Glossary for DESCENDING ROAD

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macrofluid: a semi-amorphous, dynamic liquid structure functioning as a system with some information-processing and communication capacity. An ordinary liquid has no long-term structure, and an ordinary structure has little or no flexibility or adaptability. A macrofluid combines structure and adaptability by providing for its own reconfiguration into any of a possibly-large number of modes, using data it obtains from objects or surfaces with which it is in contact. The medium in a regeneration tank is a macrofluid.

macular amnesia: a spot or spots in a person’s memory that have been effaced or scrambled by some event such as a tiny stroke or a cosmic-ray collision and the resulting tissue damage from ionization.

mader: a retro slang term for ‘mother’. Its use began with andros, vat-grown, who referred to their biomasks as ‘modders’, or change-inducing mechanisms. The term found favor with young streetboys and streetgirls, who gave the pronunciation a twist that brought in echoes of the Archive records of ancient Earth.

Madhvi: Madh, Madhvi: a young woman of the City; Engel is her companion.

mag-rail: the SVS, in its haste to find habitable planets for humans, needed to locate telescopes nearly a light-year from the solar system to generate sharp-enough images using the evolved Labeyrie hypertelescope. One of the methods considered for delivery of the telescopes was the mag-rail, or magnetic-rail acceleration system, which was capable of bringing projectiles of usable mass to hundreds of kilometers per second of speed. In this system, a set of ten-kilometer-long rails in space surrounded a cylindrical aperture of vacuum, at one end of which the projectile containing the spacecraft was placed. After an initial kick from a rocket engine, the magnets in the rails pulsed in sequence to draw and drive the projectile along the rails without touching them. The magnets also generated a sufficiently-strong field to keep the projectile centered in the cylinder. The system used solar power. The lead SVS telescope researcher, Shotgun Woman, eventually rejected the mag-rail system due to its fragility and sensitivity to the least distortion or degradation of its components.

Maiji: second child of Andrew and Leil, a daughter (their sixth child in an alternate reality created briefly by Andrew near the end of his rise to power).

Main Thread and Trace List: The main list of scene thread lists and scene trace lists available in the Archives, leading to paths for traversing the Archives either from their starting points or from their ends.

maint: maintenance.

Majid: one of Doug‘s fellow prisoners at Oberon.

mak: streetchild word for ‘make’.

Makazuo: a street leading from Aswar Tyrae out to Fifth Ring. A popular memwall is on Makazuo Drift.

Mama Bones: the girl, wearing a cap made of finger bones, who led the pack of street children in which Andrew found the little girl he called Janny.

Mama Jones: a girl leading a pack of streetchildren in the sector near the concealed home of Jono.

Mando: a common name used by Miyako to label one of the vital-sign monitoring links she wore.

Mantis Man: Sulimar‘s name for a street preacher of the Fandarinn, derived from the preacher’s arm postures and movements during his sermons.

Marande: a City militia trainee in Andrew‘s group; later, the best soldier in Nazrelo‘s battle group, fighting on the side of the colls.

Marissan: the wife of a militiaman killed by Arlen‘s Argazindari.

Marjonex: one of Nazrelo‘s group of fighters.

Marko: mathematician and friend of Deng.

Marmion: a Novander Wye man, killed by Ezzar in a personal coll vendetta.

Marra: Arantow, Marra: Marra Sernea Nine Arantow Fandarinn. A woman of Fandarinn Coll, formerly living in the City, now a mountain farm owner with her friend Deen.

Martela: third child of Andrew and Leil, a daughter (in an alternate reality created briefly by Andrew near the end of his rise to power).

martials: specialists in martial arts, especially the weaponless type. The Argazindari Coll trains most of its men in the weaponless forms of martial arts.

Martin: Denvirel, Martin: Andrew‘s oldest brother, Martin Denvirel Wranmar Luce Hejj Anassi.

mashiliya: a dialect word used in songs, meaning ‘beloved’.

Masinarin: a musician and muscleman working for Thringe‘s band.

maso: masochist.

mazz: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. mazz is in the near infrared range 1500-750 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color red-violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be G sharp or A flat. From tabular data: mazz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. mazz is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, mazz equates to a musical G#, and is in the same place in the octave as Red-Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “mazz": mazz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. mazz is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, mazz equates to a musical G#, and is in the same place in the octave as Red-Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

Mazzinart Grey: a Novander Wye man. living on the western plains.

mechannibalization: the process of breaking down pieces of electronic/optical/mechanical equipment and reintegrating the pieces into new configurations to do useful and often illegal work. A useful talent in the lower stretches of the City.

medbox: medbox, medboxes: the ordinary person’s limited version of a medkit, lacking the more powerful surgical tools.

meddie: meddie, meddies: slang for a medic, or medman.

medical: medical, medicals: the facility, often a part of or adjunct to a hospital, designed to reconstruct and heal badly-maimed or nearly-dead people. Usually in short supply in all but the upper levels of the City.

medkit: medkit, medkits: a basic do-it-yourself surgical and disease-fighting toolset, usable by anyone with only minimal training. Usually contains an advisory intellect that plugs into the user’s ear to assist in the kit’s application.

medman: medman, medmen: a medical professional much like a nurse practitioner but with additional skills and privileges.

medpack: medpack, medpacks: on Tarnus, a doctor’s expanded form of a medkit, containing many more medical tools and supplies. On the starships, an emergency medical system usually stored in a backpack and providing a wide range of powerful tools, services, and supplies to a doctor in settings lacking any or all of these things.

medpatch: medpatch, medpatches: an adhesive patch which, applied to the skin, sends medications through the skin and into the body.

meds: medications.

medshop: medshop, medshops: any scaled-down wound care facility in the City.

Meduin: the first female andro created by Hyonarsa. See also Jeddiar.

meirr: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. meirr is in the human range (375-750 nm), and its name refers to the human color violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be G. From tabular data: meirr is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. meirr is in the Human-Visible (375-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, meirr equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “meirr": meirr is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. meirr is in the Human-Visible (375-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, meirr equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

Meiyandao: one of the many languages used among the vanished humans of the pre-Colonist era.

melanocyte: melanocyte, melanocytes: the photon-blocking pigmented cells of the skin, which protect the underlying tissue from ultraviolet and other dangerous solar radiation.

Melasine: a woman working for the insurrection, specialist in tending andros.

memwall: memwall, memwalls: a cleared, smooth face of one wall of a City understreet that may run between ten and a hundred meters in length, used by grieving people to write the names and recollections and blessings for their dead. The City has thousands of memwalls, from its cleanest, most well-appointed sections all the way to its deepest outliers. All are kept in the best possible condition. The writings are expected to fade within a year or two, and they usually give way to the effects of condensation and scavenging of nutrients by some of the tiny insectoids that live on the stone. At such a stage, an inscription may be overwritten by others. The writing is always done using the fragrant ashes of the darkbloom orchids. An example of a memwall is the one not far from Aswar Tyrae, down Makazuo Drift.

Mench: Sulltar Mench, a merchant in Sobi Zone.

mentarine: small flowering herbs with nine-lobed blossoms, used when in full bloom by Marra in some of her preparations.

Mentrius: Leil‘s cousin, later one of ArCorp‘s chief military officers.

merc: merc, mercs: mercenary soldiers, often employed by the corps.

Meritran: a RhoCorp brand name for its agricultural and mining equipment.

metagerin: a cell-growth moderator used by Arlen to retard certain slow-acting aging proceeses in his body.

metalbone: a metal-organic composite woven in a three-phase structure capable of better performance than either metal or bone alone. It offers excellent bonding properties at tendon insertion points, and can be layered to provide an armored skin where needed. Expensive, and hard to maintain.

Metana: the name, in CLang, of the eighth month of the Lulith Calendar. From tabular data: Metana is month number 8 in the 14-month Moon Calendar. You can find all the month names in the reference table titled MOON CALENDAR MONTH NAMES. From tabular data for “Metana": Metana is month number 8 in the 14-month Moon Calendar. You can find all the month names in the reference table titled MOON CALENDAR MONTH NAMES.

Metarbor: a drug with effects similar to ketamine, but less severe.

metathellin: metathellin, thellin: the chief recreational drug of the cities. Its primary virtue is the degree of control it offers the user over channeling of primal emotions and drives such as sex, terror and rage. Its main disadvantages to the user are its addictiveness, and the temptation to let the channeled feelings run wild. As an example, one can imagine a bipolar disorder with mood swings entirely under the victim’s control; metathellin offers this and many other choices for its users. Among its sought-after effects is a long-lasting state of mild sexual arousal.

metatrix: Turiosten‘s word, as best it can be rendered, for the manifold in which she perceived Jeddin falling through Arlen‘s andro farm. The perceptions of the Zashinhalh, the aliens, are many-dimensional. If humans could see attributes of character, like trust and fairness and kindness, as dimensions, we would feel the same richness and confusion as does Turiosten on perceiving the world from her point of view.

metorphin: a potent medical opioid more advanced and less addictive than morphine, used by doctors and medical specialists in field emergencies to block pain very rapidly.

mevizaSR: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. mevizaSR is in the near ultraviolet range (187-375 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be G. Pronunciation of sounds written as SR (*) or ZK (+) as spoken in anjive is described briefly in Andro Notes. From tabular data: mevizaSR is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. mevizaSR is in the Near Ultraviolet (187-375 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, mevizaSR equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “mevizaSR": mevizaSR is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. mevizaSR is in the Near Ultraviolet (187-375 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, mevizaSR equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

Mharhthail: Refers to one of the three children of Anhmharh by qaqanhialh: Mharhthail, Fanhlhaothim and Drhoinhfigh. Also a term in an alien inscription in Arlen‘s possession. See also orhghailhash.

microfarm: microfarm, microfarms: a compact system for generating edible and drinkable nutrient foods from recycled human waste products, used in the one-person spacecraft deployed to repair the Oort-Cloud telescopes of the SVS.

micromain: micromain, micromains: super-small waldoes, equipped with visual sensory apparatus and tactile feedback. The word is used variously to refer to the hand-interface end of the micromain, the tool itself, or the working end of it.

microptics: visual-sensory counterparts to the micromains, allowing the user to see tiny objects at high magnification.

microrepair: the process of repairing microscopic electronic and optical circuitry, at sizes between the millimeter and centi-millimeter range.

microtool: microtool, microtools: refers to micromains and microptics specifically designed for surgical use.

Midge: nain repair creature at starship Tompuso

midlight: term for the time of day in the City when the light level is at its maximum. The equivalent of noontime on the surface of Tarnus.

Mido: a common name used by Miyako to label one of the vital-sign monitoring links she wore.

milcap: military administrative head of a surface regional zone.

milinfo: military intelligence information.

military: the various policing, enforcing and contending armed forces of Tarnus. There are four main centers of military power: the regional governments, the city governments, the coll leaderships, and the corporations, or corps. Each has its own command structure for its military arm, but they are all similar.

Military Organization on Tarnus: The military structures and ranks in different Tarnus sectors

militia: militia, militias: a basic security force consisting of volunteers and conscripts from the normal working population, having police powers. The militia serve as a pool from which better-trained, better-equipped and more-disciplined regional and corporate military forces are drawn and developed. Service in the militia is mandatory for all males for a minimum of five years, and all females for a minimum of three years.

Millie: sentine at Oberon starship assembly site.

Mina: Min, Mina: teen girl and partner to Trin.

Minnie: nain repair creature at starship Tompuso.

Minsai: Minsai‘s place” up in Naga Zone.

minsharrn: the collechi service marks and lineage inscriptions carved into the skins of the coll members. Different colls used different forms of inscription. Some, like the Argazindari, used specific body areas; others performed the scarifications in places selected by the subject or her/his family.

minshillindar: in the pre-Colonial era, the long-vanished residents of the City had developed a technology and craft that allowed them to imprison the worst wrongdoers in an unbreakable, flexible skin bonded powerfully to the stone walls of the streets. Prisoners kept this way were nourished by the ambient light and air of the area. They were able to think, speak, move their limbs, and generally function as living beings, but their blood was replaced by a synthetic fluid that captured the light-energy from their surroundings and fed it to their transformed tissues. When the City residents of that era perished completely in the Great Death, the prisoners survived in their bonds. See also Jono and Unagrist.

Miranda: one of the five major moons of Uranus. Of the five it is the nearest to the planet, and is the least massive and smallest.

Miriam: Mimi, Miri, Miriam: Miriam Parker, doctor enlisted by the starship project, trained for starship migration and cold-sleep reawakening and care. Her parents call her Mimi, Allan often calls her Miri.

mixtomorph: a blended body form, human and snake, or dog and fish, or anything imaginable that could be crafted. Many street walls in the lower City bore seemingly-living relief sculptures of these.

Miyako: Miyako On, very-young SVS repair ship pilot, responsible for some critical work that clinched the discovery of Zeta Tucanae‘s habitable planet.

mnemon: a coherent set of related memories, treated as a unit. A mnemon could be planted in a person’s mind, to be awakened much later by its interaction with pre-specified events or internal stimuli. These latent mnema were useful in training for specific situations and desired behaviors; they were used extensively in the education of andros.

mnemophasic: a form of enhancement to the brain, frequently used for andros, illegally used for humans. These enhancements supplied a multi-layered sensory memory allowing perfect retrieval in self-induced trance states.

Modo: a common name used by Miyako to label one of the vital-sign monitoring links she wore.

Moe: nain repair creature at starship Tompuso

Mondracen: one of the many body plans for the vanished humans of the pre-Colonist era. The Mondracen resembled current humans quite closely in appearance, although their neurosystems were profoundly advanced by bioengineering.

Monford: a smaller city far south and east of the great City.

Monford doctor: the doctor operating to try to save Ezzar and her unborn child.

mongo: moby, mongo: very large.

monopole: monopole, monopoles: elusive particle artifacts of earlier stages of the Universe’s evolution. Efforts to find them have yielded no consistent evidence, but a number of pieces of secondary evidence support the possibility of their presence in masses of certain size and consistency. Planetary masses generally have little chance of hosting monopoles; stellar masses are more likely homes. The presence of large deposits of heavy-nucleus atoms (actinides) is considered by the University researchers south of the City to indicate increased chances of finding planetary monopoles. The researchers also believe the monopolar particles are indirectly capable of catalyzing high-yield nuclear reactions. See also Norgrist.

Monrote: an unfortunate militia trainee.

moondusk: the light offered by a half or gibbous moon lying near the horizon.

Morchendas: lesser branch of Arlen‘s line

morphed: transformed: “the words squirmed and coiled and morphed into readable language;" here, specifically the visible change in text appearance due to incremental computational mappings.

Morriton: worker at a regional government land-claims office.

mottlings: the look of melanoma markings on andro skin.

Mount Mao: one of the highest peaks on Oberon.

mousefeather: mousefeather, mousefeathers: see birdtails.

Movement: Abols, Movement, SAM, SAMs, Science Abolition Movement, The Movement: The Science Abolition Movement (SAM), a clandestine, or darkgreen, organization opposing the large corporations and governments of Earth on the basis of the damage it accused them of causing both human and non-human life on the planet. The Movement was dedicated to eliminating broad science-driven changes in government and private policy and action by any means possible. It was subdivided and compartmentalized like terror groups of the 21st century, making it hard to stamp out.

multisense: any of the modes of sensi communication involving more senses than just eyes and ears.

multispectrum: describing the capability of battle helms to receive electromagnetic emissions from radio to gamma wavelengths and map this vast range onto a range suitable for human perception.

Murch Line: a street west of Aswar Tyrae.

murSRan: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. murSRan is in the near ultraviolet range (187-375 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color orange. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be B. Pronunciation of sounds written as SR (*) or ZK (+) as spoken in anjive is described briefly in Andro Notes. From tabular data: murSRan is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. murSRan is in the Near Ultraviolet (187-375 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, murSRan equates to a musical B, and is in the same place in the octave as Orange. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “murSRan": murSRan is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. murSRan is in the Near Ultraviolet (187-375 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, murSRan equates to a musical B, and is in the same place in the octave as Orange. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

musclebag: musclebag, musclebags: derisory term for any strong andro.

mutework: tasks performed for intelligence and counterintelligence services, whether for the City government, one of the corps, the Regional government, a coll, or the top levels of the Security Arch.

MuTou: a complex, social, board-type game played in almost every coll in communities on the surface outside the underground cities of Tarnus. Also called “boiling stone” or “madness”, a reflection of both its complications and its obsessive appeal among its rabid fans. For some of the main ideas and rules of the game, see The Game of MuTou.

muxiz: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. muxiz is in the near infrared range 1500-750 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be G. From tabular data: muxiz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. muxiz is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, muxiz equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “muxiz": muxiz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. muxiz is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, muxiz equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

myoenhancement: myoenhancement, myoenhancements: a virus-induced gene-transformation process which improves the efficiency, endurance and bulk of muscle tissue.

myogenic: muscle-enhancing.

mythtale: mythtale, mythtales: the coll-preserved stories of long-ago lives, particularly the heroic and fantastic. The story of the Courtship of Praezenti is one of these. Another is the story of Dierdosan the Star-Seeder.