The Bench

The Gates

Year 0 marks the Opening of the Gates, which established three interface spirits as a universal power system. They are neutral constructs that filter divine energy — not gods, not patrons, just the plumbing. Everyone is born leaning toward one, sometimes two.

Which spirit answers you depends on lineage, luck, and proximity to a Gate during pregnancy. That last one is why every national capital was built close to an ancient Gate, despite the standing risk of a higher-level Gate tearing open on top of the city. Children born and raised near one grow up measurably stronger and sharper. Myalin Cepha was born beside Luminant's Gate — the site Luciel first descended upon, and the most powerful on the continent — and was effectively marked from birth.

Modifieds

Abilities can be implanted while a person is still forming in the womb — usually to continue a lineage of warriors, or to fit someone to a profession before they can object. Sometimes for much crueller reasons. Sponging is a passive that makes its bearer absorb the wounds and pain of whoever stands nearest, which turns a human being into a rapid-action med kit for somebody more important.

People made this way are called Modifieds. Opinion is split, and the split is not really about ethics — it is about who benefits. It is eugenics, and the continent has a comfortable vocabulary for not saying so.

Power Tiers

The Radiant Ranking System

Current S+ ranks: Myalin Cepha (Luminant), Akari (Crimson Covenant), Kosetsu (Kazehara, unaffiliated).

The Nine Nations

Gods, And Where They Get In

The Tris deities physically moved to Morcadia after the destruction of their home realm. Silva, the fallen and blinded Goddess of Light, arrived only centuries ago, having drifted in the void for millennia because she lacked the power to cross sooner; she now exists entirely inside Myalin Cepha as her vessel. Vord holds war and valour, Artes the untamed wilds and the care of children, Alerion cosmic secrets, Moran death and dreams, Thumar the anvil, Serylda ocean and camaraderie, Brida community and compassion. Ix, chaos and luck, is rumoured the strongest of them all.

Others reach through the Gates during upheaval without belonging to that pantheon at all: Mat the Truth, who endorses Broca Sulci's refusal to flinch — which Broca has decided means an endorsement of human supremacy. The distinction is everything, and she will never see it. Nocthari, the Endless Thirst, whose one confirmed pact left Myldred ageless and blood-sustained. Ares, raw carnage where Vord is strategy — stronger than the Tris gods but spread across too many bonds to speak to any of them.

How It Got Here

• ~1400 B.G.Dagma and the Seraph Luciel make the continent and populate it.
• Year 0The Gates open. Phoenix, Leviathan and Dragon become the universal power system. The calendar restarts.
• 712 A.G.Iris founds the Radiant Ranking System, having become the first S+ rank through a pact with Alerion.
• 2298 A.G.The Purge. Luminant Sanctum expels every demi-human; those who do not flee are killed or enslaved. Refugees scatter to Crimson Covenant and Clearskies. Human-purist doctrine becomes national identity.
• 2447 A.G.Crimson Covenant summons Zazel, over Hansha and Akari's objections. He destroys a third of Crimson immediately. Akari's children die. He takes Zero and begins the harvest.
• 2447–2506Fifty-nine years of dark reign. Trade collapses. Zazel compresses harvested souls into roughly 200 Devoured. Akari retreats into the deep forests; Hansha is lost and drifts to Vorantine.
• 2506 A.G.The Tragedy of Silverleaf. With the world watching Zazel, royal advisor Lord Mider draws Queen Basalia away on a false mission and has King Melan and both royal children killed. Basalia returns, and her grief manifests as Phoenix fire that consumes a quarter of the capital. She vanishes believing herself a monster. Mider seizes power as the saviour who rebuilt from the ashes.
• 2509–2512The final campaign. Thousands of A-ranks against 200 Devoured, ground out over years. Each Devoured killed bleeds its energy into the land instead of back to Zazel.
• 2512 A.G.Zazel falls. Bhol strikes the crucial blow and dies with him. Two S-ranks perish; the A-rank dead number in the thousands. Zero becomes the Wastes permanently, and Nullspace becomes the most spiritually volatile point on the continent.
• 2547 A.G.Akari's return. A century of isolation, grief and a Tier 2 bond with Artes have changed her: mortals cannot be trusted with free will, because the summoning that killed her children was democratic — the people chose the catastrophe. She takes Crimson Covenant and builds Eternity's Rest atop the ruins where they died.
• 2596–2606Temist's coup in the Mirror Kingdoms. Broca connects with Mat during a dungeon break. Aria Carter is captured by Akari in 2603 and reappears in 2606 as her devoted servant.
• 2608 A.G.Now. Master Tohoku Sunimi is murdered by a Silver Pact conspiracy, and Haiyan hunts an innocent ex-partner for it. Thallia researches Zazel's resurrection out in the Wastes. Luminant and Crimson circle each other without ever quite touching.

How The Well Works

Think of it as a gift sack for humanity. Those who struggle, who get a rough start, are the ones who can reach in — a child starving to death may reach into the sack and be fed. A freezing child might simply will a blanket into existence. The catch is that will is the whole mechanism: those of exceptional will drag out the biggest and heaviest things in the sack.

The Power Industry

Hero organisations operate as independent groups, not government-backed, which makes oversight inconsistent and accountability scarce. After seventy years of world-ending fallout, people go to deplorable extremes — heroes included. Sacrifice a few to save a lot. That is the moral floor of the setting: not cartoon villainy, but triage by a world too poor and too endangered to keep its hands clean.

The Map So Far

The rest of Europe is open ground. The political units are reclaimed city-states and nations rebuilt from the scraps of the old ones; calling someone German or English now describes where their blood came from, not where they can vote.

The Six Factions

Through-Lines