Glossary of Terms

Collective - Collectives and Companies are both the highest-level--which is to say, most nascent and powerless--type of organization found in Sphere City. Unlike the mission-driven Company, the Collective is a much more cloistered Hex organization whose members single-mindedly pursue one form of art according to a common philosophy. Only the most daring, lucky, and confident Collectives ever gain the membership and recognition to become Societies. For many, this is not the goal; they reject promotion as less pure, and only produce art for its own sake.

Company - A more nomadic variant of the Collective, a Company of several hundred to several thousand Hex will split into units which constantly roam the City, infiltrating as deeply as they are permitted, spreading new approaches to established arts. For example, at evol of writing, the Ellipsoid Company's 36RϜ of hard work have fortuitously paid off: the Fellowship of Construction Arts has accepted their plans to build a public performance venue of fascinating new geometry in a vacant near-surface space. By these means, a crafty, dedicated, and well-connected Company may exert influence over culture in outsize ways. In the long term, a Company will be subsumed into the Fellowship or Society it has repeatedly influenced, or, in competition, will set out to create an entirely new professional art organization.

Also see: Collective.

Cult - The most volatile level of Hex societal organization. Cults are formed at the city's surface by itinerants with unacceptable ideas. A proper Cult has no less than eighteen members; by the time one reaches several hundred, it will usually have the social capital to obtain housing just under the surface and re-organise as a Collective or Company. The most avant-garde Cults may opt to build their own accommodations out of surface dust, given they have enough members devoted to outsider architecture. Apart from the Cult of Surface Perpetuity, whose short-lived members have been tunneling up in a hollowed butte shape for over 15QϜ, a Cult rarely lasts longer than the lifespan of its founder. They are either dismantled through the constant art wars of the surface, or grow strong enough to become legitimised.

evol - Since time is distance in the sixth dimension, we need a different term to describe its passage of events. The state of all entangled spacetime strings progresses forward in what the Hexes call "evolution", or evol. Just as we sense time but cannot control its flow, the Hex are sliding forward through evolution, measured in quantised frames (Ϝ).

Fellowship - The dozens of Fellowships of Hex world occupy similar positions of power and regard as Societies do. With offices well below the 1000s, roaming junior members, and projects all throughout the Sphere, Fellowships comprise the exoteric arts--sculpture, performance, planning, construction and maintenance, song, etc. Fellowships and their millions of members keep Hex society operating, but due to the more pragmatic nature of their work they are seen as artistically working-class.

Also see: Society.

frames - Below is provided a rough comparison of the speed of evolution--as perceived by the Hex--with time as we know it. It is given that:

  16RϜ mean Hex lifespan ~ 44,240 years of human experience

with respect to each species' average speed of thought. Thus it follows that:

  1QϜ ~ 2.640My
  1RϜ ~ 2,640y
  1YϜ ~ 2.640y
  1ZϜ ~ 23.13h
  1EϜ ~ 1.388m
  1PϜ ~ 83.26ms
  1TϜ ~ 83.26μs
  1GϜ ~ 83.26ns
  1MϜ ~ 83.26ps
  1kϜ ~ 83.26fs
  1Ϝ  ~ 83.26as

To lend better understanding, the following environmental and sociological examples are given:

  quettaframe - Hex society evolves slowly. Major changes to their collective way of life happen about once every hundred and twenty generations--or one QϜ. Recorded Hex history--back to the founding village--goes back 80QϜ or so, but it seems their existence as a species predates this by an unknown, massive amount.
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  ronnaframe - Criminal launchings or deaths of despair may happen as frequently as every 50RϜ. Even the healthiest Hexes rarely live longer than 22RϜ.
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  yottaframe - The local fauna of timeworld reproduce only on rare occasions, through sheer chance. Each of the 212 species can be expected to create a new being every YϜ or so. It takes two parents more than 100YϜ to make a new Hex, and another 400YϜ for the newborn to mature and enter society.
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  zettaframe - A convenient length of time with which to separate "days" in the Sphere, although this foreign concept, along with "sleep", is an invention of the creature Sable.
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  exaframe - The length of a decent street argument in Sphere City.
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  ...
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  frame - The smallest quantum of evolution by which causality occurs in the sixth dimension.

Also see: evol.

Guild - There are only three Guilds in the Sphere--the Teachers' Guild, the Storytellers' Guild, and the Guild of the Center. The prior two report directly to the Center, and all other organizations within the Sphere report to the Storytellers.

Guild of the Center - Hex government is mostly a theoretical thing. Consider, to start, that these creatures cannot harm each other or themselves physically, per their world's laws of physics. Bullying and clique-forming are essentially their velocity of money and GDP, respectively. What is the government to do? We can say that they uphold the species' founding myths, retaining complete hegemony on "what it means to be Hex" by controlling access to the center of Sphere City. There, ultra-polarized light and swirls of dust--once the planks of the founding village--can send almost any Hex into a state of ecstasy. Thus, we have a sort of theocracy. They also have universal power of veto, which they almost never use. The only frame they are even noticed by the vast majority of Hexes is when, once every several generations, they vote to send some poor creature, truly despised by most of society, to the third moon. But, briefly, who are "they"? The Central Council--six members, obviously--are the most shadowy of all Hexes, some reported to be over 35RϜ in age. Pilgrims who are led through the lowest levels don't even see them emerge from their chambers. What do they spend their long lives doing, taking in such pure light? The highest form of the art of government, it would seem, is to do as little as possible. Central's underlings, the almost-as-shadowy temple eunuchs of the small-c "councils", are largely worthy of disregard, except for when your recent actions will soon land you either a new Society or a trip to the moon. (This dichotomy is historically quite common, after some great new work or action catches the attention of everybody in the Sphere. See "Society" for more explanation of how convention-breaking art in this world is villified until it is accepted.) In these cases, it pays to meet with such small-c councils and work out a deal to ensure they recommend Central abstain, leaving your work to be accepted, and your fame ensured.

Hexes - Sapient citizens of timeworld, standing at ~ℵ10 years tall.

LSCC - Special Laboratory for Combined Cryoenergetics (Laboratoire Spécial de Cryoénergétique Combinée), located 80km NE of Vancouver.

partnership (Hexes) - The Hex system of partnership is largely familiar to us, with a few exceptions. While the Hex are gendered (usually he, she, or they), sexuality is not a known concern, or rather a noticed one. But due to their vast and chatty social lives--not to mention the significant chunk of evol they must dedicate to making a new Hex--relationships are serious business (and a serious matter of intrigue). Over the evolutions, the Hex have taken up the practice of swapping pieces of themselves with their partner, integrating ℵ½ sized chunks of their beloved into holes of the same size they have taken out of their chests. This not only integrates part of the partner's personality into their being, but also displays their "taken" status boldly to all they meet. (Especially considering most Hex partner with a complementary color.) One can imagine the scene caused in public when a heartbroken lover rips out the piece of their partner and throws it to the sky in disgust. It's also worth noting that Hexes are serially monogamous, tending to have dozens of partners over their lives, and have never been known to be polyamorous. Finally, the reader will take note that, thanks to the lengthy reproduction time, it would be quite scandalous for a pair to declare their intent to make a new Hex any frame sooner than half a RϜ after meeting. Scandalous because, seriously, do you think they're really going to stick with it?

Society - Societies represent the pinnacle of esoteric arts and, traditionally, the thriving heart of Hex society. What we might call tastemakers, poets, occultists, edgy performance artists, layabouts, philosophers (!), bad mathematicians, good mathematicians--these, to the race of Hex, represent the finest machinations of their six-dimensional, binary mental logic. The most beautiful thing you can do with your frames. The Hexes' aesthetic conservatism might give you the idea that all those inside-the-fence are working on equivalents to marble busts or sonnet corona, but they are better understood as ardent gatekeepers. Once an idea gets in to the tent, once its practitioners have been recognised as a Society, then its heterodoxy becomes its strength.

Sphere City - The planetoid home of all Hex, save for those who have been shot out to the third moon (and their descendants). Has grown, level by level, steadily, since the days of the founding village.

static cloud - The Hex are shaped like classic halloween ghosts or plague doctors--simple enough for even the author to draw--with a humanoid head and a long beak which ends in a mouth. At the base of their flowing spacetime robes, a noisy cloud of static light crackles constantly, so long as they are alive. This cloud differs by individual, and can serve to inform of both their current emotional state as well as their personality more generally.

Storytellers' Guild - Functionaries, historians, lawyers, mythologizers, newscasters and journalists, state poets, intelligence agents, and much more--such are the responsibilities of Storytellers in a world with only three of the six simple machines and zero applied science. The Hexes consider Storytelling the second art, after their own self-mythologizing Center dogma. The Storytellers are legion, spread all throughout the City, hearing and remembering and repeating all of the goings-on in a civilization of nine million or so sentient citizens. Tellers trickle down to levels 25-36, the bustling and ancient headquarters, where they disseminate events of the last few ZϜ. These regular news are parsed and filtered through layers of Interpreters, who direct information back out to relevant parties on a need-to-know basis. All reduced knowledge is then passed to Synthesizers, who prepare the final memories to be handed to Reminders. These venerated Hex live their entire lives on levels 25 through 27, continually passing back and forth official knowledge of the City's past. Their error-checking techniques and general infallibility are well-known to all monkey-headed youth, but not even the Synthesizers are provided with the specifics. All Hexes possess exceptionally accurate memories throughout their long lives; needless to say, the Storytellers only accept the best among them.

Surface (Sphere City) - As 3D dust settles down from space and from the living beings who produce constant exhaust, the Sphere grows slowly over evol. For at least 80QϜ, the intelligent Hex have compacted this dust in admixture with 6D bacteria to form myriad architectural shapes. Thus, the lowest levels of the City, which have been honed by countless members of the race, are most prized for their history and craftsmanship. The Surface is quite the opposite. Here, plumes of 3D dust blow; the light that comes from above is completely un-filtered and, in the long run, bad for Hex health. But the memories that Hexes in their 10s look back on with nervous amusement are not of the natural forces at the Surface; they are of the Cults. A rumspringa of sorts is common, but not expected of young adult Hexes ages 0.4-1.2RϜ. Up they go to the ideologically dangerous surface where some frantic electric red will greet them with inverse poetry, and around him will crowd a dozen other hawkers of hyperexistentialism, new synchronised dancing techniques, one particularly obvious liar who claims they've discovered new fauna, etc. It's a wildly exciting frame for the young Hex looking to make their way in the Sphere. About half of them, by their first RϜ, will get tired of the sharp light and descend to begin applying for whichever organization they've decided could be their career. The rest will have joined a Cult, only to witness its defeat and dissolution. Most will continue batting between Cults until they find one on the ups; themselves, the loyal early apostles of the movement. Some will dream up their own idea, and thus begin the tiresome process of wandering the Surface, staying abreast of dust and yapping 0.5s, peddling their message until it gains enough followers to feel meaningful.

Teachers' Guild - It is said that pedagogy was the third form of art to be known, following centrality and oration. Teachers, along with the other two Guilds, are beyond the realms of aesthetic critique that define Societies; they are fundamental aspects of culture. When two Hex parents finish constructing an offspring, they part, leaving the floating mass to finish assembling itself. Soon, a perfectly colourless little Hex emerges and begins shouting for all to hear. Roaming Teachers retrieve these ones and throw them into a Preschool--a massive, square room where baby Hexes bounce about and yell at each other for 100-200YϜ. Here they learn to keep their thoughts to themselves, to interact with their cohort, and eventually, to learn their names. When a baby Hex has begun to show flashes of colour, Teachers remove them from the Preschool Pit and place them in a touring Class. Each student Hex is given a bright-orange creature, something of a crab-monkey, that latches to their head in symbiotic relationship. It also makes them easier to spot in a crowd when lost. The students spend their 0.3s being led all about the City by Teachers--with "field trips" making up the majority of their learning. During this frame they are introduced to all levels of society and make at least one pilgrimage to the Center. When a student has fully finished developing their colour, their head-monkey is removed and they are cleared to enter the adult world. It is at this point that most Hexes spend several hundred more YϜ touring the surface, looking for something to believe in. By 1.2RϜ, the majority of young Hexes have joined an organization or have started a Cult. It should be pointed out here that, while Hexes as young as 350YϜ may develop full colours and be thus considered emotionally and intellectually mature, it is seen as deeply lecherous to pursue a partner who hasn't had their first ronnaframe.

ℵℕ - The well-ordered natural sequence of transfinite cardinals, or something along those lines. Just beyond the edge of any given universe's Poincaré surface, distance is measured in uncountable sets of infinite time.