A[]
Algul Siento[]
Breakers who attempt escape from The Shop or are otherwise uncooperative are sent to Algul Siento, aka The Basement. Officially Algul Siento is a minimum security prison in Texas, and while it certainly functions as a prison its real purpose is to force Breakers to use their powers, by any means necessary.
An-tet[]
“The term tet refers to people linked by the same destiny or goals. An-tet implies an intimate emotional link. It can also imply sexual intimacy,”* and differs from Ka-tet in that an An-tet generally manifests between only two people.
B[]
Breakers[]
Psychics in the “employ” of the Shop, voluntarily or otherwise. The term “breaker” was coined by a Shop agent for its general (hideous) use in the service of their cause, but has become common parlance amongst members of TetCorp as well. A major goal of Earthworld’s branch of Tetcorp involves the rescue and rehabilitation of Breakers.
C[]
Captain Tripps[]
West Coast slang for the biological weapon inadvertently spread by Charles Campion. Stage One resembles the common cold or flu, Stage Two progresses into a state more like severe bronchitis or tuberculosis, and Stage Three – which is always fatal – intensifies these symptoms along with a fever high frequently enough to cause delirium and/or psychosis. Note that characters from the Western part of the country are most likely to use this terminology.
Clairvoyance[]
“The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clearly").” Thanks, Wikipedia! More simply, clairvoyants “just know things,” and according to at least one of them in this game, it is a royal pain in the ass.
D[]
E[]
F[]
Facilitation[]
A facilitator, while essentially powerless on his or her own, possesses the ability to amplify the power of other psychics in the area by as much as tenfold. Very rare, and considered invaluable by both the Shop and Tetcorp. Facilitators may go their entire lives without discovering their ability, although the Shop especially is more than willing to trigger this power via less than ethical methodology.
G[]
Gunslingers[]
An ancient class of warrior-knights, all gunslingers technically fall under one Ka-tet which answers to Roland Deschain and often serves as the sword arm of Tetcorp. Even if at this point most of them do in fact use guns, hence the name. You see how that works. Highly trained, motivated, and basically terrifying, an apprentice gunslinger takes his place by besting his teacher in battle, whereupon he makes it his life’s work to safeguard and protect the innocent.
H[]
I[]
J[]
K[]
Ka[]
“Signifies life-force, consciousness, duty and destiny [and] also means a place to which an individual must go. The closest terms in our language are probably fate and destiny.”*
Ka-tet[]
“Literally speaking, ka-tet means ‘one made from many.’ Ka refers to destiny; tet refers to a group of people with the same interests or goals. Ka-tet is the place where man's lives are joined by fate.”* Differs from an An-tet in that a Ka-tet can, and most often does, include a group of several individuals.
Kinesis[]
As a suffix “kinesis” most literally means “control of,” and can encompass anything from telekinesis (relatively common) to aqua or umbrakinesis (much more rare).
L[]
Lightport[]
Something cool about lightport.
M[]
N[]
O[]
P[]
Postcognition[]
Exactly like precognition, excepting that the postcognitive experiences visions and dreams of the past. So it’s often even less useful and more annoying.
Precognition[]
Precognition most literally can be defined as the ability to perceive the future. Most precogs who receive this information experience it in visions or dreams, and find it significantly difficult to connect the images they see to actual events before they occur.
Psychometry[]
More commonly called a “touch-know,” by members of the Shop or Tetcorp, psychometrics possess the ability to “make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object.” A psychometric may be able to call forth the image of a murderer by touching the weapon used to commit the crime, identify the whereabouts of the last person who touched a doorknob, or determine seriously you guys, who ate my leftovers. I was saving those!
Push Control[]
In its simplest form push control resembles autohypnosis: through the use of voice commands, a person with push control can effectively persuade others to carry out actions like “put down that gun,” “eat this cookie,” etc. At higher levels a pusher no longer requires verbalization, and is capable of inducing biological changes such as blindness or heart attacks. Push control is an incredibly rare ability especially coveted by the Shop for its use in assassinations and the like.
Q[]
R[]
Remote Viewing[]
“Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object that is hidden from physical view and separated at some distance.” Many remote viewers utilize drawing as a method of clarifying the data they receive.
S[]
Shop, The[]
Basically our baddies, or at least the human ones. The Shop is a weird, upsetting blend of shadow government, military branch, corporation, and research facility. Only characters very high up in any of these organizations even know that the Shop itself exist, or have the wherewithal to call it that, but it’s possible to work for the Shop without knowing it, especially at the scientific level. The superflu notably came from the military branch of this department, and was originally meant to be used as a biological weapon. A containment breach at the facility where the protodisease was housed caused the outbreak that infected and killed most of the world’s population. In addition to researchers and soldiers, the Shop also employs individuals on a more covert basis. Like the CIA only about fifty times shadier, some of their operatives carry out assassinations and the like by just shooting people, but notably also utilize psychics known as Breakers.
Superflu, The[]
East Coast slang for the biological weapon inadvertently spread by Charles Campion. Stage One resembles the common cold or flu, Stage Two progresses into a state more like severe bronchitis or tuberculosis, and Stage Three – which is always fatal – intensifies these symptoms along with a fever high frequently enough to cause delirium and/or psychosis. Note that characters from the Eastern part of the country are most likely to use this terminology.
Science[]
Hank McCoy's perferred method of getting into Raven Darkholme's pants.
T[]
Telepathy[]
For our purposes telepathy exists as a broader umbrella for a variety of abilities related to thought and the mind. These can include reading minds, communicating directly with them without requiring speech, shielding oneself or others from push control or thought control, and presence in the dreams of others. It is very rare for a character to possess all or even most of these, and even rarer to exhibit significant control over them. Think of it in terms like a ratio—the more a character can do, the less control they can devote to any individual aspect of their telepathy.
Tet[]
“A group of people with the same interests and goals.” Differs from Ka¬-tet or An-tet in that both of the previous imply the involvement of destiny; Tet standing on its own is much more simple. Like the PTA! Who probably don’t have a mystical destiny, at least not after the flu.
TetCorp[]
Shortened form of The Tet Corporation, originally founded as a phantom company to combat SombraCorp, aka The Shop, by protecting the stability of this reality and all others. In the modern world TetCorp has branched out into employing their own psychics, and even training their own gunslingers through a blend of technological and supernatural means.
Thinnies[]
“Thinnies are places where the fabric of existence has almost completely worn away.”* More specifically to Lightport, thinnies have increased in number and intensity since the spread of the superflu. Thinnies allow dangers from other realities to bleed into this one, but can also occasionally result in the passage of an individual from one world or another.