Disclaimer: I thought I'd type this up for no particular reason other than that I see we're using the term "The Rook" a lot, and perhaps there are some players out there like myself who are interested in learning the correct way to refer to them when typing or talking. This is in no way a lecture, and I am not a "Grammar Nazi", I will not correct you on your use of collective nouns outside of this thread. Enjoy!
A noun is a part of grammar designating a person, place, or thing. Collective nouns are a special type of noun that name groups of persons, places, or things. For example, President Obama is a person (a noun, proper noun to be specific) and the Senate is a collective noun (the group of persons who form a Senate).
Collective nouns aren't used very commonly to refer to non-human entities, but there are lots of them. A commonly known example would be a pride of lions. Here's a quick list of some other examples:
•A flock of birds
•A brood of hens
•A gaggle of geese
•An unkindness of ravens
•An army of frogs
•A den of vipers
•A culture of bacteria
•An intrusion of cockroaches
•A thicket of trees
•A herd of cattle
•A file of civil servants
•A banner of knights
•A cast of merlins
•A crèche of penguins
The difficulties with collective nouns begin when you start to refer to them in sentences. Would you say "The team showers after its tough game," or "The team showers after their tough game."? The answer is in what you want to portray. In the first example (its) the team is said to be shower together as a whole(in other words, the entire team is showering). In the second (their) the team showers as individuals(some of the team may not be showering). The difference is subtle, but important nonetheless depending on what it is you want to convey to your readers.
The odd part about The Rook in Glitch is that we don't actually know what the individual members of The Rook are called. A rook in real life is a member of the crow family, indigenous to Europe and Asia, and belongs to the genus Corvus, commonly known as ravens. Rooks are known collectively by at least four different terms including building, parliament, clamour, and (awesomely) storytelling. Since those terms aren't used in Glitch there is no deducible way to divide The Rook into smaller subsections as we could if they were called "The Parliament"; this forces us to always talk about The Rook as a collective. So, when referring to The Rook as a whole we would say something like "The Rook is attacking!" or "The Rook is attacking Yan Jaggery!" If however, you're talking about The Rook attacking something specific you should say "The Rook are attacking my pigs!" or "The Rook are killing all our trees!" since not all of The Rook is attacking that pig or tree. If you were to write "The Rook is attacking my pigs!" you would basically be saying that every individual bird is attacking your pig, in which case I pity your poor pig!
I hope you've enjoyed our little jaunt through the difficult street of collective nouns. Perhaps another lesson next week? We'll see! Until then, PARTY ON GLITCHENS!
P.S. I'm going on a 50-mile hike in Glacier National Park starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to play the next test! It's the only sad part about this trip, and I was tempted to cancel so I could play, I love this game so much! Have fun for me fellow Glitchens!
P.P.S. For a more in-depth analysis read the wikipedia article!