Glossary

By Dolores J. Nurss

E

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.
 
e: The hermaphroditic pronoun used in place of "he" or "she", used A) for a hypothetical person of either sex, as in "E who laughs last pays the piper," B) for a person of ambiguous gender, as preferable to "it", C) for an Alien, who is simultaneously male and female. Pronounced like a cockney "he".
 
Early Migration: Referring to that period of history in the mid 21st to early 23rd century when the colonization of Novatierre had begun. Its limits are defined as beginning in 2048, with the first colony on New Java, and ending in 2230--the statistical point when more than 50% of all human beings no longer lived on Earth. A rough and pioneering time when very few colonies had as yet organized into nations (in fact, more colonies died than survived) the three papacies had not yet discovered each other's existance, and most people still spoke dialects recognizable as originating from their motherlands on Earth.
 
Earthian: From Earth or pertaining to Earth.
 
Easter: Moveable feast. Celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, observed in most Christian societies, with some argument as to the date. For many Christian communities this is the highest point of the liturgical year, the moment that procured the salvation of humanity. Some celebrate for the entire week leading up to it, with rites of alternating merriment and gravity, reflecting the joys and griefs of the passion of Christ.
 
In the Alonzo Valley region of Til Territories, Catholics traditionally celebrate Easter Mass in the stubble of a ceremonially harvested field, Jesus being said to be the first fruit of the harvest of God, with all of his worshipers to eventually follow.
 
In the Charadoc some villages follow the Roman liturgical calendar and others the Old Orthodox liturgical calendar, with no clear predictability. Whatever the exact date, it always falls in autumn, celebrated by a fiesta following a sunrise mass. The fiesta can go on for days. Sometimes adults will hide small toys or edible treats in and around the home for children to find, allegedly from the Easter Froggy.
 
Easter Froggy: A widespread children�s myth concerning the celebration of Easter south of the Equator, where Easter corresponds to that time when frogs and amphibians begin to estivate prior to the cold, dry winter. Frogs have therefore come to symbolize death and resurrection, in that they bury themselves, enter a deathlike dormancy, and rise again in spring. This has led to the widespread childhood myth of the Easter Froggy. Children believe that, while they sleep on Easter Eve, he hides treats or toys about their home for them to find, as a last goodbye before his descent into the underworld. In fact their elder siblings (or parents in the absence of same) hide the presents in secret.
 
East Trail, The: The gently-sloped and less rugged trail leading to the eastern end of the Great Gulf Road, terminating in Sandurste Community.
 
Egalitarian Liberation Front: The official name for the fighting body of the Charadocian rebels.
 
Egalitarianism: The guiding principle of the Egalitarian party, and the Charadocian revolutionaries, see below.
 
Egalitarians: A political party in the Charadoc, banned in the days of the Meritocracy. Its principle contention is that all persons are of equal worth and deserve an equal vote, that superiority and inferiority are determined solely by spiritual virtue (which may change from moment to moment) but may in fact be promoted by civic participation and responsibility, regardless of how much or little money one is capable of spending. It is diametrically opposed to the caste system and Meritocracy. They reject the claims of the Meritocrats, that those who pay the most taxes deserve the most votes, on the grounds that those with the most votes have the power to block others from ever getting any richer and becoming capable of buying votes.
 
Eight Conditions: The eight criteria for determining whether a society is healthy, as put forward by the Tili�n. Namely:
 
1. The society must meet the needs of the average individual, as defined by a reasonably sane individual.
 
2. More than 95% of the members of a society must have a full capacity to love.
 
3. The societal norm must consider offspring worth the effort and self-sacrifice to preserve, with reasonable hope that said offspring can have a future worth living for.
 
4. The society must hold positive emotions, in some form, as the norm, even if not in the actual majority.
 
5. The death rate must not exceed the birth-rate, except in a temporary crisis with foreseeable recovery, or as part of a normal cycle of population adjustment.
 
6. The society must hold some widespread religious, philosophical, courteous, and/or legal position in support of human dignity, and by extension the dignity of other living beings, with active and tangible support.
 
7. The society must enjoy sufficient freedom from exigency to be able to consider general enhancement of the physical and/or intellectual environment, for comfort, aesthetics, self-expression, or expression of non-self, a worthwhile occupation, except during crises of limited duration.
 
8. The society must not deliberately withhold the above provisions from a designated minority.
 
Ekianga, Meredith Josepha Nyokato: Physicist, explorer, and possible colony-founder. Born on Earth, in a short-lived country called Itury, of the Mbuti tribe, Ekianga grew up in one of the �Pygmy villages� under the protection of an organization called The Pygmy Fund, but left to acquire an education in Hogeschool-Universiteit, in Brussels, Belgium. She returned with the knowledge necessary to build a transfer device, and after multiple trials where she left and returned to Earth several times, found a region sufficiently reminiscent of her beloved rainforest that she felt she could transfer her community there. No one can say for sure where this might have been, but some make a strong case for what we now know as the nation of Merdeth.

eldon:  A gently derogatory term, used in Magorris, for someone lovably, harmlessly dull-witted.  A cute fool.  A ditz.

Eldon the Sufferable:  Tenth monarch of Magorris, son of Matyas the Monster.  He inherited an oppressed country on the verge of revolution.  Yet having been emotionally abused by his tyrant of a father, Eldon had a painfully shy demeanor, a tendency to withdraw at the earliest excuse, a bland personality, a sympathetic heart, and a persistent stutter, for which his people felt a great relief and gratitude.  He healed the country, initially by refraining from doing it further harm, later by seeking experts on every sort of reform, listening to them, financing their operations (since Matyas had filled the coffers with exorbitant taxes and bribe money, and had also filled the palace with many an extravagance which Eldon found pointless and sellable.)

He probably would have counted as one of the greatest kings of Magorris, if he had trumpeted his own achievements.  He did, in fact, rescue his people from the bring of destruction.  Instead comedians often parodied him, but in gentle humor, to the shocked delight of a country which previously had witnessed the beheading of citizens for far lesser shows of disrespect.  His name has become proverbial for a loveable idiot ever since.

His hobbies were ceramics and horseback riding.  He often held court, in fact, rambling on horseback over the countryside with his advisors.  While people indulged this as the whim of a man uncomfortable in his father's palace, it also enabled him to gain a good idea of the needs of his people, as he and his court dressed humbly on these occasions and did not always announce their names and titles.

A modern movement exists to redeem his name from the dustbin of history.  Some have even proposed his sainthood, although that is unlikely to happen.

Eldonware:  Ceramics made in the manner of Eldon the Sufferable.  Made of high quality white porcelain, covered with a relief of abstract curls and swirls, these glazed with color or gilded.  Although often objectively of lesser quality, actual works of Eldon himself command a high price for their historic value.

The English Mountains: The chief range of the Northeastern Continent, so-named because of the many little nations of English origin scattered throughout its valleys. Roughly equivalent to Old Earth�s Himalayas.

epic swan:  The largest aquatic bird in Novatierre, native to the coasts of the eastern continents, north and south.  Characterized by a long neck that curves gracefully when it swims.  It has fluorescent pink plumage, with a breast v-striped in black and iridescent blue, turquoise and gold (cobalt blue predominant, plus similarly iridescent blue and gold wingtips, and a blue, gold, black, and pink tail that it sometimes spreads in mating displays.  Hunted for its plumage and its meat nearly to extinction, till various countries put restrictions on its hunting or banned it altogether--an effort in which we played no small part.
 

erlie:  a type of thick, dark green moss common throughout the rainforests of the Northwestern Continent, distinguished by an early spring development of scarlet globules, also called erlies, with a sticky red nectar on the inside and invisible spores on the outside.  Animals browsing these globules get spores stuck in their feathers or fur, which later fall off in new locations with grooming or drying.  These are edible and have a honeylike flavor overlaid with tangerine

eroika: A thundrous, dramatic style of music, originally native to Aistruli. The name, of course, means "Heroic dancing tune", from a language that is even more of a mishmash of Earthian influences than usual. Some have described it as Beethoven crossed with Dvorak crossed with Heavy Metal. Eroika is syncopated in a minorish 9-note key and played vigorously on folk instruments, including but not limited to large animal horns, big-bellied strummed string instruments of various kinds, and wild fiddles, plus home-made kettle-drums, castanets and other percussion, punctuated periodically with a chorus of loud and deliberately raw, flamenco-esque vocals. A bit strong for some tastes, but popular among agents.

Essential Data:  The oldest and most trusted news and journalism empire in Istislan, based in Istislan Capitol.  Originally a free paper handed out on streetcorners in the United States of America on Earth, when nobody trusted the established news outlets anymore, Abdul Al'Aalem recruited the anonymous young men and women to get the word out about transfer technology and the real state of the planet, to save as many lives as possible.  Later he found berth space for every one of them in starting his new colony on Novatierre.

Essential Data owns a newpaper of the same name in Istislan Capitol, and has many affiliates in smaller communities.  They also broadcast news reports on 3/4 wave for several stations, create educational videos, and sell weekly downloads of more in-depth reports to computer-owners.  Their latest project is an attempt to create a computer web throughout Istislan Capitol and, if successful, spread out fron there, but have met with some opposition and terraphobia.

Estela, Saint: Queen of the Orphans. Though the Churches have little documentation of her life, beyond the fact that she did indeed exist (Real name: Maria Estela del Mar) and died young in Til�s first colony, her legend says that she displayed heroic virtue in banding together street children to find non-criminal ways of surviving Earth�s last days, when most people in her circumstances found such integrity impossible. She is the patron saint of orphans, entrepeneurs, drug dealers (presumably penitent) and agents of the Tili�n.
 
eucalyptine: A tall, pungent tree that bears many resemblances to Earth�s eucalyptus, though how much it actually resembles this offworld species no one now can say.
 
eye worms: Larvae of the peri-gnat, indigenous to the rainforests of the Southwestern continent. The peri-gnat lays her eggs on the undersides of low-growing leaves, where they can brush off onto the faces of passing animals and lay dormant within pores. Once hatched, the initially-microscopic larvae crawl into the moist folds between eyes and eyelids of the host animal where they can grow and take nourishment, often with unhatched eggs clinging to their bodies. If left untreated, eyeworms can cause blindness due to progressive damage to the corneas.
 
eyeworm tree: A conifer native to the inland slopes and valleys of the Charadocian mountains, best grown about the edge of the snowline. The branches grow in spiral-order around the trunk and the needles are long and deep, pure green. The cones are fist-sized and produce seeds rich in a drying oil suitable for painters. The tree derives its name from herbalists who use the roots to make an eyewash for the treatment of parasites.