Glossary of Terms

Below is a **glossary of terms** for jargon used in the *Hyperion* Saga. These are terms that do not cover enough content to merit their own pages (with a few exceptions).

A

* Aelyrn: Gekoid name for Earth
* ANS: Alliance Navy Ship
* Andromeda Wars: a series of connected conflicts waged in the Andromeda Galaxy between the Alliance and the Andromeda Coalition, lasting from 2505 until 2689
* Anthropocentric: regarding humans as the central or most important element of existence, especially as opposed to God, animals and aliens; human supremacist
* Antimatter: matter that is composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles of "ordinary" matter
* Artificial intelligence: a self-aware computing system capable of learning and independent decision making
* Auroton: Gekoid name for Sol

B

* Bioenergenics: the rare ability of some individuals to generate dark energy fields that enable them to manipulate conventional and exotic matter and energy due to deposits of E-C in their central nervous system and endocrine system
* Biogens: individuals capable of bioenergenics

C

* Cartographers: pilots who deliberately travel through uncharted areas of space, sometimes for months or years, in order to locate new worlds for potential colonization
* Chaosrealm: alternate name for foldspace
* CHROME: former name of the band MechaSkull Jockeys
* Continuum: a plane of existence that contains no dimensions (i.e no physical points), energy, matter or spacetime, and is solely influenced by the collective subconscious and radiation of whatever lifeforms are within it
* Continuum-Trained: a certification that a pilot possesses the skill and knowledge to pilot a starship through the Nexus Network
* Core territory: a region of space claimed and completely controlled by a particular race, with a very low population of foreign species; such examples include the Herschel Bubble and the Gekoid Core Territories
* Cosmic Gospel: a Remnant religious doomsday text first discovered by humans on Mars' moon Phobos
* CS: Coalition Ship, FDF vessel
* CSS: Council Space Ship
* Cyberpsycho: a person afflicted with cyberpsychosis

D

* Dark matter: a form of matter that does not interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not absorb, reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation
* Dark energy: a form of exotic energy that exerts a negative, repulsive pressure, behaving like the opposite of gravity; when subjected to a sustained electrical current, dark energy can have the opposite effect and increase the effect of gravity
* Dark plasma: an ionized form of dark matter created from immense heat produced by bioenergenics; living organisms are incapable of using it, with one exception
* Dark space: the intergalactic void, the physical space between galaxies
* Dimension: a term with two distinct meanings: a particular plane of existence defined by the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it *(mathematical)* or a distant or remote area of realspace that is not actually a separate plane of existence, merely a vastly remote area of the Universe far away from the Settled Systems *(colloquial)*
* Dropspace: an energy field that serves as a medium for energy and matter teleportation via quantum entanglement.

E

* E-C: abbreviation of element-C, the physical manifestation of the Continuum in realspace
* Ecumene: formal name of the Remnant empire which existed until around 250,000,000 BCE
* Ecumenopolis: a city that covers the entire surface of the planet or body it is on; Dark City is an example
* Engram: the consciousness of an individual that has been copied into coding form and possesses the memories, personality and mannerisms of the original individual
* Exotic: term used to describe states of matter, energy and spacetime that violate the conventional laws of physics within realspace
* Exotic physics: study of exotic matter, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of exotic energy and force

F

* FBO: Federal Bureaucratic Office
* FDF: Frontier Defence Force
* Faster-than-light: any form of propulsion that allows a starship to move faster than the speed of light; common techniques include lightfolding and warping
* Foldhole: a wormhole that forms in foldspace
* Foldspace: a four-dimensional plane consisting of complete chaos where the laws of general and special relatively do not apply, allowing objects that enter it to travel faster than the speed of light
* Forced life/forced living: a medical process by which a person is kept alive through natural means while allowing for the normal deterioration and decay of bodily tissues and mental function, all while the person is aware of the process; it is often performed as a form of prolonged physical and psychological torture
* FTL: faster-than-light

G

* GCS: Guardian Corps Ship, a ship affiliated with the Confederacy's Guardian Corps
* GIL: Grown In Lab; clones made from organic tissue culture that has been modified through cybernetics or genetic augmentation to serve out a specific function or job
* Great Attractor: a dark matter anomaly that forms the central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster
* Great Hydrogen Wall: a region of hydrogen plasma that stretches across the intergalactic void, forming a rough border between the territories of the Intergalactic Commonwealth and the Confederacy of the Great Attractor. A third superpower, the Alliance of the Great Wall, is located within the bounds of the Wall itself
* GTN: Gekoid Territory Navy

H

* Herschel Bubble: region of the Orion Arm measuring 300 light-years across that contains Sol and Altair; core territory of the Human Interstellar Network
* Herschel Nations: the six planets settled in the Herschel Galaxy by a human separatist group in the 31st Century
* HIN: Human Interstellar Network
* HPL: abbreviation of Human Preservation League
* Hyperspace: a spacetime construct made from the combination of the Continuum (0-dimensions), realspace (3-dimensions) and foldspace (4-dimensions) that allows a starship to travel between galaxies; hyperspace is the primary component of the Nexus Network

I

* Intergalactic travel: crewed or uncrewed travel between galaxies, typically via the Nexus Network

L

* Light barrier: the maximum speed that any physical object or information can travel at – the speed of light, which is approximately 300000 km/s – under conventional propulsion
* Lightfolding: a technique of FTL travel that involves a starship entering foldspace using a lightfold engine, thereby avoiding the negative effects of time dilation
* Liquid radio: a colloquial term for Stellar Engine Core-Derived Liquid (SECDL)
* Lycan: shortened form of lycanthrope, an offspring of a werewolf

M

* M'Lakeash: alternate name for the Remnants, commonly used by the Gekoids
* Metal Tartarus: nickname for Dark City, mostly used by its poorest residents
* Microsupernova: an explosion caused by the sudden and powerful reaction of weaponized antimatter and matter
* Modular craft: a spacecraft or satellite that consists of several smaller spacecraft docked to one another to form a single unit

N

* Negative mass: a phenomenon of exotic matter where its mass is of opposite sign to the mass of normal matter, e.g. −1 kg
* Nexus: a planet-sized body of plasma-phase element-C located in the Whirlpool Galaxy; the radiation it emits amplifies lightfold engines, allowing a starship to travel between galaxies
* Nexus Network: a vast network of hyperspace tunnels that connects the Nexus to the various conduits dotted around the Settled Systems and allows a starship to travel between galaxies within a matter of standard hours while avoiding time dilation
* Non-Periodic: (of an element or material) does not appear on the traditional periodic table of elements, but is found in significant quantities in realspace

O

* OCN: Outer Colony Navy
* Organic android (OA): any race whose biology includes abnormally high concentrations of metal elements; unlike true androids, OAs are fully organic organisms, complete with biochemical processes, forms of metabolism, and cellular/tissue structures

P

* Plasma: ionized gas and free electrons; one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma fuel: any form of plasma that acts as the source of the electrical current needed to power lightfold engines

Q

* Quantum Entanglement: the physical phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance. Used for communication and even teleportation across vast distances, including between galaxies, via dropspace.

R

* Realspace: a three, four and five-dimensional plane of existence where the laws of general and special relativity apply and most matter follows the fundamental laws of physics; the term is synonymous with the Universe
* RPNS: Red Planet Navy Ship

S

* Sapient: intelligent, self-aware and sentient
* Settled Systems: the collective of star systems that have been settled by intelligent life
* Spacetime: conceptual model combining the three dimensions of space with the fourth dimension of time
* SED: Standard Earth Day, a reference time marker based on a rotation of the Earth in a full day-night cycle of 24 hours
* SEH: Standard Earth Hour
* Subspecies: term used to describe one of two or more populations of a species living in different subdivisions of the species' range and varying from one another by morphological characteristics; examples include Martians and Aquila Gekoids.

T

* Tachyon: an exotic particle that always travels faster than light
* Taikonaut: a Chinese astronaut
* Taxi: a potent stimulant derived from the sap of the Spire Tree
* Time dilation: a phenomenon arising from the difference in the elapsed time as measured by two clocks, either due to a relative velocity between them or to a difference in gravitational potential between their locations
* Time dilation sickness: a severe illness arising from prolonged time dilation causing the victim to perceive both time and space differently than others, leading to psychological decay and near-certain death; those who survive seemingly gain the ability to manipulate time on a local scale

U

* Unionism: a form of human political ideology espousing cooperation and integration, in direct opposition to human-isolationism and supremacy; named after the HIN Unionists, the members of the HIN Congress who rebelled against the Human Preservation League during the First Magellanic War
* United States of America: a federal republic on Earth and one of the constituent members of the United Nations, the precursor to the Human Interstellar Network
* Universe: a three-dimensional realm of existence located one-dimension below foldspace and three-dimensions above the Continuum; encompasses all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy; synonymous with "realspace"
* UNSC: United Nations Space Command

W

* Warping: a method of FTL travel utilizing a graviton core or warp drive whereby a starship contracts the space-time in front of it and expands the space-time behind it, allowing the vessel to travel beyond the speed of light without the vessel itself going beyond light-speed
* Werewolf: a person whose DNA has been spliced with those of wolves, enabling them to transform into a man-wolf hybrid when the concentration of adrenaline in their body or the rate of electrical impulses in their nervous system reaches a certain threshold

X

* Xenzo: the official language of the Federated Galactic Alliance and, later, the Intergalactic Commonwealth