Flotsam

by R J Theodore

  Nexus - Collection of energy released during the Cataclysm, which holds Peridot’s loose tectonic remnants together. The home of Peridot’s five deities.

  Peridot - An unusual planet whose natural course was altered through an alchemical ritual for power transference.

  Platform District - A section of Subrosa. Constructed and maintained by a business co-op of Vein merchants and business owners. Constructed with exposure to open air, from solid wood.

  Rosa - A smallish island in Cutter skies, a trading post turned metropolis, located convenient to the border crossing into Bone territories. Populated by all five races of Peridot. Crowded, and prosperous.

  Silver Isles - A tight grouping of small inner radius islands in the Cutter territory. Connected to each other by bridges. Strong Imperial presence. Well-maintained.

  Subrosa - Black-market “bottom-hanged” city suspended from the underside of the island Rosa.

  Talonpoint - Port city of Fall Island, a densely packed but well-organized cluster of housing, hospitality, civil offices, and businesses arranged along streets which diagonally spoke outward from a central ‘green’ in which public addresses, events, and markets are held. High stone walls surround the city to keep the blowing sand of Fall Island’s desert out of the streets.

  Temple of the Feathered Stone - Central temple of Onaya Bone on Fall Island. Features a communing chamber where supplicants may be permitted to speak directly to the goddess via video feed. Center of operations for the priestesses’ intelligence network.

  Tined Spoon District - A section of Subrosa, adjacent to the Platform District, almost entirely dedicated to restaurants and bars.

  Religion

  Alchemy - The practice of manipulating elemental forces to control reality. The dangerous practice is taboo among mortals, enforced most actively by Onaya Bone.

  Cataclysm - Catastrophic event which caused the planet to explode, destroying all life except for the five beings that committed the alchemical transference responsible.

  Recreation - The action taken by Peridot’s five deities to make Peridot inhabitable again, and to create the peoples, flora, and fauna which can be found there afterward.

  The Five - Refers to the five alchemists whose transference ritual in ancient history gave them high-level control of elemental magic, immortality, and the power to create life.

  The Divine Alchemists - Another honorific term for The Five.

  The Deities

  Arthel Rak - God and creator of the Rakkar. Associated with the element of fire.

  Helsim Breaker - God of the Breaker people. Alchemically proficient with the element of life.

  Ketzali - An enormous, six-eyed male raven created by and favored by Onaya Bone.

  Lindent Vein - God and creator of the Vein people. Blind. Disdainful of eyesight. Alchemically proficient with the element of water.

  Onaya Bone - Goddess and creator of the Bone people. Associated with the element of earth. Has a romantic past with Silus Cutter, though they are not currently affiliated.

  Silus Cutter - God and creator of the Cutter people. Associated with the element of air.

  Groups / Affiliations

  Cutter folk / Cutters - People created by Silus Cutter during the Recreation. 1.75 meters tall by Earth measurement. Naturally athletic build. Hair is typically brown to black. Eyes are typically brown or hazel. Skin is a warm honey gold color. Innately prone to wanderlust. Claustrophobia is not uncommon, though not all suffer from it. Primary exports are shipbuilding, glow pumpkin sprouts, water, and aeronautical equipment. Most populous of all Peridot races. Government is an empire, with heavily ingrained bureaucratic infrastructure for local and regional management.

  Bone - People created by Onaya Bone during the Recreation. 1.85 meters tall by Earth measurement. Lithe, angular build. Blue-black hair and purple-blue-green iridescent feathers form a full head of hair, though many shave parts or all of their scalp. Dark skin. Eyes range from gray to purple. Fingernails, when allowed to grow, curve sharply as talons. Traditional martial art is taught as part of educational process. Initiation by solitary hunting expedition to earn adulthood and voting status in tribal councils. Tribal elders form Leadership Council and convene every five years to renew relations as part of a meeting of the tribes, during which the trial hunts are held.

  Vein - People created by Lindent Vein during the Recreation. 1.8 meters tall by Earth measurement. All are born blind. Four arms, two smaller, more nimble primary and two larger, stronger secondary. Slender, willowy. Hair is colorless. Skin is pale cream with lavender undertones. Highly perceptive, with enhanced nervous system to detect electrical impulses as well as ranged temperature shifts, sound, and smell. Primary exports are technologies backward-engineered and developed from discovered Pre-Cataclysm devices. Governed by elite class, determined by academic accomplishment.

  Breaker - People created by Helsim Breaker during the Recreation. 2.25 meters tall by Earth measurement. Tusked from the lower jaw. Large, bulky, and muscular. Grayish, pebbled skin. As far as anyone knows, the Breaker will not die of natural death. Pacifists, highly sensitive to mood and health of those they interact with. Patient craftsmen. No organized government. Most of them commune with nature wherever they can live peacefully. Often share islands with Rakkar.

  Rakkar - The people created by Arthel Rak. 1.6 meters by Earth measurement. Slender, petite build. Rosy-yellow skin, with protective chitin plating covering most of the face, hands, and forearms. Resistant to the effects of high heat, smoke, and toxic chemicals. Black eyes, adapted for subterranean life. Agoraphobic almost universally. Expert engineers and inventors. Defiant of the taboo against alchemical research (although cautious). Primary exports are precious metals and gems mined from their volcanic islands.

  Imperials - A term used to describe the servicemen and women of the Cutter Empire.

  Veritors of the Lost Codex - A cult of Cutter folk who have interpreted an ancient text to mean that the Cutter folk were the only people that existed Pre-Cataclysm. Hold The Five in disdain. Believe that the world is fundamentally wrong and research, plot, and act with the intent to make Cutter folk the dominant—or for some members, the only—race on Peridot. Have a large following among the rich and powerful, and may be embedded in the highest levels of the Empire.

  Yu’Nyun - Bipedal, chitin-plated, digitigrade, bilaterally symmetrical alien visitors to the planet Peridot. Technologically advanced compared to the natives. Interested in understanding how Peridot came to be and how it continues to function.

  Other Vocabulary

  Airship - Transportation vessels featuring hot air lift balloon systems, turbines, steam engines, and sails. Required for long distance travel through Peridot. Designed and built by all races except the Rakkar, primarily by the Bone and Cutter folk.

  Atmo - Short for ‘atmosphere,’ refers to the inhabitable areas of Peridot’s skies, where one may breathe unassisted and temperatures support life.

  Coffee - Beverage brewed from… you don’t really need me to define this, do you?

  Colony ship - Airship habitats for town or city-sized populations of Cutter folk who prefer not to settle down on stationary islands. Often, these ships travel on a regular circuit between islands where they may stop to refuel and trade. Their primary export is ship craft, engineering developments for patent, textiles, entertainment (music and theater), and other products that do not require large tracts of land or heavy ­resource use.

  Dextral - The direction of natural spin of Peridot around Nexus. Opposite of sinistral.

  Duskfey - Tiny bioluminescing pests that feed on vegetation, especially glow pumpkins.

  Fatcrat - Derogatory term for wealthy bureaucrat.

  Flotsam - A trapped layer of loose objects at the bottom of Peridot’s gravity well.

  Glow pumpkins - Enormous gaseous gourds that emit purple light during nighttime hours a
nd golden light during daylight hours. Cultivated on stations across Peridot to provide additional lighting.

  Mantas - Smooth-hided flighted creature with bioluminescent signals in a translucent camouflaging body with long trailing tendril tails. Feed off small insects and other pests. Curved beak, tridactyl feet for gripping perches.

  Mermaids / Zalika - Soulless beings who live and hunt in the stationary storms across Peridot’s skies. They have a long, powerful tail, and flesh-webbed wings. Androgynous with alto and soprano vocalizations, agonized facial expressions, clawed hands, and a taste for flesh.

  Pale coats - A derogatory term for Imperial officers, referring to their pale blue uniform jackets.

  Prayerlocks - Knotted segments of hair maintained by Cutter folk in honor of Silus Cutter, often gripped, twisted, rubbed, tugged, or otherwise to invoke his blessing, as both a pious act, and one of superstition. They are formed in young children as soon as their hair is long enough, and others may be formed later in life. As is the nature of hair (and especially of hair often tugged), ’locks will occasionally fall out entirely and new ones started. These are often decorated with beads or metal rings sold by Wind Monks in various markets.

  Presscoins - Cutter currency. Smelted and minted precious metal, stamped with the official seal of the Empire on one side, and a portrait of the ruler, or ruling family, on the other. Pressed in copper, silver, or gold.

  Sally bar - Slang for ‘salvage bar’. Tool for wedging, levering, and severing.

  Salvage gear - Suit, helmet, gloves, lines, winches, and communication wiring which allows a person to (almost) safely visit flotsam to retrieve lost items.

  Simula - Yu’Nyun-produced android capable of being programmed for both appearance and behavior. Can be controlled, if necessary, by a circlet device that interfaces with its cranial drive. When inert, appear Yu’Nyun in shape, with translucent gel-filled skin over a mechanical skeleton.

  Sinistral - Direction counter to the natural spin of Peridot around Nexus. Opposite of dextral.

  Sirenia - Large roving beasts of the sky which feed on vegetation. Bioluminescing signaling across their body, large fins for display. They attain buoyancy through a balance between inflatable gas organs and consumed ballast.

  Slips - Localized wind systems that travel faster than the air around them.

  Starship - Fully enclosed ships designed for the vacuum of space, capable of long range travel between stars.

  Stormwater depot - Supply stations set up within the storm clouds to collect rainwater for use across Peridot, especially for steam engines. Visited by water trawler airships, and also by smugglers and pirates as a place to hide.

  Tripolarizing kiparcoiled band-conducted electroionic nimbofauna deterrent - Illicit alchemical device designed to protect ships that travel within storm systems from the predatory creatures that live therein. Operates by absorbing and re-channeling the electric currents of storm system lightning and unstable polarization of the air.

  ’tronics - Referring to the backward-engineered technology from the civilization predating the Cataclysm.

  Undercity - A city that is suspended from the bedrock of one of Peridot’s floating islands. Usually to access mineral deposits, but sometimes as a matter of increasing the useable space on an island. Some are motley and/or ramshackle, as with Subrosa, while others are developed, properly constructed, and maintained.

  Zalika - See ‘Mermaids’.