The Story

The storylines, chapter by chapter: the story so far, the main beats, what lay behind them, and how they end, folded until you're ready. Every step is on the Quests page › · the people, books, letters and factions are in Lore ›

Spoilers

Story pages, identities and endings stay folded until you open them. Remembered on this device.

How far are you?

Hexi · Main Story

“Alone across ten thousand miles, dreaming of all living beings, one person's heart, the hearts of millions. Gazing eastward, where is Chang'an?”

Every step on the Quests page ›

Chapter 1By Lamplight
Chapter 2Burlap Sack
Chapter 3Liangzhou Melody
Chapter 4Paper Moon
Chapter 5Epilogue

Bright Tide · the main beats · 4

Buried in Chang'an Bright Tide 3 · Chapter 2
Spoiler · Chapter 2
Pipa in the Wilderness Bright Tide 5 · Chapter 3
Spoiler · Chapter 3
Moon in the East Bright Tide 7 · Chapter 4
Spoiler · Chapter 4
Encounter in the Mortal Realm Bright Tide 10
Spoiler · the storyline's end

Dark Surge · what lay behind it · 7

Dark Surge 1
Backstory · spoiler
Dark Surge 2
Backstory · spoiler
Dark Surge 3
Backstory · spoiler
Dark Surge 4
Backstory · spoiler
Dark Surge 5
The Inkbound Order never sought the center of power; it stood at the edge and watched. When swords were drawn and banners fell, its scholars served as witnesses. When the Tang dynasty crumbled, the Inkbound Order did not fall in a single blaze, but thinned, dispersed, dissolved into motion. Disciples who had barely earned their robes bundled scrolls into sleeves, loaded fragile volumes onto handcarts, and carried a civilization's memory across broken roads. Knowledge traveled in silence, hidden in ordinary journeys. Decades later, when the Inkbound Order rose again and the scattered texts found their way back to light, the hands that had preserved them were gone.
Backstory · spoiler
Dark Surge 6
Backstory · spoiler
Dark Surge 7
Zhuang Zhou once said: "The Great Breath blows in ten thousand ways, yet each thing is allowed to be itself." Heaven has its melodies, and the world its sounds; there must be those who answer their rhythm. But time flows on, and the past fades like smoke. Only the battle at Zhongdu Bridge remains, a sharp severing of what came before from what followed. In that ringing instant, a thousand lives were irrevocably altered by the sound of a single broken string.
Backstory · spoiler

Ending

Newly Sharpened Blade

“A single spark ignites the plains in blazing light. A thousand streams converge into a mighty tide. To inherit the past and forge the future, all rests upon this single staff. Ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains, a burden proudly borne.”

The bold little shepherd had been eyeing that grove for a long time. He knew that pretty ghost lady was no ghost, and that muddle-headed old painter was actually sharp in the head. Sharp enough to make the ghost lady mad half to death. Still, in the end, the boy gave what he found to the man sleeping by the well. He recognized him—that was the young master of Heaven's Pier. A fellow townsman!

Ending · spoiler

All Bright Tide Nodes Unlocked · All Dark Surge Nodes Unlocked

Relationships

Who you meet in this storyline, and how they're tied: each page has a Ties card.

5 not met yet

Your ties, as a web ›

Allies and rivals: the factions ›

Story so far

Each chapter in a few lines of ours, every line pointing to the game's words it comes from; the game's own entries are one click below.

Who you are

Spoiler · Chapter 1

Key players so far · 1

Spoiler · Chapter 1

Chapter 1 By Lamplight
You find a mysterious package abandoned by the Yellow River, and its clue points to the Bamboo Retreat in Qinghe, where you mean to return it to its owner.¹¹ Near the Bamboo Retreat a veiled woman is playing cards with a camel-headed man and a cat, and she knows things from your past.¹² What she wants is for you to finish a mural hidden in the bamboo grove, and it is clearly very important to her.¹² You come to understand that, like you, all who have lost their home can only find it complete in dreams.²
1 Journal · Drifting through Dreams2 Journal · Rendezvous
Spoiler · Chapter 1
Chapter 2 Burlap Sack
Opening a painting, you find an old, stooped man murmuring softly to a weathered burlap sack, with shadows like carp drifting through the air.¹ You follow the burlap sack's traces with a caravan through the desert: a campfire under the stars, a bandit gorge, sandstorms and endless thirst.²³⁴ Burlap Sack walks on toward the endless sands, and at the end the carp finds an age-worn relic that carries the whole life of someone long gone.³⁵⁶
1 Journal · A Brief Respite2 Journal · Campfire under Stars3 Journal · Bandit Gorge4 Journal · No Path in Sight5 Journal · Clawing to Light6 Journal · Path in Paint
In the game's words · 1 Bright Tide entry
1. Buried in Chang'an Bright Tide 3
  Waters from the hill, drift past the plain. Alone I roam, across the open land. Waters from the hill, cry softly and low. I gaze toward Qin, my heart sinks with woe.
Spoiler · Chapter 2
Chapter 3 Liangzhou Melody
The fish in the painting moves again, and outside Jade Gate Pass a self-styled immortal offers to tell you where your journey leads, for a price.¹¹² A sandstorm drives you into a rundown inn in the barren wild, where an all-night feast of wine, tunes, dancing and tales begins.³³⁴ The feast ends and the wine runs dry, and the road leads on to Liangzhou, whose tall tower shows everyone who climbs it their homeland.⁵⁶⁷ Following the carp, you discover a tune.⁸
1 Journal · Passing Mirage2 Journal · The Divine Due3 Journal · Eye of the Sandstorm4 Journal · All-Night Feast5 Journal · The Everlasting6 Journal · Tunes of Home and Away7 Bright Tide · Pipa in the Wilderness8 Journal · Path in Paint
In the game's words · 1 Bright Tide entry
1. Pipa in the Wilderness Bright Tide 5
  There stands a tall tower in Liangzhou City. Everyone who climbs that tower sees their homeland.
Spoiler · Chapter 3
Chapter 4 Paper Moon
A painting opens on a woman of great grace dwelling in a silent temple, and on Guanyin leaving her lotus seat to find the blooms of spring.¹¹ Behind towering walls Guanyin sits enthroned, her heart heavy with grief, with no warmth in her seat of jade and no company in the distant glazed moon.² A voice vows to stay if Guanyin stays, for one moon is in the sky and another in its arms, and the Immortal Rope is said to be a path to heaven itself.²³ In the end she races toward her moon, and within the scroll the carp discovers something once more.⁴
1 Journal · Beyond the Lotus Seat2 Journal · The Moon She Holds3 Journal · To Light Her Way4 Journal · Path in Paint
In the game's words · 1 Bright Tide entry
1. Moon in the East Bright Tide 7
  The moon shines clear, so fair, so near. She walks with grace, my heart in fear. The moon glows bright, she draws my sight. She moves so slow, my soul feels tight. The moon casts light, she burns so white. She sways like flame, my heart takes blight.
Spoiler · Chapter 4
Chapter 5 Epilogue
Spoiler · Chapter 5

The Story

Bright Tide · the main beats · 4

Dark Surge · what lay behind it · 7

Ending

Relationships

Story so far

Who you are

Key players so far · 1

Chapter 1 By Lamplight

Chapter 2 Burlap Sack

Chapter 3 Liangzhou Melody

Chapter 4 Paper Moon

Chapter 5 Epilogue