Aetherfall
Aether is a wound, not a gift.
A persistent-world MMORPG of gas-lamp horror and hybrid action combat. Wardens carry a shard of the thing that broke the world, and spend a little of themselves every time they use it.
Licensed to carry the wound into the dark
Five centuries ago the Brass Imperium learned to draw Aether from the substrate of reality and built its cities on it. Every drop left a hole, and something lived in the holes.
The survivors rebuilt small, in fortified city-states under the Aether-Lamps. Beyond the light lie the Wastelands: ruins, raw Aether and the Tears the Things still crawl through. A Warden is the one who goes out there anyway.
- Genre
- Persistent-world MMORPG
- Combat
- Hybrid action: aim hostile runes with the crosshair, lock on to allies
- Setting
- Dark horror magitech; gas-lamp, early-industrial
- Classes
- None. One Soul Crystal, one Brand, four role facets
- Levels
- None. Power comes from the crystal, gear and Awakening
- Groups
- Parties of up to six
- Platforms
- PC: Windows, macOS, Linux
What Aetherfall is built on
Readable, deliberate combat
Aim, positioning, rotation and group coordination decide fights. There is no target lock on enemies, and no dice roll decides whether you dodged.
Identity through the crystal
No classes. Your Brand is a lineage carried in your Soul Crystal; your role is a facet of its loadout, and you can change it in an instant.
Abilities are a language
Every rune is a sentence in a grammar of glyphs. A compiler reads the circuit and prices every word: damage, cast time, cooldown and cost.
Horizontal growth
No experience points and no level curve. A Warden grows through the crystal, through gear, and through Awakening.
Horror with earned light
The world is grim. The Lamps, the cities and the people worth saving are the reason to keep going.
Inside the lamp-light, and past its edge
Colour carries meaning everywhere in Aetherfall. You always know which side of the line you are on.
The Lit Cities
Cobbled streets under gas-lamp glow, brass and leather, the Lamp Orders keeping their vigil. Aether-blue is sanctioned light: a Lamp powers its city, seals the Tears nearby, and calls a fallen Warden back to stand again.
The Wastelands
Pre-Sundering ruin under raw, bleeding Aether. Aether-green is corruption. There is no sun out here, only the Aether-tide turning from Wane to Veil to Surge, and the Names watching.
Choose the lineage your crystal carries
Each Brand has a prototype role and a signature, but every crystal has four facets (Tank, Healer, DPS and Support), each a complete loadout.
Lampbearer
Radiance, revelation, and the Oath of the Lamp.
TankBrazen
Fortification, reactive defences, and the enemy's undivided attention.
Melee DPSHourshade
Stealth, poison and slows.
Caster DPSHollowed
The Corruption meter: fill it, Consume it, Discharge it.
Ranged DPSLampwick
The magazine, ammunition and volleys.
SupportWraithbinder
Spirits, Tether, fear and possession.
Aim it. Dodge it. Pay for it.
Hostile runes are aimed with the crosshair and hit whatever their shape overlaps: a cone, a bolt, a beam, a circle at your feet. Projectiles fly and can be sidestepped. You avoid damage with a dodge and a held, frontal block, not a hidden roll. A miss still costs you.
Aether is the only resource. Power buys cast time; breadth buys cooldown.
Every drop left a hole, and something lived in the holes. On the Sundering
The Lamps are lit. The test is closed.
Aetherfall is in closed development. Sign-ups are closed for now. If you already have an account, you can still sign in.