GLOSSARY.

[powersthatbe]

GLOSSARY ARCANA ● The beings evidently responsible for removing Travelers from their worlds, removing or damping down psychic and dimensional travel abilities, creating Liminal Space, linking people to the Psychic Network, and sending them on Jaunts. They sometimes make appearances on Jaunts, often in some sort of guise to attempt to blend in with their surroundings, and even more rarely in Liminal Space. Each Arcana appears to be bound to archetypes associated with one of the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot, hence the name. They’re also referred to as Trumps by more irreverent or sarcastic Travelers, and for quite a while that was the predominant name for them; ‘Arcana’ is what they use to refer to themselves. Some Travelers, with varying degrees of respect or sarcasm, are also partial to ‘our hosts,’ which has the advantage of being less obvious on Jaunts. A list of Arcana, their known aliases, and Marked Travelers is available here. BELLJAR ISLAND ● see Previous Universes. CHOSEN ● A term used by some of the Arcana to refer to those they’ve Marked. CONVERSATION SPACE ● Pocket liminal spaces where the Arcana bring the Travelers to converse individually, each shaped by the group of Arcana waiting to talk to Travelers. Common features include a chair of some kind and a drink (though said drink’s potability is at the whim of its provider; it can be anything from delicious hot chocolate to a goblet of blood). If you haven’t been Marked when they bring you here, you’ll be Marked by the time you leave. DREAMSCAPE ● see here. Dreamscapes made a few appearances early on, but as of late haven’t featured as prominently. DUNGEON ● see here. EMPEROR EMPEROR ● A facetious nickname for the Emperor, derived from his incredibly unsubtle alias Hakan Caesar. FAMILIAR FACES ● On every Jaunt, Travelers run across a handful of people who bear striking resemblances in appearance, personality, and name to people on other worlds. They appear to be simply innocent bystanders involved in local events, and some more hostile or suspicious Travelers used to suspect them of being the Arcana. (For a while, Travelers wondered whether they were former Travelers, but that has since been disproven.) When subjected to various scanning skills, they register as natives of the Jaunt world. Either way, there’s usually something significant about their appearance. FAMILIAR SPACE ● see Tree Hotel. FAVOR ● see Mark. THE FLOOR ● When a Traveler dies within Liminal Space, their body is whisked to a separate Liminal pocket for repair, usually located below whatever passes for the floor in Liminal Space’s current incarnation. The Arcana have referred to this space as ‘the Infirmary,’ but in part because the process is lengthy, gooey, and rather more traumatic than recovery from an in-Jaunt death, Travelers have begun referring to Liminal Space deaths as ‘putting someone in the floor,’ generally in the context of avoiding doing so again. HOSTS ● see Arcana. ILLUMINANTS ● Also known as the Illuminated Mages, or colloquially/OOCly, the Skittles. A group of fae beings with great magical abilities from the Cursed Kingdom Jaunt world, bound to the archetypes of their Color of magic (taken from the visible light spectrum) as the Arcana are to their Tarot archetypes. They are not remotely fond of the Arcana, and once broke into Liminal Space to challenge them directly. INFILDATING ● Having a romantic relationship with a fellow Infiltrator, usually between two (sometimes more) people who are not romantically involved as themselves. INFILFAMILY ● The development of familial bonds with fellow Infiltrators post-Jaunt. INFILTRATION ● see Overlay. INFILTRATORS ● Travelers who, during a Jaunt, believe they’re a part of the world they entered. Infiltrators have well-established lives and identities within the world, causing some Travelers to suspect the entire worlds themselves are fabrications, but it’s just as possible that Infiltrators are simply replacing people. Evidence as of Nova Venezia suggests that the Infiltrator identities are completely separate people from the Travelers who assume their roles; how much influence Travelers actually have over these people is debatable, and likely variable. INFIRMARY ● see Floor. INVESTIGATORS ● Travelers on a Jaunt who maintain the awareness that they are Travelers. It’s up to Investigators to determine what needs to be done on a Jaunt. JAUNT ● A trip to a particular world. During a Jaunt, there’s some sort of task to be completed - what it is is never announced, but veteran Travelers can often make educated guesses soon after arrival. KING IN YELLOW ● An eldritch abomination and all around nasty piece of work, the stopping of whom was the subject of the Jaunt to Harrogate. If there’s one thing that all the Arcana agree on, it’s that the King and beings like him are bad news for everyone involved. The King’s sigil was a common feature in Liminal Space for several months following Harrogate, eventually permanently removed by the High Priestess. LIMINAL SPACE ● see here. MALIK GAMBIT ● The act of an Investigator, unaided by psychic skills that would otherwise make the task a lot easier, attempting to blend into a Jaunt world so seamlessly that Infiltrators do not suspect they’re foreign to the setting. Named for Malik al-Sayf, for his impeccable blending in during Nova Venezia. MARK ● A sign of one of the Arcana’s favor, and a Traveler’s connection to them. Marks are usually tattoos, though they can also be scars, birthmarks, or other permanent marks on the skin. They cannot be removed or altered, and will regenerate if an attempt to do so is made. They generally reflect imagery associated with the Arcana responsible, and sometimes include their number, but not always. MIND PALACE ● An illusionary space created by a skilled user of the Psychic Network. MOEBIUS ● see Previous Universes. MYSTIC JOURNEY ● see World Series. What Magician claims Synodiporia is to the Travelers. OVERLAY ● An Infiltrator’s persona, sometimes simply called an ‘infiltration.’ Example: “Sorry, my overlay was an embarrassment last Jaunt.” PHASE THREE ● The third (and possibly final) arc of the Arcana’s game. From information gathered in various conversations with the Arcana at the start of Phase Three, the Arcana are now playing for real stakes--and by inference, they weren’t in the previous two Phases. PSYCHIC NETWORK ● see here. SKITTLES ● see Illuminants. Each individual Illuminant is a Skittle. So named because each Skittle is a different color. SPARK ● see Previous Universes. STARMOVERS ● A possibly-extinct alien race from the Solstice & Junkworld universe whose technology is sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic. SYNODIPORIA ● see World Series. Translates from Greek as ‘fellow travelers.’ TELEPATHIC NETWORK ● see Psychic Network. TRAVELERS ● Anyone pulled into Liminal Space, hooked into the Psychic Network, and sent on Jaunts. TREE HOTEL ● Also referred to as ‘Familiar Space,’ this was a pocket liminal space where Emperor and Empress stored the King and Queen of Britain--they themselves Familiar Faces--in stasis cocoons while they impersonated them during the Jaunt in Newport. So named because the liminal space was a hotel made of living wood inside a tree. TRUMPS ● see Arcana. WALKABOUT ● Formerly, the term used when a Traveler disappeared from the group and returned with little to no memory of their solo excursion. Currently, smaller events taking place in separate Jaunt settings at the same time as a larger Jaunt. ICly, Walkabouts have much lower stakes than Jaunts. OOCly, Walkabouts have far less mod interaction, and are run when a handful of players are uncomfortable with the main Jaunt’s setting in some capacity, as an alternative to their hiatusing for two months. WORLD SERIES ● The larger journey or shared experience of Fellow Travelers - all the Jaunts put together. Also, the act of traveling between worlds. Many Travelers believe there is some higher purpose to Traveling - that their Jaunts are not random, but moves in some larger game. Some find this comforting, some disturbing. The Arcana themselves have variously dubbed the whole enterprise the World Series, Mystic Journey, or Synodiporia, though some restrict the name ‘World Series’ to just Phase Three.