More Dakka: While, by and large, they are not found on normal battlefields, those wonderfully clever people at various research and development establishments have gone a long way towards the wonderfully dakkalicious, both through sheer scale and through quantities of fire. Skipping over the more normal options available and actually
It was raining on Magen that day, the dull, persistent, sheeting downpour that beat down upon the planet’s surface for thirty hours of every thirty-one hour day. Except for those resident in the highest executive towers and the aerostats of the Stockholding Directors, rising above the permanent cloud layer
Home Inventions: With a computer (powerful enough to run a decent CAD/CAM suite) in every closet, and a cornucopia machine in every garage, this happens all the time. Except that most of the home inventors are more than happy to at least try to exploit their unbelievable science-defying constructions
For those wondering what exactly a chelĂr is, after its mention here (and probably also future mentions), it’s an Eldraeic poetry form originating in CimonĂĂ«.  In its original language, it resembles somewhat the Japanese senryu, and so I have attempted to ape this particular style in English in presenting,
Phoebe Dracotarthius owned a star system. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. Her formal writ ran only to the three-mile-long rock that civilization – such as it was in these parts – was burrowed into, even if in the absence of any other authority its advisory traffic-control zone did run all the
Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: A minor consequence of widespread immortality and independent-mindedness is that when people find a style that really fits them well – and even more often than playing any one era straight, this means “taking the bits they like from across a considerable spread of years”, like a more
Awakening The Sleeping Giant: Played mostly straight with the Empire, who despite qualifying as a superpower prefer not to have to referee the world (and, indeed, much of their participation in such transnational organizations as the Conclave of Galactic Polities is to avoid having to, as far as that is
“Those lights? They’re nothin’, kid. Just ships shooting it out for control of low orbit. Nothing to worry about. There’s only three kinds of light show you need to watch for…” “A streak of cloud like a contrail coming straight out of the zenith, a bright glow at
Disproportionate Retribution: The Empire’s defense and anti-terrorism, etc., policy runs on Disproportionate Retribution – defined as, as we said back in Combat Pragmatist, “the ideal response is one which precludes any possible necessity of its repetition”. The Empire is painfully aware that being nice is not enough to make you
The problems with FlaurĂĂ« Amanté’s latest novel, Twelve Rings and the Sky, can be summed up entirely by its opening passages: The smoke from the burning city below rose to sting the eyes of the two struggling atop its tallest spire. At the top of the narrow stairs, Eldin
Combat Pragmatist: Despite their reputation for honor, the eldrae in general and the Imperial Legions in particular are very much the combat pragmatists. (An immortal life, after all, is a very precious thing, both individually and demographically.) So while they would much prefer to resolve conflicts through other means, including
No One Gets Left Behind: The Empire makes – and made even in the days before the Transcend, which is to say, before it would be like leaving part of yourself behind – a really, really big deal out of this, and is often quite comfortable about taking a fairly generous definition