Crimson Moon Glossary: Every Term Explained

How to use this glossary

This page collects the proper nouns and mechanic names Crimson Moon's developer has actually named, either on the Steam store page or in the official Gameplay Explained videos. The game has not shipped, so anything here can still change — but these are names the developer used, not guesses.

Places

Gildenarch

The city where Crimson Moon is set, described as having fallen to demons, undead, and abominations before the game begins. Note that automatic subtitles mangle this name badly; the store page spelling is authoritative.

Sanctus Clypeus

The sanctuary that acts as your central hub. Every run starts here, and you prepare here before each mission: managing gear, upgrading equipment, and settling on a build. Earlier versions of this site called it "a church," which came from the store description before the developer named it.

War Table

Where missions are selected inside Sanctus Clypeus. This is the point a run actually begins from.

Loadout Station

The other half of hub preparation: gear, consumables, and choosing which Angel you take into the hunt.

Ward

A district of Gildenarch, and the unit a run is built around. A ward holds missions, elite encounters, mini bosses, and secrets, with a boss at the far end.

Abraxas Stone

Sits beyond a ward's final boss. What it does has not been explained.

Systems and mechanics

Nephilim

The player character's nature: a human-angel hybrid. Framed as why you can fight what has taken the city.

Purify

The act of permanently adding equipment you found during a run to your collection. Purified gear survives the run that produced it, so later attempts can start with equipment you already own.

Life pool

What absorbs your deaths inside a single run. Exhaust it and the run ends; loot you dropped along the way stays dropped.

Boon

A modifier that shapes how your character fights. Three things hand them out: equipment you have on, Nexus gates you pass through, and lore scrolls you return.

Nexus gate

A decision point encountered several times within a run. Each one offers a choice of temporary boons that last until the run ends.

Weapon art

An ability carried by the weapon itself rather than by your character, each on its own cooldown. This is what separates two weapons that otherwise swing the same way.

Angel

Chosen before a hunt begins. Together with gear, weapon arts and boons, it is the last of the four things that define a build.

Lore scroll

A collectible. Returning them to Mereda unlocks further boons for later runs.

Souls

A currency Mereda accepts alongside lore scrolls. What else spends souls has not been stated.

Blessing

Named alongside boons as something Mereda trades for. The developer has not explained how a blessing differs from a boon, so this entry stops here.

Dynamic difficulty

A system mentioned on the store page that adjusts challenge as you play rather than a fixed setting chosen up front.

Angelic transformation

A supernatural ability referenced in the store description. Previews describe a transformed state in combat, but the developer has not published how it is triggered or what it changes.

People in Sanctus Clypeus

The developer has named four allies stationed in the hub. Each one is a service rather than a quest-giver in the usual sense.

Gallant

The mentor figure, and the source of bounty quests.

Mereda

The historian. Trades lore scrolls and souls for boons and blessings, which makes her the main way run collectibles turn into permanent power.

Lotte

Sells trinkets, throwables, and consumables.

Gajov

Upgrades the rarity of gear you already own.

Factions

Order of the Crimson Moon

Humanity's last organized resistance, per the store description. The player character is called "its most feared weapon," which is where the game's title comes from.

Community shorthand

None yet — there is no established player community generating nicknames before release. This section fills in once the game has launched and players start talking about it in the Discord and elsewhere.

FAQ