While it is true that the Church of Celestial Harmony has no named adversary, no personification of evil, or rather – bearing in mind that neither are any of the eikones personifications, strictly speaking, of good – of negatively aligned concepts, it nonetheless maintains a fundamental opposition of cosmic principles. There is
Combat Referee: The Presidium of the Conclave of Galactic Polities, who like galactic stability, but know that they can’t – even on those occasions when they all agree – eliminate all the wars within their ambit. They can, on the other hand, keep wars relatively small and prevent anyone from going
Color-Coded Patrician: Played straight with the uniform colors for each of the Ministries, the Senate, and the Curia, along with all of the runér; of course, there are no sumptuary laws rendering those colors off-limits for anyone else, but you can usually tell on any formal occasion by looking for
BarĂĂ«l Andracanth-ith-Brianth to Ven Mak Lochh, greetings. I checked into your son’s case, and I’ve got to tell you, it’s as I thought. There’s no “slavery” involved. He signed up to a debt indenture. Which is to say, to cover the details so far as my
The Office of the President of the Senate of the Empire of the Star, great and glorious beyond all greatness and glory, to Citizen-Shareholder Horulgavis Lariantinos-ith-Larios, greetings. In the names of the Imperial Couple, the Senate, the Curia, and the Citizen-Shareholders of this Empire, in accordance with the duly executed
Color-Coded For Your Convenience: Played straight in all the usual locations: indicator lights, transit routes, components and tool-heads, plugs and sockets, signs, departments on uniforms, logos, etc., etc. Made more complicated, though, by the local spectrum including two ultraviolets (no, that plain white cloak is not plain white) and an
Colony Drop: One of the standard military tactics for softening up a planet, but also one that is horribly, horribly illegal (in the Ley Accords/Laws and Customs of War sense of Do This And We Kill You) if done with large rocks, or lots of rocks, on any world
D is for Digisapience a thinking machine. A mind forged from metal with light-woven dreams. E is for Exoself your thoughts in the air. Working your will even while you’re not there. F is for Forking making many from one. On days when we’re busy it helps get
AMERI/EÄVALLE – The sextennial auction to determine the new Aurarch of Eävalle concluded today, with the obligators of the Ministry of the Nations formally accepting the 1.33 trillion Eävalle méril (17.3 trillion esteyn) bid of Larquen Archés-ith-Aic for the position. A plutarch, former CFO of Eävalle Estate Development,
The Laws and Customs of War: There are several sets of these, locally; the Empire has its Imperial Rules of War, and so forth, but the ones people mean in the general case are those contained in the Ley Accords, which might be considered the Associated Worlds’ closest approach to
Combat Medic: Played straight. While in theory, under the Ley Accords and the Imperial Rules of War, medical personnel are hands-off noncombatants, in practice, the majority of warfare is against non-signatories to the Accords, or irregular forces (including pirates, terrorists, and other scum) who just don’t care about them.
“Here’s what I need redacted: I made arrangements, yesterday, to have a copy of my mind-state archived at Site Hácek. I need to not remember doing that, and I need to not remember needing to not remember doing that. My husband and I staged an argument last night; use