Glossary

🌍I. WORLD FRAMEWORK
Alternate Universe (AU)
- Definition: A fictional world that mirrors real Earth but diverges through altered historical and scientific events.
- Cascadia Context: An AU of Aberdeen, WA and its surrounding areas. Many major world events still occur but under alternate pretexts or outcomes.
Metahuman Phenomenon
- Origin: First publicly recognized in 2012 after the Large Hadron Collider’s Higgs Boson experiment released a dark matter wave, activating dormant metagenes worldwide.
- Nature: Metahumans manifest superhuman or paranormal traits triggered by trauma, stress, or anomalies.
- Precedent: Mythical beings—werewolves, vampires, witch-blooded, “blessed” warriors—are retroactively identified as metagenic.
- Labels:
  - Phenomenals — Admiring or activist term.
  - Mutants — Derogatory, bureaucratic.
  - Variants — Official USB classification.
- Status: Treated as liabilities, not citizens. Regulated under the Metahuman Regulation Directive (MRD).
- Classes: Elemental, Technopathy, Witchling, Shapechanger, Cognitive, Breaker, Quantum, Anthromorph, Paranormal.
🧠 VIII. SOCIOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE
- Public Perception: Metahumans = instability. Corporations = protection.
  - Corporate rule masquerades as democracy.
- Folk Belief: In Gresty and South End, “Phenomenals” are the people’s evolution—heroes born from oppression.
- Core Tension: Myth vs. Science | Control vs. Freedom | Flesh vs. Augment.

🏙️ IV. DISTRICTS & URBAN STRUCTURE
Districts
- Definition: Sixteen major administrative zones composing Cascadia.
- Each contains: Distinct cultures, economies, and social strata.
  (See separate district profiles for details.)
Neighborhoods
- Definition: Subdivisions within districts. Boundaries shift as demographics and gang territories change.
The Pit
- Location: Central District.
- Description: Underground bare-knuckle arena beneath suppression mesh technology.
- Rules: No augments, no powers—only human endurance.
- Purpose: Catharsis, entertainment, and survival.
💻 III. INFORMATION NETWORKS
SignalNet
- Nature: Official social and civic layer of Cascadia.
- Users: Verified citizens, corporations, USB offices, influencers.
- Functions: Business registration, permits, verified news, bounty boards.
- Analogy: LinkedIn + curated Facebook.
- Control: Tied to real IDs and regulated accounts.
Crowdwire
- Nature: Unofficial, fast-moving microfeed.
- Users: Activists, hackers, journalists, artists, and anonymous users.
- Functions: Protest coordination, rumor circulation, satire, ground reporting.
- Analogy: Twitter/X + Instagram + TikTok hybrid.
- Control: Decentralized, largely unmoderated.

🏛️ II. GOVERNMENT & ENFORCEMENT
Urban Stabilization Bureau (USB)
- Role: Pseudo-government body managing control contracts between the city and private enforcement firms.
- Purpose: Narrative control, public complacency, and scapegoating.
- Tools: Registration systems, surveillance, perception filtering.
Civil Security Act (CSA)
- Enacted: 2027 by Mayor Irena Calder.
- Effect: Legalized privatized law enforcement, birthing corporate militias (“Enforcers”).
- Outcome: Cascadia’s policing outsourced to megacorporate contractors.
Cascadia Police Department (CPD)
- Function: The official law-enforcement body in name only.
- Reality: Understaffed and overshadowed by USB contracts and corporate security forces.

⚔️ VII. ENFORCEMENT FACTIONS
Enforcers
- Definition: Corporate-licensed militias functioning as freelance justice dealers.
- Legitimacy: Bought, not earned.
- Primary Groups:
  - Praetorian Guard (Praetorians - Praes) — Posed as civic peacekeepers; actually a paramilitary syndicate selling “stability as a service.” Surgical, brutal, PR-managed.
  - Apollonis Solutions (Apollons - Apollos) — High-profile, media-savvy security contractors from Havalynd and Highridge. Market violence as spectacle.
  - Centurion Security (Centurions - Centurs) — Militarized occupation force; enforces order through checkpoints, riot formations, and intimidation. Formed from early CSA contractor remnants.