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Some Definitions of the Terminology Used in the Helgram Game

The Courts of Chaos

  • Thelbane: this refers to both the Rock on which the Logrus was drawn, and the palace where King Swayvill holds his Court.
  • The Royal Ways: this comprises the five rings of worlds directly around the Rock of Thelbane. The individual House Ways are at least partially located within this zone: usually the public areas which are the interface with the Royal Ways.
  • The Courts of Chaos: the wider “Courts” encompasses the fifteen rings of worlds directly around Thelbane, which had already formed when Great Cornelius gave himself to the Logrus. Other sections of the House Ways are usually linked to this zone
  • The Black Zone: these are the lands extending out from the Courts which came into existence in the millennium between Great Cornelius’ sacrifice and Dworkin Barimen drawing the Pattern.
  • Chaos Shadow: the worlds between the Black Zone and the Great Divide.
  • The Great Divide: aka the Dancing Mountains, where Chaos Shadow meets Amber Shadow.

Degrees of “Reality” (sometimes called Substance)

  • Rocks: these are landmasses that originate in the Abyss, either formed spontaneously or as remnants of other places and times. The inscribing of a Great Power must be undertaken on a Rock.
  • Fundamental: this refers to Rocks and worlds brought from the Abyss or formed when the two Great Powers (the Logrus, the Pattern) were first created. The Fundamental lands are Thelbane and the first five rings of worlds around it, plus Amber, Arden and Rebma.
  • Real : worlds in close proximity to the Poles of Thelbane and Amber are considered to be Real, as are the people who come from them. These include the worlds that comprise the Courts of Chaos, outside of the first five rings of worlds around Thelbane, as well as many of the Black Zone territories – especially the BZ Nexus worlds – and the Golden Circle.
    • The Black Zone is connected by a system of naturally occuring pathways known as Serpent Lines, built around or radiating out from a number of “Nexus” worlds, which are often more Real than those which surround them.
  • Semi-Real: the degree of Reality declines the further a territory is from the Pole. These semi-Real worlds are towards the edges of the Black Zone, but existed before the Pattern was drawn.
    • These worlds are more fluid, sometimes changing their nature, or moving, or breaking up and forming multiple new worlds, or equally, consolidating together to form larger worlds. When this happens, the Dragon Lines adjust to the changes over the course of a few months.
  • Shadow: persons and places originating in the worlds that were cast between the Black Zone and the Golden Circle when the Pattern was drawn.
  • It is unclear whether the worlds of the Great Divide, or the moon world of Tir-na Nog’th are of Shadow or Substance.

Denizens of the Courts

  • Cornelians: direct descendents of Cornelius the Great, who still have up to 5% of the blood of Cornelius.
  • Lords and Ladies of Chaos (aka Chaosians, Titans): the inhabitants of the original Rocks drawn together by Cornelius from fragments of other worlds found in the Abyss, as well as those who came into being with the lands which formed in the first fifty years after the Logrus was drawn (roughly the first five rings of worlds around Thelbane). Many of these have  some measure of Cornelian blood through intermarriage.
  • Demons: the everyday denizens of the Courts of Chaos (and Amber), as well as many of those that hale from the worlds of the Black Zone (and the Golden Circle).
    • Courts or House demons will have been born in the fifteenn rings of worlds that make up the Courts of Chaos, and are usually more substantial, and longer lived than Black Zone demons.
    • Black Zone demons will have been born in the Black Zone.
  • Shadow Folk: people who live in the worlds cast between the Black Zone and the Golden Circle when the Pattern was drawn.
  • Dancers: denizens of the Great Divide, where Chaos and Amber Shadow meet.

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