The Wider World
Aurum City is the whole world — until it isn't. What lies beyond the Blackwater. (Original fiction; see source notes.)
Upstate Blackwater
Kade’s retired father lives upstate, where the Blackwater narrows and the foundries give way to farmland. Kade sends money and calls on Sundays — as Kade, never as the armor. The file notes one trip upstate in the suit (a flood, a washed-out bridge, no witnesses but herons). The city doesn’t own him; the river does.
The Vanta supply chain
Vanta Foundry’s ore comes up the coast by freighter; its buyers are everywhere and named nowhere. The file hints at Halcyon Heights money, overseas foundries, and “parties who wanted a loud failure” (Issue #1). The wider world, in Year One, is mostly Voss-shaped — which is exactly why the saga stays in the city: the villain is local, and so is the hero.
Halcyon Heights (revisited)
Covered in Aurum City, but worth a second look from outside: the Heights are where the saga’s money sleeps, and where Vesper Quinn’s mirrors reflect a city she considers a foundry with delusions. If Year Two has a front, it’s here.
What the saga hasn’t shown
No other cities with their own armored figures. No federal agency with a file (Delgado checked — twice — and found nothing, which worries her more than finding something would). No origin for the aurumite beyond Vanta’s reactor. The world is deliberately small: one city, one hero, one Heart. The noir stays local.
Source notes
- All locations are original fiction written for this reference site (2026-09-26).
- Consistent with Aurum City, dossier, and issues.
- Every image is AI-generated dramatization art; see sources & provenance.