Talislantan Terminology

Talislantan Terminology, Slang, and References

Talislanta is an exotic place full of strange beings and happenings. Naturally enough, this oddness is reflected in the native terminology and idiom. Below is an attempt to present some Talislantan usage, rendered into the nearest English equivalent. Some idiom in common usage across the continent will appear first, followed by more regional, national, and tribal expressions.

Common Talislantan Idiom

The avir eats before the ogront. The quicker fellow gets the goodies.

The fastest way through the malathrope is the belly. Disaster is best faced head-on.

If it’s not the omnivrax, it’s the malathrope. Trouble is omnipresent.

Your certainty regarding my luck makes my own diminish. A common expression reflecting both a pessimistic view of the world and a cynical notion that anyone who praises your luck will soon be trying to take advantage of you.

You're as nervous as a long-tailed Jaka in an Erd herd. Metaphor expressing nervousness.

The book was written in dust! A phrase coined by magicians researching old magics, referring to books in which the pages have disintegrated. The phrase has now spread to mean any book in disrepair or which is incomplete/indecipherable.

Djaffir

Honored beyond Honor Phrase common amongst older Djaffir when they wish to sweeten the palate of those with power.

I have (or have not) drunk from that oasis The oasis in this expression is metaphorical for the memory. The phrase is used when the speaker s confronted by something that he may or may not have encountered before. Somewhat analogous to the American idiom “that does (or does not) ring a bell”.

Gao Din

The Gao Din are a synthetic culture, created during the early years of the New Age when the City-State of Phaedra created an insular penal colony and then abandoned it. The reusaltant mix of ethnic and cultural types produced a rich stew of idiom, which has only recently begun to attract the attention of scholars.

Spitting over the side of the ship A Gao gesture signifying an attempt to forget something meaningless - one more drop in the sea.

An interesting comparison might be made with Virdish understandings of spitting; cp. "Spitting" below. In point of fact, one ethnohistorian, Lyxandrous of Cymril, made a monumental study of expectoratory customs across the continent. The resultant monograph, Waters of Life: Sibilant Studies, was not one of the Lyceum Arcanum Press's greatest sellers. Only ten copies were ever reported sold, those being sold to students who took Prof. (retired) Lyxandrous' one and only offering of a seminar on the topic.

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.

Irg 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.

Jyort 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!”

Spitting 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.

Squintting and grunting The traditional Virdish equivalent to a laugh.

Vrilk An appallingly rude verb. Cp. zuj.

Water Guardian 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.

Zuj Delicacy forbids the translation of this rather rude, anatomical term.

Wilderlands Region

Crazy as a malamentis. The malamentis is a smallish, sextapedal, ruminant animal which makes it’s home in the deserts of the Wilderlands. Given the generally deserty conditions of the deserts, many naturalists have wondered what in the Seven Moons a ruminant is doing in such a location. In fact, some have speculated that the malamentoi may well be wondering the same thing, as the chief field data of the beast consists of watching the small creatures, thin and dehydrated, climb to the top of the tallest outcropping in the area, and throw themselves to their dooms in various, spectacular ways. Frequently, these “death leaps” include large groups of the things, locking limbs and performing extremely impressive aerial acrobatics while making a distinctly disturbing keening noise in the few seconds preceding their flattening upon the desert floor.

No less an authority than the esteemed Thystram is recollected to have called the malamentis “the craziest being I have ever had the displeasure to study.” This note is nowhere to be found in the Thystram’s collected works, but rather in the notes of his acquaintances. Those same sources note that the famous naturalist was so disturbed by creatures, that he ripped the pages detailing them from his works and consigned them to the fire.

Hecky A common adjective in the Wilderlands of the New Age in both senses of the term: popular and vulgar. Vulgar, in that no one with any class at all would use it. And thus, common to the Wilderlands of Za. It meant "crazy" and would be the approximate equivalent to "nuts" or "looney" in early 20th century American usage.

King Shaar The subject of a romantic fable that was widely-told throughout the Wilderlands region. It which was usually recounted as history, although reputable historians scoff at such assertions. Shaar is always portrayed as the bravest, handsomest, wealthiest, and most virtuous ruler of whatever people happen to be telling the tale. He was, however, unable to produce an heir to the throne (for some reason) and in his melancholy, locked himself away in his keep, or fortress, or tomb, or sky-castle (depending again, on the version of the story) to brood. Therefore, many fertile young women went through truly mind-boggling lengths to reach the King and present themselves as prospective brides (or whatever the culturally-appropriate position was). After many years of this, one equally virtuous and becoming young women, who was too modest to pursue the legendary ruler, accidentally discovered his place of solitude and Shaar was instantly besotted with her. His announcement of marriage was said to have triggered a wave of suicides across the land and many otherwise unmarked cairns and mounds across the Wilderlands are said to those of women who killed themselves when Shaar’s nuptials were made public.

Given the relative frequency of violent death, and consequent hurried burials, in the Wilderlands, it would seem that this terribly romantic legend is used to explain the much more prosaic reality behind the ubiquitous unmarked graves in that region.

Trool-headed The trool is a squat, ungainly beast of foul temper inhabiting the Wilderlands region. It’s appearance suggests the worst characteristics of the reptile, the mammal, and the amphibian; it’s bloated, disc-shaped body is more attractive only than the tiny, wedge-shaped head on top of it. Despite these aesthetics accomplishments, the trool is more famous for it’s behaviour than its appearance. Trools are infamous both for their strict sense of entitlement and their denseness. Upon meeting another creature, a trool will always pause and wait for the other to move out of the way, giving it primacy. Trools cannot speak, but seem to believe that the other will intuit what it wants. A trool will quite literally die before it allows another creature to pass it. This is attested to by the many dead trool that have been observed expired while silently awaiting tree-stumps and rock outcroppings to move aside and let them pass.

Trool-headed is thus used to mean stubbornly stupid.

You are as useful as a skeelix! Skeelix were a flying pest common to the entire Wilderlands region. In appearance, they were something like a tiny, unshelled mollusk, with pale, mucousy flesh and triple-wings of thinly, calceous nature. In the wilds, these vermin were fairly inactive during the heat of the day, to avoid excessive sun exposure and consequent drying out. However, they were attracted to man- or other-made structures and “hide-aways”. They did not bite or sting like some other vermin, but they had a nasty habit of appearing underfoot, hand, or other appendage and squishing in most unpleasant manner.

Incidentally, calling someone a “skeelix” was considered grounds for lethal dueling and blood feud among many Wilderlands tribes.