☀️ West Rose
West Rose
A coastal city for creatives and dreamers — where people go looking for inspiration, and sometimes for transformation.
Mediterranean
artistry
West Rose balances city life against the water. You're never far from either.
- Beaches & parks — sun-soaked coastline and green space, a serene escape from the city
- Outdoors — surfing, hiking, and cycling in every direction
The city's rhythm is set by its music and its art. Underground venues to grand festivals, all of it running at once.
- Music — genres bleeding together across nightclubs, concert halls, and street corners
- Art & fashion — galleries and fashion districts trading in whatever's next
A wellness center built around water therapies and holistic healing. People arrive here to put themselves back together.
A premier modeling agency, and in this world a symbol of strength and transformation as much as a business.
The Koham Estates
East Koham Estates
A man-made archipelago off the coast, built so that nothing that happens on it has to answer to the mainland.
Island Chain
City
The East Koham Estates are an audacious project realized by the East Side Elite — a crime syndicate with dominion over East Steadfast. Built with the syndicate's wealth and positioned deliberately offshore, the archipelago exists to give the ESE what the mainland won't: freedom, and secrecy.
It became a refuge for the affluent and the influential. High-stakes gambling parlors, death fight clubs, escort services — everything outlawed or too closely watched on shore operates here in the open. Societal norms hold little sway. One rule prevails.
For the privileged few with the resources and clout to get in, the Estates are a paradise of hedonism and decadence. For anyone caught up in what the ESE actually does there, it's a living hell.
Every attempt to dismantle the Estates has met stiff resistance. The syndicate's resources seem limitless and it stays a step ahead of whoever comes for it, so the islands go on operating — a glittering edifice of vice standing over the grim reality of its own business.
The casino. The published run of Relapse opens inside it, and everything that follows — the water, the torch, the rescue, the long way to Porto Tranquilo — starts the night Drew is put out of its doors.
A pocket-sized artifact from the night Drew made the deal. Two transparent blue acrylic dice, twelve logo chips, ambient fragrance tags, and a logo dust bag.
Every physical artifact currently in the catalog, in one box. The Buh Bye and Torch 7″ vinyl, the Vault III cassette in brilliant blue, plus the full Heaven’s Gate Kit. A $150+ value, and the only way to own the whole thing at once.
🌇 Steadfast City
The city runs on a clock. Four districts at the quarter hours, their landmarks in the hours between.
City
🌎 Welcome to the World of “Relapse”
Welcome to Relapse: The Ghosts We Can't Leave Behind
A semi-autobiographical graphic novel tracing Drew's rise as an aspiring musician and the cost of chasing it.
Told through friendship, ambition, and the slow work of growing up, Relapse is about finding your voice while dealing with the realities of the music industry. It started with the album covers. The Vault records were building a world before there was a story attached to one, and somewhere around the fourth volume it became clear the covers were pages.
Art by Bryson Boutte.
How it works
Every chapter has music scored to it, and every place in the world has a record. That isn't a marketing line — the albums are embedded in the locations themselves. Read Steadfast City and you're hearing what plays there.
The story runs in order. Volumes I through III cover the years before the casino and live in the music rather than in panels. The published run picks up inside Heaven's Gate and has reached Porto Tranquilo.
Where to start
New chapters land on Substack first. The full reading order is on the Chapters page. If you'd rather wander than read straight through, the Almanac is the way in — places, guardians, and relics, each with its own soundtrack..
See also: Steadfast City · West Rose · Chapters · Genesis