On a small hidden island in the Mediterranean, a man stands before a map of the world, and wonders how long any of it will last. 

This man is Pelham Locke, the last surviving member of the Lamplighters League, and he knows something few others know: that a long-lost ancient ruin, the bridge between the mundane and the supernatural, the mythical Tower at the End of the World… has been found. And that its discovery may well doom us all.

Because the ones who found the Tower aren't explorers or scholars or scientists. They're a power-hungry secret cult called the Banished Court. The Court's three Scions want the energy source at the Tower's crown: the wellspring of all magic known as the Bright Storm. 

The Tower at the End of the World is the bridge between the mundane world and the Bright Storm, the source of all magic.

Standing at the top of the Tower, in the eye of the storm, the Scions will possess the ability to remake the world exactly as they see fit. 

The Lamplighters League stopped the Banished Court from reaching the Tower once before, in 1916—at the cost of their own lives. Now it's 1932, the Court is ready to try again, and Locke has given up looking for heroes of his fallen comrades' caliber. The best of the best are long gone. He'll have to settle for the best of the worst.

Guess what, all you scoundrels, rogues and misfits. This is where you come in…

Today you've got Lead Narrative Designer Jill Scharr here to introduce you to The Race for the Tower.

Ticking Towards Midnight

Week to week, you'll have to decide where your focus belongs. Sabotaging the Court? Strengthening your own team? Or preparing to enter the Tower? Choose wisely… every week, the Court grows closer to victory.

As you study the World Map planning your next move, you'll see three Doomsday Clocks at the top of the screen. These indicate how close the Houses are to being ready to enter the Tower. Each of the three Houses has its own Clock because this is a race. Whichever House wins becomes ascendant and gets to define the future of the world, and none of them want to be written out of the picture. For the Lamplighters, this means there are three opponents, not just one.

The three Houses advance their plans each week, but you can interfere with them by undertaking sabotage missions. Literally sabotage: we're talking steal their resources, destroy their radio networks, and even assassinate their generals. You'll recognize a sabotage mission by the red pips of Threat across the top. If you skip this mission, that Threat will be added to the House's Doomsday Clock and they'll be a little closer to remaking the world. But if you complete your sabotage there, you'll prevent that Threat and additionally reduce the House's Clock a bit.

Each Clock is divided into segments that represent the major stages of their plans. When a segment is completely filled, the House hits a Breakpoint and advances toward the Tower. Their monsters and minions grow stronger and their influence over the world increases. And critically, once a House crosses a Breakpoint, there's no going back. Lamplighter efforts can reduce a Doomsday Clock down to a Breakpoint, but never below one.

House Marteau is one step closer to victory.

The Courts move quickly and the Lamplighters can't sabotage everything, so you'll have to choose your missions carefully. Inevitably, the Doomsday Clocks will tick up.

If any of the three Clocks fills completely and hits the final Breakpoint, that's game over, for you and for the world as you know it. But there's still a ghost of a chance to pull things back: a Last Stand mission you can run to stall them for a short time. The stakes are high, though. Last Stands are difficult, and failure means losing the world.

Each of the Banished Court's three leaders has their own vision of a "perfect world." Lord Strum wants an empire beneath his boot. Lady Nicastro wants to resurrect a monstrous deepsea god and drown the world in His waters. And Trace Marteau—well. He just wants to usher in a future with his name on it.

Marteau Industries Proudly Presents…

Imagine, if you will… a world where no one is hungry. No one is tired, or sick, or injured. A world where everyone has a job. 

He brought you the Marteau-Mobile. He brought you the Home Radieau. Now, beloved industrialist J.T. Trace Marteau proudly presents… The Hereafter. 

The future is here. Get on board… or get out of the way.

Trace Marteau would tell you he's the hero of this story. That his alliance with the power-mad Strum and the fanatical Nicastro is one of necessity only, all part of his double-secret plan to give humanity everything it never knew it desperately needed. 

It all started in the 1920s, when Marteau Industries' research and development wing stumbled upon another dimension—a realm of the afterlife they dubbed the Lacuna. 

The company quickly realized that by creating portals in and out of the Lacuna, they can move people and supplies across the globe in a matter of seconds. But the technology leaves cracks in the fabric of reality… allowing ghostly Shades to cross back over to the land of the living. 

Marteau's Crossroads technology damages the veil between this world and the next… allowing Shades of the dead to slip through the cracks. 

Trace Marteau doesn't see a problem, though. He sees an opportunity. He'll crack open the barrier between this world and the next, fill the Lacuna's infinite wastes with factories, and secure himself a workforce to operate his assembly lines for life… and for the hereafter.

An endless assembly line of the damned.

So if Trace Marteau and his two fellow Scions have already found the Tower, what's stopping them from making their dreams our reality? Well, it's one thing to stand at the top of the Tower and feel the energies of raw creation raging around you. It's quite another to actually control that energy. 

That's why each of the 3 Scions are erecting conduits, hidden all around the world, that will help them channel the Bright Storm into their desired outcome. For Marteau it's Dimension Drills. With the full force of the Bright Storm powering their turbines, these massive machines will pulverize the barrier between life and death. No one will live, no one will die. Everyone will work for Marteau Industries. 

Dimension Drills breaking the barrier to the Lacuna.

So while Locke and the Agents prepare to enter the Tower themselves and stop the Court once and for all, they'll need to sabotage the Court's plans, destroy their conduits, steal their supplies, and disrupt their lines of transit.

Will the Doomsday Clocks reach midnight? Will the Banished Court remake the world to their own design? Will Locke's team of scoundrels succeed against impossible odds?

Time Is Running Out

Only you can answer these questions by preordering The Lamplighters League and the Tower at the End of the World or adding it to your Wishlist on Steam, Epic, or Xbox Game Pass.

Want to keep the conversation going? People in our alternate take on the 1930s communicated via letters, telegrams and psychic visions, but most of you only have access to two out of the three, so you can drop by the Forum or the Discord to talk to Harebrained Schemes developers and other fans about The Lamplighters League. The bravest among you may even venture to follow us on Twitter.