worldbuilding
A thought or two inspired by part of this comment seen via /r/bestof, said part being: Where it gets extremely tricky and sensitive is how non-fundamentalist Muslims fit into the picture. The same for non-fundamentalist Christians, or Jews. Because the fundamentalists would argue, and in a way I agree
trope-a-day
Ace Custom: Happens a lot, aided and abetted by the highly modular and modifiable nature of Imperial technology. (Indeed, both the Navy and the Legions positively encourage the practice – as long as you stick to the standard interfaces and thus do not muck up the supply chain, or drop below
trope-a-day
Ab Urbe Condita: The definition of the Empire’s Harmonious Calendar is this, counting from the founding – or, rather, counting from the winter solstice [1] that immediately preceded the founding (which was in the mid-to-late spring) in order that the start of the calendar year should be in a sensible
Darkness Within
I frown at the vibration – almost a mechanical scream – of the reaction gyros against my back, then dismiss the thought. For certain, they are out of balance: holding this much mass on true means overdriving them, even if they haven’t been damaged by the collision. Nothing can be done;
trope-a-day
Absurdly Sharp Claws: …yes, of course someone applied mollyblade technology to a set of dar-bandal fighting claws. Notwithstanding that under most circumstances having claws that can slice happily through armor-plate is the very definition of Awesome But Impractical.
League of Meridian
(As usual, a snippet that doesn’t have anywhere to fit.) “The League’s democracy is an excellent and reliable example of its class; indeed, it is as close to the theoretic optimal case for a generative engine of political compromise as anything I’ve seen.” “So the problem is…
trope-a-day
Absurdly Sharp Blade/Sharpened to a Single Atom: Mollyblades. With a single-layer graphene sub-nanometer edge with a perpetual resharpening system (proprietary – and very necessary, since an edge that fine will be blunted by damn near anything, including gases), if it is made of baryonic matter, it will be cut. Slash
Hornéd Moon-class starfighter
(Note: for the avoidance of confusion, this is not the same starfighter class as Raymond McVay has been posting over on the G+ fan community; so don’t be confused by the differences…) “It looks like a blueberry croissant.” “Blueberry croissant… of DEATH!” – overheard at Golden Groves (Principalities) starport HORNÉD
trope-a-day
Before we begin, some EXCITING NEWS. Maybe, actually, not that exciting, but this is the very last trope-a-day in the initial set! Woo! We’re done! Well, okay. We’re not done. We now go back to A and start a second pass through to capture a whole passel that
trope-a-day
You Rebel Scum!: Absolutely, if you’re caught in the act of doing something rebel-y or scummy, or somewhat more accurately for the setting, Default-y, slaverish or slavish, parasitic, dullist, base, or entropic. You don’t have to be an authoritarian regime to enjoy a nice self-righteous epithet, after all.
worldbuilding
Eric Manwill asks: I’ve really enjoyed reading (and re-reading) both Vignettes of the Star Empire and The Core War. I did end up wondering about something, though. In most cases, when the Empire and/or its citizen-shareholders faced down an enemy, they did so from a position of obvious
meta
So anyway. This is from the being-even-weirder-than-usual department – at least for those of you outside the group of my readers who are also My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fans, a group which to my awareness numbers one. Maybe two. Because, see, if you follow me on Goodreads, or at