The Player's Codex

How the Game Is Played

Collect the nine. Name a champion. Steer the story. Earn an ending no one else can copy.

The Core Loop

Collect, then steer

Every day, one dragon is revealed and a full page of the story is drawn — a single comic page of nine panels, ending in a choice. You steer that branching page with the champion you choose, free. And if you want the complete printed manga, you collect one dragon of each of the nine bloodlines and burn them for the bonus pages that fill out your volumes.

I
Collect the nine bloodlines
A new dragon reveals every day and its nine-panel page is free to play and duel. To complete the printed manga, gather one dragon from each of the nine bloodlines and burn 200 of each for a bonus page — extra lore, a hidden challenge, a bonus stage, a clue to what comes. Optional if you only play P2P; skip it and your final 21 volumes carry permanent gaps.
II
Name your champion, place your bet
Choose one of the nine as your hero, then secretly double one of its four powers (Attack, Defence, Stamina, Ability). You lock this in before the danger is revealed — a real gamble.
III
Steer the nine-panel page
Each page is a nine-panel journey. At every fork you choose the path — ridge, gorge, storm front — and each leads to a different trial. Fight on ground that suits your dragon and you strike at double strength; choose badly and you are exposed.
IV
Live with the outcome
Win well and claim a prize; lose and your champion is wounded — but never killed in normal play. The page you mint records how it actually went for you.
V
Recover, then push on
Heal, equip, and push on to the next page. Your pages gather into 21 books across 900 days — and each finished book is printed and posted to your door.
Part V

The trials of the journey

Seven of the nine houses rule a battlefield — fight there with that dragon and you are twice as strong. Leaving a bloodline out of your collection never dooms you; it just means you clear its trial the hard way.

Mortar BarrageOpen landwarrior
Gunship DuelOpen skyroyal
Collapsing TunnelsUndergroundprimal
Whiteout StormFoul weatherknowledge
Canopy AmbushDeep forestoutlaw
The MaelstromOpen watermystic
The Last StandAmbush (near death)revenge

The other two rule no single field — they bend every one. Hope lifts the whole side that stands with him; Despair drains the strength out of anyone who faces her. Wherever the fight is, they change it.

The Rally+10 to your side, anywherehope
The Withering−10 to the enemy, anywheredespair
Bosses are deliberately unfair — the wall you train against. A boss is the only thing that can fell a champion, and even then it returns, scarred but alive.
Part VI

The fate of your champion

Triumph
A decisive win — the full choice of prizes, and the best art.
Prevail
A narrow win — you pass, a little worn.
Wounded
You take real damage and limp onward.
Crippled
A heavy blow — heal before you dare the next trial.

Wounds heal; identity doesn't. Damage only ever costs health and armour, which you can restore. A dragon's four core powers are permanent — they never rot away. You get stronger over a career, never quietly weaker.

Parts VII–VIII

Growing stronger & the arena

Gear & relics
Forage armour, upgrades, and relics — a Water-relic lets a fire dragon survive the deep as if born to it. Printed powers never change; equipment is how a dragon grows.
The collector's edge
Bloodlines fall into three war-schools — Attack, Defence, Stamina. Every dragon you hold of a school sharpens your champion in that stat. The more of the saga you collect, the mightier you become.
Weekend duels
Field six dragons against a rival's six, one bout at a time. Reveal a public team but swap in hidden champions from your stable — reading the bluff is the whole art. In a fight too close to call, the deepest conviction wins.
The long game & your books
Over 900 days you write 21 books. Close a book and it is printed and posted to your door — your name on the cover, as the author. Twenty-one volumes no one else owns, because no one else made your choices.