The Seams

The Seams are a section of galactic space set apart from the Sephirotics often at borders, but often penetrating through all sections of a sephirotic. They are connected to sephirotic worlds by means of specialized gateway star systems through wormholes or beamrider networks. Often, these seams are very difficult to reach outside of these methods due to navigational hazards of a natural or artificial nature. This territory is governed and maintained by an Archailect called the Burdikeer. The Burdikeer was placed in charge by a decision of all the major sephirotic Archai and charged with maintaining its precepts.

The Seams are physically shaped into long strings, sheets and pockets of territory carved out of the Sephirotics by their Archai and donated to this new creation during the Version War. It included thousands of stars and has grown in pace with the expanding frontier. Often, it is a major route to the frontier for emigrants from the Sephirotics. Its worlds are sometimes incredibly developed, but very few angelnetted nanotopias exist. Many other worlds are devoid of life, and some lie in ruins or have become cinder systems thanks to their lost connection to their governing Archai. There are only a few general classifications of systems in The Seams: Gateway, Industrial, Warehouse, Zoned, Quarantine and Public.

Gateway systems often are the most advanced, and usually where a nanotopias will be found. These systems do the most trade and traffic with the Sephirotics and deal with the highest volume of travel since they are the major entrance points. These systems will often connect to a single Sephirotic world, but have multiple connections to systems in the Seams. In some rare cases, these gateway systems have many connections to both Inter-Seam and Sephirotic systems. Of course, these are incredibly rare, and only a handful of systems like this exist. These are the major transportation hubs of the Seams as well as the most likely place for a traveling Transapient to be found. The Burdikeer controls these systems tightly, restricting travel and regimenting contact with the Sephirotics here. These systems are often the most like their connecting Sephirotic than any independent culture of the Seams. Often, a Gateway System will have many, and in one case dozens of very carefully balanced wormholes connected to the system with thousands of potential beamrider routes using this system as a hub. As expected, the population here is incredibly dense, active and frenetic. It is said that at times, the quantity of activity here rivals that of a dyson swarm. There is never a case where a gateway system lacks a wormhole.

Industrial systems are star systems so packed with critical resources needed by the Sephirotics, they often take on the characteristics of a boomtown in a gold rush territory. Often they are claims posted by individual Sephirotics who gain the mineral rights to these systems then proceed to use them and ship the spoils off to where they need to via massive interstellar “trains” or “bulk” freighters. Sometimes, these take on the appearance of a company town as well due to on site nanofacture. It is also known that some star systems are converted into stellar solar collectors that beam power back through a special wormhole nexus to its controlling Sephirotic. The population density in an Industrial system is sometimes non-existent outside of a handful of sophonts running the incredibly powerful automated systems. Rarely are there more than 5 wormholes or beamrider routes connected to these systems. Often they are dead end systems, but never only relativistically accessible.

Warehouse systems are the equivalent of stellar sized warehouses. Often when an Archailect wishes to store materials of various sorts but does not desire it near his sephirotic, but within reach, they will use a Warehouse system. Often these are nearly empty systems, or possess some form of interfering stellar phenomena preventing observation in the system. There they store massive quantities of goods connected to a wormhole with a relatively short transit time back to a gateway system connected to them. Often these system will be empty of dangerous items like asteroid belts, Oort clouds and other features that could damage their goods if left for prolonged periods in space. The Burdikeer usually provides security for this space, or at least will monitor its inventory. Often these have the same level of interconnectivity as Industrial systems.

Zoned systems are very similar to what one would find in normal Sephirotic space. It will contain worlds full of baselines and Transavants going about their lives. These can range from prison colonies, to full fledged mini-empires of high tech societies, and even the occasional pockets of ultratech. Often Zoned systems are ruled by Transavants which have the propensity to rise to the top of a social structure devoid of full fledged Transapients, but not always. Some systems can be completely ruled by Baselines with their own law sets and moralities. It has been occasionally found that some worlds have forgotten their past connection to the Sephirotics and have devolved into a “lonely universe” philosophy where they are the only intelligent species in the cosmos. Burdikeer ISOs also are considered among these types of systems because of the propensity of the Burdikeer for having Godwellers. Zoned systems always have multiple connections to other systems via wormhole or beamrider. It is usually the measure of whether or not a system is actually Zoned or Public. Most major development to a system occurs after a wormhole is made present. It is uncommon, but some Zoned systems with high beamrider connectivity have also become Zoned systems as well and have even gone so far as to refuse wormhole links. There reasons for this are as varied as their polities.

Quarantine systems are always a mystery. The Burdikeer has prevented any reference to their contents or existence beyond a placeholder with an official warning for anyone investigating these stars. Although it is easy to find those Quarantine Systems that have a Black Hole in them, it is theorized that other systems may be protecting the Seams from Blights or incredible dangers that may exist within. In some cases, these Quarantine Systems are theorized to be battlefields or even secret laboratory systems of the Archai. On many occasions, ships of various Sephirotics have been seen entering certain Quarantine systems and return only to be escorted out of the Seams rapidly by the Burdikeer. It is unknown how interconnected, or well developed a Quarantine System is.

Public systems are those that have never been colonized, or have become depopulated and have no claim on them from another use. It is more common than one would expect to find ruins from pre-version war societies on a Public System world. These ruins can be from a failed colony to even a defeated Archai who had previously owned the world. On two occasions, the worlds discovered turned out to be abandoned or dead ISOs! Cinder Systems are always considered Public, and often do not have anything to offer to anyone but pirates and scavengers living on the ashes of the system or using it to hide in if there was enough logistical value to the system. Those who live here usually do so under squatter’s rights. Public systems almost never have a connection to any form of transportation network. Occasionally, a beamrider system will use gravity wells in a Public system to slingshot their craft, but this is rare.

There are many other subcategories of worlds, but all of them fall into one of these broad categories at some form.


The first impression that often strikes most sophonts from a Sephirotic to enter the Seams is the incredible lack of control felt here. The comfortable pressure of technology controlling and monitoring all activity seems to be lacking. Some Sophonts cannot handle this lack of control and go into a near psychotic state similar to that of Agoraphobics with their desperation to fill their perceptions with enough data and the illusion of control as to regain control and comfort. This is part of the reason why Gateway systems are often angelnetted, since they are hubs of trade often requiring sophonts from both sides of the wormhole to interact, sometimes physically. The farther away from the Gateway system one gets, the less control one detects and feels. This is often why residents of a Sephirotic do not venture much beyond the Gateway system if they ever are allowed to enter.

Those who live in the Seams are not citizens. There is no “true” government in the same form that we see with Sephirotics or polities. Instead they reside there, with whatever rights that are allowed to them via the local baseline polities. To reflect this, the term “Denizen” has been adopted. This seems to be true regardless of what the baseline polity may say or desire. When addressed by a Boujouais or the Burdikeer, those residing in the Seams are referred to as Denizens.

One of the main questions denizens of the Seams are asked when they are in the Sephirotics is why they prefer to live in such a lawless, unsafe society. Often their answer is because they love everything about the Seams that Sephirotic citizens hate. The freedom, self-control and open nature of the Seams is often addictive to these denizens and is why many who go to the Seams via choice or force rarely ever return for long if ever. This memetic divide is the Seam’s best “warden” possible.

Language is another way the Seams force separation from the Sephirotics. The Burdikeer deliberately enforce the use of a language, exclusive to the Seams, called “Devaje”. Originally this language was a trade language of the early interstellar era that was in competition to Anglish, but lost favor over time and nearly vanished. For reasons unknown, the Burdikeer resurrected the language for use in the Seams. All official business and trade are done in this language. It is very easy to learn and thanks to very powerful ingrained memetics, and hard to delete. It’s excellent for accounting and trade as well as maintaining almost an artistic flair rather than being clinical. Some linguistic authorities believe that it evolved out of the Romance languages as well as Greek and some Asian tongues as well. Although it uses the standard alphabet, it also has a pictograph style of writing often employed in unofficial writings and entertainment similar to ancient Asiatic and Arabian languages.

As a method to prevent some denizens from returning to their home Sephirotics, they have their language centers rewritten in Devaje. No memory is deleted but rather translated, leaving the sophont unable able to speak their former language let alone remember how it originally sounded, and must relearn it. This also brands the person as a Denizen of the Seams, rather than a citizen of their former sephirotic. Even if they do manage to re-learn their former language, it is always with an accent. Most Sephirotics will not acknowledge the existence of Devaje to their citizens, teach it openly, or allow universal translators to recognize it. Only in Sephirotic systems that connect with the Seams is this skill uncommon and only among those who require it.

The Seams do not offer a dominant culture in which its denizens must conform to, outside of language. Those that enter the Seams can create a society any way they desire, or attempt to transplant their previous culture from their old Sephirotic. This leaves the impression at times of a polyglot of very ethnic feeling communities scattered throughout the Seams. Often these clump near or inside Seams connected to their home sephirotic, but occasionally they spread out and become more diffuse the farther outwards into the periphery one goes. Since the Burdikeer does not forbid war between these subcultures and planets, except when they interfere with Sephirotic or Burdikeer business, some very ancient feuds have begun and festered. This makes for some very dangerous places as well as some real hellholes right next to angelnetted paradises. The only thing preventing the two from touching is a total lack of interconnectivity between the two, or sometimes, the total lack of understanding that they are part of a greater whole.

Most “primitive” societies in the Seams know that there is life on other worlds, but some have devolved into forgetting this fact and have lacked the interconnectivity to the rest of the Seams to remind them of this. On these isolated, forgetful worlds, a visitor from out of system or off world is a very big deal, depending on how much the culture has forgotten. The UFO phenomenon is still quite potent to these societies.

Toposophically, the Seams are incredibly stunted and actively repressed. Other than the Burdikeer and a few associated special envoys from the Sephirotics, there are no known full fledged Transapients present in the Seams. It is very apparent that the Burdikeer violently prevents any other Transapients from entering. If caught by the Burdikeer, they are often asked to leave quickly and quietly. If this expulsion is resisted, the Burdikeer has reacted with incredible violence and power that has many baselines questioning how powerful the Burdikeer is. Those that transcend in the Seams do not seem to stick around. Often, they quickly decide to leave on their own, or are asked to leave or have disappeared. Although there has been a precedent set of some newly minted Transapients being invited to join the Burdikeer as Boujouais or other representatives. This is infrequent, but has been known to happen.

One quirk about the Burdikeer seems to be the fascination with Transavants and related partial Transapients. It seems that this phenomenon is actually encouraged here. They are often Invited and hired on as independent contractors or troubleshooters to the Burdikeer. It is suspected that the reason a high percentage of ascension attempts in the Seams result in Transavantism because of sabotaged procedures caused by the Burdikeer. This of course is an ugly rumor with no known proof. Transavants are often very welcome in the Seams to a level unheard of in the Sephirotics where they often upset the order of things.


Economically, the Seams are sharply divided between Transapient and Baseline Economies. Although very little is known about the Transapient economy, the Baseline economy is considered by many to be a “NoCoZo Fire Drill”. From system to system, you can find purely barter environments, while even only an orbit away, you will find a solid full Afflueconomic situation where nearly everything is free.

Money and economic exchange is most commonly valued against the “Erg Credit” and is based on the easy of providing energy to the system or specific world. They are often divided on a system by system basis, but occasionally, world by world basis unless very bizarre circumstances force finer valuation of the EC. The EC, is instantly translated into any value the holder desires, thanks to the Known Net.

The only aspect of the economy provided to the Denizens of the Seams is known colloquially as the “Dole”. This card, which is provided to every denizen, upon arrival is a standard privilege access to rudimentary Food, Shelter, Transportation, Clothing and Information. Although this is not much, it is still much better than the alternative. The card works with all Restaurants, Stores, Transit systems and Information Nets, while only usable with select Fabrication systems and housing authorities that work closely with the Burdikeer. It has been known at times for Pioneers to land on what is thought to be an unsurveyed world to find a small “Dole” beacon on the world, waiting for anyone who needs the essentials. It has saved many a lost or marooned Denizen.