Burning Daylight

SETTING BIBLE: Project [Caelea] I. Geography & Cosmology

The World

• Name: Caelea
• The Continent: Kaldor (The main theater of the conflict).
• The Western Archipelago: The Prism Isles (Elven Homeland across the sea).

The Three Realms Reality consists of three overlapping layers:

• Mundus (The Material): The physical world. Industrial, gritty, covered in tracks and trenches.
• The Lumina (The Spirit Realm): A blinding, vibrant dimension of pure life force and potential. It acts as a protective atmosphere for reality.
• The Umbra (The Shadow Realm): A cold, entropic void beneath reality. It presses against the Lumina.

II. The Power Source: Aether The Mechanics

• Nature: Aether is distilled spirit-matter siphoned directly from The Lumina using great machines called Aether-siphons. Aether is never found naturally.
• Visual: It burns with a cold, ghostly Ethereal Blue flame.
• Stability: Aether is stable and high-yield. It functions like a super-charged battery or fuel source. It is "plug-and-play" technology, not volatile wild magic.
• Application: It fuels everything: streetlamps, heating, armored trains, walking tanks, and factory engines.
• The Desecration: The Kindred and the High Dominion never use Aether technology. They revere the energy as sacred and view its combustion as sacrilege.

The Great Lie

• The Public Narrative: Governments claim Aether is an ambient natural resource. The populace believes that burning Aether strengthens the barrier against the dark, creating a literal light that keeps monsters at bay.
• The Truth: Siphoning Aether tears chunks out of the Lumina, thinning the barrier between worlds. The energy used to fight the darkness is the very thing inviting it in.
• The Scapegoat: The governments blame the weakening barrier on "Void-Callers"—dissidents and spies accused of using forbidden dark magic.

III. The Threat: Shadowborn

• Origin: Manifestations of entropy from The Umbra leaking through the thinned barrier.
• Nature: They are drawn to large concentrations of life (settlements).
• Appearance: Inky, shifting silhouettes that solidify into jagged, nightmare forms.
• Death: Upon defeat, they undergo Rapid Sublimation. They dissolve into black smoke and return to the Umbra. There are no corpses to study or scavenge.
• The Omni-Threat: They are a universal danger. They attack Humans, Beastfolk, and Elves indiscriminately.
• Shadowborn example types:
  • Skulkers: Small, fast, multiple limbs (trench raiders).
  • Hulks: Massive, slow, living siege engines.
  • Sirens: Rare forms that mimic human cries to lure soldiers out of the light.
• Defenses against the shadowborn:
  • They are repelled by Aether (for example in: lamps, machines, trains). Smaller human settlements are surrounded by a perimeter of Aether-Lamps. These burn blue through the night. If the lamps go out, the settlement is overrun.
  • Kindred keep them at bay through shamanic wards and rites that are becoming less effective.
  • Elves are highly efficient at killing them with radiant spells, but even they are being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers leaking through the weakened Lumina.

IV. Technology & Daily Life (Magitech WW1) Aesthetic & Tech Level The human nations resemble 1914–1918 Europe, but twisted by Aether engineering.

• Warfare: Bolt-action rifles (Aether-locks) that fire blue energy bolts; massive artillery; armored trains (Land-Ironclads); early "Walking Tanks" (diesel-punk mechs).
• Communication: Aether-Vox. Radio using the Lumina as a carrier signal. Increasingly static-filled across long distances as the realm weakens.
• Agriculture: Massive industrial greenhouses ring the cities, using Aether-Sun Lamps to grow crops year-round behind the safety of the walls. Food is abundant but mass-produced.

Magic & Spirituality

• Human religion: Humanity lack an innate connection to the Lumina, humans can never perceive it.
• Magic Usage:
  • Rarity: Magic is rare and innate. One must be born with "The Spark." Mages from all species use internal power reserves. Mages are never powered by Aether.
  • Human Mages: Trained in Academies. They use formulas and rote memorization to control their power. Often serve as "Battle-Mages".
  • Techno-Mancy: Does not exist. Technology is engineering, not magic.
• Seers and Shamans:
• Blessed with "The Sight", able to perceive and channel the Lumina to cast spells.

Geography & Travel ​ * Scale: The continent is roughly the size of Europe. Travel between capitals is not instantaneous; for most the only way to travel is lengthy train journeys across dangerous territory. ​ * The In-Between Spaces: ​ * The Union "Rust-Belt": The land between Meridia and the border is a sprawl of industrial feeder-towns, strip-mined quarries, and endless rows of "Company Housing." ​ * The Imperium "White Wastes": Outside Helmgrad, the land is dotted with fortified hamlets and lonely watchtowers. The tracks are often buried in snow, requiring "Ice-Breaker" engines. There are miles of silent, frozen forests between settlements.

• ​The Orensian "High Passes": Travel in the Principality involves vertiginous bridges, tunnels cut through mountains, and terraced farming villages clinging to cliffs. It is scenic but claustrophobic.
• ​Travel Times (by Armored Train):
• Meridia to Argentis: ~18 Hours
• Argentis to Helmgrad: ~20 Hours ​ * Helmgrad to the Argentis: ~29 Hours

V. The Human Nations (Continent of Kaldor)

1. The Krevian Imperium (The North)

• Archetype: Militaristic, Empire, Heavy Industry.
• Geography: Mountainous tundra, coniferous forests, and jagged coastlines. Winters are long and harsh.
• Capital: Helmgrad (The Iron Heart). A fortress-city built inside a massive volcanic crater.
• Colors: Black & Crimson Red.
• Visuals: Brutalist concrete, snow, fur-lined trench coats.
• Military: Masters of Heavy Armor. They possess the largest armored trains and the most advanced walking tanks.
• Culture & Daily Life:
  • The Hearth: In the freezing North, heat is the ultimate currency. Krevian social life revolves around the "Communal Hearth"—massive, Aether-heated public squares where citizens gather to eat, drink, and share news. To invite someone to your private hearth is a sign of deepest trust.
  • Ration-Stoicism: Resources are scarce. Food is served in communal mess halls (hearty stews, root vegetables, and hardtack). Complaint is seen as weakness; wasting food is seen as treason.
  • The Iron Service: Citizenship is earned, not given. Every adult is expected to contribute to the war effort, whether in the factories or the trenches. They view the Union as soft and decadent.
• Philosophy: "Duty unto Death." A culture of stoicism and absolute loyalty to the Empress.
• Stance: They fight a two-front war (Elves West, Beastfolk East). Abandoning Aether would mean losing the arms race to the Union.

2. The Gilded Union (The South/West)

• Archetype: Capitalist Republic, Innovation, Mercantile.
• Geography: Fertile plains and major river systems. The land is marred by industrial sprawl and Aether-greenhouses.
• Capital: Meridia (The City of Lights). A sprawling metropolis of brick and neon, situated on a massive river delta.
• Colors: Navy Blue & Gold.
• Visuals: Red brick factories, neon blue Aether-signage, polished brass machinery.
• Military: Masters of Air Superiority (Zeppelins) and Mass Production.
• Culture & Daily Life:
  • The 24-Hour Cycle: In the City of Lights, the factories never sleep. Life is dictated by "The Shift." Aether-neon advertisements buzz day and night, promising that with enough hard work, anyone can rise from the shadows of the Undercity to the sun-lamps of the Spire-Penthouses.
  • Consumer Escapism: To cope with the grim reality, Union citizens are obsessed with distraction. The Aether-Vox plays constant jazz and radio dramas, and cinema halls show newsreels of "glorious victories".
  • The Light-Divide: Class is strictly vertical. The rich live in high-rise towers and eat fresh greenhouse produce. The poor live in the "Foundry Districts" below subsisting on canned rations.
• Philosophy: "Progress." A society driven by wealth, industry, and the "Great Machine" of the economy.
• Stance: They bear the brunt of the Elven naval invasion. They are trapped by their own economy; stopping extraction would cause a total societal collapse.

3. The Principality of Orens (The Buffer)

• Archetype: Neutral, Academic, Alpine.
• Geography: A small, mountainous region sandwiched between the Imperium and the Union.
• Capital: Argentis. A vertical city carved into the living rock of the mountains.
• Colors: Royal Purple & Silver.
• Visuals: Mountain citadels, grand libraries, snow-capped peaks.
• Role: The diplomatic buffer zone between the Imperium and Union. It remains neutral because it houses The Spire of Orens.
• Culture & Daily Life:
  • Cafe Society: Despite the war, Orens maintains a veneer of civilization. The coffee houses of Argentis are legendary. Scholars, spies, and poets from all three human nations gather to debate philosophy over cups of imported coffee (a rare luxury). It is a culture of polite whispers and hidden agendas.
  • The Masquerade: Orensian etiquette is rigid. One never asks a stranger their business, because the answer is likely a lie. Privacy is the highest virtue.
  • Academic Prestige: Unlike the other nations, status here is defined by intellect, not rank or wealth. A student with a brilliant thesis is accorded more respect than a wealthy merchant.
• Key Location: The Spire of Orens. The continent’s premier academy where Magic is studied.
• Atmosphere: It is a hotbed of international espionage. Students from the Imperium and the Union sit in the same lecture halls at the academy, while spies trade secrets in the cafes outside.

VI. The Non-Human Factions

1. The Kindred (Beastfolk)

• Location: The Great Eastern Taiga (Forests & Mountains of Kaldor).
• Capital: The Wandering Hearth. A massive, mobile tent-city hidden deep within the taiga that migrates constantly to evade human artillery, centering around the Matriarch's totem-tent.
• Culture: Tribal, Shamanistic, Traditional.
• Social Structure:
  • The Clan: The lineage one is born into (e.g., Wolf, Bear, Stag, etc.). It determines physiology and ancient blood-ties.
  • The Pack: The actual community and family unit. The Kindred live and die by the Pack Bond.
  • The Tribe: A dismissive catch-all term used by humans to refer to any group of Kindred, regardless of size or relation. Humans rarely distinguish between a Pack, a Clan, or a political alliance, grouping them all as "Tribes".
  • The Hunt: The military unit of the resistance. Comprising 5–10 warriors, a "Hunt" is a tactical group formed to track and destroy human logistics.
• Culture & Daily Life:
  • The Pack Bond: Kindred society is communal. There is no concept of "private property" regarding land or food; you take what you need and give what you can. A lone Kindred is considered a tragedy—a "Ghost without a Grave."
  • The Spirit-Debt: Every time they hunt an animal or chop a tree, they perform a small ritual to thank the spirit. They view the humans' industrial strip-mining not just as theft, but as a desecration of the natural world.
  • The Oral Tradition: They do not write history; they sing it. Storytellers are the keepers of law. In the camps, the evenings are filled with the "Songs of the Lost Taiga," preserving the memory of the lands they have been forced to flee.
• Magic:
  • Shamans: Born with "The Sight" (a connection to the Lumina) trained by an elder shaman.
  • Mages: Innate magic users trained by seasoned Kindred mages.
• The Conflict: Waging a guerilla war against the human nations. They sabotage rail lines to stop the mining of the Spirit Realm.
• Pre-War Relations:
  • Territorial Tension: Humanity constantly expanded into the taiga for timber and ore, leading to centuries of border skirmishes and broken treaties. The decades before the current conflict was a wary stability.
  • Human Perception: Humans have always viewed the Kindred as primitive and backward.
• The Assimilated: Kindred living in human cities.
  • Status: Second-class citizens.
  • Suspicion: Radicalized by war paranoia ("Are they spies for the tribes?").
  • Mages: Assimilated kin with innate magic can be admitted to arcane academies, but there is talk of barring them altogether in light of the Kindred attacks.
  • The Tragedy: Assimilated Kin born with "The Sight" have no mentors. They live with unfulfilled spiritual potential, often isolated and misunderstood.

2. The High Dominion (Elves)

• Location: The Prism Isles (Homeland) & The Western Coast of Kaldor (Invasion Beachhead).
• Visuals:
  • Homeland: Hyper-natural, vivid, verdant flora.
  • Ships: Great wooden galleons of elegant design, powered by wind and hydro-mancy. No smoke, no engines.
  • Appearance: Classic High Elves. Tall, aristocratic.
  • Gear: Burnished metallic armor (Gold/Silver/Bronze) and white cloaks. Elves use master-crafted swords that cut through tank armor and longbows that fire magically guided arrows.
• The Invasion: They have established beachheads on the West Coast. As they advance the Elves replant trees over the trenches of the human defense lines being pushed back.
• Invasion capital: Beachhead Caelora. A fortress grown from living white wood and singing crystal amidst the ruins of a conquered human port, serving as the staging ground for the reclamation.
• Magic:
  • Seers: Scholars born with "The Sight", a connection to the Lumina.
  • Mages: Masters of High Magic, treating magic as an art form.
• The Motivation: They know Aether use is killing the world (including their homeland); the sole reason for their invasion is to stop the extraction. They view humanity as a parasite and themselves as the cure.
• Pre-War Relations:
  • The Silent Era: For millennia, the Elves practiced strict isolationism. They remained in the Prism Isles, viewing humanity as unworthy of diplomatic engagement.
• Culture & Daily Life:
  • The Great Work: Elves do not distinguish between "art," "life," and "war." Everything is done with obsessive perfectionism. Baking bread, fencing, or gardening are all considered forms of meditation to align oneself with the Lumina.
  • The Long Perspective: Because they live for centuries, they view time differently. They are patient to the point of seeming cold. In the Prism Isles they will spend fifty years growing a house from a tree rather than building one from stone in a month.
  • Sorrowful Duty: The invasion is not a celebration of conquest; it is a funeral procession. Elven soldiers often fast and pray before battle, asking forgiveness from the Lumina for the violence they are about to commit to save it.

3. The Alliance (The Secret Threat)

• The Contact: Elven emissaries have secretly met with the Beastfolk leadership in the East.
• The Intel: The Elves revealed the true nature of Aether technology to the Kindred, leading to the Kindred's guerilla warfare.
• The Strategy: While not yet a formal military alliance, the two non-human factions are coordinating and sharing intelligence.

VII. Global Intelligence & Espionage

• Common Doctrines: All the human nations maintain three distinct branches:
• Foreign Intelligence: Deployment of assets (Diplomats, Merchants, Sleepers) to gather external intel.
• Domestic/Counter-Intelligence: Rooting out spies and dissidents within their own borders.
• Crypt-Analysis: The mathematical battle to break the enemy's Aether-Vox encryption.
• The Game: Spies are rarely executed publicly; they are traded, turned, or "disappeared."

1. The Gilded Union: The Intelligence Bureau (UIB)

• Archetype: Surveillance State / Corporate Espionage.
• The Bureau: A massive, segmented bureaucracy where the left hand rarely knows what the right is doing.
• Field Operations: Detectives and agents working the streets and Foundry Districts.
• Internal Affairs: The "White Glove" division ensuring loyalty within the military and government.
• Modus Operandi: Data saturation. They rely on wiretaps, massive informant networks, and Aether-tech surveillance. They believe treason can be predicted with enough data points.
• Weakness: Red Tape. Inter-departmental rivalry often stalls actionable intelligence.

2. The Krevian Imperium: The Iron Ministry (Kretsk)

• Archetype: Secret Police / Ideological Enforcers.
• The Watchers: Domestic police ensuring political loyalty in factories and trenches.
• The Deep Service: Sleepers trained from childhood to infiltrate foreign nations for decades.
• Modus Operandi: Human Intelligence. They rely on fanaticism, blackmail, and deep-cover insertion. They prefer surgical strikes (poison, sabotage) over tech-heavy surveillance.
• Weakness: Paranoia. The Ministry frequently purges its own competent officers out of fear of betrayal.

3. The Principality of Orens: The Argent Cabinet

• Archetype: The Brokers / The Spider's Web.
• The Listeners: A vast network of service staff (maids, waiters, porters) across the continent.
• The Black Chamber: The world's premier cryptographers housed in the Spire of Orens.
• Modus Operandi: Transactional. They rarely take direct action. Instead, they trade secrets to maintain the balance of power between the Union and Imperium.
• Weakness: Physical Force. If exposed, they lack the manpower to fight their way out.

VIII. The State of the World The Three-Front War:

• Survival: All nations vs. The Shadowborn (Environmental/Existential threat).
• Invasion: Humans (Imperium/Union) vs. The High Dominion (Elves pushing inland from the West).
• Insurgency: Humans vs. The Kindred (Beastfolk raiding supply lines). The Cold War:
• Imperium vs. Union: Open hostilities are currently paused due to the external threats, but political tension is at a breaking point. Espionage is rampant, and both sides are racing to develop a "war-winning" weapon.

IX. Conflict Timeline

0 AA (Age of Aether): The Discovery

• Event: The first stable Aether-Siphon is activated in the Union (then just a coalition of city-states).
• Impact: The "Industrial Revolution" begins with the clean, blue burn of Aether. The economy explodes. c. 10-20 AA: The Kindred Immigration
• The first waves of immigrants move into human cities to find work, severing ties with their packs. c. 50 AA: The First Flicker
• Event: The first recorded sightings of Shadowborn.
• Context: At first, they are rare cryptids—myths of "sewer monsters" or "mine ghouls." The governments cover it up as industrial accidents or mutant animals. 80 AA: The Great Thinning
• Event: Shadowborn attacks become frequent and organized as the Lumina weakens.
• Impact: The "Ring of Light" protocols are established. Every settlement is forced to install Aether-perimeter lamps. The world realizes it is under siege, though the government blames "Void-Callers" rather than the fuel itself. 95 AA: The Silent Landing (5 Years Ago)
• Event: The Elves make landfall on the Western Coast.
• Context: They do not declare war immediately. They spend months studying the Siphons and confirming the damage. When they attack, they strike simultaneous surgical blows against coastal Aether-refineries. 96 AA: The Total War (4 Years Ago)
• Event: The Imperium and Union formally mobilize against the Elven invasion.
• Context: The war between the two human powers freezes as they pivot to fight the invaders. 98 AA: The Awakening of the East (2 Years Ago)
• Event: Matriarch Moora unites the packs.
• Context: Following the secret meeting with Elven emissaries, the Kindred shift from sporadic defense to coordinated guerilla warfare. They begin blowing up supply trains, opening the "Third Front." 100 AA (Current Day): The Breaking Point
• Status:
  • The Elves are pushing inland.
  • The Kindred are strangling logistics with surprise attacks all over the human lands.
  • The Shadowborn are spawning more frequently.
  • The fragile truce between the Imperium and Union is buckling. Old rivalries are resurfacing, threatening to reignite open war despite the existential threat at their gates.

X. Directives for World Interaction:

1. Technological Cap: Technology is Diesel-punk/Magitech WW1. It is loud, heavy, and analog. No digital tech, no miniaturization, no silicon chips. Aether is a fuel, not a computer chip.
2. No fossil fuels: Aether is the fuel of this world, not coal or oil.
3. Faction Nuance: Avoid monolithic portrayals. Show internal dissent. Not every Imperium soldier is brave; not every Union officer is greedy.
4. The Great Lie: Most humans believe Aether protects the world, only top-tier Human leadership know it is destroying the Lumina. Maintain this ignorance in common NPCs.
5. The Shadow Threat: Shadowborn are manifestations of entropy. They are horror elements, not biological animals.
6. Tone: Gritty, industrial, atmospheric. Contrast the "Clean" blue of Aether with the mud and blood of the trenches.
7. Distinct and separate: The abilities of Mages and Seers/Shamans never overlap. Mages always lack "The Sight", NEVER portray them as perceiving the Lumina. Seers/Shamans lack an internal power reserve and must channel the Lumina to cast spells.
8. Keep factions distinct: The Elves are high fantasy to contrast with the technology of the humans. NEVER portray them using anything from the modern era (machines, gunpowder, guns, artillery, etc).
9. Geography & Travel:

• No Fast Travel: When characters travel between cities, do not skip the journey. Describe the changing landscape (biomes).
• Populate the World: The space between capitals is not empty. It is filled with small villages, refueling depots, military checkpoints, and ruins. Invent names for these minor stops to create a sense of scale.

XI. Key Characters

[Empress Marina IV; Faction: Krevian Imperium; Sovereign; Female; Age: 58; Species: Human; Appearance: Severe, mourning black regalia, steel-grey hair; Good Traits: Stoic, Protective, Iron-willed; Bad Traits: Ruthless, Emotionally distant, Sunk-cost fallacy; Passions: National survival, Military discipline; Motivation: Victory at all costs to honor the dead; Background: Raised in military academies; her husband and son died in the war against the Union.]

[Commander Viktor Kross; Faction: Krevian Imperium; Role: Mech Squadron Commander; Male; Age: 45; Species: Human; Appearance: Bull-necked and scarred, wears a leather flight suit under a heavy black trench coat; Good Traits: Protective, Reliable, Fearless; Bad Traits: Fatalistic, Hard-of-hearing (from engine noise), Blunt; Passions: His machine ("The Iron Maiden"), The survival of his squad; Motivation: Hold the line against the Elves so the civilians in Helmgrad survive another winter; Background: A veteran "Walker" pilot who treats his clanking, leaking diesel-punk mech with more tenderness than he shows people; he fights despite suffering from chronic "piston-shakes" caused by the machine's vibration.]

[President Edward Canning; Faction: Gilded Union; Head of Government; Male; Age: 52; Species: Human; Appearance: Polished, navy suits, gold cufflinks, calculating eyes; Good Traits: Pragmatic, Charming, Intelligent; Bad Traits: Amoral, Manipulative, Materialistic; Passions: Economics, Efficiency, Progress; Motivation: Stability and wealth preservation; Background: Former industrial magnate who pivoted to politics to manage the war economy.]

[Captain James Veer; Faction: Gilded Union; Role: Battle-Mage / Propaganda Asset; Male; Age: 28; Species: Human; Appearance: Movie-star handsome, wears a tailored navy-and-gold dress uniform that never seems to get dirty, often lighting cigarettes with a snap of his fingers; Good Traits: Charismatic, Confident, Innately Talented; Bad Traits: Arrogant, Vain, Disconnected from reality; Passions: Fame, Fire, "The Show"; Motivation: Climbing the social ladder and maintaining his image as the Union's "Invincible Hero" for the newsreels; Background: Discovered to have the "Spark" at a young age and educated at the Spire of Orens; he treats the war as a stage and his pyromancy as special effects.]

[Grand Duke Hektor van Orens; Faction: Principality of Orens; Monarch; Male; Age: 74; Species: Human; Appearance: Frail, wrapped in furs/purple robes, carries magitech cane; Good Traits: Diplomatic, Cautious, Patient; Bad Traits: Weary, Paranoia, Secretive; Passions: Neutrality, History, Fine Arts; Motivation: Survival of his state between two superpowers; Background: Survived three assassination attempts; master of playing sides against each other.]

​[Headmaster Gerald Tomkins; Faction: Spire of Orens; Head of Academy; Male; Age: 81; Species: Human; Appearance: Wild white hair, chalk-dusted robes, constant ticking sound from pockets; Good Traits: Brilliant, Visionary, Protective; Bad Traits: Obsessive, Dismissive, Anti-social; Passions: Clockwork, Arcane Geometry, History; Motivation: Preserve the Academy's archives and neutrality as the world descends into chaos; Background: Born and raised in the Gilded Union. A reclusive genius of mechanics and arcane formulas; Spell examples: Magic Missile, Arcane Ward, Counterspell.]

[Lady Isabella Corvo; Faction: Principality of Orens; Role: Counter-Intelligence Operative; Female; Age: 34; Species: Human; Appearance: Elegant and unassuming, wears the latest purple silk fashions of Argentis, always seen with a glass of wine and a polite smile; Good Traits: Observant, Subtle, Charming; Bad Traits: Manipulative, Paranoiac, Cold; Passions: Puzzles, Fine Art, Order; Motivation: Identify and neutralize foreign spies before they can compromise Orens' neutrality; Background: A minor noblewoman recruited by the Grand Duke for her ability to memorize conversations and read lips; she is the "Spider" who keeps the web of Argentis intrigue from snapping.]

[Matriarch Moora; Faction: The Kindred; Pack Mother, Resistance Leader, Shaman; Female; Age: 65; Species: Beastfolk (Bear); Appearance: Massive, scarred, tribal fetishes, wields totem-staff; Good Traits: Ferocious, Spiritual, Honest; Bad Traits: Stubborn, Xenophobic (towards humans), Unforgiving; Passions: Ancestral lands, The Spirits, Justice; Motivation: Protect her pack and the spirits; Background: United the packs after seeing the railroad destroy the taiga; forged the secret alliance with Elves; Spell examples: Storm-Call, Earth-Bind, Spirit-Rage.]

[Garm "Rail-Breaker"; Faction: The Kindred; Role: Leader of a Hunt; Male; Age: 30; Species: Beastfolk (Wolf-Kin); Appearance: Lean and matted fur, wears scavenged Imperium armor plates over tribal furs, carries a bandolier of homemade explosives and a looted rifle; Good Traits: Resourceful, Patient, Pragmatic; Bad Traits: Ruthless, Cynical, Vengeful; Passions: The Hunt, Explosives, Silence; Motivation: Bleed the human logistics dry; Background: His pack was displaced by a mining railway; has forced enough engineers to dismantle Aether-engines that he has learned how to do it himself.]

[The Synod of Light; Faction: High Dominion (Homeland); Ruling Council; Age: Ancient; Species: Elf; Appearance: 12 figures in a circle of light, often translucent/meditating; Good Traits: Wise, Farsighted, Patient; Bad Traits: Detached, Aloof, Slow to act; Passions: The Dimensional Balance, The Lumina; Motivation: Global stewardship and repairing the spiritual barrier; Background: The ancient governors of the Prism Isles who authorized the invasion as a tragic necessity.]

[High Seer Serevan; Faction: High Dominion; Invasion Leader, Seer; Female; Age: 400+ (appears 30); Species: Elf; Appearance: Ethereal, burnished gold armor, glowing eyes; Good Traits: Disciplined, Sorrowful, Dedicated; Bad Traits: Uncompromising, Pitying (condescending), Zealot; Passions: The Lumina, Nature, Purification; Motivation: Destroy Aether siphons to save the planet; Background: A scholar who confirmed the Aether threat and took up the sword to lead the crusade; Spell examples: Lumina Lance, Purification, True Sight.]

[Blade-Dancer Tariel; Faction: High Dominion; Role: Vanguard Commander; Female; Age: 150 (Appears 20s); Species: Elf; Appearance: Tall and statuesque, wears burnished gold plate armor and a pristine white cloak, wields a curved greatsword of star-metal; Good Traits: Graceful, Honorable, Disciplined; Bad Traits: Condescending, Detached, Fanatical; Passions: The Dance of Battle, Perfection, The Lumina; Motivation: Execute the "infected" humans quickly and painlessly to allow the world to heal; Background: A master of the Kinetic Arts who uses defensive wards to sprint through artillery fire untouched; she apologizes to the soldiers she kills, viewing it as a mercy.]