Imperial State Security
“Prospect 33/1, getaway driver… getaway driver?” “Mm-hm.” “I understand why we’re reviewing these… work histories, but why are we interested in a getaway driver?” The senior ironmonger steepled his fingers and leaned back in his chair; the other rolled his eyes. “Consider, my dear Sulcis, just what is
Ministry of State and Outlands
Overheard in the Ministry of State and Outlands: “So, what does ‘serious leader’ mean over there?” “‘Willing to kill people he doesn’t like, ergo respectable. Or at least safer to respect in public.'” “Ah. The usual, then.”
trope-a-day
NOTE: These are TROPES and or Fantasy Counterpart Culture ANALOGIES. No real cultures were harmed in the making of this fiction. Hobos: Some individually-wandering members of the Traveling Houses (for more on which see Romani); while generally better off and by no means living a wealth-free life, even back in
worldbuilding
So, saw an addition to the verse’ trope page today: Libertarians In Space: Examined. The central setting, the Empire of the Star, is portrayed as a libertarian Utopia, where respect for liberty and personal choice is balanced by an admirably cheerful general attitude of voluntary civic-mindedness. On the other hand,
trope-a-day
High Times Future: As long as you’re competent to do what you have to do, when you have to do it, your neurological state and how you got there is your own business. Download all the drugs you like! (Well, except those falling under the category of Coercive Substances,
worldbuilding
…burn reality’s house down, with the lemons. Or use them for something creative. The following is an excerpt from a comment seen this morning on Reddit: Meanwhile, here’s some phrases lifted verbatim from political internet articles from the past few months: “Poisonous Parade” “While the Madman Prowls” “Age
Ministry of State and Outlands
satrapy (n.): A foreign polity, for whatever reason, temporarily operating with the advice and under the supervision of an Imperial satrap (typically, an officer of the Ministry of State and Outlands of prefectural or higher rank) but not under military occupation; a relationship one step closer than a client-state. The
trope-a-day
High-Tech Hexagons: Well, yes, for reasons of efficiency and domes and carbon and geodesic construction and other practical reasons given in the trope page. Plus, of course, six-sides shapes are only natural for people who count in twelves.
Resplendent Exponential Vector (Imperial Core)
Here There Be Dragons: Seen on star charts which include the Resplendent Exponential Vector system, and in particular, that moon given over to the biogenesis project working on creating the mythologae the way they really ought to have been. (They haven’t managed to actually create any dragons yet, but
Lintis (Banners)
The defining feature of Lintis (Banners), to most visitors, is that the entire planet smells strongly of peppermint. (A characteristic attributable to the local grass-analog – there’s always a grass-analog – which is heavily loaded with menthols.) Natives and long-term residents, of course, have all long stopped smelling anything, but the
Repository of All Knowledge
Great Big Library of Everything: The Empire’s Repository of All Knowledge, which is exactly what it says on the tin. Apart from containing copies of every work in every medium published anywhere in the Empire and many of the unpublished ones too, it routinely sends out collections agents to
Places Not To Go
An Ember-class star distinguished only by its relative proximity to the Eye of Night (Last Darkness), orbited by a scattering of asteroids and an equally undistinguished dwarf planet (Geydagan Actual), the Geydagan (Last Darkness) System is occupied only by the Servants of Geydas, a cruel, hostile, aggressive, and secretive cult