User:Quirel/Sandbox

Starspeck-class Medium Freighter

'"... so then we apprehended the slaver in the Proxima Centari system and impounded his ship. That was the first time I ever laid eyes on a Starspeck. It's a small ship, looks like a conga line of horseshoe crabs riding on a trout. It might not look like much, but we searched that ship from bow to stern, and we were still finding hidden compartments four weeks later. It was hard to get a feel for where everything was because the compartments weren't laid out in flat decks. You could walk through every compartment and gravity would pull you in ten different directions."'

The Starspeck-class medium freighter is a class of cargo vessels in use throughout the Covenant Empire, instantly recognizable by the profile of its cargo bays. Its unique design is a product of its provenance. It is one of many designs created by Kig Yar engineers for use in the Y'Deio Special Economic Zone, extensively borrowing sanctioned technology from the Covenant Empire. Unusually for such designs, the class gained acceptance abroad and is now extensively used throughout the Covenant Empire.

Covenant Caste system Covenant society is much like the society of modern-era India, in that it is theoretically divided into a discrete number of rigid castes, but is instead composed of many millions of communities. The hierarchy of these communities is fluid, and even the relationship between Elites and Prophets has been re-litigated over the years.

Sangheili Castes

The basic building block of the caste system is the Tarshan, an old Sangheili word meaning "That which belongs." The word is thought to have originally denoted the members of a community who belong there, rather than outsiders who provided labor and services. Tarshans are often loosely bound by family lines, and strongly defined by meritocratic placement. Artisans in a guild may have family ties, but they have gained their position by their mastery of the art.

The Docha is the next major grouping.

LEXICON: Black Debt: Sangheili term. A debt of vengeance, or an evil act which must be repaid. White Debt: Sangheili term. A debt of gratitude, or a kind act which demands recompense in kind. Chantet- Brotherhood of hate. Affiliations formed by mutual hatred of a third party. Rarely used as a name for a martial order that is formed to vanquish a for and quickly dissolved after victory is won. Typho: Portmanteau of Titanium Foam, a structural material used in aircraft, spacecraft and starships. Just as Titanium-A is a blanket term for titanium alloys used as armor, Typho is a generic name for many different kinds of foamed titanium. Alfoa: Portmanteau of aluminum foam. While it's properties are not as good as titanium foam, foamed aluminum is cheap and we'll developed enough that it is still used in many civilian and military applications. Orbital Factory: Any factory built in orbit around a planet or star. Microgravity and hard vacuum have many industrial applications, especially in 3D fabrication and high performance alloys. Orbital factories take advantage of the conditions in space to precisely fabricate exotic materials and machine parts. Microfac: See Orbital Factory Evening Promise: Sangheili term for a hasty or deceitfull promise, made in the evening and broken at dawn. Tenoch: The price of freedom. Legally a price that a slave may pay to emancipate himself from his master. Tenokch-al: Payment in deeds. Whereas a slave may purchase his freedom with money, other bonds may only be paid by fulfilling obligations or making some other kind of restitution. Tenke: Any self-propelled sled that carries fuel for starships.