Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

Note – some words are derived from the Semic language. These normally obey Semic grammar and take gender/number endings:

none – singular, usually masculine (e.g. “Cloud is an anav”)

-ah – feminine singular (e.g. “Breeze is an anavah”)

-im – masculine or mixed gender plural (e.g. “Cloud and Irvis are anavim” or “Cloud and Breeze are anavim”)

-ot – feminine plural (e.g. “Breeze and Plentari are anavot”)

Words defined elsewhere in this glossary are italicized.

AC abbreviation for “After Cataclysm” in dates, refers to a calendar that starts with the official end of the Cataclysm.

Acolyte – a low ranking member of the clergy in Trulism and Winemakerism.

Adolescent School – a school for children from about 11 to 18 years of age.

Aeonium – very small to about 1m tall rosette leaf succulent, normally with long stems. Have terminal inflorescences.

Agave – rosette leaf succulent, often with rosettes 1-2m across, with huge inflorescences.

Ahmaza – The only Nuhara god. Has been added to the Trulist gods as the god of asteroids and peace.

Aglin – a faharni girl. Daughter to Olaria and sister of Jat.

Aleph – A red dwarf which Bet orbits and provides nearly all of Midbar’s natural light.

Allele – a version of a gene.

Aloe – a leaf succulent, usually with a rosette. Variable in size.

Anav – (Semic) the rarest, most hated and most powerful psychic korbar. They have two copies of the recessive alleles for both korbar genes. Their powers are a closely guarded secret.

Ancient – poorly understood and elusive native inhabitant of Midbar. Thought to be fairly intelligent.

Ancient circle – circle of stones with a gap in one side and normally the tallest part about 60º from the gap. Thought to be built by ancients.

Angular momentum – energy contained in an object because of its spin. Will keep the object spinning at the same speed unless acted on by a force.

Anti-korbarism law – law that forbids people from revealing that others are or are not psychics, magi or chelases. This does not apply to people who are open about being a psychic, mage and/or chelas.

Apostle – a high ranking Haprihagfen leader.

Ardorin the pimp who works out of The Mountain Goat. He’s of mixed faharni and quippa ancestry and normally wears a gold head scarf. He seems to have some agreement with the locals that they let him operate his questionable business as long as he leaves the local girls alone.

Artifact – a non-living object that has one or more associates bound to it. Children normally aren’t allowed to use them.

Artifact user - somebody who uses artifacts. As nearly everybody uses artifacts, this is normally reserved for people who do it a lot more than most and are not magi or chelases.

Associate – a dark matter object that’s normally invisible and intangible. It can be bound to a physical object by bindings to give it unusual properties.

Associate magic – science of manipulating associates and bindings to produce unusual effects. This was discovered after humans left Earth so it isn’t forbidden by religions.

Astrigis – Trulist god of horticulture and famine.

Astrigis Rehmahon - a botanical genetic engineer.

Austrocylindropuntia – cactus with cylindrical stems and leaves. Variable in size.

Australopithecus - erect walking, hairy, human-like creatures with smaller brains than humans. It’s thought that none have ever existed on Midbar (the only known hairy hominins are a Homo sapiens race).

Autosomal – adj. If a gene is described as autosomal, it means it’s on a chromosome which is not a sex chromosome. This means that a normal human of either sex will have two copies, one inherited from each parent and will pass one on to each child, regardless of sex.

Avatar – in Trulism is a god who’s taken human form. A number of people on Midbar have claimed to be avatars but none are terribly credible. Winemakers believe that Yoho has an avatar (Yoho’s avatar).

Badrac - a fat, stupid looking boy who lives in Minris.

Bat Haprihagfen – (Semic, feminine so the plural is “Batot Haprihagfen”) a female Benai Haprihagfen.

Beginner School - for children from about 5 to 10 years old.

Beit – (Semic) means “house” but is often used loosely.

Beit Gadol – (Semic) means “big house”. The main building in Minris Vineyard.

Ben goyim – (Semic, masculine so the plural is “benai goyim”) Literally “son of foreigners”. An anav or Haprihagfen male who wasn’t born to Haprihagfen.

Benai Haprihagfen – (Semic, male or mixed-sex plural) children who were born to Haprihagfen but haven’t been initiated into the organization.

Bennis – a race with light skin, round eyes and pointed ears.

Bet – the brown dwarf which Midbar orbits. Bet, in turn, orbits Aleph.

Bildrin – a prosecution lawyer.

Binding – a normally invisible and intangible object that can be used to attach an associate to a physical object (possibly a living organism) to alter his, her or its properties.

Bioregulation Unit - part of a star ship which grows plants and maintains the internal environment, producing oxygen and food and getting rid of waste and carbon dioxide.

Black night – time in the light cycle when Aleph is not in the sky and the sapphires are switched off.

Blue day – time in the light cycle when Aleph is not in the sky and the sapphires are switched on.

Breeze – A red haired faharni girl who lives on Minris Vineyard. Apparently a clamet but doesn’t seem to be in a sephir. Daughter of River and Kerdac, sister of Cloud and Stone.

Bremplar - a town in Pax, where the Conservatory of Astrigis is located.

Briad – Trulist goddess of discipline and disgust, wife of Streculic. Extremely evil but lacking her husband’s subtlety. Very few people worship her.

Bromeliad - any plant belonging to the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae). These are mostly rosette forming plants that grow as epiphytes in rain forests but some are desert succulents and look similar to Aloes.

Brown dwarf – an object intermediate between a gas giant (planet similar to Jupiter) and a red dwarf. Actually magenta in color.

Cactus strawberry - a cactus fruit that tastes like strawberry (from Echinocereus).

Cascade Hotel – a small, mid-range hotel in Minris.

Cataclysm – combination of war and natural disasters that devastated Midbar for about a century, ending about 300 years before this story takes place.

Cave of Ancestors - a cave on Earth where a tribe buried their dead for a period that covered the Great Leap Forward.

Chelas – somebody with one or more bound associates who isn’t a mage.

Cholla – a cylindrical stemmed cactus with leaves. Can grow quite large and often with vicious spines. Usually belong to the genera Austrocylindropuntia or Cylindropuntia.

Claim of interest - a legal device used to state that a trial is likely to affect you and you should therefore have a say in the proceedings.

Clamet – apparently somebody who slegim would like to marry and may be found in a sephir. Breeze is apparently one.

Cloud - a faharni boy who lives in Minris Vineyard. Son of River and Kerdac, brother of Breeze and Stone.

Concussion Spell - a spell that knocks out the victim and erases their short term memory (also called a Date Rape Spell).

Conservatory - a greenhouse type structure in Fortress Park containing a jungle-like environment.

Conservatory of Astrigis – a Holy Site in Bremplar that takes the form of a very large, greenhouse-like structure. Based on a star ship bioregulation unit. Dedicated to Astrigis.

Crassula - large genus of mostly small leaf succulents.

Crater’s Edge – A restaurant at the highest point on the road running west from Minris to outside the Great Basin.

Creadria – the idlan, Trulist, owner/manager of the Cascade Hotel. Mother of Faldren.

Cyphostemma – genus of succulents which have stems getting fat towards the base. Belong to the grape family.

Daris - a boy in Cloud’s class at the school.

Dark matter – material that is more abundant in the universe than regular matter. It’s normally invisible and intangible and can only be detected by its gravitational pull.

Dark sun - a sun that doesn’t produce much light, a brown dwarf.

Date Rape Spell - see Concussion Spell.

Day - period of 24 hours, roughly half of them with the sapphires on.

Device – pretty much any sort of electronic gadget. No longer manufactured on Midbar and so becoming scarce and most the remaining ones have been preserved by protective associates.

Dominant – adj. If an allele is described as dominant, it has it’s full effect even in an organism which also possesses it’s recessive counterpart.

Dorakremac – a fictional creature in the Rooroo series.

Dragon fruit - the edible fruit of a climbing cactus (Hylocereus or Selenicereus or hybrids between the two).

Dren - a girl who lives in Minris.

Droven - a tree-like photo-organism.