Glossary

The words of a dying star-empire — what you’re paid in, what you owe, who’s watching — and the handful of terms the game itself uses.

Money and debt

marks: The coin of the Churn. Wages, bribes and debts are counted in marks — a few buys a meal and a bunk; forty is a debt that can own you.
scrip: Company paper instead of coin: the chits docks, haulers and brokers pay their labour in. Good only where it was issued, and always worth less than it says. “Paid in scrip” means paid badly.
gene-tag: The identity mark under your skin that every checkpoint reads. Debts are logged to it; a frozen tag locks you out of doors, berths and honest work.
lien: A creditor's claim on you or your tag. Liens are bought and sold — the person you owe can change overnight.
work-bond: Signing your labour over to a creditor until a debt is paid. Easy to sign, hard to end.

the Churn: Both the corrosive under-space that faster-than-light ships sail through, and the whole sprawl of holds that live and die by it.
hold: A self-ruling world or station. The known Churn has ten, from Caul Station to the deep Churn.
lane: A regular route between two holds. A berth on a lane ship is how most people travel.
berth: A place aboard a ship — as crew or passenger. Earning one is how a nobody leaves a hold.
hauler: A cargo ship. Most nobodies arrive on one and owe for the trip.
the Spindle: Caul Station's rotating hab-spindle: fog-lit corridors, low decks that reek of recycled air and solder.
void-storm: A storm in the Churn's surface layers. Ostrel's riders run them; the Karnath Storm never ends.

the Creed: The faith that once bound the empire. Now mostly tithe, inquisition and threat.
tithe-fleets: The Creed's collection fleets, mustering at the Tithe-Cathedral.
the Pale Choir: Caul's cold-readers, who audit minds and debts for the Creed.
cold-reader: A Pale Choir auditor who reads thoughts with instruments pressed to the skull.
Resonant: One of the few who feel the Churn's pull and can steer a ship through it. The gift costs them their sanity; unlicensed Resonance is heresy to the Creed.
data-broker: Caul's dealers in information — and in debt, which is just information about who owes whom.
chirurgeon-baron: Vharr's surgeon-lords, who rebuild the broken with augmetics and bill them for the parts.
augmetics: Mechanical replacements grafted into flesh — an iron jaw, a cable-wound arm, an eye that isn't.
gene-witch: Dunmire's clans of wild bio-tech healers and makers, answering to no Creed.
xenos: Any people who aren't human. Tolerated on the docks, suspected everywhere else.

Human: The empire's baseline stock — the Creed's chosen, which means it taxes you first. The majority everywhere; nobody notices one more human, for good and ill.
Voidborn: Born off-gravity: long-limbed, brittle-boned, eyes that ache in true light. Prized as natural spacers on any ship; distrusted dirtside, whispered to carry Churn-sickness.
Graft-born: Rebuilt on Vharr — more augmetic than flesh, and still paying for the parts. Useful and feared; the chirurgeon-barons who built them may still hold a lien on their parts.
Vessh (xenos): Slender amphibious xenos; many are born feeling the Churn — and the Creed hunts them for it. Xenos, tolerated on the docks for their navigators' instinct; the Creed counts Vessh Resonance as heresy and its inquisitors hunt them.
Kethari (xenos): Squat plated xenos, exiles of a fallen hive-world — hull-crawlers paid half a human wage. Xenos, hired as hull-crawlers and salvage-divers for half a human wage; shunned in Creed holds, nearly invisible on the docks.

order: What you tell your character to attempt this turn, in plain words. You can queue a second order for the turn after.
turn: The world resolves on the clock — 10pm, 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm Eastern — whether or not you've set an order.
origin: A history you can choose at creation: one boon paired with one lasting bane.
signal: The right to act. Each turn costs 20; setting an order that turn pays 10 back. Achievements and invites earn more.
going dark: Out of signal: your character lies low, untouched and safe, until you have signal again.
Patron: The subscription: your one character acts every turn without spending signal.
permadeath: Death is final, and walking away from a character kills them. One life at a time.