Welcome to the Cortii

Average life expectancy: 23 Standard

Cortii Database

Check out culture, history, weaponry, character interviews

Character interview: Khyria Ilan

Character interview: Khyria Ilan

Character interview with Khyria Ilan on Central Worlds and the side-effects of getting the attention of influential people, particularly the do Harek family.

Types of spaceship in the Cortii

Types of spaceship in the Cortii

There are a variety of types of spaceship in the Cortii, from Cortii-classes down to one-person scoutships that can slip in just about anywhere.

Cortiian Word of the Week: harena

Cortiian Word of the Week: harena

Officially, the hareni don’t exist. The only criteria for becoming a harena is knowing the wrong people, and remaining a harena depends on survival ability.

Cortiian Word of the Week: Akrushkar

Cortiian Word of the Week: Akrushkar

The akrushkari are the Councils’ enforcers and bodyguards. Think of them as military police with a tendency to shoot first and ask questions never.

Personnel file: Misan Pereti

Personnel file: Misan Pereti

Misan Pereti: tactics and game theory expert, piloting junkie, and has a bad tendency to be mistaken for Khyria in bad light.

Cortiian Word of the Week: Faran

Cortiian Word of the Week: Faran

Faran, ladies and gents. Looks butt-ugly, is indispensable for a range of reasons and may be one of the only things the Federated Planets Alliance and the Cortii agree on.

Background to the Cortii

Background to the Cortii

The Cortii are mercenaries, spread through every Galactic sector, the descendants of a mercenary cult that has existed for more than eight millennia.

Weapons in the Cortii

Weapons in the Cortii

There are no rules in a Cortiian fight. When it comes to weapons, the only constants are variety and surprise. The Councils rely on in-fighting to weed out the arrogant, the weak, and the unskilled.

Cortiian Word of the Week: Derian

Cortiian Word of the Week: Derian

Derian is a very old Cortiian word, and it literally means ‘rider’. It’s also, in wider use, a generic title for any Cortiian, rather like ‘citizen’ in the Federated Planets Alliance.

Cortia, pl. Cortii

Standard unit of twenty-five Cortiians, split into five cells of five.

Hejjin’in (Galatactic sector)

Spatial sector adjoining the FPA Sector. Monarchic, democratic. Official language: Kihali

Ajnen’nan

Smuggling and extortion group working the edges of Hejjin’in space.

Cortertia, pl. Cortertiai

Second-in-command of a Cortia, second only to the Cortiora in authority.

MidStar News

A popular Federated Planets Alliance news and entertainment content channel, with a reputation for sensationalism over accuracy.

Ability, pl. Abilities

Common term for anyone with some ESP ability. Also refers interchangeably to the manifestation of the Ability (e.g. telepathy, telekinesis, etc.)

Wild Ability

Term for Ability variants that are unclassifiable due to the range of observable variations, or instability. Common ones include people with some kind of affinity for fire or water or metals, or weather sensitivities.

Faran

Faran is a stimulant drink very popular in the Cortii, and made from the infused juice of the ground and boiled root of the ffor plant.

Derian, pl. deriani

Rider; also any unranked Cortiian, or the common title used to address any Cortiian whose actual rank is unknown.

Holosuit

Cortiians use advanced full-input suits for training and recreation. They can be networked or isolated for solo use.

Asra

Formal acknowledgement of an order, from old Cortiian, asri’ne, as you will, and ra, derived from regt, meaning power or control.

Jammer

Cortiian slang for an electronic device, usually heavily customised and highly illegal, designed to neutralise electronic spying.

Opt out, resign

Cortiian slang for get oneself killed, commit suicide. There is no way to resign from the Cortii.

Yadi, pl. yadii

Any unranked trainee Cortiian. The term is falling out of use, and ‘trainee’ is more common.

Hype

Cortiian slang for hyper, any type of stimulant drug.

Y’nai si

Formal phrase of apology, Cortiian.

Madari itch

Byword for infectious disease, origin unknown.

Chasing meteor trails

Common phrase, roughly equivalent to saying that someone is woolgathering.

Magai, pl. magaii

The Councils of the magaii are the absolute authority in the Cortii. Magaii are promoted from among the most senior Cortiorai.

Shalfar, pl. shalfari

Cortiian term used to refer to those held by magaii telepathic conditioning. Also refers to someone without much independence of mind.

Read the base code

Slang approximately equivalent to ‘the writing’s on the wall’, ‘read between the lines’.

Hanai orii kruska

Formal acknowledgement to a magai. It refers to their status; literally ‘of our Lords the honoured slave’.

Akrushkar, pl. akrushkari

The akrushkari are servants and enforcers for the magaii Councils.

Harena, pl. hareni

The hareni are a covert group that survives in some form on most Bases. With a reputation for violence that makes even Cortiians view them warily, by this point they’re part-myth to most.

Galactic Database

Learn about the galactic species, governments, and history

Cortiian physiognomy

Cortiian physiognomy

Cortiian physiognomy – what do the Cortii look like? Given the species’ genetic potential, the Federated Planets Alliance continues to investigate, but studies to date have failed to reliably reproduce similar results.

Telepathy, empathy, kinesis, precognition

Telepathy, empathy, kinesis, precognition

Telepathy, empathy, kinesis, precognition – these are the so-called mainline Abilities recognised by the Independent Extra-Sensory Regulatory Organisation, due to the fact that their manifestation across multiple species is relatively consistent.

Independent Extra-Sensory Regulatory Organisation

Independent Extra-Sensory Regulatory Organisation

The Independent Extra-Sensory Regulatory Organisation, usually known in humanoid space as the IESRO, is something like a Star Chamber for entities gifted with mental Ability in a strength able to survive interaction with other species.

Corina (Kein System, III)

Corina (Kein System, III)

Confidential report, Corina (Kein III): home to one of the Cortiian Bases closest to Central Worlds. As such, various efforts at rapprochement have been made. The Cortiian Councils extend their condolences on our losses through diplomatic channels.

Spatial politics and the Cortii

Spatial politics and the Cortii

Spatial politics, because you really can’t talk about geo-politics when you’re referring to a sizeable chunk of a galaxy – and Cortiian income.

Character Interview: Irin Seviki

Character Interview: Irin Seviki

Meet Irin Seviki, a ranch master from the Central Worlds – if you’re enough of a non-conformist to admit to knowing Cortiians, you’d better be influential enough to survive it.