by Ann Wilson
T
T/CT: Terrene/Contra-Terrene, a more accurate term for what is oftencalled matter/anti-matter (since both are actually matter, simply indifferent forms). The reaction between the two forms liberates all theenergy both contain, making it by far the most efficient and leastpolluting energy source available. For this reason, T/CT is usedalmost exclusively for planetary and large-craft energy needs.
TALENT: Psionic ability strong enough to be trained into a reliableskill. Always includes a mind screen (sometimes powerful enough to becalled a mind shield) and telepathy. It may also include telekinesis,darlas, clairvoyance, teleportation, psychometry, rarely precognition,and (so far only in humans) healing. There may be other aspects also,as yet undefined. On Irschcha, it has been searched for and trained bythe White Order since circa 3000 BCE; the first human so trained wasRanger James Medart, in 2569.
Talent is uncommon among humans, only about half of one percent havingmind shields, though perhaps twice as many have the weaker screens.Among Sandemans, Talent of shield level is fifty percent, ninety-fivepercent for warriors. Very few Sandemans, however, are willing to takeTalent training, seeing it as a violation of privacy, so there is noway of telling what other aspects they might have.
TARLAC, Esteban: (2533-2568) Imperial Ranger, 2553-2568. His firstsolo mission was stopping the Nemran revolt. He was almost killed whenthe rebels poisoned him with stingweed, but he was rescued and keptalive, until Imperial forces arrived with medical help, by 14-year oldDavid M. Scanlon, who was made a Life Duke for the feat.
Tarlac's greatest accomplishment, though, was his almost single-handedending of the Traiti War. He agreed to submit to the Traiti Ordeal ofHonor and succeeded, returning to Terra with the Traiti leaders, whoclaimed their rightful place (thanks to their Terran origin) asImperial citizens. Tarlac was assassinated during the ceremony, by aHumanity First fanatic. The Traiti maintain, however, that he actuallydied of his Scarring seconds after completing the Ordeal, and becamethe last member of the Circle of Lords, their gods; they revere him asthe Peacelord.
TARLAC, Subsector 6-G: No. systems: 44 Sector: Scorpio with 3 inhabited planets: 0 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 10 with 1 inhabited planet: 23
TEACHING TAPE: A standard reading tape "overprinted" with electronicimpulses which can be played directly into a human brain to provideinstant memorization of facts. The recipient must still learn to workwith those facts (e.g., how to pronounce and otherwise use the wordsand grammatical rules of a language), but is saved the considerabletime @ would normally have wasted in rote memorization.
TEFNUT, Subsector 12-B: No. systems: 82 Sector: Eridanus with 3 inhabited planets: 4 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 8 with 1 inhabited planet: 26
TERRA: Sector: 1, Orion Year: Standard (365 1/4 days) Subsector: A, Sol Day: Standard (24 hrs) System: Sol Gravity: Standard (980 cm/sec2) Settled/established: N/A Axial tilt: 23.5 deg. By: N/A Oxygen: 21% Satellites: 1 (Luna) % Water: 73 Ident code prefix: TER Continents: Phys. 4, polit. 7 Ruled by:
General: The world where humanity, Traiti, and cetaceans evolved. Itis the Imperial capital world, centered on the Antarctic PalaceComplex; it is also the capital of Sector Orion and Subsector Sol.
It remains a world of many societies, though there is no longer muchfriction between them.
The Traiti call it Truehome.
THAKUR: (Sandeman) One who has accepted personal fealty from another.
THAKUR-NA: (Sandeman) One whose offer of personal fealty has beenaccepted.
THARK: (ISCTK-2395-8016) High Adept of the White Order, 2540-2569.Corina Losinj's teacher until she discovered his planned revolt againstthe Empire. His intent was to replace the unTalented (and thereforeunqualified, in his opinion) human rulers with the White Order. Whenhe discovered that Losinj had become a Ranger, and was forced torealize that some humans did indeed have Talent, his reason for revoltwas eliminated. The same honor that had motivated him to start therevolt then required that he halt it, surrender leadership of the WhiteOrder, and accept punishment. As part of that punishment, he destroyedhis soul-blade, which sent him into a permanent state of psychic shock.Since he had ended the rebellion himself and imposed a part of thepunishment on himself, he was not executed; instead, he was placed inthe custody and care of Clan Ch'kara of the new Traiti Sector.
THOMPSON, Jase: The first Bloodmate to be recognized as such, in 2277.He was in command of the Evaluation Team sent in response to ArchbishopKlein's complaint about Narvonese turning into blood-drinking monsters.When blood tests taken on landing showed him to be extremelysusceptible to the nosferatu pseudo-virus, Count Nilssun decided hewould be an ideal Imperial Liaison for the System if he became a Kin.When he rejected the idea, she arranged for him to become infected,then be weakened enough for the Change. To her disappointment, he didnot appear to Change--but that night, it became obvious that heliterally had to feed a Kin at daily intervals; in so feeding NarvonSystem's Chief of Detectives, Enna Kaufman, he Bonded to her. When hewas questioned by Count Nilssun, he mentioned a dream of the DragonPrince, which led to the further discovery that a number of others whohad not appeared to Change had also had such a dream, and were alsoable, but did not have, to supply a Kin's daily needs. ("Teams")
THOR, Subsector 12-G: No. systems: 74 Sector: Eridanus with 3 inhabited planets: 1 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 12 with 1 inhabited planet: 21
THOTH, Subsector 20-B: No. systems: 158 Sector: Chameleon with 3 inhabited planets: 4 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 8 with 1 inhabited planet: 24
THUNDERBIRD, Subsector 10-A: No. systems: 55 Sector: Aquila with 3 inhabited planets: 6 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 16 with 1 inhabited planet: 23
TITANIA, Subsector 4-B: No. systems: 72 Sector: Fornax with 3 inhabited planets: 2 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 10 with 1 inhabited planet: 24
TOLI: (Traiti) A Homeworld vine that often kills the trees it usesfor support. It also yields orange berries that, to quote RangerTarlac, "look like jelly beans, smell like dirty socks, and tastefantastic."
TORRANCE, Clan: (Sandeman) Clanhome is located on Quivira Continent.Although its specialties are boating and seamanship, like most clans itraises most of its own food; because of Quivira's topography andrelatively cold climate, it has more land than the average clan. Thatland includes most of the Cold Peak mountain range, which is popularwith tourists who can get the clan's permission to visit; the clanhunts there, as well as harvesting ice-berries, most of which areexported as a luxury item.
TORVA BUSH: (Traiti) Actually a low-growing tree. Its tough innerbark can be used as a substitute for rope or twine.
TRAITI: A cousin-race to humanity, having evolved on Terra from acommon ancestor, and removed by the Others about 35,000 BCE to insureracial survival. Although traces have been found on Terra, they werenot recognized as such until after contact was made; before that, suchfinds were denounced as mistakes at best, frauds at worst.
Traiti males average about two meters in height and 250 kilos in mass,with females somewhat smaller. They are heavily built but not fat, dueto greater tissue density. Their bodies are human-looking, as are thehands (with the exception of semi-retractile claws instead of nails),although their skin is medium gray in color and as tough as leatherarmor despite its softness. Heads are their least human-lookingfeature, being ovoid and having the long axis approximately parallel tothe ground, with bulges along the top and sides. The eyes are small;the nose is barely noticeable except for slit nostrils, and the liplessmouth has triangular, serrated teeth. Ther
e are no external ears.
Much of Traiti society is influenced by their sexual imbalance and (onhuman terms) severely limited fertility. Only approximatelyone-quarter of the Traiti race is female, leading to a custom (almost acompulsion) requiring that females and younglings be protected. (Notethat because of this, all Traiti fighters are male.) Their "family"structure is by clans ranging from 10,000 members up, with all adultmembers of a clan acting as parents to all its younglings.
Custom restricts sexual activity to within a given clan, which is not,thanks to occasional adoptions and a very stable gene pool, geneticallyharmful to the race. The general attitude is that sharing bodies is athing of goodness, between any two adult members of the clan.Heterosex is preferable when available, because of the possibility(however remote) of offspring, but because of the sexual imbalance, thegreat majority of Traiti males are bisexual in orientation.
During peacetime, clans are led by the Ka'ruchaya consulting with thesenior fighter, always a Cor'naya; in combat, the senior Cor'naya takescharge, consulting with the Ka'ruchaya. Although she is not in anyformal position of authority, both listen to the clan's Speaker for theCircle of Lords, who is their religious leader. The race as a whole isled by the male Supreme and the female First Speaker.
TRAITI, Sector 21: Ruled by: Supreme & First Speaker, co-Dukes No. systems: 568 Subsectors: 6 Inhabited planets: 308 A. Homesun D. Kranath B. Peacelord E. Carle C. Davis F. Sepol
TRAVELER, Subsector 5-C: No. systems: 93 Sector: Pegasus with 3 inhabited planets: 1 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 11 with 1 inhabited planet: 28
TREASURE-TUNNELS: Role-playing game derived from the twentieth-centuryDungeons and Dragons. It has a steady following in most of the Empire,especially in Subsector Sandeman, where it is a tactical training aidas well as a game.
TRIBUNAL, IMPERIAL: A formal hearing by an Imperial officer todetermine the facts in a case, then order the appropriate punishment orreward.
TRIQUINIA: Sector: 17, Indus Year: Subsector: A, Alph Day: System: Ganges Gravity: Settled/established: Axial tilt: By: Oxygen: Satellites: % Water: Ident code prefix: TRQ Continents: Ruled by:
General: The first Imperial contact with this world was made by RangerCaitlyn Macdonald, who discovered a planetary population of intelligentfour-legged creatures apparently engineered from Terran colonists' petsand domestic animals. The humans had been subsequently wiped out by adisease that did not affect the animals, and all Terran connectionswere forgotten. (Cathy Whitehead)
TUONETAR, Subsector 15-C: No. systems: 156 Sector: Auriga with 3 inhabited planets: 3 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 9 with 1 inhabited planet: 23
TYR, Subsector 18-G: No. systems: 42 Sector: Aries with 3 inhabited planets: 6 Ruled by: with 2 inhabited planets: 9 with 1 inhabited planet: 19