Glossary

[Jakuri-chan]

So, this thread is dedicated to defining all of the terms and such things that will arise in the roleplay, everyone is free to come and add their own things here too. This is just to start us off. . . .

The Following of the Great Mother

The dominate church within Portum Animas. Founded around the belief that the destruction of Viridis Mater was the doing of humanity, and the notion that the planet itself saved all the lives that came to be upon Manus Luna, the Following was once a benevolent sect of people who believed in what they preached. Over the years, and after the founding of Portum Animas, the church served as a guiding influence in the development and building of the city. Due to their deep-rooted influence within the city, the general populace of Portum Animas still finds themselves feeling a connection to the Following. As such, it’s common and easy for the church to sway the opinions and beliefs of people nowadays.

However, in the recent years, no one has quite come to realize just how very different the church has become since its initial founding. Matters regarding the Gifted and such are a very cut and dry topic as far as the Following is concerned; they strictly view the Gifted as being influenced and as people who’ve been corrupted by Discordic; the being they view as their devil.

In line with their supposed will to do good for people, the Following offers up healing services for people who have been injured or who suffer from physical problems by means of the Passively Gifted that work for them.

The Gifted

A sect of the population within Portum Animas whose natural powers have taken a turn for the drastic. Unlike those who are normal, these people have developed their powers to inhuman levels. These are people who are considered to be dangerous and are called out by the Following, and are considered to be evil, and are named as such. In order for the Following to maintain control over the populace, and to keep panic from inciting, they give out a false explanation for why the Gifted are born, and why it is that their powers are so different from everyone else’s.

The Gifted are not treated as human by any means if they are discovered as such. The Following has twisted the minds of so many people in Portum Animas, that even families will turn against their own if they are found out as a Gifted. They have no rights to speak of, none at all. More often than not, if a Gifted is discovered out and reported to the proper authorities, they are detained, and taken in for ‘cleansing.’ Because it is believed by so many that the Gifted have had their senses warped and distorted by Discordic, and that they have been twisted to want to cause misfortune and chaos with their powers, the Gifted are feared. Greatly feared by many.

Once a Gifted has been detained by the church and government, that is often the last time they are seen by their families and friends. Despite the fact that they are suppose to taken in to undergo a process called a ‘cleansing,’ it is a known fact that most who have to go through this process do not survive, as it is explained by the church that cleansing one of Discordic is a dangerous and near fatal process. . . . Those Gifted who have been successfully cleansed, and survive often wind up going into service of the Following, as their powers will have taken a turn from destructive, and with their souls freed of Discordic’s evil and corruption, they would’ve seen the ‘light,’ and come to serve the Following in order to absolve themselves of their sins. Those Gifted who’ve survived their cleansings are noted as ‘Passive Gifted’ due to the change their powers undergo.

Cleansing

A process employed by the Following in order to purge the evils of Discordic from the souls of those he has corrupted; otherwise known as the Gifted. The exact details and steps of this . . . process are unknown but to a select few individuals within the church who have been trained specifically to carry it out. It is said to be a very hard, very thing to both undergo and to carry out on a person, as it pits the employer’s soul against the corrupted soul of the Gifted. The Following explains a cleansing to be so harsh due to what must happen in order for Discordic’s grasp upon the afflicted’s soul to be relinquished. It is said that during this process, the soul of the one carrying it out and undergoing it must be called from their body, and because an average person has not had the training to undergo a separation of their soul from their body, when Discordic’s hold has been terminated upon them . . . the soul slips away.

It loses touch with its body and ascends to the afterlife, leaving the Gifted as good as dead. There are a few select people though who’ve been strong enough to remain alive through this, and have their souls cleaned of evil’s touch. These are the Passively Gifted; often after they’ve undergone their cleansing, they come to aid the Following with their changed powers. They will have gone from possessing powers of destruction, to being capable of ‘constructive’ things, such as being able to heal others. It is believed by many that those individuals who’ve been trained to carry out the cleansing process are themselves some of the few individuals who managed to survive it, and become a Passively Gifted.

Passively Gifted

These are the Gifted who’ve undergone the cleansing process and managed to survive it intact. With their souls eliminated of evil, they are more or less always found working for the Following, using their purified powers to go good. Unlike their selves prior, they possess no destructive powers or abilities that could be used to harm anyone, instead, their powers are useful for doing only things such as healing wounds and such. Healing services are offered by the church because of the powers of these people.

Harmonia

The Great Mother whom is worshipped by the Following, she is the central figure in their stories and religion. Believed to be the being which embodies the will of the planet itself, she is seen as a benevolent mother figure in every story, and the Following believes she saved humanity from itself long ago, and still loves them dearly. She is the patron Goddess for the Following, and the majority of Portum Animas honors her.

Discordic

The being whom is believed to have been spawned of humanity’s own evils a millennium ago. A destructive and chaotic force, he is viewed as a demonic presence who very nearly destroyed all of humankind before, and is thought to be the reason that the world below Manus Luna vanished into a sea of toxic clouds. Despite being defeated at the hands of Harmonia, Discordic is still viewed as an active threat in the world; so long as humanity exists, so will Discordic’s evil. Because it is explained and believed that Discordic is the reason that the Gifted exist, the Gifted are regarded with terrible treatment and are viewed as an incarnation of Discordic himself.

The Sanctified

These are the people who carry out the process of Cleansing within the Following. They are sparse and few, and have been rigidly trained in order to carry out their jobs without a problem. These people are rumored and are believed to be some of the few Gifted who managed to survive a Cleansing themselves, and are truly thought to be Passively Gifted individuals.

[Wake]

HEA Unit (Hazardous Entities Apprehension)

A specialized unit, known as the Hazardous Entities Apprehension unit, was created during the power riots that nearly brought the city to total anarchy. This unit, in the aftermath of the chaos, quickly rose to prominence in the city's security force, and became an elite branch of Portum Animas's military.

The HEA unit is built up of several squads, numbering from four (at minimum) to eight (maximum). Each squad member is out fitted and trained to fill a specific roll in their squad, and trained to work in a fluid synchrony together. Members of the unit are put through rigorous drills and training, instructed and tested to deal with advisories capable with performing inhuman feats and abilities. Unit members are constantly tested to deal with scenario and situations where they would be put at a severe disadvantage, and even expected to survive in inhospitable environments.

Because of the sheer amount of extreme physical and mental demands members of this unit are asked of, only the very best of the Portum Animas security force make it into the unit. Those that pass the cut and become a part of the unit are the ultimate tactical force on Manus Luna. Cold, calculating, efficient, fearless, tireless, and above all lethal in their ability, with a nearly flawless track record, be they common criminal or renegade gifted on the run, the number of individuals that manage to escape the unit are in a very low percentage. If the unit is after you, it's usually only a matter of time before you're either in custody, or in a body bag.

[Jakuri-chan]

The Toxiclouds

What people have come to call the all consuming cloak of clouds that completely enshrouds the surface of the world below Manus Luna. It’s been so long since humanity last saw the surface of Viridis Mater, that there are even some people among the current populace who have come to rejecting the notion that there is even something under the clouds. . . .

Although the cause of the clouds is otherwise unknown, but explained by the Following as being a result of the chaotic and cataclysmic battle that took place between Hamonia and Discordic a millennium ago, people know from past experience that they are poison. Shortly after the battle and the vanishing of the planet’s surface below these toxin-filled clouds, small exploration teams attempted to venture down into them, to see what had become of the world. In end result was horrifying, nothing short of a nightmare.

The clouds were full of fatal and terrible chemicals, spewing from the bowels of the broken planet, they suffocated anything that breathed air and heated the surface of Viridis Mater up to the point that almost nothing could survive beyond life that thrived in these Hellish conditions naturally.

In the end, the people who did manage to return to Manus Luna from this horrific undertaking, they revealed what they had found upon dipping below the clouds . . . their own appearances a reflection of the Hell the planet itself had turned into. They were barely even recognizable as human by this point, the state in which they had been left is too horrible to recount. But, what they told revealed the horrors. Viridis Mater had literally become a likeness to Hell, the land was fragmented, lava seeped up from the cracks left in the earth by the Gods’ battle, the air was hot, thick and suffocating with noxious fumes, the sun was nearly blotted out by the poisonous gases. . . . The seas had turned a fierce pink, and were dead, languid, stagnant. . . The world was dead, and unlivable.

All those people who had ventured below the toxiclouds and returned to Manus Luna alive, eventually died from the poisons they had inhaled during their time there. . . . Following this, the word of the danger posed by the clouds was spread and people grew to know of it.