Stories in the Outer System tell of “clouds of black tendrils, as large as worlds” out in the Oort, which may be alien machine sentience or, then again, could be something else entirely. Or they don’t exist at all, but are just a tale to scare little children. Not much is known of the Quietude, though stories are told in the Outer System of the lost asteroid of Carcosa and of the Nine Billion Hells—whatever those are.

R

Robotniks

Cyborged humans, used brutally in the old wars. Not to be confused with ROBOTS. The few hundred survivors seem drawn to CENTRAL STATION, though some live in TONG YUN on Mars. They engage in begging (mostly for spare parts) and occasional petty crime but are often the subject of pity rather than fear.

Robots

Old and obsolete, humanoid robots are durable, patient, and made to serve. None have been made for centuries and the survivors form a small but significant group present on most inhabited worlds.

S

Sand drawing, ancient art of

Also Sandroing. An art form from the Earth archipelago of Vanuatu in which an artist can create intricate drawings in the sand.

Shambleau

Also strigoi. An ancient form of bio-weapon plague likely developed in the Kunming Labs as a precursor to the Shangri-La Virus and nicknamed the Nosferatu Code. Used in the bad, old wars and now obsolete, though it has since spread throughout the system and continues to infect an unlucky few.

Strigoi feed on feed, as it were, extracting digital consciousness—memory, information, data—from their not unwilling victims. The bite of shambleau is said to give intense pleasure to the receiver, leading to some people becoming willing victims of those afflicted with the plague.

The few shambleau in the solar system live secretive lives, often moving from one world to another, and frequently inhabiting the darkest recesses of transport ships, where their presence is at least tolerated. They are not to be confused with YITH.

Sivan Shoshanim

The solar system’s best-known star dazzles in everything she appears in—and has done for centuries. It is unclear whether she is real but it hardly matters to her admirers across the worlds.

Sidorov embryomech

Devices developed in ancient times to seed comfortable homes for settlers on Mars and elsewhere, though never in much use and generally considered a failure. They are now valuable antiques. The Sidorov embryomech has the appearance of a large egg. When dropped on a world it burrows into the ground and begins adapting available material into a habitable if rather sparse bio-dome.

T

Tentacle Junkies

Humans who genetically modify themselves with grafted tentacles and more extreme forms. Live mostly in water. They are surprisingly numerous, and can be found on most of the settled worlds.

Tereshkova Port