Twelve Germs—The twelve bloodlines of the D?nyain.
Twin Scimitars—The primary holy device of Fanimry, symbolizing the “Cutting Eyes” of the Solitary God.
Tydonni—The language of Ce Tydonn, a derivative of Meoric.
Tyr?mmas (4075-4100)—See Tirummas.
Tywanrae River—A major river system in north central E?rwa, draining the Gal basin and emptying into the Cerish Sea.
U
U?n, Samarmau (4001–)—One of the D?nyain Pragma.
?gorrior, Plain of—Name of the flat tracts immediately before Gwergirah, Corrunc, and Domathuz, demarcated not so much by virtue of geography as history. Called Mirsurq?l by the Nonmen (the “Final Dust”), countless Men and Nonmen have perished upon it.
Ukrummu, Madarezer (4045—4111)—Man-of-the-Tusk, sorcerer of rank in the Scarlet Spires, slain by Chorae at Anwurat.
?liqara (?—?)—Wife of Oir?nas, Lord of the Watch, and mother of Oinaral Lastborn.
Ulnarta, Shaugar (4071–)—Man-of-the-Tusk, one of the Nascenti, formerly a Tydonni thane.
Umbilicus—The residential and command pavilion used by Anas?rimbor Kellhus throughout the Great Ordeal.
?merau—See ?meri Empire.
?meri Empire—The first great nation of Men, encompassing the length of the River Aumris, founded after the overthrow of the Trysean God-Kings, c. 430. See K?niüri.
?meritic—The lost language of ancient ?merau, a derivative of Aumri-Saugla.
Umiaki—The name of the ancient eucalyptus tree located in the heart of the Kalaul in Caraskand, famed as the tree from which the Warrior-Prophet was hung on the Circumfix.
Umrapathur, Sasal (4078—4132)—Ordealman, Believer-King of Nilnamesh, Marshal of the Ketyai-of-the-South in the Great Ordeal of Anas?rimbor Kellhus, among the last souls killed at the disastrous Battle of Ursulor.
“umresthei om aumreton”—Kyranean for “possessing in dispossession.” Ajencis’s term for those moments where the soul comprehends itself in the act of comprehending other things, and so experiences the “wonder of existence.”
Unaras Spur—The low mountain range that extends from the southern terminus of the Hethantas to the Meneanor coast, marking the geographical frontier between the Kyranae Plain and Gedea.
Unclean, the—A name, derived from The Chronicle of the Tusk, commonly used by Inrithi as a pejorative for sorcerers.
Unerring Grace—The capacity to act and desire in perfect coincidence with one’s Fate, attributed especially to the Narindar. See Narindar.
Unification Wars—The Fall of Shimeh to Anas?rimbor Kellhus in 4112 did not so much occasion the end of his Holy War as lend it the legitimacy required to take on new, even larger quarry. What had begun as an Inrithi war against the Fanim had quickly become a Zaudunyani war against all. Conriya, of course, came to the Aspect-Emperor by virtue of Nersei Proyas. With the death of Ikurei Xerius and his heir, Ikurei Conphas, Maithanet need only proclaim Kellhus Aspect-Emperor to make Momemn the capital of his nascent empire. The successive defeats suffered at Mengedda, Anwurat, Caraskand, and Shimeh had so severely depleted the ranks of the Kianene nobility as to assure that Kellhus would install his Empress in the White-Sun Palace in Nenciphon in the winter of 4113. That year, the year that apocalypse was visited upon Fanimry, would become known as the Year of the Child Grandees.
Some among the wise contend that this first series of conquests belongs to the First Holy War proper, since the newly minted Aspect-Emperor spent three years consolidating his martial and spiritual conquests following the capitulation of the main Chianadyni tribes (decisively influenced by the Whelming of Massar ab Kascamandri in 4113). On this view, the Unification Wars proper begin with the Battle of Pinropis, in 4115. A substantial shortcoming of this view, however, is that it takes a shallow view of “Unification,” assuming it pertains only to the annexation of once sovereign nations.
By no means did even a fraction of the Three Seas consider Anas?rimbor Kellhus anything but an imposter of some mundane or arcane variety—this despite the declarations Maithanet, the Holy Shriah of the Thousand Temples. Even within the Nansurium and the provinces of the former Kianene Empire, the Orthodox, as those defending their rights and privileges against the Aspect-Emperor came to be called, vastly outnumbered the Zaudunyani. The war waged by the so-called Aspect-Emperor was not a war for power over (this was simply the first step toward Unification) but war for consent. Ils Hidarei calls the zealots, “an army of mathematicians, scribes, and merchants,” and comes to see them as all the more deadly for it:
“And they murder us, more surely than if they chased us into the wilds. They fat us upon our own fears, our own weaknesses and greed. All the pomegranate seeds they leave lead to them, to their mercy, their employ, their milder taxes. Even their daughters, affluent and poor, are encouraged to take us as lovers. The proof of their God, they say, is plainer to see!”
Rumours of skin-spies, declarations made by famously pious men. The stories of miracles. What had happened in Shimeh had united the attention of the Three Seas in a way not seen since the days of Cenei. Wonder had opened every soul before suspicion had a chance to winch them shut. And always the bottomless ghus of the End, the Second Apocalypse. The Mandate, who all had thought mad, had all along spoke true. And simple, catastrophic claim that the God of Gods had sent Anas?rimbor Kellhus to assure that the World at last listened.
The Three Seas must act of one will. God’s.
Unification for the Aspect-Emperor was Unification of will, the remaking of the Three Seas into a vast engine, for as the close of the Unification Wars would make amply clear, the Second Apocalypse was indeed his sole concern. “As you fear me,” he famously declared at the Paremti Massing, “your children will praise my name. And through me, shall you become the most revered name on their Lists, the most proud and hallow on the Lists of their children.” The strategies employed were ingenious, and became more so as time went on. Whole districts, cities, tribes, converted en masse, such that the first nations overthrown militarily (those comprising Nansur and Kian) were entirely subdued ere the last nations fell, their peoples Inrithi first, certainly, but in a manner corrupted by Zaudunyani concessions. Ere the departure of the Great Ordeal, more than half the population of every province in the Empire had been Whelmed, more than three quarters in a few (such as Nansur and Conriya).
Again, Ils Hidarei writes to his cousin (who was already, quite famously, a Zaudunyani convert by this time):
“He creeps through us like a contagion, everyday stronger for our own courage, our own skill, stealing, forever stealing our hopes and our thoughts, until now our very brothers slay us, greet us with a derision and hate that makes a paste of that demonstrated by their slavers.”