Andrea Höst: The Touchstone Trilogy

Firiana- A platform town east of Pandora, situated among the islands of the surri.

First level monitoring- Interface monitoring which triggers an alert if certain conditions are reached (eg. loss of consciousness, heart attack). All residents of Tare are on first level monitoring.

Francesca- Francesca is a flowering shrub also known as "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" because its flowers fade from purple to violet to near-white as they age.

Gate- A tear or rift between spaces/worlds.

Gate Sight- A psychic talent which can judge the status of gates between spaces.

Gate-lock- An enclosure built around a gate from near-space to real-space to prevent Ionoth from passing through.

Gelzz- A now nearly-extinct cave-dwelling Taren insect noted for its tendency to admit a lingering rotten odour as a defence mechanism.

Goralath- The name originally given to the ruins where Pandora is later established.

Gorra- The first island settled on Tare.

Hasata- A city on Tare.

House Dayen- One of the leading Lantaren groups on pre-destruction Muina, and architects of the Pillars project.

House Renar- A Nuran House which was given the care of Sentarestel after her parents' deaths.

House Zolen- A Lantaren group on pre-destruction Muina believed responsible for the Arenrhon installation.

HSC- Higher School Certificate. Received when graduating from high school in Australia.

Ian Thorpe- A famous Australian swimmer.

In-skin- An immersive interface experience where most of the senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste – are stimulated.

Interface- An in-body nanite installation used by Tarens as personal computers/the Taren internet.

Ionoth- Creatures which form in the Ena, usually remnants of the dreams and nightmares of inhabited planets.

Ista- An honorific for medical doctors.

Isten- Professor.

Joden- The Taren equivalent of a minute, though the unit is longer than an Earth minute. One hundred joden equal a kasse.

Kadara- Naturally-forming massive Ionoth.

Kalane- A medium-sized island city near the Dohl Array.

Kalasa- The training city of the Lantarens.

Kalrani- Trainees not yet qualified as Setari.

Kasse- The Taren equivalent of an hour, spanning approximately two and a half Earth hours.

Kaszandra- The KOTIS research facility on Kalasa’s island.

Keszen Point- An outlying island of Konna used for warehousing.

Kolar- A hot, arid world settled by Muinan refugees, and advanced technologically by the Tarens.

Konna- Both the city and the island where the main KOTIS base is located on Tare.

KOTIS- An acronym for the "Agency for Ionoth Research and Protection".

Kuna- Supplementary memory provided by the interface.

Lahanti- Leaders of the cities of Tare – an equivalent to a mayor of a city-state.

Lantar/Lantarens- The ruling class of Muina before the disaster. Powerful psychics.

Lastier- A fictional equivalent of Kaoren Ruuel from the Taren entertainment The Hidden War. Played by Teral Saith.

Litara - One of the ships KOTIS uses to travel between Tare, Kolar and Muina.

Lolcat- I can haz cheeseburger?

Lord Vetinari- A most Machiavellian ruler, found in the Discworld books of Terry Pratchett.

Luim - One of the ships KOTIS uses to travel between Tare, Kolar and Muina.

Machiavelli- To Cass, Machiavelli is "Lord Vetinari, except real". Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance writer whose book The Prince sets out a model of political stability achieved through not necessarily moral means.

March of Dawn- A traditional Muinan ceremony held in Spring. Flowers are carried to symbolise the birth of a new year.

Massives- Ionoth of unusually large dimensions.

Mea Culpa - Through my fault - acknowledging an error/taking the blame.

Mesara - One of the ships KOTIS has assigned to Muina.

Mesiath- A southern hemisphere city in a tall tree forest.

Moon Piazza- An enormous crescent shaped open area at the eastern base of the amphitheatre hill at Pandora. [Desza Tohl in Taren.]

Muina- A world abandoned after a disaster brought about by the Lantaren psychics.

Nanites- A machine or robot on a microscopic scale.

Nanna Nap- A short nap in the daytime, for the less active grandmothers.

Near-space- The envelope of Ena immediately surrounding a world, full of reflections of the world as it currently is – and it’s most recent nightmares.

Night on Bald Mountain - A composition by Modest Mussorgsky. Cass has encountered it in Disney’s Fantasia .

Nikko Pen- Permanent marker.

Noob- A new gamer who does not fully understand how to play/someone new.

Nori- The main character of the Taren entertainment The Hidden War. Played by Lanset Kameer.

Not happy, Jan- A popular phrase taken from an Australian television commercial for Yellow Pages.

NPCs- Non-player characters – a gaming term for characters in a game which you are not expected to fight.

Nuri- A pastoral moon inhabited by ex-Muinans.

Nurioth- One of the largest ruined cities on Muina.

OMGWTF- Oh my god, what the fuck?!

Oriath- A Muinan city, ruled by House Zolen.

Ormon of Nent- The hereditary ruler of Kolar’s northern kingdom.

Pandora- First Taren settlement on Muina.

PAoN- Profound Awareness of Nils

Path Sight- A talent for location.

Pelamath- An equatorial platform town located on top of a plateau.

Pippin- A small animal of excessive cuteness.

Pissed off- Made angry. [ Pissed can mean angry or drunk in Australia.]

Public Space- Virtual décor visible to all interface users/anything accessible to all interface users.

PVP- Combat in online games where players fight other players rather than computer-controlled opponents.

Pwn- Defeat comprehensively – a gamer term.

Rotation- Setari missions in the Ena designed to cover Ionoth respawn near Taren cities.

Rotational space- A space in the Ena which moves so that its gates regularly align and move out of alignment.

Rukmor- Appointed heads of various sciences and arts on Tare. Forms part of the world government.

Rule 34- Rule 34 of the Internet: If it exists, there will be porn of it.

Schoolies- Australian high school graduates celebrating the end of school during "Schoolies Week". Primarily located around the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Searns- A Setari squad member on the Taren entertainment The Hidden War. Roak Larion.