Glossary

By Dolores J. Nurss

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.

racing-goat: A swift goat, bred for racing. Goat-racing has become a popular pastime in Dhalzinje, where seasonal fires have necessitated breeding an unusually swift caprid.

radio: A device for harnessing radio-waves as a means of communication, banned throughout Novatierre by international treaty, due to its deleterious effect on neurology. One of those lost technologies, like nuclear fission, which Til Institute takes great pains to discourage from ever surfacing in rediscovery. Research continues into a good magentine substitute.

The popular belief, however, that all radio-equipped devices were “radioactive” is probably a myth, as is the notion that widespread radiowaves drove the entire populace of Earth insane. There were doubtless rational pockets in many places of the world, most notably isolated mountain villages. As for rumors that the Ancients used the same kind of radiowaves to cook food as to send messages to devices held right up against the skull, well, anyone can see how patently absurd that would be, and if we can see it, surely our ancestors could, as well.

Raigboth: A country known for the quality of its wines. Located on the western coast of the Northwestern Continent, occupying the penninsula that separates the Greater Ocean from the Bay of Weissel, bordered to the north by Arundel and _______. [I know there’s more on the country somewhere in my notes, but I cannot find it.]

Rain, Mt.: A mountain on the east side of Alonzo Valley, Til Territories, from which the Winterwash flows. As its name implies, it gets an awful lot of precipitation, although actually most arrives in the form of snow.

rainbow dove: A bird descended of Earthian pigeon stock, bred for iridescent feathers, which has gone feral throughout the eastern continents. Revered in Darvinia as messengers of Timora.

rainbow fish; A "flying fish" of a little less than a meter length, with highly iridescent scales and fins, which travels in small schools throughout the southern oceans. The iridescence and gliding habit protect it from diving birds, who mistake the bright-colored, leaping flashes for fire. Largely controlled and herded by Aliens, who trade the scales to human manufacturers of paint.

rainbow wolf: A midsized carnivore of the Northwestern Continent, strikingly similar to the wolf of Earth. Named due to its staggering variety of possible colors (usually one or two per wolf, plus a pale gray throat and underbelly) of every imaginable hue of fur. Rare among carnivores in having color vision, and a somewhat atrophied sense of smell when compared to other predators.

random association program (RA): An Archives command which causes Archives to randomly select information which at some time has been associated with whatever word or phrase has been typed after the command: RA. Basically, a rather sophisticated search engine.

Rakashko: A tropical nation to the northwest of the peak of the Sea of Chamree. Founded by the Rakashko Society, a multiethnic, multireligious vigilante organization in Delhi, India, dedicated to protecting several neighborhoods from crime in the increasing absence of formal law enforcement, as social order collapsed worldwide in the last days of Earth. The society quickly evolved into a cooperative for growing community gardens and raising small livestock in an urban environment, recycling materials of all kinds, training each other in home remedies, bone-setting and midwifery, and helping each other to survive any way they could.

As soon as possible they got hold of blueprints for transfer technology and their mechanically-inclined members built a device immediately. They had to guard it night and day from thieves, some of whom merely wanted it for the metal and other raw materials, but they had the strength and the firepower to do this; among other things they concocted their own gunpowder and manufactured their own weaponry.

When it came time to launch, the elders conferred among themselves, selected those with the most wisdom, the most knowledge, and the most leadership capability to go with the younger colonizers, and the rest stayed behind to guard their departure at the expense of their own lives. Their names to this day are etched on the walls of the original transfer device, now preserved as an ancestor-temple.

Rakashko has a reputation for its complex and beautiful treehouses. The area in which they landed endures frequent flooding, both from monsoon rains and the sea, but the forests have adapted to this with stout trunks, high-ridged and deeply anchored roots, and wide crowns far above the highest floods. While they have some buildings on higher ground, Rakashkans lead primarily arboreal lives, cultivating a vast network of interconnecting living bridges. The woven homes are cool and shady, and the people lithe and strong with much climbing. It is not uncommon for young men to bear an elder or a crippled cousin about in a large leather carrier on his back.

The economy of Rakashko revolves around spices, nuts, fruits, rice, tea, rope (derived from several kinds of vine fibers) and especially carved wood products. Rakashkans boast that anything anybody else can make of metal they can make of wood, reed, or vine. They have bred four varieties of flying or climbing chickens, and also raise suarvalui (singular suarvalu).

The chief cultural contribution of Rakashko is their shadow-theaters. They manipulate puppets behind taut white curtains, with lamps behind these to cast them into silhouettes. They create many stuning effects by shifting the lamps and their colors, bringing figures closer to or father from the screen, introducing translucent background screens of various topography, and sometimes generating smokes or mists. Sometimes smells in the form of incense or aerosols help tell the story, with ample ventilation in the airy theater to clear these away between acts. A band plays background music while the chorus sings part of the story, the rest of the story being implied by the action. Writers take care that the action and the lyrics avoid redundancy, and sometimes the lyrics seemingly contradict the action for deliberate ironic effect. (For instance, singing praise of a prince's filial piety while depicting him murdering his father.) Separating each scene in the shadow-play are clowns who come from behind the screen for brief "distractions", with an intermission in the middle. Almost always these crack jokes seemingly irrelevant to the story, but which later turn out to impart vital information. No tourist should ever visit Rakashko without seeing at least one shadow-theater performance.

ration flour: A finely powdered grain-based food containing all essential human nutrients. Used in emergency supply kits, special diets, aid-shipments to distressed areas, and as the basis for breakfast biscuit and other fast foods.

ratrabbit: A rodent of the NorthEastern Continent, which feeds primarily on seeds, starchy roots, and fruit, about a quarter-meter in length, including its long tail. In color it varies from black to white, through the full range of grays, sometimes with a brownish or yellowish cast, depending on the variety. The throat, belly, and inside thighs are usually white or pale gray. It has strong hindquarters and can make great leaps at need, and elongated, sensitive ears.

The Rat's Nest: A notorious collection of taverns in Novo Durango, along the margin between downtown and the industrial district, intermittently in business. Situated illegally in various condemned buildings, buildings under construction, or closed for renovation (originally and frequently in the basement of an old, fire-damaged bread-factory) the coalition that runs it make enough profit to periodically pay off fines whenever caught. They delay the inevitable discovery that they're back in business, in between arrests, with a detachable sign, moveable decor and furnishings, and illusionists. Naturally, being in the habit of evading the law to exist, they do not refrain from hosting a variety of illegal activities, yet less harm comes from them than one might expect, as too much actual violence, despite the fantasies they cater to, would be bad for business.

In their bakery location, pillars uphold the floor over the wide storage cellar, and sheets of plywood attached to these, separate the area into many smaller bars; they use variations of this plan frequently in other locations, as well. The bars all have themes, each creating an ambience of a rough, rebellious, and/or violent counterculture, either from history (such as pirate, Viking, wild west, Valley Vigilante, or Alroyan) or fiction (such as orkish, Sanctuary, Serenity/Firefly, or Thieve's Guild.) Individual bars run under separate management, and shift with individual fortunes. The owners of each bar has a vote in the coalition.

recognition-point: A chemically-sensitive spot on a Til I.D. card. When pressed by the owner's finger, it recognizes hir unique biochemical signature and activates the card for use.

recorder: A small, hand-held device for recording and playing back sounds, the sounds being stored upon a dab of sound-gum which is then sprayed with a fixative within the machine.

recycler: A household appliance which shreds and repulps paper. It may also incorporate into the paper pulp lint, scrap cloth and some forms of vegetable matter.

redbark tree: A tall tree native to Altraus, with reddish-brown bark periodically shed in long coils. The bark makes a pleasant, semisweet tea that feels cool in the throat like mint, although the flavor more closely resembles anise. It has long, deciduous leaves, oblong or pointed.

red deer: A species of deer imported to Novatierre from Earth and gone feral, found on all continents. Generations of adaptation have resulted in many variant subspecies.

reddyism: The corruption of altruism by the gradual expectation of reward, till the "benefactor" expects immoral or criminal return "as an expression of gratitude", arguably in excess of benefits received. Named after an Old Earth entrepeneur, a manager of a restaurant and a series of hotels, well-renowned for his generosity in sending money back to his original village and financing numerous charitable causes, until he was caught loading a dead underage girl and another in danger of dying into a car. They turned out to have been slaves, used for sex and manual labor, from the "beneficiary" village.

Redlark: A community in the DiMedici Forest, on the Eastern side of The Nissenwaters, named for the migratory birds that nest there every Spring. Its colors are red and black.

redlark: A small red songbird with a black collar and black chevrons on the wings, (as well as white wing tips) of migratory habit, which spends the first half of the year enjoying spring and summer above the equator, and the second half of the year enjoying spring and summer south of the equator. It subsists on insects and nectar, and lays eggs during both springs.

redlife: Animal life-forms.

red magentine: The most commonly used form of magentine, having a deep magenta or cherry color, employed to focus psychic energy. It is of higher grade than green magentine and lower than blue magentine.

red trumpet: A wildflower common to alpine forests in the SouthWestern Continent, known for its red, scarlet, or burgundy-brown trumpet-shaped flowers. A yellow variety grows among the southern mountains of the Mountains of Fire.

reed pith: A renewable resource, commercially grown, used for packaging material. Also used to cushion artifacts from an archaeological dig.

rehabilitation: In the most serious cases, when the Tili�n judge a criminal unlikely to be deterred from crime by simple punishment, or if his crime has deleteriously altered his personality, they will sentence hir to formal rehabilitation. They will not release hir until they have succeede in restructuring hir personality to function within the parameters of society.

Much more often, however, informal rehabilitation comes in to play. In these cases the judges tailor punishments to the crimes, accompanied by all applicable steps to cure those conditions which led to the crimes in the first place.

rehabilitation center: An institution that holds prisoners accused of crimes, tries their cases and, if they prove guilty, decides upon their sentences or rehabilitative needs.

reintegration class: A structured boarding school for children whose virtues have, through overexuberance and lack of discipline, become vices. In other words, children who engage in unruly and inappropriate behavior for laudable reasons, especially those who have eluded supervision by running away from their legal guardians to pursue their goals. The course of study simultaneously rewards their better moral impulses while reining them in to the discipline necessary to make such impulses effective.

The Tili�n isolate this school from the mainstream of Til Institute. As a first test, the children must make their way to the school on their own; this determines whether they are well-meaning enough for this kind of program to work effectively. Those who do not arrive will be redirected into programs for more delinquent children, once they have been tracked down. After the initial freedom of arrival, discipline becomes strict, yet still geared to the active, inquisitive, and thrillseeking child.

Resurrection of Souls: The Alonzo Valley version of All Soul’s Day or Dia De Los Muertos, celebrated on November 2. Since, in that part of the world, it falls in late spring, the abundance of flowers all around are said to signify the blossoming of the souls of those recently buried in death, like seeds.

Resthaven: A small town at the western end of the Great Gulf Road, named for the relief travelers usually feel to reach the end of the road. Largely mercantile in its economy, it also barters tools and vegetables for dried fish, treasure-coral, and woven seaweed products with the otherwise self-isolated Disciples of the Hermit.

retinitis nyctophilia: A painful sensitivity of the retina to light, caused by a Novatierran-native virus that normally co-exists harmlessly in most persons, but becomes destructive to the weaker eyes of an albino or (less commonly) those of a person with pale blue eyes. It can also be triggered in the eyes of normal persons if subjected to extreme light-exposure under artificial conditions.

rhallunn: 1) Soggy.

2) Waterlogged.

3) Rotted from neglect.

4) Marshy.

5) Resigned to depression.

6) Embracing victimhood as an absolution from responsibility.

7) Accepting of and resigned to the negative assessments of others in regards to one's character or performance.

8) Settling for pity in lieu of love, to the point where one’s quest for pity drives any chance of love away.

Rhallunn Marsh: Marsh fed by offshoots of the Rhallunn River, bordered to the east by the Rhallunn River and Swamp Cove, to the west by Defy Ridge at the foot of the Silver Slopes and Mt. Seascarp, across a channel from Outlaw Island. It has one community, the village of Stilthome. Contrary to its bad reputation, it actually provides a wealth of wild rice and clams, and provides habitat for many beautiful and valuable birds.

The marsh proper is erroneously associated with the slum called Rhallunn which, although built on soft and unreliable ground, is actually to the east of Rhallunn River. The word “rhallunn” means “soggy”, but has come to have a connotation of moral disintegration with its association with Rhallunn Slum.

Rhallunn Slum: Most commonly called simply Rhallunn. A community to the east of the Rhallunn River (not in or next to the marsh as is popularly supposed--in fact the communities of Sportsman's Cove, Commune of the Greenwood Box and Marshwallow Village come between it and the river.) It lies south of Wish Cove, north of Modrian's Tangles and southwest of Shadowdancer Beach. It is technically the easternmost outpost of Novo Durango.

Although much disparaged, it has actually produced two notable theaters ("The King and the Fox Inn" and "Neptune Theatre") and sports on its western margin a thriving artistic community which is not a slum at all. Rhallunn has never acquired any village colors. The artists in the community, when asked about this, will claim the entire rainbow.

rhiobh: Rhioveynian word for a storm. Applied in other languages as well for a storm at sea, due to linguistic distribution from Rhioveynian merchant-mariners.

Rhioveyn: If, on Earth, you took the Japanese Islands (including those ceded to Siberia after WWII) and combined these with the Siberian Coast up to the Aniur River, you would have the equivalent land-mass of Rhioveyn.

They are a wealthy people, due to their monopoly on Truesilk. Despite their wealth, they are not a world power, thanks to an isolationist attitude that wants nothing to do with the rest of the world save trade. They are known for their "Color Society" clubs and rich dyes to match the quality of their fabrics.

Rivesinuesa River: A broad, meandering river in the plains of Vanikke Numerous cities line its banks, most notably the capitol, Gastenheber, at its mouth, and Nuvelle Parie roughly at its center. Of great commercial importance throughout the early days of Vanikketan history, the discovery and development of taroleum and vehicles fueled by it reduced its relevance.

Robinson, Amy Camilla: Founder of Robinson Laboratories, she was the first biologist to begin the systematic study and categorization of indigenous life on Novatierre, with an emphasis on sea-life. One of the earliest colonists on the planet, and one of our most influential scientists.

Robinson, Gerald Edward: A major contributor in NASA's research into reconstructing the Transfer Technology discovered by Consuelo and Fobos Tercos, after Technological Laboratories departed from Old Earth. Recent documentary archeology has revealed that at one point he had actually worked in Technological laboratories, before its relocation to Novatierre, directly under Consuelo Tercos, herself, but got dismissed when her brother discovered that Robinson had had an affair with her. This confirms a colorful legend previously thought without basis. It has surprised many historians, due to a number of letters about Dr. Robinson, asserting that ever since the death of his wife, Myrtle, he felt no call to live as a social animal, and that his work had expanded to fill out his life. (We know this because we have found his notepad (a compact form of computerized device) and it stored not only copies of his own letters and emails, but also those of a number of people whose privacy he invaded by hacking.) Apparently, however, Consuelo Tercos also spent long hours in the lab, and they were not themselves machines of science, nor legends of a fabled past, but creatures of flesh and blood. Evidence also has surfaced that they were both bipolar, and psychologists have often commented on how people with this disorder tend to find and fall in love with each other.

(As for Myrtle Robinson, she had died of cancer, diagnosed during her pregnancy. She had refused chemotherapy--a dangerous remedy of the time, where one poisons fast-growing cells and hope that the rest of the body survives--so as not to injure the baby; she died shortly after Amy Robinson's birth. Gerald Robinson often referred to Amy as his “Pearl of Great Price” for this reason.)

Plenty of documentation exists to show that Robinson later worked for the United States of America, under NASA, on their own transfer-project. He received many commendations, but he also became increasingly unstable. Some accounts infer that the urgency of his work, and his dedication to saving humanity, drove him to abuse stimulant drugs, while others say that he did not need any outside influence to unhinge him, and that the manic phase of bipolar condition can imitate stimulant intoxication convincingly. Whatever the case, he found himself fired over some incident that nobody recorded in any detail beyond the official statement about “dangerous egregious behavior inappropriate to the laboratory environment”. He himself registered a protest that his supervisor, Abdul Al'Aalem, fired him in order to steal his research, but Dr. Al'Aalem personally assured him that he didn't care who got credit so long as the job got done.

In all fairness we should include his own account as to why NASA dismissed him:

“I have made some political choices in my life that make me suspect. Certain people have convinced others to bar me from the final experiments. Subtly, politely, through a forest of subterfuges, but I have noticed. I know.

"And it does not help, you must understand, that my research has grown more and more 'arcane', as far as they're concerned. It makes them squirm, but that won't stop them from using my results, even if they don't want to admit where they come from. Few of my stupid colleagues can even understand me unless they spend hours poring over reports that it took me minutes to type! I am well quit of them all. Do not take it amiss, old friend, that I find no joy in any company, anymore, except my darling daughter. Sometimes I find it hard to reach out even to her, but at least her childhood excuses incomprehension, and she listens raptly and without prejudice to anything which I might try to explain to her.”

(We have found no addressee for the letter excerpted above. Some historians believe it might have been a “Dear Diary” sort of entry, or even intended for an imaginary friend. Others speculate that he found a way to contact Consuelo Tercos, but erased the address in his copies lest her brother trace it to him. But there could well have been someone else in his life that he kept contact with on a regular basis.)

Gerald Robinson continued research on his own, and quickly learned how to improvise his own equipment. Indeed, he admitted quite frankly in his own writings that he stole much of it, under the rationalization that soon all property rights would become a moot point, anyway, and better the equipment should fall into hands that knew how to make the best use of it. For he suspected the coming end long before he confirmed it.

Then he made a discovery never matched before or after in magentine technology: an application that not only bent space but also time, which revealed many feverish little glimpses of the past, and also sometimes snatches of the strongest, most probable futures.

He saw, beyond doubt, that current events had finally closed off every possible future for a habitable Earth, and that enormous suffering would inevitably accompany the slow decline. He did not want that future for his daughter. So he built himself a transfer device in his own home, all by himself. At first he worried about the tremendous power surge that it would take to operate it. Then he laughed at his own scruples and made secret connections to every line in the neighborhood; he wouldn't stick around to pay the bill.

In what little he caught of the future, he also saw a great city in the northern coast of Altraus. There he witnessed advanced applications of the technology that the Drs. Tercos had just begun to explore—surely there lay the colony that they planned to seed upon a new earth! Since Consuelo Tercos had mentioned the general Altraus area as a possible site for a colony, he deduced that she would go there, and that this city would eventually spring up from her efforts.

“There no one will exclude me, far from the politics of this sick old world!” he wrote. “Not once I prove myself, not once I stand there waiting, ready to greet everyone as they arrive—no one will ever leave me out again!”

Evidently he saw Novo Durango. He might have glimpsed no other cities in his random sitings. He might not have wanted to go to Istislan even if he did see it, considering the bad blood between him and its founder. But some do argue that he never fell out of love with Consuelo Tercos, and sought her there, in the new world.

With a great deal of seed and gardening equipment, chickens, goats, and everything else needed to survive, plus reams and reams of scientific information in his notebook, Robinson took his daughter to the exact location of where he saw the city. For in that also he surpassed all others in transfer technology, in that he could select his arrival point precisely.

He departed, with his daughter, on the anniversary of his wife's death. He had no way of knowing that the first landing had already occurred on an island many miles away. He emerged from the transfer in a canyon in the middle of unpopulated brushland, with no companion save a five year old girl and an encapsulation of what had survived of the Library of Congress.

(The home that he built there remains to this day, in Lonely Scientist Canyon, in the heart of Novo Durango, preserved as a museum.)

Robinson had no diversion except to teach Amy, or take her on hikes to explore the new land, especially down to the beach, which she loved. She especially liked his stories of the sea. She grew up into a confident, self-sufficient woman, while her father, slowly going mad, dug up all the information that he could, in his encapuslated lore, about oceanography (since he knew no other way to perceive wonder except through science) to dangle before Amy as Christmas presents, birthday presents, anything presents, knowledge the single thing that he owned to give. And she loved him, and forgave him for the days when he sat and cried and did nothing and made no sense at all. Gradually their roles switched and she took care of him; she gardened and fished and cataloged shells all alone, and kept them both alive.

In her twenties Amy Robinson met the first explorers from the colony of Technological Laboratories. Excited, she dragged the young men and women back to the home which her father had built. But Gerald Robinson just laughed wildly at them, said, “More hallucinations!” and then turned back to the garden, pulling up invisible “future weeds” to stop them before they grew.

Amy Robinson never convinced him that they hadn't landed on the wrong planet. Yet even after she married, she insisted upon living close to her father. She established her laboratory nearby and lived outside of Til Institute proper. She never neglected the strange old man, who'd fought such a lonely fight to stay just sane enough to care for one little girl. He died of old age, well-cherished and, in his own way, happy.

Robinson Laboratories: A world-class marine biology laboratory founded, in the earliest days of the Great Migration, by the tragic and courageous Dr. Amy Robinson. Found on the southernmost end of Robinson's Beach, built into the sea-cliff, north of the Beau Canyon Complex, across a channel from Misty Island.

Robinson’s Beach: A stretch of beach along the Altraus Coast, fronting the Beau Cliffs region of Novo Durango, facing Misty Island. First explored by Amy Robinson and her father Gerald, it now hosts Robinson Laboratories in its southernmost end. Locals often identify a North Beach and South Beach, but cartographers have never delineated a division between the two, nor is any such marker apparent to the visitor.

Robinson’s Retreat: An island of the Altraus Coast, just beyond Misty Island and Goat Island, alleged to have harbored Amy Robinson’s home away from home whenever she wanted time to herself. Now occupied by scattered homes that consider themselves a village. They have no dominant trade to speak of, consisting largely of retirees, writers, and subsistence-farmers. Their colors are black and turquoise.

rock fox: A rabbit-sized carnivore of Altraus, with a long muzzle, pointed ears, and a bushy tail, with gray fur marked with small white or pale gray spots between curving dark gray stripe. No two have the same pattern. Rock foxes dwell mainly in rocky land and feed primarily on lizards.

rock-rat: A rodent about two feet long (half of that tail) which thrives on rocky, high-altitude slopes, subsiding on caches of wildflower seeds, supplemented by the eggs of birds and reptiles when he can get them. Found exclusively in the Charadoc Mountains.

rock raven: A large, glossy-black raptor which lives mainly off of reptiles caught while sunning themselves on rocks--hence its preference for nesting in stony outcroppings. In the interest of balance, these same reptiles often prey on the rock raven's eggs.

rock salmon: A pink-fleshed saltwater fish, silvery with gray mottling (sometimes opalescent) averaging about a meter long, which prefers to breed in rocky shoals throughout the world's tropics. No relation to salmon brought from Earth.

rockvine: A vine found on the cliffs of Altraus, particularly on the northern side. A fleshy succulent with strong roots and tendrils, it grows in pockets of soil on cliff or rock-faces, sending out long creepers to find the next pocket of soil. It flowers with fleshy "petals" of coral to rose color, with small true petals of aqua color within, nearly obscured by a showy burst of amber-gold to bright yellow stamens. Esteemed primarily for its fruits, somewhat resembling cactus fruits, with a deep purply-magenta flesh having a raspberry-like flavor. Eaten as is, or fermented into wine or brandy--the poorer the conditions, the fewer the fruits yet the better the flavor.

Roman Patriarchy: One of the three main branches of Catholicism or Sacramentalist Christianity. This Pope claims direct spiritual lineage from St. Peter the First. The Roman Patriarchy in Novatierre differs from the pre-Migration Pope in setting aside the claim of infallibility that Popes had taken up only a few centuries before, in order to welcome as brothers the other two Popes as they emerged in the Age of Migration. Otherwise the religion remains little changed from the Earth original.

romeo lark: A small gray bird with bright green patches on the wings and tail, who sings larklike warbles only at night.

rooette: A hoppiing, treedwelling rodent, about the size of a chipmunk, with a squirrel-like body, a kangaroo-like head, and a long, prehensile tail, in various shades of beige, usually matching the bark of the trees in which it dwells. Not, as often supposed, a marsupial. Although native to the southeastern woods of the Northeastern Continent, it has inadvertently stowed away with shipments of lumber to many locations all over the world. While it can live off of bark indefinitely (without thriving; it cannot reproduce on a bark diet) it greatly prefers nuts and seeds and some tender sprouts, and so does not pose a hazard to forestry, although sometimes killed off out of fear that it will destroy a woodlot.

root mash: A dish made of a blend of mashed root vegetables with butter and cream, sometimes with salt, pepper, nutmeg, anthelma, cinnamon, and/or allspice. The roots might include potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, nagaios, chagos, parsnips, yacons, turnips, arrowroot, ground nuts, breadroot, manioc, carrots, fennel, celeriac, taro, cassava, purified catawlba, rutabaga, and/or ginger, or indeed roots not yet revealed to this lexicographer.

rookie: An agent on hir first mission, generally required to be accompanied by a veteran agent.

rookie mission: An agent's first mission, usually something comparatively easy and routine.

Root-Gypsy Village: A rural community of Alonzo Valley whose community colors are magenta and brown. Situated to the east of the Fertile River, between the entry points of its tributaries, the Dancer river and the Cattlewade, with Mt. Rain to the east of the village and The Winterwash to the south. According to legend, it derives its name from a Roma family who brought along potatoes, turnips, and beets from Earth and planted them at that site. (Some say carrots rather than beets.)

ropeweed: A tall, thick-stemmed, grasslike plant, native to the rainforests of the Southwestern Continent. It varies from one to twelve meters high, depending on how far it must grow to reach a patch of sunlight. It somewhat resembles a sort of twisty, vinous cornstalk in appearance, though its fibrous kernels look more like barley, and its bitterness makes what little food value it might have worthless even for fodder. However, its long leaves, green with reddish-purple streaks, carries a strong fiber useful for cordage and a kind of tough canvas for tents and sacking. As it cannot tolerate full sun, and needs the complex biochemical fungal interactions found around the roots of trees, it resists cultivation in the normal sense, and so sees use primarily on a gathered, folk basis.

roseau: A singularly durable paper made from the papiyea reed, smooth in tooth, creamy white without bleaching, and archival in quality.

rose knot: A way of knotting up a handful of fabric to look like a rose, fashionable in the late 24th and early 25th century in Til Territories, especially to accent a sash, raise the hems of skirts or tunics, shape loose fabric tight, gather back full sleeves, or draw close a neckline. A bridal veil might sport a whole cluster of rose-knots. The late 25th century considered them decadent, yet they have lingered on in art to the present day, symbolically conveying indulgence and sensuality. Modern interior decorators often employ them on drapes and canopies.

rose lime: A Novatierran mutation or cultivar from Earth stock, the rose lime has a rosy or orangey blush when ripened, and is much esteemed for the richness of its flavor, intense lime with hints of orange, fully tart and yet with a hint of sweetness. Chefs covet it above all other citrus. The rose lime gimlet is the signature cocktail of the Oxhead Inn in San Alvarronu�ez.

roshyko: In Kalorcabori, a penitant, formally engaged in a year dedicated to relearning a lifestyle alternative to hir prior evil ways. Roshykos live for that year in a sort of halfway-house run by monastics of both sexes, often former roshykos, themselves, giving them pragmatic classes and mystical disciplines, with unpredictably timed rites of passage to bring the roshyko to the next level. They also receive extensive counseling, both in the group and one on one. They hold down supervised jobs, and at first give all of their pay to the institution retraining them and/or reparation to past victims, but gradually get to keep a little for themselves, plus some money set aside to aid their eventual transition into mainstream life. Roshykos ger respect and patience for their decision but not trust, lest opportunity put them in temptation's way before they can handle it, nor can they expect forgiveness until they have finished earning it.

rubyberry: A glossy, globular berry of a dark purply-red color, most closely resembling a blueberry in taste, with a faint gingery bite. It has small, dense, yellow-green leaves, simple, ovate, and opposite, deeply creased down the middle. The thorny wood is useless for anything but fuel.

rude program: Colloquial term for an answering program which, when it recognizes a caller's code as belonging to someone declared persona non grata to the one receiving the call, will tell hir that communication with hir is not desired and then hang up on hir. If the caller attempts further communication on the same day, the program automatically notifies policia of harassment.

rum laren: A popular mixed drink, consisting of rum, laren, a squeeze of lime, and sometimes spices.