In this helpfile you will find a glossary of certain terms/vocabulary used to describe aspects of the Avalon 'song of creation', the interplay of the divine and conflict between divine realms.
"deity" is the independent immortal being, generally biased or born of a particular realm (but not necessarily). The deity or god boasts a combinations of powers, some innate, some accumulated, some based on influence over a specific realm and some acquired through influence over mortals and presence in Avalon. The sum total makes up the combined power of the deity.
"faer" is the name given to the proto-elements and concepts embodied by the divine realms, made manifest by the Song of Creation as notes from the Song and often controlled - owned - by the God whose realm the faer manifests. Faer is gathered together in larger groups to render the world, each location having a unique blend of faer across most realms. Thus is a location made real, using faer, which is the Song made manifest.
"realm" (or divine realm) can be thought of as the name of the different instruments and voices used to make up the Song of Creation and thus create the world. Each realm embodies a different concept or aspect of reality or major component of the world: time, fire and the sun being examples of the three types respectively. Each realm is made manifest by the Song of Creation in the form of proto-elemental/conceptual faer, innumerable as quarks. Faer is gathered together, given focus and reality by the Song, and rendered as the world of Avalon. It is touched most closely in locations (into which the world is divided) since every location is made of a unique blend of faer, most realms represented.
"realm-song" is a word used to describe the permanent constituent faer blend of an Avalon location, across all the various realms represented. Some of a locations' faer and therefore a portion of its realm-song will be directly owned by Gods and it almost always corresponds to their realm.
"resonance" "accord" "dischord" The sum total of a location's faer across all realms, its realm-song, results in a resonance - a pitch, high or low - each faer (each note of the Song of Creation) contributing to the final resonance. Sounds closer to the resonance of a location are said to be in accord while those further from its pitch are said to be in dischord.
"faer inventory" is the accumulation of all the individual faer, across all the the locations in the world, owned by and therefore controlled by a specific God. It tends to be matched by the deity's realm. The size of a faer inventory will play an important role in the God or Goddess ongoing accumulation of power or "quintessence" from their realm holdings and their place in the world. Gods are able to increase their faer inventory by forced acquisition. It is one of the long-term aspects of divine conflict. These acquisitions are not limited to the deity's birth realm.
"realm-dominance" refers to the point reached when a single deity posseses a majority of all the faer across all Avalon for a particular realm. Realm-dominance is required to have a monopoly on that realm and brings with it the most potent of the realm-powers. It allows the God or Goddess to take on the name of the realm or any of its sub-realm names. It is the mandate for a deity to embody, represent and define a particular realm.
"quintessence" is divine existence made manifest, built from a combination of faer inventory across the realms; ongoing and ever-evolving word (godly presence), reputation (godly influence) and piety (acts of worship); weighting allocations for parsing accumulated WRP (word/rep/piety) into the "Nexus" and certain festivals and acts of exchange allowing "faer" and "quintessence" and "might" to be drawn from one to the other. SCORE shows "quintessence" and QX show the gathering realm by realm gains coming into being, made manifest (added to "quintessence") at the next "parsing". Quintessence is used on the faer battleground and is the only force able to change the pitch of a note (the faer) in the Song of Creation.
"mortal plane" is the name given to almost all locations not part of the divine plane - everything within Avalon - everything contained with the world. This is as opposed to the "divine plane" where all realms have an ad-infinitum location presence about a nexus; defining the battleground of the Gods. Each location on the mortal plane was created by the original Song of Creation, is represented by a blend of faer (proto-elements/concepts) that are grouped into realms.
"faer conflict" refers to the clash of quintessence (power as embodied by each realm and controlled by deities or autonomously) where quintessence are used to try to dislodge a piece of faer from its place in the Song of Creation, to acquire it on behalf of an expansionist God. Needless to say, realm faer defends itself with an innate cohesion - its 'bond' to whatever is its current state - and this defence can be bolstered by quintessence specifically directed, or by "divine plane" action.
