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ES Encyclopedia supplies an ever-growing body of
short articles and descriptions of people, places and things that inhabit the
world of The Eylau Sequence. It is a great help to those wishing for a
better understanding of the background to current Eylau Sequence short stories
and gaming. If there is a favorite entry that you would like to see added,
please let us
know. |
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El Cajon Mountain – The underground city that
forms the core of California's capital and is mostly what people are talking
about when they say "San Diego" lies beneath the granite formations of El Cajon
Mountain. The mountain and adjoining ridgelines lie about 45 kilometers inland
from San Diego Bay, just below year-round snow levels and at a high enough
altitude to avoid immediate devastation from tsunamis. Several major transit
systems connect the various parts of the mountain complex, and during the last
50 years more construction has expanded via new bridges across Lake Capitan, to
the new eastern city.
There is also an underground transit
system connecting El Cajon Mountain with the government operated centers at
Cowles Mountain and Point Loma. Of these three, El Cajon Mountain probably
sports the most extensive above ground construction, including a prominent
capitol complex that rests astride the main southern spur of the mountain. In
good weather the shining white government complex is visible from the ocean. It
should be noted however, that most of the capitol complex and machinery of
government is still deep underground. |
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ES Assistant – A personal, customizable
interface that gives anyone individual access to general network services,
Archimedes or any Sequences to which they have access. ES Assistants usually
take the sensory form of one or more fellow humans, although due to their
almost limitless options, they can take on many forms including 3D, 2D, audio
only, text only or combinations of those depending on task priority. The key to
the assistant's success is customizability, familiarity and identification; an
ES Assistant also gives users a powerfully secure connection that is impossible
to violate. Communication with other humans is often conducted via the
assistants and many meetings end up as hybrids between face-to-face and
teleconferencing. Additionally, different people may be visible to various
individuals, resulting in a dynamic blind-copy communication line. This is why
characters within the Eylau Sequence stories sometime seem distracted when
meeting face-to-face within the scheme of the story; the person physically in
front of them may not be the only person in their current field of view.
Many people name their assistants in order to speed flow of
instructions. Such names range from elaborate and poetic to humorous and
sarcastic.
ES Assistants should not be confused with ES Operators, the
later of which function as virtual field commanders and may themselves control
robotic units of all forms. Like the Assistants and Sequences, operators are
sentient. They may also move around inside the local command network according
to existing authorization protocols. Assistants typically remain dormant until
activated by a higher level commander who will usually - but not always - be
human (or batur). |
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Evers-Patel – The comet which was the primary
trigger for the glacial period that reduced earth's population by 98% and
served as the main impetus for mankind's migration into the solar system.
Evers-Patel actually made two near passes by earth; the first pass carried it
so close that it dominated the sky for weeks. This first pass caused no damage,
but earth's gravitational pull changed the comet's orbit, carrying it almost
into the sun. The comet broke up as it passed around the sun and not into it,
but within a few months it became apparent that the comet's newly disrupted
orbit was going to carry pieces of it into an interception course with earth.
This indeed happened forty-one years later, when five pieces of the
comet entered earth's atmosphere in a line over the course of 19 hours. First
hit was Northern India, followed a few hours later when a piece struck eastern
Turkey. Next a small piece came down in the North Sea followed many hours later
when the largest piece came down in the North Atlantic south of Iceland. The
last piece struck somewhere in eastern Canada.
None of the pieces were
individually capable of exterminating life on earth, but the combined effect of
the five pieces was devastating. It is estimated that 15% of the planet's
population was killed in the first 24 hours of the disaster. The climate was
plunged into a period of severe cold which choked off global food supplies.
First hit by food shortages were the poorer countries, who received no aid due
to the critical nature of events. It is estimated that within one month over
90% of populations perished in most of what were called "third world" nations
of the time.
The richer and more industrialized nations were able to
fend off immediate starvation, but this only traded money for time, as the
amount of arable land was totally unsuited for the existing populations.
Various nations dealt with these situations in different ways, which are
covered in greater details in each nation's encyclopedia entry.
The
remaining pieces of the comet passed near earth and remain as short period
Jupiter Family objects. The knowledge that these remaining pieces
continue to cross earth's orbital path on a regular basis are a key factor in
the decision by most countries to keep most of their development underground
and at acceptably high altitudes above sea level (some of the comet sections
have since been repositioned to less threatening orbits). |
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Eylau Sequence – The Eylau Sequence is a
subordinate of the Archimedes Program. It covers a wide range of tactical,
operational and even strategic concerns and has been an invaluable aid in the
control and use of autonomous systems used in warfare.
As a part of The
Archimedes Program, the Eylau Sequence is sentient – it is aware of you,
and it is self aware. It can identify objects in its environment and it
"thinks" like a sentient being. However it only deals with its assigned area of
expertise in a passive-aggressive manner. If you try to get the Eylau Sequence
to give its opinion about a politician or to tell you the best way to rob
resources from a civilian company, it will passively ignore you and only
operate within military confines. There is no way to force the sequence to
operate outside of its area of specialty and all previous attempts have
failed.
All of the sequences, but especially the Eylau Sequence were
designed to operate on a minimum user base. Each major activation requires tens
of thousands of users, which prevents small organizations such as those
relating to organized crime from deploying their own versions. Also, activation
requires the master Archimedes Program, which itself is very demanding. |
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