Editing Talislantan Terminology (section)

==Virdish==
The Virds are a nomad people of the Desertlands, brought into the Rajan hegemony with the rise of  the Nihilist Cult.  In the New Age, their language and its use were intertwined with pre-Rajan references, Rajan-specific words, and expressions common throughout the Desert Kingdoms.

<i>'''Irg'''</i>    A Virdish word that literally referred to someone who commands an infantry battalion and, thus, liaises regularly with the Rajan. Such positions were held by folk who considered themselves superior to others in cleverness and guile. They were also executed by the Nihilists with great frequency. An ''irg'', is therefore, primarily, someone who thinks himself clever and, secondly, someone likely to get in trouble because of that belief.

<i>'''Jyort'''</i>   A good example of Virdish, abbreviated expletive. Before the Rajan suzerainty, the Utikar people, a sub-tribe of the Vird, were well-known for their flowery and poetic curses and might resolve disputes with hours-long displays of such, although this fact is unknown in the New Age to all but scholars of obscenity (who are more common than might be suspected). Life under the Nihilist Cult has restrained this characteristic and led to the common practice of abbreviating expletive so as to render them both more efficient of breath (frequently in short supply while at war) and indecipherable by the Rajan.

''Jyort'' encapsulates, as it were, the following, “May the Seven Cancerous Mouths of Death rend you into small pieces and swallow you; may the Fifteen Hellish Stomachs of Death burn your tender parts with their poisonous acids; and may the Twenty-two Flaming Rectums of Death, excrete you onto a world less pleasant even that this!”

<i>'''Spitting'''</i>   Spitting, as a waste of precious water, was an indication that the speaker has conceded a point of debate and, in so doing, “sacrificed” precious bodily essence.

Cp. "Spitting over the side of a ship" above for a differing Gao Din understanding of the action.

<i>'''Squintting and grunting'''</i>   The traditional Virdish equivalent to a laugh.

<i>'''Vrilk'''</i>   An appallingly rude verb.  Cp. ''zuj''.

<i>'''Water Guardian'''</i>   The little voice that sometimes speaks words of caution to the Virdish nomads just before doing something foolish.  Water, in this case, in being poetically used in place of "life".  This may reflect ancient, desert conceptions of what constitures life; alternately, it may be a way of rendering the archaic belief accetable during the period of Rajan hegemony, as guarding life was an heretcial concept under the Nihilist Cult.

<i>'''Zuj'''</i>   Delicacy forbids the translation of this rather rude, anatomical term.