Spoilers!!chapter 0: The Celestial Geometry of Dominion

((The Eternal Empire's Cosmic Design))

When the God-King's legions conquer a galaxy, reality itself kneels.

Stars dim. Planets crumble. The fabric of space folds under divine decree, collapsing into a singular, titanic landmass—a flattened continent of unfathomable scale, suspended in the void like a disc of conquered earth and celestial wreckage. These are the Stratified Dominions, the layered realms of the Eternal Empire, where power is measured by proximity to the Argent Sun—the blazing silver heart of all creation.

The Argent Sun and the Hierarchy of Realms

At the center of the empire burns the Argent Sun, a colossal sphere of liquid silver fire, its light neither warm nor kind, but radiant with absolute authority. It does not merely illuminate—it judges, its glow waxing or waning in response to the worthiness of those who bask in it.

The conquered continents orbit this sun in tiered rings, their positions dictated by their strength:

- The Inner Rings: The closest to the Argent Sun, these lands are drenched in its merciless radiance. Here, the air itself is thick with divine energy, and the earth is forged from the remnants of vanquished pantheons. The elite of the Eternal Empire—the God-King's chosen Dukes, the immortal warlords, and the most exalted of the celestial races—reside in these realms. Their cities are carved from the bones of dead gods, their palaces floating on platforms of solidified starlight.

- The Middle Rings: Farther out, the light of the Argent Sun weakens, and the lands grow harsher. These are the domains of the lesser nobility, the vassal kings, and the races deemed useful but not supreme. The continents here are vast, but their skies are dimmer, their soil less blessed. Still, they are closer to the center than most dare dream.

- The Outer Rings: At the edges of the empire, the light is a faint silver glimmer on the horizon. These are the frontier dominions, where the conquered are left to languish in near-darkness. The land is barren, the air thin, and the people weaker—deliberately starved of the Argent Sun's favor. Rebellions often spark here, but they are always crushed, their uprisings merely another reason for the God-King's legions to descend and remind the outer realms of their place.

The Mechanics of Conquest

When a new galaxy is taken, the God-King's Celestial Engines—monstrous, world-reshaping constructs—begin their work. Over centuries, they compress stars, planets, and nebulae into a single, sprawling landmass, its edges curling upward like a vast dish to prevent the unworthy from falling into the void. The strongest of the conquered are permitted to migrate inward; the rest are left to rot on the fringes.

The result is a cosmic mandala of domination, a wheel of stratified realms where every inch closer to the Argent Sun is a privilege earned through blood, loyalty, or sheer, brutal strength.

The Silver Sun's Secret

None know the true nature of the Argent Sun, save the God-King himself. Some whisper it is the first god he ever slew, its molten core still beating as a prisoner of its own demise. Others believe it is the source of his divinity, a well of power he siphoned to fuel his eternal reign.

But a few—the heretics, the forgotten scholars of dead worlds—claim it is something far worse.

A seal.

A lock upon a door that should never be opened.

And at the center of it all, upon his Throne of Broken Gods, the God-King watches, his golden eyes ever fixed on the void beyond—waiting, searching, for the one soul that has ever escaped him.

---