Glossary of Major Terms

The Ascended: A clandestine organization of warriors and assassins who want to wrest control of The Hub from the Merge as well as a sacred order seeking to realign the current power hegemony to better reflect the implied desires of The Creators.

Assemblers: Creator Tech devices used to fabricate objects with flawless atomic fidelity.

Astrograph: The evolving star map inside the Lighthouse on the Hub.

Blank: A body fabricated by Creator Tech that currently has no consciousness.

Common: A manufactured dialect spoken across all Merge worlds, Common was created to simplify communication across various cultures. It is the accepted language of most Hub planets and is central to commerce and diplomacy. For those species unable to speak Common due to physiological differences, MindLinks serve as universal translators.

The Creators: The beings which constructed everything related to the Mass-O network. Nothing is known about them, and they have not lived in this universe for over a million years.

Creator Tech: The general term for "things the Creators built." It is exotic, semi-organic tech, visually unique, and can't be replicated; it can replicate itself, however. It can also self-repair, as long as a Proten energy source is provided.

Cycle: The standard measurement of time on Hub worlds, based on the how long it takes the three suns to complete an orbit around the center mass of the system (approximately 1.4 Earth years).

Discovery Lander: A spacecraft gestated within a Progenitor ship that is sent to the surface of a planet that supports life to establish a transpod receiving station.

The First Cycle: This period refers to all post-Creator civilizations using the Mass-O to converge at the Hub. In this cycle, five original species (Origin 5) discovered and used the Mass-O for millennia, discovering dozens of new worlds, before suddenly disappearing without a trace.

Ghost Residue: The psychological remnants of a borrowed body's consciousness.

The Great Fracture: While the Origin 5 species coexisted on the Hub, Something cataclysmic happened and the Creator Tech locked access to all Lander locations discovered in the First Cycle. All the Origin 5 tech and structures built at the Hub were abandoned overnight, as though everyone simply disappeared.

The Guild: An interplanetary organization that functions as a "no questions asked" marketplace for goods and services.

Helios Nexus: The Mass-O complex, comprised of the Hub (the operational aspect of the Mass-O, including the space station) and Nex City (the city built up around the Hub).

The Hub: The Creator-built space station which is at the heart of the Mass-O system.

Hub World: A planet with a Discovery Lander and functional transpods connected to the Mass-O network.

Jump: To use a transpod to transmit one's consciousness to a body (skin) in another location connected to the Mass-O network.

Jumpers: People who are cleared to use transpods, and generally use them frequently.

The Keepers: A law enforcement agency headquartered in Nex City. They settle disputes on the Hub, track fugitives, and search for criminals that have jumped into other bodies in an effort to evade the law.

The Lighthouse: A central location on the Hub, the Lighthouse is home to the Creators' evolving map of the Unioverse, the Astrograph.

The Masson Zero (Mass-O): A moon-sized machine built by the creators that powers the Mass-O system and gestates Progenitor Ships.

The Merge (Helios Mergence): The governing body on the Hub; a multi-species coalition formed hundreds of years ago.

MindLink: A holographic interface superimposed on reality that allows for personal communication, data access, and other common tasks (banking/commerce, etc.).

Nex City: The primary urban center on the Hub; home to 2 million beings from dozens of worlds.

Null Agent Network: The most notorious, and exclusive, mercenary group in the Unioverse.

The Origin 5: The five species that coexisted on the Hub until the Great Fracture, at which point they disappeared, leaving behind the war-ravaged ruins of their civilizations.

Progenitor Ships: These large "motherships" explore the Unioverse in search of life at near light-speed, and have been sent out for over a million years in every direction.

Protens: Crystal-like structures that store an almost infinite amount of energy; used to power everything in the Mass-O network: the Hub, Progenitor Ships, Discovery Landers, and transpods.

Pure Soul: Someone who has never jumped, or jumps into their DNA clones. This is considered an elite status.

Servitors: The autonomous androids that protect and maintain the Discovery Landers once they are rooted on a world that supports life, and survey the planet to gather data to update the Astrograph.

Skin: A body fabricated by Creator Tech.

Skori: The body you were born into (short for "original skin").

Transpods: Devices connected to the Mass-O network which allow sentient life forms to have their consciousnesses transferred from their bodies to another destination.

True Name: A Merge identification system comprised of a string of syllables. Example: Chi-Ta-Ke-Tor-Veh-Va-Toi-Neh.

Zero Hour: The point at which a consciousness makes its final jump and does not reenter a body. This happens with most sentient beings around jump 500.