Ethernalis Systems Reference

Game Systems

The laws that shape every dungeon, trade, and whispered spell.
- A rule-book account of how Altarmn works beneath the surface
27 Systems· 6 Magic Schools· 14 Material Domains· 10 Dungeon Themes

A page for every law of the world: how the dungeon is built, how it kills you, how it trades with you, and how it watches. The dungeon still keeps its secrets. These pages only show you their shape.

CHR
Beginning

Character Creation

Race, starting class, attributes, traits, destiny, equipment, and the first destination.

ITM
Possessions

Items and Crafting

Inventory, equipment, carrying, durability, repairs, recipes, cooking, and campfires.

SRV
Endurance

Survival and Defeat

Needs, recovery, rest, afflictions, defeat, corpses, and Destiny Trials.

MAP
Region

World Map and Quests

Travel, rations, destinations, quests, journal knowledge, events, and history encounters.

MP
Shared Session

Multiplayer and Hot Seat

Controller turns, observers, independent travel, shared loot, trading, conflict, and local players.

TRP
Hazards

Hazards and Locks

Trap detection, avoidance, disarming, keys, lockpicks, forced entry, and trapped containers.

CHG
Time

Changing Cards and Abilities

Fuel, spoilage, decay, transformations, magical bindings, and reactive enemy abilities.

SPL
Spellcraft

The Art of Spellcraft

Six magic schools, scroll mastery, the spellcraft roll, proficiency scaling, and conversion magic.

PTY
Faith

Religion and Piety

Prayer, offerings, favored magic, offenses, ongoing wrath, and the blessings or punishments found at shrines.

XP
Progression

Experience and Progression

Experience awards, level thresholds, class branches, use-based proficiencies, and XP as perk currency.

CLS
Reference

Class Paths

Every level-up class choice, its required class and level, and the rewards it grants.

CBT
Combat

Combat, Wounds, and Limb Loss

Attacks, stamina, armour, persistent wounds, fractures, infection, treatment, scars, the Body and Conditions screen, and permanent limb loss.

DNG
Generation

The Card-Dungeon

How dungeons spread from room to room, how locks and floods alter the route, and how a Claim Marker establishes a territorial home base.

MAT
Craft

Matter and Craft

Fourteen material domains, the quality scale, stat modifiers, durability, vulnerability, and crafting inheritance.

RUN
Runework

Sockets and Enchantments

Runic tools, socket creation, rune insertion, item buffs, room auras, enchantment rolls, and magical item risks.

WPN
Weaponcraft

Weapon and Armour Improvements

Whetstones, bowstrings, spikes, blade coatings, armour studs and plates, fur and padded linings, proofing, shield rims, and how each wears away.

ACT
Actions

Advanced Actions

Fishing, foraging, mining, washing, harvesting, practical object work, tool requirements, proficiency, and sustainable resources.

NPC
Living World

People of the Dungeon

Four kinds of people and enemies, their turn behavior, needs, equipment, companions, and quests.

TRD
Commerce

The Trade Post

Four merchant trades, buying, selling, stealing, how merchants grow, and how their mood sets the price.

TML
Timelines

The Living Clock

How the world waits, and how dozens of small clocks count down toward the next encounter, quest, betrayal, or gift.

DRT
Grime

Grime, Blood, and Scent

The two ways the dungeon learns to dislike you: what is caked onto your clothes, and what hangs in the air around you. How filth lingers, how scent draws predators, and how both fade.

TRT
Traits

Character and Comfort

The ten kinds of personality trait, how they are rolled, how they shape comfort, and where new ones come from.

PRK
Perks

Perks

How perks are earned, what each one costs, which require others first, and the full list of all seventy-two. Every climb through the tree changes how you fight, craft, sneak, or survive.

MUT
The Body

Mutations

How a Heffith changes with every level, the six lineages from gills to horns, what a mutation gives and takes away, suppression, and the cards that can change anyone who uses them.

MIN
Extraction

Mining & Excavation

Pickaxe mechanics, wall durability, mineral yields, gem recovery, ceiling collapse risk, and location-based vein mining.

FRM
Steading

The Farmstead

Claiming a field, livestock pens and their production clocks, composting waste into fertiliser, dairy work, and brewing mead and vinegar.

LOC
Rooms

Location Upgrades

Some rooms can be made into other rooms. With the right neighbouring cards and the right offering, a campsite becomes a forge, a forge a chapel. The full list of every transformation the world allows.

WTH
Weather

Weather & Climate

Five kinds of weather, from clear to ruinous. How temperature is reckoned, what rain does to the dungeon floor and to the dirt on your boots, and why night is darker beneath the world than above it.