Wordbound Games
Aren, his godmother Maeve, the paper sprite Nima and Quill the brass raven on Lantern Avenue in Lumenfall, under festival lanterns at night.

Book One · The Unwritten Heir

The Last Lexicon

Spell a word. Its meaning becomes magic.

A fully voiced word-spell adventure across ten realms. Free to start, no ads, and it plays offline.

Coming soon to theApp Store Coming soon toGoogle Play
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Story trailer

The tenth lamp has turned black

Every voice in the trailer is from the game. Prefer it upright? Watch the vertical teaser.

The story

Someone is erasing the world's words

Words are alive. A road that leads home, a name that belongs to someone, a question a student is allowed to ask: each holds together because of the words that connect it. Erase the word, and the thing slowly stops working.

At Lumenfall's Festival of First Light, the tenth lamp turned black and black snow began to fall. By morning the Black Index had come to the city. Street signs are losing their letters, so families can't find their way home. Lectures forbid questions. The Index calls it keeping.

Aren is a young scholar from Lumenfall, curious, kind and a little too sure he can fix things by knowing more. His godmother Maeve hands him the Book of Ten Lamps: a blank book that writes a new chapter only when a realm freely agrees to share what it knows. Ten realms have gone dark. Ten lamps wait to be lit.

And somewhere in the Black Index, a quiet, patient man has spent twenty-four years looking for a name he cannot find.

“Last night, at the Festival of First Light, the tenth lamp turned black.”

Maeve Bellweather
Festival Gate in Lumenfall: a carved stone gate hung with lanterns and bunting between tall, steep-roofed houses.

How it plays

Spell a word. Its meaning becomes magic.

Every duel is a conversation in letters. What your word means decides the spell, and how long it is decides how hard it lands.

  1. A duel in Brasshaven: Aren spells AEGIS on the letter board and casts Shield Wall against Captain Caliper.

    Spell

    Build any word from the letter board and cast it. Every real word does something, so nothing you spell is wasted.

  2. Aren's Book, Spells tab: Flame for fire and heat words, Ward for wall and shield words, and Ink for any other word.

    Mean it

    Fire words burn. Wall words shield. Healing words mend. The meaning of your word picks one of ten schools of magic, and longer words hit harder.

  3. A voiced story scene on the Lumenfall beacon terrace: Maeve and Aren face Dean Otho Hush.

    Live the story

    Between duels the story plays out in fully voiced scenes. Make choices at camp, win charms from realm rulers and rank up the spells you use most.

Ten schools of magic, plus Ink

  • FlameFIRE, EMBER, BLAZE: hits, then burns
  • FrostICE, SNOW, GLACIER: the foe hits softer
  • StormGALE, RAIN, THUNDER: hits through shields
  • LightLAMP, DAWN, CANDLE: cleans a blotted tile
  • WardWALL, SHIELD, VEIL: blocks damage
  • MendHEAL, REST, KIND: restores health
  • EchoSONG, VOICE, CHIME: throws damage back
  • WildROOT, VINE, WOLF: tangles the foe
  • MindIDEA, DREAM, WISDOM: shows the next move
  • WingFLY, FEATHER, SOAR: dodges the next blow
  • InkAny other word: a plain ink hit

Ten realms, one book

Light the ten lamps

Each realm has lost something to the Black Index, and each is ruled by someone who let it happen. Twenty painted stages per realm, every one with its own place, villain and voices.

  • Free Lumenfall: a cliffside terrace and bell tower above a city spread to the hills at dusk.
    Realm I

    Lumenfall

    The City of a Thousand Lamps

    Aren's home: a cliffside university city of bridges, markets and lantern-lit avenues, now under a black snow that strips the letters off its signs.

  • Free The Verdant Codex: a glasshouse reading room in the heart of a jungle, tables lined with plants.
    Realm II

    The Verdant Codex

    The Library That Grows

    A jungle that is also a library, where trees grow small green books and paper moths carry notes from flower to flower.

  • Brasshaven Collegium: a towering wall of brass gears and clock faces around a curved plaza.
    Realm III

    Brasshaven Collegium

    The City of Perfect Machines

    A clockwork city where the machines decide every job, meal and friendship, and nobody is allowed to say stop.

  • The Celestial Archipelago: floating islands with observatories, linked by bridges under the aurora and a full moon.
    Realm IV

    Celestial Archipelago

    Islands Above the Stars

    Floating islands joined by aurora bridges, where every forecast is treated as a verdict and the ships sit chained in harbour.

  • Nacreum: a sunken palace grown over with coral, dolphins and fish swimming past.
    Realm V

    Nacreum

    The Drowned Archive

    A city under the sea, where memories swim like glowing fish and are kept in pearls, whether their owners agree or not.

  • The Carnival of Living Ink: a canal-side street of cafes and painted banners, fireworks in the sky.
    Realm VI

    The Carnival of Living Ink

    The City of Beautiful Lies

    A festival that never ends: painted canals, murals that leap off the walls, and fireworks that rewrite what the crowd just saw.

  • The Ivory Labyrinth: a white spired academy among snowy mountains and pines.
    Realm VII

    The Ivory Labyrinth

    The Academy of One Answer

    A mountain academy of crystal classrooms and impossible staircases, where a single exam decides a whole life.

  • The Atlas Wastes: a winding sand road between mesas and tiled desert towns.
    Realm VIII

    The Atlas Wastes

    The Desert of Moving Roads

    A desert where roads move when they're spoken and whole cities vanish when they're renamed.

  • The Scarlet Meridian: a research city of red glass towers, arcades and overhead rails.
    Realm IX

    The Scarlet Meridian

    Laboratory at the Edge of Creation

    A city of red glass and healing wards, where the cures really work, and nobody is allowed to refuse them.

  • The Black Index: a dark, vine-hung hall of black and gold opening onto a distant pale tower.
    Realm X

    The Black Index

    The Library at the End of the World

    An impossible archive of everything that was taken, kept in sealed rooms in a black-and-gold void.

Realms I and II, the first 40 stages, are free. The Full Book opens the rest, the Epilogue and the Arena.

Friends on the road

You won't read alone

Lose a duel and a friend steps in with a tip. Win, and hear what the villain really wanted.

  • Aren, a young scholar in a long blue coat with brass buttons, goggles pushed up into his dark hair.

    Aren

    The young scholar

    Curious, kind, and a little too sure he can fix things by knowing more. He gets braver, and plainer, as he goes.

  • Maeve Bellweather, a silver-haired woman in a teal travelling coat, leaning on a tall staff.

    Maeve Bellweather

    Aren's godmother

    Warm, dry and very fond of her tea. She sends Aren on his way with the Book of Ten Lamps, and she keeps a few old secrets of her own.

  • Quill, a raven made of dark brass plates, wings spread, one bright blue eye.

    Quill

    The brass raven

    Narrator, notebook-keeper and giver of hints, always on the wing. Clipped, pedantic, and fonder of Aren than he lets on.

  • Nima, a small sprite folded from white paper, with big blue eyes.

    Nima

    The margin sprite

    Born in the margins of Aren's book. Playful and cheeky, she can't leave a sign unedited, and she brews a draught at every camp.

And in every realm, someone worth meeting: a blunt plant scientist, a sixteen-year-old inventor, a navigator who reads the stars as guesses, and more.

The Black Index

They call it keeping

Alaric Voss, an old man with a long white beard and a gold crown, in black and gold robes with a staff.

Alaric Voss

The Black Curator

Quiet, courteous, never in a hurry. He says the world's books are not being destroyed, only kept where no careless hand can misuse them.

Ashwing Varo, a tall figure in a black-feathered coat and beaked crow mask.

Ashwing Varo

The Paper-Crow Marshal

He holds Festival Gate for the Index. Black snow and paper crows follow him everywhere.

  • Dean Otho HushThe Quiet Rector
  • Dr. Virelia ThornThe Green Redactor
  • Rector Orell BrassThe Clockwork Savant
  • Astromancer Noct VarinThe Last Oracle
  • Lady Meris NacreThe Keeper of Yesterday
  • Maestro CaligoThe Painted Voice
  • Provost Ilyon GrayThe Perfect Examiner
  • General Kael RookThe Iron Grammarian
  • Dr. Nyra SableThe Perfect Physician
  • Alaric VossThe Black Curator

Every villain was someone else first. Beat them, and they're handed back to their town to help mend what they broke.

What's in the book

A whole story, in your pocket

  • Every line voiced

    Every character speaks, from the first gate in Lumenfall to the last page of the Epilogue.

  • 200 story stages

    Ten realms of twenty stages each, a full ending in the Epilogue, and the Arena when you want one more duel.

  • Ten schools of magic

    Flame, Frost, Storm, Light, Ward, Mend, Echo, Wild, Mind and Wing, plus Ink for every other word.

  • A book that grows

    Win charms from realm rulers, brew draughts at camp with Nima, and buy spell ranks with Lamp Shards.

  • Plays offline

    No connection needed to play, ever. Your progress is saved on your device.

  • No ads, no tracking

    No ads, no accounts, no data collection, no loot boxes and no subscriptions.

  • Free to start

    Play the first two realms, 40 stages, for free. One purchase, The Full Book, opens everything else.

  • For the whole family

    Rated E10+ (ESRB) and PEGI 7. Mild fantasy spell duels, no blood, no chat, no strangers.

Questions

Frequently asked

Is The Last Lexicon free?

It's free to start. Realms I and II, the first 40 stages, are free to play in full. One in-app purchase, The Full Book (US$4.99 in the United States; local prices are set by Apple and Google), unlocks Realms III to X, the Epilogue and the Arena for good.

That's the only purchase in the game. There are no ads, no subscriptions and no loot boxes, and coins and Lamp Shards are earned by playing.

Do I need an internet connection?

No. The game plays completely offline. You only need a connection to download it, and to buy or restore The Full Book through the App Store or Google Play.

What ages is it for?

The Last Lexicon is rated E10+ by the ESRB and PEGI 7 for mild fantasy violence: spell duels with no blood. It's written in plain language for players about ten and up, and it's a good story to share with a family. There's no chat and no way to contact other players.

Which devices can I play on?

The Last Lexicon is coming to iPhone (App Store) and Android phones (Google Play). It's designed for phones and played in portrait.

I bought The Full Book. How do I restore it?

On a new phone, or after reinstalling, sign in to the store with the same Apple Account or Google account you bought it with, open the game and tap Restore Purchase. The Full Book unlocks again at no charge. Step-by-step help.

Does the game collect my data?

No. There are no analytics, no ads and no accounts. Your progress is saved only on your device. If you buy The Full Book, Apple or Google handles the payment. Read the privacy policy.

When does it launch?

Soon. We'll post the store links here the day it's out. Want a heads-up? Email us and we'll let you know.

Book One · The Unwritten Heir

Coming soon

to the App Store and Google Play

Coming soon to theApp Store Coming soon toGoogle Play

Get notified

Opens your email app. No mailing list, no tracking: we'll write back when it's out.

The studio

Wordbound Games

Wordbound Games makes story games about words: what they mean, who gets to keep them, and what happens when they're shared. The Last Lexicon is our first. We're small and independent, and we'd love to hear from you.

support@wordboundgames.com