Road to Redemption
Sections

The Journey

Three acts and an endgame, from the bottom of the world where you wake to the gate of heaven, then the same climb again a hundred years on, through a world your choice has made worse.

12 pages: 12 concept

Concept painting: the gate of heaven, where each climb ends.Art in progress
Concept painting: the gate of heaven, where each climb ends.

The three acts and the two climbs are decided. Which region sits in which act, read bottom to top, is a proposal: see the overview.

  1. Act 1The DeepWhere the fallen wake, with no memory: a floor of feathers, the heap of fallen grace that Velmarch mined, and the foundries and halls above it. Only your ember lights the way up.The second climb: She is waiting where you wake, and this time you know her. A century more of your kind has been dug up and burned.
    1. Where You WakeThe floor of the world: grey feathers, the cold embers of those who fell before you, and one shaft of light from very far above. DaylightOne shaft from far above StrangenessDreamlike
    2. The HeartfireThe great heap of fallen grace that Velmarch mined: white-gold, glass-floored, too bright to look at. DaylightOverexposed StrangenessVisionary
    3. The UnderhallsFoundries that burn your kind for fuel, then mine-halls too large to see across, and the Plumb’s cage hanging in the dark. DaylightOnly your ember StrangenessMythic
  2. Act 2The Drowned WorldUp the Plumb into Velmarch, mostly under the sea: a desert of salt, then the drowned capital, where its king still holds court and ends the act.The second climb: The coast has drowned further and the front between heaven’s holds has moved. Orrin is on his throne either way.
    1. The Drawn SeaOut of the Plumb into blinding noon: salt flats, stranded fleets, whale ribs, and Saltreach hanging upside down in the sky. DaylightBlinding white noon StrangenessSurreal
    2. The Drowned CoastGrey salt marsh, faces under the water, Saltreach’s spires in the sea and the Drowned King on his dry floor. DaylightGrey fog, cold shafts StrangenessUncanny
  3. Act 3The AscentOut of the fog into the Vale, where daylight comes back and Hearthold keeps a fire for you; then the kings’ forest, the moors of their graves and the High Pass above the clouds, to the gate of heaven: white, colourless, and at war.Hub: HeartholdThe second climb: The fog has climbed the Vale and the children who watched you pass are old, or raised. A century’s fallen keeps the gate, and you arrive on your own banner’s ground.
    1. The Vale of VelmarchUp the low road out of the fog: orchards, hedgerows, and Hearthold on its hill, the last warm place. DaylightGolden afternoon StrangenessGrounded
    2. HarrowwoodThe kings’ forest of colossal oaks and yews, coals glowing in hollow trunks, the Gloamroot beneath. DaylightDappled, then dusk StrangenessFairy tale
    3. The Barrow MoorsGolden grass over the mounds of eleven kings, then the High Pass, climbing through snow above the clouds. DaylightWind and cloud, then snow-glare StrangenessEerie
    4. The Gate of HeavenA bridge over the cloud sea to a white gate, arches inside arches, and the city behind it at war. DaylightWhite without a sun StrangenessSublime
  4. EndgameThe Contested WorldThe endgame: the world’s regions, held by heaven’s factions, opened as maps from your seat above; the Unlit under the fire; pinnacle fights in heaven.
    1. The Contested WorldThe world as heaven’s board: every region held by a faction, opened as a map from your seat above. DaylightThe world’s own light StrangenessWhatever holds it
    2. The UnlitUnder the floor where you woke, where the fire itself is afraid, and light lights nothing. DaylightLight that lights nothing StrangenessPhantasmagoria