Sohonc—Premier ancient Gnostic Schools, proprietor of the Library of Sauglish.
Solitary God—“Allonara Yulah” (Kianni). The name used by Fanim to denote the transcendent singularity of their supreme deity. According to Fanim tradition, the God is not, as the Inrithi claim, immanent in existence, nor is He manifold in the way described by the Latter Prophet. The transcendental nature of Yulah is the primary reason Inrithi theologians dismiss Fanim apologia as mere hokum. If God is set apart from Creation, they argue, then God is merely a moment in a larger, unexplained system. Pokariti mystical traditions, however, hold that Yulah is an infinite function, that transcendental divinity possesses no being, and thus moots the “Mereology Problem.” Yulah is the force that makes all things happen. Inrithi critics reply by simply asking how functions are not parts of a greater whole. The problem with Fanimry, they contend, is the inability to countenance the fact that the God of Gods can be unconscious. This perpetually strands them with a partial concept of deity, and therefore countless questions they have no means of answering. The Pokariti mystical tradition generally responds by demonstrating the way various Inrithi critiques actually presuppose the transcendental functions of Yulah, which they require as necessary conditions of coherence.
Somarae—Archive containing the accumulated accounts and studies of Seswatha’s Dreams in Atyersus.
Sompas, Biaxi (4068— )—Man-of-the-Tusk, general of the Kidruhil following the death of General Numemarius in Nagogris. Sompas is the eldest son of Biaxi Coronsas, Patridomos of House Biaxi.
Song-cage—Legendary Iswazi artifact able to imprison souls.
Song-of-Iswa—Iswazi counterpart of an Anagogic Cant.
Song of the Violet Ishroi—Also known as “Song of the Bloody Ishroi.” A C?n?roi epic verse work (in the Illessa tradition, no less) of unknown origin, purporting to relate the life of Cu’jara Cinmoi in his voice.
Soptet, Rash (4088–)—Ordealman, Palatine-Governor of Shigek, General of the Shigeki contingent of the Great Ordeal of Anas?rimbor Kellhus, referred to as “Lord of the Sempis,” for his successes against the Fanim during the Unification Wars.
Sorainas (3808–95)—A celebrated Nansur scriptural commentator, and author of The Book of Circles and Spirals.
Soramipur—One the greater cities of western Nilnamesh.
sorcerer of rank—Though practices differ extensively between Schools, generally the title given to a sorcerer who is qualified to teach sorcery to another.
Sorcerers of the Sun—A common epithet for the Imperial Saik. See Saik.
sorcery—The practice of making the world conform to language, as opposed to philosophy, the practice of making language conform to the world. Despite the tremendous amount of apparently unresolvable controversy surrounding sorcery, there are several salient features that seem universal to its practice. First, practitioners must be able to apprehend the “onta,” which is to say, they must possess the innate ability to see, as Protathis puts it, “Creation as created.” Second, sorcery also seems to involve a universal commitment to what Gotagga calls “semantic hygiene.” Sorcery requires precise meanings. This is why incantations are always spoken in a non-native tongue: to prevent the semantic transformation of crucial terms due to the vagaries of daily usage. This also explains the extraordinary “double-think” structure of sorcery, the fact that all incantations require the sorcerer to say and think two separate things simultaneously. The spoken segment of an incantation (what is often called the “utteral string”) must have its meaning “fixed” or focussed with a silent segment (what is often called the “inutteral string”) that is simultaneously thought. Apparently the thought incantation sharpens the meaning of the spoken incantation the way the words of one man may be used to clarify the words of another. (This gives rise to the famous “semantic regress problem”: how can the inutteral string, which admits different interpretations, serve to fix the proper interpretation of the utteral string?) Though there are as many metaphysical interpretations of this structure as there are sorcerous Schools, the result in each case is the same: the world, which is otherwise utterly indifferent to the words of Men, listens, and sorcerous transformations of reality result.
With great power, however, comes grave consequences. Given these perspectival revisions of being are necessarily incomplete, they constitute desecrations of being, and so appear as the aesthetic violation called the Mark, while heaping damnation on the sorcerer responsible. In this sense, sorcery could be said to be, in the immortal words of Zarathinius, “Hell’s most toilsome and tedious route.”
Soroptic—The lost language of ancient Shigek, a derivative of Kemkaric.
Soter, Nurbanu (4069–)—Ordealman, Believer-King of High Ainon, leader of the Ainoni contingent in the Great Ordeal of Anas?rimbor Kellhus. Originally Palatine of the Ainoni district of Kishyat when he joined the First Holy War, but made “King-Regent” of High Ainon as reward for his role in the Unification Wars. Renowned for his pragmatic brutality.
“[The] soul that encounters Him passes no further.”—A line from The Sagas referring to the Battleplain and the belief that all those who perish there remain trapped.
Southern Columns—Those divisions of the Imperial Nansur Army stationed on the Kianene frontier.
Southron Gates—The series of passes through the Unaras Spur guarded by Asgilioch.
Spiderface—Scalper argot for skin-spies.
Sranc—The violent, inhuman creatures first created by the Inchoroi as instruments of war against the Nonmen. They are the weakest, yet most numerous of the accursed Weapon Races. The chroniclers of the Is?phiryas write:
And they forged counterfeits from our frame, creatures vile and obscene who hungered only for violent congress. These beasts they loosed upon the land, where they multiplied, no matter how fierce the Ishroi who hunted them. And soon Men clamoured at our gates, begging sanctuary, for they could not contend with the creatures. ‘They wear your face,’ the penitents cried. ‘This calamity is your issue.’ But we were wroth, and turned them away, saying, ‘These are not our Sons. And you are not our Brothers.’