Book I · The Aetherveil Cycle

The Eclipse War

A point-and-click adventure in Vaelus, where grammar is magic and every kindness costs something.

Play Act I free in your browser Coming soon to Google Play

No accounts, no sign-up. The Prologue and Act I are free in the browser and in the Android app. Acts II and III are a one-off unlock in the app.

The sky tears over the Shadow Quarter: a vast dark shape beneath a split horizon, a white and ginger cat watching from a lamp post

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Find the lie. Kill the truth.

The Spires glitter, and the Shadow Quarter pays for them. On his name day, Edmund Valen slips down from the Spires to see the city properly. Helena, whom the Quarter calls Helldog, tells him to go home. Then the sky tears open. Years later he answers to Gloom, and Vaelus is still paying for that night.

Adapted from the novel The Eclipse War, Book I, it's a story game you play with your thumbs: tap to use, press and hold to look, and drag the words of the litany onto the world to bend it.

Everything costs

Grammar is magic

Learn the words of the litany as you go. Reveal what a thing is lying about, break a ward, silence a voice, or break a rule that shouldn't be breakable.

The cat remembers

Stuck? Ask the cat. He'll scratch you a route, but each hint costs him a little colour, and he doesn't forget.

Names are anchors

Ask people their names and keep them in Helldog's Ledger. At the end, the story reads back the ones you held on to.

A hunger to refuse

Gloom is hungry, and the city bleeds. Every scene offers a bite. Refusing is always possible, and it changes who he becomes.

Four endings

How much you trusted the cat, what you fed, and what you refused decide how it ends. No ending is chosen from a menu.

Made for phones

Landscape, full screen, big tap targets. It saves itself every time you change scene. Nearly. Counts.

Have a look

The Shadow Quarter at night: leaning houses, a lamp, and a chestnut seller's brazier — The Shadow Quarter. Buildings lean together like conspirators.

Gloom, Helldog and the cat on a rooftop above the Spires — A rooftop, years later.

The Oblivion Engine, a vast machine with a glowing violet core, rolling past the outer mills — The Oblivion Engine, taller than a church.

The night market: coloured stalls, a lamp post and a canal pipe — The night market keeps its music playing.

Masked cultists kneeling around a green fire in a courtyard — The green fire, and the Chorus around it.

The observation deck, the highest point in Vaelus, under two cracked moons — The observation deck, under the fractured moons.

The whole of Book I

The Prologue and twenty-five chapters, about seven to eight hours from the balcony to the last page.

Prologue and Act IBefore the Eclipse, then the Shadow Quarter, the Chorus and the first rift. Chapters 0–7.Free, in the browser and the app
Act IIRising Shadows: the Abyss. Chapters 8–15.Unlock in the Android app
Act IIIThe Eclipse Ascendant: the siege of Vaelus. Chapters 16–24.Unlock in the Android app

Each act can be unlocked on its own, or both together for less. They're one-off purchases: no subscriptions, no energy timers, no loot boxes. Your choices carry over.

A few lines from the book

Do not be noble. Be fast.
“Nearly.” “Counts.”
Names are anchors.
Cores lie the loudest.

Coming to the screen

We're also working on a semi-photorealistic video version of The Eclipse War. This early screen test takes on the Prologue: Edmund, Helena and the cat on the night the sky tears open, the fight with Xy'threx, and the moment Edmund begins to change. It's rough and unfinished, but it's a first look at where Vaelus is heading.

Help and small print

Stuck, found a bug, or bought an unlock on a new phone? Use I bought it already on the unlock screen to restore it, or email contact@insomniacsdream.co.uk.

The browser version has no adverts. In the free part of the Android app, asking the cat for a hint offers a short advert first, and only if you choose to watch it. Buying either act removes them.