Appendix l: The Root — Membership & Motivations

The Hidden Leadership of the Briar

Though the Briar is a decentralised movement with no formal hierarchy, a secret inner circle exists at its heart — a group known only to a handful of Knots, and believed by most Briars to be a myth or exaggeration. This group calls itself the Root, a symbolic name suggesting both origin and hidden strength. In truth, the Root is less a council and more a travelling cluster of individuals bound together by circumstance, ideology, or necessity.

What follows are the compiled accounts, rumours, and reconstructed profiles of its known members.

Kial Mayers — The Founder of the Briar

Born in the mining settlement of Hollowbarrow, Kial lived a life shaped by labour and hardship. His world changed the day a Mana-Forge drilling rig malfunctioned and collapsed a shaft, killing comrades and shattering his right arm. The Consortia refused compensation — an injustice that broke something deep within him.

During his recovery, a strange visitor appeared: Xix. Whether demon, spirit, or Forgeborn aberration, the being whispered to Kial of destiny, vengeance, and the possibility of rising against the forces that had abandoned him. From these whispers, the Briar was seeded.

Now Kial travels west, gathering followers as he goes, believing wholeheartedly that the Briar is an army waiting for his call.

He is charismatic, strikingly handsome, and frighteningly certain of his purpose. His right arm is bound in a latticework bracer — a volatile Aether-Matrix prosthetic designed by Jareth Calwen — granting him limited mana channelling ability.

To most Briars, he is a story more than a man.
To the Root, he is a leader fraying at the edges.
To Xix, he is a vessel.

Sahira Quen’Tal — The Witch of Tzintava

Sahira hails from the deep-jungle nation of Tzintava, a land stripped of resources by generations of Cezorian exploitation. A witch of formidable talent, she witnessed firsthand the casual brutality of imperial extraction.

Her journey to Cezorus was one of quiet fury. Joining the Briar offered her a chance at leverage — a way to force Cezorus to confront what it has taken from her homeland. She does not share Kial’s illusion of destiny, nor does she believe in attacking Leolin Bay. Her aims are narrower, sharper, and utterly personal.

Her presence within the Root gives it an air of mystique. Her red dreadlocks, carved talismans, and jungle ritualism make her an object of quiet awe among Briar Knots.

She tolerates the Briar.
She respects little within it.
She fears Xix in ways she cannot articulate.

Rex and Tann Rookfell — The Mercenary Sisters

Rex: A mercenary by trade, Rex sells her loyalty to the highest bidder. She and her twin sister operate as a single unit — deadly, efficient, confidently amoral. Rex dyes her hair black, dresses in fitted black leathers, and fights with brutal grace using spiked gauntlets.

She cares nothing for the Briar’s ideology.
She cares for payment, reputation, and her sister.

Of the Root, she is the most openly sceptical of Kial’s vision. But she plays the role he expects of her, because it is profitable — and because the Briar, for now, is safer than the alternative.

Tann: Tann dyes her hair black and dresses in red leathers, a fierce reflection of her sister. Where Rex is poised and calculating, Tann is impulsive, volatile, quick to anger and quicker to strike. Together, they are the Briar’s fists — and often its shield.

Tann enjoys the work more openly than Rex. Her ferocity speaks louder than her words. Her loyalty is to her sister alone.

If the Briar collapses, the sisters will leave without hesitation.
But if it rises?
They will profit handsomely.

Lilah Meristre — The Captive Alchemist

Born with a natural gift for alchemy, Lilah spent her childhood mixing concoctions in a small workshop outside a provincial town. She was kidnapped by a Knot during a botched raid and later seized by Kial, who recognised her value.

Lilah is not part of the Briar by choice.
She labours for the Root because she must.

Her alchemical creations arm the Briar’s saboteurs, though she takes no pride in their use. Only the Rookfell sisters offer her protection, forming a strange bond of care between predator and captive.

She is 18.
She is terrified.
She is more important to the Briar than she realises.

Jareth Calwen — The Renegade Mana-Scientist

Jareth is a man of brilliance warped by entitlement and mania. A self-proclaimed visionary of Mana-Tech, he scavenges components obsessively and experiments with reckless joy. His successes are impressive. His failures are catastrophic.

He created Kial’s Aether-Matrix bracer — a device whose elegance belies its danger.

Jareth sees the Briar not as a rebellion but a playground of opportunity. The chaos they create grants him access to forbidden scraps of technology, abandoned labs, and illicit components.

He knows nothing of Xix.
He suspects everything about everyone else.

Xix — The Demon in the Shape of a Shadow

The only member of the Root not human—though only Kial knows this.

In its veiled form, Xix presents as an androgynous Umbral-Touched traveller. Quiet, observant, unsettling. A shadow with eyes.

In its true form, Xix is a biomechanical demon of silver organic metal, its digitigrade limbs and barbed tail designed for movement through both physical and Astral planes.

Xix manipulates the Briar from within, not for political gain, but for spiritual harvest. The movement’s anger and bloodshed feed the appetites of its unseen master.

Among the Root, Xix is both counsellor and threat.