Encyclopedia of Science and History, volume P

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

PANNAKSEMME (10011-10044) served as Queen's Admiral of the Drow navy from 10039 until 10044 when he is believed to have committed suicide after the disastrous (Second) Battle of Kevo Bay which led to the invasion of Syllabus itself by the Confederate Army. He had previously served with glorious distinction as the captain of the storied Saimaa from its launch in 10030 until his promotion in 10039. He is widely reckoned one of the greatest naval tacticians of the modern age, though opinion is strongly divided on his abilities as a strategist and the wisdom of his having been elevated out of the command of a single vessel. He weathered a severe political crisis in 10042 when he was publicly accused of associating with Queen's enemies including her disgraced daughter with whom he was said to have had a one-time affair. The truth of the allegations cannot be known as the intrigue was ended, as those of the Drow invariably do, by the blades of assassins rather than the gavels of the courts as is the case in human lands. Pannaksemme was known as an advocate of forging closer ties with the friends of Syllabus, a position that put him at odds with many of the elite who favored an unrelenting policy of independence and warfare. Pannaksemme was rewarded with command of the Saimma for his earlier service in the navy, though it is certain that his connection with the great Tuonela family that financed the ship's construction worked in his favor as well.

PARAPANISADES (pop. 85,000) is the capital of Iceland. Founded in 9501, it served as the legal and commercial capital of human settlements for almost four hundred years until the rise of Dun Cess. It is known for having the highest standard of living in large cities throughout the Northern Continent and for the University of Iceland at Parapanisades (UIP). Parapanisades recently survived a 5 year constant seige by deep gnome armies during and following the Second War of Ilican Succession. Clandestine operations kept supplies flowing; on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the seige, the investment was removed overnight and the attackers retreated to the hills.

PASSIKIVI, JUHO (c. 6550 - ?) was the first public prophet of Abraxis. He was born of drow serfs on Syllabus but rose to a high position with his lord through an incredible linguistic and mathematical ability. He was freed in 6670 upon the death of his lord, whereupon he travelled for several years before religious inspiration from the study of history and philosophy, struck him with the symmetry and life and death and the interpretation of dreams as disembodied wanderings. Convinced he had experienced such, he began to preach his doctrines among the orcs of the late First Empire and succeeded in converting several prominent citizens. It is known that his appeal of immortality appealed greatly in an age where the state-approved mythos admitted of no afterlife. He left several societies behind him in 6585 when he left, at Queen Iona's request to teach among the gnomes of the Sprines. It is said that he stayed there many years before returning to Syllabus to organize a universal biography for the purpose of self-discovery. Nothing of his life is recorded after his departure from the orcish empire. It is said that there was no one in the world with whom he was unable to converse fluently and also that he discovered the properties of the mobius strip (still called the Passikivi knot (or loop) by some), though this is disputed and the orcish mathematicians attributed it to Leonidas of Mobia approximately 30 years before Juho's birth. Juho left no writings; that which is known of Abraxian theology comes from later sources, the earliest dating from 7200. Drawing on his linguistic ability, Juho is said to have created three separate secret languages for believers, from one of which comes the divinity's name.

PATTANADID (7203-7260) was an orcish student of magic who collaborated with Kridsada in an attempt to devise philsophical and magical means of ending conflict in the world. Needless to say, he failed to completely realize his goal.

PAVIMENTUM is a large island in the waters of the Western Ocean. It is widely believed to be the origin of human civilization, or at least non-nomadic human civilization. Its principal population centers are the city-states of Micklegarth, Gravesend, and Porte Darthur.

PEACE CORPS is a non-profit organization run under the auspices of the Universal Church. Its mission is to send well-trained missionaries to instruct developing populations in religion, science, and math. Many college students take a year off and complete the Peace Corps program, as a means of extending summer vacation though the entire year.

PEREGRIN (pop. 2,500) is a small farming town in the north of the Dukedom of Falwell, a province in the north of Dun Cess. Peregrin is famous for its taverns including "Adventurer's Corner" and "Delver's Barrel" that purport to offer the strangest mix of charcaters in the world. Many deals and contracts are signed in the dark rooms of Peregrin's inns which would wither were they to ever see the light of day.

PERICLES I (9962-10044) is the current holder of the office of Supreme Prelate, the religious and worldly leader of the Universal Church. He was born Jonathan Kensett in 9971 in Dun Cess and took first honors in mathematics and theology at the University of Dun Cess before being ordained in 9982. He became the youngest Metropolitan ever of Dun Cess in 9990. His powerful rhetoric attracted followers both within and without the church and was generally seen as the third most knowledgeable prelate behind Supreme Prelate Tiresias and Schae Cornel, Prelate of Iceland. Upon Tiresias' death in 9999, Jonathan and Schae competed for election; Schae was considered the more erudite and cautious, but his foreign birth is thought to have prejudiced many against him. Jonathan was considered young (he was 37, Schae 55) and rather impetuous. The result was the surprising election of Jerome Marquand, the little-known Provincial Prelate of Boatia, thought to be a compomise candidate. Marquand ruled as Rural III. Kensett was elected in 10010--after Rural III abrogated the Quorum Law of 9755--and took the name of Pericles I. His papacy has been marked by action, both spiritual and temporal. He has taken personal resonsibility for creating new orders of knights and created the doctrine of "Holy Intervention" to justify Universal Believers in taking (possibly violent) political action against organizations or governments not structed along the lines laid down in the Sacrosanct. He prominently urged members of the Church to support the Alliance in the War of the Egyebrech (10036 - present), represented the Egyebrech as an evil race, descended from the monsters of the early chapters of the Sacrosanct.

PERSAND is a small, L-shaped island in the Pallaic group south of Yarmouth. The northern section of the island is surrounded by high limestone cliffs varying from 300 to 600 feet high and is virtually unclimbable. The southern section is bordered by lower cliffs running from 30 to 100 feet and broken in many places by lengthy beaches. A 350-foot cliff cuts across the island near the middle dividing these two regions. This cliff is rougher and more easily scaled for it is the result of numerous rockfalls, the remains of which litter the ground immediately below. This cliff itself contains a series of caves that have never been fully explored. The upper plateau is flat, rock, barren of vegetation, and streaked by numerous streams carrying run-off water to three cascading waterfalls. The surface just south of the dividing cliff wall is rough, but it gradually levels off toward the southern end where the soil becomes just rich enough to support a thin thicket of deciduous trees. The island is currently unoccupied due to the unsustainability of agriculture and the ferocious storms that periodically buffet the island. It is unlikely that the island was ever occupied for more than brief periods as no sedentary archaeological evidence has been unearthed. The island is even ignored in the tales of sea, appearing only once in an elvish epic (where it was said to be haunted). The geographical surveys of the Second Orcish Empire refer to the island only as "unusable" and "inhospitable" and recommend staying far from the northern end for fear of reefs. The Confederacy of Dun Cess acquired the island (from the City-State of Mickelgarth) in 10029 intending to build a naval base in the eastern harbor; the assassination of Graham Stokes, Confederate Admiral, caused a postponement from which the plan never recovered.

PETUNIA, ORDER OF is an order of Universal Knights in Gravesend. Over the past two decades it has prospered under the expert financial and religious leadership of Sir Jection (9992- , r. 10017-). Its current success, however, comes at the end of a long period of tumultuous difficulties for its treasury caused by a series of impious head knights. Since its founding in 9883 and its peak of glory and wealth after the 9923 wyvern slaying that made it famous, the order has been the object of a great deal of disrespect within the Universalist Knighthood in general because of its disorganization and greed under some of its worse head knights.

PHOSPHORUS is a powdery mineral found in caves and other dark, rocky places. It is found naturally in four color, red, white, black, and violet. Each of the minerals has been experimentally found to provide the material component for a physopyromancy spell. Violet phosphorus aids Fireball, red phosphorus aids Pyrotechnics, white phosphorus aids Ignite, and black phosphorus aids Wall of Fire.

PHYSOMANCY is the study of magic that manifests itself phenomenologically in changes in matter or energy. Next to biomancy, physomancy is the most studied area of magic. Major subdivisions of physomantic study include kinetomancy (motion), pyromancy (fire), hydromancy (liquids), electromancy (electricity and magnetism) and photomancy (light).

PIESCHLAND is a long, narrow country that runs along the western plains of the Northern and Southern Sprines, north of the Verteux. It was founded as a loose confederation of mining city- states, organized to defend the human settlers from the gnomes who were still active in the Sprines. The Confederation of Pieschland was formed in 9750 under the direction of Swinburne. It became a full country with a republican directorate located in Chaucer in 9768. Pieschland produces much of the world's iron and titanium supplies while its people subsist on spartan feed. Pieschland has a heavy-handed judicial code that condones censorship and police brutality when done for the good of the "many that are and that are yet to come." Regardless of its internal policies, external relations with Pieschland are usually good and its many hotels, both in and out of the mountains bring in a good share of revenues.

PINE LAWS was the common name for a series of laws passed in 9978, 9981, and 10022 restricting--and later prohibiting--commerical exploitation of mature white pines of northern Agnatica and the Aran Range. The growing influence of sea power, the increasing tonnage of warships, and the declining abundance of pine forests made it more and more difficult for shipyards to acquire masts of the requisite strength and size. Beginning in 9981 the lumbering of mature white pines was forbidden to all commercial companies without special Confederate permits; as of the last Pine Law, in 10022, the lumbering of all pine was restricted. The measure was partly aimed at the growing Dwarvish navy, but primarily at the sizable flotillas of the Drow and the Elves of Gailinia. Substantial illegal logging still occurs, but foreign nations were forced to begin development of treefelling operations in new areas, including the Ilmen Mountains, the Eastern Sprines, and Ayer's Rock. In addition, there was increased trade in lumber between Pavimentum and the nonhuman nations of the Eastern Ocean. One important sign of a relaxation of tensions between the Republic and the Confederacy was a 10031 treaty between the two parties by which the Confederacy agreed to allow limited export of galleon-class masts to the Republic. The Republic began building its modern series of warships of which the Inestimable and Inevitable were the first, launched in 10034 and 10035 respectively.

PIRSIG is the province of the Confederacy directed east of the province of Dun Cess.

PLATO (9940-10001) was an idealistic revolutionary who directed the 9987 split of the Republic from the Confederacy of Dun Cess. Known as a strange child, Plato attended UIP, UDC, and the Technon before writing (in his Comparison of Schools and Solid Waste):

There is no greater loss to society than the loss of direction. People who know not what they are doing, where they are going, and what they will do if they ever get there, are detriments to society. The universities I have attended have only proved to be grounds for disrupting productive lives by providing half-questions and quarter- questions without answers that students blindy run after trying to 'be myself.' Were I to design a society I would have a place for all; society's responsibility to the people is to provide work and recreation for the betterment of all, the people's responsibility is to honor the society as parents and do as is required of them.

PLENAGORAS is a cultic human god whose worship dates back at least 3,500 years. Plenagorians teach that the proper way of life is profound dedication to the truth, physical acivity, and mathematics. They also have a code of proper behavior, a member's breaking of which, is reason enough for elimination from the church. Plenagorians must 1) abstain from beans, 2) not pick up what has fallen, 3) never step over a crowbar, 4) never to eat from a whole loaf of bread, 5) never to walk on highways, 6) never to let swallows share one's roof, 7) never to leave the mark of a pot on the ashes, but to stir them together, 8) never to look in a mirror near a lamp, and 9) always to remove the imprint of the body from sheets in the morning. There are few devout Plenagorians today; the only offical colony of Plenagorians is a small town of 200 people just outside the slightly larger Icelandic town of Ivapen.

PLUTIC STALKS are black, tubular plants found growing in swamps throughout the world. They are nourishing, but ill-tasting to humans. Eaten to excess, they act as powerful hallucinogenics.

POPULATION. The population of the above-ground world is thought to be on the order of 4 million persons. Of these, 3.2 million are humans, 500,000 are elves, 150,000 are dwarves, 50,000 are gnomes, 50,000 are orcs, and 50,000 are hobbits. The population can be further broken down in geographical area and subraces. The Confederacy of Dun Cess houses about 2.0 million humans and 20,000 nonhumans. Pieschland has a total population of about 100,000, mainly humans. Iceland houses 150,000 humans, densely population. The Republic has a population of about 200,000. Pavimentum is home to approximately 750,000 humans. The northern parts of Gailinia house about 100,000 high elves, while 120,000 sea elves live in the southern regions. There are about 20,000 drow elves on Syllabus, and about 10,000 gypsy elves in the northern expanse. Allotrope accounts for the 50,000 above-ground dwarves, while Botnia provides a home of 35,000 surface gnomes; 15,000 more live on Symtheta. The Verteux is lived in by 15,000 hobbits, another 35,000 occupy LaCoast. Yarmouth is run by a total of 8,000 orcs, another 20,000 are thought to occupy the camps of northern Vyrica, 6,000 live in Crimson Tide, and 16,000 occupy Blendon island. The total underground population of (mainly) gnomes and dwarves is unknown, but estimates range from 200,000 to 2.0 million.

PORTE DARTHUR (pop. 50,000) is an important port on the southern part of Pavimentum. It has superb harbors and is thought to be a primary point of departure from Pavimentum during the Emigration Period.

POTION is a traditional transport device for enchanted magics. Potions are pure liquids, usually water, which are enchanted with sorcery to issue a spell's effects upon a biological imbiber of the drink or a material object doused by it. Potions can generally be identified by their colors; the shade of a potion indicates the strength of a certain enchantment.

PRELATE is the general term for a religious official of the Universal Church.

PRELATE, METROPOLITAN see METROPOLITAN PRELATE

PRELATE, SUPREME see SUPREME PRELATE

PROGRESSION MANIFESTO The Progression Manifesto (issued 6666) is actually a section of a longer document written by a loose coalition of human, gnomish, dwarvish, and elvish philosophers and generals during the destruction of the first Orcish Republic (war lasts, 6662-6701). It reads in part:

It is taken as obvious that any intelligent mind, of whatever race, can immediately see that civilization, as it now exists, will only dilute the strength of all concerned. We, the allies, are not jealous of the orcs' magic and technology, far from it, we are glad we do not have them for they impede our progress as life. We are yet strong and hardy while the peaceful orcs grow corpulent, effeminate, and weak. We have undertaken this war for the betterment of their children and all of their future generations whom they, with their lack of will power and strength, are trying to sentence to a sedentary life of empty pleasures, empty minds, and empty hearts.

PTERICARSIS is in an infectious disease found in the swampy regions of central Vyrica. Its name comes from the appearance of a vaguely fern-shaped discoloration on the throat of afflicted people. The mark first appears within six to twelve months of infection but disappears after one to two weeks. If the mark returns, it signifies that the infection is fatal and that the sufferer has from six to twelves months to live. The longest known period of dormancy between the appearance of the marks is twenty-four months. Long a part of orcish folklore, the disease was first systematically studied by Dr. Jerbert Domane of the University of Dun Cess.

PTOCHOS (9907-9983) held the office of Supreme Prelate for 21 years from 9962 to 9983.

PURPLE ALGAE Purple algae is a water-based plant that thrive in cool, pure water. It is most often found in mountain top pools, kettle lakes, and glacier run-offs. Ingestion causes the victim to lose the mental ability to begrudge, dislike, or hate. It has been historically verified that the gnomish armies infected orcish water supplies during the destruction of the second Orcish Republic with purple algae to quell any resistance. Purple Algae functions as the material component of the spell Charm Person.

PYATNITZA is the gnomish god of warfare. His symbol is three shortswords, each hilt overlapping the blade of another, forming an triangle. Inside of this design the ancient gnomish words for "glory" and "ecstasy" and "death" are written. Pynatnitza has been constantly worshiped as far back as archaeology has dug into the past, that is, at least 4,000 years.

PYRO-CONTRA-ELECTRO DEBATES were a series of formal arguments between the pyromancy and electromancy divisions of the physomancy college as to superiority of fireballs over lightning bolts or vice versa. One pyromancer, Keros Enelam added, privately,

with fireballs you get the whole damn area, charred and baked into submission. You can't underestimate the psychological advantage in being able to burn the surrounding farmland, houses, and trees into ashes. With lightning bolts, it just goes zap, and hishes off; it's such a niffy spell.

A colleague, Vitreous Rex, responded, also privately:

my unsophisticated, barbaric, primitive, uneducated colleague would favor clubs over swords and runes over alphabets given the chance. Fireballs are so coarse, so unpredictable that they're next to useless in precision situations. Say Keros comes home and finds his wife with another man; what can he do with a fireball but toast his bride? But with lightning bolt you can zot one and leave the other untouched. It's the civilized way to fight.