• Shadelow Skink leads assault on the Palatine, presumably on Gold Street, which fails (III, chap. 6, 235).
• 7:30 P.M. Silk meets Shell (III, chap. 5, 167). Auk wakes himself up with his own sunlight (III, chap. 5, 182). Auk talks in dream to Mint (190). Mint, napping in floater post, talks to Auk (200). Marble goes into attic and onto roof, sees airship over lake (III, chap. 5, 185).
Thelxday
• Midnight Silk at Ermine’s (III, chap. 7, 260). Auk with Tartaros finds Chenille (III, chap. 7, 261).
• 4:30 A.M. Silk awakens (III, chap. 8, 291); Oosik has defected to Silk; Hy says they slept for four hours (III, chap. 8, 298).
• 5:30 A.M. The airship is over the Alambrera. Silk floater flies and crashes (III, chap. 9, 315–18). Auk takes Hyacinth away.
• 1:00 P.M. Quetzal and Silk in tunnels (III, chap. 9, 323); Silk captured by Sand.
• Shadelow Mint pulls down the fascade of the Corn Exchange on Fisc Street, saved by Rook at the last second (III, chap. 9, 332–34; IV, chap. 6, 93–97).
Phaesday
• Shadeup Marble at Blood’s (III, chap. 10, 335). When Blood learns Marble killed Musk, he strikes at her with azoth (chap. 10, 376). Silk, defending Marble, kills Blood (377).
Sphigxday
• Shadelow Mint talks to Sand about strategy of sending chem soldiers into the tunnels (IV, chap. 8, 162).
Scylsday
• Day Silk sends Guardsman to Orchid’s looking for Auk, Hy, Chenille, but they return empty-handed (IV, chap. 2, 42). Marble visits Marl, learns about Swallow’s shop of brown mechanics (IV, chap. 2, 53).
Molpsday
• Shadeup Quetzal witnesses Pas theophany at Grand Manteion (IV, chap. 1, 38; chap. 3, 69). Mint and Remora captured by Potto at the ruins of Blood’s villa (IV, chap. 1).
• Midday Silk meets Chenille, Orchid at Orchid’s (IV, chap. 2, 40). Auk the Prophet preaching. Silk meets Hossaan who says Siyuf and troopers will arrive in three or four days (IV, chap. 2, 55). Silk meets Saba, who glimpses Mucor in mirror.
Tarsday
Hieraxday
Thelxday
• Midday Tartaros leaves Auk (IV, chap. 3, 65). Tartaros tells Fliers to find Auk (IV, chap. 13, 265). Auk releases Hy (IV, chap. 3, 65). Pas theophany at Sun Street for Auk, Incus, Hammerstone (IV, chap. 3, 69). Trivigaunti parade (IV, chap. 4, 71–82). Fliers land (IV, chap. 5, 84).
• Mint, in tunnels, wonders if it is Hieraxday or Thelxday (IV, chap. 6, 96), has telelpathy with Auk (97).
• It is raining when Silk visits at the brown mechanics’ (IV, chap. 7, 119).
• Shadelow Auk, Incus, Hammerstone at Brick Street (IV, chap. 9, 164). Kypris theophany at Brick Street—‘take Jerboa to Grand Manteion’ (IV, chap. 9, 177).
• 7:30 P.M. Mint and Remora rescued (IV, chap. 8, 161).
• 8:00 P.M. Dinner with Caldé (IV, chap. 9, 178). Mint, Spider, Remora, Urus, Sand, Schist, Eland, Slate at Prolocutor’s Palace (IV, chap. 10, 184–195). Sand sacrificed to Pas theophany in Prolocutor’s Palace—‘take Sand to Grand Manteion’ (IV, chap. 10, 205).
• 8:30 P.M.
• Silk spots Hyacinth on Gold Street, and their reunion (IV, chap. 11, 208).
• Chenille at Ermine’s with Siyuf (IV, chap. 11, 212). Abanja at Trotter’s with Urus (IV, chap. 11, 225).
Phaesday
• 2:21 A.M. Chenille calls Orchid—“shadeup is less than four hours distant” (IV, chap. 11, 227–28). Marriages: Silk + Hyacinth, Hammerstone + “Moly” (IV, chap. 11, 233). Silk has second enlightenment. Auk awakened first time (IV, chap. 12, 235).
• Shadeup Auk awakened second time, tells Mint to sleep (IV, chap. 12, 236).
• 7:00 A.M.? Auk awakened third time, by voice from the Sacred Window (IV, chap. 12, 237); repairs Sand (IV, chap. 12, 241).
• 8:00 A.M.? Chenille calls Silk and Hy at Ermine’s (IV, chap. 12, 245). Trivigauntis take control of the Juzgado (250). Mucor possesses Sciathan again (255). Auk helps Sciathan escape Juzgado (IV, chap. 12, 250–60).
Sphigxday
• Night Meeting between Insurgents and Ayuntamiento; Silk surrenders Viron to Potto; Hossaan takes the Insurgents prisoner (IV, chap. 13, 262–82).
Scylsday
• Shadeup Viron forms new government, declaring Silk caldé.
• 7:00 A.M. Prisoners put onto airship (IV, chap. 14, 291).
• 8:00 A.M. Hammerstone and Sand at Ermine’s (IV, chap. 14, 293) take Siyuf and Violet hostage to exchange for Silk and Marble (IV, chap. 14, 300). Mucor possesses Saba, orders airship to head east (IV, chap. 14, 307). It goes east for an hour (IV, chap. 14, 318).
• 3:00 P.M. Second Siyuf (chem) revealed (IV, chap. 14, 317).
• 4:00 P.M. Silk and Horn on gondola roof (IV, chap. 15, 334). Kypris’s temptation of Silk (IV, chap. 15, 346).
• Shadelow Airship, pushed along by strong wind, arrives at Mainframe.
Molpsday
• Shadeup Auk, Chenille, Gib (and others) leave Whorl on first lander (IV, chap. 16, 347). Departure from Mainframe (IV, chap. 16, 349). Hy and Saba have sex while Horn distracts Silk (IV, chap. 16, 349–354; 366).
• 3:00 P.M. Airship arrives back at Viron, where winter has hit and renewed fighting has broken out. Mint in Orilla (IV, chap. 16, 356). Bison about to attack (IV, chap. 16, 362). Silk and Hyacinth on horseback (IV, chap. 16, 363). The Vironese exodus begins with the people of the Sun Street quarter going into the tunnels.
• [The text is vague about the amount of time spent in the tunnels and then on the lander in transit to Blue. Details are given near the end of The Book of the Short Sun, where it is said that they were three days in the tunnels and three weeks on the landers (VII, chap. 13, 279).]
Tarsday
• Second day in the tunnels.
Hieraxday
• In tunnels they rest an hour (IV, My Defense, 376). Marble goes with Quetzal (IV, My Defense, 378). Quetzal is shot by Trivigauntis. The Vironese get into two landers.
Thelxday
• Two landers en route to Green (IV, My Defense, 379). Quetzal dies (IV, My Defense, 381).
Phaesday
• Landers en route.
Sphigxday
• Landers en route.
Scylsday
• It becomes obvious that the landers are heading to Blue rather than Green (IV, My Defense, 382).
Titi “one of Spider’s spycatchers, now dead” (IV, list; IV, chap. 6, 110). Remembered for his skill at playing the part of a woman named “Petal.”
Zoology: a small long coated monkey of the genus Callicebus, native to the tropical forests of South America.
Botany: in the U.S.A., a name given to certain trees of N.O. Cyrillaceae, black titi (Buckwheat tree), red or white titi (Leatherwood tree). See ONOMASTIC.
tor a location on Lizard, the island on Blue where Horn lives with his family (IV, Afterward, 383). A standard term for a high rock; a pile of rocks; a rocky peak; a hill.
Trematode, Commissioner “the Vironese city official overseeing diplomacy, ceremony, and protocol” (IV, list; IV, chap. 4, 72).
Zoology: belonging to the class or order Trematoda or Trematoidea of parasitic worms, found in the bodies of various animals, having a flattish or cylindrical form, with skin often perforated by pores, and usually furnished with adhesive suckers.
Trivigaunte a foreign city in the desert south of Viron. Ruled by women, their leader is the Rani (Hindu “queen”) and lesser rulers are khanum (Turkish/Persian “lady”). Their banner is a red triangle (III, chap. 9, 318). Their flag is yellow, brown, and red (IV, chap. 4, 76). (“Trivigaunti” is the adjective, “Trivigauntis” is the plural.)
They seem to worship Sphigx exclusively, and she won’t let them make pictures of anything (III, chap. 9, 318). However, their monothesism might not be so monolithic: Hadale says to Silk, “Don’t you know that many of us don’t believe in Tartaros, Caldé? We have a faction that teaches that Sphigx is the only true god, and Pas and the rest are just legends
. A lot of us believe it” (IV, chap. 14, 311).
It is a city of towers (IV, chap. 15, 327). Their aristocrats have their own language (Arabic), while the commoners speak the Common Tongue of the Whorl (IV, chap. 5, 89).
Trivigauntis named in the text include Abanja, Hadale, Lijam, Matar, Nizam, Rimah, Saba, Sigada (Crane), Silah, Sirka, and Siyuf.
The Rani’s horde sent overland to Viron is made up of 60,000 foot soldiers, 15,000 cavalry, support troops, a supply train of 15,000 camels, and a 10,000-man labor battalion (IV, chap. 1, 33). At the parade, several Trivigaunti military units are named: The Companion Cavalry (IV, chap. 4, 74), the Generalissimo’s Auxiliary Light Horse (76), and Princess Silah’s Own Dragoons (77). They seem to have a complete lack of chem soldiers, as Siyuf reports on Viron: “You see here soldiers, marvels we should have in museums but here fight us, and for us also” (IV, chap. 14, 295).
Onomastics: “Trivigaunte” is “Termagant” with all of its baggage. According to the OED, it comes from Italian, “explained as if from Latin TRI + vagant- . . . stem of vagari, wander.” With a capital T, Trivigaunte is “a god imagined in medieval Christendom to be worshipped especially by Muslims and represented in mystery plays as a violent overbearing personage.” From this came the everyday form, used to describe “a violent, boisterous, overbearing, or quarrelsome person; a blusterer, a bully. Now usually specifically a violent, overbearing, or quarrelsome woman.” This captures the essence of the culture.
An eye toward punning wordplay also notices in OED the similar word “trivirgate,” a zoological term (Latin virga, a word for “twig, rod, stripe”) meaning “marked with three streaks or stripes.” This notion has a toehold of relevance with the fact that the Trivigaunte flag is three colored (yellow, brown, and red), and the culture shows signs of being a blend of three different cultures (Hindi, Persian, and Turkish).
troop a military unit of 100 mounted fighters (III, chap. 9, 170). The humor here is that Mint and her six volunteers have been multiplied by eyewitnesses into one hundred.
trooper a biochemical warrior, in contrast to the strictly chemical “Soldier.”
Trotter “owner of a drinking den near the Juzgado” (IV, list; IV, chap. 11, 221).
Zoology: a horse (or other quadruped) that trots; specifically a horse especially bred and trained to the trot.
Commentary: trotter is also a pig’s foot; do bar owners have porcine names?
Trotter’s the place where Abanja meets with Urus (IV, chap. 11, 223–25). More than just a bar, it is the restaurant from which Auk in prison orders takeout food.
It is close to the Juzgado. Urus tells Abanja at the Juzgado that Trotter’s is “a street down and turn west” (IV, chap. 11, 221). Auk tells Sciathan inside the Juzgado that it is on the “other side of Cage Street” (IV, chap. 12, 252). For location, see the map at PALATINE.
Tussah, Caldé “Silk’s predecessor; he was assassinated by the Ayuntamiento” (III, list). The last caldé of Viron before Silk. He had “wide, flat cheeks, narrow eyes, high rounded forehead,” and a “generous mouth” (III, chap. 10, 346).
Silk was a child learning to walk when Tussah died (III, chap. 4, 138). Much of Silk’s memory of Tussah’s face comes from a brown bust, a wooden carving his mother had on display, but later hid in the closet. It seems to Silk he recalls “cheeks that were not smooth wood but blotched and lightly pocked. . . . [Silk] had seen the caldé outside, because even without his lost glasses he had noticed the powder on the cheeks and the flaws that the powder tried to cover” (III, chap. 10, 346). That is, he had just seen the face of Tussah in that of Chenille, despite her wearing of cosmetics and his own lack of wearing glasses.
Tussah’s will alludes to his chosen heir, “Though he is not the son of my body, my son will succeed me” (III, chap. 4, 148). The hunt for Tussah’s heir is told of by Remora and Quetzal. Remora’s version is that Tussah was killed by the Councillors, who then suspended the Charter’s Clause Seven, regarding elections for councillors every three years (II, chap. 6, 188–89). In Quetzal’s version, he doubts the Ayuntamiento found and killed the heir, since he would have heard about it. A natural son could have been discovered through medical tests. But all this was a generation ago, and “it’s likely the adopted son’s dead if he ever existed” (III, chap. 4, 149).
Tussah’s personality is reflected in the fact that his gardener’s wife, a virago, was Tussah’s type (IV, chap. 13, 269). With this woman Tussah had at least one child, Chenille. Tussah also had a boy, Auk, who might be by the same woman or a different one. Tussah convinced a different woman to act as surrogate mother to a “cold one” frozen embryo, which became Silk.
A rumor circulating fifteen years ago, “the Caldé’s folly,” was that he had paid out an extraordinary amount for a human embryo—to be used as a successor or a weapon (II, chap. 7, 189). The Chapter has been searching for the possible heir, through testing of children for unusual talents or abilities.
Zoology: a silkworm (Antheraea mylitta and other species) that yields the type of silk known as Tussah.
Fabric: Tussah, Tusser, Tussore, a coarse brown silk made in India.
Tussah, Patera “presumably named for the caldé, is a member of Incus’s circle of black mechanics” (III, list). He spoke with Bittersweet (II, chap. 10, 257).
Typhon the First Pas’s name back on Urth (II, chap. 11, 275).
Myth: (Greek/Egyptian) Typhon, a monster of Greek myth, was associated with the Egyptian god Seth, who murdered his brother Osiris. Gene Wolfe points this out in his article “Onomastics” (in Castle of Days).
Commentary: Typhon set himself up as the chief god of the Whorl in a pattern that looks deliberately “Olympian,” yet the fate is closer to that of the Titans, blended with the myth of Osiris.
The Titans were 12 pre-Olympian gods, six male and six female. Their mother Gaia (“Earth”) incited them to rebel against their father Ouranos (“Sky”) and castrate him. Kronos (also known as “Cronus”), the youngest Titan, was the one who did this.
Osiris, vegetation god of ancient Egypt, was slain by his brother Seth, who later cut the body into pieces that he scattered throughout Egypt. Their sister Isis searched diligently and found all the pieces but his penis. She put the limbs together and, assisted by her sister Nephthys, performed magic that restored Osiris to life. Osiris was avenged by his son Horus, born of Isis. In the end, Horus became the true king of Egypt while Osiris remained god of the afterlife.
U
unnamed characters a non-exhaustive list:
• Auk’s father (probably Tussah).
• Hyacinth’s father and mother.
• The kite maker.
• The JEWELER OF GOLD STREET.
• The old man who sells ice.
• Silk’s mother.
Ur a foreign city (II, chap. 6, 171). Historically the name of one of the first cities of ancient Sumer.
Urbs a foreign city (II, chap. 6, 171). Urbs has hot springs (III, chap. 1, 19) and is the source of bananas in Viron (IV, chap. 3, 61). Viron was at war with Urbs in the past (II, chap. 6, 171). Urbs is one of the cities where “his children have boasted of killing Pas” (III, chap. 4, 156). Spider’s group worked a spy from Urbs (IV, chap. 6, 110–12).
Latin: town; city.
Urus “a former confederate of Auk’s” (IV, list), met as the leader of a band of escaped convicts (with Eland, Gaur, and Gelada) in the tunnels (III, chap. 3, 108). Mint says he is the most evil one of the group (IV, chap. 10, 189). Schist points out that Urus doesn’t have sores on his legs like Eland does (IV, chap. 10, 190). While this seems to suggest that he isn’t really an escaped convict, it really means he is more recently made a convict.
Urus escapes from Mint (IV, chap. 10, 202). He helps Abanja with the checkpoint password (IV, chap. 11, 221) and meets her at Trotter’s tavern. He gives her more information about Spider (IV, chap. 11, 225), which leads to Eland being killed, mistaken for Spider.
Zoology: auroch (wild ox of prehi
storic Europe).
V
vampire attacks the text gives three vampire attacks. First there is Pike’s devils, with one attack a few decades ago, on a child (I, chap. 9, 217). Next there is the one who bit Teasel. Finally there is the case of Cornet Mattak (III, chap. 6, 249–54), the attack with the most detailed crime scene, and Quetzal lurking in the alleyway as well.
With Mattak it happens at the jewelery shop where Sergeant Eft (“Mattak’s chief subordinate” in lists) has killed an augur, Patera Moray. After this crime against the gods, Mattak becomes anemic (III, chap. 6, 252). Since Moray’s body doesn’t become monstrous in death, Moray is not an inhumu. If Quetzal is the inhumu in this attack, it makes a lot of sense as an avenging angel: Quetzal somehow discovers his employee Moray had been murdered, then goes forth and retaliates against the commanding officer. (This is also a point where Silk hears Quetzal speaking and thinks of Pike.)
Gate of Horn, Book of Silk Page 14