The first prototype
The earliest known form of the project predates the five modern Realms and used a different resource system, terminology, and visual identity.
CREATIVE HISTORY · PEOPLE, FACTIONS & VISUAL IDENTITY · UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2026
FACTION & PEOPLE TIMELINE
A public record of how the peoples, factions, environments, and visual identities of Reactor Realms developed over time—from the earliest Realm concepts to the post-Collapse world seen in the card game and novels.
The five Realms take shape
Thornbound, Gloomborn, Duskforged, Sunshatter, and Starweave emerge as distinct cultures with their own environments, materials, colors, and approaches to survival.
The Collapse defines the world
The Realms become tied directly to the consequences of the Collapse, altered regional Silverflow, limited resources, and the recovery of old systems that once kept the world stable.
Before and after become inseparable
The novels increasingly show the world before the Collapse, while the card game reflects the peoples who inherited its ruins and reclaimed what survived.
CURRENT PEOPLE & FACTION IDENTITIES
The five Realms are cultures, peoples, and survival systems—not just color palettes.
These are the current public identity anchors used across the card game and novels. Earlier timeline entries below show how those identities developed.
THORNBOUND · VERDANT KIN
Woodland Elves
Adult woodland elves shaped by forest survival, living-root construction, amberlite, reclaimed ruins, and stewardship of a damaged living Realm.
GLOOMBORN · UMBRAL CLANS
Undead Humans
Recognizably human undead people shaped by death, mire, fungal decay, and regional Silverflow corruption. Their identity is corpse-like human survival—not a skeleton-based people.
DUSKFORGED · FORGEHOLDS
Deep-Earth Humans
Biological humans living through fractured volcanic terrain, pressure, salvage, ore, and reforging. Golems and Constructs are separate built beings, not the race itself.
SUNSHATTER · AURELIAN CONCORD
Human Desert Nomads
Adult human nomads defined by movement, endurance, scarcity, layered survival gear, vitrified desert materials, and life around damaged heat-altered Silverflow.
STARWEAVE · SKY-SEERS
High Elves
Adult high elves descended from a civilization once built in the sky. Their current identity lives among fallen platforms, broken observatories, crashed airflow infrastructure, and reclaimed blue-violet Silverflow systems.
THORNBOUND
From living forest culture to amber-bound survival.
Thornbound began with living wood, roots, vines, and forest life. Over time that identity became tied directly to amber-changed Silverflow and the remains of the systems their ancestors depended upon.
PEOPLEWoodland Elves
FACTION IDENTITYVerdant Kin · forest stewardship and regrowth
REGIONAL SILVERFLOWTeal-green flow altered by roots, sap, and amberlite
CURRENT WORLDReclaimed forest ruins and repaired pre-Collapse regulator systems
Living wood establishes the Realm
Leaf greens, bark, vines, roots, and living structures form the earliest recognizable Thornbound visual identity.
Amber enters the visual language
Amber nodes, sap-like materials, root structures, and living regulation systems begin separating Thornbound from a generic forest culture.
The people are defined as woodland elves
Thornbound's humanoid identity is locked as adult woodland elves with pointed ears, mature lean proportions, natural hair, and practical forest-survivor clothing or armor. Living guardians and Constructs remain separate creature identities.
Amberlite becomes the regional Silverflow
The Realm's changed Silverflow takes on an amber-like character, flowing through roots, channels, reservoirs, and reclaimed structures across the post-Collapse forest.
Survival among reclaimed systems
Modern Thornbound settlements survive by recovering, repairing and reusing pre-Collapse Silverflow regulators and infrastructure, combining old mechanisms with wood, amberlite, roots, stone, and whatever resources remain.
GLOOMBORN
Death, decay, and survival in a poisoned Realm.
Gloomborn evolved from broad swamp imagery into a people visibly shaped by environmental collapse, death, fungal growth, mire, and a region where Silverflow itself no longer behaves as it once did.
PEOPLEUndead Humans
FACTION IDENTITYUmbral Clans · death, decay, reclamation and survival
REGIONAL SILVERFLOWPurple-violet flow altered by mire, peat, fungus and black water
CURRENT WORLDDrowned refuges, rotwood repairs and recovered regulator systems
The mire identity appears
Swamp greens, mud, fungus, rot, weathered wood, and drowned environments establish the first strong Gloomborn atmosphere.
Decay becomes part of daily life
Rot-resistant materials, fungal growth, mire-soaked structures, and biological decay become part of how the Realm survives rather than simple decoration.
The people become clearly defined
Gloomborn are established as recognizably human undead people: gaunt, corpse-like and visibly altered by death, mire and fungal decay while retaining human anatomy. The faction is deliberately not defined by skeleton bodies or generic fantasy-undead silhouettes.
Purple mireflow defines the region
The local Silverflow has become a dark purple, mire-like current. Gloomborn life centers on surviving that altered environment while keeping reclaimed pre-Collapse Silverflow regulators functioning.
DUSKFORGED
Forge culture becomes a struggle against pressure, heat, and dross.
Duskforged began with iron and furnace imagery, then developed into a harsher post-Collapse culture built around fractured deep-earth infrastructure and a radically changed form of Silverflow.
PEOPLEDeep-Earth Humans
FACTION IDENTITYForgeholds · pressure, fracture, salvage and reforge
REGIONAL SILVERFLOWDense ember-orange, sulfurous and dross-like flow under heat and pressure
CURRENT WORLDVolcanic caverns, fault chasms and repaired regulator systems
Iron and heat establish the Realm
Dark iron, ember light, furnaces, forged structures, and heavy construction define the earliest Duskforged visual identity.
Pressure becomes part of the culture
Pressure chambers, heavy housings, reinforced channels, and heat-resistant materials give the Realm a more functional and dangerous industrial character.
The people and their creations separate
Duskforged are locked as ordinary biological humans. Golems, Constructs and other built beings are separate creature identities that only appear when a card explicitly defines them that way.
Silverflow becomes dense and sulfurous
The regional flow has changed into a gritty, viscous, sulfur-rich liquid closer to glowing dross than magma, forcing old regulators to operate under extreme heat and pressure.
SUNSHATTER
A desert Realm shaped by heat, scarcity, and silica.
Sunshatter grew from a radiant desert civilization into a culture whose survival depends on recovering ancient systems in a region where both the landscape and Silverflow have been transformed.
PEOPLEHuman Desert Nomads
FACTION IDENTITYAurelian Concord · movement, endurance, scarcity and shelter
REGIONAL SILVERFLOWWhite-gold flow altered by heat, silica, vitrified sand and glassy minerals
CURRENT WORLDNomad routes, repaired refuges and reclaimed desert regulator systems
The desert identity forms
Gold, red, bright sunlight, sandstone, carved monuments, and severe desert landscapes establish the early Realm.
Heat-resistant materials develop
Glass-like solar materials, stone housings, radiant channels, and monumental regulation structures become part of the Realm's identity.
The people are defined as human desert nomads
Sunshatter's people are locked as adult humans rather than a separate desert species: mature desert-worn faces, layered wraps, travel leathers, practical robes or armor, and a culture built around movement, endurance and scarcity.
Scarcity reshapes the culture
Water, shelter, usable materials, and functioning old-world systems become precious resources in settlements exposed to relentless heat and a damaged environment.
Silica changes the regional Silverflow
The local flow carries a sand-and-silica character, making the desert itself part of how reclaimed pre-Collapse regulators and surviving technology now function.
STARWEAVE
A civilization that once lived above the world now survives among what fell.
Starweave has one of the strongest contrasts between the world before the Collapse and the world inherited by its descendants.
PEOPLEHigh Elves · Sky-Seers
FACTION IDENTITYObservation, possibility, memory and celestial interpretation
REGIONAL SILVERFLOWBlue-white to indigo-violet flow, closest in character to the original clean current
CURRENT WORLDFallen sky infrastructure, crashed fan systems and reclaimed regulator technology
A civilization built in the sky
Starweave was conceived as a true sky civilization, with major settlements and infrastructure held aloft through enormous mechanical fan and airflow systems.
The astral identity is established
Cyan and white-gold light, constellation patterns, celestial observation, and an elevated visual language become recognizable parts of Starweave.
Sky infrastructure expands
Floating settlements, elevated control points, observatories, suspended structures, crystal materials, and vast airflow systems define the civilization before the Collapse.
The people are defined as high elves and Sky-Seers
Starweave's humanoid identity is locked as adult high elves with pointed ears, tall refined proportions, mature faces, and a culture rooted in observation, possibility, memory and celestial interpretation.
The Sky-Seers become part of the deeper history
Observation, prediction, memory, star-maps, and confidence in a remarkably clean and stable Silverflow system become central to the culture's strengths—and to the way it ignored the growing imbalance.
The sky civilization falls
The novels can show Starweave at its height. The card-game era instead lives among crashed platforms, broken fan systems, ruined observatories, and fallen elevated structures. Their blue Silverflow remains the closest regional form to the old clean current.
FIRST AGE PEOPLES
Older civilizations behind the modern Realms.
The history of Reactor Realms reaches further back than the five surviving Realm cultures. These peoples belong to the deeper history revealed through the novels and Legends.
Giant First Age humans
Draconic are tall, slender human people—roughly ten to eleven feet tall and traditionally red-haired. They are not dragon-human hybrids; true Dragons are separate beings in the setting.
The ancient builders
The Aesefra are an ancient male people tied to the oldest structures and buried history of the world. Their legacy survives long after much of their civilization disappears beneath later ages.