First Light
You have been accepted into the Chromeria, the greatest school, temple, fortress, bureaucracy, and argument in the known world. From the outside, it gleams: towers of color, polished lenses, disciplined Blackguards, and impossible architecture. From the inside, it creaks with sealed archives, political rivalries, anxious instructors, and quiet reminders that power always leaves a mark.
You begin as a level 1 inductee: newly tested, barely trusted, and expected to learn quickly. You may be gifted, but you are not yet important. This is both insulting and useful.
The World of the Seven Satrapies
The known world is organized around the Seven Satrapies, a ring of nations and cultures bound by trade, faith, politics, resentment, and the Chromeria’s regulation of drafting.
At the center are the Jaspers. Little Jasper holds the Chromeria itself: towers, dormitories, drafting halls, chapels, libraries, and training yards. Big Jasper, across the water, is a crowded city of embassies, merchants, slums, rumors, mirrorworks, crime, and opportunity.
The Satrapies at a Glance
Tyrea is poor, stubborn, scarred, and resilient.
Atash values philosophy, fire, gunpowder, and ancient pride.
Blood Forest is green, old, matrilineal, and suspicious of outsiders.
Ruthgar is wealthy, polished, status-conscious, and politically sharp.
Paria is devout, modest, militarily powerful, and rich in tradition.
Ilyta is maritime, clever, chaotic, and dangerous with firearms.
Abornea understands trade, tolls, roads, and the price of delay.
A wise inductee remembers that no one arrives at the Chromeria as a blank slate. Every student brings homeland, accent, food, prayers, debts, family expectations, and at least one favorite insult.
Faith, Light, and Old Stories
Most respectable people worship Orholam, Lord of Light and Father of All. The Chromeria teaches that drafting is a sacred gift meant to serve the community, not the ego. The faithful speak of virtues such as prudence, courage, justice, temperance, charity, hope, and faith.
Other names survive in sailor mutterings, village shrines, forbidden carvings, children’s dares, and half-burned books: old gods, fallen lights, djinn, hungry spirits, saints who may never have been saints. Some luxiats dismiss them as metaphor. Some forbid their names. This, naturally, ensures students whisper about them constantly.
Inductee Guidance: Orholam is worshipped openly. The others belong to myth, heresy, nightmare, or history. Which category is safest depends on who is listening.
Drafting: The Shape of Light
Drafting is the act of transforming light into luxin, a physical substance shaped by will. Drafters do not merely cast spells. They perceive color, draw upon light, impose form, and create matter with properties tied to that color.
The Four Necessaries
Skill: precise color matching and control.
Will: the force to make light take shape and remain shaped.
Source: access to the color of light being drafted.
Stillness or Movement: breath, body, eyes, and ritual focus.
A drafter without light is limited. A drafter without discipline is dangerous. A drafter without humility is a future cautionary lecture.
The Halo
Every draft leaves residue. Over time, color gathers in the eyes, forming the halo. At first, it is beautiful: proof of gift, effort, and identity. It is also a clock.
Push too hard, draft recklessly, or spend too much will, and the halo strains. If it cracks, color begins to press back against the mind. This is called Halo Breaking, and it is one of the great fears of the age.
In polite classrooms, instructors discuss this clinically. In taverns, people call broken drafters monsters, martyrs, victims, or proof that the Chromeria lies.
The Common Colors
Every inductee is tested for color affinity. Most level 1 drafters begin with one primary color. Each color has physical properties, common uses, and a psychological pull.
| Color | What It Feels Like | Common Uses | Reputation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sub-red | Heat, flame, impulse | Ignition, warmth, fire effects | Useful, volatile, emotional |
| Red | Sticky, tarry, passionate | Pyrejelly, clinging fire, area denial | Dramatic and messy |
| Orange | Oily, slippery, persuasive | Slicks, flexible barriers, misdirection | Clever, manipulative |
| Yellow | Solid, bright, enduring | Shields, tools, walls, stable constructs | Reliable and respected |
| Green | Springy, wild, growing | Movement, vines, rebounds, force | Energetic and unruly |
| Blue | Hard, crystalline, precise | Blades, armor, needles, structures | Disciplined and cold |
| Superviolet | Delicate, near-invisible, intellectual | Fine control, hidden messages, subtle traps | Subtle and unnerving |
The Colors You Are Not Supposed to Ask About
There are words students learn from older students, not from the official first-year curriculum.
Paryl is whispered about as ghost-light: a hidden color tied to impossible sight, nerve-touching, assassins, and cloaks that should not exist.
Chi is spoken like a curse: a lethal light, a revealer, a thing that burns too close to the body and shortens the lives of those who meddle with it.
Black and White belong mostly to theology, apocrypha, sealed debate, and frightened metaphor: unmaking and creation, absence and command, sin and miracle.
First-Year Rule: Do not seek them. Do not claim them. Do not believe anyone who offers to teach them in a cellar.
Life as an Inductee
Your days begin early. Dawn meditations train your eyes before pride can wake up. Morning lessons cover color theory, luxin behavior, history, faith, etiquette, and the many ways young drafters have injured themselves.
Afternoons bring supervised drafting, physical drills, Blackguard demonstrations, or specialized electives. Evenings are for study, reflection, curfew, and pretending you are not exhausted.
The Chromeria is not merely a school. It is a government, temple, military command, diplomatic center, and archive. Students are watched because students are valuable. Students are watched because students are vulnerable. Students are watched because sometimes students vanish.
What You Know at Level 1
You know drafting is powerful, costly, and regulated. You know the Chromeria is the safest place to learn and one of the most dangerous places to make enemies. You know uncontrolled drafters can become hazards to themselves and others.
You have heard the name Order of the Broken Eye associated with anti-drafter violence, assassination, sabotage, and frightening rumors. Details vary depending on which instructor you ask and how late it is.
You know luxin storms have become more common. You know many people outside the Jaspers fear drafters. You know some provinces resent the Chromeria’s laws. You know the old heroic age did not solve everything.
You also know most adults are hiding something, which is unfair because they keep telling you to be honest.
Starting Character Questions
Table Expectations
This is a campaign about spectacular magic with consequences. Drafting is not just a power source; it is identity, social status, temptation, fear, and duty. You are allowed to be brave, clever, reckless, devout, skeptical, ambitious, frightened, or funny.
You are not expected to know the lore in advance. Your character begins at the edge of a vast institution in a world where light can become a sword, a bridge, a prison, a sermon, or a lie.
Try not to break before lunch.