🌑 Setting Premise — Noctvalis: The Lightless Veil

"In a world without dawn, even your soul is currency."

Centuries ago, the sun vanished without warning. No fire, no apocalypse—just silence, and then the dark. From that absence spilled The Pale, a living shadow that unravels flesh, memory, and sanity. Wherever it touches, it births Maliforms—twisted horrors shaped by fear, regret, and hunger.

Light has become the last shield against the dark, but sunlight is gone. In its place is Lumen—crystallized soul-light found within all living things. The brighter the soul, the more potent the Lumen. Dreamers, the kind, and the good burn brightest. The cruel, the hopeless, and the hollow barely glow at all.

Maliforms carry Lumen too—richer, more volatile, and steeped in corruption—which is why Maliform Hunters risk their lives in the Pale to harvest it. Settlements hoard Lumen to power wards, fuel weapons, heal the sick, and buy precious time before the darkness swallows them.

Yet rumors spread of something far worse. Among the countless horrors are the Crowned Maliforms—intelligent, godlike abominations worshipped by lesser creatures. They are the warlords of the Pale, and some say they’ve learned to walk the world unafraid of even the brightest light.

Factions and faiths vie for control—zealots who embrace the Pale’s “truth,” merchants who sell salvation at any price, knights who burn the dim to fuel their crusades—while the Fourfold Pantheon whispers in the dark, their followers interpreting the gods’ will in ways both holy and horrific.

This is Noctvalis, a world of desperation, decay, and fragile hope—where light is life, and your own soul may be the last thing you have left to spend.

⚔️ Why You’ll Want to Play Here

"How far will you go to keep your light from going out?"

Noctvalis isn’t just another dark fantasy setting—it’s a living nightmare of shifting horrors, desperate survival, and dangerous beauty.

In this world, your very soul burns as currency. Lumen isn’t just what you spend—it’s who you are. Will you hoard it to keep your mind and body intact, or burn it for power when you need it most?

You’ll step into the boots of Maliform Hunters, exiled dreamers, lightbound knights, or Pale-marked wanderers, all navigating a realm where:

• The Pale twists reality—mutating beasts, monsters, and people into grotesque reflections of their worst selves.

• Crowned Maliforms reign as dark lords, their courts filled with horrors warped in their image.

• Factions fight for control of the light, from saintly lantern-bearers to tyrannical crusaders.

• Faith and fear shape the world, with four gods vying for mortal devotion, each offering salvation—or damnation—in their own way.

• Every choice has a cost—do you save the settlement, or save yourself?

From Pale-infested ruins dripping with forgotten dreams to glittering fortress-cities built on the drained souls of the poor, every expedition is a gamble with your body, mind, and very humanity.

The wards are failing. The Pale is rising. Somewhere in the dark, the Crowned are watching.

The light will go out. The question is—will you burn bright before it does?

☠️ Hey there, I’m Grim.
I’ve been running games since 2015—so coming up on 10 years now—and I’m still obsessed with it. I’ve always had a thing for the darker side of fantasy: twisted monsters, desperate survival, and worlds where hope is as fragile as candlelight. If that sounds like your kind of fun, you’ll probably feel right at home here.

This will be a bigger table than most—6 players—and we’ll be playing every Friday starting at 4:30pm MST and play for about 4 hours a session. We’re starting at level 2, and homebrew classes and races are welcome as long as they get my approval first. All the standard races/classes are fair game, though I’ve done some reflavoring to better fit the world’s Noctvalis vibe.

We’ll be using the 2014 ruleset and running games on Foundry VTT via The Forge (totally free for players, and I’ll walk you through how it works if you’re new).

⚔️ What to Expect:

• A very theme-heavy, atmospheric setting

• Lots of in-depth roleplay and personal story moments

• Intense combat (this is what I’m known for)

• Dark fantasy elements — body horror, corruption, morally grey choices

• A world where light is currency and monsters are nightmares made flesh

If you have any content concerns or hard lines, please let me know ahead of time—I want everyone to be comfortable and have a good time, even if the setting gets grim.

We’ll be using Discord for voice chat.
I’m looking forward to meeting the new crew and diving into this together.
If you’ve got questions or curiosities, drop them here and I’ll get back to you.

Wondering if this is also a low-magic setting? Also wondering if there will be a session 0 or two, depending on table needs.

My hardlines are no spiders/multi-limbed stuff, no eldritch (i can do non-euclidean though), and if the body horror descriptions could be described non-explicitly (like "so and so is covered in boils" is fine but then detailing liquids or oozing...gagged just writing that example...). I'm extremely visual, easily grossed out by my own imagination, but something about body horror(s) agitates my sensory processing disorder and arachnophobia (idk why)

Other than that, I find the premise super intriguing and want to know more about these folks: Maliform Hunters, exiled dreamers, lightbound knights, or Pale-marked wanderers because I smell backstory concepts for some of the character ideas I already have rolling around in my head. You can either respond here or message me on Discord at darkneverland87

:)