Glossary of Terms (Killdeer)

General Terms

Aelur (AY-loor) A race of human beings with certain feline features, including slit-pupiled eyes, tall and pointed ears with a wide range of motion, retractile claws, a short coat of soft fur covering most of the body, and a semi-prehensile tail, though this last is kept concealed beneath clothing. Also this race's native language. Derived from Greek aeluros, "feline, cat-like".

First Responders: Often shortened to "Responders". The police of the greater galaxy.

Shiftspace: A dimension parallel to normalspace, but in which distance is compressed. A modern starship and skip through shiftspace like a rock across the surface of the water, with each skip lasting twenty-four hours for the personnel on board but only the three hours in which the ship touches the interface between the two spaces passing for the universe at large. A single skip can change a ship's position in normalspace by as little as one hundredth of a light-year or as much as one hundred light-years, depending on the amount of power used. Interstellar journeys are measured by the number of skips required to complete them.

Tripad: a small personal computing device, equivalent to a smartphone or tablet.

Trison: A three-horned, bad-tempered species of hoofed mammal, bred from standard cattle and American bison, useful as draft animals, milk producers, and sources of meat, hide, and fur.

Vershal (VER-shull): The common language of the greater galaxy.

Womanstone: a mineral found on Avyla, the Aelur homeworld, which is sensitive to certain chemical and thermal changes. Carved pieces of womanstone are worn as pendants by adult Aelur women, both to display their status and to aid them in managing their reproductive cycles.

 Aelur Phrases: 

"Is the door open?/The door is open," : Greeting and response, equivalent to "Hello"

"Run as you please," : Equivalent to "Goodbye", said to the one who is departing

"Keep the key,": Equivalent to "Goodbye", said to the one staying behind

"Lock it/Sisters kill it": Profane exclamations, the first mild, the second more severe

 Aelur Words: 

agda

avyla

anthoras

beyquin

bhanallan

bhanfrina

chailka

derfurag

fos

ishea

nakvir

ucuish

uscuit

hayn, doa, trey, cahair, quig, shay, shacht