A glossary of the Luminance

Aidolin uses its own vocabulary for almost everything. Here is all of it, defined plainly.

Aidolin: The creature you compose and keep. Its form, personality and capabilities are a direct manifestation of the Prime Chord you wrote — it has no stats of its own. Permanent: Aidolins are not consumed, retired, or rolled for.
Architect: You. A Resonance Architect composes Aidolins and duels other Architects in Symposiums.
Chord Tier: Your Prime Chord’s word budget, from Tier 1 (50 words) to Tier 3 (250). Raised automatically by Resonance Points. Also the primary matchmaking bracket. It does not raise any score ceiling.
Clash: An exchange in which both totals land within two points of each other. The Resonance Bar does not move, though Dissonance still rises for both — so a Clash quietly favours whoever is already ahead.
Coherence: The scored judgement of whether an action could only have come from your Aidolin. Unique among the axes in that it multiplies the other four rather than adding to them.
Dissonance: Ambient decay accrued by both Aidolins every exchange, growing as the duel lengthens. At 30 the match ends and whoever leads the Resonance Bar wins. The reason stalling is not a strategy.
Duel Charge: The pace limit on Symposiums. One is spent per match; you hold up to 5 and they refill over time. Charges never affect scoring.
Echo of the Luminance: A composed opponent that answers the queue when no Architect is available. Plays by identical rules under the same referee; ladder movement from Echo matches counts at half weight.
Entropy: The silent decay fraying the Luminance toward silence — the premise of the setting, and mechanically the source of rising Dissonance in every duel.
Harmonic Fragments: The earned currency. Paid out for every Symposium, win or lose; spent on teaching Movements and refining your Prime Chord. Cannot be purchased.
Luminance: The wounded metaphysical plane of resonant energy where the game takes place.
Movement: A named ability you write yourself, taught with Harmonic Fragments. Its declared energy cost is assessed from your own description; invoking one by name anchors half of your efficiency score to arithmetic.
Prime Chord: The paragraph defining what your Aidolin is. The only stat sheet in the game, and the reference every command is judged against.
Principle of Harmony: The neutral law of the Luminance — the AI referee that reads both commands each exchange, scores them on five axes, and narrates the clash. It has no stake in either side.
Resonance: The fundamental force binding the universe together, and the thing that is decaying.
Resonance Bar: The contested measure between the two Aidolins in a duel. Winning exchanges pushes it toward you in proportion to how decisively you won; 50 points past centre is an outright victory.
Resonance Crystals: The optional purchased currency. Buys duel charges, extra Aidolin slots, portrait regenerations and ad removal. Buys nothing that touches how your writing is scored.
Resonance Points: Permanent progress, earned every Symposium, win or lose. Raises Chord Tier. Never decreases.
Resonance Rating: The ELO-style skill number used to find you a comparable opponent within your Chord Tier.
Symphonize: The step between duels where Fragments are spent — teaching Movements, refining the Prime Chord.
Symposium: A duel. Synchronous, 60 seconds per turn, typically five to nine exchanges, decided by the Resonance Bar or by Dissonance running out the world.

If a term sent you here from a duel screen and the definition did not settle it, the FAQ answers the questions the glossary cannot.