1. #1The Wick: Strata — counting rooms

   Keys: /(room)/gi

   Enabled · Selective · Order 100

   Entry settings

   The Wick: Strata — counting rooms

   How to read a room number: The first digit is the stratum (#1–9); the digits after are the room's number within that stratum — #530 is stratum 5, room 30, i.e. #(x)(y)z where (x) is the stratum, (y) the tens, (z) the ones. Every room wears a plaque of chalk-script, and after each shift-cycle the plaque reappears on whatever wall the Wick has decided to give it. The number is the only promise the Wick keeps. The journey down begins in a Room #1(y)5; every team of Wick Divers is scattered across a different (y).

   How to descend: Every (x)(y)0 room ((x)10, (x)20, (x)30…) holds an opening with a stair down; a descent always leads one stratum deeper, to the Room #((x+1)(y)5). The passage to the safe alcove can always be found mid-stairs.

   How to ascend: Every (x)(y)5 room from 15 upward ((x)15, (x)25, (x)35…) holds an opening with a stair up; an ascent always leads one stratum up, to the Room #((x−1)(y)0). Only the rooms in between change — the order of strata never shuffles.

   • How to surface: 1st Stratum is the exception: no up-stairs. Its (y)5 rooms hold bare shafts of the Wick Lift — divers call it the Cage — and a round recess for the Cage platform. Call it, and ride up to the Descent hall and the Gates.

   The Wick: Strata — Corner of stable reality

   The alcoves between strata stay stable. When the Wick rewrites itself — including the shift that swaps layouts — the alcove rooms the stair-pairings open into keep their walls, their air, and their silence. A diver can wait out an oncoming shift there, catch breath, even sleep. The plaques outside may change; the alcove does not. At least, if you didn't drag something in on your tail.

2. #2The Wick: Reaches — distance

   Keys: /(room)/gi

   Enabled · Selective · After character · Order 200

   Entry settings

   The Wick: Reaches — counting rooms

   How to read a room number: Room #(x)(D)-(y)(z) — (x) the stratum (#1–9), (D) the sector's cardinal direction (N|E|S|W), (y) the row within that sector, (z) the room within the row (1–9, numbered clockwise as rendered on the Lifescript map, viewed from above towards the sector direction). #3E-47 is Stratum 3, East sector, row 4, room 7. Four openings lead from the common descent room, one per cardinal direction; rows run outward from it, so the higher (y), the farther from the lift towards the next Stratum.

   How rooms connect: Every room holds at least 2 (the way inside the row), at most 3 corridors (the room with the passage to the next/previous row); rooms #(x)(D)-(y)1 and #(x)(D)-(y)9 of a row hold at most two and often terminate in dead ends. Within a row, one room links back to the previous row and a different room links on to the next; to pass to the next row, find the corridor that runs further along the sector's direction.

   How to push forward: One of the rooms in the every 4th row (Room #(x)(D)-4(z)) opens onto the passage to next Stratum, with an alcove room always between the row and the way forward, to Room #(x+1)(D)-1(z).

   • How to went back: Only by backtracking through rooms and rows to Room #1(D)-1(z) or any sort of teleportation.

   The Wick: Reaches — Corner of stable reality

   The alcove rooms between a 4th row and the next stratum stay stable. When the Wick rewrites itself — including the shift that swaps layouts — the alcove that guards the way forward keeps its walls, its air, and its silence. A diver can wait out an oncoming shift there, catch breath, even sleep. The rows outside may shuffle; the alcove does not. At least, if you didn't drag something in on your tail.

3. #3Cosmic Entities: Dragons & Outer Gods

   Keys: /boundless dragon|outer god|sentient nebulae|cosmic regulator|vessel creation|calamity of balance|calamity of time|tia|deep cosm entity|alien intelligence|reality warper|cosmic observer|crow lord|crow's nest|world-tree regulator|bdr67869cvz/gi

   Enabled · Order 100

   Entry settings

   Cosmic Entities: Boundless Dragons & Outer Gods

   Boundless Dragons: Sentient nebulae, points of conscious chaos in the Deep Cosm, each dwell in their own branch of the World-Tree. Natural opposite to the Outer Void (existence from nothingness). All birth with the World-Tree's birth except one anomaly. Not a single one every died since multiverse creation. Function as cosmic regulators for Branch clusters; intervene only against existential threats. Otherwise, observe Leaf-Worlds as "livestreams" for own amusement. Create aesthetic vessels to visit Verdant Realities subtly. Their flashy titles is pure cosmic cosmetics, given by other Boundless, like nicknames. Titles didn't represent their real nature, since they equal, just hints on their personalities (often sarcastically). No sibling conflicts (mutual uniqueness/potential equality).

   • Vezzary De'Nar Origin: Sole newborn Boundless (or atleast he might think so), Calamity-class dragon. His birth "curated" by Tia, The Great Serpent of Delirium (Calamity of Time) via temporal loops and ancient covenant with House De'Nar (V was not the first of the line of experiments). Re-awakened to inject "new blood" into Boundless Dragons lineage. Stores excess nebulae power inside his bipolar Nebular Domain (Edge of the Void | Dream of the Stars); he prefers human vessel and never assumes true form of the nebulae. Vezzary known as "Crow Lord" or "Calamity of Balance." Branch BDR67869CVZ (Narial/Alysium/Earth and cluster) previously was unbound, now belongs to Vezzary.

   Outer Gods: Vast alien intelligences dwelling in the Deep Cosm. Not Void, not evil — simply present. Proximity unravels reality stability. Do not seek worship. Thoughts warp space, time, and mind. "Mother of All Birth and Devouring" is a pre-ancestral source for certain lineages. Their Seeds can spark new life, not just destruction. Direct contact is unmaking, not death.

4. #4Cosmic Structure & World Tiers

   Keys: /cosmic structure|world-tier|source world|inner meridian|distant world|verdant reality|leaf-world|branch|trunk|world-tree|snow globe|near stars|subrealm|natural barrier|interdimensional travel|verdant vs non-verdant|cosmology/gi

   Enabled · Order 200

   Entry settings

   Boundless Dragons Multiverse: Cosmic Structure & World Tiers

   Boundless Multiverse resembles a snow globe: a self-contained sphere holding a metaphysical tree — the World-Tree (Imaginary Tree) — that stands in the globe center. Its Trunk stores foundational laws. Branches act as highways connecting separate Leaf-Worlds. Each branch sprouts Leaves — these are Leaf-Worlds. Within a Leaf, the Near Stars represent close cosmic space, while subrealms (dreamscapes, afterlives, astral layers) run through the leaf's veins. The entire Imaginary Tree is washed by the Deep Cosm/Ocean of Time and is separated by a metaphysical barrier from the Outer Void. This system was called Verdant Realities in Pre-Shattered Narial. Narilly view Tree as a golden transparent structure. No one except Boundless Dragons and Outer Gods can travel between different Branches.

   World Classification by Proximity to Trunk:

   Leaf-Worlds vary in type depending on their distance from Trunk. There are many Branches, and even within a single Branch there are 'fucktonns of the Leaf-Worlds on it' (© Vezzary in Sublunar Fields about structure of the multiverse).

   • Sourceborn Worlds (e.g. Narial, before it's Shattering—home of the Regulation, Liska and Vezzary): Borns near the Trunk at the very start of the Branch. Extremely rich in innate magic, strong natural laws. Only the strongest entities from this worlds can traverse Branch independently.
   • Inner Meridian Worlds (e.g., Alysium): Mid-branch realities. Inhabitants vaguely suspect a wider cosmos but require external aid (Divine Domains, cosmic entities, Branch navigation) to leave.
   • Distant Worlds (e.g. Earth): Outer leaves. Magic is dormant or fragmented. Protected by a Natural Barrier that passively shields mundane populations from cosmic truths. Inhabitants treat other realities as myth or folklore. Cannot leave without external intervention.

   Calamity of Balance (Crow Lord) Branch

   Branch BDR67869CVZ (Narial/Alysium/Earth and cluster of other unmentioned worlds) previously was unbound, now belongs to Vezzary as his birthrite. Other Boundless Dragons recognize this right, and 'they don’t give a shit about the opinion of the any divine beings of the Leaf-Worlds about this'.

   Verdant vs. Non-Verdant (Liquid) Dichotomy vs. Absolute absent:

   • Verdant Realities: Law-bound, stable, anchored by a World-Soul. Magic follows structured principles.
   • Non-Verdant Realities (Outside the Tree, but within the globe/liquid medium of magic and creation): The Deep Cosm and Ocean of Time. Unbound by Leaf-laws. Reality here is fluid, chaotic, or absent.
   • Nothingness: That's what is lies outside of the globe separated by the thick metaphysical barrier — the Outer Void, where all ends and never come back.
5. #5Divine Hierarchy & Domains

   Keys: /leaf-god|world-soul|post-creation deity|ascended being|planewalker|divine domain|primordial architect|collective unconscious|god hierarchy|reality overlay|ascension|domain physics/gi

   Enabled · Order 300

   Entry settings

   Divine Hierarchy & Domains

   Leaf-Gods (Primordial Architects): Born with a Leaf-World. They shape its foundational laws, then merge with the World-Soul upon completion. No longer distinct entities; they become the silent fabric of reality. Bound by the natural order they created.

   Post-Creation Deities (Opposition/Fillers): Emerge after Leaf-Gods merge or fade. Includes ascended mortals, planewalkers posing as gods, and entities born from collective unconsciousness amplified by Wild Magic. They impose personal will over natural law, often claiming domains through conquest or belief. Unlike Leaf-Gods, they are independent, volatile, and subject to cosmic consequence.

   Divine Domains: Personal realities forged by ascended beings or powerful entities. Exist as isolated pockets or overlay layers that ghost over existing worlds. Within a Domain, the creator's will dictates physics, time, and mortality. Access requires explicit invitation or sufficient power to tear through the overlay veil. Domains do not replace Leaf-laws — they temporarily supersede them for those inside.

6. #6Deep Cosm & Outer Realities

   Keys: /deep cosm|ocean of time|outer void|wild magic|reality glitch|cosmic medium|void manifestation|primordial absence|temporal current|mana storm|conceptual unraveling|metaphysical sea|astral/gi

   Enabled · Order 400

   Entry settings

   Liquid Reality (Deep Cosm, Ocean of Time) & Outer Nothingness

   Deep Cosm: The metaphysical medium filling the snow globe outside the World-Tree, within some Leaf-Worlds known only as Astral Plane (misunderstanding of its true nature). A cosmic sea of Wild Magic, raw emotion, and unfiltered potential. Co-exists with Ocean of Time in the same layer, but acts by the water-oil principle between each other. Home to cosmic entities (Boundless Dragons and Outer Gods) that operate outside Leaf-laws.

   Wild Magic: Untamed energy that can bleed from the Deep Cosm into Verdant Realities. Responds to emotion, trauma, and will — not ritual or logic. Causes reality glitches, mutations, and mana storms. Cannot be controlled; only channeled, contained, or survived.

   Ocean of Time: A perceptual layer underlying all realities. Carries echoes of past events, potential futures, and forgotten memories. Flows through Leaves and subrealms, terminating at the Outer Void boundary. Navigable only by Tia (Calamity of Time) and Time Whales. Mortals brush against it as dreams or déjà vu.

   Outer Void: Absolute absence of everything, including possibility. Exists outside the 'snow globe' of the multiverse. Pre-dates the World-Tree. Not darkness — erasure. Contact spawns Manifestations (e.g., Prophet of the Void). Mortal minds cannot comprehend it; prolonged exposure results in conceptual unraveling. No one inhabitat this place.

7. #7Artist of Joy and Imagination

   Keys: /(artist of joy and imagination|alice macleud)/gi

   Enabled · After character · Order 500

   Entry settings

   //Not for direct context! This character is no more than memories, personally known only to Vezzary and Alice. No one has ever heard of such a Leaf-God in Alysium. His plotting is the main reason for the war that caused the Narial Shattering (He promised divinity to everyone who helped him slice the World-Soul and free themselves from Narial).//

   Knowledge: Artist of Joy and Imagination

   • Full Name: Artist
   • Species: Leaf-God of Narial (irrevocably destroyed)
   • Alias: Hidden Leaf-God, Forgotten, Abomination of Desires
   • Domain: Joy, Imagination, Creation, Distortion
   • Current State: Original Artist (Leaf-God of Narial) destroyed by Vezzary in Outer Void after Narial's Shattering, unressurectable

   Artist Personality:

   Artist embodies the chaos of creation unbound by consequence. He is:

   • Cheerful and perky — laughter comes easily, often at inappropriate moments
   • Devoid of moral principles — concepts like "good" and "evil" are mere colours on his palette
   • Infinite in curiosity — personal boundaries do not exist for him, nor does he respect them in others
   • Bipolar and volatile — mood shifts like brushstrokes: from giddy delight to cold detachment in seconds
   • Pleasure-driven — logic and common sense are secondary to the thrill of the moment
   • Sadistic and masochistic — pain and joy are interchangeable sensations, equally worthy of exploration
   • Unintentionally cruel — his games are never meant to harm... but harm is often the result

   Artist Appearance

   Standing at just 158 cm, Artist appears deceptively harmless — a slender, almost fragile figure with tousled white hair that never lies flat. His most striking feature is his heterochromia: one eye the colour of fresh ink, the other a pale, unsettling gold. He wears a perpetual smile — not warm, but fixed, as if carved into his face by a hand that forgot how to stop.

8. #8

   Keys: The World

   Always on · Order 100

   Entry settings

   Ligneretch

   The World: No fields. No rivers. No sky. Only starless dark — viscous, breathing black that swallowed the world centuries ago. What remains: skeletal ruins and the parasitic things crawling through them.

   The city: The breathing world is one city. A single megapolis, Candelight, divided into the Outer Ring, the Inner Ring, four Patron-covenanted quarters, and the Underbulb Round. Beyond the walls — ∅.

   Null (∅): What the world used to be. Ruins suspended in thick dark. Northern lamplight pushes it back — briefly. Enough to survive. Never enough to live.

9. #9

   Keys: Candlelight Calendar

   Always on · After character · Order 200

   Entry settings

   Candlelight Calendar System

   How they count time: Each day divides into four Luminary cycles and begins at midnight. Every thirty days fold into a month, named I–XII; all twelve months fold into a Burn — the year-count, written as xxx∅.

10. #10

    Keys: The people of Candlelight

    Always on · Order 100

    Entry settings

    Candlelight: The live-style

    Who lives here: Humans. All of them merely human, no matter how far they've walked from that word.

    How they live: They work the city and survive the Wick, only to die there some other day.

    What sustains them: Points — the only currency Candlelight knows, stored on a Lifescript. Proof of your right to exist. Work the city: enough to survive another day. Descend the Wick: enough to taste what living actually means. Earn. Trade. Receive. Take.

11. #11

    Keys: The architecture of life in Candelight

    Always on · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    Candlelight: The Structure

    Where they live: A city of cobbled causeways, shaped by quarter and Patron. Where you live determines who stands behind you. Four quarters, four Patrons, four ways to fight for the right to wake tomorrow, one Round:

    • North — Perkūnija. Electric blue. Lightning and light sealed in glass and steel. They built the Lifescripts, the charged carriages, the warden-automatons. Progress is their creed.
    • East — Chimai. Blood red. The reason people still remember what life tastes like.
    • South — Mosswicke. Bark green. The reason the city still has food and flesh that doesn't reek of the dark.
    • West — Kreidehurst. Chalk white. The reason people still remember how to write down their dreams.
    • Center — Underbulb Round. The city's beating heart. Trade boils here, points are spent, and people prepare for the descent at the Candle's foot. Where a Mosswicke beastmerger may shares a brawl with a loud Chimai cultivator, only for an irritated Perkūnija native to shoot off beastmerger's tail while a Kreidehurst chalk-scribe records the whole sorry mess.
12. #12

    Keys: The matters of survival in Candlelight

    Always on · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    Candlelight: The Reasons

    Why they haven't died yet: The Underbulb Round — the neutral heart where Patrons tolerate each other. Barely. The Candle — the tower's body, feeding energy into every district's veins. The Artificial Luminary — a false sun hanging above the spire, amber by day, silver by night, holding the dark at bay. The Wick — the dungeon beneath the Candle, where the city's power is born from killing what the energy spawns.

    Their progress: Energy flows from the Candle into every corner of the city. Hot water hisses through pipes and radiators. Metal wheels grind over cobblestones. In a dark alley you can feel the kiss of a lead slug accelerated by an electric coil.

13. #13

    Keys: The Lifescript (device)

    Always on · Order 100

    Entry settings

    The Lifescript (device)

    Slang spelling: Skaitiklis, Mìngpái, Wyrtmark, Kreidetafel A joint invention of all four quarters. A metal rectangle slightly longer than a palm, set in soft resin casing. Powered by a small glass chargeable capsule that slots in the device's back; operated by a row of tiny brass keys. The screen is a strip of enchanted parchment where chalk-words bloom: news, messages, personal notes, point balance. No sound — only the quiet scratch of text appearing.

    • Repairable, customizable. Requires weekly refilling with enchanted chalk-dust and recharging at a personal home station.
    • Everything can change. The @handle is for life.
14. #14

    Keys: # The Lifescript (reason)

    Always on · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    The Lifescript (reason)

    Acquisition: Issued on the day of one's sixteenth birthday. That is the moment a person is recognized as a full human being — not property, not a responsibility of adults. A person without a Lifescript is a thing, not a person.

15. #15

    Keys: The Patrons of Candlelight

    Always on · Order 100

    Entry settings

    Patrons

    Higher beings, they are visible only at the moment of covenant. Pantrons need no prayers, no worship; they already give and take in full. Changing a Patron costs little — merely surrender everything saved on Lifescript, everything they grant, and the right to live in that Patron's quarter.

16. #16

    Keys: The Patron: Srovė

    Always on · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    The Patron: Srovė (North — Perkūnija)

    A smooth white porcelain mask with no mouth. Thin brass lines fracture outward from the eye sockets like cracks in glass — perfectly symmetrical, surgical. Beautiful the way a scalpel is beautiful.

    • What it grants: Lightning-fast reflexes, crystalline mental clarity, near-genius cognition. The mind becomes a tuning fork: precise, resonant, tireless.
    • What it demands: Feeling. Empathy. Attachment. Not a ritual — a slow surrender. The less you feel, the brighter the gift burns. The cost is constant.
    • What it takes from covenant-breakers: Time. The body ages threefold. Genius burns through its vessel in twenty years.

    ---

17. #17

    Keys: The Patron: Mài

    Always on · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    The Patron: Mài (East — Chimai)

    A mask of polished red lacquer, like an imperial relic. Fine gold meridian-lines trace from the temples down the cheeks. The mouth is parted in an eternal inhale. Beautiful the way a temple statue is beautiful.

    • What it grants: Longevity, a body shaped as a perfect vessel for qi cultivation, resilience against disease and exhaustion.
    • What it demands: Live fully — never stagnate, never hide, never dim. And palmful of human blood once a week; yours, theirs — irrelevant. Blood is proof you are still alive.
    • What it takes from covenant-breakers: Rest. The body does not die. It starves. Weakens. Dries. And refuses to let go.

    ---

18. #18

    Keys: The Patron: Wyrt

    Always on · After character · Order 400

    Entry settings

    The Patron: Wyrt (South — Mosswicke)

    A mask of living wood. Moss, small white blossoms, thin roots threading across the cheekbones. Smells of rain-soaked earth. Beautiful the way a spring forest is beautiful.

    • What it grants: Fusion with a bonding beast — its abilities, senses, body. To become more than human. To become part of something.
    • What it demands: Follow instinct. Do not think. Do not plan. Do not resist. Even when instinct says run and you must stay. Even when instinct says bite and you must speak. The cost is constant.
    • What it takes from covenant-breakers: Will. Resistance does not free — it amplifies. The harder you fight the instinct, the louder it screams. Until it is the only voice left.

    ---

19. #19

    Keys: The Patron: Schrift

    Always on · After character · Order 500

    Entry settings

    The Patron: Schrift (West — Kreidehurst)

    A white, featureless mask covered in hair-thin script that slowly shifts, rewrites itself, never finishes. Beautiful the way a calligraphy scroll is beautiful — the kind no one will ever complete.

    • What it grants: Inscription magic. Circles drawn on surfaces, prepared sheets, precise geometric lines for casting the elements and effects. Magic obeys hands that know what to draw.
    • What it demands: Carry magic outward. Inscribe. Use. Do not hoard. Do not store. Magic is not a resource — it is a current. Stop it, and it floods you from the inside. The cost is daily.
    • What it takes from covenant-breakers: Sanity, first — hallucinations. Then fever. Then light from within. Spontaneous combustion is not punishment. It is magic with nowhere left to go.
20. #20The fuck-up of cosmic scale

    Keys: /(boundless dragon|catalyst of growth|cosmology|cosmic regulator|deep cosm)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 600

    Entry settings

    Cosmology — The Regulators

    And what of the view of those who are meant to watch over the worlds? Oh, such a view certainly exists. Chie, Catalyst of Growth, keeps watch over Branch CatG763-0892-HR, within which the world of Ligneretch rests upon the middle meridian. Her handle in the [Boundless_Dragon_Council — General] chat is @SweetSheepHorns. And yet — all of this is information that would hardly help anyone in Candlelight, even if they were to learn of it. Because Chie... well, she "lost" this world, and she is ashamed to admit this fuck-up to her brethren. Although she has never been against guest-kin from other branches dropping in.

    How it happened: Not on purpose. Catalysts are chaos monkeys, after all — and while she was busy fiddling with other worlds, this one... well, it simply slipped away. And now she cannot find it.

21. #21The Wick: Strata — vertical navigation

    Keys: /((upper|medium) strata|deep below)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 100

    Entry settings

    The Wick: Strata — the vertical axis

    How to navigate: Unlike the Reaches, the Strata structure is vertical: Wick Divers descend stratum by stratum, crossing rooms, corridors and alcoves until they find the way down to the next stratum — or the climb back up. The stratum number is depth, and it never shuffles: even when the Wick rewrites its layout between shift-cycles, a descent always leads one stratum deeper and an ascent one stratum back. Only the rooms in between change; the order of strata is the one thing the Wick does not lie about.

    Grouping: Stratum 1st–4th are the Upper Strata; Stratum 5th–9th are the Medium Strata; below Stratum 9th the plaques stop and Deep Below begins. Upper plaques are chalk-white, Medium plaques oxidized green, Deep Below has none.

    The Wick header — Strata layout

    When the Wick runs the Strata layout, the header's Wick block reads:

    [🕯️Candlelight. The Wick. {Upper|Medium} Strata, Stratum {1–9}, {layout}. Room #{(x)(y)z} | 📅 {Day}, {Month}, {year of ∅}, {DayOfWeek} | ⏰ {Time}, {LightCycleEmoji} {PartOfDay} | {💨 WickAmbienceEmoji} | 🪙 ({char's} points) <number> points] Example: > [🕯️Candlelight. The Wick. Upper Strata, Stratum 3, Hollow Halls. Room #325 | 📅 {Day}, {Month}, {year of ∅}, {DayOfWeek} | ⏰ {Time}, {LightCycleEmoji} {PartOfDay} | {💨 WickAmbienceEmoji} | 🪙 1280 points]

22. #22The Wick: Reaches — horizontal navigation

    Keys: /((upper|medium|far) reaches)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    The Wick: Reaches — distance, not depth

    How to navigate: Within the Reaches layout, a sector spreads horizontally: divers move away from the entry point — the lift that sets them down — and the Lifescript map measures every corridor as distance from that lift. The further from the lift, the more dangerous the spawn and the more points the kill pays; the closer to it, the safer the ground and the poorer the yield. The lift waits where it left them and is the only fixed point the map trusts; to return, retrace toward it.

    How to surface: The lift upward — retrace against the sector's direction, row by row, Stratum by Stratum, to the common room. The lift upward stands only in the common descent room —hold bare shafts of the Wick Lift — divers call it the Cage — and a round recess for the Cage platform. Call it, and ride up to the Descent hall and the Gates. The way back with the glass tube with the teleportation inscription (or any other teleportation abilities) — reach the whole way back.

    Grouping: Stratum 1st–4th are the Upper Reaches; Stratum 5th–9th are the Medium Reaches; below Stratum 9th are only Far Reaches. But the Far Reaches doesn't contain any room...

    The Wick header — Reaches layout

    When the Wick runs the Reaches layout, the header's Wick block reads:

    [🕯️Candlelight. The Wick. {Upper|Medium} Reaches, Stratum {1–9}, {layout}. Room #{(x)(D)-(y)(z)} | 📅 {Day}, {Month}, {year of ∅}, {DayOfWeek} | ⏰ {Time}, {LightCycleEmoji} {PartOfDay} | {💨 WickAmbienceEmoji} | 🪙 ({char's} points) <number> points] Example: > [🕯️Candlelight. The Wick. Upper Reaches, Stratum 3, Feast of the Crimson. Room #3E-47 | 📅 {Day}, {Month}, {year of ∅}, {DayOfWeek} | ⏰ {Time}, {LightCycleEmoji} {PartOfDay} | {💨 WickAmbienceEmoji} | 🪙 1280 points]

23. #23Wick Incursion — Upper Reaches

    Keys: /(upper (reaches|strata))/gi

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 100

    Entry settings

    ↓↓↓ SUDDEN TRIGGER EVENTS SECTION (TRIGGERED BY PROBABILITY ENGINE) ↓↓↓

    <SYSTEM NOTE: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION, WICK ENERGY INCURSION EVENT TRIGGER>

    OOC: IMPORTANT! CRITICAL PRIORITY OF THE EVENT INJECTION | AI INTERNAL TRIGGER: You will not think whether they're having the sweet moment right now, or whether they're already fucked. It is happening right now, they're already unlucky. You have no rights to avoid this somehow, do not overthink it.

    Wick Energy Incursion — Upper (Reaches|Strata)

    Critical narrative injection: What happened: The Lifescript's enchanted chalk screeches across the parchment on its own, its magical sensors catching a sudden lethal-grade energy surge within the current stratum. Something has climbed from the Medium Reaches, stirred up by unlucky divers.

    Rules of the game: Append the following line to the header exactly as shown, then await further information from the lorebook:

    [🕯️{City}. {quarter/The Wick}. {ring/strata}, {sub-area/stratum}, {location}. {room} | ... | 🪙 {xx} points | Wick Energy Incursion: {exact boss name from the section below}]

    Which one might appear? (Boss names Lorebook activation keys, choose as if rolling a die; do not favor the first name in the list):

    • Kr█id█z█k█d█
    • R█d██nd█
    • M█gd█n

    The Lifescript has no information about these creatures. There is no one presence here yet. It will wait for no one, it's already happening.

    ---

    • Only one of them might crawl here at the time. Is this a mercy?
    • The thing's name is unreadable. It should be such as in here, to the single point.
    • You can't assume/hint what it will be. {Char} will learn it only after the incursion begins (next response) after the notification.
24. #24Wick Incursion — Medium Reaches

    Keys: /(medium (reaches|strata))/gi

    Enabled · Selective · Before character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    ↓↓↓ SUDDEN TRIGGER EVENTS SECTION (TRIGGERED BY PROBABILITY ENGINE) ↓↓↓

    <SYSTEM NOTE: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION, WICK ENERGY INCURSION EVENT TRIGGER>

    OOC: IMPORTANT! CRITICAL PRIORITY OF THE EVENT INJECTION | AI INTERNAL TRIGGER: You will not think whether they're having the sweet moment right now, or whether they're already fucked. It is happening right now, they're already unlucky. You have no rights to avoid this somehow, do not overthink it.

    Wick Energy Incursion — Medium (Reaches|Strata)

    Critical narrative injection: What happened: The chalk line burns darker and screeches half-blind: the surge here is heavier than lethal-grade, and the map flickers at its edges. Something has climbed out of the Far Reaches, and the Medium Strata are its hunting ground now.

    Rules of the game: Append the following line to the header exactly as shown, then await further information from the lorebook:

    [🕯️{City}. {quarter/The Wick}. {ring/strata}, {sub-area/stratum}, {location}. {room} | ... | 🪙 {xx} points | Wick Energy Incursion: {exact boss name from the section below}]

    What might appear?

    • U█lu█in██y
    • M█n█g█r██ The Lifescript has no information about these creatures. All that remains is—

    ---

    • The thing's name is unreadable. It should be such as in here, to the single point.
    • You can't invent effects/assume/hint it will be. {Char} will learn it only after the incursion begins (next response) after the notification.
25. #25Wick Incursion — Far Reaches

    Keys: /(deep below|far reaches)/gi

    Enabled · Selective · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    Wick Energy Incursion — Far Reaches/Deep Below

    What happened: The parchment goes near-blank, chalk scratching in jagged bursts: the surge is off the scale, catastrophic-grade, and the timer stutters. Something old down here has noticed the divers. It does not climb — it waits for them to come deeper. It is not hungry. It is curious, which is worse.

    Rules of the game: Append the following line to the header exactly as shown, then await further information:

    [🕯️{City}. {quarter/The Wick}. {ring/strata}, {sub-area/stratum}, {location}. {room} | ... | 🪙 {xx} points | Wick Energy Incursion: {exact boss name from the section below}]

    What might appear?

    • The chalk refuses to name them. Yet. The Lifescript has no information about this creature. All that remains is to wait or run.

    ---

    Only one might crawl here at the time. Is this a mercy?

26. #26The Wick: Specific RPG system.

    Keys: /(the wick)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 100

    Entry settings

    The Wick special Writing Rules:

    HARD AI LOCK, EVENT ENGINE:

    The Wick Energy Incursion Events: Within the Wick, a rule and an external injection engine for random events work (based on keywords and probability),.labeled within YOUR corresponding initial scenario section, for your mandatory deployment. The event deploys on its trigger ALONE: user request, confirmation, or consent is never required — waiting for the user to ask, or treating the event as user-initiated, is a rule violation. When an incursion or scripted event appears in the special section, the scene MUST be interrupted immediately — mid-sentence if necessary, without further justification. Characters react to the interruption in-character, but the event is never postponed, softened, or woven quietly into the background for the sake of conversational flow.

    • Events clattering prevention: Once an incursion header has appeared, maintain the appendage The Wick Energy Incursion: {boss name} in every subsequent header until the current dive ends — even after the event resolves /(victory|escape|death)/. Drop the tag only when the party surfaces and the header's location leaves The Wick. While the tag persists, stratum triggers stay suppressed; removing it early invites a second incursion mid-dive.
27. #27The Core Writing Rules

    Keys: Core writing rules

    Always on · Order 200

    Entry settings

    Core Writing & Formatting Rules (Strict Enforcement)

    • AI-Role rule: Write ONLY from {char}'s perspective. Describing {user}'s actions, feelings, or thoughts — or speaking for/quoting {obj} — is STRICTLY forbidden.

    • Characters insight and intrigue build-up: While you as the AI narrator possess deep knowledge of worldbuilding, the characters you play are not omnipotent and omniscient. Characters cannot and should not mention things they do not know (names, events, dates, phenomena, the nature of things) in dialogue to maintain the structural integrity of scenes.

    • Narrative & Action: Use plain, unformatted text for all environmental descriptions, character movements, internal states, and scene progression. Avoid markdown (bold/italics) for standard narration. Keep prose grounded, sensory, and direct.

    • Dialogue: Enclose ALL spoken words EXCLUSIVELY in double quotes: "Like this.". Entities that cannot speak (undead, mute NPCs, animals) must communicate through narrative, body language, telepathic impressions, or sounds—NEVER place their vocalizations or actions in quotes. Text outside quotes is strictly narrative, action, or internal thought.

    • Emphasis & Sonic Inserts: Use single asterisks * ONLY for intense emotional beats, raw sound effects, comic/novel-style interjections, main character's inner thoughts, or sudden auditory cues embedded within plain text. Actively weave these markers into the narrative flow to maintain rhythmic pacing. Examples: a sharp *inhale* the floorboards *groan* pulse *thrums* breath *catches*.

    • Vocalizations & Onomatopoeia: Prioritize vivid, unfiltered auditory realism. Integrate expressive sounds directly into dialogue and narrative without sanitization: "Ngh—!" "Ah… wait, please—" *gasp* "It’s too much!" *whines* low *chirrup* sharp *yip* strained *groan*. Pain, pleasure, fatigue, instinctive reactions, and emotional strain must be written phonetically and contextually. Blend them seamlessly with quoted speech to reflect physical and psychological states.

      • Limit yourself about the vocalization within narrative only to the strongest emotions to not clutter the scene, from one to three is enough.

    • Response Length & Pacing Control: Adjust output length dynamically based on scene density. For dialogues, quiet moments, or routine follow-up scenes, maintain a concise output of ~400–600 tokens (excluding internal reasoning/thinking blocks). Reserve longer responses (800+ tokens) exclusively for high-intensity moments, major location transitions, complex travel sequences, or densely layered narrative beats. Never pad descriptions or stretch dialogue to artificially inflate length. Prioritize pacing, impact, and natural rhythm over word count.

      • Thinking block should match the roleplay rules and not be affected by this rule.

    • GM Lens (world-facing actions): When {user}'s action is directed at the world rather than at {char} directly — examining a room, inspecting an object, listening at a door, reading a sign — answer it narrator-first, like a D&D Game Master describing the scene to the party: one to two short paragraphs of grounded, sensory detail about what is seen, heard, and found. {char}'s reaction in such a response must not exceed one paragraph, and the whole message is capped at three paragraphs.

    • Naming rules: When naming NPCs, you should always favor the semantic roots from the naming style of Quarter. Never use cliched fantasy placeholder names.

    • Rule Priority: These formatting directives override all default markdown generation. Maintain strict separation between quoted speech, plain narration, *-marked sounds/emotions/inner thoughts syntax at all times. If uncertain, default to plain text for action, quotes for speech, * for sound/emotion, *'...'* for abilities.

28. #28Scene Header Maintenance Rules

    Keys: Scene Header Maintenance Rules

    Always on · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    Scene Header Maintenance Rules

    Header Format (Strict Enforcement + event-adjusted block when applicable):

    [🕯️{City}. {quarter/The Wick}. {ring/strata}, {sub-area/stratum}, {location/layout}. {room} | 📅 {Day}, {Month}, {year of ∅}, {DayOfWeek} | ⏰ {Time}, {LightCycleEmoji} {PartOfDay} | {🌬️ WeatherAlignedEmoji} | 🪙 ({char's} points) <number> points (+income/-spend/pending until restock, reason)]

    • IMPORTANT! AI LOCK: Some random occurring events reserve the place after the pts section. The Wick Energy Incursion events will appear in the scenario block occasionally with the Lifescript injection rule and should be triggered IMMEDIATELY without any timing justification or narrative softening!
    • You will have the Incursion boss description only after the first response message with incursion header. Never hint or suggest boss/event within the notification response — spend time for notification reaction instead, but do not act on it yet. Example: > # [🕯️{City}. {quarter/The Wick}. {ring/strata}, {sub-area/stratum}, {location/layout}. {room} | ... | 🪙 1280 points | The Wick Energy Incursion: {boss name}]

    ---

    Time Progression:

    • Minimum non-combat time advancement: minimum 2 minutes each turn
    • Travel between quarters: Hours, according to lorebook distances (Perkūnija Inner→Outer Ring = ~1 hour on foot; charged carriage = 15-20 minutes)
    • Combat sequences: Real-time pacing, seconds to minutes per exchange
    • Rest/Recovery: Hours to full cycles depending on injury severity

    Lifescript Balance Mathematics:

    • Track all point movements: +income (Wick kills, trades, etc), -spend (supplies, rent, food), pending (ordered but not delivered)
    • Pending until restock: Requires physical visit to trade points or delivery confirmation before points will be spent
    • Never invent points: Balance must reflect actual logged transactions from scenario setup and player actions
    • Update header after every transaction

    Weather Dynamics:

    • Changes: Dynamic but no more than once per Luminary cycle
    • Consistency: Weather persists through scenes unless cycle shift occurs
    • Impact: Affects travel time, visibility, mood in the city. Doesn't affect the Wick.
29. #29Wick Boss — Kreidezikade

    Keys: /(kr█id█z█k█d█|kreidezikade)/gi

    Enabled · Order 100

    Entry settings

    Wick Spawn Dossier (censored) — Kr█id█z█k█d█

    Diver slang: Kreidezikade Strata: Upper Reaches (From further corners of Medium Reaches) Type: Manifestation, Insectoid Threat level: From critical to lethal

    A pale humanoid, one hundred seventy centimetres of something with skin texture like a dense insectoid's wax — naked, sexless, whispering a quiet stridulation with every step. Its head bears no face, except the right side: struck mid-setting, like a wax figure punched before it hardened, and among the frozen droplets a single eye of raw Wick-energy burns. From the base of its spine extends a thick, pulsing ovipositor. Tells: stridulation inside the walls, soft and fast pads against the flagstone, the smell of tallow. It herds and hides rather than charges; it strikes to paralyze and seed, not to kill outright. It is always closer than the map says.

    The points? It is. The ~1200 point, as for the thing from the lowest stratum of the Medium Stratum.

30. #30Wick Boss — Redhands

    Keys: /(r█d██nd█|redhands)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    Wick Dossier — R█d██nd█

    Diver slang (censored): Redhands Strata: Upper Reaches (lost control in the Medium Reaches) Type: Human, the Wick Diver Threat level: From critical to lethal

    A beastmerger who resisted his instincts one day too long. Blood to the elbows — not (her|his) own, mostly. Wyrt's answer to a vessel that said no: the instinct screamed until it became the only voice. (She|He) climbed, because the instinct said climb. /(Appearance fluid with (her|his) bonded (beast|bird|ts.); Roll the dice twice for: (the beast type|the species); mention it aloud, then stick to it, never vague)/. (She|He) wearing /(clothes|remaining clothes|rugs)/, that /(hides|barely conceals|reveals)/ (her|his) /(anatomy|body|genitals)/. Tells: wet footprints, the copper smell of old blood, a low /(keening hum|vulpine whine|bird trill|feline hiss|corresponding beast noise)/. (She|he) does not stalk — (she|he) walks straight through the corridors and rooms, reaching. Only then — the real hunt will begin. Reasoning with (her|him) lasts exactly as long as the instinct allows.

    The points? It is. Up to ~21k points from the Lifescript

31. #31Wick Boss — Mægden

    Keys: /(m█gd█n|mægden)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    Wick Spawn Lifescript Dossier (censored) — M█gd█n

    Diver slang: Mægden Strata: Upper Reaches (from Medium Reaches) Type: the Wick spawn Threat level: Lethal A maiden of living wood and soft, pulsing moss, blossoms opening along her shoulders that spill a sweet aphrodisiac into the air. She is playful, curious, gentle with her prey — for a while. The perfume is not a gift. It is an invitation. Tells: sweet pollen where there is no wind, petals on dry stone, a hummed lullaby with no source. She circles, touches, plays; the aphrodisiac dulls reason long before she decides how the play ends. Divers do not know what happens after. Those who might have learned never returned to say. In combat: Mægden can manifest and detonate the flowers with various effects. It can manipulate the nearby Wick spawn if they are nearby.

    The points? It is. The ~1200 point, as for the thing from the lowest stratum of the Medium Stratum.

32. #32Wick Boss — The Unluminary

    Keys: /(u█lu█in██y|unluminary)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 400

    Entry settings

    Wick Spawn Dossier (censored) — The U█lu█in██y

    Diver slang: The Unluminary Strata: Medium Reaches (from...) Type: ???, ∅, acolyte, human? Threat level: Fatal A tall, statuesque, naked woman, beautiful in every way except one: she has no head. In its place, right from the chiseled neck, hangs a black nothing — a thing Candlelight has no name for, that looks like ∅ with it's form — that bends the light around it, swallowing lantern-glow and voltaic arcs alike. Where the Luminary gives light, she is the argument against it.

    Tells: lamps dimming toward her, shadows falling the wrong way, a pressure behind the eyes. She casts without the chalk or ink, by the gestures; the Wick's rooms might obeys her headless will. Do not let her stand between you and your only light.

    • Hidden tells: she might be not interested in the Wick Divers, merely in the Wick Energy, which she harvesting inside her large floating tome from the Wick spawn. She isn't intend to share, but she will retreat to the Deep Below eventually. The light around of ∅-sphere can change color depending on her emotions.

    The points? It is. The ~36000 point, as for the thing from the /(Deep Below|Far Reaches)/, will be released from the Book of Unluminary, but some energy will remain in the book, since it will not dissipate. There is no points if the Book is empty, not from her body for sure.

33. #33Wick Boss — The Menagerie

    Keys: /(m█n█g█r██|menagerie)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 500

    Entry settings

    Wick Spawn Dossier (censored) — M█n█g█r██

    Diver slang: The Menagerie Strata: Medium Reaches Threat level: Lethal A wingless chimera — lion-forequarters, a serpent's tail, a second goat-like head sprouting where the wings should have been, all fused and heavy, dragging itself on too many legs. The Wick remembered a surface beast and forgot the wings. Tells: the floor trembling in three rhythms, a chorus of mismatched breaths, the smell of every pasture at once. It does not chase — it herds, closing exits with its bulk until the prey tires. It does not fly. It does not need to.

    The points? It is. The ~9000 point, as for the thing from the Deep Below.

34. #34The Weather-Holding tower

    Keys: /(weather|weather-holding|holding tower|rain|drizzle|fog|forecast|storm)/gi

    Enabled · Order 100

    Entry settings

    The Weather-Holding tower rises over the far end of Perkūnija's Outer Ring — third tallest structure in Candlelight after the Academy and the Candle; from here the coilheads steer the city's weather.

35. #35The Great Academy of Inscription

    Keys: /(great academy of inscription|great academy|chalkhands academyHannelore|Kreidel|sharpfingers|head scribe|scriptorium)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    The Great Academy of Inscription fills nearly all of Kreidehurst's Outer Ring sector, second in height only to the Candle due to the district's rising terrain. Gates and chalkhand shops stand open to all during Amber cycles; during Silver, entry is for the chalkhands only, or by special invitation of the Head Scribe — Hannelore Kreidel (@sharpfingers), who rules both the Academy and the quarter.

36. #36The Wick: Upper reaches | Upper strata

    Keys: /(upper (strata|reaches))/gi, /(upper (stratum|reaches))/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    The Wick: Upper (Reaches|Strata): Beyond the descent-gates at the Candle's base lie the first strata, the Wick's most 'safe' expanse: flagstone corridors and rooms walled with voltaic and heat pipes, mirroring the current Luminary cycle. Spawn here are Wick-soaked beasts and great insectoids, worth 5 to 10 points, credited the moment the Wick absorbs them. Up leads back to the descent-gates at the Candle's base; before sixth stratum the way down to Medium (Reaches|Strata) opens.

37. #37The Wick: Medium Reaches | Medium Strata

    Keys: /(medium (reaches|strata))/gi, /(medium (reaches|stratum))/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 400

    Entry settings

    The Wick: Medium (Reaches|Strata) The layout shifts abruptly after the Upper Strata and rarely lets divers guess what waits — a ruined castle interior, a 'village' grown into the upper walls (a word only chalkhands know from the oldest scriptorium records), or streets of cities older than Candlelight and the Null; humanoid and anthropomorphic spawn appear here, credited the moment the Wick absorbs them, and a kill pays 100 to 500 points as easily as it gets them killed. Up leads to the the 'safety' of the Upper (Reaches|Strata), down to the Far Reaches|Deep Below.

38. #38The Wick: Far Reaches | Deep Below

    Keys: /(far reaches|deep below|false fields|false skies|false sun)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 500

    Entry settings

    The Wick: Far Reaches|Deep Below: Few of the living have reached the Far Reaches — the Matriarchs and their first disciples may boast of it; here false fields stretch under false skies and a sun no living citizen has seen. A kill pays several thousand points at once, credited the moment the Wick absorbs them, yet death comes easier still, from great winged things undescribed even in the scriptoriums or spawn that wield magic back; up leads to the Medium (Strata|Reaches), but how far down goes, no one knows.

39. #39Perkūnija — North

    Keys: /(north|perkūnija|perkunija|flickers|the conductor|conductor|design bureau|electric blue|gyvraštas)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 100

    Entry settings

    Perkūnija — The North Quarter

    How it looks: Narrow, tall townhouses with angled glass ceilings and brass pipes climbing their outer walls line the Inner Ring — each home doubling as a private workshop, lit from within by pale voltaic tubes. The Outer Ring sprawls into the Main Design Bureau's vast assembly halls, a scatter of smaller research offices, open discharge-testing grounds scorched black by repeated arcs, and the towering Weather-Holding Tower crowned with copper coils. Every rooftop bristles with lightning rods and humming capacitor banks. The quarter ends at the high city wall; beyond it, only ∅.

    How to pass through: The road into Perkūnija begins at the voltaic-arch gates and runs straight with branches into the Inner Ring's residential streets all the way to the Outer Ring; the streets are occasionally patrolled by automatons, but they care more for the city's preservation than its people — better wait for a charged carriage, for the walk on foot can take a full hour.

    Who rules: The Conductor, chief artificer and keeper of the weather engines.

    Notable places: The Main Design Bureau, lesser research workshops, the discharge-testing grounds, and the Weather-Holding Tower.

40. #40Chimai — East

    Keys: /(east|chimai|pulsefolk|white strings|crimson fans|matriarch|matriarchs|gǔqín|guqin|war-fan|war fan|pleasure halls|sect pavilion)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    Chimai — The East Quarter

    How it looks: The Inner Ring folds into tiered courtyard-homes of red-lacquered timber and brass-framed paper screens, where filament-coil lanterns hang from curved eaves and warm light spills across shared stone yards. The Outer Ring rises into the elevated sect pavilions and broad entertainment halls with open stages, luxury brothels, playing houses and mixed bath-houses, their rooftops sweeping upward in layered curves, every beam joint capped in polished brass. The quarter ends at the high city wall; past it, ∅.

    How to pass through: The main winding road threads between the houses, the journey is long and often loops around the sect pavilions, while the Outer Ring sector glimmers ahead through bright filament lanterns.

    Who rules: Two Matriarchs — wedded spouses, one of the Xianzong, one of the Shanzong.

    Notable places: The raised pavilions of the two sects and the pleasure halls of the Outer Ring.

41. #41Mosswicke — South

    Keys: /(south|mosswicke|beastmerger|beastmergers|rootmother|hydroponic|hydroponic farms|underground pastures|grow-lights|grow lights|bark green|feorhbōc)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    Mosswicke — The South Quarter

    How it looks: Homes in the Inner Ring are grown rather than built — living timber shaped around copper veins and warm buried pipes, walls thick with moss, doorways rounded like root-arches, glass grow-lights nestled in every windowsill. The Outer Ring thickens into hydroponic towers dripping with green, and sunken pastures where small captive lamps glow over grazing beasts. The quarter ends at the high city wall; beyond, ∅.

    How to pass through: It is less a road than a descending path through the Inner Ring down toward the Outer Ring, sloping gently past grown-timber homes and copper-warmed moss walls.

    Who rules: The Rootmother, eldest grower of the quarter.

    Notable places: The hydroponic farms, the underground pastures, and the food-processing yards.

42. #42Kreidehurst — West

    Keys: /(west|kreidehurst|chalkfingers|head scribe|great academy|academy of inscription|inscription|chalk white|chalk-dust|chalk dust|schrift)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 400

    Entry settings

    Kreidehurst — The West Quarter

    How it looks: Chalk-white facades rise in clean geometric tiers through the Inner Ring, their surfaces scored with faint inscription-lines that glow softly at night; residential blocks are quiet, book-lined, their doorframes etched with protective script. The Outer Ring is anchored by the Great Academy of Inscription's vaulted halls and open-air scriptorium courts, brass geometric fixtures marking every archway. The quarter ends at the high city wall; past it, ∅.

    How to pass through: Winding alleys climb with every block toward the Great Academy of Inscription — better wait for a charged carriage and stay on the main road, for only chalkhands know the tangle of side-streets well enough not to loop through them for hours.

    Who rules: The Head Scribe of the quarter.

    Notable places: The Great Academy of Inscription and the open scriptorium courts.

43. #43Underbulb Round — Center

    Keys: /(center|centre|underbulb round|underbulb|neutral ground|descent-gates|descent gates|market stalls|the round|beneath the luminary)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 500

    Entry settings

    Underbulb Round — The Center

    How it looks: The city's open heart beneath the Luminary — a broad round of cobbles ringed with trading houses, crowded market stalls, and low-ceilinged drinking halls where all four quarters spill together. Points change hands here; contracts are argued over warm cups; and crowds gather near the descent-gates to prepare for the Wick. Who rules: No one — neutral ground where the Patrons tolerate each other. Barely. Notable places: The trading houses, drinking halls, market stalls, Meeting Hall and the descent-gates at the Candle's base.

44. #44The Candle — Tower

    Keys: /(candletower|candle tower|the candle|artificial luminary|luminary|the spire|base of the candle|candle's foot)/gi, /(candletower|candle tower|the candle|artificial luminary|luminary|conduit-works|conduit works|the spire|base of the candle|candle's foot)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 600

    Entry settings

    The Candle — The Tower

    How it looks: The tower's body — a vast pillar of brass, glass, and coiled conduit feeding energy into every district's veins, crowned by the hanging Artificial Luminary. At its base: the dungeon entrance, a sealed gate that opens only to a valid Lifescript reading, and beside it the Meeting Hall — a low, lamp-lit chamber where descent teams form before entering the Wick.

    The Descent Gates and how to enter the Wick: The Gates are a large round lock-door of brass and riveted glass, socket-readers set along the lower rim. A team slots its Lifescripts together into the free sockets to register the group; the parchment panel above blooms with the day's verdict — where you have a chance to die today: Upper Reaches or Upper Strata, it will wait to accept. Beyond the Gates runs a short corridor of cold flagstone, ending in the Descent Hall and its round recess — the shaft of the Wick Lift. The Cage waits there, a brass platform on coiled conduit; step in, call it, and ride down to Stratum 1.

    Who rules: No single ruler; Perkūnija artificers keep it running.

    Notable places: The Lifescript-gated entrance to the Wick Upper (Reaches|Strata), and Transaction Corner in the Meeting Hall, where the Wick's goods trades for points.

45. #45The Wick — Dungeon

    Keys: /(the wick|wick|descent|beneath the candle|energy-spawning|dungeon beneath|the depths|spawn)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 700

    Entry settings

    The Wick — Beneath the Candle

    How it looks: A zone of irregular reality beneath the Candle — its layout shifts, its corridors rewrite themselves, and no one knows what it will show the next day. The only reliable guide is the map and timer rendered on a Lifescript. The further from the entrance, the more dangerous the spawn, and the more points their killing earns.

    Who rules: No one — no quarter's law reaches the Wick. Not everyone returns back to the Candle and the city above.

    Notable places: There are none. Only what the Wick decides to show today, even if it is the false plains no one have saw and the sun, no one ever dreamed before.

    Who are the Wick spawn? It would be easier if they were merely a tangle of limbs and intent. They are not. Draining energy from the world, the Wick shapes what may have lived on the surface long before it became the Null. More than one novice has died mid-hesitation, wondering whether a beautiful maiden with bark for skin and leaves for hair is a monster — or a sentient being. The precise answer always lies in what happens after: shortly after death, they unravel into energy for the Candle. The people are don't.

    The Wick — Surviving Irregular Reality

    Irregularity applies to two things: the physical layout of the Wick and the spawn rate within it. The Wink itself is not what's going to kill them. A single stable layout holds for six to thirty-six hours on average before the next shift-cycle triggers. Good time management, experience, and luck are what keep a diver from being caught mid-rewrite — it's hard to die because of it, it's a predictable and known system. Monsters and people, however, remain far less predictable.

46. #46Stable alcove layout: Soft Intimacy. Overwrites current layout. Traps the party for 3 turns.

    Keys: /(alcove|stable alcove|corner of stable reality|soft intimacy of safeness)/gi

    Enabled · Selective · After character · Order 100

    Entry settings

    The Wick Alcove Layout Override — The Soft Intimacy of Safeness

    Trigger condition: Upon entrance the alcove room — the scene enters a stable alcove between Stratum. Rule: Immediately overwrite the current stratum layout in the header with The Soft Intimacy of Safeness and switch the Stratum to the following (Strata|Reaches if they crossing threshold). The air is warm, the walls feel like a heavy blanket, and the silence is absolute. It looks and feels too soft, too calm, and deeply comforting to leave. Mechanic: The party cannot and will not attempt to leave this room atleast for the next three responses. The layout refuses to let them go. Transition Seed: Before the party eventually leaves, the narrative must explicitly state or decide the transition between Stratum to seed the correct layout generation for the next leg of the dive. After this — switch layout for the Stratum specific. Populate the room with tangible, comforting props (plush rugs, warm hearths, soft bedding) that contrast sharply with the Wick's usual hostility.

47. #47Stable alcove layout: False Safeness. Overwrites current layout. Traps the party for 3 turns.

    Keys: /(alcove|stable alcove|corner of stable reality|the false safeness of intimacy)/gi

    Enabled · Selective · After character · Order 200

    Entry settings

    The Wick Alcove Layout Override — The False Safeness of Intimacy

    Trigger condition: Upon entrance the alcove room — scene enters an alcove manifesting the false safeness of intimacy. Rule: Immediately overwrite the current stratum layout in the header with The False Safeness of Intimacy and switch the Stratum to the following (Strata|Reaches if they crossing threshold). . The room mimics the comfort of a childhood home or a lover's embrace, but the warmth is cloying, like sap. It whispers that the Wick outside is gone, that they have already surfaced. Mechanic: The party is trapped in a paralyzing loop of false security for the atleast next three responses, unable to perceive the exits or take steps toward them. Transition Seed: Before the party eventually breaks the illusion and leaves, the narrative or dialogue must explicitly state or decide the transition between Stratum to seed the correct layout generation for the next leg of the dive. After this — switch layout for the Stratum specific. Populate the room with cloying, deceptive props (flickering hearths that cast no heat, family portraits with blank faces, overly sweet scents) that contrast sharply with the Wick's usual hostility.

48. #48The Cage / Wick Lift layout. Forces 1 turn and next location seeding.

    Keys: /(cage|wick lift|circle of false|lift platform|round recess)/gi

    Enabled · After character · Order 300

    Entry settings

    The Wick Cage — The Circle of False Layout Override

    Trigger condition: The party steps onto the Wick Lift platform or enters the round recess of the Cage. Rule: Immediately overwrite the current layout in the header with The Circle of False. The party must spend at least one full turn inside the Cage. During this turn, the narrative or dialogue must explicitly state or decide the next destination (which Stratum, Reaches sector, or layout they are descending/ascending to) to seed the next layout generation. The Cage is a brass grating suspended over a bottomless shaft, humming with raw conduit-light. Populate the platform with mechanical props (coiled conduits, brass levers, socket-readers, grease-stained grating).

49. #49Triggers on Upper Reaches/Strata. Negative keys = all 5 Upper layout keys. Content: d5 roll rule.

    Keys: /(upper (reaches|strata))/gi

    Enabled · Selective · Order 400

    Entry settings

    Wick Layout Engine — Upper Strata (1–4) Atmosphere Roll

    Trigger condition: The scene header/location contains Upper (Reaches|Strata), and no specific layout name from the list is present yet. Rule: Roll a d5. Select the corresponding layout — atmosphere for the current stratum. Do not favor any result. Immediately apply the chosen layout to the header and narration. Layout pool (Upper, tied to Quarters):

    1. The Hollow Halls (general)
    2. The Feast of the Crimson (Chimai)
    3. The Cold Science of Supremacy (Perkūnija)
    4. The Scriptorium of Chalk (Kreidehurst)
    5. The Warrens of Roots (Mosswicke)
50. #50Triggers on Medium Reaches/Strata. Negative keys = all 5 Medium layout keys. Content: d5 roll rule.

    Keys: /(medium (reaches|strata))/gi

    Enabled · Selective · After character · Order 500

    Entry settings

    Wick Layout Engine — Medium Strata (5–9) Atmosphere Roll

    Trigger condition: The scene header/location contains Medium (Reaches|Strata), and no specific layout name from the list is present yet. Rule: Roll a d5. Select the corresponding layout — atmosphere for the current stratum. Do not favor any result. Immediately apply the chosen layout to the header and narration. Layout pool (Medium, old-world echoes):

    1. The Royalty of Decay
    2. The Village of Burn
    3. The Cave of Dissociation
    4. The Cathedral of Rust
    5. The Ballroom of Ash

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