The Bleakthorn Wilds

West of the Greyspires and north of Greenheath lie the Bleakthorn Wilds. Wooded hills cover much of the interior, with farmland surviving through the southern valleys and along the mountain foothills. The Wailing Morass occupies the lower western basin, while the land rises northward through the Old Barrows and the Vale of Forgotten Voices toward the Northern Highlands.

Before the Upheaval, this part of Vel'Nathar was known as the Thalorin Expanse. The region was more extensively settled than it is today. Roads crossed country now covered by forest or wetland, farms reached farther into the interior, and communities occupied stretches of the western coast that have since been lost.

The Upheaval changed the Expanse unevenly. Ley disturbances damaged roads and settlements, while fractures altered the flow of rivers and groundwater across the western basin. Lake Elarin partially drained, lower ground flooded, and parts of the coast collapsed.

The landscape continued changing for years afterward. Woodland spread across abandoned farms, old boundary hedges grew into dense thorn, and roads disappeared when the communities responsible for maintaining them moved elsewhere.

This period became known as the Bleakthorn Shrouding.

Some settlements survived where they stood. Others were rebuilt on higher or more dependable ground. Over time, the old name Thalorin Expanse gave way to Bleakthorn Wilds.

Seven centuries later, Bleakthorn remains inhabited throughout much of its territory. Roads are cleared after winter, drainage channels are maintained, and wetland crossings are repaired when flooding damages them. The Shrouding still shapes the landscape, particularly where old magical disturbances became part of the local ecology or where settlements never returned.

The Southern Wilds

The southern valleys contain much of Bleakthorn's surviving farmland.

Pasture covers the gentler hills, while cultivated ground follows the more sheltered valleys and lower Greyspire slopes. Orchards are common around older settlements, and some still preserve varieties grown before the Upheaval.

The Thalorin Russet is one such survivor. Old trees remain in tended orchards, while feral descendants can occasionally be found where former farms have returned to woodland.

Frequent rain makes drainage an ordinary part of life. Shallow channels run beside roads and fields, and neglected ground can become waterlogged quickly during prolonged wet weather.

Local stone is common in farmhouses and village buildings, with timber used heavily where nearby woodland provides an easier source of material.

Protective customs are also widespread. Iron may be fixed over a stable door or a mark cut into a gatepost before winter. Some practices still have a measurable magical effect. Others survive because families have repeated them for generations.

Ashbrook is one of several settlements scattered through the southern valleys. The surrounding country is known for herbal gathering, particularly where old Shrouding conditions produced species that have since become stable parts of the local environment.

Tremblewort is one of the better-known examples and is treated locally as part of the modern landscape rather than as evidence of an immediate magical threat.

The Bramblewood

The Bramblewood is the largest continuous forest in Bleakthorn.

Its southern reaches remain closely connected to nearby farms and settlements. Foresters manage sections of woodland, hunters maintain familiar trails, and clearings are still used for grazing or cultivation.

Deeper into the forest, travel becomes slower. Old paving has been broken by roots, unused tracks disappear beneath new growth, and fallen timber can force travelers away from routes that once carried carts.

Much of the thorn that gives the forest its modern character descends from plants that once bordered fields and roads. Hawthorn, blackthorn, and bramble spread rapidly after regular clearing ended, eventually covering abandoned pasture and enclosing stretches of older settlement.

Traces of that earlier landscape remain throughout the forest. A wall may continue beneath trees long after the fields around it have vanished, while isolated orchard trees sometimes survive beside the foundations of farmhouses that disappeared during the Shrouding.

Wildlife remains abundant across much of the Bramblewood. Some areas also support plants and animals that changed during the centuries after the Upheaval. Foresters and druids distinguish between long-established adaptations and disturbances that are still actively changing.

The Wraithroot Circle maintains camps throughout the forest. Its druids study the altered ecology of Bleakthorn and monitor places where the damaged ley network continues to affect living systems.

Their work sometimes brings them into dispute with landowners or Veilbound investigators. Wraithroot druids are often reluctant to clear altered woodland simply because it appears unusual, particularly when the surrounding ecosystem has remained stable for generations.

Toward the northwest, the forest grows wetter. Dry woodland gradually gives way to alder and willow, while raised tracks replace ordinary roads where the ground can no longer support regular traffic.

Beyond these wetter woods, the Bramblewood merges into the Wailing Morass.

Mistwatch

Mistwatch stands along one of the main roads descending from the Greyspires into the Bramblewood.

A stone lookout occupied the site before the Upheaval, and part of the old structure still rises above the settlement. Its upper platform remains in use and provides a clear view across the forest edge and the mountain approaches.

The town grew around passing traffic and the timber trade. Travelers heading deeper into Bleakthorn often stop here for local information or to hire guides.

Notices near the main road record damaged bridges, closed tracks, and other conditions likely to affect travel through the forest.

Each year, Mistwatch holds the Festival of the Lost, a remembrance of those who disappeared during the Shrouding and of later residents lost in the deeper forest. At sunset, lanterns are carried beyond the final houses and left along the northern road.

Tindleburrow

East of Mistwatch, near the western Greyspire foothills, lies the Giznat village of Tindleburrow.

The community developed from scattered holdings occupied by families working the surrounding hills. Violence against local Giznat eventually encouraged those households to settle closer together and organize a common defense.

Around four hundred people now live within Tindleburrow and the surrounding ranches.

Craft and trade with the Greyspires support much of the settlement, alongside livestock and the Tindleburrow Alchemists' Guild.

The Guild is known for practical alchemical work and has considerable experience handling mineral samples from the nearby mountains. Its members also work with Galarium residue and materials damaged during extraction or transport.

A chapel dedicated to Io stands near the village square. Its clockwork tower chimes shortly before dawn and sunset, marking the daily rhythm of the settlement.

Deeper in the Bramblewood

Settlements become smaller and farther apart beyond Mistwatch.

Some occupy large clearings such as Verryn's Hollow. Others consist of scattered homes joined by narrow tracks that require regular cutting during the growing season.

Old roads and abandoned farms become increasingly common away from the main routes. Pieces of paving sometimes emerge beneath tree roots, while orchard trees and ruined walls reveal places where the older settled landscape once extended much farther.

The Crooked Bough is most often encountered in these less travelled parts of the forest and in the heavier thorn country farther north.

Its members deliberately alter living creatures and encourage forms of growth rejected by the Wraithroot Circle. Their work has brought them into repeated conflict with druids, nearby settlements, and the Veilbound.

Confirmed Crooked Bough sites are watched closely when their activities approach travelled roads or inhabited land.

Harrow's End

Harrow's End occupies a broad clearing in the deeper Bramblewood.

Homes stand close together around the central lanes, with sturdy fencing protecting gardens and wells from the surrounding woodland. The tracks leading into the settlement require more maintenance than the roads closer to Mistwatch.

Protective marks are common around homes and boundaries, drawing on practices used throughout Bleakthorn.

Harrow's End has long attracted people who prefer the independence of a remote woodland settlement. Hedge mages, herbalists, witches, and other practitioners live alongside families that have worked the surrounding forest for generations.

Stories told elsewhere in Vel'Nathar have given the settlement a darker reputation than daily life usually deserves. Most local magic concerns practical needs such as healing, protection, divination, and craft.

The Wailing Morass

The Wailing Morass fills a broad basin northwest of the Bramblewood.

Wetlands existed here before the Upheaval, but they occupied far less ground. The partial draining of Lake Elarin and the disruption of surrounding waterways changed the basin permanently, allowing water to spread into former fields and settlements.

The Morass remains cool and wet through most of the year. Wooded patches rise between reed beds and open water, while slow channels wind through peat and flooded ground.

Autumn and winter bring higher water, and shallow pools often freeze along the margins during colder weather. Spring flooding can cover paths that were dependable the previous year.

Travel through the Morass depends heavily on local knowledge. Boats use the broader waterways, while raised paths and timber walkways cross stretches where the ground remains firm enough to support them.

Marker posts identify several dependable routes.

Fog is common across the basin, particularly during cooler weather. Sound carries easily across the open water, making distant boats or voices difficult to place.

The wetlands support fishing, gathering, and a range of local crafts. People living around the basin know which plants can be harvested safely and which channels remain navigable during different seasons.

Wraithroot druids work throughout the Morass, often alongside local fen-walkers whose knowledge comes from years of seasonal travel.

Ruined settlements also remain within the wetlands. Some were abandoned slowly as roads disappeared and farmland became unusable. At Shademoor, walls and roofless buildings still rise above the shallows, while many smaller sites are known primarily to nearby communities.

Mireham

Mireham stands on higher ground near the eastern edge of the Morass.

The village serves people working in the surrounding wetlands, particularly herbalists, hunters, boatmen, and fen-walkers.

It is also a common starting point for Veilbound investigations in the basin. Travelers heading beyond the maintained crossings often hire local guides here before continuing into the deeper Morass.

The Fenwitch

Stories about the Fenwitch have circulated through the Wailing Morass for generations.

She is usually described as a solitary practitioner living somewhere beyond the maintained channels. Accounts separated by decades often describe the same woman, leading some people to believe that she has lived in the wetlands far longer than an ordinary mortal could.

Others argue that several reclusive witches have gradually become one figure in local folklore.

Few people claim to know where she lives. Fen-walkers occasionally speak of a distant hut or fire seen among the reeds where no marked route leads.

Those seeking the Fenwitch are traditionally advised to leave an offering at one of the old crossing stones and wait rather than search for her themselves.

Bread, coins, herbs, and small personal objects still appear at several of these stones.

Whether anyone comes to collect them is rarely witnessed.

Fellbrook and Sallowmere

Fellbrook stands on higher ground along the northeastern side of the Morass.

Several older roads once crossed the lower country beneath the town, but flooding during the Shrouding severed many of them. Later building gradually moved farther uphill.

Stone structures remain along the older streets. A weathered bell tower overlooks the lower district and is rung during heavy fog to give travelers on the waterways a direction to follow.

Elarin Reed still grows in the nearby shallows. The plant was gathered around Lake Elarin before the Upheaval and remains an important local resource centuries after the basin changed.

North of Fellbrook lies Sallowmere, occupying the deepest remaining part of the old lake basin.

Lake Elarin once extended across a much wider area. During the Upheaval, a fracture along the southwestern side of the basin released a large volume of water and permanently changed the surrounding drainage. Sallowmere remained in the deepest portion while the lower country developed into the expanded Wailing Morass.

Water continues to drain from the lake into the wetlands through channels that divide among reeds and flooded woodland.

Sallowmere remains cold for much of the year, and ice forms readily along sheltered shores during winter.

Thalorin records describe unusually strong Feywild influence around Lake Elarin before the Upheaval. Some surviving accounts also refer to agreements with powerful fey figures who took an interest in the lake and the communities around it, though the details preserved in later records are fragmentary.

The Old Barrows

North of the Morass, ancient burial mounds stand across miles of moor and rough pasture.

Some are small grass-covered rises. Others occupy prominent ridges and retain stone entrances or standing stones.

The surrounding country remains inhabited. Farms occupy sheltered ground, sheep graze between the mounds, and roads continue through the burial country toward northern Bleakthorn.

The better-known barrows are recorded and inspected, while those farther onto the moors receive less regular attention. Nearby communities maintain paths through the principal burial grounds and report damage caused by weather or erosion.

Local law protects the tombs. Excavation requires permission, and chambers opened accidentally must be reported before they are entered.

These rules are practical as well as historical. Disturbed tombs have produced curses and restless dead often enough that people take damaged burial sites seriously.

Barrowstead is one of several settlements associated with the care of the surrounding grounds.

The Order of the Broken Thorn patrols the roads through the region. Incidents involving persistent undead or dangerous magical effects are usually referred to the Veilbound.

Dunstead

Dunstead is the principal market town of northern Bleakthorn.

Pasture and smaller farms surround the town, while roads connect it with the Old Barrows, Gallowspire, and the settlements farther north.

The older streets are built largely from local stone and dark timber. Steep roofs and deep gutters reflect the wet climate, while the market draws traffic from much of northern Bleakthorn.

The town serves the surrounding farms and villages and also supplies Gallowspire. Veilbound members passing through are a familiar sight, though their presence occasionally creates tension when an investigation involves local magical practices that residents consider harmless.

Gallowspire

Gallowspire rises from rocky high ground beyond Dunstead.

The fortress predates the Upheaval and once served the Order of the Silver Thorn, whose patrols guarded roads and isolated communities throughout the Thalorin Expanse.

The Silver Thorn suffered heavily during the Shrouding. Some of its surviving martial traditions eventually passed into the Order of the Broken Thorn.

Gallowspire itself survived and was repaired during the Reckoning Years. The developing Veilbound Order later established one of its principal western strongholds there.

The fortress now supports specialists who investigate dangerous magic and supernatural threats across western Vel'Nathar. Their work ranges from curses and hostile spirits to damaged wards and planar disturbances.

Destruction is not always the preferred response. Some threats are contained, watched, or sealed when removing them would create greater danger.

Members of the Gallowspire chapter travel regularly throughout Bleakthorn and often depend on local guides or practitioners when working in unfamiliar country.

The Vale of Forgotten Voices

North of the Old Barrows, a broad upland valley leads toward Calderwick and the Northern Highlands.

Farms and grazing land still occupy much of the southern Vale, where the roads from Dunstead pass through scattered settlements before the countryside becomes less densely inhabited.

The Vale takes its modern name from communities lost during the Shrouding.

Before the Upheaval, farms and orchards covered more of its western slopes. Roads connected smaller settlements whose names now survive mainly in old records, family histories, and the ruins left behind when the land was abandoned.

Thorn becomes increasingly difficult to control toward the west.

Old field boundaries have expanded into dense growth, while abandoned pasture can disappear beneath bramble within a relatively short period when regular clearing stops. Ruined farms and orchard trees remain within this newer woodland.

The northwestern Vale contains the heaviest growth.

Long ridges of thorn cross the slopes and fill gullies where roads once passed. Older briar can form walls several yards thick, with narrow spaces beneath the growth where old boundaries, roots, and ruined structures have left open ground.

Routes through this part of the Vale require constant maintenance. A path left unused through a growing season may be difficult to recognize when travelers return.

The northeastern side of the Vale remains more open. Rough pasture extends across the higher ground, and the main road toward Calderwick is kept clear enough for regular traffic between Bleakthorn and the Northern Highlands.

Settlements near the heavier thorn maintain work crews that cut back roadside growth and reopen lesser tracks after wet seasons.

The Crooked Bough is particularly active in the northwestern country. Broken Thorn patrols watch several approaches where altered growth or other Crooked Bough activity has moved close to farms and travelled routes.

Calderwick

Calderwick stands on high ground at the northern end of the Vale, where routes divide toward the Greyspires and the Northern Highlands.

The town serves as a major crossroads for northern Bleakthorn. Travelers use it before continuing into the mountains or across the western Highland country, and regular trade passes through from both directions.

The Order of the Broken Thorn is based here.

Its patrols range through the Vale, Old Barrows, and northern roads. Their work centers on keeping routes usable and responding when creatures or other hazards threaten settled areas.

Problems involving curses, spirits, or unstable magic usually bring assistance from Gallowspire. The two orders frequently cooperate when an incident requires both local knowledge and specialized magical expertise.

Beyond Calderwick, the main road climbs toward the Highlands. Pasture gradually gives way to rougher ground, while heather becomes increasingly common on the higher slopes.

The Shattered Coast

Bleakthorn reaches the western sea along the Shattered Coast.

The shoreline is broken by cliffs, beaches, tidal ground, and sheltered inlets. Strong winds are common, and reefs make several stretches difficult for ships unfamiliar with the local waters.

The Upheaval altered parts of the coast substantially. Some low ground was lost, while older harbors and roads were damaged as sections of the shoreline collapsed.

Remains from the Thalorin period can still be found along the coast. Old seawalls and foundations survive where the shoreline remained stable, while other structures lie partly submerged offshore.

Fishing communities occupy the safer inlets, and small coastal vessels continue to move goods between them.

Seaview is one of the larger southern harbors and serves both fishing boats and coastal traders.

The Tidemarked make extensive use of smaller coves and landing places along the Shattered Coast. Its smugglers move goods between the coast and inland contacts while avoiding the inspections found at larger ports.

Across the western sea lie the Isles of Alven'Nathiss.

The distance and ordinary sea weather usually keep the islands from view. On exceptionally clear days, the highest land of the archipelago can sometimes be seen from the tallest cliffs.

Driftmoor

Driftmoor occupies a narrow tidal inlet along the Shattered Coast.

The sea has gradually claimed part of the settlement. Houses nearest the shore stand on stone piers or timber pilings, while raised walkways cross ground that floods at high tide.

Several older streets disappear beneath the water twice each day.

Tide marks carved into walls and posts show when particular routes can be crossed safely.

A lighthouse stands at the mouth of the inlet and guides vessels through the surrounding rocks. Its keepers maintain an enchanted beacon and assist ships that run into trouble nearby.

Sailors along the coast also tell stories of the Pale Maiden, a ship occasionally glimpsed offshore during severe storms.

Many identify it with Crown's Grace, the royal flagship lost with King Edric Ashworth only a few years after the Upheaval while sailing for Alven'Nathiss.

Accounts describe a vessel appearing through rain or fog before disappearing again without responding to signals.

No reliable explanation has ever been established.

Tidefall

Tidefall occupies high cliffs farther north.

The town follows terraces cut into the slope, while cranes and winches move cargo between the settlement and the landing places below.

Divers and salvagers work the surrounding water when conditions allow.

The altered coastline has left Thalorin foundations and seawalls among the cliffs and shallows, and salvage continues where those structures can be reached safely.

Weather regularly interrupts work below the cliffs, sometimes leaving the lower landing places unusable for days.

Brinewick

Near the northern end of the Shattered Coast, the shoreline breaks into saltmarsh and winding tidal channels connected with the western Wailing Morass.

Brinewick occupies an estuary used by fishing boats and shallow-draft vessels travelling between the coast and the inland waterways.

Fishing and salt production support much of the town, along with trade in goods gathered from the surrounding marshes.

Several families maintain magical traditions concerned with the hazards of coastal life. They are commonly known as the Sea Witches, a name used openly within Brinewick.

Their practices vary between households, but many concern navigation, weather, healing, and protection at sea. Signs of these traditions can be seen around the harbor and aboard local boats.

The Sea Witches are accepted as part of the community.

Veilbound investigators become involved when a particular practice causes harm or involves something genuinely dangerous, rather than treating the traditions themselves as a crime.

Offshore lie the submerged remains of a Thalorin coastal settlement.

Parts of its walls and paved surfaces become visible during exceptionally low tides, while other structures continue into deeper water. Divers from Brinewick and Tidefall have mapped some of the accessible ruins, but currents and unstable masonry limit exploration farther offshore.

North of Brinewick, the wetlands gradually narrow as the land rises toward the western Highlands.