Agni: the default operating system and built-in companion AI of all cyberminds. Capable of dynamic natural language processing, integrated machine learning, and limited autonomy, virtually all modern headware are forked off root Agni. Popular forks include Indra (corporate combat), Vajra (specialised Indra fork for covert operations), Akasa (media capture), Diya (data analysis), and Maya (troubleshooter).

Attackware: specialised headware designed for cybermind warfare.

Cast: to remotely download one's self into a suit over a great distance, typically to allow a self to travel massive distances at the speed of light.

Cutter: a suit designed for a small set of specialist uses. Examples include the PIONEER (habitable world exploration), TLALOC (combat), and UMBRA (covert insertion and infiltration). Contrast with spade and gaffer.

Cybermind: a large quantum-state drive capable of holding a self. When properly grown or installed, it allows the self to control the suit it currently inhabits. Said to be unhackable by conventional means... but there are, of course, always unconventional means.

Download: see suiting.

Dump: short for "datadump"; headware designed to allow a cybermind to store (and, at a later time, retrieve) captured sensory data or other forms of data. Contrast with shunt, which does not allow the self to access or even be aware of the data stored within.

Fork: in software engineering, describes code that has been downloaded and modified in some way from its original. Also describes the act of backing up one's self or restoring one's self from a backup.

Gaffer: a suit designed for civilian use. Contrast with cutter and spade.

Headmail: the standard means of communication between cyberminds, delivered and mediated by each individual's respective Agni. Accepting headmail from non-trusted sources can be dangerous as headmail is a common transmission vector for many types of attackware.

Headware: hardware and software installed in a cybermind.

Ideosphere: see sphere.

Merge: to integrate two or more selves into one. Only selves that come from the same original fork may be merged; if the selves are too different, the merge will fail. Merging with untrusted selves is extremely dangerous to the self and can lead to insanity, data corruption, or complete personality collapse.

Self: a digitalised human mind complete with personality, memories, cognitive patterns, and mental skills. Contrast with suit, which determines one's physical capabilities, muscle memory, and physical skills.

Shunt: short for "datashunt"; headware designed to allow a cybermind to carry data that is completely inaccessible to the self. Typically used by sneakernet couriers to carry sensitive data whose presence they must not even know about. Contrast with dump, which allows the self to read and write data within it.

Sneakernet: a network of couriers - typically installed with shunts, although there are some who prefer to carry data in some other form of physical medium instead - who physically carry data from one point to another.

Spade: a suit designed for general, all-purpose troubleshooter use. Contrast with cutter and gaffer.

Sphere: short for "ideosphere"; the corporate-controlled communication network that spans each world. Individual users are connected - via their Agni or a terminal - to a regional server, which is in turn connected to a planet-wide mainframe that coordinates cross-regional access. See also subsphere.

Subsphere: a self-contained communication network that spans a small local area. Individual users are connected - via their Agni or a terminal - to a central server (that can just be hosted in another user's cybermind) that handles all relays. Typically employed by facilities and organisations with high infosec needs; commonly divorced from the planet's main sphere.

Suit: short for "meatsuit" or "steelsuit" referring to, respectively, the organic or inorganic body that a mind is downloaded into. As a verb, also popularly used to describe the act of downloading your self into a body. See also cutter, gaffer, and spade.

Surf: to move a self rapidly from one suit to another.

Troubleshooter: a person hired by a corporation or organisation to deal with a problem by any means necessary. Troubleshooters are usually independent contractors, that the hirers may maintain a level of plausible deniability.

Upload: the act of backing up one's self in a server. While uploaded, the self is compressed, unreadable, and unalterable: subjective time does not pass for the self, and it is functionally dead to all senses. Agnis can be uploaded and downloaded alongside a self or independently.

Corps

Ichthys: known mostly for media, recreation, and entertainment.

Exodus: known mostly