Encyclopedia excerpts: Basic dictionary

These are excerpts from the Hainish Encyclopedia. This is the basic dictionary with words and places that are not related to a specific book.

Ansible
The ansible is a device for instanteneous communication over the vast distances of space. It was invented by Shevek of Anarres.

When there is massage to be sent between two ansibles, one of them has to be in a fixe position on a body of a sufficiently large mass, i.e. a planet. The other ansible may be on another planet, a ship or anywhere.

A ship travelling in "NAFAL space" cannot transmit; it has to slow down and enter the normal space-time first.

The principle is that information is immaterial and therefore it does not have to follow Einstein's statement that nothing can travel faster than light. The principle has been discribed by an analogy: if you have a very, very long rod, and you move one end of it from side to side, then the other end moves too. It takes a lot of energy to send messages over the ansible, and so it's very expensive.

Due to cosmic mass interference, the range is limited to approx. 120 light years.

Cetian
The people of the Twin worlds, that is Urras and Annares. The word Cetian really refers to the name of their sun - Tau Ceti. The inhabitants usually call themselves Urrasti and Anarresti.

Churten
The churten theory provides with a way of getting from point A to point B in virtually "no time at all". It was invented by scientists on Anarres.
(Ref. A Fisherman of the Inland Sea)

Davenant
Davenant is the terran name for the planet Hain. (From Rocannon's World: Rocannon says "I was born on a world called Hain by my mother's people and Davenant by my father's".)
See Hain.

Ekumen
The Ekumen is an interplanetery network. According to The Left Hand of Darkness, there are 83 habitable worlds with approx. 3000 nations. The Ekumen send "Mobiles" to other worlds, while the "Stabiles" are stationed on planets.

Embargo, Cultural
The cultural embargo is a part of the rules for the terran coloninists. In its simplest form, it states that the terrans shouldn't try to change the ways of the world the visit. They shall not try to teach or preach, or use technology that is much more advanced than the native, or force new cultural patterns, or use paraverbal speech.

EY
Abbrevation for Ekumenical Year.

Hain
The starting point for the exploration of the universe conducted by the people of the Ekumen. Hain is the Prime world of the Ekumen. It seems this is where all worlds were first colonized from. The terran name for the world is Davenant.

The people on Hain are tall and slender with a pale complexion, and usually very civilized. It is said that there has never been a war on Hain

In Winter's King: [discussing the kinship of the Gethenians and the Ekumen Mobile]

"...all the people we have run in to are in fact human. But the kinship goes back a million years and more, to the fore-eras of Hain. The ancient Hainish settled a million worlds."

Hilf
The word hilf is really an acronym: HILF stands for highly intelligent life form. It is used to describe the more or less indigenous populations on exotic planets. It is believed that all hilfs are in fact related with each other, and with terrans - that is, humans from planet earth. The widely accepted theory is that all hilfs share a common origin, namely the planet Hain. Hilfs vary in size and appearance; some look just like terrans, others have fur, wings, yellow eyes and so on.

NAFAL
This acronym expands as "Nearly As Fast As Light".

NAFAL drive ships use the time dilation effect as stated by Einstein's theories: a ship that moves at a speed approaching the speed of light will appear to move outside of time. Those on board will experience that only a short period of time passes by, while those outside of the ship will experience of a far longer period of time.

As an example, a four light year journey feels like "a few hours", but in fact it takes four years. The Gum travels 256 light years in 10 hours 29 minutes. (Vaster Than Empires and More Slow)

Obviously, this causes some rather interesting problems: when you go somewhere, and then return to wherever you left from, you may have aged hardly anything, but those who stayed home have aged several years.

Stasis
A state of hibernation. When the Ekumen send a ship to a new planet, the First Mobile descends to the planet, while the others remain in stasis.

Terra
A planet - identical to our own dear Earth.