Terms
Every entry. ✔ = has its own page; - = below the significance bar for now (promotable as the registry grows).
- ✔ Acting-Sage-Inquirer · House of Open Wounds ch 48-51 - a rank within the School of Correct Speech (Inquirers); Prassel now holds it, elevated from Fellow-Inquirer - ✔ Alkhand · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 7-10; Days of Shattered Fait ch 1-50 - the Usmiat royal title; the "appropriate Usmiat title" for a ruling monarch - ✔ Almuer · Days of Shattered Fait ch 18-20 - a sage or wise man; literally "one whose ghost is worthy of preserving" - ✔ Appointments Secretary to the Commission · Days of Shattered Fait ch 41 - the Commission official who would name the next Perfector - ✔ Auntie · City of Last Chances ch 34 - ✔ Awkward Questions · House of Open Wounds ch 17 - a drinking game Banders mentions playing - ✔ Bashonin · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 7; Days of Shattered Fait ch 2 - title held by Tarcomir as Lor's emissary - ✔ bell-making · House of Open Wounds ch 41 - Cosserby's derisive term for his Sonori work; used by Banders as a dismissal - ✔ bird-badge insurgents · City of Last Chances ch 11 - Shrievsby's dismissive term for the resistance cells operating in Ilmar - ✔ Blessed · House of Open Wounds ch 20 - a term for openly-consecrated priests of foreign gods serving in the Pal military; Pirisytes recognizes them "wearing the uniform. Actual priests of actual gods" - ✔ Bride of the Sea · Pretenders to the Thro ch 9 - a rank within the Fisher King cult; Vestry held this position before her defiance - ✔ chucker-outer · City of Last Chances ch 44 - the Vultures' (or the underworld's) term for a bouncer; Hellgram's role at the Anchorage - ✔ Claw of Ffen · Pretenders to the Thro ch 7 - the title held by the current champion of Eres Ffenegh, invoking the dead crab god Ffen; the Widow uses it mockingly to address Kiff - ✔ Cohort-Archivist · House of Open Wounds ch 11; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 1 - a teaching/administrative role; the refectory teacher holds this title with two other full-time jobs - ✔ Cohort-Inquirer · House of Open Wounds ch 23 - ✔ Cohort-Invigilator · House of Open Wounds ch 23; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 2-5; Days of Shattered Fait ch 1-43 - sings a Pal marching song at a fire; Masty stops to listen and feels briefly better - ✔ Cohort-Monitor · House of Open Wounds ch 23-35; Days of Shattered Fait ch 42 - ✔ Companion-Archivist · City of Last Chances ch 18 - a rank within Correct Erudition held by Nasely - ✔ Companion-Invigilator · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 5-6; Days of Shattered Fait ch 42 - rank; Benallers' rank; one below Fellow - ✔ Companion-Monitor · House of Open Wounds ch 48 - rank Prassel offers Festle within The Deathless - ✔ Custodian · Days of Shattered Fait ch 4 - ✔ drill statlos · Pretenders to the Thro ch 40 - a military drill authority; the dead's stamping would make "a drill statlos weep" - ✔ Dusarch · Days of Shattered Fait ch 20-31 - title of the ruler of Lucibi, who died without heir, prompting the throne's auction - ✔ factora · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 4 - the Palleseen colonial term for a merchant's business premises or trading post in an occupied territory - ✔ Families · Pretenders to the Thro ch 5-17 - the term used for members of a clan in Eres Ffenegh; the two attackers are called "the Families man" and "the junior Families man" - ✔ Fammi · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 10 - a Palleseen term of familiar equals, equivalent to "mate" - ✔ Feggs · Pretenders to the Thro ch 41 - pejorative used by Fowlett for the Os-Fferegh; "She wants the Feggs to remember today for ten generations" - ✔ Fellow rank · Pretenders to the Thro ch 40 - the officer grade of the forward company officers Fowlett summons - ✔ Fellow-Archivist · House of Open Wounds ch 35; Days of Shattered Fait ch 7 - ✔ Fellow-Broker · City of Last Chances ch 37; House of Open Wounds ch 50; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 7 - unnamed officer on Scaffesty's staff; shoots at Lidlet in defiance; dies from the withdrawn blessing - ✔ Fellow-Inquirer · City of Last Chances ch 37-40; House of Open Wounds ch 23-51; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 1-6; Pretenders to the Thro ch 29 - the rank Angilly holds at the chapter's start, before promotion - ✔ Fellow-Invigilator · House of Open Wounds ch 32-35; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 2-5; Days of Shattered Fait ch 42 - a rank within the Invigilators; Ostrephy's rank; Angilly calls her "Magister" - ✔ Fellow-Lodge · Days of Shattered Fait ch 8 - ✔ Fellow-Monitor · City of Last Chances ch 37; House of Open Wounds ch 43; Days of Shattered Fait ch 42 - ✔ Fellow-Trustie · City of Last Chances ch 49 - a rank imposed by the Pals on Gownhall masters, making them simultaneously responsible to the Pals and to their colleagues; Vorkovin is the first mentioned holder - ✔ Fellows · House of Open Wounds ch 45 - a rank; Maserley's and Thurrel's level - ✔ Flossy · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 6 - the nickname used for Professor-Invigilator Flockersly outside his office; "It breeds complacence that he can use against his interdepartmental rivals" - ✔ Gabble · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 4 - old soldier's slang for valuable-but-religious loot that might bring you before Correct Speech if found in your pack - ✔ Gak · Days of Shattered Fait ch 42 - a contractual word/clause; Caecelian writes it into her binding, and speaking it after the transfer causes Wattery's head and one arm to fall from her body; it is the lethal clause of the contract - ✔ ghost work · House of Open Wounds ch 39 - Prassel's term for the classified assignment "Higher Orders" have put her on; she "always wanted ghost work. Until now" - ✔ God the grudging healer · Days of Shattered Fait ch 40 - the God Loret formerly followed; his followers "did not even defend themselves" against the Dead Companies; Loret "displeased God" and fled - ✔ God-fevers · Days of Shattered Fait ch 8 - the Usmiat name for illnesses that strike foreigners in Usmai, blamed on local deities taking offence; Kilbery, as a Pal, rejects the explanation - ✔ god-smuggling · House of Open Wounds ch 24 - Jack's former trade in Ilmar: spiriting deities out of the city to keep them from the Decanters; the charge for which he was imprisoned - ✔ gone native · City of Last Chances ch 11 - the condition afflicting those trapped in the Reproach; they shed their former identities, adopt courtly titles and an antique Maric idiolect, and lose all reaction to the physical threats around them - ✔ Grand Moerend · Days of Shattered Fait ch 5-18 - ✔ Heir · Days of Shattered Fait ch 18 - ✔ Hellieur · City of Last Chances ch 16-43; Pretenders to the Thro ch 5 - (not in this chapter text; listed in reference only) - ✔ hooley-hooley-hailey · House of Open Wounds ch 17 - Palleseen imitation of Maric speech; used as a racial caricature in the authorised play; Jack asks if it is a thing - ✔ Hop to! · Pretenders to the Thro ch 12 - the Loruthi command to activate batons fitted with Loruthi tablethi. - ✔ Hullseer · Days of Shattered Fait ch 50 - title of the leader of the Cotto pirates; held by Orhuhst - ✔ Incorrect Exchange · City of Last Chances ch 1 - the crime of begging or unlicensed trade; Yasnic risks it - ✔ Incorrect Speech · City of Last Chances ch 1; House of Open Wounds ch 45 - the crime of speaking against Occupier orthodoxy; arrests made for it - ✔ Izzy · Pretenders to the Thro ch 35 - familiar nickname for Istreddy used within the Heretics - ✔ Junior phal · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 1 - ✔ Junior sympaticos · House of Open Wounds ch 3 - a couple of Alv's students washing bloody clothes from the previous day - ✔ Kama · Days of Shattered Fait ch 28 - a nickname Gorbudan used for Dekamran; Dekamran refuses to let anyone else use it - ✔ Keeper of the Fifth Key · Days of Shattered Fait ch 4 - a title held by Coregan; "a very grand way of describing a relatively minor personality within the administrative hierarchy of the palace" - ✔ Kepishi · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 8-10; Days of Shattered Fait ch 4-40 - a term for Palleseen people; Gorbudan calls them "killers of gods, devourers of ways" - ✔ know Gil · Days of Shattered Fait ch 4 - ✔ Lemon blood fever · House of Open Wounds ch 19 - a wasting disease with "a gauntness" and "yellowness to the skin"; Ollery carries a tonic that can stave it off - ✔ Louse Speaker · Days of Shattered Fait ch 8-33 - ✔ Maestra · City of Last Chances ch 37 - ✔ Maestro · City of Last Chances ch 35-37 - Gownhall teachers Shantrov invokes as potential leaders; Vidsya dismisses them - ✔ Magister · House of Open Wounds ch 3-51; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 6-8; Days of Shattered Fait ch 2-38; Pretenders to the Thro ch 23-29 - a form of address; calling Banders "Magister" would be a court-martial offence as "Disrespect to the uniform" - ✔ Man of peace · Pretenders to the Thro ch 5 - term the demon uses for Jack, apparently a descriptor tied to his Maric identity - ✔ Mesne-Lord · City of Last Chances ch 5 - a title from Allor's pre-Occupation social order; Blackmane would have held it had the Pals not conquered Allor. - ✔ Misericord · House of Open Wounds ch 11 - a dagger; Prassel refused to use one to cull extra corpses from the convalescence wards - ✔ Necromantic Unnatural · House of Open Wounds ch 27 - classification applied to a person who is a walking corpse animated by a bound ghost (applied to Festle in the reference list; the chapter shows the phenomenon directly) - ✔ No kings, no masters · Pretenders to the Thro ch 42 - the motto of Hell's revolutionaries, spoken by Caeleen, echoed by Devil Jack and Niev - ✔ Old Cause · Pretenders to the Thro ch 35 - regimental nickname for The Old Cause / Fowlett, short for "of Death"; used by her own people - ✔ Old Eyeball · House of Open Wounds ch 45 - epithet for Scaffesty - ✔ Orcoba period · City of Last Chances ch 5 - a historical/artistic period referenced in Ivarn's note describing a stolen desk. - ✔ Oslamn · Pretenders to the Thro ch 12 - ✔ Pal company conjurer · Days of Shattered Fait ch 24 - a type of practitioner who summons monsters for military use - ✔ Pel phrase · Pretenders to the Thro ch 27 - the single-word command trigger for a Palleseen charged rod; "the first word of the language so many foreigners learned" - ✔ Peost · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 7-10; Days of Shattered Fait ch 5-48 - a name used for the Palleseen state and its advisors; "Those men and women clustering about the Peost throne with their hand about that nation's throat, they were advisors" - ✔ Perfector · City of Last Chances ch 10-40; House of Open Wounds ch 7; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 3-10; Days of Shattered Fait ch 1-42; Pretenders to the Thro ch 7-40 - the title and office held by Culvern over Ilmar as individual occupied territory; appointed by the Temporary Commission of Ends and Means - ✔ phantom velvet · City of Last Chances ch 12 - a euphemism for death; "They will be wearing the phantom velvet already" means they are already dead - ✔ piutarma · House of Open Wounds ch 17 - an Ilmari word meaning both "auntie" and "someone who runs a gang, a criminal boss" - ✔ plum post · Days of Shattered Fait ch 2 - slang for a desirable, low-risk foreign posting - ✔ Political Oversight · House of Open Wounds ch 49 - a function exercised by a Fellow-Inquirer who visits the camp; mentioned only by title - ✔ Pragmatic Flexibility · Days of Shattered Fait ch 7 - "The term from Pal philosophy" for Drathel's quality of believing and disavowing things in the moment; "the scholars were still out on whether it was a good thing or not" - ✔ Priestess of the High Fane · House of Open Wounds ch 46 - Tallifer's former religious title, restored when Mazdek chooses her - ✔ Probationary Citizen · City of Last Chances ch 5 - a title the Palleseen occupation authorities apply to Blackmane, marking his legal precariousness. - ✔ Professor-Invigilator · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 6 - the rank of Professor-Invigilator Flockersly - ✔ rasophore · City of Last Chances ch 1-19 - a title used by Ruslav to address Yasnic as a priest; no further gloss given - ✔ Regulars · House of Open Wounds ch 1 - native Palleseen soldiers; contrasted with Accessories. - ✔ Resident · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 5-10; Days of Shattered Fait ch 6 - the Palleseen diplomatic/military representative posted in a foreign land; the position Angilly is being sent to fill - ✔ robe-bearer · City of Last Chances ch 1 - term for a priest of the Mahanic Temple; Yasnic disclaims it - ✔ Sage-Archivist · City of Last Chances ch 6-40; House of Open Wounds ch 35-37 - murdered by the Indwellers; Fleance says "They'd murdered the Sage-Archivist" and that the event broke his control over the Game - ✔ Sage-Inquirer · City of Last Chances ch 37; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 3; Pretenders to the Thro ch 20 - the rank Meller holds; the highest Palleseen officer in the region - ✔ Sage-Monitor · House of Open Wounds ch 20; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 3 - once complimented Pirisytes's positive attitude - ✔ Sand Life · Days of Shattered Fait ch 8 - street slang among Sand Lanes kids for their knife-and-gang existence; "Half of them would be dead before they made two decades" - ✔ scar-mail · House of Open Wounds ch 23 - slang for the accumulated flogging scars on a person's back ("Got room for more stripes or is it all scar-mail already?") - ✔ senior phal · Days of Shattered Fait ch 10 - a level of schooling in Pallesand; Gil compares her breathlessness to "a girl in senior phal, sneaking out with a boy for the first time" - ✔ Serpent's Fang · Days of Shattered Fait ch 5-14 - ✔ Sier · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 8-10 - a Palleseen title of address for a respected superior; Angilly uses it to avoid committing to a Usmiri category of address - ✔ simulacratia · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 5 - a class of demon Benallers considers for area surveillance; "a clutch of low-grade demons just released over a wide area with some basic pattern-recognition instructions" - ✔ Skystones · Pretenders to the Thro ch 12 - local argot for the Palleseen artillery rounds, equated with shooting stars and meteorites. - ✔ Sonorist · House of Open Wounds 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 - ✔ Specialist · Pretenders to the Thro ch 16-40 - ✔ Standard bottle procedures · City of Last Chances ch 37 - Nisbet's euphemism for Palleseen crowd-control measures; "may not suffice" against the labourers march - ✔ strategic withdrawal · House of Open Wounds ch 14 - the euphemism used in dispatches for what is plainly a retreat; Prassel uses the phrase acidly - ✔ sympaticos · House of Open Wounds ch 3 - students of sympathetic magic; Alv's students are washing bloody clothes - ✔ tab · Days of Shattered Fait ch 37 - slang shorthand for tablethi as a unit of value; "over a hundred thousand tab, all in" - ✔ the Alkhani · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 9 - title of the Alkhand's wife/wife-in-title - ✔ the demonist · House of Open Wounds ch 11 - epithet Maric Jack uses for the conjurer who saved him; Prassel hated this person; likely refers to Maserley - ✔ the Difficult Wives Club · Days of Shattered Fait ch 32-49 - humorous self-designation for Happy Jack (lover of Caecelian, "the Viper") and the Under-warden (husband of the centipede monster): "Jack the Viper's beloved and the Under-warden. The founder members of the Difficult Wives Club." - ✔ the duty Companion · House of Open Wounds ch 22 - a rank/role; Spinnerly holds it; Banders curries favour with him - ✔ the echo · House of Open Wounds ch 10 - Cosserby's word for the thing present but unacknowledged: the coming major battle - ✔ the falling priest · Pretenders to the Thro ch 34 - the demon assassin's epithet for Jack, referencing his former priesthood and current strait - ✔ the gap · Pretenders to the Thro ch 1 - what remains when a demon dies: not a body but "an absence made tangible," a hole where the demon "fell out of the world and back Below" - ✔ the Hammer · City of Last Chances ch 28-48 - the workers' action of abandoning the mills to confront the Duke and Armigers; "Wielding the Hammer was always just abandoning the mills to go remind the Duke and the Armigers who it was put money in their posh velvet purses" - ✔ the killing word · Days of Shattered Fait ch 47 - the activation word for a tableth weapon, spoken in Pel; firing a baton or rod requires speaking it. - ✔ The Knife Witch of Jarokir · Days of Shattered Fait ch 8 - Kilbery's invented nickname for Tally, the surgeon who runs the Fever Lodge; he fabricates a backstory of a king, a queen, and a slit throat - ✔ the Loopholes · House of Open Wounds ch 40-51 - shorthand for The Ninety-Seven Loopholes, the binding legal text of the poison-condiction scheme - ✔ the Louseocracy · Days of Shattered Fait ch 33 - Flint's derisive name for what the Tesemer would have made of Usmai had they succeeded in conquest five hundred years ago - ✔ The Old Knife · Pretenders to the Thro ch 2-34 - the fierce winter wind off the sea at Eres Ffenegh, named by poets; arrives as the siege stalls; "As much a part of the city as her sainted ancestor, and not banished so easily" - ✔ the option · House of Open Wounds ch 43 - the act of accepting God's healing, which renders a soldier unable to fight without dying; the prisoners in the barracks are those who took it - ✔ the Rain Life · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 2-9; Days of Shattered Fait ch 2-50 - a label for the Diplomatic Office's work, coined by a poet since excised from the approved canon; "what passes over a nation before the storm comes, putting out fires" - ✔ the ribbons · City of Last Chances ch 6 - powder-blue strips students must wear at their belts by Pal statute; a political signal, worn or removed by conviction - ✔ the ship of suspicion · House of Open Wounds ch 45 - Tallifer's metaphor for the point at which one is irrevocably marked by the Correct Speech crowd - ✔ the Tally officer · House of Open Wounds ch 6; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 2 - referenced as a figure of strict Palleseen bureaucratic accountability - ✔ the Tally's script · House of Open Wounds ch 6 - the soldiers' name for the marking system on a whipped man's back, in reference to the Tally Officer ensuring "every bad student completed their lines" - ✔ the Unclean · House of Open Wounds ch 45 - epithet applied to Lochiver - ✔ Third Degree Cap · City of Last Chances ch 15 - a Divinati hat, "the folded-over kind with a tassel"; locals call it "a sock" - ✔ Tiger-Crab · Lives of Bitter Rain ch 6; Days of Shattered Fait ch 5-15 - the creature involved in the previous Resident's fatal "hunting accident" in Usmai; Angilly has no context for it - ✔ twelveday · City of Last Chances ch 1 - old Ilmari calendar unit, now illegal to use - ✔ Unhappy Jack · Days of Shattered Fait ch 49 - the stage of grief Jack passed through after losing his wife, between "Happy Jack" and his current hollow grimness; characterised by weeping, red eyes, demands made of an absent God - ✔ Usmiri inclusive and exclusive we · Days of Shattered Fait ch 47 - Usmiri has a linguistic distinction Pel lacks: the "we" that includes the listener versus the "we" that is only the speaker and others. - ✔ Volunteers · House of Open Wounds ch 41 - euphemism for bound Whitebellies with tablethi strapped to their necks and empty coppers before them, to be commanded as ghost-ammunition sources - ✔ votaress · City of Last Chances ch 9; House of Open Wounds ch 49 - an Allorwen sacred intermediary between worlds who formalises agreements for the benefit of her people; Mother Semprellaime's former training - ✔ White Manor · City of Last Chances ch 12; House of Open Wounds ch 37 - used as a verb ("You do not know enough to come here and White Manor me"), meaning to attempt to extract premium prices or to affect airs of high-status dealing; the youth had been told he'd get thirteen pence "at White Manor" - ✔ Working Against the Perfecture · City of Last Chances ch 24 - the charge on the official poster condemning the healer, Ruslav, the student girl, and Ivarn Ostravar; the chapter notes no common crimes were smeared on them, unlike usual Palleseen practice - - baton-fodder · House of Open Wounds ch 35 - slang term for expendable soldiers; Thurrel tells the demon to "round us up another batch" - - bawd · House of Open Wounds ch 7 - the operator of a circle house; Mother Semprellaime's trade - - birds · City of Last Chances ch 10 - - bludgeons · Days of Shattered Fait ch 30 - Flint's term for large wooden tankards (as opposed to "small sticks," i.e. standard cups) - - brute-work demon · Days of Shattered Fait ch 38 - a classification of demon suited to labour and violence, which Pel (designed for easy learning) suits as a language - - camp followers · House of Open Wounds ch 37 - the profession and legal fiction by which those purveying "mortal or infernal flesh" register as seamstresses and laundresses in the Pal census - - comedy horse · House of Open Wounds ch 36 - Lidlet's term for the stretcher she and the other bearer carry ("the comedy horse that was their stretcher") - - demon chit · House of Open Wounds ch 45 - epithet for Caeleen - - excursion permit · House of Open Wounds ch 23 - a document invented by the Landwards Battalion Logistics Department, not present in Forthright Battalion or elsewhere - - foul-shot · House of Open Wounds ch 33 - Tallifer's term (with uncertainty: "Or that's the word") for the Loruthi ammunition; implies that if nothing gets septic, there is a deeper problem - - god smuggler · House of Open Wounds ch 2 - a charge brought against the prisoner; a crime that does not exist on the usual list and had to be invented for him - - idiot passes · House of Open Wounds ch 26 - an additional document that Landwards Battalion instituted for Accessories to carry when entering a city; Palleseen Regulars and officers do not need them - - Islerwoman · Days of Shattered Fait ch 1 - term used by the Cotto pirate for a foreigner from the islands/Archipelago; used "like a title of honour" - - knocking shops · House of Open Wounds ch 31 - brothels; "one of the various knocking shops around here" - - living curse · City of Last Chances ch 17 - the Old Duke's last wickedness, foisted onto the man who was hanging him; a term the narrator uses without full explanation - - negotiators · House of Open Wounds ch 50 - - niece-cousin · Days of Shattered Fait ch 8 - a Cotto kinship label for very distant familial connection that still carries obligation - - phal education · House of Open Wounds ch 36 - formal military or institutional education; Lidlet has "No phal education but top-grade credentials from the schools of life and military regulations" - - quacksalvers · City of Last Chances ch 10 - practitioners in Mirror Allor; along with fortune-tellers and curse-mongers - - seachild · Days of Shattered Fait ch 36-40 - the Cotto epithet for Loret, marking her as holy through the Fisher King's consecration; "sacred to them" because "all the blood shed for either cult ran into" the same ocean - - statlos · City of Last Chances ch 1-36; House of Open Wounds ch 2-9; Lives of Bitter Rain ch 1-2; Days of Shattered Fait ch 12-33; Pretenders to the Thro ch 40 - a social/military rank below officer status; Angilly's father was "a mere statlos" - - succubus · House of Open Wounds ch 9 - A type of demon in a woman's shape, made to be "a mirror to desires"; Caeleen is one - - the meat grinder · House of Open Wounds ch 45 - colloquial term for the interlocking arms of the Palleseen war machine - - trustie · City of Last Chances ch 8-26 - Hoyst's assistants at the scaffold; they "hauled the levers in perfect unison, practised as clock-tower figures" - - wineglass · Pretenders to the Thro ch 10