The currently published books in the Tales of the Associated Worlds series are these:

I’m a 44-year-old (as of the time of writing) married man, formerly English, currently living in Wichita, KS. I write speculative fiction – which since you’re here, I presume you know – set in a universe which arrived in my head one day and demanded to be written down. I also enjoy a good rare steak, single malt Scotch, bourbon, software, 3D printing, electronics, transhumanism, dogs of moderate ...

There certainly is. It’s here: Please feel free to apply Wiki Magic Love.

There isn’t. Will there be? Not from me, since I lack the skills necessary for RPG development. And that’s unlikely to change unless I somehow come into vast quantities of money – the kind that would enable me to go to, say, Jenna Moran (to pick someone who could do justice to the universe) with something to back up the requisite begging, pleading, and asking nicely. Awww. That said, if anyone...

No, this setting is ridiculously Utopian. As I said once, this is what happens when people read the Mary Suetopia and Sugar Bowl pages on TV Tropes, and then say to themselves, “This is right, this is true, this is beautiful. This is how the universe ought to work.” Then set out to, with hard work and rational thinking, make it so – at least locally, with global ambitions. Why? Because I’ve re...

That I did. It’s Friendship is Sufficiently Advanced , a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossover, and can be found here. The category for it on this site is here. Ponies, seriously? Yes, because they’re philosophically compatible universes. But — If you have a problem with it, don’t read it. If you have a problem with it and you just can’t resist the urge to bring it up to me, you’ll ...

As of the time of the Core War, they’re an oblate spheroid about 3,300 light-years core to rim, 4,100 light-years spinward to trailing, and 2,000 light-years (i.e., the thickness of the galactic plane) acme to nadir. This volume contains approximately 100,000,000 stars, with maybe 10,000 systems connected to the stargate plexus. (The gaps will be filled in later on; in the initial expansion, starg...

What’s cannon? A big metal tube that fires projectiles, but that’s not important right now. Okay, smartass, what’s canon? Only things printed in actual published books or e-books are strictly considered canon. Any fiction or worldbuilding articles posted to the blog that haven’t been published in said books are probably canon, but I and my lovely editor reserve the right to change things befor...

Well, since it’s not connected causally to Earth, even fictional Earths, and technological development in the ‘verse didn’t necessarily take place in the same order or at the same rate as it did here, that’s a mite hard to say. Let’s have a go, though. As a start, I’ll reprint the foreword I wrote for The Core War and Other Stories , explaining the eras of Imperial history as the local historians...

decadent (n.): what less awesome civilizations say more awesome civilizations are; see also sour grapes. Or, to be more precise, if you look up decadent in the dictionary, you will find that it has two senses: in a state of deterioration and decay, especially moral decline luxuriously self-indulgent That human languages conflate sense 1 (bad) with sense 2 (awesome), they would say, tells you ...

By contracting for things to be done, not to sell chunks of your time. See here, here, and here. Isn’t that rather inefficient? For whom? Besides, what price can you put on sophont dignity? I don’t feel particularly — Assuming that you’re an Earth-human, your employer can make you piss in a cup to police your body chemistry, among other multitudinous intrusions. You don’t have sophont dignity. ...

Would the commissions process artists do be a good analogue to help explain that process to people?

That’s because the setting of the Eldraeverse isn’t hard SF. It’s firm SF. For our purposes, that means that known physics is obeyed, but I get to embrace and extend it so long as my extensions conform with the correspondence principle, and so long as I also stick to the One Big Lie principle – i.e., that all the “space magic” is an outgrowth of the same family of effects, even if it’s a pretty b...

Sigh. Yeah, I know. Even though they never have been (in either case) the sand grains at near-c they’ve been flanderized to be, back in the design phase – as reflected in early usage – I made the same error the Mass Effect writers did. And it’s a bit late to do anything about it now, seeing as it’s published canon. So… let’s just say that they’re a little bit bigger and slower than they might h...

Actually, they do: the wormholes work exactly the way physics says they ought to. What you mean is that stargates don’t work that way – which difference is explained by the techniques stargates use to inflate wormholes on demand (briefly, stargates use heavy entangled masses per the ER=EPR mechanisms suggested by Susskind & Maldacena, et. al., to comb the foam for suitable wormholes, then grab a...

If you’re thinking of tangle channels, they don’t use quantum entanglement. (Since we assume for this ‘verse that a nonlocal hidden variables interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, we can communicate over the nonlocal update channels.) Quantum entanglement works exactly as it appears to – as it would have to, otherwise quantum encryption and quantum computing wouldn’t work – and is, indeed, ...

[image] (T-shirt this design is from here: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/7663537-freelancer-of-blaviken )

There are a number of arguments to be made here, among them the confusion – in so much of Earth culture – of exchange-value (money) with actual value – consider all the things you do every day that there’s no “sound economic reason” for doing – and the different ways of looking at things when you aren’t regulated into considering only next quarter’s share price, and have the lifespan to undertake ...

(Specifically, how do those anti-RKV superdreadnoughts mentioned work?) The two parts to that are detection and response. For the former, wormhole tripwires, in which having an observatory at the functionally-in-the-future end of a static wormhole lets you see the deflection before it happens, so you know how you didwill deflect it. For the latter: usually, the best way to deflect an RKV is to h...

Originally published at: http://el-drop.arkane-systems.net/index.php/2020/01/23/just-a-test/ This is nothing but a test post for blog/Discourse integration under the new regime, and the new-style blog isn’t even up yet. Please ignore.

Originally published at: http://el-drop.arkane-systems.net/index.php/2014/03/04/help-me-write-more/ If you enjoy reading my fiction and metafiction, please consider becoming one of my patrons via Patreon. Thank you very much for helping me continue, and expand, doing what I love.

“Ah, yes, the ‘Who Wants To Live Forever?‘ trope. The unbearable ennui that allegedly awaits all immortals. We have dismissed this claim.” Basically, no. That’s just what mortals tell themselves to make their inevitable ugly demise look prettier, in a grand form of Stockholm Syndrome. The universe is a big and fascinating place, and there isn’t any particular ceiling on personal growth, and if it...

Because at the present time, the constraints on practical, nonspecialized starship mounts mean that beam spread makes them less than useful at more than a light-second range. They are, however, very deadly at knife-fight range and in any case useful for pumping heat.

See this:

Like this:

Because even if one can work around the momentum-conservation issue, they haven’t been invented yet. Simple as that.

That’s because human brains become less plastic as they get older, and people who find it more difficult to learn new things generally prefer to avoid having to learn new things. Exactly why do you think that this particular side-effect of bioentropy would be exempted from the general cure?

[image] Gene Roddenberry’s corpse must be spinning at warp speeds.

Hello to all the people I’ve seen in the comments who don’t post on Discord. Nice to meet you all.

Hello, so, I’ve already asked these questions on patreon, but it turns out there’s this new Discourse thing, so I’m going to ask them publicly here. Let me know if I should split this into several threads for each question or if there’s anything else. First, we know that eldrae use several kinds of writing systems. One of them is the hexrunic, which we’ve seen on the Darkest Night card and it is...

Uncleftish Beholding , by Poul Anderson. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/complexity/people/students/dtc/students2011/maitland/fun/

…when it comes to machine learning, AI, and algorithmic decision-making (or, as they say in the 'verse, cybermagistry) in general: And in particular, that perennially annoying part of it that goes by the name of status quo bias. Always remember, you don’t have to be perfect to be adopted, you just have to be better than what we have now… assuming the decision-makers are rational. If they’re hu...

Pseudoscientists are now e-mailing me their theories of the universe! (Surely an SF writer benchmark of some sort. Sorry, guys, we’ve got plenty of our own.)

(Credit to @Buggy on the Discord for pointing me at this.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394524 “Three years ago, he got into coding just for fun. Now, unbeknownst to all but a few, Saitama is the world’s strongest coder, capable of writing flawless, bug-free code on the first try, regardless of the application. Growing increasingly bored, Saitama seeks ever greater coding challenges. Mean...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2019/12/13/darkness-within-3/ Darkness Within, the third book of Tales of the Associated Worlds, is now officially released, in both paperback and Kindle e-book formats. It can be obtained here: Primarily set after the Core War, this book returns to the style of “Vignettes of the Star Empire”, with more nanofiction from the Associated Worlds, in...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/01/29/running-under-the-new-regime/ Well, here we are. As those of you who missed the minor disruption last night won’t know, we’e now all transferred over from WordPress.com hosting to a private WordPress instance running on a DigitalOcean droplet, leading to a glorious new era of something that looks much the same to readers, but works mu...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/01/29/grave-itas/ The graveyard was as silent as its contents might suggest. The planet’s large moon shone down on the cracked marble of headstones and memorials, the spidery vines climbing them from among the grass… and the distortion in the air flattening said grass, from which a low and discontented muttering could be heard. Perhaps it w...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/01/30/subtext-2/ “Barbarians, we say? Yes, and we stand by it. “What such peoples as yours tend to describe as the appurtenances of civilization – your taxation, your conscription, your elaborately-justified coercive governments – are, in truth, shibboleths of your abject failure to be civilized peoples. “A gentlesoph of some small wisdom u...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/02/senatorial-privilege/ While not its long-disused official name, the Defenestrative Balcony is the upper of the two observation galleries looking down upon the Hall of Convocation, surrounding the roof’s central oculus. Conveniently for anyone who wishes to place its nickname into effect, the outer ring of windows open onto an exterior...

You heard right! Click here for an invitation. However, fun as the chat server is for… chat, I’d appreciate it - if you have any questions for me or other Deeply Serious 'Verse Discussion - if you’d keep, or at least start, it here on the Discourse, rather than over there. This is more readily searchable and, indeed, accessible to a broader community, which helps in building up a stock of 'verse...

Worm (https://www.parahumans.wordpress.com/) A interesting, and dark, world that builds on and deconstructs the superhero genre, and also dabbles a bit in sci-fi (and horror). Also quite long, with a word count rivalling that of entire book series. (Via Buggy, on the Discord.)

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/05/self-crossover-wyrm/ Yes, I’m writing crossover fanfic of my own universe again. (Obviously not canon.) You can blame my readers over on the Discord for this, for recommending Worm – https://parahumans.wordpress.com/ – to me, which led to the ever-expanding universe of other Worm alt-universe and crossover fics, which now I’ve got aro...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/07/natural-law-enforcement/ Opposite the Core, seven hexterranes of Coricál Ailék are occupied by the <Crimson Opalescent Arpeggio in F> Emergency Reality Enforcement Facility. A complex constructed in response to the ongoing work of OPERATION VACUUM AVALANCHE regarding physics-based threats and SKYSHOCK VOID/SKYSHOCK YELLOW scenarios, t...

This is one of the big issues that I can think of, and Quantum Vibe points out, is that if you have your backup somewhere that isn’t under your direct control-it can be taken by someone. And, ruining your credit record is the least bad thing. What is the general policy on off-site backups for the Eldrae?

Okay, I now have a question-what does Eldrae dating/courting look like? Do they have anything equivalent to Tinder/Match/OkCupid? Hell, what would an Eldrae rom-com look like?

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/ “Contains lots and lots of info about space, spaceflight, and other sci-fi-y stuff ranging from real tech to Phlebotinum aplenty. Includes both references and sections of texts from disparate fictional works.” Via Buggy on the Discord, but really, an obvious place to visit for anyone who reads my stuff.

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/15/gravy/ “Among things that you all can be thankful for is that gravitic weapons are of almost no practical use. Partly this is because there is very little training we can give you in dealing with the resulting casualties – due to the low survival rate – but mostly because the results are ugly even by time-of-war standards. “Gravitic s...

https://www.orionsarm.com/ Hard/firm sci-fi worldbuilding project with quite a lot of detail and work put in. Focuses on the far future, in a world where superhuman intelligences have exponentially improved themselves and created a singularity… six times in a row. Contains painstakingly detailed societies, technologies firmly rooted in real science and physics (with shown work), moon brains aplen...

Equality Concord …they studied the gentle art of sophotechnology, and they built themselves some nice bionic implants… What happens if the implants go wonky? Machines break, conditioning breaks: some good citizen suddenly finds he can lie, cheat, steal (or just say ‘no’), and he likes it. If he runs (for Empire space, or Rim space), will he be pursued? And: if he makes a clean getaway, can the ...

If you haven’t already got Terraforming Mars (and obviously, you want it, since you’re one of my readers), happy news is that the digital boardless-board-game version is not only available on Steam, but is part of a current Humble Bundle. It’s in the second level $6 (presently) gets you it, along with assorted other games which also seem fun. Why are you still here?

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/20/with-care/ From Gateway Station Operations to all within, greeting. As you may be aware, Gateway Station is a low-orbit station, which consequently suffers from a minuscule degree of drag from Eliéra’s outer atmosphere, necessitating periodic corrections in our orbit. The day after tomorrow (Yrnaes 21st) is the scheduled date for this...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/20/also-mind-the-gap/ spin-stop: A stop on a non-axial habitat (or occasionally starship) internal transit line for access to a spin gravity area. While in many cases the most convenient way to allow access to a gravity wheel or rotating segment within an otherwise non-rotating habitat is an axial transit line (or, in small examples, flo...

An author with a focus on mathematics, quantum mechanics, and consciousness, Egans works cover everything from “What if you could control wave function collapse” to “What if there was a entire universe with two dimensions of time”. Abandon all hope, ye who fear physics, because Egan has created at least two entire fictional models of physics from scratch and he hasn’t stopped yet. (Via Buggy, on ...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/21/to-the-pain/ death-equivalent existence: It is a cliché, at least among Imperials, that “there are no fates worse than death”. A living sophont, after all, possesses the capacity for choice and action, and thus to better their situation – or, failing that, at least the capacity to be acted upon, in ways that open up further options. D...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/02/23/eldraeic-words-of-the-day-agreements/ caülgyrelef: compromise; agreement in which neither party receives what they want (from tratracalma traülgyr elefí, lit. “least worthless/unfavorable contract”, i.e., a bad deal but the least bad deal possible). sédelélef: mutually beneficial agreement; agreement in which both parties succeed (fro...

https://www.rifters.com/ Best known for “Blindsight” and the Rifters trilogy, Watts focuses on diamond-hard sci-fi involving biology, neuroscience, AI, and the nature of consciousness. Emphasis on “hard”; Blindsight and some of his other works feature a citation page as long as a entire chapter, listing where he got all of his information and his justifications for putting it in the story. If you...

All Night Laundry (https://all-night-laundry.com) A webcomic about a waitress who just wants to have some clean clothes tomorrow… though she’d settle for having tomorrow at all. Time travel, intermittently functional knees, and snark abound. It’s a multiple-reading experience, and you’ll want to have cookies enabled on your browser. (usual disclaimer about art and writing improving… The first c...

I was stuck in traffic, and I just had this thought. What would the Eldrae cultural equivalency of Magical Girls be? Besides probably a lot less whiny (on average) and doing a lot more property damage? And, beings like Kyubey would suddenly discover that they were on the very wrong side of the “bigger fish” equation of the Transcend. I do think they would enjoy and have more fun dealing with Nan...

Do any of you fine gentlesophs play the ancient oriental game of go?

https://www.miragrant.com/series/newsflesh/ - because proper zombies, and a fascinating look at a society that has adapted to them. Eldrae, I suspect, would solve this with more dakka.

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/03/01/front-effects/ While perfection is our delight, perfection is also profoundly dangerous where it interacts with imperfection. In the world of pharmacology, this principle is best represented by two particular drugs, aumbril and thanachav. The former is a perfect euphoric; the latter a perfect disinhibitor. Both, however, are also perf...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/03/03/sons-of-ancyr/ Horns of Ancyr, blow ye wildly,Thunder forth your brazen fury,Summon every soul who hears ye,To the battlefield. Shields of Ancyr, stand before we,In your lock-step, ever steady,Naught was forged can e’er score ye,Stand and never yield. Spears of Ancyr, sound your brattle,In terror drive them forth as cattle,Ardor quenc...

Originally published at: Stealing From Yourself | The Eldraeverse The Advocate for Guilt has cited the existing precedent set by this Court in Ulpiaj v. Ulpiaj (7918), affirming that for one sophont to appropriate property from themselves in the past constitutes theft, inasmuch as a worldline-past time-slice of an individual cannot consent to the actions of a worldline-future time-slice. Howev...

Originally published at: Some Ancient Questions | The Eldraeverse Have a random selection of answers to old questions and comments that came up while I was clearing out my e-mail: In our world, there is a Spanish proverb that runs: Ladrón que roba a ladrón tiene cien años de perdón (memorably quoted in translation by the villian of The Magnificent Seven as “A thief who steals from a thief is p...

To me, this category involves the following traits: it’s complicated, it demonstrates skill, and you get art as a result. (Or potentially a very useful object, but eldrae seem to want their useful objects to be as beautiful as practicality allows.) “The Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg, performed by Jonathan Scott with the Bartók National Concert Hall. Not “performed at the Bartók Nati...

Originally published at: Begone, And Trouble Us No More | The Eldraeverse You may have seen a new Imperial Navy ship on the through route from Qechra to Palaxias in the past few weeks, and not been able to pin down her exact type: she resembles a Leviathan-class dreadnought to aft, but the whole forward half of the vessel seems to have been replaced by a long, four-pronged, blunt-ended ‘snoot’...

To provide the diametric opposite to @Morgrim’s Things Eldrae Might Appreciate thread, this one provides a space for things that they would definitely not appreciate. (Primarily stupidity and barbarianism, I suspect.) The starting-off entry can be “Please Savor the Flavor Responsibly”, and other such disclaimers at the end of beer commercials, on the grounds that What are the things, exactly, t...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Word of the Day: líänd-khadár | The Eldraeverse líänd-khadár: vampire (lit. “flame-stealer”); mythologically, a malicious, semi-corporeal creature which drains its victims of volition and the capacity for choice, before going on to consume the remainder of their thoughts and memories and leave them empty. In the modern day, considered a metaphor for entropy-as...

Originally published at: Hold the Eggs | The Eldraeverse Bacon Maneuver: A stealth tactic used by sailing masters with no sense of self-preservation, the Bacon Maneuver involves hiding a small starship within the drive wake of a larger vessel. Large, multiple-drive craft often have “sweet spots” close in where the drive plumes have not yet impinged on one another, and thus in which a small ves...

On the assumption that my muse is going to at least somewhat fail at the job of leaving Timeo Eldraos et Dona Ferentes alone, this here is the open thread for both good and bad cape name suggestions for Touched-By-Vorlons!Taylor. Have at it, folks.

Originally published at: The Calmiríë Chthonic Railway | The Eldraeverse It’s been a while since I gave you folks a map, so here, I’m giving you folks a map: Click through for full-size version. Should you find yourself needing to find a way around the central region of the capital, this should come in rather handy. On another note, and one less relevant to writing, our 3D printer here at Chez...

Originally published at: Hidden Maintenance Costs | The Eldraeverse “This year’s work list at Planetary Management: Redirect an estimated dozen hurricanes. Lance a supervolcano. Perform injection lubrication of five fault lines for controlled tectonic stress release. Reinforce the bedrock of a major regional aquifer. And orchestrate a thousand-year river channel shift.” “Why are you even readi...

Originally published at: Every Story Involving Fully Mature Ontotechnology, a Collection in One Part | The Eldraeverse I decided everything should be perfect forever. It was. THE END (Slightly delayed from April 1st.)

Is the Discobot tutorial an innate function of Discourse groups, or is it something @avatar has coded specifically for this group? It reminds me a lot of the github optional tutorial bot, so I’m wondering if it’s based on that.

Originally published at: Things to See, Places to Go (11) | The Eldraeverse One of the taverns located inside Paltraeth Down’s extrality zone, the Sages’ Stomping Ground has the unique distinction of being both a brawler’s bar and an enhanced-privacy facility. In a traditionally kaeth twist, the proprietor, mor-Tanaz Vivek, defines “privacy” as ignoring anything going on outside the common bar...

Originally published at: Snippet: Random, Or Not | The Eldraeverse “Your puny precognition will be no match for my Inevitable Certainty Engine!” “Huh. I guess it won’t.”

Intervention 1.3 is up! https://archiveofourown.org/works/22820431/chapters/57228061

Originally published at: Sim-Descartes | The Eldraeverse Well, last month was kind of crappy, productivity-wise, what with one damn thing after another going wrong in non-writing-friendly ways, even without the coronavirus. Let’s hope this coming month works out better. In the meantime, I hope the lack of posting here has been in some way compensated for by my second venture into self-fanfic. ...

I just had this realization about Steve Rogers/Captain America from the MCU that I wrestled with for a bit and decided it was right. To the eldrae, he’s the human Alpha baseline upgrade. He’s as strong as you can get without augmentation. Tough, resilient, and fast. He’s smart, has amazingly few cognitive biases (remember, he grew up in an era when Irish was a barely tolerated racial category, ...

So, this link has politics in it, for which I apologize, but I’m going to trust you all to ignore the specific names and parties involved and just look at the underlying argument. Because this argument right here? This is exactly why the Empire’s moral philosophers really hate utilitarians and pragmatists, all rolled up into one repulsive bundle of “it’s okay to throw someone under the bus for ...

Reading through this paper, Win–Win Denial: The Psychological Underpinnings of Zero-Sum Thinking, whose abstract is as follows: A core proposition in economics is that voluntary exchanges benefit both parties. We show that people often deny the mutually beneficial nature of exchange, instead espousing the belief that one or both parties fail to benefit from the exchange. Across 4 studies (and 7 ...

I’ve been looking for this article for years, and found it just recently. Just, all the loops of things that are needed to get a single #2 pencil to the store and sell it… I suspect that the Transcend would know how to make a #2 pencil, but mostly stays out of the way while everybody else makes the pencil.

How long do starships last? Let’s take two extreme examples… A top of the line, no-holds-barred, state-of-the-art starship… …and… …a Hariven. Assume that both are lovingly cared for by their owner/operators and that both are kept stock.

Originally published at: ahn-kel seeks ahn-ros for discreet encounter | The Eldraeverse No discussion of approaches to gender in the Associated Worlds would be complete without mention of the peculiar customs of the mourcalt of the Trailing Assembly. The mourcalt‘s biology gave them an exceptional degree of sexual dimorphism, which is typically correlated with strong gender archetypes, as inde...

Originally published at: Probing Further | The Eldraeverse In assessing the governmental and cultural structures of a world to determine whether contact should be made – or, indeed, further interactions carried through – it is best to approach from a cosmopolitan perspective. The cultures of the greater galaxy vary widely, and we must not allow parochialism with regard to the details of any g...

Originally published at: The Forgotten City | The Eldraeverse Once, there was a proud city whose towers touched the heavens. But the people of the city were not its equal in pride, and they grew afraid of the world, for it went on forever, and they believed that such reduced their measure, and the measure of their city. They thought to make their fear their tool, and erected mighty walls and f...

Originally published at: Big Iron | The Eldraeverse INERTIA WARNING MAGNETIC DRUM STORAGE IN USEACCESS BY AUTHORIZED TECHNICIANS ONLY Magnetic drums rotate at 36 rpm when in use. Do not enter drum room unless steam valve is closed and padlocked, drive clutch is disengaged and padlocked, and spin-down is complete. (Governor ball check is insufficient; spin gauge must read zero.) Inform supervis...

Originally published at: Shoot Them Later | The Eldraeverse If They Want To Leave, Let Them Leave Malefactors in command of a docked starship are always to be permitted to depart if they request it. There are no ‘land-locks’ or armored space doors for a reason. Do not forget that even a tramp merchie or private yacht has point defenses against micrometeoroids, if nothing else, which can do a s...

Originally published at: Because This Is The Most Important Thing To Do In Mid-Pandemic | The Eldraeverse As a quick note to my Patreon patrons, as of the start of July they will be charging sales tax on assorted, but not all, patron pledges, thanks to new legal requirements. This affects 36 states of the US and assorted foreign parts, in different ways for each, and may only affect certain pa...

Originally published at: Ten Light-Second Pole | The Eldraeverse From: Capt. Eladin Cineätreos, CS Fustuary CastigationTo: Adm. Hars mor-Lanak, CINCTRAILSubject: Intervention on Sorn (Olost Belt) Per received advisory and request, we proceeded to Sorn (Olost Belt) to investigate pre discretionary Imperial intervention to preserve peace and order on Sorn Actual, under authority of the appropria...

Originally published at: Thoughtful Wrath | The Eldraeverse “There are those, pacifists they name themselves, who proclaim that no man’s life is worth another’s; that it is better to die, or witness murder, than to take a life. And if one first grants that all lives have equal value in some mythical sense, this may make sense upon its face. “There are those, the grovelers, who opine that life ...

I was working on some character dialog, and this little bit sounded so perfectly Eldrae… “I only kneel before God and my wives. You’re neither. I might bow, but probably not.” (And, in my head, this comes out in a very Hugh Laurie as House in the snark.)

Originally published at: Liberapay | The Eldraeverse For those concerned with such things or just a mite irritated with Patreon at the moment, I am pleased to announce that I now also accept monthly donations via Liberapay. Patreon won’t be going away, so really, this just means you have a bit more freedom of choice, and who doesn’t like that? …don’t answer that question.

Originally published at: Or Possibly A Landscape Feature | The Eldraeverse “You don’t want us to touch this one.” “I thought you were the best demolitions company in the Worlds!” “We are.” “Then why can’t you demolish this?” “I never said that we couldn’t demolish this. I said that you didn’t want us to demolish this. Look here – you see the very distinctive bevel on the trailing edge of the d...

Originally published at: Not Guidelines | The Eldraeverse “Listen up, you bastards! For the rookies and anyone who’s conveniently forgotten how we do this, here are the rules. Official loot – anything the client or the skipper wants – goes in the BLUE crates. Other loot of military value, in the GREEN crates. Plunder, in the YELLOW crates for distribution by shares, and make sure you’ve tagged...

Originally published at: Yellow Flag | The Eldraeverse BROADCAST // GTR CESTIA & PROXIMAL // INFRA UNCLASSALL ECS STATIONS ANNOUNCEIMMEDIATE PREEMPTEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY // ALERT 2049/04/20 This is an EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY alert for all residents of the Greater Cestian continent and proximal regions. This is a QUARANTINE ADVISORY. The Office of Disease and Toxin Control, Prev...

It’s made by extending your will and self into an object; It grants power according to the measure of its possessor; It permits you to dominate the environment around you; To lose access to it is to be greatly diminished; And (since once you grow beyond its confines you can’t fit back into your old container), you will be permanently reduced, possibly destroyed, if some idjit chucks it into a ...

Originally published at: Sometimes the Chicken Wins | The Eldraeverse LEAGUE SAFETY IN HABITATION COMMISSIONCATASTROPHIC FAILURE ANALYSISSUMMARY REPORT Location: Tuntamus (Madel Cauldron)Date: 6921-11-13Habitat: Tuntab High Orbit Three (“Senmarville”)Defining Event: Complete structural failureAccident Number: LM6921-443Damage: TotalCasualties: 23,147 Presented to the Inter-Worlds Commission on...

Originally published at: Lightning Strikes | The Eldraeverse from the Eye-in-the-Flame Arms internal memeweave archives From: Aldysis Cyprium (Directorate)To: Diziet Cyprium (Director of Entertaining Research)Subject: FULGURANT TRIBULATION It’s not that we’re dismissing the potential of FULGURANT TRIBULATION, cousin. From a purely commercial point of view, the potential of an algetic weapon ca...

Originally published at: Idiot Stick (1) | The Eldraeverse ECOPOETIC LINE GANGERS/PLANET-BREAKERS WANTED No Background Check · No Identification · No Questions No Qualifications Required · No Experience Required · Training ProvidedSix-Year Indenture Required · Bonus for Successful Completion Free transportation and reflux bond provided to Sagiraz (Ull Cluster). Accomodation and sustenance incl...

So I was looking at The Emperor’s Sword: Some Notes and some thoughts about how air combat in the Eldraeverse kept nagging me for days on end, so I decided to ask: How does it work?

Originally published at: Supergreen | The Eldraeverse “Why will we use green lasers for starwisp and light sail propulsion? “Because stars aren’t green. Can’t be green, in fact, because a black-body spectrum that peaks in the green is broad enough that there’s plenty of other-colored light to make it not sum to green. That makes green the least stealthy color in space. “So when you’re going to...

Just checking, will we ever get Part 3 of the Incursion mini-thread, or has it been covered in one of the books somewhere? Thanks!

Originally published at: Fittly Business | The Eldraeverse “Othalbar SysCon, this is IS Star of Miragrann preparing to initiate fittle-flight per filed intentions. Please reconfirm entry vector.” “Star of Miragrann, SysCon. We show you initiating fittle-flight at 8201-06-09:2+11-54. We confirm your entry vector as computed and valid for twelve-pulse window. You are clear for entry at your disc...

I think I need to speak to one of your Eldraeverse Job therapists, I feel threatened by AI :V

I think I’ve asked this before but I’ll be scuppered if I can find it now, so - In the Associated Worlds, are there any stargates that the Empire/Ring Dynamics didn’t build? Are they in use? If so, by whom?

Originally published at: Truth in Nomenclature (2) | The Eldraeverse justonce breaker / justonce bar / justonce stop / etc.: Engineering jargon. A justonce in any of its forms – be it the hardline switch or insertable bus-bar that bypasses circuit overload protection, the stop valve that seals off pressure-relief valves, or the disabling of thermal trips is the manual override which permits eq...

This is the Word of God thread for Timeo Danaos et Dona Ferentes . Please post comments and questions on, or requests for more, in their own threads.

Do the results of the AlphaDogFight change anything in-verse?

Starting with last night’s: “You need my help selling Rachel on what?” “Merchandising!” Lisa looked at the tiny plush Undersider in Taylor’s hand. It was adorable . The three plush dogs that came with it were even more so. She could feel another not-Thinker headache coming on. “How did you make that so cute?” “Oh, you should see how cute the dogs are when they transform. It can also offer he...

…that alpha-level noetic hardware will make The Woke as extinct as…something about as extinct as anything is without DNA reconstruction. (“You resurrected the dodo bird?!?” “It seemed like a good idea at the time!”)

It’s amusing when you run across these glitches in your flight simulator. But now imagine what happens when you feed a model like this to your terraforming AI… without finding all the glitches first. The colonists may be a little more challenged than they expected.

https://www.deliverusthemoon.com/ I actually downloaded this by complete accident (misclick) and figured I’d take a look at it anyway. Six hours later… Anyway, it’s an interesting story, and the space technology representation isn’t half bad, either. It’s all about the exploration/problem-solving, so if those are the elements you like in a game, recommended.

Originally published at: I Appear To Have A Problem With My Brain Being Missing | The Eldraeverse While that would probably make a decent story title, sad to say, this isn’t one. As you may have noticed, my output has been down in recent months, and really down this last month in particular. Why, you ask? Well, because so am I. Which is to say, in despite of medication, my depression is kickin...

Originally published at: Twelve Random Definitions | The Eldraeverse bloodshits: A slangy, less polite name for the bloody flux, a rather unpleasant form of severe gastroenteritis. di-clad: Coated in diamondoid or diamondoid-family materials. electron plumbing: the thermionic valve equivalent of integrated circuits, intended for use in high-power and EMP-resistant applications. “Empress’s word...

Originally published at: It’s The Thoughts That Count | The Eldraeverse “We should not hate our enemies. Hatred is a poison which, like acid, eats away at the integrity of the spirit, to the destruction of those who indulge it. Rather, we should seek to understand our enemies, such that we may encompass the regrettable necessity of their annihilation with a clear and cold mind. “…or, should th...

Originally published at: O, What a Tangled Web | The Eldraeverse There are those who accuse us of being shamelessly manipulative. Of always subtly and secretly weaving our webs of contract and obligation, favor and xicé, ideas and influence to make the world come out just exactly the way we want it. To these people I say: you are absolutely correct, of course. How else would anything get done ...

I know one of the big things of the eldrae cognitive structure is that there are no in-built cognitive biases. Did they manage to retain the one that keeps eldrae parents from strangling their kids when their one-year-old wakes them up at 2 AM? And 2:15 AM? And 2:30 AM? And 2:35 AM? And 2:36 AM? You’ve changed their diaper so many times it’s all muscle memory at this point. Your nipples are not-f...

Originally published at: Sniffers | The Eldraeverse Yes, putting guardian dogs on police department logos is a cliché. But what’s important in this case is the kind of dog. Look at it. Big, broad-chested mastiff. Pure black fur. Black eyes. Disappears into shadows despite being near big enough to ride. That’s a Selenarian nighthound, the kind they used to guard the moon-temples back before his...

the: Division of Ruffianry Division of Chattelry Division of Perfidy Division of Unmutuality Division of Rowdery …roughly corresponding to the five categories of the Imperial criminal law.

Originally published at: Eq*y | The Eldraeverse “A computational system has reached the threshold of making ethical judgements when it no longer parses the equity operator as the semantic equivalent of the equality operator.” – Introduction to Polymorphic Software (3rd ed.),Sarval Estantel

Originally published at: Amphisbaena | The Eldraeverse Amphisbaena-class battleship “Half ahe… that way.” – Capt. Olavi Corel, first captain of Amphisbaena Displacement: 125,000 long tons Length: 330 m (at waterline: 316 m)Beam: 84 m (at waterline: 48 m)Draft: 12.1 m Propulsion: 4 x Empire Nucleonics, ICC 64 MW “Fat Salamander” fission reactors8 x Blackstone Industries, ICC steam turbines and ...

Should I assume the fourth book is more middle-of-2021 than last-half-of-2020? You should take as much time as you need, but enquiring sophs want to know.

…for those of you who have played Star Control 2: Recommended for depiction of suitably weird alien thought processes.

Originally published at: The Law of the Market | The Eldraeverse So, disclaimer up front: this isn’t actually mine, for a large part. It was inspired by a couple of verses posted on Twitter by Eliezer Yudkowsky back in March, it stuck in my head, and I kept thinking that I should do something with it. So what I ended up doing with it, given that it obviously fits the ‘verse very strongly, is t...

In which you don’t have to be a Tinker to have a Tinker fugue.

Acquisition 2.5: Interlude 2.a:

Originally published at: Less Than Nothing | The Eldraeverse nilgularity: One less, meaning more, than a singularity. If a singularity is a point at which a physical function takes on an infinite value and reality nearby thus becomes unreliable, a nilgularity is a point at which that physical function becomes transfinite and reality rejects it entirely. A hole in the universe which doesn’t exi...

Originally published at: For Gold, Bright Gold, Is Master of Sophs All… | The Eldraeverse In answer to your questions, gentlesophs, and in view of both the composition and the promise of confidentiality promised by this committee, the Directorate have authorized me to make the following statement: It is true that loans authorized by our polity banking department underwrote much of the recent N...

Racing, what kinds of vehicle racing do the empire have? What is their equivelant of Formula One?

Originally published at: Lactic Revolutionary Front | The Eldraeverse BROADCAST // PHÓLARAE LABSWARM & ADJUNCTS // INFRA UNCLASSALL ECS STATIONS ANNOUNCEIMMEDIATE PREEMPTEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY // ALERT 6981/11/04 This is an EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY alert for all residents of the Phólarae labswarm and adjuncts. Related travel advisories have been dispatched to regions proximal. A...

Originally published at: Continuity | The Eldraeverse Hearken, ye citizen-shareholders of the Empire of the Star, great and glorious beyond all greatness and glory, to this Harmonious Proclamation of Deliberate Wisdom and Thoughtful Contemplation, the seventeenth of this current session. Know that your Emperor, Calan Amanyr, First of His Name, by Right of Coronargyr and Chartered Mandate Emper...

“The Empire, as a corporation sovereign, shall issue a number of shares of citizen stock equivalent to the number of Imperial citizens. Such shares shall be nontransferable, and issued to each citizen-shareholder of the Empire at the point of their becoming so, and shall confer the rights of citizenship with ownership. Such stock shall be purchased by the new citizen at the current floating market...

Originally published at: Safety First | The Eldraeverse The difficult part of constructing extremely tall buildings and other large structures is not, despite initial appearances, the use of dynamic compressive members, electromagnetic coupling, paragravitation, and other such tricks to make the entire structure hang together. That part is child’s play. The difficult part is arranging that, sh...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Word of the Day: cagshálvéth | The Eldraeverse cagshálvéth: (lit. “sewer-food”; from cagshálla “sewer” + evéth “food”; the former itself from cagál “shit” + shálla “pipe”) a derogatory term applied to yeast-based and (especially) mycogenic foodstuffs, typically by outworld dirtsiders who haven’t figured out yet that a larger circle of life doesn’t mean that th...

Have the Eldrae ever suffered from an obesity crisis, if so, how did they solve the problem?

Originally published at: Steenkin’ Badges | The Eldraeverse One of the better known traditions in the Legions is the collection of fort badges. When you successfully pass training at one of the Legions’ many specialized facilities, you are awarded a small ceramic badge to display with that fort’s crest. Officially, this is so that legionaries with particular skill-sets under their belts are re...

The Ailevérse is a firm science-fiction universe set in a vibrant and lively Milky Way. We have weird planets and lots of FTL and some very distractable authors who will talk your ear off about both. Join our Discord server The Ailevérse is created by my coauthor TotallyNotHuman and myself.

Originally published at: As She Is Spoke | The Eldraeverse Some more words and phrases, since I’m feeling linguistic this morning: esélmór: remembrance; memory-token (from esél “remember” + mórés “token, representation”); an object kept to stimulate the memory. ethé: soft, yielding, comfortable feäl qalasír: necessity (internal; an irrefusable demand of the soul); from feäl – abstraction opera...

Originally published at: Wakey, Wakey | The Eldraeverse navigational awareness system: The most dangerous part of space flight, interface vehicles excepted, is close-orbit maneuvering, or rendezvous, in which one craft must maneuver near to, or even to touch, another safely. Since neither starships nor habitats are small, it only takes a minor accident to involve a lot of momentum. For this re...

Originally published at: The Seal of Quality | The Eldraeverse Thunimidár, I have completed the investigation of the quality control incident of last month with regard to various varietals of our pleasure fruit on sale in the Chonsey Provinces. It would appear that one of the local suppliers chosen to produce these varietals took it upon themselves (in direct defiance of our Better Product man...

So from what I’ve read of the setting, the expensive part of tangle channels is hauling the other end to where you want it (at least without an FTL drive). Additionally, communications lag exists between stargates in the same system. That doesn’t seem quite right - intrasystem tangle ought to be fairly cheap and easy to set up, so couldn’t you just maintain a tangle link between a stargate and the...

What do the Vons actually use computers for? You mentioned that they used them as “tools” instead of treating them as “companions” can you further iterate on this please?

Among the modifications made to the alpha baseline is one granting the sinoatrial and atrioventricular nodes of the heart the ability to detect, and veto power over, signals coming from the brain that might lead to bad states such as tachycardia, arrythmia, and so forth. Which is to say, they can recognize that the cerebellum has made a decision, but when it’s a stupid-ass decision, they can elec...

Originally published at: Here Is There | The Eldraeverse This is another post which has fallen through a wormhole from the future, since the device in question won’t be invented until well into the 9th millennium. But since they’re going to appear before too long in Timeo Eldraos et Dona Ferentes, it is probably best that they be mentioned here first. What is important to understand where the ...

How should one visualise a typical multiplayer match in an Empire FPS multiplayer match??

Do settlements spring up around stargates? I understand that if the stargate blows up the settlement is absolutely done for, but surely there would be some people willing to take the risk, either to hawk their fares or set up temporary lodging or something.

"“This day, this place, are beyond the duty of your oaths,” I admitted. “You stand halfway across the world, surrounded by death and smoke on all sides, after having already won too many wars under my banner. You have already paid for peace in blood, and yet here you are again: down in the mud, standing alone as horror comes.” My fingers clenched around my staff. “So I the cognomen I grant you n...

Originally published at: Conspiracy Theory | The Eldraeverse “This is SERIOUS. They’re building GIANT hexterranes that they can flatten out ENTIRE PLANETARY CRUSTS onto! They’re going to use them to pack all their WORLDS into that fancy Cirys sphere of theirs and go MARAUDING around the galaxy – or maybe the universe, or even beyond the universe with enough reality engines – like a cosmic pinb...

One of the things that is awkward to portray without hyperdescribing everything is the number of what I would describe as “little touches” of design to make life that little bit more effortless prevalent in the Imperial culture sphere. The equivalents of this sort of thing: Partly as a result of the general good-enough-isn’t mentality, but also just because people exist in a very old civilizati...

(cough) (sudden swarm of spiderbots clearing away the dust from the lounge) “Hello?”

The Riot Act, a refresher: Anyway, I was reading an article in Reason this morning (The Conservative Trans Woman Who Went Undercover With Antifa in Portland – Reason.com), and it makes for a good illustrative example. Relevant quotations are these: Strategically what they’re doing is, they’re forcing a dilemma action. A dilemma action is when you put your opponent in a no-win situation. Your ...

Originally published at: Contracervisial | The Eldraeverse SECURE STORAGE CATALOG RECORD 23-0-119674FACILITY 23 / LEVEL E / CELL 1138 / NICHE 4-11BLACK UNCLASSHAZARD RATING: NEGLIGIBLE DESIGNATION: The Antibeer HANDLING PROCEDURES: No physical (baryonic matter) contact beyond border of magnetic bottle. Ensure radiation shielding remains in place except when work with this item is in progress t...

Are we ever going to hear from her again?

Originally published at: Laager | The Eldraeverse A drink dating back to the tank battles of the Southron War, hence the pun, and kept alive by veterans who miss its sharp burn and acute abdominal pains, laager is not beer, but rather a distilled spirit. Specifically, while it can be – and has been – distilled from any number of fermented grains or tubers, it gains most of its character from t...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2020/11/28/eldraeic-words-of-the-freedom/ A quick conlang note inspired by a conversation I was having elsewhere, in which my interlocutor was vexed by people talking as if lack of choice due to government (i.e., coercive constraint) was a reduction in freedom, whereas lack of choice due to poverty, illness, disability, etc. was not. The relevan...

…and this is why partially-mature ontotechnology would be so entertaining to read about.

Originally published at: A Little Too Smart | The Eldraeverse The Esmérel secretary is a breed of long, low-set bandal with short legs and a deep chest, possessed of great speed, stamina, and grace, as well as a remarkable intelligence and ability to memorize and perform complex tasks without distraction. Secretaries nominally weigh around 30 pounds, and come in a variety of coat colors, most ...

Originally published at: Anywhere, Anytime, Anything | The Eldraeverse INTRODUCING from Creation Mechanics, ICC THE FIRST free-space precision fused material deposition 3D printer THE CREO 144 The Creo 144 does not open new frontiers in the field of 3D printing. That’s because the Creo 144 has no frontiers. Its unique combination of 3D printing and autonomous drone technology makes an end of v...

Does the Watch Constabulary have something akin to a “Cold Case” section-the crimes and such they couldn’t make a case or find proof and they go back to it occasionally to see if newer information allows them to solve it?

I might as well start a thread of Questions About Eikones, now that I’ve seen the list again. First two questions: Are there any others not on that list? Where is the boundary between Aláthiël and Elliseré, from the point of view of Imperial hackerdom?

Originally published at: Macrophage | The Eldraeverse “A number of high-biotech polities have taken the immune system as a model for their military forces. What seems an exotic, even amusing quirk when looked at from the point of view of rank titles and equipment designations is much less amusing when you’re drowning in sticky goo, encapsulated, and actively being digested.” – A Virus Speaks: ...

Originally published at: Worldbuilding: Theory of Mind | The Eldraeverse So, let’s talk about Theory of Mind. Well, okay, not that theory of mind. The theory of how minds work in the ‘verse, and so the theory behind most sophotechnology, since this topic has come up on the Discord recently. (Much of the below was heavily inspired by Greg Bear’s Queen of Angels, in my opinion one of the best pi...

Originally published at: Winds of Winter | The Eldraeverse “Eight million esteyn,” Merith Amézel said, gazing out at the blanket of white dusted across the plaza, hiding the mosaic that, on clear days, reflected the Thunderbird Applied Meteorology logo. “Eight million. That is what your damnfool stunt cost us.” A cough came from behind him, but he didn’t turn. “Let’s recap, shall we? You retas...

Originally published at: Copier Humor | The Eldraeverse The Rogue State’s Guide To Imperial Diplomacy diplomatic cruiser: an embassy with guns on it diplonought: an embassy with continent-cracking guns on it neutral: a place where you don’t shoot at the embassy, and it doesn’t shoot back ally: a place where the upgunned embassy is probably on your side client-state: a place where the upgunned ...

Originally published at: Essential Services | The Eldraeverse Transdivine Tectonic Computation Array: The supercomputers that manage attitude control and station-keeping of the Cirys swarm, thus ensuring that the orbits of god’s planet-sized organs never intersect and collisions are appropriately averted. While its original and primary node is buried deep in the substructure of the Centropolis...

…any chance of the other eight?

Originally published at: The Heat of Battle | The Eldraeverse “Next in our study of how climatic and ecological events affect military and logistic strategy, we will be studying the Cold War. “Taking place on Qern (Aris Delphi), in the years 7199-7223, the Cold War was directly caused by such an event. Following the asteroid impact of 7197, the ensuing particle winter caused catastrophic tempe...

Originally published at: Automated Deathlist Management | The Eldraeverse “The only truly automatic weapon is one which you can leave on the shelf and ignore entirely henceforth, only to occasionally hear about your enemies mysteriously dying.” – “To Sleep, Perchance To Kill”, Ostár Sargas-ith-Sargas

Okay, here’s one of those “tricky” sorts of questions- Let’s pretend I’m a human tourist in a decently sized Eldrae city-say a SF or Chicago-equivalent city. I decided to go and get lunch, and I go to a decent three-star restaurant, order lunch (no appetizers or dessert) for myself, and a glass of wine. Nothing fancy, and leave a reasonably-sized tip (15% and rounding up to the nearest dollar-equ...

Originally published at: Words That Can Hurt You | The Eldraeverse Whatever one’s position on the dubious assumptions behind the cliché “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me” and its unfortunate persistence in many societies, these are not assumptions which the Empire shares. Indeed, it has a fine selection of words to describe an entire taxonomy of words that ca...

How well does completely over the top, “nobody can take this seriously”, utterly implausible media play in the Empire of the Star? Does it annoy the highly science literate audience who wants their stuff to at least pay lip service to reality, or is it fine as long as it is done for the purpose of awesome or epic or utterly hilarious? I am thinking action movies in the style of some Bollywood fil...

Originally published at: Tech Disparities | The Eldraeverse LOT #7233-9985 A PAIR OF RED LEATHER JEWELLED RADIATION SHORTS WITH GILT TRIM AND JEWELED EMBELLISHMENTS Estimate: Ex. 920,000 – Ex. 1,280,000Lot closes: 0.896 Kp Description Lot #7233-9985 is a pair of protective shorts designed for a non-tailed, digitigrade species (the entark) fashioned from red leather taken from an unknown animal...

Originally published at: Atomic Goblet! | The Eldraeverse This is, at best, only tangentially related to the ‘verse or to this blog, but I’m really rather pleased with how it came out, so I’m posting pictures of it anyway.

Originally published at: Another View From Outside | The Eldraeverse Some comments excerpted from an early edition of “The Lonely Galaxy® Unofficial Guide to Working with the Empire’s People”: General Augmentation is a way of life in Imperial space, and there are probably millions of different augmentations on the market. Do not rely on knowing what one of them ought to be able to do; be sure ...

Originally published at: Things to See, Places (Not) To Go (14) | The Eldraeverse Jarnobu (Torch Radiant): While the system is controlled by the League of Meridian, Jarnobu is not counted among their 83 member worlds. At first, this might seem puzzling, inasmuch as Jarnobu proper is a garden world eminently suitable to hosting sefir life, with a mild climate and a biosphere which is unusually ...

Originally published at: Not Even Wrong | The Eldraeverse There are those, in the field of biotechnological and medical ethics, who class anagathics as dangerous and addictive, inasmuch as ceasing to take your life-extension drugs results in a plethora of aging-related side-effects, followed by death. The absurdity of this position and the farcical nature of its enforcement naturally ensure th...

For those fascinated with the delicious complexity of how our metabolism and intracellular processes work, and/or are looking for some plausibility to season their biotech. Biochemical Pathways

I know that there’s been a small bit of how love and romance works in the Empire. I am just curious about two things. First-is there an equivalency of Valentines Day in the Empire? Second-how…interesting would the Eldrae take on Valentines Day on Earth be?

Originally published at: May Contain Nuts | The Eldraeverse Cydon’s Cyborg Cuisine A restaurant chain catering specifically to those with unusually energy-hungry augmentations without external power sources, Cydon’s Cyborg Cuisine (CCC) provides a dizzying selection of dishes across several Imperial cuisines designed specifically for their, or rather their fuel cells’, special requirements. Th...

Originally published at: Odd One Out | The Eldraeverse Cilmínár is perhaps, despite all the others’ uniquities, the one with the best claim to be the odd one out of of Thirteen Colonies; while the others all had their own distinctions based on their worlds, societies, technologies, or other evolved characteristics, Cilmínár was the first and only eldraeic colonial venture intended to leave the...

Originally published at: Vaccination | The Eldraeverse Provocogen COG Provocogen COG is unusual among the ranks of Citizen Oversight Groups in that, while generally acknowledged as serving a socially useful purpose, everyone individually would much rather be spared its attentions. Provocogen, as its name might suggest, is a manufacturer of meme-allergens and other informational toxins. Extendi...

Originally published at: Nihilism Engineering | The Eldraeverse unspace interrupter: a type of switch used in extremely-high-power electrical systems, the unspace interrupter is designed to overcome the ultimate limit in switching: namely, the dielectric strength of possible insulators used to separate the contacts. Perfect insulators are generally considered impossible since all baryonic – an...

Hello. Newbie here. Please pardon if I’m ignorantly posting in the wrong place. In “Location, Location, Location”, the Taliar and Dalthiar shafts are said to reside at “the hub” on Upperside and Underside, respectively. The only other use of “hub” I know (in the context of flat world geography) is Discworld, so I am presuming that these lie at the centers of the respective sides. My confusion be...

Today in fascinating things which I have read, especially with regard to parallels between artificial neural networks and the brain as we know it.

Originally published at: The Emperor’s Sword: Organization | The Eldraeverse So, in the past, we discussed the arms and equipment of the Imperial Legions, but we never went into their organization in any particular depth, something this post intends to correct. Now, if you remember the Table of Ranks post, you’ll note that I have used fairly typical Western-type ranks (albeit in somewhat alter...

Originally published at: Etiquable Interface | The Eldraeverse vocel-react-affective93.2.4 / Public / Last updated 283 years ago Install: pkg i vocel-react-affectiveLicense: Riantar Ventures Open Usage & Modification License (Commercial & Non-Commercial)Home: e.pl.riantar-ventures/dev/software/vocel-react Included-In: vocel-reactDepends-On: vocel-react-core, vocel-react-modulate, vocel-react-d...

Originally published at: Solvable Problems | The Eldraeverse WATCH CONSTABULARY / ORBIT GUARDSPACECRAFT INCIDENT REPORT REPORT: TORA-42-0896REPORT DATE: 7322 Yrnaes 11INCIDENT DATE: 7322 Yrnaes 8VESSEL CLASS: Tingesek-class ESV/courierREGISTRATION: Free LoxixOPERATOR: Private charterREPORTED BY: Aste min Direthill, commander, Toralish Orbit Guard REFERENCES: [see attached] SUBJECT: Fuel Tank R...

Originally published at: Better Alternative | The Eldraeverse anti-buckling vents: vents, either permanent or automatically opening (using, for example, rupture disks) in the event of a significant pressure differential across them, installed in non-spacetight bulkheads and deckheads to prevent them from behaving as de facto spacetight compartmentalizations while lacking the structural strengt...

Originally published at: Shielding and Shielding | The Eldraeverse To begin our discussion of protective technologies, notionally, there are four types of shielding: particle shielding;ray shielding;gravity shielding;irreality shielding. Particle & Ray Shielding The most important and most common of these, of course, are the first two: particle shielding and ray shielding. Naturally, both of t...

Some interesting thoughts here on willpower and how it is reflected in biology. (In this model, the eldrae mind can be assumed to have the gain on the high-level conscious processes turned way, way up.)

Originally published at: Wibbly-Wobbly | The Eldraeverse gravity tremble: The variations in experienced gravity found aboard starships making use of the thrust gravity provided by nuclear pulse drives, or other discontinuous-thrust drives. Essentially, the gravity tremble refers to that portion of the thrust variation not damped out by the thrust transfer framework, leading to a predictable va...

The IN (wet navy) kept using dazzle camouflage right through the modern era, on the grounds that even if it didn’t have much defensive value in the days of radar and the Mk. 1 eyeball being no longer a primary detection system, at least it meant their ships didn’t look boring . Haze gray, my ass. (“And if stocking more than one color of paint would stress our logistics train, then we need a bette...

Originally published at: Bottled Sunlight | The Eldraeverse Announcing from Extropa Energy, ICC Stars as a Service™ Available now throughout the Imperial Core and Fringe, with planned expansions into selected areas of the Worlds, Extropa Energy wishes to announce the availability of its Stars as a Service™ range of remote energy supply options. Using Extropa’s newly established fleet of mobile...

Originally published at: Neither Fish Nor Fowl | The Eldraeverse And next in our review of less conventional starship types, we come to that odd duck, the aerospace cruiser. (And many of these remarks, naturally, also apply to its larger cousin, the aerospace carrier.) Ever since the early Imperial Navy absorbed the old air forces into its Close Orbit and Atmospheric Command (CLATMOCOM, under ...

Originally published at: Nemo Me Impune Lacessit | The Eldraeverse PREVIOUSLY “Ledger Embiggening, this is the captain of the armed vessel currently on intercept with you. As you have noticed, we have our weapons locked on you. Your options are these: cut your engines immediately, heave to, and permit us to board and claim whatever passengers and items of cargo we wish… or don’t, and we’ll sla...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22820431/chapters/74921247 I don’t like this chapter much, but I need to get it out there so I can continue with the rest, so…

Originally published at: Author on Authority | The Eldraeverse This is a little meta to begin with, but please do indulge me, for we will get there. It all started this morning when I happened to read this little piece of not-even-wrongitude: Authority by consent is no authority at all, like I say. Unless you can force people to listen to you, they won’t obey commands unless they agree with th...

Originally published at: Squishy | The Eldraeverse COLLAPSITER (THRESHER MAELSTROM) Special weapons package THRESHER MAELSTROM, or the collapsiter warhead, is a kugelblitz-based delivery system suitable for deployment from a large-bore heavy mass driver. Put simply, the principle of the collapsiter is the activation upon detonation of a spherical array of annihilation-pumped lasers focused on ...

Originally published at: Time Travelers Strictly Crypto | The Eldraeverse PROTOCOL OROELLE BLUESHIFT FRATERNAL UNCLASSIFIED (INFRARED) FOR PUBLIC RELEASE SUMMARY: A protocol to verify the identify and whenwhere of purported time-travelers from future dates, claiming to be about Imperial business. PROCEDURE: Secure from the purported time-traveler his Oroelle-block verification code and its ran...

Originally published at: Force Not Required | The Eldraeverse “Always remember: memetics is no more and no less than the science of ideas. Applied memetics, therefore, is no more and no less than advanced persuasion. Memetics cannot impose ways of thought. Memetics alone cannot correct biases, or determine truth, or override the will. And no memetic technology can force someone to believe anyt...

Any further word from our unwilling murast captain?

Originally published at: Beneath Their Wings | The Eldraeverse the Empire’s Shadow: the common and collective name for a group of organizations on the interstellar scene in the Associated Worlds, loosely defined as those organizations which are not in and of themselves arms of Imperial policy, but which take immoderate advantage of their chosen work not being illegal by Imperial standards, and...

Originally published at: Friendly Stab | The Eldraeverse “I noticed the knife the first day we were assigned to work with the Spireguard. It was easy to notice: everyone knows what a hanrian looks like, and there aren’t many who carry around multiple fighting knives. But even among those who did, this one was always set off to the side, away from the others. It’s a very distinctive knife; two ...

Originally published at: Recommendation: Starmoth | The Eldraeverse In this episode of “the author recommends other less known universes”, I’d like to point up CMDR Isilanka’s Starmoth setting as worthy of the attention and interest of Eldraeverse readers. From its own introduction page, it is described as: Once upon a time, humankind thought it was on the doorstep of the stars. Then, the ther...

It isn’t. Go back and re-read. There are three reasons for this: One: a Society of Consent cannot, for what should be incredibly obvious reasons, prescribe a specific economic model. As an Imperial would say to both anarcho-capitalist right-libertarians and anarcho-communist left-libertarians, once you put that fucking hyphen in there, it’s not very anarcho- any more, now is it? Two: Doing so w...

Originally published at: The Spice Way | The Eldraeverse In the year 8054, a forward-thinking Initiative of Ring Dynamics, ICC, evaluating the expansion program for the stargate plexus based on the recent advent of the frameslip drive, a free-flight capable FTL technology which would allow the positioning of stargates with speeds and at distances previously unattainable, made a proposal to the...

A ha-ha-only-serious crack-fic idea for anyone who wants to pick it up: The biennial Battle-Convention of Toqat Luz, in which representatives of the Empire (which is to say, whoever wanted to turn up) meet with representatives of their good friends and allies, the Toqati Congery of Communes (which is also to say, whoever wanted to turn up); each side desperately tries to convince the other that t...

Originally published at: The Associated Worlds | The Associated Worlds Yes, if you were wondering, I just changed the name at the top of the blog. (It is the official name of the setting, after all, on the book covers and everything.) But carry on using the short name if you like. It’ll answer to it!

Well, now, just look what I found in the comments from 2017: Trope-a-Day: Hyperspace Is a Scary Place | The Associated Worlds (eldraeverse.com)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22820431/chapters/77814920 Have a Dallon interlude and some more dominos toppling.

Originally published at: Today’s Quotations | The Associated Worlds We are, undeniably, tool-using creatures. Eldrae sómintár. More, we are undeniably creative creatures, builders and makers – eldrae mahavár – who build in order to have tools, and have tools in order to build. An endless cycle of creation. Observe, too, the lesser Flames: the problem-solving ingenuity of the bandal, the huntin...

Originally published at: Imperial Navy Rank Insignia | The Associated Worlds …are what I have been working on today, so here’s a quick table for those interested:

Originally published at: Purity Of Essence | The Associated Worlds Among the artifacts first discovered in the lower levels of the Iniscail excavation were the sophotechnological artifacts now known as purity-of-heart switches. These devices resemble the hexagonal touch-plate switch used by the Precursors in several of their sites, but are in actuality complex systems capable of remote neural ...

Originally published at: Ceiling Probe Is Watching You | The Associated Worlds The outer surface of your light-cone is a monument to all your sins.Ebirax 0x8002626D, Clairvoyance-class far horizon probe

Pretty much what it says on the tin. A “Random Article” button would be pretty nifty, especially for exploring the less-read articles on the page.

Originally published at: High-Trust Society | The Associated Worlds CALMIRÍË, ELIÉRA – The cancellation of next year’s expected state visit of President Ostrid Nallen of the United Viridian States was announced today by Subrector Quíëlle Oliviscios of the Office of Foreign Wanderers, stating only that the cancellation had come at the request of the States after the Empire had regrettably been...

Originally published at: Not-Earth | The Associated Worlds (Note: this is not canon. But every time someone wants to know when the humans are going to turn up and acquire some suitably starring role in the narrative, it gets a little closer to being canon, y’know? …assuming I do not just go ahead and canonize the notion that in this universe, Pseudoeldrae archaea was literally the only memb...

On Earth, doing humany things. That wasn’t what I wanted to know! But it is what you asked. Sigh. So where is Earth, then? Somewhere in the Transveil region, if you really must know. See map here: So we’ll be meeting them soon? No. But why… Because they tend to take over the narrative of stories told by humans, or be expected to do so by human readers, and I have no interest in writing t...

Who actually helms Ring Dynamics and makes it run? I know that Imogen Andracanth created their entire IP, but she seems content to stay as VP Research and leave management of the company to someone else.

Originally published at: Transfragging | The Associated Worlds Transfragging is the use of a weaponized translocation device to destroy a target, most commonly by interpenetration (i.e., translocating an object to within another, preexisting, object), but the term is also used to refer to simply using the translocator to transmit bombs or other weapons to within a given target. Since all kn...

Short version: ministries do stuff. Logarchies support ministries in the doing of stuff. Longer version: A ministry, whether one of the big Ministries of the Throne (headed by a Minister of the Throne who sits on the Council of the Star) or one of its smaller subordinate Ministries of the State (headed by a Minister of the State who sits on the Council of Ministers) is an organization which goes ...

Originally published at: Curiously Enough, This Came Before Software | The Associated Worlds contract module: To avoid both unnecessary repetition, and to avoid the additional labor of poring over the mass of said repetition in search of differences from the commonplace form, Imperial contract law has long embraced the use of contract modules, sets of predefined and referenceable clauses and ...

For game designers in the Eldraeverse where their source material draws heavily from reality (for example milsim and the like), is faithfully recreating the source material and letting the player dynamics evolve a la real life more common, or do they prefer making game-balancing but unrealistic modifications to the source material? How much does this depend on the wants of the creators vs the want...

Originally published at: Girls In Red Cloaks Beware | The Associated Worlds (In which I noodle around with wet navy designs from the closest to a WWII-equivalent period in ‘verse history.) Ulricik Bancrach (“Hungry Wolf”)-class destroyer Builders: Ambriel Dock Guild & Company Consolidated Selenarian Shipbuilding Ethring Iron and Steam Works Ryudailai Pier Shipbuilding Cooperatives Telírv...

A distant future in which humanity’s transgenic descendants have built an interstellar empire in the shadow of a primordial Von Neuman threat that claimed Sol. No FTL drives, ever, limited use of wormhole gates. Ubiquitous immortagens and scheming oligarchs. Humanity’s descendants might look different, but mentally they’re much the same. Site here

Because they might as well go somewhere, and this is somewhere: CS Imminent Domain (assault cruiser)

To answer @Morgrim 's question in, and be of general information for, the starship names thread: All Imperial Navy vessel names are prefixed CS (for “Coronal’s Ship”), having the privilege of a prefix without an inserted service name. The vessels of other services utilize infixes to distinguish themselves: vessels operated by the non-military instrumentalities of the Imperial Service (primarily ...

Originally published at: Eight Hells (1/2) | The Associated Worlds Vice-Admiral Ardelli, TDMS Skybreaker, commanding TF 14. Battleship CAS Antithemis, carrier CAS Antinomos, escorting destroyers, reported moving out Lothell Bay steaming ESE. Suspect attempting transit Adessír Straits tomorrow at local dawn. Heavy weather over Lothell Is. makes it unlikely fly off air cover. All measures inter...

Originally published at: Bottling Up | The Associated Worlds The Sunstone is just what it appears to be – a star in a bottle. That is to say, what it appears to be to the normal senses is an almost weightless crystalline sphere, roughly a foot across, shedding light and warmth all around it. A close inspection of the Sunstone, necessarily through darkened lenses, reveals whorls of flame shi...

Originally published at: Aperture Linguistics | The Associated Worlds (Originally titled Eldraeic Word of the Day: asírdaëlíthal, but come on…) asíran: power; note: not coercive power, the power of compulsion, which is korás. Rather, the ability and means to act upon the elements of the world towards a defined end. (See also the kinds of power, here.) daëlin: probability, chance. asírdaël...

Tropico 6 | Are you more of a dictator or a peaceful statesman? | Kalypso US (kalypsomedia.com) Just released on Game Pass. El Presidente and his favorite henchling Penultimo is back, and he’s winninger than ever. “Hours of fun. Often hilarious. You are certain to win the Just… One… More… Term… achievement within the day.” me The one, the only, the best possible Barbarian Simulator, in this...

Just watching a guy build a secret tunnel under his house (and envious because our water table is just high enough that if we go down ten feet, we hit water), and now I’m wondering if there isn’t somebody in the Empire of the Star that does the interesting videos on how to build things on YouTube. ("Okay, now that we’ve built our drive plate, let’s talk about dynamic balancing software, because o...

Originally published at: Iterating the Eschaton | The Associated Worlds From the introduction to Godwatcher’s Journal, Spring 8072 edition: The cold red deserts of Meridia IV, Imperial reserve world, are no more. Now there is only the Transcend’s latest experimental station: the Meridia IV Center for the Advancement of Ecological Amiability. It is, or should be, no surprise to those who ...

Originally published at: The Vigilant | The Associated Worlds The Watch Constabulary, on the whole, does not think of itself as a police force. But that’s not a problem, because no-one else thinks of them as one either. While their watchmen, constables, and inspectors are trained for situations in which the application of force may be necessary, these are not their business¹, and nor is th...

Originally published at: Constabular Ranks | The Associated Worlds I’ve added the Watch Constabulary’s (and OIP’s) special rank titles for the E- and lower O-grades to the Table of Ranks, for those interested in such things. See them here: Table of Ranks.xlsx

Originally published at: Eight Hells (2/4?) | The Associated Worlds This is Task Force Fourteen, as it steams at a leisurely twenty-two knots steadily east along the rocky southern shore of Míhayll Island, the southernmost in its archipelago. It had passed the entrance to the Míhayll Shallows yesterday at dusk, the shoal offering a back door to Lothell Bay for those with sufficiently shallow ...

…or, “how you can take six months and spend about $1,500 to make a chicken sandwich that takes about $15 and ten minutes to make otherwise.”

Originally published at: Invisible Ledger | The Associated Worlds While in later chapters we will discuss the theory and practice of such formal techniques of social manipulation as the trafidúr an-enlét (blue gift), it is appropriate at this time to offer a cautionary word on the foundation beneath it. As a civilized people, we esteem the virtues of liberality and generosity. Selecting an ...

Originally published at: When The Guns Fall Silent | The Associated Worlds The Imperial Military Service has long been considered somewhat unusual among military forces for the degree of respect it offers to those it has fought, and often defeated. This is not entirely accurate as a consideration, since a certain level of courtesy and mutual respect is hardly uncommon between gentlesoph soldi...

Originally published at: Let’s Break It Down | The Associated Worlds liquidator (sovereign): As a member of a satrap’s retinue, primarily in cases of annexation, it is the function of the sovereign liquidator to trim down the newly acquired governance to something approximating the Imperial standard. Since the majority of barbarian governances have arrogated to themselves a certain number of ...

Originally published at: A Cure As Epidemic | The Associated Worlds A shadow fell over the city. That was, of course, perfectly normal. It was fourteen minutes before the Wakening hour, and four million people’s deliveries were here, packed into a vast warehouse wrapped in an inconceivable volume of vacuum, wrapped in turn in shimmering white fabric bearing the moé winged parcel and hexruni...

Originally published at: On Preextant Properties | The Associated Worlds Little more need be said on the matter of thoughts and chattelry; in truth, the Word is the thing and the whole of the thing: All the works of your hands: Stone and metal, wood and water, fire and wind. All that your will creates. These things are forged in your Flame; That which you create is yours. The Word of the F...

Originally published at: Time Bomb | The Associated Worlds WATCH CONSTABULARY / ORBIT GUARD SPACECRAFT INCIDENT REPORT REPORT: MERI-11-5122 EVIDENCE BLOCK 2A DESCRIPTION: The following comprises a transcript of conversation occurring in the forward (open) hold of the Magpie-class debris recovery vehicle CMS Comber’s Bounty, in the minutes immediately preceding its destruction. The transcr...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Word of the Day: méshválar | The Associated Worlds méshválar: (from mésh, a tile or plaque, and válaras, name, itself from val, personal pronoun, and laras, word); a name-tile. The origin of the name-tile is in the simple courtesy of not bringing moisture or road-dust into the home. Imperial houses are normally constructed with a caráhan, an entry room, whi...

Regarding the topic of mass surface-to-orbit transport I’ve seen three main types in the Eldraeverse - standard launch vehicles for soft cargo and people, mass-driver / laser-launch hybrids for more durable cargo, and space elevators for both types, but only if the throughput needs to be ridiculous. What I haven’t seen though are orbital rings, which by all accounts should absolutely flatten spac...

Hello. Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Been loving the setting and how thoroughly everything has been thought out. That said, I do have a few questions about the geography and structure of Eliéra and how that affected pre-spaceflight eldrae development: I understand that there are around five continents on Upperside and three on Underside, but I don’t believe any of their names have been m...

Originally published at: Some Professions | The Associated Worlds copperhead: In ancient times, an unskilled laborer who would work for a traditional rate of a selenis (a copper coin) per hour, doing anything, so long as the coin was paid up front. In the modern era, slang for casual contract labor. My grandfather was a contract barker in Lodendar’s Gyre of Commerce, bringing in copperhead...

Just found this (and, yes the title is The Screw People) about philosophy and how that relates to human beings. Now, what would an Eldrae manga of philosophy look like? What analogies would they use? And, how much mosaic blurring to avoid ecchi would be in a number of the scenes?

Originally published at: Tempus Fugit | The Associated Worlds So, here we are at the end of September, and I’ve written all of one thing in the past month. Depression, unseemly heat, and a server deciding to take up an exciting new career as a brick have combined to do a real number on my creativity. Thank you all for bearing with me through these times of crisis and literary drought. Hopef...

Originally published at: Lunch Is On Me | The Associated Worlds Séralámíya-class littoral restaurant ship Builders: (original) Ethring Iron and Steam Works (refit) Captal Daëntry Naval District Displacement: 41,000 long tons Length: 272 m Beam: 34 m Draft: 6.18 m (full load) Propulsion: 8 x Empire Nucleonics, ICC “” nucleonic boilers, driving 8 x Blackstone Industries, ICC turbogenera...

Originally published at: Things to See, Places to Go (12) | The Associated Worlds “Planetary law on Harúnet (Promegi Matrix) states that anything (or more accurately, any rights to anything) can be gambled there, and that all bets must be paid off, and all markers exchanged, before leaving planetary jurisdiction. “Conveniently, a number of orbital habitats in Harúnet’s libration point speci...

Originally published at: Blood Included | The Associated Worlds A phenomenon ever worthy of note is how much the overall culture of the Worlds has been shaped less by the direct influence of the Great Powers, or indeed by their cultures in themselves, but rather by misunderstandings of those cultures, in which others grasp the surface forms but not the essence behind them, or the ameliorating...

Originally published at: Infrared Emission, Too | The Associated Worlds warmbody: a career that exists in certain “economically quirky” parts of the emerging markets, the warmbody – also sometimes known by the unusual sobriquet “rent-a-squishie” – reflecting an unwillingness to accept the realities of industrial magic and need to preserve “traditional” employment at all costs. From the corp...

Originally published at: Thematics: Delicious Ideals | The Associated Worlds Herewith some thoughts on thematics, inspired by today’s quest for matcha-flavored Pocky, a fine and delicious product of the Ezaki Glico Company, Limited. I observe, on their corporate web site, the slogan “Pocky is about sharing happiness and bringing people together.” And I observe introspectively just how very...

Originally published at: The Glittering Web | The Associated Worlds Red-Gold Routes: A Red-Gold Route, taking its name from the common practice of coloring the territorial volume of the Empire gold, or gold-bordered, and that of their satrapies and client states shades of red on political maps is, in definition, a long-distance route used by the the Imperial Merchant Navy in which all the por...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2021/10/20/parallelism/ It’s about divergences in computer technology — Or in other words, some conversations elsewhere have made it evident that it would be useful to have some of these things out here for discussion, and since this is going to involve comparisons to Earthling ways of doing things, it’s going to be a worldbuilding article ra...

Let’s say we treated all of the Empire of the Star as a massive heat engine, with natural resources as the heat input and the function of civilisation as the useful work done. What’s the Carnot efficiency of this engine? Is the actual efficiency anywhere close to this theoretical maximum? In short, how good is the Empire at defeating entropy currently? And has anyone turned this metric into a sto...

Originally published at: Induced Startup Dysphoria | The Associated Worlds Most bionic implants are designed to be controlled by simple mental commands in the same way as natural body parts; originally by painstaking training of the sensory and motor cortices to recognize the device and its functions, and in more recent times by engraving neuralware device drivers into the augmentee’s neural ...

Originally published at: They Also Sell Anti-Shame Drugs | The Associated Worlds ATTENTION, SHOPPERS! CUSTOMER CONFIDENTIALITY IS NOT GUARANTEED BUT MAY BE PURCHASED AS A RANGE OF AFFORDABLE OPTIONS Hush (Ex. 16) No-one will be told that you were here, but your information will be retained in my records. Shopper? I Hardly Know Her! (ExV. 256) I will forget that you were here, and identify...

Originally published at: Give Way | The Associated Worlds “Okay, let’s go over how the traffic priority controls work. You can up-priority by paying a small fee, with a promise to pay more if your higher priority becomes relevant. The fee goes to us, the later charges to every vehicle that’s inconvenienced by yours. Or you can down-priority, which is free, but nets you a small payment every t...

[Is a Completely Mechanical CPU possible?] It’s a start, at least…have to build a LOT more and shrink them, perhaps…

Originally published at: Selectivity | The Associated Worlds The Habtech’s Peace referred originally to an agreement brokered between the various mercenary companies engaged on each side during the months of drift-habitat fighting that characterized the latter phase of the Black Web War, and continues to refer to similar agreements (again, usually between mercenary groups) up to the present d...

Originally published at: Haz Beans | The Associated Worlds Neither somewhere you can visit, nor even somewhere you can see up close – it being found deep within a restricted system – it would nonetheless be remiss to omit Ómílarith, the 14th moonlet of the gas giant Bunker (Arvael IV), in the Palaxias (Imperial Core) system. It should be obvious from the massive docking facilities built int...

One scavenger on a wrecked world finds an Empire of the Star computer, with an intact power system and enough hardware to provide a small bootstrap. The processor system cuts the scavenger a deal-both sides help each other to improve their lot and the world around them. Make for an interesting story, at least…

Originally published at: Following The Money | The Associated Worlds From: Toríno Lanada (Economic Attaché [Vonis Prime Mission], Diplomatic Attachment WG, Active Operations PWG, Second Directorate) Memeweave: All-Seeing Eye/Voniensa Republic/General Cc: Intentions Analysis PWG Subject: Shell colony economic anomaly Authenticity: 4E11; SENDER, RELAY (4/4), RECIPIENT Security: EYES ONLY ORANGE...

Originally published at: Praxis | The Associated Worlds Why aren’t artificial intelligence programmed for honesty and loyalty? So that they may be honest and loyal. Cyberethics in Koans, Airil Konohana

[Associated Worlds] Rimward is up, coreward is down, spinward is right, trailing is left. Gold = the Empire Blue = the Worlds proper Purple = Expansion Regions Green = Periphery Red = Other (Some regions I haven’t developed enough to name yet are listed only by number.)

Originally published at: Hustle | The Associated Worlds Opportunity Profits In the Thousand Precise Protocols of the Integral Accountant, opportunity profits are defined as effectively the opposite of opportunity costs, Opportunity costs represent the potential value one misses out upon when choosing one alternative over another. Because opportunity costs are, by definition, unseen, they c...

Originally published at: Intellect Property | The Associated Worlds DORJE (FREE VERGE) – In a punitive innovation repugnant to all civilized polities, Corporate Fejj-Doval (a major corpclan on Dorje, an associate world of the Rim Free Zone, specializing in deprecated media) has posted the mind-state of one Parden il Vrane par tak, formerly par Fejj-Doval, for public extranet download. Fejj-Do...

Originally published at: Shell Game | The Associated Worlds 90. Don’t play the shell game on Paltraeth. They use a different kind of shells. 145 Things Not To Be Done In The Associated Worlds The Paltraeth variant of the game is played using three obsolete artillery shells and a sledgehammer. In theory, one of the shells has been defused, and the challenge is to find the dud. In practic...

Originally published at: Give It Time | The Associated Worlds This is a little pastiche of Plutarch on Alexander the Great that I hacked together as a brief illustration of attitudinal differences. I like it enough to share it: “Alphas grinned when he heard from his astronomers that there were billions of worlds in the heavens; and when his friends asked him the cause of his mood, he ans...

Originally published at: First Factor | The Associated Worlds There are those who have commented extensively on the military advantages, when considering the rise of the Empire, of highly disciplined legionaries able to cast obstacles aside or strike down enemies with lightning, all through force of will. Far fewer have considered the greater advantage, in economic terms, of the humble fa...

Marine Corps Silent Drill Team. Not a single word of command. Not a single EM signal. It is entirely done with training, practice, and fundamental trust of each Marine in each other Marines’ place. I think they’d be impressed. Then they would figure out how to top it.

Originally published at: Better Than Vacuum | The Associated Worlds roidsteel: The worst metal in space. Roidsteel is spacefarer’s pot metal, refined using crude field techniques from sideritic asteroids. (The term roidsteel derives from the largely nickel-iron composition of such bodies.) The “classic”, if such a term applies, refinement of roidsteel calls for melting the body using a sola...

Originally published at: Learn To Live With Them | The Associated Worlds ‘Live free or die’ is a statement of ideals and preferences. It is not, and never will be, the policy of this corporation. Esémélí Estantel, syndic of the Riverside Eubiosis Foundation, in a Corporate Conflux debate over the marketing of life-extension technologies, beyond the Consensual Cultural Region

Originally published at: Undistress (1) | The Associated Worlds IMS Sukórya’s Joy, Cerulean Ocean, 1340 Gradakhmath 3 It began with a signal. We were three days out of the White Silver Gates when the signal came in. It was late, but while I would have usually been manning the wireless office alone, my junior, Shioi Morotai, was working with me that evening. We had a full load of moguls abo...

…do the Eldrae that have that kind of hardware have foreskins?

Originally published at: Air Wings Sold Separately | The Associated Worlds Bringing the what-the to warfare once again, and following on from both the unquestionable success of Nuclear War In A Can™, and their earlier semi-portable combat drone product Janissary In A Drum™, Eye-in-the-Flame Arms, ICC once again provides a new terror to the battlefield with the release of Brigade In A Bottle™. ...

Originally published at: How I Met Your Mother | The Associated Worlds The air whirred when she stepped into the room. That wasn’t all that unusual. Lots of bravos would spin a sphere or two around their heads as an impromptu weapon or threat display. Some of the more dangerous ones could manage three, with a coin-flip chance on whether what made them dangerous was the odds of them losing t...

Originally published at: Discarding Embers | The Associated Worlds The Anti-Antipyrian Act, introduced to the Senate on 7284 Yrnaes 11 by Senator Samív Ollianos (Chamber of the People; 1001st Century; Ascended Illuminance of Ancas Iliaster) with the sponsorship of Senator Verloc mor-Kjan (Chamber of the People; 1450th Century; Imperium Bellipotent) and Senator Diracháné 0xCDEE998A (Chamber of ...

Originally published at: Remove Yon Oaf | The Associated Worlds The most popular dynamic sense-filter UI is Bozo Bit™️, an augmented reality package to add people or objects to your cutfile¹ which by default is skinned as an antique dueling pistol. Simply point and click to enjoy confrontation-free social events! (Also available is its big brother, the Bozooka™️, designed to edit entire cla...

Originally published at: Necessity | The Associated Worlds We gave Our word to the peoples of Ildathach, Llorallin, and Marblyngrann… the Empire may survive a limited nucleonic conflict with Cerenaith. It can not survive a breach of Our word. Take us to strategic condition two. Deploy the orbital defenses. And prepare for Our immediate transport to Kyo Kanatai. We must direct this persona...

Originally published at: Things to See, Places (Not) To Go (15) | The Associated Worlds Goarthech (Cherith Beacons): At first glance, and even second and third glances, Goarthech is all that one might want in a garden world for a prospective colony. Moderate gravity, close to standard. A warm, mid-range yellow sun, a conveniently located moon. An oxygen atmosphere with enough to breathe, but ...

Originally published at: Not Somewhere We Need To Go | The Associated Worlds (Inspired by a reader comment comparing the Brigade in a Bottle™ to the Faro Swarm from Horizon: Zero Dawn.) from the Eye-in-the-Flame Arms internal memeweave archives From: Aldysis Cyprium (Directorate) To: Diziet Cyprium (Director of Entertaining Research) Subject: Biomass reductors and biopower generation syste...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Word of the Day: anála | The Associated Worlds anála: (from anás, a monad, and alath, knowledge); a concept. Specifically, anála refers to an entity of the conceptual plane; for example, a philosophical form, a geometric shape, or mathematical concept. This specifically excludes any knowledge-monads which are contingent upon the material plane, such as phys...

Originally published at: Memetic Waste Disposal | The Associated Worlds [Based, obviously, upon this.] This inscription is a warning and a safeguard. Pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a wise culture. Though we may have failed, we wish for you to succeed. This place is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed ideas are archived her...

Originally published at: NOTSPC | The Associated Worlds From: Talentar Orbital Distribution: Talentar Orbital Space (all); Talentar Inbounds (all) Cc: Lumenna-Súnáris SysCon Priority: PRIORITY Subject: NOTSPC S00110/7380 PR S00024/7380 Timestamp: 7380 Cálith 25 Waking 0 Type: NOTSPC Notice to Spacers (Autodecoded) This notice S0110/7380 partially replaces notice S0024/7380. This no...

…I got stuck on a “talk about what the worst guests ever are at your hotel” chain on YouTube (long story, short version is that I do the whole Reddit thread reads as background sound when I’m trying to relax) and the chain hit hotels. And, I started thinking about Imperials as hotel guests and…well, mixed bag is what I’m thinking of if they check in to the local Holiday Inn or a five-star hotel. ...

Originally published at: Undistress (2) | The Associated Worlds IMS Sukórya’s Joy, Cerulean Ocean, 1340 Gradakhmath 4 At first, we thought it was a whale. Looking back, you may not understand our mistake. We did have submarines in our time, after all; indeed, Joy had passed a pair leaving Kanatai Bay, at dock in the port of Sukórya. But those early submarines still looked like ships; lean,...

Originally published at: To The Unknown God | The Associated Worlds Among the temples, fanes, and shrines to be found across Eliéra and its daughter worlds, special note should be made of the Alienage Temples. Authorized in 76 by the Speaker of Starlight, the Alienage Temples exist to provide a place for contemplation of and communion with eikones and spirits which have no formal presence in ...

Originally published at: Bigger and Uglier | The Associated Worlds DROPSHIPS: EMPIRE OF THE STAR This supplement to the current edition of Naval Warships presents an update to the infamous Flapjack– and Flapjack II-class cavalry dropships. The Imperial Navy has recently adopted the Waffle-class vehicular dropship – also designated the Flapjack I (Block II) – as a phased replacement for the F...

Originally published at: Technepraxic #4 | The Associated Worlds Having established as an ethical principle that to be sophont is to be entitled as of right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, it must necessarily follow that the proper function, in accordance with virtue, of the technical organs of a civilization is the abolishment of death, constraint, poverty, and m...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Word of the Day: kaälath | The Associated Worlds kaälath: (from “ka”, present time marker, and “alath”, wisdom) context-uncoupling or dehabituation, that state of mind in which one experiences everything as removed from its context and from the normal state of affairs. In the state of kaälath, one is able to experience all things as fresh and new, despite tha...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Word of the Day: ulargydar | The Associated Worlds ulargydar: (from ul, negation + argyr, worth + daráv, person or sophont) Usually translated “nithing” or “nihility”, ulargydar literally means “worthless person”, used to describe the worst miscreants. The implication is that Entropy has devoured all the worthy qualities and virtues present in the ulargydar‘s...

Originally published at: https://eldraeverse.com/2022/05/15/six-renegades-from-eliera/ Hyadíne Ossoric-ith-Ossoric, Sixshires (4162-4550): Advanced a doctrine that certain peoples could not be content in a state of liberty, being incapable of comfortably serving as their own directive authority, and should therefore be made subject for their own contentment. Proclaimed a heretic of the Uncari...

Originally published at: Eldraeic Phrase of the Day: cla-elén bríäz jé elén duenissí | The Associated Worlds cla-elén bríäz jé elén duenissí: (literally “without blades or maidens¹”) an ancient idiom, this phrase provides a way of discussing dangerous or forbidden topics. If all parties to a conversation (or other means of communication) agree on discussing a matter “without blades or maide...

Originally published at: Diggers | The Associated Worlds There are those who accuse Mer Vadális Exoarchaeological University of being home to, if not infested with, one of the Starfall Arc’s greatest collections of adventurers, looters, graverobbers, smugglers, treasure-hunters, weirdseekers, and other scoundrels of like nature. It is my honor to assure them that they are understating the ...

Originally published at: Awkward Introductions | The Associated Worlds On the sea or in space, a battlecruiser is a cruiser putting on the airs of a battleship, and a fast battleship is a battleship cosplaying as a cruiser. This doesn’t become a problem until the types start to overlap. Admiral Brandel Tsurilen, First Shore Lord

Originally published at: Citation | The Associated Worlds With the gratitude of the Empire and the thanks of the Lords of Admiralty: that Ardíra “the Bathrobe¹” Octarthius-ith-Octarthius, while commanding Their Divine Majesties’ destroyer Faithful Hound, did successfully escape a surprise attack mounted by linobir vessels of approximate cruiser and battlecruiser type at the commencement of th...

Originally published at: Enheaviment | The Associated Worlds Among the acknowledged greatest and most disruptive grifts in the history of the Worlds is that perpetrated in the early 5800s by Murin Eldvell in the Annik Sodality. An executive for a fuel-manufacturing corporation specializing in the production of tritium and heavy (deuterated) water, Murin was inspired by the florid warnings req...

Originally published at: By Example | The Associated Worlds The Master said: First, do no evil. Then, do good. This is the Way. The Student said: What if I must do evil in order to do good? The Master immediately struck the Student with his staff, knocking him senseless. And it was good. – The Book of Five Leaves

Originally published at: Service | The Associated Worlds I, [insert name], pledge surety in the light of the Flame that I will faithfully and well, to the utmost extent of my skill and power, preserve the Imperial peace and prevent all offences against life, liberty, and property; and that I shall do so without fear of or favor towards any person, and with malice or ill-will toward none. I...

Originally published at: Unstuck | The Associated Worlds FROM: CORE COMMAND (OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT) TO: ALL SHIPS ROUTINE FLEET CONFIDENTAL E2048 * ADVISORY ALL FLIGHT COMMANDERS: THIS MESSAGE CONSTITUTES A ROUTINE UPDATE OF STANDING ORDER 147 (TEMPORAL IDENTIFICATION PROTOCOL). AS PER STANDING ORDER 147(A) TRANSPONDER/IFF SUFFIX PIP 1471 IS TO BE USED BY ANY IMPERIAL NA...

Originally published at: Don’t Do That, Then | The Associated Worlds lookforward monitor: a specialized optronic circuit containing a signaling microwormhole or temporal tangle channel from the near future. (The precise time period depends on the application, and has been configured for periods as short as one micropulse and as long as a full hour.) The function of the lookforward monitor is ...

This is a thread for the various hilarious misunderstandings and snarkings that would arise in the non-canonical scenario in which Imperials meet humans. Note: the hilarious ones, not the ones in which rocks fall and everyone dies. Here’s a one-liner to start the thread off: “This product contains no substances known to the State of California.”

Originally published at: Snippet: Today, at the Vector | The Associated Worlds (Inspired by the Inevitable Certainty Engine, of course.) “So your Incomparable Excellence Engine is better than – is like – is something similar to – …okay, what the cryptoontological fuck?“

Originally published at: Paperclip Maximizer | The Associated Worlds Celad Tiragdal, the Paperclip Maximizer: (fl. ~5400) One of the older Master Traders of the Starfall Arc Free Merchant Confraternity, Celad Tiragdal was an early pioneer of methodologies for trading with technologically undeveloped emerging markets (later codified as the Tiragdal Market Development Methodologies) that prom...

Originally published at: Translation Difficulties | The Associated Worlds In a correction to our previous correction on this issue, not only is the controversial slogan of Joy-Joy Bubbles, a synthdrink manufactured by the Happy Lips Belly Snuggles Corporation of Dzenicha (Wyst Reach) not “Joy-Joy Bubbles: Drink It Or We’ll Kill Your Children”, but it is also not: “Joy-Joy Bubbles: Consume To ...

Originally published at: Keyless | The Associated Worlds A prison the size of the universe is still a prison, the philosopher Arlannath once said. Today, with the release of Phukale™, we can say that a universe the size of a prison… is still a universe. Academician Ranoj Tsoroloth Irreality Vault researcher on the release of the first custom-designed phukalic containment universe

Originally published at: Career Limiters | The Associated Worlds Among the most loathed and dreaded phrases in the Imperial Military Service lexicon is this: “intervention outwith mission parameters is not required”. That phrase is your lords and masters at CORECOM, usually prompted by advice from Admiralty Intelligence, ISS, the bright chaps at External Clarification & Rectification, or ev...

Originally published at: Spicy! | The Associated Worlds From: Dirigent Suzíët Melantha (IDC/Hanth Cluster Desk) To: vrin-san-telk (Cluster External Affairs) Subject: Re: What are these for? With regard to the above query: While technically classed as ammonium-breathers, you should be aware that rntrugg metabolism functions by the decomposition of ammonium- and nitrate- based polymeric suga...

Originally published at: Is Its Own Replenishment Barge | The Associated Worlds The Waffle-class drop ship is a starship in mass and displacement, and in many of the other technical senses of the word. But it is not a starship. The Waffle shares with a variety of small craft (the Marlinspike-class boarding torpedo, the Piton- and Fist- drop pods, and the like) a certain characteristic. Name...

On collapsed-to-side windows and mobile viewers, the search button has a tendency to be completely unreachable because the infinite scroller will keep generating pages that push the search button off-screen. Is it possible to relocate the button to the top banner please?

Originally published at: Necessary Evil | The Associated Worlds According to my cliodynamic studies, it is the case that a policy of routine intervention to prevent any perversion from blooming is suboptimal, inasmuch as it opens up the possibility for bad actors to work around the Coricál Consensus by performing a broad spectrum of experiments in computational theogeny and observing which...

Originally published at: Preference Magic | The Associated Worlds dwim-dweomer 91723.3.2 / Public / Last updated today Install: pkg i dwim-dweomer License: Cognitech Open Usage & Modification License (Commercial & Non-Commercial) Home: e.pl.cognitech/sophotech/dev/modules/dwim/dwim-dweomer Included-In: affective-interface, task-core, thinker-core, command-core, animating-core (see 37 other...