1.8 DICTIONARY
What follows is a list of terms and acronyms that may be unfamiliar to you
but that you may encounter while playing Lusternia. It is not a
comprehensive list but should be enough to get you by.
Abilities
- Individual spells or physical skills. They are grouped together in
SKILLS.
Admins
- The admins -- the Norns, the Oneiroi and the Erinyes -- are characters
played by Lusternia's immortals to handle out-of-character issues with
adventurers such as requests for help or adventurers displaying
inappropriate behavior. See HELP ISSUES for further information.
Adventurer
- A term for a player-character, as opposed to a denizen (a computer-
controlled character).
Aethermanse
- Fully-customizable player housing, linked to cities and communes by
the Minister of Power at the portal chamber. They can be later upgraded
to Aetherships.
Aethership
- An aethermanse that has purchased a command chair upgrade, also known
as an algontherine entity, that allows it to sail through the currents
of the Aetherways to travel between planes and to strange bubbles of
reality.
Aetherwave
- Aetherwaves refer to the etheric communication that can cross vast
distances (including across planes) due to the study of Planar science.
An example of an aetherwave is CT, the city talk channel. This is
synonymous with channel.
Afflictions
- Particularly in combat, your character may be afflicted with a variety of
ills, from paranoia to paralysis. Learning to cure these is important and
forms one of the core skills in a good combatant.
Archetype
- A specific class, on which the individual guilds are based. Each
archetype has access to certain skills and specialisations that the
others do not.
Ascendant
- Nearly Divine, Ascendants exist in two forms: as Vernal Ascendants, raised
by the power of a city or commune, and as True Ascendants empowered by
the reforming of the Seals. Ascendants dwell within the Realms of the Nine
Domoth and wield the powers of ascendance
Avechna
- The God whose presence in Lusternia prevents the evil God Kethuru from
destroying the world. Avechna also helps to protect those unjustly
attacked or killed. (See HELP AVENGER)
Avenger
- The avenger system allows those unjustly attacked or killed to fight back
against those who have attacked them.
Balance
- Most attacks use either balance or equilibrium. Your actions are much
restricted during the (generally short) time you are recovering balance
after using an ability that takes balance.
Basin
- The Basin of Life is the area surrounded by the northern, razine,
southern and teeth mountains. It contains most of the important areas on
the prime material plane of Lusternia.
Bob
- A prominent shopkeeper who maintains the only store to grace the slopes
of Avechna's Peak.
Bound Credits
- Like credits but cannot be sold on market, and are tied to your character
exclusively.
Cartel
- A particular sub-type of clan, either city-owned or private, which is
responsible for the creation of designs for trade skills.
Celest
- The city of New Celest, located to the west of the Basin of Life.
(Not to be confused with the plane of light, Celestia)
Channels
- Channels are a way of speaking to a group of people without being in the
same location. See HELP CHANNELS for more information.
City
- Usually refers to one of the various adventurer-run cities such as
Celest or Magnagora. Cities, in contrast to communes, are based upon
technological and magical advancement, and have strong links to the
elemental planes and higher cosmic planes of thought.
Clan
- A adventurer-created organization used for a variety of purposes. Clans
are highly customisable, and can be upgraded into trade cartels.
Commune
- Usually refers to one of the various adventurer-run communes such as
Glomdoring or Serenwilde. Communes are similar to cities, but based
upon respect and co-existence with the natural world. Communes have
strong ties to the fae and great nature spirits.
Credits
- A form of in-game currency that may be used to purchase artifacts,
convert into lessons in order to raise skills, buy custom pets, and
more.
Demesne
- A demesne (pronounced "domain") is an area of land under the control
of a mage or druid, and associated with a particular element. Within
their demesne, a mage or druid wields great power over the land itself.
Denizens
- Inhabitants of the realms that are not adventurers (also known as NPCs)
Ego
- A measure of your influence in regards to ego-battles. Expressed
as a number from 0 (unable to influence) to a maximum based on various
factors.
Endurance
- A measure of your overall level of physical exhaustion. Not the same as
health, which measures wounds.
Equilibrium
- Most abilities use balance or equilibrium. Your actions are restricted
during the time you are recovering equilibrium.
Feats
- Feats are particularly impressive magical abilities that are created by
using power.
Glomdoring
- The Glomdoring Commune, located in the southern end of the Basin.
Grace
- The state of being in which you are both prohibited from doing and
protected from aggressive actions. It is gained by dying, and may be
rejected by typing RENOUNCE GRACE. The command GRACED will show you who
is on-line and in grace. Grace will last no longer than approximately
15 minutes.
Guides
- Spindle, Skein and Bobbins are characters whose sole purpose in life is
to help newbies. They are known as Guides or Fate Guides.
Guilds
- A guild is a formal organization of adventurers bound together by an
ideology and class. Along with this generally comes a guild house for
the guild members to relax and study in, as well as a hierarchy of
rank. Examples of guilds are the Moondancers, the Paladins, and
the Nihilists (See HELP ARCHETYPES and HELP 8).
Health
- A measure of your character's physical well-being, expressed as a number
from 0 (dead) to a variable maximum based on a number of factors.
Herb
- Sage, marjoram, faeleaf, and any other harvestable plant that may be
used to heal or prevent afflictions (see HELP PLANTS).
Honours
- Refers to the set of text displayed when one types HONOURS <adventurer>.
IC (In Character)
- This means something you have done while you are your character.
Everything you do, aside from private talking, is automatically
considered to be in-character, even private talking can be considered IC,
if one party chooses to do so.
Influence
- Influence is a non-lethal way in which to test your mental prowess
against the denizens of Lusternia. Losing and winning ego battles equates
to the same experience results as fighting them.
Inventory
- The general name for the list of all the items you are holding, wearing,
or wielding.
Learning
- Learning is the process by which you raise your SKILLS. Find a tutor,
such as another adventurer who has the skill you wish to raise higher
than you, or an NPC such as MELERIS, MIAKODA or ARDRAK. Then, you will
LEARN <skillname> FROM <whomever>. See HELP LEARNING for more details.
Lessons
- You must have these to learn (see LEARNING) and thus raise your SKILLS.
Level
- A measurement of how much experience you've gotten. Levels go from level
1 to level 100, and each has a unique name attached. You'll be informed
whenever you go up a level, and you may gain free bound credits, too.
Magnagora
- The City of Magnagora, located to the southast of the Basin. Also called
the Engine of Transformation. Magnagora is aligned with the elemental
plane of Earth and the tainted cosmic plane of Nil.
Mana
- A measure of your mental fortitude. Used to power most spells.
Mobiles
- Denizens or NPCs. Inhabitants of the realms that are not adventurers.
MUD (Multi-User Dungeon)
- Sometimes used as a generic term for all online persistent worlds or as a
term for a certain segment of them.
Nexus
- The nexuses of power are central to life in Lusternia. These reservoirs
of magical energy exist on multiple planes. These can be either natural,
as with the nexuses of the communes, or made by mortals by incredible
magical skill, as with the city nexuses. Each nexus acts as a reservoir
of power.
NPC (Non-Player Character)
- An inhabitant of the realms that is not an adventurer.
OOC (Out Of Character)
- Referring to things outside of (or foreign to) Lusternia, like
a popular performing figure or sporting team or the European Union.
All public things in Lusternia must be IC, for example: MARKET, NEWBIE,
GT, SHOUTS, and CT. Most private things are also IC, such as says.
Order
- A religious Order is a collection of adventurers organized in a
formal hierarchy that worships a particular God.
Planes
- The universe of Lusternia consists of multiple planes of existence, which
it is possible to travel between using certain magical abilities. These
include the prime material plane (the Basin of Life, Lusternia itself),
the ethereal plane, the elemental planes, the cosmic planes and the
astral plane. A plane can be thought of as a world to itself, parallel
and connected to the material world but having its own character and
properties.
Port
- Short for Teleport (or rarely Tesseract), a spatial teleportation skill
in the Planar skillset commonly used by adventurers.
Power
- Power is the aetheric energy used to create particularly impressive
magical feats. Personal power is only obtainable by linking to a
particular nexus of power, although cities and communes can also use the
power of their nexus to help build and defend the cities.
Quests
- Quests are a series of tasks like a puzzle that, when completed, will
give a reward of experience or money. Quests vary from the simple
(selling weevils to Abeytu) to the immensly complicated honours quests,
which can take hours or even days to fully complete.
Room
- An area of space of varying size. Your character will always be in a
room. A location.
RP (Roleplay)
- This term, as used in Lusternia, means to do things and say things as if
you were your character. Speaking of anything your character couldn't
know about, or doing anything your character wouldn't do by virtue of
his or her personality, is poor RP.
Seren
- Short for Serenwilde, both a commune city and forest in the north of
the Basin.
Shrine
- A structure constructed by highly-ranked followers of a God. Offerings
may be made at the shrine, strengthening your God, and shrines may be
sanctified or defiled to strengthen or weaken them.
Skills
- Sets of ABILITIES. Type SKILLS to see which ones you have. In Lusternia
certain skills are optional, or dependent on possessing other skills.
HELP SKILLCHOICE and HELP SKILLWEB will explain more.
Spamming
- In the context of Lusternia, spamming means sending repeated, unwanted
text at someone for the purpose of annoyance. There is NEVER any
justification for spamming someone else, for instance it is not
acceptable to spam someone simply because he or she chooses not to
respond to you.
Trans
- Transcendent. The utmost level of achievement in a skill.
Undervault
- The vast underground home of the Illithoid and Kephera.
Weave
- Weaves are a common term within the Basin of Life. The end of the Weave
refers to a time when the Fates pore over the Tapestry and sort through
the past events. The period of time from one weave to the next can be
found from using the TIME command. The Fates check the Tapestry at
00:00 GMT, and a weave is often classified as the time from one checking
to the next. When a weave ends, all logs of events such as guild,
city/commune and order logs are given a new page, and the previous
scribings are moved back.
Weaving/Misweave
- A weaving is the common term to indicate a game mechanic, consequently a
misweave is used to refer to a broken game mechanic.
Willpower
- A measure of your overall level of mental endurance. It is to Mana and
Ego as Endurance is to Health.
