FC sets and twisters: the basics of orbifold deconstruction

We present a detailed account of the properties of twisters and their generalizations, FC sets, which are essential ingredients of the orbifold deconstruction procedure aimed at recognizing whether a given conformal model may be obtained as an orbifold of another one, and if so, to identify the twist group and the original model. The close analogy with the character theory of finite groups is discussed, and its origin explained.