As our world has evolved, so too has it developed a language all its own. Both to catalog this terminology for players and to make it more easily understood by anyone else reading along, below is a brief glossary of setting-specific words and phrases that have so far appeared in the game.


Cancello e Chiave: One of the chief unifying magical traditions practiced throughout the Federation, and comparable to the real-world historical system of bodily "humours" or the chakras of Asiatic spiritual practices. Each cancello represents an energy pathway in the body, and the exercise of Regnan stregheria rests on identifying which of these pathways is strongest within a person and learning to control it as one would a muscle. Typically, the stronger one cancello grows, the weaker another becomes; historically, Federation spellcasters have organized themselves around their focus on a specific cancello, developing techniques (such as conductive tattoos) and theories that associate certain magical tasks or applications with a given point in the body's energy field.

Commandant: A Serene sociomilitary rank roughly equivalent to captain. A commandant is typically the commanding officer of a fortification, the chief alderman or mayor of a small town, or some combination of both (depending on the region and its strategic value).

Coranto: A single-folio news sheet printed on a press. Corantos are usually produced by small local organizations that purchase their news from correspondent scriveners, who sell their material to multiple outlets. Some larger institutions exist that publish on public taxes rather than private donations or membership dues, including the national Federal Report, which is subsidized by a government endowment and printed in all five states and the Collegio. A coranto is different from a magazine, usually being distributed weekly instead of monthly or quarterly, and with an emphasis on social responsibility and factual reporting instead of special interests or the arts.

Demon: A magical construct created as a shell of physical stuff around a spark of magic, and imbued with the force of its creator's intentions: Destroy, maim, kill. The reason summoning spells have such long casting times and last for such a short duration is because it's very taxing to create matter out of energy, which is what demon conjury does. The caster's anger and hatred provide a sort of pseudo-sentience for the construct while it holds together, giving it something resembling a purpose, which determines its actions. But in the end, they're just "dolls" or simulacra, with no life or thoughts of their own.

Fata (pl. fate): A spellcaster's familiar. Broadly, any living nonhuman creature to which the caster has a strong connection, usually an animal. While the practice of bonding to a fata has a long history, it has fallen out of favor in recent centuries, until it saw an abrupt revival due to the war. Unlike a fuoco, which better suits more confident or more highly-trained practitioners, a fata is the perfect compliment to young, inexperienced, and anxious new Streghe who can benefit from companionship after finding themselves thrust into combat.

Fuoco di streghe (pl. fuochi): A spellcaster's talisman, specifically referring to the gauntlets that have become popular since the beginning of the war and the founding of the Streghe. Fuoco of this type are mass-produced by craftsmen to be given to fledgling Streghe, and generally have a distinctive appearance, being a fingerless black leather glove armored with steel and inset with cabochon-cut blue water opals. The design means a Strega cannot be easily disarmed of her fuoco, that she is always armed, and it easily channels the wearer's power to develop both offensive and defensive enhancements.

Maneggiatore: Established by royal edict in Bagnueen 518LL, the maneggiatori were created to counter Serene attempts to target Streghe, specifically. They are bodyguards who protect the powerhouse of the Federation military, answering directly and only to the queen rather than functioning within the normal military hierarchy. Each maneggiatore is assigned to a specific Strega and protects her unto death. The Collegio swiftly adapted existing magical techniques, such as those used to bond with fata, to create similar links between maneggiatore and Strega, ensuring each pair is connected in a way that allows them to function (with practice) almost as a single person. Commonly understood abilities of the maneggiatori include their hyperawareness of magical phenomena (such as nearby scrying sensors), their ability to intuit the condition of their Strega across vast distances and even through magical barriers, their massive resistance to pain and mental intrusion, and their ability to channel their life energy to empower their Strega's spells. In the last five years, they have become eponymously representative of Federation determination and endurance, seen as a knightly order incorruptible by outside influence.

Queenseer: The most powerful rabdomante in the known world and one of the queen's three closest personal advisors. The post has a long history of wisdom and of speaking truth to power, and both the veracity of the Queenseers' foretellings and their loyalty to the people of the Regna are well-documented. The current Queenseer is Anneliese Giovannetta di Coriglione, who oversees and coordinates the efforts of other rabdomanti to keep the Federation always two steps ahead of the Serene Empire.

Queensguard: The personal bodyguard of the Federation queen, comprised of the most skilled and loyal warriors from throughout Regna. Previously a mostly ceremonial post, the Queensguard rapidly surged to the forefront of the conflict after the war began, actively recruiting perceptive and capable individuals to protect the Federation's leader. Currently headed by Signora Lucrezia Marinella Agresta, the Queensguard are said to have neatly foiled no fewer than fourteen assassination attempts in the last six years.

Rabdomante: A diviner. Rabdomanti specialize in farseeing, information-gathering magicks, and so on. Their wartime roles include spying on the Serene, watching over friendly troop movements to prevent ambush or assist with strategy, and testing Federation citizens for magical talent to help pad the ranks of the Streghe.

Raveled: Raveling is the process by which the magicks usually employed to create an arcane doll or simulacrum (colloquially known as a "fiend" or "demon") are instead applied to a living creature. The spell or spells tend to "stick" to the victim's very fabric of being, a process likened by some to moths eating holes in a cloth. These wounds to the soul are filled by the magic, consuming whatever the victim was and replacing them with painful mutations and twisted horror. Just as a typical demon is given a semblance of thought and life by the desires of its creator, so too are the Raveled motivated by some poorly-understood mingling of lingering human thought and the anger, hatred, or spite of the spellcaster. The Raveled do not tend to live very long after their transformation, but it is possible for some Raveled to breed with childbearing humans, producing the Violated. Federation intelligence has revealed the Serene are using this process to deliberately create artificial hybrid soldiers.

Regnant: A Serene sociomilitary rank roughly equivalent to Strega. Much like the wartime order of the Streghe, imperial regnants have their own hierarchy outside of typical ranks. Unlike Streghe, regnants do not sometimes also hold a rank in addition to their fundamental title; rather, they seem to operate with absolute authority, taking command wherever they appear and presumably answering only to the Serene Emperor, himself.

Schermo di stregheria: A personal shielding device used by critical Federation personnel to absorb magical attacks. A schermo cannot abate physical damage, and must be recharged once its energy has run out.

Scrittura: Any object (usually a document) imbued with stored magic that can be released by using the item to bridge one's own magical energy field and reading a key word aloud.

Scudo scolastica: A powerful magical shield cast over every library in the Federation, transforming them into fortresses against disaster. Fires cannot start on or inside a building protected by the barrier, nor can they be flooded or their contents ruined by water; insects and other vermin are likewise repelled. There are other, less commonly known effects, as well, which can cause (among other things) disruption of the empathic link between a Strega and her fata or maneggiatore.

Spinners: The colloquial term for the world's only nonhuman race, which are the arachnoids living on the equatorial continent far south and east of the Zahhak. It is from there that the Karundi import all the nation's silk, which is then exported at vast markups to the Federation and Serene Empire. Little is known or understood of the Spinners, and less by the overwhelming majority of humans who have never made the arduous overseas journey to their lands. Merchants' tales speak of the single "city" visitors are allowed to see, constructed entirely of spiders' silk, and of the difficulty of communicating between cultures that can read, but not speak, one anothers' languages.

Streghe (sing. Strega/Stregone): Broadly, any practitioners of magic; since the beginning of the war, this title has become specifically associated with the order of battle-mages formed to combat the Serene Empire. Their symbol is the black hood. Streghe may hold a specific military rank, but are internally organized by their own system of classification (1st class, 2nd class, etc., up to 9th class), denoting their level of training and power. A Strega's class is associated with her ability to achieve certain benchmark feats of spellcraft. For example, a Strega who can only channel electricity into her hands is of the 1st Class; when she can manifest that electricity into a slow-moving cloud, she is of the 2nd Class; when she can hurl the electricity as a thunderbolt, she is of the 3rd Class; and so on. There are a variety of accepted benchmarks, meaning no two Streghe have precisely the same capabilities, but all have approximately the same level of raw power.

Stregheria: The Lombardese word for magic or spellcraft. Since the foundation of the Streghe, the term has taken on a somewhat more aggressive meaning, often used to refer specifically to Federation battle magic.

Violated: Called augments (augs, in Federation shorthand) by their Serene creators, the Violated are the hybrid offspring of childbearing humans impregnated by Raveled victims. History shows that Violated have appeared before, but usually as the result of cult activity or a magical accident. Always, they have been few, far between, and figures of tragedy. Contemporary Violated are biological weapons created through imperial breeding programs, apparently with assistance from magically accelerated growth, and used as shock troops and suicide bombers by the Serene. The average Violated soldier is fanatically loyal to the empire, but must still be controlled by a handler, like an animal, and is more durable but less intelligent than a typical human. Some individuals are clever enough to be given command of their own squads, but these are rare. Like their Raveled parents, Violated tend not to live long lives; because of the wartime environment, there is no way to know how long they might live before dying from old age, or even whether they might be capable of living a normal human life.

Witchcraft: The term used by Federation citizens to differentiate the specific Serene practice of demon conjury from socially acceptable magic. Imperial spellcasters are referred to as witches or warlocks as a form of deliberate insult, to identify anyone who would employ such malignant arts.

Yearsend: A popular holiday throughout most of the known world, celebrated in the first half of Yultueen by the Federation, but at roughly the same time among other civilizations. One to two whole weeks are set aside to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new; the festivals and parties held at this time also help to distract those in northern climes from the relative despair of midwinter. In Regna and her sister states, the occasion is considered a time for new lovers to pledge their affections, and for everyone to dance, sing, and generally abandon their inhibitions in the streets.