A coloured energy field displayed by Culture drones that indicates their emotional state or intentions. Blue-grey for fr...

An extraordinarily complex game that gives its name to the Empire of Azad. So complex, subtle, flexible, and demanding t...

A belligerent, gas-giant-dwelling species characterised by aggressive behaviour and a love of hunting. Their Diplomatic ...

The Gzilt holy book, delivered by meteorite during their dark ages. Remarkably accurate in its predictions, it gave it e...

A furred, caste-based humanoid species whose dead are carried to an actual, technologically maintained heaven via Soulke...

The section of the Culture responsible for dealing with other civilisations, exploring new regions of space, and managin...

A galaxy-spanning, post-scarcity civilisation of mixed humanoid and machine citizens. It has no government, no money, an...

A Culture technology for teleporting matter from one location to another. Displacement is risky, particularly in hypersp...

A pure-energy superspecies long retired from normal galactic life, whose conceit is to cordon off and preserve certain p...

A biological modification standard in Culture citizens, allowing them to secrete various drugs directly into their blood...

A Culture ship or Mind that has declared itself outside normal Culture conventions, pursuing its own interests and decli...

A versatile Culture technology used for sensing, communication, manipulation, and offensive purposes. A warship's electr...

A mysterious artefact linked to the energy grid in both hyperspatial directions, well outside all known parameters and p...

Smaller Culture vessels operated by Contact, designed for exploration and diplomatic engagement with other civilisations...

The largest class of Culture ship, essentially mobile habitats carrying billions of inhabitants. GSVs contain entire lan...

A colossal structure built by the ancient Werpesh that encircles an entire planet in Gzilt space. Hundreds of kilometres...

An immensely destructive weapon that tears through the energy grid underlying hyperspace, manifesting as devastating ene...

A humanoid civilisation on the verge of Subliming, possessing a holy text called the Book of Truth. They had been living...

A set of self-replicating entities that run out of control and attempt to convert all matter into copies of themselves. ...

The defining conflict in Culture history, fought between the Culture and the Idirans. It resulted in massive destruction...

A large, warlike, religiously motivated species who fought the Culture in the Idiran War. The conflict defined much of C...

A secretive SC committee of powerful Minds that coordinates responses to existential threats. Described as probably the ...

The term for civilisations that are active participants in galactic affairs, as opposed to those that have Sublimed, gon...

A tiny, sleek autonomous weapon platform, small enough to be mistaken for a ship drone. Knife missiles are self-directed...

The Culture's own language, more subtle and precise than most other tongues. It has a complex pronoun system and has exi...

A Culture Orbital whose Hub Mind formerly served as the Mind of a war-adapted GSV that survived near total destruction a...

Vastly powerful artificial intelligences that run Culture ships, Orbitals, and other habitats. A Mind's thoughts and mem...

A device implanted within the brain that provides expanded cognitive capabilities and connectivity. Neural laces can tra...

A massive ring-shaped habitat built to orbit a star, with the inner surface providing living space through centripetal f...

A threat so far beyond a civilisation's experience that it cannot be comprehended, let alone dealt with. The Culture's u...

The part of the Culture that split away at the start of the Idiran War, renouncing conflict altogether. Hundreds of year...

A specialist section of Contact dealing with matters of the dead - preserved personalities, virtual afterlives, and rela...

A Culture warship class, fast and heavily armed. In peacetime many are demilitarised and reclassified as Very Fast Picke...

The process of re-embodying a dead person from a stored mind-state into a new physical body. Made possible by neural lac...

One of the Dra'Azon Planets of the Dead, preserved behind a Quiet Barrier as a monument to destruction. Its inhabitants ...

A Chelgrian device implanted in individuals that captures and preserves the personality at death. Rather than reviving i...

Contact's espionage and dirty tricks department, handling the Culture's most sensitive and morally ambiguous operations....

An ancient, nested structure of concentric spherical shells built around a central core, with different species inhabiti...

The process by which a civilisation transcends physical reality to exist in higher dimensions, considered the ultimate p...

The climactic battle at the end of the Idiran War in which two stars were destroyed, generating supernovae that killed b...

A conflict across multiple civilisations over the existence of virtual Hells - simulated afterlife environments of torme...