Afterburner Fly-In, Skyway 51, 5,000 feet above the Selenarian plains. âWeâd like the Trinary Burger with the smokinâ kimaes, the reshkef handmeal with mint, both with grated argĂłrĂ©n and smokebite cheese on the side, the kaeth-size roast joint of ftark, glazed âon fireâ, a box of sevesĂșr segments
Blood Brothers / True Companions: The (semi-) formalized groups of friends, especially in freelance adventurer/weirdseeker/etc. company, known as circles (short for âoath-circlesâ, 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 âsemiâ
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 â or she â passed, leaving a respectful distance. The reputation of the Masked Order made even the bold wary
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 â well, that, and the giant steam clanks stomping around on the battlefield â and afterwards
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,
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 â the latent heat released by the crystalâs dissolution and the
Blank Slate: The maintenance-mode âpersonalityâ run by unoccupied cybershells and bioshells to enable teleoperation, maintenance, minimal mobility, and self-diagnostics.
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 MahĂĄnĂĄrelâs own forge. A few hundred feet apart, the space between crammed with the steam-driven drills, hammers and other machinery that carved the
Black Box: Quite a few of them lying around in the form of leftover elder race artifacts and other archaeological recoveries. Sensible civilizations and corporations (like Probable Technologies, ICC) really hate this, because they know exactly how Sealed-Evil-In-A-Can dangerous that sort of thing can be, and the likelihood of unknown
Black and White Morality: Depends on the angle you look at it, really. Outside observers would argue that the Imperials, for example, must practice a black and white morality; after all, they have an objective ethics, or so they claim, and a mathematical calculus of ethics by which to measure
âWell, firstly, weâre a civilization of dozens of different species with hundreds of races and clades each. Given the sheer number of shapes we come in, why would you possibly assume that weâd be invested in your morphological bigotries?â Youâre idiots. âAnd even if we were inclined
You may notice that in âPurposeâ I used the male-default pronoun and person-reference â i.e., âmen of every kindâ, âhim and hisâ, etc. This is, of course, a decidedly imperfect translation of the Eldraeic original, which uses, of course, the word darĂĄv â âperson, sophontâ â in formations like the former, and