Gloamhavens

Written by World Smithy

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

— Pliny the Elder

From Ashes, Rebuilt

After the Great Blue had been successfully Branded some two millennia ago, unfiltered sunlight has been the bane of modern man. During daylight hours, light shed from the sun above has been thought to blind those exposed to it directly—this is only partially true, as it is able to do so only if one gazes upwards unaided. Because of this new fact of life, when settlements were erected from the Pearl Ash that had long plagued the land, shade was one of the most pivotal design focuses in architecture.

Physical barriers were the first line of defense for the fledgling villages and townships, where thick cloth awnings dyed black or indigo were among the most common. Windows, if a structure had them at all, were typically affixed with shutters that conformed to the outline of the panes, so as to let no light through. Some architects opted for stained glass, where each piece or pane would be dyed black or dark shades of other colors.

A Supernatural Solution

An expedition commissioned by the Perennial King of Khaldunheim—or at least by the Arch Lector of the Adamant Court within the Crown of Stones—some 1,500 years ago found a distant land far to the west completely shrouded in unerring night. These explorers brought back several items, among them being several stones the locals called Murk Crystals. They explained that the crystals masked light from Gloom and Its Spawn, entities that were attracted to light of all sources, when made into a Tenebrous Bulb.

Due to this masking property in relation to light, it was theorized that those same crystals would be able to emit the opposite affect of projecting darkness. After some decades of testing, arcane experimentation, and overwhelming failures, a breakthrough occurred. These Murk Crystals, when properly harnessed, were able to emit a small field of shadow which muted light that passed through it. With further experimentation and theory craft, the Shade Engine was born—a machine made from an alloyed steel using bone fragments from the dead Rat God of Darkness, Subterfuge, and Secrets Chirr’Vask.

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WIP

Golden are the cities beneath that shade. Gilded are those that prop up their own to hide beneath. Tarnished are the villages scorched beneath that Great Blue.

Myth: Gloamhavens received their moniker based on the word "Gloam", a term used to describe the time of day after the sun sets beyond the horizon.
Fact: The style of city was originally known as a "Gloomhaven", named so after the cursed mists of a land far to the west called Vasara. It eventually shifted to Gloam after the visual effect it had on the sky when viewed from beneath the Shroud, and the negative connotations surrounding the Gloom and its history.

Alternative Name(s)

Sunbreakers; Luminarks

Type

Capital

Inhabitant Demonym

Dwellers, Shadlings