“Excuse me? Could you tell me why this sword is so highly priced?” “Ah, that’s because this is a mollyblade. The edge is single-layer graphene, less than a nanometer thick. It’ll slice cleanly through anything but muon metals, gluon string or neutronium – or antimatter, of course – and we
Clones Are People Too: Played straight, three ways. Fork-clones (or reinstantiation/resurrection clones) are duplicates of people, therefore also people. Reproductive clones will grow up to be people. And shell-clones will have people downloaded into them. Whichever one it is… they’re people.
Clockwork Creature: Due to the effects of relatively low population and slow population growth on the economics of the eldrae, they invented varieties of robotics remarkably quickly. The first generation was exactly this; clockwork automata to perform a whole variety of functions. Although it took exactly as many years as
el claith ul covalár an-el feämar duolor rrilmirĂmĂşl sá ulessár: (“a contract not possessing the quality of legality does not unmake itself”). The legal principle that a contract to perform an illegal act is not thereby voided, established in Morat Allatrian-ith-Alclair v. Vinath Sargas-ith-Sarathos, Ethring District Court (13). The court
Clingy Costume: Everyone who can’t handle the local atmosphere, or temperature, or pressure, or environmental toxins… which in a multiplanetary, polyspecific world, is one heck of a lot of people.
“Okay, you’re done for the week. It’s time to go home.” “But –” “No exceptions, Lissel. The policy’s there for a reason.” “I just need to finish –” “And you’ve been here for thirty hours already this week. You’re one of the Initiative’s top designers, and
Clarke’s Third Law: Happens about as much as Cargo Cult when dealing with less advanced civilizations, and about as embarrassing. And, look, people “god” (see Deus Est Machina) does not necessarily imply “supernatural”.
All income earned, by individuals other than the Imperial Service or duly contracted security providers where the activities in question are within the scope of their contract, in the course of: * Defeating or preventing existential, species-level, or Imperial security threats, whether global or local; * Repelling raids or invasions; * Preventing acts
City of Spies: Many spies, of course, hang around Nepscia (Galith Waste) and its red market, both because many secrets find their way there, and because a city with no rules (see: Wretched Hive) makes an excellent place to play intelligence agencies’ rougher away games. Likewise, the Conclave Drift contains
Wretched Hive: The planet Nepscia (Galith Waste) is the canonical example. Its primary inhabited portion is one large red market – which is to say, it’s one giant bastardized offspring of Jackson’s Whole and Tortuga. It’s a… fun place to visit in the right frame of mind – but
Quöé and her clique called us staid, today, among a few other less polite assertions. Can you imagine that? Me! Staid! I didn’t understand what they meant until I remembered how they used to look at me and my cousins when we first got here, before we’d learned
Church Militant: The eikones revered by the Church of the Flame include two war gods, arguably so described: DĂşrĂ©nĂän, eikone of righteous war, battle, conquest, strategy and tactics, and patron of the sentinels; and KalasanĂ©, eikone of battle, courage, valor, victory through strength, and personal combat. Their combined religious order,