Encyclopedia of Science and History
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ECCLESIA is the 12-member executive body of the Symthetan government. They direct the island's internal and external security forces, the coast guard, and the local customs offices. One member is appointed by the mayor of each of the three major cities, two are elected by a business consortium, one is chosen by island police force, and two are elected from each city by popular vote.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS is the common name of the official document produced annually the Treasury Department of the Confederacy of Dun Cess. It purports to analyze the income of the constituent provinces' population and show where the money goes. The most recent figures, for 10014, show that the average urban family earned between 9000 and 9500 silver pieces per year. Of this, 10% went to Confederate taxes, between 5% and 15% to Provincial taxes, and the rest to consumption and saving. The average urban family of two parents and four children, a group that required 4,320 silver pieces worth of food, 1,440 silver pieces of rent, 360 silver pieces of clothing, and 500 silver pieces of professional services per year. In addition, the average family spent about 500 silver pieces on entertainment: books, cultural and athletic performances, and other luxuries. This left between eighty and 500 silver pieces to be saved; primarily to offer children the chance to attend a university of technical school. On the average, then, the well-trained urban worker earned 110 silver a week and the rest of the family contributed 60. Of this, all but five to ten is consumed by expenditures. A single urban worker would net 45 silver a week, assuming he is well- trained; less experienced, and or known laborers, often earned significantly less. Word of mouth is quite important in the Confederacy when people are hiring help. The data for rural families is similar, excepting the cost of food is less, but the expense for water remains the same. On the average, farmers have 10% to 20% higher incomes than urban dwellers and tend to have much higher net worth, as arable land is quite valuable. See also: Real Estate, Money.

EDIRNE is an island of approximately 880 square kilometers in the western ocean, midway from Pavimentum to Yarmouth, best known for forming one of the four vertices of the Bermuda Parallelepiped. The hard rock surface of Edirne is spotted by many small lakes left by rain and is approximately level at a height of 90 to 120 feet, sloping slowly to the ocean's edge at its perimeter. The island lacks good, or even adequate harbors. Because of this, and its total unsuitability for agriculture, the island has never had a civilization is call its own. A few species of sea-turtles and ocean-going birds do inhabit the island. The island is owned by the city-state of Mickelgarth, thought an offer for its purchase was tendered and withdrawn by Geoplus in 10036.

EGYEBRECH are a barbaric race of creatures whose army crossed the southern glacial wall in the mid-10030s and invaded Vyrica, touching off the War of the Egyebrech. They are a race without culture or intellectual achievement, but this has left them free to develop a militant and rapacious society which delights in conquest and brutality.

Egyebrech average over six feet in height and 250 pounds in weight and have uncommon strength and endurance. Most of their body is covered with thick black hair that serves as protection against the elements and weaponry alike, though in battle many choose to wear armor as well. Egyebrech have their own language which is unrelated to any known tongue, modern or historical.

ELDRITCH (pop. 2,500) is a small town in Boatia to the south of Blue Earth. It is the home of the Eldritch Technical School; excepting merchants, every resident of Eldritch is associated with the university.

ELDRITCH TECHNICAL SCHOOL is a university in Eldritch that proposes to teach the operation of technological machines (printing presses, spinning jennies, water wheels, etc.) to jobseekers. They are justly famous for the quality of workers they turn out, often guaranteeing their honesty and punctuality to future employers as well. E.T.S. is supported primarily by student's tuition and grants from companies located in Blue Earth.

ELECTROMANCY (also physoelectromancy) is the study or use of magic relating to electrical phenomena. Electromancy is an official division of the Physomancy Foundation and claims 15% of that institution's faculty.

ELEPHANTS are the largest land animals in the world, weighing as much as eight tons and standing as tall as 14 feet at the shoulder. They are gray to brown in color and have three notable physical characteristics: a dexterous trunk used for food and air intake, disporportionately large ears, and tusks resulting from the overgrowing of two upper incisors. Elephants also have two small, fingerlike parts on the tip of their trunk which can be used to manipulate small objects.

Elephants were originally native to the plains of Central and Northern Ilico and were used, to a limited extent, as work animals by the region's orcish tribes. On the other hand, their rampaging and destructive nature led them to be viewed as demonic servants by the Sudibin and dwarves ascribed an elephantine head to the avatar of the evil demigod Muspel.

Their size and strength--and unholy reputation--led the Carian clan of orcs to begin making use of elephants in its military around 6170; they made excellent shock troops, moving platforms for archers, and even elevated observation decks from generals could observe the battle. Elephant units remained a part of the First Orcish Empire's military forces until the fall of the empire; many free elephants were slaughtered in the aftermath for food and to prevent them from being used in any orcish uprising. The population recovered slowly, but never again became part of the economic or military system of the predominant power, though one elephant, Nemesis, was brought to Mickelgarth in the 8300s to serve as a means of execution.

There was a small elephant population in Ilico in the 9500s when human colonists from Mickelgarth began landing in Iceland, but this began to dwindle with the advent of large-scale agriculture in their previous homes. By the early 9970s fewer than 150 animals remained and many of those seemed to be infected with a degenerative disease. In a surprising move, Ergan Chopan, the youngest son of whaling magnate Ralland Chopan, brought two dozen specimens to Ilum Gamma in 9974, where he established a combination of preserve and farm that became the center of monopoly on ivory (and other elephant products) under his heirs after the last known wild elephants died in 9995.

ELEVAISE is the language spoken by the modern elves of Gailinia.

ELVES are one of the major anthropoid races. In terms of physical appearance elves are taller and slighter of build than most humans. They are much less hardy and much weaker than humans, but they are moderately more agile and moderately faster than humans as well. Their senses are superior to humans, but their quickness is slightly less. Elves are about six feet tall and are predominantly right-handed (4:1). Elves tend to be better at verbal tasks and puzzles than the other races, owing to a moderately higher mentality. The vast majority of elves live on the large island of Gailinia in the Eastern Ocean, though pockets of elvish civilization can be found throughout the world; Ivapen, for instance, is almost one-third elvish. The Northern Expanse is also primarily populated with elves. The Confederacy of Dun Cess, however, is less than 1% elvish, a fact attributed to the legal and frequent discrimination encountered in the north, thought to be a result of economic pressures stemming from the depression of the early 101st century. The population of elves has been steadily increasing in the Confederacy since 10030. Elves are known for their archery, horsemanship, beautiful language (elevaise), seafaring skills, tapestries, paintings, fiction, poetry (sonnets and terza rima), biology, and hydromancy. Most elves have light skin, but the dark elves (drow) have deep black skin, a fact that was the principal reason behind the servitude, expulsion, and insults they suffered, and continue to suffer, at the hands of their Volk (see Elvish Uncivil War). Elves are socially divided into gypsies, high elves, sea elves, drow, and sudiffin. High elves and sea elves get along very well in sharing Gailinia, but they tend to look down on the drow as "mystically evil and downright odd," the gypsies as "unproductive, lazy wanderers," and the sudiffin as "barbarians."

EL-HAJJ is the Druidic god of Nature. He is symbolized by an axe with a wooden handle, metal bands, and a soiled stone blade, a weapon representing soil, stone, wood, and metal, the four basic components of nature. Most sacrifices to El-Hajj are done by bludgeoning with an axe blade so as to mingle nature with the essence of animal life: blood. Water is considered foreign to El-Hajj and thus bad. Rains are taken as an omen; extensive flooding has symbolized an end of the world. See also Malik and Shabazz.

ELLINGSON'S SALT is a recently discovered cure for Araby's Syndrome, a degenerative dementia-inducing disease. The mixture of organic and inorganic salts was discovered serendipitously by Alma Ellingson, a medical researcher at the Martial Academy of Neorome, in 10034. Treatment by the salt is extremely expensive due to the difficulties involved with purification and can run as high as 50,000 s.c. Ellingson's salt is preferable to previous medications though, in that it is a cure, as opposed to Arlington's Syrup and Pavel-14 which halt the onrush of the syndrome only as long as they are being taken. Ellingson's salt is approximately 50% successful in treating patients, working better on younger, female patients than in any other age/sex category. Ingestion of the salt causes quick death in approximately 5% of cases, tragedies which are generally attributed to mistakes in the purification process.

ELVISH TRADING COMPANY is an important merchant corporation based in Carthage and run by Lothschill family of bankers and merchants. They are the third largest transportation company in the world after the Northern Expanse Trading Company and the Southern Expanse Trading Company.

ELVISH UNCIVIL WAR (9625-9640) is the common, somewhat farcical, name for a series of short, nearly bloodless battles between the drow and the aligned forces of the high elves and sea elves on Gailinia. According to ~Our Darkest Hour~, a history of elvish civilization by Gylord Vopar:

    Their youth, stirred up by demagogues like Malcolm X, convinced themselves that they had been victimized by a 'system' run and controlled by high elves. I say that it is not a system of high elves; it is a system of nature. The drows [sic] were given water, food, and shelter, in returned they served their superiors. What is more natural than that? Their revolt was an anti-social, anti-nature, anti-god act led by vipers and carried out by unthinking, foolish boys. We had incontrovertible proof of their intention to rise up in revolt and plunder our towns, farms, and temples. The pogrom was completely justified.

Nevertheless, the massacre of 250 drow elf men, women, and children near Upanishad caused a general revolt which, despite both armies inability to fight effectively, ended in the flight of the drow elves to the nearby, inhospitable Syllabus Island where they have lived for 350 years, building it into a model of efficiency, prosperity, and technology.

ENDURANCE is a statistical attribute that reflects the ability of a body to survive physical damage and withstand fatigue. It also covers the ability to hold one's breath, survive poison and disease, withstand pressure, and recover from injuries.

ENKOR, WILHELM (8568-9012) see Enkorian Grass.

ENKORIAN GRASS (Wilhelm Enkor, dwarven geologist) This grass is a dark green plant that grows in circular patches at the foot of active volcanoes. Enkor developed the method, known as Enkorian dating, of finding the date of the last eruption of a volcano by the structure, amount and color of Enkorian Grass present. The grass provides impetus for the spell Will Power.

EUBOULIA is an ancient orcish word that can be roughly translated as meaning the totality of skills that make up a Utopian society, in particular art, science, statesmanship, and commerce. The usage of the term has varied from era to era, at times it has included an element of military strength while at others it has excluded all such "destructive" behaviors.

EVOLUTION is a term coined by the preeminent social psychologist/biologist of the 100th century, Hyle Shinn, to describe "a natural process" wherein creatures better fitted for fighting or fleeing survived longer than less adapted creatures. This would naturally lead to a preponderance of stronger, faster, and more intelligent beings while less capable races disappeared. The theory is widely accepted, although the Standard Model of Evolution is, according to Ubertino Sans, researcher at UIP, "based on common sense rather than foolproof scientific evidence." One student commented on the debate, "If evolution works, why are player characters still around?"

ETS see Eldritch Technical School

EXISTENTIALISM is a contemporary philosophy with deep roots. It was put forth in a primitive form over a thousand years ago by the sudiffin hermit Soren Kierkegaard who left his native village in Vyrica to live north of Upanishad in the only acre of swamp south of the Gailinian Range. The only contemporary reference to him was the minister of Upanishad who labeled Soren a "peculiar crank." Soren's philosophy, presented in several oddly-shaped tomes, was revived by Gable Ferry and Lwaxana Hudson in 9700 when they discovered a buried chest that contained another book which explained Soren's theory of miraculous knowledge more completely. Existentialism became an important part of elvish thought and culture for about eighty years, coinciding with a period of great historical turmoil and technological advancement. The philosophy lost importance and followers until it was nearly defunct in 9820. Beginning in 10028, though, with the publication of Absurdity by Achim of Cheifby, the philosophy has seen a remarkable revival. Existentialists hold that there are two types of knowledge, that of sense-perception which is real but uncertain, and that of logic and mathematics which is certain but unreal. They hold that man is ignorant of everything real because it is impossible to prove anything about sense-perception knowledge because there is no bridge between logic and observation that is rigorous enough to support a proof. To ignorant men, which is everyone, it seems more likely that the gods do not exist, a hypothesis supported by the scientific method. However, existentialists who also deny the existence of any universal criterion to judge behavior are willing to live a life of absurdity in that they take a leap of faith to believe in a god, any god, for absolutely no logical or empirical reason. They themselves call it an absurd step to take, but yet it is taken. The reason that they do cite is a desire for enlightenment and they trust that the god that they choose will enlighten them at some point in the future.