Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

Eagle flutter – large superficially bird-like creature native to Midbar. Composed of mostly inorganic or dead organic material held together by a small amount of living tissue so it disintegrates when killed.

Eagle Flutter’s Nest - a child-friendly restaurant, on high ground north of the main part of Minris, but technically still in the town.

Echeveria – rosette leaf succulent. Normally small with short stems. Have axillary inflorescences.

Echinocereus – small cacti, typically with cylindrical stems and large, magenta flowers. Produce cactus strawberries.

Edrina - a Trulist goddess or other religious figure. For some reason “Edrina’s menstrual blood” is a swear term.

Eleprin – false identity assumed by Mouni.

Equip – verb. The process of turning somebody into a mage.

Ermish – a town on the northern plain of Pax. Location of the Temple of Tianamet.

Faharni (language) – the main language of Pax so nearly all Paxians speak it fluently. It’s also Midbar’s link language so nearly everybody on Midbar can at least speak it as a second language.

Faharni (race) – have brown skin and could pass of Pakistanis, Arabs, southern Europeans or Latinos. Usually have dark hair and brown eyes but other hair and eye colors aren’t that rare. Often polydactyl (have extra fingers and/or toes) due a harmless, dominant gene. The main race of Pax.

Faldren - an idlan man from Uratan who lives in Minris Vineyard. Son of Criadria, husband of Rainbow and father of Irvis.

Familyism – discrimination based on family relationships. One of the sins of Trulsim.

Fat grapes - the fruit of fat vines, similar to grapes.

Fat vine - a plant intermediate between a grape vine and a Cyphostemma. They’re grown in the dryer parts of Minris Vineyard. Produce edible fruit – fat grapes.

Fetmish - a complicated board game. Involves states, nuts and planets which can be various colors (one player can have them more than one color). There are forts, asteroids, plazas, hiders, pyramids and stars. Also seems to involve dice or some other means of generating random numbers. It can be played by multiple players and new players can enter the game with a trajectory and direction (e.g. north azimuth).

Filtration plant - an ancient building that filters water from the river and provides pure water for drinking and irrigation to Minris.

Flingball – a very popular sport.

Fortress Park - a park in Minris, mostly with succulents growing in it. It’s built around an ancient ruin with powerful magic.

FTL drive – any of a number of types of machine that can enable a star ship to exceed the speed of light.

FTL jump – using an FTL drive to travel a great distance (probably many light years) very quickly. Often used figuratively to mean a sudden or important change.

Funny man - Mouni’s term for a man she meets in Ermish.

Galaxy Hotel - the most expensive hotel in Minris. Fairly new but in a pre-Cataclysm style.

Garblon - the nearest town to Minris to the west.

Geodeserine – diamond-like carbon allotropes (forms of an element) that are very strong. Same as Fullerine but people on Midbar have never heard of Buckminster-Fuller.

Ghost – a psychic phenomenon that takes the form of a briefly seen object, often a human figure. Often repeatedly appear in roughly the same place. Thought to normally be recordings of past events that somehow get played back and are normally harmless. Ghosts that interact with living people are normally dangerous.

Ghost magic - a type of associate magic which reveals past events as ghosts but doesn’t work very well.

Gildesha - a Trulist god.

Gildlard - the magis who equipped Miandri.

Giruka - a stupid girl in Eleprin’s class in beginner school.

Glochid – barbed hair produced by some cacti.

Goy -(Semic) literally means “nation” or “foreigner” but normally used by Haprihagfen to mean somebody who isn’t Haprihagfen or Benai Haprihagfen.

Great Basin – A huge impact crater on the side of Midbar that faces Bet. It’s the wettest area on Midbar and therefor where almost all humans live.

Haprihagfen – Winemaker fundamentalist religious order considered to be weird even by other Winemakers. Responsible for running Minris Vineyard.

Harness - a fashion accessory in the form a system of straps or chains which women wear on the outside of their clothing. It’s tight under the breasts and around the waste to emphasize the woman’s figure.

Hecrin - a country on the east side of the Great Basin. It has a high proportion of Winemakers but has notoriously strict immigration laws.

Hecrini - the main language spoken in Hecrin.

Heretic - somebody who’s beliefs deviate significantly from the official teachings of their religion.

Heterokorbarsexual – somebody who has a preference for sexual partners of korbarim other their own, this is unusual.

Hideaway Hotel – in Minris. The sort of place where people tend to go to have illicit or clandestine affairs.

Hipsick – (Semic) korbar with no psychic abilities (but can normally learn to use dowsing). Have at least one dominant allele for both korbar genes.

Holy Site – A place with religious significance but many are disused. Each is supposed to have a relic hidden at it.

Homokorbarsexual – somebody who has a preference for sexual partners of their own korbar, this is normal.

Hylocereus – a climbing cactus with huge, white flowers which produces dragon fruit. Sensitive to low temperatures so in the Great Basin, they’re are grown at lower altitudes, nearer the center, not in the mountains and therefore not grown in Minris Vineyard.

Iandris - a small, yellow haired faharni woman. Wife of Lishrashic and mother of Nitrian.

Ice – a faharni, mage, apostle of Haprihagfen. Daughter of Sand Dancer, wife of Mountain, mother of Rainbow and River.

Idlan – a race with dark skin, straight hair and narrow noses.

Indratar – see Tianamet Indratar.

Inflorescence - a cluster of flowers naturally produced by a plant.

Intermediate Magic - a book by Tuvardin Pins which was read by Narim.

Irvis - a half faharni and half idlan boy who lives in Minris Vineyard. Son of Faldren and Rainbow.

Jarvacrid - a type of XT.

Jat – a faharni boy with six fingers on each hand. Son of Olaria and brother of Aglin.

Jurdat - Trulist god of discipline and art.

Kalanchoe - a genus of mostly small, shrubby leaf succulents.

Katchey – (Semic) a korbar, psychic with moderate power. Tend to be more popular than nibeyim although they’re somewhat crazy. Have two copies of one recessive korbar allele and at least one dominant allele of the other.

Kerdac - a faharni man who lives in Minris Vineyard and belongs to Haprihagfen. Husband of River and father of Breeze, Cloud and Stone.

Klastren - manager of the Palace Hotel. Wife of Lifrarin and mother of Rigar.

Korbar – (Semic, masculine) one of four groups to which nearly all humans belong. Your korbar is determined by two pairs of autosomal genes, in both cases the allele conferring psychic powers is recessive. The korbarim are: anav, hipsick, katchey and nibey.

Korbarism - one of the sins of Trulism. Unfair discrimination based on korbar but often also used for discrimination based on magical powers. Somewhat hypocritical of Trulism as it’s korbarist.

Landing (the) – when humans arrived on Midbar.

Laraget – a city on the southern plain of Pax.

Lardian - the female police officer in Minris.

Lascril – a port city in northern Pax.

Lifrarin - husband of Klasten and father of Rigar.

Light cycle – three day period resulting from the interaction between the natural 18 hour days of Midbar and the 24 hour cycle of the sapphires.

Lishrashic - a faharni businessman who comes from Bremplar and worships Astrigis. Husband of Iandris, father of Nitrian.

Love Priest – a male Trulist priest who dresses like a priestess.