Plain-language definitions for the vocabulary used across the wiki and the game UI.
Adjacent intervention. When a friendly army on a neighboring tile joins a battle in progress. See combat.
Adoption Network. Thunder Lodge faction-unique mechanic. Defeated enemy units, neutral villages, and orphan factions can be absorbed instead of destroyed. See Thunder Lodge.
Attunement zone. The radius around a god's sacred site within which that god's gifts and witnessing apply. Witnessed acts (treaty breaks, missionary attacks) suffer god-penalty if visible inside an enemy god's attunement.
Belief tier. The depth of a god's worship in a region. Tiers 0–V at thresholds 25 / 80 / 160 / 280 / 420 favor points. Higher tiers unlock divine units, blessings, and Divine Influence score. See faith.
BP (Battle Power). The composite combat-strength score computed from unit stats, equipment, hero attach, formation, terrain, and morale. Battles resolve as BP-vs-BP exchanges. See formulas.
Capital. Your seat of governance. Gets a passive bonus; has a relocation cost.
Concordance. A multi-alliance peace structure that, when held by 60%+ of players across 3+ alliances, triggers the Peace Victory countdown. See diplomacy.
Confederation. A subset of alliances that share culture + geography, gaining passive bonuses. See confederations.
Counter-intel. Defensive spy infrastructure. Investigates intrusions, sharpens attribution, can identify the originating player.
Culture flag. A signature mechanic tagged on a culture (e.g., Fjordborn cold-halving, River Crown flood-farm boost) that modifies how shared systems resolve for that culture.
Divine Influence. The Religious Victory currency. Computed from belief tiers, missionary success, and divine-favor stewardship. See victory conditions.
Drum-Speed Coordination. Red Earth faction-unique mechanic. Drum-Post network speeds muster across the empire. See Red Earth.
End times. The world-collapse phase. Climate weaponizes, resources deplete faster, NPC monster threats appear. See world collapse.
Epoch. Tech-tree era: I (Settlement), II (Classical), III (Medieval), IV (Renaissance), V (Imperial). Gates building and unit unlocks.
Escalation ladder. The diplomatic-state progression: Peaceful → Cold → Hot → Active War → Ceasefire → Peaceful. Each step has triggers and locks. See escalation.
Fanatic. A civilian-class unit that emerges in religiously polarized cities. Can revolt; can be weaponized by missionary attacks. See politics.
Fatigue. A unit movement penalty that accumulates with march distance, weather drag, and combat. Resets at rest. See movement.
Feast cycle. Cairnveil mechanic where seasonal feasts replenish morale and muster pools.
Gift (divine). A passive bonus tied to a god. Each culture has 6 gods, each with one gift. See pantheon by culture.
Hex. The unit map tile. Movement, combat, and terrain are hex-based.
Hot war. Active armed conflict between alliances. Triggers full BP combat and supply-line disruption.
Hybrid war. Conflict via spy networks, missionary warfare, or trade interference rather than open war. Attribution-tiered. See espionage.
In-game day. 108 real minutes on Standard 1× worlds (scales with server speed). 30 in-game days = 1 month.
Lazy advance. The simulation system that ticks the world forward in compressed bursts when nobody is observing a region, then snaps to live tick when a player joins.
Leader archetype. A class of city governor (Builder, Warden, Merchant, Scholar, Priest, etc.) that biases the city's bonuses. See cities.
Manpower. Recruitable population. Capped by city pop + needs status. Salary-paid each pay cycle. See military.
Missionary warfare. Faith-projected attacks that convert population, raise Fanatic risk, and damage rival belief tiers.
Morale. Unit psychological state. Drops under defeat, weather, supply loss, divine curses. Below threshold triggers desertion / mutiny.
Pantheon. The set of gods worshipped in a culture. 6 per culture, 60 total.
Peace Victory. Win condition triggered by sustained Concordance. See victory conditions.
Phase. Development phase tag (Phase 1 / 2a / 2b / 2c / 3) used in design docs and the roadmap. See phases.
Player pool. A player-wide resource bucket separate from per-city stockpiles. Used for empire-level expenses (research, alliance contributions).
Reputation. A score tracked per player and per alliance. Breaking treaties drops reputation; high reputation unlocks better contract terms.
Resolver. A pure function that computes a system's tick (climate resolver, combat resolver, movement resolver, etc.). All resolvers run server-side and are deterministic.
Sacred site. A map feature (stone circle, well, cairn, sky temple) that anchors a god's attunement zone.
Salary. Pay-cycle cost per unit. Unpaid units desert.
Settler. The starter unit that founds cities.
Smoke test. Internal terminology — a tools/smoke_*.ts script that exercises a feature end-to-end on real persistence.
Stage (city). Outpost → Hamlet → Town → City → Greatcity → Capital. Unlocks more building slots and population caps.
Stockpile. Per-city resource inventory. Distinct from the player pool.
Strategy script. A custom DSL program that controls how an army behaves in battle. Presets exist; advanced players write custom. See strategy scripts.
Supply line. The route from a producing city to a deployed army. Cut supply triggers attrition. See combat.
Template (unit). A named preset combining a body archetype + weapons + armor + tools. Phase 2 schema; replaces fixed-stat-per-culture rosters.
Tick. A single simulation step. Cadence varies by system (weather is per-hour, cities per-day, etc.). See metrics.
Tier (resource). Resource depth: Tier 1 (raw) → Tier 5 (luxury / strategic). 126 distinct resources spread across tiers.
Wonder. A capstone building with global effects. Each culture has signature wonders (Phase 2). Five completed wonders by an alliance triggers the Wonder Victory path.
Wounded Pool. The roster of injured units after a battle. They recover over time at hospitals; can be re-fielded.
Sources: every design doc in docs/design/ and _divers/. Cross-reference DESIGN_INDEX.md for canonical definitions.