Blast Furnace
- Does
- Iron ore and coal in. Steel out.
- Footprint
- 8 × 8 × 10 m
- Power
- Steam
From one campfire to a floating capital.
Build an industrial empire out of runes and raw ore, one tier at a time.
Wishlist
Five tiers stand between that ridge and the sky.
You arrive with a pickaxe and a grudge.
Cast out of the guild, you make camp in the Verdant Cradle. No machines yet. Just your hands, a lean-to and a fire.
Log timber, chip copper from the creek bank and forage mana herbs at the edge of the oak forest. Sell what you can to passing caravans for pocket change. Your tools grow with you: flint, then copper, then iron, then rune.
The Founding Charter is the first goal: 100 cut planks, 50 copper ingots and 250 gold. Its terms are waiting for you at the end of this page.
The first lump of copper ore you dig goes on the belt in the margin. Watch what it turns into.
Let the river do the lifting.
Waterwheels turn wooden rollers. Gravity chutes sort for free. Drifters take shelter in your cottages and go to work at the lumber camp, the pier and the quarry. The ore you carried meets its first machine: a primitive smelter, worked by the wheel.
Up into Ironcrag Ridge.
Hematite, coal and geothermal vents, behind cliff walls you climb with ramps, lifts and bridges. Boilers replace the wheel. Copper pipe carries water, oil and sap. Your village gets a tavern and a market.
Steam Boiler
- Does
- Burns coal, drives the line.
- Footprint
- 6 × 10 × 7 m
- Power
- Produces steam
Steam Assembler
- Does
- Presses plate, pipe, rivets and cogs.
- Footprint
- 8 × 10 × 7 m
- Power
- Steam
Deep Core Drill
- Does
- Snaps onto a node that never runs dry.
- Footprint
- 6 × 6 × 9 m
- Power
- Steam
Mechanized Sorter
- Does
- One belt in, three filtered out.
- Footprint
- 4 × 4 × 3 m
- Power
- Steam
Gore-Horn
- Habitat
- Ironcrag Ridge
- Threat
- Charges anything on its slope, including your belts.
- Answer
- Ironclad gear, and turrets on the wall.
Then the furnace goes quiet.
Stop carrying. Lay a line.
Leyline conduits, crane arms and multi-input assemblers. Set the track once and it runs through the night, with or without you.
- Gravity Chute30
- Wooden Roller Conveyor60
- Bronze Canvas Belt120
- Runic Mag-Track300
Then build a capital that floats.
Magnetic rails between islands, teleport hubs, golems on the night shift and anchors that reshape the land. Your factories grow into castles, and the castles leave the ground.
The road ahead
Ten milestones to the crown.
Every milestone is a delivery to the Aether Spire in your village square. Each one raises it a stage, until its crown lifts off the ground. Hours and quantities are design targets for a first playthrough.
The Founding Charter
Cast out with a pickaxe and a grudge, you make camp and earn the right to found a settlement.
Spire: A runestone hearth is laid beside your campfire.
Deliver
- 100 Timber Planks
- 50 Copper Ingot
- 250 gold
Unlocks
- Flint to copper tools
- Rope tool belt
- Campfire cooking
- Caravan trading (raw goods)
About 2 hours (design target) Hour 2 of about 110
Waterworks
The river starts doing the lifting. Your first machines turn without you.
Spire: A timber scaffold rises, worked by a water-driven hoist.
Deliver
- 300 Timber Planks
- 150 Copper Wire
- 100 Cut Stone
- 20 Reinforced Crate
- 600 gold
Unlocks
- Gravity chute (30/min)
- Wooden roller conveyor (60/min)
- Wooden lift
- Rustic cottage (drifters move in)
About 4 hours (design target) Hour 6 of about 110
Hearth & Harvest
A camp becomes a village: fields, fish, looms and the first trade route to the coast.
Spire: A fieldstone tower with a bronze bell calls the village together.
Deliver
- 100 Travel Rations
- 50 Salted Fish Cask
- 120 Canvas
- 60 Leather
- 1,500 gold
Unlocks
- Comfortable Hearth housing (level 2)
- Ox-cart contracts to Oakhaven
- Ballista post
- Snorkel and reef fishing
About 6 hours (design target) Hour 12 of about 110
Ironcrag Ascent
An expedition up the ridge for hematite and coal. Steam replaces the wheel.
Spire: An iron girder skeleton climbs above the stone.
Deliver
- 400 Iron Plate
- 200 Steel Ingot
- 100 Copper Pipe
- 60 Clockwork Cogwheel
- 4,000 gold
Unlocks
- Bronze canvas belt (120/min)
- Bronze lift
- Copper pipe network (120 m³/min)
- Ironclad gear set
About 8 hours (design target) Hour 20 of about 110
The Guild Exchange
The guild that cast you out comes asking to trade. Your village gets a tavern and a market.
Spire: A great brass guild clock is mounted on the tower.
Deliver
- 150 Iron Fittings
- 50 Pump Assembly
- 10 Deep-Well Mining Rig
- 8,000 gold
Unlocks
- Narrow-gauge minecart rails
- Tavern and Village Market
- Stone cottages
- Steam Gatling turret
About 10 hours (design target) Hour 30 of about 110
Fenland Refinery
Stilt factories over tar bogs: oil, glass and the first dives into the open sea.
Spire: A heart of copper pipes starts to breathe steam.
Deliver
- 200 Lubricant
- 100 Bottled Naphtha
- 300 Alchemical Glass
- 40 Reinforced Hullplate
- 12,000 gold
Unlocks
- Raised stilt foundations
- Corrosion shielding
- Diving suit and air tank
- Flame-thrower turret
About 12 hours (design target) Hour 42 of about 110
Leylines Awaken
You glide to the floating crags and tap liquid aether. Runes start doing the thinking.
Spire: A crown of leyline focus crystals ignites.
Deliver
- 250 Refined Mithril
- 300 Rune Circuit
- 120 Charged Focus Crystal
- 100 Spell-Forged Steel
- 20,000 gold
Unlocks
- Glider pack
- Ley-glass pipes (300 m³/min)
- Lightning-rod towers
- Arcane Crystal Spire turret
About 14 hours (design target) Hour 56 of about 110
Arcane Assembly
Multi-input assemblers, mag-tracks that climb walls, and airships carrying your goods.
Spire: A runic mag-rail ring begins to orbit the tower.
Deliver
- 100 Magitech Logic Core
- 200 Arcane Capacitor
- 400 Mag-Rail Segment
- 120 Levitation Coil
- 35,000 gold
Unlocks
- Runic mag-track (300/min)
- Rune lift
- Sky-Harbor Dock and airships
- Artisan Estate housing (level 3)
About 16 hours (design target) Hour 72 of about 110
The Golem Accord
Golems take the night shift. Your factory never sleeps, and the first sovereign alloy is poured.
Spire: Obsidian cladding goes up, guarded by brass golem stewards.
Deliver
- 20 Autonomous Golem
- 200 Obsidian Panel
- 150 Sovereign Alloy
- 60,000 gold
Unlocks
- Golem night shift
- Void-Barrier Projector
- Obsidian architecture set
- Sovereign Forge
About 18 hours (design target) Hour 90 of about 110
Sovereign Ascension
Teleport hubs, floating rails and terraforming anchors. The capital leaves the ground.
Spire: The crown lifts free and floats above the capital.
Deliver
- 50 Aether Core
- 10 Terraform Anchor
- 500 Sovereign Alloy
- 120,000 gold
Unlocks
- Teleportation hubs
- Floating magnetic rails
- Terraforming anchors
- Sovereign Contracts (endless)
About 20 hours (design target) Hour 110 of about 110
Milestone 1 · Granted to the outcast artificer
The Founding Charter
Ten milestones stand between the campfire and the crown. The first one starts with these terms and a signature.
- 100 cut planks
- 50 copper ingots
- 250 gold
Your signature
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