Андреа Хёст - The Pyramids of London

Sulis — The ruling Prytennian goddess. Creates three strong god-touched known as the Suleviae. Has aspects of both sun and wind.

When the Romans originally invaded Albion they took charge of her sacred spring, and declared her to be an aspect of Minerva.

Sulevia Leoth — Sulevia of the Song, one of the god-touched aspects of Sulis. Commands the triskelion.

Sulevia Sceadu — Sulevia of the Shadow, one of the god-touched aspects of Sulis. Commands of the Night Breezes.

Sulevia Seolfor — Sulevia of the Silver Light (reflections of light on water), one of the god-touched aspects of Sulis. Commands the three dragons of Prytennia (who lend their aspect to people chosen by the Sulevia Seolfor).

Suleviae — The term for all three aspects of Sulis.

Taken allegiance — Taken allegiance is godly allegiance taken unwillingly, either by trick or force.

Territorial allegiance — Unless a person has a stronger allegiance, territorial allegiance determines the destination of the souls of the dead. There are an increasingly small number of places in the world without territorial allegiance, and in these places it is believed that the souls are lost, going to no Otherworld. Residents of such places work to gain bestowed allegiance of a god whose Otherworld can be reached from their location.

Thoth — Egyptian god, inventor of all sciences and crafts, protector of existence. Ibis headed (and at times baboon headed).

Thoth-den — Vampires of the thoth strain who practice medicine.

Toroco — A young triskelion. Red and gold. [12] O-o-O.

Triskelion — Literally ‘three legged’, but these manifest as three winged. Controlled by the Sulevia Leoth. Can ‘separate the air’, which in their case means they can do fun stuff like remove oxygen, or produce ‘trilesium’. Make a noise a bit like wordless singing—or the whirling of a weighted cord, very fast. They grow to be enormous creatures, but start out as tiny little whizzing things no bigger than a hand.

Tuatha Dé Danann — Peoples of the goddess Danu.

Coafor — A companion to a dryw, tasked with officially recording any visions.

Daughters of Lakshmi — A medical clan devoted to Lakshmi. They were given shelter by Prytennia’s queen when their practice was banned in their home kingdom, and now offer the major alternative to vampiric healing, running many hospitals.

Deiography — Attempting to measure and define the nature of gods.

Deiology — Catalogue gods and god-touched.

Dragonate — A region under the influence of one of the three dragons of Prytennia.

Dragonfly — A motorised unicycle stabilised by a tripod of wheeled legs.

Dryw — Can be regarded as a priest, but more normally a prophet or future-visionary. [13] Welsh term for druid or seer.

Exsanguincy — A death caused by a vampire who is in a state of critical hunger—whether due to injury or starvation—where normal control and decision-making is impaired.

Ficus Lapis — Engineering firm based out of Rome.

Fulgite — Crystals manufactured by the Roman Empire that function as super-efficient batteries.

Fulquus — Electricity—taken from the Latin for lightning, fulgur, and horse, equus.

Growler — Truck.

Huaxia — Huaxia (roughly meaning ‘grand and illustrious’, and signifying civilised society) was mistakenly thought to be the proper name for the people of Yue. This has spread into use for all people of the area which in our world is Eastern China (and is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to all Asian people). Can be distorted into the perjorative “Hoozie”.

Hummingbird — Originally a name for early electric taxicabs in London, but here used generally for all smaller electric cars.

Marculism — A movement based on Leah Marculin’s theory making a distinction between gods and ‘powers’, postulating that humanity has yet to encounter a true god, and the beings that have ‘answered’ humanity have merely taken on aspects of identity found in humanity’s beliefs.

Meldanian Era / Meldanian Rule — Founded by Brangwen Meldan after she called Sulis and called forth the Trifold Age.

Moonfire Feast — The occasion marking the renewal of the Treaty of the Oak.

Nathanar’s Workshop — One of the premier electrical vehicle workshops.

Nesweth — From nswt, the Egyptian term for king. While the title of Pharaoh is reserved only for Hatshepsut, in the last few centuries before rept she appointed nesweths to act for her, even before she became stone, and finally succeeding in raising one to the Amon-Re line. Since Hatshepsut entered rept, there has been only one Nesweth, Patmahset, who has ruled in Hatshepsut’s stead for the last ten centuries.

Nome — A Normarch’s area of weather influence. In Prytennia, these have been combined with the Dragonates, so that there is a Nomarch in each Dragonate.

Proconsul — Governor of a Roman province.

Pyrial — People who eroticise vampires.

Register of Blood — Lists all vampires in Prytennia, classified by line. Maintained at Demar House.

Rept — A vampire could theoretically enter rept as soon as they have become stone-blood, simply by staying out into the sun. The stone of rept is a waxy pale grey, with a soap-like texture. It is very difficult to break.

Senet — Ancient Egyptian game.

Shendy — A corruption of the Egyptian word shendyt, now used generally to refer to certain types of skirts. Panelled shendies are standard school and casual summer clothing for children. Pleated shendys are used for more formal wear, and have both summer and winter forms. Wrap shendys are seen most often in summer, though there are winter versions.

Shendies are usually in pale colours for formal wear, and darker for working gear.

Swallow — A two-person dynastat that looks like a tandem bicycle with fixed wings.

Tiger — A large personal electric car, very expensive, and usually powered by a relatively large piece of fulgite.

Treaty of the Oak — The treaty between Sulis and Cernunnos for co-existence in Prytennia. Renewed every twenty-five years at the Deep Grove during what is called the Moonfire Feast.

Trilesium — Gas used by Prytennian airships. This is actually a compound of helium brought from the sun by the triskelion, and altered in the process into something that has greater lift efficiency and yet is easier to contain.

Vampirism — Amon-Re created the first vampires when Hatshepsu begged for him to save the life of her daughter Neferure. Other Egyptian gods soon followed suit, investing each strain of vampirism with a different set of abilities.