Glowing Endorsements (City of Seven Seraphs: Glowglass and Parity Symbols)

Temple of Coin Minotaur Golem – Artist: Vincent Coviello

“Heaven? Not remotely. Those garish monstrosities mark nothing more than the greatest waste of resources we have ever been party to. There is a plaque in the Tower of Coin that shows nothing but a single number–the total expense the Seraphs cost our founders to fund. It is a cautionary symbol of over-extension and bad negotiation. The Seraphs are monuments to bad business. Why, the glowglass inlays in one alone cost more than you can imagine. Souls are cheaper. By the dozen. Heaven? The only Heaven I know is a ledger with a clean ‘debts’ column.”

-Taishia Melcassus, Agent Prospector, Temple of Coin

The City of Seven Seraphs has many strange qualities but none are so prevalent as the creeping dark of the Shadow Plane. While the Radia of the Etherstorm can provide daylight-bright flares for hours on end, during its quieter hours the Plane’s darkness can reassert. In the Seraph’s Ring this is an inconvenience, but in the further reaches of the City the darkness and its menacing quasi-reality become progressively more dangerous. In response to the need for light the Steamwalkers and Temple of Coin led the Parities in developing a solution: Glowglass.

Created in secret conditions under the brightest Radia emissions, glowglass is a combination of alchemy and arcane science that allows the substance to emit soft light in response to surrounding darkness conditions. The light, while dim, is visible in to greater distances than the plane usually allows. It comes in multitudinous colors and is fitted in a manner resembling the stained glass of the Prime Worlds. Unfortunately it is as fragile as its name implies and great care must be taken with it because cracks can cause the light to dim, flicker or die out entirely.

The light of glowglass provides safety in the darkest edges of the Nearing and often is the only sanctuary in the reaches beyond. It also allows for establishments to have signs and markings visible to residents during even deadtimes—those short moments when the Etherstorm goes dark and the only light is the shifting reflections of night skies of the Prime Worlds.

Liz Courts imagines what the Parities of Light’s glowglass symbols might look like in today’s preview:

 

 

Ah, that wretched little girl discovered me did she?

So very, clever that one. She has seen the face of

The Ashborn

the Archweaver and knows too much of the City

for a girl of the Prime Worlds… I’ll have to deal

 

 

with her shortly… I shall scry her name and send

the Taking Fiend for her, then your hero will fall.

The Chrysalis Covenant

The Exarchs of the Screaming Choir will have her 

and your vaunted champion will learn their notes.

 

But without the name of the lost blood that the 

Archweaver speaks, it matters little. The lost 

has some of his blood in their veins. Maybe I will

The Descendants of Dream

find them first and give them to Aphos’ brood. 

Parity shall crumble and the City will Fall. The 

Radia will be mine as it was meant to be. Its

Eternal power should not belong to common 

creatures like you. I head the Archweaver speak 

The Eternal Dawning

the old blood’s name to the ranger called Brazer.

Perhaps if you can show the Archweaver you are 

with him he

will anoint you with his power to save this

The House of Heights

“Catherine” before my creatures give her to my

allies and her screams echo the edges of the 

Nearing. Seek the Book of Faces and move through

until you see into the Well of Lost Spheres. Scream 

the name of the old blood and the Archweaver will

The Steamwalkers

hear you. I hope you succeed. I would enjoy a

new enemy as clever as this “Catherine” perhaps

if you hurry

you will gain the power of Union and stop me 

The Foreseen

erasing the City of Seven Seraphs from the 

whispers of Yesterday before it ever was. I will 

watching you struggle, seek and fail. Perhaps I will

look in your eyes before I let the kyton take you so

I will remember your pitiful visage and mark the failure as Hope fades in your eyes.

 

And thanks to Liz the way is lit…. our Kickstarter launches tomorrow! Check back during the campaign to see her work on the Parities of the Dark!