Rules Lexicon

Age damage

Positive Age consumes Reprieve before increasing Age, including ordinary aging, Age damage, costs and penalties. Crucible redirects first; the receiving side then uses its Reprieve. Name each trigger and its units.

Banish

Spend all Spynn at a green meter to remove eligible Orbs on your field, then drop one new ordinary Orb onto that field only. Flame War, Synch and applicable Linger remain. Not a Catch, Pass, Return or Strike.

Carrier

The Orb carrying a specified Infusion or Effect. It can carry two Effects at once. The affected mage or side gains Age; the Carrier does not itself age.

Cast

Send a Dueling Orb through the top toward the other side. Selecting a spell is Infusion, not a Cast. An attempted Cast that is sent back has not successfully crossed.

Caster

The mage performing a Cast. The Caster, Infuser and Named Mage can be the same person, but identify different roles.

Catch

Intercept an incoming Dueling Orb before it hits the ground or a solid Obstacle. Earns a bonus choice and temporary Return permission; Named Mage and spell restrictions still apply.

Civil Duel / Open Duel

Civil: higher mages duel down using their historical build; permanent Sacrifice costs and bonus points remain. Below Level 5, purchased spells sit out for both mages. Open: bring your full power. All team Duels are Open.

Contact / impact

Contact means physical touching, including an existing contact chain. An impact is a new collision. Resting contact is not repeated impacts. A finger interaction is a Catch or Grab.

Created Orb

An Orb made with Create Orb. No initial Pass is required. You or an ally may first Cast it at its chosen opponent; friendly Passes preserve that target. After arrival, ordinary naming rules apply.

Departure

An Orb leaving a Player Field by Cast, Pass or removal, including Banish. Departure does not itself dispel a spell or start Linger. Each spell states what travels, ends or remains.

Earned mastery

Win an eligible Duel to bank completed Infusions from all its Matches, including lost Matches. Returning an existing Infusion does not count again. Create Orb counts are tracked separately.

Effect

A spell's gameplay consequence. An Effect can spread without its Infusion: Contact Poison spreads poison and strength, not spell ownership, mastery, companion spells or Flame War.

Facing Field

Your paired opponent's Player Field. A Created Orb's chosen target can be a different opponent.

Far Field

The opposing side's complete set of Player Fields. Near and Far are relative to the mage reading the rule.

Flow

Extra orb Age after 1.5s total touching walls, floor or solid Obstacles; immediate for an infused Held Orb. Persists through flight and Passes until a successful cross-side Return. Never stacks.

Grab

Any Orb touch interaction that is not a Catch. A Grab does not itself grant a Catch bonus or Return permission.

Held

Frozen outside battlefield physics while a choice is pending; active Synch Orbs can still hit it. Plain Held Orbs pause ordinary orb Age. Infused Held Orbs keep aging you and immediately incur Flow.

Infuser

The mage who applied a particular Infusion. An ally relaying the Carrier does not become its Infuser.

Infusion

One or two paid spells on an Orb. Reinfusion replaces them at the new Infuser's mastery. Old Effects run until the new spell is Cast, Passed or self-dropped; Dissonance converts immediately. Each spell sets what remains.

Initial Recipient

The mage whose Player Field first activates a carried Field spell: usually the opposing recipient, or you after a self-drop. Passes and the first outbound Cast preserve this identity. Only this field retains its Linger.

Life

The Choice panel option that adds to your Reprieve total. Catch bonuses, Spynn conversion, Vital Resonance and Arcane Harvest add to this reserve; they no longer reduce Age.

Linger

An Effect continuing after its specified ending or transfer event. It is not every spell's active duration. Each spell states the trigger and location. Zero means no Linger; untimed does not mean zero.

Mastery Points

Earned infusion counts plus assigned Mastery Credits. This total determines Spell Mastery Level, not Mage Level. A credit adds one point, not an entire level. Live and License mastery stay separate.

Match / Duel / Rematch

A Match is one battlefield contest. A Duel is first to two Match wins, ending 2-0 or 2-1. A Rematch is another complete Duel. Match-end resets are not a final Duel reward.

Mirror Copy

A Hall of Mirrors duplicate born without Infusion, Effect, Flame War or Residue. Field Effects and Contact affect it normally. Return it for 0.1 Age; Touch or Pass does not clear it. Adds orb Age and Flow, but no Strike.

Named Mage

The mage named on an ordinary Orb and allowed to Return it. Catch permission does not bypass this name. Created Orbs have a first-Cast exception.

Near Field

Your side's complete set of Player Fields, including every teammate. In solo play it contains only your Player Field.

Obstacle

An activated Synch Orb or live Pestilence spot. Contact counts toward Flow and ends Catch eligibility, but causes no floor Strike, self-drop or Flame War reckoning. Secret Passage's roof is a wall, not an Obstacle.

Pass

A successful side-passage transfer. In solo play it wraps to your own Player Field; in teams it goes to a teammate. A bounce, drag or failed exit is not a Pass.

Player Field

One mage's physical play area. Your Player Field is not your whole team's Near Field.

Reprieve

A reserve that absorbs incoming Age one for one. Grants stack, including at zero Age. It has no timer and resets each Match. A team shares its reserve. The small dark dial shows 0 when empty; Age never decreases.

Residue

An Effect carried by an Orb independently of its current Infusion. Poison can spread without transferring an Infusion; Crucible leaves Afterburn when its Infusion ends. Residue does not count as an active Arcana Infusion.

Return

A successful Cast by the Named Mage. It need not be an originally received Orb. An effect ending on Return toward its Infuser's side specifically requires that direction.

Return permission

Catch, Pass, creation or a qualifying Effect grants Return permission. Ground or solid Obstacle contact clears Catch-only permission, not a completed Pass. Naming and spell constraints still apply.

Revoked Return

An attempted Return sent back with an Age penalty for the wrong Named Mage, an unmet Pass requirement or another constraint. It does not trigger successful-Return cleanup or Linger.

Sacrifice

A permanent guild-specific penalty exchanged for a locked bonus Trait Point. Alter adds temporary Sacrifice debits, not permanent marks or bonus points. Trait Points are not Mastery Points.

Spynn Trace

A faint, spell-colored visual of your Carrier on another Player Field. It has no body, collision, Catch, Pass or separate Effect instance. It tracks the Carrier until Return or stripping.

Strike

An uncaught real incoming attack resolves at its first ground landing, even after a side Pass. It is not every bounce. A Catch prevents that Strike; dropping the caught Orb later does not recreate it.

Strip / dismiss / expire

Strip removes an Infusion or Effect by a rule such as Shield, with no Linger. Dismiss is voluntary removal. Expire is a timer ending. Departure is a field change or removal, not automatically any of these.

Synch Marker

Your control representation of a captured Synch Orb. Its obstacle is on your Facing Field. Unlike a Spynn Trace, this marker is interactive.

Target Field

The individual Player Field chosen to receive a Cast. A Pass Destination is the Player Field receiving a side Pass, not a cross-side Cast.

Timed Infusion

An Infusion with a fixed duration. When its timer expires, that spell is removed from the Orb, leaving any specified Residue. Other spells in a Weave keep their own lifetimes.

Weave / Combine

A Weave is a named, saved pair of owned spells. Combine is the unrestricted pairing capability. Both produce a two-spell Infusion: two Effects, one Carrier.