MoKaM - Footnotes
Footnotes in MoKaM, numbered in the order in which they appear in the book:
Volkhv: Gender-neutral term for a priest(ess) of Spiritism.
Wolf: When capitalized, a sapient species with lupine characteristics.
Godlight: A light source enchanted to repel weak demons.
Glowlight lotus: A climbing vine with flowering lotuses with glowing bulbs. Can be grown indoors.
Mys and drooka: An age/marriage-neutral term of respect for any woman or femme-presenting person. ‘Drooka’ means ‘a female/femme-presenting friend’ but can be used with strangers. The male/masc-presenting or neutral equivalent is ‘drook.’
Pentagonal Dominion: The universe of the six planes.
A Ruomi Hour: Idiomatic expression meaning ‘a long time.’
Biped-bibrach: Two-legged and two-armed.
Aloutia: One of the six planes of the Pentagonal Dominion.
Ulese: A sapient species of people with long eyebrows. Also their language, resembling Greek.
The Circle of Friends: A group of four Demon Lords and their companions.
The Demonic Hierarchy: The organization into which many demons are magically bound.
Ophidia: One of the six planes of the Pentagonal Dominion.
Hollow Void: Outer space. Also the Demon Lord of Sorrow.
Lira’s acid: A painful substance, a magically enchanted form of hydroiodic acid.
Aloutia’s rings: Multicolored planetary rings. From a viewpoint in the extreme north and south, they appear on the horizon.
Deep Sea: The ocean. A freshwater, multiplanar demon and the Lord of Despair.
The Makai: One of the six planes of the Pentagonal Dominion. Realm of demons.
Spiritua: One of the six planes of the Pentagonal Dominion. The afterlife.
Sapienti: People, a being of intelligence. Excludes animals and feral demons.
Spiritist: Worshipper of the ten Elemental Spirits of the Decatheon.
Ruomalainen/Ruo: A species of people with ice inside their bellies.
Godblood: Magic-user. The descendant of a God down to three generations.
Susi: In Aloutian-English, a boar-like animal. In Ruomi, a wolf.
Ruomi: Land of the Ruo, a vassal kingdom within the Aloutian Empire. Also an adjective for something from their country. Also their language, resembling Finnish.
Gastrobacter: Symbiotic gut bacteria existing in all people and animals of the Pentagonal Dominion. Uses Death elemental magic to destroy waste products. Thanks to them, the people of this world do not defecate or urinate, nor do they have anuses.
Longest Ruomi Hour: A month-long period in which the sun never sets in Ruomi.
English: The language from the mysterious Land of Eng in the Terran Dominion. Widely spoken throughout Aloutia.
Ebonwood: The wood of a tree with black wood, bark, and leaves.
Pavo: Peafowl, phoenixes, and violas. Three birds in which the males have colorful plumage. One of the symbols of Lucognidus, if only because his surname is Pavo.
Nullbrach: People without ‘hands’ or any other appendage which might turn a doorknob.
Daga: A sapient species of people resembling turtles with shells upwards of thirty-five feet tall (over ten meters).
Aloutian red: Aloutian-English word for the color burgundy.
Elementron: Magic subatomic particle which often binds to metals.
Flamboil’s Blessing: The God of Fire’s blessing which prevents blessed people and animals from being hurt by heat or fire.
Eversun: Near-star radiating heat and light. Always shines upon the top of Starsine.
Bansuri: Bamboo flute commonly seen in Vega and Ophidia.
Sleva: Language commonly spoken throughout Aloutia, resembling Slavic languages.
Orochigo: Language commonly spoken throughout Ophidia, resembling Japanese.
Lucognidus’s/The Lord’s Octagram: An eight-pointed star with pavo eye-spots inside each point.
Carrier blood cells: Equivalent of red blood cells, so named because they carry oxygen to cells. Pentagonal Dominionists do not have red blood because they use coboglobin rather than hemoglobin.
Mantodea: A species of sapient people, resembling praying mantises. They have the ability to learn biological information from consuming genetic data (DNA or RNA.)
Sin-Derion: A species of sapient people resembling plesiosaurs. Carnivorous.
Scale-monoceros: An animal, a centrosaur, a one-horned herbivorous dinosaur.
Near-star: Celestial bodies found only in the Cosmo plane, balls of light of various sizes, with unique orbits and gravitational effects on other celestial bodies.
Life Tree City: A city of giant trees on Munil in the Cosmo plane. The place Calinthe hatched.
Sea dogs: Seals and sea lions.
Merchants of flesh: Slavers and corpse-stealers who sell men to Ophidia and bodies to the Makai.
Orochijin: A sapient species of people resembling snakes.
Shinkou Sueba: A military force in Ophidia also serving as police, slavers, home inspectors, and guards.
Nullped: Having no legs e.g. like a snake or slug.
Solitude: A place of isolation according to Spiritism where evil-doers are sent. It is neither permanent nor torturous, unlike the ancient, barbaric concept of Hell.
Mud and sludge: Common swear throughout the Pentagonal Dominion, equivalent to ‘shit.’
Decatheon: The ten Elemental Spirits/Gods in Spiritism.
Poltergeist: A species of sapient people who can turn invisible.
Equara: A species of sapient people resembling unicorns.
Death beam: A Death-elemental power, specifically meant to kill anything in the domain of the Life element it touches. It will not kill living organisms or material belonging to the Plant element such as plants/wood, fungi, and bacteria.
Shinigami: Servants of the Death God Sawyer, whose job is to erase corpses. They themselves are deceased ghosts and cannot be seen or otherwise detected by mortals, though exceptions occur when Sawyer sends one on unique missions.
Merchant of dance: A Godblood-only profession. An assassin.
Tro-odon: Carnivorous Cosmonite ground-bird known for their intelligence. Can be tamed.
Sawdusting: Traditional funerary custom in Spiritism, in which a shinigami destroys a body, leaving not even atoms of the original body.
Seven-color cloth: An inflammable material, completely heat-proof.
Murasake: A hard liquor popular in Ophidia made from rice and flavored with the fruit known as a ‘purple.’
Biped-quadrubrach: Two-legged and four-armed.
The Ophidian Revolution: A demon-led event that led to the enslavement of men on Ophidia.
Gozen: A title applied to the end of a noblewoman’s name.
Domovoi and Thysanura: two sapient species with unique communication methods.
Flier-rider: A rider of any flying creature, sapient or non-sapient, including Dragons, birds, or coatls.
Bampi: A term of endearment meaning ‘Grandfather.’
Khopesh: A sword with a curved blade.
Cohort: A triad in the Hierarchy. All demons in the Hierarchy are in a cohort underneath the same boss. Unless they are at the bottom, they also have three direct underlings who are also a cohort.
Dwtty: Affectionate term meaning ‘little.’
Cotza: A desert-dwelling bovine.
Lily: A lesbian. A woman who prefers women/femme-presenting people.
Cwtch: A hug. Or as Vivea would say “a hug that’s better than a regular hug.”
Demi: Gender-neutral term for Demigods and Demigoddesses.
Khussa: A shoe with curved, pointed tips. Among Phoenians with long tentacle-toes, these are one of the few kinds of shoes that will contain their toes.
Agape: One of the eight forms of love: A worshipper’s love of God, and God’s love for his worshippers.
Hwyl: A word in Williford’s language meaning ‘good bye.’
Grave bolete: A mushroom that can grow up to thirty feet tall. They decompose bodies quickly and were used as graves in ancient times, before the process of sawdusting was established.
Weather/storm schedule: As the Gods control the weather in the Pentagonal Dominion, weather is predicted with 100% accuracy—barring a God’s shifting mood—a whole year in advance.
Hierophant: Each God has one Hierophant, a mortal person, to whom they will speak through if they need to convey orders to the mortal world.
Lotus: Polite term for sapienti asexuality.
Ephemeropteran: One of the 88 sapienti species, the ‘ephemeral-lived ones.’
Lightning church: military compounds.
Telekinesis/teleportation: One of the eight powers of Mind elemental magic. Teleportation is a branch of telekinesis. All teleporters are telekinetics, but not all telekinetics can teleport.
Ingle: One of the 88 sapient species.
Sparkato: One of the Decatheon, the God of Lightning. He abhors mortals harnessing electricity and will destroy objects he deems “too technologically advanced.”
Rose: A gay man. Specifically, a man or masc-presenting person who is attracted to other men and masc-presenting people.
Lirist: One who engages in similar activities as Lira, inventor of Lira’s acid. A sadist.
Crystalights: Crystals that glow for upwards of 80 years. Can be carved and dyed.
Telli: One of the 88 sapient species, now long-dead.
Leafear rabbit: Rabbits with photosynthesizing cells on their ears, making them resemble leaves.
The V-sign: An obscene gesture, equivalent of the Terran middle finger.
Quad-cat: A four-eyed cat with a variety of fur colors.
Kanzashi: Hair ornaments with elaborate, decorative flora, ribbons, gems, and pearls.
Hakama: Trousers with wide, deep-pleated legs.
Miko: Orochigo word for ‘priestess’, a female volkhv of Ophidian Spiritism.
Cler: Flies and similar flying insects
Surryle: The Demon Lord of Envy, whose body is a forest in Aloutia.
Troika: A three-person chess-like board game. The three sides symbolically represent Aloutia, Ophidia, and the Makai. The double agent is a piece that can only capture or be captured by one side.
Valkojärvi trout: A fish living in the frozen lakes of Ruomi.
Lassi: Milk-based, yoghurt-like drink popular in Vega. Usually flavored for additional taste.
Ryo: A unit of Ophidian currency, equal to about two hours of wages for an average female worker.
Cherish Cherry: Cherry from a genetically-modified tree. Merely getting the juices in one’s mouth can knock a person unconscious.
The Greed Wars: A series of riots and revolts in Aloutia that led to the destruction of the upper class, the creation of minimum and maximum wage laws, equity and anti-discrimination laws, and the Mind elemental prohibition of money.
Ebonoir, Winyan, Pella, Viemeno: some of the 88 sapient species.
Purple (noun): A sweet, purple-colored fruit.