WSA 2025 Entry Contestant 

-Chapters after 5 will be in-between 1k-1500k words 

-Jack Summers awakens in a stranger’s body—a scholar named Michael Vaelborne, dead just days before—beneath the veiled skies of Noxhollow, a city drenched in soot, steam, and silence. Here, alchemical guilds debate metaphysics in candlelit salons, telegram wires hum with cryptic messages, and clockwork airships crawl across the heavens like metal leviathans. Marble columns meet wrought iron walkways; gaslamps burn beneath cathedrals lined with gears and forgotten names. The world is beautiful, brutal, and ruled by secrets.

With no answers and too many eyes watching, Jack does what he does best: he lies.

To survive, he claims Michael’s identity.
To thrive, he becomes someone else entirely.

In a society governed by reputation and rumor, Jack assumes the role of a detective—not official, not sanctioned, but dangerously observant. He digs into forgotten crimes, vanishing names, and truths too dangerous to name. Every mask he wears reveals another piece of the world… and hides another piece of himself.

The more he investigates, the more tangled the world becomes: ancient conspiracies, arcane sciences, and something hidden in the folds of the Unwritten Archive, a forbidden system whispered about by mad scholars and ink-stained archivists.

But Jack is no ordinary liar.
And beneath every false name he wears, there stirs a deeper truth.
A forgotten persona, laughing in the dark.

They call him the Jester.
And soon, the world will know why.

The Veilborne Monetary System is the primary monetary structure used across Noxhollow and the majority of Concord-aligned cities. Developed and standardized in the wake of the Veilfall, the system is a blend of civic practicality and arcane tradition, designed to reflect the tiered societal order and metaphysical resonance of the Veilborne Era.


Each coin within the system is not only valued economically but also symbolically, crafted from materials and inscribed with glyphs that resonate with their rank within the Hollow Concord's economic ladder.


Use: Street fare, cheap bread, tram fare, small trinkets


Symbolism: Represents the mundane and foundational—used by the masses


Notes: Most common among workers, children, and market vendors


Material: Brass or treated tin with a soft shine


Use: Basic goods, public bath fees, mid-tier meals, apprentice wages


Symbolism: Aspiration—gleaming upward from the dull routine


Notes: Frequently used in day-to-day transactions in lower-middle class districts


Material: Refined silver alloy, lightly etched with arcane insignia


Use: Groceries, alchemical supplies, school materials, tailored clothes


Symbolism: Recognition and balance—commonly used by students, clerks, and educated tradesfolk


Notes: Jack used four of these for groceries and a dessert in Chapter 9


Material: Blackened steel or obsidian-composite, veined with inked etchings


Use: Contract payments, guild fees, property deposits


Symbolism: Mystery and influence—used by merchants, guilds, and mid-level officials


Notes: Dangerous to flash openly without protection in lower districts


Material: Opalescent stone and alchemical silver; constantly refracts faint light


Use: High-level negotiations, noble transactions, arcane rituals, land purchase


Symbolism: Power and unseen truth—rare, heavily regulated


Notes: Used almost exclusively by nobility, senior Arcanists
