The Unholy Consult (Aspect-Emperor #4)

Book of Gods—The primary basis of individual Cultic scriptures, enumerating the various gods, and explaining the rites of purification and propitiation basic to each.

Book of Hintarates—The story of Hintarates, an upright man plagued with apparently undeserved adversity. “The life of Gods is the life after the hard passing of life,” the nameless psalmist begins. “The Gods know no weal.” The following fable explains how the suffering of Hintarates in this life was actually commensurate to his reward in the next, thereby encoding a deep instability into all “Faiths of the Tusk,” the assumption that the successful, the powerful, were almost certainly damned. “Temporal fortune,” we are assured, “is naught but the shadow of eternal damnation …” In his Annals, Casidas contends that Hintarates was what drove the powerful to incessant war, “to leap to Gilga?l lest falling deeper still.” Later in the Annals, he writes that “contention is the greatest curse of our religion. If the powerful are not waging war to save their souls, their people are waging war against them for being damned,” a passage that has been, not surprisingly, redacted in a great many copies.

Book of Songs—A collection of verse prayers and parables extolling the virtues of piety, manliness, courage, and tribal loyalty.

Book of Tribes—The extended narrative of the first Prophets and Chieftain-Kings of the Five Tribes of Men before the invasion of E?rwa.

Book of Warrants—The account of the observances governing the interactions between castes.

Chthonic Manse—Greatest manse of Ishterebinth, located below the Hanging Citadels, above the Q?lnimil, the nimil mines, and arrayed about the Ingressus.

Cil-Aujas—One the Nine Mansions of E?rwa, located in the Osthwai Mountains.

Cilc?liccas (?— )—Injori Quya, perhaps the most celebrated in the final days of Ishterebinth, often called Lord of Swans for his famed luck. During the Investiture, he gained renown by slaying Murathaur the Silver, the much-feared Dragon of Knives.

Cinc?lic—The undeciphered tongue of the Inchoroi, which the Nonmen call Cinc?l’hisa, or “the Gasp of Many Reeds.” According to the Is?phiryas, communication between the C?nuroi and the Inchoroi was impossible until the latter “birthed mouths” and began speaking C?nuroi tongues.

Cinganjehoi ab Sakjal (4076— )—Famed Kianene Saptishah-Governor of Eumarna, known among his people as “the Tiger of Eumarna.”

Cingulat—A Ketyai nation of the Three Seas, located on the northwestern coast of Kutnarmu, just south of Nilnamesh.

Cinguli—The language of Cingulat, a derivative of Sapmatari.

Ciogli (?—?)—Legendary Siolan Hero of the Nonman, perhaps the most famous of the Tall, slain at Pir Minginnial.

Cironj—A Ketyai island nation located at the juncture of all three of the Three Seas, and possessing a strong mercantile and maritime tradition.

Circumfix, The—symbol of Anas?rimbor Kellhus, the Holy Warrior-Prophet. The innumerable versions of the sacred image that proliferated across the Three Seas generally fall into three forms: abstract, typically consisting of a circle about an X; realistic, generally following the representational customs pertaining to idols in various nations; and baroque, where some feature is exaggerated to some degree, such as the “Phallic Circumfixes” outlawed by the Thousand Temples in 4119. For some reason, all forms consistently omit Serw?.

Circumfixion, The—The famed attempt to publicly execute Anas?rimbor Kellhus during the legendary 4112 Siege of Caraskand. An ancient practice of the Kunniat, the Inrithi generally reserved circumfixion for the most severe crimes of heresy, such as false prophecy. The practice involved binding the condemned first to the corpse of a loved one (typically a daughter or a wife), and then upside down upon an iron ring, which would then be displayed where the populace could watch their agonizing death (usually by asphyxiation) over the course of several hours.

The Circumfixion of Anas?rimbor Kellhus was remarkable in a number of respects. With the First Holy War trapped and starving within Caraskand, the so-called Great and Lesser Names hoped his execution would reunite and rekindle the resolve of the ailing host. Rather than dying quickly, however, Kellhus lived for more than two days, during which time the strife between the Orthodox and the so-called Zaudunyani intensified. Accounts vary, but somehow the return of Drusas Achamian brought about the conversion of Nersei Proyas, one of the most influential of the Great Names. This in turn inspired a Consult skin-spy masquerading as Cutias Sarcellus of the Shrial Knights to murder Kellhus, an attempt foiled by the Scylvendi Cnaiür urs Ski?tha. Once Sarcellus was revealed, the Men-of-the-Tusk cut down Anas?rimbor Kellhus, who, before the assembled masses, miraculously pulled his heart from his chest as a final proof of his divinity.

Circumfix Throne—Primary throne of the Aspect-Emperor located in the Imperial Audience Hall upon the Andiamine Heights. The popular lore holds that the iron ring built into the back of the throne is the actual Circumfix, but such is not the case.

Cironjic—The language of Cironj, a derivative of Sheyo-Kheremic.

Cirr?-nol—“High Floor” (Ihrims?). The great mall before Ishterebinth’s gates.

Cishaurim—The notorious priest-sorcerers of the Fanim based in Shimeh. According to Fanim religious tradition, the Prophet Fane became the first of the Cishaurim after he went blind in the desert. Given Fane’s claim that the true power of the Solitary God cannot be exercised so long as one sees the profane world, Cishaurim initiates voluntarily blind themselves at a certain point in their study, enabling them to dispense the “divine water” of the “Ps?khe,” as the Cishaurim refer to it. Little is known about the metaphysics of the Ps?khe beyond the fact that it cannot be perceived by the Few and that it is in many ways almost as formidable as the Anagogic practice of the Schools.

Prior to the First Holy War, the Scarlet Spires categorized individual Cishaurim according to their power: Tertiaries, or those with only the most rudimentary strength; Secondaries, or those with strength comparable to sorcerous initiates; and Primaries, those with strength exceeding that of initiates (but still, according to the Scarlet Magi, short of strength possessed by true Anagogic sorcerers of rank).

Citadel of the Dog—The great redoubt of Caraskand as named by the Men of the Tusk. Raised by Xatantius in 3684, it was originally called Insarum, until it fell to the Fanim in 3839, who called it Il’huda, “the Bulwark.”

Citadel of Citadels—One of many epithets given to the Library of Sauglish in Far Antiquity.

City of Robes—One of many epithets given to ancient Sauglish.

Ciworal—The famed redoubt of Dagliash.

Cleansed Lands—A Kianene epithet for nations where Fanimry is predominant.

Cleric—See, Incariol.

Cmiral—The great temple complex of Momemn, located near the heart of the city, adjacent to the Kamposea Agora.

Coffers—The legendary treasury of the ancient Library of Sauglish.

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