The Brightwald

[Bonito 2264]

The Brightwald

 

 

In these chilled woods, terrible things watch your every move. A testament to evil has marked this place.

 

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Muckwood

 

When Aevos was young and the Bohra ruled land and sky, some truths survived the centuries. Among them is the danger that dark magicks entailed. During the height of their civilization, a coven of scholars led by Tashra-Nuil, a prophet-sorcerer who warned of their collapse when most would call him a fool, sought a means to triumph their eventual death. His methods, however, were frowned upon by the same beings who had endowed the Bohra with the very knowledge that empowered their people. This did not stop his delving into forbidden matters of the flesh, and he was ultimately exiled. He settled in what was known as Muckwood at the time, an unsavory forest where little grew and many perished. His loyal students followed him into this dark place and they continued their studies. 

 

What Tashra-Nuil and his disciples learned was the mastery of weaving life, mending the tarnished flesh and animating what nature had abandoned. This craft was highly coveted, and for the slights their own people had laid against them, they would not share it so lightly. Through plaguecraft and pale armies that seemed to emerge from the dirt, they repelled any who would dare enter their home. It was known these woods were to be avoided, and the only records of Tashra-Nuil and his coven’s work that were not burned remain buried in the Muckwood. When the Bohra people vanished from Aevos, it is uncertain what became of these wicked wisemen. Many scholars and warriors have sought out his order through the centuries, led by tales in search of powerful relics and tomes for themselves, a desire to quell the darkness of the woods for good, or simply just for the quiet company of the dead. Few have succeeded. Fewer still would speak of it.

 

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Amidst Ash

 

 

Mori’Quessir society is commonly brutal and rife with oppression. Slaves, spiders, and secrets. It was these conditions that brought on an uprising that began in Myazrill among males. Due to an unknown coven of witches bleeding into city leadership, the subjugation and abuse of males increased and under the heel of this matriarchy was there both a spark and a fire. Foremost Mori’Quessir men but additionally some of their Kharajyr slaves became roused into rebellion when a new smoky voice answered their pleas. By pacting with devils, men became warlocks and wielded dark arms and cursed flame to rise up and throw off the yoke of their mothers and masters. To the fatal flaw of such evils  - infighting - this hellfire uprising was successfully ejected and what men and demons who could not be killed were cast away and exiled.

 

This band of devil-dealers rallied under a new banner, House Chaicath, and together escaped the deep tunnels of their kin and settled in a sprawling forest where they raised demons and belched hellfire. There they erected a grim hold, their tomb-hall of Jixharr. On a date burned in history - literally and metaphorically - the Chaicath assembled to pull the Hells to them in a grand ritual in the woods with an incestuous union of dark arts. Fitting for the unstable chaos of inferi, the ritual was a success with disastrous consequences; the fortress erupted in flame and scorched it black while an inferno shot across the forest where a volcanic storm rose into the sky and raged for days. Frightened eyes from all across the continent saw this infernal light, and thus the woods became known as the Brightwald. Once the inferno faded its curse became apparent; the forest was blasted into a scorched waste. A sizeable amount of warlocks not sacrificed to the ritual were incinerated themselves but unfortunate others endured the blaze who instead were subject to the damnation of the profane ritual, each converted heart and soul into inferi. It is not known what became of House Chaicath or their tomb-hall, but across Aevos are records of monstrosities that raided and pillaged for treasures and meats before disappearing into shadow.

 

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OOC Information

 

The Brightwald is a location set as the groundwork for future eventlines further down the map as well as an ambient backdrop to fulfill the niche of creepy forest. Players can host DIY events here and utilize the stranger monsters in the expanded bestiary, and ET are able to run events tied into the aesthetic and themes of death and dark magic.