Glossary of Common Terms

by Drizzt (barnejd@wkuvx1.wku.edu)

Beige Noon

A horrendous occurrence during the summer of 1992. See the Summer Gap.

Cry.Sig

A cosmic storyline, written by Drizzt, that shook LNH continuity to the core, explained many discrepencies, and gave us such memorable villains as the Time Crapper.

LNHQ

Also known as the LNHHQ or LNH HQ, this is the Legion of Net.Heroes headquarters building in downtown Net.tropolis. It has several strange properties, including the fact that it expands to make room for any new members and that it is constantly changing shape.

Looniverse

This is the universe in which LNH stories take place. Whether the Looniverse includes all of the newsgroups or is a subreality of a single newsgroup is somewhat in dispute.

Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade (NTB)

Sometime in February of 1993, a conversation thread started up on RACM about trenchcoats. Several people decided they wanted to form their own group, a group of people who wore trenchcoats and were involved in the really weird stuff. These people were fans of more mature, eerier comics such as Sandman and Swamp Thing. They called themselves the Net.Trenchcoat.Brigade, and planned on meeting at a bar in Chicago.

Fictionally, though. They started writing, coming up with a series of events that would lead up to their meeting. They called the story Wrath of the Administrator.

It was huge.

Really huge.

About 500K. Over 150 pages when printed out. It was their first story, too. Only Retcon Hour has ever exceeded it.

Since the creation of rec.arts.comics.creative, the NTB has largely moved to there, but many of the NTB writers continue to crosspost to alt.comics.lnh. NTB stories take place inside the Looniverse just like LNH stories do. Kid Anarky is a member of both organizations, and the Legion of Occult Heroes has a lot of close ties with the NTB.

Non-Writer Character (NWC)

A Non-Writer Character. These are characters that do not have a firm attachment to one author. Often they have been made public domain by their original author, and are free for anyone to use in a story, continuity permitting.

RAC

rec.arts.comics, the now-defunct original home of the LNH. It survives as a bleak desert of lost posts and half-destroyed reality. It was destroyed in the Great RMGrouping of '92.

RACC

rec.arts.comics.creative, the new home away from home for the LNH, and home to several other fictional universes.

Retcon

From the Jargon File, version 3.1.0:

:retcon: /ret'kon/ [short for `retroactive continuity', from the USENET newsgroup rec.arts.comics] 1. n. The common situation in pulp fiction (esp. comics or soap operas) where a new story `reveals' things about events in previous stories, usually leaving the `facts' the same (thus preserving continuity) while completely changing their interpretation. For example, revealing that a whole season of "Dallas" was a dream was a retcon. 2. vt. To write such a story about a character or fictitious object. "Byrne has retconned Superman's cape so that it is no longer unbreakable." "Marvelman's old adventures were retconned into synthetic dreams." "Swamp Thing was retconned from a transformed person into a sentient vegetable." "Darth Vader was retconned into Luke Skywalker's father in "The Empire Strikes Back"".

Retcotheric Energy

Magic. Mostly. Retcotheric energy provides the basis for the powers of all superheroes in the Looniverse. See the story Flame Wars II by Drizzt for more information.

Summer Gap

In real world terms, the 2-1/2 Month Gap was the 1992 summer break, during which the LNH vanished from the net. In LNH terms, it is a period during which untold horrors happened to the LNH, resulting in its members being scattered throughout the Looniverse.

Beige Noon was one of these (actually the biggest) of these untold horrors, which caused much of history to be changed. Some of these changes were the creation of L.E.G.I.O.N., the Crossover Queen coming into existence (possibly), and the changing of the planet H'yddee'uz's name to H'yyydde'uz.

Basically, Dekay and Diskolor, the Bryttle Brothers, found the Looniverse and started altering it to their whims. The LNH and 4-Color Kid were able to defeat them, but the changes they wrought still remain. See Lurk of Faith by Scavenger for more details.

Trade EtherBack (TEB)

The LNH equivalent of a TPB (trade paperback). It is a collection of previously posted stories, usually for the archives.

Writer Character (WC)

This is a character who is particularly associated with a single author, and who should not be used without that author's permission. Generally, WCs are the Net "version" of the author of the story.

wReam

Evil and entropy incarnate.

This page last updated: 18 November 1997.