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Valenar Glossary

Shared terms used across the Valenar docs.

This glossary and gd-canon.md are the authority files for live terms. If a support doc still carries older prototype wording, these pages win.

Progression​

Act​

The canonical progression rung for Valenar's long-form campaign. Acts deepen the same running world rather than swapping the player into separate game modes.

Reclamation​

The outward loop of scouting corrupted territory, engaging threats, building wards, cleansing corruption, claiming ground, and repeating along the frontier. Local reclamation begins before the last act. Full world-scale reclamation is the late-game end of the act ladder.

Character Growth Language​

Technique​

A learned method the player brings through activities, missions, and assignments. Runtime execution resolves through activities and policies. See systems/character-skills.md and systems/queue-and-activity-execution.md.

Skill Tag​

Metadata that groups skills by domain for routing, discovery, teaching, and affinity targeting. See systems/character-skills.md.

Skill Family​

The larger grouping of related skills above any one exact skill. Affinities may target a family when the fiction supports it. See systems/character-skills.md.

Affinity​

A learning and discovery bias that targets one exact skill, a skill tag, or a skill family. It shapes gain, discovery, proof, and compatibility more than it acts as a generic output multiplier. See systems/character-skills.md.

Trait​

Long-term identity expressed through origin, background, personality, belief, work style, or acquired history. Traits answer who the person is. See systems/character-skills.md and systems/characters-and-retinue.md.

Condition​

Temporary mutable state such as Hungry, Cold, Exhausted, Afraid, Bleeding, Tainted, or Poisoned. Conditions answer what is happening right now. See systems/character-skills.md and systems/characters-and-retinue.md. (See lore exposure: lh-game1-world-hooks.md — Gate scarring/taint fields row)

Injury​

Mutable medical or physical harm such as Wounded, Sprained Ankle, Burned Hands, Broken Rib, or Concussion. Injuries change more slowly than most conditions and do not define long-term identity by default. See systems/character-skills.md and systems/characters-and-retinue.md.

Acquired Trait​

Permanent or semi-permanent history that left a mark, such as Scarred Hands, Limp, Demon-Scarred, Veteran of the First Night, or Taint-Touched. Acquired traits answer what happened and still matters. See systems/character-skills.md and systems/characters-and-retinue.md.

Exercises​

Repeatable practice or study patterns that build competence and can reveal better methods. See systems/character-skills.md.

Breakthroughs​

Punctuated gains that unlock or stabilize higher-order capability instead of acting like flat XP ticks. See systems/character-skills.md.

Personal Infrastructure​

Core​

The MC's fixed personal anchor at the starting Nexus/Wardheart site. It is the stationary counterpart to the Camp and remains distinct from the Settlement layer that later grows around or beyond it. See systems/gd-core-base.md.

Camp​

The MC's mobile expedition infrastructure. It is packed, deployed, supplied, and upgraded for travel, rest, repair, surveying, warding, and longer-range work away from the Core.

Core Base​

Legacy prototype wording for establishing the Core. It is not the live canon term for the Core, and it does not mean Settlement or Realm birth. If the prototype UI still shows it, treat that as legacy drift rather than canon. See systems/gd-core-base.md for the live canonical definition.

Settlement And Polity​

Settlement​

The population-bearing, settlement-scale entity that owns footprint, tier, and later markets, districts, and administration. Settlement growth begins in Act 2 with the first Outpost and stays distinct from the MC's personal Core/Camp layer.

Outpost​

Settlement Tier 1. A narrow, dependent foothold that serves as the first population-bearing settlement rung.

The first polity step above one settlement. A Banner Network links multiple holdings, routes, and defensive obligations without yet being the full Province or Crown layer.

Province​

The first administrative layer above settlements and outposts. Provinces group multiple holdings under unified rule, law, defense, and later taxation.

Crown​

The higher polity layer where rule, administration, fronts, diplomacy, and realm-scale priorities become explicit campaign systems.

Realm​

The broad player-facing polity formed by later holdings, authority, and rank. The docs commit that the Realm is not born by establishing the Core alone. Current canon describes Realm growth through the ladder of Settlement, Banner Network, Province, and Crown rather than through one single founding trigger.

Founding Tier​

The polity-level rule that decides which tier newly founded settlements start at. It changes with higher-rank progression; it does not replace the normal settlement promotion ladder.

World Model​

Shielded Zone​

One connected pocket of survivable ground held together by the remnants of the Ancient Shield. The player starts in the worst surviving Zone. (See lore exposure: lh-game1-world-hooks.md — Shielded Zone row, Afterwar period state row)

Nexus​

The special anchor structure that fixes the starting Location and ties the Core's founding path to a leyline meeting point. In Game 1 the failing anchor can pull an arrival into a nearby pocket rather than placing the MC directly on the structure. (See lore exposure: lh-game1-world-hooks.md — Nexus manifestation row)

Wardheart​

The live canon name paired with the starting Nexus anchor chain in early-act docs. Canon surface prefers Nexus/Wardheart wording over older support-doc terms. (See lore exposure: lh-game1-world-hooks.md — Wardheart definition row)

Location​

The smallest strategic land unit the player scouts, claims, designates, and acts in. A Location contains generated facts plus discovered features and sites.

Site​

First-class location content that becomes meaningful once discovered, entered, or developed. Dungeons are a site family rather than a separate top-level world model.

Objective Language​

Clue​

The canonical player-facing term for uncertain evidence about a place, threat, opportunity, or future Site.

Lead​

Common shorthand for a clue the MC has noticed but not yet resolved.

Mission​

A planned operation with a target, risk, time cost, and likely queueable work.

Local Quest​

A place-, person-, or feature-sized multi-Mission objective that resolves within a single act. Content-authoring term, not a new runtime noun.

Quest Thread​

A connective chain that groups multiple Local Quests and Missions into one longer-running premise. Act 0's first visible Quest Thread is Survive, named for immediate need rather than hidden truth.

Objective​

The player-facing high-level goal or arc that groups clues, missions, discoveries, and planning context into one coherent surface.

Current Plan​

The synthesized player-facing layer above Objectives and Queue. It summarizes the active objective thread, likely approach, and next executable work without replacing those underlying surfaces. See ux/current-plan.md.

Journal​

The persistent day-based memory layer. It holds readable prose, annotations, and links to objectives, missions, activities, locations, sites, threats, and lore artefacts without replacing those underlying surfaces. See ux/journal.md.

Chronicle​

The separate combat-focused readback surface. It does not replace Journal as the campaign's durable memory layer.

Activity​

The runtime and execution term for runnable atomic work the queue can execute.

Policy​

The runtime chooser that selects among activities when the game needs delegated or rule-driven control.