The world

Havenwood is a hill town between a harbour and a chapel on the headland. Each place is painted before it is built, and the build is checked against the painting. Where they differ, the painting is right.

Painting of the courtyard: a round teal tree, a tall pale tower, a rose shop with a blue awning, a well, a yellow arch with a clock, and hills behind. — **The town as a painting.** The courtyard concept that set the palette: ochre, coral, plaster, violet shadows.

Anchored

Walkable in the packaged build. As real as anything here gets.

The courtyard

In the build. The first place, where every look test happens.

A square of pale paving with a well, a clock tower, a rose-plaster shop under a blue awning and a tree in a stone planter. The whole town starts here; the painting of it was the first asset, and the Unreal courtyard is built to match it.

Kai from behind, cape blowing, with the Shopkeeper and Child in the courtyard. — Late afternoon in the courtyard. The painted sky replaces the atmosphere beyond two kilometres.

Kai and the Shopkeeper at the shop corner under the blue awning. — The shop corner, where the look was decided.

Wide view of the shop front and the arched gate. — Shop front and the gate to the street.

A quiet street with a tree in a planter, an arched door with steps, and a lantern on a post.

The street

In the build since 21 October. Built from the modular town kit.

The first place made from the kit: a set of seventeen wall, door, step and planter pieces that snap to a one-metre grid, so new places can be laid out as a small text file instead of modelled one at a time. The street proved the kit. The lane, the harbour, the church square and the hill village were built the same way.

Looking through the arched gate from the plaza into the street. — Through the gate from the plaza.

A lane opening into the street with a tree and shuttered windows. — Lane into the street.

Looking back along the street toward the gate. — Looking back toward the gate.

The lane from the courtyard end: pale and ochre house fronts, a blue awning, the sea at the bottom.

Seaside lane

In the build since 22 October. The way down from the courtyard to the water.

A broad descending passage with pale and ochre house fronts, an arched door, doorsteps, and the bay at the end. It drops about three metres and joins the courtyard to the harbour on one continuous map, no loading. Innkeeper Rowan stands at the arched door, Frida on a doorstep with her plums, Grandmother Edith on a step.

Kai walking down the lane toward the sea. — Kai going down. The sea is always at the end of it.

Looking back up the lane steps toward the courtyard clock tower. — Looking back up the steps to the courtyard.

The harbour

In the build since 22 October, with quay, water and boat pieces added to the kit.

The quay at the bottom of the lane: a sea wall, bollards, a lantern, a bench, a water plane and one small boat. Old Reed stands by the boat; Sal carries crates between the quay and the foot of the lane. A ramped coast path climbs from here to the church square.

A small dark boat moored against the quay by a brass bollard. — The boat. It does not go anywhere yet.

Kai on the quay beside the harbour house, the bay behind. — Kai on the quay.

The quay corner with Old Reed by the wall and the coast path climbing to the church terrace. — From the quay the coast path climbs to the church square. Old Reed keeps the corner.

Church square

In the build since 22 October. Rebuilt from the kit with the sea walls added on 24 October.

An open lookout over the bay with a small chapel, a round clipped tree, benches and a curved parapet. It is built from the painting, on a terrace above the sea, and reached on foot up the coast path from the harbour. Tom walks here, repeating what he has heard.

Arriving on the church terrace from the coast path, the chapel ahead and Tom on the paving. — Arriving from the coast path. Tom walks the terrace.

The chapel front with its bell, arched door and a pot of leaves. — The chapel door. Closed, for now.

The lavender headland across the bay, seen over the curved parapet of the lookout. — The lookout. Something stands on the headland. Tom has heard about lights.

Kai on the terrace, cape blowing, the headland and the sea beyond. — Kai on the terrace.

Anna standing by a stone fountain basin against the end parapet, the sea beyond.

Hill village

In the build since 22 October. The highest place in the town so far.

Past the chapel, a stair climbs to a small square of gable houses on a causeway in the sea, with a fountain basin against the end parapet. Anna watches the flowers by the basin. The Old Man moved up here from the courtyard and has a doorstep.

A long stair climbing between pale walls toward the village. — The stair up from the church terrace.

The Old Man with his cane at a dark doorway, a pot beside it. — The Old Man has a doorstep now.

Kai walking toward the basin and Anna, the sea beyond the parapet. — Kai in the village.

The hill village from the sea: walls on a rocky shore, gable houses and a round tree above. — From the sea, 24 October. The walls stand on rock now, not straight out of the water.

The chapel

In the build since 24 October. Passed at its second look.

A small dim room behind the chapel door on the church square, with benches, an altar block and one tall window facing the late sun. It was the first door in the game that opens: a short fade to black and Kai is inside. Its walls first came out cream; the polish round warmed them toward the painting. Father Silas stands in here now.

Kai at the chapel's navy door, a small prompt to enter at his feet. — The first door that opens. Walk up, face it, press E.

The chapel from the door: an aisle of warm light, benches, lavender floor, the window over the altar block. — From the door, the way the painting sees it.

Benches from the side, the sun patch on the floor, the altar block under the window. — The sun comes in through the one window.

The tavern: a coral hearth with a cog wheel above it, teal beams, a bar with stools, an arch to the sunlit yard.

The Rusted Cog

In the build since 24 October. Nic: fine for now.

A cooper's store that kept its hearth and its habit of receiving anyone who needed to sit down. The third interior: a coral hearth with the old mill wheel above it, dark teal beams, a bar with stools and a barrel, a niche of vessels, side tables. Greta keeps it. Old Ferris and the Hooded Stranger sit in it.

Greta behind the bar with a bowl, a niche of bottles and jars behind her. — Greta behind the bar.

The hearth with a pot hanging in it and the retired mill wheel above. — The mill wheel retired over the hearth.

Kai from behind inside the tavern, tables and the bar ahead. — Kai inside. Old Ferris and the Hooded Stranger are here too.

The stepped court in sun: a drying frame with indigo and coral cloths, a clay vat, a clipped tree, an arch.

Dyers' Steps

In the build since 24 October. Passed at its second look.

A textile court off the seaside lane, on the old Market Row, where cloth hangs to dry in the colours the town wears. Steps, a drying frame, dye vats, a loom, pots and plants. The second look added the plants, more cloth and a deeper indigo. The arch still looks onto rocks and a wall instead of down to the town.

Kai from behind in the court, cloths hanging on the left. — Kai in the court.

Two dye vats, terracotta and ochre, under hanging indigo, coral and cream cloths and a loom. — The vats, the cloths and the loom.

The court's buildings from the church terrace across the water, a stair down to the quay. — From the church terrace across the water.

Inside the shop

In the build since 24 October. Built and packaged; not accepted until Nic has played it.

Through the door under the awning. Coral walls, a pale counter with a bell, two shelves of jars and bottles, and one bright window. The second interior, built the way the chapel was.

The shop door open under its stone arch, shelves of jars inside. — Through the door under the awning.

The shop interior from the door: the counter, the bell, shelves of jars and a bottle. — The bell on the counter has no clapper.

Kai from behind in the walled rooftop garden: flower beds, a bench, a potted plant, the headland across the bay.

Lumina's still garden

In the build since 24 October. Built and packaged; not accepted until Nic has played it.

The walled rooftop garden where Kai wakes in the story: a stone bench, a dry fountain, beds of blue flowers, potted plants, and the bay over the wall. It is reached from the street, through a rose-coloured door, up an alley of steps and a ladder. It belongs to the Lumina estate, and the estate is still shut.

A rose-coloured door in an arched wall at the end of the street. — The way in: the rose door on the street, an alley of steps, a ladder.

The garden from the ladder: a dry stone fountain, flower beds, a bench by the far wall. — The dry fountain.

Rooftops below the garden wall and the lavender headland across the blue bay. — The view out, over the town.

The road from below: tiers of retaining walls with lamps, cypresses and the estate house at the top.

The estate approach

In the build since 25 October. Nic accepted it.

A road from the top of the town up to the Lumina gate, between retaining walls and formal stonework, with lamps, a statue in an alcove, cypresses and a view back over the bay. It was built from one of three paintings. The gate stays shut. Try it and a line says you have no business here, yet. It is the first thing in the game Kai cannot do.

The road climbing along a high wall to a shut iron gate, a parapet over the sea on the right. — The road to the gate, as painting A framed it.

From the gate, the parapet and the town and sea beyond. — The view back from the gate.

Kai at the shut gate. A line reads: The Lumina Estate is home to the region's nobility. You have no business here... yet. — The gate stays shut.

Weaving

On the same map as the courtyard; the kit is growing to fit them.

Kai small in a wide desert, terracotta rocks on the left, a long flat shape on the far ridge.

The opening desert

A first slice, built 26 October. Reached only from a development menu. Nobody has played it yet.

Where the game will begin: Kai walking in a desert until he falls, before he wakes in the garden. A small walkable patch of sand, rocks, dry shrubs and dunes, 7.4 kilometres from the town on the same map and hidden from it by distance. On the far ridge is a flat outline, a proposed detail and nothing more. No tremors, no footprints, no story yet.

Kai from behind on the sand, facing the shape on the ridge. — Where Kai arrives, facing it.

Tall terracotta rocks, Kai small beside them. — The rocks.

Kai on a road through golden hills, cypress trees and pale houses, with the Arc and lavender ranges beyond.

The Long Road

Long Road 6, packaged 27 October. Launch checks passed; not accepted until Nic has played it.

An exploration loop, 245 by 140 metres: two branches, three river crossings, a cart to repair, a hidden hollow and a return to the village. The boxes have gained stone walls, houses, olives, cypresses, grass and longer shadows. The winch, seal and cart react, and residents have lines for the return. Nic played the second and third builds; the later scenery in Long Road 6 still needs his acceptance. The route keeps its changes only for the session; a normal way in and out of the campaign is still to come.

Kai approaches three figures and a broken cart beneath an olive tree. — The repair stop, under an olive. Long Road 6, from the packaged game.

Turquoise water and reeds beneath pale river arches, with the Arc rising beyond. — The river has bends, reeds and glints. The straight banks still show in places.

Kai above a rectangular pool inside stacked stone walls, surrounded by golden grass. — The hollow: warmer light, but the stacked blocks still read as a quarry. Not finished scenery.

Kai at the Long Road arrival in the first packaged blockout. — Before: the first package, 26 October. Movement and layout were accepted as a base.

Unwritten, but painted

Every place starts as a painting. These exist as paintings and wait for the kit. They are not less real for it, only less walkable.

Beyond Havenwood

The wider world as designed in 2025, before the painted look: four continents, four cities, three outposts and six factions. A first set of region paintings and a world map were made in October 2026 and set aside as too generic. None of it is painted for keeps, and a place is not real here until it is painted.

Continents

Aethelgard: Temperate forests and plains, feudal kingdoms, a church that reads the machine’s interventions as providence. The Spine of the Ancients runs through it. Aethelburg, the Lumina capital, sits at its centre. Havenwood is here.
Ferrus Magna: Scarred by precursor wars and industrial collapse. Scavenger clans, rust, unstable power. Neo-Veridia is a cyberpunk city built inside a dead factory; Rustwater Fishery catches metal-shelled crabs from coolant-stained water.
Sylvandell: Jungle that has eaten the ruins. Magic here is biological, a way of talking to a terraforming network nobody remembers building. Krystallos is grown around a crystal lattice; Whisperwind Hermitage hangs in the glowing canopy.
The Shifting Wastes: Where The System’s grip is weak and reality is unreliable. Zephyr is a city that moves, a fleet of repurposed precursor vehicles that never stops.

Factions

The Lumina Orthodoxy: House Lumina, the Keepers of the Lineage and the Silent Guard. Order above all, because order is what The System wants.
The Reality Weavers: Lord Kaelen Lumina and those who want to merge with the machine rather than serve it.
The Thorne Technocracy: Duchess Aris Thorne’s engineers on Ferrus Magna, who want the technology without the religion.
The Cult of the Whispering Glitch: Followers of Valerius, for whom the glitch is revelation.
The Sylvan Concord: The guardians of Krystallos, in what they believe is harmony with living magic.
The Unchained: Heretics, Glitched Scions and survivors of correction. Not a house, a network. The ones Kai is most likely to end up among.

Changed on 26 October

The opening desert: The game now begins here, with Kai walking until he falls. It is also a late chapter. Whether it is the Shifting Wastes is deliberately not decided.
The moving city: Something buried and mechanical, tied to Kai’s past, moves a city across the desert. The working form is a pirate settlement riding on a half-buried engine. A late-game mystery, not built.
Aethelburg: Kept as the Lumina capital, and now the city that forgets every morning. Its rules are still to be designed.
Zephyr: Kept as a moving refuge of nomads. It may share the desert chapter with the larger city, as a smaller convoy.
The estate: Kai reaches its gate in Act I and finds it shut. Full access comes late.

Stonehearth Post, in the foothills of the Spine, is a devout village warmed by a hearth that never cools because a precursor plant runs under it, and its Keeper of the Flame is an agent of The System in a robe. That is the pattern for every place: a plain surface, a machine underneath, and someone keeping it quiet.