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
Free Morphology Initiative to Perid Mallon, greetings. Léran Mallon, Thank you for your inquiry, received this Yrnaes 14 instant. We are confident that we will be able to satisfy all of your requirements. In cooperation with a number of biotechnology corporations, we are able to provide a full range of
From the Autumn 4197 edition of Memetic Toxin Watch: A rising threat in the Aris Delphi region is the AI group identifying itself as the Unghosted. At first sight they may appear to be one of the many sympathetic refugee AI groups emerging from Peripheral slaver civilizations, such as the
Mugging the Monster: Oh, this happens all the time. Mostly with tourists, in either direction. Well, I say tourists, when I mean “people visiting the Empire with crime in mind”, which does happen occasionally due to their “just turn up” visa policy. Such people – on the occasions that they make
Which is to say, on this and that: On the first, just a quick linguistic note, concerning the name of the Thousand Scents Road.  Eldraeic has two words which could be glossed as “thousand”, because it has two systems of numbers.  The “traditional” system, and the “syllabic” system, in which
Make an Example of Them: An occasional aspect of Imperial foreign policy (whose most flagrant example is, of course, the Burning of Litash, in which the entire continent on which the Tortuga in question was located ended up as an extremely large caldera with volcano-studded margins and the entire atmosphere
…in addition to the common standbys found on almost every world (Blue Brew, Soléä’s, Don’t Eat Vat, and so forth), the Starfall district also includes more than a few unique, local restaurants. Here are three of our favorites: Rhúäghz Vhúeff (2A4 Star Ln., at Meryn Ave.) is a
An excerpt from today’s idea development process, as I discuss random thoughts with Amy in the middle of other things: “Hm. What should I write about today?” “– pizza.” “I can’t write anything about pizza.” “Do they even have pizza?” “Well, I don’t know the details, but there
Psychic Powers: Of course, there is absolutely no such thing as psychic powers. Don’t exist. No place in a rationally organized universe, like any relatively firm-to-hard SF universe. Can’t seriously believe otherwise. But that said… Telepathy/Empathy: Do you believe in wireless networking? Evidently the Precursors did, and