The Foundling's Tale, Part Three: Factotum

by D M Cornish

  flitterwills small winged bogles, their form often a crude simulacrum of everymen yet with more distorted proportions. One of the few bogles—since the exodus of the naeroë—who make use of the winds and air, they are found only in the remotest, often terribly threwdish places, though there are meant to be many lurking in the Schmetterlingerwald north of Wörms and ruled by the Duchess of Butterflies. This is all conjecture, of course; ancient texts hold them to be among the tribe of monster known as nissë, but in common culture flitterwills are pure myth.

  Florescende, the ~ named after a great meadow of wildflowers out in the western wilds beyond the Path, the Florescende is a great tessellated square in the very midst of the Brandendirk, so called for the great floral tessellations of its paving. Originally it was the forming ground for soldiery, but as the buildings of government expanded out from the Low Brassard and the city grew and became safer, it has taken on a more civic role. On special vigils and memorials, pediteers are still marshaled upon it for the Archduke to inspect and his people to be impressed by.

  Fontrevault sequestury and calanserie of the Right of the Open Hand, found on the border between Naimes and Maine in the rolling lands of the Cassalis Hills. It is here that Europe began her turbulent public career free of the stuffy courts of the Naimes duchy.

  foundation course of instruction in matter and generalisms; what we would consider basic tertiary education, and leading to all manner of bureaucratic work and the possibility of further advancement.

  fowling piece flintlock rifle of extra-long barrel, typically elaborately formed and decorated, with robust mechanism and excellent aim used to hunt birds and small game.

  frair name monsters give to each other as a collective, meaning “brother” or “family member.”

  franchise parcels of land granted by a landed lord to his moilers and pastoralists to farm and make profit for themselves and more especially their lord in varying measure, depending on the magnanimity (or its lack) of the lord. The fairest known division of income in current Soutland pastoral practice is a 60/40 split twixt laird and laborers, seen by most as astoundingly fair though the fact that the pastoralist will have to pay wages for seed and equipment from this 40 percent spoils the figure some.

  Frazzard’s powder named after its long-dead inventor, Immoliens Frazzardas, and popular for its simplicity: 1 part clubmoss, 1 part ladapütch, ½ part escalat. Being so simple, however, it lacks the power of some more complex urticants (fizzing, bursting scripts), and its wide-spreading fumes are less contained and therefore less precise than others.

  fugelman locally elected or appointed teratologist, sponsored by subscription of the local folk and/or by the patronage of a parish’s peers and magnates. This is not a popular occupation for any monster-hunter worth his prize-money; consequently, only the more infamous or inept stripe of teratologist will generally fill such a position on the principle that anything is better than nothing. If a hireling from without the community is not available, the people might very well nominate—even force—one of their own to fill the role, even paying (in part at least) for his training in whatever manner of teratology they want or the community decides the person should have, as with Sallow Meermoon in Book One.

  fulgar(s) though much about these lightning-wielding lahzars is covered in Book One, there is yet more in a fulgar’s arsenal:

  • vendette—make someone confess something—to tell the truth, usually only one item before the sheer agony and destructive shock kill them.

  • defeasance—also called scinderation, the rare and risky capacity to run such a quantity of charge through living matter that any liquid within becomes “super-heated” and it will literally burst.

  See fulgar(s) in Book One for more.

  fulgars’ doses beyond Cathar’s Treacle, an astrapecrith will need, at various times, fulgura sagrada, rock salt, levenseep, and the ready-made balancing draughts syntony and sangfaire.

  Fyfe, Rear-Admiral Patchword captain and civic leader of the late sixteenth century HIR; born 1539 HIR in Brandenbrass, he began his glittering naval adventure as a midshipman aboard the twenty-four-gun-broad frigate NB Spritely. Rising over one of the briefest periods in Imperial naval history, he added to his martial glory by marrying Thalistia Saakrahenemus, therefore joining himself into one of the Empire’s ancient family lines. His stellar career was cut short by his death in 1588 at the Battle of Maundersea while he led a campaign against the Lombardy picaroons and their state sponsors. In all his escapades he fathered only one child, Rookwood.

  Fyfe, Rookwood Saakrahenemus son of Rear Admiral Fyfe; properly orphaned at age eight, he has been a wayward charge for his aunt Saakrahenemus ever since, living off the stipend paid from his closely controlled fortune (the hereditary wealth of his mother and the residue of prizes won by his glorious father) and doing little but roaming about town with his obsequine friends, practicing his aim and getting into some form of strife or other.

  G

  gabelüng meaning “fork in the road”; club made from a forked branch from a hardwood tree, the stunted forks forming the head, the handle usually wrapped in doeskin or sergreen for greater grip, some also fitted with a roundel to protect the hand from deflected blows. With the rise of fulgars the use of wooden weapons has continued in the Sundergird and beyond, for astrapecriths are quite happy to send arcs back along any weapon that might hit them, and metal devices aid them in this much better than wood.

  garland •also known as a pattern book or cicerone (after the city whence they were first reputed to be invented), often very large, heavy-bound periodicals released by collectives of dressmakers, tailors, gaulders, armourieres, haberdashers, furriers and any other sort involved in the provision of high fashion. • award of merit and honor, usually given for courage and sacrifice in the stouche or for some great deed of benefit to a peer, the ministers or plenipotentiary of a state, or the Emperor himself. See caudial, caudial hem, caudial honor. garner grain store; a granary.

  Gaspard Plume see Plume, Gaspard.

  Geiterwand lit. “goat-wall”; large fortified gate not far north of Poéme and the burned-out ruin that was once Madam Opera’s Marine Society. It is most notable for the fine kennel of selthounds it keeps, animals of such high breeding that feuterers from all the lands about—even as far as Turkmantine and the N’go—come to breed their bitches with them.

  genis main grouping of like creatures such as glamgorn, nuglung, feline, canine, and so on.

  gleedupes sellers of song words and bad fruit at pantos and other entertainments. They might also offer simple food to eat (nestled alongside the molding fruit, of course).

  glimmerall also glimmeramo; what we might call a chandelier; a collection of bright-limns in a large, often intricately decorated frame suspended from a chain or gilt ropes and lowered for servants to turn each light on its pivot as required. Some are so large they require special framing to be added to a ceiling and a whole staff to lower, light and clean them.

  glossary frivolous counterpart to an oratory at a high-class society event, where gossip and controversial nonsense are the rule, proceeding under direction of a glossicute who keeps conversation light and topics saucy or fatuous and rolling along in a continuous flow of gasps and scandalized laughter.

  glossicute(s) “referee” of a glossary; the most skillful possess great wit and know all manner of rumor and scandal with which they can spin a seemingly endless fribble of chatter and gossip. Glossicutes are known for the acidity of their words and the level of vitriol they allow among the participant guests, and are hired accordingly.

  goat weed, extract of ~ additive meant to make the imbiber feel good about himself and the world in general; of ill reputation among upstanding folk, as it makes addicts of frequent users, numbing them to other people’s suffering or concerns.

  gosling half-guise (or half-goose) piece.

  grabcleat(s) muggers, grabbers of the hems and folds of one’s frock coat.

  Grammaticar seniormos
t leader of a group—or sept—of fictlers, derived from the notion of grammar, that is, the right formulas of words spoken into the deeps to attempt to rouse the slumbering false-gods to rise and deliver everymen from the scourge of nickers and all their vile kind.

  graphnolagnian(s) one given over to an obsession with obscene pictures; the self-named connoisseurs of cabinet pictures.

  grass-wine what we would call champagne or sparkling white.

  Greenleaf Whit see Whit, Greenleaf.

  gregorine(s) common name for gater and parish border warden in the rural parts of the central Soutland states; also gregoryman, and so called because they serve as protectors. In the Grumid lands they are sometimes named bindlestiffs—a term usually retained for more vagrant types in other parts of the world—for the time they will spend patrolling their parish boundaries, living rough. Traditionally employed as protectors against the nickers and bogles, in safer parishes gregory-men often become more concerned with the small disputes of parochial parish pride as small regions vie and squabble with their neighbors like full-grown states.

  grindewhal also grindewail or grindywill; known as the “rats of the sea” (or, farther north, the “jackals of the sea”), the Gotts naming them fifflecrawe (“sea-crows”). A monstrous type of fish, they come in many variations of shape and size, all of them ugly: hunched, humped backs, long slender snaggle-toothed snouts, tiny piggy eyes. They are considered merelings, that is, neither inoffensive sea-animal nor true sea-nicker, rather something in between. One of their main vices (as reckoned by vinegars) is not that they attack vessels and their crews, but that as prey they attract yet larger and nastier critters hunting them. Despite this, they are reckoned especially good eating (if you can catch one) and so, on the balance, are considered a necessary evil. They are plentiful despite constant predation and can be found in every sea and ocean the world over.

  Guiding Star, the ~ the only wayhouse on the Athy Road between Brandenbrass and the pastoral lands of the Page, its rear quarters actually delved some way into the hills behind it.

  gurgis(es) deep oceans between continents filled with storms and sea-monsters.

  H

  Hamlin parliament rare populist regime where representatives of the people (wealthy middle class and peers at least) in a parliament actually elect their ruler, who is known as a high-elector. Such a system of seemingly arbitrary government is horrifying to the hereditary sovereigns of the Imperial states that are Hamlin’s northern neighbors, but what else can be expected from such a realm of likehandlers sharing all the needs of life with each other and paying subscriptions to help the poor?

  Handsome Grackle, the bizarre creature of the genis sea-hag, identical in form at either end, its landward name derisively given it by the piscators who snared it. Small as sea-beasts go yet nigh indestructible, the Handsome Grackle is routinely swallowed by the great kraulschwimmen and other vasty beasts of the depths, only to travel the entire length of their alimentary canal and emerge at the other end, unharmed and setting off on its own obscure business once again.

  hard-waters spirits; drinks with high alcohol content.

  harnessguarde the armed escort of a merchant train or other such caravan of beasts and goods and/or goodly personages. Usually such work is taken by less notable spurns or those with pretensions to an adventurous life but without the skill to properly live it.

  Heilgolundian of or from Heilgoland (also referred to as Heilgolund by the more pretentious or learned), that is, the vast kingdom beyond the great southern oceans, whose warriors have ever fought both the snow-dwelling nickers of their land and their wild everymen neighbors, and dare the dangerous waters to serve in the armies of Half-Continent realms.

  hinderling(s) rossamünderlings, so called for the fact that they are reborn from the remains—the “hind-pieces”—of everyman.

  hookpole used by takenymen and other carriage drivers to open the doors of their fits without having to get down from their seat; also to pull unwanted custom from within once the door is opened, and even to reach and snag items from the wayside.

  horologue an innovation on the clock that does not have to be perfectly still or vertical to work, therefore allowing it to be carried on board rams and other vessels, greatly aiding navigation. What in our world would be called a chronometer.

  Hullghast Articled Ordnance Company built off the main thoroughfare of the Mill Strand, the complex of Hull AO Company slipways protrude well out into the milky brey. Great moats reach back from them, cutting across the very street to disappear into mysteriously dark tunnels made in the main mill’s thick wall, deep enough that an unmasted ram can slide unobtrusively and largely unobser ved from mill to slipway. Each moat is traversed by a series of enormous braiceiron bridges allowing hoof and wheel and foot to cross unhindered and largely unaware. Arm-thick iron fences and equally hefty gates run right along this part of the harbor, preventing any access to the moats, the slipways or the half-done rams they hold.

  humbuggler hypocrite; a speaker of humbug, that is, of deceptive nonsense.

  I

  intent complex document formally stating all the particulars relating to a teratologist’s ability and availability to knave.

  J

  jack-ornerers collective colloquial name for monsters.

  jackstraw(s) also called flayderhauf, and sometimes scours, wanderoo, haimians, spargamen and thanantës. Distinct from rever-men, they are considered a superior form of gudgeon, their bodies made from meldings and bindings of muscle and flesh and bone with metal and wood and clothes all motivated by the stuff of a human brain. They usually look like nothing more than what we would call scarecrows, zombielike scarecrows. The name “flayderhauf ” comes from the use of the exceedingly rare and powerful flayderia exia in their making, a near-mythic substance that is reputed to force flesh to meld with other biological matter (wood, cloth, bone, plant stuff), the latter taking on some of the quicker character of the meat. They are said to be the best autonecraughts (revers that can be controlled by a thanatocrith) because the lesser amounts of human matter in them make them less innately rebellious.

  junk chopped portions of old rope used in many different processes, as wadding or sponges or padding.

  K

  Kitchen steward to Europe and clerk-of-the-closet, having charge and responsibility over the fulgar’s household while she is gone, and making sure the pantry is stocked and restocked. He was once of the staff of Europe’s mother, Europe’s childhood secretary and friend to Licurius, and when the Branden Rose was revealed in Brandenbrass, he was sent to seek out the wayward daughter of Naimes. His affection for the Duchess’ daughter has meant that he largely and long ago abandoned his role as clandestine observer, and Europe’s own regard for him is such that as she became aware of his double role, she kept him on anyway.

  kraulswimmers vernacular for kraulschwimmen, the mighty sea-monsters of the deeps guarding over the idiot false-gods.

  krebin giant land crabs, viscous and tasty, dwelling principally in the Erzgebirge in the Gottlands.

  L

  laborium also called a gastric stove or a calimere (“warm ocean”); fairly recent rediscovery of an ancient technique of producing heat through chemistry rather than fire. It comprises a small braiced-copper cauldron with a lid under which is an aegurogastre—or silver-stomach—a chamber made of silver in which the heating chemistry occurs. These two are held in a double wooden box with air spaces, making it possible to hold the laborium in one’s hands even as it boils. Through both boxes and into the aegurogastre is a stoppered silver tube called a tibium, by which the necessary reactive script known as gastra regia is introduced. When food and an accelerant are then added to the gastra regia through the fistula, the reactive quickly begins to digest the additives, making heat intense enough to boil water and almost any part.The heat goes once all the food is consumed or by the intervention of a script known as a delay. Laboriums are a great innovation that should improve the practices of skolds an
d habilists the world over.

  lagi oil greasy discharge secreted on the skin of lagimopes, protecting their skin from the caustic waters of the sea and possessing a foul taste that makes lagimopes unpleasant to eat by larger sea-beasts.

  lagimopes commonly shortened to “lagis”; small opportunistic sea-nickers who gain safety by swimming in great swarms following feeding kraulschwimmen and other sea-nickers to scavenge upon the scraps and leavings. Loathed by vinegaroons and all other seafarers, they often shadow vessels, waiting for an unobserved moment to snatch some soul alone or otherwise vulnerable on deck. In the excitement of a thalasmachë they can become much bolder still.

  lahzarine ravage “wasting,” or absence of any fat, caused by a lahzar’s metabolism made overactive by the foreign organs put within.

  Lampedusa deep-dwelling kraulschwimmen serpent and mighty sea-wretchin who terrorized the waters of the Grume for a thousand years before it was called by that name. Finally, bearing the mythic spiegel-blade, Paschendralle, the legendary Piltdown heldin-king, Tascifarnias, stood upon the shore where Brandenbrass now has its harbor and challenged Lampedusa to a contest to see who should rule land and sea. There upon the sand they fought, Tascifarnias slaying Lampedusa even as he was slain, the flowing of their combined blood purported to have changed the white sand black.

  landsgarde vessels detailed to protect a harbor and its related shipping, and to patrol the coastlines of the harboring state in search of nadderer nests or dens of pirates, fictlers, smugglers, or any dark trader.

  Langoland more sailorly rendering of Langeland, a far-off snowbound region southeast beyond the Hagensere.

  Lapinduce, the ~ tlephethine or petchinin-lord of rabbits, hares and all other such creatures, eoned ruler of the region once known as Cacolagia, who in younger eons once roamed his land in youthful delight. Heavy have the long bitter centuries now become to him, and he stays in his parkland warren recalling the times of youth and vigor and watching the brief puff of each person’s life spin in their multitudes about him. Driven neither by hatred for everymen nor the desire to aid them, he now remains in the heart of Brandenbrass, undetected and unguessed, that city’s great and terrible secret, keeping watch over the city that once bore his name through the agency of his rabbit horde. See also Duke of Sparrows, the.