Welcome to Reality...

Those guys and gals at the White Wolf Games Studio sure have an extensive vocabulary. They manage to find all sorts of archaic words to use. In case you'd wondered what those words are meant to mean, and so that you can compare their meanings with their usage, I present you with the following dictionary definitions:

• Adept. One fully skilled in any art.
• Alchemist. One who practised alchemy.
• Amaranth. The unfading flower; a colour inclining to purple.
• Ancilla from Ancillary. Pertaining to a maidservant; subservient or subordinate.
• Animalism. Sensuality.
• Antediluvian. One who lived before the flood.
• Auspice. Augury from birds; protection; influence.
• Caern from Cairn. A rounded heap of stones.
• Caitiff. A mean villain; a despicable knave.
• Castigate. To chastise; to punish by stripes.
• Celerity. Speed; quickness.
• Celery. An umbelliferous plant cultivated for the table.
• Celestine from Celestial. An inhabitant of Heaven.
• Changeling. A child substituted for another; a fool; one apt to change.
• Chimera. A fire-breathing monster of fable; a vain or idle fancy.
• Chimerical. Wildly or vainly conceived.
• Clan. A family; a tribe; a sect.
• Coterie. A circle of familiar friends who meet for social or literary intercourse; an exclusive society; a clique.
• Dominate. To rule; to predominate over.
• Elder. One who is older; an office-bearer in the Presbyterian Church; a small tree with a spongy pith and dark purple or red berries.
• Fortitude. Firmness of mind to encounter danger, or to bear pain or adversity; resolute endurance.
• Galliard. A lively dance usually in triple time for two persons; the music for this.
• Gargoyle. A projecting water-spout on a building, often grotesque.
• Glabro from Glabrous. Free from hair or down; smooth skinned.
• Harbinger. A forerunner; that which precedes and gives notice of something else.
• Hispo from Hispid. Rough with bristles; bristly.
• Inconnu. French word for unknown.
• Infernal. Pertaining to the lower regions or Hell; very wicked and detestable; diabolical.
• Kindred. Relationship by birth; affinity; relatives by blood.
• Kine. Old plural of cow.
• Kith. Relatives or friends collectively.
• Klaive from Glaive. A sword.
• Lasombra. Spanish for the shadow.
• Lupine. A leguminous flowering plant; like a wolf; wolfish.
• Lupus. A disease which eats away the flesh of the face; Latin word for wolf.
• Mage from Magi. The caste of priests among the ancient Medes and Persians; holy men or sages of the East.
• Marauder. A plunderer.
• Masquer from Masquerader. One who masquerades; one disguised.
• Masquerade. An assembly of persons wearing masks; a disguise.
• Melpomine. In Greek mythology, the Muse of tragedy.
• Necromancy. The revealing of future events through pretended communication with the dead; sorcery.
• Obfuscate. To darken; to confuse.
• Oracle. Among the Greeks and Romans, the answer of a god to an inquiry respecting some future event; place where the answers were given; the sanctuary of the ancient Jews; any person reputed uncommonly wise; a wise or authoritative utterance.
• Outrage. To do extreme violence or injury to; to abuse; to commit a rape upon.
• Pander. A pimp; a male bawd; to act as agent for the lusts of others; to be subservient to lust or desire.
• Pandemonium. The abode of the evil spirits; any lawless, disorderly place or assemblage.
• Pardoner. One who pardons; formerly a seller of the pope's indulgences.
• Penumbra. The partial shadow on the margin of the total shadow in an eclipse; the point of a picture where the shade blends with the light.
• Phantasm. An apparition; a phantom; an idea, notion, or fancy.
• Potence, from Potency. State or quality of being potent; might; force.
• Presence. State of being present; existence in a certain place; company; sight; port; mien; the person of a great personage; an appearance or apparition; readiness.
• Protean. Assuming different shapes; variable; changeable.
• Puppeteer and Puppetry from Puppet. A small figure in the human form mechanically worked; a person who is a mere tool.
• Quietus. A final discharge of an account; a finishing stroke.
• Sabbat from Sabbath. A religious rest-day appointed for Jews on the last day of the week (Saturday); Sunday as a Christian day of abstinence from work and play; a supposed general meeting of witches with the Devil.
• Sabbat not from Sabaoth. Heavenly hosts; armies.
• Salubri from Salubrity. Healthfulness.
• Samedi. French word for Saturday.
• Sanguinus from Sanguine. Consisting of blood; full of blood; of the colour of blood; cheerful; confident.
• Serpentis, from Serpentine. Resembling or pertaining to a serpent; spiral; a rock resembling a serpent's skin in appearance, used for decoration; to wind like a serpent.
• Spectre. An apparition; a ghost; a phantom.
• Spook. A ghost; an apparition.
• Stargazer from Star-gazer. One who gazes at the stars; an astrologer.
• Tellurian. Pertaining to the Earth.
• Thanatosis from Thanatos. Greek word for death.
• Thaumaturgy. Miracle-working; magic; legerdemain.
• Theurge from Theurgy. The working of a divine agency in human affairs.
• Toreador. A Spanish bull-fighter, especially one on horseback.
• Tradition. The handing down of opinions, stories, etc., from father to son, by oral communication; a statement so handed down.
• Tzimisce from Tzimis. A town in Romania. [This is according to one of my past university lecturers, a Romanian called Florin Avram, who says Tzimisce should be pronounced "TIM-ish"]
• Umbra. The total shadow of the earth or moon in an eclipse; Latin word for shadow.
• Usury. Extortionate interest for money; practice of taking exorbitant interest.
• Vicissitude. Change or alteration; one of the ups and downs of life.
• Wraith. An apparition of a person about to die or newly dead.

Any requests, additions, suggestions, corrections, hate-mail to the usual address. Definitions derived from various dictionaries and personal experience.