Glossary

This is the Glossary Page. It is not supposed to appear on the Main Blog, but can be linked to to explain terms.
Don’t take this too seriously. It’s part fantasy lorebuilding, part personal philosophy, all madness. Just treat it like the Relma extended mythos.

Muse

An entity that bears Divine Inspiration into our universe in the form of art, science, etc. They do this by carrying glimpses from another universe into ours. Without them, our drawings are mere scribbles and our songs are cacophonies. #TODO write some more?

Genius

This word’s etymology originates from LATIN.¹
A genius is a “tutelary or moral spirit” responsible for guiding how a human works and what they “choose” their overarching goals to be. Its talent is external to the person, not controlled by them, and most importantly, borrowed.

It was NEVER meant to be thought of as an intrinsic quality of a flesh-and-blood person. Anyone who thinks of themselves or others this way is creating a disastrous recipe for the “genius” to go to the Vessel’s head.

Lost Infinity

The unknown… something… that Muses originate from. It’s not a place. It lies outside all existences. While universes are themselves infinite, the Lost Infinity is even more infinite than that. Think of it as the difference between countably vs. uncountably infinite.

Speak

A core ideal presented to the audience in an Inspired game/book/etc. It is a part that resonates with an audience member and requires a confluence of elements present in the Work to do so.

Vessel

A Vessel is an author, developer, or other creator who is Inspired by a Muse to create a work that will captivate souls at its directive. They come in three types, with significant overlap between them.

Primary

A Primary Vessel is one who creates the work directly. They are the one wielding the paintbrush, the game engine, the instrument, or any other tool necessary to create the work itself.
The first primary Vessel holds a privileged position over other vessels, though other primary Vessels, such as actors, may be brought on later in a work’s creation. The primary vessel is usually what one refers to when they speak of a “vessel” or “artist”.
The first individual(s) who become Beholden to a Muse.

Secondary

A Secondary Vessel is responsible for the distribution of a work and the clearing of obstacles that a Muse or Primary might encounter when creating a work. They are tools Charged to service (not serve!) other tools. Therefore the resources they have (especially money) are given by That Which Speaks to do that servicing. They are not ends unto themselves.
These include funders, marketers, tool creators, and, of great significance to myself, publishers and their scouts (like yours truly!).
Their function is to supply resources, material and otherwise, to the Primary and generally do things expected of a “support role”.

Tertiary Vessel

A Tertiary Vessel creates and distributes derivative works and supplementary content of the original Inspired work. These include fan-artists, wiki editors, and streamers. Many of them also count as Secondaries because their content helps distribute the work via advertisement once it is seen by those who aren’t Beholden yet.

Beholden

A Beholden is someone who:

• is exposed to a Muse either by consuming the work as an audience member or by the [[#Mechanism]] itself as Vessel
• becomes captivated by that work and falls in love with it enough to integrate it as a part of themselves
• this captivation can never be undone so long as they live A Muse’s ultimate goal is to maximize the number of and emotional investment of its Beholden and thus enter the Cultural Lexicon².

Charge

The purpose a Muse Speaks into its Vessel(s). It is a command one can’t refuse. This is distinct from a job, in which a human gives compensation in exchange.
If a job and a Charge intersect, then the employer would be a Secondary Vessel and must properly compensate them as material resource. Anyone who forgets this is a bad Vessel.

Mechanism

The Mechanism of Divine Inspiration is how the firs primary Vessels receive their Charge.

Something that lies outside all existence inserts invisible cameras into one universe, then connects that camera to the brain of one or more persons in another one, and then orders them to record what they see or else.

Discretion not Control

The Mechanism is why “creative control” is more accurately creative discretion. A Vessel never created nor controlled that universe it portrays; only recording it in some physical medium.

But they do have significant flexibility in how they make that “recording”. Both the limitations of the medium expressed (game, novel, etc.) and their own judgement can guide them on which events to cut, which to embellish, and how to fill in the gaps that the invisible camera did not give are choices they can and must make.

This discretion is an asset to Muses, and part of the reason why those Vessels were selected in the first place.

However, Vessel, should you omit critical details… or willfully misrepresent them… your audience WILL know.