Character1
Cultures2
Verge CultureThe hard folk of the borderlands — suspicious of authority, fluent in gesture and secret signs, tied together by shared risk and the knowledge that the forest's next shift might erase you.White-Cloak WizardsThe scholarly order of the Silver Synod — its members wear sun-bleached robes, debate magic over amber tea, and have quietly catalogued more lost spells than the empire has legions.
Currency1
Customs2
The ThornmootOnce each season, the captains of the Thornwood Covenant gather in a hidden hollow to settle disputes, share intelligence, and vote on matters of common survival — the closest the Verge outlaws come to government.The Triune CouncilThree guildmasters who rule the Guild Concord — and despise each other — bound together only by the vast profits of the Heartwood trade and the fear that disunity would let the Aurean Throne seize their power.
Deity1
Factions3
Crown and Concord — the Quiet WarThe Aurean Throne and the Guild Concord are locked in a cold struggle — the crown needs guild wealth to fund its legions, and the guilds need the crown's legal sanction to operate, but both dream of crushing the other.Root and Rootless — Cult and CovenantThe Rootbound and the Thornwood Covenant share an enemy but not a purpose — the cult sees the outlaws as useful shields against imperial attention, while the Covenant views the Rootbound as strange and dangerous allies of convenience.The Verge — Empire and OutlawThe Thornwood Covenant exists because the empire pushed too hard — every Verge outlaw was once an imperial subject, and every legion patrol that vanishes into the Shifting is a reminder that the forest does not recognise Aurean law.
Historical event1
Items2
Heartwood IronwoodIronwood is the Heartwood's second great treasure — a black, near-unbreakable timber that turns axe-blades and holds an edge like forged steel when worked into weapons or armour.The Amber TradeHeartwood amber is the empire's most coveted resource — a golden resin that hardens harder than steel, glows faintly in moonlight, and is said to hold fragments of lost memories trapped within its depths.
Landmarks3
Crown's PointA lone imperial fortress overlooking the Thornwood Verge — the northernmost garrison of the empire, where legions muster and nobles gamble on which logging expeditions will return.Galthra, the Gilt CapitalThe empire's crowning city — a sprawl of white-stone cathedrals, guild warehouses, and the Amber Palace where Empress Sylvara III watches her merchants war over the forest's edge.Sunless HollowA windowless limestone catacomb complex beneath the Gilt Marches where the Bone-Oracles read futures in slaughter — its tunnels honeycomb the bedrock, filled with the whispering bones of beasts and men.
Religions2
Aurean SynodThe empire's state faith — a sun-worship that traces the Aurean dynasty to divine right, its golden icons gazing down from every cathedral and taxhouse in the realm.Verdant PantheonThe Heartwood's old faith — a web of minor spirits who tend the forest's endless cycle of decay and rebirth, their names forgotten everywhere but the oldest druid groves.