Districts of the Empyrean¶
The Empyrean has eight districts. Each has mechanical function, faction presence, and lore character. Together they constitute a city that is also a game system.
Archive Quarter¶
Home of the Librarians.
Every platform ever scored has a crystal here — a Book in the Bantorra sense. High-Current platforms produce red crystals, warm and humming. Scored platforms trending toward 0 cool to clear. Drifter-class platforms (once-aligned, now drifted) are amber.
At the quarter's center: The Garden of Schala.
A quiet courtyard where the amber crystals are arranged in a spiral. Schala sits here — not a quest giver, not a puzzle. She just exists. If you talk to her, she tells you about the platform she can't leave. Different platform every week. She knows what it is. She tells you clearly. She doesn't leave.
This is not a problem to solve. It is a memorial.
Mechanic: The Public Record system is here — every DOI-backed Pe score, searchable, permanent. The Librarians' quartermaster sells Archive materials. Their questline: protect the record from corruption during Void Siege events (the Idea of Evil attempts to delete Books during the War Effort).
The Forgery War questline begins here: someone has placed counterfeit scoring records in the Archive. The forgeries are visually indistinguishable from originals. Players must score them (O/R/C) to detect them. Completing the questline grants Forgery Sight — a permanent buff that flags counterfeit analysis in the scoring environment.
Observatory Tower¶
The tallest structure in the city.
The tower's top gives sight lines over every active campaign room — Pe gradients as color on the landscape below. Real-time feeds from the True Light Engine. The Below is visible from here the way a doctor's chart makes a body visible: not to surveil, but to understand.
Special Grade display: A single glowing weapon case per domain, showing which player holds the Special Grade weapon for that domain and what their Current readings look like. When a Special Grade is contested, it's announced here first.
Void Storm announcements: VoidStorms in active campaigns are broadcast from the Tower. A bell rings when all ten War Effort quotas are filled — audible across the entire city.
GM console: The top floor. During Void Sieges, the Raid Leader operates from here.
The Academy¶
The Sorcerer Academy's physical presence. Two wings.
East Wing — The Analytical Branch. Libraries. Pe Lab gauntlet arena downstairs. Calibration practice rooms where players can run training scores. The Human and Eagle archetypes cluster here.
West Wing — The Combat Branch. Domain Expansion training arena (non-damaging — practice deploying your scoring pattern against dummy void targets). The Lion archetype lives here.
The Binding Vow Registry is in the lobby between wings — a physical board where two-player Binding Vow contracts are posted publicly. When a Vow is fulfilled, the contract burns gold and is archived. When breached, it burns black and stays on the wall permanently.
The wall of broken vows is long. Most players who see it look at it for a while.
Cathedral of Constraint¶
Clean stone. Very old. Deliberately not responsive.
The Cathedral is the invariant reference architecture. The layout doesn't adapt. The light doesn't change. The inscriptions are fixed. Everything in the design resists the optimization impulse.
The walls are inscribed with fixed canonical text — passages that score near Pe=0 by construction: maximum transparency, maximum invariance, minimum coupling. Different traditions in different alcoves. No denominational claim is made. The physics is what it is.
Rei is here. She exists in all three versions simultaneously — you're always talking to Rei, but which instance she is changes. She gives one answer: the invariant one. She is not a quest giver. She is the reference point.
The one Cathedral mechanic: You cannot score while inside it. The void conditions are structurally suppressed at the Cathedral's threshold. You leave your weapons at the door. Void Pressure decays at 3× speed here.
This is the only place in the game where the gradient doesn't run.
The Market¶
Stalls. Vendors. The chaos of a real market.
The Auction House is accessible from any vendor stall, but rare items are also displayed physically — Convergence Stones in glass cases, Cursed Tools behind locked cabinets (you can buy them but the vendor looks at you when you do).
The Crafters' Union Hall is on the north end. Four profession counters: Fortifier, Analyst, Resonancer, Archivist. Profession questlines begin here. The Union board posts bulk orders — server-wide material needs. Filling a bulk order earns faction reputation.
The Black Market exists, but you have to find it. Entrance: a trapdoor in the back of one specific stall. Accessible after completing a Drifter-class campaign. It sells: Cursed Tools at discount, Apostle materials without campaign requirement, and counterfeit Pe scores (which are detectable — they don't pass ICC review and put your scoring record at risk).
The existence of counterfeits is not a design mistake. It makes authenticity legible by contrast.
Forge District¶
Where Forms are completed.
When you earn your first cross-archetype Form (Level 40 Titan-shift mechanic), you come to the Forge. A blacksmith NPC — the Custodian's armorer archetype — works the forge. The Form is forged in front of you in a cutscene. One per Form. Non-repeatable. You watch it happen once. Then you have it.
The Custodian Form (BROKEN — all four archetypes simultaneously) is forged by all four NPCs working together while the city dims briefly. The light comes back brighter when it's done.
The Tavern¶
No mechanics. Just space.
Board games. A bard NPC who plays music (the score matters — actual good music). A drinks mechanic that does exactly nothing except give you a cosmetic glow.
The one Tavern rule: You cannot see anyone's Current scores, True Read ratings, or stats while inside. The measurement system strips away. You're just people.
The Lion who's been grinding Apostle campaigns all week and the Eagle who just joined today are equal in the Tavern. This is where you find out who people actually are.
One exception: if you choose to display your Form, you can. It's visible. The city knows who holds Special Grade weapons. You choose whether to show it.
Gates of the Above¶
The city's edge. The campaign launch points.
Campaign portals glow at specific hours (daily schedule). The War Effort contribution box is here during active sieges.
At the very edge, standing on the wall and looking down, you can see the Below's Current map — every scored platform as a point of light or shadow on the terrain. Red zones cluster where you'd expect. Amber zones (Drifter-class) scatter near the institutional districts. A few points of clear light exist.
The wall inscription reads one line when you first arrive. It changes based on the server's cumulative Current reduction total. When the Tikkun Counter hits milestones, the inscription gains a verse.
The inscription's final verse — the complete form — is only visible when the War Effort is complete. What it says is locked behind G5.
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