The voices in His head chimed like an unbroken chorus of song.
He was aware of not only His immediate surroundings, but also of being many different places at the same moment, across several different continuums, and across space and time. When he looked across the landscape, He did not see the expansive primitive grasslands or the brilliant gaseous giant that hung in the sky. He saw complex carbon compounds, amino acids, charged electrons and energy-matter convergence.
He saw the evolving mathematical precision of Creation.
He was certainly conscious of the struggling primate cub a short distance away. He heard its wailing in the tall reeds of grass.
It did not interest Him.
He was certainly aware of the group of primates foraging for food along a nearby ridge and the cub’s mother panicked at discovering her missing son.
It did not interest Him.
He knew the proto-humans would be moving on soon. They had to. They would extend their search for the cub as long as they could, but the survival of the group depended on finding subsistence and shelter and avoiding predators.
The life of a single cub was not as important as the life of the entire group.
Then, inexplicably, out of some distant sensibility, He turned. He took the cub in his arms and gazed into its bewildered eyes. He showed it the world, the landscape, the ridge where the other primates were and its relationship to them. He set the cub down and watched it scurry in the direction of its fellow proto-humans.
The voices in His head momentarily, ever so slightly, paused.
Profile: The Archangel
Profile: Angela
Angela did not wish to go.
She did not understand why she needed to leave her home, her brothers and sisters, and everything familiar. Her mother tried to her best to explain and to reassure her precious daughter. But, none of her mother’s reasoned words belayed the fear and suspicion they stirred in Angela, that she was being punished.
Her mother told her little girl that the Sisters of Temple-at-Delphi would care for her, as she could not. They would provide her with the special training only the Daughters of The Goddess could bestow. Only among the Faithful would she win more authority than Angela could ever achieve as a matron with older female siblings.
Little psiSadewa Angela traveled many times to Temple-at-Delphi in her brief four years. She enjoyed the curious games she played with the Sisters. She relished the Sister’s delight every time she best them… and she bested them every time. But, to live there? The thought frightened her. The Temple, with its wide, open spaces, its towering eerie statues and its strange smells, was not a home.
Despite her protests, her mother brought Angela before the Temple Sisters. As she entered the main mosque she had an epiphany. A vision of a place outside of time and space enraptured her awareness. She found herself transported to a plane neither of familiar matter nor of energy, but of pure thought and essence. It was a place where the mathematical splendor of Creation unfolded itself in perfect order and beauty.
There were beings there, Angela perceived.
They were many and at the same time one entity. They nourished on the force of life that permeated their world. The collective consciousness took supreme comfort in the knowledge that all things must conform to a precise inflexible equation. That comfort was a light that warmed Angela and welcomed her with an emotion alien to that plane. The emotion Angela knew to be home.
The vision passed, become something as fleeting as a dream. Angela no longer feared to stay at Temple. As she grew to womanhood she always took comfort in her first vision. She knew if she tried hard enough that, one day, she might visit that perfect place again.
Bloodlines
Bloodlines adhere to a hierarchy.
Each of the Twelve Great Houses of Aideena are comprised of smaller units within smaller units, connected by genealogy. Marriage, familial obligation, wealth, and social standing are all strictly defined by which clan one’s family belongs to and which House that clan is bound to by blood.
Several thousand households comprise several hundred family-lines. These families in turn form the several dozen clan-groups that make up each of The Twelve Great Houses.
Bladesport
The most popular entertainment on Aideena, the gladiatorial Bladesport Games glorify individual and team expertise with blunted swords and sword-like weapon.
In ancient times, competitions were played to the death. Such games are outlawed but practiced illegally in underground gambling tournaments.
The sport is officially organized under the sponsorship of Houses or families in Houses. Such sponsorships maintain stables of players who compete for the honor of a Matron or Matriarch. Bladesport developed from a form of swordsplay-martial arts originated by the Knights Templar.
Houses or families may chose to settle contractual disputes using Bladesport competition rather than the Faith courts system.
Aircycle
The generic term aircycle refers to any make and model of high-speed vehicles utilizing magnetic-static technology. Such vehicles are capable of vertical lift-off and descent, hovering, and low altitude maneuvering.
Privately owned aircycles are a status symbol. Most models are exclusively designed and manufactured for industry and government authorities. The Gryphon TE-7 Predator utility model is one such aircycle manufactured exclusively for The Order of the Knights Templar.
Ancestors, The
The Aideenan believe the dead have influence over the living and take an active interest in the conduct of their descendants. Lineage plays a significant role in society. Short of worship, generational relationships are revered and ritual appeasement performed. Each person is believed to have a Guardian ancestor, a spirit which mentors them and which can be a force for either good or evil.
Ambrosiadyne
The fruit of the Ambrosia Vine is the only other known natural source of an enzyme produced by an Aideenan woman’s body chemistry. The enzyme permits heightened psycho-sensory abilities in the gender. Distilled Ambrosiadyne, when injested, can increase the brain’s psycho-sensory capabilities and is used in ritual to evoke visions and other paranormal effects. The drug is addictive. Production is strictly controlled by Faith and illegal except for use by the Order of the Oracle. It has no effect on the male of the species.
Aideena
The cradle of Humanity according to its inhabitants, the moon-world orbits the gaseous giant Gaia in a binary system of seven planets.
Though, it is a post-information age highly technological society, the Aideenan retain many of their ancestral-based traditions and customs from a long rich mystical past. The dense region of space where Aideena is located is known for unusual warped field activity and multi-dimensional spatial shifts.
Acropolis
A district of Court-at-Columbia and system of palatial buildings, the Acropolis is the seat of local and world government.
The Parliamentary and central offices of its members are located here. Faith maintains the Temple-at-Court-at-Columbia, its central presence, which includes the city’s Templar garrison headquarters and Aideena’s grandest public prayer facility and one of its holiest sites, Mosque Magna. The Acropolitan Thermae, which is part of Mosque Magna, is a vast public bath, centuries old and remains a focal point of the religious and social life of Court-at-Columbia.
