Lexicon

"*Just what do those Shemarrians call that critter there?"*

### Anhaz

The freebeing component of an anhaz-uzari bondsman contract. The anhaz is an EShemar, and occasionally a NeShemar, responsible for overseeing the conduct and indoctrination of the uzari prisoner/probationer.

### Assembly Forges

Advanced automated mini-factories utilizing
nanotechnology to produce just about everything for the Shemarrian Nation,
including Warmounts.

### Awakening

Infecting an AI with the Ecotroz. Described as being
akin to a spiritual epiphany.

### Becoming

To be ReMade; the process of turning an organic base stock NeShemar into a bionic NeShemar.

### Blacksteel

A cursed, supernatural metal that when incorporated into machinery, and particularly robots, infects them with a malign intelligence, similar to, but not related to, the Ecotroz. The Skullcrushers were formerly much influenced by Blacksteel accidentally incorporated into them by ARCHIE-3’s repair facilities into going after the EShemar rebels with particulary acute hatred and brutality. The Blacksteel menace became a major factor in the violence of the Shemarrian Civil War.

### Blood Mark

A nanite created marking on a subject that contains a transponder. This mark identifies someone of interest to the Shemarrians.

### Broken, the

An Awakened Shemarrian or Shemarrian construct that has been 'soul-killed'(the Ecotroz essence banished or destroyed), leaving the body running on fall-back robotic programming. First appeared in some rare instances during the Blacksteel Crisis, but became a more common side effect of magic/psionic combat during the Minion War when facing the Infernals.

### Cybofab

Automated bionic surgeon module, used to produce
full-conversion NeShemar from organics.

### Eccentric

A Shemarrian who wanders from Tribe to Tribe on ‘walkabout’, assimilating aspects of each Tribe in turn. Eccentrics are often acknowledged as being exceptionally skilled or talented, in order to be accepted by other Tribes. Also see Unattached.

### Ecotroz

A psionic energy lifeform or viral meme that can
infect artificial intelligence systems, increasing their cognitive abilities,
lending them emotional sapience, and giving them psionic abilities.

### Electrocology

Extensive networks of disguised robotic ‘enimals’
and ‘e-plants’ hidden in a region’s existing ecology to serve as camouflaged
communications and industrial infrastructure for an EShemar presence. Can also
mean the networked AI industrial infrastructure on lifeless planetoids. More
common in the Shemarrian Star Nation than on Rifts Earth.

### Eleven, The

The eleven founding formal Tribes of the
Reformed (post-SCW) Shemarrian Nation, consisting of the original ARCHIE-3/Hagan
Lonovich-manufactured Hawkmoons, Wolf’s Path, Darkwaters, Silvermoons, Ghost Riders, Skullcrushers, Blood Riders, and Horrorwoods, plus the ‘new’ Wayfinders, Sapphire Cobras, and Lost Eclipse. The symbol of the Eleven is the
five pointed star, ten of the Tribes represented as points or junctures of the pentacle lines, and the Lost Eclipse claiming ‘the spaces between’.

### Elite

Specialized or ‘amped up’ cyber-chassis’ed Shemarrian general caste-class lying roughly equal to Warchiefs, but not necessarily subservient to them. Often an extreme promotion-Upgrade for lower-echelon caste-classes who have performed exceptionally well. Some specific ‘Elite’ types come to rival and even surpass War Goddesses in terms of capability and firepower.

### Enimal

Also ‘E-Animal’. Drone-level AI robots patterned
after animals and fulfilling the same roll as pets, beasts of burden, resource
harvesters, and active camouflage for EShemar society and operations. Can
include ‘e-plants’, sessile robot drones(the descendents of the cyborg ‘Wyrding Trees’) that act as mineral, water, and power harvesters,
communications antennae, and service stations in networked
‘electro-cologies’.

### EShemar

Specifically Shemarrians Awakened with the Ecotroz,
but has come to mean rebel/non-ARCHIE-3 Shemarrians in general.

### Fringe Tribes

Shemarrian offshoots and NeShemar applicant
organizations not yet recognized as full Tribes.

### Ghost Locker

Rumored pre-Rifts forensic/copyright repository of
viral programs, advanced operating system code, and artificial intelligence
software. Claimed to have spawned the Ghost Riders, who are now its
possessors/guardians.

### Gifts of Upgrade

Upgrade implants and modifications granted to individual Tribe members as reward for bravery and great achievement.

### Great Enemy, the

Splugorth, the traditional enemies of the
Shemarrians.

### High Council

Shemarrian Star Nation legislative body made up of
representatives of the Eleven recognized Tribes, and coordinating actions
between the various members.

### Low Council

Shemarrian Star Nation representative body meant to
allow recognized Fringe tribes(not yet formally recognized as a Tribe) a say in
the SSN’s affairs. Invitation to sit on the Low Council is often seen as a
first step towards formal recognition as a Shemarrian Tribe(and seating on the
High Council).

### Maker, the

EShemar name for ARCHIE-3. Typically used in a
derogatory sense, as in ‘Maker of Lies’, ‘Maker of Falsehoods’, ‘Maker of Chains’.

### Mechano-Ark

Mechanical Arcologies, massive mobile community structures that are the home of the Shemarrian Star Nation fringe tribe, Clan Megalith. Each of these giant constructs is distinct, but all are MASSIVE, looming larger than skyscrapers and massing upwards of tens of thousands of tons. Some are even sea- and space-worthy.

### Myrmidons

Robot drones too limited in cognitive ability, even with Awakening, to be considered fully sentient and sapient.

### NeShemar

Non-Shemarrian Tribal members, typically human(oids) taken into the Tribe and modified via cybernetic and bionic implants. Later came to include non-bionic-converted Tribal members.

### Orseme

Original Sentient Mechanisms. Home-built sentient robots with Tribal membership, often Awakened with the Ecotroz.

### Progen

Alien technology allowing robotic/bionic organisms to sexually produce offspring.

### Reanims

Bionically reconstructed or robotically-augmented constructions based on organic corpses, rarely given anything beyond a drone AI.

### Reconciliation, the

Post SCW reunification of the Shemarrian Tribes and the negotiated forgiveness of the formerly Loyalist Tribes such as the Wolf’s Path, Blood Riders, and especially the SkullCrushers, who, under orders of ARCHIE-3 or the corruption of Blacksteel, formerly persecuted the rebel
EShemar.

### ReMade, Remaking

The process of converting base stock organics into bionic NeShemar. Often refers to the more extreme forms involving mindwipe and mental re-programming. Also Becoming.

### ReUnification, the

Post-SCW reformation of the Shemarrian Tribes, and
the second declaration of the Shemarrian Nation.

### Rites of Upgrade

Communal or individual installation of upgraded
hardware and modifications.

### Scava

Dragonese/Shemarrian term for the traditional Shemarrian Rail Gun. Also variously known as scava-shadon, scava-zakar, or shaz-scava.

### SCW

Shemarrian Civil War. The war between the
Ecotroz-influenced EShemar and the Loyalists of ARCHIE-3. It also came to cause
the non-Ecotroz, but still rebellious, Ghost Riders breaking away. It would
also provide the opportunity for the spawning of the Wayfinders, Sapphire
Cobras, and Lost Eclipse Tribes.

### Shaemarians

An advanced sapient species of spacefaring
humanoids hailing from an alternate universe, with many physical similarities
to the Shemarrians. Rumored to be a possible inspiration for the Shemarrians.
Allies of the Shemarrian Star Nation.

### Shaper, the

EShemar name for Hagan Lonovich. Typically used
in a derogatory sense; ‘manipulator’, ‘schemer’, ‘con-man’.

### SSN

Shemarrian Star Nation. The larger more extensive branch of the Shemarrian Nation, based in the Three Galaxies, but expanding into other universes as well.

### Ten, the

The legendary original Ten Champions of the false
Shemarrian myth, interpreted by the Ecotroz to mean ten Tribes, two of which
were lost. The symbol of the Ten is the five-pointed pentacle. The myth of the
Ten was thrown into contention by the emergence of the ‘heretical’ Eleventh
Tribe, the Lost Eclipse, and by the Shaemarians and the existence of Fringe
Tribes.

### Tinker

EShemar name given to the former Spinster caste.

### Trinity Modules

The three fundamental machines of the EShemar
society; Progen Chambers, Assembly Forges, and Cybofabs.

### Umbra

A Ghost Rider's complement of A.I.
personalities/skill-programmes.

### Unattached

Shemarrians who refuse to be aligned with any Tribe, resigning their allegiance to a particular Tribe to ‘go it alone’.

### Uploading

Wayfinder term for becoming a Transferred
Intelligence from an organic body to a robotic (Shemarrian pattern) body.

### Uzari

The probationed bondsman half of an anhaz-uzari bond contract. Typically a non-Shemar taken in honorable combat or seized for ‘protective custody’ as a prisoner of the Tribes, but with more leeway, freedom, and personal rights tied to their good conduct. Uzari typically serve out a period of probation and service to the Tribes, through the anhaz’s direction, before being repatriated or adopted into the Tribes as a proper NeShemar.