Cultures3
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.
Deitys2
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.
Factions4
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 events5
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.
Item1
Landmarks4
The Beacon-ChainThe vast network of sun-glass beacon towers ringing the Empire's borders — each blazing with tithed lumen-energy to anchor the ward-arrays that hold the Blight at bay. When a beacon dims, the darkness rushes in.The Black ThroneThe obsidian seat at the heart of the Cimmerian Deep where the Old Gods were cast down — now the epicenter of the Blight, radiating consuming darkness outward into the mortal world through every tear in reality.The Eclipse AltarA hidden shrine deep in the Duskweald where the Embergrove Compact performs forbidden rites to commune with the imprisoned Old Gods. The altar is a fragment of the Cimmerian Deep that fell to earth during the Age of Dusk — a wound in reality through which the dead gods can still whisper.The EverflameAn eternal pillar of living solar fire burning atop the Emberlight's lighthouse-fortress. Tended continuously by the Radiant Order since the Age of Dusk, it is the anchor of Phaethon's power in the mortal world — and if it ever guttered, the Blight would sweep inward unchecked.
Legal system1
Magics2
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.