Story and factions

Complements 04 (lore in outline), 18 (origin of the magic sources), 20 (places and the Pale Mist), 24 (player cities and contracts) and 25 (chapters). Fixed rules: the story is lived in first person (no cutscenes that take the camera: dialogues with the NPC in front, no cuts, see 03), reputation never gives raw power, no NFT as a story reward that gives an advantage, and nobody loses an NFT or worn equipment because of a narrative choice. Place names are those of 20.

1. The lore in brief

Before. A long time ago, the Cratera de Vaelor (Vaelor Crater) was a mountain, and inside it lay the Mother Lantern, a blue crystal that the ancients called the First Light. It powered the civilization that built Vaelor and the Ilhas Celestes (Celestial Islands): the rock around the Mother Lantern lost weight and rose. Hence the Crater with strange gravity and the strongest Arcane Magic (18: "remnant of a civilization that fell").

The Fall. The Arcanes wanted to light a bigger light and open the Mother Lantern. It cracked, the mountain fell inward and opened the Crater; part of the city was left hanging over it (Vaelor) and the islands that already floated stayed in the sky (Celéstia). From the shards came blue light (Arcane) and a shadow: everything the light stopped illuminating began to walk. Hence the dangerous nights.

The Pale Mist. It is the cold residue of the crack: a mist that is born in the northeast (Terras do Lamento (Lands of Lament)), erases color and sound and gives form to those who died forgotten (undead, the Nameless King). It follows what the light abandons: it advances where lanterns go out and recedes where they are kept (20 §2: "the Mist advances and recedes as players defend the border"). That is why villages gather around old lanterns, and why light is valuable.

The Continent today. About 300 years ago the anchor lanterns (stone columns with a crystal at the edges) were lit in the villages and shrines. They hold back the mist and are the respawn points (26 §6). The mist closed the roads to the north and east; the sea remained a horizon. Lumen is the capital because it has the largest lantern still lit.

For the player. They are a "Lightbearer": a person the light recognizes, who can bind a lantern (respawn, 26 §6), hold a flame in the dark and keep a lantern alive nearby. Every player is a Lightbearer; it is the in-lore reason for coming back after the fall and for the Mist responding to players. It is not power: it is the reason shrines exist.

2. Main arc of Chapter 1: "The Lantern of the Valley"

Four acts, levels 1–20, ~12 h of main quests, always optional. Each act takes place in a region of Chapter 1 and ends in a dungeon or group instance (29 §1).

Act 1 — The flame that fails (Vale de Lumen (Lumen Valley), levels 1–10). In Espelho (Mirror) and on the farms, the road lanterns go out and cattle vanish at night. The player receives from the guard the Lightbearer's lantern (story item, cosmetic) and restores three road lanterns with a gathering, fighting and mechanics task (lighting by the gesture of raising the lantern). The act ends in the Catacumbas de Lumen (Catacombs of Lumen) (group of 5): under the capital there is a crypt connected to the Mina Velha (Old Mine), and the mist comes from there. It reveals: the Lantern of Lumen is "burning slower" each season.

Act 2 — What the canopies know (Bosque Alto (High Forest), levels 5–15). The Sylvans of Galho-Velho (Old Branch) and Ramalta (High Branch) say that the Mother Tree, in the Bosque Antigo (Ancient Forest), has always kept a Seed of Light, a relative of the Mother Lantern. To ask for help, the player crosses a bridge that has fallen (dynamic event 04: fallen bridge of the Bosque Alto, which the entire server can rebuild). Loyalty choice (§4): help the Circle (which wants to let the light grow free) or the Order (which wants to control it). Raízes Ocas (Hollow Roots).

Act 3 — The tide and the salt (Costa das Marés (Tide Coast), levels 10–20). The Salt Company sells whale-oil lanterns at a high price; the Order accuses it of profiting from the dark. The low tide opens caves; in one of them there is a map of a route through the Strait: the sea has an ancient lighthouse (Farol da Luz (Lighthouse of Light), in the Arquipélago das Brumas (Archipelago of Mists), Chapter 3). The Mina Afogada (Drowned Mine) (29 §1) hides the clue. The player discovers that the mist doesn't come only from the northeast: there is a second source under the Mina Velha.

Act 4 — The depths of the Mina Velha (zone 8–14; boss instance, levels 18–20). The climax is a group instance of 5 (a 2–3 player version as in the dungeons, 29 §1; it is not the PvP zone) under the Mina Velha: the Guardião Pálido (Pale Guardian), a boss with phases. Defeating it seals the source and lights the Mother Lantern of Lumen for a season; the Pale Mist recedes from the Valley (effect visible to everyone on the server: a new mural, fireflies in the Prado (Meadow), new light on the roads). Each server has a counter of lit lanterns; it decays slowly, so the world needs to be defended again: the story is never "finished" forever, which serves as recurring events (04) and not as a mandatory daily (20 §2.5).

The Mina Velha is, in the game, the same contested zone as 13/15: act 4 is instanced so it doesn't depend on PvP; the scheduled PvP window continues for the 6 concessions.

Epilogue. A letter from the Mago da Torre (Tower Wizard) (Planícies do Vento (Plains of Wind)) and a torn map: the mist has receded in the north, "the forests are opening". It opens Chapter 2.

Open ending per player: whoever completes the arc gets the title "Lightbearer of Lumen" and a lantern cosmetic (bound to the account, 26 §8). No power; and nobody is required to follow the story to play, sell or build.

3. Hooks for chapters 2 to 6

The order of chapters 2 and 3 can swap (25); the hooks above work in both orders, because the epilogue of Ch. 1 already points to the north and to the sea. Secrets that only fit together later: the letters, the stones with runes and the books of Chapter 1 already bring clues for chapters 4 and 5 (so the lore can be reread).

4. The factions

Five factions at launch, one per interest; a sixth arrives with Chapter 2 (§7). Each represents a different answer to the same question: "what to do with the light?". None is "the evil one"; no reward gives raw power.

Players don't choose just one faction. They can have reputation in all of them, but the weekly reputation cap (below) and quest choices that please one and displease another create identity. Opposing factions (Order × Circle in Act 2; Company × Order in Act 3) bring a reputation cost, never an item cost.

Reputation tracks

Each faction has 7 ranks, on the account (not the character, 26 §8), with a weekly cap of 600 points per account, so nobody accumulates it all at once. Points come from faction quests (60–150), contracts, dynamic events and material deliveries.

Losing reputation is possible (-50 to -300 for betrayal or crime against the faction), but never below rank 1 and it never takes away what has already been unlocked: it only pauses access (for example, the Order's shop closes its door while the player has red karma, 23).

What reputation unlocks (never raw power)

Rules:

• Nothing that adds attribute, damage or health above the tier cap. Faction recipes produce items within the power cap of 26 §4 and can be crafted by players to sell for gold.
• Faction cosmetics are not NFTs, they are bound to the account; there is an NFT cosmetic version only for seasonal events and deeds, never as a reputation bonus (08).
• No buying reputation with money, token or NFT; gold only in donations that give small points (maximum 50 per week per account).
• Anti-bot: reputation only rises with quests and deliveries verified by the server; same account, clan or repeated IP in deliveries doesn't score (23).

5. Factions and player cities

The fixed cities (20, Lumen, Porto Sal, Galho-Velho and Ramalta) are the factions' seats. The villages founded by players (24 §3) relate to the factions through treaties:

• Sponsorship charter: a village can ask for a faction's sponsorship (the faction needs to have at least 3 members at rank 4 in the village). Sponsorship gives the village one extra work (a faction post: Order guard, Circle greenhouse, Company pier, Brotherhood forge, Academy school) and faction quests return to the village board. One faction per village at a time; switching takes 14 days.
• What the faction gets: dynamic quests (§6) rise in frequency near the village, and residents with reputation earn 10% more points in them. The village pays a gold fee (5% of the treasury per season) to the faction; without it, sponsorship pauses, with no loss of house or plot (24 §3).
• Local laws outweigh the faction: the village can have a law against a faction (for example, banning the Academy from using Shadow, 18); the sponsor can reject the law, and the result is loss of sponsorship, never of a plot.
• War and territory: clan wars (19) don't touch reputation; the sponsoring faction gives no soldiers nor combat bonuses. Diplomacy between clans uses the public board (19), where faction sponsorship appears as a seal.
• Founding in Chapter 1: founded villages arrive in an update (24 §8), so at launch the link is only the clan and the seat: the clan can declare itself "of" the faction (cosmetic on the crest, limit 1 per clan) and uses the seat's faction board.
• Anti-monopoly: an alliance cannot have more than 2 villages sponsored by the same faction per region (19: limited alliances).

6. Quest structure

Four layers, none mandatory per day (20 §2.5):

Structure rules:

• Scaling: quests follow 20 §2.4 (PvE): the level-20 player can do the Valley quests and gets proportional experience (no low-level exploitation).
• Morality and consequence: quest choices truly change the world, not just the dialogue: which faction sponsors the Bosque Alto bridge, who reopens the Mina Afogada, which lantern is lit first; it changes flag colors and shops in the city for a period (a one-week seasonal event), then changes again.
• No dangerous free text: contracts use a menu (24); moderation of books and signs by report.
• In VR: the NPC speaks looking you in the eyes, no camera cuts; choices are given by gesture (pointing at the lantern you want to light) or by diegetic menu (a letter in hand) with subtitles.
• Log: a journal (hand item, full screen on PC) shows quests, faction ranks and clues.

7. Faction hooks for Chapter 2 and beyond

• 6th faction: the Lanternless (Ch. 2, Profundezas): communities that live in the dark and use Shadow (18). It values espionage, smuggling and the truth about the Fall. It is the faction for crime from 24 §6; no power (same rule), with shadow cosmetics and the thieves' guild as a formal organization.
• The Academy gets its seat in Vaelor, and the Order splits between those who accept the truth and those who hide it; reputation with each side is its own track within the faction.
• Salt Company opens branches in Jaderra and Obsídia (Ch. 3 and 4); the Circle gets the Mother Tree and, in Ch. 5, a conflict with the peoples of Hrim.
• The choices of Ch. 6 are per server (§3), with a faction-weighted vote; it is not a vote on the treasury nor on the economy (00, L2).

What is left for later

• Final text of dialogues, letters and books of the world (this is the structure, not the script): comes in Phase 3 with the writer, and the lore of Chapters 4 to 6 only closes after the alpha data.
• The sixth faction and the Order's double rank (§7) with Chapter 2.
• Founded villages and full sponsorship (§5), which only come with the update of 24 §8.
• PvP factions and narrative wars between factions (for example, the Order against the Lanternless for territory): they require the contested zones of the expansions (13).
• Final vote of Chapter 6 per server: the exact mechanism is left for the legal opinion and the server design.
• NPC voices (voice acting) and music per faction: art and audio request (12), one page per faction.
• More races tied to the factions (26, "What is left for later").