The Apprentice Stone (Shadows of Time Book 1)
Page 34
alguazil: (Spanish) an inferior officer of justice in Spain; a warrant officer; a constable (from the Arabic word for vizier).
Almohad Empire or Almohad Caliphate: a Moroccan Berber-Muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century in the Atlas Mountains round 1120. It began with a movement inspired by Ibn Tumart with his strict concept of the unity of God and his demands for puritanical moral reform. By 1163, the Almohads defeated the ruling Almoravids and took their empire, which spread from the Maghreb to Al-Andalus.
armorer: a person who makes or repairs arms or armor
Aragonese: the people or language of Aragon, a medieval kingdom in eastern Spain.
atabals: a kettledrum used by Moors in war.
Avar: the original timeline or history of the planet Earth.
Avarian: of or pertaining to the world of Avar, its inhabitants, its technology, or a group that has roots in Avar, such as the Sittiri or Key’ari.
Avar-Tek: technology from Avar or technology based on the science from Avar, the original timeline or history of the planet Earth.
barutis: an Avar-Tek specialist bio-implant that increases strength and stamina; a person who has a barutis bio-implant is known as a “brute.”
campeador: (Spanish)
1. Spanish for ‘champion;’ one who, by his actions, excels in the battlefield.
2. ‘El Campeador’ was a nick-name given to El Cid, who was the hero in a Spanish epic poem of the same name from the 12th century.
Castigos: a street gang in Toledo. (A little literary license was used here. The Matóns, the Sombras, the Castigos, and the Oscuros gangs are fictional. It is not clear that street gangs existed in Medieval Toledo.)
casting: an Avar-Tek method of sending select thoughts to another person by means of an incom wireless link. These select thoughts are ones that a user forms well enough to be mentally put into words and then “pushed” out onto the link.
Chanzoe: the administrative head of the Key’ari faction.
Compline: the final prayer of daily church service in the Christian tradition of canonical hours. It also marks the end of the work day for most occupations in Medieval Europe.
canonical hours: a fixed-hour basic cycle of prayer that provided the structure for daily life in Christian monasteries. Without a precise means of keeping time in the 13th century, peasants and others also used this method to mark the passage of the day. The traditional canonical hours begin at Vespers and were:
Matins Morning watches, ending at dawn
Prime (First Hour) At about 7 AM
Terce (Third Hour) At about 9 AM
Sext (Sixth Hour) At noon
None (Ninth Hour) At about 3 PM
Vespers At sunset
Compline At bedtime
Midnight Office At midnight
cor-abat: a full-body, medical treatment that uses Avar-Tek to prolong life reverse the damages of aging. Although it is almost completely effective, repeated use leads to various forms of psychosis.
Epi: the second major timeline or history of the planet Earth. It is preceded by the Avar timeline and followed by Earth timeline.
encryption key: a long code usually held within a crystal memory device unlocks a cryptographic lock and allows access to various levels of cybernetic or nexus data and control.
falcata: a short, sickle-shaped sword, the favored weapon in the pre-Roman Iberian Peninsula.
Firesmyth:
1. A celtibarian tribe that lived in the southern Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain) in the 35th century BC.
2. The name “Firesmyth” is later used by the Sittiri for themselves as a memorial for the first people group they encountered in the Earth timeline. The term “Firesmyth” is an Old English translation of the tribe’s original pronunciation paṛ-yobros, which means “smiths of the fire.”
froneesis: an Avar-Tek specialist bio-implant that increases computational speed, memory, and communication speed with a nexus; a person who has a froneesis bio-implant is known as a “brain.”
Galicia: a region in the northwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, north of modern Portugal.
gravitas: an Avar-Tek master-level bio-implant that provides local control over gravity; a person who has a gravitas bio-implant is known as a “heavy.”
Hospitaller: a member of the Christian religious military order the Knights Hospitallers originating about the time of the first Crusade (1096–99) and taking its name from a hospital at Jerusalem.
impasuko: the temporal rift of all rifts, the final apocalyptic event that the Sittiri fear; the primary goal of the Sittiri is to prevent the impasuko.
incom: an Avar-Tek cerebral, bio-implant that allows a form of telepathy in which the user can “cast” thoughts over a wireless link to another incom user with the correct connection protocol.
jellaba: a traditional long, loose-fitting outer robe with full sleeves worn in the Maghreb region of North Africa by both sexes; also called a djellaba
Key'ari:
1. a major Avarian faction, unrestricted by traditional morals, intent on using their knowledge and technology to create a utopia.
2. a member of the Key’ari faction. The plural form of Key’ari is the same as the singular.
kinesis: an Avar-Tek specialist bio-implant that increases speed and agility; a person who has a kinesis bio-implant is known as a “slick.”
Leonese: the language spoken by those living in the Kingdom of Leon, which is in the north-central region of the Iberian Peninsula.
linguistic: an Avar-Tek implant that allows near-instant translation of spoken and written communication. With it, the user can both understand and speak or write in foreign languages. It also contains an impression related database of customs that allows for some understanding of various cultures, but not all. It contains a limited number of languages at one time and takes several minutes to download an entire language structure - the limiting factor being the human brain.
maravedís: the currency of 13th century Spanish kingdoms in the form of gold coin
matamore: an underground cell for forty or so slaves and twice as many vermin.
Matóns: a street gang in Toledo
Miramamolin: a nick-name for Muhammad al-Nasir, the fourth Almohad caliph from who ruled from 1199 until his death in 1213. “Miramamolin” is a deformation of the Arabic title amir al-mu'minin or “prince of the faithful.”
Mohammedan: an archaic term for a follower of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, which has been replaced by the terms Muslim and Islamic.
Moor: A term for the medieval Muslim inhabitants of north Africa centered around Morocco, Mauritania, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta.
muttawa: (Arabic) the government-authorized religious police responsible for the enforcement of sharia law in cities of the Almohad Caliphate.
musa fretr: (old Norse) a curse meaning “mouse fart.”
nanite: a microscopic robotic device that measures in size from 0.1–10 micrometers and is constructed of molecular components on the of nanoscale level.
Neubawni: The administrative head of the Sittiri faction; an underground city which houses the Academe, the Sittiri Central Command, and the Ox Shalay computer.
nexus: the computer networks of the Sittiri or Key’ari, which are in Neubawni and Chanzoe respectively and which can be accessed through an incom or direct terminal interface.
Occitan:
1. the language spoken by those living in Occitania, which is in modern day southern France, Italy's Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spain's Val d'Aran;
2. a person or thing from Occitania.
oc-lok: a standard bio-implant sensor array that feeds data directly onto the optic nerve of the right eye so that the user can “see” broad-spectrum radiation and data from the nexus.
onyo: a bio-implant that allows the user to both (a) sense if an action by the user will create a temporal rift, and (b) “see” a temporal rift event. Onyos are standard issue only for the Sittiri since the Key’ari and other A
varian factions have no means of manufacturing them.
Oscuros: a street gang in Toledo
Ox Shalay prophecy: a short text message sporadically generated by the Ox Shalay quantum computer that describes future events that must take place for rifts to be mended and the impasuko to be avoided. The messages are usually vague and poetic in nature so that it mimics the multiple possibilities the future holds. There is only one Ox Shalay computer and it’s in the possession of the Sittiri, which makes them the envy of other factions.
pleb: anyone not an Avarian such as a Sittiri or Key’ari; a term used by Avarians
plexus bed: an Avar-Tek device that allows the reliving of other peoples’ memories or full immersion into a computer simulation run at an accelerated rate. It is constructed as a flat and padded board made of soft, translucent material embedded with sensors and neuro-stimulators that processes a realistic dreamlike state in the person who lies down on it. The dream or simulated reality (simulation) it produces is generally controlled and recorded for training purposes.
pod: an Avar-Tek transportation device that seats four and can “jump” in space and forward in time.
recorder: a small, robotic recording device that looks and acts like a beetle while maintaining a remote incom connection to the nexus or person using the recorder.
rift: short for a “temporal rift”; an historical variance, an event that differs from the original Avar timeline. Subsequent events based on a rift will also diverge from the Avar timeline until temporal kinetic energy forces events to draw closer and merge into one timeline—a process known as chrono-superposition.
Saracen: a term for Muslims widely used in Medieval Europe.
sensei: a Japanese word that is used for a teacher or to show respect to someone who has achieved mastery in a skill
Sittiri:
1. a major Avarian faction intent on not interfering with current events other than slowly restoring the timeline to the original history of Avar and avoiding the impasuko;
2. a member of the Sittiri faction. The plural form of Sittiri is the same as the singular.
Sombras: a street gang in Toledo
stun-stick: an Avar-Tek weapon that (a) renders unconscious anyone who touches an activated stunning surface, and (b) can change into one of five shapes of various colors and textures as preprogrammed by the user. In this way, the stick can appear as a sword (a common shape) with a blade edge and strength equal to or greater than the period weapon it is intended to represent.
Tachi: a type of Japanese sword that preceded the katana-style sword and was worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan in the 12th century.
tagging: the process of programming and sending a recorder to lock onto and monitor a person or thing for the purposes of observation.
Templar: a member of the Christian religious military order the Knights Templar otherwise known as “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon”, taking its name from a hospital at Jerusalem, which existed between the years 1129 and 1312.
toxeesis: an Avar-Tek specialist bio-implant used only by the Key’ari that allows the user to generate toxins in his own body for the purposes of (a) incapacitating or paralyzing an opponent on contact, or (b) changing his own body chemistry to become a raging berserker on the battlefield; a person who has a toxeesis bio-implant is known as a “berserker.”
ultramontano: (Spanish)
1. adj. - a person or nation that is beyond or on the other side of the Pyrenees Mountains that separate the Spanish kingdoms from the Frankish kingdoms.
2. noun - A person or nation that is from the other side of the mountains.
uskit'r: (Old Norse) curse meaning “feces.”
Vantu:
1. the ancient language spoken by Avarians, which originated in the Vantu Republic in the original Avar timeline;
2. a person or thing from the Vantu Republic.
verisuit: a suit made of vericloth that allows invisibility and appearance change by means of a nanite-mesh network, controlled a thought command cast over a nexus link.
Vespers: the prayer said at sunset according to the daily church service in the Christian tradition of canonical hours.
The Eski Poem
On a world called Avar,
Two advanced civilizations fought a temporal war
That shredded space and time.
When they had exhausted their fury,
Only a few hundred remained.
This remnant could never return home,
For their home never existed.
History had been so altered
That centuries of kingdoms and nations
no longer existed.
The victors found themselves trapped in the past,
In an age of stone.
With no rules to bind them,
A division grew in their ranks.
Should they become kings
To rule this land of primitives?
Or should they become whispers from the shadows
To guide it back to the world it should be?
Thus, the Key’ari and Sittiri,
Masters of Avar-Tek,
Battle through our history ... in shadows and on thrones.
The One of Six
Ox Shalay Prophecy 63-14399-12B
One of Six is Sweet Sadness,
Of a line that heals as it hurts,
That aids as it dies,
The stone holder, the rock hider,
The street runner, and the way maker,
The healer who weeps for the enemy,
The Christian who defends the Jew,
The hero who falls in battle,
And the student who trains in slavery.
He shall bear no device
But the stone inside.
Map
More from Darrell
If you enjoyed this book's mixture of science fiction, history, and characters, and plot-twists, visit the author’s website at:
www.DarrellNewton.com
Notes
[←1]
Moor: A term for the medieval Muslim inhabitants of north Africa centered around Morocco, Mauritania, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta.
[←2]
El Cid: a folk-hero who ruled Valencia in 1094. El Cid’s real name is Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar or Roy Diaz for short. The name El Cid comes from the Arabic word for master, which is syd.
[←3]
Avarian: of or pertaining to the world of Avar, the original timeline or history of the planet Earth.
[←4]
Key'ari: a major Avarian faction, unrestricted by traditional morals, intent on using their knowledge and technology to create a utopia.
[←5]
alguazil: (Spanish) an inferior officer of justice in Spain; a warrant officer; a constable (from the Arabic word for vizier).
[←6]
campeador: (Spanish) a champion, especially one who, by his actions, excels in the battlefield. ‘El Campeador’ was a nick-name given to El Cid, who was the hero in a Spanish epic poem of the same name from the 12th century.
[←7]
Saracen: a term for Muslims widely used in Medieval Europe.
[←8]
Neubawni: the administrative head of the Sittiri faction; an underground city which houses the Academe, the Sittiri Central Command, the Ox Shalay computer, and the Archons.
[←9]
verisuit: a suit made of vericloth that allows invisibility and appearance change by means of a nanite-mesh network, controlled a thought command.
[←10]
rift: short for a “temporal rift”; an historical variance, an event that differs from the original Avar timeline.
[←11]
Avar-Tek: technology from Avar or technology based on the science from Avar, the original timeline or history of the planet Earth.
[←12]
pod: an Avar-Tek transportation device that seats four and can “jump” in space and forward in time.
[←13
]
oc-lok: a standard bio-implant sensor array that feeds data directly onto the optic nerve of the right eye so that the user can “see” broad-spectrum radiation and data from the nexus.
[←14]
sensei: a Japanese word that is used for a teacher or to show respect to someone who has achieved mastery in a skill
[←15]
onyo: a bio-implant that allows the user to both (a) sense if an action by the user will create a temporal rift, and (b) “see” a temporal rift event. Onyos are standard issue only for the Sittiri since the Key’ari and other Avarian factions have no means of manufacturing them.
[←16]
tachi: a type of Japanese sword that preceded the katana-style sword and was worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan in the 12th century.
[←17]
Vantu: the ancient language spoken by Avarians, which originated in the Vantu Republic in the original Avar timeline