Galandra: Galandra na Caille le Serith, the mage who founded Eiden Myr twice nine nonned years ago and six. Also, still, a mythological figure: the mother of all human beings, Eiden’s pledge, and the mother and protective spirit of mages.
Ghardic: One of the old tongues that was lost over time but retained in the codices that are now kept by the scholars. A straightforward syllabary that’s easy to learn, Ghardic scribing is gaining popularity for messages, recordkeeping, and trade in the common tongue.
Great Trines: Seekers have long maintained that history is full of trines, critical connected events that come in threes, and that there are three Great Trines, which have not yet seen their completion.
harvestmid: Autumn (one side of midder). The three seasons are winter, summer, and midder.
hein-na-fhin: “One of three.” A dangerous, powerful casting in which three mages combine into one being. Such a casting was how Galandra’s triad died, in order to create the warding that kept Eiden Myr isolated for twice nine nonned years, and how the leading triad of the last Ennead died, trying to subvert that warding.
illuminator: A mage who received an inscribed leaf from a wordsmith and materials (ink, pigment, brushes, pens) from a binder, and illuminated the leaf with patterns, illustrations, and kadri. Many illuminators have taken up decorative or patterning crafts, becoming carvers, ropemakers, weavers, and the like; others continue to illuminate, working with permanent manuscripts, or have become scholars, studying and emulating the old arts of illumination; some are now painters and portraitists, for a living or on the side; others, unable to bear their inability to cast, have returned exclusively to their family trades.
kadra: An ideographic symbol enclosed in a triangle. Plural kadri.
kenai: A blademaster; also, the magecrafted longblade carried by a kenai. Plural kenaila.
Longdark: The winter solstice. Also, the nine-day festival culminating in the shortest day of the year.
Longlight: The summer solstice. Also, the nine-day festival culminating in the longest day of the year.
mage: A worker of magecraft, in the time before the magelight was lost. Mages cast in triads using illuminated manuscripts, and wore triskeles to identify themselves as mages. Their magelights, which showed in the sixth or seventh year (age five or six), were visible only to one another, as a yellow or golden glow. Mages prenticed for a dozen years, underwent a trial, then journeyed for a year before choosing a triad. Their craft cured sickness, healed injury, eased childbirth, passaged the dying to the spirit world, controlled the weather, calmed earthquakes, preserved food, and warded against fire, weather, blight, and unwanted pregnancy. The loss of mages’ power, symbolized by their light, is largely attributed to the actions of Torrin Lightbreaker.
the man who could not die: A tellers’ tale immensely old. Stories recount his adventures through various imaginary realms, such as the land beyond the mist, the land beyond the rain, the land beyond the shadows, and so on.
mender: Any of a group of healers, herbalists, agriculturalists, scribes, cartographers, and crafters based in the Head holding and roaming throughout Eiden Myr. Menders attempt to compensate for the loss of magecraft through the consolidation and dissemination of practical knowledge. The warders in the Ennead’s Holding re-formed themselves into menders, and continue to wear white.
midder: Considered one season, though it occurs in part between winter and summer and in part between summer and winter, midder is the time between the other two seasons.
moon: A month, which is twenty-seven days, or three ninedays.
Morlyrien: The animating and personified spirit of water, and more specifically the sea. Either masculine or feminine in aspect. Sailors and those who make their living from the sea are children of Morlyrien.
nonned: Nine nines (81). Twice nine nonned is 1458.
parchment: The skin of a sheep, lamb, goat, or kid used as a writing material.
pledge: To pledge someone is to vow a lifetime romantic and sexual partnership. Someone you have pledged is known as your pledge or pledgemate. Pledgings are no longer cast by magecraft, but are entered into nonetheless.
proxy: A mage who worked on behalf of the Ennead, either as a reckoner in the field or a warder in the Holding. Proxies wore black if they were reckoners and white if they were warders, nine-colored Ennead cloaks, and silver rings engraved with three circles inside a triangle.
reckoner: A proxy, trained in the Holding, sent into the field to manage other mages and report to the Holding (through the proxy circle or reckoners’ chain) on weather conditions. Reckoners cast in threes but did not form permanent triads. They wore black.
runner: A professional message bearer. A network of runners, consisting largely of former reckoners, has formed out of the remains of the proxy circle. They continue to wear black.
scholar: A resident on the Isle of Senana, where the collections of ancient codices salvaged from the Ennead’s Holding are now kept. Scholars are usually seekers or former mages (especially wordsmiths), dedicated to research, maintenance, and decipherment of the codices, their history, and their languages. They wear gray.
sedgeweave: Papyruslike writing material made of laid strips of reeds.
seekers: Itinerant folk, suspicious of superstition and convention, who try to discern large truths by applying rigorous logical inquiry to stories, legends, and empirical observations. Considered crackpots. Associate loosely with each other, usually arguing a lot. Put a silence on themselves when they need time to think.
sheddown: Down collected where it has fallen.
sowmid: Spring (the other side of midder).
spirit days: The dark of the moon; correspond to no phase of the moon (the moon’s three phases are waxing, full, and waning).
stewards: Non-mage support staff in the Holding under the Ennead. After the Ennead’s downfall, loosely applied to some of those who remained in the Holding.
stones: Any of various table games, often played in taverns, with pretty colored stones that would be called jewels elsewhere.
Stonetree: A runic system. When inscribed upright as discrete glyphs on a flat leaf, the runes look like trees, and each rune is named for a tree. Can also be inscribed as hash marks from a continuous horizontal or vertical line, more in keeping with the oldest examples, which were carved along the corners of squared or triangular stones. Also known as Lir-Wor, for its first and last glyphs, or Lir-Geis-Saor, for its first three glyphs. It contains no vowels.
Sylfonwy: The animating and personified spirit of air, and more specifically the winds. Of neutral gender, though masculine and feminine pronouns are used in reference.
tain: A magecrafted longkmfe, like a messer or saxe, carried by a kenai. Plural tamla.
threft: A yard; contraction of “threefoot.”
triad: Three mages (wordsmith, illuminator, and binder) who formed a threesome to do a casting; also, three mages who were cast triad by reckoners, to make their threesome permanent.
Tnennead: A postulated structure of three enneads, each maintaining a holding in a different region of Eiden Myr.
triskele: The pewter pendant worn by a mage, shaped as three arms curving from a solid center into a shared circle.
Ve Eiden: The autumnal equinox. Also the three-day celebration with the equinox as its middle day.
Ve Galandra: The vernal equinox. Also the three-day celebration with the equinox as its middle day.
vellum: The skin of a cow or calf used as a writing material.
vocate: An exceptional mage called to serve in the Ennead’s Holding. Vocates generally trained for three moons or so—working together, bonding, and learning to think collectively—and then were sorted into reckoners and warders, known as “earning the ring.” They wore gray.
warder: A proxy, trained in the Holding, who remained in the Holding to assist the Ennead in managing the weather and maintaining the physical premises of the Holding itself. Warders formed permanent triads and wore white.
&nbs
p; wordsmith: A mage who inscribed the manuscript leaf in a casting. Many wordsmiths have become scholars, many others tellers and scribes; some, disturbed by new knowledge, have joined with the seekers to obtain more; many offer their recordkeeping and messaging abilities on the side, while plying a family trade; a few, unable to bear their inability to cast or in outright rejection of the widespread understanding and use of scribing, have returned exclusively to their family trades.
Special thanks to: Russell Galen, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Fiorella deLirria, Fred Herman, Wah-Ming Chang, Becky Maines, Rob Stauffer, Gary Ruddell, Carol Russo, Ellen Cipriano, and Ellisa Mitchell. Larry Cuocci for the jacket photo. Illuminator Karen Gorst and Kremer Pigments (www.kremer-pigmente.com), Michael Norris for pointing the way to them, and Bennett Liberty for the nifty show-and-tell; coach Enid Friedman of Hofstra University’s fencing program, and John Clements and the folks from the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (www.thearma.org) for the welcome and the basics, with hopes that they’ll forgive me both liberties and missteps. Adrian Legg, Cliff Eberhardt, Patty Larkin, Solas, Dervish, Stephen Sondheim, Handspring®, Landware®, Yankee Candle®, the Dr Pepper Company, and Lyons Tea for essential ancillary materials to work by. The folks at SFF Net (www.sff.net, irc.sff.net) and DelphiForums’ SF Literature forum (www.sflit.com). The folks at the Dempsey’s seisiún, who welcomed me back after I disappeared for several months to finish writing; Joey and Frank and Art for keeping me in the music anyway. Sam, Jim and Tom, Ghana, and Alex and Nicky, who are all the coolest. My mom, for more than everything.
And, always, Jenna Felice.
About the e-Book
(AUGUST, 2003)—Scanned, proofed and formatted by Bibliophile.
The Binder's Road (The Sequel to 'Illumination') Page 64