Glossary of Imperial Terms
Age of Illumination The time period in which Katora ruled the galaxy, either as empress or through family members.
Airlifter A near-transparent, enclosed riding device composed of glowworms.
Airshift An air column that moves people from one part of a habitat to another.
Alien Sentience Test The test to determine whether a member of a non-human race can be granted citizenship.
Alignment The adjustment of the transway system to prevent travelers from straying onto alternate timelines.
Animal Head An imperial citizen who displays eye-catching animal features as a political statement.
Antiaging Modification to the human genome that allows extended lifespan.
Ariona Lopt Nowhen Interim name assigned time-orphans.
Bioid A programmed life-form simulacrum composed of glowworms, usually taking the form of a human or animal.
Bolt The desctruction of the galactic capital by Thermeon's mindpowers.
Brain-renewal A dangerous proceedure meant to stave off the process of crystallization.
Brain-Throne The traditional throne of the empire from the Seventy-Seventh Millennium.
Bureau The second branch of the imperial government, headed by the Circle of Experts.
Charge A mindsea's ability to subsume a new body, due to the persistence of Deep-level minds across multiple Home-level instances.
Chronon-twistor A facility that moves objects through time by directly altering their temporal dimension.
Circle of Experts A group of scientists who suposedly work with the emperor and imperial major in perfecting imperial laws and regulations.
Code War The war between Thermeon and the people of the Code.
Coder A followers of the Book of the Code, an ancient religious doctrine originating on the planet Ulona.
Coherent World A pre-imperial name for the Deep. Also known as CW or "see-double-you."
Competency Hearing A test to deterine whether an individual is a viable citizen. Usually requested when a person has crystallized. Failure to pass the test leads to euthanasia."
Contamination Being known to, and therefore subject to the control of, a mindsea.
Contamination Distance The distance from a mindsea that is considered far enough to avoid their mind-control.
Contested Era The time period in which Thermeon and Quintillion ruled the galaxy.
Copy A substitute generated from a citizen's gene specs.
Copy Insurance Insurance that promises a citizen that a copy will be floated if they die. The copy will legally assume their identity.
Common Mind The people of the Empire.
Crystallization The degenerative process that impairs the brain-function of humans with antiaging. It can occur after anywhere between a few hundred years and several thousand.
Crystalloid A citizen who has lost all capacity for flexible action due to crystallization.
Decadent Epoch The time period in which Riemis Horl ruled the Empire as imperial major.
Deep A realm composed of superimposed alternate realities.
Deep-blind A person who cannot perceive Deep-level phenomena.
Deep One, Deep Two, etc. Successive layers of the Deep, each one encompassing more possibilities. Deep-one energy is called vorticity and represented on diagrams by red. Deep-two energy is called power and represented by orange. Deep-three energy is called flare and represented by yellow. Deep-four energy is called sooth and represented by green. Deep-five is called glory and represented by blue. Deep-six is called puissance and represented by purple.
Deep-level From or occurring in the Deep.
Deep-safe room An area that is shielded from Deep-level forces, including mind-probes.
Dispersal The flight of Earth's people across the galaxy via the Stairway of Ice.
Downlevel To transit into a deeper level.
Dro A large domestic animal native to the planet Lal, similar to a camel, but feeding by sifting small Arthropoda from sand by means of nose-filters.
Ersatz Beast A human who wears an animal costume or floats on an animal form in order to work as a pet for an individual or a team mascot.
Expert A member of the Circle of Experts, considered the leader in their field of study.
Farfling Able to broadcast through the Deep.
Firefly A flying glowworm, usually illuminated.
Fissure The mind-duel between Quintillion and Thermeon and the rift it opened in the crust of the planet Lal.
Float A wonderdome session.
Flying Suit A special whaleskin worn by Deep-level pilots.
Fuse To merge alternative possibilities so as to achieve Deep-level characteristics.
Fusion Field An area surrounding a Deep-level object that will cause more shallow objects to fuse to its level.
Genetic Algorithms A department within the bureacratic branch of imperial government that determines identities, regulates genomes, and assigns names to citizens and Torsa horses.
Ghost War A Hundred First Millennium conflict instigated by a dead mindsea.
Glowworm A programmed microscopic lifeform that is the basis for imperial home-level technology. Habitats, tools, vehicles, and clothing are composed of them.
Great War The war between Thermeon and his son Maxuas.
Head of the Circle Spokesperson for the Circle of Experts.
Habitat The home of an imperial citizen.
Heavy Floor A floor on a ship or spacestation that exerts a gravitational pull.
Highlals Midsummer day on the planet Lal.
Home Level The patternistic level on which humanity evolved.
Imperial Major The emperor's right-hand man, during some historical periods more powerful than the emperor.
Imperial Minor A member of the imperial armed forces under the command of the emperor and imperial major. They also serve as the imperial guard.
Imperial Oath The words an incoming emperor must speak while touching the Wall.
Incubator A small wonderdome in which imperial human babies are floated from conception until birth.
Internal A glowworm link in the brain.
Judgment Wall An edifice constructed by the empire's founder and regarded as the center of imperial authority.
Kokkiro The Earth-God.
Lal The planet of the imperial capital.
Lalese The official language of the empire.
Lesser War The war between Quintillion and his son Torm. It does not take place on all imperial timelines.
Luminary One of Thermeon's descendants with glowing white hair.
List The List of the Empire's thousand most prominent citizens. Each planet, including Lal, has a list of its own. Much intrigue revolves around who is to be included as the List is updated each year.
LZ-node A transmission station for Deep-level messages. LZ stands for "all-zeroed."
MAAC The mininum age of adult citizenship. A young imperial's first important milestone, reached at the end of twenty imperial years.
Major The imperial major.
Mating Flight A horse race for reporductive rights. The term originally referred to a procession in which a woman who had grown insect wings would mate with a series of men along the Way and produce an egg in which their offspring would develop. Such processions were popular during the reign of Empress Zupa.
Mednean Whale A Deep-level species native to the planet Medne.
Member of the Circle An acknowledged expert in a scientific field.
Minor An imperial minor.
Mind-net An intragalactic communications system consisting of mind-rivers stationed on various planets and a mindsea who subsumes their minds for the exchange of messages.
Mindsea A person with the ability to remain active on Deep levels. Usually telepathic.
Mindsea Academy A center of learning for skills helpful to mindseas.
Mindsize A person's capacity for Deep-level action.
Mind-river A person with very limited telepathic ability.
Mind-river of Lal The third most important post in the Palace Branch of the imperial government, traditionally in charge of communications between the Palace and the rest of the galaxy.
Mind-river Tower A place where a mind-river was posted to serve as communications node for a planet.
Moon-skipper A small spaceship capable of Deep One navigation only.
Nander A sub-human species recreated from ancient gene specs.
Newtonist A pre-imperial patternist.
Niche A person's role or job in imperial society.
Node A communications station.
Nook A place, usually formed from glowworms, where people can sit and relax. There are various shapes, depending on how many people are to be seated in them. U-nooks seat one. S-nooks seat two. Y-nooks seat three. X-nooks seat four.
Nurr A Lalian carnivore enginnered by Imperial Major Horl using genes from lions, baboons, and humans.
Object-space An object along with its spatiotemporal coordinates.
Outwelling The intrusion of Deep-level stuff into shallower levels.
Orphan School A famous school on the planet Mosalno where imperial elite send children they never wish to see again.
Pahmak A carnivorous sauropod native to the planet Ulona.
Palace The first branch of imperial government, headed by the emperor and the imperial major.
Patternistics The science that reduces the universe and its phenomena to their elementary patterns.
Patternist Someone who studies level-transformation.
Patternistic Integrity The quality that keeps something from unfusing.
Pentascoper A ship engineered to navigate Deep Five.
Plains of Possibility A naturally occuring intersection between Home-level and the Deep where Torsa horses may appear.
Powworm A Deep-two artifact.
Prophecy of Brodan A warning given to Brodan by his father Kahee, predicting that an emperor named Spacetime-in-Ashes would destroy the empire.
Proposal An official statement made before the Wall outlining new laws or regulations that the speaker wants to see enacted. Proposals must be approved by both branches of government, or proposed by one branch and approved by the other, in order to take effect.
Quantum Refresh The regeneration of the universe from the Deep with every temporal click.
Queen Lala's Rainbow Land An imaginary place where everything is perfect. Named for the mythical Queen Lala of Lal.
Queue Crystal A Deep-level artifact used to guide ships through transways.
Quintillion's Hour The hour past midnight.
Rebounders A game played with balls inside a cube.
Reenactment A visit to a historical time.
Refloat To restore the dead to life in a wonderdome.
Repro Rights Permission to reproduce granted by Genetic Algorithms.
Shallow A patternistic level consisting of impossibilities.
Shallow-level An object or characteristic of the Shallow.
Showing The annual ceremonal ride down the Way an emperor is supposed to take.
Six Sages The head instructors at the Orphan School of Mosalno.
Slippage The loss of passengers or cargo from a downleveling ship.
Space Mountain A life-form native to interplanetary space in the Andromeda Galaxy.
Speaking An official appearance before the Wall by government official or members of public groups.
Solix A life-form native to Andromeda that can splice the genes of living things it touches. Also known as a queue crystal.
Soul-gem An artifact of Deep Six that guides communications and travel throughout the empire.
Splinter A Deep-level quasicrystal that could become part of a soul-gem.
Stairway of Ice A Deep-level phenomeon leading to the center of space and time.
Supervelleity Non-temporal awareness.
System The empire's glowworm communications network.
Time Pocket Area inside a semipermeable membrane where the flow of time differs from that of the surrounding area.
Tenday Ten Lalian days.
Tenthyear Thirty Lalian days.
Tetrascoper A ship capable of navigating to Deep Four.
Three Heroes Brodan, Foske, and Kriwin, who led the rebellion against Emperor Xublian in the Ninety-sixth Millennium.
Torsa Horse A Deep-level horse used for ceremonial occassions.
Tradition Master The leader of the imperial minors, anonymous to everyone but them.
Transaxis A trigger for downleveling.
Trans-gate A station that, with the guidance of a gatekeeper, performs a spatiotemporal translation on targets to send them to a receiving station (built by Quintillion).
Transway A station that, with the guidance of an imprinted queue crystal, performs a spatiotemporal translation on targets to transfer them to a receiving station (built by Horl).
Uplevel To transit to a shallower patternistic level.
Unfuse To return to home level from the Deep in a random and destructive way.
Vortex-worm The Deep-level equivalent of a glowworm.
Wall The Judgment Wall.
Way The main thoroughfare in the galactic capital.
Weatherdome A glowworm-created boundary that protects a habitat from harmful atmophspheric phenomena, while permitting light and healthful air to pass through.
Weatherscreen A personal weatherdome.
Whaleskin Clothing harvested from the Mednean whale, an alien Deep-level creature.
Wonderdome A facility that contains a chemical pool that provides healing or metamorphosis for citizens.
Wondermaster The person who supervises a wonderdome.
Xatmean Ale A favorite drink of pilots during the Contested Era.
Yatobemian Tarantula A life-form native to the planet Yatobem. It has two bodies.
Zip Floor A moving hallway.