So, this is something that I posted to one of the worldbuilding lists I’m on, for sundry reasons, and so I thought I’d post it here too: if you’ve ever, at various times in the past when I’ve mentioned money, or at least physical money, wondered
“You’re Liiriani, yes?” The recruiter eyed the tattered uniforms on those crowding into his prefab. “Ex-military. Wait… you’re Temple Guard? The ones left behind after the fall of Mantaniir?” “Yeah. I was at Mantaniir. We all were.” The scarred veteran’s lip curled, and he spat. “Proud Mantaniir.
Happiness in Slavery: Played with – Imperial law, despite the extreme cultural aversion to slavery, does permit voluntarily contracted indenture as a way to get out from under unrepayable debts without resorting to bankruptcy, and suchlike. It’s not exactly happy – indeed, by local standards, it is ridiculously humiliating – but it’
Hand Cannon: You can, indeed, fit some bloody powerful mass drivers into handgun-sized weapons, these days – although even with recoil compensation, etc., it helps to have some of those military-grade musculoskeletal reinforcements – and some way to brace yourself – if you plan on firing the things comfortably or with any reasonable
Half-Identical Twins: Much more common in the Eldraeverse than in real life, while still not exactly common, since this sort of minor zygote-split with sex-chromosome flippery is very much on the list of Easy and Fun Genetic Manipulations You Can Do At Home, or at least if you think it
In a post elsewhere, reference was made to this trope page, and the generic problem of saying “ladies and gentlemen” when addressing a group of people which may include those who deem themselves members of neither category. This, of course, is a problem which my universe had to solve a
Opposite Sex Clone: Fairly trivial, for an Imperial level of bioengineering (X-doubling, made easier by earlier eugeneering out of bad recessives, or synthetic X), and done (a) on a relatively infrequent basis for reproduction and (b) rather more often to produce spare (empty) bodies of the other sex. See Gender
Half Human Hybrid: Even generalizing this to allow for the lack of humans in the known part of this universe, and even taking into account the amount of xenosexuality going on (refer back to Boldly Coming and Interspecies Romance) – no. Just no. There are absolutely no half-anything anythings wandering around,
Interspecies Romance: See under Boldly Coming, essentially, with a little more long-term in the relationship and somewhat more effort to put into appreciating or overcoming, as necessary, one’s differences. But since I am of the opinion that, inasmuch as they all occupy the same universe with the same concrete
Had To Be Sharp: The kaeth, whose metal-rich and naturally radiation-enhanced world did not produce, shall we say, the gentlest ecology ever, especially pre-astrobleme. Many early resource-competition wars in their history probably also helped.
Guns Akimbo: Played straight in its single-target version, but not in its multi-target version; despite the modifications listed under Firing One Handed making this look possible, but for most people, unless you have some fairly radical improvements to your vision system, you’re still only going to hit one target
Seeing as I wrote a little earlier on why my universe is compliant with one of the common misconceptions about space travel, I figured I’d follow it up with a few words on the other one I bend all out of shape: Rockets Are Not Hotels. Well, actually, I’