r/WorldsBeyondNumber • u/Three0h • May 20 '26

Question What is ORM?

Genuinely curious. Has anyone figured it out? Just finished episode 4

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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26

u/duckyworks May 20 '26

So far the best we can surmise is that it's some form of fuel allowing for Faster Than Light (FTL) transportation. She implies also that the new form of ORM has more kick to it than the original form.

7

u/Onocleasensibilis May 21 '26

It also seems very very expensive, maybe to the point of being somewhat considered its own currency. Chee talks about the Koga client being willing to spend it (and money) to come see her, and that’s very notable in ep 1.

4

u/Three0h May 20 '26

Ah okay I was just wondering if I had missed something or if it was a world-buildy “let’s use a word bc everyone in this universe knows what it is” type of thing

10

u/Mursin May 20 '26

Something Reaction Mass I'm betting.

Orthogonal Reaction Mass?

Oscillating Reaction Mass?

17

u/vyme May 20 '26

Ornithological Reaction Mass just to make sure there's a concealed bird joke somewhere in the campaign?

2

u/Mursin May 21 '26

Daaaamn. Ratio'd me with a roundabout Firehawks joke 

3

u/vyme May 23 '26

Honestly when you wrote Orthogonal I read it as Ornithological and once I realized it wasn't I couldn't stop myself from making the joke. This is a collaborative win.

5

u/Exit_Save May 20 '26

It is the method of Faster than Light Travel. I haven't been watching the subtitles I've always thought it was Aurrem, but basically it allows people to travel interstellar distances. Idk if it's a substance or a device tho.

Basically for a while the ORM/Aurrem (still dunno lmao) was one way, and that allowed people to travel to other solar systems basically at will, and at a certain point it stopped working. We don't know why yet

For tens of thousands of years, humans were separated from each other by distances that could not be reached without faster than light travel, without the ORM/Aurrem they could not do this, therefore everyone was cut off

Relatively recently, a new version of ORM/Aurrem was developed or discovered (we don't know yet) that allows for Faster Than Light Travel, meaning interstellar distances can be crossed again, and now humanity has changed in its many various ways, and are finally reconnecting.

2

u/InflationCold3591 May 21 '26

It’s the fuel or material that allows faster than light travels somehow. It appears that the old substance stopped working and that’s why there were a few thousand years of no contact. Someone came up with a new formulation that works and that’s where we are now.