With the alchemical term rebis – link is to Spanish Wikipedia since the English entry appears to be broken – the primordial hermaphrodite, and the symbol of the unification of two opposing properties – it occurs to me I have the perfect ready-made term, translation-convention-wise, for a herm body operated by a two-person
Call A Rabbit A Smeerp: Almost inevitably, thanks to Translation Convention, and purging of jargon and dialog of obvious Earth-culture references, like, say, “Sorcerer’s Apprentice Problem” and “Newtonian mechanics”. Although at least most of the time, it is trying to indicate some subtle difference: making the distinction between “agorism”
“Welcome to Tessil System Space. You are now entering the Tessil system advisory zone. Contact Tessil SysCon on channel 43.2 and identify. Current ephemerides and system documentation updates are now being transmitted. Procedural control is now in effect.” “Current alerts: Undocumented debris has been spotted in AdĂrdis-CelĂ©res brachistochrone route
The following, as will be the other eight entries in the series, are extracts from the Word of the Flame, the record of the seeress Merriéle’s visions that is also the primary text of the Church of the Flame, the mainstream eldraeic religion. More specifically, this series will contain
FROM: CORE COMMAND TO: FIELD FLEET SPINWARD COMMAND (CS LIBERTY’S PRICE) *** PRIORITY PRIORITY PRIORITY *** EYES ONLY SPINWARD OPS *** STANDING ORDER UPDATE (SEQ 4377) FLT ADM DAPHNOTARTHIUS, COMMANDING FIELD FLEET SPINWARD: 1. THIS MESSAGE CONSTITUTES A MANDATORY UPDATE TO STANDING ORDERS PRESENTLY IN EFFECT. 2. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT AILÉK-1 ARE
Translation Convention: Applied – with a degree of selectivity, in which I translate names that are meaningful based on roots in modern Eldraeic (i.e. “Mosstone”, “Stonesmight”, “House Silverfall”, “House Steamweaver”, etc.), but leave untouched those derived from older languages. Occasional pieces of the actual Eldraeic are left in for effect,
By-the-Book Cop: Played straight in the Empire, inasmuch as proper protocol and ethical guidelines come in a gnostic overlay, run by every on-duty member of the Watch Constabulary. Granted, this being the Empire, proper protocol is pretty flexible and discretionary, but where it isn’t, the overlay makes sure it’
But Not Too White: Averted, since this meme never even had the preconditions to become established on Eliéra. The eldrae simply don’t tan in response to UV light, no matter how long they spend working, walking, or basking in the sun. (Essentially, their ancestors – thanks to the superior immune
The rings of Depot, Palaxias system. One orbital warehouse among many, Armory S7-224 was a simple “tin-can” habitat, dozens of red-striped modules plugged together onto a central interconnection frame. A freight cutter, just undocked, fell backwards away from the docking spine on the way to its next errand. Within its
Immortality: In a couple of forms. The natural immortality of the eldrae and galari, etc., is Type II Undying, without the disease (or, indeed, starvation) exception – at least where potent illnesses are concerned. This is also the type they’ve developed, named immortagens, and sell on the open market. Noetic
“Gentlesophs of the Plurality, on behalf of the Bandal Home/Care Provision Citizen Oversight Group, we move that our statement of intent, critical path, budget and disbursals as modified in our attachment for estimated population variance be accepted as read, being invariant from our presentation of the last fiscal year.
Burn The Witch!: Hardly unknown, both in the form in which advanced technology is considered to be magic (see: Magic From Technology) and in the form in which it’s merely considered about as immoral as magic, when dealing with more technologically or socially backward worlds (This is another problem