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Terminology

♃ Big 12: Also “Crowns,” “The Pantheon.” The Big 12 are the alpha predators of Pantheon, Inc. They’re the elite of the Great Beasts (see below), the most common guest stars in Pulse’s arenas. You can buy their action figures and get their pictures on tee shirts, some of them have licensed surgery package deals for folks who want to emulate some portion of their heroes. They’re reasonably well-funded, though maybe never to the degree they’d like, and Dodecatheon gives them a generous medical package and surgical upgrades, though again, never everything on their wish lists…contentment makes for bad game play, and Dodecatheon is about the game. See also “Great Beasts”.

♃ Great Beasts: Also “Dragons,” sometimes used to mean the Big 12. As mentioned in Sound and Silence, Pulse has some strange retirement benefits: Top-level corporate leadership, athletes, and celebrities may decide to move on to life as a recurring threat in Pulse’s gladiatorial arenas in the form of a bigger-than-life creation. No longer a vector, through surgery and other augmentation they’ve become something usually classified as a “bioprobe” or perhaps a “weapon.” Some of these retirees live on a dedicated Pulse asteroid grotto, the more luxurious accommodation. Some who like a little bit of risk mixed in with their immortality move to Venus. A few of these retirees continue to work with Pulse as consultants, but Pantheon, Inc. assumes that except for the Big 12, a dragon who’s living on Venus has mostly opted out of Pulse life and isn’t in touch with management anymore, except for occasional check-ins with Dodecatheon.

Trial: In the world of Pantheon, Inc.’s quest structure, a trial is a package deal, a loosely scripted adventure in the territory of one of the Big 12. More generally, the word’s used to describe any of the Big 12, the land they hold, and the various threats and defenses they’ve built up over the years.