Yu-Gi-Oh! Terminology

KaibaCorp
Kaiba Corporation' (海馬コーポレイション, Kaiba Kōporeishon), usually shortened to "KaibaCorp", or abbreviated "Kc", is a corporate entity specializing in the entertainment and gaming industry more specifically creating technologies centered around the Duel Monsters game.

In the Series
The company is owned by Seto Kaiba and he is also the majority stockholder of KaibaCorp. In Kazuki Takahashi's popular anime and manga Yu-Gi-Oh!. The corporate headquarters is located in Domino City (briefly called "Battle City" when the KaibaCorp-sponsored tournament took place). The company's prize product is the Duel Disk, a dueling system which gives the card based Duel Monster game a holographic interface.

KaibaCorp expanded into other areas of the gaming and entertainment industries with the creation of Kaibaland, an amusement park. Two parks were built in Domino City and California. It was the culmination of the Kaiba brother's dream to create a park for orphaned and/or underprivileged children. Kaiba Corp was originally a military arms dealer owned by Gozaburo Kaiba, until it was drastically changed by Seto Kaiba after his hostile takeover.

Seto's rise to power involved direct manipulation of The Big Five, Gozaburo Kaiba, and Mokuba Kaiba. Due to this, as well as KaibaCorp's past as a weapons company, Seto is often brought to blows with those who have a vendetta against either him, or the company. These include The Big Five themselves, Gozaburo Kaiba, and his biological son, Noah Kaiba. Alister of the "Doma Arc" also seeks revenge for his little brother, who was killed in an attack by a military faction with artillery funded by KaibaCorp. Later, this attack is revealed to have been ordered by Dartz, masquerading as Gozaburo Kaiba. These clashes have often been the foundation of several story arcs in the series including Legendary Heroes and Virtual World

Relationships with Other Companies in the Anime/Manga
Most notable of Kaiba Corp's rivals is Schroeder Corp, headed by Zigfried von Schroeder. The Schroeder family has been rivals of the Kaibas even before Seto's takeover. They were also once a military dealer like Kaiba Corp. But when the past CEO went mad, Zigfried took power and changed the company to a games maker: as it would happen, this runs concurrently with Seto's rise to power, and the reformatting of his company to the gaming industry. Schroeder and Kaiba Corp both researched and developed holographic projection systems for Duel Monsters, but Seto's was patented and marketed first. Zigfried is furious over the fact that Seto always seemed to be one step ahead of him, and until his defeat at the KC Grand Championship, was obsessed with ruining KaibaCorp.

Another notable fictional company in the Yu-gi-oh! series is Industrial Illusions headed by Maximillion Pegasus. It is important to note that Kaiba Corp. technology, especially the Duel Disk, ran seamlessly with the Duel Monsters game, created by Pegasus and both companies have previously worked closely in conjunction. Kaiba and Pegasus are in fact old friends who met when Pegasus was still an active participant in the dueling world, although his bids for the ownership of KaibaCorp have since driven a rift between them. Pegasus still (somewhat mockingly) regards Kaiba as a friend, however.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom, the company SIC does similar work to that of Kaiba Corp. It is run by Scott Irvine, a former Kaiba Corp employee, who helped develop the Duel Disk 2. (He can be seen in the anime as well) Allegedly a gaming technology company, its true goal is to control the Egyptian God Cards.

Industrial Illusions
Industrial Illusions is the company that makes Duel Monsters, and (in the anime) publishes Dungeon Dice Monsters worldwide. The company is run by the Duel Monsters game's creator Maximillion Pegasus. He and Seto Kaiba were once old friends when Pegasus was still an active duelist. But in the Duelist Kingdom arc Pegasus teamed with Kaiba's old executives The Big Five in order to take over Kaibacorp in order to revive his deceased wife Cecilla Pegasus. In the Doma arc Pegasus bought over half of Seto's company but agreed to stop if Kaiba would duel him. Kaiba agrees and flies to Duelist Kingdom and duels him. However it is later revealed Pegasus was defeated in a duel by Mai Valentine and Alister was dueling him instead. At the end of the Doma Arc he is freed from captivity along with the rest of Dartz's prisoners. He is next seen in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Movie. Kaiba duels him in order to get a card to beat Yugi's god cards. He is not seen again in the English anime.

Schroeder Corp
This company was run by Zigfried von Schroeder. This company is exclusive to the KC Grand Championship ("KC Grand Prix") Arc. It is headed by Zigfried von Schroeder, who seized power when the past CEO went mad. It changed to a gaming corporation when KaibaCorp did.

Graveyard Field
The Graveyard Field was used only once during Duelist Kingdom (Joey Wheeler vs. Bonz). It was located in an arena inside a cave. While it is active, all Zombie-Type monsters get a 30% increase in their ATK and DEF. No Field Spell Card has been released that directly relates to this field.

Shadow Game
A Shadow Game, or Yami no Game (literally "Game of Darkness" or "Dark Game") as it is known in the original Japanese, in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the two anime series, the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (internationally simply known as Yu-Gi-Oh!), is a contest generally between two people that involves a harsh penalty for the loser. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories is revealed that Nitemare created the Shadow Games.

In some versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! story, the shadow games are games played given that the loser or someone who attempts to cheat suffers a harsh penalty, such as being killed, losing his or her vision, and/or losing his or her soul, an illusion forced upon the loser, etc. In others, the shadow games involve releasing monsters from stone tablets, and was played by Egyptian Pharaohs, with the fate of the world at stake. The Shadow Games are held in the Shadow Realm in the 4Kids English dub of the anime.

In the anime, it is stated that the Egyptians first allowed the Shadow Games. Using various means of sorcery, they send themselves into an alternate dimension where their duel would not be interrupted, and where cheating is strictly forbidden, punishable by death. In the Shadow Games, the sorcerors' skills would be tested by seeing how powerful of monsters they can summon, and how powerful a spell they can cast to power up their monsters. The power of the monsters could best be harnessed by the Millennium Items. Created for the purpose of defending Egypt, they were put into the possession of the Pharaoh and his six priests. However, Dark Bakura wishes to steal the Items all for himself, and tries to take the Items, both in Ancient Egypt and in the modern world. To do so, Bakura must play shadow games. Generally the rules of each "Shadow Game" would change based on the contestants in it. For example, when Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese) duels Yugi Mutou, summoning monsters and having them destroyed would drain the souls of the duelists. Moreover, the Shadow Games can commence only after the challenger makes certain rules that do not give anybody an advantage, but can test the stamina of the duelists as well as the duelists' skills. For example, Marik cannot simply say that all his monsters get an additional 10,000 attack points, but can state that the destruction of monsters erases memory or drains life energy.

In the modern world, the possesor of a millennium item can challenge another person to a shadow game, and if the other person loses, the loser is subjected to a certain power of the item against their will. However, the challenge need not be accepted. Clever challengers will attempt to entice the other person into accepting the challenge by offering a reward if they win; in the English anime, the Shadow Realm would ensure the promised reward is given. The Millennium Puzzle can temporarily force foolproof illusions onto people involving any sense if they are defeated in a shadow game. The Millennium Ring and Millennium Eye have been used to steal souls of losers and imprison them. All shadow games are possible for the person challenged to win. In the English anime, the Shadow Realm takes care of seeing to that, even if the challenger tries to rig the game.

A well chosen shadow game is difficult for the challenger to lose if the challenger takes advantage of knowledge about the other player's character flaws and/or weaknesses. A clever challenger wil set the rules of the shadow game in such a way that unless the person overcomes the character flaw or weakness, they will lose, and there is a lot of flexibility in setting the rules. And the average victim is unaware of the fact that they are being tested that way, so they tend to fall right into the trap set by the challenger. An example is the duel between Marik Ishtar and Mai Valentine, when each time they lose a monster, they lose a memory of a friend. This preys on Mai's fear of being alone, but while this stipulation also applies to Marik, he doesn't care, as he prefers to be alone. In this way, the rules of the Shadow Game affect both players, but only one of the players suffers from such rules.

In the English anime, even random events are often rigged by the challenger in the shadow realm, but that never makes it impossible for the challengee to win. Examples of how many Shadow Games in the manga could have been won: In the silence game, the powers of the Dark World kept the delicately balanced headphone plug from falling for an unusually long time, giving Sozoji an adrenaline rush to make his heartbeat louder. If he had thought to turn down the microphone's volume, he would have won.

In griddle ice hockey, if Goro Inogashira had not hit the puck so hard, the Puck would not have broken, and the bomb would have ended up on Yugi's side. In the Duel Monsters (Magic and Wizards) shadow game, had Seto Kaiba not cheated to bring out the Blue Eyes White Dragon, he would have topdecked the remaining card that would have allowed him to win against all odds. Both players topdecked good cards, and the dark world set it all up to bring out the test of Kaiba's character, which Kaiba failed miserably. The die in the dice game would not have cracked if the ZTV Director had not thrown it so hard. Dark Yugi's rolling a six was a rigged random event which he used to get an opportunity to taunt the guy and ensure he was angry at having to roll when it was not required. If the director simply refuses to roll, then Dark Yugi would have rolled for him, again giving the cracked die result. For the possessor of a millennium item, some of the randomness influencing properties spill over into the real world at times. In every game of capsule monster chess Yugi played, a win was possible with his lousy monster set, and Yugi wins in Kaiba's high-tech shadow game simulation.

Shadow Realm
The Shadow Realm, in the English-language version of the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (titled Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan) and several Yu-Gi-Oh!-related video games, is a place of eternal suffering where people can be sent to.

The Shadow Realm as presented in the English-language version does not exist in either the original Japanese-language Yu-Gi-Oh! manga or anime series, although a "Dark World Series" (Yami no Sekkai) is mentioned in the manga and anime (but never as a place of eternal suffering that a human could be sent to), and Shadow Games are depicted as occurring in another dimension. It was this other dark dimension that is the basis for the English-language Shadow Realm, which was essentially created to serve as a substitute for death. Loss of a Shadow Game, or a fatal wound inflicted by a Duel Monster, a Millennium Item, or any other mystical means will, rather than outright kill a character, condemn their soul to the Shadow Realm - a softer defeat, as it is established that a soul can be extracted from the Shadow Realm if need be.

The concept of the Shadow Realm is often derided, mostly for the basic fact that it is a result of the censorship of the darker aspects of the show, but also partly for some of the more preposterous insertions of the Shadow Realm - for example, while dueling the conjurer, Arkana (Pandora in the English manga and Japanese versions), Yugi Muto (Yugi Mutou) comes under threat from a "dark energy disc" which, if it touches him, will send him to the Shadow Realm. In the Japanese version, the disks were simply buzzsaw blades that would dismember the loser. Similarly, a tag-team duel involves the duelists dueling atop skyscrapers. In the English version, the windows they stand on shatter when the team loses, dropping them into the Shadow Realm. In the Japanese version, the windows shatter, and the duelist simply fall to their deaths. Conversely, on occasion, the idea intersects with some of the original visuals - for instance, when Marik Ishtar does away with Mai Valentine's (Mai Kujaku) soul, visuals distinctly show her soul to have been relocated to another plane, which the English-language version is then able to refer to as the Shadow Realm. Tying the concept together towards the show's conclusion, the demon, Zorc Necrophades, is credited with the creation of the Shadow Realm in the English version. Some characters are pulled out of the Shadow Realm in the English anime and the English-language video games.

The Shadow Realm is similar to the concept of Hell.

Field Power Bonus
In the Duelist Kingdom arc of the anime and manga, each Dueling Arena had the properties of a specific type of land mass. If a monster was Summoned on a terrain it favored, it would receive a 30% increase in its ATK and DEF. This is called a Field Power Bonus. Unlike Field Spell Cards, arenas sometimes had multiple types of field, that could power up different monsters depending on which Monster Card Zone they were played on.

The Field Power Bonus rule was also utilized in the first series of the anime. However, it didn't appear to matter what side of the field you were sitting on when playing monsters on certain field squares.

Locator Card
In the Battle City tournament, each duelist recieved 1 Locator Card containing a small portion of the Battle City map. Each time a players win a duel, they recieve their opponent's Locator Card. Once they win six Locator Cards, if they place them on their Duel Disks, the site of the Battle City Finals will be revealed.

Instant Attack
Instant Attack is a special ability seen exclusively in the Anime that only The Winged Dragon of Ra can use. Here is the effect:


 * If The Winged Dragon of Ra is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, it can attack on the same turn even if there is card that would normally prevent this from happening such as Vengeful Bog Spirit or Swords of Revealing Light.

Mind Puppet
Mind puppets are people who are under the direct command of their master. Strings was a mind puppet. Tea was also a mind puppet for Marik Ishtar until she was freed. Here is Tea during one of the times that Marik Ishtar made her his mind puppet.



Mind Slave
These are people who are under the Mind Controlling powers of others. However, they usually have their own personality as well.

Hierachy
Hierarchy is a term used to describe the rank of a Egyptian God Card. Slifer the Sky Dragon and Obelisk the Tormentor have a hierarchy of 1, while The Winged Dragon of Ra has a hierarchy of 2. God Cards are not affected by the effects of God Cards with a lower hierarchy, nor are they destroyed in battle by them either (excluding the circumstance that 2 or more God Cards with a lower hierarchy attack at the same time).

Orichalcos Stone
This refers to the crystal that powers The Seal of Orichalcos in the Waking the Dragons saga of Yu-Gi-Oh! (named for the legendary material Orichalcum featured in one of Plato's dialogues which also contained the characters Critias and Timaeus.)

X000
This figure is only used for calculating the ATK and DEF of Slifer the Sky Dragon.

X stands for the number of cards in your hand. X000 is the number of cards in hand times 1 thousand.

Egyptian God Phoenix


Egyptian God Phoenix (or Ra's phoenix mode) is a form of The Winged Dragon of Ra. In this form, Ra receives no battle damage. It may be safe to say that Ra, while in this mode, is immortal since an egyptian god is immune to card's effect in the anime. Ra's phoenix mode's most well known effect is likely that it may destroy any one monster at the cost of 1000 Life points. This effect was used on Joey's Gilford the Lightning by Marik and again on Yugi's Slifer the Sky Dragon and Obelisk the Tormentor (Ra failed to destroy Obelisk, however) once again by Marik. This effect was also used on Jaden in Yu-Gi-Oh GX by Franz, this time though, Phoenix destroyed all of Jaden's monsters. Ra may only remain in this mode for one turn however.

The Eye of Wdjat
The Eye of Wadjet is Commonly called the "Millennium Symbol", and only appears when a Millennium Item holder is either using "Shadow Magic" or when someone else is under the control of another Millennium Item. It also appears on all of the Millenium Items except for the Millennium Key/Ahnk.

Several cards feature the symbol as well. Most cards with the word "Millennium" have the Wadjet eye in the card artwork. For example, Millennium Shield is basically Big Shield Gardna's Shield with the Eye of Wadjet in the middle. Millennium Scorpion also has the Wadjet eye on its back. A Man with Wdjat (another spelling of Wadjet) has the symbol on his forehead and hands. The crop circle in the card Crop Circles also resembles an Eye of Wdjat.

Dueling Arena
In the Duelist Kingdom tournament, two players duel in what's known as a "Dueling Arena." Each arena projects giant holographic images of the cards the players activate. Some arenas also contain properties of a specific type of land mass that can alter a monster's ATK and DEF. Duel Areans were also seen in the KaibaCorp building, Kaiba Land, and Duke Devlin's gameshop.

∞
"∞" means 'Infinity', which means no other monster can destroy it except for those with infinite ATK and DEF as well. This has only been used for certain cards, for Horakhti the Creator of Light, Obelisk the Tormentor, Divine Serpent, Knight of Destiny and Exodia.

The Winged Dragon of Ra's Sphere Mode


The Winged Dragon of Ra's Sphere Mode is the form of Ra when summoned onto the field. While in that mode, Ra cannot attack, defend or activate any of its special abilities. Ra can only be unlock from its sphere if one reads the ancient chant. The Ancient, as seen in the anime is:

"Great beast of the sky, please hear my cry. Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight. Envelop the desert with your glow and cast your rage upon my foe. Unlock your powers from deep within so that together we may win. Appear in the Shadow Game as I call your name, Winged Dragon of Ra!"

In the English episode 221 when Atemu (Pharaoh Atem in the English anime) summoned Ra, he uses the chant but it is changed (the Japanese version uses the incomprehensible Hieratic). Here is this chant:

"Almighty protector of the sun and sky, I beg of thee, please heed my cry. Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight.  I beseech thee, grace our humble game. But first I shall...call out thy name, Winged Dragon of Ra!"

Point-to-Point Transfer


Point-to-Point Transfer is a unique special ability that only the The Winged Dragon of Ra can use. Based upon the Anime, use its effects are this:
 * Transfer all but 1 of your Life Points to The Winged Dragon of Ra. Ra's ATK and DEF is increased by the amount of Life Points given. The controller of Ra also joins with it.
 * If the owner is "separated" from Ra (i.e. by way of De-Fusion) they regain the Life Points they gave up, and Ra's ATK and DEF return to the value(s) before the effect was used.

Deck Master Abilities
In the Virtual Realm arc of the Anime, each duelist chooses a monster in their deck known as a "Deck Master." These Deck Masters stay off the field until the players decides to move them in. Each monster has their own effect. If a player's deck master is destroyed, he/she loses the duel.

Great Leviathan
This refers to the Orichalcos god. It was exclusive to the "Waking the Dragons arc. It was buried 10,000 years ago when Atlantis sank. Dartz, the king of that city, was brainwashed by the Orichalcos and told to resurrect The Great Leviathan using human souls. He had been doing that up to present day and hired three workers, Alister, Valon, and Rafael. He would also get Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood, Mai Valentine, and an unnamed Duelist. All of his crew would eventually get their souls taken by the Orichalcos. In order to resurrect the Leviathan, however, Dartz would need the souls of the three Duelists that hold The Legendary Dragon Cards (The Fang of Critias, The Eye of Timaeus, and The Claw of Hermos), Yugi Mutou, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler. In Yami Yugi's first Duel with Rafael, Yami activated The Seal of Orichalcos after Rafael gave it to him via Exchange in a desperate attempt to win the Duel. He would eventually lose and Yugi's soul gets taken away, leaving Yami behind. In his second duel with Mai, Joey collapsed from exhaustion in his Duel with Valon and therefore, loses by default. Dartz would face off against Yami and Seto in the final duel of the arc. With a Deck full of Orichalcos monsters, Dartz was too much for Seto and his soul gets taken away. However, using the power of the Legendary Knights, Yami was able to defeat Dartz and release the souls of Yugi, Seto, and Joey. Unfortunately, Dartz gave up his own soul, allowing the Great Leviathan and Atlantis to rise. In a battle in the skies over the ocean, Yami and his three Egyptian Gods were able to defeat the Leviathan and later, Yami was able to the release the Orichalcos from Dartz. Atlantis then returned to the bottom of the sea.