Glossary
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Dismiss | See "Require" |
Shift | An agent’s ability to teleport within System areas. There can be complications when trying to process shifts that involve fae items or people, so in some cases, extra steps need to be taken. (Such as tracking blue for people, or specialised containers for items). Command: Shift: [Location] |
Agent | |
Hub | Generally speaking, a Hub agency is the primary agency in a region (generally a capital city, or the largest city in the region). [There are exceptions to this for various reason - for example, Hyde is the Hub agency in the area, as the Madchester fae see it as their responsibility and remit to take care of business in Manchester.] Each Hub agency will have several smaller associated agencies ("Outposts"), whether they are in regional areas (whether it be suburbs or satellite cities), or specialised outposts within the same city that may serve a specific function such as research, records or managing an Agency facility. In terms of hierarchy, Outpost agencies are always seen as subordinate to their Hub, so while a large enough Outpost may even have a Director, that Director will need to yield if given instruction by the Hub's director. [To show how this works with our cast: Director Ryan is the director of Brisbane (Queen St), which is the Hub agency for the area, being both the state's capital and the largest city in the area. Queen St has multiple associated Outpost agencies, including both facilities (eg, the private park that is run as a for-profit business for fae in the area to visit), satellite cities (Ipswich, Caboolture) and suburban agencies that take care of smaller sections of the city (including Wynnum, an agency staffed by one agent and his collection of puppies).] |
Outpost | See "Hub" |
Newborn | A newly-generated agent. Agents are generally referred to as "newborns" for about the first five years of their life. Whilst agents are generated able to do their jobs from their first hour, it (generally) takes them a while to develop a personality and a sense of individuality. ["It take a while for us to become people."] Agents who develop a sense of individuality/personality early are often seen as failures - because it is viewed as developing weakness before fully embracing their sense of Duty. Many of these agents are recycled early - either by choice, or because their progress/developmental reports show them to be behind the curve of where they should be in terms of efficiency and development. |
Mirrorfall | Dead gods that are buried within mirrors still have a trace of life within time, some trace of their essence and personality. Unfortunately, this ghost can become corrupted over time, and if this corruption goes too far, it can destroy the planet. The planet begins to die - the mirror opens large rifts across the dying world, sucking in more and more until there's nothing left. Some people choose to jump into these rifts - with a small percentage of these making it to a new world (eg Jonowoi from Mirrorfall). When the world is gone, the mirror - now sans the ghost of the dead god - tumbles through space and reality and lands on another planet - where, inevitably, the inhabitants fight and die in order to obtain it. |
Mirror | The heart of a planet, solid potential in the form of a silvery mirror substance. Each piece of mirror can grant wishes, and as such, it's one of the most sought-after substances in the universe. Gods like to bury their dead in mirrors, it's seen as the equivalent of burying your loved one in a pretty garden. |
Sins and Virtues | |
Court | |
Blue | The nanite solution that is used to build agents, as well as track and monitor recruits. Alongside being the primary component of many of its employees, blue has multiple uses within the Agency, such as tracking and monitoring recruits, healing damaged agents, and as an ingredient to several specialised cocktails for those so inclined. |
Require | The ability for an agent or recruit to conjure an item into being. There are several layers of limitations, based on rank and expertise - a brand new recruit won’t be able to require a bioweapon or a nuke to do away with their boredom. Command to conjure item: Require: [Item] Command to get rid of item: Dismiss: [Item] It is possible to set up macros and such, so that, for example, your favourite pair of required pants always has fifty dollars tucked into the left pocket, or your car always has a can of soda waiting in the centre console. |
Agency | |
Augment | Technically, an augment is non-agent being that has been administered blue to aide in any number of functions. However, as this definition includes all recruits, as well as a good number of others, the functional definition of augment is as below. An augment is any recruit that has a higher than usual concentration of blue in their system, in order to access more advanced functions not generally available to recruits. A basic augment example is that of an aide with many years of service who is augmented to have access to a basic HUD in order to facilitate them being more efficient in their role. Combat-aligned augments may have more strength and/or resistance than their standard recruit counterparts. Full augments are recruits who started human (or fae) and have been converted into a full agent (with all the privilege and responsibility that comes along with that promotion). [It is worth noting that half-agent children are thought of, and essentially function as natural augments, having some of the advantages of their agent parent, such as faster than human reflexes, longer life spans, etc.] |
Aide | An agent's most trusted recruit. Depending on the agent in question, an aide can be anything from something like a personal assistant, to the second-in-charge of their department/division. Aides can often act in stead for their agent in meetings, or represent them at conferences. Aides have more responsibilities than standard recruits, which often means working more hours; but in return they have several advantages. Aides are more likely to have augmentation (see "Augments") which can grant things like partial/limited HUDs. Some aides have limited shifting licences - generally this is manifested as a "return to home" shift, meaning that this aide can return to a preset "home point" within their agency. [For you WOW nerds, think of it like a recruit with an internal hearthstone.] Aide is a coveted position amongst recruits, and because some agents find their local recruits to be inadequate to the task, there is a special program at the Academy (see "The Academy") to make optimised aides with several different specialities. Academy aides are especially useful for newborn agents (see "Newborns"), as newborn agents will not have enough experience with their recruits to pick one as their aide; and an Academy Aide will help their agent to grow faster than an agent without an aide. |
Recruit | A non-agent (generally human) employee of the Agency. (Fae can become recruits, but it is often more likely that they will become contractors.) With certain excepts, such as parental consent (particularly where that parent is an agent/recruit), recruits need to be of the local age of majority before joining the Agency - ie, they need to be legally considered an adult. There are multiple ways that people are recruited - some are specifically headhunted for particular skills; some are introduced to both the Agency and the truth of the world as a result of needing their services (eg, they get attacked by a fae); some simply volunteer as they desire that job. Recruits go through placement tests - in major/hub agencies this determines their department placement (in outpost agencies, it simply establishes the parameters of the tasks they can undertake). The placement tests give three scores: Combat, Tech, Field - each of these scores are given as a skill out of ten. Combat and Tech scores are only relevant to the placement of recruits into those departments, whereas the Field score impacts all recruits. A recruit of any department needs a Field score of at least 4.0 in order to take on missions/tasks/etc outside of the Agency. An example of this is Tech recruits who work in a crime scene capacity - those recruits are unable to visit active/recent crime scenes unless they have that 4.0 minimum. |
Ward | Generally, wards are under the age of majority (so the example of a child will be used throughout this definition). Wards are children who are taken in by the agency. There are a lot of circumstances that can lead to the agency coming across children who cannot for one reason or another, be left in their current circumstances. This can include trafficking, abuse, kidnapping, etc. In a lot of circumstances, these children can be sent back to their original families, or given to a relevant foster/orphanage program - depending on location. There are some circumstances though - whether it is that the child does not easily fit into a category for a foster program (unusual fae hybrids whose countries have conflicting laws on child placement); half-agent children with no living family; or the belief that it would put the child in danger to leave them beyond the protection of the Agency, that it is deemed that it is safest/the best option for them to become a ward. There are specialised programs to care for these children (generally operated out of Central), providing security and education, though often not a loving family environment. And while these programs are utilised by the majority of children who become wards of the Agency, it's allowable (and even encouraged) that if an agent forms a bond with one of those children (often times this will be the agent who rescues the child, or who is instrumental in their initial recovery process) that they keep them, though formal adoption is generally not encouraged. [An example of this is Jones with Merlin - though rescued by Taylor and Magnolia, Jones ran point on Merlin's case once he was brought back to the Agency, and within a day or so, Jones had decided to keep Merlin and to become the boy's parent.] |
Feature Colour | The base uniform for all agencies is black and white (hence the impression that the Agency is the origin of the urban legend of the men in black). With this base, each continent has a feature colour. [It is also sometimes called an accent colour.] For a standard western agency, where the primary standard uniform is a suit, the feature colour can/will be used in the tie, vests/waistcoats, pocket squares, etc. Oceania – Blue – for, um, the ocean. Yes, there is a lot of jealously amongst Agencies that Oceania gets blue, when it’s felt that blue should belong to the Agency as a whole. The Americas – white and red – the official feature colour is red, however there are many Agencies in the US that have moved away from including red, essentially having white as the default feature colour. This was done in a deliberate way to invoke the “men in black” image. For South America and Canada though, there is the usual percentages of high-use/low-use of the feature colour. Middle-east – black – this is essentially the opposite of the policy above – with white being a usual predominant colour, leaving black as a feature colour. Asia – Green – for jade. There was the option for yellow, due to the association with royalty (and then the further connection that Asia holds the Court of Kings) however…yeah, I’m not going to use “yellow” for Asia. -_- Europe – metallic silver and purple – metallic silver is the primary colour, with purple generally being the highlight colour – this is both as a callback to knights in armour (remember, to this day, the French are the dragon hunters) and the purple as a callback to grapes/Greece and the influence on the modern world. The Russian Exception – Whatever Grigori feels like wearing. His recruits use standard training outfits, but tend to avoid uniforms in public. Africa – Yellow – inspired by the sun, as this is important healdry/symbolism for the Court of Life, whose seat is here. Antarctica – rainbow – the lone primary agent here has a rainbow as his feature colour, as do the Court of Desolation reps who use his Agency as a secondary work area. |
Solstice | |
Blue Earth | Blue Earth - technically an enemy of the Agency, but a very ineffective one. The goal of Blue Earth (sometimes calls the "Bees") is to spread magic through the world, to venerate magical creatures where the Solstice want to destroy them. Unfortunately, BE are generally uninformed, ill-informed or just plain wrong about a lot of things. |
Fae | The collective name for most types of non-human entities. (Exceptions include ghosts, agency-related beings, follies, etc). Types of fae include fairies, nymphs, gnomes, animal folk, hobs, trolls, etc. |
Faerie | The name for the non-Earth plane where the majority of fae live. |
Fairyland | One of the countries in Faerie - Fairyland is Faerie-Australia - though there are some notable differences, such as Fairyland having an inland sea, whereas Australia does not (despite some earlier colonisers thinking that there was). It's considered polite and respectful for non-citizens to call the country Fairyland, rather than its real name. Fairyland is one of the most populous countries in Faerie, with over a billion inhabitants (with a mix of citizens and residents, which are important distinctions). |
Folly | |
Combat Division | |
Field Operations | |
Technical Department | |
Fade | A fae method of travel - allowing a fae to step between the planes and travel great distances in a short amount of time. When this ability is fully developed, it allows a fae to step out of the world, and into a grey shadow of the world (fade space). The fae focuses on their destination, and "walks" there. When this power is less developed, the fade space appears more like a tunnel ready to collapse, with an image of their destination at the end. |
Twin | A strange glitch that happens during the generation of a new agent. Instead of one agent being generated, two are created. These twins function essentially a singular individual - they share thoughts, feelings (both emotional and physical), and can work much more efficiently than a singluar agent. Though a lot of research has been done - and the origin is understood [see Breathing for some details], it is impossible to induce this glitch - twins cannot be created on purpose, though efforts toward this continue. |
The Golden Court | If Earth has one enduring myth about a hidden land full of wonders, it's Atlantis. Faerie's equivalent has to be The Golden Court - though there's some evidence that it existed, it's mainly thought of as a fairy tale to tell children. |
Major Court | |
Minor Court | |
Brikini | Food sold in fae restaurants - vat meat processed into thin, thin sheets interspersed with various sauces. Stef describes it as a "savoury baklava" (and she prefers the orange sauce over the brown). {Pronounced "brick-knee"} |
Unicorn Wine | Wine infused with unicorn blood. As unicorns are now extinct, the remaining bottles of wine are increasingly rare and increasingly valuable - even rotgut quality drinks go for exorbitant amounts of money, as they come with the prestige of the rare and unobtainable. When drunk, unicorn wine allows the imbiber to see the effects of magic - for example, if someone were to drink, then watch an agent shift, they would see an echo of blue sparkles where the agent had previously stood. |
Famous Fry's | The biggest fast food chain in Faerie - the fae equivalent of McDonald's. Fry's specialises in burgers of many varieties - like the majority of Faerie restaurants, they exclusively use vat-grown meat, so they can offer a multiple of flavours, including a mix that mimics unicorn meat. (Sometimes called "fauxnicorn burgers"). |
Secretary | The front desk worker of an agency. While their primary job is to shoo away people who walk into their agency's lobby by accident, they also function as their agency's first line of defence and are specially programmed with multiple ways of detecting threats through body language, micro expressions, pattern recognition and more. |
Dusker | The angel type that immediately proceeded (and overlapped for a few decades) with agents. Duskers operated by themselves, rather than working in teams, and had a very narrow remit compared to agents. Whereas agents have rather broad goals, including "protecting the masquerade", Duskers simply punished fae that tried to interfere with humans. Duskers were renowned for their violence, often they would leave decimated corpses as warnings to other fae against interacting with humans. The first agents were generated in the mid-1800s, and this begun the sun-setting of the Dusker line. This, however, did not sit very well with a lot of Duskers, and lead to a rebellion - with Duskers fighting against the new agents for their right to live, leading a lot of Duskers to fall or to otherwise run from the System. Officially, the last Duskers were recycled on December 31st, 1899. [Director Ryan was templated from the Dusker that previously served Brisbane.] |
Billy the Nuke | A low-yield nuclear weapon that is kept in the storeroom. Technically kept for dire circumstances, Billy mostly exists as a meme amongst the recruits. |
Recycling | |
Local Court | |
Aole Chips | Food sold in fae restaurants - savoury chips of bark that aide in digestion. They are designed to be eaten after the meal, like fortune cookies. {Pronounced "ol' chips", like 'Same Ol' Same Ol'"} |
Template | In short, new agents are created by picking modules relevant to what that agent's function will be. The majority of these modules do already come from previously-recycled agents, (see "Generation"). However, there are some agents who are templated on the agent/angel who previously held the position. Templated agents tend to be a continuing line, which is the closest thing that non-augmented agents can come to a genetic family history. Specific behaviour similarities between a templated agent and their "former" vary depending on the specific percentage of code that they share - generally data/code that is related to behaviour don't flow from former to template, nor do specific memories, but less specific memory data - something that could be called "instincts" do tend to be put into a templated agent. For a specific example - this non-specific memory data would allow a templated agent to have an instinctual knowledge of their city's streets, allowing a templated agent to be aware on a subconscious level of which routes and shortcuts will work best in a foot chase. |
System | |
Rose Room (App) | It's a fair to say that for much of their history, fairies were a prey species. Though they were intelligent (and acknowledged as such), they were also commonly eaten by many other fae species. As such, they had a very high libido and high birth rate - putting the reputation of rabbits to shame. And while they are no longer a prey species, they still suffer from an almost debilitatingly-high sex drive. There are many elements of fairy society that help deal with this - one example is the existence of "office services", which are sex workers that operate within an office environment, something that is normalised as an office having a coffee maker available. To assist with this issue in the day to day life, there are many apps that are dedicated to facilitating hook-ups. Rose is far and above the most popular of all of these. [History note: Rose is the company, and the original version of their app was simply called "Rose", with only their rooms/facilities called "Rose Rooms", but as usage grew and changed, most users started to refer to the app as the "Rose Room app", even when not using Rose's facilities, so Rose embraced what their user base was calling it, and all subsequent version of the app have been called Rose Room.] Rose is preferred over the majority of the other apps due to its intensive sign-up process - you need to have validated ID and health checks in order to use the app - that way if an STI (or worse) results from an encounter, the parties can be contacted and the proper action can be taken. Rose was also the first to market with their public facilities - small rooms, about the size of a large accessible bathroom stall that allow for app-facilitated quickies to happen. These facilities are often placed near bathrooms in shopping centres, at transport hubs, etc. The general cost is $20/20mins, and essentially function like a one-room love hotel. They are always stocked with basic supplies (protection, lubrication, clean-up, etc - often with the placement of these supplies being part of co-branding deals). While the main purpose of the Rose Room app is to facilitate quick sex, there's a smaller number of users who use it as a dating/not-so-immediate hookup app. (The “Peony” account type is an example of this, and is commonly used by fae living on Earth.) |
Rose Room (Facility) | See "Rose Room (App)" |
Sexporium | |
Enforcer | |
Kite Rig | A kite rig is a set of artificial wings in a backpack-style rig that can be worn in order to grant the user the ability to fly. Kite rigs are a popular (and expensive - so these are most often rented and not purchased) toy for non-fairy children, who are jealous of their friends' ability to fly. Kite rigs are also used as a medical device for fairies who have lost their wings, have wings that are healing, or have damaged wings that are no longer able to function properly. Kite rigs are very popular in tourist destinations - think of them as the Faerie equivalent of those cities that have Segway tours. |
Spiral | The most popular browser in Faerie. |
Angel | |
Central | |
The Library | |
Nonsuch | The royal palace of Fairyland is a copy of the palace built by Henry VIII. |
Demon | |
Fairy Fruit | Fairies have had their species radically altered by mirror at two major points. The first use of mirror was to give them the ability to change their size. From the point of that wish onward, all fairies can shift sizes between approximately six inches to six feet. This wish allowed them to move out of being primarily a prey species - but since they retained their high sex drive and procreation rate - and with their new size advantage, a far larger portion of their litters were surviving, and this caused issues with the other fae races, who saw them as breeding out of control. This led to a war where the fairies were nearly wiped out. The ending to this war was a second wish - the two fairy queens of the time wishing for the procreation to be externalised. Fairy children are now born by parents impregnating fruit. The mirror's wish created and spawned fruit trees all over Faerie - the fruit had many regional names, but most people defaulted to calling it “fairy fruit”, and when it wasn’t growing a child, the fruit was often served for breakfast. All consenting parents had to do was touch their hands against the skin of the fruit to seed their child, then return in a few months and retrieve their child. |
Glitch | |
God | |
Generation | |
Brukt | A mild fairy expletive. The word functions in a similar function to “shit”, but the long form translation involves the unlikely scenario of being “defecated on by a meteor”, the fae way of describing a smaller piece of meteor breaking away from the main body of the falling star. Brukt. A bad coincidence, a belittlement, a casual swear word, and a discussion among philosophers and astronomers alike. {Pronounced "brooked"} |
Vox | The Agency version of Skype/Discord. Vox allows for text, voice and video communication - and versions are available for mobile, desktop and HUD. |
Genie | One of Fairyland's top technology companies - it's often likened to the Faerie version of Apple, as they're the producers of one of the most popular mobile phone types; and they have a keen sense of design and aesthetics. The most interesting feature of the Genie phones is the logo/manufacturer badge on the back of the case - this badge is touch-sensitive, and will colour cycle when activated. |
Deca | Decas are a key part of fairy linguistics - for a long time, they had replaced formatting such as bolding and italics - even now, a bolded sentence was more likely to be seen as a stylistic choice, rather than important, unless the words in it contained the correct deca at the end of each. There is a degree of variation how decas are used, which is influenced by a number of factors, including region, level of formality, the specific language being used, etc. A simple breakdown, however is as follows. At the end of each word that was to be emphasised, a small line is drawn/typed. Like the three crossbars of the capital letter E. Each bar of the example E signified a differing level of importance, most commonly used as important/high importance, normal/subtle emphasis, low/vague. {Pronounced "deck-a"} |
Duty Bound | A disturbingly no-holds-barred Agency-themed sex club, where clients can brutalise - or even murder - an agent sex doll. |
Glyph | Fairy language/linguistics. It's a well-worn trope that fae have the gift of languages, but this only works (primarily only works) on a person-to-person level. When text is involved, and it's expected that the audience will have members with multiple native languages, glyph is generally employed. (Glyph is only one of a number of names used for this language, but it's the most common way for humans/Agency members to refer to it). It’s a form of ideographic writing and printing that is used on most public signage, and in areas where you’re going to have multiple fae languages in constant usage. It’s why you’ll find a lot of tourist information is written in fairly simple language, or some things on a menu will have additional qualifiers where an exact ideogram isn’t available. Fairy movies and fae television tend to have both language-specific and glyph subtitle options - though the glyph translation option is seen as an inferior choice (as the simplistic nature of glyph doesn't allow for exact and/or deep translations), it's often employed by smaller studios, or groups doing fandubs in order to get a quick and/or cheap version out. It's easy to glyph "hamburger with cheese", less so to translate the intricacies of Discworld's punnery. It's worth noting that while limitations do exist, it's also the closest thing to a universal/unified language among the fae races, and it's lauded for that achievement. Glyph is also pretty magical in its own way. While a standard alphabet of ideograms exist, most people reading it do not see these, and instead see the words translated into their native language. You can force yourself to see the ideograms through concentration, and many linguistic scholars can switch between translated and untranslated glyph at will, it's entirely possible to read a hundred signs written in glyph and not realise it, until you come across a menu whose food descriptions seem oddly simplified. |
Duty (Concept) | |
Duty (Sex Club) | A vanilla Agency-themed sex club, for those who have a fetish for those in suits. |
Challa | Fairy language. IE: "you don't sound challa". Literally translating as “in one’s own self”, but it's used as a more intense version of saying that someone doesn't sound like themselves. It's used when you're worried about someone - when speaking to the non-challa individual, it's a gentle enquiry/invitation to talk about what is bothering them. When used to talk about the non-challa individual, it's generally asking for someone in the conversation to step up and check on them. {Pronounced "char-la"} |
Aysa | Fairyland's primary dialect. {Pronounced "a-shah"} |
Nylae | Fairy language. A form of "I love you" used between family members, generally between siblings. {Pronounced "nigh-lay"} |
Below-Nine | Fairy language/linguistics. The English translation of the name of the fairy alphabet currently in use. Below-Nine is the ninth recorded iteration of the primary fairy alphabet. Currently, it contains 86 letters - a mix of legacy letters that bear some appearance to runes, to more modern letters that have more curl and complexity, taking some inspiration from hobbish, a character-based alphabet. (See "Hobbish"). |
Hobbish | As it currently stands, hobbish is the most popular language and alphabet in Faerie, and while it isn't mandated as a second language, as glyph can function for most simple translations (see "Glyph"), the vast majority of fae know at least a few hobbish characters, and their inclusion in popular emoji keyboards is only increasing the rate at which these characters are use in everyday conversations. |
The Academy | |
Medical Services | |
Gessa | Fairy language. An apology when greeting someone, in essence: "hello, sorry I’m late, please forgive the inconvenience". |
Bastard | The worst insult you can use against an agent. Because agents are generated when required, they aren't "born into a family", however the Agency as a whole encourages each agency to be its own family structure. Older agents and directors naturally take on a parental role; younger agents closer in age tend to have sibling dynamics, etc. So due to this, there's a natural focus on chosen family. "Bastard" to an agent means that you aren't worthy of that family, that you should be exiled, shunned and that you shouldn't have any connections. If you're a bastard, you deserve to be alone, and to have no-one. |