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GLOSSARY

Altok: Language based on English.


Arnet: Intelligent species genetically engineered from Norway rats.


Bagung: Fermented fish paste.


Baseline: An intelligence level roughly equivalent to an unmodified Homo sapiens; the legal minimum for personhood in most places.


Bidomaz: Corn vine plant, often grown in space habs.


Biologicals/Bios: Intelligent beings made of meat.


Borg: A cyborg, typically one whose body is mostly mechanical with only a small biological component.


Bot: A mechanical being with sub-Baseline intelligence.


Caelus: Immense “aerosphere” habitat orbiting Uranus, with hundreds of billions of inhabitants, mostly angels and corvids.


Carcol: Engineered snails used as food, common in space habs.


Cascarons: Rice doughnuts, originating on Earth in the Philippines.


Centro: Boss (Rocasa slang).


Cetacean Republic of Miranda: Dolphin-dominated anti-technological regime controlling Miranda in the early Eighth Millennium.


Cevishimi: Flavored raw fish.

Chongs: Dedicated fans (from Woshing word chongzhe)


Corvids: Intelligent species genetically engineered from ravens.


Cryoglyphs: Carvings in ice, specifically the ones in Syracusa Sulcus on Miranda.


Dagda: Giant twin-cylinder habitat 5,000 kilometers long, orbiting Uranus. Home to hundreds of billions of inhabitants, mostly humans.


Deimos Ring: Large orbital structure extending all the way around Mars in synchronous orbit; one of the major powers of the Solar System.


Dekopon: Citrus hybrid plant from Earth.


Ecliptics: Belt of habitats orbiting Uranus in the plane of the Solar System rather than the planet’s equator.


Entertainment: Most common form of fiction, incorporating elements of novels, films, and interactive games.


Equatorials: Belt of habitats orbiting Uranus in the plane of its equator, including all the major moons and the synchronous ring.


Fairbanks: Habitat in the Oort Cloud, orbiting at about 10,000 AU from the Sun.


Fang: Aerial dance spin move.


Fangshuo: Team ball game in which contact is forbidden.


Fog Shield: A cloud of nanobots used for personal protection.


Gendakhel: Zero-gravity ball game.


Gigajoules: Units of energy, or of purchasing power, very roughly equivalent to 1/10 of a U.S. dollar in the early 2020s.

Giro: Nulesgrima spin maneuver.


Glorious Unique State: Empire which ruled most of Earth in the post-Great War era; sometimes called the Tsan-Chan Empire.


Great War of the Ring: Massive conflict in the Fourth Millennium, between the Inner Ring and most of the rest of the Solar System.


Gundong: Aerial dance forward roll move.


Hab: Short for “habitat”—an artificial structure in space.


Hellan Caviar: Roe from engineered fish in Hellas Sea on Mars; noted for exceptional flavor.


Huihou: Large hab orbiting at Uranus’s L-2 Lagrange point.


Inner Ring: A structure surrounding the Sun at a distance of 0.3 A.U., made of the remains of the planet Mercury transformed into computronium. Home to the most advanced minds in the Solar System.


Instruction or Instructional: The nonfiction version on an Entertainment, a hybrid of research paper, documentary, and interactive tutorial.


Jhallari: Stringed percussion instrument.


Juren: Largest space hab ever constructed, located at Jupiter’s L-1 point.


Jushiwu: Culinary dance artform.


Kejum: Zero-gravity tag.


Koenig: Design cooperative based in Plato, Luna, specializing in plasma drive and weapon systems.


Ksetram: Titular capital city of Miranda.

Leiting: Legendary general of the Glorious Unique State in the Fifth Millennium; also name used by a mercenary intelligence in the late Tenth Millennium.


Lingga: Large city on Earth at the foot of one orbital elevator tower.


Lotors: Intelligent species genetically engineered from raccoons.


Magonia: Cycler hab circling between Mars and Jupiter.


Main Swarm: The collection of several hundred million space habitats orbiting between Mars and Venus.


Manadanzo: “Hand dance” zero gravity dancing style in which only the couple’s hands touch.


Martian redwood: Engineered redwood species growing on terraformed Mars


Mediolan: Floating city on Miranda’s subsurface ocean.


Memetic Intelligence: A being capable of independent decision-making, embodied entirely in patterns of legal and organizational information rather than an algorithmic digital mind or a biological brain.


Mer: Human subspecies modified for aquatic or amphibious life.


Momos: Steamed dumplings (from Saur)


Ningen: Language derived from Japanese.


Nuledor: Nulesgrima player.


Nulesgrima: Zero-gravity stick fighting sport, uses graphene palos.


Old Belt: The original Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars.


Osorizan: Hab dedicated to backup storage for digital intelligences.

Oterma: Comet converted to a habitat, in a cyclic orbit between Jupiter and Saturn.


Palo: Nulesgrima stick.


Paoshi: City floating in Saturn’s atmosphere; controlling mind is Paoling.


Pedescos: Rocasa word for tapas.


Polyarchists: Political faction in Miranda, opposed to the oligarchy of the Sixty Families.


Qarina: Human created for sexual slavery


Qinguang: Stringed musical instrument.


Raba: Habitat at the Uranus trailing Trojan cluster.


Rasgulla: Dessert dumplings.


Rebodar: Rocasa word for a drifter or transient (“ricocheter”).


Repun: Orca cybership, former comrade of Pelagia in the Silver Fleet.


RKV: Relativistic Kill Vehicle. The ultimate argument of worlds. A chunk of something dense traveling very fast.


Rocasa: Language derived from Spanish and Esperanto which originated in the Old Belt.


Safdaghar: Wrecked habitat formerly at the outer edge of the Old Belt, then catapulted toward the Kuiper Belt by a Jupiter encounter.


Saur: Hindi-based artificial language (“Solar”).


Scarab: Salvagers of derelict or obsolete habitats.


Sekkurobo: Ningen word for a sex robot.

Shikyu: Artificial uterus or baby printer (from Ningen).


Shining Sea: The artificially heated subsurface ocean inside Miranda.


Shinkai Force: Self-sustaining arsenal sub battle group in Miranda’s ocean.


Silver Fleet: Space mercenary unit which once employed Pelagia.


Speedboarding: Ice sport combining elements of snowboarding and bobsledding.


Summanus: Large, old, and powerful space habitat orbiting in Jupiter’s L2 position; also the high-level AI controlling the habitat.


Svarnam: Large floating arcology city in Miranda’s ocean.


Synchronous Ring: The lowest orbital ring around Jupiter, with elevator cables extending down into the planet’s cloud tops. Home to about a trillion people. Uranus has its own Synchronous Ring, smaller and less densely populated than Jupiter’s, devoted to the manufacture of antimatter and black holes.


Taishi: Large habitat at Uranus’s L-1 point; the main transit station for traffic bound for the inner Solar System.


Teishu: Tea master.


Tiedao: Gambling card game, its origins lost in time.


Thattai: Spicy fried snack food made of rice flour and peanuts, originally from southern Asia on Earth.


Titan Psychoactives: A self-owning Autonomous Corporation. An example of a purely memetic intelligence.


Titania: Largest moon of Uranus, with hundreds of billions of inhabitants.


Trojan Empire: Powerful government controlling thousands of habitats and asteroids in the Jupiter trailing Trojans cluster.


Tudoki: Potato balls.


Tumba: Nulesgrima forward roll maneuver.


Ubas: Genetically modified fruit based on grapes. Commonly grown in space habs.


Viranmar Plaza: Large fashionable public space in the city of Svarnam in Miranda.


Woshing: Most common language on Mars, derived from Chinese.

Xiyu: Seldom-used language.


Yudham: Mock battle game.


Zukyu: Sport resembling rugby (from Woshing).


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