Glossary

- Abhuman: Humans with genetic traits gained from natural evolution that have helped them adapt to certain extreme environments. Genetically they are stable, and look slightly different from baseline humans.   - Arcology: A city contained in a single vast building. These structures often contain everything residents need to live and can host dense populations in the tens of thousands.   - AI: Artificial Intelligence. Usually used in reference to non-sentient artificial intelligence that are specialized and/or intentionally crippled/limited. But the term can be used as a catch-all for all AI. But when referring to a very specific type of AI, usually the accurate term is used.   - AGI: Artificial General Intelligence. Usually used in reference to sentient self-aware AI. This kind of artificial intelligence has cognitive faculties comparable to that of a human or higher.   - Awakened AI/Machine/Mech/Robot: An AI that has reached sentient self awareness, usually through a glitch or through their learning algorithms being allowed to function for far too long.   - ASI: Advanced Sentient Intelligence, an AI that has reached a digital singularity and has far surpassed the intelligence of most other artificial and organic life to the point that they are no longer comprehensible. An ASI does not necessarily have to be sentient, but usually is.   - Anarchist: Someone who believes government is unnecessary, that power corrupts, and that people should control their own lives through self-organized individual and collective action.   - Autonomists: An alliance of anarchists, but also used as another word for anarchist.   - AR: Augmented Reality. Information from the net that is overlaid on your real-world senses. AR data is usually entoptic (visual), but can also be audio, tactile, olfactory, kinesthetic (body awareness), emotional, or other types of input.   - Bots: Robots. AI-piloted synthetic shells.   - Borg: Fully body mechanical conversion for a once organic being.   - Bio-Core: An organic computer, usually made from a human brain. Often used by factions that don't trust AI but still need something to serve the same function. Not to be confused with a Cyberbrain, as Bio-Cores do not hold a consciousness and are intentionally lobotomized to prevent them from ever containing one. Bio-Cores can be grown in vats as well but more often then not are taken from condemned criminals.   - Canopy: A common term for the "ceiling" of a shell layer; aka a ceiling stratum.   - Cell: Refers to the environmentally sealed hollow hexagonal structures found throughout Hex. Can be anywhere from one to ten miles in diameter, and are usually two to twelve miles high, often reaching the ceiling stratum.   - Cornucopia Machine: A general-purpose nanofabricator.   - Chimeric: Transgenic, containing genetic traits from other species.   - Ceiling Stratum: The very top of a shell, or relative "up." Typically covered in support structures for weather management and artificial light. Although most people refer to this as a canopy. A ceiling stratum is arguably the underside of a core stratum.   - Core Stratum: The interior shell or underground of every layer. It usually consists of roughly a mile of dirt and rock and has an impenetrable center made of hyper fiber that holds the planet together. A core stratum often has natural caves, and other structures allowing for navigation to either the surface stratum above or to the canopy of a different layer below.   - Comb: A collection of more than one hex cell linked next to each other.   - Cyberbrain: An artificial brain, housing a consciousness. Used by synths, emulants, or full borgs. Can also be made from a regular organic brain, but usually grown in vats. Different from Bio-Cores as these are made for housing a consciousness.   - CE: Common era. The era before the invention of the hyper drive, when humanity was contained within its solar system. This is considered to be humanities distant ancient era. Scant bits of information is left over from this era, and most of it is fragmented and missing context, leading to much debate regarding the origins of humanity.   - Drone: A robot controlled through teleoperation (rather than directly via onboard AI).   - Demi-Human: Some times referred to as Chimeras. These are radically altered humans with a variety of genetic traits from animals and xenos. Although they still consider them selves to be a part of the human race, their genetic alterations make different enough to be considered closer to xenos. Genetically they can be very unstable, but do have a few genetically stable strains.   - Domain Rules: The rules that govern the reality of a virtual reality simulspace.   - Encephla-Core: The conglomerate of ASI's that insure the working order of Hex and its myriad of complex systems.   - Emulant: A digital mind emulation or a neural upload of a previously organic mind.   - Entoptics: Augmented-reality images that you “see” in your head. (“Entoptic” means “within the eye.”)   - Enclave: Used in reference to a small isolated arcology outside a cell. Can some times be aligned to a Fabricator city, but usually neutral and focused entirely on self preservation. Often these small settlements still have access to fairly advanced or unique technology left over from before the Famine War.   - Enclaver/Isolate/Ouster: Variety of terms used for people that live in enclaves. Small well defended sealed habitats in the wasteland.   - Fabricator City: A grouping of linked arcologies built around a large universal assembler. These house the corporate elite, their specialized workers, management class, and their corporate enforcers.   - Fabber City / Fab City / Fab: Slang terms referring to a fabricator city.   - Ghost: Another term for emulant; usually refers to an emulant that had been inactive for a very long time.   - Gil: Derogatory term for Gilded. Usually used in place of a persons name. Example: "Fuck Gil! That ass hole screws me over every time!"   - Encephalon: A memory drive that contains an emulant or "ghost" of a consciousness. A digital back up drive for consciousness. Usually implanted in the spine or back of the neck. This technology is incredibly rare and can only be afforded by transhumans and guilded elites.   - Gilded: Some times referred to as the Exalted or Techno-nobility. These are humans lucky enough to have been born and raised inside the safety of the Fabricator Cities. They are usually augmented and where lucky enough to receive a proper education.   - Guild: A corporation or collective of like-minded artisans that form a company. This term is usually used in reference to corporations that form outside the Fabricator Cities in the sprawls below.   - GE: Galactic Era. Began with the activation of the first hyper drive, followed by thousands of years of colonization through out the stars. It was during this era that Hex was either built or discovered, and subsequently colonized.   - HexNet / Local Net: The local internet/mesh within a cell, comb, hive, enclave or other habitat. These networks are stable and often encompass entire civilizations. But they are separate from far away cells. Every HexNet is like an island in the broader Hex-Sphere. Its technically possible to access distant cells via the Hex-Sphere, but attempting to do so incurs the wrath of the Safeguard.   - Hex-Sphere: The mesh network encompassing the entire world of Hex. The Hex-Sphere is a higher level of the net that all cells are theoretically connected to, and it is the network that the Ceph reside on. Access to the Hex-Sphere is restricted and any attempt to hack it is tantamount to suicide. Only the Ceph can use the Hex-Sphere.   - Hex Spire: A Hex-Sphere access node. Direct access to a Hex Spire or a network of nodes linked to one is required to access the Hex-Sphere. These Spires are often destroyed or kept isolated to prevent anyone from attempting to access the Hex-Sphere.   - Hex: Collective name for the world. This can also be used as another term for cell.   - Hive: A collection of nearby combs. Usually all within a few miles of each other.   - Hyper Fiber: An exotic seemingly invulnerable metal which has a coppery color and fibrous texture. This material makes up the layers of Hex and the orbital pillars. The secret of its creation is only known to the Builders.   - IE: Internment Era. The current era of humanities containment within Hex.   - Indentures: Indentured servants who have contracted their labor to a megacorp or other authority, usually in exchange for a training and the hope of being allowed to live in a Fabricator City.   - Local/Home Cell: The cell you live in or are currently located in.   - The Authority: The mysterious ASI faction that oversees the other AI factions of Hex and works to insure the continued survival of humanity.   - The Builders: ASI faction that performs maintenance and construction on Hex.   - The Ceph: Shorthand reference for the Encephla-Core.   - The Safeguard: The AI faction that protects the Hex-Sphere from digital intrusion.   - The Wardens: AI faction that protects Hex from exterior and interior threats to the world. Their definition of "threat" can be quite broad though.   - The Internment: The closed off condition of Hex. Shut from the outside by the Ceph or some other unknown faction. This phrase also refers to the start of the Famine War.   - The Famine War: Reference to a century long period of time where all of Hex was closed off from the outside and the silver gates where shut down; resulting in the complete collapse of civilization as the population of Hex devoured its self. Trillions perished to starvation, and trillions more where killed in the horrific conflagration of warfare and violance.   - Tribe / Tribals: Refers to residents of semi permanent settlements within the wastelands that are usually indipendant of the corporate empires from the fabricator cities.   - Transhuman: A catch-all term for a sufficiently augmented human that is mentally and physcially altered to the point of no longer being considered "human." Usually these individuals have their conciousness converted into a digital medium with a wholly mechanical or synthetic body. The technology the facilitate this process is incredibly rare and jelously guarded.   - Vermin: Collective derogatory name humans use for all aliens.   - Machine God: Another term for ASI.   - Mesh: A near omnipresent wireless mesh data network consisting of linked wireless nodes, servers, and other devices. Also used as a verb (to mesh) and adjective (meshed or unmeshed). Most networks on Hex are a type of Mesh, including the Hex-Sphere. In simpler terms, a mesh networks are the future internet.   - Mist / Data Fog: Augmented reality data that can some times "fog" up a persons vision or displays.   - Nomad / Badlander / Wastelander: Scavangers that roam the wastelands. They usually travel in small groups consisting of a single family or in large caravans that number in the hundreds. These groups are often well armed and get around on salvaged vehicles.   - Scavanger Kingdom: Vast roaming nations of nomads that number in the thousands. These groups travel from one settlement to another to trade in technology and scavanged artifacts that they collect on their path.   - Shell / Layer: The enormous matryoshka doll-like structures that make up the world of Hex. A layer is sub divided into strata and held up by orbital pillars. These structures can be anywhere from two to twelve miles thick and host a variety of different biomes.   - Stratum / Strata(plural): The sub-divisions of a layer, made of of the core, canopy and surface.   - Surface Stratum: The relative "land" of a layer on top of the core stratum. This land is made up of various biomes with vast expanses of dead cities.   - Sprawl: Vast dangerous ghettos and shanty towns built of the junk thrown down from Fabricator cities. The megacorps have a minimal presence here and corporate enforcers exist only to protect corporate property. The people are left to mostly to their own devices, forming gangs and anarchist communities. These communities tend to police their own or rely on bounty hunters to enforce some measure of order.   - Sprawler: People unlucky enough to be born in a sprawl. Usually get by on forming a gang, cult, or mutual aid community. Sprawlers subside mostly on what ever junk that is thrown down from the Fabricator City above.   - Silver Gate/Arch: Also referred to as just "the Arches" these massive gates are made of hyper fiber and once brought in goods and food from off world colonies. They are scattered through out Hex and lie completely dormant.   - Synth: Short for synthetic organism. Usually used in reference to an artificial human or animal composed of both mechanical and lab grown organic components.   - Wild Artificial: A wild machine or synthetic. Usually an ancient robot left over from before the Internment Era. Non sentient with animal-like intelligence. Can be neutral and mundane, or incredibly hostile.   - Wild Net: Ancient mesh networks within the wasteland. These networks are often decaying and full of viruses and hostile AI's.   - Wastelands / Badlands: Catch-all terms used mostly by sprawlers and guilded for lands outside of cells.   - Omni Compass: A three dimensional compass that floats about three inches off a surface and always points down.   - Orbital Pillars: Enormous structures that hold up the layers of Hex, and are often transfer points between layers. These structures are often heavily guarded by Wardens.   - Zeroes: People without a neurolink or any sort of augmentation. Considered to be extremely rare and generally found only in enclaves.