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antishurtugal_reborn
Earth Central: main League and UMC headquarters. Built around the base of the Honolulu beanstalk. I really don’t know why you’d build a space elevator in Honolulu of all places. Is the volcano no longer active at this point? Is the space elevator lava-resistant? And why would the headquarters be here and not in, you know, Washington, D.C., where all the rest of the headquarters are in the real world? That’s the seat of government, not Hawai’i. Do you know why? Because of how expensive it is to live in Hawai’i. Nearly everything has to be imported there, which will cause costs to be extremely expensive. No one who didn’t make at least seven figures a year would be able to afford anything in Honolulu. Also, did you kick out all the tourists? Did you destroy all the vacation spots? Or all those still there, just under heavy watch because the freaking government is based there? This is why you need to take time to put some thought into where you put things and why, because it’s going to have consequences.
Eidolon: planet in orbit around Epsilon Eridani. An Earth-like garden planet teeming with native life, none sentient and most either poisonous or hostile. The colony there has the highest mortality rate of any settled planet. Which follows the trope of “Everything Wants To Kill You” in spades, but it also begs the question of why the fuck there’s a colony on this planet in the first place and why people continue living there if there’s such a high mortality rate.
Entropic Principia: central text of Entropism. Originated as a statement of intent, later expanded to a philosophical treatise containing a summary of all known scientific knowledge, with primary emphasis on astronomy, physics, and mathematics. (See also Entropism.) Space Scientology! But less having to do with science fiction and more having to do with math and science that nobody really paid attention to in school.
Entropism: stateless, pseudo-religion driven by a belief in the heat death of the universe and a desire to escape or postpone said death. Founded by mathematician Jalal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich in the mid-twenty-first century. Entropists devote considerable resources to scientific research and have contributed - directly or indirectly - to numerous important discoveries. Open adherents are noted for their gradient robes. As an organization, Entropists have proven difficult to control, as they pledge loyalty to no one government, only to the rigors of their pursuit. Their technology consistently runs several decades ahead of the main of human society, it not more. “By our actions we increase the entropy of the Universe. By our entropy, we seek salvation from the coming dark.” (See also Nova Energium.) So all of this is true, and I have to give props where it’s due that he took the time to create an entire religion out of this scientific paper, but none of this matters in the grand scheme of the story. Sure, Kira’s helped out by a few of them, but we don’t really care about this. We want actual story, not flavor.
Enumeration: broadcast of ascending numbers that Numenists are required to listen to as part of the observance of their faith. Some numbers, such as primes, are considered more auspicious than others. (See also Numenism.) So... why does this sound like the broadcasts that are done during the prayer hours for Islam? Because that’s what it reminds me of. I feel like he put more work into these different religions than he did his actual story.
Europa Command: League of Allied Worlds Europa Command (LAWEUCOM, shortened EUCOM) is one of seven unified combatant commands of the League military stationed within Sol. Headquartered on Lawrence Station with ongoing material support provided by the manufacturing facilities of Orsted Station by Ganymede. I get really confused sometimes, because we get reference to Earth but it’s not really Earth, it’s Sol. But then Sol is called Earth. So which is it? But I’m not surprised there’s army bases everywhere. That’s how it is in the real world.
Exoskeleton: (EXO in common parlance) a powered frame used for combat, freight, mining, and mobility. Exos vary widely in design and function, with some being open to the elements and others hardened for vacuum or the depths of oceans. Armored exos are standard equipment for UMC combat troops. In other words, we saw Alien and decided to rip off the power armors that Ripley used to kill the aliens. Or a poor man’s version of a Gundam. The only ones we ever saw in the story were combat ones, after all.
Expansionist Party: one of several major political parties in the League. Founded to help foster the spread of humans outside of Sol, now mainly focused on preserving the interests of the established extra-solar colonies, often to the point of blocking the establishment of new ones. (See also Conservation Party and Stellarists.) Wow. So they originally were founded to help get humans outside of Sol, but now they basically just work on keeping what’s already there and telling anyone who wants to start a new colony “fuck you”? And here’s another question: what are they doing about the colony on Eidolon? Aren’t they supposed to be preserving colonies like that? So why are they letting them just die on this hostile planet where everything wants to kill you? Seems like the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to be doing.
Expedition Boss: see Boss Uh, how about we just put this under the “boss” heading, because that makes far more sense than telling us to go back and look at an entry we’ve already seen.
F
Farscent: class of durable chemicals secreted by Wranaui for long-distance communication in water. Metaphorical bandwidth is narrow and fidelity is low, making this of limited utility for large exchanges of data. (See also Nearscent and Lowsound.) I still don’t understand how someone can translate scent into sound, but there are actually people who see smells as colors and hear noises as words. So I can give this a pass, but only a small one.
The Farthest Shore: spacer poem by Harrow Glantzer (Hutterite). It’s also a very bad poem. Do not recommend.
Fink-Nottle’s Pious Newt Emporium: famed amphibian retailer on Earth. Established by C.J. Weenus circa 2104. Did you know that that little bit of loose skin on your elbow is also called a weenis? Not really sure where that got started, but there ya go. I’d be pretty embarrassed to have this name, myself. I can only imagine what this guy went through as a kid. I swear I can’t be the only one to see his last name and not think of the single word that rhymes with it. I’ll give you a hint, it starts with a “p” and ends with an “is”. Also, I really don’t know what the obsession is with newts in this book...
Flash Trace: to travel by FTL far enough that one can stop and see the real-time light from an event. E.g., spaceship A wants to see when and where spaceship B left the Solar System sometime in the past day. Spaceship A flies the required number of light-hours (twenty-four in this case) from Sol, then sits and watches via telescope until it sees B leaving Sol. Also the single-most annoying thing to do, in my opinion. Instead of developing some sort of technology that tracks this, or some sort of drone that you can launch to do this, you have to take the entire ship, which racks up fuel costs and also forces your people into cryogenic stasis every time you want to do it. It’s not really the most feasible way to do this sort of thing. It really kind of feels like a Deus ex Machina thrown in just to give the story some sort of tension.
Fleet Intelligence: branch of UMCN devoted to gathering information. Kind of self-explanatory there, so.
Foxglove Pope: see Pontifex Digitalis. If you took out all the entries like this, this section would be shorter by a page at the very least.
Freeholdings: settlements, conclaves, stations, and outholdings unaffiliated with any major government. But probably in very rough parts of space, where nobody is around to help you if you need it and nobody can hear you scream. Also probably under siege from all sides by those wanting to control the places.
FTL: faster than light. The primary mode of transportation between stars. (See also Markov Drive.) And apparently you can have ship-to-ship combat in it! Except when you go into FTL, everyone has to be in cryogenic sleep to survive it, though. Which, you’d think, would have been something somebody solved already. Or at least were working toward solving.
FTL Tape: slang for vacuum tape, a type of incredibly tough, pressure-sensitive tape. Strong enough to patch breaches in outer hull. Despite popular belief, not suitable for repairs intended to last the duration of FTL trips. Like science fiction duct tape! Duct tape solves everything. I also find it funny that it’s not intended to survive the duration of FTL trips, but it certainly holds up for Kira.
Full Sweep: highest hand in Scratch Seven, consisting of four sevens, two kings, and a nine, for a count of ninety-one and a score of thirteen. Why is this even here? Nobody cares about this. Nobody gives a flying flip about a hand in a card game nobody cares about. Why couldn’t you have put as much thought into the actual story as you did in all these flavor elements?
G
Gecko Pads: adhesive pads on the bottom of skinsuits and boots intended for climbing or maneuvering in zero-g. As name implies, pads (which are covered with bristles 5 μm in diameter) depend on van der Waals force for adhesion. Shear force is limiting factor for maximal load, but also provides mechanism for release. Because heaven forbid we actually use mechanical handles or anything like that. Or magnetic adhesion. Or something more futuristic than glue on our hands and feet.
GLITTER BUG: small, insect-like animal native to Eidolon. Noted for their brilliant, metallic exoskeletons. Which is also probably poisonous and hostile and wants to kill you.
GLOWLIGHTS: bioluminescent lights grown by the Seed. Along with whatever other Deus ex Machina powers that Kira’s granted by the sake of being the Paotaongist.
GRADIENT ROBES: traditional garb of observing Entropists. Adorned with the rising phoenix that is their sigil. Metamaterial laced with advanced technology that allows the robes to act as a skinsuit, armor, and, when needed, a weapon. I read this and all I see is Deus ex Machina, kind of like Angela’s sword in Inheritance. You know the one, the one that cuts through any fucking thing like it doesn’t exist. I mean, I’ll caveat this by saying it could be possible considering how scientific-minded the Entropists are, and how advanced they seem to be. It’s said that their technology is at least a decade more advanced than what is currently in circulation normally, which is kind of funny to me. But this outfit just seems... too extra to be true in this 200-year into the future setting.
GREAT BEACON: first alien artifact found by humans. Located at Talos VII (Theta Persei 2). The Beacon is a hole fifty kilometers wide and thirty deep. It emits an EMP at 304 MHz every 10.6 seconds, along with a burst of structured sound that is a representation of the Mandelbrot set in trinary code. Surrounded by a net of vanadium-laced gallium that may have once acted as a superconductor. Giant turtle-like creatures (without heads or legs) roam the plain surrounding the hole. As of yet, no one has discovered their relationship with the artifact. Six more Beacons are known to exist. They are assumed to have been constructed by the Old Ones, but definitive proof is lacking. Intended purpose remains a mystery. Giant headless, legless turtle creatures, huh? I mean, have you ever seen a turtle? The whole point to them is their heads and legs and shells. And what kind of turtle anyway? Leatherback? Galapagos? Sea? Each one has a different kind of shell. He seriously would’ve been better off saying they were some kind of conch or crab or nautilus. Personally, I’d go with the nautilus. And you might be wondering if this has anything to do with the story and you would be sorely disappointed. This has nothing to do with anything. It’s just flavor.
GROUND-POUNDER: derogatory term for one who lives on or was born on a planet. Allow me a raised eyebrow on this one. Ground-pounder? Seriously? That sounds like a Pokemon battle move rather than a “derogatory term” for someone who lives on, or was born on, terra firma. Now I wonder if there’s a “derogatory term” for someone who was born, or lives on, a space station, ship, or whatever. I really think if I got called this I’d burst out laughing and wonder what kind of upbringing this person had to think that was a good insult.
GST: Galactic Standard Time. Universal chronology as determined by emissions of TEQs from the galactic core. Causality may appear to be broken but only appear; a must always cause b. I think what bothers me about this passage is the language use in that second sentence. I get what’s being said, that causality may appear to be broken, but it’s just a visual thing. Nothing’s actually broken. Still, it just looks awkward.
H
HANZO TENSEGRITY: insurance company based out of Sol. Not known for their customer satisfaction. I feel like this is a dig on insurance companies. At the same time, though, how many other insurance companies are there in the universe? Why does everyone deal with this one, or is it the only one that pops up in the story? Because if they have poor customer satisfaction, they’d run out of clients really quick unless they had a monopoly.
HATCHING POOLS: shallow tidal pools where Wranaui would hatch their eggs. Now replicated in artificial pools for travel and convenience. Upon hatching, young Wranaui are combative and cannibalistic; only the strongest few survive. And yet they grow up to be enslaved by their own DNA to serve their leader and protect him at the cost of themselves, so you’d think that someone would have figured out if you cut the infant mortality rate, you’d have more slaves and meat shields to protect you.
HDAWARI: large, saltwater carnivore native to Pelagius. One of only a few predators known to prey upon adult Wranaui. Closely related to Wranaui but less intelligent. Closely related, but still going to eat them? Yeah, seems legit. It’s also awfully close to “hidawari”, who is a YouTuber, and is close to “himawari”, which means “sunflower” in Japanese. It’s interesting that the Wranaui have a more Hawaiian sounding name, but the thing that eats them has a more Japanese sounding name.
HEPTARCHY: ruling council of the Old Ones. (See also Highmost.) Other than making the Beacon and the Staff of Useless, what else did these “Old Ones” do? This seems like a concept that should’ve been expanded upon a little more, rather than just tossed in there like salt to flavor a dish.
HERESY OF THE FLESH: see Tfeir. “Tfier will see you now,” sniffed the receptionist as she eyed the scruffy nerf-herder standing on the other side of her desk.
HIBERNACULUM: Entropist term for a cryo tube. Because “cryo tube” was sooo last century.
HIGH LFARR: a famed prominence on Pelagius. Temperate weather made it a favorite location for Wranaui hatching pools. Later, acquired enormous socio-political and religious significance with the discovery of several artifacts of the Old Ones built upon it. Original site of the Wranaui Conclave (later the Abyssal Conclave) prior to the joining of the Arms and the ascendency of the regnant form. Basically it was giant baby pool before they found stuff left over from however long ago by mysterious entities nobody knows anything about, and now it’s like the most holiest of places for this alien species.
HIGHMOST: wielder of the Staff of Blue. Leader of the Heptarchy. So the original owner of the Staff of Useless. I wonder if somebody beat them with it for all the good this stupid thing actually does.
HIVE MIND: psycho-mechanical joining of two or more brains. Usually accomplished by continual-beam synchronization of subject implants, ensuring agreement between intero-, extero-, and proprioceptive stimuli. Total exchange of prior sense memory is a common (though not required) part of establishing a hive mind. Effective range depends on signaling bandwidth and tolerance for lag. Breakdown tends to occur when physical proximity exceeds tolerance. Largest recorded hive mind was forty-nine, but experiment was short-lived as participants experienced debilitating sensory overload. It’s basically the mental link that Saphira and Eragon share, but just on a massive scale with many individuals. I’m not sure why you would want to experiment with how big a group you can make, especially since human brains aren’t really meant for this kind of experience. Too much input and we tend to shut down so we can recover. Hopefully these poor participants didn’t die, but I bet someone made them sign a waiver to release them from any liability.
HUNTER-SEEKER: small drones used for surveillance and assassination. This makes way too much sense, especially when you realize we use drones for this even now.
HUTTERITE EXPANSION: series of intensive colonization efforts by Reform Hutterites, starting in the Solar System and expanding outward following the discovery of FTL. The period is said to begin shortly after the construction of Earth’s first space elevator and end with the settlement of Eidolon. (See also Reform Hutterites.) So these guys basically were the first to jump on the whole ‘living in space’ idea? But they aren’t as wide-spread as you might think? And no, I don’t want to go see “reform Hutterites”. Why can’t you just put all the information under one entry?
HYDROTEK CORP.: company specializing in hydrogen extraction and refinement around gas giants. Hydrotek stations are the main refueling and remassing facilities in most systems. And yet we don’t have a company specializing in getting antimatter in a more efficient and safer manner than these crude little farms.
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Date: 2021-08-19 03:25 am (UTC)He's such a tease.
Never get it why some authors write down and integrated a glossary for their "Magnus Opera".
Frank Herbert did one for Dune and, even it was very interesting to read throught, I do find it distracting. For example, in the moddle of a chapter, I saw a word I do not understand, and I have to stop reading to go to the annex.
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Date: 2021-08-19 02:04 pm (UTC)I can see that he's trying (and failing) to mimic the style of an academic index, where synonyms are cross-referenced for completeness, but in a work of fiction it's just pointless annoying guff. Much like the whole appendix section, really.
FTL Tape: slang for vacuum tape
This seems really unlikely to me. Assuming they're saying each letter and not wordifying it into a single weird syllable, it's actually more effort to say "eff tee ell tayp" than it is to say "va-kyum tayp". One of the main points of slang is to shorten something to make it easier and faster to say (cockney rhyming slang being one of the more obvious exceptions). Working class Brits say "loo" instead of "lavatory" because it's at least (depending how you pronounce the latter) two syllables shorter. In Australia, we say arvo instead of afternoon. In parts of Midwestern America, they say "spendy" instead of "expensive".
A better slang might be something like "vac tape", 2 syllables instead of three and gets the point across unambiguously.
GROUND-POUNDER: derogatory term for one who lives on or was born on a planet.
This is stupid and completely ignores the prior existing meaning of the phrasal verb "ground and pound". This would better serve as a derogatory slang for a brawler who fights with their fists instead of a laser gun or whatever. or 'one who resorts to physical violence when they lose their temper'.
Personally, I think "rockborn" would be better slang for a planet-born person. or "rockhead". Or simply just Rocky.
There's a great scifi graphic novel by GRR Martin called Windhaven, about a world where certain elite individuals can fly with the aid of massive metal wings (made from the salvaged metal from their crashed spaceship). There's a distinct class divide between the elite Flyers and children of Flyers, called flyer-born, and everyone else, whom Flyers derisively call Landbound. I could see a similar divide between those who can afford a space ship, and those who can't.
"What's the matter, Rocky? Are your boots stuck in the mud?" "You watch your mouth, spacer. Fly off back to your ship and stop breathing our atmosphere!"
no subject
Date: 2021-08-19 02:43 pm (UTC)Slangs are a great way to add life in any fiction. As you illustrated with the GRR Martin's novel above, it shows the characters are aware of their environments and interacts with it.
Or "Space tape", or even simply "Tape". just keep using "tape", and the readers will follow it.
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Date: 2021-08-19 05:45 am (UTC)Sounds like an unsubtle reference to the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation to me. Share and enjoy!
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Date: 2021-08-19 09:03 pm (UTC)It's a Freudian compulsion, Paolini uses "garb" al the time because he unconsciously associates it with the second half of that word: "-age"
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Date: 2021-08-20 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 09:45 am (UTC)That's easy. He's a southern-midwestern American, right? "maw" is his smoth- I mean, mother.
LOL!
Date: 2021-08-20 09:58 am (UTC)Though there is still "crimson".
no subject
Date: 2021-08-19 10:41 am (UTC)it also begs the question of why the fuck there’s a colony on this planet in the first place and why people continue living there if there’s such a high mortality rate.
counter-point: People continue to live in Australia :P
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Date: 2021-08-19 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-19 02:57 pm (UTC)I could see megacorps sending crews to man stations for valuable ressources.
I do not remember if KIRAGON or anyone ever go to this planet through out TSiaSoS.
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Date: 2021-08-20 12:21 pm (UTC)In a better author's hands, would be interesting to tackle the idea of a place's economic status evolving. Could be interesting for Hawaii to have lost it's tourist flare over time, losing that "exotic paradise" view to pollution or something, thus lost a lot of the income that keeps it afloat and become sort of a desolate place because the lack of tourism no longer allows for high costs of living. When they started to scout for locations to build the space elevator, Honolulu was the lowest bidder because of their current situation.