diplomacy
(Yes, this is so very real-life-writes-the-plot, but as with that age-old piece about transportation security, what can you do…) From: Ektalis Munisinios (Second Undersecretary, Ministry of State and Outlands) To: Cerea Oliviscios (Their Divine Majesties’ Ambassador to the Viridian States) Security: DIPLOMATIC BLUE Subject: Formal reprimand We have this day
artificial intelligence
CAPITOL, YANOK ARCHIPELAGO, TORKATAN CONGERIES – Protests were reported today outside the Imperial embassy here in Capitol Drift over the recent death of a citizen of the Congeries during a tour of the Core worlds. Ra Adom Underhull was struck and killed by an groundcraft on Ellisar (Imperial Core) late last
eldraeic language
ka idaseir qané trasunael xasessqár!: “bugger1 the seers!”; common expletive phrase, originating in Jussovy, used to respond to statements of poor odds, predictions of failure or certain death, claims that something is a doomed venture, a suicide mission, impossible, etc., indicating the speaker’s determination to go through with it
military
“If we live not another day     Say this over our pyre That we died like Legion hainadar     With our faces to the fire. “But once we live tomorrow     In a body free of pain Then bring us ale and whiskey     Until we die again!” – regimental song of the 22nd “Alatian
Cultural Crossovers
In which there is an apocalypse. * Man, that’s a lot of chains. * Well, you’re an unlikely flaming chap. But I guess if there are ice giants, there should be fire giants. * Thor, you’ve been hanging out with Tony Snark too much. * Oh, you shouldn’t have said
Imperial Navy
“Finally, let us turn to the biggest megaships of them all, the fleet carriers. Including them in this work is a choice which I expect to be somewhat controversial – many would argue that a fleet carrier is a formation, not a vessel – but with respect to those readers who may
A Star Traveler's Dictionary
cognitive osmosis: The process, according to rumor, by which farspeech or other telepathic or techlepathic contact, especially the forms based in the exchange of neural gestalts, with the stupid causes one, oneself, to become less intelligent. (Curiously, none of these stories ever suggests that this process makes the stupid themselves
eldraeic language
This wasn’t what I intended to post next, but I’m still working on the “fleet carriers” post. In the meantime, have some more words. So, among the basic words in a language, certainly for chemists, are those for various substances, and this is as true in Eldraeic as
eldraeic language
lechné: sweat, perspiration; technically, lechné refers to any fluid intentionally used to carry heat away by evaporation, and so cooling water for planetary power reactors, liquid hydrogen coolant used for evaporative hull cooling, and so forth, can all be described as lechné, as well as the original referent, biological secretions
Project Phoenix
From: Qory Estenv, Flight Overadministrator To: All Astronauts In response to your request for clarification about the Initiative’s “souvenir policy”, we don’t particularly care if you want to shove a box of postcards, or vanity coins, or model kits of the Phoenix, or whatever else you like in
starship
Many of you, gentle readers, are also devotees of the Atomic Rockets web site. (As well you should be, if you are interested in matters rockety.) And, of course, you may have noted the Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval off in the right-hand column. But today I’m going to
worldbuilding
It has been asked in various places what scares Imperial sophonts the most. Herewith is the answer: As a side-note, you will observed that the answers here are mostly existential, not physical. Physical fear never had much hold on the eldraeic psyche in the first place (none at all, for