halla: forest, specifically a tamed forest used for dwelling, silviculture, lumbering, coppicing, hunting, parkland, etc. Oppose loth. loth: forest, specifically wild forest not used for any purpose. Oppose halla. (Note that this is a very important distinction on Eliéra, which has a lot of forest cover, and it is important
In today's recommendations, I should like to draw y'all's attention to The Problem with Sci-Fi Body Armor, over at A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. Why? Well, apart from being interesting in its own right, it is one of the latest and best posts whose
(To be pronounced, naturally, just like "Catholicism Wow!". You may feel free to imagine for yourself Buddy Queen Victoria, Buddy Cecil Rhodes, Buddy Genghis Khan, or Buddy Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.) In which I write in response to this comment back on "Nom": Are there any
“Consider, gentle reader, that even as the flesh of an Emperor, or of any man, is constituted of what he eats, so then is an Empire, in bones and sinew, constituted of what it eats. “Therefore, to maintain the health, and to avoid the manifestations of ill-nutrition, unseemly bloat, or
I saw this picture today, via an Astral Codex Ten post on distinguishing human art from AI art, but that is not the context in which I reference it: Instead, I merely point out that it would be an accurate representation of what the Royal Alatian (later Imperial) Navy would
Pressed bean curds are a common item in many Eliéran cuisines, in recipes both savory and sweet. I refer to them using this long description since, despite being identical in many ways and produced from the same small group of plants, they are one of the very few foodstuffs to
As a brief cultural note, today, I happened to be looking something up on the Atomic Rockets Future Mythology page, and was reminded of Crazy Eddie. (The one from Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye, obviously. Even if, sad to say, that
The DEEP STAR PROGRAM WANTS YOU To Make A New Life Around A New Star! Following the successful launches of our first three interstellar colony ships, we are preparing two more for launch in 3036, and we are still recruiting both colonists and crew for Destiny Ascendant. Destiny Ascendant is
Skystream Station Talentar High Orbit Lumenna-Súnáris System 3034 The stars drifted by slowly beyond the sweeping arc of clary defining the outer edge of the bar, glittering clear and steady through the pristine vacuum of the inner system. Seated by the window, Cathál Rian-ith-Ríëlle sipped her beer, and thumbed desultorily
Complete back through: November 2017 (This means we have passed the point at which Discourse comments were introduced. Progress can be expected to be slower from this point forward, since I need to copy the WordPress comments across.)
Okay, folks, we're doing this. At midnight tomorrow (that would be midnight following 29 October 2024, Central Daylight Time), we'll be cutting over to the new shiny Ghost-based site instead of this old, busted WordPress one. Not everything is finished, because some things are very hard
Here, for your edification, is a list of all the things still to be done in migrating over here from WordPress, but which I know about and so which you don't need to remind me of. They'll be struck through as they're done, and
meta
So, for my birthday, which it is, I have decided to get myself freedom from WordPress. (Why, you ask? Many reasons, like being sick of its breakage and security issues, not to mention that it takes a rather more expensive droplet – it’s hosted on DigitalOcean – to serve this site
Fíerí's Starships of the Associated Worlds
The term “ring-magazine” refers to a design philosophy used in current-generation Imperial Navy capital ships, other than carriers, along with a number of the larger, quadruple-turreted cruiser classes. To review, these types – unlike the smaller destroyers and frigates – share a common general plan dictated by the requirements of military starship
Accord on the Law of Free Space
There is, in short, competence and competence. The Accord on the Law of Free Space is rather generously written, to cover all our polities at whatever stage of progress they may be and however much investment in training they can afford. The Imperial Navigation Act is rather more tightly written,
Speak Eldraeic Like a Semi-Literate Barbarian
In which we begin to discuss the arguments that are slotted into the predicates. Specifically we’re going to talk about érélar (from e, diminutive prefix, plus rélar, argument-word). You may consider these the equivalent of pronouns, insofar as they are words which stand in the place of full arguments
education
A curious feature of Imperial academia is the antidegree (occasionally and unofficially referred to as the dishonorary antidegree). One cannot, of course, simply revoke a degree obtained without fraud; it is a time-bound certification of ability which stands as testimony to the competence of its holder at that time. However,
Harmonious Calendar
Ladies and gentlemen, I take you now to - the calendar! Specifically, I take you to the Harmonious Calendar, the standard calendar used by Imperial chronometrists ever since the Founding (although in its basic structure it required little adjustment, primarily the setting of a new base point/year zero, and
black hole
SINGULARITY INJECTION ZONE DANGER NOT ONLY WILL THIS KILL YOU, AND NOT ONLY WILL THIS KILL YOU PAINFULLY, BUT THE SUBJECTIVE TIMESPAN OF YOUR AGONY WILL BE EXTENDED TO INFINITY (IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY, START RUNNING NOW) – seen in Unit 3, Dark Star Power Plant, Xavéral
liberty
One question that is often asked by those newly come to the Empire is how, in a society which claims to value the liberties of the individual – and, indeed, specifically one’s freedom to associate and disassociate as one pleases – the Empire justifies its strict immigration policy. Does this not,
diplomacy
“What many fail to realize is that much of the art of diplomacy is not haggling; it is antihaggling. That is to say, it is not to clarify and define a price, but rather to obfuscate and obscure it. “This is why we do not draw lines in the sand.
ontotechnology
intagliated particle: An intagliated particle is a subatomic particle which contains more metadata than the universe-defined natural parameter set (position, momentum, mass, charge, spin, color, etc.). Such metadata can be strictly passive; can interact with other entities via the mechanisms of natural or artificial laws; or can be internally active.
NATTER SPATTER
The problem of military intelligence being given away by social networking is a very old one. Directly useful OSINT (i.e., extranet social postings directly translatable to location) has become a rarity among contemporary military forces, due to greater technical capabilities and COMSEC discipline; however, negative social OSINT is still
ontotechnology
(An In-Character Meta Explanation) “This metal is unaffected by entropy over time? How does that work?” “We taught the atoms to sing time-refusal.” “Oh, come on. That’s not… what does that even mean?” “You see those thirty fat volumes of technomagical equations to make the sanest man go mad?