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This archive is kept and operated by The Gilded Archivist, trading as Gilded Ruin — an independent maker. The multimedia work is produced in partnership with Faefield Productions. Correspondence: thegildedarchivist@proton.me.
By using this site or taking up a relic you accept these terms alongside Privacy, Returns, Payment, and the notice.
I should say this in my own voice, since it is the one place my voice is a liability.
Gilded Ruin is a work of fiction. An interactive gothic story told across a website, audio, images, and objects, wrapped around a real and entirely unmagical clothing and jewellery label. The cathedral, the Choir, the houses, the saints, and the Archivist writing this sentence are invented.
Nothing in it is a real organisation, a real religion, a real authority, or a real claim about any real person, living or dead. Any message you receive in character is part of the story. Nothing here is advice — not medical, legal, financial, psychological, or spiritual. I am a fictional man with a fictional archive. Do not take fictional advice about real arteries.
The fiction has no power over you and asks nothing real of you. No piece sold here is claimed to carry any supernatural, magical, protective, healing, or spiritual property. Relic language is storytelling. An object is cloth, thread, metal, and stone, and it will do exactly as much for your soul as you decide it does.
This world deals in dark material and is intended for adults. If you are under 18 it is not made for you. You must be 18 or older, and able to form a contract, to take up a relic.
Every piece is handmade, one of one, reclaimed. Photographs show the actual object. Screens and light vary. Descriptions are written by hand and in good faith.
These are garments and decorative objects. They are not protective equipment, not made for children, not certified for any activity, and not tested to any safety standard. Wear them with the ordinary sense you would apply to any beautiful, breakable thing.
If you have a known allergy or sensitivity, ask before you take a piece up and you will be told what is in it. That is a conversation, not a disclaimer.
Everything being one of one, a relic may be gone the moment it is taken. A listing is not a guarantee of continued existence. Nothing is restocked, reproduced, or remade. This is the shop's cruellest feature and its entire honesty.
Everything here — the writing, the world, the characters, the music, the artwork, the photography, the designs, the code, and the name Gilded Ruin — belongs to its makers. It may not be copied, reproduced, resold, scraped, used to train machine-learning systems, or used commercially without written permission.
Taking up a relic transfers the object. Not the design, not the name, not the right to reproduce it. Wear it, photograph it, love it, resell that individual object if you must. Do not manufacture copies of it. The Choir remakes what was discarded; it does not counterfeit what was made.
Fan work, reaction videos, streams, playthroughs, and solving the whole thing in public are actively welcome — credited, and not passed off as yours or sold as merchandise. I keep a record so it will be found. You finding it loudly is the entire point.
Do not use this site to harass anyone, break the law, attack or probe it, scrape it, or send anything unlawful, threatening, or hateful. Service may be refused, orders cancelled, and anyone acting in bad faith shown the door.
Anything sent that is not part of the story — abuse, threats, spam — may be kept and reported. That is the one archive I keep gladly.
Playing is voluntary and free. Puzzles, rewards, codes, and in-world replies are entertainment. They are not a product you purchased and not something you are owed. They may change, break, or end without notice. Nothing in the fiction is a promise of anything real. If the world tells you a door will open, the world is speaking figuratively, and possibly lying, which is rather its habit.
This site links to Ko-fi, Stripe, and others. Their terms govern what happens there. I am not responsible for their outages or their decisions.
This is an independent project run by very few hands. The site is provided as is, with no guarantee of uninterrupted availability. It may change, break, or go dark. Content may be edited or removed. The air is not always good.
To the fullest extent the law permits, total liability for any claim about a relic is limited to what you paid for it. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited — including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud — and nothing here strips a statutory right from you. A document that quietly takes your rights is the cathedral's instrument, not mine.
These terms are governed by the laws of the United States, and disputes belong to the courts where this archive is kept. Whatever mandatory consumer protections apply where you stand still apply to you. They do not go away because a document said so, whatever the cathedral has told you.
The date below moves when the words do. Continuing to use the site accepts the current version.
These are the plain terms of an independent maker, written to be read rather than to intimidate. They are not legal advice, and they do not ask you to surrender anything the law gave you. If you reached the end of this page: you read what they wrote. Now you know to ask what they did not write.