Glossary
Words you'll meet in reports, council affairs, and expedition logs — defined plainly. If a phrase has ever made you squint, look here first.
Master Quill: A margin note
Sailors and clerks have their own habits of speech. Most of it is older than the harbour. None of it is meant to keep you out.Game terms
Short labels and abbreviations you'll see in tooltips, unit cards, and report rows.
| Label | Full name | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Atk | Attack | How much damage a unit deals in combat. |
| Carry | Carry capacity | 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. |
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. |
| Sounding | The act of dropping a lead-line to measure depth. Done over and over when approaching unfamiliar water. |
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.