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So, I was writing up a backstory for my newest character, told from her perspective. And I realized that the book remains a bit clinical in its vocabulary. Which won't do at all for someone actually living there. People use abbreviations and slang.
To go along with that, some places will need specialized vocabulary to navigate or describe things.
The entry for Diaspora gives us an example - Sarcesians get called 'Angels' for their solar sail wings.
So, let's see if we can come up with some things to flesh out this universe.
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My character's a teenager from the Diaspora. First off, you're not calling it Diaspora. It's the Disp.
How do you locate a place in the Disp? It's a big ring full of millions of asteroids... Degrees and orbit. Everything is traveling the same direction at least. So if you're at 45 degrees relative to some solar meridian, and wanted to go somewhere at 42 degrees, you would say 3 degrees up orbit.
Micrometeor showers... bleh. How about a Flight of Micromeets?
Can we get some fun terms for Eoxians? And for Nuars?
Speaking of which, I'd love to see some fiction and/or comics in the Starfinder setting - much like Paizo has done with PF.
What about calling Eoxians stiffs? You know since they're corpses and all.
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One common term I'm using in my games when dealing with members of a gang is to call them 'gangers'. Sounds appropriately gritty and better then calling them 'gangsters'.
For Absalom Station specifically
People who live in the Spike I'm calling 'Spikers'.
Hah, I just thought of something. People who live in the Eye could be called 'Eyeholes'.
People from the Armada could be called 'Floaters'.
People from the Ring aren't called anything cause they're middle class and dull. Academics and pundits call them Ringites though (with the same connotation as suburbanites IRL).
I wonder if writers these days are hesitant to use in-universe vocabulary because of the negative reaction to what was used in Planescape.
I've been calling citizens of the Spike "spikers," too. Some other lingo that's arisen organically in our games is "junkers," for certain models of cars; "breathers," for breathing equipment; "topsiders," for those who live above the Spike; "jellies," for flying, amorphous, jelly-fish like beings that live in Fogtown. I'm sure there are others, but can't remember.
"Gangster" gives them a bit too much status, though.
Gangsters just sounds too much like 1920s bootleggers "I'm Al Capone, seeeeee" to me. Ganger just gives me a nice Mad Max/Shadowrun type feel
@The Goat Lord 'Topside' and 'Topsiders' came up in my campaign too! Great minds and all.
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Up and down are relative to the ecliptic (but which is which? up is stellar North, obviously), in and out are obvious, and my memories are pushing for turnwards & widdershins (that has to be from an earlier renewal though)
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.Ecliptic north (via right-hand rule) = "North"
Ecliptic south = "South"
Prograde = "East"
Retrograde = "West"
Towards the Sun = "In"
Away from the Sun = "Out"
So an asteroid that is further along in its orbit, higher above the ecliptic, and closer to the Sun than you would be "Northeastinward" of you.
The asteroids' positions relative to each other would be constantly shifting as they are all in separate slightly different orbits. This would happen slowly though (timescale of months or years).
Each asteroid's "address" could be defined relative to the Sun & the ecliptic plane by its 6 orbital parameters: inclination, longitude of ascending node, eccentricity, semimajor axis, argument of periapsis, and true anomoly. I'm not going to try to come up with slang terms for those lol
Frak!
Biao zi!
Bree-yark
Bree-yark
Heh.
I haven't seen that in a while...
What about calling Eoxians stiffs? You know since they're corpses and all.
Domers? Short for "bone-domes;" refers to both their undead status and enlarged skulls.
Boners