The golden room was already full of armor when the man in the shimmering papersilk suit stepped up to the podium. ”Gentlesophs.” ”Thank you for attending this invitation to tender. I am Surian Cheraelar, Vice President of Special Collections for Gilea & Company. You all come highly recommended by our
Banana Republic: While not in the fruit sense, usually, a number of the (usually single-system) misfortunate client polities of the Magen Corporate and Iltine Union are exactly this. One could make a case, possibly, for those polities unfortunate enough to get themselves into serious debt to Gilea & Co., and
Unidentified Habitat, Moons of BranĂthár, MĂrlan System – Mission Complete The view from the hab’s for’ard lounge was spectacular, Morria decided. Outside, storms and swirling winds swept the blue face of BranĂthár, and the upper limb of the planet flashed with periodic fluorescence as TehelmĂr’s radiation swept over
Badass Creed: Not the Imperial motto (that’s “Order, Progress, Liberty”), but more of a simple statement the eldrae, at least, have been using in tight situations – those who are not of one of the various institutions that have one of their own – for a very, very long time: “The
an-lorzhár Ăren-eloĂ© aldamanyr – lit. “trapped between the gods”; this expression indicates that one is caught in a particular type of dilemma. Recall, if you will, that in mainstream eldraeic belief the deities are iconic, partially-personified representations of fundamental principles: creation, knowledge, trade, love, invention, war, and so forth. Thus, one
The Conclave Drift. The jewel at the heart of the Associated Worlds, it is the heart of the Accord community; the seat of the Conclave of Galactic Polities, the most comprehensive center of interpolity diplomacy in the Worlds; an unofficial cultural, commercial and financial capital for hundreds of species and
Badass Bookworm: There are a lot of these about; after all, Imperial society as a whole tends towards the relatively geeky and nonphysical, for reasons which have a lot to do with historical culture as an outgrowth of demographics and the hideous waste that is using a sapient brain to
First commercial – not counting private sales, of which there have been several – sale of an Eldraeverse work!  Woo! It’s for web publication, so I’ll post a pointer when you can see it live.
…while a threat to life in severe cases, most cases of blue-blotch fever are temporary, and can be cured with prolonged off-site bed rest. Another danger of the lower tunnels is the silver plague. Before entering the lower tunnels of the first, third or seventh excavations, stop at the checkpoint
Badass Army: The Imperial Legions try very hard to play this one straight when they have to. Because of the low-growth, low-manpower demographics of a long-lived species, they generally prefer to eschew most army-type fights in favor of the Sneaky Bastard special-ops method of warfare, or better yet, the the-leaders-of-our-enemies-all-dropped-dead-in-totally-unrelated-accidents-that-cannot-be-connected-to-us-three-years-before-the-war-would-have-happened
Warrior Poet: Where, in the Imperial opinion, Cultured Warrior and The Spartan Way meet; or the intended product of the latter. What a sentinel is supposed to be; not merely someone who can fight, but someone who understands the philosophy of fighting, and the art of fighting, and the principles
“I hate dip refueling.” The grizzled spacer took a long pull on his beer, then looked around at his audience. “I came in on LevikĂ, out of Meryn. That’s her there – the fast courier you’ve been eyeing up in between your drinks. All set up for these long