List of Sayings, Aphorisms and songs

General:

• Grasshopper: associated with treachery and duplicity. you can call someone a Grasshopper, and the animal itself is seen as signifying and possessing these attributes. Promulgated by The Whispers to help smear the Grasshopper Knights, and still a common phrase millennia later.
• Canteen Swill: military term, especially in The Giteri, for any cheap, low-strength booze, such as may be carried and drunk on the battlefield.
• Ylohom campfire: a person with no stamina or perseverance, or a short-lived enthusiasm/fad. named after the ephemeral humanoid elementals that sometimes arise spontaneously from fires in Ylohom.
• (A) Chain: originating in the Burnished Isles after the highest unit of currency there, it means "a fortune" or "a large amount or number", especially when referring to a positive thing (generally ironic when referring to a negative thing).
• From (the) last to (the) first: a Giterikin expression meaning "through thick and thin", "come what may", "forever" etc.
• Work like a husk: work hard, repeatedly, machine-like, or methodically; especially of a pointless or obstructive task.
• Retinol Funeral: a big to-do, especially when blown out of proportion; a mountain out of a molehill.
• Narrow-Corner: an Emsh phrase, used as an adjective to characterise unpleasant, unhealthy or unclean atmospheres or vibes.
• Kill-for-griffer: also kilfergriffer or kilfer. Giterikin saying. a Kilfer is one who goes to extremes for small reward - literally "would kill for a griffon", a single coin.
• "do the Tchep shit in the snow?"
• Kyrtan Splinters: a curse from the Lodestone Mountain, named after the splinter-fields of the surrounding Kyrtan region. mostly used by Rephen of the Lodestone mountain among known characters.
• False tear: an unwanted or unwelcome gift, guest, or occurrence, especially that which must be accepted at face value and with good grace. Used in Retinol.
• hearing the (call of the field-)shrike: feeling homesick. Giterikin saying.
• "unshod/unshoed" - centaur saying meaning posh, unworldly, useless (cf. "green", "wet behind the ears").
• "stew the teat " - of centaur origin, equivalent to "killed the golden goose".
• "Go Ragged" - Teytonol invective.
• "pour the Cinquefoil" - the most serious and profane watersign, used to mark a thing specifically as unhallowed. as a saying, a it means "overreacting" - e.g. "no need to pour the Cinquefoil over this!"

Gyrist Sayings:

• And so the gyre grows: something like "que sera sera", or "so it goes" or "that's the way of things".
• gyre grow: equivalent to "hopefully", "lord willing", or "inshallah".
• May the gyre grow: a formal greeting, and the more formal version of "Gyre grow".
• Gyre Wide: a general exclamation of shock, also a worshipful term.
• Mar the flow: a general curse
• Gyre Kind: a general exclamation of thanks or joy, also a worshipful term.
• Little Gyre: the Gyrist temple neighbourhood in a town. not a formal term, and in fact disapproved of in non-Effigy areas.
• "mar the flow!" - gyrist curse.

Turf-Troll sayings:

• Sun/Holy Sun: an exclamation of surprise, or to show that you're impressed.
• "Sun's light, Rain's Grace, Salt's Mercy": a benediction and a farewell message
• "Salt of the Sea": a curse
• "Sun protect, Rain Bring Fortune": a benediction and a farewell message
• "Return to the soil/Earth (that which I took from it)": to die, or to defecate
• "kill your weeds": be good for you, in a harsh way; "put hairs on your chest"
• Horsefuckers: Centaurs.

"The Red Lakes of Emshol" (with annotations)
(Chorus) Far away from the red lakes of Emshol
Far away my true love awaits
And when I fall asleep I a-wander
Once again through our village's gate¹
Gyre Wide² my bitterness swallow
Gyre kind my lonely heart tame
For here I stand by the red lakes of Emshol
Spilling blood in some fine lord's name³
While
(chorus)
Beside me stand my stalwart companions
Ever true from last to the first ⁴
but my spear-arm grows a-weary
and the red lakes of Emshol cannot slake my thirst
For
(Chorus)
Though our foes may teem without number
Though our generals dispatch without care
I dread nothing more than to wake from my slumber
As dreams of my homeland dissolve in the air. ⁵

Yet (Chorus) ⁶
Comments and annotations:
"The Red Lakes of Emshol" is a folk standard originating almost two centuries ago, composed by soldiers fighting in the ill-fated counter-invasion of Emshol undertaken by troops from The Giteri, the Sokani Archipelago, and the Commonwealth of Reld that took place at that time.
Traditionally accompanied by kalimba, the lyrics deal with pining for a loved one left far behind at home, the trials of a soldier on campaign, the emptiness of fighting a war for the sake of uncaring masters and the bittersweet solace of companions who may be lost at any time.
Exported to all the lands surrounding the Nidari Reach by returning soldiers at the war's end, the song keeps the conflict alive in the popular imagination and is still sung around campaign campfires as far afield as Zanarrol, Olepitar, and Chaneritt.

1. Gates are the central religious structures in The Giteri, important to both the local forms of Gyrism and Aeroanimism. In many milieus in which this song is now played, this detail is lost, and a literal entrance-gate is taken as the meaning.
2. The Gyre is the subject of religious worship in Gyrism. Although most forms of orthodoxy do not support it, we see here that in the faith as practiced among the general population often invokes the Gyre in prayer.
3. Some versions of the song change the "tame/name" rhyme for "take/sake".
4. It's unclear whether the Giterikin saying "from first to last" predates this song, or was inspired by it.
5. this verse is often omitted due to pressure from higher up in the military to "maintain morale".
6. in some versions, the final chorus ends "Once again to the Cemetery's gate", adding the song a more tragic final twist. This is more common among artistic performances of the song, with the more relatable and hopeful tone of the original being more popular among soldiers and travellers.