The Luminescent (formerly Dwellers in Darkness )have been observing your city’s growth, and see that your technological advances and the power of your magical denizens may finally offer them a way to return to the reality they left long ago and share the new magics they have discovered in the dark world. In return for your city offering them a place to which they can return, they offer to bring unique new magical techniques and their experience with working in the darkness to your magical city.
Their first act will be to train your spellcasters in the construction of the black hole portal, which temporarily hides your city from the sun, removing the light from your city so that it is in twilight and allowing them to visit, so that together you and they may work to return light to their people and yours. The Black Hole also serves as a collection point for the new magical materials they will teach you to manipulate, starlight and moonlight, allowing you to build up a supply of these magical resources for use in advancing your city.
Their experience in capturing the faintest light of distant stars and the moon lets them teach you new methods of construction, including roads that glitter and sparkle with starlight, casting a soft illumination about them on all the buildings of your city.
- (Roads are added immediately before the portal, and a quest to upgrade them confers soft illumination on the city when it is plunged into near darkness at completion of the Black Hole Portal (first quest is to replace a minimum number of roads))
The construction methods of the Luminscent will soon be incorporated into your other buildings. Upgraded residences, manufactories, and workshops, are infused with a natural, ethereal light, which allows your people to fill spaces that were previously unused, increasing population and productivity without any changes to size or shape.
Edit: Adding list of potential elements to fit the theme
- Comets
- shooting stars
- Firefly-like beings/avatars
Totally stealing Soggy's mechanic suggestions until we can edit his stuff and mine into a cohesive whole
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(possible event to launch the new race/chapter)
Soon after the arrival in Elvenar of the Dwellers in Darkness, the magics they bring will begin to spread through the land, just in time for a great eclipse that lasts for two to four weeks and results in a worldwide celebration in which some of the resulting constructions will be infused with Starlight, lending an ethereal air to the buildings that are left behind by this event.