Terminology Changes

TERMINOLOGY CHANGES

(Dated 2024-09-27. If you've started reading FaUn on or after that date, feel free to ignore the announcement below.)

As I’m now starting to publish Volume 2 here, I’ve gone all over the feedback I’ve gotten on the story so far, picked out which ones I could feasibly apply without harming neither my vision for the story nor the experience of the current readers, and made the following changes:

CONTENT CHANGES

Content-wise, although there have been some tweaks here and there, none of them are really significant besides one (which isn’t all that important, either, but something a lot of people have commented on). In the Prologue, it’s now explained why Jieyuan wasn’t tested for other affinities. I’ve summarized the explanation now given there: Basically, everyone only has one heavenly affinity, which is an inherent affinity for a Concept that they’re born with. All of a person’s other Conceptual affinities start off at zeroth order, and they can only be raised by pursuing a Concept while performing Heavenly Communion (what pursuing a Concept entails hasn’t been explained yet).

TERMINOLOGY CHANGES

This is the only real big change. A lot of people have brought to my attention that I’m using way too many closed compounds, and that some of them are just plain hard to read. Honestly, I was hesitant to do anything about this, since unlike the other changes this actually impacts current readers—but then I reasoned to myself that this change would have a positive effect on the reader experience, so I decided to go through with it after all. I’ve gone over all made-up closed compounds I’ve included in the story so far, and for each one, I determined whether I could (1) just scrap them altogether, (2) replace them with a repurposed common word, (3) replace them with an open compound, or (4) replace them with a hyphenated compound. I’ve included, below, all the changes made:

Clothing and Accessories

bondband → bond band

highshroud → neck shroud

neckband → choker band

Armor, Weapons, and Items

bondmaster → bond-master

fieldfocus → field-focus

glyphstretch → glyph-stretch

gearshroud → gear-shroud

gearskill → gear-skill

mindbond → mind-link

jadebook → jade book

primegear → prime gear

primeskill → prime gear-skill

spearhalf → spear-half

TERMS ELIMINATED: silkcloud.

Lineage Terminology

chromalborn → chromal-born

clanborn → clan-born

mundaneborn → mundane-born

trueblood → true-blood

Cultivation Realms

lowsign → low-sign

soulflare → soul-flare

soulshift → soul-shift

Powers and Abilities

auralashing → aura-lashing

chromabonding → chroma-bonding

Chromasight → chroma-sight

plainspace → plain-space

skillform → skill-form

skillseed → skill seed

soulstilling → soul-stilling

stilledspace → stilled-space

timewarp → time-warp

TERMS ELIMINATED: [color]skill, [color]seed, [color]form.

Spiritual Terminology

spiritshadow → spirit-shadow

soulsong/shadowsong → spirit-song

spiritshell → soul walls

prism gap → soul center

TERMS ELIMINATED: chromavent, fullprism, halfprism, quarterprism.

Miscellaneous Terminology

chromacraft → chromal craft

citysite → district

glistencore → gleam core

Glistening Stone Sect → Gleaming Stone Sect

glistenstone → gleamstone/gleam

glistenstone beast → gleam beast

glistenstone plant → gleamstone plant

tenthprism → shard

TERMS ELIMINATED: colorshade.

At the end of the day, Fate Unraveled is primarily a passion project of mine, but I also want readers to enjoy it, so every time I get feedback, I first decide whether it’s valid, and if so, whether I can apply it without sacrificing my vision for FaUn. After all, a story is a shared journey, and we’re in it together, author and reader. (For example, the criticism I’ve gotten on the naming convention I’m using is one that I do agree to be valid, but also one that to apply would mean sacrificing my vision for the story, which is why the names of the characters will remain unchanged.)

In any case, I hope you’ve enjoyed the story so far, and I’ll continue to strive to write the best story I can. If you’ve got any other feedback or suggestions for the story, please do not be afraid to share them with me. I can’t promise I’ll follow them, but I’ll always at least take whatever you guys say into consideration. Nothing will go ignored; even though I don’t reply to most comments, I still read every single one. 

GLOSSARY

I've also started a Glossary of Terms and Names for the story, as some people have asked for. Currently, I've only got the terminology on it, but over the next few days I'll also be adding locations and characters to it. Now, you don't need the glossary; I do my best to ensure that any new terminology introduced in the story can have their meaning intuited from the context. However, if you'd like something to quickly reference, you'll have it. Also, if you find any terms that I've forgotten to add to it, just get in touch through a comment, PM, or through Discord, that I'll get around to adding it. You can view it by clicking here.