- Name
- The Name Beneath the Lantern
- Quest type
- Main story quest
- Difficulty
- High
- Premise
- Three days before Stillmere, the central lantern of the Lantern Archive begins burning with black-blue flame. Beneath it, a blank map slowly fills itself with a route written in Tarethic. When Mira Thornvale translates the first line, she discovers the map is not showing the way to Vael Tareth. It is showing the way to the place where her father's name was buried. In this world, a true name is more than identity—it is the anchor that keeps a person fixed in memory, history, and reality. If Edran Thornvale's true name has been buried, then he may not simply be missing. He may be slowly erased from the world.
- Objective
- Recover Edran Thornvale's true name before Vael Tareth fully touches the real world during Stillmere. If Mira can recover it, she may be able to find him—and understand why his name was taken in the first place.
- Primary goals
- Find the sealed visitor ledger that Orlan Vey removed from the Lantern Archive. Translate the Tarethic route hidden in Edran's notebook. Reach the Drowned Chapel below Greyharbor before Blacktide 30. Avoid the Lantern Orthodoxy, who want the route destroyed. Use the brass compass to locate the buried name.
- Steps
- The Black-Blue Lantern: The central lantern burns with unnatural flame, and a map appears beneath it, showing a route that begins inside the archive but ends below the sea. One readable phrase remains: "A name buried is a road closed."
The Removed Ledger: Mira confronts Orlan about her father's missing record. Orlan admits he removed Edran's name to protect him from the Lantern Orthodoxy. He gives Mira the torn ledger page, but the ink rearranges itself whenever she lies or avoids the truth.
The Chapel Offer: A priest from the Lantern Orthodoxy approaches Mira with a bargain: surrender the brass compass, and they will give her Edran's sealed records. If she refuses, the Orthodoxy marks her as road-touched and begins following her.
The Tarethic Sentence: Mira translates a half-finished sentence from her father's notebook. It reveals that the entrance to the Drowned Chapel will appear only if someone speaks the name of the person they fear losing most.
Descent at Low Tide: At Blacktide low tide, Mira reaches the Drowned Chapel. The brass compass points not toward the altar, but beneath the floor. There she finds a stone map carved with hundreds of names. Most are crossed out. One still glows faintly: Edran Thornvale.
The Choice of the True Name: To recover Edran's name, Mira must write her own name beside his on the stone map. Doing so restores part of Edran's memory to the world, but gives Vael Tareth a stronger hold on Mira.
- Possible outcomes
- Success: Mira recovers Edran's true name. One forgotten memory returns: Edran did reach Vael Tareth, but he entered willingly to keep something trapped inside. Mira gains a Recovered Name Fragment (a memory-bound clue that can open one sealed route to Vael Tareth), a new map of Greyharbor's old coastline, and learns that speaking Tarethic aloud can briefly stabilize moving places.
Partial Success: Mira saves only part of the name. Edran becomes easier to find, but no one except Mira can remember his face. The compass becomes less reliable.
Failure: The Lantern Orthodoxy destroys the route. Edran's name vanishes from all records, and the compass begins pointing toward Mira instead.
- Twist
- The buried name is not only Edran's. A second name is carved beneath his on the stone map, older and almost erased. It is Mira Thornvale. She has been here before. She has lost her name before. And she is forgetting it again.