House of Open Wounds

Adrian Tchaikovsky · The Tyrant Philosophers

House of Open Wounds is the second novel in The Tyrant Philosophers, a military-fantasy sequence set in a world where the Palleseen Sway-a rationalist empire that has systematically stripped the supernatural from conquered peoples-wages war against the trading nation of Lor. The novel follows the members of an experimental field hospital attached to the Forthright Battalion, a unit staffed by "Accessories": conquered foreigners whose religious, medical, and artisanal knowledge the Palleseen exploit while forbidding its practice. The hospital department is a site of institutional contradiction: it saves lives that Pal medicine cannot, yet its staff are expendable, surveilled, and perpetually one political decision away from dissolution.

The narrative is told through a rotating cast of viewpoint characters-Ollery, the alchemist and lead medico nicknamed the Butcher; Prassel, the necromancer who nominally commands the department; Yasnic, an Ilmari former priest who carries three gods in a box on his back; Banders, a former Cohort-Broker and petty fixer; Masty, a Bracite orderly whose true identity is the lost crown prince of Bracinta; Alv, a Divinati sympathetic healer; Tallifer and Lochiver, former Jarokiri priests turned surgeons; Cosserby, a sonorist artificer; and others. Their perspectives rotate chapter by chapter, so that no single consciousness carries the moral weight of the story. The book's central question is not whether the war can be won but whether a community of exploited specialists can survive long enough to choose their own fate, and what they owe the institution that feeds them while grinding them down.

The novel sits between the first and third volumes of the sequence in its treatment of the Palleseen conquest as an ongoing, generational process rather than a single historical event. Where the first volume established the Sway's philosophy of "perfection" and its machinery of suppression, House of Open Wounds examines the human residue: the gods in boxes, the priests in uniforms, the healers who cannot heal because their discipline has been classified as a weapon.

Plot

The Field Hospital (ch 1-5)

The novel opens in a field hospital tent the staff call "Hell," where Ollery triages the day's wounded with what the narrator calls "a personal love-language of agony and alchemy" - ch 1. Ollery works the line administering philtres from his apron's twenty pockets, giving double and triple doses from the black flask to those beyond saving, and marking their foreheads with the Sign of the Forlorn Hope for Prassel to collect as necromantic labour - ch 1. The Divinati healer Alv closes wounds by transferring damage onto her own body; the Inquirer necromancer Prassel raises the dead as single-use servants. The arrangement is transactional, unsentimental, and functional.

Yasnic arrives as a prisoner handed over under a writ naming Prassel as his destination; he carries a wooden box on his back containing something living, nasty, and weirdly familiar - ch 3. Banders processes him, nicknames him "Maric Jack" (a Pel pun meaning a jack of all trades), and delivers him to Ollery, who assesses him with dark humour about the hospital's "ration of corpses" - ch 3. Jack's first substantive act is to urge God, the deity housed in his box, to heal a dying spy being dragged into a non-physical hole by an unknown weapon. God heals the spy after the man, facing oblivion, says "Yes" to an unknown bargain: "Ignorant Pal bastard. Turns out even they believe in gods when oblivion's staring them in the face" - ch 4. Jack calls it cheating; God calls it divine prerogative.

Tallifer, a Jarokiri former priest secretly maintaining devotions to a tiny remnant of Mazdek, warns Jack that "Here we speak Pel and we follow orders and everything's by their book. And those who don't learn, get taught it the hard way" - ch 5. The hospital's status is precarious: "We're an experiment in unorthodox use of tainted resources, Jack. And the moment we make a wave big enough to slop over the bucket, they'll do away with us" - ch 5.

The Whipping at the Alder (ch 6-9)

Jack, desperate to warn the healed spy that the conditional healing will reverse if the man harms anyone, grabs Prassel's sleeve-an Accessory touching a superior in public. Prassel orders six lashes "here, now" - ch 6. Ollery administers them with the Alder, a whip made from Jarokiri predatory-tree roots, but Jack's back heals instantly via God, erasing the Tally Officer's required verifiable stripes. Ollery explains the correction system and proceeds; the second set of marks stay - ch 6. God's rule is stated plainly: "do no harm. And if you do harm, after God heals, then he takes it back" - ch 6.

Ollery leads Jack through the camp to Mother Semprellaime's wagon, warning him that the previous Chief, Erinael, was more capable than anyone and is now dead: "nobody's too useful to be used" - ch 7. In the wagon, three gods emerge from the box: God, Life Of Dead Trees, and The Fisher King. Jack weeps; Semprellaime welcomes him to army life. A Watch squad arrives to arrest him-the healed spy has died - ch 7.

The spy was killed by a ghost-eater arrow; his healing reversed because the intelligence he carried would have caused harm, so the gift was withdrawn and the consuming resumed - ch 9. In a workshop hut, Thurrel (a Decanter) and Maserley (a Conjurer) attempt to claim Jack for analysis and Exceptional Stratagems respectively. Prassel arrives and reclaims him: "You're one of mine. If Fellow-Archivist Thurrel wants to file a requisition... he can have you. But he can't just take you" - ch 10. Maserley storms out; Thurrel tells Jack, "I know what you didn't bring with you," referring to the box hidden at Semprellaime's wagon - ch 9.

The Great Advance (ch 10-13)

The night before the offensive, the department dines on a special meal Ollery has cooked. The chapter establishes the group's internal hierarchy not by rank but by function: Tallifer and Alv are "the backbone of the hospital department"; Masty lights the lamps and anticipates needs; Cosserby is accommodated but kept at arm's length - ch 10. God insists Jack reveal his true name (Yasnic); Jack refuses. Prassel arrives late, receives sealed orders, and says: Drink up. Busy day tomorrow - ch 10.

In the small hours, Prassel prepares thirty-nine corpses with tableth under their tongues for vanguard duty; Cosserby's lead Sonori asks "Why must we fight?" and he destroys its tableth with a hammer and replaces it with a blank - ch 11. Alv cuts her own arms in a private ritual of controlled pain, the only suffering she can manage - ch 11.

The advance begins at dawn. Prassel's cadaver Unnaturals trigger bonecutters and ghost-mines and collapse "like cut puppets"; the main assault proceeds with tableth-charged mortars and great-batons - ch 12. The hospital moves forward into an open-sided tent where rain pours in. Alv takes a blinded scout's full burn onto her own face, which cooks and ruins; she continues healing through a crippled arm, repeating "I still have more to give" until her body fails - ch 12. The department escalates through orange, blue, and lilac salts as stimulants. One of Alv's students, fortified beyond capacity, dies of hidden internal bleeding. Jack nearly destroys his box trying to command a resurrection that does not come; Banders hugs him from behind and says "I know" - ch 12.

A three-horned Loruthi war-beast with a scythe-beaked turtle face and an iron-plated howdah crashes through the forward surgery, destroying the tent and breaking Lochiver's leg - ch 13. Jack goes back for his box; the nature god dances to distract the lizard-rider, sparing him momentarily, but the beast's tail breaks his torso. Masty, refusing to leave, hauls Ollery's boy free from a crush of bodies, throws him to the Butcher, then turns back for Jack: "No medico left behind" - ch 13. The wagons vanish; Jack and Masty are left between the lines.

Between the Lines (ch 14-15)

Jack's shattered body is reassembled by God acting without prayer or request, pouring the damage into Himself as "an infinite repository of hurt" - ch 15. Banders, having scouted, brings three Pal troopers left behind in the rout: Lidlet, Paucelry, and Klimmel. The group crosses the battlefield at night. In a skirmish with four Loruthi soldiers, Paucelry is killed, Klimmel is gutted, Lidlet is shot through the breast, and Masty is hit - ch 15.

Jack forces God to heal the dying soldiers by threatening apostasy: "I'll worship - I'll worship him. Him with the mask and the woodlice" - ch 15. God capitulates. Klimmel and Lidlet swear a no-harm oath and are healed. Lidlet, practical and terrified, orders silence: "God-stuff means this never happened if you don't want to end up on a Decanter's table and your heart in a jar" - ch 15. The group rides toward the Pal lines on horses taken from the dead.

The Gallete Island (ch 16-19)

Eight days after the battle, Alv's eye bandages are removed; her face is scarred. The department reunites-Banders, Masty, and Jack return, Jack visibly disturbed by what he did between the lines. Prassel announces the battalion is moving overseas; a flying Gallete island descends to carry them across the sea - ch 16.

Aboard the island, Banders narrates the department's life in transit: the Gallete village coursing through the sky under Pal orders, Runkel's dry-camp rule, an authorised play containing anti-Maric racial caricature that Jack endures so he won't have nightmares - ch 17. Prassel fences Maserley on a star-shaped piste and wins with calm discipline; Maserley cheats by binding something into his sword - ch 17.

Jack is arrested for the murder of Klimmel, who died in a brawl when his conditional healing reversed. At the tribunal, Prassel argues "The man brought about his own demise, judge, accused and executioner in one" - ch 18. Sage-Monitor Runkel pronounces: the army cannot have soldiers fearing to fight; Jack receives twelve lashes; the incident is suppressed. Lidlet, who can no longer serve as a regular soldier, requests transfer to the hospital department: "Magister, I can carry one end of a stretcher if there's someone to take the other" - ch 18.

Thurrel studies the island's crystal heart with a thaumatic gauge; Maserley approaches him seeking the rules of Jack's religion so he can "ruin him. Spiritually" - ch 19. God, furious at the army's prohibition on healing, declares: "I am the bloody font of forbiddances. If anybody's forbidding any damn thing around here then it's Me" - ch 19. Ollery discovers Jack healing a Gallete in secret and forges a tacit non-disclosure pact with him - ch 19.

Arrival in Bracinta (ch 20-21)

An Oloumanni Accessory named Pirisytes, secretly a priest of a hidden "sneaky god" of the suppressed chaos cults, watches Forthright disembark at a Bracinta dockside. He identifies the Blessed priests walking openly in uniform as future sacrifices: "it would be time for some good old-fashioned religion" - ch 20. The chapter expositionally establishes Bracinta's history: Loruthi Trade Mission domination, forced reunification, and the Palleseen's infiltration strategy - ch 20.

The planned assault on the city turns out to require no fighting. The Loruthi melt away; the gates open; the only casualty is a soldier who trips into a rabbit burrow - ch 21. Masty reports this to the bewildered department: "The whole day passed without a single shot being fired" - ch 21.

Leave in Magnelei (ch 22-26)

During camp leave, Banders schemes to get the department onto the leave rota; Jack drinks forbidden rummell while counting sips and planning penance - ch 22. Lidlet confronts Jack: she tried to shove a student and felt lethal pain at the impulse; she cannot drink without risking a killing blow that would kill her. She vows: "I am going to find a way to crack this" - ch 22.

Caeleen, Maserley's bound succubus, enters Jack's tent to seduce and break his faith on Maserley's orders. She reveals she can see God: I see him because he's there - ch 22. God bursts in; Jack is bagged over the head leaving the tent. Tallifer is bound beside Jack in a consecrated hollow, nearly garrotted by the Zenotheus cult of Oloumanni conscripts led by Pirisytes. Jack reveals he can see Zenotheus's avatar and begs the god for mercy; Pirisytes spares them and bargains for medical cover for wounded cultists - ch 24.

Masty, absent from the department that night, is stopped by a drunk Landwards officer, flogged by a duty Inquirer's concession, and salved by Ollery. He confesses that the department is "home": "I'm not enjoying being here, Chief" - ch 23. Ollery will ask Prassel to issue something so Landwards "don't get fresh again" - ch 23.

In Magnelei, Banders calls Masty "our local boy" and the Butcher privately reveals that Masty was five years old in the city when the dynasty fell and civil war engulfed the streets - ch 26. Banders apologises; Masty accepts with quiet grace: "I'm here now. It's all right. I understand" - ch 26.

The Market Brawl (ch 27-31)

Prassel attends a meeting of Landwards' Field Necromancy department, where Stiverton and Killingly explain ghost-chain deployment-spirits sealed in copper jars, thrown behind enemy lines to drain hosts' life essence. A waiver of authority signed by Scaffesty mandates that Prassel bottle the ghosts of patients who die in the hospital without individual consent - ch 27. She agrees: "A truly remarkable innovation" - ch 27.

Callow, Alv's student, demonstrates weaponised sympathetic healing on a mouse: he stabs his own hand, the mouse explodes into viscera, and he asks Alv whether there is any true limit to sympathetic transfer. Alv's balance is "utterly shot" - ch 29. In the market, Banders and Jack cause a brawl with locals; Halseder, a one-armed Bracite general, recognises Masty and seizes him. In the Wolf Palace, Halseder announces Masty as "His Majesty Feder the Fourth of the Hackle Throne, rightful king of all Bracinta" - ch 30. Masty, in tea and royal dress, says: "I don't want to be anyone else but me" - ch 30. He slips the ceremony and rejoins the group.

The brawl escalates; a provost Cohort-Monitor recognises Ollery, calls him "Murderer," and fires a rod at his face. Masty pushes the officer's wrist upward, saving Ollery's life. The provost orders the entire group arrested - ch 31.

The Fireberg Battle (ch 32-35)

Imprisoned for brawling, the group is flogged. Prassel sentences Ollery to sixteen lashes with the Alder. Jack, sent to apply alchemical paste to Ollery's back, learns the secret: fifteen years ago, Ollery poisoned the entire Higher Orders of a regiment at a dinner after his wife Ennit's affair with a Fellow-Invigilator; his treatise on rational alchemy saved him from execution - ch 32. He tells Jack: "I will not be bound by your creed, boy. You understand me? I will be keeping my options open" - ch 32.

The Loruthi deploy fireberg artillery-impacts the size of townhouses-and Varinecthes's flying tower, from which the ancient sorcerer pours liquid fire and hurls imps to fulfil inherited contractual promises. Varinecthes's demon familiar Ghastron manages his obligations with weary competence - ch 33. A sun-lance flash topples the medical tent. God, on Jack's shoulder, struggles against His abhorrence of violence. Lidlet begs Jack to heal her dying squadmate Foley; Jack refuses. God leaps from Jack's shoulder and heals Foley anyway: "Well to hell with you. I will bloody do it, and sod the Pals. Forbid me, will they?" - ch 33.

After the bombardment, stretcher teams excavate a corpse-mound. Cosserby activates a buried Sonori as a rearguard. Jack digs out Pirisytes's corpse and rescues Zenotheus, the dead god's scorpionfly avatar, placing it in his box despite God's refusal - ch 34. Life Of Dead Trees dances one final time, bursts into spores that make the Loruthi forget Jack and Masty, and crumbles - ch 34. The Palleseen are broken; two battalions shattered. Killingly is possessed by thirty-plus ghosts and put down by Festle - ch 35. Stiverton offers Prassel the vacancy - ch 35.

The Magnelei Standoff (ch 36-39)

Lidlet, alone with the wounded Cosserby in no-man's-land, prays to God as one would "wrangling for leave privileges with a recalcitrant duty officer." God appears, reluctant and translucent. She bargains: she will spread His rules, offers honey. God vanishes before completing the deal. Cosserby grips her wrist-alive - ch 36.

Semprellaime sews warding sigils into a garment for Prassel, who learns that a Higher Orders notice investigates sedition in the hospital department, unexplained deaths among soldiers, and Jack's prior caution - ch 37. Cosserby, assigned to assist Prassel's interrogations, cannot activate the torture chair without feeling the pain himself: "He'd taken a loan of a whole body, on the battlefield, because it was that or die. Now someone was knocking at the door for it" - ch 38. Prassel, told Jack was not present when the effect manifested, says: It's worse. It's spreading. He's worse than I thought - ch 38.

At the inquest into Hobbers' death-killed by Callow in a sympathetic-transfer exercise-Alv testifies that passing harm outward is not her discipline. The duty Inquirer reprimands her; Callow receives a note on his record - ch 39. At the hospital fire, Alv confesses: "They are making me into a weapon" - ch 39. Lochiver rages about the debts owed for Erinael, who was rendered down by the Decanters into tablethi - ch 39. The truth of Erinael's fate is established: she refused to heal soldiers, was declared of no use, and was sent to the Decanters - ch 39, implied.

The Draining of the Gods (ch 40-42)

At a prisoner exchange in Magnelei, Jack meets Varinecthes disguised as a fancy-dressed old man in a taverna. Ghastron delivers a monologue on contracts and servitude, concluding: Here. With him. No hell is sweeter - ch 40. Lidlet presents the Ninety-Seven Loopholes of God and a Pledge conversion form; Jack explodes: "You cannot take out... insurance with God" - ch 40. He visits Caeleen, offers to burn her contract; she stops him: the contract is the only thing keeping her in the world, and without it she returns to the Kings Below - ch 40.

Provosts raid the hospital during the battle. Ollery is struck defending his tent; Jack is taken. Maserley arrives with Caeleen and claims Jack as property: "that you plan to deprive me of my property. Did you not think that she'd tell me, the moment I asked. What do you think chains and contracts are for, exactly?" - ch 41. Caeleen collects God, Zenotheus, and The Fisher King into the box - ch 41.

In Thurrel's hut, the three godlings are drained into tablethi: "Hey presto I shall now convert three godlings into around nine artillery rounds or a hundred charged batons, and if you can do that, who needs religion?" - ch 42. Maserley informs Jack his gods are dead. Jack, the oath-bound pacifist, breaks: "I will destroy you. I swear it. I will ruin you the worst way possible. And if I can't swear to God any more, I swear to every other damn thing in the world that I will not rest, alive or dead, until I have made a wasteland of your entire fucking life" - ch 42. Maserley, walking away, realises he has never seen anyone as utterly changed.

The Purge of the Hospital (ch 43-45)

Jack, chained and awaiting execution, is brought to Runkel's bedside. The Sage-Monitor, dying in a bellows engine, begs: "I will pardon you. I will pardon them all. Your accomplices. Your faithful. They will live and you will live. Free, all. If I live. Make me live, Jack. Make me whole" - ch 43. Jack explains the Palleseen killed God; Runkel's eyes search for a lie and do not find one. He dies over hours. In the barracks, God appears-alive, having evaded the Decanters-and reveals He secretly healed Jack's injuries. God did not want to fix Runkel: "I did not want to fix that son of a bitch" - ch 43.

Thurrel tells Banders that the Fisher King claims her as consecrated: as a child she struck his defaced statue in a sea-cave dare, shedding blood on it. He refuses to drain the remnant: "Because how could I destroy the Fisher King? I'm an Archivist, Banders. Not just a Decanter. And I know full well what the party line is on gods, most especially this one, but he's ours. He's our past" - ch 44. He gives Banders Jack's gods as a peace offering. She delivers them to Jack in prison; he notes God and the Fisher King "have more in common than anything else now. Now they're both forgotten" - ch 44.

The army purges the hospital. Jack is paraded as a prisoner with a sign reading "Incorrect Speech"-his crime was not letting Pal soldiers die - ch 45. The experimental field hospital, fifteen years old, is near dissolution. The Butcher warns Alv: "You have to heal. Or they'll do you like they did Erinael" - ch 45. Maserley jeers from an officer's carriage; Prassel rides with Landwards' necromancers, unhappy but having chosen her seat - ch 45.

The Escape from Camp (ch 46)

During the battle at Magnelei, Mazdek-reduced to minuscule vandalism-burns the prisoners' rope bonds. Tallifer, revealed as Priestess of the High Fane, announces: "We're getting out of here. I advise you to come too, all of you" - ch 46. Ollery sends Banders and Masty on a deliberate fool's errand to keep them clear; they disobey and catch up. Alv absorbs a dying man's wounds, then massacres Callow's squad with a four-foot cleaver. She confronts Callow, reflects his tableth-shot back at point-blank range, killing him, and reflects each subsequent shot back at the marksmen before walking out of the war - ch 46.

Lochiver plays his flute and prays to Sturge, incapacitating pursuers with plague, but is shot and killed. Jack cannot heal him: "Another god's hand is on his brow" - ch 46. Cosserby activates the Sonori as a rearguard wall of bronze, then is struck by the old wound from the retreat and dies during the flight. Prassel meets Ollery at the tent and steps aside, letting him go - ch 46.

The Coronation of Feder IV (ch 47-50)

The fugitives hide in woodland. Thurrel arrives at night to claim the Fisher King's mantle from Banders through a formal contest. Jack reveals the loophole: gods need listeners more than people need gods; any contest the recipient names suffices. Banders plays the stone-in-hand trick, pricks her finger, streaks Thurrel's forehead with blood, and transfers the mantle - ch 47. She declares she is going back to the army: "Only without the department" - ch 47.

Prassel, promoted to Acting-Sage-Inquirer, reveals she killed Stiverton by cutting his tablethi belt, leaving him defenceless before ghosts - ch 48. She offers Festle the rank of Companion-Monitor and the concept of The Deathless: post-mortem volunteers with ranks and pensions - ch 48. A Bracite delegation announces Feder IV's coronation; Scaffesty orders a show of force at the feast - ch 48.

At the Wolf Palace, the coronation proceeds. In the kitchens, Ollery-revealed as the Butcher of Revelation House-overpowers Prassel and reveals the poison scheme: a fourfold-concentration blend in the food, with the "real kicker" in the wine for the king's health toast - ch 50. Alv subdues Prassel by choking both herself and Prassel simultaneously, so no warning can be given - ch 50.

Tallifer enters the hall disguised as a Jarokiri negotiator and announces: "You're all dead" - ch 50. Lidlet declares the condition: any order or action leading to harm withdraws the blessing and returns the poison. A Fellow-Broker shoots at Lidlet in defiance; he dies agonisingly. Tallifer tells Scaffesty: "Good luck with that. You might want to start ordering some retreats" - ch 50. Maserley seizes Jack and threatens to take him back; Caeleen commands him to kneel, bark, and "Go home." He is compelled, barks "Woof," and flees into the Realms Below as Zenotheus switches two names on a contract, condemning him to the Kings Below - ch 50. God, having called the toast "a travesty," abandons Jack: "I am done with you, Yasnic. This is the last straw" - ch 50.

The Dispersal (ch 51)

Masty appears in Palleseen shirtsleeves, having abandoned the king's regalia, but refuses to leave: "They killed my family" - ch 51. Banders punches him and hugs him fiercely. Lidlet prepares to leave with God, heading to regroup with Foley and spread the Loopholes as insurance across the Sway. God grumbles: "This is not bloody dignified. Bloody insurance. This is not respect" - ch 51. Jack and God share a tender, profane farewell.

Banders approaches Prassel and proposes they return to the army together, using the dinner's secrets as leverage: "You'll just have to content yourself with being literally the only senior officer in a hundred miles who can actually give a coherent order" - ch 51. The Butcher, his boy, Alv, and Tallifer prepare to travel toward a civilian hospital. Jack turns from a high window to find Caeleen behind him: "I've got the world. The whole world to be wicked in. I'm the master. Nobody's chains are on me. And I don't know what to do" - ch 51. He takes her hand.

Themes & Motifs

The novel is structurally organised around the ethics of exploitation and the impossibility of clean hands within a system that consumes its practitioners. The hospital department is the central image: a space where conquered peoples' knowledge is extracted while the practitioners themselves are ranked below native-born soldiers, forbidden their own faiths, and one administrative signature away from dissolution. Ollery's summation of the department's purpose is brutally honest: "This is what keeps us alive, and the hospital open. Not that we save lives, but that some son of a bitch in Higher Orders can get my unguents for his boils" - ch 6. Every specialist in the department is simultaneously essential and expendable.

The conditional healing operates as the novel's central moral mechanic. God's rule-"do no harm," healing reversed if the healed person commits violence-renders the discipline useless within a military context while making it genuinely transformative outside one. Runkel's ruling that the army cannot have soldiers fearing to fight establishes the institutional logic: a gift that preserves life but forbids killing is a threat to the war machine, and must be suppressed. Jack's pacifism is not presented as heroic but as an ongoing, grinding impossibility: he cannot stop healing, cannot control the terms, and watches every healed person become a potential death sentence to himself.

The treatment of gods mirrors the treatment of conquered peoples. The Palleseen "prefers to strip away the trappings of ritual from its magical practices" - ch 1 - reducing centuries of devotion to "tablethi and baton-fodder." The Decanters render down living priests into ammunition; the Decanting of Jack's three gods is the novel's moral nadir, a bureaucratic act of spiritual murder performed with scholarly regret ("Makes you think, doesn't it" - ch 42). Yet the gods persist: Mazdek nibbles at Tallifer's fingers, Sturge follows spilled stew, Zenotheus defaces documents, and God heals despite prohibition. The Palleseen project of rational perfection requires the erasure of the supernatural, but the supernatural refuses to be fully extracted.

Sympathetic healing-Alv's discipline of absorbing another's wound into one's own body-functions as the novel's extended metaphor for the ethics of care under empire. The Divinati philosophy is to be "the still centre of everything," absorbing without exporting - ch 46. The Palleseen weaponisation of this principle (Callow's transfer of harm to unwilling subjects, the ghost-chain deployment of trapped souls) inverts the discipline into its opposite: harm exported outward at zero cost to the practitioner. Alv's crisis-recognising that her teaching has midwifed a weapon-parallels every conquered specialist's dilemma: the knowledge they are forced to share becomes the instrument of further subjugation.

The motif of naming recurs throughout. Jack refuses his true name (Yasnic) and operates under the army's imposed alias; Masty's royal name "Feder" is a crushed remnant of a title whose meaning was forgotten; Erinael is known only by epithet and absence; the Fisher King's entire cult has been "consigned to the pyre of a murdered history" - ch 47. The Palleseen language Pel was "created from scratch when they set about perfecting themselves, finding their original native tongue too full of vagaries and mystical reference" - ch 6. Naming is power, and the Sway's project includes the systematic elimination of names that carry theological or national weight.

Friendship and obligation function as a Divinati moral grammar. Alv perceives every interaction as a debt: "each one of them's a hook in her flesh that nothing can heal" - ch 11. Masty's invisibility is the "customary invisibility of one who is taken for granted" - ch 23. Banders's petty thefts and schemes are a form of social lubrication in a system that gives her no legitimate authority. The department persists not through institutional loyalty but through the accumulated weight of mutual obligation among people the army treats as interchangeable.

Timeline

The Field Hospital

ch 2 - the Great Advance - a much-fabled planned offensive against the Loruthi, dependent on Prassel's necromantic mine-clearing support
ch 5 - the hospital experiment - the Palleseen arrangement of using conquered peoples' medical knowledge and practitioners as a disposable adjunct to the army; Tallifer calls them "an experiment in unorthodox use of tainted resources"

The Whipping at the Alder

ch 7 - the Loruthi war - the name Jack uses for the ongoing conflict (distinguished from the Palleseen Wars of Perfection as a whole)

The Great Advance

ch 10 - the big push - a major advance "across the contested stretch to break the Loruthi lines and take another few miles off them"; the reason for the special meal
ch 11 - The Great Night - Palleseen writer's phrase for the world of superstition and unreason; the writer was excised from the Pal canon for personifying an abstract
ch 13 - the ghost-burrow - referenced as having "consumed the luckless spy" in a prior incident; Jack falls into a sleep-hole "like the ghost-burrow"

The Gallete Island

ch 16 - the Loruthi counterattack - the battle eight days prior; resulted in Alv being carted away blind, and Banders, Masty, and Jack going missing

Arrival in Bracinta

ch 21 - assault on the city

Leave in Magnelei

ch 22 - the liberation of Magnelei - a Palleseen military victory against the Loruthi, achieved at trivial cost; celebrated with rummell rations
ch 24 - the Butcher's Circus and Freakshow - Tallifer's name for the hospital department where she and Jack serve
ch 24 - the Chastising Fire - Tallifer's curse invoked: "The Chastising Fire eat you from your guts out!"

The Market Brawl

ch 28 - Game - a sport played in the Magnelei stadium with a hard ball, underdressed Bracite participants, and extremely enthusiastic crowds; incomprehensible to outsiders

The Fireberg Battle

ch 34 - the crash of the Gallete island - a Gallete floating island destroyed and crashed against the earth during the battle, killing all aboard; seen as a shattered mountain of stone and broken buildings

The Magnelei Standoff

ch 37 - the Palleseen defeat near Magnelei - a bloody setback that left units fragmented and prompted the Sage-Archivist's reform agenda
ch 39 - Hobbers inquest - the formal inquest into Cohort-Archivist Hobbers' death, conducted by a duty Inquirer; ends with a reprimand to Alv and a "formal statement of understanding" on Callow's record
ch 39 - prisoner exchange - scheduled for the next day; Prassel demands to send one of her people with it; Sherm arranges it

The Draining of the Gods

ch 40 - the Magnelei prisoner exchange - a negotiated swap of prisoners between Palleseen and Loruthi forces, conducted in the city square with officer delegations, Bracite civilian overseers, and attending servants

The Purge of the Hospital

ch 43 - Runkel's death - the Sage-Monitor dies hours after Jack's refusal; the Whitebellies keep cranking the bellows over his corpse until the Fellow-Monitor discovers he is gone
ch 44 - the extirpation of the old gods - after the Temporary Commission's accession, the Palleseen drove out old worship, smashed temples, drained relics, and defaced icons; speaking the old language or telling old stories became arrestable offences
ch 44 - the Purge - the mass arrest of hospital staff including Jack, Alv, Lidlet, and other stretcher bearers; the Butcher calls it "a purge, at last"

The Escape from Camp

ch 46 - the massacre of Callow's squad - Alv kills ten of Callow's sympathetic-magic scholars in his tent with a four-foot cleaver, "as though there could be a giant with an axe loose in camp"; only Skilby survives to die moments later

The Coronation of Feder IV

ch 48 - The Three Nights - three nights of assassinations in Magnelei after competing claimants and royal scions vied for the throne
ch 49 - the delegation for the royal reception - a planned Palleseen attendance at a reception for the new king of Bracinta; officers jockey for places; "It wasn't often that a Pal got invited to a royal reception"
ch 50 - the butchering at Revelation House - Ollery's infamous massacre, unnamed in the text but the source of his epithet "The Butcher of Revelation House"; an event "so ghastly, so unthinkable" it was discussed across the Archipelago

The Dispersal

ch 51 - God's hard bargain - the agreement by which Lidlet, Foley, and others chose servitude to God rather than death; now being spread as a survival strategy across the Sway

Cast

Yasnic · ch 3-51 - a Maric-language term of address God uses for Jack; the text gives no gloss
Banders · ch 2-51 - former Cohort-Broker, now orderly; scavenged weapons from the dead; found three Pal troopers and recruited them into the group; trains to kill on the Archipelago; kills the last Loruthi soldier; loots Paucelry's pockets
Ollery · ch 1-51 - rank: Chief Accessory; epithet: the Butcher; alchemist and lead medico; leads Jack through the camp and delivers a warning about the fate of the previous Chief; arranges Jack's introduction to Semprellaime; shares reagents and long-standing favours with her
Prassel · ch 1-51 - necromancer, promoted from Fellow-Inquirer to Acting-Sage-Inquirer; confirmed as officer in command of the Experimental Necromancy department at Landwards; reveals she killed Stiverton by cutting his tablethi belt; offers Festle the rank of Companion-Monitor to head a new program
Masty · ch 3-51 - Bracite orderly in the experimental hospital department, attached to Forthright Battalion; grew up in the army from age seven/eight, formerly an underage camp familiar; absent from the department during Maric Jack's kidnapping; challenged, shoved, and flogged by Tunly during a night walkabout; salved by Ollery; confesses to Banders that the department is "home"
God · ch 4-51 - appears as a translucent, barely-visible "beardy monkey got up in a dress" with a "screwed up raisin" face, "beak nose," and "goat's ass snarl of beard"; speaks in a "very faint, very crotchety voice, with an accent like Jack's only more so"; Jack's God; negotiates with Lidlet, takes honey, vanishes before completing the bargain
Cosserby · ch 8-51 - Cohort-Monitor, Sonorist and artificer seconded to the hospital; fabricates and fits prosthetics (arm, fingers, ear) for wounded soldiers; confronts the cost of replacement tablethi with an amputee; is taunted by Ollery; turns back to follow Maric after seeing him arrested
Maserley · ch 9-51 - Fellow-Invigilator; recognizes Masty as a former hospital menial; confronts Jack; tries to walk out with Jack and execute everyone; is compelled by Caeleen to kneel, bark, and flee into the Realms Below
Tallifer · ch 5-51 - Chief Accessory running the experimental hospital department of Forthright Battalion; former Jarokiri priest of Mazdek, the Chastising Flame, now a surgeon patching Palleseen wounds; carries the fire god in her pocket; cold, competent, irritated at being sidelined
Alv · ch 1-51 - Guest-Adjutant, Divinati sympathetic healer; insists on taking the blinded scout's burn damage onto her own face and body; continues healing through a crippled arm and a thigh wound; keeps saying "I still have more to give" until her body fails
Lochiver · ch 1-47 - Accessory, Jarokiri former priest and flautist; at the fire, rages about debts owed by the Pallessans for Erinael and for his temple, mentions an engineer wanting to weaponise his "sacred exudation"
Lidlet · ch 15-51 - trooper and stretcher-bearer, "jug-eared, tough, the trooper's trooper," grew up poor on the Archipelago (homeland), adherent of God "through a legal loophole"; carries the wounded Cosserby through the mud after her fellow bearer deserts them, prays to God, negotiates a deal with Him, and cannot bring herself to abandon Cosserby
Caeleen · ch 9-51 - Maserley's demon companion (succubus); previously Jack's lover; bound by contract to Maserley; explains that the contract is the only thing keeping her in the world and that true freedom means returning to the Worlds Below; calls Jack's desire to free her well-meaning but counterproductive
Mother Semprellaime · ch 6-49 - Allorwen bawd running a circle house (demon-brothel) in the camp; appears as a decrepit old crone but is actually not much older than Jack (wax, pen, and posture disguise); makes tea and listens to Jack's story; offers him friendship and sanctuary
Semprellaime · ch 6-49
Thurrel · ch 9-51 - Fellow-Archivist, a Decanter; pours alcohol into every cup offered, laments the magical waste of the battle, walks with Prassel and invites her for a drink; they have known each other since the phalanstery
Landwards Battalion · ch 20-50 - the ground unit; Pirisytes's crew and regulars work the unloading
Runkel · ch 8-45 - Sage-Monitor, commanding officer of the Forthright Battalion, called "Uncle" by Prassel; arrives as an "unofficial observer" to the tribunal; pronounces the sentence and the policy that the hospital must not cause soldiers to fear fighting
Jarokiri · ch 4-51
Zenotheus · ch 24-50 - the divine scorpionfly; a small avatar visible to Jack on Pirisytes's shoulder during the invocation; its influence convinces Pirisytes to spare the prisoners
Foley · ch 15-51 - Trooper from Lidlet's squad; dying of multiple wounds; healed by God against Palleseen law
Scaffesty · ch 27-50 - Professor-Invigilator, "Old Eyeball" to the soldiers of Landwards; has one eye, leather patch over the other; confirms Prassel's promotion; presides over the Higher Orders meeting; deals with the Bracite delegation; orders a military show of force for the coronation
Stiverton · ch 27-50 - Sage-Archivist, now dead; commanded the Experimental Necromancy department; Prassel cut his tablethi belt so his robe fell off, leaving him defenceless before a "hydra of angry, displaced ghosts"; had been recommending Prassel's replacement before his death
Sturge · ch 5-50 - divine being; god of filth; blind and almost mindless; lives in Lochiver's breeches; his secretions are the Effluent of Sturge
The Fisher King · ch 7-47 - a grim, shadowy god in Jack's box; angular figure in oilcloth and canvas like a drowned sailor, holding a harpoon, wearing a roof-hat with a skull beneath; silent and forbidding
Accessory 'Maric' Jack · ch 21-51 - Ilmari former priest and orderly; visits Semprellaime to ask about the nature of demons and whether they possess a "self"; clearly troubled, possibly in love with or identifying with a demon (prompted by Maserley's situation); leaves for the Magnelei leave rota with Former Cohort-Broker Banders
Callow · ch 29-46 - Companion-Archivist, leader of the new class; proposes and demonstrates transferring harm to an unwilling, untrained subject (a mouse), asks Alv whether there is any true limit to sympathetic transfer
Festle · ch 27-48 - Cohort-Monitor, a necromantically preserved corpse brought back from battle by Prassel; confronts her with Stiverton's dying accusation ("Betrayed, and your name"); is offered the rank of Companion-Monitor and the concept of The Deathless; accepts
Klimmel · ch 15-40 - Trooper, regular soldier; left behind in the rout; kills a Loruthi with a knife; is gutted by baton-shot; swears the no-harm oath and is healed; resents the mercy
Killingly · ch 27-37 - Fellow-Inquirer and field necromancer who attained the rank extremely young; speaks for the department's military-strategic side; authorises a waiver forcing Prassel to harvest ghosts from hospital deaths
Mazdek · ch 5-46 - the Chastising/Cleansing Flame, Tallifer's diminished god; "slithered out of her sleeve onto the table to look into the candle's wavering"; a tiny flame, the last ember of her faith
Sherm · ch 18-39 - Fellow-Inquirer, jurisdictionally senior to Prassel in non-corpse matters; runs disciplinary tribunals for Higher Orders; chairs this proceeding; cheerful about his work even sentencing mutineers to death
Statlos · ch 2-9 - Watch officer who leads a squad to arrest Jack; confirms his identity from Banders's card; informs him the healed man has died
Guest-Adjutant Alv · ch 21-51 - Divinati sympathetic healer; arrives agitated to discover her student cohort was held back without notification; still bears residual healing marks on her face
Hobbers · ch 29-46 - a dour-looking girl in the class; repeatedly refuses Callow's hypothetical offers to take his injuries; reacts with a sound as though she herself were stabbed during his demonstration
Kilbery · ch 19-46 - Ollery's ward, called "the boy" and "the kid" in this chapter; assists Ollery carrying the crate to the Gallete village
Life Of Dead Trees · ch 7-34 - ancient nature spirit on Jack's shoulder, described as a tree god or god of rot; dances one final time, releasing spores that make the Loruthi forget Jack and Masty, then crumbles to fungus and woodlice
Oloumann · ch 3-24
Pirisytes · ch 20-34 - Accessory (Whitebelly) in Landwards Battalion, secretly a priest of a hidden Oloumanni "sneaky god"; watches Forthright disembark, identifies Blessed priests as future sacrifices
Skilby · ch 29-46 - male student, eager to be Callow's friend; produces the wooden box containing the mouse Callow uses for his demonstration
the spy · ch 4-6 - unnamed injured man; a hole spirals open in his shoulder-neck junction, dragging him and his ghost toward oblivion; healed by God at the chapter's end
Allorwen · ch 11-38
Feder IV · ch 48-50 - Masty, the king; crowned then forced to preside over the feast; delivers the toast that triggers the blessing; addresses the delegations with quiet menace
Fosby · ch 3-8 - Cohort-Monitor, quartermaster; Cosserby's "constant wranglings with the quartermasters" require him to buy supplies through Banders
Ghastron · ch 33-40 - demon familiar bound to Varinecthes for over four centuries; appears as a beautiful youth with serpent's eyes; manages Varinecthes's inherited obligations
Halseder · ch 30-48 - General, Bracite, one-armed, former "chief military boy" before the coup; leads the Bracite delegation from Magnelei; speaks only Bracite, not Pel
Kosha · ch 43-51 - former priest of God in Ilmar; took Jack in as a child; was hanged
Ollery's son · ch 3-5 - a boy of ten or twelve who minds the cauldrons; demonstrates the uniform means "we're soldiers"
Sage-Archivist · ch 35-37
the little spearman · ch 22-32 - a divine attendant in Jack's box; shovels salt into pockets, drinks with grim determination
the prisoner · ch 2-38 - a skinny, thinning-haired man in three threadbare coats carrying a pierced wooden box on his back; charged as a priest, revolutionary sympathiser, and "god smuggler"; handed over to Prassel by an escort squad
Trooper Lidlet · ch 21-51 - career soldier, only days in the department, first active service; terrified of being attacked; goes out with the second wave as a stretcher bearer
Varinecthes · ch 33-40 - Lord of the Tower; a thousand-year-old sorcerer; operates a flying tower, pours liquid fire on the battlefield, launches imps, attempts a sun-lance
A Bracite shawm player · ch 40 - plays loudly near Jack and Varney; paid by Varney to leave
Accessory Pirisytes · ch 24 - leader of a hidden Zenotheus murder-cult embedded in the Accessories; wears a carved wooden mask; nearly sacrifices Tallifer and Jack, then spares them after Jack's revelation; bargains for future medical cover
Alv's attendants · ch 1 - Divinati trainees learning sympathetic healing; "They're all bloodied."
At least two unnamed deities · ch 1 - "at least two actual deities currently in the tent and assisting with proceedings."
bearers · ch 1 - Carry stretchers and set down the wounded, then retreat
Bracites · ch 50 - local nobles, advisors, and kitchen staff; those who placed Feder on the throne
Chief Accessory 'Butcher' · ch 35
Chief Accessory Erinael · ch 7 - the previous Chief of the hospital department; supremely useful but not compliant; now dead; Ollery speaks of her with deep, hidden grief
Cohort-Invigilator · ch 23 - sings a Pal marching song at a fire; Masty stops to listen and feels briefly better
Ennit · ch 32 - Ollery's wife of ten years; had an affair with a Fellow-Invigilator; was given antidotes by Ollery before the poisoned dinner
Fellow-Monitor · ch 43 - unnamed officer who leads the escort squad and (or, per a second unnamed Fellow-Monitor, relays) translates Runkel's dying words; orders Jack to deploy his magic
Galleters · ch 20 - operate the floating island's descent; their magic and traditions viewed with suspicion by the Pals
General Halseder · ch 30 - Bracite loyalist; one-armed ("Lefty"), lost the arm defending Masty's parents; draws knife in the market, then announces Masty as king; later comes to collect Masty
Goughry · ch 18 - Companion-Monitor, department head within Third Company; brings the charge against Jack; demands Jack be made an example of; initially refuses to accept Lidlet's transfer
Infantry regulars · ch 1 - Carry stretchers and set down the wounded, then retreat
Loruthi · ch 50 - the enemy nation/people at war with the Palleseen Sway; "not a regimented and ordered force like the Pals"; hire anything to fight under their colours
Maserley's demons · ch 14 - leathery, thorn-skinned, shambling creatures that snap and snarl; ride in formation during the retreat, exuding dry heat and a mephitic stench
Maserley's quartermaster · ch 35 - unnamed quartermaster who notes Bracinta is the "Money-basket for the whole Loruthi Sway"; goes pale when threatened
Mazdek, Chastiser of the Unclean · ch 45 - a divine being associated with Tallifer, described as nibbling at her fingers "like being bitten by a cup of hot water"
Megget · ch 23 - Cohort-Inquirer, duty officer; dismisses Tunly's charge, notes Masty is Forthright's man in a conjoined camp, gives six strokes "for malingering or something" to appease Tunly
Ollery's boy · ch 41 - the Butcher's son, mixing salts and drugs with the stores; crushed under bodies by the beast, saved by Masty and thrown to the Butcher
Paucelry · ch 15 - Trooper, regular soldier; left behind in the rout; killed in the skirmish with the Loruthi; his body is looted by Banders
Peppel · ch 3 - Watch Statlos who delivers the prisoner Maric to Banders with a demi-squad escort; loses his pen to her petty theft
Perfector of Ilmar · ch 9
Prassel's aide · ch 2 - a scarred, limping man serving as Prassel's orderly; spills her tea, is sent to Ollery for medicine
Semprellaime's aunt · ch 25 - Allorwen conjurer of the old tradition, taken by the Palleseen armies when they marched into Allor, taught Semprellaime her skills but beat her for wrong wordings
Spectacles · ch 4 - neat, slightly portly Palleseen man with round eyeglasses and hinged extra lenses; measures wound-stumps with callipers and tape, records missing limbs
The aide · ch 10 - unnamed; pushes into the tent and hands Prassel a folded flimsy of orders
the bearded orderly · ch 4 - thin foreigner with a pointed beard and aquiline nose; assists with stretchers and translating
the Bracite merchants · ch 30 - shopkeepers in the market who flee when Halseder appears
the burn victim · ch 4 - unnamed woman whose jaw is half gone; stretchered out for Spectacles to assess
The Butcher's assistants · ch 1 - Unnamed staff cutting, stitching, scouring, decontaminating; "a collection of miscreants and misfits not otherwise seen this side of the army paymaster's rolls."
the Butcher's son · ch 2 - a boy of about ten, Ollery's son; fetches tea supplies from crates on command
the Companion-Inquirer · ch 4 - political officer with a nasal voice; demands the spy be saved for his intelligence, berates the necromancer
The cultists · ch 24 - half a dozen Oloumanni conscripts wearing cloth masks; carry out the capture, binding, and attempted strangulation; one nearly fumbles the garotte
the Divinati woman · ch 8 - medical practitioner and healer in the hospital; among those Cosserby feels he cannot meet the gaze of
the duty Inquirer · ch 39 - unnamed woman conducting the inquest into Hobbers' death; reprimands Alv for gaps in her curriculum but takes no disciplinary action
the Fellow-Inquirer from Political Oversight · ch 49 - a senior officer who just left Mother Semprellaime's wagon; part of the political jockeying over the delegation
the fire-eater · ch 26 - performer in the square who breathes fire in the shape of a phoenix using a glowing bug
the Gallete herbalist · ch 19 - elder of the village; trades herbs grown in island-magic soil with Ollery; speaks "truly barbarous Pel"
The grim spearman · ch 10 - a divine being with Jack, called "the spear god"; tries to skewer salt fish; God calls him "his opposite number" and tells him to "piss off"
the gutshot officer · ch 33 - unnamed Palleseen officer on the operating table, gripping a wooden bit
the lean Pal officer · ch 13 - monocled Palleseen officer with seniority over Prassel and Maserley; issues the advance order, references "Uncle" wanting the ground under the Sway by evening, dismisses Caeleen's combat value
the leather-aproned surgeon · ch 33 - unnamed surgeon from the next tent, hands blistered and burned
the lizard-rider · ch 13 - a Loruthi mercenary in the beast's howdah; has a sinuous lizard body, licks its eyes with a blue tongue, grackles commands
the man with shrapnelled spine and pelvis · ch 1 - Patients given double or triple doses from the black flask; marked for Prassel
The man with the shattered skull · ch 1 - Patients given double or triple doses from the black flask; marked for Prassel
The nature thing · ch 10 - a divine being with Jack; sprinkles isfel onto his plate; Banders glimpses "a little face, hard and savage beneath the slanted brim of an old-timey sea hat. The jut of a bone harpoon head"
the necromancer · ch 4 - gloved woman, surgeon of peculiar specialisation; tries to extract the spy's ghost/knowledge using copper flasks and catgut tubes; the Maric recognises her as the officer who sent him to Banders
the new king of Bracinta · ch 49 - Bracinta now has a new king; a royal reception is being planned for him
the new Perfector · ch 7 - a Palleseen officer from Correct Erudition sent to Ilmar to harvest magic for tablethi; raided the Guildhall and Armigers; deployed Ratcatchers to capture gods; caught Jack smuggling them out
the officer with the ear · ch 8 - a Fellow; had an ear shot off; receives a tin prosthetic ear and reacts to the restored hearing
the old hag priestess · ch 8 - medical practitioner in the hospital; mentioned alongside her "horrible old husband"
the old surgeon · ch 4 - hawkish, hollow-cheeked woman with a red streak in her white hair; amputates the burned woman's arm with a heated saw
the old woman in the catwolf skin · ch 50 - unnamed; places the crown on Feder's head during the coronation
The olive-skinned man with the weak beard · ch 1 - An orderly who "somehow always manifests just when he's needed and only then." Helps haul the woman onto Ollery's table
the other bearer · ch 36 - Lidlet's fellow stretcher-bearer; declares Cosserby dead, refuses to continue, swears "Fuck the officers and fuck you," and runs off into the night; Lidlet does not know his name
the preaching old boy · ch 26 - in the square, apparently giving stern religious admonishments to off-duty soldiers; Banders marks him as "man most like to get lamped by midmorning"
the Professor · ch 21 - commanding officer of Landwards Battalion; "been sat here with Landwards"; won the right to lead the assault
the provost Cohort-Monitor · ch 31 - unnamed old officer commanding the provosts; recognizes Ollery, calls him "Murderer," fires a rod at him, then orders the group arrested
the shaved-headed man · ch 30 - local hostage Banders uses as a guide through the palace
the Statlo messenger · ch 44 - delivers the summons to Banders, escorts her to Thurrel's decantary
the three-horned beast · ch 13 - a five-to-ten-ton war creature with a scythe-beaked turtle face, three metal-capped horns, a bony shield with rivetted shields, an iron-plated howdah carrying batons and spearpoints; destroyed the hospital tent and left Jack between the lines
the Whitebelly lookout · ch 34 - unnamed conscript serving as lookout; shot while standing against the sky, killing him and leaving his stretcher team short
the woman with absent innards · ch 1 - Patients given double or triple doses from the black flask; marked for Prassel
the woman with the arm · ch 8 - amputee missing an arm at the shoulder; receives the prosthetic, is moved by it, then refuses it over the cost of tablethi replacements
The woman with the badly set leg · ch 1 - Patient. Leg improperly splinted by "some infantry regular with pretensions of erudition"; necromantic munition fused the bone. Ollery rebreaks and repairs the leg
The woman without a hand · ch 1 - Patient; stump cauterised by point-blank baton discharge. Ollery gives her a philtre
Three silent patients with shattered bone · ch 1 - Shards erupted from within; saved for surgery
Three unnamed Pal regular soldiers · ch 40 - present in Lidlet's tent; hand over the sheaf of papers; one touches Jack's box
Tunly · ch 23 - Cohort-Monitor of Landwards Battalion, drunk; grabs Masty for lacking an "excursion permit," drags him to the duty tent, demands flogging
Uncle · ch 21 - commanding officer of Forthright Battalion; lost the seniority dispute to the Professor (Scaffesty); his strategic decisions are not communicated to the field hospital
unnamed dead Pal soldier · ch 15 - corpse with a ghastly open mouth lying in the hollow with Jack, Masty, and Banders
unnamed medic carrying a box · ch 20 - "a little man there, carrying one side of a big crate marked with Pal medico symbols" with "a box on his back that was decidedly not uniform issue"; Pirisytes identifies him as "Blessed"
unnamed nature deity · ch 15 - a wood/nature spirit in Jack's box with "the mask and the woodlice"; pointed toward the sea; turned the monster aside during the battle
unnamed other Blessed priests · ch 20 - "others, too. Not quite as priestly as that one, but most definitely consecrated to some foreign god or other"
unnamed spear-bearer · ch 15 - another entity in Jack's box; pointed at the sea and spat an untranslatable syllable
Vhon grain spirit · ch 18 - a spirit added to army tea to evade the alcohol ban; undetectable by smell but severely intoxicating

Places

Lor · ch 4-48 - the nation the Palleseen are fighting; has a trade empire with holdings, outposts, and colonies overseas
Magnelei · ch 22-50 - a liberated city the Palleseen entered; the chapter's setting, described as a "den of depravity and vice" that confirms Palleseen civilisational self-image; contains a stadium, a row of tavern-brothels, a market, and alleys
Bracinta · ch 20-51 - the battlefield theatre; also called the Rainbow Lands; the local words for "rain" and "weather" are a slight shift of emphasis apart; has a myth cycle about rainbows being the roads the original Bracites walked
Ilmar · ch 4-51 - the Maric's home city, site of a big street fight a year ago; the Maric was a priest there
phalanstery · ch 2-46 - the training institution where Maserley, Thurrel, and Prassel were raised together as teenagers; basic officer training selecting by metrics and family
Divine City · ch 4-41
Erinael · ch 5-45 - Chief Accessory Erinael, first Chief of the hospital, former lead medico; dead, rendered down by the Decanters for raw power
High Fane · ch 5-46 - the sacred temple of Mazdek that held out for almost a year before falling; Tallifer was tasked to carry its sacred fire to a new site
Jarokir · ch 5-46 - celebrated by the Pals as a great achievement; the Palleseen burned the sacred groves of Jarokir as a final offering to no god
Realms Below · ch 14-50 - the source from which war-demons are contracted; demons sent to scout or hunt may blunder about without proper binding terms
the Alder · ch 6-50 - a long, flexible whip made from the treated roots of the mobile, predatory trees of Jarokir; stays supple forever if properly cared for
Wolf Palace · ch 22-50 - the royal palace in Magnelei; site of the coronation and feast; has seen "another massacre" before
Allor · ch 7-25
experimental field hospital · ch 3-45 - the hospital department, founded ~15 years ago; Tallifer and Lochiver co-opted 3 years after its founding; Prassel arrived ~5 years ago; now appears to be near dissolution
Hell · ch 3-13 - colloquial name for the Palleseen field hospital/medical unit; "the casualties who didn't make it to Hell," "Hell's victims"
Ilmari · ch 6-35
Gallete · ch 17-18 - a floating rock island, "a hundred, two hundred feet of rock," used by the Palleseen as military transport; villages of Galletes live on them, "coursing through the sky to the orders of the Palleseen"
Revelation House · ch 32-50 - the site of Ollery's infamous massacre a decade and a half ago; "the only topic of conversation across all the Archipelago"
the island · ch 16-32 - a half-mile flattened disc of rock studded with crystal stelae on its underside, descending from the sky to serve as transport for the whole Forthright Battalion across the sea
The Wood · ch 7-51 - a forested area outside Ilmar where Jack released smuggled gods
the Worlds Below · ch 25-40 - the realm where demons exist; "not quite a place like Above is"; demons exist there without human conjurers; harsh, exploited by The Kings Below

Groups & Factions

Pal · ch 1-50 - informal adjective/noun for Palleseen ("Pal army camp," "Pal creed," "Pal mouth," "Pal officer")
Higher Orders · ch 2-48 - an authority above the class; Callow reports having spoken to them and that they are "very interested in the wider applications" of sympathetic healing
Divinati · ch 4-50 - the people of the Divine City; mark of perfection on inner arms; balance-magic where both arms must be equal; cast out the "surplus" annually; Alv is one, fallen from grace
Forthright · ch 4-51 - arriving by Gallete island; soldiers, specialists, magicians, and Blessed priests disembarking
The Kings Below · ch 9-50 - the ruling infernal powers of the Worlds Below; they hold demons "in a vice" and profit from the connection to Above as "infernal currency"; they provide "the massed labour of those who had no choice"
Bracite · ch 21-51 - the Palleseen's term for the difficulty of dealing with a still-wealthy, still-functional Bracinta; solved not by conquest but by gradual infiltration
provosts · ch 25-46 - military police who patrol the camp during battle to root out deserters; they challenge the escape column
Former Cohort-Broker Banders · ch 7-51 - Tallifer notes the carved mask would fetch a price from him; named as a possible cult target
Galletes · ch 17-39 - the reinforcements arrive on "a whole Gallete island," skimming over the landscape
Turncoats · ch 10-39 - the new arrivals are "overwhelmingly Accessories in their uniforms of Whitebelly pale," conscripts from across the Palleseen Sway, many without weapons
Correct Erudition · ch 11-24
Commission of Ends and Means · ch 18-30
Correct Appreciation · ch 16-17 - a Palleseen School/prohibition; forbids things "too sweet" as indulgent
Correct Conduct · ch 8-17
Correct Exchange · ch 17-50
The Deathless · ch 33-48 - Prassel's proposed program of soldiers who sign up in advance for post-mortem service, with ranks, honours, and pensions for families
Third Company · ch 18-19 - a military company under Goughry's department-head; source of the brawling incident
Those Below · ch 7-25 - the inhabitants of the Worlds Below; Allorwen conjurers contract with them; not all of them wish to be Above or Below

Objects & Technology

Sonori · ch 8-46 - nine-foot-tall humanoid war machines, originally built in the bell foundries of temples in Jarokir to fight the invading Pal forces; hollow bodies that sound like dirgeful bells when they move; heads shaped like Pal soldiers in peaked caps but with the original "howling, horrible face" below the brim; adopted into Pal service after the conquest of Jarokir
the Loopholes · ch 40-51 - shorthand for The Ninety-Seven Loopholes, the binding legal text of the poison-condiction scheme
the box · ch 5-43 - carried by Maric Jack on his back; has sinister little pigeonholes; Tallifer feels an irrational pull toward it and something jostles and complains inside
Hackle Throne · ch 30-48 - the Bracite throne; "cold and uncomfortable, even with the cushion they gave him"
Jack's box · ch 7-12 - a wooden backpack Jack carries; divine beings emerge from it; Banders glimpses a face in a sea hat with a bone harpoon head at its edges
Black flask · ch 1-12 - Ollery's flask of lethal pain-killers; "a quiet draft from the black flask because there's no help here but a cessation of pain"
bonecutter · ch 12-13 - a Palleseen weapon whose blast edge caused surface amputations on the wounded
fireberg · ch 33-34 - Loruthi artillery projectile; each impact the size of "a modest townhouse"; produces massive craters and ashen smears of soldiers
Orange salts · ch 12-13 - a fizzing stimulant in paper twists, taken orally; first grade of the escalation
rummell · ch 22-23 - ration drink of rum and herbs, "very good for you, stops your fingernails falling off," strong especially when heated

Systems

sympathetic healing · ch 1-45 - Alv's discipline: the healer finds the "asymmetry of flow" in a patient, draws the injury or sickness into themselves, then dissipates it through exercises; transfer to a willing, trained "receptacle of harm" is possible, but passing harm to an unwilling or untrained subject violates the balance
necromancy · ch 1-2
the doctrine of perfection · ch 8-10 - the Palleseen principle that all equipment must be standard-issue, non-regulation items being "evidence of having been corrupted by foreignness"; the chapter shows the rule "corroded swiftly when exposed to the fresh air of other climes"
Unnaturals · ch 11-13 - military classification (as exacting as "cavalry") for non-human combatants: corpses, bound demons, Sonori constructs; originally the terror weapons of conquered peoples, now a routine arm of the Pal army

Culture

Pel · ch 4-50 - the Palleseen language "created from scratch when they set about perfecting themselves, finding their original native tongue too full of vagaries and mystical reference"
Correct Thought · ch 2-26 - the Palleseen ideological framework the initial emissaries considered forcibly introducing to Bracinta, which might have catalysed a Bracite renaissance

Terms

the School of Correct Speech · ch 1-51 - torturers three tents from the hospital, plying their trade on captured spies and enemy soldiers.
the Decanters · ch 5-45 - mentioned as agents of the School of Correct Erudition (Archivists) against whom Jack smuggled gods
magister · ch 3-51 - the form of address a subordinate must use for a superior officer in the Palleseen Sway military
Sonorist · ch 8-34 - Cosserby's profession; a maker and maintainer of Sonori (and, in practice, prosthetics); the name derives from the Sonori's bell-like sound
Accessory · ch 1-24 - conscripted foreign troops; Ollery holds the rank "Chief Accessory."
decanting · ch 7-44 - The Palleseen process of extracting magic from a person or object and draining it into tablethi for general use; Thurrel proposes it for Jack
Fellow-Inquirer · ch 23-51
thaumatic gauge · ch 9-42 - A new device of glass lenses and tablethi worn on the head; Thurrel calls it "thaumatic gauge" and is irritated when Jack calls it a "Hat"; measures and analyses magic; the same type was used by the Perfector of Ilmar
Whitebellies · ch 4-46 - used here for the kneeling conscript ghosts sealed in canisters, "waiting to be emptied out and distilled into ammunition"
Acting-Sage-Inquirer · ch 48-51 - a rank within the School of Correct Speech (Inquirers); Prassel now holds it, elevated from Fellow-Inquirer
ammie · ch 3-15 - a rolled flatbread, standard army ration; Masty gives one to Klimmel to defuse tension
Cohort-Monitor · ch 23-35
coppers · ch 35-42 - the material or entities among which a "containment breach" occurred during the battle, contributing to Killingly's possession
Fellow-Invigilator · ch 32-35
ghost batteries · ch 33-35 - Palleseen artillery using copper jars of trapped souls launched by crane-thing trebuchets; yesterday's technology repurposed for tomorrow's war
Islermen · ch 19-44 - an archaic or derogatory name for Pals that God uses; Jack corrects: "They've been Pals for, like, centuries. Not Islermen"
Landwards · ch 20-48 - got into "a fine old pissing competition" during the unloading
the wooden box · ch 2-4 - a shrine God inhabits; contains the wooden box and a couple of co-tenant gods He loathes; the Palleseen would confiscate it if they knew

Chapter Epigraphs

Chapter 11

"A Palleseen writer once described the world of superstition and unreason that they were bringing perfection to as 'the Great Night', contrasted with the clarity of their rational sun. Which writer was subsequently excised from the Pal canon because personification of an abstract is in itself irrational. Nonetheless, the night persists."

opening narration; describes a Palleseen writer's phrase, since excised from the Pal canon

Chapter 33

"The Butcher's Ladder, categories of injury in ascending severity of nature, the extent of the injury being equal: Mundane physical, breaks, contusions and gashes; Baton-shot and similar physical harm enhanced by magic; Energetic damage, flame, lightning and extreme sudden cold; Massive physical, artillery, collapsed walls etc.; Necrotic harm and sorceries that remove the vital essence from the affected flesh; Possession and dislocation of mind; Malign transformation; Unnatural contagion requiring immediate decontamination or destruction."

In-universe medical classification (definition of The Butcher's Ladder)

Chapter 39

"Cohort-Archivist Hobbers. Female. Age: twenty-two. Placement: Landwards Battalion New Resources Tactical Department. Immediate superior: Companion-Archivist Callow. Current assignment: Tactical use of Divinati-origin magical techniques and assets, based on the available teachings of Guest-Adjutant Alv of Forthright Battalion Experimental Hospital Department. Cause of death: massive sympathetic trauma."

from the inquest record read at the opening of the chapter

Chapter 46

"The one lesson not taught in the Palleseen phalansteries, not acknowledged by their Commission of Ends and Means. That all things end."

chapter opening narration; no in-universe source attributed

Chapter 51

"King Feder IV of Bracinta (ruled 1401-1405 Bracintan Calendar), the 'Quiet King'. His reign, marred by factionalism and dissent, is noted for attempts to modernise the capabilities of the kingdom in the face of both foreign interference and domestic unrest."

In-universe historical note on the 'Quiet King'; Masty is the current monarch of Bracinta, not Feder IV.