The Light Tithe
Stakes Control of the remaining light wells will determine which lands endure and which become permanent night.
World Atlas·Sphere·Every morning is borrowed, and someone always comes to collect.
A battered port frontier where light caravans meet sea trade and raiders. · Salt marsh and tidal flats
Hook
A drowned light well shines beneath the mud, drawing smugglers, pilgrims, and things that should remain buried.
Veyra is a world slowly losing its sun. Across its globe, cities survive beside ancient light wells that store daylight in glassy crystals, while roads between them cross regions where darkness has become a physical force. Magic is common but dependent on light, and every ruler must decide who receives enough of it to live. Merchants, priests, rebels, and night-born predators compete for the dwindling supply as ordinary people argue whether civilization is worth preserving at any cost.
Themes
Form · Sphere
Veyra is a round terrestrial planet with broad oceans, one major continent, and scattered island chains.
Traversal
Travel follows roads, canals, sea lanes, and guarded light routes; journeys through unlit territory require lamps, guides, or magic.

Sphere

Magic
Common

Technology
Renaissance

Death & Souls
Founding Era
The First Light
Crown Era
The Long Noon
Decline Era
The Black Years
Present Era
The Rationed Dawn
The Light Tithe
Control of the remaining light wells will determine which lands endure and which become permanent night.
The Black Road War
A contested trade route carries sun-crystals, refugees, and a weapon that could extinguish every light well.
Keep the light wells under religious control and preserve the old social order.
Protect trade routes and monopolize the refining of sun-crystals.
Unite independent cities against the church and the great powers.
Push humanity from the remaining bright lands and reclaim the world for the night.
Stakes Control of the remaining light wells will determine which lands endure and which become permanent night.
Stakes A contested trade route carries sun-crystals, refugees, and a weapon that could extinguish every light well.
Early peoples learned to trap sunlight in crystal and built settlements around the first light wells.
Merchant princes and churches controlled stored daylight, making bright cities rich and distant lands dependent.
The sun dimmed, night-creatures spread, and revolts shattered the old network of light roads.
Surviving nations trade, steal, and defend dwindling sunlight while deciding who deserves to see tomorrow.
A light well begins producing black crystals that whisper the names of people who have not yet died.
A city hires the party to escort its annual light caravan, but refugees claim the cargo is being secretly diverted underground.
A royal astronomer predicts one final sunrise and needs explorers to reach a ruined observatory beyond the night line.
A rebel printer publishes evidence that the Dawn Church has been shortening commoners' days for generations.
The light wells are part of a planetary machine that slowly feeds daylight into Veyra.
Discovery · Old astronomical charts show the sun's decline began on the same day every light well was first activated.
Impact · The wells may be draining the sun rather than preserving it.
The Nightbound Clans were created by early rulers who used living people to stabilize the first light wells.
Discovery · Nightbound elders recognize the party's shadows before meeting them in person.
Impact · The night-creatures may be altered descendants of humans sacrificed during the First Light.
A true source of sunlight still exists, hidden beneath the oldest city.
Discovery · A sealed vault beneath Meridian contains a warm, ordinary lantern that never dims.
Impact · Its flame could restore the sun, but only by consuming every stored light crystal on the planet.