bookchasers

BOOKCHASER
Kai Night offers a pretty good description of what it means to be a bookchaser in the INTRO of volume1. The tone of voice he uses denotes he highly disapproves of bookchase and bookchasing methods. However during the stories he keeps helping them in their quest.
What he says:

"What is a bookchaser?
An idiot who’d risk his life in search of fame and fortune?
A fool who believes wishing books are cute collectible items for him to claim.
No, a heartless bastard who has calculated every possible strategy to get what he needs
A bloody traitor, a Judas who’d sale his comrades for a collection."

Then in THREE BOOKCHASERS AND AN EDITOR when Penny Rockwell asks him what does he take her for he replies:

"Why, a bookchaser, of course? That's what bookchasers do, miss, they betray."

There isn't a clear definition of the term as many characters see it differently. However there are some key features that set bookchasers apart from Collectors and Editors.
Bookchasers can claim books and use their wish as their will. Bookchasers cannot modify in any way the structure of the wishing book to suit their needs.
The personality trait that Kai Night emphasizes is overrated as there are bookchasers such as Alexander Brook and Miro Maar that earn their books fair and square, or buy them. Stealing and betraying is not compulsory.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

COLLECTOR
Kai Night in the INTRO also describes what a Collector is.

"What is a collector then, you ask?
Another smart-ass book-chaser…with a license.
A noble man’s dog.
They will all deceive and betray you only to get the wishing books
Their most precious wishing books "

The only difference that Kai Night points out is that whereas Bookchasers do not serve anyone but their own goals, collectors have a strict agenda dictated by noblemen's interests in retrieving some particular wishing books. The licensing part - as Kai sees it - it refers to the fact that Collectors Shelves had been in use before the Bookchasers were established. Collectors cannot claim books ot use the wish, they only gather them up.Due to this a bookchaser is hired to claim them for the bookshelf. Unclaimed wishing books are for everyone to claim. Because they are not allowed to use the wish to gather more wishing books they have established a pact with a favourite lecture.

They gang up in bookshelves to be more efficient like, guilds if you want. A bookshelf is formed of min. 4 collectors and a bookchaser to claim the books. Bookshelves desintegrate without a bookchaser or with less than 4 members. Meaning they are not legal and they have quite a few problems functioning. Shelves are registered as enterprised - similar to private detective agencies in wishing worlds.
Up until PHARAGRAPH 7 collectors hadn't made an appearance so little is known about their specific goals dictated by higher interests.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

EDITORS
There are only 4 editors ever present in this world. Thus when one dies another one is set to replace him. They are grouped on generations starting from the initial arrival moment as follows:
Kai Night, Sa Lu Im, Madeleine Press, Silvester Quid / Theodore Reason /Karen Ress/ Darius Anger.

Their ability in wishing world is different from their ability in this world. In wishing world editors for the Editorial House which takes care of checking for any faults that might appear in wishing books issued. The Editorial House is made of 144 editors. An editor is selected for life and in order to be appointed one you must undergo a training of at least 10 years as an apprentice. Editors can take only one apprentice. If after 5 years the editor thinks he's made a mistake chosing his apprentice he can take up another one. However this is mainly discouraged as it creates tensions in the editorial structures.

What they edit is just books, however it appears that in this world their powers extent to objects and living things. They can modify them at a molecular level following a set of commands/ script that seems to be embedded into each object. They can do that because both worlds are similar at core. The fact that they can edit doesn't really mean they are allowed to. Editing objects and living things requires energy and that energy must obey the laws of physics. That is why unless you are skilled at editing you might end up dead.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

WISHING BOOKS

[More on the term as the story progresses]

WISHING SCRIPT
General note:
Is the language in which the editors do the editing and the books are written. It is a iconic language similar to Chinese or Japanese. The mode in which the symbols are combined to form words or even sentences is reminiscent of the hyeroglyphs . There are framed/ cartouched words or names and free standing ones. In the series there are few depiction of it - especially the cartouches of some of the characters' names and insights of how the registry books look.

Design note:
The symbols are inspired by the roman alphabet however some they receive the influence of gothic/medieval caligraphy and some carefully chosen decorations. Thus more complex characters are built starting from everyday letters. For example the "B" from bookchasers is not the same "B" from Brook. So each "b" becomes a symbol on its own depending on how's written.
[some examples of wishing script]

Meanings:
The script is purely graphic. I haven't set my mind to create a fully functional language. Wishing script is just a script, doesn't have a grammar nor a phoenetic spelling.

How characters use it:
Editors edit using wishing script but the command lines are usually "translated". Only some commands are left in their iconic form (e.g. Against a wall, waiting... , Karen has troubles recognizing some of the command lines SaLu is using, I chose to keep the parts Karen doesn't get iconic. Their meaning is hidden to both the reader and Karen.)
Some bookchasers can read the script but as it does happen to Chinese and other related languages only some characters are known. Their upbringing has a word in this respect.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

FAVOURITE LECTURE
Is a special type of wishing book that has agreed on its own will to tie itself to a collector. They are powerful books with strong wishes. Usually the collectors use books of close friends and relatives as favourite lecture, but there are cases when the bonding happens between two strangers. They are used by collectors to track down specific wishing books.

An example of favourite lecture - even though the one who's bound to it is not a collector but an ex bookchaser is Fio. Her reasons for bonding with Salvattore are unknown, however because of her Sotto could remain in this world even though the mark expired.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

BOOKSPIRITS

[More on the term as the story progresses]

TAGS

[More on the term as the story progresses]

CLAIMS

[More on the term as the story progresses]

SHELVES
Or bookshelves - form of organizing specific to collectors. A shelf is comprised of min 4 collectors and one bookchaser to claim the wishing books the shelf gathers. The bookchaser claiming has a different introductory line because he doesn't claim the books for his own use and he's not allowed to use the wish of the books claimed.

Bookshelves desintegrate without a bookchaser or with less than 4 members. Meaning they are not legal and they have quite a few problems functioning. Shelves are registered as enterprised - similar to private detective agencies in wishing worlds.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

BOOKCASES
A bookcase is formed of 12 Collectors' shelves. The shelves heads report to the bookcase manager from wishing world.

[More on the term as the story progresses]

BLUE MINT DRUG
It is a narcotic substance that relaxes the brain's self control mechanism. So it happens that the user gives way to his inner desires be them bad or good. The human being is reduced to basic instincts.
The developer of the drug is not known and its use is wide spread amongst rich family offsprings. It is not mainstream drum and it is quite expensive to buy.
[reference: Blue Mint series]

[More on the term as the story progresses]

WISHING WORLD

[More on the term as the story progresses]