Bracken

Bracken is a tabletop fantasy setting which takes place in a once-proud region known as the Shores Betwixt. Our story follows a group of resolute individuals who aim to bring an end to the dark age that has gripped the Shores ever since the Befoulment a thousand years ago.

## Premise

One thousand years ago, the Shores Betwixt and her inhabitants were befouled by war. The heir apparent of Queen Meredith, the Most Beloved Hildegard, was brutally slain in cowardice by her siblings who quarreled over who should rightfully control the river Wyrd, the sacred waters from whence all life came and to whom all life must one day return. Forming alliances with powerful beings and summoning the strength of their city-states to fight for them the demigod offspring waged a conflict that lasted decades, drenching the Shores in blood, sweat, and tears. The Holy Grail was shattered, a fragment greedily claimed by each sibling in an attempt to prove themselves worthy of succession. Amidst the ashes of confrontation, Mother Wyrd wept. Her hallowed waters had been polluted by bloodshed, forced to sustain those who would turn blades against their own for the petty squabbling of children. No longer would the great river nourish those who supped from it as a fungal disease, the Salt Rot, had tainted the pure and pristine waters. As the people lost faith in the Wyrd after the Befoulment, so too did they lose faith in Meredith. With no one to perform the Eucharist in her name the Queen of the Source began to lose her strength and retreated entirely from the public in the great capital city of Headwater. The Shores Betwixt were in disarray, quickly were the city-states accelerating into independence and it seemed as though a dark age was looming on the horizon with all that is sacred turning its back on the people. It was then that Hålen, the First of the Bracken, awoke. How curious it is that all diseases seem to have a select few that are naturally immune to them. A child born immune to the Salt Rot was for a time considered a blessing as there was one less person relying on water from outside the Wyrd. However when those whom the Salt Rot cannot touch are to die, they wake up a short while later unable to return to their final resting place amongst the brine. It came to be said over the years that the Bracken, those "immortal" few, were being kept on the Shores Betwixt for a greater purpose. To restore the Holy Grail, purify the river Wyrd, and dispel the dark age to usher in a new and divine era over the Shores and the rest of the world! **So arise! Ye Bracken! Ye dead, who yet live!** **The pleas of the Wyrd beckon us all!** **Heiligleich, Sage of the Shekhinah! The ever-faithful Hundkopf! Modron, the Mistress of Marionettes! The loathsome Dung Eater! And Sir Simon of Farhold, the Frostbitten Vanguard! And the others... whom the river would soon bless. Some Bracken of no renown. Awaken as soon as you can. To reunite the Shores Betwixt.**

## Locations

* River Wyrd
* The Cyrene Mountains
* The Brineweald
* Asale Iyo, the Great Salt Desert
* The Saline Sea
* Mount Vurkiln
* Eisensteinnbeorg
* Headwater
* Bloedkastel
* Vorosviz
* Thule
* Farhold
* Urdmouth
* Ye Ruyne
* Deora-na-Gréine
* Boggle Hole

## Important Characters

### Deities

* The Saltfather
* The Wyrdmother
* Queen Meredith of the Source
* King Aethelwulf the Lawbringer, second husband of Meredith
* Lady Eadwyn of the Stars, first daughter of Aethelwulf
* Lord Evald the Betrayer, first son of Aethelwulf
* Lady Esthemet the Womb of Despair, wife of Evald
* Hildegard the Most Beloved, third child of Aethelwulf
* Old Leofric the Anguished Warrior, first husband of Meredith
* Lord Waldemar of the Bloedkastel, twin son of Leofric
* Lady Beryan the Barren, wife of Lord Waldemar
* Lord Vladislav of Farhold, twin son of Leofric
* Lady Guinevere the Fair, wife of Lord Vladislav
* Sen Endelyn the Witch, daughter of Lord Waldemar and Lady Beryan
* Sunniva the Radiant, daughter of Lady Eadwyn
* Oran the Wanderer, son of Lady Eadwyn
* Naberius the Vile, son of Lord Evald and Lady Esthemet

### Bracken of Renown

* Heiligleich
* Hundkopf
* Modron
* Dung Eater
* Simon of Farhold