recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
World Seed

A **World Seed** is a intelligent, sentient asteroid or comet bearing the basic genetic material necessary to give rise to sentient life on a world. It is a vital part of the Second Genesis. Prior to the sundering of Solverse into it's Empirical and Empyrean Verses, sentient life could arise on virtually any world. Due to the general disconnection of the material world from the realm of true consciousness, however, it was necessary for the Shaeloah to take an active role in the formation of life on each world in order to give rise to sentience.

Therefore, World Seeds were created. Any world that currently bears life can give rise to evolved sentience through the addition of a World Seed. The Seed is created within the realm of Lei'El and transported to a system via a Jump Gate, and then travels through normal space to the life-bearing world.

Upon impact, the World Seed transforms the world and for a brief period of time, two types of life exists on the world until the native life sufficiently interbreeds with the life brought by the Seed. The unified life creates a sufficiently diverse genetic basis - as well as the addition of consciousness from the Seed - to give rise to sentient life.
Synaptic Halo

The **synaptic halo** is a technology first prototyped by Phaeronica and then later combined with Wilhelm F. Keigel's so-called psychic radio technology to produce the modern form used during the Second and Third Trilogies.

The device allows Phaerons to seamlessly communicate with one another in a **closed loop network**, forming a collective group mind while retaining their individuality. It also greatly amplifies the natural abilities of a single Phaeron by several orders of magnitude in exponential proportion to the number of Phaerons connected to.

Physically, it appears as a hard ring of iron around a person's head, worn like a cap, with various stable wires and electrodes leading into the temporal lobes, cerebellum, and the pineal gland. These are attached to a small backpack or are fully integratable with a vacsuit's computer system. It is the first technology of its kind that utilizes both the physics of the Empirical and the metaphysics of the Empyrean for its function.

During the STE, Phaerons must disengage and remove the synaptic halo periodically and allow themselves to temporarily go "deaf". This period lasts for two standard weeks, once every standard year. During this time, the Phaeron normally enjoys a sabbatical from Second Dominion duties and pursue personal interests. This serves to prevent any one single Phaeron from taking control of the network and commanding the other Phaerons, intentionally or otherwise.

By the Third Trilogy Era, the technology is a permanent fixture for Phaerons. The improved version of the halo resolved the problems of the STE version entirely. However, a significant trade off is the likelihood that it can never be removed. The longer it is worn, the more "integrated" the Phaeron becomes. While this serves to strengthen the network as a whole, it forms permanent connections with other minds and the Empyrean itself, in that to remove the halo is akin to tearing one's face and sensory organs off at the skull, resulting in possible insanity and death.
Khazard's Folly

Khazard's Folly is a region of MEST in the Milky Way Galaxy. Local to this system, space-time acts as a complete anomaly and does not respond to measurement by any standard instrumentation technology. Therefore, very little hard data is known about the region. Throughout all eras in which it is known, it is considered by spacers to be a suicide mission to travel anywhere within a several hundred AU radius of it's mapped geography.

Because of the complete absence of civilization, some spacers fleeing the law or reach of one of the many space faring civilizations have been known to hide near Khazard's Folly. The

## Discovery

The region was discovered by Alphaeus Khazard, a Great Exploration era spacer and professional explorator financed by the Second Dominion. During his eighty year life (a relatively young age for Second Dominion peoples) he traveled billions of AU throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

He discovered the region sometime in the Great Exploration and was able to successfully map the region and transmit the data, where it was received many light years away by other Second Dominion spacers.

Neither his ship nor his body was ever discovered. It is generally accepted that he either unintentionally or purposefully drifted too closely to the center of the region and succumbed to intense Hawking Radiation.

## Known Features

The jagged area of the region covers several lightyears across from its furthest point and less than .1 lightyear across at its narrowest. Near the center of the area, massive objects equivalent to several thousand black holes with overlapping event horizons exist. It is hypothesized the interaction of these black holes with each other and MEST is the origin of the anomaly. The black holes are collectively the largest source of Hawking Radiation emission in the known universe.
Japanese Uprisng

The **Japanese Uprising** takes place in **SY 134** during the Battle of Earth as part of the Solar War. Old Earth families of Japanese descent in the People's Republic launch an unexpected surprise campaign against the PR's heavy industry at the behest of the Army of Eastern Kamijing. Wu Kenshu, warlord of the AEK, had maintained close communication and ties with his extended family on Earth. They were able to disseminate Protectorate propaganda and gain sympathy for the spacer cause.

During the uprising, millions of Japanese took to the streets demanding a cessation of hostilities towards spacers. Ultimately the demonstrations resulted in armed clashes with CONPOL forces. Many similar demonstrations took place throughout the rest of the PR. As the Battle of Earth intensified, CONPOL crackdown became much harsher and detained anyone with spacer sympathies as threats to the Consortium.
Venusian Injuns

The **Venusian Injuns** incident in **197 BSC** was a catastrophic failure of the first attempt to colonize the surface of Venus in Sol System. The colony effort was financed by Venusian Industries, Inc. with the goal of being able to harvest and export the noxious gases and other resources found on Venus' surface and atmosphere.

The colony effort was not publicized due to the company's fears of competition. Due to failure of oversight on the part of the company, the several dozen colonists were left stranded on the surface of Venus without regular shipments of supplies. They starved and asphyxiated.

When the fate of the colonists was discovered by the company, they tried to cover it up. The incident was leaked to the general public by an employee of the company and immediately became a global scandal. For a short time it halted the general push into space and led to tight regulations on private space companies by the three major super powers.
Xteria

Xteria is a planet in the **Orion Arm** of the galaxy. It became a principle gathering place for the Icari'yon and is the unofficial cultural hub of the Icari'yon peoples.

## History

### Colonisation

The first Xterian colonists called the planet **Umica** and spread across a continent within the first few decades of colonisation, establishing many scattered outposts. These early colonists had rediscovered some documents relating to the United States of America, a pre-Anthroperium nation on Earth. These documents formed the basic idea and inspiration for these colonists, who tried to emulate what they perceived as the American ideal.

These colonists formed an agricultural republic and called it Unitas Umica and intended to be relatively insular. They did not reestablish contact with other colony fleets or try to reach Earth.

### Second Wave

With the destruction of Earth in *Icarus*, many colony fleets were put in dire straits due to sever resource shortages. The world was first reached by the *Ion*, a colony fleet with several thousand people. The fleet was allowed to settle on the world on an uninhabited continent. Soon, the two peoples began to trade and communicate with one another and the world was opened to the other colony fleets. Within a generation, billions of people came to inhabit the planet, who began to call it Xteria as a derivation of "From Earth". The original colonists retained their identity as Unitas Umica. At right is the insignia of Unitas Umica.

Throughout the Age of Exploration, the world became an important trading post between the Second Dominion and the rest of the outbound colony fleets and the newly settled worlds, aggregating much wealth in the process.

### Last War

During the Last War, Umican scientists discover a Nexon in the form of a sword on their world. This sword is called the *Ataru* by the El'yon, and exerts a great and deep influence upon the world. It becomes an object of power around which many people rally. This Nexon has the unique property of becoming more powerful according to the belief of both it's wielder and the people who knows of it's existence. The influence of the sword eventually grows so great it turns the world into a Nexus world, and Xteria becomes a part of the Infinite Empire as a result.
Zero Day

**Zero Day** is the name given to the convention that would create the Zero Day Accords, held between **19 February** and **4 March 2296** by the old calendar. The two weeks were held to be precisely coincidental with a lunar and solar eclipse on those days respectively. While the lunar eclipse was visible for the vast majority of the European, African, and Asian continents, the solar eclipse was only visible from parts of Oceania, Antarctica, and South America.

The event is celebrated in Terran Humanism with quasireligious fervor. Due to the entirety of North America being left out of the observation of either event, some hardline Terran Humanists have concluded that the event indicates a passage of judgement upon the continents inhabitants.
Heracliad

The **Heracliad** is the overmyth of the people of Hyperion. It is an *epic tale* set within Solverse itself, split into three parts, each detailing the ***Travails***, ***Sojourn***, and ***Conquest***. It was penned by the epic Hyperion poet, Hephastion the Great.

## Synopsis

Heracles is a spacer born on Ariel, Uranus. He grows up in a rough, savage life of a Rimmer-born spacer just like any other. He falls in love with the Black Queen, who is a wanted war criminal though very beautiful in appearance She is captured by the Sons of Andromeda to face justice, and Heracles pleads for her life. The great and benevolent despot of the Sons, Manus, will allow her to go free under the condition that Heracles live up to his name and complete a series of tasks. Manus makes it a point that he is casting the collective guilt of the Rimmer people upon Heracles's shoulders for these tasks.

### The Travails

1. Destroy Noveautrea
2. Annihilate the Soldiers of Charon
3. Take Vesta
4. Take Ceres
5. Clean a cycler of green slime in one standard cycle
6. Freeboot six spacecraft
7. Liberate the bones of Vinaii
8. Capture the spacecraft of the Dryatt Space Yards in the orbit of Neptune
9. Bring a single piece of unspoiled fruit from Earth.
10. Kidnap and defeat the self-styled King Ptolemy Serapion, Governor-Militant of Pluto, who leads the Children of Chthonia Warband.

Manus presents the above list to Heracles as a jest, however Heracles takes it quite seriously. Manus is quite surprised, however, when, in less than a standard cycle, Heracles returns to Manus with a piece of the Noveautrean space station to corraborate the just-months-earlier report of the freak explosion of the self-sufficient colony.

Manus then takes Heracles quite seriously, realizing that he is capable of such incredible feats. They have a conversation about the second item on the list. Heracles learns of the deep-seated hatred for the Soldiers of Charon, and is able to use that as leverage to secure her release to accompany him in his travails. But the conditions still remains: everything on the list, or the Queen faces justice.

The Sojourn

The Conquest
Sun Gate

The **Sun Gate** is a piece of technology located on Throneworld that mimics the abilities of ascension but it's scope is limited to the planet Throneworld itself and can only be utilized by Exades. It allows Exades control over MEST on the planet so long as he is located on it's surface. During the Third Trilogy Era, Exades modifies the Gate and uses it to destroy Hyperion, a feat which required the simultaneous sacrifice of billions of souls on the world and nearly exhausted the power of Exades himself.
Teslablade

The **Teslablade** is a Soviet-designed piece of technology first appearing in the Foundation Period and soon becoming ubiquitous throughout Mars and the Main Belt. A portable Tesla Coil combined with a source of power and a grounded piece of metal, the Teslablade is an extremely potent self defense melee weapon. It is capable of arcing electricity at distances up to two and a half meters from the tip of the weapon, and of course coursing high voltage power through whatever the surface of the blade makes contact with without harming the user.

Originally designed as a portable Tesla Coil for applications in arc welding, wireless telegraphy, photography, video display, and certain medical uses, the device was quickly modified in it's first several generations to resemble the weapon that it is in the First Trilogy. In the FTE, most are produced in Soviet factories on Krasnygrad, Mars.

The weapon takes considerable skill to wield and is potentially dangerous to the user if not wielded correctly.

Along with a magnegun, most Main Belters are armed with one as a matter of precaution. They are designed to be immediately lethal, moreso than the less powerful electrostaff.

Curiously, by the Second Trilogy that had mostly fell out of favor with the general public and were sometimes kept as ancient relics, weapons of the a more glorious age of the past.
Minarchist state

A **minarchist state** is a state which intentionally limits itself in the scope of both it's responsibility and authority. During the First Trilogy Era, Dosijing is an example of a minarchist state. The only duties of the state on Dosijing is the maintenance of vital utilities such as power, water, and breathing gases, overseeing the safe arrival and departure of craft through the platform's several spaceports without restricting the free flow of trade or traffic, and the organization of a non-standing militia able to be called up voluntarily only in times of emergencies. Courts on Dosijing are administered locally in town-hall style meetings rather than through the Dosijing state.
Caretaker Worlds

A **Caretaker World**, in the Third Trilogy, is a world of humans under the protection and guidance of the Infinite Empire in the Andromeda Galaxy and countless others. They were not settled by the human diaspora after the events of Icarus, nor are they under the Second Dominion. They are generally called **Taia’yon** (not to be confused with **Tara’yon**) in the El’yon language.

Humans on these Worlds are generally shielded from the wider Verse until they independently achieve consciousness of the Empyrean Verse as well as achieve spaceflight. However, they have lifelong normalized contact and apprenticeship to the El’yon, which accelerates their development from their genesis to within a few generations. They are considered celestial beings from birth, untouched by most of the effects of a broken universe.

Many of these worlds are unnamed. From time to time, individual humans who have achieved this consciousness been allowed to leave prior to their world’s more general development.
First Genesis

The **First Genesis** is the original creation of life within Solverse, when the Empyrean and Empirical verses were wholly united as a singular creation. All life arising during the Shevah and Me'A Epochs is considered First Genesis life, and all First Genesis life was created directly rather than through evolution. The First Genesis was intended to be the only act of creation until the rebellion of Ruin and the Lightning War. During the Baraq Epoch, approximately 99.9999% of First Genesis life was destroyed, necessitating the Second Genesis.

Some faint traces of the First Genesis survived well into the Third Trilogy Era to be later discovered by the Second Dominion, such as the Remnant Planet.
A'yon

The **A'yon** are fallen beings originally of the Aion'ari'yon or First Empire race. They originated when fully thirty three percent of the First Empire defected to the rule of Ruin during the Lightning War.

Their name is El'yonic for "not people". The A'yon call themselves gods.

They are non-corporeal beings existing only in the Empyrean Verse - being forcibly descended by the El'yon after the Lightning War - but can exert a tremendous amount of influence on the Empirical Verse; namely, the ability to project a false, illusory physical presence that is visible and audible but not tangible. They can also temporarily possess physical objects and both sentient and non-sentient beings of weak wills.

The most powerful of the A'yon are called **archons** and are generally the leaders of the A'yon. Archons are able to exert limited but powerful influence over vast tracts of space. Their antithesis are the **Aeons**, powerful Celestial guardian beings. Most, if not all, archons were the first of the beings to fall to Ruin and gained their tremendous power through his infernal technologies. Exades himself may be considered the most powerful of the archons.
Paranoophrine

**Paranoophrine**, or simply 'noof' in spacer slang, is the most effective painkiller known to humanity. First invented in **17 BSC**, it achieved widespread use on Earth before making it's way into the common spacer's medkit. It's creators hailed it as a miracle medication that could replace highly addictive opioid painkillers; the patent to the medication was released to the general public, allowing for low-cost manufacture. Despite the fact that it is not physically addictive, it poses a high risk of abuse due to it's direct action on the pain receptors of the brain whilst simultaneously stimulating the brain's pleasure receptors.

Sol System experienced a drastic shortage of the medicine during the Solar War, sending prices skyrocketing and leading to substantial black-market manufacture and sale well into the Twilight Era where it remained a primary source of income for many warbands.
Station 42

**Station 42** is one of the many numerically assigned space stations orbiting Earth as part of the Interplanetary Transport Network responsible for sustaining intrasolar trade and transportation during the age of the Consortium.

It was this station that was visited by Jaymeson Nicks during the events of Sol. He arrived here upon achieving orbit from Kennedy-Khrushchev Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA and obtained his recently purchased Delta-class spacecraft *Nature.*
Noveautrea

**Noveautrea** is humanity's first attempt at building a completely artificial world and is the only artificial world in Sol. The experiment was begun primarily by Cyrillic intelligentsia from the Soviet Union dissatisfied with life on Earth. It is differentiated from the space platforms of the Confederacy primarily by it's construction and closed loop artificial environment.

The world is composed of a central column with a perpendicular ring. The outer ring is itself surrounded in a series of rings that are at the same angle as the central column. Both the smaller rings and the central column rotate for gravity and supports the life of about ten thousand people. Unlike the Confederate platforms, it is a fully self sustaining closed loop system. As such, to preserve the delicate balance of it's artificial environment, immigration is strictly regulated and requires an application and approval from the Noveautrean Council. While visiting the world at most times of the Solar Year is discouraged due to it's highly eccentric orbit, visitors are not turned away and may stay for up to thirty standard days with a docking permit from the Council.

The artificial world follows a highly eccentric orbit around Helios, making it especially difficult to reach from Earth at most times of the year.

Noveautreans are the cultural hub of Sol, producing great works of art, literature, music, and leading humanity in ground breaking scientific advancements. This is essentially what guarantees their prosperity (vs just being self sufficient).

Noveautrea is governed through a combination of direct constitutional democracy and the representative Noveautrean Council which has limited power to regulate transportation, utilities, and distribution of public goods. Life in Noveautrea is very prosperous for it's citizens; everyone receives a universal basic income and stipend for living similar to the Consortium, but everyone is required to work and are constitutionally entitled to fair wages. In case employment cannot be obtained, the Noveautrean Council will employ the citizen directly in any number of public service jobs. Approximately 35-37% of Noveautreans are engaged in civil service.
Refresher

A  **Refresher** is an all-purpose Consortium produced appliance that provides clean water and recyclical conversion of all types of human waste in all states of matter and energy. It runs on a loop cycle that approaches 99% efficiency. While it doesn't violate the laws of thermodynmanics, the loss of energy over time due to entropy is neglibible on a scale of millions of years.

A spacer or grounder armed with nothing more than a vacsuit and a refresher can survive indefinitely in vacuum so long as both remain in continuous working order and they were in healthy condition to begin with.
Mannatene

**Mannatene** is a widely available all-purpose foodstuff during the First Trilogy Era. It provides basic calories, daily nutrients, and little flavor. It is generally produces in three varieties: high activity, moderate activity, and emergency. The emergency ration is designed to fight acute malnutrition for spacers who may have been stranded in an accident.

It is an ancient precursor to wheyfare.

## History

The first variety of mannatene was produced on Earth during the Space Age by the Soviet Union, but was not very popular among cosmonauts. With the rise of the Consortium and the standard availability of a limited variety of nutritious genetically engineered foodstuffs for even the lowest class spacer, wheyfare was produced in small quantities only as a last resort foodstuff.

It became more popular during the Twilight Era as food supplies became scarce with the collapse of Solar trade. Mannatene was also widely used on the Progress fleet, but the Progress variety was generally considered to be more potable and was often supplemented by foods grown aboard the fleet.

## Contents and Administration

It is produced from algae, potatoes, and genetically engineered mushrooms. Each serving is edible as a single meal and is basically filling to the stomach. It provides about 2100 calories and daily servings of necessary protein, energy, vitamin A and carotene, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B12, folate, vitamin C, antioxidants, calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium and iodine.

Mannatene may also be administered intravenously for ultralong EVA missions.
List of Short Stories

*This is a meta-article meant for author's reference and does not reflect an in-universe perspective.*

## Age of Exploration

* *The High Terrans*: Colonists from Earth arrive on a new world and found The Haven.
* *Death Before Rebellion*: Three generations after the founding of The Haven, humans have spread across one of the three continents of the world. But some within The Haven want to put to death the dreams of empire before they can ever be birthed, and try to seize power.
* *The Bearer of Gifts*: A mysterious explorer arrives on The Haven centuries after the founding of the colony.
* *Do You Wish Upon A Starship?*: A group of spacers left for dead on an asteroid in Hiterian space are without a space craft or any means of long distance communication. How are they going to make it home?

* *The Futurists*: A historian chronicles some of the last major events of the Age of Exploration before the beginning of the Third Trilogy Era with the events of Andromeda.
* *Death From The Skies*:

## Third Trilogy Era

* *The Scorching Fields*: A deadly pathogen threatens to wipe out an agricultural world's vital bacteria, potentially causing a famine for bilions. A team of scientists race against time to find a cure.
* *The Falling Skies*: Young Neru's life changes forever when a mysterious object falls from the sky and her home is overrun with warriors from beyond.
* *The Burning Spire*: Invaders from Hiterian space lay waste to a millenia-old monument, fulfilling a vision seen by a Second Dominion Phaeron.
* *The Wonder Men*: A group of Phaerons land on a world to make first contact for the Second Dominion.
* *The Crashing Dawn*:
Kolob

**Kolob** is the most ancient planet within Solverse. A Celestial world and historically the seat of the First Empire, it also acts as the seat of the Infinite Empire and is a full fledged Nexus World. The totality of Original Creation in all of it's glory is solely preserved on Kolob. The Nexus Gate was constructed on Kolob.

The world is the physical dwelling place of Aion'Ari and is the singular access point to Lei'Aion. Physically present near the center of the Andromeda galaxy, it is the source of Andromeda's intense light at the center. To unascended beings, Kolob simply appears as a blinding source of radiant, unapproachable light. Seen through the Empyrean Verse, Kolob appears as the axis around which the rest of creation orbits, providing a spiritual point of reference for the navigation of the unseen realm.

Only Aion and El have ever physically walked the surface of Kolob. Aetaern is physically present on Kolob through the Unity Gate on it's surface. Save for these three, only Joshua will ever visit Kolob in *Celestia*.
Interplanetary Transport Network

The **Interplanetary Transport Network** is a complex system of infrastructure regulating trade throughout all of Sol System during the First Trilogy Era. Work on the system began in **227 BSC** with the construction of the first permanent cycler craft traveling between Earth, Luna, and then-barely colonized Mars. It was first concieved as a thought experiment in the 20th century AD / third century BSC.

## Concept and Mechanics

The ITN was designed to utilize low energy orbital "pathways" in Sol System by exploiting orbital mechanics and striking a precise balance between travel time and fuel requirements that would allow for a permanent series of spacecraft and space stations to regularly cycle between systems within Sol System with little to no human maintenance. Initial fuel doses of hydrogen peroxide were provided by their constructors; automated computer systems aboard the cyclers use ramscoops to gather free hydrogen and react it with oxygen from the fuel cells over an anthraquinone catalyst to create an indefinite supply of maintenance fuel.

The basic infrastructure of the system is maintained by a series of cycler craft that transport both spacers and cargo on a regular and predictable schedule. The nature of the system allows spacers to regularly interact with archeotechnology, as Apollo-era tech is still functioning.

## Utilization

### Consortium

The Consortium relied on the ITN for its very existence.
Freebooters

**Freebooters** are spacers who make their living through a variety of illegitimate activities, most notably through preying on the legitimate trade activity of various systems.

They are primarily a Sol System phenomenon, although Freebooter practices and influence spread throughout Local Space during the Age of Exploration and Great Expansion.

## History

Freebooting as a practice was isolated to the Rim during the First Trilogy Era. Freebooting was illegal everywhere in the Sol System. In the Consortium, freebooting was considered a capital crime and therefore punished by exile to the Rim. This was ultimately counterproductive as spacers learned they could earn free passage to the Rim by freebooting.

Once in the Rim, this was considered an honor rather than a demerit by some, and these freebooters found themselves working for whoever was the most influential and powerful at the time.

During the Solar War, the Protectorate issued letters of marque to individual freebooters and drew alliances with freebooter gangs to supplement their forces as militia, thereby allowing for the migration and operation of Rimmers to the Main Belt to participate in the war.

Every Freebooter in Sol System knows **The Tale of The Black Dragon.**

## Famous Freebooters

* Mušen de Lagge (Twilight)
* Nic Cruze (STE)
Resistors

The **Resistors** were a fifth column force of irregular, volunteer soldiers fighting for the Technocracy who operated behind enemy lines under deep cover and specialized in sabotage, subterfuge, escape and evasion, and intelligence. They were almost always found in small self-radicalized cells of no more than several dozen operating within Protectorate controlled territory.
Colonel Razmarov

*The Protectorate never surrendered and neither will I.* — Colonel Razmarov

Colonel Razmarov was a Colonel in the Protectorate military during the Solar War. Originally a Free Martian and an organizer of the Krasnygrad Free Martian Militia, he received a field promotion during the Second Battle of Mars and was present for the organization of the Protectorate at Freeport. He served on Mars through several enlistments as a Colonel and oversaw defense and organization of Krasnygrad, as well as peacekeeping.

During the Blockade of Mars, he harshly enforced rationing among the population and extra-judiciously executed anyone caught taking more than their allotment or hoarding supplies. When the Protectorate military began its evacuation of Mars, he refused along with half of his regiment. When CONPOL troops once again came to the Martian surface during the Blockade, ostensively to over see the evacuation of Consortium citizens back to Consortium space, he met them in a bloody conventional battle and at heavy cost to his own forces succeeded in destroying a well equipped battalion of United States Space Marines. He continued throughout the blockade to harass Consortium troops and Technical sympathizers apart from the regular Protectorate forces.

When news of the unity government and consolidation of power by Scaevola and Quintus reached him, he and his regiment left Mars for the Main Belt. There they ruthlessly hunted freebooters, anyone known to be a Technical or Consortium soldier, and attempted to impose a semblance of order. Without official supply lines, he and his men began to rely on the population for support. As time went on, he was forced to dismiss most of his men from their service, who returned to civilian life and continued to support Razmarov’s efforts with what supplies and material they could spare. Well into the Twilight Era, the few dozen that remained under his command became known as **Hardliners**. They fought until Razmarov’s death due to a lifetime of sustained combat injuries. He was given a spacer burial with full military honors and the Hardliners disbanded.
Telemachus Houtrides

Telemachus Houtrides is a deep spacer during the Great Expansion that became famous for living a solitary existence on the edges of Second Dominion space yet consistently answering PET calls. An Icari'yon by descent, he held no loyalty to the Second Dominion but was known to trade, treat, and aid SD spacers. Much of his early life is unknown. However, he relates in his personal diaries obtained posthumously that he hailed from a remote space platform settlement in Icari'yon space that was devastated by Hiterian raiders. While he was able to escape, the majority of the platform's small population was enslaved and removed to Hiterian space.

During the first incursions of the Hiterian Empire into SD and free space, he waged a one-man guerilla war against the Hiterians and was known to brutally torture anyone he captured suspected of having information about his kin.
Charter

The **Charter** is the quintessential foundational document of the Consortium.

*"We, the Peoples of Earth, facing a new and challenging, unprecedented frontier, having been unified over eons of strife, do now choose to Consort one with another, free peoples with free peoples, to secure the basic liberties and foundations of life for all Beings. Therefore, let it be known that the undersigned do unanimously agree to ratify these Articles of the Terrestrial Consortium."*

*- The Preamble to the Articles of Consortium*
Orion's Corsairs

**Orion's Corsairs** was a Free Legion during the Last War. They specialized in raiding, boarding, and freebooting. They received dispensation from the Sons of Andromeda and were thus recognized throughout the Freezone as defenders of humanity.

They operated according to ancient piratical law written in the Caribbean, circa ~1,000 BSC.
Third Genesis

The **Third Genesis** takes place in *Icarus*. All humanity faces a choice. Most of the Second Dominion chooses ascension. Some humans choose reseeding, volunteering their genetics to seed fertile worlds deep inside Second Dominion space and become known as the Icari'yon.

The A'tara will refuse to cooperate with the Second Dominion and instead choose to be "masters of their own fate" and remain as they are. They leave Sol System and eventually settle on Hiteria.
Kith

The Kith were a warrior people who were devoted almost exclusively to battlefield training and martial arts. As a unified people, they inhabited most of one of the three great continents of their world and fought amongst themselves in highly organized struggles that could more accurately be called contests than wars.

The Kith planet has 1.6g of gravity and three major continents.

The majority of their combat was against the massive flora and fauna that inhabited their world. Against these, they use weapons.

Their "religion" taught that a man would descend from the sky and take them to the "Great and Last War", which would destroy and remake their world. It is that very commitment unto death of this whole civilization to fight the Atarians with the Infinite Empire that inspires the other worlds to go to war with them.

Their combat tradition against each other is entirely non-weapon based. Combat is a way of life, rather than a means to destruction. They are all just martial artists and honor is gained through merely participating. The victor of an intrakith combat encounter is glorified with tattoos and symbols of victory, but it is also understood it is now their duty to train the defeated one to help them achieve similar feats. In this way, the entire civilization will be strengthened.

All Kith are ritually tattooed throughout their lives, the different symbols indicating various achievements.

Upon discovering the world and it's inhabitants, scientists from the Second Dominion theorized that they could be descendants from humans seeded by the First Empire, making their world an ultrarare Jewel Planet. Their theory is largely based on the complete lack of evidence in both archaeological record and mythology of the Kith ever having been off of their world or even having an awareness of space travel.
Apollo-Soyuz Landing

On **Septamense 20 328 BSC** (July 20, 1969 AD), the Soviet Union and the United States landed on the moon in a joint effort, marking the first time humans from Earth have been present on a body in Sol System other than Earth. The team was composed of Alexei Leonev, Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

The team spent a total of 24 hours on the Lunar surface and brought back hundreds of samples. The landing effectively brought an end to the Cold War.

The mission was the pinnacle of the Apollo-Soyuz Program.

## Logistics

The mission combined the best of both the Apollo and Soyuz programs. On July 16th, the American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin traveled via a Saturn V rocket from Cape Canaveral Florida, while Soviet cosmonauts Alexei Leonev and Yuri Gagarin achieved orbit in an N1. The two teams met in LEO and used a specially designed rendezvous docking procedure to combine the two command modules and two Lunar modules.

The two teams traveled for three standard days through space. On July 20th, they landed in the Sea of Tranquility together.
Constitutional anarchism

**Constitutional anarchism** is the political philosophy of Confederacy member Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons in Sol System. It is defined as a stateless society in which all participating members voluntarily agree on a basic framework of principles designed to preserve an organized yet anarchist society and prevent the rise of authoritarian elements.

Ganymede continued to function in this way until it was brought into the Second Dominion, many centuries after the Solar War.

## The Ganymede Constitution

The Constitution of Ganymede features an explicit denouncing and total ban of statecraft, Ganymede-wide elections to any proposed position of political authority, aggression, and all forms of economy found in the Consortium. It features mutual aid, voluntaryism, horizontal spontaneous organization, and free trade as the basis of it's economy.
Hal's World

**Hal's World** is a moderate, temperate planet in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. It specializes in industrial manufacturing. Space travel is comparatively rare for Hal's World. Notable natives include Vorsis Jorn, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Second Dominion during *Andromeda*.

It was one of the first worlds to be brought under the Second Dominion.

It's military is called Hal's Protectors. During the Last War, they will feel a deep kinship with the ancient Protectorate of now long-gone Sol System.
New School

The **New School** is an academic method, learning philosophy, and system of thought created within the Consortium Academy system and promulgated through it's series of IPS training schools. While not officially endorsed by the Academy system - in order to maintain the guise of academic liberty - it is the product of Consortium scholars and therefore remains the *de facto* orthodoxy for Consortium academia.

Both the name and the school itself originates from an academic symposium first taking place at New Athens in **SY 37**.

## Influence

### On Historical Studies

During it's time of scholarly influence, it produced a revisionist history of Earth from a Romano-centric perspective. It tends to view all events as deterministically leading to the establishment of the Consortium *a necessiatate*. It focuses on persons, philosophies, and events important to the Consortium while minimizing antagonistic viewpoints.

### On Language

Silvinus Herminus Januarius was a critical figure in the modern revival of Latin as an everyday use language.

It's school of linguistics coined the terms *"Anglatin", "Cyrillic",* and *"Asiatic"* to describe the three constructed unity languages of the Consortium. The three languages were formally codified by New School scholars in the early 100's out of an existing centuries-old trend towards linguistic unity, or, "dedialectization". Learning at least one of the three besides one's local dialect is compulsory for all Consortium citizens.

The New School is also used as a propaganda tool of the Consortium by engaging in a sort of political correction through deliberately suppressing use of what it calls "Old Earth" terms and replacing them with others, such as the use of "Terra" in place of "Earth".

### On Art

New School scholastic organisations have constructed most of the major monumental works of public art in the Consortium era, including the homages to the many deities of Terran Humanism.

### On Timekeeping

The New School also produced the Standard Calendar method of timekeeping, renaming the days of the week and months of the year, and also defining the Standard Year as exactly the length of one Earth year. The Standard Calendar is so scientifically accurate that its degree of error is less than one second for the next million years.

### On Popular Media

The New Media Company is a product of the New School and publishes the *Consortium Review* newspaper twice daily both in degradable pulp and electronic versions in every major city on Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Luna.

## Criticism

Some detractors of Consortium politics have dubbed the New School as "Consortiumism", a poke at the increasing trend of restrictive social thought within Consortium space.
Wheyfare

**Wheyfare**, during the Third Trilogy Era, is an ultrapotable foodstuff produced by the Second Dominion using a combination of El'yon and Urantian technology.

While it appears as something like thick unrisen bread, it is actually composed of orders of magnitude of nanobots that disassemble and reassemble nutrients at the atomic level in the human body to exacting and precise amounts down to the last electron. It is the most efficient foodstuff ever created within Solverse.

A single portion of wheyfare is enough to sustain human life under the most exacting conditions with the single exception of exposure to the pure vacuum of MEST.

Over time, the nanobots break down at a computable half life. Wheyfare may be eaten once every thirty standard days to maintain saturation and peak efficiency. If no more wheyfare is consumed, the body will be free of nanobots in approximately one standard year.
Wilhelm F. Keigel

**Wilhelm F. Keigel,** also known by his alias **Thorstein Rautenstrauch**, is a Soviet expatriate, a founder of Noveautrea, neuroscientist and electromagnetic technician, musician, and the inventor of psychic radio. He is one of the prime engineers behind the Solar War and a member of the Technocracy's triumvirate.

He is the power behind many prominent faces in the once-peaceful Technical movement and an entirely true believer in Technocracy.

## Biography

German by birth, his ancestors were loyal communists and helped fight the German Civil War.

In his youth, he invented psychic radio.

While at university, he secretly took the moniker Thorstein Rautenstrauch and began publication of a small political biquarterly newspaper called *Productunum!*, a portmanteau word of the Latin phrase "united production". He featured a small handful of other writers and his own work was often the centerpiece of each issue. It was published and disseminated in Moscow. It's presence was tolerated by the Soviet government because of it's closeness to communist principles.

During the latter parts of *Invictus*, he publicly reveals his identity and throws the full weight of his influence behind the Technocracy in the Solar War. Around the Second Battle of Mars, he becomes the public face of the Technocracy movement and gives Technical morale a huge boost.

### Influences

Keigel was personally inspired by the functionalism of Robert Heinlein, syndicalism, and the early 20th century Technocracy movement.

## Personal life

Keigel is a devout adherent of Architecture. This sharply contrasts with the scholastic atheism and Terran Humanism of many of his fellow Technocrats.

A habit of his is watching Solar Battles in real time set to classical music, no matter the time.

He particularly enjoys Dvorak, Tsiolkovsky, and Wagner.

## Quotes

"I intend to play Sol System like a symphony and weave even the most discordant note into my most beautiful song."

## Legacy

### The Omniphony

The Omniphony and it's successor the Omniphony 99 was Keigel's invention. It was heavily influenced by early Earth electronic musicians such as Thaddeus Cahill, Maurice Martenot, Leon Theremin, Jean-Jacques Perry, Edgard Varese, Lucian Berio, Pierre Bowlez,

His tech allows a group of people to focus on an instrument, translate brain activity to sound, and record it. The brilliance of the Omniphony and Omniphony 99 is that it allows for the focused effort of a single user. It took Keigel forty years to develop from the original psychic radio tech.
Vorsis Jorn

Vorsis Jorn is the Supreme Allied Commander of the Second Dominion and the human voice of *Andromeda.* Native to Hal's World, he is a descendant of Cyrillic-Americans.

## Biography

### Youth

Jorn grew up on Hal's World in the temperate region. He quickly displayed aptitude for science and mathematics, making top marks in most of his clsses. His parents - hard working farmers, comparatively rare for Hal's world- encouraged his will to tinker and figure things out.

At the age of thirteen, he successfully built and launched his first rocket with himself inside of a semipressurised capsule. The incident nearly killed him and made him a phenomenon known all over Hal's World: the entire capsule began to exapand at about 80,000 m and burst, but he was able to succesfully evacuate and land via parachute.

### Last War

During the Last War, he serves as Supreme Allied Commander of the Infinite Empire. He lives for many millenia, his life expanded due to his possession of a Nexon, a gift from Ecthelion. The Nexon appears as a flaming sword that glows bright white and inflicts permanent wounds on A'yon as if they were corporeal beings. It's presence on the battlefield amplifies his own charisma and has an effect similar to battle meditation.

## Personality

He is a rather stern man, but soft. He is introspective and brooding, but very high-energy when it comes to work. He has spent nearly his entire life in space.

He is fast friends with Ecthelion III Elorian, alongside whom he fights the Last War.

## Family

Vorsis has one daughter, Reyna Jorn, and an adopted son Canagrast Jorn, who is originally Moriezen.
Magnegun

A **magnegun** is an anti-personnel weapon designed exclusively for use in space. It relies on electromagnetic propulsion to expel a small piece of metal at great velocity towards a given target. Such devices may function in total vacuum. They were first engineered in the Main Belt of Sol System from EM impact wrenches utilized to mine ore from asteroids, first invented by Asteroidal Industries, Inc.

Early prototypes relied on an external battery pack clipped to the user's belt. Portable batteries must be recharged every few shots.

The word itself is a portmanteau of "magnetic gun".
Nova Roma

**Nova Roma** (**SY 182** - **SY 196**) was a short lived but influential Roman revivalist republic founded in Roma, Italia, Europa on Earth by Septimus Severus Gaiaus Quintus and the World Congress following the death of Marcus Cato Scaevola and the end of the diarchy that had held together Earth civilization in the wake of the Solar War.

With the official title of "*proconsul"* Quintus claimed official succession to the **Consortium** and wielded more practical power than he did as a member of World Congress. While that body met for the last time several decades prior to Scaevola's death, Quintus proffered an invitation to any and all former representatives that held a World Congress position to join the newly established Senate at Rome. About 5% of them did, mostly from surrounding European regions. Thus, this Senate and its freely-sent representatives constituted the area of direct control.

This small Senate quickly established a new Constitution for Nova Roma based almost exclusively on the ideas of Scaevola. Both Quintus and the Senate vowed that it would not use force to bring any new territory under its wing and expressed a desire to reunify the former Consortium by common consent and peace. Former CONPOL officers were reorganised into civilian police forces with limited authority to keep the peace within its area of influence.

Nova Roma experienced a steady increase in city-states joining the Republic until it was dissolved and the Senate disbanded by the Anthroperium founded at New Athens.

## Overview

At right, a Nova Roman soldier at the time of the republic's heyday.