ALOM (also ALUM) -The inescapable Current or River of Fate. The Alom is represented by a temporal double helix, one strand of water and the other of fire. Life is the bond of fire by water. It both leads and follows one everywhere. The Efilu personalize their particular branch of this stream of time and space. (this principle balances fate with self determination and free will).
ANIMEM – Animated memory used for interactive storage of an individual’s life experiences, mind, soul, and body image. Extraction of an Animem at the end of life is aided by third parties via Sharu discipline and severing the hands above the wrists. Animems may take tangible form but are limited to deductive reasoning. An animem can process data submitted according to its experience but cannot internalize new knowledge.
BOLOK – Livestock used much as cattle are used today. These were the ceratopsia of the Cretaceous period.
THE CHILDREN OF DRAGON – popularly used to describe Efilu who were exposed to the Tyelaj or the arctic Yin and Yang symbol. The term actually denotes a cult that includes the Keepers, as well as Si Tyen mystics still operating in the Efilu Realm.
Dragon’s Air– The Efilu description for the Aurora Borealis, remnant of the Efilu meteor defense strata.
EFILU – Enlightened children of Fitu. Intelligent peoples who originated on Fitu. All are telepathic to some degree. All are descended from what we have come to know as dinosaurs. (See EFILU: THE PEOPLES OF THE REALM.)
EXODUS – The escape and migration from Fitu after the catastrophe 65 million years ago.
EXODUS CORRIDOR – The pathway through space traveled by the Efilu when they abandoned Fitu.
FITU – The Efilu name for Earth.
FORECHAIR – Because the anatomy of most Efilu includes a sizable tail, few people of the Realm are comfortable sitting in a chair with a back. The forechair has a vertical supporting structure in the front for the torso and a horizontal extension in the rear for the tail to rest on. Arms are either absent altogether from forechairs or are located as a shelf on the front of the chair, over which clasped arms may rest.
FUR-MITE – Efilu slang term for a mammal. Usually derogatory.
GEL APPARATUS – A variety of crystal integration machines used for managing, storing, and transmitting data. They are coupled with a solution of electromagnetically active particles that act as nanoscale construction devices or building blocks to form a macroscopic tool or structure (e.g., gelconsole, gelcore, gelcraft, gel-decor, gelfactory). Also, See WAVE.
JING – A broad term referring to mammals. The Efilu make no distinction between Jing, with reference to size or species. More formal than fur-mite, but still a term of derision.
JING PEN- Artificially engineered mammals. In high times of Fitu, “Jing Pen” was synonymous with “toy.”
KAS PEN – Snakes. Genetically engineered reptiles designed to control mammalian (Jing) infestations. The absence of limbs was a genetically engineered adaptation for pursuing their smaller quarry deep into burrows and crevices. This increased reach of the Kas Pen fangs and venom completed a combination of weapons against which the primitive mammals had no defense.
MEG – Any male Efilu.
MER – (pronounced mare) Any female Efilu.
MEREN – More than one individual Efilu of either or both genders.
MINI-WAVE – A powerful gel apparatus that is one thousandth the mass of a Wave. See WAVE.
MINOR SUBSPECIES – Many of the dominant Efilu served as sponsors to subspecies of their genetic lines. These close relatives were usually fertile and often cross bred with Higher Societies. Some became independent (Lower Societies) but were never potent participants in Efilu politics.
PEN – The modifier used to denote genetic engineering of a natural organism to suit Efilu needs. The name of the natural base organism always precedes the word Pen.
PERSONAL SPHERE OF INFLUENCE – Derived from the natural electromagnetic aura that is generated by all living things. The Efilu generate a more intense field than most lower life-forms, owing to the formers’ high metabolism and tissue density. Furthermore, by means of extra-sensory perception, the field is partially visible to Efilu. To one degree or another, the Efilu have been able to fold and convolute the field into more complex and versatile psychic appendages (e.g., astral sensory probes, electromagnetic emitters, telekinetic pseudopods).
QUATAL – A defeated enemy race. They were dendritic shape shifters who unsuccessfully challenged the Efilu in battle.
SKYWAKE- As in flocks of modern birds, air currents form a “V” pattern and thin the air density immediately behind an apex flight-leader in formation. The lower air density affords less resistance to subordinate wings, but the multiplier effect by supersonic avians build-up skirts of kinetic energy that crest into Skywake with explosive intensity. Especially effective when weaponized to targeted impact by Vansar in legion.
TECTONIC PLATFORMS – Larger versions of Wave technology, Tectonic Platforms are patches of simple biosynthetic mesh deployed above uninhabitable gas giants. Spreading organically over the outer atmosphere, the continent-sized masses are adhesive at the edges and coalesce into one layer a few miles thick (much like Earth’s tectonic plates float on magma). These carefully engineered Tectonic Platforms eventually form a closed sphere at the Ayqot radius (see AYQOT RADIUS definition in Standards and Measures.) The low intrinsic gravity of the platforms gradually attracts debris and dust from the trapped portion of the native atmosphere, building a bedrock stratum across a vast inner surface. Compost seeding the outer surface, with organic refuse, microbes and mold spores contributes to formation of soil on the outer crust. An outer atmosphere selectively released for the gases below the surface mixes to achieve the elemental content and terminal velocity of the native Efilu atmosphere. The end result creates a fertile Fitu-like biome, and the foundation for making a terrestrial giant world ideal for colonization.
TYELAJ – The holographic symbol of the Dragon alternating with the traditional Yin and Yang sign. There is a mystical Si Tyen aspect to this planetary shrine as well as the end-on image of the DNA double helix molecule.
THE ROUND TABLE – Hosting an elite, limited population of one million politicians and administrative support personnel, the city was carved from a single hardwood tree and established as the seat of Efilu power. Still living, the tree is fed and powered by nutrients channeled from its ancient roots and carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins supplied from a network of saprophytic plants drawing from the surrounding soil and grafted to the tree’s circulatory system. Sekwoy generators supplement the city’s power with organic nuclear energy. The center piece of this structure is the Round Table itself: an elaborate edifice with a grand council chamber, and an advanced integrated data processing system. The whole structure is the handiwork of extinct So Beni engineers and has remained intact for over seventy million years. It was salvaged from Fitu fifty years after being left behind during the Exodus.
SENORI – Known by the current fossil record as the Allosaurus. Smaller than Tyrannosaurus, with proportionately longer, stronger arms. Wild Senori hunted in packs like lions.
SENORI PEN – Genetically engineered by the Sulenz to act as guardians against marauding therapods, Senori Pen were derived from the Allosaurus. The arms were genetically shortened to limit their ability to fend for themselves. Known by their skeletal remains as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, they all but drove their natural counterparts to extinction in the wild in the last days of the Efilu on Fitu. They were virtually unstoppable without the use of advanced weapons. Eventually they became like mad dogs, prone to intimidate, accost, and ravage. The Efilu exterminated them during the Exodus.
SHARU DISCIPLINE – Neurologic manipulation technique to relieve pain, anxiety, or involuntary movement (shivers, seizure, itchiness). In terminal circumstances, it may be invoked to read the mind and soul of the dead. This is the basis of creating an Animem as more than a simple recording or clone.
SYNESPRIT – A romantic or philosophical description indicating “as one of spirit.” The term describes lovers, great artists, and thinkers who harmonize with one another, often sharing a common fate in the stream of the Alom.
TELESCIEN – A pure energy machine with no mass. One of a variety of Sekwoy type 3 reaction-powered External Field Appendages (EFA) used by the Efilu for remote manipulation. The compound force field unit is controlled through a telepathy-sensitive interface with its Efilu pilot. It functions instantaneously, even at great distances. Effectively, it’s a temporary, god-like automaton with artificial intelligence beyond that of any computer known to man.
TOMET – A peaceful alien race doomed by settling a star system once inhabited by the Efilu.
WAVE – Large gel apparatus used for extensive planetary or orbital tasks, (engineering or military). Very versatile, it can assume many configurations, such as space labs, bases, factories, or surface cities, but not the nearly infinite metamorphic options offered by the telescien. Its potential energy output is greater than a telescien’s since it has mass. A Wave is more durable than a telescien and can carry massive amounts of cargo, a myriad of passengers, or whole armies as it is derivative of similar, but more complex technology than the Tectonic Platform.