Archetype - The grand symbolic idea which lends its power to a Dreamer. Roses, Romance, Lions, Apples, Swords, Fire, Ice, Darkness, Light, Lightning - a theme or leitmotif to their magical powers. Not ALL of a Dreamer’s powers will rely directly on their Archetype, but it forms the core of their identity & speciality, and probably has something to do with the cause they serve.
Aspect - Any constant trait of Questing Country. The Aspect of Communication between species is called Fintan, and the Aspect of Time is called Ouroboros, due to its infinite and recursive nature. Though they’re called “constant” traits, time travel such as the Ouroboros Retrograde jaunt can change how an Aspect works. Harbingers, Guiding Stars, Conductors, and Tesserae all challenge the understanding of Fintan as understood by Oracles and their Familiars.
Backstage - A slang term used by Spirit Companions to refer to the interior workings of Questing Country itself - the cavern beneath the Dream.
Bident - The two-pronged spear of a Conductor, which can pin nightmares in place.
Collective Unconscious - Not of one species, but of at least six. Most Champions & Oracles come from the listed species, but other thinking races do exist, and can be devised by players. The Collective Unconscious is at the root of Questing Country, and of the power & knowledge of Champions and their ilk.
Conductor - A Dreamer who has gained a psychic and Bond link to all other Conductors and all Conductors’ Spirit Companions. Conductors wield bidents in addition to any other weapons they possess, wear white and silver outfits with silver crowns and extensive jewelry (the jewels, while set in silver, can be gems of any cut or color), and no longer experience Fear, Sadness, or Doubt. All Conductors have at least one minor ability which heals and calms.
Dreamcatchers - Devices made to siphon energy from Questing Country. Champions & Adversaries use them to replenish spent power, Oracles for knowledge. Pillars neither have nor need them, as their own abilities are built up but inaccessible. Note: Dreamcatchers can be used by Travelers outside of Questing Country to remove bad dreams from one individual and to siphon the material of liminal space itself.
Envelope - INVLEP, Instantiated Nested Virtual Layer Emulation Protocol, a Hecatite technology available as an installable chip or a firmware upgrade which allows any Synthetic to emulate an unconscious and subconscious mind, and so to access intuition, creativity, and dreaming in ways that were previously impossible. One side effect is, apparently, that the emulated dreams are sufficient to allow Synthetics access to Questing Country.
Exoliminality - All of Questing Country is a Liminal Space, and so most Liminal powers work in Questing Country, but with reduced effect. The amount of space or material that can be manipulated is reduced by roughly half, the time it takes to do so multiplied (but not by one specific number), and it takes much more tangible effort. Likewise, because Travelers are attuned to something very like Questing Country, an Investigator can still become a Champion, Oracle, Adversary, or Pillar with the appropriate abilities and Archetypes if it suits their essential character.
Genius Loci - The protective spirit of a place.
Harbinger - A Champion, Oracle, or Adversary (never a Pillar) who used a Dreamcatcher on Transformed Lands for too long and became changed themselves. Periodically, especially when surprised or disoriented, the dreamer will transform into a glowing winged figure and be able to work vast changes on the landscape, but will possess an alien outlook and priorities and be unable to distinguish friend from foe. Harbingers think in such big-picture, long-term ways that individual people and their needs, desires, or agendas become almost literally invisible.
Opaline Bore - The site of the Backstage confrontation between Dreamers and the Arcana has become a gateway blocking the way Backstage, and now serves as a link for Dreamers travelling from the Rise of the Adversaries or Double Valence auras. Visitors from or to past eras are rare but not unheard of over the last three months since the Ouroboros Retrograde jaunt, and they report what Oracles are calling “quasimnesia” - they can remember time spent with Dreamers in the era they visit, but no knowledge of their home or their trip which would constitute “spoilers.” They also report that the amount of time which has passed since the Ouroboros Retrograde is constant. Lastly, all attempts to enter Backstage through the Opaline Bore result in time travel, instead.
Questing Country - The shared dream-space of all thinking species, metaphor made real, the place where the power of Champions comes from, and a physical space which they travel to train, learn, and do battle.
Retrograde - A period in which an Aspect of Questing Country is not functioning as it usually does. Some Aspects pass into retrograde more frequently than others, and what retrograde means depends on which Aspect is in retrograde. Multiple retrogrades can occur at one time. These are understood to be natural effects within Questing Country.
Spirit Companions - Guides, embodiments of the collective unconscious, and as such, incredibly cryptic and mysterious, incapable of clear or straightforward communication, are responsible for selecting & anointing Champions. Spirit Companions seek Champions who believe in some great and selfless cause with great hope and idealism, and that cause can often somehow be represented by their Archetype. A Champion’s Spirit Companion can communicate with all others, but their advice is often cryptic. An Adversary’s Spirit Companion sometimes temporarily becomes a Doppelganger, an insubstantial image of the Adversary that tries to make trouble for them, as they reject its guidance. Oracles’ Spirit Companions become Familiars, perfectly comprehensible to them at last, but unable to communicate with anyone else. Adversaries who become Dark Oracles devoted to themselves lose their Spirit Companions entirely; they become full-time Doppelgangers. A Harbinger’s Spirit Companion fuses with a dreamcatcher and becomes a small, speechless Guiding Star that illuminates patterns. Pillars no longer have a Spirit Companion of any kind. As for Conductors, see Tesserae.
Starquakes - Vast and powerful dreams of alien minds which have the ability to change entire continents of the Dream at a whim. These had never happened before and are considered the defining trait of the Starquake Era of Questing Country, one generation after the Double Valence period (which was the setting of the first Questing Country jaunt).
Tesserae - the Spirit Companions of Conductors, universally glittery white and silver in color, with crowns and jewelry as part of their bodies (though the jewels may appear to be on collars or torcs, they cannot be taken off). All Conductors can communicate clearly with any Tessera, but Tesserae can no longer communicate with non-Tessera Companions, or vice versa. Tesserae no longer become Dopplegangers.
Transformed Lands - Areas of Questing Country changed irrevocably by the Starquakes.
Twilight Time - Like Liminal Space, Questing Country can undergo vast and sweeping changes. These are preceded by Twilight Time, where things go dim and blurry around the edges, signalling a “change in the weather” which will remake the world around them.
Valence - The power of the collective unconscious sometimes forms a node of energy which can grant one wish. When a Valence is hidden somewhere in Questing Country, Oracles (or investigators with Questing Sense) can vaguely feel its presence and direction. A Valence will bestow itself on one worthy being to help them achieve their cause.
Volksgeist - A large creature made from the combined forms of a Bonded group’s Spirit Companions. Volksgeists may enter battle alongside their bonded, the only time Spirit Companions typically enter the fray; if a volksgeist is killed, it separates into its component Spirit Companions. Volksgeists who are completely comprised of familiars may only speak to the Oracles who they belong to, but they are as clear as any familiar speaking. Volksgeists with any portion of spirit animal in them may talk to everyone, but they are as cryptic as a standard spirit animal. If an Adversary places their spirit animal in a volksgeist, the volksgeist will occasionally turn on their masters and act outside of their combined best interests. It is inadvisable for multiple Adversaries to create a volksgeist.
GLOSSARY
Aspect - Any constant trait of Questing Country. The Aspect of Communication between species is called Fintan, and the Aspect of Time is called Ouroboros, due to its infinite and recursive nature. Though they’re called “constant” traits, time travel such as the Ouroboros Retrograde jaunt can change how an Aspect works. Harbingers, Guiding Stars, Conductors, and Tesserae all challenge the understanding of Fintan as understood by Oracles and their Familiars.
Backstage - A slang term used by Spirit Companions to refer to the interior workings of Questing Country itself - the cavern beneath the Dream.
Bident - The two-pronged spear of a Conductor, which can pin nightmares in place.
Collective Unconscious - Not of one species, but of at least six. Most Champions & Oracles come from the listed species, but other thinking races do exist, and can be devised by players. The Collective Unconscious is at the root of Questing Country, and of the power & knowledge of Champions and their ilk.
Conductor - A Dreamer who has gained a psychic and Bond link to all other Conductors and all Conductors’ Spirit Companions. Conductors wield bidents in addition to any other weapons they possess, wear white and silver outfits with silver crowns and extensive jewelry (the jewels, while set in silver, can be gems of any cut or color), and no longer experience Fear, Sadness, or Doubt. All Conductors have at least one minor ability which heals and calms.
Dreamcatchers - Devices made to siphon energy from Questing Country. Champions & Adversaries use them to replenish spent power, Oracles for knowledge. Pillars neither have nor need them, as their own abilities are built up but inaccessible. Note: Dreamcatchers can be used by Travelers outside of Questing Country to remove bad dreams from one individual and to siphon the material of liminal space itself.
Envelope - INVLEP, Instantiated Nested Virtual Layer Emulation Protocol, a Hecatite technology available as an installable chip or a firmware upgrade which allows any Synthetic to emulate an unconscious and subconscious mind, and so to access intuition, creativity, and dreaming in ways that were previously impossible. One side effect is, apparently, that the emulated dreams are sufficient to allow Synthetics access to Questing Country.
Exoliminality - All of Questing Country is a Liminal Space, and so most Liminal powers work in Questing Country, but with reduced effect. The amount of space or material that can be manipulated is reduced by roughly half, the time it takes to do so multiplied (but not by one specific number), and it takes much more tangible effort. Likewise, because Travelers are attuned to something very like Questing Country, an Investigator can still become a Champion, Oracle, Adversary, or Pillar with the appropriate abilities and Archetypes if it suits their essential character.
Genius Loci - The protective spirit of a place.
Harbinger - A Champion, Oracle, or Adversary (never a Pillar) who used a Dreamcatcher on Transformed Lands for too long and became changed themselves. Periodically, especially when surprised or disoriented, the dreamer will transform into a glowing winged figure and be able to work vast changes on the landscape, but will possess an alien outlook and priorities and be unable to distinguish friend from foe. Harbingers think in such big-picture, long-term ways that individual people and their needs, desires, or agendas become almost literally invisible.
Opaline Bore - The site of the Backstage confrontation between Dreamers and the Arcana has become a gateway blocking the way Backstage, and now serves as a link for Dreamers travelling from the Rise of the Adversaries or Double Valence auras. Visitors from or to past eras are rare but not unheard of over the last three months since the Ouroboros Retrograde jaunt, and they report what Oracles are calling “quasimnesia” - they can remember time spent with Dreamers in the era they visit, but no knowledge of their home or their trip which would constitute “spoilers.” They also report that the amount of time which has passed since the Ouroboros Retrograde is constant. Lastly, all attempts to enter Backstage through the Opaline Bore result in time travel, instead.
Questing Country - The shared dream-space of all thinking species, metaphor made real, the place where the power of Champions comes from, and a physical space which they travel to train, learn, and do battle.
Retrograde - A period in which an Aspect of Questing Country is not functioning as it usually does. Some Aspects pass into retrograde more frequently than others, and what retrograde means depends on which Aspect is in retrograde. Multiple retrogrades can occur at one time. These are understood to be natural effects within Questing Country.
Spirit Companions - Guides, embodiments of the collective unconscious, and as such, incredibly cryptic and mysterious, incapable of clear or straightforward communication, are responsible for selecting & anointing Champions. Spirit Companions seek Champions who believe in some great and selfless cause with great hope and idealism, and that cause can often somehow be represented by their Archetype. A Champion’s Spirit Companion can communicate with all others, but their advice is often cryptic. An Adversary’s Spirit Companion sometimes temporarily becomes a Doppelganger, an insubstantial image of the Adversary that tries to make trouble for them, as they reject its guidance. Oracles’ Spirit Companions become Familiars, perfectly comprehensible to them at last, but unable to communicate with anyone else. Adversaries who become Dark Oracles devoted to themselves lose their Spirit Companions entirely; they become full-time Doppelgangers. A Harbinger’s Spirit Companion fuses with a dreamcatcher and becomes a small, speechless Guiding Star that illuminates patterns. Pillars no longer have a Spirit Companion of any kind. As for Conductors, see Tesserae.
Starquakes - Vast and powerful dreams of alien minds which have the ability to change entire continents of the Dream at a whim. These had never happened before and are considered the defining trait of the Starquake Era of Questing Country, one generation after the Double Valence period (which was the setting of the first Questing Country jaunt).
Tesserae - the Spirit Companions of Conductors, universally glittery white and silver in color, with crowns and jewelry as part of their bodies (though the jewels may appear to be on collars or torcs, they cannot be taken off). All Conductors can communicate clearly with any Tessera, but Tesserae can no longer communicate with non-Tessera Companions, or vice versa. Tesserae no longer become Dopplegangers.
Transformed Lands - Areas of Questing Country changed irrevocably by the Starquakes.
Twilight Time - Like Liminal Space, Questing Country can undergo vast and sweeping changes. These are preceded by Twilight Time, where things go dim and blurry around the edges, signalling a “change in the weather” which will remake the world around them.
Valence - The power of the collective unconscious sometimes forms a node of energy which can grant one wish. When a Valence is hidden somewhere in Questing Country, Oracles (or investigators with Questing Sense) can vaguely feel its presence and direction. A Valence will bestow itself on one worthy being to help them achieve their cause.
Volksgeist - A large creature made from the combined forms of a Bonded group’s Spirit Companions. Volksgeists may enter battle alongside their bonded, the only time Spirit Companions typically enter the fray; if a volksgeist is killed, it separates into its component Spirit Companions. Volksgeists who are completely comprised of familiars may only speak to the Oracles who they belong to, but they are as clear as any familiar speaking. Volksgeists with any portion of spirit animal in them may talk to everyone, but they are as cryptic as a standard spirit animal. If an Adversary places their spirit animal in a volksgeist, the volksgeist will occasionally turn on their masters and act outside of their combined best interests. It is inadvisable for multiple Adversaries to create a volksgeist.