Glossary

This would have appeared before the acknowledgments in the back of Triad had there been room. It contains spoilers for Illumination and The Binder’s Road.

binder, bindsman, bindswoman
A mage who prepares casting materials and sings a wordless melody over an inscribed, illuminated manuscript to complete a casting. Binders also bind their triads, psychologically and sometimes by blood relationship. Binders may play a variety of other roles–healers, herbalists, producers of scribing materials, singers, scholars–but magecraft is their primary trade.
bonedays
Three days a year (one in each season) when the dead are remembered and offerings are left for the bonefolk or donations given to the needy. Observances differ regionally. Binders often chose bonedays to harvest skins for vellum and parchment, before those materials were outlawed.
bonefolk
Mysterious fringe folk who dispose of the carcasses of people and animals, leaving nothing behind but any metal or stone. Bonefolk group together according to the forms they have facility with: earth (vegetable and mineral), air, and water. They were the original denizens of Eiden Myr and perhaps its creators.
Brightfire
A minor holiday also known as Spindle Day or Pledge Day; the night before is Wantons’ Eve. Considered the start of summer in some Souther areas and on Khine. We would call it May Day.
casting
Applied magecraft; a crafting actuated by magelight. Equated with the working of a touch and the gleaning of a visant.
Celyrian
The primary language and scribing system used for magecraft and scholarship. An ornate, flowing, alphabetic script.
cheit
A hooked, magecrafted dagger carried by a kenai. Also known as the tooth. Plural “cheitla.”
Eiden
The animating and personified spirit of earth. Masculine in aspect. The human-shaped landmass on which the realm of Eiden Myr resides is considered to be Eiden’s body.
Eiden Myr
Formerly, the world; now the island continent on which a magecrafted society existed in isolation for twice nine nonned years, and the current society it has developed into.
ennead
Historical term for three mage triads working together, administratively or in a casting, at the top of a hierarchy of mages. Once referred to a single, increasingly corrupt group of nine in the Head holding, now called the old Ennead or the last Ennead. Since that ennead’s downfall two nineyears ago, a more general term for any three triads working a large casting together.
Frostfire
A minor holiday also known as Acorn Day; the night before is Candlenight. Considered the first day of winter in some Souther areas and on Khine, it falls in harvestmid farther north. Candlenight is similar to our All Hallow’s Eve.
Galandra
Galandra na Caille le Serith, the mage who founded Eiden Myr 1,476 years ago (twice nine nonned plus two nineyears). Also, still, a mythological figure: the mother of all human beings, Eiden’s pledge, and the mother and protective spirit of mages.
Ghardic
The primary scribing system for messages, recordkeeping, and trade. A straightforward syllabary that’s easy to learn.
gibe
Any of the weapons of terror assaulting the periphery of Eiden Myr in the war of the coast. Launched by unknown enemies. A shielder response is a “retort.”
gleaning
A visant’s seeing. In practical terms, usually the verbalizing of information uniquely knowable by a visant, and the process of the visant acquiring that information. Equated with the casting of a mage and the working of a touch.
Great Trines
Seekers have long maintained that history is full of trines, critical connected events that come in threes, and that there are three Great Trines, which have not yet seen their completion.
Greenfire
A minor holiday, sometimes known as Milk Day (nine moons after Brightfire and Wantons’ Eve) or as Lambsday. In Souther areas and on Khine, the first day of sowmid.
harvestmid
Autumn (one side of midder). The three seasons are winter, summer, and midder. In most of Eiden Myr, harvestmid runs from Ve Eiden to Longdark. On Khine, it starts on Moonfire.
heartlight
A loose term for a touch’s shine.
hein-na-fhin
“One of three.” A dangerous, powerful casting in which three mages combine into one being. Such a casting was how Galandra’s triad died, in order to create the warding that kept Eiden Myr isolated for twice nine nonned years, and how the leading triad of the last Ennead died, trying to subvert that warding.
holdings
Centers of learning and discipline. There are three holdings, occupying the sites of the Triennead holdings of old, each associated with a particular group: the Head (scholars), the Haunch (runners), and the Strong Leg (menders).
illuminator
A mage who receives an inscribed leaf from a wordsmith and materials (ink, pigment, brushes, pens) from a binder, and illuminates the leaf with patterns, illustrations, and kadri. Many illuminators are also carvers, ropemakers, weavers, portraitists, illustrators, artists.
kadra
An ideographic symbol enclosed in a triangle. Plural “kadri.” Used by illuminators. Some kadri have been borrowed, sometimes in simplified form, as symbols for various disciplines, crafts, and groups.
kenai
A blademaster; also, the magecrafted longblade (or greater blade) carried by a kenai. Plural “kenaila.” Working together, blade and blademaster have the power to destroy any material object wielded as a weapon. Historically, the kenai blademasters were magelight’s shadow; they protected and served, taking the stain of killing upon themselves so that mages would never have to. Over generations of peace, most blademasters were dismissed; but the tradition continued among a handful who continued to train prentices and pass their blades to them at death. Now only one kenai blademaster remains.
light
The indication that one has the powers of a mage, touch, or visant, visible only to others who possess the same light; people of different lights can’t see the lights in each other. The light of mages is a golden yellow, the light of touches a coppery red, the light of visants a silver blue.
lightstone
A pale, semitranslucent substance with a consistency somewhere between wax and stone; it emits a low whispering sound. Veins of it run through the Aralinn Mountains like mineral deposits. Formerly called magestone, because it glows a silvery white, like moonlight, when mages are near. Its whispers get very loud when visants are near, and if a touch holds a piece of lightstone for a while, it becomes malleable as warm wax.
Longdark
The winter solstice. Also, the nine-day festival culminating in the shortest day of the year.
Longlight
The summer solstice. Also, the nine-day festival culminating in the longest day of the year.
mage
A worker of magecraft. Mages cast in triads using illuminated manuscripts, and when possible wear pewter triskeles to identify themselves as mages. Their magelights, which show in the sixth or seventh year (age five or six), are visible only to one another, as a yellow or golden luminosity. Mages prentice for a dozen years, pass a trial, then sometimes journey before settling into a triad. Among other things, their craft controls the weather, calms earthquakes, preserves food, wards crops against blight, fireproofs and weatherproofs materials, and passages the dying to the spirit realm.
the man who could not die
A tellers’ tale immensely old. Stories recount his adventures through various imaginary realms, such as the land beyond the mist, the land beyond the rain, the land beyond the shadows, and so on.
mender
Any of a group of healers, herbalists, agriculturalists, scribes, cartographers, engineers, and so on based in the Strong Leg holding and roaming throughout Eiden Myr. Menders consolidate and disseminate practical knowledge. Originally formed from remnants of the old Ennead’s warders, the menders wear white.
midder
Considered one season, though it occurs in part between winter and summer and in part between summer and winter, midder is the time between the other two seasons.
mindlight
A loose term for the silvery blue glow shown by a visant. Equivalent to a mage’s magelight and a touch’s heartlight.
moon
The three ninedays in which the moon progresses through the visible phases of waxing, full, and waning. Before the waxing half moon, the moon is considered new; after the waning half moon, it’s considered old.
Moonfire
A minor holiday. In Souther areas and on Khine, the first day of harvestmid. In Norther climes, the day the last of the sheaves come in from the harvest, and known as Sheaf Day.
Morlyrien
The animating and personified spirit of water, and more specifically the sea. Either masculine or feminine in aspect. Sailors and those who make their living from the sea are children of Morlyrien.
nonned
Nine nines (81). Twice nine nonned is 1,458.
parchment
The skin of a sheep, lamb, goat, or kid used as a writing material. Because its manufacture requires the death of an animal, parchment is no longer produced in Eiden Myr and is no longer used in magecraft, but parchment codices still exist.
pethyar, also bet-jahr
The next proximate level of the spirit world, after the half-realm that haunts inhabit.
pledge
To pledge someone is to vow a lifetime romantic and sexual partnership. Someone you have pledged is known as your pledge or pledgemate. No pledgings were cast by magecraft for many years, but they were entered into nonetheless and are respected as though magecast.
proxy
Historical term for a mage who worked on behalf of the old mage Ennead, either as a reckoner in the field or a warder in the Holding. Proxies wore black if they were reckoners and white if they were warders, nine-colored Ennead cloaks, and silver rings engraved with three circles inside a triangle.
public house
An alehouse serves ale, a spirit house serves distilled spirits, a tavern serves various alcoholic beverages but no food, a public house serves food as well as alcoholic beverages, and an inn is a public house that also lets rooms.
reckoner
Historical term for a proxy, trained in the old Ennead’s Holding, sent into the field to manage other mages and report to the Holding (through the proxy circle or reckoners’ chain) on weather conditions. Reckoners cast in threes but did not form permanent triads. They wore black.
retort
Any counterattack launched by the shield in the war of the coast, but more specifically applied to the mangonels, trebuchets, and other catapult-type contraptions they’ve developed to hurl projectiles.
runner
A professional message bearer. A network of runners, consisting largely of former reckoners, formed out of the remains of the proxy circle. They continue to wear black, and are based in the Haunch holding.
scholar
Formerly a resident on the Isle of Senana, where the collections of ancient codices salvaged from the Ennead’s Holding were kept; the scholars are now based in the Head holding. Scholars are usually seekers or former mages (especially wordsmiths), dedicated to research, maintenance, and decipherment of the codices, their history, and their languages. They wear gray.
sedgeweave
Papyrus-like writing material made of laid strips of reeds. All magecraft is now practiced using sedgeweave, which has led some former mages, trained in the old ways, to denigrate the current practice of magecraft as “sedgecraft.”
seekers
Itinerant folk, suspicious of superstition and convention, who try to discern large truths by applying rigorous logical inquiry to stories, legends, and empirical observations. Once considered crackpots, they now have standing, but they continue in their previous informal social behavior: they associate loosely with each other, usually arguing a lot, and they put a silence on themselves when they need time to think. Some are visants. Many are not.
sheddown
Down collected where it has fallen.
shielder
A person skilled in the use of arms and dedicated to the protection of Eiden Myr from attack and invasion. The shield was developed by Verlein n’Tekla from the horde of fighters with which she stormed the old Ennead’s Holding to end that Ennead’s reign of corruption. For 15 years, in the absence of the invasion expected when Galandra’s warding was broken, it functioned as a ring of sentries, dwindling to a bare minimum of weary, lonely watchers along the shore. Then a growing incidence of apparent mirages escalated into a deadly attack on the entire coast, and the shield rallied to defend the shores they had guarded. Because killing for any reason is culturally taboo, the shield has become a place of exile. Shielders wear no particular colors; they are distinguished by their blades and other weaponry, and also reputedly by the stain of killing.
shieldname
A moniker of exile. Forbidden from ever returning home, those who join the war of the coast abandon their family names and acquire nicknames.
sowmid
Spring (the other side of midder). In most of Eiden Myr, sowmid runs from Ve Galandra to Longlight. On Khine, it starts on Greenfire.
spirit days
The dark of the moon. Spirit days do not correspond to any phase of the moon (the moon’s three phases are waxing, full, and waning).
spirit house
A place where only distilled spirits are served.
stewards
Support staff in any of the holdings and in the shielders’ coastal none’s-land. Called lightless, as any powers of light they possess are considered negligible and cannot actuate a casting, working, or gleaning.
stones
Any of various table games, played with pretty colored stones that would be called jewels elsewhere.
Stonetree
A runic system. When inscribed upright as discrete glyphs on a flat leaf, the runes look like trees, and each rune is named for a tree (frostwood, ironwood, mistwood, bonewood, thorn, etc.). Can also be inscribed as hash marks off a continuous horizontal or vertical line, more in keeping with the oldest examples, which were carved along the edges of squared or triangular stones. Also known as Lir-Wor, for its first and last glyphs, or Lir-Geis-Saor, for its first three glyphs. It contains no vowels.
strophe
A stanza or stave within a wordsmiths’ verse.
Sylfonwy
The animating and personified spirit of air, and more specifically the winds. Of neutral gender, though masculine and feminine pronouns are used in reference.
tain
A magecrafted longknife, saxe, or messer carried by a kenai. Also known as the lesser blade. Plural “tainla.”
three
The number of power. There are three seasons (winter, summer, midder), three phases of the moon (waxing, full, waning), three base elements (earth, water, air), three base forms (animal, vegetable, mineral), and so on.
threft
A yard; contraction of “threefoot.”
touch
A person of coppery red light who can lay hands on flesh or other matter and heal, strenghten, or craft it. Any physical harm a touch does results in immediate physical harm to the touch.
trees
Flamewood is like our field maple. Ironwood is like our beech. Stonewood is like our hornbeam. Bonewood, mistwood, frostwood, and spiritwood trees are indigenous to Eiden Myr.
triad
Three mages (wordsmith, illuminator, and binder) who form a temporary threesome to do a casting; also, three mages cast into a permanent threesome by more experienced mages. Now, though sometimes considered a misnomer, also a working unit formed by any three people of the same light; but touches rarely have need to combine their powers, and it’s commonly assumed that visants cannot.
Triennead
A postulated historical structure of three mage enneads, each maintaining a holding in a different region of Eiden Myr. The current holdings occupy what are believed to be the sites of the Triennead holdings. Why the Triennead fell, leaving only one holding (in the Head) for many nonneds of years, is still in dispute.
triskele
The pewter pendant worn by a mage, shaped as three arms curving from a solid center into a shared circle.
Ve Eiden
The autumnal equinox. Also the three-day celebration with the equinox as its middle day.
Ve Galandra
The vernal equinox. Also the three-day celebration with the equinox as its middle day.
vellum
The skin of a cow or calf used as a writing material. Like parchment, vellum is no longer produced in Eiden Myr and is no longer used in magecraft, but codices of bound vellum leaves still exist.
verse
The poetic form used by wordsmiths in a casting. Most castings consist of one verse, sometimes with variations. A verse consists of any number of strophes (stanzas), although three and nine are the most common number; a strophe consists of any number of lines from one to nine. There are eighty-one verses in the core wordsmiths’ canon, and nine times that in the extended canon.
visant
A seer; a savant; someone who shows a silver-blue light. Visants’ powers are not well known. Some are reputed to be able to read minds and foretell the future. Because they are shy and secretive, and many appear to be quite mad, they are widely misunderstood; because they wield a relatively new, mysterious, and possibly threatening power, they are sometimes feared.
vocate
Historical term for an exceptional mage, usually a young, newly triskeled journeymage, called to serve in the old Ennead’s Holding. Vocates trained for three turns of the moon or so–working together, bonding, and learning to think collectively–then were sorted into reckoners and warders, known as “earning the ring” for the silver proxy ring they were then awarded as a sign of status. They wore gray.
warder
Historical term for a proxy, trained in the old Ennead’s Holding, who remained in the Holding to assist the Ennead in managing the weather and maintaining the physical premises of the Holding itself. Warders formed permanent triads and wore white.
wordsmith
A mage who inscribes the manuscript leaf in a casting. Wordsmiths are linguists, poets, and master calligraphers, combining canonical verse, situational artistic improvisation, and the shape and properties of inked glyphs to work castings actuated by magelight.
working
Applied touchcraft. Sometimes a healing, sometimes the production of a preternatural piece of physical craft such as a carving. Also the process of touchcraft. Equated with the casting of a mage and the gleaning of a visant.

The glossary also included tables displaying the Celyrian alphabet and the Stonetree runes.