Terminology

This page contains the lexicon of words used by time travellers, some of which being specific to Achron and it's particular form or time travel and event propagation. There is also a morpho-syntactic alteration to the English language you should review at the beginning of the Time travel page, explaining a new way to discuss events at different times.

For further discussion and disambiguation or the lexical terms, here's a link to the Achron Jargon Thread.

For more information on the words referring directly to the games User Interface, see the Time Window.

For for Finnish Language time travel pointers see: Terminology/suomi

Lexicon

Achronal

An entity or action that exists independant of the timeline.

Commander

A unit that commands others within a hierarchy.

Chronal

An entity or action that exists within the timeline, and is subject to causality.

Chronocloning

This is the act of exploiting chronoportation to duplicate a given unit at any moment on the timeline.

Chronoenergy (CE)

This is the resource that allows Achrons to manipulate the timeline. It is spent by issuing orders in the past or future, and the consumption costs are proportional to one's distance from the present and the number of units being ordered.

Chronofrag (CF)

When a unit chronoports to a moment in time where another unit is sharing its current location, a chronofrag will occur. Heavy damage is dealt to both the chronoportee and the bystander, with a slight advantage being given to the chronoportee. It is possible (and indeed, common amongst inexperienced players) to chronofrag oneself.

Chronoport (CP)

To project matter across time. Usually in the form of units. Notably, resources cannot be chronoported in game.

Chronoporter (CPer, CPr, Ceeper)

A gate with the ability to chronoport units backwards and forwards in time. The CESO Chronoporter is iconic to the game itself, with stylized renditions being used to represent the game, or even time travel itself.

Edge

Usually a shorthand for the UPP edge, the division between the orderable section of the timeline (where orders may be issued to the units for CE) and the UPP. Sometimes it is instead a shorthand for the Left Edge.

Grandfather Paradox

A causally self-contradictory cyclical attractor. These never naturally decay, and are extremely hard to resolve via achronal influence.

Predestination Paradox / Ontological Paradox

The exact opposite of a grandfather paradox: a causal loop that strengthens itself through positive feedback. For example, a unit assisting itself in combat before chronoporting to the past to assist itself in combat. Had it not chronoported in the first place, it would never have survived combat and wouldn't have been capable of chronoporting at all.

Hierarchy

This is a feature that allows units to be assigned commanders (sometimes automatically), allowing easy control and lowered chronoenergy expenditure.

Immutable Past

This is a term used to describe any section of the past that has "fallen off" the timeline. The immutable past is completely immutable, as its name would suggest, by any achronal influence in the game.

Left Edge

This refers to the left edge of the timeline. Events moving past the left edge of the timeline become a permanent feature of the Immutable Past.

Paradox

A paradox is usually caused when an event influences a prior event such that the original (future) event cannot occur. Paradoxes can come in many forms, but all display a cyclical nature. This nature manifests by paradoxes "oscillating" between two or more states, switching each timewave. The simplest to understand is the Grandfather Paradox. A paradox can be resolved either when players influence the events to remove the dispute of causality, or when one of the events falls off the left edge of the timeline, becoming "permanent" and a part of the Immutable Past.

Permacloning

This is the act of permanently chronocloning a unit, usually through a creative exploit of the immutable past.

Playerwave

A playerwave is a special timewave that follows the viewpoint of a player.

'Porting

'Port may refer both to Teleportation and Chronoportation

Present

A special timewave that travels forward through the timeline at 1s/s. The present starts at the edge of the timeline along with the players, and acts as a global minima for chronoenergy expenditure throughout any points in the timeline.

Skip

Skip is a shorthand for Skip-porting, the Vecgir ability of Self Teleportation.

Teleport (TP)

Instantaneous translocation from any point in space to another point in space, without any time spent in transit (or in any of the locations in between).

Teleporter (TPer, TPr, Teeper)

A CESO structure with the capability to teleport other units. The term may also apply to a unit that is able to teleport itself.

Timeline

The current observable history of events, starting from the past event horizon (the edge of immutable past) and extending up to the furthest observable point in the future.

Timewave

Achronal "waves" which propagate across the timeline, picking up changes to history and basically acting as the force of causality in the game. Knowledge of timewave mechanics is key to a vast array of and tactics in game.

Unplayable Past (UPP)

This describes the section of the timeline in which the player cannot or does not have enough chronoenergy to issue orders. Even with a full chronoenergy bar, large sections of the deep past are often unplayable; this is to prevent permacloning.

UPPercut

Chronoporting and attacking into the deep UPP.