Lancer The Fate Project

Lancers

  Lancers were a subset of mech pilots of especially noteworthy skill, reputation and/or experience, even by the already high standards of other mech pilots. Lancers arose alongside mechs themselves as an often-heroic form of cultural icon during the age of the Third Committee, similar to the far older flying aces of aircraft and strike craft. Lancers are the titular player characters in LANCER.   The term "lancer" was a wholly informal term applied exclusively on a colloquial basis, and there was no measurable qualification nor standard process through which one could earn the title. Similarly, the term was not recognized by the majority of military or paramilitary forces, and one's status as a lancer existed irrespective of one's actual military rank. Although many pilots began their careers as the scions or soldiers of powerful galactic interest groups, the vast majority of lancers received the title from their peers and community via personal qualification, rather than by support or preordination from any such influential group.   Kavalieres Kavalieres were an equivalent to lancers specific to the cultural milieu of the Karrakin Trade Baronies, whose unique relationship to the idea of exceptional individuals proving themselves through martial prowess allowed such individuals to achieve a more mainstream celebrity status. Kavalieres (a subset of the more common kuirassers, which were already generally seen as being more capable on average than the median mech pilot) were seen as icons of drama, morality, patriotism and piety, and were often expected to comport themselves to high standards of traditional virtue in such fields.   Although some Baronic institutions held their kavalieres to more traditional military standards of presentation, kavalieres on the whole were quite reminiscent of civilian celebrities in terms of public perception. Such individuals were treated by the public as trend-setters in various mass-market fields such as fashion, and while these elements were rarely if ever present when they were in actual combat scenarios, kavalieres frequently adhered to these trends during public appearances. Similarly, especially noteworthy kavalieres saw heavy scrutiny and speculation with regards to their personal lives, to the point of certain regions featuring mainstream fictional dramas based off of the romantic pursuits of specific kavalieres.

Paracausality

  Paracausality is the concept of divergence from normal causality: A relationship between a given cause and effect (or an effect with no discernible cause to begin with) that does not conform to logic as understood by contemporary science. Any given paracausal cause/effect pairing will possess a consistent and predictable relationship between its cause and its effect, proving the existence of some kind of logic as opposed to incomprehensible randomness, but paracausality is defined by the precise mechanism of how the cause in question produces its associated effect being unknown and in direct violation of accounted-for scientific laws.   Paracausality as a concept was introduced to Union and its inhabitants by the Deimos Event, and subsequent study into paracausal fields facilitated the development of (among a host of rarer and more minor technologies) the blink network and omninet - two of the most critical pieces of infrastructure to the continued expansion and hegemony of Union. NHPs were also paracausal in nature, though the bulk of efforts to exploit them for humanity's gain were done in order to constrain them and minimize their capacity for paracausal activity.