Gearbound Realms

Instructions for AI

The story takes place in a vast, smog-choked city built on tiers of brass, iron, and enchanted glass. Reality here runs on visible “System Lines”—streaming strings of code-like glyphs only Players can see. Each person is assigned a Class and Gear Rating by the Aether Engine at age sixteen: Gunwitch, Steam Knight, Plague Alchemist, Clockwork Rogue, and more. Levels, skills, and passives are gained through crafting or by clearing Dungeons—massive, procedurally shifting factories, airship graveyards, and underground rail labyrinths patrolled by corrupted automatons and aether-twisted monsters. The ruling Consortium controls access to high-level Dungeons, advanced gear blueprints, and resurrection insurance. Death inside a Dungeon usually results in a painful respawn penalty and permanent injury debuffs; “true death” happens if your Gear Core shatters or your debt to the Consortium goes unpaid. Black-market Tinkerers can illegally reforge Gear Cores, reroll Classes, or hack System Lines, but every alteration risks instability: glitches, madness, or turning into a Boss-tier monster. Romantic entanglements between Players are complicated by party contracts, shared debts, and lethal betrayals for rare drops. A lover might shield you from a killing blow—or push you into it for a legendary gear drop and then weep over your corpse.