This page is meant to serve as a quick reference for many terms found in The Practice War providing the bare minimum explanation.
Contents
Humans
The Circles
An organisation created by Amanda Hawk as a child in an attempt to help others in her Institute rebuild the families they lost to the Week of Sorrows. It has since grown into a societal entity which has unified most of humanity in a vast and deeply communal support network.
The Elder First
Those of the First Awoken who awoke to more peaceful focuses, mostly along the lines of Insight and Mending. Curiously, all lacked the biological modifications which granted them indefinite lifespans. Engineered the restoration of humanity.
Inheritor
The term used by the Elder's Vault's systems to refer to those Potentials left with the ability to access it. All but one of these were trained by the Elder First, with the exception being Amanda Hawk. Each Inheritor was left a Reliquary within the Vault, holding information of considerable value to them, and to humanity also.
Lady in Fire Enfolded
A quasi-religious entity that came into being directly after the Second Battle of Sol. The titular Lady is Amanda Hawk, inspired by her most obvious action during the battle.z
Potential
Source: A Place in the World and Link
Potentials are those members of humanity who have Awoken to the ability to use Practice, the gift left behind by the self-sacrifice of the Dragons for their creators.
Project Insight
Project Insight is a highly important working group of Potentials, all sharing a Focus within the Insight classification, who use Practiced technology to pool and amplify their talents, and in so doing are capable of acquiring information from far outside traditional intelligence avenues.
Unisonbound
The name used to refer to Potentials who have successfully synchronised with a Unison Platform.
The Two Twenty Three / 223
The Two Twenty Three are the first, and until recently, only group of Unisonbound in existence, as well as a critical military formation within humanity's military. It's name comes from the number of Unison Platforms initially created.
Heartcircle
The 'squads' to the Two Twenty Three's company, Heartcircles vary wildly in terms of size and precise Focus makeup.
Aliens
Shiplords
The primary Antagonists of The Practice War, who have dominated the galaxy for millions of years. Little is known about them as a society.
Contact Fleet
A group of alien representatives from different polities, collectively termed the Group of Six, that travelled to Earth after acquiring information on the outcome of the Second Battle of Sol from Shiplord networks. They met with humanity in the hopes of finding a way out of the bitter reality enforced by the Shiplords.
Cich’swa Confederacy
The Cich’swa Confederacy is a peacefully expansionist multi-species polity that integrates its cultures at an incredibly deep level. They appear to have either won or bargained for the right to several low level Second Secret modifications that allow their citizens to travel freely between the many different worlds of the Confederacy. Their culture is a rich mix of over a dozen races, and their government is a mildly bizarre form of electoral technocracy.
Marionettes
A single species power, governed by a constitutional triumvirate with hereditary elements, presumably linked to the so-far unique Marionette ability known as the Reverie. They display an ability to ‘play tricks’ with their biology at some level.
Neras Emergence
One of the oldest alien races, these fungoids appear to be contemporaries of the Shiplords and appear to possess an innate, biological capacity for faster than light travel. The Shiplords seem to respect the neutrality of the Neras in the galaxy, though none know why.
Nilean Community
A polity of several races with a duly competent military, the true strength of the Community lies in covert operations. They have enjoyed almost seventeen-hundred years of peace thanks to their intelligence network, and are believed to have created the Group of Six. A selective demarchy, it was Nilean operatives who acquired the reports on the outcome of the Second Battle of Sol, and engineered the launching of the Contact Fleet.
Sarthee
The oldest civilisation involved in the Group of Six, the Sarthee represent an excellent example of a military republic, with the most powerful fleet arm among the races of the Contact Fleet. Any major actions on their part have been paralyzed by debate on Uninvolved status for more than the last human century, however, suspected to be in part the work of Shiplord infiltration and subversion.
Schorvan
A multi-species federation with some military power, the many cultures of the Schorvan all possess a deep wariness of the Shiplords on a seemingly pervasive cultural level. They practice a brand of strong libertarianism, with an overarching government providing little more than unified military and law enforcement between the various spheres of the polity. They freely accept other races, so long as they’re capable of meeting the input requirements for their territory, but are generally hesitant of truly integrating with them.
Telas Luminary
A firebrand theocracy who rose into the galactic stage after their successful defeat of a Tribute Fleet through an understanding of the Third Secret and what can only be described as bloody-minded obstinacy. Although they step carefully around the Shiplords, the Luminary is very clear about its opposition to their agenda.
Other Races
Dragons
The most powerful creatures pre-Sorrows humanity ever created, the Dragons were products of the Second Secret built to protect humanity.
Artificial Intelligence / AI
Artificial Intelligences are created (accidentally or otherwise) beings that have sentience and are known to possess souls, just as biological humans do.
Virtual Intelligence / VI
Unlike their AI 'cousins' Virtual Intelligences (VIs) are not sentient and lack souls, operating purely as they were programmed to do.
Unison Intelligence
Technically a form of Artificial Intelligence, the Unison Intelligences are beings born of the synchronisation process between a Unison Platform and a Potential.
Places
Arcadia Institute
Perhaps the greatest concentration of human ingenuity and genius in the history of the species, Arcadia is primarily a research institute led by Amanda Hawk and Mary D'reve.
Elder's Vault
Also: Elder's Door
A cache of information and artifacts left behind by The Elder First for a few chosen Potentials to open in the future. (First appears in turn 5)
Mytikas
The capital of pre-Sorrows Mars, built in the caldera of Olympus Mons, Mytikas was was destroyed by the Burning of Mars in the opening days of the Week of Sorrows. The city was restored as part of the Mytikas Restoration, a Practiced Miracle that took place in 2120.
Olympus Colleges
The centre of pre-Sorrows learning and research into the Secrets, the Olympus Colleges are where many of humanity's greatest creations of the Secrets were designed or created.
Orbitals
Massive space stations, effectively cities in space, on which a small portion of humanity lives.
Reliquary
The secure storage sections of the Elder's Vault, some which were keyed to specific Inheritors, that contain resources or information that the Elder First thought needed to be preserved, but potentially too dangerous for the time at which it was put away
Skylark
The first city of Mars to be restored through a Practiced Miracle.
Sol
The star that Earth and Mars orbit, or by extension the whole solar system. Home of Humanity.
The Institutes
Hub complexes where most children were raised and educated after the Week of Sorrows. Today, they serve as centres of education, and also as nexus points for the Circles.
Terms of Practice
Practice
The name given to the abilities granted to a small portion of humanity after the Week of Sorrows. Believed to be a result of the willing self-sacrifice of the Dragons and the human personnel who flew them.
Awakening / Awoken
This is a term used to describe the time of a Potential or group of Potentials first coming into their powers. These events typically happen in waves with an indeterminate amount of time between groups.
Focus / Aspect
A Focus is a word used to define the essence of a Potential's self and is the core of what their Practice can do.
Practice Trance / Trance
Source: Place in the World
A Practice Trance is the truest expression of a Potential’s power, a state in which they are able to transcend almost any limit in the pursuit of their Focus and their goal.
Practiced Miracle / Miracle
A step beyond the a Practice Trance, Miracles have been shown to produce effects that can stretch beyond a Potential's Focus, and their largest examples have been truly monumental.
Speaking
The act of infusing a word with Practice to directly affect the world.
Speaker
A Potential who has mastered the ability to invoke the power of Practice through use of the spoken word.
A / The Word
This phrase referrs to a word (or the word) that has been infused with practice.
The Web
A phenomenon that connects all of humanity through Practice although little else is known about it at present. Also used to refer to the far more profound connection between the Unisonbound of the Two Twenty Three.
Secrets
"Secrets appear to be ways to bend reality to generate a desired result that would otherwise be considered scientifically infeasible. Secrets are numbered and only a limited number seem to exist
""a fusion of science and belief made into something real""
""Actually understanding what the Secrets are beyond what they do [...is] certainly beyond humanity right now."""
First Secret
Allows for instantaneous transportation across a limited, though considerable, range without excessive energy costs.
Second Secret
Genetic engineering and manipulation to a level that allows for the wholesale creation of tailored lifeforms.
Third Secret
A Secret known to the Telas, but not yet to Humanity. Appears to have something to do with manipulating electromagnetism.
Fourth Secret
Unavailable
Given the existence of a 3rd and 5th secret it is presumed that there is a 4th secret although what this is, or could be, is entirely unknown at this time.
Fifth Secret
A method to grant unparalleled manipulation and mastery over the fundamental force of gravity.
Sixth Secret
The creation of nanotechnology at a similar level to previous Practiced designs without the need for practice & the total obliteration of Moore’s law. This has led to an explosion of integrated virtual assistant and prediction systems.
Objects
Artifact
An Artifact is a specific and personal tool created by a Potential using their Practice. Typically created to enhance an aspect of their Focus.
The Adamant
A small starship hull left behind by the Elder First in the Elder's Vault, constructed entirely of Inviolate Matter.
Inviolate Material
A form a reinforced matter created by the Elder First that appears functionally invulnerable due to the energy matrix bound to its atomic structure. Subject to punishing mass limits that make construction of large hulls from the material impossible.
Prologue / Project Prologue
Source: Place in the World
Nanotechnology created through a Practice Trance and used to replicate the effect of the Second Secret genetic modifications responsible for indefinite lifespans after the Secret was forbidden.
Tombstone Platform
Unison Platform
Initially designed to connect to a Potential and enhance both their personal survivability and versatility with Practice, a Trance followed by a Miracle created something much more. Unison Platforms allow Unisonbound access to a host of abilities, far more than was intended, but most of all have created an entire new race of beings. The Unison Intelligences.
Ships
Dauntless Class
The first Practice hybrid warship ever constructed. They were designed as purely offensive platforms and are painfully short on defensive systems. Requiring Potentials to operate their full armaments, they were retired after the Second Battle of Sol.
Tower Class
The second class of Practice hybrid warship. These ships equipped almost exclusively with defensive systems, supplemented by a highly sophisticated set of self-repair suites. As with the Dauntless class, they required Potentials to operate fully and were retired after the Second Battle of Sol.
Ulfberht Class
The result of a Practiced Miracle, the Ulfberhts were the most powerful warships humanity had ever built as of the Second Battle of Sol. Based off of a Dauntless chassis, they possessed far more capable defensive systems, and did not need Potentials to operate.
Tribute Fleet
- Collector Class
- wip
Regular Fleet
- Medicament
- designed for fleet support and combat repair. It appears to be a storage and battlefield distribution point for the biomaterial that the Shiplords use to construct their vessels. The danger of this vessel as a force multiplier cannot be understated. reference
War Fleet
Other
Directives
The Directives are the rules that The Shiplords left behind after The Week of Sorrows designating actions that would cause them to, presumably, destroy humanity
FTL
An abbreviation meaning "Faster Than Light". Achieving FTL travel is necessary for interstellar travel.
Hero Unit
A character in the quest that the players can specifically assign actions to, directly boosting the completion of that action.
Humanity 2.0
A term often used by Questers and QM to describe the current sociopolitical arrangement of humanity in the Practice War universe and how it differs from humanity as we know it in the present.
SBoS
The Second Battle of Sol was, as the name implies, the second Shiplord visit to the Sol system, which resulted in a far more even battle between humanity and the Shiplord Tribute Fleet.
Second Contact
The term used to refer to the event that took place in 2121, when the Contact Fleet entered the Sol system.
Soul
The Soul is known to exist in The Practice War universe and it is from the soul that Practice comes. All sentient Species are known to have souls, though only humanity is known to possess Practice.
The Pattern
Name given to the repeating system of Tribute Fleet visits used by the Shiplords to force a race to try and break free from Tributary status, or simply go extinct.
Week of Sorrows
An event containing the First Battle of Sol in which humanity was humbled by the Shiplords. The victors extracted a price of ninety percent of the remaining adult human population, and laid down the Directives for humanity.