A random story in the form of a glossary

[Ripheus23]

Thoughts without content are empty; intuitions without concepts, blind...

Accompanion, an. Geometrical beings formed from the matter of adepts in the College of Geometry. They are shaped like the Aristoic Solids. Can be Knotted together under some circumstances, most famously to construct the Apostate's spaceship.

Apostate, the. Paramark Alkisten. Alongside the Heretic and the Schismatic, one of the Desecrated. Responsible for opening the Silver Door.

Aristo the Hopeful. Ancient hero-scholar who founded the Academy of Vients, the greatest College of Geometry in history.

Chalcedonianism. The specified orthodoxy of the ur-Church. Named after the city of Chalcedon, in which the thirteenfold elaboration of the fourfold Nicean doctrine was proclaimed.

Colleges of Theurgy. Divisions of the Universities devoted to the analysis and development of magic.

1. College of Archaeology [study of first principles or arche]. A Rationalist faction who use magic to empower their faculty of reasoning. Their highest rank is that of Apodictician.
2. College of Psychology. An Empiricist faction who use magic to heighten their senses. Their highest rank is that of Beatified.
3. College of Geometry. The theoretical antithesis or balance of the other two colleges. They have no highest rank but are divided by a sequence of choices: first, whether to pay the Cost of Accompaniment, and if not whether to wield Graphs or Knots. Their magic directly affects external matter more than inner perception or thought.

Cost, the. Magical price for the use of magic. Archaeologists slowly lose their sight, hearing, etc. Psychologists slowly lose their ability to engage in abstraction. Geometers sacrifice part of their bodies to form Accompanions, Graphs, or Knots.

Desecrated, the. Three human mortals regarded with ultimate anathema by the Nicean-Chalcedonian ur-Church.

Graphs. Magical patterns that influence an object's movement.

Gnosticists, the. Faction headed by the Heretic, g'Ém Tserr'e. Prevented the world from being devoured by Hell, at the cost of the world's destruction and the death of every living thing. Servants of the Empty One, the god-foe of the God of the Lørd.

"Hell is the light of God." Enigmatic apothegm or prophecy pertaining to the role of the Desecrated in the Second World.

Lørd, the. The first-created of the Nicean God, through whom the world was made. Mandated the penalty of Hell for the worst of sins; theretofore the Nicean God had only forged Heaven and the Void. Later he betrayed the Nicean God and gave the keys of Heaven and Hell to the Apostate.

Niceanism. The general orthodoxy of the ur-Church. Named after the city of Nicea, in which the division of the afterlife into Heaven, Limbo, the Void, and Hell, was proclaimed.

Second World, the. A new world created by the Lørd to settle affairs in the afterlife following the ur-Eschaton.

Silver Door, the. Mysterious region of space through which the world passes during its orbit of the sun. Opened as a portal to Hell by the Apostate, before the destruction of the world by the Gnosticists.

[... to be continued?]

Edited December 15, 2018 by Ripheus23