A text-based realm
DEAD KINGDOMS
Now we scavenge kingdoms from ash.
Walk as a shade first: roads, search, pack, craft. You cannot trade. Skills stay still. Bind a name when you want a life that keeps.
From inside
How the Reach looks
Here, the forge, the map. Walk as a shade to see it live.
They just walked in
Last ten to take a name
The Reach is not empty. These are the newest faces.
Chronicle — day 22
The sun went out
The sun went out in the eleventh year. Nothing has left since.
In the eleventh year the light failed. Carts still come into Grimhollow. Names still go into Maren’s books. Beasts still hunt the roads, and a hide you dig is only yours until someone else searches well enough to find it.
One day here is one day outside. You get a little strength back while you are away, unless you are sick. Then nothing returns until you eat, rest, or find help. What you pick, the next person does not find. A wall can finish while you sleep. A body does not wait.
Dead Kingdoms · the Reach still has a name, even if the sun does notHow it lives
Deep as ruin. Simple as text.
One shared world
You are in the same Reach as everyone else.
Pull the flax and the next person finds a bare patch, until it grows back. The shop can be out of silver. The miller locks the door at dusk, gets sick, and can die. When he does, the work he did is waiting for someone. Close the page. The day still passes.
Nothing comes quickly
A steel blade is not a morning’s work.
You search the ash, cut what is growing, hunt, and stand at a fire until the metal is yours. A hole for your silver is one you dig with your own spade. The big things on the road usually let a newcomer walk by. Sometimes they turn.
Death is a choice
You fall. Then you choose how to stand up.
Be buried, and come back weaker. Take the ash, and keep more of yourself. Or climb out of the pit with almost nothing in your hands. No one inherits your life. Some of what you carried is still lying where you fell. Your name stays. The graves stay.
Bind your name
Walk in
No download. A login and a word. Origin is chosen when you arrive, and it stays.
The Cart’s Survivor
You were put on a corpse-cart with the dead and you were not dead enough.
This past is forever.
STR hit, carry, labour · DEX first blow, sneak · CON health, energy, cold · INT craft, lore, magic · PER find things, spot danger · WIL hold your mind
The Burnt Tallies
You were property until the property burned, and the debt survived the fire.
This past is forever.
STR hit, carry, labour · DEX first blow, sneak · CON health, energy, cold · INT craft, lore, magic · PER find things, spot danger · WIL hold your mind
The Second Half
You were taught the end of the world as a liturgy. It is a set of instructions.
This past is forever.
STR hit, carry, labour · DEX first blow, sneak · CON health, energy, cold · INT craft, lore, magic · PER find things, spot danger · WIL hold your mind
The Warm Place
Something in your blood answers to something in the sky. Neither of you asked.
This past is forever.
STR hit, carry, labour · DEX first blow, sneak · CON health, energy, cold · INT craft, lore, magic · PER find things, spot danger · WIL hold your mind
The Ninth Row
You dug the Reach’s dead for eleven years. Then you found the tally with your name in the ninth row.
This past is forever.
STR hit, carry, labour · DEX first blow, sneak · CON health, energy, cold · INT craft, lore, magic · PER find things, spot danger · WIL hold your mind
The Door in the Tree
You were not born here. You arrived mid-sentence, in a wood that had already decided to keep you.
This past is forever.
STR hit, carry, labour · DEX first blow, sneak · CON health, energy, cold · INT craft, lore, magic · PER find things, spot danger · WIL hold your mind