The Hallowbane Codex

Codex of the Chapel of Dawn

Ex Libris

The Order of the
Radiant Dawn

Reliquary shelf of the Chapel of Dawn

Should this book be found beyond hallowed ground, commit it to the flame.

The Codex of

Being a true account of Ser Vael, the Lantern-Knight, who was burned by his own Order for a curse he could not control, and who came back wrong.

Set down by Hallowwisp Games
MMXXVI

Ser Vael stands with a blood-red greatsword before the Order's host, while the four curses rise behind him: vampire, lich, werewolf and demon. — Plate I The Lantern-Knight, and the four that took him.

Turn the leaves by scrolling, swiping or dragging a page corner, or with the arrow keys. The tabs on the fore-edge open each chapter.

Chapter I

The Pyre

Ser Vael, the Lantern-Knight, was the brightest blade of the Order of the Radiant Dawn, until a relic hunt in the crypts beneath the Chapel of Dawn ended with something old biting back.

The Order's law is absolute. The tainted burn. So Vael's own comrades lit the pyre, and Vael ran.

You play the Order's own nightmare, the hero who came back wrong. Every enemy in this game is one of the good ones: peasants with torches, zealous templars, war-clerics and old friends.

The tragedy is the engine. The more you level, the less of Vael is left.

Burned by his own order for a curse he could not control.

Vael, cloaked and bloodied, faces the white-and-gold host of the Order marching out of its cathedral city. — Plate II The Order of the Radiant Dawn comes for its own.

HALLOWBANE is a dark-fantasy action game in which you are the monster the heroes are hunting. A run opens with a cursed knight, a sword and deliberate, weighty strikes. By the tenth minute it is a screen-filling storm of curses.

Chapter II

The Bargain

The curse is the progression. Every kill feeds a single meter, Bloodlust, and when it cracks past the Breaking Point the curse makes you an offer.

Embrace

Take the monster's shape and its gifts. The change goes one way only.

Resist

Drive the hunger back and keep a boon of humanity for the rest of the run.

Hold out too long and the meter fills. Then the curse takes you anyway, and you fight the next stage weakened.

While he is still a man, Vael fights with steel and a shield bash, and hallowed ground cannot slow him. The monster's gifts wait in his hand, dormant.

The Three Faces

Ser Vael as a cursed knight, red-eyed, in scarred plate and a torn crimson hood. — IThe Cursed Knight

Vael half-turned: pale, fanged, still armoured. — IIThe Half-Turned

Vael as the Vampire Lord, winged and screaming. — IIIThe Monster

Three tiers, one body. Each turning is a ceremony. The world slows around him while the flesh breaks and remakes itself, and the ground is marked where he stood.

Plate III Three faces of the Crimson Thirst.

Chapter III · The Four Curses

The Crimson Thirst

Vampire

A dying noblewoman begged sanctuary. The Order said burn her. You gave her your arm instead, and she left her thirst in your veins. The Dawn burned you for mercy.

Crimson Lash
Bat Swarm
Blood Nova

Lifesteal on all damage dealt · Signature: Mist Dash

Chapter III · The Four Curses

The Moon-Marked

Werewolf

Something took the village children into the pines. You went in after them, and only one shape walked out: yours, mostly. The Order saw the wound and lit the pyre.

Moon Fang
Shadow Claws
Blood Howl

Blood Rage: damage rises as health falls · Signature: Feral Lunge

Chapter III · The Four Curses

The Grave-Bound

Necromancer

You buried your brothers-in-arms and read the rites over them, night after night, until one night a grave answered back. The Order does not forgive an open door.

Bone Spear
Raise Skeleton
Soul Storm

Death Pact: kills restore health · Signature: Grave Burst

Chapter III · The Four Curses

The Hell-Bound

Demon-Possessed

The relic blade was meant to stay sealed. The breach was meant to be lost. You drew it anyway, and something drew you back. The Order burned the man; the passenger survived.

Hellfire Ball
Immolation
Meteor Call

Hellbrand: attackers catch fire · Signature: Flame Wave

Chapter IV

The Order of the Radiant Dawn

They are the good guys, and by their own lights they are right. The Order sends everything it has.

Torchbearer: They are not soldiers. They are farmers, fishermen, tanners, and widows' sons. The Order gave them fire and prayer and sent them against a monster.
Crossbowman: Trained to strike from afar, they believe distance is faith.
Chapel Hound: Low, fast and bred beneath the chapel. It flanks and lunges.
Templar: Slow and heavy in plate. It does not need to be quick.
War-Cleric: Hurls homing orbs of holy light and heals the faithful near it. Kill it first.

The Order's Champions

Every third stage a named champion takes the field. Every fifth, a boss. Each one raises a Beacon, a font of holy light that claims the ground around it. Break the Beacon and its champion staggers.

The Dawn BulwarkShield high. It punishes impatience.
The Dawn Executioner“The Dawn does not pardon. It descends.”
The Oathblade Duelist“Precision is my oath.”
The Relic Inquisitor“We are the scripture made steel.”
The Dawn Huntsmaster“The light hunts. We track. We judge.”
The Dawn Marshal“No healing. No prayer. No mercy.”
The Dawn Censer Knight“Where the censer burns, the unworthy wither.”

Chapter V

The Land Remembers

Where Vael fights, the ground corrupts in the image of his curse, and the corrupted ground feeds his power.

Crimson Blight: Dark veins and red mist. Rats and snakes scuttle through it.
Feral Wilds: Moon-silver overgrowth, thorns, amber eyeshine in the grass.
The Withering: Greyed earth, risen bone shards, drifting soul-wisps.
Hellscorch: Cracked ember veins, licking flame, rising ash.

The Order answers with consecration. Its Beacons and the Shrines of the Dawn turn the stone back to holy gold. Every arena becomes a map of who is winning.

The Chapel of Dawn seen from above: a burning chapel over a graveyard courtyard, a pyre at its centre, walled with iron and stone. — Plate IV The Chapel of Dawn, burning. The first ground of the hunt.

Chapter VI

The Hunt

Thirty stages of five waves each, and the Order sends more every time. Survive the thirtieth and the Endless Night begins.

Arms of the Fallen: Champions and bosses guard relic weapons with names like the Reviled Reaper's Scythe of the Red Harvest. Step onto one to take it or leave it.
The Harvest: The dead are fuel. Each curse feeds on corpses in its own way, once it has become the monster.
The Flock: Innocents flee across the field. Killing them heals nothing and feeds the curse. Sparing them is a choice everyone can see.

Chapter VII

The Black Ledger

Every run is written down: who fell, where, and what they had become. The killing blow is recorded by name.

Specimen entries
Curse	Fell at	Slain by
Vampire Lord	Stage 23	Maren the Unbowed
Half-Beast	Stage 11	a War-Cleric's orb
Plague Scholar	Stage 7	Kessler the Swift

Seeds can be shared, and a weekly seed puts every hunter on the same night.

Your legend is written. The hunt continues.

Chapter VIII

The Dawn to Come

HALLOWBANE is in development at Hallowwisp Games. It is coming to Windows and Android.

SteamWindowsStore page to come Google PlayAndroidStore page to come

Colophon

This codex is set in Cinzel and Crimson Pro, the typefaces of the game itself. Its plates are taken from the game's key art and concept work.

Here ends the codex