Veilborne Array
Requirements
The Veilborne Array demands intense arcane sensitivity and spiritual harmony among its members. Each participant must demonstrate an attunement to the Loomtree’s resonances, as well as an ability to read the metaphysical threads that surround battlefields. Only those who have undergone the Kinbound Archive's inner rites can truly perceive the necessary emotional lattice that powers the Array.
The ritual requirement to join is known as the Severed Knot Trial, where aspirants must enter a semi-trance and maintain formation through collapsing illusions that mimic unraveling environments. Only those who remain synchronized with their companions and threadflow emerge as candidates.
Composition
Manpower
The formation functions best with squads of nine, symbolically echoing the Tethered Nine and the Loomtree’s branching limbs. Each squad includes a Weave Anchor (leader), two Threadrunners (flank adaptors), three Latticeguards (defenders), and three Flowweavers (mobile casters). This structure can be scaled, but it begins to lose coherence beyond 81 operatives.
In emergencies, a Veilborne Array can adapt down to three or expand into overlapping fractal layers involving up to 243 operatives, but such executions are rare and dangerous.
Equipment
Standard equipment is embedded with Temporal Threads and woven stabilizers enchanted with chronoglass or thread-wrought stone. These garments and accessories allow the wearer to resist unraveling effects, shift positions near-instantly, or momentarily lock magical flow in an area.
Additionally, each soldier bears a token tied to their initiation thread—often a woven glyph etched into their armor or skin that serves as a fallback anchor if severed from the formation.
Weaponry
Weapons are as fluid as the formation—favored choices include curved threadblades, shifting glaives, and staff-foci capable of quick evocation or illusion casting. Most members use channeling rods woven with temporal fungi or arcane residue veins to manipulate battlefield perception and terrain.
Unique to the formation are Loomshard Javelins, spectral weapons that phase between timeframes and strike with momentum from moments ahead.
Vehicles
Typically, the Veilborne Array operates on foot or in arcane environments, avoiding reliance on vehicles. However, when forced to travel or deploy across vast terrain, they use Weavegliders—lightweight aerial skiffs powered by stabilized chronostones.
These vessels are not suited for combat but allow the Array to maintain a loose pattern mid-flight, critical for navigating fractured magical landscapes.
Structure
Each formation cell is led by a Weave Anchor, who senses the field’s metaphysical flow and makes moment-to-moment adjustments. Beneath them, Threadrunners relay adaptive maneuvers while Flowweavers execute magical responses.
The Weave Anchor is not a traditional commander but a conduit, guiding the emotional and spiritual current of the group. Their decisions often feel instinctual—some believe the Loomtree speaks through them in battle.
Tactics
The Veilborne Array excels in Weave-Reading Combat, adapting to arcane conditions and unseen foes. Rather than holding formations, they move like a fluid knot—shifting, weaving, and collapsing into one another depending on threat direction and magical pressure.
Key tactics include:
- Thread Slip: A short-range temporal blink used to reposition as a unit.
- Entropic Counter: A synchronized maneuver that reflects magical decay back to its source.
- Fraylock Spiral: A coiled formation that absorbs destabilizing magic and returns it in a controlled burst.
Training
Initiates begin with dance-like pattern drills and sensory deprivation exercises in echo chambers of the Kinbound Archive. Once basic empathy-threading is achieved, they advance to combat simulations where mistakes result in magically induced disorientation or forced unraveling illusions.
The final training phase involves Silent Veil Marches, days-long missions through reality-stressed zones with no verbal communication, relying only on spiritual and emotional resonance.
Logistics
Logistical Support
The Array is supported by arcane logisticians known as Weavewrights, who maintain the threads, recalibrate gear, and ensure synchronization runes remain intact. These specialists often double as battlefield medics and magical liaisons during extended campaigns.
Due to the fragile harmony required, even rations and sleep cycles are managed through ritual to avoid disharmony among the unit.
Auxilia
While rare, the Veilborne Array may receive support from Loomshorn Kinbranch, particularly in unstable terrain. Additionally, Timewalkers serve as temporal scouts who report unseen fluctuations that may threaten the Array’s integrity.
Outside forces generally avoid direct interaction due to fear of breaking formation—contact is permitted only through specially-trained Echo Companions.
Upkeep
Maintaining a Veilborne Array is expensive, requiring a steady supply of temporal threads, chronoglass, and spiritually pure ritual spaces. Weavewrights must perform routine resonance harmonizations, and members are regularly tested for discordant thoughts that could endanger cohesion.
If a member falters spiritually or emotionally, they must undergo a rite of Reweaving or be rotated out—permanently.
Recruitment
Recruits are usually drawn from Threadwright prodigies or children born during rare celestial alignments. Some Loomshorn are granted provisional trials, though this remains controversial among Keepers of Kin.
Only a handful pass the Silent Veil March. Of those, fewer still complete the Severed Knot Trial. Even among the Thalrani elite, it is considered an honor simply to attempt.
History
The Veilborne Array emerged during the Severance War, when battlefield unraveling rendered most conventional formations useless. The Kinbound Archive distilled old battle chants, weaving rituals, and harmonic warfare into the first Array, tested near the ruins of Myriath.
Their success against Kavessra’s unraveling cults and aberrant monstrosities marked a turning point in the war. Since then, the formation has been preserved in secret, resurfacing only during existential threats.
Historical loyalties
Always bound to the Keepers of Kin and their hidden doctrine, the Veilborne Array holds no allegiance to kingdoms or warlords. Their loyalty is to the weave, to the balance, and to the ancestral harmony the Loomtree once promised.
When they march, it is a signal: reality itself is at stake.
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