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Alistair Young
immigration
Welcome to the Empire!
(And now a metafictional document of introduction which, in a fictional universe, someone might have just handed “you” a copy of when you stepped out of the starship. Those of you who’ve read Accelerando may notice something of a Stross pastiche lurking behind this one; that was deliberate, back
Trope-a-Day: Fake Memories
Fake Memories: Again, something else that can be done with the dark side of sophotechnology (see also: Mind Rape, And I Must Scream, etc.). Also sometimes done with a more benevolent end in mind; redacting trauma, consensually removing security-sensitive memories, that sort of thing.
Trope-a-Day: The Fair Folk
The Fair Folk: While this is not a trope that strictly applies to anyone in the Eldraeverse – and, and I would like to be absolutely clear on this, in-universe as well as out-universe there is absolutely no causal connection whatsoever between these chaps and any of the applicable legends – you
Trope-a-Day: Failsafe Failure
Failsafe Failure: Averted. Strongly. Given the extraordinarily dangerous technologies they’re quite happy to use, the failsafes have failsafes. On their failsafes. And as this is not Starfleet engineering, the reactors don’t run hot (i.e., with ludicrous amounts of excess reactivity), prisoners and diseases are never contained with
Trope-a-Day: Faceless Eye
Faceless Eye: Citizen Oversight, the unified office of collecting publicly available data so that what government the Empire has can make sensible decisions (and which, incidentally, pays for itself by selling the statistical information, and collations, and indeed access to the raw feeds – for assorted uses, sousveillance included – it produces
Cosmos and Ethos
There are many creation myths. The Pancreator, Great Architect, crafting the universe out of nothingness. The worlds born in the passion of Elif and Lithrás at the beginning of time, or stolen from the jewel-box of Eternity, or forged from chaos by the Mad Gods of the Beginning, or captured
Trope-a-Day: The Faceless
The Faceless: Lots of people who, for one reason or another, need to go around all day wearing environmental/vacuum suits for one reason or another. (Although facial-expression v-tags are quite common to reduce the effect of appearing to have no expression.) Also, more than a few infomorphs who are
Trope-a-Day: Eye Beams
Eye Beams: Averted. There are very few sensors which can double as or co-locate with weapons systems, and even where those are in use, effectively disabling your sensors while you fire is, ah, not survival-oriented behavior.
ElmirĂĂ«n's Truths
The following is an extract from the Word of the Flame, the record of the series of dream-visions the seeress Merriéle experienced on the side of the mountain Tirias Calémon in the year 1,199 pre-Imperial. The contents of these visions formed the basis of the mainstream Eldraeic religion.  This
Trope-a-Day: Exposition Beam
Exposition Beam: What mnemonesis (see Neural Imprinting) is for, although it’s much more commonly used for imparting knowledge in the data and skillset sense than imprinting knowledge in the history/backstory sense. Nonetheless, it can be done, and as such, tends to be done, at least sometimes – despite the
Trope-a-Day: Neural Imprinting
Neural Imprinting: Ubiquitous, although it’s called “gnostic overlay” and “mnemonesis”. And while it is the standard educational technique (starting prenatally, with the axiom feed), it’s only the first step. After all, being able to download huge chunks of skillset into a chap’s brain is easy; successful integration