What is the best way to manage terror?

None of the answers seem to mention this invaluable tip:

Addition to the Terror meter (the circle next to the terror bar) is calculated at distinct intervals, not continuously over time. If you are not illuminated at all, or have a single source of illumination, that interval appears to be about every 1 to 1.2 seconds (fast). If you have 2 or more sources of illumination, it appears to be about every 3 seconds (slow). Your lamp counts as a source of illumination, but burns fuel at a rate of 1/100^th of a fuel barrel per second.

On each tick,

If you have 0 illumination, you gain 2/10s of a point of Terror on the next tick, the Terror meter will be red, your green deck lanterns will turn on, and the next tick will be fast.

If you have 1 illumination, you gain 1/10 of a point of Terror on the next tick, the Terror meter will be yellow, your green deck lanterns will turn off, and the next tick will be fast.

If you have 2+ illumination, you LOSE 1/10 of a point of terror on the next tick, the Terror meter will be green, your green deck lanterns will turn off, and the next tick will be SLOW.

Therefore the most effective way of keeping terror down without burning all your fuel is:

1. Route through highly-illuminated areas. This includes the Lighthouses, buoys, and the coasts of cities, among a few other things.
2. Toggle your lamp on and off so that it is only ever on for a fraction of a second, DURING the tick, so that your terror change is limited to +1/-1.
3. Keep your lamp off if the Terror meter is at 0/10 points towards the next point of Terror and you are already at 1 illumination. You cannot lose a point of Terror this way, so you will just move to +1, which you can (usually) lose on the next tick.

The green deck lanterns are simply a visual queue that Terror is rising rapidly, they do not have an impact on gameplay.

I made that, which covers the major places to reduce terror (they're basically all the ones around the edge).

Safe(ish):

• Western Coast: London, Venderbight, Cumaean Canal, Whither
• Northern Coast: Frostfound, Irem
• Eastern Coast: Chelonate (risky)
• Southern Coast: Port Carnelian, Adam's Way, Kingeater's Castle

The eastern corner ones (Irem/Kingeater's Castle), especially, have some awesome terror reduction, I suspect specifically because they're quite far from home. Irem needs a sack of darkdrop coffee, though, to open up the option (but you should always keep a wine and coffee on you for random events).

There are some passable but risky ways to reduce terror on all the islands which are randomly positioned, but a lot of them come down to a random check (Grand Geode, can backfire horrifically) or a rough stat check (Chelonate can remove 15 terror for 30 gold, or kill crew but it's an ~150 iron check). Other places are a bit of a lucky dip, usually expensive.

Also, shoot for a kid. Carouse Wolfstack twice, and speak to the same person. Your kid reduces terror by 20 when in London.

Something awaits you can be a risky way to manage terror. Sure, there are a few which save you, but there are also a HEAP of ways it can add terror and other bad things, which is not great if you're already near the limit.

In addition to the methods mentioned already, there's an emergency measure that has saved me at least once: the crew won't mutiny unless there are at least 4 of them. If you aren't going to make it back to London before you reach 100 terror, stop in the nearest port, remove the avid suppressor, then start running at full power until the explosions kill off most of your crew. (You're likely to get other bad events while you're sitting at 100 terror, but at least it won't be the mutiny.)

Hit Surface and haul some cargos. It's not only quite rewarding in E, it also, at the same time, drops your Terror to 0 almost instantly.

If you can't (too high Menaces or distance from Cumaean Canal), simply kill everything you can. YMMV depending on amount of monsters encountered and available firepower.

If that's not an option either, simply get into romance with one of your Officers for an instant Terror drop. Note that this can have a severe impact on your family (i.e. you can lose it easily).