Chapter
Faction guardians and enforcers
Each Evane faction guards its seat with a construct that is symmetric and lit in its faction's colour: Wardens pale blue, Tenders violet, Keepers brass-gold, Still Choir moonlight silver (VEL-51; the last two colours are still open). The Facets build theirs from asymmetric salvage. Human enforcers, the Warden menders and the Lanternfall lamplighters, come after players whose standing with a side has fallen. The warden sentinel (above) is the Wardens' guardian.
Enforcers and standing (Idea). Below a set standing with a side, its enforcers block the gates (Codex section 7: gate guards refuse entry) and may meet the player on that side's roads. Beating them doesn't fix standing; it lowers it further. Talking, paying, or a reputation quest is the way back. Humans never die in battle: at 0 HP they yield. What the player does then (let them go, hand them over, take their fragments) is a morality choice (Codex section 7).
Thorn warden — thorn_warden
- Region: Twinhold and Greenvault (Greenvault's terraces).
- Look (VEL-51 concept): A Tender guardian, grown rather than built. It is a tall, symmetric figure woven from living green vines, roots and smooth pale wood. Its round knot of a face holds two mirrored violet glyphs (Coil's #B48CFF), violet blossoms grow on its shoulders, and it has long arms of braided thorny vine ending in heavy root fists. Silhouette: a rounded, heavy body with long, drooping arms. It reads as a tree that walks.
- Behaviour: A root-fist swing every 6 s for 16. Special, Regrow: heals 4 HP a second while it hasn't been hit for 3 s (the Tender cycle). Special, Bramble: every 15 s it roots the player's thumbs: the next cast's shape score is capped at 70% unless it is cleansed. Tell: the blossoms on its shoulders open just before Bramble. Mirrored resistance (rule 3).
- Counters: Keep hitting it: Squall's three hits (tier 2) or Wither (tier 1, full strength on a living thing, rule 5) stop the Regrow. Calm (tier 1) or Table Mend (tier 3) clear Bramble. Gale isn't resisted, and nor is Bevel Lash, if both halves are found.
- Rough stats: HP high (380). Damage high (16). Speed normal (6 s), first attack 8 s.
maxHp 380, attackDamage 16, attackIntervalSeconds 6, firstAttackDelaySeconds 8, regen 4/s after 3 s (new), resist mirrored 0.5 (new), color "#B48CFF" - Drops:
evane_silverx2. - Where it appears: Act 2, Greenvault's vine-locked terraces (opened by Root's field effect; there is no Bloom spell).
- Model notes for Meshy: humanoid (Meshy rig). Reference:
thorn-warden-ref-a.png.
Hushed one — hushed_one
- Region: Hushfold and the Hour Stair (Hushfold abbey).
- Look (VEL-51 concept): A silent guardian of the Still Choir: a tall, slender, symmetric figure in layered pale grey and white veils that hang perfectly still in the wind. It has no face, only a smooth silver oval, and two mirrored hands raised in a hand-sign. A faint moonlight-silver halo of stillness surrounds it, and in it snowflakes hang frozen in the air. Silhouette: a tall, thin column with two raised hands. Of all the enemies it moves least, so its rare movements read as tells.
- Behaviour: A sign-strike every 6 s for 12. Special, Stillness: its halo shortens the player's breath window by 25% while it stands. Special, Hush: every 18 s it signs Hush: the player can't cast for 3 s. Tell: both hands slowly close, over 2 s. Mirrored resistance.
- Counters: Calm (tier 1) clears the silence. Its own Hush back at it (tier 1, Still Choir) stops its signs, because the Still Choir hears itself. Short spells (Drift, Gale) fit in the shortened breath. Long threads don't, and that is the lesson. From Act 3, Hasten (tier 1, Keepers) more than makes up the lost breath.
- Rough stats: HP high (300). Damage mid (12). Speed normal (6 s), first attack 8 s.
maxHp 300, attackDamage 12, attackIntervalSeconds 6, firstAttackDelaySeconds 8, breath aura -25% (new), resist mirrored 0.5 (new), color "#D8DEE6" - Drops:
evane_silver. - Where it appears: Act 2, Hushfold, at a sealed door or for low Evane standing.
- Model notes for Meshy: humanoid (Meshy rig). The veils should be modelled as a solid shape, with no cloth simulation. There is only a battle concept (
hushed-one-a.png), so VEL-66 makes the A-pose sheet.
Hour sentinel — hour_sentinel
- Region: Hushfold and the Hour Stair (the Hour Stair).
- Look (VEL-51 concept): A Keeper guardian: a heavy, symmetric construct of pale stone and old brass shaped like a walking bell tower. A great bronze bell hangs inside its open chest, two brass clock hands are crossed on its face, and mirrored brass-gold spiral glyphs glow on each shoulder. It is slow and enormous. Silhouette: a tall tower with a bell-shaped opening at its middle. The bell's swing is the tell.
- Behaviour: Toll: one blow every 10 s for 30, landing 3 s after the bell swings, like the Keepers' spell. Special, the Hundred-Year Hour: at 50% HP it stops the battle clock for everyone but itself for 4 s and strikes twice. Tell: both clock hands swing to twelve. Mirrored resistance.
- Counters: Linger (tier 1, Keepers, found on the seventh bell's frame on the climb) halves the pace of its blows. Hush (tier 1) silences the bell, and cast in the tell it cancels the Hundred-Year Hour. Brace timed to the landing takes a Toll; Drift (tier 2) dodges one. Hasten, which Keeper Hale teaches just before the trial, gives room for longer threads in the long gaps. This is a patience fight.
- Rough stats: HP boss (500). Damage boss (30). Speed very slow (10 s), first attack 10 s.
maxHp 500, attackDamage 30, attackIntervalSeconds 10, firstAttackDelaySeconds 10, delayed hit 3 s (new), resist mirrored 0.5 (new), color "#C9A44C" - Drops:
evane_silver,marble_chips. - Where it appears: Act 3, the Hour Stair's bell court: the hour trial (
hour_trial). - Model notes for Meshy: humanoid (Meshy rig, stubby limbs). Reference:
hour-sentinel-ref-a.png. The bell as a separate part, swung in code.
Shard sentinel — shard_sentinel
- Region: The Heart Pane (the deep Shardfield).
- Look (VEL-51 concept): A hulking Facet guardian built from large salvaged panes of mirror-glass and dark slate stone bound with wire. It is deliberately asymmetric: one huge arm is a cluster of jagged mirror shards and the other a small stone arm, and its head sits off-centre. Warm amber light glows in the seams (amber crystal, not fire: see VEL-51's note), with thin teal and violet edges on the glass. Silhouette: lopsided, with one enormous arm. It is the Warden sentinel's opposite at a glance.
- Behaviour: A crystal-arm smash every 7 s for 22. Special, Two Shapes: every 14 s it holds two glyphs open, one per arm. After a 2 s tell (one circle and one triangle light up on its arms), it fires Bevel Lash at the player (30, ignoring shields). Held asymmetry (new): double stagger from tier 1 (Glass rule 4).
- Counters: Repel (tier 1) staggers it for 5 s and cancels Two Shapes: a mirrored spell makes its two shapes agree, and it can't hold them. Drift (tier 2) dodges the Lash, since a shield won't help. Hush (tier 1) also stops it casting.
- Rough stats: HP high (420). Damage high (22; the Lash does 30). Speed slow (7 s), first attack 8 s.
maxHp 420, attackDamage 22, attackIntervalSeconds 7, firstAttackDelaySeconds 8, stagger x2 from mirrored (new), color "#FFC66B" - Drops:
raw_amber,mirror_grit, a Facet glyph fragment (shared freely; Facets don't hoard). - Where it appears: Act 3, a Facet cache in the deep shards. Act 4, the Pane's rim, as Iver's guards.
- Model notes for Meshy: humanoid (Meshy rig). Reference:
shard-sentinel-ref-a.png.
Warden menders — warden_menders
- Region: Twinhold and Greenvault; Corran.
- Look (VEL-51 concept): A pair of Evane Warden menders, stern casters in matching white and silver half-armour over pale blue robes. Smooth silver half-masks hide their faces. They stand as exact mirror images of each other, each raising one hand to draw a pale blue mirrored L between them, and each wears a silver glyph band on each wrist (Aske's old bands, worn the right way out). Silhouette: two identical figures, flipped, with one glowing shape between them. It reads as one enemy made of two.
- Behaviour: Each casts Repel-like bolts, alternating, every 6 s for 12. Shared ward: a hit on one gives the other a 12-point shield, so hurting them unevenly is wasted. Special, Binding: together they draw a seal over 3 s. If it completes, the last spell the player cast fizzles for 15 s ("Your hands won't answer …" in grey). That is a battlefield binding, not a court's un-teaching: it wears off, and it can never bind Repel. If Repel was the last spell, the binding takes the one before it. Tell: the L between them grows from a spark to full size.
- Counters: Hit both evenly: Squall (tier 2) spreads across them. Hush (tier 1) breaks the Binding, and from Act 3 so does Prism Snare (tier 3). Rule 3 doesn't apply, because they are human, not constructs. Calm (tier 1) lifts a Binding early, because stillness is older than measure.
- Rough stats: HP mid each (160 each, 320 total). Damage mid (12). Speed normal (6 s, alternating, so in effect 3 s), first attack 6 s.
maxHp 160 x2, attackDamage 12, attackIntervalSeconds 6, firstAttackDelaySeconds 6, pair (new), color "#7FD4FF" - Drops:
evane_silver(they yield; humans never die). They never drop glyphs: Wardens carry no fragments, because the Vault keeps every glyph they take. - Where it appears: Act 2+, Evane roads for low standing (
warden_enforcers). Act 3, Corran's seal-watch (corran_seal_watch). Act 4, a mender takes the place of any faction head who sits the finale out, with that voice's ability at half strength. At the Act 2 mending at the Sallow warp, five menders are the casters the player guards, not foes: there is no fight to stop the mending. - Model notes for Meshy: humanoid (Meshy rig). One model, mirrored in code for the second mender. There is only a battle concept (
warden-menders-a.png), so VEL-66 makes the A-pose sheet.
Lamplighter (Idea) — lamplighter
- Region: The Shardfield (Lanternfall).
- Look: Lanternfall's volunteer watch, chosen by the open council and never more than a season at a time. A lamplighter wears a mismatched long coat, one sleeve slate and one amber-glass-scaled, and carries a long pole topped with a lantern of cut amber glass that throws broken colour. Each wears their own sigil, painted on the lantern's glass. They are cheerful, unhurried and very good at their job. Silhouette: a figure with a tall pole and a bright lantern above its head. In battle the lantern is the bright point.
- Behaviour: A lantern-pole sweep every 5 s for 14. Special, Facet Seal: a 22 shield on itself every 12 s. Special, Crown Surge: it spends 15 of its own HP for a 1.6x next strike. Tell: its sigil glows on the lantern before a Surge. Held asymmetry (double stagger from tier 1).
- Counters: Repel (tier 1) staggers it for 5 s (rule 4), the window for damage. Brace before a Surged strike. Bevel Lash (tier 3), if both halves are found, goes through the Seal. Talking works too: lamplighters stand down for a player who gives away a glyph (Facet culture, Story Bible section 2).
- Rough stats: HP high (200). Damage mid (14; Surged 22). Speed normal (5 s), first attack 6 s.
maxHp 200, attackDamage 14, attackIntervalSeconds 5, firstAttackDelaySeconds 6, stagger x2 from mirrored (new), color "#FFC66B" - Drops:
facet_token,raw_amber. If spared, a Facet glyph fragment given freely. - Where it appears: Act 2+, Lanternfall's gates and the Shardfield roads, for low Facet standing.
- Model notes for Meshy: humanoid (Meshy rig); the pole and lantern as a separate prop. There is no concept yet. VEL-66 makes the A-pose sheet from this brief.