Before the Phoenix
Ienith Steamweaver tried and failed to restrain a grin as the techs tightened the straps holding him down, hooked up his oxygen mask, and slammed the hatch of the Skyreach capsule shut above him. It was happening. It was happening today. He was going to orbit. …on top of a
trope-a-day
Of The People: Possibly averted. While the species name eldrae (which means nothing, except etymologically) is derived from the proto-Old-Empires el daratha, “the People”, that was not a tribe term, but rather a species term, in opposition to everything else, literally meaning “the thinking ones”. Compare, for example, modern el
trope-a-day
Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Imperials would certainly argue that the Fundamental Contract, with its insistence on protecting people’s life, liberty, property, and contracts would be one of these. (Of course, some non-Imperials would point out that, given the very large number of societies in the Galaxy that aren’
blogging from a to z
While they are used on many colonies, due to the extremely small investment in infrastructure required, Sialhaith (Lumenna III) is the world on which the modern airship has reached its apotheosis. In Sialhaith’s hot, thick atmosphere – the planetary ecopoesis program was bought out and effectively terminated in its 150th
trope-a-day
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Somewhat averted to begin with; a lot of what makes bureaucrats characteristically bureaucrats is that they’re supposed to operate in a manner practically void of discretion, as good little cogs executing according to the procedure manual and not much more. The Empire never had the population demographics
stargate
Or, the Difficult Worldbuilding Compromises that Result when You Didn’t Design Everything at the Same Time. It has been (entirely correctly) pointed out over on Google+ that this is not how wormholes, as we understand them today, would work. (Because they’d work like this.) This is one of
blogging from a to z
The reporter looked dubiously at his sandwich. “So this is made entirely of yeast?” “Absolutely! Nutriyeast spread on yeast-fermented yeast product with a steaming bulb of yeast-synthesized theobrom. Versatile little wonders, those.” With careful mid-bite timing, she added: “They also made the plate, the cutlery, and the table. Well, not
stargate
Mark Atwood asks: Do stargates conserve kinetic and/or gravitational potential energy? If I put half a pair on a planetary surface and the other a few lightsecs away, do I get to jump into steller orbit without paying for the climb out of the gravity well? If the other
trope-a-day
Numbered Homeworld: Averted. As we mentioned way back in Naming Your Colony World, inhabited systems generally do get named objects, if only because they’re easier to remember. Even uncontacted alien homeworlds get names, often a pronounceable transliteration of whatever the local name is, out of some respect for local
blogging from a to z
xenognosis (n.): (also “the Big Hello”) The knowledge that sophont species other than one’s own exist; also, the discovery by an individual or species that they exist. In popular mythology, this is usually conflated with first contact, or at least with the establishment of genuine communications between the species
meta
Sorry, folks, but Xenognosis will be out tomorrow, along with whatever I think of for Y. It’s just not gelling for me today.
trope-a-day
No Warping Zone: You could, in theory, put a wormhole pair anywhere you liked – high mass notwithstanding. The traditional location out on the edge of star systems has more to do with size, ease of construction and transport, accessibility and defensibility, and minimizing the consequences of their extremely explosive, if