One light-day outside Galáré system. The long plume of the fusion torch flickered out, and the great ship began to rotate slowly, end over end, bringing the foreshield once more into alignment with its direction of travel. The wide radiator vanes of the drive module glowed a bright cherry-red from
Big Fancy House: Subverted, inasmuch as it’s not so much a symbol of wealth and status, as just a reflection of the way that the propertarian-minded eldrae just plain can’t stand to live all squished up on top of each other. (See also starship cabins, inefficiently large volume
“In general, you will find in fiction that most Contact missions are portrayed as relatively subtle. In reality, this is almost never the case. The experience of the Exploratory Service shows that when one makes contact in too subtle a manner, one is actually signaling – in a remarkably effective pan-species
Can’t Argue With Elves: The eldrae, and indeed the Imperials in general, so not just the Space Elves, live this trope, being profoundly elitist and unashamedly, even if they bothered to notice, arrogant about their superiority in almost every way to anyone else and generalized personal awesomeness. That literally
Under section 31(c) of the Imperial Emergency Management Act (Revised), 4111, in fulfillment of the Charter mandate to promote the common and mutual defense of civilization from cataclysms of nature, and exercising by herein-authorized proxy the Responsibility of Eminent Domain; When a Class II or higher emergency has been
Space Elves: Yeah, yeah, yeah…  (Says so right in the subtitle, see?) Well, let’s just say that many, many years ago (say twenty) there was a lot more fantasy in my speculative-fiction worldbuilding, which didn’t quite wear off until somewhat fewer years ago (say ten). The remaining elvishness
Artifact #19,246: the Sapphire Sphere Unearthed during the Iniscail excavations, located in a central position in the third lefthand side room of chamber seven. The Sphere is a dull matte sphere two spans in diameter, a pale blue in color and emitting a constant glow of the same color.
Human Aliens: So very, very averted. Except in the case of the eldrae, who are humanoid (by reason of being related to humans… er, Pseudoeldrae archaea) – it’s just that no-one knows that, since no-one knows that there are humans, belike. Except the humans themselves, presumably, but what does that
Our Elves Are Better: Well, of course they are. I refer you to the comments under Can’t Argue With Elves, etc., in re impossibly beautiful sexy immortal billionaire genius demigods. Probably closest (although not all that close) to the High Elves stereotype, although averting the whole Medieval Stasis thing
“What is the meaning of this… display?” The kneeling petitioner winced as my steel-shod flamestaff slammed into the flagstone by his ear, then winced again as, looking up, he caught a glimpse of my face. “Stand up, man, you and these others. We’ll have no such heathen prostrations here.
Accessing Your Funds It is possible for you to access your funds directly on most of the core Associated Worlds, including all worlds of the Fringe, which are serviced by the Imperial Banking and Credit Network or one of its affiliate clearing networks. Direct funds access is also possible on
Who Wants To Live Forever?: This is the standard point of view of the ephemeralists. Of course, since none of them are immortal, they don’t really have much standing to judge the issue, and in debate, well, funny how it will always start to suck in another century. Or