Ranga shoes
This is a term for various kinds of footwear that are used to raise the wearer above the ground to avoid being contaminated by it. Increasing heights of ranga are used to further accentuate the purity and rank of the wearer
The Black God
The Black God—also known as the Lord of Mirrors, the Obsidian Faced God and the Lord of Plagues—is one half of the Twin Gods. He is also the Horned God, the god of war in which guise he has four horns
The Three Powers
Power among the Chosen is divided among the Three Powers: the God Emperor (and the House of the Masks) the Great and the Wise. The balance between the Powers is maintained through a system of checks and balances called the Great Balance
The House of the Masks
The House of the Masks is the House of the Chosen that transcends all the rest because it is from within it that a Candidate is elected to become God Emperor. As a consequence, the members of the House of the Masks have the purest blood of all the Chosen. It is the House of the Masks that constitutes the Imperial Power, one of the Three Powers. The Great Balance forbids that anyone of the House of the Masks ever to leave the Isle that lies within the Skymere lake within Osrakum
The Imperial Power
The Imperial Power, one of the Three Powers, is that exerted by a God Emperor, though it is his House, the House of the Masks, to which, in a more general sense, that power belongs
Quaestors
A Quaestor is appointed by the Wise to shadow a Legate. They are a sort of ambassador for the Wise, in post both to command all the ammonites who attend a Legate, to aid that Legate with all the technical knowledge of the Wise and to supervise that Legate and the legion he commands on behalf of the Wise. A Quaestor begins his career as an ammonite, and may well have been close to being considered to become one of the Wise
Ammonites
When the flesh tithe is divided among the Three Powers, the portion that the Wise take as their lot become ammonites. Ammonites are the servants of the Wise and are schooled by them to fulfil all the administrative and ritual roles of that Power. Like his masters, an ammonite wears robes of purple and a mask of silver, in contrast to those of gold worn by the Chosen. The results of the examinations that an ammonite sits are tattooed on his face. Those who achieve the most superlative results may become candidates for the Wise. If accepted for this august role, a candidate will go through the Renunciation. As part of the ‘freeing’ mutilations, his examination tattoos are erased with bleaching agents
The Lesser Chosen
The Lesser Chosen constitute four fifths of the Chosen: all who are below blood-rank 1—that is, those whose blood-taint has no zero in the first position
Legates
A Legate is a military commander of a legion of Commonwealth, generally appointed from the Lesser Chosen by the God Emperor. During the term of his office, a Legate will reside with his legion at its base somewhere in the Commonwealth. Mostly this will be in one of the cities of the Guarded Land, though there is a Legate in Thuyakalrul who controls, instead of a legion, a fleet of barans