Tanalis (Homecoming Glossary)

TANALIS: A dish in which crustaceans and marine vegetables predominate, considered a delicacy on Central.

Peacock Plant (Homecoming Glossary)

PEACOCK PLANT: A plant grown on Central both for its decorative leaves and its fragrance. The leaves shade to turquoise along the veins, and are covered with purple hairs. When the hairs are brushed they release a spicy fragrance.

Plasmaball

PLASMABALL: A physical team sport with balls and goals, played in artificial free fall, with the “ball” being essentially ball lightning, controlled by electronic “rackets” wielded by the players. As a school sport it is as safe as any sport of this type–the players are required to wear protective armor. Professional players can elect to wear full shielding–which slows them down–or take the risk of playing with lighter shielding. Deaths are not uncommon if players elect to play with minimal shielding—ball lightning is dangerous!

Feather Tree

FEATHER TREE: A R’il’nian tree with finely-ridged foliage producing interference colors like a bird’s feathers. Common on Central.

The Enclave

ENCLAVE: Originally, and still legally, the smaller southern continent that the dwindling R’il’nai kept when they ceded the rest of Central to Humans. Over time, however, the term has come to be applied to the relatively small region on the west coast where the few remaining R’il’nai (eventually just Lai) live and the administration complex of the Confederation is located.

Central

CENTRAL: The planet on which the Inner and Outer Councils of the Confederation meet and most of the R’il’noids live. Originally a R’il’nian planet, called Kentra, but by the time of Homecoming around 90 % of the free population is Human, and its internal politics are decided entirely by the Human population.

Pattern Chess

PATTERN CHESS: An intellectual sport in which the players compete to move colored tiles into a designated pattern using mental powers alone. The simplest games involve a 2 x 2 grid of four tiles, but competition play normally utilizes an 8 x 8 grid with the starting pattern and the goal pattern for each player determined by a computer. There is also a non-esper version in which the players swap one pair of tiles at a time.