The name had never been official.
Hearthcore.
It started as a placeholder—a name Cael used in the system logs to separate his project from abandoned shelters. A reference to the literal heart of a geothermal vein. A technical label.
Now, it was burned into the walls.
Chanted by children.
Etched onto tool handles.
Carved into stone.
"It's stuck," Arna said as they stood near the new Stone Archive Column. "But it's not settled."
Cael frowned. "What do you mean?"
She gestured toward the base of the column. Someone had added a small inscription beneath the latest layer of spiral glyphs:
We are more than warmth and walls.
Later, Nell approached him with an interface prompt:
[SETTLEMENT NAMING PROTOCOL ACTIVE]Current Name: Hearthcore (Informal)System Prompt: Public Civic Identity has passed linguistic threshold
Options:– Confirm current name as official– Open public naming petition– Submit alternate designation
Warning: Official name becomes legacy-bound. Future systems will reference this identity across expansions and Corelink threads.
Cael stared at the prompt.
He hadn't meant for this place to be remembered by name. Just by what it did.
"Names are just functions," he muttered.
"Functions can become faith," Nell replied.
That evening, the city gathered at the listening shell.
Not because of a vote.
Because of a question.
Cael stood at the center.
"You all know what I called it," he began. "But this place doesn't belong to a label in a blueprint. It belongs to us. To what we're making."
He paused, letting the silence breathe.
"So if anyone has a better name, speak it now."
One man raised his hand.
"Stonewake."
A murmur passed through the crowd.
A woman followed.
"Thiravern." A word from the old Dust Dialect. Meant "last warmth."
A child shouted: "Glowhome!"
Laughter.
But also tension.
Because now the question was real.
The system pinged:
[NOMINATIONS: 12]Dominant Candidates:– Hearthcore– Stonewake– Thiravern
Cultural Threads Mapping…
Cael stepped back.
He didn't want to choose.
He wanted to build.
The vote lasted one Spiral.
When the system displayed the result, no one cheered.
Because the choice wasn't victory.
It was weight.
OFFICIAL SETTLEMENT NAME CONFIRMED:Hearthcore
Cultural Binding: LockedCross-Core Identity Activated
Legacy Threads Established:– Foundational Memory (75%)– Communal Heat Philosophy (52%)– Structural Harmony (41%)
That night, Cael stood alone on the scaffold above the north vent.
The name hovered in soft golden light over the settlement map.
He expected to feel pride.
Instead, he felt responsibility.
Because now Hearthcore wasn't just an idea.
It was a promise.
And promises carried echoes that even the Deep would hear.