How this was made

Built with Astro. What leaves the build is HTML, CSS and one small script — no framework, no analytics bundle, no consent banner.

Scenes

There are no screenshots because there is no software yet — and no image files either. Every scene on this site is drawn as SVG by a small generator at build time: spires, gates, chasms, pyres. Each one uses a fixed seed, so the site looks the same on every deploy. Fog drifts, embers rise, and the layers move at different speeds as you scroll.

When a real screenshot exists, the scene gets replaced by it.

Type

Nothing is downloaded. The page uses the serif and monospace faces already on your device, so it renders slightly differently on every machine. That is left alone.

Margin notes

The short myths in the margins are fiction, written as exercises: a promise, a rule, a price, and something left over. They are not lore, not quests, and not connected to anything on the shelf. They sit at the edge of a page rather than in a list of their own — beside the shelf, next to an entry, at the corner of the hero.

Not all of them appear. Only the ones that fit a page are used; the rest stay in the file, unused. On a narrow screen the margin disappears and the note goes with it, which is the trade for keeping the page quiet.

Ornament

The hairline frames, corner marks, roman numerals and the turning diagram behind the hero all come from the same generator: circles, rays, triangles and squares, fixed at build time. It is drawn — not a purchased asset, not an ornament font. The brass tone is the only colour that is not part of the base palette.

Color

• Ink #07070A — ground
• Surface #101015 — panels
• Text #EDE6DA — body
• Accent #E07A3F — one warm light
• Brass #C9A063 — ornament only
• Deep #7A1F2B — used sparingly

Motion

Nothing reacts to the pointer. What moves is the world inside the scenes — fog, embers, a slow pulse of light — plus page transitions, so moving between pages does not flash white. All of it stops if your system asks for reduced motion.

Hosting

Cloudflare Pages. Analytics is Cloudflare Web Analytics only, which sets no cookies. The only thing collected is page views.

Corrections

If something is wrong, tell me. I will fix it, and record that it was fixed.