Factions in Revelation Space

This is a list of fictional factions in Revelation Space. The human factions are found in the Revelation Space universe, the setting for a series of stories and novels by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds.

Interstellar factions

Spacefaring humanity is divided among these four main factions. While each of these factions has its roots in the Solar System, they have spread with humans to multiple other star systems. Demarchists controlled most major colony worlds, including Yellowstone, until the introduction of the Melding Plague. Conjoiners inhabited hollowed out asteroids on system peripheries, called Nests, before the move to the central Mother Nest in the Yellowstone system during the Conjoiner-Demarchist war. Ultras prefer living aboard the massive lighthugger ships, and are generally uncomfortable on terrestrial worlds. Skyjacks are comet and asteroid miners.

Conjoiners

Ultra-prominent peak

An ultra-prominent peak, or Ultra for short, is defined as a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of 1,500 metres (4,921 ft) or more. There are approximately 1,515 such peaks on Earth. Some are famous even to non-climbers, such as Mount Everest, Aconcagua, and Denali (the top three by prominence), while others are much more obscure. Some famous peaks, such as the Matterhorn and Eiger, are not Ultras because they are connected to higher mountains by high cols and therefore do not achieve enough topographic prominence.

The term "Ultra" is due to earth scientist Stephen Fry, from his studies of the prominence of peaks in Washington in the 1980s. His original term was "ultra major mountain", referring to peaks with at least 5,000 ft (1,524 m) of prominence.

Distribution

Currently, 1,515 Ultras have been identified worldwide: 637 in Asia, 355 in North America, 209 in South America, 119 in Europe (including the Caucasus), 84 in Africa, 69 in Australasia and 39 in Antarctica.

Blue Sky Black Death

Blue Sky Black Death (abbreviated BSBD) is a production duo based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It consists of Ryan Maguire, better known by his stage name Kingston, and Ian Taggart, better known by his stage name Young God. They are known principally for their hip hop and instrumental music, made with a mixture of live instrumentation and sampling. Their name is "a skydiving phrase alluding to beauty and death."

History

Kingston and Young God met and began collaborating on music in 2003. Young God, working under the name Rev. Left, began creating beats to rap over, but abandoned rapping and started producing exclusively around 2000. Kingston, working under the name Orphan, began his solo producing career collaborating with rapper Noah23 and the Plague Language collective (to which Young God also contributed production). Kingston entirely produced Noah23's debut album Cytoplasm Pixel in 1999, and the two collaborated closely until Jupiter Sajitarius in 2004, after which they parted ways. In the same year, Kingston worked on projects for Virtuoso's Omnipotent Records. He contributed a number of tracks to Jus Allah's scheduled Omnipotent debut All Fates Have Changed, but the album was shelved. The tracks "Vengeance" and "Drill Sergeant" were later released on BSBD's Dirtnap mixtape, and a number of other beats recorded for the album were bootlegged on The Devil'z Rejects album Necronomicon. One Kingston beat, "Supreme (Black God's Remix)" was included on the Babygrande Records release of All Fates Have Changed in 2005.

Loop (knot)

In reference to knots, loop may refer to:

References

Loop (band)

Loop are an English alternative rock band, formed in 1986 in Croydon, Surrey.

The band went through several lineup changes, with frontman Robert Hampson being the only permanent band member. They split in 1991, with the 1989–90 lineup of Hampson, John Wills, Scott Dawson and Neil Mackay reforming in 2013 for a series of gigs. In November 2014, Hampson unveiled a new lineup of the band with himself as the sole original band member.

Career

Loop were formed in 1986 by Robert Hampson (vocals, guitar), with his then-girlfriend Becky Stewart on drums. Bex was later replaced by John Wills (The Servants) and Glen Ray, with James Endeacott on guitar. Initially releasing records on Jeff Barrett's Head label, their first release was 1987's '16 Dreams', with debut album Heaven's End following later that year. The band was then signed up by Chapter 22 Records.

Loop returned with a more polished sound with the 'Collision' single in 1988. A second album Fade Out followed in 1989, reaching No. 51 on the UK album chart. Endeacott left the band in 1988, Scott Dowson joined the following year. They changed labels again to Beggars Banquet subsidiary Situation Two, releasing the 'Arc-Lite' single in 1989 and the third and final studio album A Gilded Eternity in 1990.

Loop (inlet)

The Loop or Darss Canal (Darßer Kanal) was an inlet of the sea between the lagoon known as the Saaler Bodden and the Baltic Sea near Ahrenshoop on the German coast. It formed the northern boundary of the region of Fischland. Originally the Loop was the northern estuarine branch of the River Recknitz.

The old inlet ran between the present villages of Ahrenshoop and Althagen. The Loop was roughly two metres deep and had posts for mooring boats and barges. Its navigability was frequently curtailed by storms and silting up. Today only a small ditch remains on the former Mecklenburg-Pomeranian border, which runs alongside a main road, the so-called Grenzweg ("border way").

The cartographer and court astronomer at the Mecklenburg court, Tilemann Stella, described the Loop thus: "Between the village of Oldenhagen [Althagen] and the Arnshope [Ahrenshoop], the waters of the Ribnitz river and lake break through into the salty sea. Beyond the beach is a large pile of rock and bricks at the place by the beach; that was the customs post, located 3 or 4 ruthen [50 metres] into the salty sea. Beyond that, forty or fifty posts stood in the salt sea, at the end of which was a large pile of rocks on which the fort stood."