Alistair Young

Trope-a-Day: Blood Oath

Blood Oath: Averted.  The general consensus is that I Gave My Word should be enough for anybody, on either end of the arrangement.

Trope-a-Day: I Gave My Word

I Gave My Word: Played very, very straight indeed.  As is known throughout the Worlds, the word (or debt) of an Imperial is as close to absolute as you can get.  (They are sometimes, if you are prone to abuse these things, Exact Words, and since they are cautious with

First First Contact (3)

Galáré Actual, Galáré System. The noösphere of Galáré sang with electromagnetic voices.  The galari themselves, crystalline creatures of carbon-wrought silicon,  were the most complex voices in the song, exchanging trills and dithyrambs of information, an endless symphony of knowledge framed in multi-layered harmonies of incredible complexity; not a singular overmind,

Trope-a-Day: Exact Words

Exact Words: The Imperials are, of course, sophonts of their words.  It would be very bad form for one to chop logic so closely and obey the letter, and not the spirit, of an agreement. Unless, of course, your counterparty is trying to do it to you first, or other

Fries With That

Afterburner Fly-In, Skyway 51, 5,000 feet above the Selenarian plains. “We’d like the Trinary Burger with the smokin’ kimaes, the reshkef handmeal with mint, both with grated argórén and smokebite cheese on the side, the kaeth-size roast joint of ftark, glazed ‘on fire’, a box of sevesúr segments

Trope-a-Day: Blood Brothers / True Companions

Blood Brothers / True Companions: The (semi-) formalized groups of friends, especially in freelance adventurer/weirdseeker/etc. company, known as circles (short for “oath-circles”, because they are; also the second generalized form of Imperial social structure, after the branch).  Not all of them are formalized by oath, however, hence the “semi”

Princess of Clouds to Archetypes, Gilek-Four - Your Move

The priest of the Unnamed, unidentifiable behind flowing night-purple robes and serene mask of polished silver, moved steadily through the market towards the statue of Valentia I. The crowd parted as he – or she – passed, leaving a respectful distance. The reputation of the Masked Order made even the bold wary

Trope-a-Day: Bling of War

Bling of War: Except for the brief chunk of time that matched our Industrial Age, played mostly straight by the Imperial Legions.  Beforehand, for much the same regions as Napoleonic (and previous) armies were quite dressy – well, that, and the giant steam clanks stomping around on the battlefield – and afterwards

The Burning of Litash (3)

CS Unyielding Order, Litash high orbitals. The circumambient skies over Litash burned three times over; with the pin-point blazes of wounded ships venting hot gases and of ongoing warhead detonations in the low orbitals, with the long bright streaks of hulks destroyed before they made it to orbit reentering uncontrolled,

Dr. Kajen's Famous Nanosalts

The crystals fizzed as they dissolved, salt lattices slipping apart into their ionic components, releasing tiny pockets of oils, aromatic compounds, and CO2 trapped within them. Nanomachines, too, came free from encapsulation within the crystals. Their triggering conditions met – the latent heat released by the crystal’s dissolution and the

Trope-a-Day: Blank Slate

Blank Slate: The maintenance-mode “personality” run by unoccupied cybershells and bioshells to enable teleoperation, maintenance, minimal mobility, and self-diagnostics.

In The Deep

The World Shaft (under construction), two-thirds below Mile Station 23 Project Elapsed Time: 15 years The bottom of the great shaft resounded with the clangor of Mahánárel’s own forge.  A few hundred feet apart, the space between crammed with the steam-driven drills, hammers and other machinery that carved the