Abbreviations and Terms (Guide)

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Like any game, Fallen London has developed its share of jargon and abbreviations which might confuse newcomers.

Here, an attempt is made to provide definitions for the most common terms and abbreviations encountered on this wiki, the Official forums, the Reddit forums, the Official Discord, the Community Discord, or the IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

FBG & games

FB/FBG

• Failbetter Games: The developers of Fallen London.

FL

• Fallen London: The game. Was once called Echo Bazaar (EB/EBz).

The Silver Tree

• Another small game in the Fallen London world and in the Storynexus engine. Still available at http://silvertree.storynexus.com/.

SS (SSea, SSkies)

• Sunless Seas or Sunless Skies: Other games set in the FL universe.

MoTR

• Mask of the Rose, a visual novel set in the FL universe.

ES

• Exceptional Story.

EF/EEF

• (Enhanced) Exceptional Friendship: A paid subscription granting quality of life features, extra locations, and the monthly Exceptional Story.
• (Enhanced) Exceptional Friend: Someone with Exceptional Friendship.

StoryNexus

• The engine Fallen London is built in. It was briefly a more major product offered by FBG early in the studio's history.

FL-specific game mechanics/concepts

FLPC

• Fallen London Player Character: This is you, and you are magnificent.

TtH

• Time, the Healer: A weekly (or near-weekly, depending on the servers) event that does very many disparate things.

BiS

• Best in slot: An item which gives the most of a particular quality (highway stat, advanced stat, etc) when compared to all other items in its equipment category.
  • Strict BiS: the strict interpretation of best; this item is truly superlative and there are none that can compare.
  • Shared BiS: a slightly looser interpretation; there are other items as good as this one, though there are none better.

Carousel

• A repeatable loop of actions, resulting in one large payout at the end. Examples: Port Cecil (Guide), Publishing a Newspaper (Guide).

Wheel

• Similar to a carousel, except the options available at any one point are randomized either through a randomizer quality or by being cards in a deck. Examples: Professional Activities (Guide), The Maze-Garden (Guide).

Progression terminology

Quality

• An aspect of your character's identity, personality and history. All qualities have levels, though some only have one level. In the back-end of the game, even items are (discrete) qualities!

CP

• Change point: Tracks progress toward increasing the level of a quality. Could be considered experience, of a sort — see Leveling (Guide).

Pyramidal quality

• A quality that uses CPs to advance, instead of a quality that is directly incremented. It's "pyramidal" because you need 1 CP to advance to level 1, 2 CP to advance to level 2, 3 CP to advance to level 3, and so on. Compare "Discrete quality" below. Pedantically, these are more obelisk-shaped, as CP-to-next-level caps at 70 for highway stats and 50 for other qualities.

Discrete quality

• A quality that does not use CPs, such as Honoured with a Statue. Compare "Pyramidal quality" above.

Back-end/wiki terminology

QLD

• Quality level description: The name given to a particular level of a quality. For example, Scandal 1 has the QLD "Suspect".

QCD

• Quality change description: The text that appears when a quality changes. For example, "You only have one point of Cat-Like Tread left. Finish quickly or escape now!"

QVD

• Quality-variable description: Text within a storylet or card that changes depending on your character's qualities. For example, the first word of the name of the TLC is determined by your Chosen Site; the second is determined by Foundation.

slet

• Storylet.

Content & Stories

MYN

• Making Your Name: Storylines that help shepherd players through the early game, each centered around a single highway stat — see Making Your Name (Guide). Specifically,
  • A Name in Seven Secret Alphabets (Watchful)
  • A Name Whispered in Darkness (Shadowy)
  • A Name Scrawled in Blood (Dangerous)
  • A Name Signed with a Flourish (Persuasive)

PoSI

• A Person of Some Importance: After you have made your name, you must become a PoSI to unlock most further content. Comes in two tiers; has minor disadvantages, the reduction in efficiency of menace reducers such as laudanum being a significant drawback if done too early — see A Person of Some Importance (Guide).

SFiG (or USFiG)

• (Uncovering) Secrets Framed in Gold: a fate-locked storyline of some lore interest.

SMEN

• Seeking Mr Eaten's Name: an incredibly menacing and damaging storyline with a long and storied IRL history. A guide can be found here.

TLC/CiS

• Tracklayer's City/City in Silver: The culmination of the Railroad storyline — see The City of the Tracklayers (Guide).

Ambitions

• BaL: Bag a Legend!
• HD: Heart's Desire!
• LF: Light Fingers!
• Nem: Nemesis
  • Knifegate: A step in Nemesis that requires spending a lot of Echoes on Skyglass or Ravenglass Knives. A money-gate with knives.

Characters

• CC: Calendar Council
• EC: Efficient Commissioner
• FFG: F.F. Gebrandt
• HAL: His Amused Lordship
• JC: Jovial Contrarian
• RHQ: Red-Handed Queen
• TC: Tomb-Colonies, Tomb-Colonist
• TE: Tentacled Entrepreneur
• TLU: Tracklayer's Union
• VPC: Veteran Privy Councillor

Content Cycles

Since Fallen London turned 10, FBG has operated in a system of content cycles where a particular aspect of the game is focused on. Most (though very much not all) major new content released during a cycle is part of its setting or story.

• 10th Anniversary: the conclusion of the four Ambitions, the addition of the University Laboratory, Parabolan Base-Camp, and Bone Market, and various other changes to the game. The Treasure slot was also added, featuring the items gained at the conclusion of the Ambitions. It also introduced the new stats of Glasswork, Monstrous Anatomy, A Player of Chess, Kataleptic Toxicology, Shapeling Arts, Artisan of the Red Science, and Mithridacy.
• The Railway: an extensive endgame storyline that immediately followed the anniversary and featured a new story about a rail line to Hell and the Tracklayer's Union that works on it. It added many stations along the railway that were built in sequence. In addition to adding ways to increase all main stat caps from 200 to 230, it also introduced Steward of the Discordance,and Neathproofed.
• Zeefarer was the next cycle, targeted at midgame players. It introduced Zeefaring as well as a complete overhaul of zailing mechanics, many new zee ports and reworks of existing ones, upgrades for the Destiny and Ship slots, as well as new slots for Boon, Burden, and Tools of the Trade. It also featured a substantial rework of Fallen London's early and mid game. Its key story, Evolution (Guide), followed the Youthful Naturalist's investigations into death.
• Firmament: the current content cycle. Targeting endgame players, its main storyline takes place on the Roof and is yet underway. It has introduced Chthonosophy, Inerrant, and Insubstantial as well as new equipment slots for Adornment, Luggage, Airship, and Crew.

Seasonal

Estival

• The summer festival, different every year since 2021 — see Estival (Guide).

FotR

• Feast of the Rose: The yearly February festival — see Feast of the Rose (Guide).

FotZ

• Fruits of the Zee: The yearly September festival — see Fruits of the Zee Festival (Guide).

GCO

• Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out: The 2021 Estival, now periodically available in the Waswood — see Mr Chimes' Grand Clearing-Out (Guide) and The Sacroboscan Calendar (Guide).

Qualities

Seasonal

PtPT or ToL

• Putting the Pieces Together: Typically refers to Putting the Pieces Together: the Taste of Lacre — see Christmas (Guide) — but is occasionally used for Putting the Pieces Together: the Drownies.

Early game: MYN–PoSI

Main Stats, Highway Stats, Basic Stats

• Dangerous, Persuasive, Shadowy, and Watchful, the four primary stats — see Beginner's Guide.

SiC

• Someone Is Coming: A quality gradually raised up to 4 on various cards, resulting in A Gift from the Capering Relicker.

SotC

• Scholar of the Correspondence: A quality required for entering the University and for choosing Correspondent as a profession. Of importance when dealing with the Masters or the Bazaar.

Midgame: PoSI–Railway

BDR

• Bizarre, Dreaded, Respectable: Can refer to these qualities as a group or the sum of Bizarre, Dreaded and Respectable stats together. Having high summed BDR is crucial to PoSIs looking to gain Notability — see Bizarre, Dreaded, Respectable (Guide).

LoN/AtLoN

• (Advancing the) Liberation of Night.

MW

• Making Waves: A quality necessary to gain Notability. Also needed for a few other things, such as crafting a Night on the Town at the Bazaar Side-Streets.

Nota

• Notability.

PP

• Paramount Presence, the highest level of PoSI. Mostly a vanity quality for lategame players — see Paramount Presence (Guide)

Warabola/Parawar

• Parabolan War.

Lategame: Railway and beyond

Disco/🪩

• The Discordance. A language, and a storyline.

HH

• Helicon House.

A New Pope/Spider-Pope

• A once-highly-profitable Scrip grind focused on spider skeletons with St Fiacre's legs.

Advanced stats/Advanced skills

Special skills that become available in the late game; sometimes referred to as Esoteric Arts or MAGCATS (an abbreviation of the original seven advanced stats).

• KT: Kataleptic Toxicology
• MA: Monstrous Anatomy
• APoC/PoC: A Player of Chess
• GW: Glasswork
• SA: Shapeling Arts
• AotRS/RS: Artisan of the Red Science
• Mith: Mithridacy
• SotD: Steward of the Discordance
• ZF: Zeefaring

Economy

EPA

• Echoes per action: An estimate of the cash value of doing something. This concept is rarely referred to as PPA (Pence/pennies per action), which is EPA*100. Not something to worry about until at least mid-game — see Money-Making.

SPA

• Scrip per action, an estimate of the Scrip value of doing something. Irrelevant until late game — see Hinterland Scrip-Making.

HSA/THA

• Hinterland Scrip Arbitrage/Tinned Ham Arbitrage: A process where Tinned Ham is bought using Scrip in the Upper River and then sold to the Bazaar, resulting in a slight, but free, 1.6% increase to EPA — see here.

Crackling Trade/Horsebitrage

• A process where Crackling Devices were bought using Khaganian Coinage in Khan's Heart and then sold at the Rat Market for profit.

Retired and one-off events

K&C

• Knife-and-Candle: A mischievously murderous game where you stab other players. Retired in 2016 — see Fallen London Timeline.

MYE

• Meeting Your End, AKA Metempsychosis: A potential story that would have allowed players to retire a character and start a new one. FBG cancelled it in 2021 — see Fallen London Timeline.

Election

• A retired summer event that was replaced with the Estival. See Election (historical).

Miscellaneous

CC

• Calling Card: Used to invite another player to become an Acquaintance, which is required for many (but not all) other social actions.

HG

• Hearts' Game: A new, mischievously murderous game where you poison NPCs — see Hearts' Game (Guide).

Items

T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8

• Item tiers, based on sell price in the Bazaar — see Items (Guide).

Item names

Abbreviation	Full name
BSI	Bessemer Steel Ingot
CD	Compromising Document
CD	Crackling Device
EI	Extraordinary Implication
JoI	Journal of Infamy
KC, KhanCoin	Assortment of Khaganian Coinage
MoDS	Memory of Distant Shores
MoL	Memory of Light
NW	Night-Whisper
RS	Rat-Shilling
TLS	Touching Love Story
ToT	Tale of Terror!!
UI	Uncanny Incunabulum