Glossary
Last updated May 5th, 2009
Anarchomeme, The
A memetic virus that has occasionally infested the information networks of the sentient species around Jupiter, devouring masses of information and spitting out aggressive, mind devouring infomercials.
Ardo, Floating Coral Continent of
Ten thousand years ago Ardo was the largest coral continent over Jupiter. The Ardans used organic technology they genetically engineered to dominate nearby coral islands, and eventually created a planet spanning empire. It imploded due to being based on a ponzi scheme.
Asteroid Dust Halo of Jupiter
The Halo is comprised of a mixture of asteroids and so-called 'space dust', which is in fact dessicated stellarbacteria and a source of food for grazing astromolluscs and cnidaria.
Bapple
A newer, higher tech version of spackle.
Battlestation Guardian VII
The primary defensive satellite of Io, this heavily armed bastion was built during an earlier era. A gravitic tether beam to Io allows it to slingshot around the moon to face attackers from any direction.
Callisto
Callisto's honeycomb crystal cities, which are grown and tended by the Crystal Gardener Guild, are highly industrialized and populated by corporate elites, who are fed by masses of rural workers kept in a state of ignorant servitude. Alien species are often brought in to manage projects that Callistans are not suitable for. Private property is sacred on Callisto, and backed by the Ownership Enforcers. Home of the Solar Libertarians.
Callistan Ruins
Callisto is laced with tunnels built millions of years ago by the Listans, a species that eschewed stairs, and the surface at the poles dotted with massive structures. The Calans purchased land from the indigenous Listans for high tech baubles, and eventually forced them onto reservations, where they live in a state of semi-barbarism to this day.
Casinoid
A former asteroid which has been built up into the ultimate gambling casino satellite, it rivals the Pleasure Asteroid of Zur as a tourist destination for hedonists and gamblers. Rivalry between the two holiday destinations has led to acts of sabotage, murder, and worse.
Cnidaria Nebula
A nebula of plasma in orbit around Jupiter, it is both a feeding and breeding ground for over two dozen species of space jellies. Known to be unfriendly to outsiders, the Nebula is rarely travelled except by well armed fleets.
The Coral Continents
Dozens of ancient coral colonies, each with the surface area of a Terran continent, float in the atmosphere of Jupiter, devouring aeroplankton. Their undersides are jet black thanks to a thick coating of thermoalgaes which live off the heat generated by Jupiter, and sticky polyp strands up to one hundred miles long extend from stalactites. They sting and absorb unwary floaters, bacteria, bubbleplankton, and gliderclaws, and devour them for their protein. Flocks of nutrient rich fungi balloons, which the coral polyps find inedible, live amongst these wispy tentacles, hiding from their numerous predators; they also act as a lure to draw in gliderclaws.
The top side hosts a wild mixture of flora, including zooxanthel matts. The corals synthesize an anti-gravitic carbonate which forms the hard shell on which they live. Over millions of years, these shells have reached massive size. Sections often break off during the great atmospheric storms that occasionally sweep across Jupiter, and these become new, independent colonies.
Over the eons, the calciferous slabs have accumulated soil and space debris on the top side, and become home to dozens of types of flora and fauna (including the famed green algae forests), all living in a delicately balanced ecosystem. Thanks to their lighter than air properties, the coral shell is eaten by many flying and gliding organisms (which do not use gas sacs or heat) as a means of negating the heavy gravitational pull. Regularly ingesting the material is essential to prevent them from being pulled down into the depths and fried.
Anti-G coral paste is one of the most valuable exports of the so-called coral civilizations. Export is adamantly opposed by many of the species dependent on it for survival, and this industry has been the cause of numerous devastating conflicts.
Cosmic Clash
One of the most successful spacerock bands of all time.
Cybernetics
Many species that live in Jovorbit are cybernetically augmented. Ecosystems can change abruptly thanks to the introduction of invasive species, forcing the indigenous inhabitants to adapt using cybernetics.
Cyclone Bombs
Designed for detonation in Jupiter's atmosphere, these weapons cause severe atmospheric disturbances, which make airspace impassable.
Dak
Traditionally, the leader of a war party. Also a rank in the Ion military equivalent to a captain.
Diacrete City Ziggurats
Dense urban centres built a billion years ago during a previous iteration of Jovian life. They never have stairs, only tubes and tunnels.
Fishlords
The ectothermic Fishlords rule most seas of the lunar moons of Jupiter. They often clash with the space molluscs, who seek to lay their eggs in the deep lunar oceans and never ask permission. Fishlords smell very much like fish, and as they prefer a liquid water environment, are difficult to invite to dinner as anything but the main dish.
Forbidden Space Wreck
The largest artificial structure in Jovorbit, no one knows when it first appeared or who built it. Said to be haunted, it emits undecipherable transmissions from time to time.
Fuel Scoop Station
An ancient space fuel station that extends a long tube down into the oceans of Jupiter.
Gamma Rayguns
Used primarily for cooking organic life while leaving buidlings and ships (mostly) unharmed.
Great Steel Anemone Brain
An obscenely huge anemone that lives on the floor of the metalized hydrogen sea of Jupiter, it is composed of thousands of polyps, each of which acts as an axon/dendrite for a greater communal brain. The polyps themselves are believed to be a form of living metal and are able to withstand incredible pressures. Unable to move, the Great Steel Anemone Brain casts about the psi-ether with its psychic feelers, searching for open, undefended minds to possess. It then directs them to the Casinoid, where it forces them to gamble until all their funds are gone. It has refused all offers of counselling for gambling addiction.
Graviball
The most popular sport in the Jovian Subsystem.
Hopping Robofish Guard
Elite monopedal robot guards given to Emperor Zoz by the Fishlords.
Hub of Generals
The High Command of the Ion Space Forces.
Io
Third largest of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, Io is inhabited by at least 50 indigenous sentient species. It orbits in an ionized torus of radioactive sulphur, produced by Io's volcanoes, and as a result, the inhabitants are highly resistant to radiation. They also sprout atavisms on occasion. Io is a major exporter of jubjub roots, sulphur, and bottled lightning plasma.
Ion Imperial Rock
A strain of music played by adolescents of the Ionian Imperial Class, fusing Terran rock with Martian Mod and Titan Thrash. Not taken seriously in most of the solar system.
Iopolis
Capital of the Lunar Empire of Io, Iopolis currently has a population of 10 million beings. Well known for producing cooling coils and sparkles.
Iok, Lord Ix
First Lord of the Northern Empire of Io, he led the legendary revolt against the Gongles of the Central Calderas, where his people had been enslaved to Dripple the Fonds of Bloor for millennia by the evil Overlords of Gongledop. When Pifflegorg VIII ascended the throne of the Gongles, he imposed crushing new restrictions on Fips of all types, spandling the dottledroop and lowering drogo levels substantially. This led directly to The Millebud Revolt.
Lord Ix Iok is also known for assembling the largest collection of porcelain salt shakers in the solar system.
Jubjub Root
A mild intoxicant when chewed.
Kroop Works
Space shipyard that has been slowly expanding since it was founded over a thousand years ago by a coalition of Ion Warlords in conjunction with The Great Kroo, a powerful industrialist hive being.
Kra-Dak
Traditionally, a war chief. Also a rank in the Ion military equivalent to a general.
Kra-Ken
War god. Said to be a gigantic mollusc the size of a planet that lives in deep space, and ventures into inhabited systems only to feed on fauna once every thousand years. The Grand Kra-Phont advocates perpetual warfare as a religious duty; all blood shed in war is said to honour The Great One. Not to be confused with Wayne Gretzky.
Lupdops
A plant resembling a Nawortletop fig, but with spangles.
Megaclite
An outer moon of Jupiter dominated by a species that calls itself the Megak. Avaricious and aggressive, their economy is powered by slave labour. Mildly telepathic, they are able to inflict pain on others using mental power. They are prized as managers of retail pods and as employee motivators, but result in high staff turnover.
Moot Rah, Last Emperor of Jupiter, Stormking of Jove
The last Ardan Emperor of Jove, he now lives under Europan guard on the coral continent of Gur, in a majestic palace. Admired and even worshipped by many Jovians, Moot Rah has slipped into a state of depression and spends many days never emerging from his luxurious sleep bubble.
Nawortletop
A tree with figs that resemble Lupdops, except without the spangles.
Nutromat
The standard brand food machine that is used throughout Jovorbit. Doubles as a recycler for efficency sake. Nutromats are built on Kale, a bioparadise kept lush and fertile through the use of a huge magnetoweather controller and massive nutrient imports.
Octorats
Cephalopod rat hybrids that live in the sewers, disposal pits, and abandoned undercities of the Jovian moon cities. Hunt in swarms and have been known to worship shiny totems.
Pain Ray
Makes skin feel like it's burning, causing excruciating pain, but doesn't work in rain, or water.
Pleasure Domes of Zur
The famed pleasure domes on the asteroid of Zur are a playground for the rich and powerful.
Nawortletop
A tree with figs that resemble Lupdops, except without the spangles.
Popclick
A type of insect music that creates a pleasurable hypnotic trance state in many insect species.
Positronium bomb
An antimatter bomb. held in vaccuum with a magnetic field. One gram yields a fifty megaton explosion of gamma rays. Leaves no fallout.
Psi-Anemones
Great fields of psi-anemones grow along the bottom of the oceans of Europa. Their interlocking psychic fields create a kind of mass mind and they will dominate the mind of all organic sentients who come near, unless they are heavily psi-shielded or stupidly stubborn. For eons they were used to telepathically enable those with no mental powers.
Shiplords of Sinope
Once the centre of a powerful space going empire, Sinope's small population and the slow reproductive rate led to its eventual decline as a major power.
Spacenet
The solar system wide equivalent of the internet. Made up of three components: Infranet, Visinet, and Ultranet. Infranet is for beings that perceive low wavelength light, Visinet for those that perceive visible light, and Ultranet for those who see in the ultraviolet spectrum. Mneme, which has massive media industry, specializes in converting entertainment programming from one spectrum to another.
Spaceweed
An unpleasantly disposed form of plant life that can live in extreme conditions, barbed spaceweed is both hard to kill and put up with, as it is given to rude catcalls and surly remarks.
Taygete
Jungle moon of wild beasts. The sentient species live in tree bulbs high above the planet's surface, away from the enormous roving carnivores.
Terror, The I.E.S.
Capital ship in the Ion Space Fleet, the Caldera Class vessel Terror served as the flagship of Emperor Zoz from 2842 until 2853. Built in 2351 by Soogle engineers, it was the very definition of High Space Deco Starship Design at the time, and won numerous awards for its sleek lines. Some argue that the sleek outline was obtained by cutting equipment and sections deemed superfluous. Unfortunately this included cutting the number of lavatories aboard by half, and this has hampered the ships combat performance. Damaged in the Battle of Dorpo, it was refurbished in 2839 with brand new fropple hubs, a deuterium/tritium plasma drive, and a fresh photovoltaic coat of paint.
Thebe
Dominated for generations by a defeated and exiled Warlord faction from Io, they recently overthrew their alien masters and reasserted Theban culture and values. Large sections of the equatorial region are still highly radioactive.
Thelxinoe, The Closed Moon
Once a thriving economic hub, Thelxinoe closed its ports to trade during The Golden Age of Piracy. The Thels constructed an enormous magnetron to disable approaching ships, and built a network of subspace noise cavatators to keep space molluscs at bay. Deeply paranoid, the planet has become impoverished supporting its massive military industrial complex. The current Doomlord is Vol Wroth the Totally Nutty.
Thermal Core Cyclotrons
Built by the Magman silicites of Metis, these massive, cyclopean machines take millenia to build. They are used to stimulate the iron core of Jovian moons to generate heat. Magamen build their cities out of their own silicon excretions.
Tiki Space Pirates
Aggressive civilization of alife that took to piracy thousands of years ago. They established bases throughout the solar system and raided interplanetary trade, accumulating a vast treasure trove and developing and appropriating advanced technology. They were eventually destroyed by the vast Galilean Lunar Coalition under the leadership of Supreme Kra-Dak Grymak. Although no Tiki have been seen in over 800 years, tales of them are still used to scare disobedient younglings and are the basis of innumerable horror holovids.
Ultraradio
Music and news net for beings that hear between 60,000 Hertz and 150,000 Hertz. Their radios often include sonoscupltor projectors.
Xor, Emperor of Callisto
Overthrown in 3132 by Emperor Zoz and Lord Akwat Ik the Fishlord.
Zoos Leviablob
A gigantic space mollusc that lives in the deep ocean of Jupiter, it is rumoured to be 200,000,000 km long. This is, of course, impossible.
