Changer of Days (32 page)

Some names and concepts originating from different parts of the world have been annotated for ease of placement, i.e., Kheldrin (K); Roisinan (R); Shaymir (S); Tath (T).

Adamo Taurin: twin to Charo Taurin (q.v.), Chella’s younger sons, later important to Anghara’s cause

afrit (fem. afritah; pl. afrit’in) (K): evil desert spirit

-ah (K): feminine suffix added to words to indicate feminine gender; sometimes occurs within a word (as in havallah), implying an inherent grace, beauty, or feminine quality in the concept the word describes

ai’Bre’hinnah (K): secret name of the Kheldrini Goddess known as the Changer of Days, the Ender of Ages; the goddess has had male incarnations before (al’Bre’hin); each incarnation, when it appears in the world, has broken the world in some way and remade it in his or her own image

ai’Dhya (K): Kheldrini Goddess, Lady of the Winds

ai’Farra ma’Sayyed: Keeper of Records in Al’haria, chief an’sen’thar of the Al’haria Tower

ai’Jihaar ma’Hariff: blind Kheldrini priestess (see an’sen’thar); Anghara’s friend and teacher

ai’Lan (K): the Sun Goddess; similar to Roisinan’s Avanna except that her worship is more bloodthirsty—can offer great power and protection in return for the right sacrifice

ai’Raisa: young gray-robed sen’thar who remains as the voice of the oracle of Gul Khaima (q.v.)

ai’Ramia: bride of al’Tamar

Aise Aymerin: Prince of Shaymirai’Shahn, often known as ai’Shahn

al’Sheriha (K): messenger of the Gods, Water Spirit; a holy entity

Akka! (K): ki’thar command: Go!

Algira (T): a beautiful canal city in Tath, once pride of Roisinan; a training center for the Sighted, similar to Castle Bresse, lies nearby

Al’haria: red city of Kheldrin, place where the Records are kept, city of scholars, priestesses and craftsmen

al’Jezraal ma’Hariff: Lord of Al’haria, brother of ai’Jihaar

al’Khur (K): Lord of Death and also of dreams that come in the Little Death that is sleep, he manifests as half-man, half-desert vulture

al’Shehyr ma’Hariff: son of al’Jezraal

al’Tamar ma Hariff: nephew of al’Jezraal, son of his brother; sen’thar-gifted, but untrained because he is heir to an important Hariff silver mine

al’Zaan, Sa’id-ma’sihai (K): al’Zaan the One-Eyed, Lord of the Empty Places, Kheldrin’s chief God, cannot be worshipped in any confined place, only in the open

Anghara Kir Hama (ma’Hariff): Princess of Roisinan and an’sen’thar of Kheldrin, heiress of Red Dynan whose crown was usurped by her half-brother Sif when their rather died in the battle at Ronval River, powerfully Sighted, events turn around her

Ansen Taurin: Anghara’s oldest foster brother and cousin, son of her aunt, Chella

an’sen’thar (pl. an’sen’en’thari) (K): wearer of the gold robe in the sen’thar priesdy caste of Kheldrin; high priestess, used both as noun and form of address

arad (K): south

Arad Khajir’i’id: the Southern Desert, sometimes also known as Mal’ghaim Khajir’i’id (q.v.)

ari’i’d (K): desert

Ar’i’id Sam’mara: Desert Gate, name given to the canyon which forms the passage between Kheldrin’s coastal plain and Arad Khajir’i’d

Avanna of the Towers (R): Lady of the Lights, Roisinan’s harvest goddess, patron of all that is bright, glowing and growing; she created the sun, the moon, and the stars, and blesses everything grown under them; Roisinani infants are presented to the Gods within her towers

Aymer: capital of Shaymir, semi-desert independent principality to the north of Roisinan, origin of the Aymer Harp (q.v.)

Aymer harp: a difficult Shaymiri musical instrument.

Beit el’Sihaya (K): the Empty Quarter, from beit (geographic quarter) + sihaya (empty)

Beku: city of Kheldrin

Bodmer Forest: large forest in the heart of Roisinan

Bran: new god in Roisinan, born in the fires of Anghara’s metamorphosis into the Changer, after her return to Roisinan to claim her crown

Brandar Pass: mountain passage from Roisinan into Shaymir through the range behind Miranei

Bresse: see Castle Bresse

Brynna Kelen: Anghara Kir Hama’s alter ego, the name by which she was known at Cascin

burnouse (K): a head covering and desert veil against sand and heat

Calabra: main port city or Roisinan, at the mouth of the River Tanassa

Cascin (Cascin of the Wells): the ancestral manor of Anghara’s mother Rima, Anghara’s sanctuary in the first years of her exile, held by Lord Lyme, married to Rima’s sister, Chella

Castle Bresse (R): training school for the Sighted, where Anghara first learns a measure of control over her gifts; levelled by Sif in the first stroke of his vicious campaign against Sight

Cerdiad (R): Midsummer Harvest Feast with connotations of ancient fertility rites when harvested fields and the harvest are blessed on midsummer’s eve by a priestess of Avanna of the Towers, patron goddess of the feast and the rest of the night given over to celebrations; romantic superstitions practiced by girls wanting to know who they will marry are commonly associated with this night

Chanoch (R): The Festival of New Fire; on the night of the first full moon of winter all hearth fires are extinguished and every hearth scraped clean and the head of the family goes to the temple of Kerun to obtain a handful of blessed Temple Embers with which to kindle a new fire on the old hearth; very holy festival, under the auspices of Kerun the Horned One

Charo Taurin: twin to Adamo Taurin, Chella’s younger sons, Anghara’s foster-brother

cheta (R): a military company in the Roisinani army

chud! (K): a Kheldrini exclamation of frustration

colhot (S): a cross between a lion and a coyote—a lazy but dangerous predator of the Shaymir desert

Colwen: Sif’s first queen, put aside because she could not give him an heir

dan (fern: dan’ah) (K): alone

Dances (R): circles of huge hewn stones with an ancient and often feared power; there are four in Roisinan: in the hills by the river Tanassa, in the middle of the central plain in Shaymir, on the edge of the Vallen Fen in Tath, and in the Mabin Islands (now largely ruined); the three mainland Dances are more or less intact, their original purpose or ancient builders unknown; there may once have been more, as there are solitary stones in other places, which exude something of the power of the Dances, known as Standing Stones (q.v.); both Dances and Standing Stones are avoided at night, and especially during the high festivals as they are believed to be the haunt of spirits

desert sage (S): a herb with a sharp, bittersweet scent which grows in the Shaymir desert

diamondskin (K): lethally poisonous lizard found in the Khari’i’d; no antidote to its poison, which is almost instantly fatal; gray with black diamond-shaped markings on the skin

djellaba (K): desert cloak

Duerin Rashin: King of Tath; scion of the Rashin Clan who once wrested the Throne under the Mountain (q.v.) from the legitimate Kir Hama incumbent—Duerin’s ancestor failed, but Duerin still wants Roisinan, and went to war over it

dun (pl. dun’en) (K): desert horses, exported to Roisinan, Tath and Shaymir from Kheldrin but affordable only to the very rich; beautiful, graceful animals, faster than the wind, dun breeding is largely the province of the Sayyed clan

Dynan (“Red Dynan”) Kir Hama: Anghara’s father, King of Roisinan, killed in battle against Duerin Rashin of Tath

el’lah afrit (K): the Song of the Spirits; sometimes the desert sands sing in the evening, when the air cools rapidly; often this warns of an advancing storm, or heralds a change in the weather; this often brings a feeling of discomfort, hence the laying of blame on evil spirits

Empty Quarter, the: see Beit el’Sihaya

Favrin Rashin: Prince of Algira, son of Duerin Rashin of Tath

Feor: ex-priest of both Kerun and Nual, Sighted tutor in the household of Cascin who grooms Anghara Kir Hama for queenship

Fihra Hai’r (K): literally, The First Oasis; the name given to the first water-bearing oasis a traveller encounters upon emerging from the Khar’i’id—depending on which direction the voyager is travelling in, the same oasis can also be known as Shod Hai’r (q.v.)

Fodrun: Dynan’s Second General, on whom leadership devolves during the Battle of Ronval when Dynan is killed and Kalas, the First General, so badly wounded as to be permanently disabled; seeing the conflict ahead, he chooses to support Sif Kir Hama, Dynah’s grown son, in preference to his legitimate heiress, the nine-year-old Anghara, but not without some misgiving; also known as Fodrun Kingmaker

fram’man (pl. fram’man’en) (K): stranger

Gheat Freicadan (R): The Guardian of the Gates (see Kerun, Glas Coil)

Glas Coil (R): Grey Wood, something along the lines of the Celtic Tir’na’n’Og, land of youth—Roisinani believe in it as an afterlife

Gul Khaima (K): Oracle Anghara raises in Kheldrin, on a stone pillar by the sea; human oracle

Gul Qara (K): the ancient oracle in the Empty Quarter, which gives Anghara the name of its successor

had’das (K): species of fish caught off the coast of Kheldrin

Hai! Hai haddari! (K): an expression of amazement or admiration

hai’r (pi. hai’r’en) (K): oasis

Hama dan ar’i’id (K): Kheldrini adage: “You’re never alone in the desert”

han (R): inn, as in Halas Han (Inn on the river Hal)

hari: red (Kadun Khajir’i’id is sometimes known as Harim Khaijir’i’id)

Hariff: Powerful Kheldrini clan or family involved with silver mining; root hari, red, may indicate they originated in the Red Desert

Harim Khajir’i’id: the Red Desert (see Kadun Khajir’i’id)

haval’la or ha’vallah (pl. haval’len) (K): desert gazelle

iman’et (K): enter; response to sa’hari

iri’sah (K): hot desert wind

Isel Valdarian: mother of Favrin Rashin

jin’aaz spiders (K): large desert spiders who cocoon their larvae in a chrysalis of silk; Kheldrini use silkseekers (q.v.) to find jin’aaz spider lairs and extract this silk; much prized and very expensive—one of the main Kheldrini exports

kadun (K): north

Kadun Khajir’i’id: the Northern Desert; sometimes also known as Harim Khajir’i’id (q.v.)

kaiss (T): (pron. kish; the ss sound is like the English sh): a broad concept covering the women’s quarters in Tath culture, a semi-purdah to which married women withdraw and from the confines of which high-born women are married, from father’s kaiss to husband’s (q.v. Silk Curtain)

kaissan (T): (pl. kaissen; pron. kishan, kishen) (T): a woman living in a kaiss

kaissar (T) (pron. kishar): castrates who rule the kaiss

Kalas: Dynan’s First General, badly wounded at the Battle of Ronval

Keda Cullen: sister to Kieran Cullen, gifted musician from Shaymir

Kerun (R): Roisinani god, also known as The Horned One; he is the Guardian of the Gates to Glas Coil (q.v.). He is the avatar responsible for death and life through death. He is the God of War, of Destruction, of Catastrophe; he must be propitiated at the beginning of every new venture, lest he claim it for his own; his sacrifices often involve gold, and he has his own incense, manufactured specially by the priesthood

khaf (K): strong brewed desert beverage, similar to coffee

khai’san (K): hot storm wind of the desert

khajir (K): sandkhar (K): stone

Khar’i’id: black stone desert of Kheldrin; deadly, hot and poisonous, but also strange and generous with occasional obscure and hermetic gifts; sometimes known as Rah’honim Ar’i’id, the Black Desert

kharkhajir (K): coarse sand, rock-sand

Kheldrin: Land of Twilight, from khel (dark, twilight) + drin (land, country); desert country to the west of Roisinan, for many ages closed to outsiders, except for a tiny cultivated strip in the lee of the coastal mountains, where Roisinani visit the trade port of Sa’alah to bargain for silk, esoteric drugs or dun’en

khi’tai (K): medicinal plant; reduces fevers, acts as a painkiller for minor aches; can be used as an anesthetic in conjunction with lais (q.v.)

Kieran Cullen: a Shaymiri boy, Anghara’s foster-brother, already fostering at Cascin manor when she is sent there; later knighted in battle

ki’thar (pl. ki’thar’en) (K): camels, desert animal of Kheldrin

lais (K): squat, ill-favored small bush found largely in Kadun Khajir’i’id; lais tea, soporific, slightly opiate and possibly addictive, can be made either from the whole leaf or from dried leaf powder; sometimes exported from Kheldrin into Roisinan and Tath; well known in Shaymir, where the plant is named selba

mal’gha (K): yellow (Arad Khajir’i’id is sometimes known as Mal’ghaim Khajir’i’id)

Melsyr: son of First General Kalas, whose wounding at the battle of Ronval where Red Dynan fell gave command of his armies to Second General Fodrun

Miranei: Roisinan’s capital and the King’s Keep, a powerful fortress never taken by force—and only a few times by treachery

Morgan of Bresse: the head of the Sisterhood of Bresse, she chose death by martyrdom at Sif’s hand in the knowledge that this would hasten the return of Sight to Roisinan’s persecuted people

Nual (R): Roisinani God of the Waters; not as powerful as Kerun and Avanna, but noteworthy because his temples are sanctuaries which cannot be breached; as some stay a lifetime Nual is sometimes also known as the God of Exile; his temples are always found near water, and anything found on or near the water has always been his; every shipwreck is salvaged by his priests; usually content with light offerings, a garland of flowers thrown into a river is pleasing to him; his priests are as simple as Kerun’s are devious and plot-ridden, and dress in blue in honor of his element

omankhajir (K): soft sand

pa’ha (K): fermented juice of the pahria fruit

pahria palms (K): desert palm bearing large, hard-shelled fruit, soft inside, juicy but tart—an acquired taste; sometimes cultivated, but usually grows wild in desert hai’r’en (q.v.) qu’mar (fem. qu’mar’ah; pl. qu’mar’en) (K): spouse, mate Qi’Dah: Favrin Rashin’s bodyguard