Glossary
adamant: Any of the various long-chain carbon materials used for starship hulls and body armor.
adorator: A member of any antique religious cult maintained by the Empire and tolerated by the Chantry.
Aeta: A Cielcin prince-chieftain. Appears to have ownership rights over its subjects and their property.
Aeta Ba-Aetane: The Cielcin Prince of Princes. A rare title reserved for those Aeta who conquer and subordinate another Aeta without killing it.
akaranta: The dominant Cielcin sexual role.
androgyn: A homunculus exhibiting either neither or both male and female sex characteristics.
annuid: In the scholiast order, a practitioner who has sworn him or herself to the order for a standard year.
apatheia: The emotionless state pursued by the scholiasts to facilitate their computation function. Has roots in classical Stoicism.
aquilarius: A fighter pilot.
Arch-Builders: Extinct species of coloni xenobite native to the planet Ozymandias. So called for the massive structures built above the plains of their home.
Archprior: Within the Chantry clergy, a senior prior, usually one entrenched in the Chantry bureaucracy.
armsman: Any individual—usually patrician—sworn to serve the person of a palatine lord or his/her house in perpetuity.
auctor: An office appointed by the Emperor to serve as his proxy, to speak with his voice and authority in matters where the Emperor cannot be present.
auxilia: A soldier or unit of soldiers—usually volunteered—attached to the Legions without being a formal part of the Legion structure. Often, auxiliary units are non-citizens looking to obtain citizenship.
azhdarch: A xenobite predator common in the Colosso, like a lizard with a long neck open from top to bottom in a fanged mouth.
baetan: In Cielcin culture, a sort of priest-historian of the scianda.
bastille: Any Chantry judicial and penal center, usually attached to a temple sanctum.
bromos: A protein-rich strain of engineered hyper-oat that serves as the basis for ration bars and as protein base for artificial meat production.
castellan: The chief military officer on a nobile estate, tasked with the defense of the castle and holdings. Usually a knight.
cathar: A surgeon-torturer employed by the Holy Terran Chantry.
centennid: In scholiast life, any member of the order who has sworn him or herself to service for one hundred years. Often a monastic.
centurion: A rank in the Imperial Legions, commands a CENTURY.
century: In the Imperial Legions, a unit comprising ten decades (100 men).
Chalcenterite: A fraternal order of the scholiasts, noted for their asceticism.
Chantry: The Holy Terran Chantry, state religion of the Empire. Functions as the judicial arm of the state, especially where the use of forbidden technology is involved.
chiliad: In the Imperial Legions, a unit comprising ten centuries (1000 men).
chiliarch: A rank in the Imperial Legions, commands a CHILIAD.
chimera: Any genetically altered or artificially created animal, usually by blending the genetic code of two or more animals.
Choir: The CHANTRY’s clandestine research and intelligence division.
Cielcin: Spacefaring alien species. Humanoid and carnivorous.
cohort: In the Imperial Legions, a unit comprising six chiliads (6000 men).
Colosso: A series of sporting events held in a coliseum involving professional gladiators, slave myrmidons, animals, races, and more.
colossus: Any huge mobile artillery unit, especially those designed to walk on legs. May be several hundred feet tall.
consortation: One of the TWELVE ABOMINATIONS. Conversing with or having similar contact with artificial intelligence, even unknowingly.
Consortium: The Wong-Hopper Consortium. The largest of the Mandari interstellar corporations, specializing in terraforming technologies.
constellation: Among the palatine, a super-group of interrelated families, usually possessed of certain signifying features and traits.
cornicen: In the Legions, a soldier tasked with playing the horn or trumpet at parades.
coteliho: In Cielcin culture, roughly equivalent to a Lord’s herald or majordomo.
cryoburn: Burns incurred as a side effect of improper cryonic freezing.
cubiculum: A chamber where persons are kept in cryonic fugue, usually aboard a starship.
daimon: An artificial intelligence. Sometimes erroneously applied to non-intelligent computer systems.
datanet: The loose association of all planetary dataspheres connected by quantum telegraphs and inter-space satellite relays.
datasphere: Any planetary data network. In the Empire, access is strictly restricted to the patrician and palatine caste.
decade: In the Imperial Legions, a unit of ten soldiers comprising three groups of three and their decurion.
decurion: A rank in the Imperial Legions, commands a DECADE.
Demarchy of Tavros: A small interstellar polity found in the Wisp. Radically open to technology, the people vote on all measures using neural lace implants.
demoniac: A person who has incorporated machines into their body, particularly with the intent of altering their cognitive processes.
dispholide: A rare hemotoxic poison, likely of Chantry design and manufacture, that disables the coagulation process and dissolves collagen and even bone at an astonishing rate, effectively liquefying the victim.
Druaja: A board game, sometimes called labyrinth chess.
dryad: Any of a species of green-skinned homunculi capable of photosynthesis, designed for work in outer space.
duplication: One of the TWELVE ABOMINATIONS. The copying of an individual’s genetics, likeness, personality, or memories through cloning or related practices.
Durantine Republic: An interstellar republic of some three thousand worlds. Pays tribute to the Empire.
Eali: The Jaddian ruling caste, product of intense eugenic development. Practically superhuman.
Emperor: The supreme ruler of the Sollan Empire, considered a god and the reincarnation of his/her predecessor. Holds absolute power.
energy-lance: A bladed spear with a high-energy laser built into the shaft. Used as formal weapons by guards, especially in the Imperium.
entoptics: Augmented reality device where images are projected directly onto the retina.
eolderman: The elected head of a plebeian community. Typically seen in more rural regions on Imperial planets.
Eudoran: Any of the spacefaring bands claiming descent from the failed colony on Europa in Old Earth’s system. An ethnic group known for their interstellar wanderings.
Exalted: A faction among the Extrasolarians noted for their extreme cybernetic augmentations.
Excubitor: The innermost circle of the Emperor’s guard, comprising 108 of the finest knights and fighters in the Empire.
Exodus: The expansionist period following the environmental collapse of Earth. The Peregrinations from Old Earth System before the Foundation War.
Expeditionary Corps: Branch of the Imperial Legions tasked with exploring the galaxy and with laying the groundwork for colonization.
Extrasolarian: Any of the barbarians living outside Imperial control, often possessing illegal praxis.
extraterranic: In terraforming and ecology, refers to any organism not of Old Earth extraction. Extraterrestrial.
Foundation War: The war between the early Empire and the Mericanii, in which the Mericanii were destroyed and the Sollan Empire founded.
Galstani: The common language of the Sollan Empire, descended from Classical English, with heavy Hindi and Franco-Germanic influences.
glowsphere: A spherical, bright light source floating on Royse repulsors, battery- or chemically powered.
God Emperor: The first Sollan Emperor, William I, who defeated the Mericanii. It is believed his return will usher in a new Golden Age for the Empire.
golem: A mechanical being fashioned in the shape of a man, containing no organic parts.
High College: Imperial political office tasked with reviewing palatine requests for children and with overseeing the pregnancies of same. Prevents mutations.
highmatter: A form of exotic matter produced by alchemists. Used to make the swords of Imperial knights, which can cut almost anything.
hightower: An elevator designed to lift cargo from the surface of a planet to orbit and vice versa.
homunculus: Any artificial human or near-human, especially those grown for a task, or for aesthetic purposes.
hoplite: A shielded foot soldier. Heavy infantry.
hoplon: An antique-style round shield, used in the Colosso.
hurasam: Gilded coin used among the Imperial peasant classes, worth their mark-weight in gold. Print notes for various denominations exist.
hypogeum: The underground maintenance complex beneath a coliseum. More generally, any underground complex.
ice: In computing, software designed to monitor traffic in and out of a system and to prevent access based on perceived threat.
ichakta: A Cielcin title, referring to the captain of a ship.
Iedyr Yemani: The six vayadan-generals sworn in fanatic servitude to Syriani Dorayaica. The so-called White Hand.
ietumna: The submissive Cielcin sexual role.
Imperium: See SOLLAN EMPIRE.
indoctrination: The process by which a person is treated with specially tailored RNA packets to learn and absorb new information and skills quickly.
infestation: In Chantry religious law, the state in which a computer system may contain elements of artificial intelligence or the precursors to same, often leading to POSSESSION.
inmane: An offensive slur meaning that someone is less than human. Literally impure.
Inquisition: The judicial branch of the Imperial Chantry, primarily concerned with the use of illegal technologies.
Inquisitor: A Chantry official tasked with conducting judicial investigations and overseeing the torture of criminals.
intus: A palatine born outside the oversight of the High College, usually possessing several physical or psychological defects; a bastard.
Irchtani: Species of coloni xenobite native to the planet Judecca. Bird-like with massive wings. Considered an exemplar of coloni assimilation.
kaspum: Silver-plated coin used among the Imperial peasant classes. Twelve kaspums make one gold hurasam. Print notes for various denominations exist.
kithuun: In Irchtani culture, a tribal chieftain or military commander.
knife-missile: A kind of drone, little more than a remote-controlled flying knife. A favorite of assassins.
knight: Sollan military honor conferred by the nobility for services rendered; usually includes a small fief. May carry highmatter weapons.
legate: A rank in the Imperial Legions, commands an entire Legion.
Legions: The military branch of the Sollan Empire, loyal directly to the Emperor and Imperial house, comprising naval and ground forces.
Legion Intelligence Office: The Empire’s military intelligence, espionage, and foreign intervention agency.
legionnaire: Any soldier in the Imperial Legions, especially the common foot soldier.
lictor: A bodyguard for a nobile or other dignitary. Usually a knight.
light-probe: Any of a class of very small, ultralight reconnaissance devices propelled by shipboard laser to nearly the speed of light.
lighter: Any starship small enough to make landfall on a planet.
Lions: An unofficial political party in the Sollan Empire, comprising the more conservative royalist houses.
logothete: A minister in any of the governmental agencies of any palatine house, used colloquially of any civil servant.
Lothrian Commonwealth: The second largest human polity in the galaxy, a totalitarian collectivist state. Longtime antagonist of the Empire.
Maeskolos: One of the legendary Swordmasters of Jadd, drawn exclusively from the eali caste. Credited with superhuman speed and skill.
Magnarch: The chief Imperial Viceroy in each arm of the galaxy: Orion, Sagittarius, Perseus, and Centaurus. Essentially co-Emperors.
Makers: A pantheon of gods worshiped by the Cielcin, possibly the same as the WATCHERS.
mamluk: Any homunculus slave-soldier of the Jaddian Principalities.
Mandari: An ethnic group semi-detached from Imperial society, most commonly found staffing the massive interstellar trading corporations.
mandyas: Traditional garment of the Maeskoloi. Half a robe with one flowing sleeve worn over the left shoulder, cinched at the waist.
Martian Guard: The Emperor’s palace guard, an elite corp of soldiers raised from the population on Earth’s nearest neighbor, Mars.
medica: A hospital, typically aboard a starship.
megathere: A massive, three-eyed amphibious predator native to the planet Epidamnus.
Mericanii: The ancient first interstellar colonists. A hyper-advanced technologic civilization run by artificial intelligences. Destroyed by the Empire.
Messer/Madam: Polite address in the Empire, used of anyone without formal title.
Museum Catholic Church: An adorator cult centered on the planet Caritas, believed to have existed since the Golden Age of Earth and protected on reservations by Imperial decree.
myrmidon: In the Colosso, any contract or slave fighter not a professionally trained gladiator.
nahute: A Cielcin weapon. Resembles a flying metal snake. Seeks out targets and drills into them.
natalist: A specialist practiced in the art of growing and gene-crafting living organisms, human or otherwise.
nobile: Blanket term referring to any member of the palatine and patrician castes in the Sollan Empire.
Nordei: The principle language of the Demarchy. A patois of Nordic and Thai with some Slavic influences.
Norman Expanse: The frontier of human settlement in the Norma Arm of the Milky Way, near to the galactic core.
novice: A student initiated into the rites and curricula of the scholiasts with the intention of becoming one.
nuncius: In Imperial society, an announcer or herald.
Orbital Defense Force: The fleet maintained by any palatine lord for the defense of his or her planet or system.
outcaste: In Imperial society, any former member of the palatine or patrician castes stripped of their station. May also refer to similar persons in Jadd.
palatine: The Imperial aristocracy, descended from those free humans who opposed the Mericanii. Genetically enhanced, they may live for several centuries.
Pale: The Cielcin. Slang, considered offensive by xenophiles.
panegyrist: A Chantry priest tasked with performing the call to prayer at sundown.
Panthai: A Tavrosi language descended from the Thai, Lao, and Khmer-speaking peoples who settled the Wisp alongside the Nordei.
patrician: Any plebeian or plutocrat awarded with genetic augmentations at the behest of the palatine caste as a reward for services rendered.
Peregrination: Any of the historical evacuations from Earth’s system for the extrasolar colonies.
phase disruptor: A sort of firearm that attacks the nervous system. Can stun on lower settings.
phylactery: A device for storing the genetic and epigenetic information of an individual for the purposes of artificial reproduction.
plasma burner: A firearm which uses a strong loop of magnetic force to project an arc of super-heated plasma across short to moderate distances.
plebeian: The Imperial peasantry, descended from unaltered human stock seeded on the oldest colony ships. Forbidden to use high technology.
poine: A structured, small-scale war carried out between imperial palatine houses. Subject to the scrutiny of the Inquisition.
possession: One of the TWELVE ABOMINATIONS. The state in which an individual or computer system is under the sway of an artificial intelligence.
praxis: High technology, usually of the sort forbidden by Chantry law.
primate: The highest administrative office of a scholiasts’ athenaeum, akin to a university chancellor.
profanation: One of the TWELVE ABOMINATIONS. The mingling of human flesh with machine implants or prostheses, especially in cases where such modifications transcend ordinary human function.
Protocols: The strict guidelines outlining the behaviors of the Chantry’s INQUISITION in carrying out an investigation.
Quiet: The hypothetical first civilization in the galaxy, allegedly responsible for several ancient sites, including those on Emesh, Judecca, Sadal Suud, and Ozymandias.
repulsor: A device which makes use of the Royse Effect to allow objects to float without disturbing the air or environment.
satrap: A planetary governor in the Principalities of Jadd, subordinate to one of the regional Princes.
scahari: In Cielcin culture, the warrior caste.
scholiast: Any member of the monastic order of researchers, academics, and theoreticians tracing their origins to the Mericanii scientists captured at the end of the Foundation War.
scianda: Pl. sciandane. A Cielcin migratory fleet, comprising several itanimn and presided over by a single Aeta.
sirrah: An honorific used to refer to one’s social inferiors, usually males.
Sojourner: Any of a class of massive Extrasolarian starship, often hundreds of miles long, especially those crewed by the EXALTED.
Sollan Empire: The largest and oldest single polity in human-controlled space, comprising some half a billion habitable planets
SOM: The lobotomized shell of a human being animated by machines, used for slave labor and as soldiers by the Extrasolarians.
strategos: An admiral in the Imperial Legions, responsible for the command of an entire fleet, comprising several legions.
Stricture: The formal rules governing the lifestyle and behavior of those members of the scholiast order as outlined in The Book of the Mind and the rest of Imore’s writings.
sulshawar: In Jaddian culture, a warrior who serves as bodyguard to a prince, satrap, or other important personage. May also represent that person in legal duels. Comparable to a lictor.
Summerfair: A common midsummer holiday celebrated throughout the Imperium. Its date varies from world to world, depending on the local calendar.
suppression field: A Royse Effect field designed to simulate gravity.
Synarch: The highest ecclesiastic office of the Imperial Chantry. Their most important function is the coronation of new Emperors.
Tavrosi: Any of the languages from the Demarchy of Tavros. Typically refers to Nordei.
terranic: In terraforming and ecology, refers to any organism of Old Earth extraction. Not extraterrestrial.
trias: A unit of three legionnaires, usually two peltasts and one hoplite.
triaster: The commander of a trias, usually a shielded hoplite.
Twelve Abominations: The twelve most grievous sins according to the Chantry. Legal privileges do not apply in such cases.
Udaritanu: A complex, non-linear writing system used by the Cielcin.
Umandh: A coloni species native to the planet Emesh. Amphibious and tripedal, they have an intelligence comparable to that of dolphins.
vayadan: In Cielcin culture, the bound mates and bodyguards of an Aeta.
verrox: A powerful pseudoamphetamine derived from the leaves of the verroca plant. It is taken by ingesting the leaves, which are usually candied.
Victorian Knights: An order of Imperial knights bound in service to the person of the Emperor and the Aventine House directly, not to the Imperial Office.
Watchers: According to this account, a species or collection of powerful xenobites, possibly worshiped as gods by the Cielcin and other alien races.
worldship: Any of the massive Cielcin vessels—some as large as moons—which make up the core of their fleets.
Writ of Nativity: A formal petition—or grant of said petition—enabling a palatine lord of the Sollan Empire to produce a child under the auspices of the High College.
xenobite: Any life form not originating in terranic or human stock, especially those life forms which are considered intelligent; an alien.
zitraa: The traditional weapon of an Irchtani warrior. A thin, curved cutlass approximately seven feet long.