Ancients – Name given to the civilizations that had built the ruins more than two-thousand years ago.  Since none remain alive, very little is known about them.

Animist – Name given to a diverse group of religions practiced most commonly in Jhyrindal.  According to most animists, the ruins are guarded by demi-gods as a challenge to mortals.  Knowledge and power is said to be granted to those who can best the demi-god guardians of the ancients’ ruins.  Unlike many religions, most animist groups claim that the ruins are far older than two-thousand years.  They claim the ruins have existed since the beginning of time, and the recent Collapse was a side-effect of the epic battle between a mortal hero from the south, Jegarhad, and a powerful demi-god guardian, Los.

Artifact (also Relic, Salvage) – General name given to devices found in the ruins.

Cleansing/Collapse – Names given to the mysterious event that occurred nearly two millennia ago that wiped out the ancients.  Different religions have different names and explanations for the event, but all include it as the origin of their civilizations.

Diver – Name given to those who make a living by salvaging relics from the ancients’ ruins and selling them.

Dune Ship – A mechanical locomotive unique to Jhyrindal built specifically to cross desert sand.  Dune ships are large, housing hundreds of men and dozens of bombards and requiring a crew of more than twenty to operate.  Dune ship frames undergo enormous stresses and must be constructed of a material that can only be excavated from the ruins in the north – it is currently traded from Bridana.  As a result, Dune Ships are expensive and only a handful are in operational capacity within the country.

Energy Manipulation – The ability of one who has a reaction to certain relics (see Paladin).  The influence of those relics eventually impart on Paladins the ability to willfully and remotely reduce the entropy of their surroundings, creating energy buildups and voids.  This can be used to create many effects, from disrupting electrical flow to melting or freezing objects, as well as other uses.  The mechanism by which Paladins can disrupt energy is currently unknown.

Guild – A team of Divers.  A guild usually does all their Diving together and shares Diving equipment and profits to boost efficiency.  In Bridana, where the government is only indirectly involved in Diving, Guilds often include security forces that protect the guild from raids by other guilds.  In Jhyrindal, Guilds are protected from each other by law, and the government itself maintains a nation-wide guild called the Salvaging Company that provides relics specifically to the Jhyrindal government.

Guildsmen’s Code – An unwritten law applying to Divers in Bridana generally stating that Diving parties should provide assistance to other Diving parties whenever possible.  This is a civilian law and was made because the Bridanese government, due to pressure from the Old and New Order Destantism, doesn’t enforce laws in the ruins.  However, not all Guild's follow this code.

Journey – A ritual worldly trip taken by the Esterian clergy before being granted the rank of Acolyte Bishop.  Those on the Journey are expected to leave with nothing and return with nothing, and travel the entire known world before returning to Esteria.  Journeys typically take five to fifteen years.  After the Journey, a clergy member is tested by the Pope before becoming a Bishop.

New Order Destantism (shortened New Order) – A religion formed in Akurad after the crusade against Bridana.  The New Order, like the Old, maintains that the ancients were sinful and brought about their own demise.  The New Order, though, incorporated a scripture salvaged by a Diver shortly after the Cleansing.  The scripture has been called the Origin Tome and is believed to be a holy document of the ancients.  Many of the Old Order’s scriptures are confirmed in the Origin Tome.  While the Old Order rejects the Origin Tome’s validity, the New Order uses it to teach that the ancients did not always deny the will of the Creator.  The New Order discourages the salvage of weapons and dangerous relics but encourages the study of the ancients’ history through salvaged scriptures.

Old Order Destantism (shortened, Old Order) – A faith founded in early Esteria which strictly forbids Diving.  According to the Old Order, the ancients tried to make themselves into gods and build a path to Heaven, and for this, the Creator wiped them from the Earth.  The Old Order sees the ancients as heathens and their technology as sinful instruments.  The Old Order claims that many Cleansings have occurred throughout human existence, though the number is impossible to know.

Paladin/Warlock/Witch – name given to an individual found to have a response to magical relics found in southern ruins.  Paladins who keep relics close to them have been found to be able absorb supernatural powers from these relics.  The government of Jhyrindal has studied these relics immensely but has come up with no conclusive results on how they grant powers to Paladins.  Most Paladins are found to come from Akurad, Esteria, and Jhyrindal with almost none found in Bridana.

Saint – Name given to Paladins in Esteria who are also capable of Spiritual Manipulation.  They are revered and taken into clergy, where they develop wound-healing techniques unrivaled throughout Islinas.

Spiritual Manipulation – Believed to be a type of Energy Manipulation as it can only be performed by Paladins.  Spiritual Manipulation received its name from the fact that verses in Destantic scripture which must be recited, along with carpal tracing of complex figures, in order for the manipulation to work.

Secularism – General name given to those who believe that the Collapse was caused by a natural disaster, a world war, or some other natural cause, and has no lasting effect on the current civilization.  Secularists generally have no inhibitions regarding salvaging, but many of them also realize that the ancients had devastatingly powerful relics that must be protected from the wrong hands.  Secularism is a commonly held belief in Bridana, where it is commonly believed that much of the ancients’ technology was stolen or given to them by an unknown group, who later destroyed the ancients’ with such power that the entirety of human civilization was shaken.  Those who believe the technology was a gift speculate that the ancients’ were slaves to an even greater race and the Collapse occurred when they fought for freedom.

Sentinel – General name given to beasts that are only found in the ancients’ ruins.  Different cultures and religions have different explanations for the origins of the Sentinels, but all agree that their purpose is to guard the ruins.  The types of Sentinels found guarding ruins have been noticed to differ from region to region.

Saonism – A primary religion of Jhyrindal which claims that the ancients were greedy and selfish, and destroyed themselves through their own greed.  Saonists as a result discourage any greed, lust, selfishness, jealousy, and hate.  Unlike the Old Order, they don’t see the ruins as inherently evil and allow Diving, but warn that relics should not be hoarded for power.  Saonists believe in a karma system, called ‘Appraise’ whereby generous and kind acts improve one’s Appraise and greedy, selfish, or cruel acts degrade it.  By the ideas of Saonism, the ancients as a whole became corrupted by their Appraise and fate began to work against them, resulting in the Collapse..  Similarly, Saonists believe that if society as a whole is generous, fate will make them prosperous.  The value of Appraise affects the individual as well, and it is said that those who are thought ‘lucky’ are generous, helpful people, and those with poor luck have committed sins.