LORE OF SKYGLASS

THE WORLD BEFORE THE FALL

Caelora

Before exile, Caelora was a world held together by engineering, tradition and crystal power. The Corvane built high cities of stone, brass and dark metal, adapting old forms rather than discarding them. Ancient silhouettes remained visible in new machines: ceremonial armour gained powered systems, crossbows became crystal-fed Riftbows, optical instruments extended eyesight far beyond the natural range of the species, and massive Hearts distributed Aether energy across whole regions.

Blue Skyglass sat beneath almost everything. It powered transport, workshops, agricultural systems, weapons and the infrastructure that allowed the great Corvane settlements to grow. To later generations aboard the Avrix, this civilisation exists as a mixture of archive footage, damaged plans and stories told by the shrinking number of Corvane old enough to remember it directly.

The Lethrim shared the planet but not the same relationship with the sky. Their lives were already shaped by caves, mines and subterranean engineering. They were regarded by many surface Corvane as technologically capable but provincial - an assumption the century after the catastrophe would prove dangerously incomplete.

THE HEART

The Day Caelora Broke

The Heart was not a symbol. It was infrastructure on a scale large enough to shape civilisation. Massive Skyglass systems regulated and stepped down crystal energy for the capital and the networks connected to it. When the Heart overloaded, the result was not a simple power failure. The capital was devastated and the systems around it failed with it.

Later Corvane accounts compress the catastrophe into a single event because that is how collective memory works: there was the world before the Heart failed, and there was everything after. In reality, evacuation was confusion - collapsing infrastructure, broken communications, partial information and a population forced to make decisions faster than anyone could understand what had happened.

The surviving leadership did not know whether the planet itself remained safe. The atmosphere, the crystal network and the stability of surviving cities could not be trusted. The Corvane had one great advantage left: the Avrix, an ark-vessel capable of carrying a population away from the immediate disaster.

A CENTURY IN EXILE

A civilisation consuming its own lifeboat

The Avrix endured because generations of engineers refused to let it fail. Components were repaired, replaced, cannibalised and redesigned. Old Skyglass was recut and retuned. Systems that had once been backups became permanent. Agricultural decks, atmosphere processors, workshops and residential zones all drew from a vessel that was being asked to do a job far beyond its intended lifetime.

That endurance came at a cost. Recutting Skyglass could restore function, but it could not make old crystal new. Aether Scientists watched output degrade across the century. Every successful repair delayed the same question rather than answering it: how long could the Avrix continue supporting an entire species?

The political divide widened as the problem became harder to ignore. The Emperor remembered the catastrophe directly and treated caution as responsibility. Younger Corvane knew Caelora only through recordings and inherited fear. To them, endless delay increasingly looked like surrender.

Among the population, rumours filled the gaps left by classified surveys and cautious government statements. A hidden movement began exploiting those uncertainties. Its architect became known only as The Veil. The Veil did not need one explanation for why the Emperor resisted return; uncertainty itself was enough.

THE CORVANE

More Than Wings

The Corvane are feathered but not winged. Their bodies are built for balance, powerful leaps and rapid movement rather than flight. Seasonal plumage creates natural variation, while different lineages show differences in foot structure and terrain adaptation. Some Corvane retain stronger heel talons; others have adapted toward flatter, wider running feet.

Corvane lifespans can reach roughly one hundred and forty years, which means the catastrophe remains within living memory for a small but important part of the population. This long life changes how exile feels: the oldest generation remembers the capital; the youngest knows only the Avrix; many adults were raised by people who personally lived through the evacuation.

Their technology blends medieval visual forms with optics, firearms, steam mechanisms and crystalline energy. Talons are trimmed where necessary for triggers and control surfaces. Armour may incorporate modified gloves and equipment housings without erasing the older silhouettes the culture still values.

At the centre of military tradition are the Talons and the royal household. Varrik Sorn serves as First Talon and protector of the Prince. His brother Serak Vorn serves as Second Talon. When the first proper excursion is finally authorised, Varrik leaves his responsibilities aboard the Avrix in Serak's hands and descends beside the Prince.

AETHER SCIENCE

The people measuring the end of exile

Aether Scientists are not simply laboratory academics. A civilisation dependent on ageing crystal requires analysts, engineers, field researchers and archivists capable of separating ordinary degradation from genuine danger. They measure output, vibration, light, structural resonance and changes in Aether behaviour using specialised instruments.

Their conclusions are politically uncomfortable because numbers do not respect tradition. The Avrix has survived far longer than intended, but survival is not the same as permanence. The Scientists know the ship's Skyglass is fading. Recutting and retuning can extend service life, yet every cycle consumes a little more of the reserve the Corvane cannot replace in orbit.

The planned miniature range reflects those roles: The Analyst, The Field Researcher, The Engineer, The Archivist and The Aether Warden, with the Grand Scholar as an Elite leader.

THE RETURN

The first proper excursion

The Prince argues that waiting has become its own danger. He does not demand immediate recolonisation. He asks for something smaller and harder to refuse: a limited expedition with soldiers, scientific equipment and enough instrumentation to test the surface directly.

The Emperor eventually agrees. The Prince will lead the descent personally. Varrik Sorn travels at his side, along with the Talon Strikeforce and the Crown's Advance. Kaelen Vane, the Scout, checks his optics and survey equipment. Environmental seals are tested. Weapons are inspected. The landing craft separates from the Avrix.

For the first time in generations, Corvane step onto Caelora. The air does not poison them. The ground does not burn. For a few precious moments, the old fear appears almost foolish.

Then the evidence begins. Tracks cross areas that should be empty. Ruined structures have been disturbed. Openings descend into the earth where Imperial maps show nothing. Near the ridge, Kaelen identifies modern metalwork and heat escaping from a fissure.

Deeper inside, the expedition finds a broad circular structure set directly into the cave wall. Dust hides dark metal and unfamiliar carvings. A faint yellow glow leaks through parts of the design. Beside it sits another device containing a material the Corvane cannot immediately identify - darker and more opaque than their own Skyglass, glowing yellow rather than blue.

The expedition has found proof of something the Avrix has spent a century failing to see clearly: the world below did not wait for the Corvane to come home.