Talk:Stars of Steel

Glossary of Terms

Lumina - The familiar everyday domain of light, rocks, trees, humans and puppydogs. It is conventionally (if erroneously) considered 'reality'. There is little to say about the Lumina that is not known intuitively simply by living in it.

Umbra - The 'dark realm', a cold and entropic counterpart to the Lumina. As the name implies, the Umbra is the dark mirror of the Lumina. In a common metaphor, the Umbra is the ocean to the Lumina's land. Away from the distorting effect of large masses it is quite easy to cross the so-called Umbral Boundary, going from the realm of energy to the realm of darkness. There are even living things that can cross over, strange cosmic fauna.

Astra - The domain of pure, unformed energy. The Astra exists outside and encompasses both the Lumina and Umbra. The third plane, the Astra is the 'otherside' to the 'light' side of the Lumina and the 'dark' side of the Umbra and of the three, it is by far the least understood. Generations of science and philosophy have barely managed to agree that it even has properties, most notably it is through which the starways pass, but can it truly said to exist or is it merely a philoso-mathematical construct to explain the behavior of various phenomenon? Its mysteries are unlikely to be deciphered anytime soon and there are some that wonder if doing so would reveal some unsettling truths about reality.

Astral Purlieu - The amorphous division between the Astra and and the Lumina/Umbra, the purlieu is where the Astral essence coalesces out into the energy and matter of 'reality' and vice-versa.

Abyss - The zone lying just above the Astral purlieu, the abyss is a realm of miasma and exotic emissions from the purlieu below. Even without the continuous rain of exotic particles from the purlieu the abyss would be highly dangerous to most forms of non-adapted life and technology as it is thick with multiple types of dangerous radiation and corrosive energized ether. Few have gone any greath depth into the abyss - and fewer still have lived to tell the tale. It is also a stygian realm and what light does exist in the abyss, typically from random flashes of lightning or the ominous decay-glow of unstable elements, is swiftly absorbed by the thick and omnipresent miasma. For all this however, the abyss is a realm of creation; the purlieu generates a continual rain of atoms and particles that swiftly find themselves part of the chemical smog that is miasma. Often this will turn to a slurry that literally rains onto passing asteroids or induces exotic alchemy which will eventually emerge aeons later with a cargo of strange ores and perhaps equally strange passengers, for there is certainly life most bizarre in the abyss.

The miasma and high etheric density of the abyss is, in theory, a rich source of industrial chemicals and resources. However is it also masked by hundreds, if not thousands of wegstunde of obscuring bathic clouds and the treasures of the abyss are exploited at a distance, by mining asteroids and comets that have emerged from the abyss into the moderately less trackless and substantially less dangerous bathic zone.

Bathic Zone - The bathic zone (or commonly just 'the bathics') are essentially the upper half of the etheric mist that extends for hundred or even thousands of wegstunde from the purlieu, the top whereas the abyss is the bottom. The primary difference is chemical; the abyss is thick miasma while the bathics are 'merely' etheric clouds and more 'conventional' gases. The dividing line tends to be fairly sharp and within only a couple wegstunde - or sometimes even less - one can pass from one to the other as the critical density point is reached. That said, the boundary layer is turbulent and can shift by tens of wegstunde in a given day, more if a major storm wells up from the deep abyss.

This boundary layer tends to accumulate a great deal of cosmic flotsam and many comets and asteroids linger here before eventually being dislodged. The bathic column above will also be host to its own share of these objects and while they may be separated by hundreds of wegstunde in any direction, they are numerous enough that a typical 'way might typically have thousands scattered through the abyss and bathics. Many of these have been mined, settled and even moved over the years and there is a slow churn as these bodies are found, exploited and abandoned as they fall back into the murk.

While the bathics are far less inhospitable than the abyss - you wouldn't (and really shouldn't) breathe it, it is hardly aggressively toxic - they are still a dim and difficult to navigate realm. Blavatsky particles distort long-range sensing and communication, especially in the mesobathics. The altobathics - the outermost layers which can still be hundreds of wegstunde deep - are the most appealing, with dim light filtering through, regular open spaces, the puffy shapes of water-clouds and all manner of aerial flora and fauna. This is the vast outer whorls and where the opaque masses of the bathics fade into the clear skies of the pelasic zone.

Pelasic Zone - The clear navigable center of most 'ways, the pelasics are lit by distant suns and were it not for the everpresent and evershifting clouds that drift through them they would be in a perpetual twilight. These clouds are generally fairly innocuous, ranging from simple water to various cryogenic gases to pastels of etheric compounds but they will scatter and block light. Without thick ether and blavatsky particle interference the pelasics can be easily navigated and communicated through.

Radiants - Tiny pinched-off masses of Astral quintessence, radiants can be seen as 'failed suns.' Birthed in enormous broaches of the purlieu, these sun-hot objects are flung into the lumina in what are among the significant creative events in the known universe. Most will eventually settle in the cloud layers, slowly cooling and dimming over millions of years to become cold cinders or shed their mass and dissipate into the air. Their constant energy blasts open bubbles of clear(ish) air in the clouds and miasma;

Rete - The Rete is the collective term for the labyrinth of starways known to mankind; it is the network of umbral-luminal spaces from which the myriad Lacunae extend from.

Lacuna - Lacunae are hyperdimensional extrusions out of umbral-luminal space, that while three-dimensional themselves extend in a hyperdirection. In a practical sense this means they are bigger on the inside than on the outside and are separated by a discontinuity (the Horizon). The Rete is host to an uncounted number of Lacuna, each of them of internally significant size and generally host to one or more astronomical objects - planets, generally. The difference in linear distances inside and outside of a lacuna is exploited to allow for rapid travel.

Horizon - The horizon is the term for the hyperdimensional discontinuity between the Rete and a lacuna. While not entirely impermeable (ghostlight is energy that passes across the horizon) it is an effective barrier to all forms of matter. The only way to penetrate a horizon is by a rift; it is lucky for humanity and other space-farers that rifts occur naturally, regularly and often copiously.

Halos - The equator of a given lacuna is the point where the Lacuna is preceding at the greatest relative velocity. This shear weakens the Horizon while simultaneously acting as a cosmological 'trap' for cosmological detritus, etheric overdensities and even 'minor' bodies of quite significant size. This also makes it a particular source of rift activity and while they may be relatively transient new rifts regularly open - a typical halo will have multiple rifts open as any given time, often double-digits. However as lacunae are almost always oblate along the equator, the halos are also the most distant locations in them - while they may be rich in easily-available chemical and energetic resources they make poor transit corridors.

Air Deserts - Many parts of known space is called an air desert; these are reaches where the combination of air pressure and/or etheric concentration is significantly lower than the norm, without actually becoming Void. Other constituents such as water vapor also tend to be reduced and those floating bodies in air deserts are almost inevitably desolate, rocky cobbles. What flora and fauna does inhabit them tends to be among the most tenacious of known space. Air deserts are not impassible but the largest of them make impressive natural borders matched only by nebula - particularly since the common clathrate fuels to say nothing of food and water are rare to nonexistent. The clarity of air deserts also makes them major conduits for radiantlight and heat.

Nebula - Nebula are essentially the breakdown of the usual abyssal-bathic annulus, filling enormous expanses thousands if not tens of thousands of wegstunde across with miasma. Some of these nebula contain a significant number of major bodies inside their gaseous envelope, while others are bereft of anything larger than random rubble and ponds. Like the abyss, the thick miasma of nebula tend to block light very effectively, and while they sometimes glow softly in various shades they can effectively shade entire radiants inside their dark whorls. Their high ether concentration also results in continuous lightning discharges and often unpredictable weather in the neighboring skies while inside the nebula proper the air - the miasma - is commonly stagnant. With all navigation methods save dead reckoning useless inside these opaque masses getting trapped inside one can be a death sentence.

Of course the ether and the miasma is equally valuable; it is a great source of gaseous ether in high concentration and all manner of industrially useful chemicals. An extremely short list would include Promethium R and Promethium S compound families, aerosolized Sakuradite, Merculite precursors, Polydichloric euthimal and Iotimoline particulates, not to mention more common etheric thiolins and hydrocarbons. Thus the edges of nebulae are often sites of extractive industries mining away at emerged comets or their walls of gases as many etherways will penetrate into nebulae. This makes access radically easier, though care must be taken to not go too deeply without proper navigational fixes.

A far more benign relative of the nebula are fogwalls. Benign, that is, until your ship smashes into a rock concealed inside the fluffy white mists. Consisting (mostly) of innocuous water clouds, fogwalls are readily distinguishable from nebula by their clean white color as opposed to various rich shades. Generally found at the intersection of multiple air masses, the main difference between a fogwall and a simple large cloudbank is that fogwalls are - within the bounds of seasonal variance - essentially permanent features. Like nebula, the shade side of fogwalls often creates significant mesoclimates with the most famous of this being Quahog Sound bordering the Nanket archipelago.

Flachmeers - Flachmeers are zones of low pressure (generally between 0.2 and 0.4 standard pressure) and are recognized as the main loci of cometary accretion. They sometimes lie on the edge of air deserts but they most commonly lie to the zenith and nadir of star way junctions. The temperature inversion from greatly reduced pressure gives the flachmeers frigid air temperatures and even in situations with almost perpetual light it will normally range from -30 to -60. Many atmospheric rivers will terminate in the flachmeers where the moisture and carried material will crystalize out in the low pressure and temperature; this collects into comets which expand over time. Most will tumble out of the flachmeers by the time they have reached several kilometers in size though a few, such as Murdo Island, have exceeded five hundred kilometers in diameter and are essentially static. Some will fall fairly rapidly into the thick disk and melt while others will slowly migrate for centuries through the bathics and abyssal zones, often continually accreting thoughout this time. When this is a continuous flow down an aerial current they are commonly known as drifts, with their terminus points being called packs.

The inside edge of the flachmeers and the slowly meandering drifts and packs are favored habitat of skywhales, the many comets providing both food and habitat to vast ecologies from airkrill to the skywhales themselves. Comets are equally important to the technical needs of humanity and they are extensively mined across the Rete for their etheric clathrates.

Bulk composition of comets can vary significantly; at the most extreme young comets from the edge of an air desert may be almost pure water ice with only a dusting of other material - giant fluffy hailstones, in effect - while those that evolved out of nebular flachmeers will be discolored masses of heavy organic compounds, dust and minerals, ices and etheric exotica often of the sort best left frozen. Most comets will be somewhere in between, with any given drift tending to have broadly the same composition.

Miasma - While luminifous ether is normally not harmful to life (in fact, it is often beneficial), it is understood that at a critical density it thickens greatly in process that is essentially self-sustaining. Known at this point as miasma, the high etheric density leads to the formation of all manner of exotic chemistry and to many living things (including humans) miasma is no more breathable than the effluent of an industrial plant. That said, there are entire orders of life that breathe miasma the way humans breathe air with some going between air and miasma in different stages of life. Misma is most common in the abyss (in fact, how the abyss is defined) but it can also be found in clouds and, perhaps most famously and grandiosely, miasma makes up much of the great nebulae.