fief: An Imperial territory granted a palatine or patrician by appointment. May not be passed on through inheritance.
Fire School: Famous monastery and academy on Jadd where the Maeskoloi are trained.
flier: A flying vehicle about the size of a groundcar, used for in-atmosphere flight and rapid travel.
foederatus: A mercenary.
Foundation War: The war between the early Empire and the Mericanii, in which the Mericanii were destroyed and the Sollan Empire was founded.
Four Cardinals: In the Chantry religion, the four most important icona: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance.
Free Traders Union: A coalition of smaller trading companies and independent merchanter vessels that lobbies for shipping privileges and dock space on planets.
Freeholders: A citizen of any of the Norman Freeholds or of any planetary or multiplanetary government not associated with one of the great interstellar powers.
fugue: The state of cryonic suspension induced to ensure that humans and other living creatures survive long journeys between suns.
Galactic Standard: The common language of the Sollan Empire, descended from Classical English with heavy Hindi and Franco-Germanic influences.
Galstani: See Galactic Standard.
genestock: In terraforming, the genetic base material, both terranic and otherwise, used to establish civilized ecologies.
Giants: See Cavaraad.
gladiator: Professional fighting athletes in the Colosso.
glowsphere: A bright spherical light source floating on Royse repulsors. Powered chemically or with batteries.
gods: See icona.
Golden Age of Earth: The mythic epoch leading up to the Exodus, culminating in the Assumption of Earth and the colonization of the solar system.
gravitometer: A device for measuring the density and structure of matter by examining the distortions of gravity.
Gray Rot: An offworld plague brought to Emesh in the seventeenth millennium ISD. Wiped out eighteen percent of the population.
Great Charters: Ancient collection of legal codes imposed on the Empire by a coalition of the houses palatine. Maintains the balance between the houses and the Emperor.
groundcar: An automobile, usually powered by solar energy or internal combustion.
guild: Any professional organization with legal approval to perform its trade. A trade union beholden to a planet’s lord.
guilder: Any member of a guild.
haqiph: A Jaddian caste term meaning “untouchable” or “base.” Refers to homunculi and others considered subhuman.
high chancellor: The chief appointed official in a palatine lord’s civil service. A prime minister.
High College: Imperial political office tasked with reviewing palatine requests for children and overseeing those pregnancies. Prevents mutations.
High Litany: In the Chantry religion, a weekly ritual held to commemorate the destruction of Earth and to pray for a better future for humankind.
highmatter: A form of exotic matter produced by alchemists. Used to make the swords of Imperial knights, which can cut almost anything.
holograph: Any three-dimensional light image projected by scanning lasers. Used for entertainment, advertisement, communication, etc.
Holy Terran Chantry: State religion of the Empire. Functions as the judicial arm of the state, especially where the use of forbidden technology is involved.
homunculus: Any artificial human or near-human, grown for a task or for aesthetic purposes.
hoplite: A shielded foot soldier. Heavy infantry.
hoplon: An antique-style round shield used in the Colosso.
hudr: A Jaddian word for scholiast, literally “green.”
hurasam: Gilded coin used among the Imperial peasant classes, worth their mark-weight in gold. Print notes for various denominations exist.
hypogeum: The underground maintenance complex beneath a coliseum. More generally, any underground complex.
ichakta: A Cielcin title referring to the captain of a ship.
icona: In the Chantry religion, a spirit or god embodying an ideal, virtue, or natural law such as Fortitude, Evolution, or Time.
Imperial mark: Digital currency of the Sollan Empire and Mandari corporations. Highly competitive, unlike the hurasam and other hard coinage.
Imperial Office: The Emperor’s administration—those ministries and civil services, including the palace staff, that comprise the Imperial central government.
Imperial Presence: The formal personage of the Sollan Emperor and the area about his person.
Imperium: See Sollan Empire.
Index: The catalog of punishments—monetary, corporal, and capital—maintained by the Chantry and enforced by the Inquisition.
inmane: An offensive slur meaning someone less than human. Literally impure.
Inquisition: The judicial branch of the Imperial Chantry, primarily concerned with the use of illegal technologies.
inquisitor: A Chantry official tasked with conducting judicial investigations and overseeing the torture of criminals.
intus: A palatine born outside the oversight of the High College, usually possessing several physical or psychological defects. A bastard.
Irchtani: Species of xenobite native to the planet Judecca. Birdlike with massive wings. Considered an exemplar of coloni assimilation.
Izumo Group: A Nipponese interstellar corporation specializing in the heavy metal trade.
Jaddian: The official language of the Principalities of Jadd, a patois of ancient Romance and Semitic languages with some Greek influences.
jubala: A powerful and popular offworld narcotic. Can be inhaled or ingested in a kind of tea.
kaspum: Silver-plated coin used among the Imperial peasant classes. Twelve kaspums make one gold hurasam. Print notes for various denominations exist.
knife-missile: A kind of drone, little more than a remote-controlled flying knife. A favorite of assassins.
knight: Sollan military honor conferred by the nobility for services rendered. Usually includes a small fief. May carry highmatter weapons.
lance: See energy-lance.
Law of the Fishes: A philosophical precept that the world is a wilderness and that survival is the highest virtue. The law of the jungle. Survival of the fittest.
Legion Intelligence Office: The Empire’s military intelligence, espionage, and foreign intervention agency.
legionnaire: Any soldier in the Imperial Legions, especially a common foot soldier.
Legions: The military branch of the Sollan Empire, loyal to the Emperor and Imperial house. Comprises naval and ground forces.
lictor: A bodyguard for a nobile or other dignitary. Usually a knight.
lieutenant: Junior naval officer in the Legions, beneath commander but above the crewmen.
lighter: Any starship small enough to make landfall on a planet.
logothete: A minister in any of the governmental agencies of a palatine house. Used colloquially for any civil servant.
logothete pluripotentis: A logothete whose office oversees the transfer of land and other titled holdings between palatines and patricians.
Lothriad: See Lothrian Commonwealth.
Lothrian: The spoken language of the Lothriad.
Lothrian Commonwealth: The second-largest human polity in the galaxy, a totalitarian collectivist state. Longtime antagonist of the Empire.
Lowtown: The poor seaside district of the city of Meidua on Delos.
Maeskolos: A legendary swordmaster of Jadd drawn exclusively from the eali caste. Credited with superhuman speed and skill.
magister
: A lay judge who tries plebeian cases.
magus: An intellectual, especially a scientist or natural philosopher.
mamluk: Any homunculus slave-soldier of the Jaddian Principalities.
Mandar: The language of the Mandari trade corporations.
Mandari: An ethnic group semidetached from Imperial society, most commonly found staffing the massive interstellar trading corporations.
mandyas: Traditional garment of the Maeskoloi. Half robe cinched at the waist with one flowing sleeve worn over the left shoulder.
Mathuran Campaigns: A series of battles between the Tavrosi clans with Imperial aid. Reached an armistice shortly after the appearance of the Cielcin.
medica: A hospital, typically aboard a starship.
Meidua: A port city on Delos, seat of the Meidua prefecture and ancestral demesne of House Marlowe.
merchanter: A salesperson or businessman, usually plebeian.
meretrix: The madame of a brothel or, more often, a palatine lord’s harem.
Mericanii: The ancient first interstellar colonists. A hyperadvanced technologic civilization run by artificial intelligences. Destroyed by the Empire.
messer/madame: Polite address in the Empire, used for anyone without a formal title.
Mother Earth: The deified homeworld of humanity and principal god of the Chantry religion.
mute: Slang. Short for “mutant.” Refers to a homunculus or to an intus.
myrmidon: In the Colosso, any contract or slave fighter who is not a professionally trained gladiator.
nanocarbon: A fabric made of carbon nanotubes. Related to adamant.
ndaktu: In Cielcin philosophy, the weight of moral responsibility placed upon an individual whose actions directly or inadvertently led another to suffer.
neg: A worthless person. Emeshi slang.
neural lace: A semiorganic computer implanted in a host’s brain. Illegal in the Empire.
Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe: Ninety-nine of the greatest structures, both human and alien, in the known universe.
Nipponese: The descendants of the Japanese colonists who fled Old Earth system in the Third Peregrination.
nobile: Blanket term referring to any member of the palatine or patrician caste in the Sollan Empire.
Nordei: The principal language of the Demarchy. A patois of Nordic and Thai with some Slavic influences.
Norman United Fellowship: The former Norman democratic government on the planet Emesh prior to Imperial annexation.
opera: Any scripted narrative entertainment, whether musical, dramatic, or serial, interactive or otherwise.
optio: The second-in-command to a centurion in the Imperial Legions.
Orbital Defense Force: The fleet maintained by any palatine lord for the defense of his or her planet or system.
Orion Arm: One of the five arms of the galaxy settled by humankind. See Spur of Orion.
ornithon: A flying feathered snake native to Emesh. Nonvenomous, eats primarily sea life.
Outer Perseus: The expansion region along the end of the Perseus Arm. A colonial frontier.
palatinate: Any demesne or fief comprising an entire planet.
palatine: The Imperial aristocracy, descended from those free humans who opposed the Mericanii. Genetically enhanced, they may live for several centuries.
Pale: The Cielcin. Slang, considered offensive by xenophiles.
panegyrist: A Chantry priest tasked with performing the call to prayer at sundown.
Panthai: A Tavrosi language developed by the Thai-, Lao-, and Khmer-speaking peoples who settled the Wisp alongside the Nordei.
patrician: Any plebeian or plutocrat awarded genetic augmentations at the behest of the palatine caste as a reward for services rendered.
peerage: Palatine constellation comprising the Imperial family and its relatives. Members are all in line for the throne.
peltast: An unshielded foot soldier. Light infantry.
Peregrination: Any of the historical evacuations from Earth’s system for the extrasolar colonies.
Perseus Arm: One of the five arms of the galaxy settled by humankind. Lies beyond Orion at the outer rim. Contains the Principalities, Durantine Republic, and Imperial colonies.
phase disruptor: A sort of firearm that attacks the nervous system. Can stun on lower settings.
phasma vigrandi: Luminescent, floating creatures native to the forests of Luin, sometimes called fairies.
phylactery: An ampule in which genetic samples are kept, especially for use in reproduction.
planetbound: In Imperial law, any plebeian not permitted to travel offworld. A serf.
planeted lord: Any nobile who has acquired or may pass down his or her planetary demesne within the family. A landed nobleman.
plasma burner: A firearm that uses a strong loop of magnetic force to project an arc of superheated plasma across short-to-moderate distances.
plebeian: The Imperial peasantry, descended from unaltered human stock seeded on the oldest colony ships. Forbidden to use high technology.
plutocrat: Any plebeian who has earned enough money to buy expensive genetic augmentations. Effectively patrician.
poine: A structured, small-scale war between imperial palatine houses. Subject to the scrutiny of the Inquisition.
Praetorian: Any member of the Sollan Emperor’s Praetorian Guard, drawn from the best of the Imperial Legion.
praxis: High technology, usually of the sort forbidden by Chantry law.
prefect: A law enforcement officer.
prefecture: In the Empire, any administrative district ruled by an archon.
primarch: The chief Imperial viceroy in each arm of the galaxy: Orion, Sagittarius, Perseus, and Centaurus. Essentially co-Emperors.
primarchate: Region of the Empire ruled by a primarch, comprising several provinces.
primate: The highest administrative office of a scholiasts’ athenaeum, akin to a university chancellor.
Principalities of Jadd: Nation of eighty former Imperial provinces in Perseus that revolted over palatine reproductive rights. Heavily militaristic and caste-driven.
prior: In the Chantry clergy, the chief cleric in a prefecture.
prudence shield: A form of Royse field used for security, especially in coliseums and starship hangars. Traps air and fast-moving objects.
QET/quantum telegraph: A device that uses entangled quantum particles to communicate instantly over vast distances.
Quiet: The hypothetical first civilization in the galaxy, allegedly responsible for several ancient sites including those on Emesh, Judecca, Sadal Suud, and Ozymandias.
repulsor: A device that makes use of the Royse Effect to allow objects to float without disturbing the air or environment.
Rothsbank: An ancient, privately owned banking house tracing its roots back to the Golden Age of Earth.
Royse Effect: A method discovered by Caelan Royse for manipulating the electroweak force. Allows for the existence of force fields and repulsors.
Royse field: Any force field making use of the Royse Effect to stop high-velocity objects from penetrating an energy curtain.
rus: A young man. Emeshi slang.
Sagittarius Arm: One of the five arms of the galaxy settled by humankind. Lies between Orion and Centaurus, comprises the bulk of Imperial colonies as well as the Lothriad.
satrap: A planetary governor in the Principalities of Jadd, subordinate to one of the regional princes.
scholiast: Any member of the monastic order of researchers, academics, and theoreticians tracing their origins to the Mericanii scientists captured at the end of the Foundation War.
scianda: The Cielcin term for one of their migratory starship clusters. A fleet.
seed stock: See genestock.
serf: Any Imperial plebeian forbidden
by birth to travel away from the planet of his or her birth except in the case of Legion military service.
servitor: A menial laborer.
shield-belt: A self-defense device worn about the waist. Uses a Royse field to stop bullets, plasma, and other high-energy weapons.
shock-stick: A nonlethal weapon primarily employed in crowd suppression. Little more than an electrified stave.
sign of the sun disc: A gesture of benediction made by circling thumb and forefinger and touching forehead and lips before holding the hand up to the sky.
signet ring: A device worn on a palatine’s finger containing his or her genetic information, financial accounts, and land holdings.
sire: An honorific used to refer to one’s social superiors, usually males and usually patricians or palatines.
sirrah: An honorific used to refer to one’s social inferiors, usually males.
Solar Throne: The Imperial throne. Carved from a single piece of citrine quartz. Sometimes used as a synonym for the Imperial Presence or Office.
Sollan Empire: The largest and oldest single polity in human-controlled space, comprising some half-billion habitable planets.
spinship: Any starship that uses centripetal force to generate the illusion of gravity.
Spur of Orion: The oldest of the Empire’s four primarchates, comprising the oldest parts of the Empire and Old Earth System.
Standard Registry: An index kept by the Imperial High College of all the houses palatine along with blood samples of all their constituents.
static field: A highly permeable variant of the Royse field used to keep conditioned air inside buildings.
strategos: An admiral in the Imperial Legions, responsible for the command of an entire fleet, comprising several legions.
stunner: A low-power phase disruptor used to cause temporary paralysis or loss of consciousness. Weapon favored by law enforcement personnel.
Sullen Gulf: The huge gap of empty space between the Norma and Centaurus Arms of the galaxy.
Summerfair: A midsummer holiday celebrated throughout the Imperium. Its date varies from world to world, depending on local calendars.
swordmaster: See Maeskolos.
Synarch: The highest ecclesiastic office of the Imperial Chantry. Their most important function is the coronation of new Emperors.