Devout 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.
Not all citizens of Aethelgard accept the Awakening with resignation. The Sunsworn embrace it — and more. They are a cultural movement, not a faction: devout Imperial loyalists who volunteer for additional Awakenings, study to master their lumen output, and aspire to serve Phaethon's glory directly. Many Sunsworn children are Awakened earlier than the legal age, their parents petitioning the Order for special dispensation.\n\nThe Sunsworn are the Empire's true believers. They fill the ranks of the Radiant Order's lay-clergy, staff the beacon towers, and inform on neighbors they suspect of hoarding light or sympathizing with the Compact. To be Sunsworn is to be visible — solar magic bright enough that the lumen-tithe barely dims them. They glow faintly in darkness, a mark of pride they call "Phaethon's favor" and others call "a target."\n\nYet even among the Sunsworn, doubt festers. Some who burn brightest are also those most terrified of the flare — knowing that the more lumen you carry, the more catastrophic your detonation will be. The Sunsworn culture produces both the Empire's finest champions and its most devastating Flare-Touched.