Conventions & Slang
Colloquialisms
Here are some common words and phrases within the Noddish vernacular.
Arcanogram - Magic symbols imbued with the concept they represent. The reader can understand the meaning of the symbols without ever having seen them before.
Ambulant - Refers to furniture or an artifact that moves too much or otherwise exhibits undesirable behavior. Occasionally kept as pets, but often euthanized.
Chamber Bugs - Parasites that feed off of buildings. Usually aggressive.
Chambers - One's private residence.
Chimera - Any hybrid of mixed species; usually one in which parent species cannot easily be identified.
Chosen One - Any outsider. Used formally by the Council, and often sarcastically or casually by citizens.
Citygod - Refers to any one of the six cityspeakers who make up the major Council.
City’s eyes - An expression uttered in horror, disgust, or exasperation.
Cityspeaker - Senses the will of the City; a seer.
Corruption - Refers to the progressively chaotic effects of using magic. Generally implies a monstrous appearance.
Ditch fodder - Any citizen that appears lost or otherwise vulnerable; often used to describe new outsiders.
Dusting - Usage of the substance known as featherdust.
Ego bracer - A bracelet or other artifact made for storing one's gloam, accessing one's ego file, and contacting other citizens and establishments.
Ego file - A hologram on one’s ego bracer that contains information about one’s life, including gloam use.
Familiar - A mage’s bestial companion. Generally implies a close bond; not all pets are familiars.
Gloam - Chaos magic; the main energy source of Nodd. Also used as currency.
Godling - An extremely powerful mage. Usually implies a victory in GodGrinder, but not always.
Gutter grog - The excrement from a building, usually a greenish-gray slurry.
Gutter runt - A juvenile citizen.
Haze - The luminescent, teal-colored vapor that appears as a byproduct of gloam use; spent magic. Often appears around buildings and is more visible at night, where it can be seen being slowly drawn towards the Conduit at the top of the Council Spire.
Hybrid - The offspring of two identifiable species, such as a slyne and ravel.
Insider - Any organism that originated in Nodd. Usually connotates sapient species, but technically includes beasts, plants, and everything else.
Immortal - A citizen who will be infinitely resurrected by the Council.
Kaiju - A word used to describe a destructive or feared macrocitizen.
May the City speak your name - A phrase intended as a blessing and farewell. Used by the Council, though many citizens have adopted it as well.
Macrocitizen - Any citizen too large for average doorways and amenities.
Meat - When used alone, this term usually refers to the flesh from the Abbatoir, which is usually a ground mix of sapient citizens, beasts, ambulant furniture, and whatever else gets scraped off the streets.
Microcitizen - A small citizen, usually between 1 and 4 inches. May be any species, insider or outsider.
Microdosing - A practice in which a microcitizen is filled with or soaked in an intoxicating substance, and then used orally or rectally.
Mossy - Describes a lazy petrid.
Moss out - To relax. Used mostly among petrids.
Nodd-along - A derogatory term describing a citizen that seems content living in Nodd, and condones the cruelty of the Council.
Noddish - Of or relating to the city, its citizens, or its aesthetic.
Pawn - A low-ranking Council attendant, often seen patrolling the streets and standing watch near entryways.
Pillow-Humper - A derogatory term to describe someone who fucks their furniture.
Sapient - A noun describing any creature determined to be intelligent and socially aware. Usually implies verbal ability.
Snoodish - A term used to describe stereotypical ravel behavior; can have either positive or negative connotations depending on context. Used by ravels themselves as well.
Spawning Haze - Refers to the mental fog following spawning or respawning.
Sporeling - A juvenile building, furnishing, or other non-animal structure.
Suffertarian - Refers to anything relating to the slyne's diet. Usually composed of live tenderlings and a means of torturing them.
Supper for the City - A grim and solemn phrase uttered in response to grisly or unfortunate scenarios.
Tenderling - A microcitizen when used as food. May be cooked or alive when served.
Vulture - Someone who scavenges the corpses of citizens for belongings or body parts.
Vulturewear - Clothing made of the hide taken from a citizen’s corpse.
Conventions
Dates & Time
January - Longsleep
February - Last Dream
March - The Awakening
April - Skymourn
May - The Kindling
June - Everlight
July - Devilsky
August - Fever's End
September - The Surrendering
October - Grimlight
November - The Darkening
December - Neverlight
Seasons:
Spring - Sangor, Season of Blood
Summer - Chola, Season of Fire
Autumn - Melanus, Season of Gloom
Winter - Phlegrian, Season of Void
Year - Turn
Month - Phase
Third-Month - Trisk
Day - Sleep
There are no days of the week and no weeks to speak of, just 30-something sleeps per phase.
A trisk is about ten days long, or roughly a third of a phase; they are not mentioned when writing dates, but are referred to as an approximate unit of time.
Dates are written like so:
Skymourn, Day XIX, Turn CDXIX
Bells - Hours
Chimes - Minutes
Ticks - Seconds
Times are written as:
17 bells; 13 chimes or 17;13
(24 hours/day; no AM/PM)