Glossary¶

The words this game uses without explaining them - what they mean, what they imply, and where to read more.

Organised by topic, not alphabetically. If you're hunting a specific term, use the wiki search.

Trust & relationships¶

The per-NPC bond ladder. Every speaking NPC carries three 0-100 metrics - Trust, Familiarity, Affection - that combine to a single derived status. Four platonic tiers + a romance branch.

Tier	Combined score	What unlocks
Stranger	0-39	Default. Surface greetings, full shop markup
Acquaintance	40-119	NPC remembers you; small talk + rumors; vendor discount edges in
Friend	120-179	Personal stories, quest hooks, first gift-acceptance
Close Friend	180-199	NPC shares secrets (leverage); major quest unlocks; class perk if follower

Romance branch (parallel, opt-in both sides, gated on mutual romantic flag):

Romance tier	Combined score	What unlocks
Dating	200-249	Exclusive romantic interest; romance scenes
Lover	250-299	Deeper intimacy; beckon-rights; bond-quest hooks
Partner	300+	Lifelong commitment short of marriage
Spouse	(manual)	Married. Inheritance, household, full bond perks

See Bonds & trust for how the metrics move and Relationship dynamics for how multi-NPC bonds talk to each other.

Faction reputation¶

The parallel ladder for organisations - Temple, Collegium, Town Guard, Thieves' Guild, etc. Independent from per-NPC Trust. Six named tiers across a rep-point integer that runs from very negative to very positive.

Tier	Rep range	What it means
Hostile	< -100	Attacked on sight; vendors refuse you
Unfriendly	-100 to -20	Suspicious; prices marked up 20%
Neutral	-20 to 50	Default; you exist, that's all
Friendly	50 to 200	Welcomed; standard quest access; 3-5 sessions of work
Honored	200 to 500	Trusted insider; premium services
Exalted	500 to 1000+	Member of the family; all unlocks

Daily rep gain is capped at +25 per faction per in-game day to prevent single-session grinding. Repeating the same quest hits diminishing returns (100% → 50% → 25% → 10%).

Opposed-faction pairs (Temple ↔ Pale Order, Town Guard ↔ Thieves' Guild, Arcane Collegium ↔ Wild Coven, etc.) soften each other: climbing one drops you a small amount with the opposite. See Factions overview for the full rivalry matrix.

Skill ranks¶

Every skill in the game uses the same 0-100 ladder, partitioned into four named tiers.

Rank	Tier	What unlocks
0-10	Apprentice	Starter sub-skills
10-30	Journeyman	Intermediate sub-skills; first specialty moves
30-50	Advanced	Advanced sub-skills; faction-locked techniques offered
50+	Master	Master-tier moves; deepest faction unlocks; capstone perk

The parent skill is the number on the ladder (e.g. axes, discipline). Sub-skills are the verbs that unlock as the parent crosses tier gates (e.g. cleave at axes-rank 10).

The capstone is the rank-30 signature ability per class. See each class article for details.

The Wane¶

The world's monthly atmospheric event. Once every ~30 days of in-game time (shortening to ~20 as the game progresses), the world changes for about 18 hours:

Candles flicker indoors with no wind
Dogs howl; cats find exits; horses stamp
Metal hums faintly; sensitive characters feel it before others
Wells run a degree warmer; water-surfaces brighten
The ground trembles enough to disturb sleep
People dream vividly and specifically

It is not a fight, not a deadline, not a fail state. The game rewards players who notice it over players who try to action-through it. See First Waning for what to do (and avoid).

Heist phases¶

The four-phase pattern every /scene heist follows, modeled on Kings Quest's verb-driven puzzles plus MYST's hot-spot exploration.

Intel - gather information before entering the target. No time pressure. Talk to servants, walk the exterior, note patrol times.
Plant - pre-position assets before the execution night. Pickpocketed keys, dosed wine, bribed guards.
Execute - inside the target, on the clock. Every verb costs noise + builds suspicion. When noise or suspicion crosses a threshold, NPCs investigate or the alarm sounds.
Exfil - leave to end the scene. Three outcomes: clean (max payout, quest branches), witnessed (heat for a few days), identified (bounty on you).

See First heist for the full verb suite + tactics.

Parley¶

A negotiation alternative to combat. Most intelligent and honor-bound creatures (humanoids, dragons, some fey) will accept parley under specific conditions: no drawn iron, no fire, an appropriate ritual greeting ("the old courtesies"), sometimes tribute or a named gift.

A parley made is binding on both sides for the agreed terms. Breaking it has consequences: most creatures will not parley with you a second time, and some will warn their kin.

Each bestiary entry lists whether the creature accepts parley and under what terms. See Bestiary.

The Stranger Pool¶

A pool of NPCs who exist in the world but aren't placed yet - they live in the engine waiting to materialise at a location when the game needs a stranger there (a tavern patron, a market shopper, a road-traveller). When the player interacts with them enough to push Trust into the Acquaintance tier, the engine promotes the stranger into a permanent named NPC and keeps them.

Strangers you don't engage with disappear when the scene clears. Strangers you do engage with become part of the world.

This is why some NPCs you meet at a tavern stay around, and others vanish - the engine is making decisions about which characters to keep based on your play.

Old courtesies¶

The traditional ritual greetings used to open parley with honor-bound creatures (centaur, hill-giant, werebear, certain dragons). The exact form varies by creature; common shape is:

No drawn weapons in hand
A respectful approach (no run, no shout)
A spoken greeting in the creature's preferred dialect or in Verdathi-pidgin (centaur, certain forest creatures)
A salt-gift or other appropriate small offering

NPCs in-world will sometimes teach you the courtesies for a specific creature class if you ask them the right way. Rangers, Verdathi, hunters, and certain temple priests all know fragments.

Phases & in-game time¶

The day is divided into 4 phases: morning, afternoon, evening, night. Each phase is roughly 6 hours of in-game time. Most actions (combat, conversation, single verbs) cost no clock time; some (travel, shifts, sleep) advance the clock.

Phases matter for:

NPC schedules - who's at which location when
Notice board rotations
Faction-rep ticks (some happen at dawn)
The Wane (it peaks during the third phase of its day)

Heat¶

A measure of how much trouble you're in with the Watch. Goes up when you commit crimes seen by witnesses or fail a heist exfil. Goes down with time, payments to the Watch, or carefully-placed intel.

Above a threshold, Watch patrols actively look for you; above a higher threshold, the bounty is public.

Stipend¶

The per-shift payment from a training venue. A handful of copper per resolved task, scaled by skill tier (apprentice → master). Distinct from gold rewards on quests. Stipends are the steady-state income for a player working their class venue; they don't make you rich on their own, but combined with crafted-good sales they cover food, lodging, and incidentals.

Capstone¶

A class's rank-30 signature ability - the single class-defining "mastery beat" that fires once per long rest or once per day. See each class article's Capstone section.