Note: This page is perpetually WIP and grows with the story.
This is a spoiler-free list of terms found in the story, mostly pertaining to the magic system. If you find the jargon overwhelming, hopefully this helps; however, this glossary is not required to understand the story.
| Term | meaning |
|---|---|
| The (Frozen) Flame | The essence of magic. Creates ripple. Definitely alive. |
| Ripple | Magical energy. Emanated by the Frozen Flame but can also come from other sources. Loosely color-coded. |
| Flamefall | Fragments of the Frozen Flame which fall from the sky and strike people to turn them into flamebearers. |
| Flamebearer | Someone who was struck by the Frozen Flame and is capable of wielding magic. |
| The Spire | A giant structure in the North Atlantic Ocean which appeared when the Flame arrived on Earth. Home of the Vaetna and quite a few humans, mostly refugees. |
| The Vaetna | The Spire’s ten “knights”, particularly overpowered flamebearers armored in carapace. The most powerful and skilled magic users in the world; creators of glyphs. Dubiously human. |
| Glyph | Symbols that convert ripple between colors to change the effect. The structured way of using magic. Can be chained together for more complex effects. |
| Order | The dimensionality of a glyph minus one. – First-order are two-dimensional – Second-order are three-dimensional – Third-order are fourth-dimensional. |
| Weaving | Spinning Flame into thread and contorting it into the shape of a glyph. Tension and twist in the thread alters ripple. |
| (Glyph) Substrate | A physical template for weaving. First-order substrates can be drawings, second- and third-order must be physical objects by necessity. Often have guides for the correct tension. |
| Snapweaving | Weaving without a substrate. |
| Lattice | Flame structured through a series of glyphs, ready to do magic. |
| VNT | “Vaetna-type”. A catch-all term for politically active flamebearers. |