Beneath the burning eye of the Sun-God Phaethon, the Aethelgard Empire enforces Mandatory Awakening — every citizen infused with volatile solar magic to hold back the Cimmerian Blight, a darkness that devours light and life alike. In the glittering capital of Solhrein, power is measured in lumens and uncontrolled magic brands you a heretic, while merchant guilds grow fat selling suppressants and rebels slip into the darkened forests to whisper prayers to the eclipsed Old Gods.
01
Essentials
Technologymedieval
Magicstandard
Seed3997370676
Themes
High fantasyTyranny and rebellionCost of powerLight vs. darkness
Common races
HumanHalf-ElfHalflingDwarfTieflingGnome
02
Geography
Primary terrains
plainsforesthillsmountainscoastswamp
Climate
temperate
Landmarks
The Beacon-Chainlandmark
The Black Thronelandmark
The Eclipse Altar
The Everflame
Regions
The Lumenscar Valleytemperate
Fertile heartland of the Empire, crisscrossed by sun-glass roads and watchtower beacons that keep the Blight at bay. Endless golden wheat fields feed the capital's millions.
The Duskwealdtemperate
A vast forest where the Blight has seeped in, dimming the canopy to perpetual twilight. Rebel cells and Old God cultists shelter among its twisted, light-starved oaks.
The Ashen Peakstemperate
A jagged mountain range studded with dwarf-holds and sun-glass mines, where raw solar magic bleeds from exposed crystal seams and earth-tremors shake the deep places.
The Emberlighttemperate
A lone lighthouse-fortress on a rocky isle at the continent's edge, where the Sun-God's Radiant Order tends an eternal flame said to hold the Blight back from the western sea.
The Cimmerian Deeparctic
The Blight's source — a lightless plane of absolute darkness where the eclipsed Old Gods were cast down, and where the shadow that devours the world gnaws ever outward. Reached only through tears in reality where the Blight has eaten through to the mortal world.
03
Factions
The Radiant Order
order · An ancient military-priestly order devoted to Phaethon. They tend the eternal flame at the Emberlight, operate the Inquisition's dawn-courts that judge Flare-Touched heretics, and police the boundaries of acceptable magic across the Empire.
Territory: Solhrein (headquarters), the Emberlight, watchtower beacons throughout the Lumenscar Valley
Goals
- Maintain the Everflame at the Emberlight and hold the Blight at bay
- Enforce Phaethon's doctrine and purge Flare-Touched heretics through dawn-court trials
- Control and catalog every Awakened citizen's lumen output
Values
The light of Phaethon is the only thing standing between civilization and annihilationUncontrolled magic is not freedom — it is a spark that lights the Blight's pyreThe ends of survival justify terrible means
The Lumen Consortium
guild · A powerful merchant guild controlling the mining, refinement, and sale of sun-glass and lumen suppressants. They profit from both sides of the Empire's agony — selling suppressants to the terrified Flare-Touched and sun-glass weapons to the Inquisition that hunts them.
Territory: Sun-glass refineries in the Ashen Peaks, trade houses in Solhrein, river ports along the Lumenscar
Goals
- Maintain monopoly on sun-glass refinement and the suppressant trade
- Secretly acquire Blight-tainted materials from the Duskweald for arcane weapons research
- Expand political influence until the Consortium answers to no Imperial office
Values
Profit is the only honest faithDependence is more valuable than loyaltyA crisis controlled is a market cornered
The Embergrove Compact
cult · A clandestine network of Old God cultists and Flare-Touched refugees who shelter in the Duskweald's twilight. They perform forbidden rites at the Eclipse Altar, seeking to free the Eclipsed Old Gods and shatter the Awakening that binds every citizen to Phaethon's will.
Territory: Hidden groves and cave-sanctuaries throughout the Duskweald
Goals
- Free the Eclipsed Old Gods from their imprisonment in the Cimmerian Deep
- Protect Flare-Touched refugees from Inquisition dawn-courts
- Undermine the Empire by sabotaging the Awakening infrastructure
Values
The Old Gods were not cast down — they were buried aliveEvery soul Awakened against its will is a soul stolen from its true divine patronThe Blight is Phaethon's weapon, not his enemy — it grows where he wills it
The Solhrein Crown-Legions
nation · The standing army and civil bureaucracy of the Aethelgard Empire — the secular arm that enforces Imperial law, collects the lumen-tithe, and garrisons the border fortresses. Caught between the Radiant Order's theocratic ambitions and the Consortium's creeping corruption of the imperial court.
Territory: Fortress-garrisons across the Lumenscar Valley, the border marches facing the Duskweald, the capital of Solhrein
Goals
- Defend Imperial borders against both Blight incursions and rebel raids
- Maintain secular Imperial authority against encroaching theocratic control by the Radiant Order
- Collect the lumen-tithe and keep the Empire's bureaucratic machinery functioning
Values
The Empire is the people — not the church, not the guildDuty to the Crown transcends personal faithOrder is the soil in which civilization grows
04
Threats
The Cimmerian Blightexistential corruption
A creeping supernatural darkness that devours light, life, and magic alike. It radiates outward from the Black Throne in the Cimmerian Deep, bleeding through tears in reality to corrupt the mortal world — and it grows a little stronger every time an Awakened citizen's magic flares beyond their control.
Manifestations · Blight-Tears: ragged wounds in reality where absolute darkness bleeds through, corrupting surrounding terrain into lightless dead zones, Shroud-cysts: pulsing black growths on living creatures that drain magical energy and twist the host into a hungering Blight-Wraith, The Dimming: regions where sunlight grows perceptibly weaker, crops fail, and Awakened magic sputters unpredictably
Signs · A spreading cold that no fire or magic can fully warm, Sun-glass and enchanted weapons flicker and dim near contaminated ground, Awakened citizens suffer surging, uncontrollable magic — the Blight feeds on the very solar energy meant to repel it, Silence: birdsong, wind, even footsteps go utterly mute as the darkness advances
The Flare-Touchedmajor other
Citizens whose Mandatory Awakening went wrong — their solar magic has surged beyond control, turning them into walking magical catastrophes. Some are mad, some are dangerous, and some are simply desperate people hiding from the dawn-courts that would purify them in Phaethon's flame.
Manifestations · Awakened citizens whose magic destabilizes into violent solar flares — damaging everything nearby, Flare-Mad: those driven insane by the Awakening, wandering as living wildfires that the Order hunts mercilessly, Hidden Flare-Touched living in secret on suppressants bought from the Consortium, one bad dose from detonation, Flare-Touched who have fled to the Duskweald and joined the Compact, weaponizing their unstable magic
Signs · A person whose skin glows faintly even in daylight, veins traced with molten gold, Spontaneous ignition of nearby objects when the afflicted experiences strong emotion, Animals fleeing an area or refusing to approach a specific building or person, Whispered rumors of someone 'burning bright' spreading through a neighborhood
05
Lore web
Cultures · 3
The Dusk-VowedA culture of quiet defiance — citizens who suppress their lumen output, whisper Old God prayers, and shelter Flare-Touched fugitives. They are not soldiers but a web of sympathizers the Order struggles to uproot.The LumenwrightsThe artificer-craftsmen who cut, calibrate, and construct with sun-glass — keepers of a craft older than the Empire, now squeezed between Consortium monopolies and the desperate demand for working beacons. Renegade lumenwrights sell their skills to the highest bidder.The SunswornDevout Imperial loyalists who eagerly embrace the Awakening — volunteering for deeper infusion, aspiring to serve Phaethon directly, and informing on neighbors suspected of hoarding light or consorting with rebels. They glow with barely contained solar magic.
Deitys · 2
Phaethon, the Sun-GodThe tyrant sun-god whose burning gaze illuminates the Empire. He demanded the casting down of the Old Gods and decreed Mandatory Awakening so that every soul might burn as fuel against the Blight.The Eclipsed Old GodsA pantheon of nature, moon, and star deities who ruled before Phaethon's ascension. Cast into the Cimmerian Deep, they are neither dead nor alive — and their faithful still whisper their names in the dark.
Factions · 4
The Embergrove CompactCultists and Flare-Touched refugees hidden in the Duskweald, performing forbidden rites to free the Old Gods. They believe Phaethon is the true tyrant and the Blight is his weapon — a heresy punishable by immediate purification.The Lumen ConsortiumThe merchant guild that controls sun-glass and suppressants — profiting from both sides of the Empire's agony. Beneath their ledgers lies a darker enterprise: experimenting with Blight-tainted materials to forge weapons even the Radiant Order would condemn.The Radiant OrderPhaethon's military-priesthood — keepers of the Everflame, judges of the dawn-courts, and enforcers of the Awakening. They believe survival justifies any atrocity, and their grip on the Empire tightens with every Blight-Tear.The Solhrein Crown-LegionsThe Empire's secular army and bureaucracy — the thin line between order and chaos, squeezed between theocratic ambition and corporate corruption. Marshal-General Dunmore fights to keep the Crown relevant as the Order and Consortium circle it like wolves.
Historical events · 5
The Age of DuskThe centuries-long age of darkness before the Empire, when the Blight covered the land and the Old Gods ruled from shadow — ending only when Phaethon rose and cast them down.The First TearingThe first Blight-Tear — a wound in reality that opened over the Duskweald during the Age of Dusk, connecting the mortal world directly to the Cimmerian Deep for the first time and driving Phaethon's ascension to full godhood to seal it.The Flare-Touched PlagueNot a disease but a cascading failure — the first wave of Flare-Touched eruptions during the early Empire, when botched Awakenings ignited chain-reactions across entire districts, scarring Solhrein and hardening the Empire's heresy laws forever.The Lumen ConcordatThe sacred compact that ended the Age of Dusk and founded the Empire. Phaethon's victory over the Old Gods was sealed by three oaths — the Crown would rule, the Order would guard, the Consortium (then a guild of glasswrights) would supply. Each oath is now a chain the signatories strain against.The Solhrein CascadeThe worst Flare-Touched disaster in Imperial history — a single botched tithe-discharge triggered a chain-reaction that leveled three city wards, killed thousands, and left a permanently glowing crater sealed under sun-glass at the heart of the capital.
Magics · 2
Mandatory AwakeningAn Imperial decree requiring every citizen to undergo a ritual that infuses them with volatile solar magic. The magic powers the Empire's defenses against the Blight — but it also makes every citizen a potential heretic if their power surges beyond control.The Cimmerian BlightAn existential darkness that devours light, life, and magic, radiating from the Black Throne. It is the reason Mandatory Awakening exists — and possibly the reason the Old Gods were cast down.
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