This text should act as a reference for terms used, invented, or fundamentally recontextualized for the purposes of the story. It concerns both words I have devised for broader use (my real made up words) and ones specific to the groups of people which the story depicts (my fake made up words.)
It is intended for people who have already read the story and may seek to hear about some of its things. The story was written to make the language make sense in context (not that it necessarily achieves this.) That is to affirm this section does not serve as an enabler of or substitute for pleasant writing.
It should not be seen as an authority or as a dictionary. Everything here is subject to reconsideration and change, and it will never be finished
----------------------------------------
Various Notes:
The Use of Other Languages Like Norwegian and Irish - Most words are rendered directly in English, but there are a few words (Otiser, Sprak, blaith, Ard Makaris, Mekarin, etc..) which are held over from a time when the story's setting was something for an AI game and I needed unique words for keys.
The only other time I use words from other languages is when I need to produce a word that has no inherent linguistic meaning to any perspective characters, such as feurkun, which was devised to elicit the peculiar, snarling experience of slurs.
A
Athad (words of) - Athad Kathra/Azad Kadra is a historical figure in Josmee. His past has been heavily mythologized and characters influenced by the Rootcliffs' collective imagination of him occupy a central position in the faiths which grew out of the regions they proselytized to. Details around him are somewhat spoilery so I can't talk about them much here, but his existence is heavily associated with Hesigns, the letters written on Wander (the "words of Athad.") What is widely understood is that the Rootcliffs occupied Goal under his authority many centuries ago, and that the Goalish territory has been one of many fuels for empire ever since.
Azad's name is often spelled differently to reflect the Goals' alternative, generationally-learned pronunciations of it.
B
Birthwoman (bati) - "Birthwoman" is used by many groups in Goal to refer to a person who gave birth. It also tends to extend to people seen as women who childrear.
Bati is a common term of endearment devised by Goalish children.
Birthman (bata) - "Birthman" is used by many groups in Goal to refer to a birth-giving person's partner/s. It also tends to extend to people seen as male who childrear.
Bata is a common term of endearment devised by Goalish children.
Biped - Biped is the out of universe way I refer to the parasimian-descendant people of Melted Beast.
The bipeds are similar to us, psychologically and otherwise, because I wanted this story to be invocative of our conditions and situations, but I nevertheless prefer to keep a certain level of separation between the two.
Blaith - A word used in Ard Makaris, a place very far away from Goal where Wander learned how to kill, to point to bladed weapons. It has become known outside Ard Makaris as a word denoting the style of the bladed weapon built by the various groups which inhabit that place, which tends to be long and single-edged.
The sword scored with hesigns on Wander's back is a blaith. The Lotaslager has been forced to start giving Makarish weapons to their recruits rather than the more traditional Kafkes', since it's what they have access to.
Bleu - A color word I use. It's light blue. I think the reversed e and u suggest a lighter tint.
Born (river- out-) - The Sixbraids and some of the River Goals used "riverborn" to refer specifically to other bipeds. Many Goals employ some other variation of this idea to perform the same work. Some include the Laruns in their conception of the term; others do not.
"Born" as an indicator is used less often than the more general "heart."
Bryst - "Bryst" is a term often applied in Larun to something going over the chest. Bryst in the story is often used to refer to a very common style of garment used by Freemen and Larun fighters, a gray cloak and metal armor.
Breather - Breather is a common, although not ubiquitous, way for various characters to conceive their "species" in Melted Beast. It's a Larun word that has achieved prominence due to their polity's expansion across "Harmony" (another Larun word denoting the Otisrat's domain).
Broon - A color word. It's brown. I like the effect of the two o's. It's intended to evoke a very deep brown, mixed with ochre maybe, very earthy. The color of mud on a stormy day
C
Cannotfollow - A Rootcliff word whose utility spans multiple English words:
1. Animal
2. Servant
3. Slave
4. Infidel
5. Pet
It is also a relative of “subhuman” although this connection is much more tenuous and does not involve any of the lengthy pseudoscientific architecture underpinning that term.
Cannot follow was functionally the means by which the Rootcliff polity conceived of and imagined the purpose of unfree labor. That which could not follow was not morally reprehensible, but it would be either taught or dragged into moral acts.
Cane (dry-/out-/off-) - A word similar in use to "cane" proto-Goalish speak - in that it was used to denote a long shaft of something - became a common way of denoting hand weapons, like clubs and swords. Many Goalish groups attach some modifier to it indicating its exterior origin; polished metal weapons were introduced to Goal via conquest.
The Goalish "cane" is understood in-universe to be a particular style of bladed weapon like the Makarish blaith and the Larun langniv.
Coldcoming - Many Goalish people employ some party near the beginning of winter to herald its arrival, and it tends to be called something like this.
D
Dunjoydur - Dunjoydur is a word used by an old group that once inhabited contemporary Josmee which referred to their world. It can partially be understood as "the breath," or "the air-mass."
Dunjoydur is the word I use to refer to the planet on which Melted Beast takes place. It's never used in the actual text, but it will be used in this document.
E
F
Feurkun - “Feurkun” is a Larun word roughly analogous to “unwise, naive person,” and is used often in the sense of, “foreigner,” “primitive,” and “savage.” It originated as a term to describe a scorned or irascible woman. Feurkun is uniquely informed by the schema of value Larun society uses to center itself and justify imperial expansion, placing emphasis on maturation and inculcating other societies with Larun ideas.
Firework - Firework is a kind of behavior in groups that reside in Goal. Fireworkers are healers, oracles and safety inspectors responsible for the curation of fire used by the group, from smithing, to cauterised wounds, to burning crops, to illumination.
Fireworkers are respected in the community but are obligated to distance from it, due both to the covert nature of their traditions and rituals – knowing how to start, and end a fire - and the general Outness of their work.
The definite shape of fireworking differs from shell to shell. Many groups in Goal express anxiety around fire and a caretaker/s of it, but the mythology, role and ritual of fire-work varies widely. It likely developed as a response to the exigencies of the territory; fire posed a considerable asset in Goal’s freezing winters and an inversely serious threat during its dry, golden summers.
Freemen - Freemen are a spoiler. They're like most bipeds and come from most bipeds but aren't the same. They're employed by Larun institutions in mundane, taxing, or physically dangerous positions, as farmers, porters, and soldiers.
In my brain, Freemen were originally orcs, although they're not anymore. Their name is canonically how the Larun authorities disseminated knowledge of their existence; they are "men, freed."
G
Gapman - A Goalish word. It is often used to describe men perceived to be un-male, and is more generally directed at groups like Laruns that do not conform to local conceptions of gender.
Gathering - A Larun word akin to "gathering" denotes a group of people assembled for a task. In-universe it is often how a group similar to a military is conceptualized.
Goal - "Goal" is a large region in South Josmee, the latter of which is a polity client to the Larunkat Otisrat. It is home to Goalish, a semi-cohesive imagining of the region's inhabitants by mostly exterior forces who extend a bit beyond the bounds assigned them by the the Rootcliffs (the predominant group in Josmee) and cease in places a bit prior to it.
Goal has geopolitical significance. Running directly through it is the Otisrat's major Northern logistical artery, the Ash Road. Goal has also substantial mineral deposits, particularly silver. Multiple groups - Larun, Rootcliff, and others - have attempted to subdue the people living there for thousands of years, but their idiosyncratic forms of organization, Goal's complex terrain, and interceding outside factors have meant that it has remained a quagmire for prospective empires.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Many "Goals" do not conceive of "Goal" as a place they are in or "Goalish" a thing they are. Concepts like these are most common in North and East Goal, where the Sixbraids were situated and where Fragile is from. For narrative convenience.
H
Harmony - "Harmony" was a term used by the Larun authorities to denote the extent of their influence in Holyhorizon. It has since become a common word by many Sprak-speakers for the whole area, which lies roughly in its center.
Heart - "Heart" is a word appended by many Goalish people to names for things in a condition like themselves, i.e. moving and bleeding. It is a very flexible device and not applied on any strict basis; there are some Goalish groups that have particular conceptions of plants and trees as "hearts", and others that don't. Freemen move and bleed, but many Goals apply epithets of heart-removal such "heartless" or "unheart" to Freemen and sometimes biped Laruns for various reasons, and always to strip of similar condition.
Heartswater - A word used by Goals most frequently to refer to their blood. Heartswater can also be used to understand a heart's any fluid, but the word often carries a certain amount of gravity such that other words are used to refer to things like pee and pus.
Hesign - Hesigns are a spoiler. They're ideogrammatic characters that make changes in the world when they interact with the substance Wander carries with her.
I think of most Hesigns as looking like little wheels with "spokes" that have tiny differences in the way each one is etched. This detail is subject to change, I've never thought very hard about their shape.
Holyhorizon - A Rootcliff word for the land of Melted Beast.
I use "holyhorizon" more generally to refer to the entire continent where the story takes place. Rootcliff authorities, which were once very powerful, used three words very often to refer to the continents of the world which they encountered, the other two being "rainhorizon" and "treehorizon." Larunkat authorities have adopted the basic scheme of these terms.
Howl - Howl is a word used by many Goalish groups to refer to the paracanids they encounter.
I
I - The "I" is a very prevalent concept within Rootcliff belief systems. It serves as an essential encapsulation of the self which retains its vitality after the body dies.
K
Kontor - A position of oversight in Larun gatherings.
L
Lawsman - A way that the Onnpeople imagined male-considered people who would rear children.
Larun - The Laruns are a ethnic group in Larunkat, in the Southeast and other regions near the Ash River.
Many years ago a group of Laruns obtained power over most of Larunkat and the other groups that reside there. That power has begun to wane somewhat in wake of recent changes.
Larunkat - Larunkat is both a place and a large political entity. The place neighbors Josmee to the West, past the New Wild, and it is where the To-Dark Otisrat's capital is. Perhaps less than a century ago the Otisrat's reach was much wider and encompassed many other polities, but its highest authority was killed in war and it has since fractured into two tenuously aligned fragments. It still maintains a large amount of influence over Josmee and Goal, which have become much more important to it now that more distant territories have begun to resist its power and fight against it.
Lotaslager - The Lotaslager is an armed anti-Otisrat spiritual organization located in the Baltozat of Ard Makaris, many miles away from Goal. It's the group Wander reports to.
The Lotaslager's past is shady and it used to be part of a larger administrative organ, before the Otisrat and before the period of competition among the powers of Harmony that existed before that. Its present form is very violent and very authoritarian.
Lodge - The "Lodge" is a very common figure in Goalish groups.
Lodges bear some resemblance to an elder or authority figure within Goalish groups and are often regarded as such by exterior authorities, but understandings of the Lodge and their roles vary from place to place and this conception is generally less than accurate. Lodges rarely have any significant, socially constructed mandate for obedience beyond what is collectively instilled in many Goalish children toward their parents. The title of Lodge is a literal one that involves the transformation of one and their household into housing and houser for those who come to visit a shell and everything they have to offer. Lodges are usually drawn from elderly men, but not always; the only reason this happens is because of gender expectations and because the elderly are among the few groups who have traditionally been expected to stay in shells long-term.
M
Meeter+Knower - "Meeting"/"Knowing"/other is a recognized phenomenon in Goal whereby an individual/s will abandon a group and set out into the rounds. This is often imagined to be a spiritual activity, whereby those who leave go to spend time with and contemplate the essential characters of existence.
The Dip Meeters from story 3 are Meeters but they are also something else that is a spoiler. Their superpowers don't come from the Night Ruler, because the Night Ruler can't give you superpowers.
N
O
Onnpeople - The Onnpeople are a diasporic group that the To-Light Otisrat attacked and displaced many years ago. They used to occupy a series of high-density settlements in the region of Shaminkat.
Wander was born among the Onnpeople and at the beginning of the story, due to her years of forced servitude, she has no information on the others. In her mind, they were all either dead or in bondage.
Otiser/an - The Otiser is understood to be the most powerful figure in an Otisrat. They occupy the peak of the hierarchy.
The current To-Dark Otiser, Girdan, is a girl. Otiseran is used as the word's feminine form.
Otisrat - An Otisrat is a polity-form commanded by an Otiser. Both Otisrats are this (there are two.)
The Otisrat employs an idiosyncratic form of ruler-selection involving the equivocation of a reified, ontologically good "knowledge" with divine mandate.
Over - "Over" is a Goalish word often used to denote garments that cover up the torso, and things that go over you.
P
Primlight - An out-of-universe word. I use it for "morning." It's supposed to be the antecedent to "twilight."
Punisher - A Larun apparatus used for public killings. It has a platform to stand and then drop off and a rope that goes around your neck and chokes you.
A punisher's drop is usually short enough that it kills by asyphixation rather than trauma to the spine.
Q
Questsaid - An out of universe word. Its utility is best demonstrated by example.
"That's all?" Guy asked.
Guy isn't really "asking" in this example. He is, but the only way you are able to interpet this as a question is via the question mark. If the mark were changed to a period it would function as a sentence, a said. One is "quest-saying," seeking to affirm by stating a potential conclusion, and shaping its interpretation with your tone. Only
Guy said in a way that suggested he wasn't saying something but rather seeking to confirm what he already knew by restating it, "That's all?"
does not sound good. So I use questsaid.
R
Response - "Response" is how the Sixbraids, some other Goalish groups, and Fragile conceptualize conflict. Response can be used to point at conflict of any scale, from small disagreements to the many uprisings that have happened in Goal.
Rounds - The parts of Goal uninhabited by bipeds are often referred to as "rounds."
The word was originally more general than that though, in that for some Goals it was just a way to point at a spot of land.
Roundseat - "Roundseat" is the way many Goalish refer to their static dwellings. Outsiders tend to use "roundseat" to denote the particular type of shelter built by Goals, but the latter are diverse. Goalish housing usually incorporates thatching and wood or earthworks foundations.
I also started thinking of it as round but etymologically it was just meant to be a "seat," a place to rest, that was on a round.
Rulers - The Sixbraids and by extension Fragile extend offerings and reverence to a group of powers that they often call 'rulers,' who are sometimes regarded in personal terms.
River/Rulersland - These are words frequently used by Goals to gesture at everything that exists.
I used them in the same sense of "world."
S
Shell - “Shell” is a term conceived by the proto-Goalish people and popular among their contemporary descendants in the New Wild. The Shell is a quintessential sedentary unit in the organisation of many Goalish groups, and initially all it denoted was a more permanent and defended position. Over time, the shell began to adopt additional and more concrete meanings. Various incursions by invaders have attempted to excise the shell from its roots and establish it as the means of sedentish living for the inhabitants of Goal.
Skyface - An in-universe Goalish color word. Many Goals describe the "face" of something we would see as blue as like the sky. Many Goals use this idea of "face" to gesture at properties of appearance, including color.
Skyshade - A Larun color word used in much the same way.
Sprak - Sprak as a term gestures broadly to Larun vocabulary, syntax, and ways of speaking.
There are multiple forms of Sprak, but the one most relevant to the Story is "Little Sprak" - the Spraks of ordinary people, uncurated and unprestigious.
Stabs - A Larun word that's often used to refer to mineral extraction operations.
"Stabbing" the soil is a popular way among some Laruns to imagine any act of excavation.
H
Hoof (strong/stone) - People who speak Goalish tend to refer to the setting's para-equids as "hoofs."
Because they have hoofs.
Stronghoofs are generally seen as stronger, smaller, slower, and furrier than stonehoofs. Stonehoofs are tall and fast. Most Wandering Stars like Wander pick para-equids like stonehoofs to ride out from Ard Makaris, although the para-equids they ride are not the ones Goalish people are familiar with, and they are constructed using different names.
T
To-Dark/To-Light/To-Sidedark/To-Sidelight - Words picked up from the Rootcliffs that many Goals use to point West, East, South, and North respectively. The Laruns adopted them as "dacif/laif/sidacif/silaif."
Direction words were not popular in Goal prior to the region's invasion by the Rootcliffs, many years ago.
U
V
W
Wall - "Wall" is a word commonly used by the Goalish to describe a person undertaking activity regarded as defensive. "Wall" as a distinct sector of Goalish groups did not fully crystallize until the Larun invasion, and it is still more broadly understood as a shape that any person occupies when they are engaged in repelling threats.
Windshape - A word used by the Onnpeople to gesture at the para-equids in their region.
Wiser - A word the Onnpeople used to refer to people seen as women who rear children.
X
Y
Z