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Old Hero Traces

PROPOSED TERM: Starwells — provisional working label (verbatim from chat brief) for the prior-era ritual sites where divine light was channelled in Calling work; nature and specific Game 1 locations deferred.

PROPOSED TERM: [Hero Order name] — the organized order of Called heroes that predated the current era has no committed name; per Wave 0 deferral the order is referenced once by a ruin or relic, never named in Game 1.

Scope​

This file owns the Game 1 specific traces of the prior Hero Calling era as discoverable environmental lore: dead hero graves, scattered relics, false chronicles, Calling Shrines, hero roads, Starwells, and indirect references to the old order of Called heroes. It instantiates ul-hero-calling.md's Calling history fact for Game 1's discoverable surfaces. Universe-scope mechanism (the Accord, the divine signature on heroes, the Shroud-shielding) lives in ul-hero-calling.md and ul-shroud.md; this file commits only the Game 1 in-Zone observable traces and the surfaces they appear on.

Facts​

Fact: Old heroes were Called in prior eras; most died, vanished, were betrayed, or were used in the Final Shroud battle.​

Across prior eras, multiple Hero Callings were invoked under the Accord of Intervention. Most Called heroes did not survive to old age: most died fighting demon waves, vanished in transit or in battle, were betrayed by mortal political actors, or were spent in the Final Shroud battle that closed the prior Cycle peak. The Game 1 setting is downstream of those losses; surviving hero traces are predominantly remains, relics, and ruined sites.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md, ../universe/ul-shroud.md, ../universe/ul-demon-cycle.md

Fact: Dead hero graves exist as discoverable lore sites.​

Dead hero graves are present on the continent and in the Zone: sites where Called heroes fell and were not fully destroyed. Their divine-touched remains are lore sources — inscriptions, carved sigils, oral histories tied to the location — and may be possible True Harm material nodes per ud-world-law.md's divine-touched category. Disturbing such graves carries cost; they are not generic loot piñatas.

Canonicity: soft canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md, ../universe/ud-world-law.md

Fact: Relics of Called heroes are scattered across the continent.​

Weapons, armour, marked objects, and personal relics of Called heroes are scattered across the continent. Some still carry residual divine signature; most are degraded by Afterwar conditions. Functional relics are rare; partial relics (a worn blade, a marked pauldron, a sigil-carved fragment) are the more common discovery. They are tied to specific old hero figures whose stories the MC may piece together from converging surfaces.

Canonicity: soft canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md, ../universe/ul-divine-layer.md

Fact: False chronicles distort the record of old heroes.​

Some records of old heroes have been fabricated, distorted, edited, or selectively preserved by survivor nations, the false-king's ancestors, or by religious institutions with political stakes in particular hero stories. What looks like heroic history may be propaganda; what looks like neutral chronicle may be partisan. The MC discovers these contradictions through cross-referencing converging sources rather than by being told.

Canonicity: soft canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: gl-game1-false-king.md, gl-game1-surviving-nations.md

Fact: Calling Shrines are physical sites where the Hero Calling was invoked.​

Calling Shrines are physical sites where the Hero Calling ritual was performed in prior eras — where divine vessels invoked the Accord and marked Called heroes. Ruins of these shrines are discoverable in the Zone and across the continent. They produce lore fragments (ritual inscriptions, partial Accord text, sigils tied to the invoking god) rather than generic mechanical bonuses; they are first-class lore sites.

Canonicity: hard canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md, ../universe/ul-divine-layer.md Exposure note: Calling Shrines as discoverable sites reach revealed per lh-game1-world-hooks.md; the Accord mechanism behind them stays at hinted per lh-game1-cosmology-hooks.md.

Fact: Hero roads trace old hero movements along leyline paths.​

Hero roads are the routes Called heroes travelled in prior eras — often following leyline paths and connecting Wardheart sites. Their traces remain as old road foundations, waymarkers, and shrine-spaced rest sites. They form a partial map of where the prior era's Calling work was concentrated. The MC may follow them as exploration paths through the Zone.

Canonicity: soft canon for Game 1 Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md, ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md

Fact: Starwells are deferred-name sites where divine light was channelled.​

PROPOSED TERM: Starwells — sites where divine light was channelled in the prior Calling era, named verbatim in the chat brief but not committed canon. Their precise nature (ritual structure, mechanical role, relationship to Calling Shrines) and specific Game 1 locations are deferred. The term is used as a working label; future content waves will commit or replace it.

Canonicity: proposed Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md, ../universe/ul-divine-layer.md

Fact: The old order of Called heroes is referenced once but never named in Game 1.​

PROPOSED TERM: [Hero Order name] — the organized order of Called heroes that predated the current era is deferred per Wave 0. The order is referenced once in Game 1 by a single ruin inscription or relic; the order's name does not appear, and it is not named in any other Game 1 surface. This referenced once exposure matches lh-game1-cosmology-hooks.md for ul-hero-calling.md — old order of Called heroes.

Canonicity: proposed Cross-refs: ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md Exposure note: referenced once per lh-game1-cosmology-hooks.md. The order is alluded to exactly once in Game 1.

Cross-references​

  • ../universe/ul-hero-calling.md
  • ../universe/ul-shroud.md
  • ../universe/ul-divine-layer.md
  • ../universe/ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md
  • ../universe/ul-demon-cycle.md
  • ../universe/ud-world-law.md
  • gl-mc-corebound.md
  • gl-game1-false-king.md
  • gl-game1-surviving-nations.md
  • ../hooks/lh-game1-cosmology-hooks.md
  • ../hooks/lh-game1-world-hooks.md