Arcanoria

Loss is transformation. Gateway To Genesis is not about preventing loss. It's about what you do with loss after it happens.

The magical Earth where the game takes place, its origin lies in the Seven-Cycle Creation by the Auric Aria.

Starting the game is the Original Ripple. The player is the "kinetic energy" required to pluck The Eternal Symphony into motion. This is visible as the open-sequence of starting a new game. The player is the Third Actor setting the Known Universe into motion. The reason for the "Big Bang."

Map Features

The map features and types are:

• Settlements: They are the Civilization at its core, and depending on their development and growth they have the following categories:

• Capitals: One per empire and it's the one you have zoomed-in view of. They are the center of bureaucracy and hold the Government Council.  They anchor all Administrative Authority and all other settlements must ultimately connect to Capital Administrative Authority. The Government Capacity can be expanded through Capital improvements.

• Major Settlements: A Civilization can hold as many as their Government Capacity allows. These are the major cities of the Civilization, they are attuned to a specialization with one of the seven bindings of The Principles of Magic. They serve as major anchors for projecting Administrative Authority. After learning The Truth of Arcanoria, they can develop up to two Ornaments depending on the Major Settlement's history. Requires being entirely present during at least three Ages. A fully Ornamental city can perform advanced Spellweaving, including Tetrad Chords. Likewise, Major Settlements create secondary zones of control around them, and all Developing Towns within range must connect to them.

• Developing Towns: They have unlimited capacity, although they always have to be within the Civilization's Administrative Authority and with enough distance of other settlements. All Major Settlements begin as Developing Towns. They serve as expansion engines and resource collectors, and distance limits prevent sprawl while encouraging focused empire development. Developing Towns can be promoted to a Major Settlement when they reach enough City Development.

• Outpost: Any remote station or settlement established detached of the core Administrative Authority of a Civilization with the purpose of having access to trade or extract additional Resources, overseas Administrative Authority, or redirect the flow of Leylines through Resonance Anchors to increase the Coherence of a region. Can be upgraded to become Developing Towns if incorporated into Administrative Authority.

• Trade and Supply Chains: These are the lifeblood of any Civilization and have varying degrees of specialization for the production, manufacturing, and economic power of goods. They count from trade routes to domestic logistics.

• Trade Nexus: The main geographic-economic hubs where all trade in a region is connected. These are large locations for trading where markets, warehouses, and customs conduct Trade Power. All Trade Routes connect from Trade Nodes to Trade Nexus to any settlement type. They are the primary economic Landmarks that create value and City Development but require a gifted geographical feature to establish. "One connected Trade Nexus is worth three isolated cities."

• Trade Nodes: The in-between points for Trade Routes that connect infrastructure, supply, Resources, and goods. They're the check-points of economic highways. Controlling Trade Nodes means controlling trade flow unless provided with an alternative route, but usually disrupting a Trade Node disrupts the entire route. They can be fortified to increase the safety of Trade Routes.

• Trade Routes: The zones where Resources travel from Trade Nodes. They can connect two Trade Nodes, any Trade Nodes to a Trade Nexus, and Trade Nodes to any settlement. The pathways between Trade Routes prefer to travel in high Coherence zones along Leylines, and the roads they build tend to increase the adjacent City Development. Trade Routes can only be disrupted by a Blockade or Pillaging on a Trade Node.

• Magical Pathways and Hotspots: Arcanoria also has a secondary layer of harmonics that allows as the magical network and landscape of the Great Harmonic Loom which changes every Ages transition as the Grand Thread Rings move in Cosmic Motion. The features that are embedded within the map as the magical layer are the following:

• Leylines: Magical pathways that form a network across the world. They are natural channels of magical energy that Civilizations can leverage for power, information, travel and research. Leylines are the highest naturally occurring Coherence. Units move faster when traveling on Leylines, seers reveal farther and Trade Routes receive yield bonuses. High Coherence regions are necessary for Major Settlements and Capitals to fully develop. They are visible as glowing paths that can be traced visually across terrain, and tend to follow running bodies of water like rivers. The intersections and convergence points act as fertile land of "magical highways" for powerful Spellweaving and enable civilization-wide magical bonuses.

• High and Low Coherence Zones: All regions have an assigned value of magical stability, increase through the natural Leylines and Vibrational Density of the world. Certain structures, such as Resonance Anchors can increase Coherence. Depending on if it's positive or negative it can amplify or dampen magical effects. Zones with high Coherence allow for reliable Spellweaving, easier City Development, and increase in the efficiency of Trade Routes. Zones with low Coherence do the opposite, and decrease the Composure of adjacent armies, serving as attrition zones.

• Vibrational Density and Sacred Sites: Regions with the highest harmonic integrity are considered Sacred Sites because they have a paramount potency for Spellweaving and attunement. These are very scarce Landmarks but are necessary for establishing a Religion through a Prophet. These legendary sites allow for the most Piety to transfer into Civilization, they're the highest Coherence point of all of Arcanoria and are immune to most Dissonance effects. Atonalis avoid entirely these places. While the quality of Vibrational Density for a Sacred Site is the maximum possible, minor theological settlements like Religious Havens have increased yields depending on the Vibrational Density of the place, leading some to be better than others at generating Faith and Piety. Sacred Sites don't change with Ages as the rest of the Great Harmonic Loom does.

• Resource Grandfields: Vast areas of Resources that can increase the existing production of a category of Resources. These are large patches of crystalized matter that can be used for increasing tenfold the output of current Production Units. They are sparse and require a dedicated extraction Outpost. However, they are very valuable Landmarks that vary based on whether they are Resource Grandfields of Building Materials or Vital Resources.

• Enclaves: A type of autonomous self-governing authority specialized in a particular activity that vary based on the Ages they're currently in. While Enclaves evolve over time, they have diplomacy distinct from other Civilizations or proper empires as they're city-states that can be interacted and integrated within a Civilization.

Enclaves (City-states) as Middle Ground between Civilizations, and other settlements.

A type of autonomous self-governing authority specialized in a particular activity that vary based on the Ages they're currently in. While Enclaves evolve over time, they have diplomacy distinct from other Civilizations or proper empires as they're city-states that can be interacted and integrated within a Civilization. Regardless of the type of Enclave they all shared the following:

• Primary Function: It's the essence of the Enclave, and their vision statement. It's deeply related to their origin wound and serves as the purpose. A luminous observatory has the primary function of research advancement and technological discovery because truth is the highest calling. A forge-city with the essence of excellence through absolute concentration allows manufacturing and specialized crafting.

— This article is abridged. The full record runs longer in the archive.