Glossary
Y
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. Yaio of Sand: The Darvinian God of Consequences. Said to be the child of all of the consorts of Timora, Goddess of Change, simultaneously Theto of Fate feared that only a monster could be born of such a birth, and persuaded Horo, who is Time, to slay him in the womb, and Daio of Chance especially dreaded his coming. Daio it was who searched the world till he found a long, thin needle strong enough to penetrate the womb even of Timora, and together with Horo went hunting for her. But Ario Who Chooses learned of
this, and hid Timora in a desert far to the south, in the Southeastern
Continent, and there she gave birth to Yaio in the lee of a
sandune. And there he grew up, blackened by the heat, becoming as
harsh as his environment, and yet finding joy in the overcoming of the
many perils that faced him, and the rewards that he could reap from
hard work. For a terrifying time nothing in
Novatierre changed, while Timora sheltered her child and bore none
after him, hidden from her mates. Crops neither ripened nor
rotted, but nobody hungered to eat it, anyway. Children did not
grow and adults did not age, and every day dragged through unvarying
routines, until the people cried out in their boredom for the gods to
welcome The Supreme Goddess back. Meanwhile Horo languished on
the brink of death, yet never able to die, without her rescusitating
hand. Then up spoke Ario, saying, "Yet he will also reward, and reward generously, those who earn his favor. For in the desert he has taken Shi'h to wife, the spirit of Sand, and she wears down yet also polishes. She is Justice, Theto, and whether we fear her or not, we must also love her." The people cried out yes, bring
him with his mother and his spouse, for, even horror would be
preferable to nothing ever changing again. And so the gods
brought Yaio out of the desert, and with him his spouse, a force of
nature become a goddess from his cherishing. Yaio is depicted as a black man of
the desert, with his tightly-curled hair cornrowed and braided into a
tight bun at the nape of his neck, for he looses nothing. He wears
desert robes of gradient stripes of black and white merging between
into gray. In art he holds a whip in his left hand and a lucious
melon in his right, freshly sliced open and ready for feasting.
His face is stern and yet not without pity; some even paint tears upon
his cheeks, for it often grieves him what people call on him to
do. Yet businessmen often hire statues made with him smiling, for
they hope to see their hard work rewarded. yakuthansa:
An aquatic bush with long, lush leaves and brown-to-gray bark, native
to rivers and creeks of the western fork of the Southwestern
Continent. It usually first sprouts on the banks of a body of
water. Then, as it grows rapidly and its need for water
increases, its branches droop and root underwater, sending up new
shoots as the older roots grow tall and buttress-like. It must
always have some roots in drier soil, and as it matures, some roots
underwater. yam fosta: A buttery, peppery dish of shell-shaped noodles made of yams, sweet potatoes or sometimes pumpkin or squash pulp. |