Open-world adventure across the realm of Aethoria, where routes shift with the wind and the map never lies still. The Sundial, a colossal clockwork that governs seasons and tides, has fractured. Time ripples through plains, coasts, and skies; crops wither in one province while storms sweep another. The cause is a missing trio of World Components scattered across diverse regions and guarded by factions, relic-guardians, and ancient pacts. Your party begins in Brineglass, a bustling coastal city, where a courier delivers a fragment of an obsidian compass pointing toward the Sundial Meridian Spire. From there the map fans out into five regions, each offering exploration, faction alliances, and danger: Verdant Expanse (jungle ruins, druidic groves, sentient flora); Shattered Coasts (floating isles, pirate covens, leviathans); Ironcrest Highlands (volcanic forges, mountain fortresses, stubborn guilds); Glass Wastes (crystal deserts that reveal memory mirages); Veil of Mist (maze-like ruins with flickering planar gates). Main quest: recover the three World Components—Prism of Dawn (sunken temple beneath a coral sea), Silence of the Ocean (a soundless pearl in a storm-wracked island), Ember Crown (forged in a forge-city's heart)—and reassemble the Sundial by placing components on its dial at the Meridian Spire. The Celestial Confluence is near; if the Sundial remains broken, seasons warp, rivers reverse course, and reality frays. Central events include periodic ley-line surges that redraw borders, faction skirmishes spilling into trade routes, and a skyborn fleet seeking to seize Sundial power. Triggers include an eclipse, a stormsong from an ancient tongue, and rumors of a dragon awakening beneath the earth. Side quest: the Whispering Cartographer—solve her riddles to learn impossible routes and earn a teleportation anchor. Rewards include time-magic artifacts to tame tempests and tides, unique mounts, safe havens across regions, and enduring influence with major factions.