Game Manuals and Source Map
Last updated: August 21, 2026
Two different documents can be called a game's manual in this Universe, and knowing which you want saves a great deal of circling. One governs play: it says what happens when you take an action, and it is maintained by the game as the game changes. The other situates the game in the fiction: it says what the game depicts, whose story it belongs to, what its terminology means. The Codex keeps the second in its Game Manuals tome; the first always stays with the game.
Where to look, by question
- "How does this mechanic work?" — the game's own manual. Terminus publishes a versioned one; physical games ship theirs in the box; video games publish theirs with the title.
- "What is this thing in the game?" — the Codex entry for it, reached through the relevant category.
- "Why does the game call it that?" — the Codex Game Manuals tome, or the Lingwa corpus if the term is linguistic.
- "Is this canon?" — the Codex. A game's implementation of a concept is a design decision, not an amendment to the record.
Why the split is worth respecting
Rules change with balance passes; lore does not. Letting a rules document define the world would make the world unstable, and letting lore define the rules would make games unplayable. The separation is what allows both to be maintained honestly.
Where a Codex entry and a live game's manual disagree about a mechanic, the game's manual governs play. Where they disagree about the world, the Codex governs the record.
Official source
Canonical source for this subject: Xdripia Games. Checked 21 August 2026 — where this guide and the live service disagree, the service is right.
Related reading
- Game Manuals and Architectonica — The two Codex tomes that document playable systems and built structure.
- Manual and Versioned Rules — The authoritative player-facing reference, and why its version matters.
- Video Games — The digital catalogue, its detail pages and how to tell a prototype from a release.