Glossary of Terms

Agent of the Demiurge -  [inside the operation] Selected assistant to the all-powerful creator figure (the Demiurge), trying to save civilization by enlisting the help of students as mission operatives; [outside the operation] the course instructor-of-record, role-playing that Agent

Attunement - exercises and activities designed to enhance the operatives familiarity with all aspects of material related to the operation including, but not limited to, Latin vocabulary, syntax and grammar, Roman culture, religion, history, archaeology, and literature

CARD - Classical Attunement Reward Device - series of collectable cards awarded from successful completion of carta collectionis tasks. Unique CARDs are also available for purchase inside of the TSTT at various fora locations. These CARDs can then be used in in-class tournament CARD-tamen™ Rome battles

CARD-tamen™ Rome - exciting discussion-battle game utilizing CARDs gained as rewards throughout Operation LAPIS

Carta Collectionis - Personal records of word forms, vocabulary, and concepts that grant CARDs as rewards for hitting various milestones. Not all CARD rewards requirements are published data, some must be discovered through use of the TSTT

CODEX - located at http://lapis.practomime.com, used as a supplemental resource during TSTT immersions

Demiurge - All-powerful creator figure, trying to save civilization by enlisting the help of students as mission operatives

Denariī - currency within the TSTT for Recentiī to purchase gear, items and unlockable CARDs from vendors. Denariī are earned at the end of each episode based on how "well" the operatives play their character

LP - Latinity Points - [inside the operation] point system used to determine operative performance levels; [outside the operation] point system used to determine student's grade

ML - mīlitēs lapidis (soldiers of the stone); the side of the eternal conflict over the Lapis that believes in the positive value of free access to the Lapis

Operative - [inside the operation] student recruited by the Demiurge to take part in Operation LAPIS. Operatives gain attunement levels as they complete parts of the operation; [outside the operation] Operation LAPIS-specific term for student

*Lead Operative - the operative who is required to submit his or her team's response for a given TSTT-immersion prompt

Prompt - Request for input from the TSTT. Missions are divided into episodes; episodes are divided into prompts. Each Recentius-team must respond, via their lead operative for that prompt, to each prompt

Recentius - Roman operative-character in the TSTT simulation of the ancient world. The TSTT is programmed to express the Recentii as members of a single family. An essential part of the mission objectives in Operation LAPIS is to discover who the Recentii are and how they relate to Roman culture. Each Recentius is controlled by a team of operatives, and each one has a specific worldview that the team is required to honor as much as possible. The more a team honors their Recentius' worldview, the higher their awards of LP will be

SP - societās potentium (league of the powerful); the side of the eternal conflict over the Lapis that believes in keeping the LAPIS, and its powers, in the hands of the powerful

TSTT - Texto-Spatio-Temporal Transmitter; [inside the operation] the Demiurge's ultra-powerful computer simulation of the ancient world, robust and flexible, but subject because of its necessary sensitivity to events in the "real world" to frequent unexpected fluctuations. The TSTT can manifest its outputs and receive its inputs in an infinite number of different formats, which can appear at time to mimic standard computer technologies like course-management systems, WordPress blogs, Google Sites, and PHP bulletin-boards. [outside the operation] way of referring to the practomimetic (role-playing) activities of the course