The 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 network of sun-glass beacon towers that rings the Empire's borders, anchoring the ward-arrays that hold the Blight at bay. Each tower is topped with a massive cut sun-glass prism — a "lanteen-heart" — that blazes day and night, fed by the lumen-tithe of every Awakened citizen. When a beacon dims, the ward weakens, and the Blight probes the gap.\n\nThe beacon-chain runs in an unbroken line from the Emberlight in the west, through the Ashen Peaks, along the edge of the Duskweald, and to the eastern coast — a wall of light spanning hundreds of miles. Each tower is garrisoned by Crown-Legion soldiers and tended by lumenwrights or Radiant Order adepts. They are lonely, dangerous postings — the Blight concentrates near the chain, drawn to the light, and Blight-Tears often open within sight of a tower's blaze.\n\nThe chain's fragility is the Empire's most closely guarded secret. Three towers have fallen in the last decade — two to Compact sabotage, one to a Blight-Tear that swallowed it whole. The wards in those sectors now rely on the Everflame alone, stretched thin. If too many beacons fall, the chain breaks — and the Blight floods in like tide through a broken dike.