makes pro-Trivigaunte comments when Silk first meets her: “They say the girls fight like troopers in Trivigaunte” and “Wouldn’t I make a fine swordsman, Patera? Look at these legs” (I, chap. 6, 161). If Hy had succeeded in her initial seduction of Silk, he would not have seen the gods. (Which would be good for Trivigaunte, but why would Kypris want to do that?)
Hyacinth’s relationship with Trivigaunte is complicated, but it is simple compared with her relationship with Kypris. Silk wonders about the Kypris in Hy: “Had Kypris possessed Hyacinth, rendering her irresistible? Could she possess two women simultaneously?” (III, chap. 8, 306).
Hy’s shrine for Kypris at Blood’s villa (IV, chap. 11, 211) makes it seem as though she needs Kypris possession like a drug: that is why she is so desperate to get back to the villa. Once she gets there, Hy cries in the ruins of her room (IV, chap. 11, 219–21). Perhaps rust addiction is just a cover for possession-addiction, making Hyacinth a little puppet goddess who has to merge with the big one at regular intervals to remain functional.
It seems like Hyacinth is always possessed by Kypris when we see her in the text. Oosik sends Hy away but she jumps onto the moving floater with goddess agility (III, chap. 9, 311). Hy talks about taking sword-fighting lessons from Xiphias (IV, chap. 11, 210), yet she uses the same “thumbs into eyes” combat maneuver that Scylla used while riding Chenille (IV, chap. 15, 323). In this sense of long-term possession, Hyacinth might be similar to Maytera Rose, who seems to be possessed by Echidna.
Gate of Horn, Book of Silk Page 5