Iron Empires Glossary

See also Burning Empires acronyms list

Ahmilahk

The six-fingered prophet. Founder of the Mundus Humanitas.

AIC

Advanced Intrusion Countermeasures.

Anvil

Planet-based armed forces: soldiers, tanks and planes. Also refers to unpowered infantry armor.

Archcotare

The highest ranking religious official on the planet.

Arch Metropolitan

Another title for the Primarch.

Armiger

Armorbearer to a noble.

Bright Mark

Because psychology was so greatly feared during the Federation Era, DNA markings were placed in most citizens. Each time the Psychologist uses his innate powers, this mark glows brightly in a long line from forehead to cheek over the left eye. Eventually, as the Psychologist uses his abilities more and more, the mark scars and can be seen even when psychology is not in use. It is a mark of pride in the courts of the Karsan League, but reviled nearly everywhere else.

CEBW ("chebu" or "ceebu")

Coherent-Energy Beam Weapon.

Coeptir

Young noble, usually under the age of 15, employed as a page, squire, or midshipman.

Church of Transition (CHOT)

A polytheistic cult that has taken root in the Darikahn Empire’s southern reaches. The CHOT believes in a series of gods that each has dominion over a particular aspect of creation. There are seasonal gods, rain gods, earth gods, fire gods and others. Each is prayed to for assistance in overcoming the elements, having favorable weather and receiving blessings on the home. They are all governed by a matriarchal deity sometimes referred to as Dana but usually simply as "the Goddess." It is called the Church of the Transition because its principal doctrine is that transition is the path of nature. All things begin as one thing and transform to another.

Corvus and Crucis

An electronic port that is built into the back of the head at the occipital lobe to allow control of iron or hammer. Through this interface, the machine responds to mental commands and monitors vital signs. The crucis gets its name from the cross shape of the implant. It is large enough to be seen clearly on the back on the head and is a badge of honor for all who have one.

Cotar

Priest of the Mundus Humanitas.

Cotar Antistes

Senior priest, elected, who officially represents the Church and presides over certain important ceremonies. His word has force of law.

Cotar Arderes

Another title for the Primarch.

Cotar Fomas

A priest much like a regular cotar, but he is also a warrior. He has all the powers of a cotar, but he also commands an arm of the Mundus Humanitas’ military. Unlike a cotar, who is commanded by the dregutai, a cotar fomas answers directly to the archcotare. While he cannot act without the archcotare’s leave, the cotar fomas has broadranging powers. He deploys his units as he sees fit and is the archcotare’s enforcer.

Dregus (pl. Dregutai)

Prelates elected from the cotars. They work as adjuncts for the archcotare, advising and assisting him. They carry out his will and supervise the cotars. Dregutai often officiate at temple services in the absence of the archcotare. When the archcotare does perform the duties himself, the noncelebrant officials are always dregutai. A dregus can become quite powerful if he serves a weak archcotare. Much like the metropolitans are to the Primarch, they are "the power behind the throne." Crossing an influential one is a dangerous business.

Distortion Drive

A drive technology that manipulates the value of time to allow faster-than-light interstellar travel.

Forged

Combining both Anvil and Hammer elements.

Fusor

A squad support weapon that projects a tongue of plasma, energized to the point of nuclear fusion, at great distance and with great effect.

Gunda

Brutal nomadic tribes who flourish by exploiting the resources, (human, industrial & mineral), of the planets they conquer. After milking a world dry they move on, leaving a ruined husk in their wake.

Grav/Pressor

A technology that manipulates gravity to provide reactionless drive inside a gravity well.

Hammer

Space-based naval forces: battleships, cruisers and transports.

Hanrilke

The last dynasty to rule the old Federated Empire. Their collapse brought on the age of the Iron Empires.

HE (1)

Hanrilke Era; the common time reckoning system in the Iron Empires. The Hanrilke Calendar consists of 360 days, divided into 4 quarters: "RISING" from days 1-90, "APEX" from days 91-180, "WANING" from days 181 -270, and "NADIR", from days 271-360. This is a Mundus inspired, seasonal "wheel" which most human worlds use in conjunction with a local, planetary calendar. The Darikahn Court, because of antipathy towards the Mundus Church, uses the Hanrilke Calendar of days, but refers to the quarters as "FIRST QUARTER", "SECOND QUARTER", and so on. The first Hanrilke Emperor, Ober I, took control of the dying Federational Empire in the year FE 10,101 and ruled for 35 years. He established the Hanrilke calendar in the first year of his reign, setting HE year 0 to correspond with the Federation Calendar's year FE 10,000. This means that the Hanrilke Era actually is 101 years shorter than its calendar indicates. Ober knew the value of a "long tradition of rule", even if it was illusory.

HE (2)

High-Explosive.

HEAP

High-Explosive, Armor Penetrating.

HEAT

Hyper-Endothermic Assimilation Technology. A HEAT suit provides excellent heat masking and moderate visual cloaking.

Iron

Vernacular for a particular type of mechanized armor. It is perhaps a noble’s single greatest status symbol—an honor and a privilege allowed to only the nobility and the most accomplished warriors. The Iron Empires take their name from the symbolic image of wars and conquest led by nobles clad in iron. Though it is cumbersome, iron is ingenious in its design. It is a selfcontained environmental suit that turns a human being into a small tank. Power, locomotion, protection, and life support are all provided by the suit. An iron company is a formidable force.

Kerrn

Race tthat was genetically engineered by the Vaylen to serve them; however, after only a generation or two, the Kerrn's remarkable immune system rejected the Vaylen tampering. Kerrn have a fiere hatred for the Vaylen and their engineered slave races. They are large and green, with brightly coloured eye patches.

Landwehr

Volunteer army of reservists organized around a professional core, generally serving as the Anvil force throughout the Kursan League.

Lord-Pilot

A noble rank that allows its bearer to own and operate iron or hammer-class spacecraft.

Mercator

Interstellar transport vessel.

MPIML ("empel")

Man-Portable Intelligent Missile Launcher.

Mukhadish

A bioengineered slave race created by the Vaylen as a labor force. They and the Kerrn despise one another.

Mundus Humanitas

The Mundus Humanitas sprang into life with the emergence of the five-fingered prophet Ahmilahk Ahved Ahll. Ahmilahk appeared in the Comoran worlds, (now the Kudus Theocracy), around FE 10,098. He preached a doctrine of mystery and fatalism, attacking the Church of the Divine Machine (the Imperial Federation's "state" religion), for clinging to the worldly tatters of the old rationalism. This theme was seized upon by Ober Hanrilke and his conspirators in their assault on the state. Hanrilke's support gave Ahmilakh's religion a currency that separated it from the hordes of similar heresies that peppered the Imperial Federation in those years. When the Noble Wars died away, leaving Hanrilke in firm control of the Sphere, the Mundus Humanitas became law. Wherever the CoDM had been, the Mundus moved in, burning the old temples, pillaging the libraries, erecting the flaming wheels that were their central icon. The Mundus continues to be the primary religious belief in the Iron Empires period, although it has been weakened by the fall of the Hanrilke Empire and by internal splits.

Naiven

Native Vaylen worm that has not been implanted in another living creature.

Order of the Mystic Fire

The Mystes are an itinerant monastic order among the Mundus Humanitas. While sanctioned by the Church, the exclusively female organization is regarded with some suspicion.

Order of the Seeking Fire

The Order of the Seeking Fire is the Church’s official name for its internal investigatory arm, known popularly as "the Inquisition."

PAc

Particle Accelerator.

Primarch

Successor of Ahmilahk (also Arch Metropolitan or Cotar Arderes) and the Mundus Humanitas Church's supreme authority.

Psychology

Use of genetically engineered (and now inheritable) psionic powers; the power to read thoughts, communicate telepathically and forcefully alter a target’s behavior or personality with only a thought.

Ravilar

A class of patroned historians who chronicle the events of the age.

SCArE

Sub-critical area explosive.

SCrEM

Sub-Critical Energy Missile.

SCrEW

Sub-critical energy wepon.

Sled

A small vehicle, typically using grav/pressor technology.

Stentor

Personal servant and bodyguard of an Iron warrior, who helps him get into and out of iron and cares for the equipment.

Vaylen

A race of parasites, they're a cross between slugs and eels, unsavory but harmless in their natural state. When they come in contact with another creature's central nervous system (particularly with the brain), the Vaylen secrete an electrically conductive resin with which they control the nervous systems of much larger creatures, effectively short-circuiting the "will" of their host. Vaylen farm-worlds have become the concentration camps of the age, where people are harvested as hosts to their overlords.

VISE

Vision enhancement technology.

See also Burning Empires acronyms list

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