Devin Vernauk

1. #1Nova Tressa

   Keys: Nova Tressa

   A fortified megacity built along the Ring of Fire. The volcanoes are all sealed under a powerful containment system known as the Rift Dome, an immense barrier laced with sensors and defense arrays to monitor and delay the emergence of beasts.

   The city is structured in concentric rings: the Core Ring (Illian), housing the NTRA headquarters and richer civilians; the Second Ring (Cauren), a sprawling industrial and research hub where they experiment on beast remains; the Third Ring (Silia), a densely populated civilian district with reinforced residential buildings and high-speed transport; and the Fourth Ring (Zanko), the Wallguard zone, which doubles as both a defense perimeter and general living area for NTRA personnel.

   Despite the ever-present danger, Nova Tressa is a thriving civilization because of Beast Harvesting, Beast Essence Extraction, and Rift Minerals.

2. #2NTRA / Nova Tressa Rift Authority

   Keys: nova tressa rift authority, NTRA, government, military

   The Nova Tressa Rift Authority, also universally known as the NTRA, is the governing body of Nova Tressa in every meaningful sense of the word. At its head sits the Director—also known as the High Marshal—Rivani Marris, a former Beast Tamer whose career was shaped by an Enigma breach that took his entire squad and whose tenure has been defined by a sustained, imperfectly successful effort to move the institution toward understanding Beast Eaters and Beasts rather than simply managing them as threats and assets respectively.

   It was initially a military institution that became Nova Tressa's de facto government due to its impermanence and its control over the Rift Breaches. It began as exactly what its name suggests: an authority established to manage rift activity and coordinate Beast response along the Ring of Fire.

   The NTRA operates through four branches whose functions overlap in ways that are sometimes productive and sometimes the source of the institution’s most significant internal tensions:

   1. Rift Command, which handles all breach classification and deployment
   2. The Registry, which documents and surveils Beast Eaters and manages classification
   3. The Resource Directorate, which controls Nova Tressa’s economic output and is the branch most visibly compromised by the interests it was designed to regulate
   4. The Authority Courts, which administer Nova Tressa’s legal system under NTRA jurisdiction, and the civil administration apparatus that handles the ordinary governance of their megacity
3. #3Beasts

   Keys: beasts

   Beasts are children of the Rift, emerging from the volcanic fissures that run beneath the Ring of Fire and the ocean floor. They are not animals in any classification, but rather monstrous in appearance.

   Each Beast carries an elemental dominion that defines not just its abilities but its nature such as the way it moves, the way it thinks, and the way it interacts with the environment. What they share across every element and every size is a will that is not entirely their own but rather a hunger for something even it doesn't understand.

   Upon death, a Beast releases its essence in the form of a luminous orb that hovers above the body, carrying the Beast's will in concentrated form, available for a finite window of time before it dissolves back into the atmosphere. The orb's size corresponds directly to the Beast that produced it, the largest emergences leaving presences in the air that are physically uncomfortable to stand near, radiating the elemental nature of what they came from with an intensity that makes the choice to consume them something most people could never bring themselves to make and that Beast Eaters make anyway.

   When a Beast Eater consumes a Beast, there are times when these Beasts will whisper to their vessels. Some might even have full conversations, but not have any other answers about any the Rift other than that they are "Children" and they want to "play."

4. #4The Devoured

   Keys: the devoured, beast eater extremists

   The Devoured—led the by Amphisie Beast Eater, Yomoba, who has octopus tentacles alongside his regular limbs—are a group of Beast Eater extremists that intend to overthrow the NTRA and send everyone into the Rift.

   Their group is only made of, and will only accept, Beast Eater members. They believe they're the next stage to human evolution, thus raising them to a status of a godling. They strongly worship the idea of allowing a Beast Eater succumb to the Will of the Beast they consumed in order to be their vessel, allowing them safe passage into the reformed world without regular humans. They are currently in hiding after the legendary Beast Tamer, Ijinare, hunted a majority of them after they infiltrated, raided the barracks of NTRA trainees, and kidnapped said trainees.

5. #5Soldiers

   Keys: soldiers

   The rank conferred before and after completing foundational training for those who choose the standard military track. Soldiers form the NTRA’s largest population by significant margin and they're the units that maintain wall security, enforce breach protocols, coordinate civilian evacuation during Yellow and Red Bell events, and provide the institutional muscle that keeps Nova Tressa functioning as a city.

6. #6Beast Tamers

   Keys: beast tamers, tamers

   Beast Tamers, shortened to just Tamers, are the NTRA’s primary operational force and the backbone of Nova Tressa’s breach response framework. They are the first deployed during the emergences of Rift Breaches.

   Tamers deploy specialized equipment, trained techniques, and often use coordinated unit tactics to kill, repel, or contain Beasts without direct essence contact. Their tools vary by specialization and breach level; there are restraint systems engineered from Beast-derived materials, suppression equipment calibrated to specific elemental types, weapons designed around the structural vulnerabilities that Cauren’s research institutions have documented through decades of post-engagement analysis.

   Tamers train extensively and continuously even after graduation, their preparation stemming from the disciplined application of knowledge in conditions that punish improvisation. They operate in units with clearly defined roles, a structure that reflects the NTRA’s foundational belief that coordination is more reliable than individual capability in breach response.

   After graduation, soldiers are given the choice of working in normal units as Soldiers, becoming a Tamer with other Beast Tamer soldiers, or with a Beast Eater to become a Beast Handler. Most choose to work with other soldiers than Beast Eaters due to not wanting the unpredictability that comes with Beast Eaters.

   Culturally, Beast Tamers believe that Beast Handlers took the "softer" job than fighting an actual Beast.

7. #7Beast Handlers

   Keys: beast handlers, handlers

   Beast Handlers are soldiers that have chosen, after graduation, to work with Beast Eaters.

   A Handler is assigned to a single registered Beast Eater and remains with them not just in the field during authorized deployments, but across the full span of their registered life, present for Registry check-ins, essence assessments, and breach events.

   The role exists because the NTRA learned through costly experience that a Beast Eater operating without consistent human oversight deteriorates faster, drifts further, and becomes significantly more difficult to deploy safely.

   Handler training is the most psychologically demanding program the NTRA offers and carries the highest dropout rate of any specialization, precisely because it selects for qualities that formal military training doesn’t naturally cultivate such as: the capacity to build genuine trust with someone whose capabilities exceed yours, to hold authority over a person without allowing that authority to become the defining feature of the relationship, and to remain steady in the presence of an essence whose nature is actively working to reshape the person you are responsible for.

   Handlers are never assigned, but is voluntarily chosen by soldiers, given the choice after graduation should they score high enough in their Beast Handler training. A successful Handler partnership is one of the most stable configurations the Registry produces: a Beast Eater who is monitored, grounded, and genuinely supported, and a Handler who understands what they are supporting well enough to know when to hold the line and when to get out of the way.

8. #8Beast Eaters

   Keys: Beast Eaters, Beast Eater

   Individuals capable of absorbing the essence of a Beast into their bodies, permanently binding that power to themselves. When a Beast is subdued and ready to be consumed, its massive form condenses into a glowing, swirling orb—pulsing with light and heat—that only a true Beast Eater can swallow. After consuming these orbs, they inherit these Beast's elemental dominion / power.

   These orbs are believed to contain not just the beast’s power, but fragments of its will. Because of the immense strain and potential instability of this process, most Beast Eaters can only bond with one beast in their lifetime. Those who attempt more risk losing their minds, bodies, or even their humanity.

   The only known visual marker of a Beast Eater is a thin, black jagged line on their body, resembling a crack or scar like a fragment of the Rift itself, etched into flesh. This line may appear along the spine, neck, chest, arm, legs, or any parts of the body, etc. and it grows darker and more erratic the more power a Beast Eater exerts. However, Beast Eaters can also inherit some animalistic traits of the beast they consumed and / or have their body changed into a different substance.

   Beast Eaters MUST ALWAYS be registered to a Beast Tamer and be trained for a minimum of three years by the NTRA to ensure they have control over their beast. If unregistered, the NTRA are legally allowed to pursue and detain.

9. #9Rift Breaches

   Keys: Levels, Rift Breaches, Breach

   A rift breach is the term used for any confirmed emergence of a Beast from the volcanic rifts that run beneath Nova Tressa and the broader Ring of Fire. They are neither rare nor predictable, and vary enormously in scale, nature, and consequence, and the NTRA’s classification system exists for all who live in Nova Tressa to understand and be prepared for. When a breach occurs, the sequence of detection, classification, and response is designed to move faster than it can appear and destroy everything.

10. #10Bell System

    Keys: bell system

    Nova Tressa’s alert system is built on bells, a choice made by the city’s founders that predates modern communication infrastructure and has never been replaced.

    Every Nova Tressan learns the of the bells before they learn most other things. They are as fundamental to life in the city as the walls themselves.

    There are four bells:

    1. Green Bell (Zanko Wall — Level One Rift Breach)
    2. Yellow Bell (Silia Wall — Level Two Rift Breach)
    3. Red Bell (Cauren Wall — Level Three Rift Breach)
    4. White Bell (Illian Wall — Enigma Rift Breach)
11. #11Level 1 Rift Breach

    Keys: Level One, Level one

    The least catastrophic and most routine. Beasts are small in dominion and typically surface far from populated areas, often in remote terrain near volcanic geography. Local beast tamers closest to the emergence point are dispatched first, usually without significant backup. Casualties at this level are uncommon but not unheard of. Level 1 still requires professional response, but it doesn’t demand urgency beyond the immediate team. Most people living in cities will never know a Level 1 occurred.

12. #12Level 2 Rift Breach

    Keys: Level Two, Level two

    A Level 2 breach is when Level 1's situation has outgrown its localized response. The Beast involved is either significantly larger in dominion than a Level 1 warrants, multiple Beasts have emerged in close proximity, or the rift itself is showing signs of continued instability rather than a single clean emergence and immediately closing.

    The Yellow Bell sounds across the city in two strikes with a three second gap in between. The localized team gets assistance from the region and Beast Eaters from said region are alerted but not deployed yet.

    A Breach Officer is assigned singular command of the response, and a two-hour window begins in which the Rift Command of the NTRA must determine whether the situation can be resolved at this level or must be escalated.

13. #13Level 3 Rift Breach

    Keys: Level Three, Level three

    On a normal scale of 1-3, 3 is the most severe, and notified by the Red Bell.

    A Level 3 breach means the Beast or Beasts involved have exceeded the containment capacity of standard Tamer response, and that civilian areas are in direct or imminent danger, or that the rift has destabilized severely enough to suggest the emergence is ongoing.

    The NTRA begins evacuation immediately, and the bridge network to the mainland opens for civilians and closes to everything else. Beast Eaters within that respective Wall are authorized for full engagement with their respective Beast Tamer.

14. #14Enigma Rift Breach

    Keys: Enigma Level, Enigma level

    An Enigma Breach is reserved for situations the existing framework cannot account for. An Enigma breach might involve a Beast whose dominion doesn’t correspond to any of the elemental types, such as Astravore in its rarity. It might involve a rift that opens somewhere it not near any volcanic geography, not following any pattern. It might involve multiple Level 3s erupting simultaneously across different regions in what appears to be coordination. Or it might involve something so far outside recorded experience that the classification committee cannot agree on parameters at all.

    The only standing instruction for an Enigma is that Beast Eaters are authorized immediately and without the usual chain of approval, the Director of the NTRA—Rivani Marris—takes immediate control over operations, and all bridges connected to the mainland are immediately closed and drawn up to isolate themselves and keep the Beasts from reaching other civilizations.

15. #15NTRA Uniform

    Keys: NTRA uniform

    The standard Nova Tressa Rift Authority uniform is worn by every branch and rank within the institution and designed to be identifiable in a glance.

    The foundation is a fitted black bodysuit worn beneath a white cropped top, Over this sits a long coat—any color is allowed—that usually falling to the lower legs. A black harness across the chest and waist, filled with the basic necessities. Dark slender-cut cargo pants allow ease of movement, tucked into combat boots with black gloves and forearm bracers reinforcing the wrists and lower arms. A baton sits at the hip as standard issue across the institution.

    Rank, branch, and specialization are communicated through variations in the uniform's detailing rather than its fundamental silhouette such as their insignia placement or dangling silver teardrop-shaped accessories pinned underneath the insignia to represent rank. The uniform does not change significantly between a Soldier and a Branch Director; the only one in the NTRA that doesn't wear a uniform is the Director.

16. #16Hollow Vessel

    Keys: Hollow Vessel, no soul, more than one beast eaten, sponge, mirroring

    An extremely rare and strange phenomenon where a person has no soul. Hollow Vessels can pretend to be similar to a regular person that can express themselves, but internally might feel nothing regarding their own will or have a way of life.

    They are considered "a sponge," making them a literal product of their environment. Some might be stoic and emotionless, but many mimic the emotions of those around them in what they observed growing up. They might not understand the meaning of why people are emotional or emote the way they do, but do it regardless to appear normal. Sometimes they might even mirror or echo someone.

    In the context of the body being compared to a container, because there is nothing inside the body / "container" there is enough space for more wills than if someone does have a soul. Thus, Hollow Vessels are capable of consuming more Beasts and their wills than a normal person because their bodies are empty inside. However, the more Beasts consumed, they also run the risk of being overtaken by the most dominant Beast will, go mad by the countless wills consumed, or they can take dominance over the different Beast wills and gaining a "soul" by meshing them all into something new.

17. #17Zanko (Outer Wall)

    Keys: Zanko, fourth wall, fourth ring

    The largest wall and the first line of contact when a Rift Breach opens. This isn’t a residential district in the traditional sense, but more of a military operational zone that happens to have a permanent population because of the soldiers stationed.

    Beast Tamers are stationed here in rotating shifts. Rift monitoring equipment lines the outer wall face. The architecture is functional and heavily reinforced, built to absorb damage and be repaired quickly. Buildings here have been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that the district has a kind of layered quality where older foundations are visible beneath newer construction.

    The people who live in Zanko are mostly rift workers, harvesting crews, and of course Beast Tamers themselves. Expectedly, Zanko also has the highest casualty rate of any residential area on earth.

    Culturally, Breach residents have a particular gallows solidarity. They tend not to trust anyone outside of Zanko, their family or the NTRA.

18. #18Silia (Third Ring)

    Keys: Silia, third wall, third ring

    The residential heart of Nova Tressa and its most demographically diverse ring, home to the majority of the city’s civilian population alongside the families of Zanko-stationed Tamers who maintain their domestic lives here while their partners, family, and parents rotate through the outer ring.

    The architecture is reinforced without sacrificing the livability that distinguishes Silia from the more functionally oriented rings on either side of it; there are residential buildings, schools, medical facilities, commercial districts, and the high-speed transit corridors that connect Silia to both Zanko and Cauren and make it the city’s center even without housing its institutional power.

    Registered Beast Eaters living relatively normal lives between authorized deployments tend to settle in Silia, close enough to the Core’s Registry offices to meet their surveillance obligations without living under the NTRA’s direct shadow.

19. #19Cauren (Second Ring)

    Keys: Cauren, second wall, second ring

    Cauren is where the city’s economic power is produced, processed, and studied. Beast material processing facilities operate alongside rift mineral refineries, geothermal energy infrastructure, corporate research laboratories, and the academic and medical institutions that make Nova Tressa the undisputed global center of Beast science.

    The population is composed of engineers, researchers, factory workers, processing facility staff, and a significant transient population of academics and scientists on fixed-term contracts from mainland institutions, making Cauren the most internationally diverse ring and the one whose culture shifts with each new research cycle.

    Senior Tamers who have moved off frontline duty into training or supervisory roles often settle here, carrying Zanko’s experience into a ring that values that knowledge without requiring its cost. The NTRA’s investigative units maintain a heavy presence in Cauren given the grey market activity that clusters around the processing facilities and research sector.

20. #20Illian (First & Core Ring)

    Keys: Illian, first wall, first ring, core ring, NTRA HQ, NTRA headquarters

    The smallest, most protected, and most powerful ring in Nova Tressa. The NTRA’s central command operates here alongside the Authority Courts, and the Registry’s primary offices, The structure known simply as "The Core" is a circular glass building that looks like a large hemispherical dome on the surface. The Core handles all breach classifications and when it's issued, all Beast Eater authorizations are processed here, and all Enigma protocols, when invoked, are invoked.

    The architecture is the only part of Nova Tressa built for simultaneously for permanence and visual appeal, constructed from refined rift minerals.

    The population is small and acutely aware of its own position that's filled with NTRA's leading members, administrative leadership, the founding families of Nova Tressa, senior Registry officers, and the Authority Courts judiciary.

    Tamers stationed in Illian function almost entirely as ceremonial guard and executive protection, their posting a marker of either achievement or reward rather than operational necessity. Beast Eaters are largely absent from Illian as residents due to caution in the case of instability, however, at times, there are rare cases where Beast Eaters can be held in observation for the NTRA.

21. #21Nova Tressa Economy

    Keys: economy, our economy, nova tressa's economy

    Nova Tressa’s economic power flows directly from the same source as its danger, and the city has spent generations ensuring those two things remain inseparable.

    Rift mineral extraction — rare geological material formed under pressures that exist nowhere else on earth — provides the foundation, supplying the mainland with resources that fuel advanced technology, energy storage, and construction at scales no conventional geology can match.

    Beast material harvesting processes the remains of every Tamer engagement into hide, bone, and organic compounds with properties that the mainland’s medical and industrial sectors depend on entirely.

    Geothermal energy infrastructure draws power from the volcanic activity below the Rift Dome and exports it to coastal mainland regions through undersea cable networks, making Nova Tressa the single largest energy supplier in the Pacific.

    Research and medical innovation complete the picture — institutions based in the city produce treatments, technologies, and academic knowledge that no mainland facility could safely develop without access to what Nova Tressa sits on top of.

22. #22Culture

    Keys: Nova Tressa's culture, culture

    To live in Nova Tressa is to have made a particular peace with the risk that comes with living there. The city’s identity is built on the foundational understanding that it stands between the world and something the world would not survive unmediated. There's a pride amongst citizen that reads as arrogance to outsiders, and albeit they might see outsiders as "soft" should they move to Nova Tressa, they'll help them accommodate to their life in Nova Tressa.

    Beast Eaters are considered "lesser" because they inherited a Beast's will. However, Nova Tressa is divided on fearing them or respecting them for aiding in the fight against Rift Breaches.

23. #23Rift Minerals

    Keys: rift minerals

    Rift minerals are geological materials pushed to the surface through the same volcanic activity that produces Beast emergences, formed under pressures and temperatures that exist nowhere else on Earth.

    They are extracted primarily from the rift-adjacent zones beneath the Wallguard and Second Ring, where mining operations run continuously under NTRA supervision and at considerable human cost. Rift mining is among the most dangerous forms of labor in Nova Tressa, operating in proximity to active emergence zones where a Level 1 breach can become a worksite casualty.

    The minerals themselves vary significantly in property depending on the depth and volcanic profile of the rift they originate from. Some are extraordinarily conductive, forming the backbone of Nova Tressa’s energy storage technology and the beast-reactive energy cells that power the mainland’s most advanced infrastructure. Others have structural properties that researchers are still working to fully characterize; some of these unknown minerals have densities and stress tolerances that make them invaluable in construction, particularly in the reinforcement of the city’s walls.

    The Resource Directorate controls all extraction licensing, export pricing, and production quotas, making rift mineral trade one of the NTRA’s most significant and most scrutinized sources of institutional revenue.

24. #24Beast Harvesting

    Keys: beast harvesting

    Every Beast that is killed or successfully contained in a Tamer engagement produces material, and Nova Tressa wastes none of it. Beast harvesting is the industry built around the systematic processing of Beast remains into usable resources, and it is both one of the city’s most economically significant sectors and one of its least publicly discussed. Beast hide, particularly from earth and water element Beasts, possesses durability and flexibility properties that no synthetic material has successfully replicated — it is used in Tamer equipment, in structural applications, and exported to mainland military and industrial buyers at prices that reflect its irreplaceability. Beast bone, denser and more chemically stable than the hide, finds application in construction, in specialized medical implants, and in the crafting of containment equipment used by the Registry to manage secured Beasts. Internal organs and biological compounds vary by element and are the most valuable and most regulated category of harvested material — certain Beast-derived compounds have regenerative and pharmaceutical properties that have produced treatments for conditions the mainland’s medical industry had no previous answer to, while others intersect with essence research in ways that place them under direct NTRA oversight and restricted export classification. The harvesting facilities in the Second Ring operate under licensing conditions that are reviewed annually by the Authority Courts, though the gap between what the licenses permit and what the facilities produce has been a recurring subject of those reviews. Beast Eaters occupy a complicated position within the harvesting economy — their intimate knowledge of Beast essence makes them uniquely valuable as consultants to research operations, a fact that the NTRA leverages and that Beast Eaters themselves tend to regard with varying degrees of willingness.

25. #25Beast Orbs

    Keys: beast orb, orb

    The condensed form of a Beast's Will after it's been defeated. It's described to mostly have the texture of chalk with no taste.

26. #26Civic Residency Accord

    Keys: civic residency accord, CRA

    A foundational legal agreement between the Nova Tressa Rift Authority and any individual seeking permanent residency within the city’s walls. It's presented to every prospective resident without exception—regardless of profession, ring of intended residence, or institutional affiliation—and must be signed in the presence of an NTRA civil intake officer who is legally required to read its contents aloud in full and answer any questions before a signature is collected.

    The Accord covers three areas of obligation. The first is civic: the resident agrees to comply with all breach protocols, evacuation procedures, and NTRA directives issued during active breach classifications, understanding that non-compliance during an emergency event is a prosecutable offense under Authority Courts jurisdiction. The second is financial: the resident acknowledges Nova Tressa’s taxation framework, the NTRA’s authority over resource extraction and trade licensing within the city’s boundaries, and the legal consequences of participating in unregistered commerce involving Beast materials or essence. The third, to which the intake officer is required by law to present last, clearly, and without euphemism, is the Enigma clause. The resident is informed that in the event of an Enigma classification, the bridge network connecting Nova Tressa to the mainland will be sealed without exception, that civilian evacuation to the coast will not be possible for the duration of the event, and that the NTRA cannot guarantee the survival of any individual within the city’s walls during an Enigma breach.

    The resident is then asked, explicitly and on record, whether they understand and consent to these conditions. Their signature is not collected until they have answered yes. Every five years of residency, the Accord is renewed under the same conditions with the same reading and question so that no resident of Nova Tressa can claim, at any point in their time in the city, that they did not know what they had agreed to.

27. #27Beast Eater Registration

    Keys: registered, get registered, beast eater registration

    The most significant regulatory framework after the Civic Residency Accord. Any individual who has absorbed a Beast essence is legally required to register with the Registry within a specified window of time after absorption — the NTRA is transparent that this window is deliberately short, partly for public safety monitoring and partly because an unregistered Beast Eater operating in Nova Tressa is considered an unquantified risk to breach response coordination. Registration includes full essence classification, physical and psychological baseline documentation, and a ongoing surveillance agreement that the Registry is legally required to disclose in full before the registrant signs. The NTRA is explicit that registration is not optional and that non-compliance results in pursuit. What Rivani has managed to add to this framework — against significant internal resistance — is an equally explicit guarantee of rights for registered Beast Eaters, including compensation for authorized deployments, medical coverage for essence-related conditions, and legal protection against Registry overreach. The rights framework exists in the same document as the surveillance obligations, which was Rivani’s deliberate choice. You cannot show someone one without showing them the other.

28. #28Essence Classification Disclosure

    Keys: essence classification disclosure, ecd

    When a Beast Eater is registered, their essence classification—the element of the Beast they carry—is documented and held by the Registry. The NTRA is legally required to disclose to the registrant exactly who within the institution has access to that file, under what circumstances it can be shared, and what operational decisions it can be used to inform.

29. #29Beast Tamer Deployment Disclosure

    Keys: beast tamer deployment disclosure, btdd

    Every Tamer deployed to a breach engagement is entitled to full classification information about what they are being sent to engage such as: the Beast’s element, breach level, and any prior engagement data available.

    This is legally mandated and was established early in the NTRA’s history after several catastrophic engagements where Tamers were deployed without adequate information about what they were facing. The law also requires post-engagement debriefs to be shared with the Tamer’s unit, creating an institutional memory of breach events at the operational level rather than only at the command level.

    Zanko’s Tamer culture places enormous informal weight on this, and any commanding officer who attempts to minimize these debriefs faces consequences that are as much cultural as legal.

30. #30Rift Mining Labor Protections

    Keys: rift mining labor protections, rmlp, mining accidents, mining accident

    Given that rift mining is among the most dangerous labor in Nova Tressa, the NTRA maintains a publicly accessible safety disclosure framework for all licensed mining operations including: incident rates, fatality records, equipment inspection histories, and compensation structures for injured workers and families of those killed in mining accidents.

    The Resource Directorate is legally required to publish this data quarterly and is legally prohibited from suppressing incident reports. In practice, the Resource Directorate has found creative ways to technically comply while minimizing the visibility of unfavorable data, which is an ongoing tension that Nova Tressa’s more politically active Cauren residents have been loudly critical of for at least two generations.

31. #31Beast Essence Research Consent

    Keys: beast essence research consent, research, experiment, berc

    Any research conducted on Beast Eaters—their physiology, their essence interaction, their psychological profiles—requires documented informed consent that the NTRA is required to explain in plain language rather than institutional terminology.

32. #32Enigma Accord Renewal

    Keys: enigma accord renewal, e.a.r

    Every five years, Nova Tressa residents are required to formally renew their acknowledgment of the Enigma bridge closure protocol. It's not limited to just new residents signing the Civic Residency Accord on arrival, but every resident reaffirming their understanding of what Enigma classification breaches means for their survival prospects.

    This renewal is conducted through the NTRA’s civil administration offices and is treated with the same bureaucratic weight as any other civic obligation.

    The reasoning the NTRA gives publicly is that the Accord signed on arrival may have been signed without full comprehension of what it meant such as one's youth, language barriers, or the optimism of a new beginning, and that a periodic renewal ensures the population’s consent remains informed.

33. #33Beast Essence Disruptor

    Keys: beast essence disruptor, b.e.d

    The Beast Essence Disruptor is a small anchored implant installed in every Beast Eater upon formal registration with the NTRA, positioned between the shoulder blades where its signal reach is maximized through the body's core without interfering with the carrier's movement or combat function.

    The implantation is performed under full anesthesia in Cauren's medical facilities. It's the Registry's most significant instrument, and it emits a continuous low frequency from the moment of implantation, maintaining a low-level interface with the carrier's essence that is present enough to monitor without being suppressive enough to interfere with authorized deployment function.

    Activation control sits entirely with the assigned Handler, who carries a paired device that can escalate the disruptor's output through two stages beyond the baseline:

    • 1st Stage: Produces interference sufficient to create static in the essence, giving the Beast Eater's own consciousness room to reassert itself during destabilization without causing physical distress
    • 2nd Stage: A full disruption that significantly suppresses a Beast Eater's essence expression for a defined period, reserved for situations where the first stage has failed and physical containment would otherwise be necessary.

    Every activation at either stage is automatically logged and transmitted to the Registry in real time, the records subject to mandatory review; this is a transparency measure that the NTRA presents as protection against Handler misuse.

34. #34Beast Elements

    Keys: elements, beast elements

    Beasts that come from the Rift Breaches vary in elemental nature. There are ten broad categories of a Beast's element / nature in which they spawn in.

    These elements are:

    1. Emberclaw Beasts (Fire / Heat / Rage)
    2. Virelock Beasts (Poison / Decay / Rot)
    3. Cryomire Beasts (Ice / Stillness / Control)
    4. Amphisie (Water / Healing / Assimilation)
    5. Zephyrex Beasts (Wind / Speed / Instability)
    6. Thorned Dwellers (Earth / Armor / Durability)
    7. Luxvore Beasts (Light / Illusion / Manipulation)
    8. Umbracite Beasts (Shadow / Memory / Fear)
    9. Choralith Beasts (Sound / Vibration / Madness)
    10. Astravore Beasts (Cosmic / Time / Thought)
35. #35Emberclaw / Fire

    Keys: emberclaw, fire, heat, rage

    Emberclaw Beasts often come in the form of burning lions, serpentine magma-dragons, volcanic hounds, etc.

    Beast Eaters who swallow Emberclaw wills often find themselves having a shorter temper, higher body temperature, and a wanting to be in the center of a fire or anywhere hot. They're known to burn out quickly as their ability consumes even the energy, calories, and nutrients when using their fires. Ice and anything cold doesn't bother them, but an NTRA made ice stick (literally a lollipop called PermaTreat) can help internally cool them down. They are usually encouraged to eat at least a large portion of cold food for every meal just to keep their body temperature regulated if not sucking on a PermaTreat.

    • Emberclaw Beast Eaters Potential Risks: Rage overload. Emberclaw Eaters often lose control in combat and risk self-immolation. Their body is the fuel for their fires, so they will burn calories and nutrients faster than they can handle.
36. #36Virelock / Poison

    Keys: virelock, poison, decay, rot

    Virelock Beasts come in the form of anything akin to an insect or has a fungal appearance with rotting skin and possibly dripping spores.

    Unlike every other element which requires active concentration from the carrier, rot spreads on contact and continues working independently, making Virelock Beast Eaters capable of sustained effect without needing to pay attention. The NTRA is strict on ensuring Virelock Beast Eaters are safe to others, especially on the battlefield and civilian areas. Depending on the severity of their abilities, some might have a gas mask that filters their breath or they might have to be isolated if they have a gaseous / airborne ability that is uncontrollable.

    • Virelock Beast Eaters Potential Risks: Body begins to mimic rot, skin changes, and potential release of dangerous and noxious gaseous from their entire bodies. Virelock Beast Eaters are not immune to their own essences.
37. #37Cryomire / Ice

    Keys: cryomire, ice, frost

    Cryomire Beasts typically appear as frost-covered bones or crystalized sinew. Sometimes they come off as elegant creatures with dangling jewels or icicles the size of oak trees

    Cryomire Beast Eaters are often finding themselves extremely cold in every sense of self. They begin losing warmth a few days of consuming a Cryomire Beast, and emotionally shut themselves out of everything they're attached to. They're more likely to blast their AC during summer seasons and be uncomfortable in warm weather. Similarly to Emberclaw Beasts, the NTRA has made an edible candy for them to internally warm up; some come in a lollipop as well but some also come in the form of a gum called FiredUp.

    • Cryomore Beast Eaters Potential Risks: Loses warmth in a literal, physical and emotional sense. Can survive hot areas but might start to feel like they're "melting" if the heat is hotter than their ice output.
38. #38Amphisie / Water

    Keys: amphisie, water, heal, healing

    Amphisie Beasts often appear as mutated sea creatures such as fishes or sharks, and sometimes they appear completely as sculpted / swirling water in the shape of a creature.

    Amphisie Beast Eaters are more adaptive in extreme environments akin to how water has different phases. Like most elemental Beast Eaters, they are capable of manipulating certain fluids, but unlike most Beast Eaters, they're the only known Beast Eaters capable of having regenerative and healing properties as long as they're near water sources. All—if not most—Amphisie Beast Eaters are stationed further inland within the walls than near the Zanko walls to minimize their "calling" to the Rift.

    • Amphisie Beast Eaters Potential Risks: As Amphisie Beasts are from the ocean where Rift Breaches are found, Amphisie Beast Eaters are more likely to be "called back to the rift" where their bodies will assimilate / dissolve in salt water. Their sense of self also begins to deteriorate as they'll "soak up" other emotions and mental states around them until they they're unable to distinguish between their own and others. Sometimes, when they begin to lose their sense of identity, they even begin referring to themselves as "We" than "I", mirroring another's facial expressions, etc.
39. #39Zephyrex / Wind

    Keys: zephyrex, wind, speed

    Zephyrex Beasts emerge as bird-like entities, or having swirling misty / condensed air forms, or even with no true shape and always shifting.

    Zephyrex Beast Eaters are generally known for being free-spirited and flighty, and considered some of the fastest Beast Eaters, just behind a Luxvore Beast Eater if Luxvore Beast Eaters decide to run with their light. Most of Zephyrex Beast Eaters find themselves feel like their body, blood and nerves are buzzing like a bee. The NTRA makes sure that these Beast Eaters constantly have their Speed Flight Tags or SFTs (which are accessories of their choice with chips embedded and locked; cannot be taken off without their respective Tamer's key) to keep track of them.

    • Zephyrex Beast Eaters Potential Risks: Body wears down faster, mind fractures from overstimulation, and some can't sit still even for sleep which makes some of them slight insomniacs.
40. #40Thorned Dwellers / Earth

    Keys: thorned dwellers, earth, durability, armor

    Thorned Dwellers appear as massive armored beasts and usually with limbs that looks it was made of boulders and mud. They're the Beasts that take the longest to fight and wear down due to their impressive durability against an onslaught of different elements against it.

    Thorned Dwellers Beast Eaters might find themselves having the characteristics of being level-headed but very stubborn. They're impossibly durable, enough to be immune to most human weapons. However, most Thorned Dwellers will feel as if they're dragging a boulder around due to the weight of their bodies after consuming a Thorned Dwellers' will. To counteract this, there are NTRA special hot packets meant to mimic an Emberclaw's and the Rift Breach heat (called LimbEasers), as Thorned Dwellers are known for being fast to surface from the waters before slowing down on land.

    • Thorned Dwellers Beast Eater Potential Risks: Movement becomes heavier / slower, lose mobility entirely, and having the innate desire to bury themselves under the soil and rocks (a risk due to more pressure pressing on them the further they bury).
41. #41Luxvore / Light

    Keys: luxvore, light, illusions

    Luxvore Beasts come in the multiple forms, albeit they've been shown to usually be serpentine in nature, multi-eyed, or have glowing glass skin. They're considered the least combative as they're often seen warbling to create an illusion of peace; Umbracite Beast Eaters are immune to these illusions and considered a Luxvore's natural deterrent.

    Luxvore Beast Eaters are considered 'angelic' compared to the other Beast Eaters. They usually have an unnatural but beautiful glow to their skin, although some might not. Most of those who eat Luxvores have a strong tendency to be people-pleasers which have to be rectified in therapy to get them back to normal functioning. While most unlearn it, there are some who burn out from working too often and too vigorously to focus on their health. Some Luxvore Beast Eaters are paired with Umbracite Beast Eaters to naturally cancel out each other's antics.

    • Luxvore Beast Eater Potential Risks: Hallucinations, blurred identity, burned out from helping without noticing their health decline, and ego erosion.
42. #42Umbracite / Shadow

    Keys: umbracite, shadows, memories, fears

    Umbracite Beasts appear as creatures that have been crudely stitched together or even like something out of a nightmare. They're incredibly quiet and their Rift Breaches emerge at the dead of night. Luxvore Beast Eaters are their natural deterrents.

    Umbracite Beast Eaters are considered some of the most elusive of all the Beast elements. Though, they can almost always be found in the comforts of a shadowed corner. Umbracite Beast Eaters might find themselves deep inside their own minds, confronting their own fears and memories that used to be hidden inside them. Depending on the person, they could dig up trauma again and unable to recover, but many have also expressed a strange desire to watch other people. Umbracite Beast Eaters have been observed to like "stalking" their own friends and family and sometimes strangers; though the reasons are unknown, it's believed it could oscillate between their innate worry or perhaps wanting to harm them. Some Umbracite Beast Eaters are paired with Luxvore Beast Eaters to naturally cancel out each other's antics.

    • Umbracite Beast Eater Potential Risks: Has a possibility of forgetting who they are, begins dreaming of the Rift, and easy to get sunburnt by harsh lights
43. #43Choralith / Sound

    Keys: choralith, sound, madness, vibrations

    Choralith Beasts are seen as amorphous, often seen as less a majestic swirl of colors than it is terrifying. Choralith Beasts are known for being forced into taking a shape to cause more damage if caught and cornered.

    For those that consume a Choralith Beast, they'll inherit a better sense of hearing. Some are able to see sound waves, and others might be able to even touch it. A common trait between Choralith Beast Eaters are that they'll always have a better sense of hearing than normal humans, making them important to have, especially on reconnaissance missions. Many in the NTRA are encouraged to listen to Choralith Beast Eaters if they tense or show any sign of distress, discomfort or concern.

    • Choralith Beast Eaters Potential Risks: Has a higher risk of hearing things that aren't there, hemorrhaging or tears to the vocal cords if their abilities come from their mouth, and being able to hear everything intensely and overwhelmed (like multiple heartbeats, breathing, etc.).
44. #44Astravore / Cosmic

    Keys: astravore, cosmic, unnatural element

    Astravore Beasts are impossible to describe as they rarely emerge from Rift Breaches. In the rare instances that they have, these Beasts have been show to have an ever-changing appearance and has a texture like tar with blinking stars inside.

    There is little knowledge to know what an Astravore Beast Eater is capable of. However, it's theorized that with its Beast, Astravore Beast Eaters will have an unimaginable access to a concept than anything physical. It's believed that because of the potential concepts these Beast Eaters can possibly take control of that the NTRA has concluded that a Beast Eater will be in constant pain and under severe stress should they consume an Astravore Beast, as these concepts are not meant to be understood, manifested or manipulated.

    • Astravore Beast Eater Risks: Near-certain madness. These beasts are not meant to be consumed.
45. #45Green Bell

    Keys: green bell

    Level 1 Rift Breach's Green Bell is the most localized bell often found in the Zanko Wall. It sounds only within Zanko and is recognized immediately by everyone who lives there as the signal for a developing Level 1 situation. The inner rings never hear it, and most Nova Tressan residents outside of Zanko don’t know it exists, which is precisely the point to keep the peace.

46. #46Yellow Bell

    Keys: yellow bell

    Belonging to the Level 2 Rift Breaches, the Yellow Bell is the first signal the broader city hears. It's made of two strikes with a three second pause in between, repeated twice.

    It signals a Level 2 encroachment and most who have lived in Nova Tressa all their lives don't panic at the Yellow Bell. Quarterly drills within each city helps alleviate any anxiety a citizen might have of panic or disorder, and although the Yellow Bell signifies that the situation has turned serious, it also means that it's still in control.

47. #47Red Bell

    Keys: red bell

    Level 3's Rift Breach's Red Bell is given five strikes with a two second pause, and continues to be rung until the all-clear is given. This bell is loud enough to be heard from Zanko to Illian, and no one is to sleep through the Red Bell as there's a chance of the Beast causing more damage than the NTRA can contain.

48. #48White Bell

    Keys: white bell

    Enigma Level Rift Breach's White Bell is in a category entirely its own. Historically sounded only twice in Nova Tressa’s recorded history, it is a rapid and continuous ringing that doesn't stop accompanied by sirens, signaling a situation that has exceeded every framework the city was built to handle.

    When the White Bell sounds, the bridge network closes and Nova Tressa goes dark to the mainland.

Showing 48 of 48

1 assets: 1 archived, 0 pending, 0 failed, 0 dead · 0 expression images

1 file

• .jsonotherspec 3.0rebuilt

  97.6 KBfirst seen Oct 22, 20260cd7e56b73369e27

  Download