Glossary of Terms
Ancients: the Builder’s of Roads, the people
who founded the ancient Empire of Roads, which rose and fell before even the
start of recorded history. The Fall of Roads was followed by a long Dark Age,
out of which began the mage wars, or The Age of Magic.
Anticom Sililqui: a book written during the Mage
Wars, it is a study of the hierarchy of the Underworld and the Trinity of Evil.
Age: a thousand years. Established by the
first council of the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance, an Age is equal to one
thousand dimensional standard years. Most worlds have roughly the same
day-night cycle, but minute variations made the establishment of a Dimensional
Standard Day impossible. Three hundred and sixty five days, assuming a day is
no less than twenty-two hours long, is one Dimensional Standard Year.
Arcotype:
the operating system of a mobile suit. Sometimes used when referring to the actual
computer device itself.
A.Y. System: the year numbering system of the
Unity Earth Sphere Alliance. A.Y. stands for Alliance Year, for example Hunter
was born in A.Y. 6882. The first number of the four digit year refers to the
Age, so the 882 second year of the Sixth Age.
Battle
Charter: the set of rules for war set fourth by Gudersnipe. These rules
are created primarily from basic human rights, and enforced as a way to protect
the civilian population. Some of the major points include a ban on nuclear,
chemical, and biological weapons; and also a restriction on nuclear-powered
weapons and vehicles. The primary goal of the charter is to prevent the weapons
of war from causing irreversible damage to a world or it’s
inhabitants.
C.A.S.T.S.: acronym for Combat Armor
Transformation System. Used primarily by base Tora’s and Saber Tora’s, but also
on various Gunjins and other mechs. It is a system by
which a mech’s armor and weapons can be quickly removed, and a different set
attached.
Crystal Technology: usually referring to
computer systems that use synthetically grown crystals instead of wires and
chips. The crystals are grown such that the internal structures carry out all
the functions of the computer, from processing data to storing it. Because the
binary data is imprinted on the lattice of the crystal, the technology is not
susceptible to EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) interference, and is far more
reliable than standard transistor-based systems. Unfortunately, the high
complexity of the crystals makes them much to
difficult to mass-produce, and therefore despite availability it remains
outside of widespread use.
Day of Dawn’s Reflection: celebration of the
day when Gudersnipe and the Slayer Dragons avoided going to war. According to
legend, a thick fog descended over the battlefield before the two armies could
draw swords, and Uther found himself sitting the entire night back to back with
Laytami, the founder of Gudersnipe. Originally the
Day of Dawn’s Reflection was observed by reflecting on ones past conflicts, but
in more recent eras has become synonymous with Christmas, which is generally
observed by exchanging gifts.
D.S.D.: Dimensional Standard Dollars; the
currency backed by the full faith and credit of the Unity Earth Sphere
Alliance. Ironically, They aren’t accepted very many
places. Most companies with multi-dimensional presence instead trade in
Gudersnipe issued GATE credits as currency. One credit is good for moving one
pound or one square foot of material through one GATE jump.
FTL: Faster Than Light
FTL Drive:
faster than light propulsion system.
Fernel Limit:
the set of theories and observations regarding starships and FTL propulsion
within a solar system, or more precisely the effective gravitational pull of a
star. The Fernel Limit explains how and why the
star’s gravity affects the ships engines, acceleration, and the warping of
space-time created by relativistic velocities achieved using the ship’s drive
field.
G.A.T.E.: Acronym meaning Geoconcentric
Actuary Transit Entity, Gudersnipe’s inter-dimensional transportation network.
The GATE system is owned and operated by the school, and is also the primary
source of revenue for the Gudersnipe Organization. As the only economic way to
transport people and goods from one dimension to the next, it is also the
school’s primary political leverage.
Gunjin: a human-type battle mech approximately
seventy feet tall.
Kami: the race of peoples known as Kamians.
Kamians, Kami, and a few other variations, in the ancient tongue Kami means
‘godly people. Unfortunately the Kami suffer from an unwavering belief in there
own divinity. The larger body of the Kamian race believes that they are chosen
by God to rule the Multi-Verse, and anyone who stands in there way should be
brutally crushed. The extremists amongst the Kami believe they are Gods and are
the only ones with the right to live in the Multi-Verse. They engage in
genocide in order to ‘cleanse’ the Multi-Verse of the unclean. To say that all
Kamians are violent, warmongering psychopaths would not be a racial stereotype,
because all Kamians are in fact violent, warmongering psychopaths.
Kiyoku: The cockpit system discovered in
Hunter’s second mobile suit, named Tsubasa. The original Kiyoku was a system
that fed flight recorder and radar data directly into the pilot’s brain through
a Mind Stream Generator.
Library of Arindell: the massive library in Stormreaver
Valley.
Mech: short for mechanical, used when
referring to manned piloted battle robots.
Mind Stream Generator: a device that inputs
data directly into the human brain. First developed by the
Arroyo Foundation in the 475th year of the third age. The
Mind Stream Generator has formed the basis for most neural interface systems
since its development. Improper calibration or over use of the device often
results in insanity or severe brain damage.
Multi-Verse: Multiple Universes.
Mesphosphonic Theoic Acid: nerve gas.
Narrite:
an element originally discovered by Gudersnipe that has amazing heat absorption
properties. It is capable of absorbing heat better than most ceramic polymers,
and is also soft and malleable enough to be easily formed into shapes or even
woven into thread. Narrite is combined with several
other compounds to create Gunjinite, the material
commonly used as armor plaiting on Gunjin mobile suits.
Newman Limit: the theoretical barrier
preventing ships from achieving FTL travel within a planet’s atmosphere. The
Newman Limit Theory states that multi-dimensional technologies like FTL drives
and four dimensional shields cannot function in flat dimensions or on the
surfaces of planets due to a barrier between the third and four dimensions,
preventing matter in the first three dimensions from affecting matter in any
other dimension.
New Type: often refers to a type of mobile
suit, but can be referred to any technology that has been lost and then
re-discovered. Usually only used in reference to lost technology that is
superior to modern technology in some way.
Thingy: Gudersnipe’s technical term for any
type of technology or object which cannot be adequately
identified or explained easily. Other acceptable terms include:
thingamabob, whatsit, doohickey, and mumbly joe.
Tora: a cat shaped animal-type mech developed
by the Red Storm Corporation in the late 730’s of the sixth age. The Tora’s
unique arcotype was created by transplanting the
consciousness of a tiger into a powerful computer data core and processing
system. The earliest Tora’s were the white or base model, which also pioneered
the CASTS.
Tigger:
another cat shaped animal-type mobile suit. The Tigger
was built around the same time as the first generation of Tora’s by a rival
company. While fast and agile, they lacked the superior reflexes and intuition
of the Tora, and so very few were produced. By the year 750 of the Sixth Age
there were fewer Tigger’s in operation than Tora’s,
and the production line was completely scrapped when Red Storm unveiled the
Saber Tora.
Unity Earth Sphere Alliance: the coalition of nations
founded in the last year of the Golden Age. Not a single government so much as
an alliance of nations that acts similarly to the United
States government, in that the Alliance has as much power over the nation
states as the Federal government has over the individual states.
Real Mode: see Real Type.
Real Type: a mech that has been engineered and
developed to a point where every single design flaw has been removed and the
final product is built from the highest possible quality components. In order
to create a true Real Type several prototype builds must be created and tested
to ensure that every design flaw is removed.
Saber Tora: a cat shaped animal-type mech
originally built by Red Storm and later re-produced by Fluffy Cloud
Enterprises. The Saber Tora is essentially an “economy” model of the Tora,
meant to be much less expensive and more easily manufactured.
Slayer Dragons: the ten warriors commissioned
to defend the world of life from evil, and to uphold order and liberty. The
Order of the Slayer Dragons was first established by Uther in the 3628th
year of the Age of Magic his victory brought an end to the Mage Wars and began
the Golden Age. The Slayer Dragon’s are dedicated to three ideals: Truth,
Justice, and Liberty.
Standard: the standard language of the
Multi-Verse. Specifically the primary language of the Unity Earth Sphere
Alliance, but generally a language used by most dimensions. Thousands of other
languages exist, but Standard is still Standard.
Stormwind Keep: home of the Slayer Dragons and
capitol of the Unity Earth Sphere Alliance.
Tournament World: there is a large flat
dimension in the Multi-Verse known primarily as ‘Tournament World’. On
Tournament World there is a huge, multi-faceted mobile suit tournament that has
been going on for centuries, all overseen by the massive Gudersnipe-built mech
Mandate. The entire world is a battlefield, and battles can happen anywhere.
The tournament is ongoing, with hundreds of levels and ranks and divisions
encompassing every kind of mobile suit imaginable. Simply put; in Tournament
World, mechs fight.
Uumen: dragon pronunciation for ‘human’. A
dragon’s maw cannot properly form the ‘hew’ sound at the beginning of human, so
they replace it with a ‘yew’ which is much easier to pronounce. Because the
written language of dragons is phonetic, the word is spelled out in dragon
dictionaries accordingly, and many younger dragons fail to realize the actual
word is ‘human.’ No disrespect is meant by the term.
