AC Wictionary
List of interesting vocabulary from Asheron's Call with real world meanings.
- Auroch - The aurochs or urus (Bos taurus primigenius) was a very large type of cattle that was prevalent in Europe until its extinction in 1627. The animal's original scientific name, Bos primigenius, was meant as a Latin translation of the German term Auerochse or Urochs, which was (possibly incorrectly) interpreted as literally meaning "primeval ox" or "proto-ox". This scientific name is now considered invalid by ITIS, who classify aurochs under Bos taurus, the same species as domestic cattle. The size of the ancient aurochs was far larger than most modern cattle, approximately 2 metres (6.5 feet) at the shoulder, and weighing 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lbs). Aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European cave paintings such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. Early carvings of the aurochs have also been found. The impressive and dangerous aurochs survived into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East, and was worshipped throughout that area as a sacred animal.
- Behemoth of Tenkarrdun - Behemoth is a biblical creature mentioned in the Book of Job, 40:15-24. The word is most likely a plural form of bəhēmāh, meaning beast or large animal. It may be an example of pluralis excellentiae, a Hebrew method of expressing greatness by pluralizing a noun; it thus indicates that Behemoth is the largest and most powerful animal ever to exist. Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any extremely large or powerful entity.
- Chiran-Tou, the Unicorn of Grace - Qilin, also spelled Kirin, is a mythical hooved Chinese chimerical creature known throughout various East Asian cultures. The qilin is sometimes called "the Chinese unicorn". it is a hybrid animal that looks less unicorn than chimera, with the body of a deer, the head of a lion, green scales and a long forwardly-curved horn. The Japanese version (kirin) more closely resembles the Western unicorn, even though it is based on the Chinese qilin.
- Cestus - A cestus is an ancient battle glove, sometimes used in pankration. In effect, it is the classic world's equivalent to brass knuckles.
- Chittick - Chitin is a long-chain polymer of a N-acetylglucosamine, a derivative of glucose, and is found in many places throughout the natural world. It is the main component of the cell walls of fungi, the exoskeletons of arthropods, such as crustaceans (like the crab, lobster and shrimp) and the insects, including ants, beetles and butterflies, the radula of mollusks and the beaks of the cephalopods, including squid and octopuses.
- Crystal Imperator - The Latin word Imperator was a title originally roughly equivalent to commander during the period of the Roman Republic. It later went on to become a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as part of their cognomen. The English word emperor derives from the Latin word "imperator", via its French descendent empereur. There is no direct Latin equivalent of the English word emperor, however - the Roman Emperors gained authority from a large group of titles and positions, as opposed to any single title. Nevertheless, Imperator maintained a relatively constant status as a part of a Roman ruler's title throughout the principate (derived from princeps, from which we get prince) and the dominate.
- Diamond Golem Suzerain - Suzerainty is a situation in which a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which allows the tributary some limited domestic autonomy to control its foreign affairs. The more powerful entity in the suzerainty relationship, or the head of state of that more powerful entity, is called a suzerain.
- Diaphanous Nephol Golem - In optics, transparency (also called pellucidity) is the material property of allowing light to pass through. In mineralogy, another term for this property is diaphaneity. The opposite property is opacity. Transparent materials are clear — they can be seen through. Translucent materials allow light to pass through them only diffusely: they cannot be seen through. Translucency does not include see-through colored objects such as (for instance) emerald in its cut state (which is transparent) but does include things such as frosted glass which allow light to come through but no distinct images.
- Dolabra - The dolabra is a versatile tool used by the people in Italy since ancient times. The dolabra could serve as a pickaxe used by miners and excavators, a priest's implement for ritual religious slaughtering of animals and as an entrenching tool (mattock) used in Roman infantry tactics.
- Empyrean - Empyrean, from the Medieval Latin empyreus, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek, "in or on the fire (pyr)", properly Empyrean Heaven, is the place in the highest heaven, which in ancient cosmologies was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle's natural philosophy).
- Flamberge - A flame-bladed sword or wave-bladed sword has a characteristically undulating style of blade. The wave in the blade is often considered to contribute a flame-like quality to the appearance of a sword. While largely decorative, some attributes of the waved blade were useful in combat. The flame-bladed sword is also known as a flamberge.
- Geomancy, Laedron the Geomancer, Nomendar al-Rakh, Node-Leech's Orders - Geomancy (from Greek geōmanteia< geo, "earth" + manteia, "divination"; a calque of Arabic ‘ilm al-raml, "the science of sand"), is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground, or how handfuls of soil, dirt or sand land when someone tosses them. Geomancy in western tradition requires no instruments and no calculations; it is based solely on the human propensity for pattern recognition. Modern methods of geomancy include, in addition to the traditional pen-and-paper or sand methods, using geomancy cards, random number generators, or thrown objects. Geomancy formed part of the required study of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the late 19th century, and also survives in modern occult practice.
- Glacial Margrave Golem - A Markgraf, or margrave, originally functioned as the military governor of a Carolingian mark, a medieval border province. A margrave had jurisdiction over a march (German: Mark), which also become known, after his title, as a margraviate or margravate, strictly speaking the correct word for his office. As outlying areas tended to have great importance to the central realms of kings and princes, and they often became larger than those nearer the interior, margraves often acquired considerably greater power than other counts of a realm. Being on the border, a Margrave by definition had to maintain armed forces and fortifications which would enable him to withstand an invasion - and these made his position stronger and more independent towards his own sovereign. Moreover, if successful in war, a Margrave might conquer considerable territory which he would tend to keep to himself, acquiring more power and wealth - and in some cases eventually building himself up as an independent King.
- Heliotropic - The property of some plants of turning under the influence of light; either positively (towards the light) or negatively (away from the light). (Ancient Falatacot Trinket)
- Hermetic, Pearl of Hermetic Linking, Hermetic Link (Spell) - The word hermetic is commonly applied to literary or graphical symbolism that is exceedingly obscure, convoluted, or esoteric. In that context, and not in any other context, hermeticism is the deliberate use of hermetic imagery.
- Katar - A katar (Devanāgarī: कटार), also known as a Bundi dagger, is a type of short punching sword that is native to the Indian subcontinent and popular elsewhere for swift and quick attacks. It is notable for its horizontal hand grip, which results in the blade of the sword sitting above the user's knuckles.
- Leviathan - Leviathan (twisted, coiled) is a Biblical sea creature referred to in the Old Testament (Psalm 74:13-14; Job 41; Isaiah 27:1). The word leviathan has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature. In the novel Moby-Dick it refers to great whales, and in Modern Hebrew, it means simply "whale".
- Ley Line, Shattered Lines - Ley lines are hypothetical alignments of a number of places of geographical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths. The ley lines and their intersection points are believed by some to resonate a special psychic or mystical energy, often including elements such as geomancy, dowsing or UFOs, stating that, for instance, UFOs travel along ley lines (in the way that one might observe that cars use roads and highways). This belief postulates that points on lines have electrical or magnetic forces associated with them.
- Lorica - Lorica is a Latin word meaning body armor.
- Mnemosyne Collection Site, Titanic Dericost Mnemosyne, Rytheran's Mnemosyne - Mnemosyne was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. This titaness was the daughter of Gaia and Uranus and the mother of the Muses by Zeus. In Hesiod's Theogony, kings and poets receive their powers of authoritative speech from their possession of Mnemosyne and their special relationship with the Muses.
- Mount Lethe - In Classical Greek, Lethe literally means "forgetfulness" or "concealment". It is related to the Greek word for "truth": a-lethe-ia, meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment". In Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the several rivers of Hades: those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness.
- Nubilous Golem - Nubilous means cloudy or vague. A cloud is a visible mass of droplets or frozen crystals floating in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. A cloud is also a visible mass attracted by gravity (clouds can also occur as masses of material in interstellar space, where they are called interstellar clouds and nebulae.) The branch of meteorology in which clouds are studied is nephology or cloud physics.
- Ono - Ono (斧, Ono?) is the Japanese word for an "axe" or a "hatchet", and as such it is used to describe various tools of the similar basic structure. As with axes in other cultures, ono are sometimes employed as weapons. Generally four feet long with a heavy, over-sized steel blade.
- Oubliette Portal Gem - An oubliette (from the French oubliettes) was a form of dungeon which was accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling. To exit an oubliette was nearly impossible without outside help. The word comes from the same root as the French oublier, "to forget," as it was used for those prisoners the captors wished to forget. Most prisoners were left to die of starvation. Another form of oubliette was a shelf in a long steeply sloping tunnel leading down to the moat or to the sea. Once cast down the tunnel, a victim would either slowly starve or cast themselves further down to drown.
- Remoran - Remoras or suckerfish are elongate brown fish and their distinctive first dorsal fin takes the form of a modified oval sucker-like organ with slat-like structures that open and close to create suction and take a firm hold against the skin of larger marine animals. By sliding backward, the remora can increase the suction, or it can release itself by swimming forward. Remoras sometimes attach themselves to small boats. They also swim well on their own, with a sinuous motion. Remoras are primarily tropical open-ocean dwellers, occasionally found in temperate or coastal waters. In ancient times, the remora was believed to stop a ship from sailing. In Latin remora means "delay," while the genus name Echeneis comes from Greek echein ("to hold") and naus ("a ship"). Particularly notable is the account of Pliny the Younger, in which the remora is blamed for the defeat of Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium and (indirectly) for the death of Caligula.
- Simulacrum - Simulacrum from the Latin simulacrum which means "likeness, similarity", is first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation of another thing, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god; by the late 19th century, it had gathered a secondary association of inferiority: an image without the substance or qualities of the original. In the vernacular, "Doppelgänger" has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person. The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death.
- Theodolite, Sins of the Fathers Teaser, Breaking the Crystal Core - A Theodolite is an instrument for measuring both horizontal and vertical angles, as used in triangulation networks. It is a key tool in surveying and engineering work, particularly on inaccessible grounds, but theodolites have been adapted for other specialized purposes in fields like meteorology and rocket launch technology. A modern theodolite consists of a movable telescope mounted within two perpendicular axes, the horizontal or trunnion axis, and the vertical axis. When the telescope is pointed at a desired object, the angle of each of these axes can be measured with great precision, typically on the scale of arcseconds.
- Tuatara Plains - The tuatara is a reptile endemic to New Zealand which, though it resembles most lizards, is actually part of a distinct lineage. The two species of tuatara are the only surviving members of its order, which flourished around 200 million years ago. Their dentition, in which two rows of teeth in the upper jaw overlap one row on the lower jaw, is unique among living species. They are further unusual in having a pronounced parietal eye, dubbed the "third eye", whose current function is a subject of ongoing research. The name "tuatara" derives from the Māori language, and means "peaks on the back".
- Turbid Nephol Golem - Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by individual particles (suspended solids) that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Fluids can contain suspended solid matter consisting of particles of many different sizes. While some suspended material will be large enough and heavy enough to settle rapidly to the bottom container if a liquid sample is left to stand (the settleable solids), very small particles will settle only very slowly or not at all if the sample is regularly agitated or the particles are colloidal. These small solid particles cause the liquid to appear turbid.
- Ursuin - Bears (family Ursidae) are mammals in the order Carnivora. Common characteristics of modern bears include a large body with stocky legs, a long snout, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and a short tail.
- Yari - The Japanese term for spear, or more specifically, the straight-headed spear. The martial art of wielding the yari is called sōjutsu.