The Darkness That Comes Before
Page 58
Around them, the waters of the bay were hard blue and flat. Looking like toys in the distance, Galeoth grain ships, immense Cironji carracks, and others moored outside the mouth of the River Phayus. The after-storm sky felt deep with clarity. Toward land, the shallow hills surrounding Momemn were brown, and the city itself looked old, like the ashes of a fire. Through the perpetual haze of smoke, the great monuments of the city could be discerned, like darker shadows hunching over the grey smudge of tenements and chaotic alleyways. As always, the Tower of Ziek oppressed the northeast. And in the city’s heart, the Great Domes of Xothei rose above the confused temple-complex of Cmiral. The keen-sighted among the Biaxi faction swore that in the midst of the temples, they could see the Emperor’s Cock, as Xerius’s latest monument had come to be called. Controversy ensued. There were some, the more religious, who balked at this bawdy joke. But they were swayed by more argument and more wine. They were forced to concede that the obelisk, after all, possessed a wrinkled “head.” One of the drunkards among them even drew his knife—the first real breach of etiquette—when it was recalled that he’d kissed the obelisk the previous week.
It was outside the walls of Momemn where things had changed. The surrounding fields were dust, trampled grey by countless feet and textured by sun-baked ruts. The land had broken beneath the weight of the Holy War. The groves were dead. Cesspits festered. Flies.
The Holy War had marched, and the men of the Houses discussed it endlessly, recounted the Emperor’s humiliation—no, the Empire’s humiliation—at the hands of Proyas and his mercenary Scylvendi. A Scylvendi! Would the fiends now hound them on the field of politics as well? The Great Names had called the Emperor’s bluff, and though Ikurei Xerius had threatened not to march with the Holy War, he had in the end conceded defeat and sent Conphas with them. The attempt to bend the Holy War to Nansur interests had been a daring gambit, they all agreed, but so long as the brilliant Conphas marched with them, the Emperor might still succeed. Conphas. A man like a God. A true child of Kyraneas, or even Cenei—of the old blood. How could he fail to make the Holy War his own? “Think of it!” they cried. “The Old Empire restored!” And they raised yet another toast to their ancient nation.
Most had spent the pestilence months of spring and summer at their provincial estates and had seen little of the Men of the Tusk. Some had grown wealthy supplying the Holy War, and even more had precious sons under Conphas. They had few practical reasons to celebrate the march of the Holy War south. But perhaps their considerations were deeper. When the locusts descended, they grew rich emptying their granaries, but they still burned offerings when the famines ended. The Gods detested nothing so much as arrogance. The world was painted glass—shadows of ancient, unimaginable power shifted beneath.
Somewhere distant, the Holy War travelled the roads between ancient capitals, a great migration of sturdy Men and sun-glittering arms. Even now, some claimed they could hear its horns faint through laughing voices and the stationary sea, the way the peal of trumpets might linger in ringing ears. Others paused and listened, and though they heard nothing, they shivered and rationed their words with care. If glories witnessed moved men to awe, glories asserted but not seen moved them to piety.
And judgement.
Appendices
Character and Faction Glossary
Anasûrimbor Kellhus (Ah-nas-soor-imb-or Kell-huss), a thirty-three-year-old Dûnyain monk
Drusas Achamian (Droo-sass Ah-kay-me-on), a forty-seven-year-old Mandate sorcerer
Cnaiür (Nay-yur), a forty-four-year-old Scylvendi barbarian, Chieftain of the Utemot
Esmenet (Ez-men-net), a thirty-one-year-old Sumni prostitute
Serwë (Sair-way), a nineteen-year-old Nymbricani concubine
Anasûrimbor Moënghus (Ah-nas-soor-imb-or Moe-eng-huss), Kellhus’s father
Skiötha (Skee-oath-ah), Cnaiür’s deceased father
The Dûnyain
A hidden monastic sect whose members have repudiated history and animal appetite in the hope of finding absolute enlightenment through the control of all desire and circumstance. For two thousand years they have bred their members for both motor reflexes and intellectual acuity.
The Consult
A cabal of magi and generals that survived the death of the No-God in 2155 and has laboured ever since to bring about his return in the so-called Second Apocalypse. Very few in the Three Seas believe the Consult still exists.
The Schools
A collective name given to the various academies of sorcerers. The first Schools, both in the Ancient North and in the Three Seas, arose as a response to the Tusk’s condemnation of sorcery. The Schools are among the oldest institutions in the Three Seas, and they survive, by and large, because of the terror they inspire and their detachment from the secular and religious powers of the Three Seas.
The Mandate—Gnostic School founded by Seswatha in 2156 to continue the war against the Consult and to protect the Three Seas from the return of the No-God, Mog-Pharau.
Nautzera, senior member of the Quorum
Simas, member of the Quorum and Achamian’s former teacher
Seswatha, survivor of the Old Wars and ancient founder of the Mandate
The Scarlet Spires—Anagogic School that is the most powerful in the Three Seas and has been de facto ruler of High Ainon since 3818.
Eleäzaras, Grandmaster of the Scarlet Spires
Iyokus, Eleäzaras’s Master of Spies
Geshrunni, slave-soldier and momentary Mandate spy
The Imperial Saik—Anagogic School indentured to the Emperor of Nansur.
Cememketri, Grandmaster of the Imperial Saik
The Mysunsai—Self-proclaimed Mercenary School that sells its sorcerous services across the Three Seas.
Skalateas, mercenary sorcerer
The Inrithi Factions
Synthesizing monotheistic and polytheistic elements, Inrithism, the dominant faith of the Three Seas, is founded on the revelations of Inri Sejenus (c. 2159-2202), the Latter Prophet. The central tenets of Inrithism deal with the immanence of the God in historical events, the unity of the individual deities of the Cults as Aspects of the God as revealed by the Latter Prophet, and the infallibility of the Tusk as scripture.
The Thousand Temples—An institution that provides the ecclesiastical framework of Inrithism. Though based in Sumna, the Thousand Temples is omnipresent throughout the Northwestern and Eastern Three Seas.
Maithanet, Shriah of the Thousand Temples
Paro Inrau, Shrial Priest and former student of Achamian
The Shrial Knights—A monastic military order under the direct command of the Shriah, created by Ekyannus III, “the Golden,” in 2511.
Incheiri Gotian, Grandmaster of the Shrial Knights
Cutias Sarcellus, First Knight-Commander of the Shrial Knights
The Conriyans—Conriya is a Ketyai nation of the Eastern Three Seas. Founded after the collapse of the Eastern Ceneian Empire in 3372, it is based around Aöknyssus, the ancient capital of Shir.
Nersei Proyas, Prince of Conriya and former student of Achamian
Krijates Xinemus, Achamian’s friend and Marshal of Attrempus
Nersei Calmemunis, leader of the Vulgar Holy War
The Nansur—The Nansur Empire is a Ketyai nation of the Western Three Seas and the self-proclaimed inheritor of the Ceneian Empire. At the height of its power, the Nansur Empire extended from Galeoth to Nilnamesh, but it has been much reduced by centuries of warfare against the Fanim of Kian.
Ikurei Xerius III, Emperor of Nansur
Ikurei Conphas, Exalt-General of Nansur and nephew to the Emperor
Ikurei Istriya, Empress of Nansur and mother of the Emperor
Martemus, General and Aide-de-Camp to Conphas
Skeaös, the Emperor’s Prime Counsel
The Galeoth—Galeoth is a Norsirai nation of the Three Seas, the so-called Middle-North, founded around 3683 by the descendants of refugees from the Old Wars.
Coithus
Saubon, Prince of Galeoth and leader of the Galeoth contingent
Kussalt, Saubon’s groom
Coithus Athjeäri, Saubon’s nephew
The Tydonni—Ce Tydonn is a Norsirai nation of the Eastern Three Seas. It was founded after the collapse of the Ketyai nation of Cengemis in 3742.
Hoga Gothyelk, the Earl of Agansanor and leader of the Tydonni contingent
The Ainoni—High Ainon is the pre-eminent Ketyai nation of the Eastern Three Seas. It was founded after the collapse of the Eastern Ceneian Empire in 3372 and has been ruled by the Scarlet Spires since the end of the Scholastic Wars in 3818.
Chepheramunni, King-Regent of High Ainon and leader of the Ainoni contingent
The Thunyeri—Thunyerus is a Norsirai nation of the Three Seas. It was founded through the federation of the Thunyeri tribes around 3987, and it only recently converted to Inrithism.
Skaiyelt, Prince of Thunyerus and leader of the Thunyeri contingent
Yalgrota, Skaiyelt’s giant bondsman
The Fanim Factions
Strictly monotheistic, Fanimry is an upstart faith founded on the revelations of the Prophet Fane (3669-3742) and restricted to the Southwestern Three Seas. The central tenets of Fanimry deal with the singularity and transcendence of the God, the falseness of the Gods (who are considered demons by the Fanim), the repudiation of the Tusk as unholy, and the prohibition of all representations of the God.
The Kianene—Kian is the most powerful Ketyai nation of the Three Seas. Extending from the southern frontier of the Nansur Empire to Nilnamesh, it was founded in the wake of the White Jihad, the holy war waged by the first Fanim against the Nansur Empire from 3743 to 3771.
Kascamandri, Padirajah of Kian
Skauras, Sapatishah-Governor of Shigek
The Cishaurim—Priest-sorcerers of the Fanim, based in Shimeh. Little is known about the metaphysics of Cishaurim sorcery, or the Psûkhe, as the Cishaurim refer to it, beyond the fact that it cannot be perceived by the Few, and that it is in many ways as formidable as the Anagogic sorcery of the Schools.
Seökti, Heresiarch of the Cishaurim
Mallahet, powerful member of the Cishaurim
The Major Languages and Dialects of Eärwa
MEN
Until the Breaking of the Gates and the migration of the Four Nations from Eänna, the Men of Eärwa, called the Emwama in The Chronicle of the Tusk, were enslaved by the Nonmen and spoke debased versions of their masters’ tongues. No trace of these languages remain. Nor does any trace of their original, pre-bondage language remain. The great Nonman history, the Isûphiryas, or the “Great Pit of Years,” suggests the Emwama originally spoke the same tongue as their kin across the Great Kayarsus. This has led many to believe that Thoti-Eännorean is indeed the primeval language of all men.
NONMEN (CÛNUROI)
Without doubt, the Nonmen, or Cûnuroi, tongues are among the oldest in Eärwa. Some Aujic inscriptions predate the first extant example of Thoti-Eännorean, The Chronicle of the Tusk, by more than five thousand years. Auja-Gilcûnni, which has yet to be deciphered, is far older still.
SRANC
In the Isûphiryas, the Sranc are first referred to as the Anyasiri, or the “Tongueless Howlers.” Through the first books of the Cûno-Inchoroi Wars, the Nonmen chroniclers seem reluctant to attribute the power of speech to the Sranc. By the time the first Nonmen scholars studied and recorded their speech, it had fractured into innumerable dialects.
AGHURZOI—Original “Cut Tongue” language of the Sranc
INCHOROI
The Inchoroi tongue, which the Nonmen call Cincûl’hisa, or the “Gasp of Many Reeds,” has defeated all attempts to decipher it. According to the Isûphiryas, communication between the Cûnuroi and the Inchoroi was impossible until the latter “birthed mouths” and began speaking Cûnuroi tongues.
CINCÛLIC—Undeciphered tongue of the Inchoroi
EÄRWA
4109 Year-of-the-Tusk
THE WESTERN
THREE SEAS
4109 Year-of-the-Tusk
ACHAMIAN’S
M AP