The Unholy Consult (Aspect-Emperor #4)



Raised to the status of scripture following the Zaudunyani conquest of the Three Seas, the Holy Sagas primarily consists of “The Kelmariad,” the story of Anas?rimbor Celmomas and his tragic Ordeal; “The Kay?tiad,” the account of Celmomas’s son, NauCay?ti, and his heroic exploits; “The Book of Generals,” the story of the deceptive events following NauCay?ti’s murder; “The Trisiad,” which recounts the great city’s destruction; “The E?mnoriad,” the story of ancient Atrithau’s expulsion of Seswatha and subsequent survival; “The Annal Akksersa,” which recounts the Fall of Akksersia; and lastly, “The Annal Sakarpa,” or “The Refugee’s Song” as it is sometimes called, the strange account of the city of Sakarpus during the Apocalypse.

Home City—A common Nansur epithet for Momemn.

Homirras, Ersa (3972—4025)—Author of The Ten Thousand Day Dynasty, a history of the short-lived ascendency of House Sorgis in Nansur, banned both by the Ikurei and the Anas?rimbor, allegedly for arguing that power corrupts rather than purifies souls. He would die in the Tower of Ziek in 4025.

Hording—The instinctive tendency of Sranc to muster in numbers far surpassing those of their foes, only on the scale of tens of thousands or more.

Horns of Golgotterath—One of many epithets given to the two Oars of Ark, the portions of the Inc?-Holoinas remaining exposed. The Is?phiryas gives the height of the Upright Horn as one thousand tens, or ten thousand Nonman cubits, which is almost certainly an exaggeration. Sohonc accounts, which rely on mathematics and the measurement of shadows, put the height at some nine thousand seven-hundred and twenty-four Umeritic cubits, or a little less than half the height reported by the Nonmen. Needless to say, this remains a stupendous number.

Hortha, Sonhail (4064—4121)—Man-of-the-Tusk, Galeoth knight, client to Prince Coithus Saubon, whelmed as a Judge following the conquest of Shimeh, only to be found murdered in A?knyssus under suspicious circumstances some six months afterward.

Hoshrut—One of Carythusal’s great agoras, noted for its view of the Scarlet Spires.

Hoshrut Pole—Traditional post, located in the heart of the Hoshrut Agora, used for the public flogging of notorious criminals. Torn to the ground with oxen and chains during the Great Yatwerian Sedition of 4132.

House Primordial—See Siol.

Houses of the Congregate—A quasi-legislative assembly consisting of the primary landholding families of the Nansur Empire.

Hull—Name given to the walls and fortifications of Kelmeol.

Hulwarga, Hringa (4086—4121)—Man-of-the-Tusk, second son of King Hringa Rauschang of Thunyerus, and leader of the Thunyeri contingent of the First Holy War after the death of his older brother, Prince Hringa Skaiyelt, in Caraskand. Called the Limper because of his uneven gait. Found murdered in 4121, apparently at the hand of a jealous mistress, though rumours of sorcerous assassination persist.

Hundred Gods—The collective name of the Gods enumerated in The Chronicle of the Tusk and worshipped either under the auspices of the Cults (which is to say, subordinate to the Thousand Temples), or in the traditional versions of the Kiünnat. In the Inrithi tradition, the Hundred Gods are thought to be aspects of the God (whom Inri Sejenus famously called “the Million Souled”), much the way various personality traits could be said to inhabit an individual. In the far more variegated Kiünnat tradition, the Hundred Gods are thought to be independent spiritual agencies, prone to indirectly intervene in the lives of their worshippers. Both traditions recognize the differences between the Compensatory Gods, who promise direct reward for worship and devotion, the Punitive Gods, who secure sacrifices through the threat of suffering, and the more rare Bellicose Gods, who despise worship as sycophancy and favour those who strive against them. Both the Inrithi and Kiünnat traditions see the Gods as indispensable to eternal life in the Outside.

The esoteric apologist Zarathinius is infamous for arguing (in A Defence of the Arcane Arts) the absurdity of worshipping deities as imperfect and capricious as mere Men. The Fanim, of course, believe the Hundred Gods are renegade slaves of the Solitary God—demons.

Hundred Pillars—The Warrior-Prophet’s personal bodyguard, named after the one hundred men rumoured to have surrendered their water—and their lives—to him on the Trail of Skulls. The coronation of Anas?rimbor Kellhus as Aspect-Emperor led to the institutionalization of the bodyguard as a military subministry charged with the protection of the Imperial Family.

Hu?si, Lake—A large freshwater lake draining the Vindauga and Sculpa river systems, and emptying into the Wutmouth.

Hurminda, Poss? (4101—4132)—Ordealman, Satrap of Sranayati, killed in the days leading up to the disaster at Irs?lor.

H?rochur—“Jutting Nail” (K?niüric). See Dagliash.

hustwarra—The Galeoth name for camp wives.

Husyelt—The God of the hunt. One of the so-called Compensatory Gods, who reward devotion in life with paradise in the afterlife, Husyelt comes after only Yatwer and Gilga?l in Cultic popularity, particularly in the Middle-North. In the Higarata, the collection of subsidiary writings that form the scriptural core of the Cults, Husyelt is depicted as the most anthropocentric of the Hundred Gods, as intent upon enabling his worshippers as he is upon securing their obedience and devotion. The Cult of Husyelt is rumoured to be extraordinarily wealthy, and high-ranking members of the Husyeltic priesthood often possess as much political clout as Shrial apparati.

Huterat—A town on the Sempis Delta, destroyed by the First Holy War in 4111.

I

idolaters—A term commonly used by Fanim to refer to Inrithi.

I?va (2112—2140)—Legendary wife of Anas?rimbor Nau-Cayuti, tried and executed for his murder in 2140.

Ihrims?—The tongue of Injor-Niyas.

Ikurei, House—A Nansur House of the Congregate, with holdings concentrated in and about Momemn. The Imperial House since 3941.

Ikurei Anphairas I (4022—4081)—The Emperor of Nansur from 4066 until his death in 4081, and grandfather of Ikurei Xerius III. Assassinated by persons unknown.

Ikurei Dynasty—Always one of the more powerful Houses of the Congregate, the Ikurei seized the Imperial Mantle in 3941, capitalizing on the turmoil following the loss of Shigek and then Gedea to Kian in the Dagger Jihad. Ikurei Sorius I became the first of a line of shrewd yet defensive Ikurei Emperors. See Nansur Empire.

Ikurei Xerius III (4059— )—The Emperor of the Nansur Empire.

Ilculc? Rift—“Sky of Ulc?” (Ihrims?). Vast fracture cavern, sometimes referred to as the Sky-Beneath-the-Mountain, located in the heart of Ishterebinth, and forming the abyssal heights that are the fame of the Hanging Citadels.

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