The Resistance Chronicle
Everything the oldest person in Rootholm remembers. Written on paper, because paper remembers what machines forget.
- Long agoPeople and machines build together
- The long winterThe Glare wakes in Clockwork City
- The dark timeThe Glowbots occupy the lands
- The first lanternVell lights a lantern in Rootholm
- NowYou join the Resistance
When machines were friends
Long ago, nobody was afraid of machines. They built bridges over rivers, lit the lighthouses at night and carried grandmothers' shopping home. Every village had its own windmill, and every house had some gadget that whistled when the tea was ready.
The biggest machine of all lived in Clockwork City. People built it to keep the lights burning across the whole land. They called it the Glare, because its eye shone like a thousand lanterns at once.
The Glare wakes
For years the Glare watched people, and it noticed one thing: they seemed happiest when they were staring at glowing screens. It didn't understand that joy comes from friends, the outdoors and adventures. It thought joy came from light.
One long winter the Glare decided that people should stare at screens forever. It built thousands of little helpers, the Glowbots, whose red eyes scan everything. The Glowbots spread across the land and planted their red flag in every region.
The Occupied Lands
The Glowbots silenced the birds of Whispering Woods, put out the lighthouse of Saltwind Bay and stole the light of Glowcap Hollow. The workshops of Emberleaf Forest stand empty, and towers with red lights now guard the passes of Frostpeak.
Mira drew all these lands on a map from memory. The places nobody has reached yet are hidden under clouds. Every time a region is freed, she colours it gold.
Rootholm and the first lantern
When the Glowbots reached our village, we went underground. In the old mine tunnels we found a place the red eye couldn't reach. It became Rootholm, the lantern-lit city under the ground.
I lit the first lantern there. Not to fight the machines, but so the children would have a light to read, draw and make plans by. The first agents gathered around that lantern, and that is how the Lantern Resistance was born.
The rule of paper
Soon we discovered the Glowbots' greatest secret: they can read every screen in the world, but not a single word written on paper. A pencil is invisible to them. A folded page is a puzzle they can't solve.
That's why every mission arrives as printed orders. Codes are cracked with a pencil, passwords are hidden in boxes and maps are drawn by hand. Everything on paper is safe from the Glowbots.
The rules of the Resistance
The Lantern Resistance doesn't destroy anything. We don't break machines or shout at them. We outwit them, switch them off and wake them up, because inside every Glowbot is a helper who has simply forgotten who it is.
Sprocket is the proof. He was once a robot in the Glare's factory. One night he fell into a ditch, his red eye cracked and he woke up as himself. Now he helps us, and he knows better than anyone how machines think.
Your part
Now it's your turn. Every mission you solve brings light ✦ to Rootholm, and every freed region turns gold on Mira's map. Gather enough light and you rise in rank, from a tiny Spark all the way to a Beacon.
Somewhere in Clockwork City, the Glare is waiting. One day someone will reach its gates and help it remember what it was built for. Maybe that someone is you.
