The Hearth Engine is the beating heart of the town of Hearth. It is an ancient, arcane construct discovered by Governor Luthor Shrike during the onset of the Frost, before the world fully collapsed. Shrike recognized what it could do and fed his guild’s entire relic collection into it over the following years to keep the Thermal Sphere burning. That founding collection lasted until Year 9. It is now gone.
Guild scholars believe the Engine dates to the Age of the Magitech Dominion, based on how it processes magical energy. Its creator identified himself as Thalorin Vex - a figure who, by all surviving records, predicted the Frost long before anyone believed him.
Vex’s Message
When Shrike first found the Engine, a nearby Magitech recording device projected a hologram. It still does. Every new Guild member sees it.
“To whomever finds this message: I am Thalorin Vex, creator of this Hearth Engine. A great and terrible Age of Ice approaches - an arcane frost born not of nature, but of hidden forces beyond mortal reckoning.
This Hearth Engine you see is my final hope. It is the only device capable of holding back the endless cold, but it demands a price: relics of power - magical items, if you will - that must be cast into its heart to fuel its flame.
I have left behind the knowledge you will need - the manuals, the instructions - so that you who find this message and those who come after may keep the fire of civilization alive. Collect what was abandoned by the Arcane societies of the past, and protect the Engine. Fight for it. Die for it. It is the key to civilization’s future.
I fear it is already too late to prevent the Great Frost.
Flames guide you. May your courage burn ever brighter.”
What Survived
The fortress enclosing the Engine was raided at some point during the Magitech Dominion. The Engine was likely disregarded as a large magical furnace - one piece of machinery in an Age overpopulated with magical machinations. Only a small cache of documents by Thalorin Vex, hidden in a concealed spot near the Engine, survived the raid. Much about Vex and his work remains undiscovered.
How it Works
The Engine draws on the magical energy stored in relics and converts it into a resistor of the Arcane Frost. The output is an invisible Thermal Sphere - a field that, within its radius, causes the world to exist at pre-Frost temperatures. It does not simply generate heat; it pushes back the Frost itself. Step inside the Sphere and the air is temperate, the ground workable, the cold merely winter rather than the end of the world. Step outside it and the Frost returns immediately.
The Sphere’s fuel is constantly depleting. If it goes unfed, the Sphere contracts. If it contracts far enough, Hearth starts to die.
The world inside the Sphere behaves as it should. Seasons still turn within its boundary, as though the weather is fighting to do its job despite the cold outside. At midsummer the air is temperate, grass is bright green, and the days feel like a mild spring. In winter the ground goes muddy and the temperature settles in the 40-50s (Fahrenheit) - jacket weather, cold enough to be unpleasant but not dangerous. Water never freezes inside the Sphere. Snow that falls above the boundary becomes rain the moment it crosses into Hearth’s air.
Fueling the Engine
- Relics: Any magical item or artifact recovered from the world outside of Hearth can be sacrificed to the Engine.
- Lore Manuscripts: While not as potent as relics, ancient manuscripts contain the essence of knowledge and can be “processed” (2 manuscripts = 1 minor relic’s worth of fuel).
Boons of the Engine
The Engine does not simply consume. Those who feed it generously find themselves… changed. Bolstered. As though the Engine returns something of what it is given.
Guild scholars have no clean explanation for this. The Flamewardens do not find it surprising at all.
- Feed one relic: Receive a Temporary Boon - a short-term reward that fades after rest.
- Feed three relics at once: Receive a Minor Boon - a permanent reward.
- Feed six relics at once: Receive a Major Boon - a more powerful permanent reward.
- Feed ten relics at once: Receive an Epic Boon - a rare and significant permanent reward.
See Boons of the Engine for the full list of available Boons.
Feeding Log
See Engine Feeding Log for a full record of relics and manuscripts sacrificed to keep the Engine burning.