3 · The Game

3.1 Premise

In a world folded between the living and the dead, there is a trade older than money: keep a flame alive, and what should not walk will work for you instead. The candle is the contract. The player, the Keeper, inherited it, along with the debt that comes attached. Sixteen spirits of world folklore answer the flame: collectors who gather wealth, guardians who shield the light, mediators who bend the night in your favor.

Tuyul the Coin Thief counts silver in the corner. Draugr blocks the window against the wind. And when the wick drowns in its own wax, something always comes to collect.

3.2 The Vigil Loop: one real day, every day

THE FAUST runs on real time. Every player's account follows their own local clock:

Night (18:00 – 06:00 local): The candle burns at full strength. Spirits work. Events occur. All rewards (currency, materials, contribution progress) flow from the night.
Day (06:00 – 18:00 local): The world of the living. The player reads last night's Ledger, visits the Cave to summon new spirits, shops, upgrades, crafts, and competes. Optionally, the candle may be relit at a quarter yield, safe and eventless, for players who cannot let it go.

One candle. One night per account per day. Miss a night and the Ledger simply reads darker the next morning: no punishments, no streaks, no guilt. The game bends around the player's life, not the reverse.

3.3 The Night Ledger, the game's signature

Going offline is not a number that appears after eight hours. It is a night that happened, with witnesses:

NIGHT LEDGER — NIGHT 41 18:00 The flame burns quietly. 21:47 Wind slips through the window shutter. The flame gutters, then steadies. 23:03 Krasue returns heavy-handed. Good hunting tonight. 02:15 A flashlight sweeps the yard. Every spirit stops counting. 04:50 The oil runs low. The flame shrinks to a bead. 06:00 Dawn. The contract holds. Barely. Pip earned: 1,240 · Agate +4 · Opal +1 Lost: no one · "Debt does not wait for wax."