Echo Glossary

Echo:	Overview	Glossary	System	Fiction

These are terms used in Echo.

Albedo - The measure of how powerful an echo is. The scientific meaning is literally how reflective a surface is.

Angel - An ephemeral being, angels appear with a singular purpose and are often unaware of their own nature.

Angle - A specific goal or association that an echo has, often inherited from when they were one with their focus.

Colorbound - Echoes that are tied to glossy, colorful surfaces. They are artistic, expressive and intellectually empty.

Cult of Apicius - An incarnation of hedonists who live to satisfy their carnal desires through food, drugs and sex.

Echo - Part of a soul, ripped out from a living creature and attempting to find purpose and meaning in their half-life.

Effigy - The natural resonance of an echo, tied to a particular type of reflective surface and making their home in a specific frame in the Inverse.

Ephemeral being - Creatures that are not material. Ghosts, spirits, angels, and echos are all types of ephemeral beings. See the God Machine Chronicles book for more details.

Essence - Essence is the sustenance of ghosts and spirits. They use it like Lux to power their abilities.

Flametouched - The effigy of echos born of flame glazed items and minerals. Connected to ceramic, coal, and gemstones, they are at turns wild or subtle, able to stoke many forms of energy but brittle.

Focus - The living person with the remainder of the soul that the echo was torn from. An echo typically spends a period of time grieving and obsessing over their “other half”. If they do not form a new Focus, the echo will disappear when their focus dies.

Frame - Each echo has an effigy, and each effigy a corresponding area in the Inverse. These areas, called frames, are unique and tied to the kinds of reflections that sustain them.

Gather - A group of echoes working together toward a common goal.

Ghost - The soul of a dead person. Ghosts have anchors holding them to the real world as well, but can not normally travel to the Inverse, and their ability to manifest is limited by the area they are in.

Gleam - The natural talents that are inherited by the portion of a soul when it becomes an echo. They are improvements that are related to their effigy.

Gloom - New weaknesses that the portion of the soul suffers from when it becomes an echo. Related to their effigy.

Golden Hammers - A incarnation of vengeance, thriving on the anger they have at the real world.

Harmony - When working with other echos in unity toward a higher goal, some have achieved harmony, growth of their selves that starts to replace what is lost.

Incarnation - Groups of echos that try to find new purpose in life to fill the emptiness that torments them. Several are successful to the limited extent that they are able to sustain themselves on their activities, gaining Lux via their actions.

Industry - The frame of Inverse tied to metalforged. Full of large metal structures and robotic citizenry, echos here are trying to build a modern society.

Ka - The vampire term for an echo created from a vampire.

Kaleidoscope - The frame of Inverse tied to the colorbound. A spectacularly colored jungle populated by beings of myth and medieval bestiaries. Echos here live to create art and music.

Lux - Lux is the force that sustains an echo. While the echo’s Albedo is their raw power, many of their abilities require Lux to perform. Echos regain Lux according to their incarnation, or one per day in their native frame.

Mage - Powerful humans with magic. Despite their arcane knowledge, they are arrogant and categorize all ghosts and echoes together as one, and are shocked when they do not have as much power over echos as they assume.

Mekhet - A specific type of vampire originating in ancient Egypt, traditionally created by splitting out part of their soul from their bodies. While the practice is not common any longer, it still occurs.

Metalforged - The effigy of echoes created in the reflection of shiny metal. Strong and durable, they are powerful but inflexible and sometimes difficult to work with.

Mirrorstained - The effigy of echoes created in glass and mirrors. At turns bound to the truth or powerful and subtle deception, the mirrorstained are connected to memories, real and constructed.

Inverse - A strange fragmented realm occupied by objects corresponding to all reflective surfaces in the World of Darkness and sometimes things reflected by them. Each fragment of the Inverse, known as a frame, is inhabited by echoes and strange native creatures.

Mortal - Normal human beings. They may have some limited supernatural abilities in rare cases, but they are human with normal souls.

Negative - A strange almost-echo that lives for a single purpose and feeds on echos.

Persistence - How much in control of their own actions an echo is, versus how much they mindlessly rot into an embodiment of their effigy. The translation of thought into action.

Prism Dancers - An incarnation devoted to living as humans, attempting to perfect the illusion they are normal until they achieve the natural contentment of a normal mortal.

Puppeteers - An incarnation who seek control, growing their influence over power structures in the real world.

Quicksilver - The frame of Inverse tied to the mirrorstained. A huge mansion or hotel slowly decaying and full of rooms with glass objects or mirrors. Echos here try to create meaning through memories and mementos.

Reflection - The thin layer between the World of Darkness and the Inverse, creatures in the reflection are normally visible in the reflective surface they inhabit, but hard to make out clearly. They will exit if the reflective surface is seriously damaged (a mirror broken, a car hood crumpled), falling in the direction they naturally inhabit. Humans, ghosts and vampires to the World of Darkness, and echoes and other native creatures into the Inverse.

River, The - The frame of the Inverse tied to the waterworn. Stretching wide and straight under a moonlit sky, the river is more than just water. The banks are occupied by echos seeking enlightenment through philosophy and meditation.

Rot - The slow decay of effort that afflicts all echoes. It saps their will to go on, eventually destroying them mentally and physically.

Scorch - The frame of the Inverse tied to the flametouched. A burned out land of cracked rubble and pools of flammable liquid. Echoes living here try to console themselves with alcohol and drugs.

Soul - Only humans or creatures that were once human have souls. A soul can be detached, ripped apart, or sold, whole or in pieces.

Spirit - A ephemeral being that is the embodiment of a concept or object. Spirits exist in a strong hierarchy and act according to what they embody.

Underworld - The place where ghosts of the dead go to. It is generally believed that echos do not pass on.

Unincarnated - An echo who has not yet joined an incarnation. They must beg, borrow or steal Lux in the real world, and are often prone to spending time in the Inverse, slowly spiraling into despair.

Vampire - Humans inhabited by a mixture of two souls, one human and one a predatory beast. The result twists their body and mind into something not human and tainted.

Waterworn - The effigy of echoes birthed in water and reflective fluids. both meditative and quick, they are fluid and aware. They have difficulty holding their form when standing on fast draining soil or gravel.

Werewolves - Creatures tracing their lineage back to a mythic era, both human and beast, with a soul and a spirit side to them. They work within the spirit world, but unlike spirits they have self-determination and complexity of purpose.

Whisper Thieves - An incarnation devoted to observing and collecting secrets and occasionally acting as either saviors or punishers for the humans they watch.