Who's Fighting, Who's Surviving, and Why None of Them Are Simply Wrong
This campaign is built around the idea that everyone involved has legitimate grievances. Understanding each faction means understanding the world — and understanding why your choices are hard.
A walled city-state to the west, militaristic by tradition and desperate by circumstance. Ironhold didn't invade Verdanya out of malice — they invaded because their people were dying and they found a cure that grew beyond their borders.
The soldiers in the field are tired, scared, and far from home. Many of them have family dying of Ashlung. They believe — most of them — that what they're doing is necessary. Some are right about that. None of them are the whole story.
Ironhold's leadership knows the occupation is unraveling. The Resistance bleeds them. The Verdant Curse grows. Their Ashlung supply is rationed to soldiers first, civilians second, and the occupied last. Everyone can do that math.
A forest nation that has always been fiercely independent — ancient, wild, and governed by customs older than most cities. Verdanya had its problems before the invasion. It has more now.
The people are fractured. Some collaborate with Ironhold to survive — to protect their families, keep their businesses, stay alive. Some resist in secret, feeding the Resistance information and supplies. Some have retreated so deep into the wilderness that the Verdant Curse is more of a neighbor than a threat.
And some have transformed. The Verdant-Born are Verdanya's people too — or were. The community is divided on what that means.
Guerrilla fighters, saboteurs, and true believers operating throughout occupied Verdanya. They wear thorn-and-rose badges — crimson on black. Their leader is known only as the Thornwraith, and she is planning something significant.
Ironhold calls them terrorists. Verdanya calls them heroes. The occupied villagers call them complicated — the Resistance brings hope and draws reprisals in equal measure.
The Resistance takes the transformed in. The Verdant-Born are welcome here when they are welcome nowhere else. Make of that what you will.
A border village that should have been abandoned months ago. Briarcrest exists in a permanent state of tense negotiation — half occupied by Ironhold's garrison, half still Verdanya in spirit and custom. The two sides coexist because the alternative is worse.
The village is protected by a living thorn wall. It is failing. Everyone in Briarcrest knows this. No one says it out loud. If you're looking for work, information, or trouble, this is where you start.
Verdanya's gods do not live in distant heavens. They live in the streams and the stones and the thorns. They have names, personalities, and very strong opinions about being ignored. They are not all-powerful — but they are real, present, and entirely willing to involve themselves in your problems.
The greatest of them, Sylora, is silent. Something was taken from her. What remains of the other Faint Divinities operates without her guidance, which means they are operating without her restraint.