The Unholy Consult (Aspect-Emperor #4)

Dag’mersor—“Westhold” (?meri). Ancient K?niüric fortress raised to protect roads joining An?nuarc? to ?mer proper.

Daimos—Also known as no?mancy. The sorcery of summoning and enslaving agencies from the Outside. Daimotic Cants involve exploitation of the extensionless nature of the soul, the fact that all souls occupy the identical space, one orthogonal to the space of Bios, yet still belonging to the space of speech. For both political and pragmatic reasons, many Schools forbid their utterance, condemning the Daimos as irresponsible, if not reprehensible. The Tusk condemns the practice as wicked, and lists three different ways to execute its practioners. Some esoteric scholars claim that Daimotic sorcerers condemn themselves to eternal torment at the hands of their erstwhile slaves when they die. But then all sorcerers arrive where monsters have come before them.

Dakyas—A semi-mountainous district of Nilnamesh.

Dame?ri Wilderness—A vast tract of forested, Sranc-infested wilderness extending from the Tydonni frontier in the south and running northeast of the Osthwai Mountains to the Sea of Cerish.

Dark Hunter, the—A common epithet for Husyelt, the God of the Hunt.

“[the] darkness which comes before”—A phrase used by the D?nyain to refer to the congenital blindness of individuals to the worldly causes that drive them, both historical and appetitive. See D?nyain.

Daskas, House—One of the Houses of the Congregate.

Day Lantern—See Diurnal.

Dayrut—A small fortress in the Gedean interior, built by the Nansur after the fall of Shigek to the Fanim in 3933.

Dead-God, the—See Lokung.

Decapitants—Name given to the two severed demon heads slung from the waist of Anas?rimbor Kellhus I. In 4121, following the installation of Nurbanu Soter as King-Regent of High Ainon, the Holy Aspect-Emperor famously stayed in Kiz as a guest of Heramari Iyokus, the famed Blind Necromancer, learning the most forbidden of the forbidden arts, the Daimos. He reappeared four months later with the heads of two demons bound to his waist by their hair. Whenever he was asked about them, he would demure, often, as Hilu Akamis, a one-time Mandate Court Advisor, reports in his journals, ignoring the question altogether.

Akamis recounts a tale told him by a Shigeki drover, Pim, pressed into Imperial service working the Aspect-Emperor’s baggage train. According to Akamis, Pim told of a trip across Gedea that took the Aspect-Emperor and his travel court across the legendary Plains of Mengedda. In the deep of the night, near the end of his watch, Pim found Anas?rimbor Kellhus alone and raving on the haunted plain, alternately removing his head and replacing it with one of the Decapitants. Akamis is rightly dismissive of the man’s lurid account, though the Schoolman readily admits being frightened by his sincerity. “He had the look of a Sempic simpleton to him, one who had left his brain with the fish to dry.”

As might be imagined, the Decapitants were a matter of some delicacy among Zaudunyani writers, since focusing upon them exclusively (as the Fanim and Inrithi Orthodox opponents of the Kellian regime certainly did) easily led to questions regarding what kind of man would bear such horrific trophies. So even though regularly extolled as “a verifying contradiction” (a phrase attributed to Werjau) by the Thousand Temples, Zaudunyani were as a rule loathe to discuss them.

Defence of the Arcane Arts, A—The famed sorcerous apologia of Zarathinius, which is as widely cited by philosophers as by sorcerers because of its pithy critiques not only of the Inrithi prohibition of sorcery but of Inrithism itself. The work has long been banned by the Thousand Temples.

Demua Mountains—An extensive range located in northwestern E?rwa, forming the frontier between Injor-Niyas and what was once K?niüri.

denotaries—In Gnostic sorcery, the “primer” Cants given to students to practice “dividing their voice,” which is to say, saying and thinking two separate things.

Derived—See Sranc.

Detnammi, Hirul (4081—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Palatine of the Ainoni province of Eshkalas, slain at Subis under dishonourable circumstances.

Dialogues of Inceruti, The—One of the most famous “missing works” of Far Antiquity, frequently referenced by Ajencis.

Dinchases (4074—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Captain of Attrempus and lifelong comrade-in-arms to Krijates Xinemus, slain at Iothiah. Also known as “Bloody Dinch.”

Displacement—The immense crack resulting from the Arkfall that cleaves Ishterebinth.

Dispossessed Sons of Siol—Epithet given to the Siolan survivors who made their home in Ishterebinth after the destruction of their Mansion following the Breaking of the Gates.

Diurnal—One of the Sublime Contrivances of the Artisan, Emilidis, the Diurnal was a sorcerous lantern reputed to transform night into day (and so was also called the Day Lantern), thus denying the advantage darkness conferred on their foes during the C?no-Inchoroi Wars.

“Doff your sandals and shod the earth …”—Common saying meant to remind listeners not to project their failings onto others.

Dolour—The complex of afflictions that eventually overcome all Nonmen, who are then called Erratic (as opposed to Intact). The Dolour is often called the Second Curse of the Inoculation (the first being, of course, the Wombplague) insofar as it follows as a direct consequence of the immortality the Nonmen gained via the Inoculation. The problem is that souls simply cannot remember indefinitely, there is a limit, necessitating that something be forgotten to remember as a certain point. What renders this problem tragic is the way memories of trauma and shame find themselves chiseled, as opposed to simply inked, into the Nonman soul. This mean that the longer a Nonman lives, the more their soul becomes a repository of anguish and pain. The Dolour proper is thought to happen when only painful experiences remain, robbing the sufferer of the ability to remember anything beyond several heartbeats (lest that memory be tragic). This has the effect of rendering them incompetent, Erratic, though in surprisingly diverse set of ways. Far and away the bulk of the Erratic become progressively more loathe to depart places familiar (or once familiar). The Nonman madness for graven image and statuary is often attributed to the Dolour, the hope that externalizing memory would preserve them. But a substantial proportion have been known to “forget home,” to travel far and wide seeking out the kinds of tragic encounters that will reactivate their memory, render them nearly whole, if for only a brief span. These are the souls that populate Mannish history, mad and tragic figures such Sujara’nin, Incariol, Cinial’jin, and many others. Many think these Wayward Erratics are in sooth suicides, souls that have found a means around the inborn inability to take their own lives.

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