Below are some common terms used when web guiding.
Alignment – Anyone with Web Way Affinity can sense alignments. An alignment is knowledge that one can travel to a destination planet. That travel will typically consist of traveling along a webpath to a node, exiting the webpath, opening another webpath off the node, and repeat until the destination gate is reached. The typical travel time between planets is 80+ HOURS. Most gate Alignments only last 5 to 6 hours. Alignments on Eclipse typically last for 1 to 2 hours. This means that when an Alignment is sensed, the entire sequence of connections does not yet exist. It also means that there are two types of Alignment schedules. Incoming and Outgoing.
Chills / Shiver / Wraith – According to legend, they are the remains of those lost in the Webway. Chills are relatively weak. Shivers are much more deadly and give off a blue or green glow. A wraith is mostly legendary, and is primarily used as a boogie-man to frighten people new to the web.
Ephris Barrier – A visible manifestation of a point of transition between the Epherium and normal space. When a world Gate is opened, an Ephris Barrier forms. The Ephris Barrier appears like a heat shimmer in the Gate. It does not allow sight into the Webway, one can still see normal space on the other side of the gate. When your body comes into contact with the Ephris Barrier you transition into the Webway immediately. Inside the Webway, a closed Barrier appears to be a sheet of light, after a webguide opens the Barrier it looks like rippling metallic sheet. One must pass through the Ephris Barrier when moving onto or off of a path. This includes moving from a planetary gate or from a node.
Gate – A transition point at the end of a path. They exist on planets and on nodes. Before Eclipse, every given planet could only have 1 gate.
Node – a Node is a stable platform within the Webway. Paths align to them, and webguides can open paths away from the node to travel elsewhere. Paths connecting to a node are identical to anyone without Web Way Affinity. One can potentially meet other travelers on a node, though that is rare. One could theoretically stay on a node indefinitely assuming one had the proper supplies. That being said, the longer someone stays at a node, the higher the likelihood that they will be attacked by Chills or Shivers.
Open/Closed Gate – When a webguide creates a pathway into the Web along an aligned path, the Gate is open. When they are not, it is closed. Opening a gate terminus (either planetside or at a node) takes 60 seconds. Allowing a gate to close is almost instant.
Trade routes – Trade routes were webpaths in Origo that connected through nodes in near straight lines that allowed for very efficient movement from one capital world to another. Each capital world connected via trade route to another capital world on a reasonably regular schedule, usually connecting via trade route once a month. The trade routes tended to be run via merchant convoys en masse. They were the most common method of travel to people of the galaxy that couldn’t afford the personal service of a webguide.
Webpath – A path you move on inside the Webway. Each path is a unique instance defined when a gate is opened/closed. No two paths EVER intersect. So, for instance, Bob opens a gate, steps onto a path, and then closes the gate. If Sue opens the gate again immediately afterwards they are on 2 separate paths. They will never see, touch, or interact while on the path. If they both maintain constant motion forward they WILL both emerge from the destination one after another.
Speed on a path is irrelevant. Anyone on a path is either moving forward, moving backwards, or at a stop. For example, Bob and Jim are both on the same path. If Bob runs forward, and Jim walks, Jim will see Bob reach the destination and exit. It may take Jim another 3 minutes to reach the destination. From Bob’s perspective, Bob will step out of the Path, and Jim will step out immediately behind him.
A Webpath most commonly appears to be made of white stone surrounded by swirls of light. It frequently appears as other things however. There are reliable reports of the path appearing as everything from a hallway with windows, to a round metal corridor, to a forest stream.
Wainwright – A web guide that guided for Imperials back in Origo. Wainwright was the common term for webguide. Within that classification there were Licensed Wainwrights and Imperial Wainwrights. A Licensed Wainwright was anyone authorized by the Empire to work on government projects. They would get preferential treatment over non-licensed webguides, and generally were more trusted. An Imperial Wainwright was a classification of Imperial Citizen. They did not have all the privileges of normal citizens, but did have many of them, and several additional privileges unique to Wainwrights (substantially more than Peons).
A webguide being born to Imperial parents was very rare prior to the Battle of Middian, and typically happened when one of the parents or grandparents was an immigrant from either the Meurlain or the Fringe. If they had Meurlain relatives, the child was typically raised by the relatives, with the option to become an Imperial Wainwright, or convert to Meurlain citizenship. The same occasionally happens if there are Fringer relatives, though that was substantially more uncommon. The second option was that the child was raised by the Wainwright’s Guild. Which maintained facilities both within the Empire and in conjunction with the Meurlain. The third option was that the child was given up to the Meurlain for adoption. After the Battle of Middian, all children have become so precious to survival that many of these previous prejudices have vanished.
Both Imperial Wainwrights and Licensed Wainwrights were treated with more trust than Non-Licensed Wainwrights. Imperial Wainwrights were all effectively Licensed. Imperial Wainwrights also had many of the privileges and drawbacks of Citizens (i.e. potential for House Privileges and subject to the Ban). Licensing was pretty similar to Security Clearance. One of the most common benefits of Licensing was that you processed through the security at a Gate terminal faster because they didn’t do the full battery of security screens on you.