How much plunder or cargo a unit can haul on a raid or transport run.
Def
Defence
How well a unit holds against incoming attacks.
ETA
Estimated time of arrival
The countdown shown on a moving fleet — when it will arrive or return.
Lv
Level
The current upgrade tier of a building, research, or watchtower.
Spd
Speed
How fast a unit travels between islands. Slowest unit sets a fleet's pace.
Tier I–IV
Tier one through four
A quality scale used for raid difficulty and watchtower intel grades. Higher tier means richer reward and stronger resistance.
World terms
Old words from the council chamber and the docks. They turn up in council affairs, expedition logs, and the wider record of the realm.
Council & chancellery
Term
What it means
Chancellery
The office that keeps your realm's records, contracts, and seals. Where writs are filed.
Chancellor
The senior clerk who runs the Chancellery and the tax rolls.
Levy
A compulsory contribution, in coin or in bodies, raised from the population.
Magistrate
A local judge who hears disputes and enforces the peace.
Quartermaster
The officer who counts the stores. If barrels are missing, the quartermaster knows first.
Tithe
A share of harvest or earnings owed upward — usually to the temple, sometimes to the crown.
Tribunal
A formal hearing in front of multiple judges — used for the cases too tangled for one magistrate.
Writ
A short written order with the force of law — an arrest, a release, a transfer of property.
The Rupture
Term
What it means
The Lumen Rupture
The tear that opens when the Black Tide's hoard of Lumen climbs high enough, and lets four creatures through. See The Lumen Rupture.
Rung
A step on the ladder of the Tide's hoard. The second rung opens a Rupture; a higher one reached while it is open makes the creatures harder to kill instead.
The Risen
The Council's name for the four that come through: the Kraken, the Leviathan, the Devil Whale and the Akhlut. Nobody knows what they are.
Mark
One step of a creature's health. Each mark is a pool that damage from every fleet fills; one strike takes at most one, and taking one makes the creature flee.
Doctrine shot
A crate of catapult shot cast from a doctrine's ore. The only thing that takes a mark, and only off the creature of the same doctrine.
Honour & the Watch
Term
What it means
Honour
What the ports say of you, from Wolf's Head to Legend of the Isles. See Honour and Bounties.
Punch-down
A strike on a realm far smaller than yours whose Governor still plays. It costs Honour, and a punch-down assault is seen (a plunder run never is).
Wanted
A Governor whose misdeeds the Harbour Watch has set down. A bounty goes up on them.
Bounty
The Watch's reward for bringing a Wanted Governor to account, shared by the hunters who did it.
Lead
A job pinned on the Tavern wall. Today every lead is a bounty.
Sea & navigation
Term
What it means
Bo'sun
The crew chief on a ship — in charge of rigging, sails, and the working deck.
Buoy
A floating marker. Tells captains where the safe channel is, or where a rock is hiding.
Cairn
A pile of stones built as a landmark or a marker over a watchpost. Often doubles as a shrine.
Draft
How deep a ship sits in the water. A deeper draft needs deeper harbours.
Fathom
A unit of sea depth, about six feet. Soundings come back in fathoms.
Foredeck
The forward deck of a ship, ahead of the mast. Where lookouts work and crews quarrel.
Gunwale
The upper rail of a ship's side — what you grip when the deck tilts.
Harbourmaster
The official who runs the harbour — charges fees, files complaints, decides who docks where.
Keel
The single long beam running down the middle of a ship's underside. Strike it on a reef and the voyage is over.
Lead-line
A weighted rope used for sounding. The weight is greased so it brings up a sample of the sea floor.
Quay
A stone-built platform at the water's edge where ships tie up and unload.
Rock
Bare stone breaking the surface of an ocean. Nobody lives there, but it carries a seam of ore and an alliance can hold it with a flag. See Oceans.
Seam
The ore a rock carries, shown by the colour painted across its face. Worked by merchant ships, and it refills on its own clock.
Sounding
The act of dropping a lead-line to measure depth. Done over and over when approaching unfamiliar water.
Storm
Dark, heavy water over an ocean with rain and lightning. It means one of the Risen is standing there; it slows no ship.
Trade & coin
Term
What it means
Apothecary
A healer who mixes medicines and remedies from herbs, minerals, and stranger things.
Caravan
A travelling group of merchants and carts moving goods together for safety — not the modern camper kind.
Coffers
The treasury's reserves of coin — what's actually in the chests.
Guild
An organised association of one trade — masons, scribes, bakers, fishers. Not the same as an alliance.
Master Quill: Found something missing?
New words turn up every season — a fresh affair, a new shrine, a captain's odd habit. If you read something here that confused you and it isn't on this page, it should be. Let the harbour office know.
