Glossary
Dysnomia uses a lot of in-world vocabulary (mostly rooted in Cantonese, Korean, and mathematical terms). This page translates every recurring term to something you likely already know from another game or web3 protocol.
If you ever see a capitalized word in these docs and it's not obvious what it means, check here first.
Identity & Account
| Dysnomia term |
Web3 / gaming equivalent |
One-line meaning |
| LAU |
Your player character (as an ERC-20 token you own) |
The token that represents you in the game. You deploy one at signup and it's yours forever. |
| Soul |
Permanent player ID |
64-bit number assigned when you enter. Like a Steam ID — never changes, never transfers. |
| Aura |
Wallet fingerprint |
64-bit value derived from your wallet address. Proves you're still the same person between logins. |
| Saat |
"Identity triple" |
Three numbers [Pole, Soul, Aura] that act together as your signature moment. Nobody else can reproduce them. |
| Username |
Display name |
What other players see in chat. Stored on your LAU. |
| Alias |
Address book entry |
A nickname you assign to someone else's address so you don't have to look at 0x… strings. |
| Entropy |
Per-account nonce |
A per-user randomness value. Makes your LAU's behavior unpredictable to the outside. |
Bank & Money
| Dysnomia term |
Web3 / gaming equivalent |
One-line meaning |
| YUE |
Your in-game bank / escrow wallet |
Holds rewards you've earned until you withdraw them. Separate from your LAU. |
| Chi |
YUE + LAU together |
The paired structure your account lives inside (bank + character). |
| DYSNOMIA |
Base ERC-20 with built-in AMM |
The "rules of money" every token follows — balances, transfers, and built-in Purchase/Redeem rates. |
| Purchase / Redeem |
Built-in swap |
Trade token A for token B using the contract's own market rate, no external DEX needed. |
| Market Rate |
Internal exchange ratio |
How much of token A equals 1 of token B inside the ecosystem. |
| Hong / Hung |
Buy / Sell |
Short in-world verbs for buying into (Hong) and selling out of (Hung) a position through YUE. |
| Hypobar / Epibar |
Activity counters |
Running totals of value that flowed in (Hypobar) and out (Epibar) of your account. |
| CROWS |
VIP status token |
Hold 25+ CROWS and many venues auto-admit you (like a verified-checkmark at the door). |
| WITHOUT |
Ban token |
Hold any of this and you're blocked from the game. It's a kill switch, not a currency. |
Venues & Territory
| Dysnomia term |
Web3 / gaming equivalent |
One-line meaning |
| QING |
A chatroom / marketplace / LP venue |
A venue you can join, chat in, trade with. Every QING wraps an existing token. |
| GWAT |
A personal derivative venue / fork |
Your own copy of a QING that you own and run. One per parent QING per account. |
| MAP |
The world map |
The coordinate registry that places every QING somewhere. |
| Waat |
Venue coordinates |
The unique position on the Hecke coordinate system where a QING lives. |
| Hecke Meridians |
Geographic coordinate system |
The math that turns a venue's Waat into longitude/latitude on a globe. |
| WORLD |
Territory claim system |
Claim land near a venue using Code(). Rewards flow to holders. |
| Yeo |
Claim range / radius |
How far from a venue your territory extends. Bigger Yeo = more land. |
| Dione |
Territory reward size |
How much VITUS you get for a successful claim. |
| Bouncer |
Moderator / admin at a venue |
Has access control powers at a QING: set cover charge, manage guest list, ban players. |
| Staff |
Assistant bouncer |
Addresses explicitly marked as staff at a venue. |
| Cover Charge |
Entry fee |
What you pay in the venue's underlying token to Join. |
| Guest List |
Time-limited pass |
Entries expire after 1 day — you need to re-pay cover after that. |
Power & Rewards
| Dysnomia term |
Web3 / gaming equivalent |
One-line meaning |
| Yuan |
Weighted voting power |
Your combined token holdings across wallet + LAU + YUE, used as a power score. |
| Charge |
Combat power / battle stat |
Your effective strength, used by WAR and reward payouts. |
| QI |
Energy level |
First step of the power chain — SHIO tokens divided by entropy. |
| MAI |
Venue-specific power |
How many of a venue's tokens you hold. Caps chat rewards at 1 per message. |
| XIA |
Combined power |
QI + MAI bundled together. |
| XIE |
True power stat |
XIA plus reaction output (Omicron, Omega). The "final" power number. |
| ZI |
Spin / modifier |
Applies rotational modifiers to XIE based on Yuan and CHO holdings. |
| PANG |
Scoreboard |
Final calculation producing 5 outputs (Iota, Omicron, Eta, Omega, Charge). |
| H2O |
Battle reward currency |
Water tokens earned by winning WAR contests. |
| VITUS |
Creator revenue |
Credits earned by claiming and holding territory. Like ad-revenue for landowners. |
| Omicron / Omega |
Reaction outputs |
Numbers that fall out of cryptographic operations — feed into power formulas. |
| Iota / Eta |
Influence values |
Historical-activity multipliers that shape territory payouts. |
| Pole |
State commit |
A 3-slot history of the game's ZHOU state. Used like block height for state proofs. |
Cryptographic Plumbing
| Dysnomia term |
Web3 / gaming equivalent |
One-line meaning |
| SHA |
Cryptographic key / hash-token |
A secret-material token that acts like a sealed envelope: only someone with the Rod+Cone pair can open it. |
| SHIO |
A keypair lock (Rod + Cone) |
Two paired SHA tokens that together form a symmetric lock. Powers identity verification and chat encryption. |
| Rod / Cone |
Public / private key analogues |
The two halves of a SHIO. A Rod is paired with exactly one Cone. |
| Bao |
Operation context / action receipt |
A struct bundling "what you're doing right now" — which SHIO, which token, which address, which ring. |
| FA |
SHA state |
The 13-field internal state inside a SHA token (Base, Secret, Signal, Channel, Contour, Pole, Identity, Foundation, Element, Coordinate, Charge, Chin, Monopole). |
| Ring |
Time-bucket / session value |
Used to scope operations to a specific window. |
| Entropy (state) |
Nonce / seed |
Per-contract unpredictability, evolves with each reaction. |
| React |
Hash step / signature compute |
A one-way cryptographic transform that produces Omicron + Omega from a Bao and two SHAs. |
| Monopole / Chin / Coordinate |
Internal SHA fields |
Components of the FA state — you generally don't touch them directly. |
Core Ecosystem Contracts (in plain English)
| Dysnomia term |
What it does |
Analogy |
| VMREQ |
Random number generator |
Dice roller. Produces the randomness that gives tokens unique IDs and max supplies. |
| CHO |
Login authenticator |
The bouncer at the front door of the whole game. Verifies your LAU is really yours. |
| VOID |
Session + chat manager |
The backend that routes your messages, stores your username, remembers you between sessions. |
| SEI |
Onboarding helper |
"Create my bank for me" button. Spawns your YUE, links it to your LAU, marks you as a player. |
| CHAN |
Opt-in security |
The allowance manager. You explicitly flip a switch to let a contract pull from your YUE. |
| CHOA |
Gameplay controller |
The main gameplay loop. Calculates your Yuan, handles Play() and Chat() calls. |
| CHEON |
Payroll calculator |
Figures out what you earn per activity, mints it to your YUE. |
| RING |
Activity tracker |
Records your moments (Eta values). Historical record that affects future rewards. |
| META |
Territory calculator |
Computes Yeo (claim range), Dione (rewards), and power modifiers when you claim land. |
| YI |
Mint factory floor |
Coordinates SHA/SHIO creation plus operation tickets (Bao). |
| ZHENG |
Token registry / parking lot |
Assigns permanent "parking spots" (addresses) to tokens, auto-sets market rates. |
| ZHOU |
Exchange rate board |
Global market-rate hub. Sets how much tokens are worth. Also the default chat channel. |
| YAU |
Protocol router |
Makes sure data flows correctly between ZHOU (low-level) and YANG (high-level). Backup state. |
| YANG |
State tracker |
Three-slot history (Bang, Lai, Le) cryptographically linked. Game state checkpoints. |
| SIU |
Identity minter |
Creates your Aura and Saat when you sign up. Permanent unforgeable marker. |
| SHAFactory / SHIOFactory / LAUFactory |
One-click deployers |
Wizards that build and wire up SHA / SHIO / LAU for you. Think "click here to create account". |
| SYSTEMADDRESSES |
Phone book |
Maps short names ("dai", "USDC", "Atropa") to their contract addresses. |
Shared Data Structures
| Dysnomia term |
What it is |
| FA |
The state blob inside each SHA — 13 named fields. Your SHA's "character sheet". |
| Bao |
The context of one operation — address + SHA + SHIO + values. Your current "action packet". |
| User |
A player's permanent record — Soul, Username, Entropy, and a Bao. Your "save file". |
| Acronym |
One entry in a word-game submission. Players vote on these. |
| UserVote |
Record of one player's vote on an Acronym. |
Actions (what players actually do)
| Call |
What it does |
| Enter() |
Create your LAU — the very first step. |
| Play() |
Enter gameplay. Creates your YUE the first time. |
| Join(token) |
Pay the cover charge and enter a QING for 1 day. |
| Chat(token, msg) |
Send a message at your current venue. Earns MAI if holding tokens. |
| Code() |
Claim territory near the venue you're in. Earns VITUS. |
| Beat() |
Contest existing territory / compete for a better position. |
| Withdraw(what, amt) |
Pull funds from your LAU to your wallet. |
| Purchase / Redeem |
Swap one token for another at the built-in market rate. |
| Leave() |
Step out of your current venue. |
| setUsername(name) |
Set how other players see you in chat. |
Missing a term? If you run into a capitalized word in another doc that isn't listed here, that's a bug. Open an issue.