Technology
Old analog bands
Low-fidelity frequencies predating the modern mesh. Their apparent obsolescence preserves the noise in which the Echo occurs.
Lanes
Connected entries
- receiveBlipsDeliberate, damaged fragments sent backward from the far future by unknown beings trying to prevent the universe-ending Long Silence.
- protected byOpen Band AccordsA post-war multilateral treaty intended to keep communication bands free of state, cartel, and carrier monopolies. Its signing crisis drives the Carapace incident.
- kept open byUnlisted relaysHand-rebuilt repeaters on dead masts, carried on no sector's tariff schedule and carrying anyone's traffic for nothing. Lit but dark on every ledger — a black flame.
links hereThe ChoirVast bioluminescent leviathans in Tidewell's deep, seen from the surface only as slow light under the swell. Their songs travel on the old analog bands;- links hereThe LamplightersThe keepers of the unlisted relays' posts, one to a world. Their creed: a black flame gives no light, but someone keeps it burning.
links hereThe burn-inBLACKFLAME's emblem, named for phosphor-screen burn-in: a solid black flame with a relay mast cut through it in negative space and a dark halo that drinks the glow, inside a phosphor-green…