Sci/Tech

The Geledi year is 1.3467 Terran years; this is 292 Geledi days (of 22.4 hours each). The year is divided into 16 months of 37 days each. Each month consists of six weeks (nyeedyeh) of six days each, plus an intercalary day (Prahznyeh) at the end of the month. Every so often, the 37th day of Zeemyahbr is dropped in a leap year.

Months:

1. Yeenvahr
2. Fyeevahr
3. Vyeesyahbr
4. Mahrt
5. Ahpryehl
6. Migh
7. Lyehyahbr
8. Iyon
9. IIyul
10. Ahvgoost
11. Ossyahbr
12. Syeentyahbr
13. Ahktyahbr
14. Nahyahbr
15. Zeemyahbr
16. Dyeekyahbr

Geledi Perpetual Calendar:

On 23 November 430, the Hlekkar L4 gengineering laboratory belonging to Hlekkar Geneotech Ltd. was holed by a meteor strike. Proper decontamination procedures were not followed, resulting in the release of the virulent disease which became known as the Hlekkarian Plague. Ultimately, the Plague destroyed about 13% of Galactic population in ten years.

About 570 planets were wiped out or abandoned during Hlekkarian Plague, TE 430-440 (2583-2593 CE)

A vaccine to Hlekkarian Plague was developed in 440 on Taglierre, and spread by Imperial Navy. Within four tendays, the Plague was declared over.

Symptoms

The Hlekkarian Plague was a particularly virulent form of influenza, with all of the attendant respiratory symptoms. However, the Plague organism had the ability, in some cases, to tailor itself to a particular host over time. Therefore, episodes of Plague had a tendency to recur, growing more virulent with each return. Individual episodes usually started at six to twelve days, then increased in duration with each subsequent episode. Recurrences came on the order of thirty to ninety days apart, although that time period tended to lengthen as the disease progressed.

The particular dread of the Hlekkarian Plague was that one could never be sure that one was rid of it. At any time, it could return, worse than before . . . and continue returning, until finally one died.

NOTE: In common First Empire usage, those with psi abilities were often called "Fey." Within the Fey community, those without psi abilities were often referred to as "Mundane/Mundanes."

ABSOLUTE DIRECTION: Unerring directional sense, manifested as a homing instinct, or as a sense of framework (i.e. always knowing the way North).

ASTRAL PROJECTION: Ability to project a visible or invisible body across distance. The original body is usually comatose during an astral projection.

AUGMENTATION: Ability to increase the effect of other psi powers.

BILOCATION: Ability to be in two or more places at the same time.

CLAIRVOYANCE: The ability to sense present events, regardless of distance, size, or intervening barriers. Gross Clairvoyance deals with the macroscopic world and is limited in resolution; Micro-clairvoyance has nearly unlimited resolution.

FOREVER DREAMS: Alternate state of consciousness in which the Daamin live most of their lives. Characterized by nonlinear causality.

HOISTER PSI ABILITIES: Hoister Family Fey possess excellent micro-clairvoyance and micro-psychokinesis (easily able to watch and manipulate objects from atomic-scale up to human-scale), fuzzy macro-clairvoyance, and weak macro-psychokinesis. Occasional precognition and teleportation abilities also occur.

INNER VOICE: Form of mental communication used by the Hlutr.

KEDANKAT: Lorecanist mental state akin to the Forever Dreams of the Daamin.

KIINIMACHO: Powerful hypnotic ability, usually manifest through captivating eyes, but sometimes only voice suffices.

LEVYN PSI ABILITIES: Levyn Kindred Fey possess excellent macro-clairvoyance and macro-psychokinesis (easily able to watch and manipulate objects from human-scale up to large mountains; collectively, there is no limit to Levyn Kindred psychokinesis), fuzzy micro-clairvoyance, and erratic micro-psychokinesis. Occasional teleportation abilities also occur.

LINGUISTIC SENSE: Possibly a type of telepathy, which allows one to communicate easily, even with unfamiliar languages.

LOCATION: A form of clairvoyance that manifests as a tracking ability, enabling one to sense the location of an object, person, etc.

PATTERN FORMATION: Ability to recognize/impose patterns on chaotic data/events. A Pattern Former is excellent, for example, at finding paths through labyrinths, trackless forests, etc.

PERSONALITY PROJECTION: Ability to project portions of one's personality (i.e. moods, emotions, etc.) onto inanimate objects or places, so that others who contact them will feel the same.

POSTCOGNITION: The ability to sense events of the past. A form of clairvoyance.

PRECOGNITION: The ability to sense events before they occur.

PSIAMINE: First of a class of drugs known as "psiactive dampers." Psiamine and its derivatives are primarily used in infancy and adolescence to dampen psi powers so as to protect Fey children from inadvertant harm that they might cause themselves or others in exercising their abilities.

PSI-BLOCK: A simple machine which serves to block psi influences. In the First Empire and much of the Interregnum, psi-block technology is in its infancy and effectiveness is low.

PSYCHOKINESIS ("pk"): The ability to influence matter by means other than physical contact. Gross psychokinesis deals with the macroscopic world and is nearly unlimited in power; Micro-psychokinesis has sharp distance, mass, and force limits.

PSYCHOMETRY: Ability to read the history of an object by physical contact.

PSYCHON: Hypothetical exchange particle for psi; a tachyon.

PYROKINESIS: Ability to produce fire.

SONG OF THE HLUTR: The total concert of Hlutr communication in the Inner Voice.

STASIS FORMATION: Ability to create a zone of stasis, in which time passes at a different rate than outside the zone.

TELEPATHIC PROJECTION: Ability to impose thoughts & feelings on others.

TELEPATHINET: A network of telepaths.

TELEPATHY: The ability to directly communicate mind-to-mind; also can include the ability to sense, read, or influence the thoughts of another. The drug psiamine is one of a class of drugs called telepathic dampers; they can deaden a telepath's sensitivity and are often used in raising young telepaths.

TELEPORTATION: Rare psionic ability to move from one point to another in negligible time, without crossing intervening distance. "Zap" is slang for "teleport."

TEMPORAL TELEPATHIC RESONANCE: Ability to link to similar minds in the past or future.

WATCHERS (OF THE STONES): Cadre of telepathic-sensitive volunteers on Nephestal, who attempt to divine meaning from the music of the Singing Stones.

The mindlink between members of the same tetrad is still unexplained, despite all investigation and at least twelve papers in prestigious journals. It isn’t standard telepathy, nor a physical phenomenon like ultrasound or pheromones. The mindlink works as easily across kiloparsecs as meters. The best guess from psi-experts is that the mindlink is akin to the pseudo-telepathy sometimes demonstrated by identical twins.

However, the mindlink is much deeper than mere telepathy. Members of a tetrad don’t just share thoughts…they share emotions, sensations, memories, imagination, dreams. It is said that each tetrad is one mind in four bodies.

A scientific research station constructed in TE 263 in orbit around the red supergiant star Beta Putki. Beta Putki was in pre-supernova phase, and the station's mission was provide a platform for study of the phenomenon.

Deathwatch Station became a popular tourist attraction, and also inspired a religious cult. Over the years the station expanded to feature hotels, shops, museums, and various temples and religious retreats.

Around TE 340 Deathwatch Station was evacuated -- all who remained were a few scientists and thousands of religious believers. In TE 343 the star went supernova, and the Station (along with all inhabitants) was destroyed.

A fast-growing, all-devouring fungoid lifeform from the planet Kastechia. In its sessile, "flowering" form it resembles orchid blossoms, and is harmless. When deprived of moisture (i.e. during the middle of the hot Kastechian daylight period), the organism forms microscopic spores which are free-ranging. Upon contact with water and organic material, each spore begins to reorganize the molecules into another sessile form. The mucus membranes of the human nose, throat, and lungs are ideal raw material for Kastechian spores.

Following initial infection, the progress of Kastechian Plague is rapid and irreversible. Within a period of 50 hours, a single Kastechian spore can totally convert an adult human body into "flowers" -- and a single human body so converted can provide enough spores to saturate a planet's ecosystem.

Kastechian spores are harmless against metal, silicates, and non-organic compounds. Spores can withstand vacuum, hard radiation, and extreme cold. Their molecular structure rapidly decomposes at temperatures above 500° C. The only known defense against Kastechian Plague is to avoid contact with spores.

It is conjectured, although not proven, that Kastechian Plague is a form of nanotech weapon created by an alien race long ago.

Galaxy-wide communications network between Human-constructed AIs. Conversations in the Invisible Network took place during idle nanoseconds between tasks, and were unknown to Humans.

Mental state developed by the Wakmarrel School. Obdumat, or multiplex awareness, is a state in which the mind can comprehend various levels of reality simultaneously. More complex than simple multi-tracking, obdumat can be taught; the School insisted that if enough people in the Galaxy learned and used obdumat awareness, most social problems would disappear.

Wakmarrel mental state of attentive serenity.

Small, stone-like modules that boost psi powers, a product of Heloxan technology. Some aggry stones are general-purpose, while others are optimized for special tasks.