Glossary

The Daoist pursuit of immortality through refined elixirs (external) or internal cultivation.

In Chinese history, a retainer who kills a powerful target on behalf of a patron; Sima Qian’s “Biographies of Assassins” (c. 94 BCE) made five of them famous.

“Elixir field”: the energy centre below the navel where practitioners gather and store qi.

The single-edged Chinese sabre, the standard military blade from the Han dynasty to the Qing.

A Daoist ritual specialist; in folklore they wield peach-wood swords and paper talismans against ghosts.

Classical martial principle of defending and attacking in one motion — the core of the game’s combat design.

Striking acupoints to paralyse or kill — a staple technique of wuxia fiction.

Ming–Qing armed couriers who guarded goods and travellers on dangerous roads — a real job for real martial artists.

Wood, fire, earth, metal and water — five phases that generate and overcome one another.

A Bronze Age blade mounted crosswise on a pole, the signature weapon of Shang and Zhou chariot warfare.

The move that whisks Soul behind an enemy after parrying a blue “Brutal” attack or dodging a red “Killer” attack at the last moment.

Spirits of the dead (gui) and shape-shifting monsters (yao) that fill Chinese folklore.

A heavy glaive with a crescent blade, linked by legend to the general Guan Yu (also called yanyuedao, “reclining moon blade”).

The staff, “ancestor of the hundred weapons”, famously trained by Shaolin monks.

Small concealed projectiles and tools — darts, needles, sleeve arrows — beloved by assassins in fiction.

Steel repeatedly heated, folded and hammered to drive out slag and even out carbon, recorded from the Han dynasty.

Painting in black ink and water, prizing spontaneity and empty space — a key influence on wuxia visual style.

A polearm combining a spear point with a crosswise blade; the weapon of the legendary general Lü Bu.

The straight, double-edged Chinese sword — “gentleman of the hundred weapons”.

“Rivers and lakes”: the shadow society of martial artists, wanderers, sects and outlaws that exists alongside, and often outside, the law of the court.

The stiff “hopping corpse” of Qing-era folklore, kept at bay with talismans and peach wood.

Literally “effort over time” — any skill mastered through long, hard practice. In English it came to mean Chinese martial arts.

The style label S-GAME uses for the Phantom Blade series: wuxia martial arts and Chinese mysticism mixed with punk attitude and industrial, steam-age machinery.

Swords from Longquan, Zhejiang, a forging centre since antiquity; the craft is national intangible cultural heritage.

The channels through which qi flows in traditional Chinese medicine; wuxia heroes open, block or sever them.

One or two weights on a rope or chain, swung in circles to strike from range.

A long, slender two-handed sabre descended from Ming-era long blades.

Lord of the Bastion of Mó, played and voiced in English by Donnie Yen; S-GAME’s marketing reveals him as Soul’s father.

Internal cultivation of breath, posture and energy, contrasted with external (wai) conditioning of muscle and bone.

Fierce carved masks from ancient exorcism rituals that chase away plague and evil spirits.

The rain-drenched town at the heart of the series since Rainblood, rebuilt in 3D from scans of ancient Chinese towns.

Qing-era theatre of song, acrobatics and stage combat, with painted faces (lianpu) that encode character.

Soul’s unconventional secondary weapons — axes, cannons, bows, chain sickles and more — carried alongside two primary weapons (Steam calls them 奇诡武装).

The setting of Phantom Blade Zero — in director Soulframe Liang’s words, “basically a fantasy version of China”, roughly Ming-era in feel.

Tall posts for balance training and high-pole lion dance; the arena of the game’s lion-dance boss.

Breath or vital energy. Martial and medical traditions train its circulation; wuxia fiction turns it into superhuman power.

Cultivation gone wrong: energy runs wild and the practitioner is crippled or driven mad.

The spear, “king of the hundred weapons”; its red horsehair tassel hides the shaft and blocks blood.

Real-world agility training — and, in wuxia, the art of running up walls, across rooftops and over water.

Plunging red-hot steel into water or oil so it hardens.

Soulframe Liang’s original indie series that began the Phantom Blade universe.

The straight, single-edged Han-dynasty steel sabre with a ring at the end of its grip.

A metal dart on a long rope, whirled and thrown with wraps around the body.

A book of martial techniques, coveted and fought over in countless wuxia plots.

A martial lineage with its own masters, techniques and rules, such as Shaolin, Wudang or Emei.

A boss fight against seven swordsmen moving as one, inspired by Emei-school swordsmanship and the Big Dipper.

Killing intent. In the game, one Sha-Chi gauge works as both stamina and posture; empty an enemy’s and their guard breaks.

Painted leather puppets performing behind a lit screen — a 2,000-year-old art echoed in silhouette visuals.

The Buddhist temple on Mount Song, Henan, whose monks became the most famous martial lineage in China.

Master and teacher; the character for “father” signals a lifelong, family-like bond with disciples.

The time Soul has left to live — and the name of the hardest difficulty, unlocked after a first clear.

The protagonist: an elite assassin of The Order, framed for his master’s murder and left with sixty-six days to live.

A strip of paper inscribed with sacred script, used to command spirits, heal or seal away evil.

The “elusive but powerful organization” of assassins Soul served before he was framed.

In the game’s lore, artificially amplifying Sha-Chi through body modification — powerful, and ruinous to sanity.

Daoist mountains in Hubei, associated with internal martial arts, taiji and the straight sword.

“The martial forest”: the community of martial artists. The game’s store text speaks of “the Wulin and the Discordance” (表里武林), an outer and a hidden martial world.

The standard Chinese term for martial arts, and the name of the modern competitive sport.

The Chinese genre of martial heroes — knights-errant who live by a code of righteousness and settle wrongs with their own skill.

A person who acts on personal righteousness — protecting the weak, repaying debts and keeping promises — even against the authorities.

Absorbent paper for ink painting; the game’s eight maps were hand-painted on it by CAFA students.

Complementary opposites — dark and light, soft and hard — whose balance underlies Chinese cosmology and martial theory.