Glossary

By Dolores J. Nurss

Q

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.
 
quercus: A wide, low-growing tree found in some variation throughout most of the world, with a thick, corky bark very much like the Quercus oak of Earth, and put to much the same purpose. However, it actually bears a distant kinship to the Charadocian sponge tree. Its five-lobed leaves turn a vivid red in autumn. It produces a small olive-beige drupe, poor in flavor and unsweet, but starchy and good for animal fodder. Some nations dry and grind it for a kind of flour.
 
Quohelayn: A nation in the Northwestern Continent, largely consisting of land that United Tribes didn’t want. The only part of Quohelayn that is not desert is the steep, forested slopes of the Quohelayn range facing the Bay of Weissel. Geologists do, however, see indicators of mineral wealth in Quohelayn, particularly in metal ores such as gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead, as well as lime, boron, nitrates and silicates, and both precious and semiprecious stones.
 
quya: An herb native to the rainforests of the Southwestern Continent. Low-growing and shade-loving, it is a dark blue-green iridescing slightly in turquoise, glossy, its stems all growing corona-lkike from a central root, each ending in one or two round wrinkly leaves with two faint indentations hinting at a trefoil. The flavor has been described as "minty clove". Used in cooking pork and game, it also has medicinal properties for quelling nausea and soothing stomache ulcers and colitis.