What to expect
Vex Throne is a vast, ancient empire held together by faith, iron, and force — oracle engines, foundry-worlds, twenty thousand workers who stop and turn at once. There are no clean sides here. It is a soldier’s-eye world: grim, close, and honest about the cost of everything. Hope turns up so you can watch what happens to it.
How magic works here
Magic is psychic and sanctified, and it is never safe. To Work it, a caster reaches into the cold dark — and every reach risks a consequence: a nosebleed, a lost memory, a flare of something wrong, or a voice from the dark answering back in the caster’s own voice. There is no tidy reservoir to spend; there is only rising danger and a mind that frays a little more each time.
A taste of an opening
“Third foundry shift. The forge-line stops without warning — twenty thousand workers stand in the dark with hammers in their hands. The overseer’s horn whines, then fails. Three of you raise a hand when asked who saw it happen. None of you remember why.”