Explore a world which women rule, a world without wars, pestilence - or pesky domineering men! Slaves to their female masters, they exist only to provide pleasure...

Gai-Shift Encyclopedia of Knowledge

Presented is a who's who and what's what of the Gai-Shift world, for those who came in late or might need a refresher. For the characters, I've included the story set (in parenthesis) where they made their debut. Hopefully readers will find this guide of interest and use.

Rough History: The current year is the late 1980s. However, in this world, World War One went on until 1922, killing off an entire generation of young men and threatening the planet. Lighter than air crafts ruled the skies with their lightweight armor and heavy guns. With no end in sight, it was the biology of women that came to the rescue. Across the globe, women suddenly found that they could "order" their pregnancies, determining the sex of their offspring. Men, diminished, became a subservient race (known dismissively as 'mannis'). Women, with their cruel fairness, secured the world into tight, blissful utopia.

Technology: Most power comes from steam engines, evidently advanced (noted as recombination engines). Further, a highly combustive compound named Orgasium (see below) can be used to increase the output of steam engines ten-fold. Clockwork engines are also in common use. Computers (Mechanical Intelligences, or 'MI's) are punch card controlled and highly evolved, as are robotic devices. Wirelesses exist, but most communication is slow and considered. Overall, it is a slower, more humanistic world.

Magic: It has been noted that magic is beginning to come back into the world.

Series Order (while the story series are largely stand-alone, they chronologically form the following order).
= = = = = = = = = = =
Gai-Shift
Angel
Reversal
Magic
Orchid
The Pit

CHARACTERS (in alphabetical order)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Alina (Gai Shift): Tall and tan and young and lovely, Alina serves the High Mistress of Ecuador. For her services to the Unbound Pleasure, she was given Bert51, who she keeps snuggly tied under her bed. Lucky fellow.

Anna, Miss (Gai Shift): Young Petunia Goldwaith's stern middle-aged governess, anti-science and, really, anti-fun as well. Kept Petunia in tight bondage as an aid to character development. Petunia reprogrammed her MI to turn the tables on her matron. After a year of overstimulation, the woman now directs Goldwaith's domestics at Willie Hall with an enthusiastic flare.

Barbette (Reversal): Lady M___'s chief maid, a leggy Frenchwoman of middle-years, whose feather duster brings panic (and riotous laughter) to all those unlucky enough to experience it.

Bert51 (Gai Shift): A manni from the Royal Stables, trained and docile, yet always good for a ride. A favorite of the ladies.

Chespeake (Gai Shift): A green-eyed, long-limbed black slave who is frustrated by owners who continually fall in love with her and neglect keeping her in abject bondage. In this, she has become an abolitionist, dedicatde to abolishing slave rights so as to keep slavery good and secure. When last seen, she'd falling prey to the hill-women of Ecuador. Maybe she will find satisfaction in their cruel ropes.

Drummand, Constance, Chief Officer (Gai Shift): Member of the London Metropolitan Police Force, based at the Central London Precinct House. Has short red hair, and a temper equally short and red. Always puts duty first, is no-nonsense and generally a hard-ass about everything. Of everyone in the Gai-shift world, she is perhaps the one with the most issues. Getting her bound up and orgasmed is one of Petunia Goldwaith's life goals.

Elsa (Magic): A milkmaid of the village of Sheepish. So troublesome that she spends much of her time in the village stocks. Its almost as if she adores passing women tickling her exposed soles. Who could imagine such a thing?

Goldwaith, Petunia, Lady (Gai Shift): A flirty mix of the concave and convex, a delightful blonde bombshell whose hair color is at odds with her intellect, which is vast. Not only did she develop the original MI sexual programming card decks, she also developed Orgasium. Always sunny, and ever on the watch for a knot to tighten.

Hammersmith, Olivia (Orchid): English Ambassador to Greater Japan. Middle-aged and dignified, her eyes gunmetal gray, her hair mousy brown and usually bunned. Stumbled into the Japanese Crisis and stayed bound for all of it. Rescued by an English-funded raid.

Hoffsteder, Zana, Captain (Gai Shift): This airship captain understands the need for drag-reduction and smooth flight surfaces. Always clad in her rubberized flight suit, her black hair tumbling over her shoulders, and her sky-blue eyes carefully settled behind her clip-on spectacles, she is the woman you'd want at your helm. Originally captained 'Sky Groper', but has piloted 'Unbound Pleasure' on several Royal missions.

Japanese Crisis (Gai Shift): This crisis rose when Empress Nabuki of Greater Japan turned Ambassador Hammersmith of Britain into a bondage toy, keeping her bound up every night for most of a year. The Crisis ended when an English-commissioned black orchid raid spirited the Ambassador to the airship 'Unbound Pleasure'.

Johnston, Madam (Magic) - Chief witch of the Wiltshire district, mature yet still shapely. Able to influence the weather. Considers a good apprentice to be a bound and gagged one. Should have avoided deals with strange religious orders.

Kate (Magic): One of the replacement witches, apprentice to Megan. Tall to the point of being gawky, her hair is oddly purple, likely a side-effect of her magic. Besides her skills, she is Lady Goldwaith niece.

Kiyoko (Orchid): Member of the white orchid order, in the service of Empress Nabuki. Slender and serine, her long black hair lifts from her forehead in raven-wing folds. Has received far-reaching training, from bondage to sexual interrogation. Can tie a woman up with a flick of her wrists. And can do other things to her, with further flicks.

Lilla, Queen (Gai Shift): Her Royal Majesty of England. Bow.

M___, Lady (Reversal). A very stout and very proper estate owner who speaks in upper-case. Runs a very popular estate with rooms with all the amenities (including a hole in the wall where a belted-up manni's tackle is thrust through, for the use of the occupant). Ladies, its better than a mint on your pillow.

Manchester, Baroness (Reversal): Possesses striking beauty and poise, with her dark hair spiraling to fall over her shoulder. Developed a clever pump-inflatable device that can be mounted to a woman's private part, making it a manni's private part. With its clever feedback cilia, a woman gets it every bit as good as she gives it.

Mannis (Gai Shift): Term for the male race, somewhat rare. Mannis are generally raised into a life of service. They are often trained for pleasure-service. Those exceptional at this might find deployment in private estates (see 'M___, Lady') or even the Royal Stables. However, in Greater Japan, they often are used as field slaves. In Ecuador, the custom is to bind them for public use and consumption once a month. They are greatly feared by the Ecuadorian hill-tribes, who refer to them as 'The Sisters with Forward Tails'.

Megan (Magic): A cute tomboyish girl with short brown hair and, incidentally, a witch. Unfortunately, her power was that no rope will stay tied around her, a most frustrating curse.

MI (Gai Shift): 'Mechanical Intelligences'. This is a very loose term to describe card-reading thinking machines and their attached robotic manipulators. Lady Goldwaith developed the recursive programming techniques which allows household MIs to be instructed to bind up their inhabitants, a very popular pastime (see 'Tuesday of the Empty Lanes'). When the MIs of Goldwaith Laboratories and the Metropolitan Police were combined, the Pit was formed, perhaps leading to the creation of the first sentient MI.

Mistress, High, of Ecuador (Gai Shift): Narrow faced, long limbed, quite the person to rule over a hot-blooded nation of woman sacrifices. And its not blood they pull from you atop their high pyramids.

Nabuki, Empress of Greater Japan (Orchid): The elfin ruler of the home islands. Playfully sadistic in her bondage. Instrumental in bringing about the 'Japanese Crisis'.

Orchids (Orchid): There are two warrior orders in Japan, the white orchids and the black. White orchids fight for honor and duty, blacks for money and reward. Both styles rely on weapons-of-bondage, whirling scarves, snag-wires, clockwork nets, etc. Both are trained in sexual matters (including interrogation techniques). Usually, when orchids fight, every living thing within a hundred yards ends up trussed.

Orgasium (Gai Shift): A solution biologically developed by Lady Goldwaith. She developed a formula that prevents orgasms (yet heightens sexual awareness and tension) for several hours. When the women are finally able (or permitted) to climax, they secrete Orgasium, an explosive liquid. When mixed with boiler water, it can increase steam-engine output several times over. The initial formula can by used (by the sexually-daring) as perfume. Please consult the warning labels.

Petra, Second Officer (Gai Shift): A big-boned Russian woman, second-banana (often literally) to Captain Hoffsteder.

Pit, The (Gai Shift): Originally formed when Goldwaith Laboratory kludged its basement MIs together with those of the nearby Central London Precinct House (where Drummand works). The Goldwaith researchers began to see anomalies form, with MI sexual servicing tracks being extended into the London depths. Women who wandering into this unknown eventually return groggy and sexually sated. Justice was quick to react, and began surrendering its more hardened criminals to the Pit. Reports are now coming in from all over the city of women being snatched and dragged below for some quite capital (if not lengthy (and we mean that in every sense)) entertainments.

Rani (Angel): Lab assistant to Petunia Goldwaith. An Indian of calm, traditional beauty. Considered unshakable under MI probing (as proven by the Knightsbridge Angel), and hence leader for the coming expedition into the Pit. So cool and collected, you'd like to see her get a good rattling. Don't worry, its coming.

Samantha, Routing Officer (Gai Shift): A sunny girl with long golden ringlets of hair. If you get arrested for any crime in central London, she will be the one to examine your toe-tag (while you hand head-down, trussed and mute) and route you to the correct punishment. Has had her boss, Constance Drummand, arrested and punished in the past. No doubt, when Drummand is done with such cases as the Ambassadorial trip to Ecuador and the Knightsbridge Angel, she'll see to her little fiend's comeuppance.

Sasha (Magic): A scarlet-haired passionate witch. Responsible for raiding about the countryside, dragging off her captives to her loft of passion. Should have avoided deals with pirates.

Sheepish (Magic): Megan's home village, where the farmgirls play amusing rope games on each other in the high hay, the dairy mannies are worked to complacency, and daughters listen attentivly as their mothers explain good knotwork. Also home to Elsa, the troublesome milkmaid.

Sybil (Angel): Lab assistant to Petunia Goldwaith. Lanky and plain, with short black hair, flat-glassed spectacles and unbecoming black dresses. Expert in MI programming. For such a little girl, she has some very big issues.

Tameran (Magic): A chubby yet cute auburn-haired witch. The playfully cute cousin you wished you'd had. Should have avoided deals with gypsies.

Tuesday of the Empty Lanes (Gai Shift): An economic/social/sexual event triggered when Lady Goldwaith's original MI card sets were issued. By noon, half of London's population was under household rope (trussed by up their MIs). Those that could not get cards rioted, many of them ending up arrested. By nightfall, the city streets were empty. The next day, they were filled again, but everyone was walking quite funny.

Zelda (Magic): A skinny bespeckled witch. If you wanted a true Wicked Witch of the West, look no further than Zelda. Should have avoided deals with farmgirls.

'Unbound Pleasure' (Gai Shift): The first long-distance airship. Within its envelope is an Orgasium-extraction network, where five women are rotated through service, rest, excitement, then mechanical ravishment. The Orgasium produced permits the airship to cross oceans.

Willie Hall (Angel): Petunia Goldwaith's London residence. Contains more rope then the London Shipyards.

Woody (Magic): A staff originally charged by the Covent of Megan, Madam Johnston, Tameran, Zelda and Sasha. Megan's teacher (and sexual appliance). Its power can overcome Megan's curse.