The Dying Light (46 page)

40th Millennium
—the current millennium in the history of the COE. See
Ex Nihilo.

Free-For-All
—outermost dark-body halo surrounding Palasian System. (Radius: 15.2–21.7 PAU; few clusters and eccentricities known; largest mean diameter: 1375 km.)

G’rodo
—a Kesh lineage recently expunged from the N’Kor Republic.

Galactic Reference Book
—see
Queale, Linn
.

Galine Four
—a small mobile station owned by Linegar Rufo III; crew no more than one thousand.

Gatamin
—the fifth world of Palasian System; a gas giant with three major satellites and an extensive ring network. (Mean distance: 4.56 PAU; diameter: 60000 km; relative mass: 0.3; rings 100000–145000 km.)

Geyten Base
—a COE communications base around Cemenid in Palasian System.

Gil-Shh’ana Fiche
—an anomalous data storage device recovered from Hurn ruins in ‘636 EN. Some segments of the fiche’s contents point to the existence of several unknown Castes occupying the region now inhabited by the COE, although incompatible technology prevents clear translation; such ancient relics are occasionally found throughout the galaxy, but few are as spectacular or mysterious as those in Palasian System.

Golden Dawn, COEA
—COE Armada destroyer.

Gorund Sef
—a planet in COE territory.

Grand Design
—the Human term used to describe the social communion of the Olmahoi Caste.

grayboots
—see
Olmahoi retribution squad
.

Guhr Outpost
—a COE Armada refueling base orbiting Voloras, outermost planet of Palasian System.

Gwydyon
—a system near but not part of the COE.

Haid, Ameidio
—former transportee, Sciacca Penal Colony, and mercenary.

Handrelle System
—a COE system.

Hek’m
—the Olmahoi Caste homeworld.

Herensung
—the third world of Palasian System; a gas giant with five major satellites and an extensive ring system. (Mean distance: 1.46 PAU; diameter: 100000 km; relative mass: 0.3; rings 135000–300000 km.)

Hetu System
—a territory in the COE.

High Humans
—or
High Castes.
Superior intelligences that have evolved (Transcended) from the mundane. Extremely long-lived and far-seeing, they concentrate on issues quite removed from the rest of the galaxy; indeed, due to their enormous scale, they are the only beings capable of comprehending the galaxy in its entirety. They generally leave mundanes alone, to let them progress (and, ultimately, to Transcend) in their own time. See
Castes
and
Transcendence.

Hintubet
—the primary of Palasian System; a greenish-yellow Main Sequence star supporting a large solar system consisting of seven gas giants, one rocky planet, one asteroid belt and several dark-body/cometary halos. (Surface temperature: 7800 degrees C; diameter: 1.8 million km; low sunspot activity, prominences, flares, etc.)

Hurn
—an exotic Caste typified by ritual and complexity. In appearance they are lean and muscular, averaging greater than Pristine height. They are predisposed toward music and mathematics. Socially they prefer oligarchies with a baroque middle class.

hypershield
—a barrier erected in hyperspace to deflect or inhibit the passage of anything traveling by that medium. Commonly used as a prophylactic against hyperspace weapons. Hypershields operate under a maximum volume constraint: i.e., they will only operate as intended under two thousand cubic kilometers.

hyperspace disrupters—
a form of hypershield that actively combats incoming hyperspace weapons, such as flicker-bombs. Compare anchor points, which “weaken” space: disrupters do the opposite, making it more difficult for anything nearby to emerge from hyperspace.

Idil
—an outrigger belonging to Long Span spine.

IDnet
—see
Information Dissemination Network
.

IND
—independent vessel identification prefix.

Information Dissemination Network
—a communications network dedicated to the spread of data across the galaxy, although its reach thus far extends not much beyond the COE and its neighbors. It acts as a combined news service and medium for gossip. Also known as IDnet.

Intelligence—see COE Intelligence.

Interventionism
—a movement among High Humans—and some mundanes—that advocates closer links between High and mundane Castes. See
The Crescend.

irikeii
—one of very few Olmahoi “sound-thoughts” that can be equated with audible words; often translated as “unnamed” or “unnameable.” (See Appendix.)

JA-32—
the largest charted dark body in Mishra’s Stake, Palasian System; full name JA140732.

Jagabis
—the second planet of Palasian System; a gas giant, it possesses an ageing ring system and six major moons, one being Aro, the largest solid body in Palasian System. (Mean distance: 1 PAU (460 million km); diameter: 133200 km; relative mass: 1.0; (2 million million million million tons); rings 156000–173000 km.)

Johak Corporation—
original manufacturers of the device known as Asha’s Gauntlet; see
Solar Envelope
.

JW111101000—
see
Box, the
.

K’mok ni Asha
—late Kesh (Regional Variant #14) for “Asha’s Gauntlet”; see
Solar Envelope
.

Kajic, Uri
—former captain, DBMP
Ana Vereine,
physically bonded to his ship.

Kesh
—the most primal of the local Castes. The Kesh are typically warlike and predisposed to violence. In appearance, they tend to be larger than the Pristine average and have mottled, multicolored skin. Their social structure is heavily ritualized, with a strong tribal or family base. They are known for being highly racist.

Kesh Ideal
—the epitome of the Kesh culture, a being comprising ideological and physical perfection, to which most Kesh, especially those in the military forces, aspire.

KM36
—an inconstant ion flux tube connecting Kukumat and Murukan; known as “old thirty-sixer” in the vernacular.

Kukumat
—one of a gas giant pair occupying the sixth planetary orbit around Palasian System; the pair shares a single moon, Mok. (Mean distance: 7.17 PAU; diameter: 45000 km / 43000 km; relative mass: 0.25/0.2; average separation: 2 million km.)

Kuresh
—Kesh for “General.”

Long Span
—an outrigger spine.

Low Castes
—devolved mundane Humans. These animal-like creatures come in many forms and occupy many niches across the galaxy. Some evolve back up to mundane status, given time and isolation, while others become extinct as a result of the forces that led to their devolution in the first place.

Lucence-2
—COE Armada escort and assault craft.

Lud
—an outrigger belonging to Long Span spine.

Maii—
Surin epsense adept.

Marauder
—an experimental class of warship developed by the Dato Bloc. See
DBMP
Ana Vereine
.

Marines
—see
COE Armada
.

Mattar Belt
—Palasian System’s asteroid belt. (Radius: 0.38–0.76 PAU; various gaps and groupings known; largest 750 km across.)

Mavalhin, Myer
—ex-COE Intelligence trainee, now a pilot for Linegar Rufo.

Mbata—
(
Mbatan,
adj. & sing. n.)—a well-regarded Caste known for its peace-loving and familial ways. In appearance they resemble the ursine species, larger and stronger than the Pristine. Their culture is egalitarian and open to trade.

Midnight, COEA
—COE Retriever-class frigate.

Military Presidium
—see
Dato Bloc
.

Mishra’s Stake
—the vernacular name for the second dark-body halo of Palasian System. (Radius: 7.6–11.1 PAU; largest known: JA140732, diameter: 1500 km.)

Mok
—the moon shared by Kukumat and Murukan with a highly irregular, chaotic orbit. (Relative mass: unknown; diameter: 1050 km; surface g: unknown; max. surface temperature: –125 degrees C.) It houses a small xenoarchaeological base, now abandoned.

Montaban
—the homeworld of Ameidio Haid.

mundane Castes
—Castes of Humanity that are essentially similar to the Pristine in terms of size, mental capacity, world-view, etc. Naturally there is a spectrum of types across the mundane Caste—from the highly evolved (some might say near-Transcendent) Olmahoi, through the socially complex Surin and Hurn Castes, to the Eckandar and Pristine Castes with their societies based on trade and empire-building, and beyond, via the earthy Mbata, to the relatively primal Kesh. Mundanes are typically short-lived (a century or so, when allowed to age naturally) and build empires up to four or five thousand systems in size. There is a ceiling of complexity above which mundanes rarely go without Transcending. See
High Humans
and
Batelin Limit
.

Murukan
—one of a gas giant pair occupying the sixth planetary orbit around Palasian System (see
Kukumat
).

n-body
—the epsense “counterpart” to the physical body.

N’kor Republic—
a Kesh government neighboring the COE. Although the relationship between these two nations is officially friendly, there have been frequent border clashes.

n-space
—a word used by epsense theorists to describe an environment completely empty of thought.

Narm Protectorate
—a part of the COE.

Nezhina Caste
—a mundane Caste located on the other side of the galaxy from the COE.

Nirr
—the neutral homeworld of the Kesh Caste.

Noma Araku
—an extinct species of biped distantly related to the modern Olmahoi.

Objective Reference Calendar
—a system of date-keeping established by the A-14 Higher Collaboration Network.

old thirty-sixer
—see
KM36
.

Olmahi Republic
—an independent government of the Nezhina Caste.

Olmahoi
—an Exotic Caste that communicates entirely by epsense. Physically they are of similar size to Pristines, but are much stronger; their skin is black and they possess little in the way of distinguishing features, apart from the epsense organ which dangles like a tentacle from the back of the skull. Their social structure is too complex to explore in detail here. They are renowned fighters, capable of feats of great skill, yet also possess a capacity for peace far in excess of any other local Caste. (See Appendix.)

Olmahoi retribution units
—renowned fighters able to combine perfectly their physical and epsense abilities. Also known as grayboots.

Outer Arms
—the low stellar-density regions of the galaxy between the Middle and Far Reaches.

outrigger
—a unique type of miner/explorer found in sparsely populated systems; living within all-suits that double as mobile homes, outriggers typically scout uncharted dark-body halos and asteroid belts looking for viable mineral sources, which they then either mine or report to a centralized authority (if any) for a modest fee. Outriggers are notoriously self-sufficient, avoiding even other outriggers as much as possible, and have been known to exist for years without contact with another being. Spending much of their lives drifting in hibernation between dark and cometary bodies, some live longer than three centuries. Few outriggers have family names, coming as they do from such small communities that single given names are usually enough.

Palasian System
—a system of the COE recently quarantined by the COE Armada as a result of an enemy outbreak. Due to its lack of habitable or easily terraformable planets, it has never been extensively colonized, but is the home to several Armada bases and a small commercial mining operation: total population, five hundred thousand people.

PAU
—the abbreviation of Palasian Astronomical Unit, the mean distance from Jagabis to Hintubet, that being 460 million kilometers.

Perez radiation
—a side effect of a crudely tuned hyperspace jump.

Plenary
—full outrigger meeting, convened only in extraordinary situations. The individual members are rarely in the same physical location, however.

Primordial Castes
—precede the earliest confirmed records, half a million years ago. Little is known about them, except that they existed; ruins of several unique types are to be found throughout the galaxy. They are called Castes A, B, C, and D, for even their names are unknown.

Pristine Caste
—the form of Humanity which most closely resembles the original race that evolved an unknown time ago on an unknown planet somewhere in the galaxy. The Pristine Human genome, handed down from antiquity and regarded with near veneration, is stored in innumerable places among the civilized worlds. Pristines themselves, however, are accorded no special status.

prowling mines
—known also as
prowlers
. These are mobile, semiautonomous mining installations, typically found in the dark-body halos of sparsely populated systems and are usually corporate owned.

Queale, Linn
—author of the
Galactic Reference Book,
a popular all-purpose travel guide and almanac.

Quick, Alemdar
—a duelist on the COE fighting circuit.

Quolmann
—COE Intelligence code word.

quorum
—the outrigger decision-making body; flexible in both number and identity of members.

Ramage, General
—commander in chief of the COE Armada.

reave
—see
epsense
.

Riem-Perez Horizon
—the technical name for the boundary cast by a hypershield.

Roche, Morgan
—former commander, COE Intelligence.

Roptio ur-music—
music performed by a Low Human Caste known for its lack of sophistication.

Rufo, Linegar
—renowned xenoarchaeologist; see
Galine Four
.