Glossary of Terms
A general glossary of the various terms found here and there. List will be updated whenever I come up with new stuff, or remember old ones.
Also, a lot of these are just regular real-world terms.Admiral: A general term to describe the highest authority within a spacefleet. Within the ASTUN, they're called admirals, within Cellean fleets, they're Admiral-Captains of Cellea.
Afkaschein: a planet on the outer rim of human space, home to the Afkaschein Gos Dzihad.
Afkaschein Gos Dzihad: a crusade from Afkaschein, dedicated to spreading their faith to the rest of humanity, often with very violent methods.
Ak'Thakra: a tidally locked planet on the outer rim, with a suprising amount of development.
Ak'Thakran Commonwealth: the dominant nation on Ak'Thakra, primarily known in the region for its high development and antimatter production capability.
Anakrion: the continent of Anakrion on the planet, Ochtotne Prime.
Antimatter: a substance that has reversed magnetic charge from normal matter. Reacts violently with matter. Not to be confused with negative matter.
Artificial Intellegence: human-made intellegences. The term "AI" is nebulous in common conversation, though in official terms it designated sapient, self-aware intellegences.
Assembler: a machine that assembles stuff. Give it raw resources, like carbon, necessary metals or alloys, and access to electricity, and it can make a whole host of things. Larger and more complex ones can obviously make better, more complex stuff, and more of it.
Brain-computer interface: or BCI, allows one to connect their mind to a machine, and become one with it, in a way. The standard method of piloting most vehicles requiring precision and quick manouvering, from tanks to smaller spacecraft. Done most often via a Pilot's plug.
Biological immortality: the inability to age, essentially. The body repairs cell damage or disrepair, thus preventing the body from aging.
Causal Correction: the phenomenon that allows faster-than-light travel to occurr without permanently breaking causality.
Cellea: the origin planet of the Cellean empire, nowadays a barren, dead rock with little habitation.
Cellean autocratic space: a large empire that carved a swathe of land through the then-outer rim, and promptly collapsed, leading to a messy period of chaos and civil war, which still lasts today to an extent.
Cellean tech: a catch-all term for the level of technology of the Cellean empire, around the 2500s-level.
Circle-and-Star: a prevalent theme in Anakrionian symbology. Involves a circle somewhere, with one or two four-pointed stars connected to it. Present on, for example, the flag or the Armour of a Lord.
Cluster: a group of star systems, usually around 5-20, though not concrete.
Corvette: the smallest official ship class, around 50-200m long.
Core Worlds: the region surrounding Earth, rouhgly 30 lightyears in radius.
The Coalition of a thousand Free Worlds: a very loose front of nations united against the STUN.
Coilgun: a mass driver that accelerates a projectile via successive coils that turn on and off in sequence. Most common in infantry-scale rifles.
Coilcannon: an unofficial term, used to describe a heavier coilgun, like one mounted on static defenses.
Council of Twenty: The leading entity of the STUN, composed of twenty-three people who manage each one region of the supernation-federation-thing.
Cruiser: The main ship and workhorse of most warfleets, anywhere from 500m to 1500m long.
Cybernetics: mechanical augmentations done to a human body. Most common ones include a simple brain-linked computer, muscles reinforced with artificial muscle fibers, and at least one cybernetic eye, which can relay information much better. Most people are cybernetically augmented in one way or another.
Cybernetics cooling system: a method to keep cybernetics at a reasonable and safe temperature. Often done with water- or air cooling
Cyclers: large ships, both interstellar and interplanetary, that cycle between two locations, mostly carrying cargo.
Defense platform: a very big orbital station loaded with a lot of guns, some pointed toward a planet, others not.
Destroyer: a mid-size classification of warship, around 300-500m long.
Docking bay: an airless area on a spaceship or station, into which another spaceship can enter.
Dragon's Hoard Cluster: a cluster of several stars, at a reasonably high level of technology. Near the old borders of Cellean space.
Dyson Swarm: the collective name for all the habitats in any given star system, around planets, stars, in deep space, wherever.
Europa Computing Solutions: a company under IBM, selling computational power from supercomputers under Europa's oceans.
Flight of the Halven: an exodus from the planet Terenk to Jett, in the Omega-Aurutka System.
Frigate: A slightly larger ship from a corvette, around 250-300m long.
FTL travel: the now-standard method of travelling interstellar distances. Essentially a slightly modified Alcubierre warp drive.
FTL fuel: refined negative matter, the fuel that keeps an FTL drive running.
Form-plating: The various plates and shapes that cover a synthetic's body, protecting the circuitry, synthetic musculature, and other mechanical components from the elements, as well as allowing a lot of stylization. Usually fairly weak, but can be made as armour.
Fusion power: the standard method of power generation. Cheap, easy, compact, and powerful, most reactors use the tokamak design, and fuse hydrogen, often from the atmosphere.
Fusion thrusters: thrusters that use a fusion reactor to propell the ship with a lot of force. Very common.
Galactic Standard: Essentially English, the lingua franca of human space.
GdT Company: a private military company, based near the Core Worlds.
Habitat: an orbital structure intended for permanent habitation. The most common design is the O'Neill cylinder, but other designs are common. Around 72% of humans live in these habitats.
the Halven: an old tradeship-made-habitat, now in orbit of Jett.
Hardened plasma: a form of hyper-compressed hydrogen, making for easily formable material, which is also the toughest stuff known to humanity. Power-expensive though.
HAST: Heavy Armoured Shock Trooper, see HAST suit.
Heatsink: a very thermally conductive material fashioned into a many plates, which collect heat from a ship and can be ejected to cool it down.
Human: a two-fold term. When speaking in biological and otherwise scientific terms, a human is what we think of today. Homo sapiens, biological humans. In terms of societies and cultures however, Sapient Synthetics are considered a sub-species of sorts, and fall under the "human" categorization. When I'm talking about human civilization or otherwise on a large scale, I'm including both synthetics and biological humans.
Human space: A roughly spherical area, some 300-350 lightyears in radius, which covers most of human civilization.
Integrated intellegence: a more traditional, fully sapient, AI, integrated into a larger system, like a spaceship, a power plant, nearly anything large with a lot of complexity. Due to having a lot of traditional processing power, they can work full-time, seemingly 24/7, while simultaneously simulating a virtual existance for themselves, like a holiday.
Interstellar tradeship: old spacecraft that used to travel at relativistic speeds, around 0.7c, to trade and transport goods and people. Back in the day, only large ships, warships, these tradeships, and colonyships, could travel at those speeds for that long, as voyages took anywhere from a few years to decades.
Jurassines: a group of people in a deep space habitat expertised in genetic modification of animals.
Khar'Ak 'Than: a city on the River Ak' Than. Capital of the Ak'Thakran Commonwealth.
Killbot: an autonomous, often heavily armoured and armed robotic unit designed to act as a close quarters combat troop, as well as for extremely hazardous enviroments. Not as common nowadays as in the past.
King of Anakrion: the King of the Kingdom Of Anakrion.
Kingdom Of Anakrion: a nation on Ochtotne Prime, on the outer rim.
Layered Chain Blade: essentially a tiny chainsaw blade on top of an existing blade, allowing for unparalleled cutting power.
Life-extension: methods of, well, extending life. Usually via biological immortality, life-extension tech is widely available.
Local time: the time measurement system unique to any planet. 12 months of varying length, and 365 days of varying length.
Luna: the moon of Earth, a large industrial hub with sizeable military logistics.
Mars: the fourth planet in the Sol system, and the first planet settled by humans, nowadays an important commercial and industrial hub. Also terraformed.
Mass Drivers: a common term for electromagnetically accelerated weapons. Mostly used to describe railguns and coilguns.
Missiles: guided rockets, used in both infantry- and starship scale.
Modes: a collective term for groups of people who practice large-scale augmentation of all sorts.
Nanomachines: small machines with varying roles. Most aren't in the nanometer scale, but the nomenclature stuck.
Nanomancer: a person who fights primarily by controlling nanomachines.
Particle beam: a weapon of concentrated plasma, shot out as a beam, confined by a magnetic field. Exceptionally heavy weapon, often only mounted on a spinal platform.
Orbit: the region around a celestial body, where an object can move in such a way that it remains in a stable trajectory around it. Extends quite far, and is usually defined to end at the point when other celestial bodies orbits' start to encroach on it.
Orbital Ring: the largest megastructures thus far in human space. Large orbital rings generally orbit lower than geostationary orbit, though are kept in place with a separate internal ring. Often connected with space elevators to the surface. Only thirteen planets, all in the Core Worlds, have orbital rigns, with Earth having three.
Plasma: The fourth state of matter, where it gets so hot that the electrons separate from the atom. Used for industry, electricity, and weapons.
Point-defense: mostly smaller, rapid-firing laser turrets, these weapons shoot down incoming projectiles, mostly missiles, from a relatively short distance, around 10km or so.
Precursors: an ancient alien species far away from human space.
Prosthetics: limb replacements. There's different kinds, cybernetic and biological ones, mainly.
Radar: while traditional radar does exist, most radars in the 29th century use lasers instead.
Railgun: a mass driver that uses two parallel rails to accelerate a projectile. Common anti-armour weapon, as well as the most common starship weapon.
Railcannon: similar to a coilcannon, the term cannon here just means a heavier version of a railgun. Commonly found as long-range backline weapons of spaceships.
Relativistic: a speed of a significant percentage of lightspeed, enough to notice effects on relativity, like time dilation.
RKM: relativistic kill missile. A large chunk of metal, accelerated to large percentages of lightspeed often with antimatter thrusters, and then slammed into the surface of a planet. Often launched in large volleys.
Sandskimmer: a type of vehicle popular on barren planets and deserts. Essentially a chunky hovercraft.
Shields: a barrier of hardened plasma, guided by a magnetic field, deployed right before impact.
Spinal weapon: a weapon system mounted inside a spaceship, running through the lenght of it, and coming out at the front. Exceptionally powerful, at the cost of having the entire ship turn to aim them.
Standard time: the time system used in interplanetary or interstellar communication. Essentially UTC.
Stasis: a way of passing time, often on intestellar voyages of the past. For biological humans, this is cryosleep, essentially. For synthetics, this is preservation chambers, or preschambers, which shut off the central reactor and share the ship's power, while keeping the "brain's" conciousness at a low level, like sleeping.
Sub-human AI: an artificial intellegence not sapient or intellegent enough to be allowed human status. These are often used as overseers for larger systems, in turn overseen by an actual human.
STUN. A very loose federation-style superstate, which has influence over around 40% of humanity, centered on the Core Worlds.
String Jewelry: a practice exclusive to Ochtotne Prime, where people hang strings with ornaments at the end from their bodies.
Synthetic Battery Overdischarge: a supercharge of sorts that allows a synthetic to preform at much higher capacity, at the cost of significant damage.
Titanic Lance: the largest spaceship in existence.
Terraforming: the process of turning a planet Earth-like. Almost always done to barren planets, as the rare life-bearing ones are too valuable to destroy like that.
Thrusters: the main method of propulsion for starships, outside of FTL travel. Multiple types.
Torgallon: the capital habitat of the Kingdom of Anakrion.
Turret: a weapon capable of rotating and aiming up, down, left and right. On most starships, these turrets are capable of being moved around the hull.
Venus: the second planet in the Sol system, and a scientific hub, with hidden military installations in the clouds.
Vertul Republic: the secondmost powerful nation on Ochtotne Prime.
Wars of Control: a long period of Cellean expansion and conflict, leading to their eventual collapse.
Also, a lot of these are just regular real-world terms.
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