The Imperial tax levied not in gold but in measured solar magic — every Awakened citizen must periodically discharge stored lumen-energy into sun-glass receptacles at Crown-Legion collection altars, powering the Empire's beacon network and warding arrays.
The lumen-tithe is the beating heart of the Empire's magical infrastructure — and its most hated burden. Every Awakened citizen, from farmhand to aristocrat, must report to a Crown-Legion collection altar at least once per season and discharge a measured portion of their accumulated solar magic into sun-glass receptacles. The channeled energy is distributed across the Empire's beacon towers, warding networks, and the Everflame itself.\n\nDischarging the tithe is painful — a deliberate mini-flare that leaves the donor weakened for days. Those who hoard their light, or whose output registers too low (suggesting they've been using suppressants to dull their Awakening), face investigation. Those whose output registers too high risk being flagged for the dawn-courts as potential Flare-Touched.\n\nThe Crown-Legions administer the tithe, but the Radiant Order oversees the thresholds — and the Consortium skims a percentage of every collection through "refinement fees." It is a system that makes every citizen complicit in their own subjugation, and every faction feeds from the same trough.