The Nexus

A clandestine worldwide peacekeeping organization. Primarily based in cyberspace, the Nexus was composed of volunteers from all levels of all societies. In the beginning, their operations were considered illegal, so it became customary for Nexus operatives to take on code names and conceal their identities. This custom persisted into future generations, even as the Nexus itself gained more popularity and public approval.

From its foundation in 2011 until the crisis of 2042, the Nexus was primarily an extra-governmental peacekeeping organization. Its most powerful weapon was the Interdict. The terms of Interdict, in theory, were unyielding: an offending nation could have no commerce or contact with the world community until they were ready to rejoin it. No trade, no tourists, no Net connections in or out. Only the press was allowed to enter. Only refugees were allowed to leave.

In this period, the Nexus did not decide when and where to impose the Interdict; instead, it acted when the United Nations passed a resolution against a particular nation or area -- and the Interdict stayed in effect until the United Nations was satisfied.

The first Interdict, in 2011, was primitive and easily avoided; by 2042, with the co-operation of most national armed forces and countless volunteers, the Interdict had become an airtight barrier. The result was an uneasy few decades of world peace.

As its symbol, the Nexus adopted Drake's Starburst: a diagram indicating the position of Earth (and the Solar System) relative to a number of bright pulsars. For the Nexus, the Starburst became a symbol of a united Earth (and, later, Mars), regardless of nationality, ethnicity, race, or any of the other dividing factors that had almost doomed the planet in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Following the crisis of 2042, the United Nations was superceded by the Terran Council, whose delegates were largely Nexus members. For all intents and purposes, the Nexus became the de facto government of Earth and Mars.

By 2153, the Nexus was into its fifth and sixth generations. Many Nexus codenames had become hereditary names and developed into the Idara (tribes), and the Nexus itself had the flavor of an informal aristocracy. The six Nexus Worlds formed the nucleus around which the First Terran Empire coalesced.

copyright (c) 2007, Don Sakers

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Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna by Don Sakers

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The Ruin of the Sky

Before the Scattered Worlds were found
Around a golden star
A quiet bluewhite planet spun;
There lived Omalinar.

A lordling of the Pyistroph
A joyful one was he
With loving kin and work profound
He lived contentedly.

Until the day misfortune struck
Omalinar and clan
He saw adversity and fear
And turned away and ran.

Kith and kin abandoned he
And planet of his birth
And lordly station, influence,
And peace, and joy, and mirth.

A vagabond he soon became
Transgressor of the law
And went about the Pylistroph
Disliking all he saw.

The fall of such an able one
Did not unnoticed go
Fellow lordlings sought him out
But he was lost in woe.

The darker side of light and life
Attracted him most strong
And strange the paths he chose to tread
He turned towards the wrong.

And sought for power, sought for force
Sought to dominate
Became a lord of knowledge fell,
Became convulsed by hate.

He travelled to the Dark One's world
And landed on that sphere
Climbed to the depths of darkest caves
And trembling in his fear,

Omalinar the sorceror
Now faced the Lord of Strife
And raising hands toward the stars
Surrendered up his life.

And life, and hate, and brooding power
Burst from that dreaded plain
Raced through the sky, a single bolt
Of horror and of pain.

The Dark One then directed it
And made that bolt to soar
With energies sublime toward
The center of the Core.

And in that center starstuff spun
And wrenched apart did seethe:
A wicked empty hole in space
Where once a star did breathe.

A whirlpool of disrupted gas
Lit hellish space around
And gravity gone lunatic
The vortex tighter wound.

Here where space and time are fey
And Nature hides her eyes
Omalinar's last dying curse
Snarls, and spits, and dies.

The Gergathan's power reaches forth
Driven by its hate
Plunges stars into the hole
Shreds the weave of fate.

The vortex answers with a flash
Like Yx's flaming breath
Hellspawn particles gush forth
Carriers of death.

No more the Gathered Stars are kind
No more the skies bring cheer
For radiation bathes our worlds
And death for all is near.

Omalinar has brought the doom
Awaiting you and I;
The Lord of Strife at last achieves
The ruin of the sky.

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Commentary:

From the tenth stanza onward, the song is of incredible antiquity. Manuscripts and printouts survive in the Museum of Worlds on Nephestal, which date from the latter days of the Pylistroph. These contain essentially the same song we have today. Language analysis of these early fragments shows traces of the archaic Coruman which was the original language of the Pylistroph. The events of the song -- a sudden flareup of the central collapsar and the subsequent sterilization of many worlds -- can be dated to the early days of the Pylistroph.

The first nine stanzas were apparently added later, perhaps as emendations of earlier stanzas. Omalinar was an early figure in the legends of many Coruman worlds, although he also appears (as "Ohmahl Inarr") in quite ancient Evellan texts preserved on Nephestal. It is possible that Omalinar was a mythical figure of the Evellan, who was later transferred to Coruman mythology.

The present version of the first nine stanzas dates from approximately the 50th galactic revolution of Nephestal, quite before the development of the Iaranor, when the Daamin were still the only major intelligent race in the Scattered Worlds.


copyright (c) 2007, Don Sakers

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Empress Cathie Kuchta

Empress of the Terran Empire TE 254-275

b. 5 March 227
d. 6 July 275

Cathie Kuchta was the second child of Empress Amy Kuchta and Robert Churchill. Developed in vitro and born when her mother was only 18, Cathie was raised under the direction of her grandmother, Mandike Kuchta. Cathie was a product of the Kuchta genetic enhancement program begun by her great-great grandfather Sten Kuchta (123-237). Cathie showed mathematical and pattern-forming abilities rivalling those of her mother. She had a forceful personality, and soon came to dominate her brother and sister.

Cathie was the last Kuchta to be affected by Sten Kuchta's program. In 234, when she was only 7, her genes were combined with those of Councilmember Karl Lütken to produce an in vitro son, Philip Lütken. Philip, like Cathie and her siblings, was raised by Mandike Kuchta. (Sten Kuchta died in 237; with his death came the end of formal genetic manipulation of the Kuchta line. However, data from the program found its way to the Kristeller Family and the clandestine Kala Phenkae breeding program.)

Cathie was educated with an eye toward the Throne; although she was only 15 when David Kuchta ascended to the Throne, she immediately became one of his chief advisors. When David died in 254, Cathie (age 27) had little trouble convincing the Imperial Council to confirm her as Empress.

Cathie's reign of 21 years was second in length only to Maj Thovold's 32-year reign. It was a peaceful time, a time of expansion. (In TE 260, for example, the Empire boasted 4,275 worlds and was adding new colonies at an average rate of 42 per year.) Cathie was a popular Empress, widely viewed as just and wise.

Daily imprinting of the State of the Empire Report upon her brain caused Cathie to age much faster than normal, and by the time she was 45 she was visibly nearing senility. In 275, at the age of 48, Cathie Kuchta died peacefully in her sleep.

Her sister, Judy Kuchta (age 44) was offered the Throne. Judy, however, had by then established a successful career as a writer of historical fiction (under the pen name Voëlle Acier), and refused the Throne. The Imperial Council voted for Cathie to be succeeded by her son, Philip Lütken.


copyright (c) 2007, Don Sakers

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Inse

Inse is Terra-size world on the outskirts of the Galaxy, 2.7 kiloparsecs from Borshall and 3.5 kiloparsecs from New Sardinia, settled TE 315 (2468 CE) as a mining base.

Inse is a very cold world. Its primary, Tau Cedri, is an M-type red dwarf. Although Inse averages about 0.67 AU from Tau Cedri, it receives about 20% of the heat and light that Earth receives. Luckily, the atmosphere is three times as dense as Earth's and contains a larger amount of carbon dioxide; without the greenhouse effect, temperatures on Inse would hover around -70º celsius. Even with the greenhouse effect and in temperate zones, daytime temperatures rarely go above 5º in the summer, and a chilly 35º below in winter.

Inse is geologically active; some valleys warmed by geothermal processes are actually livable for Humans (summer temperatures sometimes hit 25º, and winter daytime temperatures are just above freezing.)

The planet is the first of nine, in a system that contains three major Jovian gas giants -- its orbit is eccentric and highly inclined to the system ecliptic, and Imperial Galactographic Survey scientists quickly decided that Inse was once a moon of one of the gas giants, knocked into its present orbit in some kind of catastrophe only one or two billion years ago.

Due to the presence of the gas giants and the abundance of geological activity, Inse was an important mining site in Middle Empire times, and remained under the control of Borshall Province throughout the Patalanian War. During this time, the population never exceeded a hundred thousand.

After the Fall of the Empire, Inse maintained a precarious existence trading with Borshall, New Sardinia, and Terexta; however, it was never a highly important port, and did not (for example) become part of the Tr#skan Trade Union. With the formation of the Sardinian League in 5973 CE, Inse attracted limited interest from the Metrinal Union, and her folk began slowly to move away to both Sardinian and Metrinal worlds. By 6800 CE, the population had declined to about 1500, all concentrated in one valley. The disastrous winter of 6916-8 CE destroyed crops and completely buried the last remaining deep-mining installation under a massive avalanche. Hundreds left right away and in early 6918 CE the last Human settlers departed Inse.

Although there were rumors of sporadic expeditions, Inse was not repopulated until Metrinal Union refugees landed there in 8259 CE. About 8600 CE, Inse became a trading partner of the Borshallan Federation, and a terraforming project was undertaken with the co-operation of the native Hlutr.

copyright (c) 2007, Don Sakers

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Find out more in The Leaves of October: a novel of the Scattered Worlds by Don Sakers

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The Grand Starwoods of Ziparque

The Grand Starwoods are a Scattered Worlds race of the world Ziparque. Ziparque is a large gas giant/substar, and the Grand Starwoods are continent-sized tree-like organisms which live, floating freely, in Ziparque's roiling atmosphere. The Starwoods are an offshoot of the Hlutr, but have no particular sensitivity to the Inner Voice and are not considered part of the Hlutr race.

The Grand Starwoods are capable of managing species evolution by force of will. Each Starwood is essentially an independent ecosystem, supporting millions of species and tending their growth and development.

Starwoods reproduce by biological fission, usually when storms tear off pieces of the parent organism. When these fragments survive and grow, a new Starwood is born.

The Starwoods communicate primarily through the exchange of complex biochemicals carried on the winds of Ziparque.

It is conjectured that the Grand Starwoods developed from a Pylistroph Seed Vessel that went astray and crashed into Ziparque approximately 800 million BCE.

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The Metrinaire

Nonhuman inhabitants of the planet Metrin in the Borshall/New Sardinia area. Metrinaire are six-limbed mammaloids with two equally-developed brains -- one in the head, and another just under the rump.

The Metrinaire became partners with Humans in the Metrinal Union (5721-8206 CE). Except for Dogs, Metrinaire are considered the closest thing to a Human partner-race.

Under the Second Terran Empire, the Metrinaire were full citizens. From 21,123 - 21,340 HE, the Empire was ruled by a dynasty of Metrinaire.

Evolutionary Biology

About 880,000 BCE, roughly twenty thousand years after the proclamation of Kaylpeskrit, the Gergathan made a military foray into the Scattered Worlds. Kaylpeskrit had sensed increasing activity in the area that was later to become the Empire of the Miethara, and as a warning threw an ice-asteroid at Metrin, whose Coruman-descended inhabitants were in a hunter/gatherer stage.

The results were catastrophic. Metrin was knocked into a markedly eccentric orbit, one that took about 600 Earth-days and allowed average temperatures to range between -10 degrees and 60 degrees in the temperate belts.

The dominant species entered a symbiosis with another species, resulting in a creature with two brains. The hindbrain (or, in Metrinaire terms, "inner mind") took over body function, allowing biofeedback in a way only approximated by Humans. During the 40-day hottest spell, and the 100-day coldest spell, the Metrinaire went into reduced activity, almost hibernation. The hindbrain developed its own eye below the digestive organ, and nervous circuitry to echo the sensory impressions processed by the forebrain. In effect, the two creatures became one, ultimately carried in the same uterus and fused during gestation.

Later, with technological advance, the Metrinaire managed to gain more degree of activity, but still the annual cycle is divided as follows:
100 days: Contemplation (hindbrain dominates)
130 days: Action (forebrain dominates)
40 days: Contemplation (hindbrain dominates)
130 days: Action (forebrain dominates)

The fact that an individual Metrinaire is actually a fusion of two beings has become obscured with a merging of body function, and nowadays that fact is known to few beyond sophisticated biochemists.

Sex organs merged, so that a male Metrinaire produces sperm from both symbionts, while both sets of ovaries release eggs at the same time. Female Metrinaire have two independent uteri; in each, pairs of embryos develop and merge. Young are borne highly undeveloped, like Terran marsupials, and finish their development in the fur of the mother. Clutches average about 8.3, and infant morality rates are as high as 60%. Gestation takes about 40 days,m and can only occur during the first half of either of the 130-day Action cycles. Conception must occur during the first 10 days of each Action cycle.

Philosophy

The central event of Metrinaire history was the ice-asteroid impact c. 880,000 BCE. The proto-Metrinaire were hunter/gatherers at this time, and apparently had begun to develop speech and mythology. Although most natives died in the 2-300,000 years after the impact, and the rest were transformed beyond recognition, legends and memories were still preserved.

The mythological impact of the Impact was considerable. The ice-asteroid, seen approaching from the sky, was viewed as an act of hostile gods against the Metrinaire race. The Metrinaire thus managed to conceive of themselves as surrounded by hostile gods in a hostile universe. This attitude gave the Metrinaire impetus to develop intelligence, and later civilization, in spite of their built-in dormancy periods.

Most land-based life on Metrin was destroyed by the Impact -- only a few dozen animal species, and fewer than a hundred plant species, remained. The plants, insectoids, and animals immediately started differentiating into other species, to fill newly-vacant ecological niches. Many degenerate Metrinaire forms fill these niches. As a result, the Metrinaire had an early awareness of evolution.

Unfortunately, all species of Hlutr were destroyed on Metrin; there were not even degenerate, partly-intelligent Hlutr forms as on Earth. The Council of the Free Peoples of the Scattered Worlds debated sending Hlutr seedlings to guide the Metrinaire, but Dyyla Nstaz of the Daamin argued against the step, and the Council finally decided simply to ask the Galactic Riders to keep an eye on the planet. The extent to which these Riders helped to direct the evolutionary development of the Metrinaire is unknown.

The Metrinaire, therefore, were one of the only societies to grow up with a full awareness of the legends of the Scattered Worlds.

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The Karphos Corporation

The Karphos Corporation was a mining corporation, specializing in mining the solar wind of unstable stars, especially Mu Venarum, primary of the planet Karphos.

The Karphos Corporation was organized in TE 40 with the discovery of Karphos. By TE 80, the company had expanded operations to six stellar systems within 2 kiloparsecs of Karphos. In addition to mining, the company entered the fields of tourism and starship rental/repair/replacement. By TE 100, the company had reached the upper levels of the Imperial Stock Exchange, and displaced Terran Foods in the #13 spot.

Entry into the Imperial Council cemented the company's position, and until TE 361 the Karphos Corporation remained powerful.

After the Battle of Karphos in TE 361, the company's fortunes declined, and although it remained rich and powerful, it lost its Imperial Council seat and its share in the Kaa Cartel.

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The Singing Stones

According to legend, the Singing Stones were delivered to the Daamin by the Elder Gods in the time before the Pylistroph.

The Stones were 21 in number, of many different colors and shapes. They produce music, music that is different for each listener, and which cannot be captured on physical recording devices. Scientists discovered that the Stones are telepathic resonator/amplifiers. That is, they pick up, focus, and re-project all the thought patterns and emotions that occur anywhere in the Galaxy. The combined concert of all the Galaxy's minds is perceived as the purest music ever created.

Over the eons, four of the Stones were destroyed. One is mounted on the Golden Throne of Avethell, and another is held by the Eldest Hlut in the Secluded Realm. Five are lost, their fates unknown.

The ten remaining Singing Stones are kept on Nephestal in Geva Elen, the Place of the Stones, before the Temple of All Worlds. There, the Watchers of the Stones, a cadre of telepathic-sensitive volunteers, attempt to divine meaning from the music of the Singing Stones.

Through the millennia, some specific prophecies have come from study of the Stones. The two best-known are those of Crettim Bruv and Hanna Hoister.

The Prophecy of Crettim Bruv

Only a weapon forged of a Singing Stone
Held by a scion of Forriva's line
And swung in friendship's truthful innocence
Shall serve to kill the dreadful Lord of Strife.

Prophecy of Hanna Hoister (directed to Gregori Hoister)

A son of yours shall fight and pave the way
And Love's bright daughter by his side will stand
Yet fruitless shall their greatest efforts be
The Lord of Strife will perish at the hand
Of only one: a scion of Forriva's line.

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The Kaa Cartel

The Planet Kaa was discovered in TE 203, and the Kaa Cartel was organized the next year under the Imperial Act of Nonexploitation, for the purpose of regulating contact with the nonhuman natives. The Cartel, after much wrangling and wheeling/dealing, turned out to be a five-member board composed of representatives of the Throne, the Wakmarrel School, Idara deVigny, the Karphos Corporation, and the Sisters of Mercy.

Human interaction with the Kaanese, when it took place, was based in Kaa Station: a large, complex station in Clarke orbit above the major population center of Kaa.

After TE 360, the Karphos Corporation's seat was taken over by Borshallan Artificial Intelligences. In the wake of the TE 381 upsets, the Borshallan Artificial Intelligences seat went to the Borshallan cyborg Kwofi, a re-animated corpsicle from pre-Imperial Umoja. House deVigny was at the time represented by the 52-year-old Alma deVigny. Alma and Kwofi fell in love and married in TE 385. Until TE 413, they totally dominated the Kaa Cartel. Kaa Station became an orbiting Victorian Gothic mansion, the Kaa Cartel wrapped its proceedings in secrecy and extended its power into odd corners of the Empire's socioeconomy in search of security for its charges.

The Kaa Cartel in TE 400 was as close as it could be to all-powerful. Kwofi shared time in Chance, a Svarth-series computer that the Cartel owned. Alma deVigny brought all the considerable power of her Idara to bear. Kandry Renj, the Wakmarrel adept, had slight telepathic sensitivity and spent her time studying the natives from orbit. Sister Julia the Blessed of the Sisterhood barricaded herself in her room and only conversed with the outside world by voice-and-vision circuits. And Ilanor Alexandrov, representative of the Throne, was a slight, pale man whose eyes stared past you and replied to all conversations on a skewed line.

It was a marvelous time.

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Find out more in A Voice in Every Wind by Don Sakers

The Ebettor

A pale, humanoid race from the Galactic Core. It is rumored that the Ebettor are descended from escapees from Cambolinee, who settled on other secret worlds undetectably close to the Core. From those worlds, settlers moved into the Core and under the dominion of the Gergathan.

The Ebettor contacted the Duchy of Geled via ultrawave c. 6390 CE.

First Contact with the Ebettor came in 6484 CE, during a Terran Library expedition to repair Ultrawave Relay Alpha.

Legend says that a daughter of Cambolinee will one day arise to free the Ebettor from slavery.

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TERRAD

TERRAD, the Terran Defense Network, is a series of linked sapient computers whose primary goal is the protection of the populace of Earth and, later, the Terran Empire.

Developed during the crisis of 2042 CE, the TERRAD system rarely took direct command of Terran defense forces; instead, it issued recommendations and strategic plans. Nominally under the command of the Terran Council/Imperial Council/Emperor, Terrad was in reality quite autonomous.

All details about TERRAD were kept classified for security reasons; however, it is known that TERRAD's main processors were buried some kilometers under the surface of Earth, in a secret location or locations. It is conjectured that major TERRAD resources also existed on other worlds, most notably some Provincial Capitals and the Nexus Worlds. After the Imperial Capital was moved to Laxus in TE 381, TERRAD's functions continued unimpeded. However, the Patalanian Union seemed unable to access or influence TERRAD, so any installations on Patala must have been shut down or destroyed at the time of the Secession.

TERRAD most often menifested itself as a single voice and personality. The system was a major advisor to Secretary-Generals and Emperors.

Nothing is known of the fate of TERRAD after the fall of the Terran Empire.

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Dunsinane

Human world near Neordan, home of Idara Adelhardt, founded 2091 CE.

Features:

Birnam Wood: Gerald Adelhardt began Birnam Wood by planting a tree for each new member of his Family. Within a few centuries, it was a dense and trackless forest. One path, the Southern Approach to Castle Adelhardt, was always kept clear of vegetation -- it was a long, impressive, rough-hewn stone staircase. In addition, Birnam Wood is honeycombed with secret paths known only to the members of Idara Adelhardt.

Castle Adelhardt: Built by Gerald Adelhardt, a modern re-creation of Mad King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein.

Cawdor: Capital city. The Adelhardt Planetary Administrator (inevitably) carries the title "Thane of Cawdor."

Thanes of Cawdor

1. Gerald Adelhardt (2091-2144 CE)
2. Howard Adelhardt (2144 - TE 56)
3. Luis Adelhardt (56-116)
4. Karel Adelhardt (116-135)
5. Grant Adelhardt (135-205)
6. Joseph Adelhardt (134-249)
7. Kurt Adelhardt (249-274)
8. Dave Adelhardt (274-297)
9. Martin Adelhardt (297-381)
10. Stepkan Adelhardt (381-385)
11. Gerald Adelhardt (385-422)
12. Duncan Adelhardt (422-435)
13. Beldon Adelhardt (435-438)
14. Heather Adelhardt (438-?)

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