Technically, I suppose, Gifted and Pariah are alternate history stories, defined in Wikipedia as ‘a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which one or more historical events unfolds differently from how it did in reality’.
The basic idea is that at some pivotal point in history, the fictional universe of the story diverged from our ‘real’ world. Say, King Harold won the Battle of Hastings; the American colonists lost the war of independence; the Nazis conquered Britain in 1940…
In the world of forensic sorcerer Frank Sampson, however, there is no such pivotal point of departure. Somewhere along the line, magic became the dominant technology; but I really couldn’t tell you when. I did try to work it all out during early drafts, but frankly life is too short…
So here, in the hope that they will clarify things a little, are some of Frank’s alphabetically-arranged notes on important elements of his world…
ASB
The Anti-Sorcery Brotherhood. Founded 1898; membership unknown. It does what it says on the tin: it’s a brotherhood (so no girls) and it’s dedicated (if you can describe a crowd of arseholes as dedicated) to the destruction of the Society of Sorcerers (see below).
The Blur
See Presbyopia
CID
The police Criminal Investigation Department. You can’t miss them: bleached white hair, cut short; bewildered expression…
College wars
1927-31. For centuries the various colleges of Oxford university were happy to compete on the sports field. Then someone came up with the bright idea that real weapons and live ammunition would liven things up a bit. By the time everyone got bored, most of the university was a pile of ashes.
The Concordat
The Church formally recognised the Society of Sorcerers as a religious order in 1563. But it was a match made on Earth, not in Heaven. The Society kept hauling demons up out of Hell to make things explode. The Church complained about the noise and the smell, but the Society was having too much fun to care. And when things got a bit sticky, about a hundred and fifty years back, the Society sent in a flock of demons to pull the dome off St Peter’s and drop it in the Tiber. The church didn’t see the joke and excommunicated the Society. A week later, on his Easter appearance to bless pilgrims to Rome, the Pope turned into a piano and started rattling out a selection of popular waltzes. Everyone agreed that this was getting silly. So in 1908 they finally signed the Concordat, a document the size of an encyclopaedia in which everybody promised to behave. Some hope…
Contiguity
See Sympathetic magic.
Dictionnaire infernal
An (incomplete) encyclopaedia of demons, written by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy and first published in 1818.
Doughnut City
Oxford. So-called because of the burned-out Hole in the middle where there used to be a university (see College wars)
Einstein’s Laws
Albert Einstein (1879-1912) was another of those sorcerers who just don’t know when to stop. He was 23—well post-peak —when he made his last attempt to summon up Lucifer. Judging by the mess they found later, he succeeded. But as well as a pile of ashes he left behind his three laws of contiguity(see Sympathetic magic): that although contiguity fades over time it never absolutely disappears; and that it can’t be artificially induced or destroyed by magical means.
Elemental
A form of natural energy that even a post-peak sorcerer can channel and convert to physical form, usually resembling a human being or an animal. They have purpose, but—unlike angels and demons—no consciousness. Basically they’re slaves, except that you don’t have to feed or shelter them, or look after them in old age, since they can be made to disappear at the flick of a finger.
Exorcism
A religious ritual that anyone can perform, designed to make demons blink. Exorcised water, used in magic ceremonies, is a mixture of distilled water, quicklime or salt, and prayer.
Ghost
Magically-powered vehicle that allows the rich and powerful to get from point A to point B without having to smell horseshit.
Grimoire
A book containing a collection of magical procedures. Because we don’t make this stuff up as we go along, you know. We get it out of books written by dead guys who made it up as they went along…
The Hole
The burned-out wasteland in the centre of Doughnut City, left behind after the College wars.
Inquisition
If you’ve built yourself a religion, you’ve got to have rules. And if anyone breaks those rules you have to set them straight. Pain seems to work. Pope Leo XVII gave the Society of Sorcerers permission to set up its own private inquisition in 1787.
Isis
just to confuse strangers, the stretch of the river Thames that flows through Doughnut City is called the Isis.
Jack
Policeman, uniformed or plain clothes.
John Dee
English mathematician, alchemist and sorcerer (1527–1608). His day job was as astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I.
Livor mortis
After death the blood stops circulating and settles towards the lower parts of the body, causing a purplish red discolouration of the skin. The degree and location of lividity can be an indication of how long someone has been dead and whether they have been moved since death.
Mandrake
A thick plant root with magical properties, often branched so that it resembles a small human figure with arms and legs. Sort of. According to legend, when dug up it emits a scream that will kill anyone who hears it; so people used to tie a dog to the plant and retire to a safe distance before calling the animal.
Montgolfier
The Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques Etienne, made the first public ascent in a hot air balloon in 1783. After that people started using lighter-than-air gases like hydrogen, and added engines. Very quickly they realised you could drop explosives from them.
Nekker
General term of abuse for sorcerers, a contraction of necromancer. Necromancy — from the Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós), “dead body”, and μαντεία (manteía), “prophecy or divination” — is the art of raising the dead to foretell the future. As if dead people care about football results.
Pentacle
A design written on paper or parchment, or engraved on metal, and used to command or to protect against demonic forces. There’s good money to be made selling protection from disease and surefire winners at the races. Also known as an amulet or talisman.
Pentagram
A five-pointed star, drawn without lifting the pencil from the paper and a symbol of… well, pretty much anything you like.
Post-peak
The Gift — the ability to work magic — appears in early childhood and peaks around the age of 17. As it fades after that point, a sorcerer is said to be “post-peak”. The Gift becomes undetectable after about 25.
Presbyopia
The age-related inability to focus clearly on near objects. It starts to kick in around 20 and is acute by 25. Symptoms are eye-strain and headaches, and difficulty seeing in dim light or focussing on small objects or fine print. Spectacles help, but not very much. Gardeners, for example, can see enough to work; but they need a kid to read the instructions on the packet of seeds.
Reliquary
There are idiots out there who really believe that touching a bit that’s fallen off a saint will cure you of all sorts of diseases. There’s money to be made from this. To prevent the relic being kissed or stroked to pieces you have to put in a container — a reliquary — preferably something expensive-looking.
Rigor mortis
Within a few hours of death, chemical changes in the muscles make the limbs go stiff. The effect dissipates eventually. But it can be used as a very approximate indication of time of death.
Schismatic
Anyone who doesn’t agree with the Pope (that includes laughing at his hat).
Scryer
A magic mirror. Some sorcerers have claimed to be able to see the future this way; but its general use is for communicating over long distances.
Simultaneity
See sympathetic magic.
Society of Sorcerers
Founded as a secret religious confraternity in 1513, partly to share ideas, but mainly to prevent arguments between rival sorcerers turning into Armageddon. Officially recognised by the Church in 1563. Relations have deteriorated over the last 50 years or so. The Church has accused the Society of heresy. The Society is rumoured to be sharpening its wands.
Sympathetic magic
The principle that physical objects are invisibly linked by magical forces that a sorcerer can detect and analyse. Contiguity (also known as contagion) is the affinity that persists eternally between any two objects that have ever touched each other, or between the individual fragments of a single object. Simultaneity is the link between all events occurring at the same moment in time, anywhere in the physical universe. Similarity is the relationship between objects that physically resemble each other.
Tarot
A pack of playing cards consisting of four suits of 14 cards and a set of 22 trump cards depicting figures like the Devil, the Pope and Death. Fortune-tellers use them to predict the future.
Tatty
The police force is run by idiots whose Presbyopia makes them effectively blind. Any kid under 20 can still see clearly, but tatties are special: they’re incredibly sharp and they get ‘insights’ that tell them stuff nobody else could have worked out. The downside is that they go completely blind around 30.
Thaumaturgy
A posh word for magic. Impressed?
Thomas Aquinas
Born 1225, died 1274. Philosopher, theologian, saint.
Tonsure
A silly haircut. Sorcerers adopted it to prevent demons grabbing them by the hair. Monks took it up because they thought it made them look cool. To be fair, standards of what constitutes “cool” have changed since the middle ages.
The Vatican
Also known as the Holy See. The pope’s business empire, based in Rome.
Donald Hounam 