Umbral Coterie

Umbral Coterie is a character-driven simulation set in a living medieval city on the cusp of a new century. You build a coterie that can rival the city’s existing powers and earn a place of honor, while older forces stir in the alleys and almshouses. There are no scripted quests; stories and consequences emerge from the city and the people who live in it.

The living city

Hundreds of citizens have names, families, faiths, occupations, relationships, personalities and daily routines. They wake, work, drink, pray, gossip, fall in love, fall ill and die whether or not you watch. You can befriend, bleed or bury them, and their memories—and the town’s chronicle—reflect what happens. A sin committed in winter may not be repaid until a generation has died.

A city made anew

Streets, families, bloodlines and histories are generated anew each game, so marriages, murders, plagues and betrayals arise from the simulation rather than a scripted story. Each citizen’s personality is shaped by the four humors—sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic—which they inherit from their parents and which can shift through trauma. Compatibility, ambition and madness emerge from this balance.

Powers beneath the surface

The church and the city have their own forces, while sinister powers move beneath the surface. You can discover them on your own terms or stumble into them at the worst possible moment. The aim is to build a bloodline and a legend, not simply to win.