Design bible

Veilspire

Working title

Veilspire

Unranked. Unforgiven. Climb.

A run-based climb through a tower of dead worlds, fought by stick-figure Ashwalkers who share one skeleton and differ by wear, color, and the seal above their head.

You are the Unsealed — the weakest licensed body in a city of ranked killers. A rift goes wrong. The Ledger notices you. Each failed climb still writes Ash into your record. Each success lets you steal a little more of the Spire's rules.

Founding lineup

00 / Language

The language of the Spire.

One Mixamo stick rig for every body in the game. Personality is not a new mesh — it is tone, thickness, cosmetics, weapons, and aura. That is how a roster of dozens stays coherent, cheap to animate, and readable mid-climb.

Ashwalkers

People who can enter rifts. Most are branded by the Ledger and assigned a rank. They are not a military; they are a licensed disaster profession.

The Spire

Not a building you walk into. A vertical stack of sealed worlds, each a Floor. You climb by clearing or surviving a Floor's test, not by stairs.

Rifts

Tears that open a Floor into the living world. Left uncleared, they bleed monsters. Cleared, they become a climb.

Hollows

The rooms inside a Floor. Some are combat, some are puzzles, some are social tests. A run is a chain of Hollows.

The Ledger

A cold, typographic interface only some Ashwalkers can see. It ranks, records, and bargains. It is not a friend.

Ash

Residue of collapsed Floors. Fuel for skills, currency for the Ledger, matter from which the Cinder Host is pressed.

The Unsealed

Someone who entered the Spire from outside its rules. Starts with no rank. Can grow in ways the branded cannot.

Cinder Host

Ash pressed into loyal silhouettes of the fallen. Same stick rig, matte-black, pin-light eyes. Limited slots in a run.

Seals

A mark that floats the rank and role. Cosmetics can hide, crack, or forge a seal — the Ledger still knows.

Floor Voice

A tall, almost featureless stick figure that sets the test. Not killable. Not allied.

Title options if Veilspire does not stick:

  • Veilspire

    Working title. The tower is a spire of stacked rifts; the veil is the wound between worlds.

  • Ashrank

    Leans into the rank-climb fantasy and the ash that dead floors leave behind.

  • The Unsealed

    Names the player, not the world. Strong as a subtitle even if the title stays Veilspire.

  • Nullfloor

    Run-based climbing and the tower in one word. Colder, more system-like.

  • Cinder Ledger

    Puts the game-HUD 'system' in the title. Good for UI tone, weaker as a world name.

01 / Seals

The Ledger's ladder.

—

Unsealed

No brand. The Ledger sees you and does not know where to file you. Weak on paper. Illegal in practice.

I

Ember

Spark rank. Licensed to enter the shallowest rifts, usually as fodder or porters.

II

Coal

Reliable street-level Ashwalkers. Most of the living roster sits here and dies here.

III

Iron

Can hold a Hollow. Guild meat and backbone.

IV

Steel

Named. A Steel can close a city rift alone if the Floor is kind.

V

Glass

National-level threat, named for how the world looks at them — precious, sharp, one crack from disaster.

VI

Crown

The few who have climbed high enough that Floors start speaking back. Guild chairs, living legends.

Ø

Null

Not a rank the Ledger issues. A hole it cannot close. Bosses, Floor Voices, and the late-game Unsealed.

02 / Positions

How a party stands.

Six jobs a Hollow actually needs. A run can be solo Unsealed + Cinder Host, or a three-role party. Either way the stick language stays the same.

Breaker

shield

Holds the front of a Hollow. Shields, grabs, body-checks the thing that should not be touched.

Occupy and survive.

Lance

spear

Long-range pierce. Keeps a line of death down a corridor while others move.

Kill through the gap.

Weaver

staff

Shapes Ash into weather — frost, ember, still-air, venom. Area denial and Floor control.

Change the room.

Beacon

lantern

Sees the Floor. Marks weak points, opens paths, carries the lantern that keeps a party honest.

Call the true map.

Shade

dual

Enters first, ends things quietly, maps the Hollow by surviving it.

Find and cut.

Warden

staff

Keeps the branded alive. Seals wounds with Ash, holds dying seals together for one more room.

Refuse the wipe.

Inside a Floor

  1. 1. Pick a loadout on the Unsealed (wear, weapon, two Cinder slots).
  2. 2. A rift opens a Floor. The Floor Voice names the test.
  3. 3. Traverse Hollows: fight, bargain, solve, or flee.
  4. 4. Boss or verdict. Climb a rank shard — or scatter as Ash.

Between runs

  • Ash banked between runs buys cosmetics, Host slots, and Ledger perks.
  • Fallen named Ashwalkers can be pressed into the Cinder Host (same rig, black tone, their weapon).
  • Seals and cosmetics are account-wide. Stats from a run are not.

03 / Same body

One skeleton. Many seals.

  • Every character uses the Mixamo Simple Stick skeleton. No extra limbs unless a Null boss (Carapace spikes are wear, not bones).
  • Readability first: silhouette from helm, back, and weapon. Color second. Face last (stick heads barely have faces).
  • Body tone is a material, not a skin-tone chart: charcoal, bone, ice, rust, ink, olive, slate.
  • Thickness is a rank/role signal. Breakers read heavy. Shades read thin. The Unsealed starts thin and can thicken as Null.
  • Auras are VFX, not outfits. One aura family per character so a fight stays readable.
  • Cinder Host are the same spec with tone locked to matte black, joints to pin-light, aura to ash.
  • UI chrome stays bone/steel. Ember copper is for Ash, ranks, and world — not every button.

Cosmetic slots

  • Helm / headspine.006
  • Chest / coatspine.003
  • Legsthigh / shin
  • Cape / backspine.002
  • Main handhand.R
  • Off handhand.L
  • Aura (VFX)root
  • Rank sealabove spine.006
  • Marks / kitmixed

Mixamo contract

The uploaded Simple Stick (T-pose + clip) is the only body. Cosmetics child to these bones — never a second rig.

  • spine / spine.001–.006Torso stack. Chest wear at .003, back at .002, head at .006
  • shoulder.L / .RPauldrons, spikes
  • upper_arm / forearm / handSleeves, weapons, lantern, tablet
  • thigh / shin / foot / toeGreaves, hakama, boots
  • heel.02, breast.*, pelvis.*Keep for Mixamo compatibility; do not hang hero cosmetics here

04 / Founding twelve

The first stick bodies.

Tap a card to load it into the Atelier. Same Mixamo proportions, different wear, tone, and seal.

05 / Generator

Build the next Ashwalker.

Seed + role + rank writes a full FigureSpec: body tone, thickness, colors, helm, chest, weapon, aura. Save looks as you invent the roster. Later this same spec skins the Mixamo mesh.

Ren Calder

The Unsealed · Shade · Unsealed

founding
—

06 / After the bible

What we build next.

0 — Bible

Now
  • World names, ranks, roles, visual law
  • Founding roster as stick figures
  • Atelier: generate and save looks
  • Mixamo rig filed as the only skeleton

1 — 3D body

Later
  • Show the Mixamo stick in-engine
  • Attach cosmetics to bones
  • Same generator drives 3D wear

2 — Motion

Later
  • Idle / walk / run / attack / cast / hit / death
  • Per-weapon attack variants
  • Cinder Host share player animations, slower

3 — Feel

Later
  • Ledger window SFX (type, stamp, error)
  • Rift-open, Ash drain, Host-summon VFX
  • Hit-stop, floor dust, seal-crack

4 — One Floor

Later
  • A short Hollow chain with one test and one boss
  • Drop a cosmetic, bank Ash, die once

Open questions — pick in chat

How hard is death?

  • — Full wipe of the run, Ash kept (classic run-based)
  • — The Unsealed always crawls out; Cinder Host is lost
  • — A Floor can brand you — fail a test and you keep a curse cosmetic

Party or solo?

  • — Solo Unsealed + Cinder Host
  • — You plus two NPC Ashwalkers with roles
  • — Both: early Floors are party tests, later Floors strip the party away

Lock the title?

  • — Veilspire
  • — Ashrank
  • — The Unsealed
  • — keep workshopping

How visible is the Ledger?

  • — Always on, like a game HUD
  • — Only in rifts and after kills
  • — A physical book the Unsealed carries

Next build after this bible?

  • — More founding characters
  • — 3D Mixamo viewer with these cosmetics
  • — A tiny combat slice using 2D stick figures