nonimportante [2014-01-30 04:52:29 +0000 UTC]
do you have a glossary somewhere that explains what all the terms you use with in the context of your setting. every fantasy novel should have a glossary, imho
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Thrythlind In reply to nonimportante [2014-01-30 05:26:32 +0000 UTC]
Lexicon and Slang
Akira – Derogatory term for a psychic that is either unaware of what they are, or else aware and think that their
powers mean they don’t need training or weapons.
Afflicted – Non-humans that were born a different species than they currently are.
Ashvattha – The largest rune tree, connected to the Nirvana mindscape as a whole. Primary reason the Gods and
Demons of Nirvana are as powerful as they are.
Apprentice – A black magician so heavily indebted to a particular citizen of Yomi that there is likely no way for
them to get out from under the debt.
Aura – Protective field of life force. Must be shaped to face particular styles of attack. Channelling skill.
Avatar – A white magician that has used magic originating from a particular citizen of Nirvana that their thoughts
and memories are practically an open book to the Immortal.
Battle Skill – Knowledge of how to actually fight, use weapons and any abilities.
Body Enhancement – Channelling skill aimed at allowing the body to operate at peak human or superhuman
levels.
Body Hardening – Procedures for permanently enhancing the toughness of the skin. The procedures involved are
a shaping skill.
Blast – Channelling skill involving in launching condensed life force as an attack. Occasionally used to create the
equivalent of a fireworks display.
Blend – Non-humans that appear mostly human and have no shape-changing or disguises skill. Some still can’t
really pass for human.
Butterfly – A Psyche freelancer. This is mostly Psyche/Community slang and differentiates between psychics with
actual practical skills and those researchers and “psychics” who are contacted by phone, exist
mostly to heighten public tolerance and themselves have little to know knowledge of the full
supernatural picture.
Changeling – Non-humans that are born appearing to be human and express their true nature later.
Channeling – The skill of using lifeforce for raw, blatant purposes such as in a fight. This is a trained skill that
almost any sentient being can learn. Practitioners are called channellers.
Charlotte – Slang term referring to any friendly spider-tank on the battle field.
Chi – Human life force, falls with a range of green colors.
Circles – Circuits designed to focus and multiply lifeforce so as to allow for more powerful effects.
Cloaking – Channelling practice of choking off one’s residual life force so that their presence is overlooked.
Practically invisibility, but does not operate against machines. Only masters can cloak and still do
other things with their life force.
Community – The Community, capital letters implied, refers to the local population of psychics and non-humans.
Usually implies civilians and a lack of skill, experience or both in dealing with a crisis.
Compact – The system enforcing the truce between Yomi and Nirvana. When a citizen of Yomi dies, the Compact
kills a citizen of Nirvana and vice versa.
Companion – A Demonic familiar designed to appear as an animal. Independent action, possible sentience.
Provide extra processing power and reserves of lifeforce.
Corruption – Injury sustained directly by the life-force. Usually presents symptoms that can be mistaken for
physical or psychological causes, such as paranoia or internal bleeding. Physical medicine and
psychiatry can ameliorate the symptoms but without a healer, the life force has to recover
naturally over time and the conventional methods will fall apart.
Cosmic Janitor – Derogatory term for First Tier Immortals as the primary reason they’re allowed that much power
is to make sure they have the power to mitigate natural disasters.
Cthulhu – Common slang for Nameless things. Used by pretty much the entire supernatural community.
Cuckoo – Derogatory term for changelings.
Deep One – Derogatory term for any psychic or non-human with aquatic powers. Primarily refers to lemurians.
Enchanting – The practice of creating lasting psychic tools, weapons and the like. Shaping skill.
Episode – An event in which a psychic spectacularly loses control of their power. Most recognizable marker of
amateur and untrained psychics: Akiras.
Exorcism – The practice of warding off psychic intrusion. Primarily focused on countering non-physical entities
such as ghosts. Shaping skill.
Familiar – Demonic tools and equipment. Bio-technology based on reptilian DNA. Often symbiotic, can be
parasitic when used by non-Demons. Produces lifeforce compatible with vitae.
Feng Shui – The accepted blanket term for schools of geomancy. A primarily human art, focuses on making use of
the residual lifeforce in the environment that most consider useless waste.
Freelancer – The intelligence and spec-ops term for mercenary psychics. Indicates some level of respect and
assumption of competence.
Geomancer – A common term for a feng shui shih, practioner of feng shui. Not considered correct usage.
Goatman – Derogatory term for government-trained psychics used by soldiers. Often considered less competent
than freelancers.
Haven – Psyche facilities providing support and shelter for non-humans that have trouble blending in with human
society.
Headhunter – A battlefield bounty hunter. Mercenaries with no particular contract earning money by hunting
enemies with a price on their head.
Healing – Specifically refers to the skill of treating life-force corruption. Mostly used for treating psychics that over
extended themselves or for removing curses. Healing has the same trouble with physical and
psychological maladies that those fields have with life force corruption. They can only soothe
some of the symptoms. Healing is a shaping skill.
Homunculus – Essentially the God word for a clone. Individuals carried to term in some device rather than a living
being. A significant minority of Gods and Demons are homunculi.
Hybrid – Non-humans that have very few human features. They mostly do not appreciate the category name as it
implies that they are at all human.
K.A.S. – Derogatory reference to a rescue and purge op where the target of the rescue has no desire to be
“rescued”. Stands for Kidnap and Slaughter.
Kolchak – A reference to a person trying to make the existence of psychics and non-humans public regardless of
consequences.
Leak – A condition where in the psychic is having a mild effect on the environment or people around them.
Usually indicative of a lack of skill or maturity, occasionally caused by long term conditions, usually psychological.
Lifeforce – A biological energy produced by a living body. Unique to each species.
Magic – The practice of borrowing the powers of other psychics. Primarily draws from Demons and Gods, since
such magic can be used without a physical “donation” from the person to be borrowed from.
Major Race – Any race with enough population to be an everyday sight on Earth. Currently, only humans.
Previously, the precursors to both the Demons and Gods.
Mana – God life force. Falls within a range of blue colors. Comparatively dark and dense next to mortal life forces.
Manipulative – Psychics with talents allowing them to control the physical world around them. Further split into
producers and controllers.
Metabolic – Psychics with talents allowing them to control their own bodies.
Mimic – Non-humans capable of using either illusions or shapeshifting to appear human. Gods and Demons are
the most common, but Therianthropes are the most well known.
Mindscape – A psychic construct that serves as a defense for the deeper mind.
Monkey – Derogatory term for humans and human related species.
Monkey Follower – Derogatory term for Gods and Demons that follow human forms of worship.
Monkey Lord – Derogatory term for Gods and Demons that still try to pass themselves off as truly divine beings
worthy of worship.
Nameless – Unique creatures, or at least creatures for which there is no previous record. Designation implies first
tier level psychic power.
Nirvana – The home shard of the Gods and a few Demons that changed sides. A virtual paradise.
Occult – Things that are hidden or unknown. A phrase describing phenomena and things that aren’t well
understood and go beyond the bounds of conventional physics and psychic research.
Orochi – The largest and most well known companion, linked to the Yomi mindscape as a whole. Primary reason
the Demons and Gods of Yomi are as powerful as they are.
Others – Non-human races that seem to have absolutely no relationship or similarity with humans.
Petrie Dish – Derogatory term for kitsune based on the fact that they are possibly sentient collectives of bacteria.
*This is included as a suggestion for future. There aren’t yet enough people who know what the
kitsune are for there to be such a term.
Puppet – Derogatory term for homunculi. Used by Gods and Demons.
Psy-Line – Intelligence and spec-ops slang referring to the fact that many psychics need a line of sight to their
target.
The Purges – Seven Immortals, three Gods, four Demons, primarily responsible for a string of genocidal actions
during the early middle ages against races that were initially created by the Gods and Demons.
Rescue and Purge – Standard Op. Consists of infiltrating a facility recovering key personnel and torching
everything else in the facility.
Robot Jock – Upright Pilots
Rune – Divine tools and equipment. Bio-technology based on seaweed DNA. Produce something similar to mana.
Rune Trees – Runes designed to link into the Divine mindscape. Provide extra mental processing power as well as
extra reserves of lifeforce.
Seals – Technically refers to the lock on a gate entering a shard. Common usage refers to the actual
extradimensional pocket behind the seal. Creating seals is a shaping skill.
Seat – Avalon regional commanders. Codenames are from Arthurian myth and Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
Sensitive – Psychics with mental powers or non-physical senses.
Shaping – The art of manipulating life-force towards more subtle, often longer-lasting, purposes.
Shard – An extradimensional pocket formed by either taking a piece of the world outside of normal reality or by
outright creating the space.
Shelob – Soldier slang for any unfriendly spider-tank. Primarily used by the English-speaking population.
Sorcerer – A psychic whose abilities primarily come from training. Most were baseline humans from families that
have a tradition of the practice. To be considered a sorcerer, a psychic must be skilled in both
shaping and channeling.
Spidey – Slang referring to any spider-tank.
Table – The Avalon high command.
Talent – Individuals born with psychic abilities. Often are capable of effects impossible for pure sorcerers.
Talisman – Specially cut, grown and altered quartz crystals used as tools by human psychics. Distills ambient life
force into something compatible with human chi.
Upright – Robotic vehicles used for construction, law enforcement and military purposes.
Vampire – Layman’s term describing any entity that drinks blood whether for biological, cultural or supernatural
reasons. Mispronunciation of the name for one non-human race: Vampyr.
Van Helsing – Refers to individuals who kill psychics and non-humans for no other reason than what they are.
Visionary – A particular type of human born talent. Capable of inventing things outside the current
understandings of science. Chi is darker and denser than other humans.
Vitae – Demonic life force, falls within a range of red colors. Comparatively dark and dense next to mortal life
forces.
Were – Layman’s term describing any one that has a human form and an animal form. Covers a wide variety of
talents and species.
Witch – Untrustworthy psychic. Indicates skill and competence but a lack of morals. Dangerous.
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