Rebel Impulse: A VRMMO made by Intelli Studios, featuring the virtual world of Hybris. Rebel Impulse is set in the world of Hybris. Long ago in the game's lore, Hybris was divided into Eight Shards after the War in Heaven between the Gods of the Land and the Gods of the Otherworld. The world was almost torn apart, but Nuada and Donn, the leaders of the Gods of the Land and the Gods of the Otherworld, managed to rally the surviving gods of each side and made a truce to stabilise Hybris before all was lost, at the cost of Nuada's health. To maintain the shards, seven of the eight gods took stewardship of seven shards; the eighth was given to Nuada, who was sealed in Tairngire to rest and once more take his throne. One, Tech Duinn, was taken by the god Donn, who undertook to take care of the dead of the other six realms out of respect for Nuada. Each god imbued the land with their respective virtues and values, creating eight worlds within Hybris. Out of universe, Rebel Impulse has since received many plaudits for its advanced AI and unique setting, and award-winning events begun almost entirely by NPC action, winning Game of the Year 2023 and Best MMORPG in many award ceremonies, replacing the previous long-time winner Warriors of Lor. Prior to its release, however, Rebel Impulse was heavily known for the high-quality trailers portraying the Shards, with memes being made about the Cichol trailer using "Crossing Field", the opening from a popular anime about VRMMOs, and Cichol's aesthetic similarity to that anime. In a livestream shortly after the release, the CEO confirmed that this was deliberate, in order to lean into the inevitable memes.

Firbolg: The term for NPCs of near-human artificial intellligence in Rebel Impulse, the vast majority of non-combat NPCs are Firbolgs, with some bosses also being Firbolgs. Firbolgs are highly advanced AI even for VRMMOs of Rebel Impulse's calibre, which has won the game many awards in the months of its playtime, almost indistinguishable from humans. Firbolgs are distinguished from humans through the use of exotic hair and eye colors. The Firbolgs seem to even have similar needs to humans, requiring food, water and shelter to survive, which Hybris simulates through the Glastigs and vegetation, water and simulated weather and temperature. Firbolgs are also randomly generated by the world through methods unknown to anyone outside of Intelli Studios, leading to rumoured corporate espionage atttempts that have turned up nothing. Even smaller, random Firbolg NPCs in the streets of Rebel Impulse are as intelligent as those meant as "main" NPCs. Firbolgs will generally respond to assaults by Divers by retaliating, and assaulting them repeatedly results in very strong, nearly unkillable Guard Golems (Fear Dearg) killing the offending player and sending them to a Respawn Shrine.

	- Singularity: Firbolgs are so advanced as to be close to human levels of cognition due to their adaptive AI. When Firbolgs achieve enough changes in their AI as a result of interactions with humans, it is rumoured that they undergo a process called Singularity, achieving human sentience. This is the process that is rumoured to create what the playerbase has deemed Aes Sidhe, true AI masquerading as players of Rebel Impulse and indistiguishable from Divers. Only rumours and anecdotal stories exist confirming the existence of Singularity and Aes Sidhe; Intelli Studios has not commented on the possibility of Singularity or Aes Sidhe.

	- Aes Sidhe: The term for the rumoured highest order of artificial intelligences that dwell within Hybris. The Aes Sidhe are capable of full cognition, being indistinguishable from humans in emotional reactions and range of intelligence. The Aes Sidhe are also the rarest of the intelligences, only as bound by the rules of Rebel Impulse's programming as Divers are. Some famous players of Rebel Impulse are rumoured to be Aes Sidhe rather than Divers; as Firbolgs have no more knowledge of the game than the average player might, it is difficult to confirm these rumours.

Divers: Terminology used for players of Rebel Impulse, in the Rebel Impulse lore, Divers are those capable of traveling between the Shards of Hybris, "diving" into the Shardspace to travel between Shards through the Ways of Tairngire. Divers are also used to refer to VRMMO gamers in general, due to the favoured console for VRMMO gaming being the NeuroDiver, and the terminology has found itself in other games such as the equally popular Diabolos Dive or the long-established Elder Tale Online, or the online hangout communities common in VR.

	 - Moderators: Intelli Studios-hired players that maintain conduct in Rebel Impulse, using Limited Modification Tools to grant themselves teleports and other limited perks, along with the ability to kick, ban or mute Divers that abuse the game's mechanics, sometimes by assaulting Firbolgs or by harassing other players.

	 - Tuath De: Intelli Studios staff Diver accounts. Eight members of Intelli Studios make themselves regularly known ingame; Dagda, Tailtiu, Brighid, Boann, Credne, Etain, Aengus and Crom Cruach. In addition, two other "Tuath De" accounts have been identified, Ogmius and Mannanan. Intelli Studios staff occasionally show up to run events or run livestreams.

Fear Dearg: The term used to refer to less intelligent artificial intelligences within Hybris, closer and more akin to animals of the real world in terms of cognition rather than the human-like Aes Sidhe or the Firbolgs. Fear Dearg are further subdivided into the passive and even friendly Glastigs and the generally hostile Sluaghs. Dearg appear to have been designed to emulate the animals that comprise real world ecosystems, livestock and fictional monsters from fantasy fiction, and their purposes seem to differ depending on if the Dearg is a Sluagh or a Glastig.

	- Sluaghs: Hostile lifeforms, also referred to as Fiends. Sluaghs are a threat to both Firbolgs and Diver alike and parties are occasionally formed to clear out Sluagh populations, as well as harvest them for their crafting materials. They range from small nuisances such as the plant-like morbols to the roughly human-sized banshees to the titanic Fomorians, rare monsters that attract large parties of both Sidhe and Divers to keep them from causing too much damage to Hybris. It is theorised that Sluaghs were introduced to force some pressure on the Firbolgs to adapt to environmental pressures by forming civilizations and cities within Hybris; supporting this thesis is the fact that Sluaghs are universally hostile to any Firbolg or Diver, and simply ignore Glastigs and non-Sidhe/Firbolg artificial intelligences. However, there have been occasional cases of Sluaghs being tamed or even friendly to Divers and Firbolgs, and certain classes possess passives that allow them to befriend Sluaghs.

	- Glastigs: Passive wildlife and livestock animal intelligences that are tended to by the Firbolgs and some Divers for various purposes such as food or craftting clothing, comprising everything from the Mellian loach to the Cornellian sheep to random insects and small animals not worth paying attention to. Among the most common are the winged pig-like porcavians that are harvested for both their meat and their feathers, and slimes, which are often kept as pets that are occasionally used for their gel secretions to make potions. Not all Glastigs are kept as pets or livestock, as not all are easily tamed or domesticated, and the vast majority of Glastigs are left as passive lifeforms in Hybris. Those that are kept as pets are highly prized in Hybrisian society. It is theorised that Glastigs were introduced in part to simulate meat and fish to fulfil the Firbolg's simulated need for nutrition, given that many animals used as livestock in Hybris are seemingly pre-domesticated and in part to fill out the world of Hybris.

CALADBOLG: A rumoured set of special tools and programs accessible to both Divers and Aes Sidhe, that are said to grant a massive amount of power over Rebel Impulse's code, allowing holders of the kit to do things from modify the parameters of Fear Dearg to spawn in entirely new entities by injecting external scripts into Hybris. Intelli Studiops has not replied to questions about CALADBOLG, despite rumours that CALADBOLG is actually the leaked development kit of Rebel Impulse. Reported adverse effects of CALADBOLG have included local instability in areas where they were employed and Segementation Faults, massive errors that take down entire chunks of Rebel Impulse's map, forcing the area to reset to an earlier state while it reboots. Aes Sidhe, Firbolgs and Fear Dearg caught in Segementation Faults are teleported out of the area, while Diver Avatars are disintegrated and must be reformed outside of the crashed zone at the nearest respawn point.

Skills: Ingame skills referring to non-combat activities such as Crafting, Mining, and Blacksmithing. While ingame recipes are well-known, one (badly kept) secret of Rebel Impulse is that custom recipes can be made or certain results ensured by manual action rather than using the ingame menus, allowing for a wide variety of experimentation. Many specialty items are sold through player auctions as a result, with Kalina being one of the largest guilds known for selling player-made items.

Noda: The in-game currency.

Notable Player Slang:
Cosplayers: Players who use the complex crafting system to craft gear resembling characters from anime, video games and other media, after the real life activity. They are often stereotyped as terrible at the game. Famous incidents involving cosplayers include a Kirito cosplayer challenging Hiroki to a fight repeatedly and irritating him, only to be swiftly crushed by the veteran in one of the hub cities, and a flash mob of cosplayers in Morrigan performing dances on Mara Luna's stream while she was attempting to play through the starting Morrigan story. Some guilds ban cosplayers to avoid the negative attention, while there are whole guilds comprised of them. The Moonlit Black Cats are often mistaken for a cosplayer guild due to their name, causing Kuroe to reject cosplayers without a reference from other Black Cat members.

Typical Morrigan/Typical Lugh/Typical Etc.: Derogatory slang referring to the stereotypes of various Shard players; Morrigans are stereotyped as FPS players seeking to pretend to be military men, Lugh players are seen as refugees from the fighting game community who ignore the rest of the game to get to the PvP arena, Cethleann are seen as overly obssessed with roleplay, Elatha and Cichol are seen as overtly obssessed anime fans wanting to replicate their favorite anime, and Oghma are seen as crazed lunatic speedrunners. The truth of the sterotypes is, of course, down to the individual player, but memes regarding this are often the subject of playful (or not so playful) rivalries in the fanbase.

Zekken: A term meaning "Absolute Sword" taken from the Japanese fanbase, players with access to the unique player-generated skills learned later in the game as Impulse wielders are referred to as Zekkens after one of the first notable skills created. CGX are known to recruit Zekken players, and much of the Warriors are known to be them.

Other Concepts:
NeuroDiver: A virtual reality simulator and computer rolled into one produced by the Askira Corporation, NeuroDivers are small, goggle-sized devices combined with input detectors for the hands and feet that function to allow the user to act in VR. NeuroDivers were primarily used for gaming before Hybris was discovered, and many popular video games are still produced for use with the NeuroDiver, which are often accessed through the network hubs at Hybris, replacing the famed NeuroLinker and MindGear VR consoles. 

- NeuroDiver Gaming: Video games were created for use with the NeuroDiver to allow gamers to engage in virtual reality gaming, with neural connections making it so no actual movement is necessary to detect inputs. Some of the more famous games for the NeuroDiver include the VRFPS Diabolos Dive, an arena shooter about set within a futuristic humanity's attempt to colonise Hell, the established VRMMOs Elder Saga Online, Warriors of Lor and Sword Origin, and the proclaimed "killer app" of the NeuroDiver, Rebel Impulse.