LEXICA
The following is taken from 'The Vortex Guide to the Gyre', written by Vortex.
'As time progressed, and the Ages passed, language evolved, as it always does. Be it through the interactions of various cultures and alien species, new revelations and understandings, or simply due to the natural warping of words and phrases into new ones, many terms that were once used throughout the ages have fallen into disused, replaced by new ones.
That all being said, as far as I can tell, we managed to maintain the majority of the old language back on Seruska. Maybe because we were lost to the rest of the galaxy for so long? Well, probably, actually, now that I'm thinking about it. Us coming up with the same terms as the rest of them while in complete isolation would be pretty unlikely, all things considered, but anyway.
It can get confusing, keeping track of all of these words - Void Island this, Skerry that, Cosmic Tide this and Cosmic Abyss that - Kata said that it might help me to make a sort of self-reference sheet or something, so I figured, why not? Master Yurennen often said 'to understand a language is to understand the culture it came from.' It'll be hard for Seruska to re-intergrade if we don't understand this kind of terminology. And if nothing else, it'll help make things clearer for people when I bring all of this stuff back to Seruska. So, if you're reading this, here's how it'll work - I'll put the term below, and next to it, I'll put the Seruskan old-tongue. Hopefully you pick it up quicker than I did.' - Chapter Three - Words.
B
Black Whirlpool - A Black Hole, named due to their visual similarities.
C
Cosmic Abyss - The Voidsea between two Gyres (Intergalactic Space)
Cosmic Tide - A term to describe the local Voidsea, which includes multiple Gyres within it. Example: the Sky River, and it's various Satellite's, such as the Verpletter Gyre, are part of the Cosmic Tide. Named because a Tide is close together (?)
G
Gyre - A Galaxy
K
Kinde - Species. A sentient species is called a "Sentient Kinde". A sub-species would be a "Sub-Kinde" (Though they would likely call themselves just a 'Kinde'). Animals are also called Kinde. If you're talking about 'Kinde' without further context, the assumption is that they're sentient (Example, If I said 'The Quirri Kinde', you would assume they were a sentient species). Animals and plants are referred to as a Faunakinde and Florakinde respectively.
S
Sky River - The Milky Way Galaxy. It's unknown when precisely the name changed.
Shoal - A Star Cluster
Skerry - Planetary Ring systems
V
Voidsea - Refers to both Outer Space, and also the reality surrounding the observable universe itself. Distinct from the Realmlands, but fundamentally connected to it. Inhabitants of the Sky River often use the term to refer both to space, and the reality interchangeably. Anything within the Voidsea (Planets, Space stations, etc) are considered to be within it. It is treated as though it were an ocean. (Hence "Void Island")
Void-Ships - Star-ships
Void-Stations - Space-Stations
Void Island - A planet - An island in the Voidsea.
Void Islet - A Dwarf Planet - A smaller island in the Voidsea.
Void Cove - A Moon
Void Reef - An Asteroid Belt
Void Archipelago - A Solar System