Glossary

By Dolores J. Nurss

C

Note: This glossary changes constantly, receiving new entries all the time. Most of these words will not crop up in all stories. I have not written down all of the unusual words and terms that I have buried in my notes, but have concentrated mainly on those most pertinent to finished novels (which is why you will at first see more notes on Til Territories and the Charadoc than any other cultures) though I am trying to include as much as I can on missions, cultures and lands not yet formally written about--hundreds of cultures exist in my notes, and they all have their peculiar terminology. Please notify me if you find anything unfamiliar in my tales that I haven't yet catalogued for this letter. Thank you.
 
cacklebird: A tropical bird native to the Southwestern Continent, about the size of a jay, slenderly built, with brownish-gray feathers, white wing-tips, and black stripes or spots, along with a black crest. Named for its distinctive call, which sounds like high-pitched, mocking laughter. Known for elaborate mating ritual displays--its characteristic "dance".
 
Camelot: A small collection of city-states loosely federated under a monarchy, in a valley of the northern foothills of what on Earth would have been the Himalayas. Citizens of the United Kingdom colonized this country, along with the neighboring nations of Avalon and New Scotland (also monarchies with blood ties to Camelot.) The people speak a dialect of English. Camelot exports rice and wheat, as well as some of the best woolen goods in the world.
 
Cana’a: A legendary hag of the Holumbrian Sea, said to whip up storms by dancing wildly upon the waves. Some of the sailors which she thus drowns, according to her myth, she eats, while others she makes her zombie lovers. Folklore lists various means by which a mortal wife can free a drowned husband from her clutches, all requiring courage, cleverness, and/or great powers of endurance.
 
In past times sailors used to throw monkeys in miniature human clothing overboard to placate her or trick her into granting safe passage (hence the expression, “Not a monkey’s chance at sea”) but this barbaric custom has lapsed with the return of more enlightened times. Although the motif of actual human sacrifice to quell a storm has featured in song and literature, no historical evidence exists to indicate that this ever actually happened. In modern times, some sailors still do toss sailor-dolls overboard, frequently stuffed with tobacco or some other substance said to please Cana’a.
 
The chronicler would be remiss to not mention a theory that Cana’a in fact is a demonized version of an early colony’s deity. At least one island of Mediterrae openly worships Cana’a (and probably several others do so in secret) not as an evil bringer of storm, but as a sea-goddess who quells storms raised by her tempestuous sister, Anicana’a. In her generosity, so her supporters say, she freely shares her maritime cattle and herds her fish into the nets of those fishermen who love her, as well as cultivating various shellfish and other desirable sea-fare. In this very different myth she rescues sailors rather than drowns them, although she does transform the choicest of the lot into dolphins to follow her retinue, especially those who die in maritime battles in the defense of a good cause.
 
Candlenut: A tropical bush with nuts so rich in oils that people will ignite several in a bowl for a lamp. The nut also supplies a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, argenine, vitamin E, thiamine, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, selenium, and potassium. It grows on tall bushes/low trees, with broad, tri-lobed leaves.
 
Candy Hill: A mythical place featured in Charadocian folksongs, where all features of the landscape are made up of sweets and other delicacies, more referred to in wishful thinking than in any real belief.

Cannablits:  Proprietary name of a candy resembling miniature human body parts, popular in the 2690's in Til Institute, particularly among adolescent and preadolescent boys, until the manufacturer, Shocksweets, received too many angry letters warning them that this time they'd gone too far.  They pulled the product when a housemother, in charge of a traumatized child who'd arrived at Til in flight from real cannibalism, chose to go to jail for shattering all of their windows with rocks, reaping much negative publicity--which also boosted their close-out sales of the product.

    Cannablits were made of fondant around a core of crunchy, sugar-crystalized wafer "bone" and cherry syrup.  They came in a mixed bag of vanilla, chocolate, peach, almond, and taffy flavors, and included arms, legs, torsos and heads. Torsoes, in addition to the main bone contained an indented-cylinder wafer "ribcage" with a cherry inside.  Heads, inside a wafer shell, contained a whole walnut meat.

Canyon Beach: A beach in Til Territories at the foot of the network of canyons descending from Cracked Mesa, across from Ambrey Island. Notable as the approach to Ambrey Botanical Laboratories.

Canyonlands:  A desert region in The Charadoc, highlands cut off from rain high in the Mountains of Fire, but occasionally sporting stony pools from snowmelt sinking deep into the porous sandstone and seeping out again in depressions in the rock.  Originally formed of sandstone from an ancient inland sea before volcanic activity reared the mountains up, strong winds channeled through Gandralnarya Pass have carved it into many canyons.  Probably the most inhospitable land in the entire continent, it is also the least inhabited by humankind, though a number of plant and animals have adapted to it.

 carder: A device much like a crediter, through which one can run an ID card for a security check or similar purposes.
 
Carpaya: A tall hardwood tree with short branches, red bark, and obtuse leaves, native to the rainforests of the Southwestern Continent. The wood is red to reddish-brown with a whorled chocolate grain; although challenging to carve with its knots and irregularity, its beauty makes it prized among woodworkers, who sometimes nickname it "master's wood".
 
The sap has many uses in the plastics industry, as it polymerizes readily. It is also alleged to have healing properties, being antibiotic, antiseptic, and anaesthetic, often used among herbalist as a sealing dressing.
 
Carpodine: An antiseptic ointment made of iodine and a polymer of carpaya sap.
 
carrier flit: A flit equipped to carry cargo or passengers. It requires a particularly strong levitator with special training to lift it. Due to the wraparound grid of psi amplifiers encompassing the flit body, it also requires a special structure upon which to park it.
 
Carmina Island: A large island in the Coral Gulf where medical research and the medical care of Tilián agents takes place. The isolation, inconvenient for normal health-care, is a safety precaution necessary in light of the fact that agents are more likely than anyone else to contract previously unknown diseases to which humankind has little or no resistance. Some have alleged an additional political motive for isolating agents who might babble international secrets while in delirium or under anaesthesia.
 
Carmina Island is also known for the Marie T. Besmuth Institute for Enablement of the Handicapped, the Carmina Island Children's College, Goodwill College, Cliffside Laboratories, Carmina Medical College and Medical Center, and Sunken Mountain Bay Mariner's Retreat.
 
Carmina Medical College/Medical Center: A renowned teaching hospital and medical research center run by Til Institute on Carmina Island in the Coral Gulf. Specializes in diseases indigenous to Novatierre. Except in emergencies, all agents of the Tilián receive their medical treatment here while in Til Territories.

caseda:  The skilled laborer caste of Corriebhai.

Casedacant:  A secret dialect or code among the casedas of Corriebhai, used chiefly to hide unofficial religion and beliefs based on a mixture of Gaelic Paganism, Heathenism, and Anglican and Presbyterian Christianity.  Casedacant translates a deity's name or attributes, or some other feature of legend or magic, from Gaelic into Corriebhaiani (the official tongue of Corribhai, derived from several languages of India) and thence chooses words from Skotseng with some phonetic similarity to replace them, Skotseng being a recognized tongue among the peasantry largely ignored by the overlords.  The layers of translation often add additional meaning.

cashew vine: A thick vine native to the alpine regions of the Southwestern Continent. Like the cashew tree on Earth, it exudes an irritating oil that causes itching and urticaria upon contact. It also produces nuts very similar to the Earth cashew in flavor, though ovoid in shape. Its leaves resemble three-lobed oak leaves, and are a dusty green, turning a soft crimson in autumn.
 
Cassandra syndrome: 1) (parapsychological)The unconscious impulses which cause one who predicts the future to veil the prediction in obscure words or images, so as to prevent any warning from averting and therefore disproving the prediction.
 
(2) (psychological) A form of hysteria found in women whose intuition has gone unheeded far too long.
 
castale: (Pronounced kasTAYley) Chestnut wine or ale. Fermented from the mash left over after pressing chestnuts for oil. Some like it from roasted mash, others prefer it “raw”.
 
castanero: One who makes various products from chestnuts. Some chestnuts e selects for selling as is, or for candying. The rest e presses for chestnut oil, which e might sell as is, or infused with tarragon or lavender, or make into soap, candles, lotion, and/or biofuel, depending on the quality. The mash e then might sell as is to enrich finishing feed for ranchers, grind into flour for cooks, or make chestnut syrup from it. Alternately e might ferment from the mash (roasted or raw) castale, castavín, primera and/or segunda. It takes an expert castanero to know which chestnuts to employ for which use, and to blend them properly.
 
These chestnut products originated in Alonzo Valley and see wide use in Til Territories, but their popularity (and import) have spread to Istislan and surrounding territories as well, where they have become integral to Istislan cuisine in wholly original recipes. Naugren also now prizes chestnut confections, but bans all of the alcoholic products except for denatured castavín for cooking purposes, which merchants must only sell in tiny bottles containing a certain percentage of salt added to make it undrinkable, useful only for flavoring.
 
castavín: A cordial made from the mash left over after pressing the oils out of chestnuts. Unlike Primera, the castanero doesn’t distill it by heat. Rather, e freezes the product after partial fermentation, concentrating both the flavor and remaining sugars. Not only do people tipple castavín, they also use it as a flavoring for cakes, cookies, candies, and pastries, or dribble it on top of ice cream.
 
caste, Charadocian: One's status in Charadocian society, as determined by how much one's family as a unit pays in taxes, the increments strictly defined in monetary amounts per year. The higher the caste, the more votes one has. Strict sumptuary laws restrict certain variations in garments to certain castes, so as to make it evident who deserves how much respect for how much of a contribution. Anyone found wearing garments appropriate to a higher caste must spend one year in prison per degree above oneself, plus suffer the loss of one vote per degree.
 
Castle Stark: A forbidding dwelling built directly into cliffs overlooking the Nissenwaters, with towers that come out and then up from the cliff-face at right angles. Said to be inhabited by an irascible and possibly dangerous old hermit, in actuality the Von Stark family has held it quietly for generations. Legal investigations as to whether they have been running an illegal website not associated with Archives, or possibly manufacturing personal computers, keep getting bogged down for inexplicable reasons.
 
casuarina: A breed of tree so remarkably like the casuarina of earth as to be practically indistinguishable, a pseudo-conifer common to the subequatorial tropics. It has long, shaggy needle-type foliage and a woody fruit resembling a dense cone. The casuarinas of Novatierre sport multiple trunks more often than not.
 
The Cattlewade: A broad and shallow river of Alonzo Valley, Til Territories, named for the cattle that graze beside it and sometimes ford it.
 
Cave of Changes: A difficult-to find cave in the juncture between Mount Seascarp and Shandow Ridge, considered crucial in the training of oracles, for reasons which the oracular community never specify.  Legends abound, that it might in fact consist of a whole network of caverns, that it amounts to a gigantic geode, or more than one such, that it contains potentially fatal levels of magentine, that it has become haunted with the ghosts of everyone who has ever tried to plunder it, etc., can fill volumes in the folklore library.
 
Cauldron Bay: A bay on the Northwestern Coast of Til Peninsula, angled in such a way as to bring two currents into collision, with violent results. It is slowly but surely expanding.
 
Century Point: A village on a spur of land on the southeastern side of the Nissenwaters, founded in the year 2200, known mainly for the craftsmanship of its boats. Its colors are oyster and white.
 
certification: Licensing or authorization to perform in a complex career, such as agent, doctor, barrister, et cetera. A diploma.
 
Cha' Choya: A proud, nomadic and somewhat warlike people who herd cattle across the northern plains in the eastern half of the Northeastern Continent. Known for their annual festivals and their artistic if inaccurate oral histories.
 
The Chair: Among agents of the Tilián, the chair in which one sits during debriefing; hence "to take The Chair" means to be debriefed. It is a large, comfortable piece of furniture, slightly tipped, which can sustain a person in a trance state, with arm rests. Either or both arm rests terminates in a rod of magentine sculpted for comfortable grip, attached by conductors to a similar rod in the facing chair. As the agent and the debriefer each grip these rods and sink under the influence of trance-inducing debriefing music, the rods convey psychic impressions of all the agent's recent travels, condensed, from the mind of the agent to that of the debriefer (a specially trained psychometrist) who then conveys it to Archives.

Chamree, Sea of:  The Eastern "cat ear" or "horn" of the Oceana Equitorus.  On earth it would be to the east of India.  Named for a baby girl who died at sea, some say pulled off of a ship by a wave, some say who died in a colony that accidentally transferred right into the middle of the ocean.  No one now knows anything for certain of the ancient tragedy, although the name seems to indicate that Chamree belonged to some girl of Asian-Indian descent.

Chanay: A nation on and above the eastern peninsula of the Southwestern continent, on the shore of the Lesser Ocean, and the first on the eastern peninsula to not also have a western shore on the Sea of Byssinia. Originally colonized by French settlers from a single commune, who gave the country its name, they soon after welcomed a Swedish expedition that had survived a sea-landing but lost most of their supplies. The Swedish settlers, composed of winter Olympic teams and their families, wrote many longing ballads about the snow and slopes that they left behind on Earth, causing future generations to mythologize Earth as a planet of ice and steep precipices that one must traverse to prove oneself worthy of a paradise hidden behind the highest mountains. Other colonies gradually constellated around these two main groups.
 
Chanay's economy depends mainly on the mining of iron and manganese, and the production of steel and steel products. Til Intervention generations ago inspired them, through the Chanayans' own passionate esteem for physical fitness, to embrace the cleanest standards of the metallurgic industry in Novatierre.
 
changing-tiger: A large feline native to the island of Borta/Toulinn, probably close kin to the lions of the mainland. Distinguished by its stripes, which change color according to the season, apparently triggered by shifts in temperature. Throughout most of the year it has reddish brown fur streaked in black shading to chocolate at the edges. In the first frost the fur between stripes starts to bleach, going through phases of burnt orange, orange, amber-gold, straw, and ivory, eventually paling to pure white by first snow. The dark stripes remain unaffected. The fur also thickens, becoming downright shaggy. Thawing reverses the process. A predator not to be trifled with, it actually derives most of its diet from fishing, but will not turn its nose up at a lamb or child.
 
Channel Islands: A pair of islands to either side of the Altraus tram, in the channel between Carmina Island and Til Penninsula, Til Territories. Channel Island #1 lies to the South, Channel Island #2 lies to the north. Both are sparsely inhabited and unincorporated either to the Carmina Island community or the nearby mainland town of Domestica.

Chapelbodlian:  A believer in or practitioner of Chapelbody.

Chapelbody:  The national religion of Corriebhai Colony.  The name, in Casedacant, means "Oathkeepers."  While it follows a pantheon derived from Celtic, Heathen, and Christian sources, it does not require literal belief in any of its stories, and indeed some of its theologians consider literalism heretical, although still practiced in outlying communities.  Most Chapelbodlians believe in a "First Cause" with many manifestations; indeed, one can belong to another religion altogether and Chapelbody simultaneously.

Atheist Chapelbodlians play a sacred role in the community.  Far from rejecting their atheists as heretics, the congregation considers them "pure spirits" who follow the ethics without promise of reward or fear of punishment.  They also regard them as tragic, as their personal brand of integrity cannot afford them the comfort of a Higher Power to assist them. (most Corriebanty drama and literature includes an atheist character somewhere.)   Believers in Higher Powers see their incapacity to perceive deity as a divinely ordained sacrifice or martyrdom, to maintain the utmost honesty among the more fortunate members of the congregation.  People say that they volunteered before birth to serve this difficult function, though they themselves cannot remember or believe it.

Chapelbody holds praxis as far more important than belief, and "faith" to them mainly means "keeping faith" with their principles.  Everything revolves around integrity and honesty--to do exactly what you say you will, no matter what, for the well-being of family, the community, and one's afterlife.  To tell only truth.  To seek truth in any form it takes, and to accept it unflinchingly.  To examine oneself frequently and ruthlessly.  To earn the trust of others. 

Concealment of intention or fact is allowed, but never overt lying under any circumstance, not even to save a life; folklore tells of people living an accursed existence because somebody else lied on their behalf, warping the shape of reality around them.  Chapelbodlians believe that lies strain the very fabric of reality, even tear it, with dangerous results, both in this life and thereafter.

They embrace fiction and mythos, however, as a particularly mystical form of truth, and hold all of the arts as sacred, an homage to "the truth beyond the facts".  They especially prize a wabi sabi aesthetic that sees the beauty in the worn, imperfect, or aged.  Their visual artists cultivate particularly the skill of portraying an elderly person's life story in hir wrinkles.

They believe in an afterlife created by one's choices.  The more integrity one has exhibited, the more pleasant and rational one's after-existence, subject to one's own control, shapable into whatever one wants.  One also has the strength to act supernaturally in the lives of the living, at least through intuitive guidance and nudges to chance.

The more dishonest one has been in life, however, the more chaotic the afterlife and the more helpless the spirit.  The most egregious sinners tumble eternally through madness and fear; joys exist only to randomly crumble or be torn away from them, and hideous experiences crash into them at any moment, unpreventably.  Chapelbodlians see this not as a punishment but a consequence.

Some believe that this afterlife manifests in reincarnation.  Others speculate on an astral state where all of this takes place.  Still others see transfer worlds as having been generated by human choices.  Some believe that it manifests here, in this life, and that no literal afterlife exists.  No one particularly cares which version anyone else believes in, and if one can come up with yet another variation, others will listen as an entertainment.

One may regain sanctification, after sin, by a period of silence and reflection, in addition to reparation with interest wherever possible.  They say that this gives language and reality itself time to rest and recuperate.  It might last for a day, it might last for years, depending on the gravity of the offense, and be imposed by self or others.  If one receives such a sentence from the community and refuses, the community might have to banish the person, either permanently or until they return and face the music.  On the governmental level this can lead to exile from the country entirely.

Many pious Chapelbodlians, in fact, spend their evenings, after the last light fades from the sky, in voluntary silence, in case they have inadvertently said something that will later turn out to be untrue, or if they have unconsciously hidden a truth from themselves.  Those who do this say that they wake up every morning feeling refreshed for the day.

The Charadoc: A mountainous Aristocracy (what the natives call "Meritocracy") in the Southwestern Continent, known for its coffee, chocolate, wine, tobacco, fishing industry, ore of aluminum, lead, sulfur, nitrates, and rare minerals, and a sturdy if inferior silk. Also known for elaborate sumptuary laws and a couple of notable operas. Terrain varies from tropical rainforest to alpine, with some high desert. The name means “Mountains of Fire”.
 
Charadocian Buddhism: A sect of Buddhism adhered to by the descendants of Tibetan Chinese colonists in The Charadoc, who emigrated to Novatierre to secure religious freedom. It has some local peculiarities, such as the belief that souls do not only reincarnate in animal life-forms, but also as plants or even minerals.
 
In the latter case the soul goes into the stone or geographic feature. Only enlightened beings can become mountains, unperturbed by passions or desires, impervious to pain or delight, overlooking the striving life-forms below and by their compassionate meditations moving as many as listen towards right thinking. Some of these bide their time awhile before incarnation into a body, others have finished with flesh for good.
 
Charadocian Buddhists believe that the Buddha came to Old Earth one final time as a man named Maitreya, right before the death of that planet, but will visit humankind the next time in Novatierre, as a woman called The Maitreyya (Mai-trey-EE-a) to promote a new era of enlightenment on a new planet.
 
Charadocian Catholicism: A hybrid religion or religions native to the Charadoc, not officially recognized by any pope or patriarch. Officially, various different chapels belong to various rites under the Roman, Orthodox, or Collegiate pontifs, especially the Assyrian rite, and few parishioners refer to themselves as Charadocian Catholics, the name being an invention of cultural anthropologists. But in practice, they have all blended together into a more or less distinct belief system, tending to favor the Roman calendar and prayers with an Orthodox bent towards independence from authority and a Collegiate syncretism to the point of incorporating many folk beliefs under the general umbrella of the religion, some of which have little or no biblical or traditional justification.
 
Charadocian pastry: Called this only outside the Charadoc, it is a flaky turnover with a sweet filling made from a fungus tolerant of high levels of heat and acid. This fungus releases psychoactive chemicals producing euphoria, drowsiness and hallucinations.
 
Charadocian silk: See cheir silk.
 
Charadocian wrestling: A very formalized martial art, practiced exclusively for performance. Combines traditional wrestling with kicking and foot-hooking, delineating certain areas of the body as off-limits for any touch. Rather than pinning the opponent down, the wrestler wins by forcing the opponent to make bodily contact with all four padded corner-posts in succession. The opponent may undo each touch by forcing the wrestler to touch the same post, at any time, but this does not count towards his own score until he has cleared his own record first.
 
Traditionally, the wrestlers approach each other initially with their hands extended slightly to either side of the body, palms outward, to simultaneously display an absence of weapons and to poise for attack—a simultaneous gesture of courtesy and threat.
 
Charter of Til: The central document of Til law, defining the purposes and limits of government, and the rights and responsibilities of the citizenry. To change any point of the Charter of Til requires a two-thirds majority confirmation from the General Electorate, which almost never happens.
 
chaummin: A cheap and potent alcoholic beverage distilled from various tree saps, most especially the chaummin or sugar-sap tree. It resembles a somewhat maple-flavored rum with a resinous aftertaste.
 
chaummin tree: Also known as the sugar-sap tree, it grows to low to mid-canopy heights in the midrange of mountains. It has broad-spreading branches, medium-green palmative leaves, grayish beige to grayish green bark that wrinkles with age but does not form cracks or plaques, and a light, brittle, rose-beige wood better suited to the smokehouse than the carpenter's shop.
 
People prize it mainly for its sap, which runs clear and sugary from first frost to spring; after that it becomes cloudy and takes on off-flavoring that spoils its usefulness. Tappers derive from it sugar, syrup, and a distilled beverage also called chaummin.

chaummin sugar:  Sugar made from chaummin sap, which has a slightly resinous maple flavor.
 
chava: A coarse and somewhat ragged-leaved plant of the Northwestern Continent’s plains, light green. Hardy to drought, frost, and heat. Requires full sun, and prefers slightly alkalinic soil. The pith is a delicate sea-green, translucent, juicy, and delectable, with a flavor somewhat like a mild version of broccoli with a hint of almond. The rind of the stems makes excellent paper with a slight greenish-yellow tinge.
 
cheir silk: A filament drawn from the cocoons of an easily husbanded caterpillar native to the Charadoc, which (when allowed to) matures into a sea-green butterfly with purple-striped wings. This silk, considered inferior to the Truesilk made by silkworms preserved from Earth, is actually quite sturdy and warmth-conserving, if a little coarse. However, it cannot be uniformly schapped, nor does it hold dye evenly. It has a greasy rather than glossy appearance. But it is nonetheless an important fiber for large segments of Novatierre's population.

chemical heater:  A device for safely heating inside tents and other emergency shelters, although not all of them are actually safe.  (One should look for a stamp certifying its reliability from Gueymaial, Istislan, Llangdan Naugren, Tambour, or Til Institute, as non-certified heaters are sometimes poorly insulated or release gases unsafe in poor ventilation.)  The most common design features an insulating base, a chemical reaction chamber, two bottle feeds into the chamber,  a telescoping radiator tube in the middle, and tubing from the radiator to a small vent found in modern all-weather tents, all of which may be separated for packing.  It operates by combining chemicals that produce heat when reacting together.

 
Cheneh, Merle: Leader of the Full Moon Rebellion. Married to a developmentally disabled man who suddenly went missing, she tracked him down to a laboratory where he had “volunteered” in experiments that led to his painful death. This inspired her to provoke a series of riots culminating in the Full Moon Rebellion. Although justly arrested for the excesses of her violence, and subjected to formal rehabilitiation, Til nevertheless owes her a debt of gratitude for the sweeping and necessary reforms that followed after.
 
chevon terrine: A pressed paté of ground goat meat, butter, and herbs, served spread on toast or half-melted on potatoes.

Cheyanou:  A tropical, coastal nation of the Southeastern Continent, sharing its northern border with Dixie, located directly under the western lobe of the continent.  Colonized initially by a contingent of Russian Jews, its name most probably derives from "Shehecheyanu", a Yiddish blessing for new homes and propitious changes. 

Cheyanou chiefly exports wood, chocolate, kiro flavoring, sugar, saava, tea, tin, iron, limestone, niobium, lead, and zinc.  They are a capitalist democracy with a strong educational system, and have retained a sophisticated level of technology, including electricity, widespread plumbing, telephone lines, and a local computer network.  Their advanced medicine their careful filtration of water and inspection of food has left them largely unscathed by the chronic plagues and parasitic infections that drain the energy of their neighbors.  However, offers to share their advancements, at a reasonable price, or even at times out of charity, have been met with suspicion and not accepted.

Chicamoq:  A small village of the Charadoc,  appearing relatively insignificant today, but in fact it is the last remains of the hub of what had once been an impressive (for our standards) internet web in the days of the Mid-Migration, and occasionally farmers for miles around still dig up bits of plastic-wrapped wires that had once connected computers brought from Earth.

This fledgling net, however, soon became abandoned when it became haunted.  Apparently a medical simulation, used in combatting all of the new infectious diseases, came to life and interfered with anybody's continued use.  (This might have been some form of magentine effect, but no one is quite sure how to test the hypothesis, at this late point.)  A senior technician became convinced that his deceased daughter, having died of the latest disease under study, had become trapped in the network, and so he set the central broadcasting station on fire and smashed every computer he could find.  The rest of the community, finding the manifestations too disturbing to allow work, soon joined him till not a computer remained.  Or so the legend goes.

Modern day Chicamoq today remains a minor hub of sorts, having a trading post which distributes manufactured goods from more developed parts of the country.  Those who do not work in trade are either subsistence farmers or their relatives, the latter employed in cooking and brewing from the family produce for travelers coming in for trade, or sometimes performing entertainment.

child labor: A form of employment in Til Territories much more regulated than adult labor. Children may only be employed through Archives, which will automatically terminate further employment if it detects any deleterious changes in the child's scholastic or medical records. This naturally limits the hours, risks and requirements of any job that a minor takes on. Children may only be employed on a temp basis and may refuse further offers of employment once they finish a short-term task. It is illegal to employ any minor beyond the reach of Archive's monitoring. Children in Til Territories are legally guaranteed food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical attention, and so need work only to finance their pursuits and pleasures.
 
child-grade consent: In Tilián law, the limited but inalienable right of children of initiation-age to engage only in activities (beyond a set range of common requirements) that they consent to, unless refusal constitutes a threat to their well-being, present or future. For instance, for the sake of a child’s future well-being, a houseparent may impose upon a child the requirement that e take up a study demanding discipline, but the child may refuse piano lessons in favor of karate, provided that expense, time, and other factors are comparable. Child-grade consent only extends to what a child may refuse; it does not give a child license to engage in activities which the parent considers harmful. Many activities desirable to children require prerequisite studies that they must complete before doing as they please, such as admission to the Amsi'en Amusement Park (with exceptions made for the cognitively impaired.)
 
children's college: An elementary school with some college-like features, such as different classrooms for different categories of study, and some choice of electives.
 
Children’s College: The first children’s college founded in Til Territories, located in the southernmost cape of Carmina Island, originally for the families of those Carmina Island and Domestica residents who did not want to send their children to Til Institute for their education.
 
Children’s Hospital: A hospital and medical center within Til Institute for the treatment of minors. While filling the day-to-day needs of the thousands of orphans raised in Til Institute, it has a worldwide reputation for treatment of the physical and psychological traumas of abused, abandoned, and neglected children.
 
Chinese Charadocian: A person descended of Chinese or Tibetan colonists, born in the Charadoc. Because their ancestors had the foresight to bring boats and extensive fishing gear with them in transferring over to Novatierre (figuring that, in a planet with even more ocean surface than Earth, landing near or in water seemed more likely than not) they were able to quickly establish a fishing industry along the coast of the Charadoc, giving them an economic advantage disproportionate to their numbers. They have founded virtually every port of any importance in that nation and are widely respected.
 
Chinese New Year, Charadocian: Due to the financially influential presence of a Chinese-descended minority along the coastal region of the Charadoc, the fiscal year in the Charadoc begins with Chinese New Year, which is celebrated with parades, parties, dancing, ceremonial foods and rituals (including burning "money"` which is usually fake) even by uplanders who have never laid eyes on a person of Chinese descent.

Chocabees:  A bean or capsule-shaped candy alternating bands of chocolate with bands of candy of another flavor.  The original Chocabee combined chocolate with butterscotch.  The most common flavors available today are anthelma, butterscotch, cherry, coconut, czyf, five-spice (often dyed blue) mint, pome, praline, raspberry, superchocolate (alternating bands of light and dark chocolate.) tangerine, walnut and vanilla, not to mention the variety pack.
 
chorizo: A spicy sausage popular, among other places, in Alonzo Valley, but pervasive throughout the world as Novatierre’s equivalent of old Earth's hot dog.
 
Chou Tzi: Warlord turned statesman, credited with unifying Diemtran (first by conquest and later by diplomacy) founding Pentapolita, and commanding the digging of the Diemtran Canal which, completed after his death, elevated the Diemtran Empire from an impoverished nation to a major economic force. Dimunutive in stature and build, Chou Tzi became proverbial for his skill at using intelligence to gain the upper hand in physical contests.

chuff:  A novorodent resembling a cross between a weasel and a guinea-pig.  A master of gaining access even through the tiniest of apertures, it has stowed away on ships since the Early Migration Era, so that today no one can tell where it might have originated, beyond the fact that DNA shows it clearly Novatierre-indigenous.  Most frequently taupe or golden-beige in color, with a gray-white underbelly, it also comes in rosy-beige or peachy-beige, gray, and white mottled with black.  Furriers use the pelts for trim and sometimes sewn together for entire garment-linings, and many a sailor will attest to its satisfactory flavor, but breeders prize the chuff especially for its speed, as it might well be the fastest animal native to Novatierre.

Chuff-racing: A popular gambling-game throughout Novatierre, taking advantage of the mating-rituals of this animal.  A female chuff in heat will climb to a windy place and send off a pherome to summon males to her; the first one to arrive wins the privilege of reproducing with her.  This ensures that the species naturally selects for speed, which brings advantage in eluding predators.

So chuff-racers place a female in heat at the elevated goal-line with a fan behind her, and then release the male chuffs to find her.  Not only do the betters who selected well make money on the victory, but so does the victor, permitted to do what comes naturally at the end of the line.  This ensures well-bred chuffs for future races.

The racetrack, usually indoors, consists of many twists and turns (to display the grace and agility of the racers) before rising to the peak at the end, where the female  awaits in wire cage.  Passing a finish-line triggers a sensor to briefly open a gate for the winner, and to immediately drop curtains around the victory-couple to ensure privacy among those cultures of more delicate sensibilities, although some of the earthier communities consider the "victory frolic" part of the show, with much cheering for the winner. 

Some cultures permit toddlers onto the track to play and explore, before being removed from the room for the actual race.  This allegedly insures survival to adulthood and future fertility, but one must stop at the age where a child can speak sentences of more than two words, lest he or she grow up impulsive and uncontrollable.

Church of the Seven-Day Sabbath: A proverbial, fictitious church, sarcastically referred to whenever anyone claims to object to an action on moral grounds, when the hearers suspect laziness as the real motive.

churizo: A dessert consisting of sweet batter squirted through a serrated pastry gun into molten grease, where it writhes about frying into a dough snake with crispy ridges. The cook then dredges it in powdered sugar and sweet spices and serves it up hot.
 
cinnamon cake: a dessert popular in Alonzo Valley. A highly spiced, soft cookie with a dark, crunchy topping, seasoned mainly but not exclusively with cinnamon.
 
cistern: A household device found in most Tilián kitchens which stores potable water from either rain harvesting, distillation of wastes, or a civic plumbing system, in an earthenware tank that suffuses it with healthy minerals, while letting less-healthy sediments settle out and unpleasant purifying chemicals evaporate. It dispenses from a filtered spigot or directly back into the pipes, depending on a switch. In case of disruption of the water mains, the cistern can supply a week's supply of water for two by itself.

citrade:  A blend of whatever citrus juices come to hand, sweetened and sometimes fortified with rosehip tea or jujube pulp.  Various commercial frozen concentrate blends find markets wherever the technology exists to ship refrigerated products, although in many countries it comes dear, used only for medicinal purposes, or as a winter tonic.

citresho:  A medium-soft cheese from Arundel, made of goat or sheep milk curdled with citrus juice.  Orange enjoys the most popularity for eating out of hand, but tangerine also has its defenders, and chefs usually prefer lemon or lime.
 
Civilization Point College: A college affiliated with Til Institute, located on the eastern shore of the Coral Gulf, somewhat north of Sandurste. It was the first adult educational establishment that the Tilián built outside of Til Institute proper, on the other side of the Great Gulf Road, in what was jokingly (and somewhat snobbishly) referred to as the “edge of civilization”.
 
clarevoyant: According to official opinion, one who unconsciously receives telepathic information which gives clues to a probable future event seemingly out of nowhere. (According to this theory) the possessor of an unreliable "pseudogift", less effective than straightforward research. Some researchers, recently, have begun to refute this mainstream opinion, with mounting evidence that some clarevoyants do indeed capture glimpses of possible futures without any trace of unconscious telepathy whatsoever.
 
clay flute: A home-made wind instrument fashioned from clay, popular among young people in a variety of communities, including Til Institute. The forms vary from utilitarian tubes to very artistic renderings of animals, fruits, or other motifs, and the materials range from true clays to artificial resin-based claylike substitutes.

cliffhanger: A low-growing woody shrub which grows on sunny rock or cliff-faces, with the aid of especially strong, corrugated roots.  It grows in mats of dense twigs and small, succulent leaves of dark graygreen.  Of interest mainly for long, juicy tubers, often exposed, also corrugated with a thick, reddish skin.  When peeled and sliced into starlike cross-sections, however, these fry up into a nutritious, starchy vegetable, high in vitamin C, potato-flavored with cabbage-like overtones.
 
Cliffside Laboratories: Medical/biological laboratories built into the cliffs of Carmina Island facing the channel between the island and Domestica. Many of its staff employees live in Domestica, while most of its researchers live in Carmina itself.
 
Cliffside Style: An architectural style pioneered in the late twenty-fifth century, with the discovery of new ways to permeate porous stone with stabilizing resins, without having to part the stone from its position in the earth first. This led to exploring the possibilities of delving dwellings and other establishments into the living stone of sea-cliffs, even to adding water-tight windows below sea-level. The style derives its name from Cliffside Laboratories, its earliest expression.

Clomen:  A country on the Mighty Rail, bordered to the north by Aistruli, to the northeast and east by[not yet dreamed] to the south by [not yet dreamed] and Mabhrathan, and to the east by the Nimu Sea.  Founded by a group of debtors from different countries, pressed into building a large transfer-device by Lloyds of London, but fleeing in it with their families instead.  Ruled by a Council of Clans and economically managed by a network of aid and trade pacts between these clans.  The Council meets once a month, and elects a new Presider each time.  No Presider can serve back to back terms.

    Before the Rail, Clomen had a reputation for being suspicious of outsiders, and people in other countries would tell Clomenite-Jokes about this.  But they have such strong bonds of trust between their own, and such strong codes of honor, that they cannot imagine anyone not raised in the clan system comparing for integrity.  Since the rail, however, their superb beach front and mineral baths have made them a tourist destination, and this has boosted the economy.  Tourists, however, are carefully confined to spa-towns.Clomen also has one of the world's largest xenoslums, Brivalutat.

clonevory:  Cloned ivory, distinguished from natural ivory by bioluminescence, due to genetic modification.  On Old Earth bans against the harvesting of ivory began in the late twentieth century, due to the approaching extinction of the elephant and narwhale, so an enterprising geneticist named Wolfgang Hauser obtained the fresh tusk of an elephant who had died of pneumonia in captivity.  He then extracted DNA from its pulp with which to clone crime-free ivory, splicing in genes from tomopteris plankton to produce a golden shimmer in dim light.  It soon became proverbial among inspectors of cargo and others enforcing the ivory ban that "If it doesn't glow, it doesn't go."  That saying lingers today among a number of cultures and subcultures, and has come to mean, "If it doesn't meet our standards, we won't sell it."

clover:  A ground-hugging herb, with triple and sometimes quadruple leaves, and dome-clustering flowers of white, rose, or violet, which provides excellent fodder and fixes nitrogen in the soil.  Native to Earth, many colonists brought clover-seeds with them for use as a cover-crop, and many more accidentally brought the seeds along within small round burrs attached to their clothing, with the result that it has gone feral over large areas of Novatierre.

The blossoms are sometimes blended with butter for a sandwich spread, or boiled into a tea.  The whole herb may be used for a vanilla substitute.  Sometimes used medicinally to control fever.

Cocoa Diablo:  Hot chocolate mixed with a generous dollop of chili-pepper jelly, usually made from the habañero or jalapeño chili, plus several shakes of cinnamon.

code: A combination of letters and numbers which identify a person to Archives.

code-song:  A Charadocian song, recognizable by its locrian mode and 7/4 beat, with seemingly nonsense-lyrics in a rhyming cant that in fact give clues to the hidden location of a supply-stash or treasure.  Usage began towards the end of the Charadocian Revolution, but has continued ever since.

Codilla to the Eight Conditions: The requirement that a society must be able to cope with its deviants in a constructive manner in order to qualify as healthy.
 
Collegiate Patriarchy: One of the three main branches of the Catholic or Sacramental Christian Churches, and the most liberal. The Collegiate rite originated under the mistaken impression that the last Pope had died in Earth's collapse without naming a successor, so a gathering of theologians, bishops, cardinals, and leaders of non-Catholic sacramental faith gathered as they found each other, and elected a new Pope. Eventually all sacramental Christian churches with little or no tie to the original Pope gathered under this rite. The Collegiate Pope traditionally makes no rulings, himself, but arbitrates disputes and moderates theological debates.
 
colors: See "village colors"

combustor: One with the psychic gift of combustion.
 
combustion, psychic: The ability to translate mental energy into a controlled burst of heat and/or light. The Gift is much prized in industry but little regarded in information-gathering, since it tends to dampen telepathic or related talents. One of the few Gifts which burns significant amounts of calories, it renders a combustor either underweight, or by overcompensation, overweight. Combustors tend to suffer minor physiological imbalances and risk disorders such as alkalinosis and glycogen depletion.

Comerciutat:  A city of Clomen, on the Bay of Peace.  A hub of international commerce, both in shipping and by rail, as well as a popular tourist destination due to its warm and pleasant beach and several world-class hot spring resorts.  It also has the best university in Clomen, as well as a renowned school of architecture and a sculptor's collective that has included many famous artists in its membership.  Within its borders it also holds the famous or notorious xenoslum, Brivalutat, behind high concrete walls topped with rolls of barbed wire, much etched and painted with graffitti.
 
Coming of Age: The combination of the Adulthood Tests with a personally tailored ordeal and ritual in order to graduate a person from childhood to adulthood.
 
commoran: An institution where otherwise unwanted or orphaned children are raised with the specific goal of creating devoted servants of Lovequest. Translates literally as "community mold for a person".
 
commoran association: An organization of alumni from a commoran. Some remain quite active throughout a member’s life, while others barely exist except on paper.
 
Commune of the Greenwood Box: A community between Sportsman’s Cove and Swamp Cove in Til Territories, grown out from the original commune from which it derives its name. Its founders used a green-painted box (not an evergreen box from wood that never died, as some have said) as a ballot box, a lottery box, a shaker for Bingo, and a kind of oracle (putting inside a variety of possible answers to a question, plus one blank to signify a correct answer that they had not yet conceived of.) The box eventually became the symbol for the civil contract of the community. It perished in a museum fire in 2604.
 
conchy-sharps: Slang term for concentrated stimulants, such as crystalline cocaine or methamphetamine.

condor:  A large raptor of the Western Continents and Southeastern Continent, having an average wingspan of four meters  The back, wings and tail are usually black or dark brown, with a a white or pale blue belly, throat, legs, and underside of wings and tail.  The head varies in color among different breeds, usually of a light tone.
 
coney: A common name for any small, vegetarian creature with longish ears and back legs larger and more powerful than the front ones, on the various continents of Novatierre. Most are marsupials, but many are not. Pretty much all of them make good eating.
 
console: Keyboard by which one ties into Archives. All consoles in Til Territories tie in to Archives, by law; there are no P.C.s. Sometimes the word “console” also refers to the screen, especially when inlaid into a desk or wall.

Constantin of the Angels:  Born Constantin Gabrochenya, in Kalorcabori in 2391, he became known to the world as Constantin of the Angels in 2414, when he declared himself the prophet of a new religion for a new world.  He performed numerous miracles as proof, and developed quite a following, who gave to him generously.  The first miracle was to burst a rock and let flow a river of fresh water that saved the countryside from a drought.  He also caused a volcanic explosion that sent two lava flows into the ocean, creating a harbor valuable to this day.  He said that he could send angels to do his bidding or to seek information for him, any time, anywhere.

But his powers did not come from angels.  He had discovered a large deposit of magentine, whose properties were not well-known by that populace.  We do not know whether he heard of magentine from travelers, or whether he discovered what he could do with it for himself, but most historians suspect the latter, for he used it in a most unorthodox manner.  He built up a powerful gregor-force by conducting human sacrifice in the presence of the psigenic mineral, harnessing the shock and fear of his victims to commit acts of destruction, which at first he used seemingly for the benefit of the community, seducing more and more into his cult of power and conquest.  Soon no one in Kalorcabori could stand up to him.

With financing from increasingly manipulated "donations", he built for himself a pleasure-palace, later known as the Murder Palace of Kalorcabori.  Here he lived a sumptious lifestyle, and threw extravagant parties.  Many clamored for a chance to attend, for it meant a leap in prestige and wealth for those who survived the night.  Some, however, came unwillingly coerced. 

Many of the poor also vied to become servants at the palace, especially among the most desperate and increasingly downtrodden, for they reaped excellent pay while alive, and their widows and orphans received generous compensation if they died.  Constantin encouraged them to share in the festivities when finished with their duties; if they did so, they could enjoy the same benefits--and risks--as the guests.

Because the night would conclude with a lottery among all participants, conveying wealth or position on some, and doom on the others.  Constantin forbade any to leave before the lottery.  He himself would draw on behalf of any who had passed out.  He would lead or carry those whose luck ran out downstairs, and they would never be seen again.  At first he kept up a pretense that he had sent them on to a paradise of abundant resources and happiness, but people stopped believing that after awhile. 

A number of groups and individuals conspired to kill Constantin.  He discovered all or most of them, and disposed of them publicly and explosively.  Finally an explosion of his palace, with him inside, in 2445, ended his reign of terror.  To this day nobody knows whether somebody set off the explosion on purpose, somehow evading detection, or whether his gregor-force became too great for him to control.  Some legends say that a servant-girl with great power of her own conspired to participate in every lottery until she lost, with the intention of using her own murder to turn his force against him.  Who can say what really happened?

conversation club: A social institution much-prized in Istlslan, imported in recent years to Til Institute. Various clubs advertise their general focus in the classifieds of local newspapers, and so kindred souls find their regular meetings and engage in conversations with each other. The original topic or focus often falls by the wayside in time, being mainly a means to filter towards people of similar tastes and temperament.
 
cooking palm: A short, thick "palm tree" (actually a sort of giant grass, similar to bamboo, but with a feathery burst of frond-leaves at the top, making it look palm-like) native to the lower levels of rainshadow slopes in the Charadoc mountains, with edible, sweet, orange to orange-brown grains, in loose, drooping ears, rich in oil in their own right, and a very oily, tender, edible "heart".  The oil finds much use in cooking in the lowlands, and many recipes use the ground or whole seed in confections.  Millers usually grind the seeds after first pressing the sweet, saturated oil from them, much used in pastries and cosmetics.  Another confection--very rich--is the candied palm heart.
 
Coral Gulf: The shallow gulf which separates Til Territories from Til Peninsula. Greatly overgrown with the rainbow-colored Treasure-Coral and dotted with islands, it demands exacting skill to navigate.
 
Coral Island: A thin sliver of island, almost bladelike, off the coast of Carmina Island in Til Territories, composed entirely of treasure-coral. Uninhabitable, but very beautiful, especially when the sun sets behind its translucent material.
 
Coral Peninsula: A peninsula of Carmina Island in Til Territories, really a coral atoll that became attached to the volcanically-formed island. It curves around the famously beautiful Sunken Mountain Bay.
 
coran: "Heart Person". A hero. One who has been heroic in a noble cause, especially Lovequest.

corn beer: A fermented but undistilled beverage made from corn, popular in both western continents and Alonzo Valley.

cornmeal press:  A hinged metal kitchen utensil, common among the lower castes in the Charadoc, which compresses a cornmeal dough into a thick, spoonlike shape.

corn scoop:  A thick spoon made of cornmeal, fat, salt and water, tightly compressed and then baked hard.  The user eats with it (usually a bean dish) until the juice from the food softens the scoop, and then e eats the scoop and takes up another.
 
Corpus Christi: A holiday recognized by most Catholic rites, celebrating the incarnation of God in the form of Jesus Christ. It is traditionally observed in June or July, depending on the local liturgical calendar. In Til Territories, especially Alonzo Valley, it is celebrated with a feast of turkey in chocolate sauce as the main course, with the lighting of many candles to signify the many lights that spread out from the flame of a single communion. People exchange gifts at this time, and a highlight of the celebration is the breaking of a piñata, said to signify how Christ allows his body to be broken in order to shower his followers with gifts.

corrie: A small, wild relative of the llama, found in all the highest mountain-ranges of Novatierre. Some have speculated that they descend from earth-stock gone feral, grown small and adapted to Novatierre. Others maintain that they are a native parallel evolution and not actually related to llamas at all. So far no one has had the time or the funding to trace their genomes.

Corriebhai:  A nation in the English Mountains, originally settled in a steep cirque valley, or corrie, but which has since spread out to an entire network of fertile valleys.  Settled by unemployed or low-income Scottish colonists, financed and technologically supported by well-to-do patrons from India, who saw the value of a large work-force in their endeavor.  Although the patrons soon set themselves up as royalty over their Scottish subjects, they promised that someday all would be brothers in a democratic government, once certain conditions could be met.

The local religion, a Hindu derivative, primarily worships Parvati as their supreme deity, but with elements of rituals derived from Anglicanism.  The faithful consider a sheer-sided mountain on the upslope edge of the original cirque, Wisdomstone Mountain, to be her especial province, and the sign tht Corriebhai is the center of Novatierre.

A largely self-sufficient nation, rich in soil, lumber, and mineral resources they do little trade with the outside world.  However, they will deal in wool, a subtly flavored salt, silver, copper, bauxite, cobalt, nickel, zinc, a variety of gemstones, and magentine, whenever they desire goods from the outside world.  The wool of Corriebhai is of the highest quality, treasured all the more because it rarely comes available on the world market.

Corriebhaiani:  A citizen of Corriebhai.

Corriebanty: A citizen of Corriebhai Colony.

Corriebhai Colony:  Upon reading of the joys of seafood in its various forms, a lord of the Corriebhai developed a desire to try it, sent far abroad for every kind on the market that he had ever heard of, and discovered it delectable beyond his imagination.  Seafood soon became a fad among the rich and powerful in landlocked Corriebhai, but the taste quickly grew prohibitively expensive. 

Some proposed sending a colony of peasantry to an uninhabited stretch of shore, but the politics got complicated.  Finally, a leader among peasants, named Brian Mahigeet,  proposed going to the Northwestern Continent.  After a long foot journey down from the mountains, his party reached the shores of Rakashko, where they learned sailcraft and sea-fishery, funded by their lords. 

At the end of three years they set sail in the Drunken Monkey, and after a long and perilous voyage reached Olovrmn.  The reclusive Olovrmni watched them in secret, until they seemed about to set up permanent residence, whereupon the colonists found themselves surrounded by armed, silent men.  Upon seeing women and children among the colonists, and all in dire need, the Olovrmni (still keeping them all under guard) brought food, water, medical supplies and replacement clothing of the local sort, and then, still making no attempt to communicate with the colonists except by gesture, escorted them on a several-day's journey to Istislan. 

The Istislani made them instant celebrities, impressed by the hardships of their journey.  The citizens voted to help them find uninhabited and up north, on the eastern coast, opposite the side where they originally arrived.

Here they throve, but unrest soon followed.  One group of loyalists faithfully sent tribute to Corriebhai each year, in the form of canned seafood, transported by way of the merchants of Istislan.  The rest called them fools for remaining in servitude when no one could enforce their bonds, and seceded.  But the small nation of Corriebhai Colony still exists to this day, still singing the praises of conveniently absent and therefore ever-noble overlords, meanwhile minding their own affairs pragmatically and efficiently, and still sending canned fish.

Corriebhai Colony, under a consensus government, sends the fish free of charge, but their economic base is white collar work and law enforcement.  They have a reputation as having the most honest people in the world, and businesses, charities and governments of other nations will pay extra at times to employ them over their own citizens.  This integrity has become enshrined in the local Chapelbody religion.  It has also become a strict feature both in upbringing and schooling, as the national economy depends on it.  The culture sees oathbreakers and liars not only as damned on their own account but also as national traitors.

Naturally this builds up a sizeable Shadow-response.  The exiles from Corriebhai Colony, the "Fallen Angels", are as unwelcome as their more sought-after ethical kin.

Corridor Yellow: A passage out of damper-net range in the Department of Rehabilitation, leading to a misdemeanor courtroom.
 

Corvid Project:  A controversial project, spearheaded by a number of indigenous tribes of the Americas and their allies, in the Early Migration period, to seed every habitable continent in Novatierre with ravens and crows.  Some also introduced jays, nuthatches, jackdaws and magpies, but not with the approval of the main group.  They believed that humanity could not get a permanent foothold on a new world without birds of the cordivae family present on the planet as a spiritual ally, believing ravens especially crucial to creating human-compatible conditions.

costa: An informal sport popular among the Tilián, played in the surf-line of a beach. Three pairs of poles define the playing field, each pair being joined by lines held up by floats. The game is played with an oil-filled ball of approximately the same weight as the surrounding water. Starting at the middle line, each team tries to get the ball over the opposite team’s line. The few rules only forbid dangerous maneuvers; they do not dictate team size or length of play, and there is no official, professional version of the game.

Council of Clans:  The ruling body of the nation of Clomen.  Each clan rules itself and forges a network of pacts with other clans around itself, and sends a representative, chosen by its own rules, to the Council of Clans to govern affairs beyond the scope of individual clans, such as the maintenance of the road and rail, protection of the borders, the settling of disputes, negotiations of marriages (all clans are exogamous, with the  newlywed couple going to which of their two clans needs their combined skill-set the most--a delicate and complex matter to resolve) and international trade.  Higher education and apprenticeships also take place outside of one's clan, although one is expected to return

    The nation of Clomen does not have a president or leader per se.  Every month the Council of Clans elects a new presider.  No one can serve two terms back to back.  Real power in the country takes much more subtle paths; a sharp ambassador must keep a feel for who really has the most influence in any given affair, and watch for shifts in the political currents.
 
Council of Lobbies: The chief governing body of Til Institute. Any group may form a lobby for any cause, but each lobby faces limits on the number of voting members, advertising budget and advertising means. It is common practice to attempt to circumvent this by forming numerous related lobbies and voting as a block. However, these often refuse to continue to vote as a block after settling the initial issue that brought them together, which keeps politics interesting.
 
The council of lobbies draft bills for the forumlation of laws–local and specific laws for Til Peninsula, as well as vaguer guideline laws for Til Territories. Then they narrow the list down to the twelve most pressing bills to present to the voters quarterly. Then they must run these past the Court of All Barristers to make sure that the laws do not contradict the Charter of Til. They then must choose the replacements for any bills so ruled out, until they have twelve bills agreed on by all. Then, on the midpoint of each season, they submit the bills to the General Electorate.
 
While Til Territories does accept federal law guidelines from Til Institute and pays a nominal tax (in exchange for numerous benefits) each township decides upon its own internal system of government, varying from anarchy to monarchy. The four most common patterns (in order of prevalence by communities as units, rather than by population) are variations of consensus-models, democracies, patriarchal/matriarchal clans, and theocracies. However, any citizen who does not like the rules of hir own community enjoys a guarantee of freedom to try out some other community without interference. The largest community outside Til Institute, Novo Durango, is democratic.
 
courtesy room: A small room in which to retire for informal conversation, comfortable but not elegant, often furnished by favorite, unfashionable pieces and decorated with keepsakes of strictly sentimental value. A common feature among high-end dwellings in the western continents.
 
coyote: A descendant of feral Old Earth dogs. Coyotes run wild throughout the Northwestern Continent. Believed to have originated from pets brought along by a colony called The Tribe. The most predominant bloodlines seem to be Border Collie, Standard Poodle, and Australian Shepherd, with other sorts in the mix.
 
Coversea: A small community in Til Territories, by Sapphire Bay in the DiMedici Forest Peninsula. It has built quite a reputation for the quality of its maritime carpentry. Many consider Coversea’s shipwrights and boatwrights the finest in the world. Its colors are sea green and burnt umber.
 
Cracked Mesa: A Mesa on the east side of the Coral Gulf, between Mount Sentinel and Rosemary Hill, liberally fractured by numerous canyons.
 
credit: Archive's record in numbers of how much you have been paid, from which may be subtracted how much you owe. Not to be confused with the 20th century concept of credit as how much you hope you will eventually be able to pay. Financial transactions in Til Territories occur via Archives, without objects changing hands.
 
crediter: A hand-held device which ties in to Archive's financial records. To use it for transactions, a person first presses a spot on hir I.D. card which confirms by body chemistry that the person holding it is, indeed, the owner. E then inserts the card into a slot on the crediter. The crediter ties into that person's financial record. The person types on the crediter's keypad how much credit e wishes to transfer to the account of the owner of the crediter. The crediter signals Archives to subtract money from the cardholder's account to pay into the crediter-owner's account.
 
cribber's lettuce: A shade-loving herb that grows wild along the east coast of the Northwestern Continent, especially in rainy forested areas. It grows low to the ground in rosettes or heads, with broad oval leaves in medium to light green, a bit on the bluish side. It is edible and somewhat juicy, with a mild flavor slightly suggestive of cruciferous vegetables.

It derives its name from the workers--cribbers--who would go ahead of construction crews to dig and lay foundations in Toulin and later in Vanikke. They would salvage as many edible herbs as possible from the sites before digging, while their wives checked snares for animals captured overnight. Then, while the men worked on digging foundations, the women would prepare the meat and vegetables for the noon meal, when their children would join them. Cribber's lettuce made up the bulk of their vegetable intake.
 
Crispair College: A college affiliated with the Tilián, in Fragrant Valley, east of the Coral Gulf, nestled at the foot of Mt. Crispair and Mt. Zephyr. It has an excellent astronomy department, but also a reputation as a party-college.
 
Crispair Community: A village in Til Territories, located in Fragrant Valley. It was founded independent of Til Institute initially, by a colony of Irish citizens. Due to the isolating nature of the surrounding hills, it coexisted side by side with Til Institute for about a century before Til Institute knew of its existence, though herb-traders traveling up the Zephyr river knew it well. Now it is mainly known for Crispair College, its merry observation of a wealth of holidays, and its cozy bed & breakfasts, but it still does a lively trade in locally grown herbs.
 
cross-country class: A Tilián-style of class involving groups of students traveling on foot cross-country, over the space of days, according to maps issued to them at the start. Many stops along the way provide lessons, food, rest, and shelter at need, and the overall route has been designed with multidisciplinary education in mind. Although not nearly as arduous as non-tilián tend to believe, some tests can be dangerous and fatalities have occurred. In most cases, however, children look forward to cross-country classes as a recreational break in the routine.
 
Crown of Neyth: A band of gold studded with raw beryls. The chief treasure of the nation of Neyth. The monarch of Neyth wears it only on ceremonial occasions or while pronouncing a major decision. Created in a ritualized manner under instructions from a local prophet, Neythians believe that it conveys particular wisdom to the rightful heir of Neyth.
 
crystal: Term commonly used to refer to one's personal magentine crystal focus.
 
Crystalia Boulevard: The central street of Daweijia, the wealthiest district of Sargeddohl, known for its hotels, night life, and jewelry emporiums. Named for Crystalia Atmos, the first president of the Charadoc

csyf:  A vine native to [not yet dreamed, just that I was an agent there, working with refugees.  The land had both desert inland and a semitropical coast.]  The vines and leaves are hairy and sage in color, with new leaves and tendrils of lime green.  The leaves have a ragged appearance resistant to strong winds, and the tendrils have a notoriously powerful grip.  It flowers with large, white-throated purple trumpet-shaped blossoms with crimson or burgundy stamens ending in golden pollen. 

Cultivated mainly for its long, starchy fruit, which has been known to grow as much as a meter long, though most reach half to two-thirds of that, roughly the width of an apple (or a plum in the smaller versions) lumpy and often curving as it grows, tapering towards the end.  It adds considerable length during the monsoons, or with regular irrigation.  The skin is a dark sepia color, and becomes loose and papery when fully ripe.  The flesh is a deep purple or indigo color, with a flavor much like sweet potato with a hint of vanilla.  Travelers dry it in slices, pierced and strung together, for it retains considerable vitamin C even when dried, as well as vitamins A and K and an impressive list of healthful minerals and phytochemicals, along with a concentrated degree of complex carbohydrates.  People also serve it as a hot, buttered vegetable, or eat it fresh and raw.

The root has medicinal value as a diuretic and a blood thinner, and is being researched for its alleged property of reducing blood pressure.  Craftsfolk weave the vines into surprisingly durable furniture, once dried and hardened.

In its natural state csyf grows at the base of sea-cliffs, on beaches above the modern tidal line .  It has a high tolerance of salt and in fact, in cultivation, it needs a mineral-rich sea-sandy soil amended with composted seaweed to thrive.  If grown inland it requires regular misting.

 
cultural immersion: The act of immersing oneself into a culture so well that one can not only pass as a native but think and feel as a native. Considered indispensable to agents of the Tilián, who must alter cultures from within, as opposed to imposing changes from without.
 
Cumenci: A small Charadocian village alongside an important mountain road. Known mainly locally for the quality of its chaummin trees and the products of its sap.
 
curse-time: In Gazelistan, the weeks of the waning moon, said to be the ideal time to kill or strip away what one does not desire. While more peaceful citizens use this phase for activities like weeding, dieting, or cleaning house, assassins and families committed to vendettas plan their murders for this time. Gazelistani police regularly call in the reserves at this time of the month, when tempers flare and the streets run with blood.