Dying Race: Generally averted; biotech is pretty good these days, and most of the time, a sophont race that has, for some reason, ended up in this sort of decline can – with much difficulty and investment, or at least charity – have that fixed. Or at least preserve themselves through some
Gentlesophs, I have noted with interest several papers published in recent issues of the Journal, and in the Journal of Cliodynamics, addressing the widely observed increasing correlation between intelligence/education level and attractiveness/desirability for sexual encounters and pair-bonding in many species which have recently joined the galactic community. See,
Duel To The Death: Available, but strongly discouraged (after all, Immortal Life Is Really Damned Expensive), unlike duels to the non-death – or, in the modern era, to rephrase that, duels to the permadeath are this, and duels to the death are, well, more permitted since death is not permanent, as
Immortal Life Is Cheap: This might be the case in the noetic-backup-having modern world – and to some degree is, when one can send deliberately-disposable temporary forks of yourself in designed-for-the-situation temporary bodies into dangerous situations, and suchlike – but the cultural attitudes were formed back in the day when immortality was
Drop Ship: The Sledgehammer-class drop shuttle and its cousins (such as the Piton-class single-legionary drop pod), as carried by a variety of assault cruisers. Since when you’re actually attempting to get down to the surface of a hostile planet with still-active defenses speed is very much of the essence,
A post I made elsewhere concerning colors according to alien eyes: Indeed so, even if they happen to use the same chunk of the EM spectrum we do as “visible light”. There are, I suppose, some restrictions on what’s likely, since moving too far into the longer wavelengths starts
Drinking On Duty: Averted inasmuch as neither the Imperial Navy nor the Imperial Legions, nor indeed any other part of the Imperial Military Service is dry, even on duty. Drinking enough to render yourself unfit for duty, on the other hand, and the punishment for same, is played very straight
The Empire does have some Drill Tanks (or subterrenes, rather – technical term), giant plasma-belching nuclear-powered monsters which carve their way through rock, cleaning up the waste as they go and leaving steaming glass-lined tunnels behind them, and keeping up a pretty decent clip while they’re doing it, too. They’
As another note, this blog is also now available through the Kindle, for those who would prefer to subscribe that way.  You can find it on Amazon, here. Of course, it’s $0.99 per month rather than free if you subscribe there, but in exchange, you gain more convenient
Iron gates clash, flung wide. Horns ring with brassy blare. The legions of Azikhan march. Light gleams from fire-wrought blades. Gray and gold the banners blaze. The legions of Azikhan march. The drums of war beat wildly. Ten-thousand treads shake the earth. The legions of Azikhan march. The ice-wind’s
The manuscript is still in final editing, but just to whet y’all’s appetite, here’s what the cover page’s going to look like:
“If you’d ever been in a ship with no power, you wouldn’t ask that question. Reactor quenched, mains down, auxiliaries down, accumulator backups down. Out in the black without the life support systems running, it’s blacker in there than Lumenna’s own hell. No lights, no sun,