Read Off Armageddon Reef Online
Authors: David Weber
MAYSAHN, ZHASPAHR
âPrince Hektor's senior agent in Charis.
MAYTHIS, LIEUTENANT FRAIZHER, CORISANDIAN NAVY
âtrue name of Captain Wahltayr Seatown.
MHULVAYN, OSKAHR
âone of Prince Hektor's agents in Charis.
MYCHAIL, RAIYAN
âa major textile producer and sailmaker in Tellesberg.
MYLLYR, ARCHBISHOP URVYN
âArchbishop of Sodar.
MYRGYN, SIR KEHVYN, CORISANDIAN NAVY
âCO, galley
Corisande
.
NYLZ, COMMODORE KOHDY, ROYAL CHARISIAN NAVY
âCO of one of High Admiral Lock Island's galley squadrons.
NYOU, KING GORJAH III
âKing of Tarot.
OARMASTER, SYGMAHN, ROYAL CHARISIAN MARINES
âa member of Crown Prince Cayleb's bodyguard.
OHLSYN, TRAHVYS
âEarl of Pine Hollow, Prince Nahrmahn's of Emerald's first councillor and cousin.
OLYVYR, AHNYET
âSir Dustyn Olyvyr's life.
OLYVYR, SIR DUSTYN
âa leading Tellesberg ship designer; chief constructor, Royal Charisian Navy.
OWL
âNimue Alban's AI, based on the manufacturer's acronym: Ordoñes-Westinghouse-Lytton RAPIER Tactical Computer, Mark 17a.
PEI, ADMIRAL KAU-ZHI, TFN
âCO, Operation Breakaway; older brother of commodore Pei Kau-yung.
PEI, COMMODORE KAU-YUNG, TFN
âCO, Operation Ark final escort.
PEI, DR. SHAN-WEI, PH.D.
âCommodore Pei Kau-yung's wife; senior terraforming expert for Operation Ark.
PHONDA, MADAM AHNZHELYK
âproprietor of one of the City of Zion's most discrete brothels.
PINE HOLLOW, EARL
âsee Trahvys Ohlsyn.
PRINCE CAYLEB
âsee Cayleb Ahrmahk.
PRINCE HEKTOR
âsee Hektor Daykyn.
PRINCE NAHRMAHN
âsee Nahrmahn Baytz.
PROCTOR, DR. ELIAS, PH.D.
âa member of Pei Shan-wei's staff and a noted cyberneticist.
QUEEN SHARLEYAN
âsee Sharleyan Tayt.
QWENTYN, COMMODORE DONYRT, CORISANDIAN NAVY
âBaron Tanlyr Keep, one of Duke of Black Water's squadron commander's.
RAHLSTAHN, ADMIRAL GHARTH, EMERALD NAVY
âEarl of Mahndyr, CO, Emerald Navy.
RAHLSTYN, COMMODORE ERAYK, DOHLARAN NAVY
âone of Duke Malikai's squadron commanders.
RAICE, BYNZHAMYN
âBaron Wave Thunder, King Haarahld VII's spymaster and a member of his Privy Council.
RAYNO, ARCHBISHOP WYLLYM
âArchbishop of Chiang-wu; adjutant of the Order of Schueler.
RHOBAIR, VICAR
âsee also Rhobair Duchairn.
ROPEWALK, COLONEL AHDAM, CHARISIAN ROYAL GUARD
âCO, Charisian Royal Guard.
ROWYN, CAPTAIN HORAHS
âCO, Sir Dustyn Olyvyr's yacht
Ahnyet
.
RUSTMYN, EDYMYND
âBaron Stonekeep; King Gorjah III of Tarot's first councillor and spymaster.
SAHDLYR, LIEUTENANT BYNZHAMYN, ROYAL CHARISIAN NAVY
âsecond lieutenant, HMS
Dreadnought
.
SANDYRS, MAHRAK
âBaron Green Mountain; Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm's first minister.
SEAFARMER, SIR RHYZHARD
âBaron Wave Thunder's senior investigator.
SEAMOUNT, BARON
âsee Sir Ahlfryd Hyndryk.
SEATOWN, CAPTAIN WAHLTAYR
âCO of merchant ship
Fraynceen
, acting as a courier for Prince Hektor's spies in Charis. See also Lieutenant Fraizher Maythis.
SHANDYR, HAHL
âBaron of Shandyr, Prince Nahrmahn of Emerald's spymaster.
SHARPFIELD, EARL
âsee Sir Lewk Cohlmyn.
SHUMAKYR, FATHER SYMYN
âArchbishop Erayk Dynnys' secretary for his 891 pastoral visit; an agent of the Grand Inquisitor.
SMOLTH, ZHAN
âstar pitcher for the Tellesberg Krakens.
SOMERSET, CAPTAIN MARTIN LUTHER, TFN
âCO, TFNS
Excalibur
.
STAYNAIR, BISHOP MAIKEL
âBishop of Tellesberg; King Haarahld VII's confessor and adviser.
STAYNAIR, COMMODORE SIR DOMYNYK, ROYAL CHARISIAN NAVY
âspecialist in naval tactics; CO Experimental Squadron; Crown Prince Cayleb's second-in-command; younger brother of Bishop Maikel Staynair; later admiral.
STOHNAR, LORD PROTECTOR GREYGHOR
âelected ruler of the Siddarmark Republic.
STONEKEEP, BARON
âsee Edymynd Rustmyn.
STYWYRT, CAPTAIN DAHRYL, ROYAL CHARISIAN NAVY
âCO HMS
Typhoon
.
SYMMYNS, TOHMAS
âGrand Duke of Zebediah, senior member and head of Council of Zebediah.
TALLMYN, CAPTAIN GERVAYS, EMERALD NAVY
âsecond-in-command of the Royal Dockyard in Tranjyr.
TANLYR KEEP, BARON
âsee Donyrt Qwentyn.
TAYT, QUEEN SHARLEYAN
âQueen of Chisholm.
THIESSEN, CAPTAIN JOSEPH, TFN
âAdmiral Pei Kau-zhi's chief of staff.
THIRSK, EARL
âsee Lywys Gardynyr.
TOHMYS, FRAHNKLYN
âCrown Prince Cayleb's tutor.
TILLYER, LIEUTENANT HENRAI, ROYAL CHARISIAN NAVY
âHigh Admiral Lock Island's personal aide.
TIRIAN, DUKE
âsee Kahlvyn Ahrmahk.
TRYNAIR, VICAR ZAHMSYN
âChancellor of the Council of Vicars of the Church of God Awaiting; one of the so-called Group of Four.
TRYVYTHYN, CAPTAIN SIR DYNZYL, ROYAL CHARISIAN NAVY
âCO, HMS
Royal Charis
.
TYRN, ARCHBISHOP LYAM
âArchbishop of Emerald.
URVYN, ARCHBISHOP
âsee Urvyn Myllyr.
WAVE THUNDER, BARON
âsee Bynzhamyn Raice.
WHAITE, CAPTAIN STYVYN
âCO, merchantship
Sea Cloud
, a courier for Prince Hektor's spies in Charis. See also Robyrt Bradlai.
WHITE CASTLE, BARON
âsee Tohmys Bahrmyn.
WHITE FORD, BARON
âsee Gahvyn Mahrtyn.
WYLLYM, ARCHBISHOP
âsee Wyllym Rayno.
WYLLYMS, MARHYS
âthe Duke of Tirian's majordomo.
WYLSYNN, FATHER PAITYR
âa priest of the Order of Schueler, the Church of God Awaiting's intendant for Charis.
WYNSTYN, LIEUTENANT KYNYTH, CORISANDIAN NAVY
âfirst lieutenant galley
Corisande
.
YOWANCE, EHRNAIST
âRayjhis Yowance's deceased elder brother.
YOWANCE, RAYJHIS
âEarl of Gray Harbor, King Haarahld's first minister and head of the Privy Council.
ZEBEDIAH, GRAND DUKE
âsee Tohmas Symmyns.
ZAHMSYN, ARCHBISHOP HALMYN
âArchbishop of Gorath; senior prelate of the Kingdom of Dohlar.
ZAHMSYN, VICAR
âsee Zahmsyn Trynair.
ZHANSAN, FRAHNK
âthe Duke of Tirian's senior guardsman.
ZHASPYR, VICAR
âsee Zahmsyn Clyntahn.
ZHASYN, ARCHBISHOP
âsee Zhasyn Cahnyr.
ZHEPPSYN, CAPTAIN NYKLAS, EMERALD NAVY
âCO, galley
Triton
.
ZHESSYP, LACHLYN
âKing Haarahld VII's valet.
ZHOELSYN, LIEUTENANT PHYLYP, TAROTISIAN NAVY
âsecond lieutenant,
King Gorjah II
.
Anshinritsumei
âliterally “enlightenment,” from the Japanese. Rendered in the Safehold Bible, however, as “the little fire,” the lesser touch of God's spirit. The maximum enlightenment of which mortals are capable.
Borer
âa form of Safeholdian shellfish which attaches itself to the hulls of ships or the timbers of wharves by boring into them. There are several types of borer, the most destructive of which actually eat their way steadily deeper into a wooden structure. Borers and rot are the two most serious threats (aside, of course, from fire) to wooden hulls.
Catamount
âa smaller version of the Safeholdian slash lizard. The catamount is very fast and smarter than its larger cousin, which means that it tends to avoid humans. It is, however, a lethal and dangerous hunter in its own right.
Commentaries, The
âthe authorized interpretations and doctrinal expansions upon the
Holy Writ
. They represent the officially approved and sanctioned interpretation of the original scripture.
Choke tree
âa low-growing species of tree native to Safehold. It comes in many varieties, and is found in most of the planet's climate zones. It is dense-growing, tough, and difficult to eradicate, but it requires quite a lot of sunlight to flourish, which means it is seldom found in mature old-growth forests.
Cotton silk
âa plant native to Safehold which shares many of the properties of silk and cotton. It is very light weight and strong, but the raw fiber comes from a plant pod which is even more filled with seeds than Old Earth cotton. Because of the amount of hand labor required to harvest and process the pods and to remove the seeds from it, cotton silk is very expensive.
Council of Vicars
âthe Church of God Awaiting's equivalent of the College of Cardinals.
Doomwhale
âthe most dangerous predator of Safehold, although, fortunately, it seldom bothers with anything as small as humans. Doomwhales have been known to run to as much as one hundred feet in length, and they are pure carnivores. Each doomwhale requires a huge range, and encounters with them are rare, for which human beings are just as glad, thank you. Doomwhales will eat
anything
â¦including the largest krakens. They have been known, on
extremely
rare occasions, to attack merchant ships and war galleys.
Dragon
âthe largest native Safeholdian land life forms. Dragons come in two varieties, the common dragon and the great dragon. The common dragon is about twice the size of a Terran elephant and is herbivorous. The great dragon is smaller, about half to two-thirds the size of the common dragon, but carnivorous, filling the highest feeding niche of Safehold's land-based ecology. They look very much alike, aside from their size and the fact that the common dragon has herbivore teeth and jaws, whereas the great dragon has elongated jaws with sharp, serrated teeth. They have six limbs and, unlike the slash lizard, are covered in thick, well-insulated hide rather than fur.
Five-day
âa Safeholdian “week,” consisting of only five days, Monday through Friday.
Fleming moss
â(usually lower case). An absorbent moss native to Safehold which was genetically engineered by Shan-wei's terraforming crews to possess natural antibiotic properties. It is a staple of Safeholdian medical practice.
Grasshopper
âa Safeholdian insect analogue which grows to a length of as much as nine inches and is carnivorous. Fortunately, they do not occur in the same numbers as terrestrial grasshoppers.
Group of Four
âthe four vicars who dominate and effectively control the Council of Vicars of the Church of God Awaiting.
Hairatha Dragons
âthe Hairatha professional baseball team. The traditional rivals of the Tellesberg Krakens for the Kingdom Championship.
Insights, The
âthe recorded pronouncements and observations of the Church of God Awaiting's Grand Vicars and canonized saints. They represent deeply significant spiritual and inspirational teachings, but, as the work of fallible mortals, do not have the same standing as the
Holy Writ
itself.
Intendant
âthe cleric assigned to a bishopric or archbishopric as the direct representative of the Office of Inquisition. The intendant is specifically charged with assuring that the Proscriptions of Jwo-jeng are not violated.
Kercheef
âa traditional headdress worn in the Kingdom of Tarot which consists of a specially designed bandana tied across the hair.
Knights of the Temple Lands
âthe corporate title of the prelates who govern the Temple Lands. Technically, the Knights of the Temple Lands are
secular
rulers, who simply happen to also hold high Church office. Under the letter of the Church's law, what they may do as the Knights of the Temple Lands is completely separate from any official action of the Church. This legal fiction has been of considerable value to the Church on more than one occasion.
Kraken
âgeneric term for an entire family of maritime predators. Krakens are rather like sharks crossed with octupi. They have powerful, fish-like bodies, strong jaws with inward-inclined, fang-like teeth, and a cluster of tentacles just behind the head which can be used to hold prey while they devour it. The smallest, coastal krakens can be as short as three or four feet; deep-water krakens up to fifty feet in length have been reported, and there are legends of those still larger.
Kyousei hi
âliterally “great fire” or “magnificent fire.” The term used to describe the brilliant nimbus of light the Operation Ark command crew generated around their air cars and skimmers to help “prove” their divinity to the original Safeholdians.
Langhorne's Watch
âthe thirty-one-minute period immediately before midnight in order to compensate for the extra length of Safehold's 26.5-hour day.
Master Traynyr
âa character out of the Safeholdian entertainment tradition. Master Traynyr is a stock character in Safeholdian puppet theater, by turns a bumbling conspirator whose plans always miscarry and the puppeteer who controls all of the marionette “actors” in the play.
Narwhale
âa species of Safeholdian sea life named for the Old Earth species of the same name. Safeholdian narwhales are about forty feet in length and equipped with twin horn-like tusks up to eight feet long.
Prong lizard
âa roughly elk-sized lizard with a single horn which branches into four sharp points in the last third or so of its length. They are herbivores and not particularly ferocious.
Proscriptions of Jwo-jeng
âthe definition of allowable technology under the doctrine of the Church of God Awaiting. Essentially, the Proscriptions limit allowable technology to that which is powered by wind, water, or muscle. The Proscriptions are subject to interpretation, generally by the Order of Schueler, which generally errs on the side of conservatism.
Rakurai
âliterally “lightning bolt.” The Holy Writ's term for the kinetic weapons used to destroy the Alexandria Enclave.
Sand maggot
âa loathsome carnivore, looking much like a six-legged slug, which haunts beaches just above the surf line. Sand maggots do not normally take living prey, although they have no objection to devouring the occasional small creature which strays into their reach. Their natural coloration blends with their sandy habitat well, and they normally conceal themselves by digging their bodies into the sand until they are completely covered, or only a small portion of their backs show.
Sea cow
âa walrus-like Safeholdian sea mammal which grows to a body length of approximately ten feet when fully mature.
Seijin
âsage, holy man. Directly from the Japanese by way of Maruyama Chihiro, the Langhorne staffer who wrote the Church of God Awaiting's Bible.
Slash lizard
âa six-limbed, saurian-looking, furry oviparous mammal. One of the three top predators of Safehold. Mouth contains twin rows or fangs capable of punching through chain mail; feet have four long toes each, tipped with claws up to five or six inches long.
SNARC
âSelf-Navigating Autonomous Reconnaissance and Communication platform.
Spider-crab
âa native species of sea life, considerably larger than any terrestrial crab. The spider-crab is not a crustacean, but rather more of a segmented, tough-hided, many-legged seagoing slug. Despite that, its legs are considered a great delicacy and are actually very tasty.
Spider rat
âa native species of vermin which fills roughly the ecological niche of a terrestrial rat. Like all Safehold mammals, it is six-limbed, but it looks like a cross between a hairy gila monster and an insect, with long, multi-jointed legs which actually arch higher than its spine. It is nasty tempered but basically cowardly, and fully adult male specimens of the larger varieties of spider rat run to about two feet in body length with another two feet of tail. The more common varieties average between 33 percent and 50 percent of that body/tail length.
Steel thistle
âa native Safeholdian plant which looks very much like branching bamboo. The plant bears seed pods filled with small, spiny seeds embedded in fine, straight fibers. The seeds are extremely difficult to remove by hand, but the fiber can be woven into a fabric which is even stronger than cotton silk. It can also be twisted into extremely strong, stretch-resistant rope. Moreover, the plant grows almost as rapidly as actual bamboo, and the yield of raw fiber per acre is seventy percent higher than for terrestrial cotton.
Surgoi kasai
âliterally “dreadful (great) conflagration.” The true spirit of God, the touch of his divine fire which only an angel or archangel can endure.
Tellesberg Krakens
âthe Tellesberg professional baseball club.
Testimonies, The
âby far the most numerous of the Church of God Awaiting's writings, these consist of the firsthand observations of the first few generations of humans on Safehold. They do not have the same status as the Christian gospels, because they do not reveal the central teachings and inspiration of God. Instead, collectively, they form an important substantiation of the
Writ
's “historical accuracy” and conclusively attest to the fact that the events they collectively describe did, in fact, transpire.
Wire vine
âa kudzu-like vine native to Safehold. Wire vine isn't as fast-growing as kudzu, but it's equally tenacious, and unlike kudzu, several of its varieties have long, sharp thorns. Unlike many native Safeholdians species of plants, it does quite well intermingled with terrestrial imports. It is often used as a sort of combination of hedgerows and barbed wire by Safehold farmers.
Wyvern
âthe Safeholdian ecological analogue of terrestrial birds. There are as many varieties of wyverns as there are of birds, including (but not limited to) the homing wyvern, hunting wyverns suitable for the equivalent of hawking for small prey, the crag wyvern (a smallâwingspan ten feetâflying predator), various species of sea wyverns, and the king wyvern (a very large flying predator, with a wingspan of up to twenty-five feet). All wyverns have two pairs of wings, and one pair of powerful, clawed legs. The king wyvern has been known to take children as prey when desperate or when the opportunity presents, but they are quite intelligent. They know that man is a prey best left alone and generally avoid areas of human habitation.
Wyvernry
âa nesting place and/or breeding hatchery for domesticated wyverns.