lard of Nmis tallowlike jelly; one of the parts usually employed in sanguinary draughts, its inclusion in Cathar's Treacle produces some of the performance-enhancing euphoria it does in its more typical use.

Laughing Spectioneer, the ~ alehouse in Brandenbra.s.s, getting its name from an eel inspector of the State File of Comestible Reference.

lectry folk fifth and sixth tiers of society, the middle cla.s.s. See social status in Book One.

leonguile meaning "cunning lion"; what we would call a cheetah, living and thriving in faraway N'go, its skins inevitably furnishing a robust fur trade for almost every land in the Harthe Alle.

lepsis egg-caste, also called oodis or qua.s.spots; castes made from the emptied eggs of various birds, an old technique of the first skolds still employed in these modern times, especially by those saumieres who hold that certain scripts remain more stable inside a lepsis, and those who simply like the style of such castes.

lesquin(s) also called landsaire, the "high end" of mercenary soldiering, with equally high fees, the best proofing and weapons, and long lists of honors. Some companies are given to taking sanguine draughts in order that they might ignore pain, fear, and even for a time resist the frission or scathing of a wit. See Book Two.

leviate room set aside at rowdy or lively society events to allow guests to withdraw without disgrace from the otherwise often incessant activity. A good leviate will have gentle music playing to aid the calm.

Lillian of the Faye simply an old designation of Fayelillian, the home of the Lamplighter-Marshal. See Fayelillian in Book Two.

limner makers of bright-limns, including the mixing of seltzer and the growing and tending of bloom.

limnla.s.s, limnlad young girl or boy who makes a meager living carrying a light to guide lightless customers at night; limnlads are young boys who do the same. It is a highly dangerous occupation, lighting the path for unknown people to wherever they wish to go throughout the entire city for a flat fee of one guise. After an especially long journey, a limnla.s.s or lad can demand another half-goose to go farther but will as likely as not get satisfaction. Such vulnerable souls are among the most commonly disappeared, abstracted for the nefarious demands of benighted laboratories and dark habilistics.

Lobe more fully, Lobe the Lord of Listening, the Great-eared One, the Ear of All; a well-known famuli (lesser servants to the false-G.o.ds, also known as autonids, pseudotherpes, pseudotheons, thearpids) who are said to be in communion with many great fichtars (false-G.o.ds). There are many stories about all kinds of fichtars, and Lobe is a major player or minor partic.i.p.ant in most of them. The Saccour hold Lobe as the "lover" of Bathst, (the Grieving One, Consort of Sucoth, Lips to the Ear), communing with "her" while the Swallower of Men sleeps. They say that if you can rouse Lobe to continue to make advances to Bathst that either "she" will rouse her slumbering lord, Sucoth, to tell him or Sucoth himself will rise up in jealousy.The trick is actually getting Lobe to do such a thing, what with him being so busy running errands for all the other septs.

loblolly a.s.sistant to a ram's surgeon or-if they are fortunate enough-physician.

lockscarfe break-and-enter thief skilled in foiling locks and other barriers, in sniffing out traps and hazards placed about hidden things.

lorgnette p.r.o.nounced "lorn-YET"; a somewhat basic version of what we would call opera gla.s.ses.

lots what we might call dice, though their construction is different from that of our six-sided cubes, being blunt hexagonal cylinders with one end marked 7 and the other usually red or marked with a death's head or other significant sign and the six faces etched with signs of ascending value. Originally a Nenese invention, lots are used widely about the whole civilized world.

Low Bra.s.sard, the ~ original stronghold built by the Burgundians when they arrived to subdue the lands of the northwest Grume, and sister to the fortress of Grimbasalt in the north of the city. Over the years it has been enlarged and beautified, but in all this the first fortress remains, dominating the Brandendirk with its sinister spires.

ludion room in a house or attached to it dedicated to physical activities: sports, jousting, fencing-usually windowless but for a ring of small ventlike windows all about the tops of the walls. In Cloche Arde the ludion occupies the entire third floor with a great fireplace at one end, and its walls are entirely of gla.s.s.

M.

madamielle Etaine for "miss"; used for a young, usually unwed woman.

Madigan, the Lady ~ the Marchess of the Pike (a collection of suburbs in the western part of Brandenbra.s.s' Second Ward [see Brandentown] known as the Pikemarch), she is responsible for the civic needs of the people living there. As a fulgar of no mean skill, she is also one of the few women in the Empire with whom Europe, the d.u.c.h.ess-in-waiting of Naimes, can happily keep company.

Maids of Malady calendar clave seeking to curb the activities of the dark trades and the excesses of black habilists, working toward this end in partnership with an even more aggressive clave, the Soratche. See Book Two.

make-weight fifth wheel; an unnecessary appendage, a useless item.

mandricard exceptionally long and sharp goad that can be used as a weapon too. manikin common name for a rare and little-known aberration in the natural order, a monster in human form. Many insist that it is impossible for such a creature to exist.

man-of-business one who acts partly as lawyer, computer, counter-man, broker, manager, representative, secretary and clerk. They are either hired in their hundreds by the great mercantile firms or work individually for select, well-paying clientele, those with kinder souls representing the less shrewd in the maddening world of bureaucracy. In practice these fellows can range from the most sedentary quill-licks to the keenest, most ruthless minds of the day. Men-of-business are a veritable plague in the cities, the gears of private bureaucracy unable to shift without them, many with open or secret ambitions to themselves rule the organs they slave within. This is no idle fancy either, for some of the most powerful magnates were once lowly men-of-business; more so, this is how many of them still refer to themselves. Most of the middling cla.s.ses are utterly dependent on the patronage of the higher stations (commonly very erratic), and it is a known but seldom acknowledged practice that men-of-business ride the successes of their patrons-and line their own pockets on the way-to achieve heights of their own.

maschencarde papier-mache; apologies to some for the seemingly gratuitous reinvention of a perfectly usable word. In my defense, sometimes a word will just look too rooted in our own reality, and so I change it to maintain verisimilitude.

matter(s) events of history.

mattern as matter is history, so a mattern is a historian.

Maundersea, Battle of ~ naval battle fought in 1588 HIR between an allied fleet of Grumid and Sangmaund rams (the Brandenbra.s.s squadron at the command of Rear-Admiral Patchword Fyfe) against the might of picaroons from the Pontus Canis-known together as the Sea Dogs or Sea Beggars and grown so much more active immediately after the general weakening of naval strength in 1585-and their sponsors the Lombards. It was fought in the Maundering Sea east off the Sangmaund coast and began with a long chase started by Fyfe aboard the drag-mauler NB Rebuke. Leading a wide-flung coursing squadron of drag-maulers and fast frigates on the prowl along the usual trade routes northeast of Start Point for piratical activity, the Rebuke was alone when she surprised the piratical freebooter (a type of fast overgunned frigate), Vinegar Strumpet, in the very act of waylaying a Boschenberg packet ram. One sight of the larger ram and-in the usual pattern of picaroons-the Vinegar Strumpet fled south. The Rebuke gave chase, setting flares and running out her mile-line (a large kite by which to send signals high into the air) to summon the a.s.sistance from her scattered fellows, the drag-mauler NB Redoubtable and the frigate NB Likely. Three hours into the chase a Brandenard privateer frigate, Fox, out on a mission of its own, joined them. Matched speed for speed, they gained little headway. The Strumpet sent up a kite, gaining the aid of two more freebooters, the Black Joke and the Red Dart (its hull painted a brilliant and b.l.o.o.d.y red). After a brief stouche the freebooters took flight once more, rounding the northern tip of Lombardy and drawing the four Branden rams on. Whether by chance or some prefigured scheme, the chase was now met by a small but proper fleet of Lombardy cruisers-five drag-maulers and an equal number of frigates (too many to name here). Fortunes were reversed and it came for Rebuke and the other Brandenard vessels to take flight, going directly west into the setting sun, heading for the distant sh.o.r.es of the Soutlands well over the horizon. Lanterns were doused and silence kept all through the night-but for the necessary communication from vessel to vessel-yet morning revealed the Lombard picaroons still in sight, stretched from north to south across the glorious arc of the world's morning rim. Harried by the shot of the picaroons' chasers, all limbers to the screw and hands to the treadle, the Brandenard rams kept just ahead in the "blightedly empty sea!" Finally, on the morning of the third day, with the coasts of the Sangmaund barely in view and the overworked gastrines near collapse, Fyfe and his faithful followers found fortune of their own, coming within hailing distance of a squadron of five main-rams of Maubergonne. After much frantic, terse and rather politically loaded signaling, these heavy rams turned rescuer and entered the fray on the Brandenard side. Odds evened and the picaroons' wind welled up; a great melee ensued, where the Rebuke rammed and sank three vessels, including the lone Lombardy capital, the seventy-four-gun-broad Serieux. Even as she pulled back and away from the savagely holed main-ram, the Rebuke herself was struck by the Black Joke, and she and the Serieux sank side by side with all hands, including the dashing Rear-Admiral Fyfe. Soon after, the remaining picaroons, including the Vinegar Strumpet, fled. The Battle of Maundersea is also notable as a fleet action fought more by cruisers than by rams-of-the-line.

Maupin, Pater Pontiflex originally of a poor yet well-to-do dog-breeding family of Languedock on the Sangmaund, he fled to Brandenbra.s.s as a young man to avoid embarra.s.sing connections to the operation of a syndicate of grabcleats and profit from the same. Immediately after he arrived in the vaunted city, he continued where he had left off, wheedling his way into many schemes both legitimate and criminal, finding greatest success with Fench Tinger, the former owner of the Broken Doll gambling house. After Tinger's "mysterious" demise, Maupin presented himself up as the old proprietor's heir, taking control of the chancery and gathering about him a crowd of similarly ambitious souls to do his bidding. He has continued his own twist on the family interest in dogs through his investment in the hidden rousing-pit below the chancery.

mercy jane also jenmerry, a hardy, p.r.i.c.kly weed with small violet flowers that, when in great numbers, can make a field a spectacle of spreading purple.

metrician common truncation of the name "concometrist," those learned and purposely equipped souls trained at one or several athenaeums about the Soutlands. Great rivals of the more contemplative and introverted mathematicians, the metricians pursue the great quest of measuring and doc.u.menting the entire known and-better yet-the unknown world.

metropolitan(s) original lords and now senior ministers of the Archduke of Brandenbra.s.s.

Middle Ground one of the main harborages of Brandenbra.s.s, occupying-as its name suggests-the central part of the eternally busy waters before the famous city. Other parts of the harbor (though not all) include Gatlin Pond (also known as Admiralty Sink), where only naval vessels might anchor or move; Ives Steps; Mill Pond, the waters before the milling districts of the city; Sour End, the quieter weedy waters at the farthest reach of the harbor proper; the Branden Roads-calm sheltered waters northwest off Exodus Island where vessels wait to be piloted into a proper harborage; and the Chops-rip waters out beyond the Branden Roads not safe for sailers or smaller gastriners.

moilers farm laborers, especially those employed in turning the soil.

Moldwood Park, the ~ remnant of a once-great woodland stretching untamed upon the coastal plain that became Brandenbra.s.s and its immediate pastureland of the Milchfold. Felled and steadily shrunk over the years, its borders were established by legal compact between the Lapinduce and one enlightened Burgundian prince. If the current lords of the city know of the power that dwells at its heart, they do not let on.Yet despite all the pressure of progress and a city pressed at times for room, the boundaries of the park remain. Greensmen keep its fringes somewhat manicured now, but in its heart the Moldwood is as untamed as it ever was.

moll potny women (usually girls) on street corners and circuits who sell dubious-looking stews from steaming cauldrons, doing trade with only the famished or the ironclad of stomach. If you know which moll potny to go to, however, these rough-made victuals can be highly tasty and not too distempering to your inner workings.

much exercised worried, anxious and fretful, given to sleepless and troubled nights.

Munkler's Court, the ~ collective of panto plays whose central story revolves around a woodsman in search of love; one of the more outrageously invidical stage shows written by Pendrift.

murmurs lesser players on a stage who, in certain forms of play, give clues to the audience about whether the moments in it are happy, sad, frightening or relieving, and whose ultimate ends in the tale are determined by the deeds of the main players, perishing or thriving as the protagonist perishes or thrives.

Myrrh, Anaesthesia a native of Flint, she began her career in teratology as a pure fulgar. Witnessing and indeed suffering the wrong end of the potency of a wit, she became jealous of their puissance and returned to Sinster to go again under the transmogrifer's catlin. Originally plying her trade about the Gott protectorates of the Enne, she was compelled by troubles with a highly stationed woman over the latter's husband to seek a less complex situation. Taking pa.s.sage over the Pontus Canis, and after many adventures, she found herself in Brandenbra.s.s. Here she learned that the money was better and the "targets" less troublesome doing the dark work of the well connected, and committed herself to spurning work.

N.

nadderer(s) common name for sea-nickers of all kinds, but specifically any of those that are not kraulschwimmen or false-G.o.ds.

naeroe said in the most ancient of myths to be the original patrons of the air, of sky and cloud and rain and storm, driven away by the malice and violence of the rebelling alosudne. None now know where they have fled to; the rare ancient texts that speak of them insist on their eventual return and mark the occasion as the end of all things.

naivine person who has never ventured far beyond a city or safe town, who has never seen a monster or is sensible of them beyond story, tradition and rumor. Some of the more "knowing," self-approving naivines with a voice and an audience declare monsters to be a fiction, to be nothing more than large and rampant animals or other natural forces talked up into terrible beasts to keep society meek and pliable.

naval college some cities have naval colleges (or nautical academies) where if you are independently well off, have married guardians or are sponsored by a patron (e.g., a captain or the state), you can get a much more fulsome lesson in the skills of running a vessel: rimitry and orthitry (mathematics), weltergraphie (wind and waves), tungolitry (astronomy), naval architecture, and instrument construction. Much more thorough, and producing more learned captains and lieutenants than those trained twixt c.o.c.kpit and quarterdeck, though what these lesser fellows lack in formal education they amend for with experience and levelheadedness in battle.

Nenin major realm of the Occidental kingdoms to the far, almost mythic west of the Half-Continent across the great western gurgis. Though for most "Sundergirdians" the name is a catchall for the whole Occident, it is indeed just one of many realms therein, and certainly among the most dominant.

Neo-Athic more recent artistic style and movement reviving the acute attention to detail so revered in the ancient fabulists of long-gone Attica.

night steppers people out for fun at night.

nisse name not even known among everymen but in the most abstruse texts; the ancient designation for the nuglungs, second born after the eurinie, sent to aid them against the alosudne.

nuncheon any meal not had at the usual times of breakfast, middens/ lunch or mains/supper.

nuntio(s) official messengers of the Emperor and his regents, and, when required, bearing the authority of the one who sent them. Their private counterparts-used by magnates and peers-are the sillards (sing. silas). Both are distinct from scopps and mercers in that they are especially engaged by individuals for their exclusive service, rather than being available for general hire.

O.

obligantic ossatomy school of bone-setting practice advocating the use of tight bindings to "oblige" or immobilize and support a break. Its disadvantage-so its rival practice ferile ossatomy (which touts the use of splints and other supportive casings) holds-is that if the break is in a limb, it is not free to be used.

obsequine also known as tweenies, flamboyaunts or fancyblands; lahzar "groupies," true devotees of teratologists; what we would think of as "rabid fans," writing letters to, finding and following, seeking the mark or discarded items of their chosen monster-slayer, finding and buying every skerrick of printed information on them. The more reasonable and mature will be allowed to be in the company of their favorite, and most obsequines-who, not appreciating the demeaning sound of the word, prefer to call themselves cathabrians or cathadulators-aspire to such an honor. Their greatest aspiration is indeed to be made into a factotum or other such body in service to their mighty hero.

obtorpes powerful stupefactant; that is, a draught that sedates the recipient.

obverse also known sometimes as a front room, comprising a main entry hall with a solid front door at one end and an equally solid inner door at the other, flanked by narrow pa.s.sages on either hand perforated with thin, heavily gated loopholes from which defenders can fire upon who- or whatever is in the entry hall. A place of defense should a monster or other undesirable manage to make it through the front door, these are (and have always been) very necessary in dwellings out in rougher regions. With this universal approval and long-standing use, obverses are to be found in almost any building throughout the lands, even when these structures have ceased to need such defenses.

Occidental the empire of Nenin and the kingdom of Sippon, among other realms of the great landma.s.s across the western gurgis, whose cultures are what we would consider Oriental or Asian in character.

occludile of lazarin one of the rare scripts employed by transmogrifers immediately upon inserting mimetic organs into a person to make them a lahzar. Its rarity is in part attributable to the illicit and very difficult-to-obtain parts in its const.i.tution, and also the limits of its use. As any transmogrifer worth his fee will tell you that it also can serve as an aid for fortifying the memes (foreign organs) already within a lahzar's body.

olfactologue of similar basic construction to a sthenicon, an olfactologue does not have the sight-enhancing organs and mechanisms of the latter, but only augments the user's sense of smell. Full sthenicon wearers hold that olfactologues are what we would call a "baby step" into the world of fully heightened senses, and lurksmen-in-training will often start with it before progressing to the full sensoria. True olfactologue wearers will claim that they are at far less risk of having the organs within trying to grow up into their faces with prolonged wear. Quite rightly too, for on its own the scent tissue of an olfactologue is far less aggressive than it is when combined with sight-enhancing organs inside a sthenicon.

ol' touchy also the touch, torch, ol' torch or the gripes; a fiery beverage made from cacti juice, first drunk by the pirates of the Sin Tin. The drink is known among most vinegaroons even though almost all would have no idea what a cacti was, looked like or even that they existed, growing as they do almost exclusively in the northern parts of Parthia, that terrible land far beyond the Brigandine states. Torch (as it is most commonly called) is made almost exclusively by the pirate-kings of the Brigandine and exported to seaside drinkeries the world over.

omilia habilistic and also natural philosophy term meaning the particular type of monster within a greater genis-or grouping of like types; what less learned folk might term a tribe.

oppilative another word for a siccustrumn, that is, the group of potives involved in stopping blood flow and hastening the healing of open wounds.

orator(s) "referee" of an oratory, who governs the course of arguments and makes sure certain pa.s.sions do not rise to the point of ruining the debate.

oratory debate or formally organized argument upon a set topic; properly meaning the lecturing and debating hall of an athenaeum, it has come to be an entertainment at higher-cla.s.s fetes, galas and other social events.

Orchard Harriet meaning "home of the fruit grove," a name given it by Gaspard Plume when he bought it twenty years ago from a local lord and leaseholder pressed by gambling debts who had-with certain additions-employed it as a barn. The core structure is an old fortalice, part of the defenses built to guard the ancient, now abandoned mines that riddle the hills about. Used variously since as a bogle haunt, a den of brigands, a family home, a storehouse and a barn, its accretion of s.p.a.ce and rooms serves it well in its current role as the hideaway for disaffected, thoughtful and creative souls.

orchestrato what we might call a chamber orchestra, that is, a small collection of players of orchestral instruments used in more intimate situations or where room and/or money are constrictions.

ouranin ancient term monsters have for a rossamunderling.

P.

packet ram any cla.s.s of ram that has been radicaled, that is, had part of its lower decks cleared of guns and at least one of its masts unstepped (lowered or removed, making the vessel "short-masted") to allow for the taking on of cargo and/or pa.s.sengers. Such vessels are usually privately owned, the tariffs for loading and unloading and the fares being their owners' income. Neither fighting vessel nor true cargo, nevertheless what a packet ram loses in carrying capacity it makes up for in firepower and-in the case of a converted frigate-speed.

Page, the ~ amiable part of the world farmed for longer than Imperial charters record, with every little parish holding itself distinct from its neighbors as if each were a state to itself. The ancient locals are very proud of their ideal life, yet it is falling prey to the grasping greed of peers seeking seats in the state parliament.These city swells send ceaseless chains of lawyers and men-of-business to dispute the ancient uses of folkland and haggle the expansion of their franchises.

pallet sleeping quarters for staff and servants, usually situated at the rear of a house closest to the working places; the domestic version of a billet.

Pander Tar vulgar Soutland rendering of Pandataar-capital of the Princ.i.p.alitine far to the north beyond the Sinus Tintinabuline-a collective of princes ruled by the Peac.o.c.k Throne found in Serringpahttam.

Pantomime Lane found in many cities of the Soutlands and beyond; a Pantomime Lane-or Street or Walk, or its linguistic equivalent-is the district designated as the center of frivolous distractions, though only sometimes connected with the districts of high theater.

panto-play(s) medley of many small shows, const.i.tuting intermedio that have become more popular than the full dramas (comedie a'manners or heldic tragedy); they originally supported and now collect into a single act, farces and mimes-short comic routines making sport of whoever it is currently fashionable to tease and made especially for the panto, interludes performed by normal folk seeking a moment of fame or fun, and even morality cycles done by well-meaning calendar claves or brave collectives of apostrophizers. Most popular of all are the arbitrarios-or doubles-romance comedies with set roles but ad lib scripts performed by concoctors, with simple, compact yet still gorgeous production so that doubles might be done as easily on small platforms as grand stages.

paphron skirtlike ap.r.o.n usually of proofed leather, wrapping high about the stomach and flaring from the hips to just below the knees. Part of its manufacture is what we might call a "utility belt" plus pockets and slots for holding tools.

paraductor master of the progress of a high-society event, with the production and timing of all the entertainments under his command, keeping with great tact and sensitivity all things in their right place and proceeding smoothly.

parmister essentially a foreman in charge of the various workings and facets of a franchise. Whether it is the shepherds and their flocks, the hay wards and their herds, the swains and their farrows, the moilers and their fields, the pruners and their trees, the pickers and their vines or the garnerers and their stores, there is a parmister in charge of each, and a master-parmister in charge of all and answering only to the owning lord or his seniormost agent.

Parvis Main main structures and public buildings built around the Florescende and a major part of the whole Brandendirk. It is here that common folk may come to deal and treat with the Archduke's officials and various governing boards.

patefract "revealer"; also sometimes called an index; courtly spies sometimes hiring themselves out to more vulgar folk to supplement income and better employ any downtime. In this capacity they become one of a cla.s.s collectively known as "splints" or "sleuths," and behave in the manner of a "private eye" in our own world, treading into the realms of the sleuths of the local constabulary and the freelancing, common street detinctives (detectives).

Pater Maupin see Maupin, Pater Pontiflex.

Patredike, the ~ corruption of an Etaine word meaning "shepherd's mound"; the ancestral home of the Trottinotts, built by Grimspan Trottinott, who served with great distinction and almost unto death at the Battle of the Gates (see Book One) in HIR1397. Called the Trottinseat or Trotthall by the locals, the original dike (the high mound upon which the buildings are established) and the manor proper took seven years to complete, with additions being added by almost every generation ever since.

Paucitine, the ~ eastern, least fertile region of the Idlewild, the seat of the now destroyed cothouse, Wormstool, where Rossamund served for a bare few months. See Book Two.

pauldrons proof-steel protection for the shoulders, upper arm and partly the chest, typically possessing ridges or flutes of steel near the neck to protect from inward-turning deflecting blows.

Pauper Chives see Chives, Pauper.

pavane slow dance of many couples in a kind of ch.o.r.eographed procession, unfashionable now in the cities but still stepped in rustic places.

PDetC "Pro Dux et Civitas," the motto of Brandenbra.s.s; a Tutin phrase meaning "For duke and state."

Peac.o.c.k Throne, the ~ oddly impersonal name for the actual person of the overlord of the Princ.i.p.alitine states far, far to the north.

peltisade hiding place of significant size, large enough for a person to live in permanently, with s.p.a.ce for staff and entertainments, often functioning as the dens of the ne'er-do-well set of folk with enough money and influence to create such havens. Such structures are more common in cities than authorities would care to ponder upon, yet as universal as they might be, they are little reckoned to exist by most folk, which is precisely the point.

peltrymen though once used to mean trappers, this term is more and more coming to include venators-that is, hunters; indeed, it is becoming the catchall word for any woodsman. One of the notable historical details of peltrymen is that the ambuscadiers of armies of the Half-Continent model their own harness on the accoutrements of peltryfolk, a practice originating from the recruiting of skirmishing volunteers from the people best suited to skulking and ambushing: woodsmen and peltrymen.

People of the Dogs "cla.s.sical" designation for the folk of the city-state of Doggenbra.s.s.

percusor(s) also pnictor or sicarian; a part of the patefact set; professional murderer working for states and kings, possessing a near-legendary facility in delivering death at distance and by stealth. Almost every state, kingdom or realm employs them, the more civilized places simultaneously denying their existence.

perfervid(s) antiquated term for vigorants. Despite its antiquity it is still used by many script-grinders, one of those strangely persistent linguistic relics.

permanare per proscripta perpetually binding ruling, usually made in the sectioning of land by a regime intent on preserving its uses into the next generations, for example the sequestering of great stretches of land by Emperor Haacobin Conflans II in the early sixteenth century HIR with the infamous Survey Act for the growing of timber for the making of rams and cargoes. To break a proscription requires an act of Imperial will ratified by the necessary state(s) concerned.

perruquier makers of wigs, often called skull-thatchers by less well-spoken folk, though such a term is used to refer more particularly to your less competent wig-st.i.tcher.

perto adversus meaning essentially "to face openly"; an innovation on the usually fixed positions-or first stances-that tradition dictates a fighter begins. Involving simply standing fully facing your adversary, it provides the pract.i.tioner flexibility in reaction by not restricting the hand and/or leg that can be first employed.

petchinin(s) monster-lords most concerned with their own immediate needs and their own schemes, neither attacking nor defending everymen except as circ.u.mstances might dictate or if said everymen are encroaching upon a petchinin's patch or plans. As such they are scorned-or at the very least, mistrusted-by both urchins and wretchins.

petrailles part of a set of horse-proofing or shabraque, covering the main part of the body. See shabraques in Book Two.

Philemon Plume see Plume, Philemon.

physical of or pertaining to a physician and physics, their field of expertise; medicinal.

pied daw large, heavy-billed relative of the crow, called a currawong in this real world of ours.