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The Shape of the World
The Overworld of Lumen is divided into large regions called Luminants.
Luminants function as the continents of this world: massive landmasses with their own climates, cultures, and histories. Travel within a luminant is relatively stable. Travel between them is not.
Separating the luminants is the ocean. Near the coasts, this ocean behaves mostly like a normal sea. Farther out, it thins into something else entirely: the Voidsea.
The Voidsea is not simply deep water. It is a liminal space where reality begins to break down. Time behaves inconsistently, matter degrades, and living things struggle to persist. Islands caught within it may become frozen in time, decay into nothing, or drift back toward a luminant centuries later. The Voidsea also acts as a boundary between the surface world and what lies beneath it.
That boundary leads to The Depths.
The Depths and Death
The Depths surround the world completely. They exist beneath the ocean, beyond the sky, and past the edges of reality. While often described as an underworld, they are not a single place, but a collection of layered environments, each operating by different rules.
Death in Lumen follows a consistent pattern.
When a person dies, their physical body collapses into ash. The soul does not linger in the overworld. Instead, it is pulled downward into the Depths. This happens regardless of belief, status, or intent.
Souls that fall into the Depths are not automatically destroyed. Some wander. Some are claimed by entities that dwell there. Some remain trapped indefinitely. Escape is possible, but not through one’s own effort alone.
To return to the overworld, a soul must have its body restored or remade by a divine being, most often a Drowned God or a similarly powerful entity. When this happens, the soul is allowed to return, re-entering the restored body and resuming life on the surface. Without this intervention, return is impossible.
The Song
The Song is not music in the casual sense. It is closer to a rulebook for reality.
Everything that resembles magic - mantras, rituals, attunements, enchantments, etc. - comes from interacting with the Song. Rather than creating something from nothing, users of the Song manipulate what already exists: heat, wind, water, motion, force. Skilled individuals learn how to “hear” certain parts of it more clearly than others.
The Song also resonates with living beings. Strong emotional moments, especially the instinct to survive, can carve out unique passages within it. These passages sometimes manifest as Resonances, often taking the form of bells or instruments bound to a person’s soul.
Importantly, the Song is not fully controllable. People can influence it, whisper into it, tug at its threads, but no one commands it outright. In that sense, it functions almost like fate.
Attunements
Attunements are the most common and practical way people interact with the Song.
Rather than spells, attunements are trained manipulations of the environment, shaped by repeated exposure to a specific “frequency” of the Song. The four foundational attunements - fire, wind, lightning, and ice - emerged long ago and still form the backbone of daily life. Other types of attunements like shadow, iron, lifeweave, light, and blood were artificially made by the various races in Lumen.
While adventurers mostly use attunements for combat, civilians rely on them just as much: preserving food, powering tools, healing wounds, reinforcing structures, or surviving harsh climates. A city without attuned citizens would not function for long.
The Canticlysm and the Tides
Long before the present era, people learned to use the Song.
This period, now called the Canticlysm, was marked by rapid advancement. Entire societies were built on Song-powered inventions, and attunements were refined and systematized. For a time, it was a golden age. Sadly, it did not last.
The constant strain on the Song disturbed ancient beings sleeping beneath the world: the Drowned Gods. When they stirred, the seas rose. Land was swallowed. The Old World collapsed beneath the waves in a catastrophe remembered as the Tides.
The World After the Flood
Lumen is now a scattered world of luminants and islands, separated by vast stretches of unstable ocean known as the Voidsea. Some islands drifted back from the depths of that sea after centuries of frozen time; these are called Driftlands.
Above the surface, a strange phenomenon called Voidfog circles the world, bending light and obscuring the sky.
Gods, Celestials, and the Divine
The divine in Lumen is fractured.
The Drowned Gods are ancient entities bound to the ocean and the Depths. Their partial awakening in the past caused the Tides, which drowned the Old World. Most of them are currently dormant, not dead. Their continued sleep is critical: if even one were to fully awaken, the resulting strain on the world would be enough to end it entirely.
Despite this, the Drowned Gods still exert influence. Their presence warps reality in subtle ways, especially near the Depths and the Voidsea. They are capable of granting power, reshaping bodies, and restoring souls, though such acts are never without consequence. They are not aligned with mortal morality and are rarely benevolent by human standards.
Opposing them are the Celestials. These beings are associated with the sky, distant stars, and observation rather than direct intervention. Unlike the Drowned Gods, Celestials do not reside within the world or beneath it, and their influence is indirect. They act through intermediaries, artifacts, visions, and long-term manipulation rather than overt displays of power.
The Celestials and the Drowned Gods are actively hostile to one another. This conflict is not fought through open warfare, but through containment, interference, and denial. The Celestials seek to prevent the full awakening of the Drowned Gods, while the Drowned Gods resist confinement and influence events in ways that push the world closer to collapse.
People of Lumen
Lumen is home to a wide variety of races, many of which have adapted, physically or culturally, to the flooded world. Ordinary humans exist, but they are rare. Most “human-like” people descend from altered lineages shaped by the Song, the Tides, or older forces.
Despite their differences, most peoples of Lumen share the same core struggles: survival, territory, belief, and control over the future.
Factions and Conflict
The world is not unified.
Kingdoms, authorities, companies, cults, and ideological movements all compete for influence. Some seek order and control. Others pursue knowledge of the Song, divine favor, or simple profit.
Lumen is politically unstable, and the scars of the past are still open. Every major faction believes they are preventing another catastrophe in some way, and that often leads to clashes.