The Gryphon Clerks: Mike Reeves-McMillan

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  • Grace Carter

    Leading Clerk who led the group of clerks sent to assist Determined during the Unification War. She was subsequently decorated for calling in air support to save the civilians being forced into duty as living minesweepers at the Siege of Lakeside Koslin. For this she received the Realmgold’s Civilian Honour, Gold, with Moon. Her service in general earned her a promotion to Senior Leading Clerk and a posting to the Office of the Realmgolds, with responsibility for Realmgold Determined’s affairs. This leads later to a clash with Reliable.

    Short, cheerful, efficient, round-faced, with a thick braid. Has an impressive skill of anticipating needs and ensuring that they can be met at short notice.

  • Gold Class

    The Golds are the ruling class, the hereditary nobility. Most of them are descended from senior house servants of the elves at the time of the Fall of the Elven Empire who were in a position to take over from their departed masters.

    Golds are divided into High Golds (Countygolds and above, and sometimes by extension their immediate families, particularly their heirs), Localgolds, and Golds who have no demesne (including the relatives of High Golds). The latter get the title “Gold” by courtesy.

    The ruler of a county, province or realm gets the corresponding title Countygold, Provincegold or Realmgold. Empiregold was the title for the head of the Elven Empire. The holder of the title is the elected head of the family which has been granted that demesne (though the Realmgold of Koskant is elected by the Provincegolds from among themselves). The Realmgold confirms the holding of a demesne, and can also retract it, either from the individual who holds it (necessitating the appointment of a new head of family) or even from the family as a whole. The Realmgold can also attaint a person from Gold rank, reducing them to the Silver class. These drastic steps are taken only for outright treason, extreme corruption or other serious crimes such as murder.

    To be regarded as a Gold, you must be at least the fifth-generation descendant (great-great-grandchild) of the head of a family, and claim that family as yours. This gives you the right to vote for the next head of the family, who will usually be the previous head’s designated heir, but need not be.

    Golds at adulthood become voting members of the house in which they are most closely related to a current or past head. If equally close to two, they may choose.

    They wear discs of gold with the family crest marked with the personal crest of the relevant relative (unless they are the head), opposite their own personal crests. Also may wear smaller discs indicating links to other heads of families. Small dot for each generation.

    Popular puzzle game: given fictional crests, who is related to whom and how? Has spawned a kind of alternate-world fiction.

    Golds who are neither heirs nor holders of the demesne take the estate name prefixed by “of” as their name of affiliation. Heirs take the estate name with no “of” and the demesne name with an “of” when being introduced as heir; the holder of the demesne takes the demesne name with no “of”. For example, Robust of Hollowtrees (non-holder); Courtesy Hollowtrees of Westcoast (heir); Courteous Westcoast (the Provincegold).

    The title of Honour Gold existed in the past, but it has fallen into disrepute, at least in Koskant. Equivalent to a knighthood, it lasted only for the lifetime of the holder (not being passed to his or her descendants) and was granted by the Realmgold. Cash-strapped Realmgolds began selling the title, leading to a classic early political cartoon in which the then Realmgold is saying to a fat merchant, “It’s very simple: you give me the gold, and I give you the honour”. This tarnished the value of the title and it fell into disuse.

    Members of the Gold class:

    Countygold of Northchase (in Eastern Province): owns a cement company and a limestone quarry.

    Countygold of Koslin Shore: sold the land for the capital, New Koslinmouth, to the realm, and resists selling more. Brother-in-law of Northchase.

  • Gnomes

    Height: Average: 3’6″/105cm Range: 3’/90cm to 4’/120cm
    Life stages:
    Puberty 17
    Marriage 25-40, average 35
    Life Expectancy 88 (M)/110 (F).
    Appearance: Like a shorter dwarf, with a larger nose and ears, and the beard or sideburns kept much shorter. Brown or reddish hair.
    Relations with Other Races: Dwarves: Masters since ancient times.
    Origin: A subspecies of dwarves who have been a largely non-interbreeding underclass for hundreds of generations.
    Location: Underground throughout the continent; more recently out among humans in Koslin.

    Gnomes are the servant and labouring class for the Dwarves. Evidence (such as their ability to interbreed) suggests that they are in fact the same race, though this is not an acceptable theory for most dwarves. There are extremely powerful taboos against interbreeding (on both sides), and those gnomes who break the taboo, even if forced, are likely to be exiled (or, in the case of a male gnome and a female dwarf, the gnome killed – probably by “accident” in the mines – and the child exposed once born).
    The much lower life expectancy of male gnomes is because of the large number of accidents they are subject to, as the primary miners for the dwarves. Female gnomes are domestic servants and suffer a much lower mortality rate. Polygamy is therefore permitted to gnomes, although it is not for dwarves and is seen by the dwarves as evidence of the gnomes’ moral inferiority (despite the idea having originated with the dwarves in order to keep the servant population up). They do not have the dwarf taboo against marriage within the same clan hold, since they generally remain in the Dwarf Holds where they were born unless they belong to traders.
    Gnomes accompany dwarf caravans to do the work dwarves don’t wish to do, such as setting up camp, cooking and cleaning. Some polygamous gnomes who travel in this way have wives in different dwarf clan holds, and this prevents the population from inbreeding too much. The wives may or may not be aware of each other’s existence.
    To dwarves, working with any form of organic material (apart from a few substances used in jewellery, like amber) is considered gnomes’ work, and not a “craft”. “Hard” organics, like wood, are the domain of male gnomes, “soft” organics, like leather or cloth (and all food preparation of any kind, except above ground) belong to female gnomes. Some female gnomes also paint artistically, using materials which are made for technical illustration; this is not considered by dwarves to be a skilled craft (otherwise gnome women wouldn’t do it, would they?). Gnomes also do the heavy, unpleasant, dangerous or otherwise low-status work in the other crafts. Gnomes, regardless of their skill or experience, always have little influence in their craft as far as dwarves are concerned. They do not participate in the governance of the crafts in any way, but they do have leaders among themselves who act as foremen.
    There have been occasional gnome uprisings over the centuries. In general, they are now treated reasonably well, given that they are still an underclass. Individual dwarves, however, are sometimes cruel to their gnome servants if unobserved (it is considered bad form to do so openly).
    Gnomes are more useful if they are literate, numerate and know some craft skills and magic, so the dwarves provide them with an education, which, while rudimentary by dwarven standards, is reasonably good by the standards of most humans. This includes limited and quite specific magic to make them more useful in the rock-shifting and metal-forging industries.
    Some have self-educated themselves further and become “troublemakers”, agitating for equal standing.
    Gnomes are practically never encountered out of dwarvish contexts, unless exiled (or escaped), until Gnome Day. It is possible for a gnome to be freed, thus becoming a “loosegnome”, but they were still expected to work for dwarves. Victory‘s employment of loosegnomes was controversial and caused her to be ill thought of among conservative dwarves.
    Culture
    It is rude to refuse offered food in gnome culture, and if one has a table it’s not appropriate to eat anywhere else.
    One can be shunned for nonconformity, which is more or less a death sentence in many cases.

    Gesture language
    The gnomes have an extensive gesture language for talking in noisy conditions (and when they don’t want to be overheard by dwarves).
    They have a gesture game like rock-paper-scissors, and other gesture games.

    A common gesture is a hand brushed past the ear on the same side, which means roughly, “I know, but what can you do?”

  • Gnome Day

    The day of emancipation of the gnomes in Koskant.

    Celebrated annually. Those clerks who were involved in the operation to give the newly freed gnomes shelter and assistance wear the gnome hats that were issued to them on that night, with special hatbands issued as honours by the Realmgold. Other humans who support the gnomes also wear gnome hats.

  • Gnome Advancement League

    Following Gnome Day, human supporters of gnome emancipation and equality formed the Gnome Advancement League and invited gnomes to join them in it.

    The president is Felicity Cartwright, a middle-aged Silver-class human woman. She, Singleminded Soaper, and Mister Hammer form the Executive Committee.

    It exists to push for gnome-friendly legislation, to fight court cases on behalf of gnomes, and to promote the advancement of gnomes within broader Koslin society. Its Benefits and Protections arm is a charitable body which helps freed gnomes find accommodation and jobs and defends them against being kidnapped back into the dwarfholds.

    The League sponsors Bucket, and later Braise, as candidates for the Assembly, under the umbrella of the Unification Party.

  • Fisk

    Locality near Lakeside Koslin. The crossroads are strategic, and the manor of the localgold is well-fortified, more like a castle.

    Bounty, Localgold Fisk at the time of the Unification War, was an old girlfriend of Admirable Silverstones. She was plump and buxom and had a rich, sultry voice. Silverstones gave orders for her and her household to be killed to cover his flight, but Steadfast countermanded them.

  • Fall of the Elven Empire

    The Elven Empire’s fall coincided with rebellion by their human slaves. Which was cause and which effect is hotly debated by historians.
    The official date of the fall is the proclamation of the Code of Willing in the abandoned capital on the Isle of Turfrae, which is also the start date for the current human calendar (see Calendar Systems).

    The Gold Class of the elves fled south, while many of the Silver Class fled north. The Copper Class faded into the forests, where many of them lived in any case.

    Placid of Diamondfall’s monumental History of the End of the Elvish Empire, in five volumes, details the Empire’s breakdown. In volume one, he outlines the bare events – the human rebellions, the breakaway provinces, the competing factions and the decline of the imperial line. Volume two examines the evidence for reducing elvish fertility while human fertility continued vigorous, and argues this, combined with elvish cruelty to humans, as an important factor in the increasingly successful rebellions (encouraged by the dwarves, who traded arms to the rebel factions). Volume three examines evidence for a temporary reduction in the pressure and flow of magic which occurred at around the same time, disadvantaging the elves, who were dependent on it to a greater degree than were humans. Volume four considers the factional fighting in the court, the weakness of the increasingly corrupt and effete emperors, and the growing tendency of provincial governors to go their own way in the absence of strong central control. Volume five summarizes the preceding volumes.

    At a distance of over five centuries, the prevailing view among humans of the elves is now divided between “Amazing culture, but complete bastards” and “Complete bastards, but an amazing culture”.

  • Faithful Victualler

    Lover of Hope at Merrybourne and, simultaneously, Briar Heathlake. When the two women discovered this, they banded together against him and became friends.

    Hope cursed him to impotence in a rage, but was required to take the curse off.

  • Faithful Cook

    Victory’s personal chef. He is intensely loyal to her, very discreet, and an excellent chef. He is put under a geis not to give away the secret of her oathbond ceremony, to the point that he can hardly talk, but manages to cook a fine Nine Treasures Soup anyway.

    Later principal of the Coil Institute of Culinary Crafts.

  • Equanimity

    Gold Equanimity of Limestonecaves was one of the evacuees from the Siege of Lakeside Koslin who later ended up in northern Gulfhead Province via the Tussocklands. She complained bitterly of the conditions there.