Glossary Reference Field Manual
Glossary
One canonical definition per term. Linked from every entry that uses it.
Why This Page Exists
The Monster Survival Guide uses a small recurring vocabulary — anthropological terms (Algonquian), folkloric concepts (liminal space), clinical conditions (sleep paralysis), and tradition-specific names (Yee Naaldlooshii) — that each deserve a single careful definition rather than a paragraph of repeated explanation in every entry.
Each term has its own page. Each entry that uses the term links here. That way, the entries can stay focused on the encounter record, and the definitions can be updated in one place.
All Terms
Algonquian
also: Algonkian · Algonquian-speaking peoples
A large family of related languages and the Indigenous nations who speak them, spread across the northeastern and subarctic regions of North America.
Cryptid
also: Cryptids
A creature whose existence has been claimed but is not yet recognised by mainstream zoology — usually known only from witness reports.
Liminal space
also: Liminal spaces · Threshold
A place neither fully one thing nor another — a doorway, a coastline, an empty hallway at 3am. Encounters cluster here.
Sleep paralysis
also: REM atonia · Old Hag · Mara · Pisadeira
A documented neurological state in which the body remains paralysed while the mind wakes — strongly associated with hallucinated bedside presences.
Wendigo psychosis
also: Windigo psychosis
A culture-bound syndrome documented in Algonquian communities of the subarctic — an obsessive belief that one is transforming into a Wendigo, accompanied by a craving for human flesh.
Yee Naaldlooshii
also: Skinwalker (Diné)
In Diné (Navajo) tradition, a person who has crossed serious cultural and spiritual taboos and acquired the ability to take animal form by wearing its skin.