Campaign Setting | Fanewick & The Witherwilds
Recent History of Fanewick
Fanewick was once a place of great abundance and peace—dangerous to those unfamiliar with the land, but a cornucopia to those who respected its ways. When Haven invaded the wilds and forced the land into eternal spring, a dangerous bloom known as the Witherwild took hold and now threatens the lives of all who live there. In a Witherwild campaign, you’ll play unlikely heroes from humble beginnings who are reckoning with their newfound duty to save Fanewick’s people from dangerous corruption.
Overview
Fanewick is a wild and untamed land, long avoided by outside forces. The woods are dark and twisting, filled with Faint Divinities who perform small miracles and services for their inhabitants, but are just as likely to lure travellers off narrow paths to their ruin. Seemingly harmless expanses of field hide bogs that engulf entire armies, consuming heavy artillery as quickly as it can cross the border. This wilderness fosters hardy people who are bold enough to raise families where others have not and strictly follow the unique rules that keep them safe. These Wicklings remained insulated from their neighbours’ wars until plague forced the people of Haven to desperate acts.
Haven was once the most powerful force in the region; for centuries, the high stone walls into the capital bore the phrase “The Godless Gate.” While the original meaning has been lost to common knowledge, some dusty tomes and ancient records state that the founders of Haven wished to be free of the influence of the Faint Divinities that dominated the surrounding regions. They hatched a plan to kill one of the mightiest of these deities, known as Shun’Aush the Granite Ophid. While their exact method of decision is forgotten, their victory ensured Haven’s dominance in the region for centuries to come. They made their home behind his remains, which became the mighty walls that Haven is known for.
But Shun’Aush would have his revenge. As the Havenites carved through his stone body, the fine dust left behind settled into the surrounding earth. There was a time of prosperity over many centuries while the scales of the god remained undisturbed. But progress is its own pressure. The growing population demanded increased productivity, and as farmers tilled deeper soil and miners hacked into hidden stone, the ancient stone dust rose to the surface. The same walls that brought the city security became the crucible that incubated a virulent plague. The Serpent’s Sickness—which turned its victims to stone, statues locked in their final agonies. At first, the disease seemed controllable. Then it accelerated. When half the population fell, the ruling Archmage Phylax desperately turned to old legends and botany, learning that a rare red flower—the crimson lady’s veil—could stall or cure the disease. These blooms, however, were scarce, growing only in remote corners of Fanewick’s wilds.
So Haven invaded.
Their forces marched into the deepwood and stole the sacred Reaping Eye from Nikta, the Shepherd of Seasons, a Faint Divinity who governed Fanewick’s natural cycle of life and decay. The Eye held the power to end the season and invite rest, rot, and renewal. With it stolen, Nikta could only see through her Sowing Eye, and Fanewick was thrown into eternal spring—an endless, monstrous bloom.
The result was catastrophic. Flora and fauna grew unchecked. Crops twisted into carnivorous shapes. Trees grew teeth. Vines hunted men. The Witherwild had begun.
In the decades that followed, Haven collapsed under the weight of its sickness and hubris. Phylax died, and the city fractured. Its survivors fled into the wilds, scattering like ash on the wind.
From the ruins rose two great factions:
- The Dawnbreakers , a zealous Holy Order led by the fire-god Thandros, who believe that only divine radiance can cleanse the land.
- The Hollow Grove , a Necromantic Order born of exiled scholars and healers who believe that controlled decay is nature’s true path to balance.
Each built sanctuaries at the edge of ruin, powered by flame or fungus, forming Radiant Circles or Blight Seals to keep the jungle at bay. But rather than unite, the two orders turned on one another—each blaming the other for the lost Eye of Nikta, and each claiming moral superiority in their fight against the Witherwild.
Now, centuries later, the Eye is lost to time, and Haven is considered a cursed graveyard. The statues of its people still stand where they fell, untouched by the jungle—as if even the Witherwild knows to leave them alone.
Those who dare still call the wilds their home are known as Wicklings, wildborn and wanderers, rebels and scholars, survivors and soldiers. Whether raised under the burning fires of the Dawnbreakers, or within the fungal roots of the Hollow Grove, or out in the deep wilds—their fate is tied to Fanewick’s.
The Serpent’s Sickness still festers. The Witherwild spreads. And somewhere, deep beneath stone, the Reaping Eye waits to be found.
Tone & Feel
Adventurous, Danger around every corner,
Themes
Cultural Clash, Ends Justify Means, Grief, People vs. Nature, Transformation and Change, Survival
Touchstones
Avatar, Jurassic Park, Monster Hunter.
Additional information
Players are able to be part of a community. Please read up on these below.
Please also understand that Haven is no longer a settlement and is seen as a cursed land by both of the new factions. Both factions see the walled city as nothing more than a cemetery and those who dare enter are likely to fall prey to the serpent's sickness, which is still ever present.
Loreborne and Highborne In Fanewick
Knowledge is the most valuable commodity, and those who have expertise have the most power. This economy of information functions primarily through gifting and trading, and wisdom would be considered acceptable collateral for a weapon or warm meal. As such, loreborne community members are the wealthiest in Fanewick and might be smaller, distinct groups of hunters, historians, or artisans within larger villages. The wealthiest members of each faction are highborne, having inherited riches built by their ancestors over generations. Highborne often have roots that tie back to Haven itself and some highborne are known to still hold maps and access keys back into the city - very few speak of it. But potentially some could part with this knowledge for a fee.
Loreborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker-Aligned: Loreborne raised under Dawnbreaker rule are often record-keepers, scripture scholars, archivists, and battlefield tacticians. They revere doctrine and see knowledge as a way to codify purity and divine order. Their libraries are guarded like vaults, and only the righteous are allowed to study.
Hollow Grove-Aligned: These Loreborne are preservers of decay-bound wisdom—old folktales, fungal codices, bone-scripted scrolls. They believe that truth rots unless it is passed on, and so they share knowledge through oral tradition, symbiotic memory rituals, and necrotic song. Information is alive, like the land—meant to spread.
Wickling-Aligned: Wickling Loreborne are wandering historians, bog-scribes, mapmakers, or rune-readers. Some trade in secrets; others tattoo stories on their skin. In the wilds, wisdom is rare and dangerous—it can earn you respect, protection, or a knife in the back.
Highborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker-Aligned: Highborne Dawnbreakers often come from founding families of Firstlight or high command in the Order. They live in walled villas lit by unending flame, receive divine tutelage, and have the best access to knowledge, healing, and influence. Some command entire military wings.
Hollow Grove-Aligned: In Grove society, “Highborne” may mean descendants of the original Scholomancers or caretakers of ancient necrotic reservoirs. Their status is tied not to wealth, but to the depth of their decay magic or their role in maintaining Blight Seals. Their homes are overgrown sanctums, deeply woven into fungal networks.
Wickling-Aligned: These Highborne claim ancient ties to Haven or pre-Fall nobility, though many view them as relics. They may possess Havenite artifacts, old family keepsakes, or forbidden maps. While mistrusted, they are powerful brokers—if they can stay alive.
Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne Characters
From these communities were likely raised in Fanewick’s deadly environs, which have only become more dangerous as the Witherwild grows. Each community has unique customs, some freely shared and others kept secret, that allow them safe passage through dangerous terrain and the Faint Divinities’ territories. In exchange for protection from the Witherwild for themselves and their families, some Wicklings from these groups have been forced to take jobs as runners and messengers who risk it all to take precious but small cargo from one city to another, others are left to work the fields for the Holy Order. Though it is backbreaking work performed for a nation destroying their land, the farmers are offered safety by the Holy Light fires that burn back the ever-creeping Witherwild.
Ridgeborne, Underborne and Wildborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker-Aligned: These communities were either absorbed by or surrendered to the Dawnbreakers for protection. Now they tend light-farms, fuel radiant flame-beacons, and serve as laborers or scouts. While they benefit from sanctuary, many are treated as second-class—protected but not trusted.
Hollow Grove-Aligned: Often the first settlers in Grove territory. These people serve as Blightkeepers, bonefarmers, or fungal channel wardens. Their survival traditions—mushroom foraging, corpsecrafting, bone-chime navigation—have become essential to the Grove’s defenses.
Wickling-Aligned: Proudly independent and fiercely territorial, they live deep in the green—among the fog-choked ridges, forgotten caves, and vine-strangled plateaus. They know the land better than any faction. Some are messengers, others smugglers or wild seers. They make no apology for surviving on their own terms.
Orderborne Players
Orderborne are shaped not by where they were born, but by who raised them. Whether their upbringing was within the sanctified walls of Firstlight or the necrotic shade of a Blight Grove, their worldview is deeply tied to the Order that shaped their identity—or the one that failed them.
Orderborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker Orderborne: These individuals are often trained from youth in doctrine, martial discipline, and purification rites. Many grow up in citadel academies or cathedral orphanages, taught to fear the jungle’s touch and revere divine fire. Some rise to become Sunsworn, others serve in temples or penitent labor forces. Whether loyal or disillusioned, their lives are marked by rigor and sacrifice.
Hollow Grove Orderborne: Raised within a Grove, these Orderborne are immersed in decay, nurtured by necrotic teachings, fungal caretakers, and Blightbinders. Their lullabies are death chants, and their coming-of-age involves bone communion or tending the dying. Some view their Order with reverence; others question the weight of grief and the secrets the Charnel Chorus keeps.
Wickling Orderborne: These individuals were born or taken in by an Order, but fled or were cast out. They live between doctrines—either hiding their past or wielding it like a blade. Some seek to expose truths, while others simply want to survive. Their insight into faction life makes them invaluable guides, spies, or diplomats—if others can trust them.
Slyborne
As the factions wage war, those who wish to play Slyborne characters might come from Fanewick rebel groups seeking to expel the opposing forces from their lands. Depending on the tactics their group employs, a character from a Slyborne community might align with or go against their upbringing.
Slyborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker-Aligned: Often operatives of the Veiled Guard, the Dawnbreakers’ covert arm. These Slybornes are trained in holy deception—subterfuge in service to the light. They may pose as refugees, mediate uprisings, or root out Grove sympathisers.
Hollow Grove-Aligned: Slyborne in the Grove act as spore-runners, decay smugglers, or double-masked traders who walk between death and deception. Some are exiles from other Orders; others were born into shadow. Trust is rare, but utility buys forgiveness.
Wickling-Aligned: These are the saboteurs, smugglers, tricksters, and assassins who work alone or in rebel cells. They are neither heroes nor villains—just people who learned early that cleverness feeds faster than courage.
Seaborne
Seaborne communities are built, both physically and culturally, around the specific waters they call home. Some of these groups live along the shore, constructing ports for locals and travellers alike. These harbours function as centres of commerce, tourist attractions, or even just a safe place to lay down one’s head after weeks of travel. Other seaborne live on the water in small boats or large ships, with the idea of “home” comprising a ship and its crew, rather than any one landmass. No matter their exact location, seaborne communities are closely tied to the ocean tides and the creatures who inhabit them. Seaborne learn to fish at a young age, and train from birth to hold their breath and swim in even the most tumultuous waters. Individuals from these groups are highly sought after for their sailing skills, and many become captains of vessels, whether within their own community, working for another, or even at the helm of a powerful naval operation.
Seaborne are often candid, cooperative, exuberant, fierce, resolute, and weathered.
Seaborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker-Aligned: These Seaborne live in fortified trade harbours built for stability and diplomacy. They serve as merchants, diplomats, or holy shipwrights, and often act as emissaries to distant shores.
Hollow Grove-Aligned: The Grove’s Seaborne build chitin-skinned boats and harvest coral bones and leviathan carcasses for necrotic rituals. They are reclusive, often misunderstood, but essential to maintaining maritime Blight Seals and fungal ocean gardens.
Wickling-Aligned: Drift-tied, independent, and storm-blessed. These Seaborne communities weather piracy, tide-horrors, and divine storms alone. Some are smugglers; others lore-divers or wreck-scavengers. They belong only to the sea.
Wanderborne
Wanderborne communities can be found in both Necrotic and Holy territories, though safe travel has been severely restricted due to the military occupation and the expansion of the Witherwild. Whether a wanderborne character comes from Necrotic or Holy territories, or elsewhere, the player should determine their character’s personal views on each faction, and how that aligns or departs from their community’s views.
Wanderborne Adaptations
Dawnbreaker-Aligned: May have joined the Order seeking structure, sanctuary, or redemption. Often serve as scouts, translators, or border missionaries. Their flexibility is useful, but their loyalty is watched.
Hollow Grove-Aligned: Wanderborne here act as memory-carriers, fungal couriers, or necromantic pilgrims who move between Groves. Some believe they hear the whispers of the land itself guiding them. Others are trained to restore lost Blight networks.
Wickling-Aligned: Rootless, open-eyed, and hardened by the road. They walk between ruins, gods, and monsters. Wanderborne Wicklings often act as guides, storyweavers, or bargain-makers for whoever needs them most—though their loyalties shift like wind through trees.
Ancestries
All ancestries are available, but some have unique aspects within a Witherwild campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players.
Clanks Adaptations
Dawnbreaker Clanks: Often built for war or labor, made of steel and sanctified brass, emblazoned with radiant runes. Some contain relic cores from Haven, maintained by clergy-engineers. Treated as tools first, people second.
Hollow Grove Clanks: Formed from bone, chitin, and decayed wood, sometimes partially animated by necrotic fungi or bound ancestral spirits. These Clanks are more fluid in identity, often regarded as sacred tools of memory or ritual.
Wickling Clanks: Often cobbled together from driftwood, stone, or scavenged ruin-tech. May serve as lore-keepers or guardians of forgotten places. Many are self-maintained, and some even claim to remember the Fall of Haven—though no one believes them.
Fungril
Fungusfolk born of spore and soil, their forms shift with the rot around them.
Dawnbreaker Fungril:
Rare and viewed with suspicion. Those accepted often shave down visible fungal growths, mask their scent with alchemical tonics, and wear heavy wrappings to pass unnoticed. Their skin takes on ashen or calcified tones, and their caps may be trimmed or surgically suppressed. Any blooming is seen as potential corruption.
Hollow Grove Fungril:
Celebrated as living extensions of the Grove. Their bodies bloom with colorful moss, gills, and bioluminescent caps, often shaped like the local Grove’s dominant fungus. Some even resemble walking shrines or spore-forests. Their scent is sweet or earthy, and they grow larger, more stately, and more communal with age.
Wickling Fungril:
Often bear a patchwork of wild fungi, adapting to the climate of caves, ruins, or swampy brush. Their features are weathered and irregular, with mismatched growths, thorny caps, or lichen beards. Many disguise their spores within cloaks or tattoos to avoid faction persecution.
Drakona
Element-blooded and horned, their features twist with heritage and land.
Dawnbreaker Drakona:
Flames or light-aligned Drakona often develop glowing eyes, radiant horns, and scale patterns that mimic sunbursts. Their scales are polished and trimmed for ceremony. Other elemental types are pressed into service or forced to wear collars or veils that suppress volatile mutations.
Hollow Grove Drakona:
Often exhibit bark-textured scales, hollowed horns with fungal spirals, or ridges that breathe decay. Their voices echo with rot, and some shed their tails to regrow vine-tipped whips or necrotic coils.
Wickling Drakona:
With little restraint, their horns grow wide, wild, and jagged, sometimes curling like antlers or branching into thorns. Their bodies may bear leaf-scale overlays or moss-laced nostrils. Some are seen as living avatars of forgotten wyrm-spirits.
Fauns
Hooved and horned, their wild beauty is shaped by who demands they tame it.
Dawnbreaker Fauns:
Their horns are filed or banded, and many are required to wear ritual headdresses or veils. Their fur is often shaved down, replaced with robes or uniforms. Those allowed to serve display radiant brands on their shoulders, knees, or tailbase.
Hollow Grove Fauns:
Their fur thickens and grows patches of moss or puffball fungi. Horns twist into natural sigils, and some grow fungal flutes or chimes. Their hooves darken and their eyes carry a permanent spore-glow.
Wickling Fauns:
Appear rugged and powerful—thick hair, mottled pelts, and untrimmed horns with charms or bone beads. Some bear tree-bark skin patterns or wildflowers woven through their tails.
Firbolgs
Massive and tree-bound, their bodies adapt to root, rot, and ritual.
Dawnbreaker Firbolgs:
Maintain shorn hair and wear reinforced armor that holds down natural overgrowth. Their skin becomes pale or stone-grey under temple light. They sometimes brand themselves with Order glyphs to remain visible among “lesser kin.”
Hollow Grove Firbolgs:
Resemble walking trees, with bark-armored shoulders, shelf mushrooms growing from their backs, and heavy, moss-draped limbs. They often host fungal nests in their hair or wield clubs grown from their own grafted branches.
Wickling Firbolgs:
Blend in with their terrain—lichen-covered backs, root-cracked feet, or leafy tattoos across their bellies. Their eyes often reflect the sky, mist, or moon, and some decorate themselves with bones of fallen beasts.
Infernis
Elemental fire made flesh, their glow changes by allegiance.
Dawnbreaker Infernis:
Flames are controlled, dimmed, or channeled into halos or weaponry. Their eyes glow with golden light, and their skin may show radiant cracks like fire beneath stone. Those who fail purification rites may be cast out or bound in suppressing chains.
Hollow Grove Infernis:
Their fire burns cold, blue, or green, and smoke rises from them like incense. Some shed sparks that animate bone, while others have flame that drips like rot. Their hair may smoke, and their hands pulse with necrotic flickers.
Wickling Infernis:
Flickering and uncontrolled, their flames shift color with mood—from bright scarlet to deep purple. Some carry burn scars from their own powers or wear soot-ink tattoos to mark ancient fire rituals.
Galapa
Shell-backed marsh dwellers with mossy memories.
Dawnbreaker Galapa:
Their shells are often polished and engraved with radiant scripture. Some are built into mobile shrines or burdened with carrying holy relics. Their skin is scrubbed and lightened, often unnaturally.
Hollow Grove Galapa:
Their shells are covered in fungus, coral, or bones, serving as mobile gardens. They carry mushroom colonies, or let blight beetles nest in their spines. Their skin is deeply ridged and damp.
Wickling Galapa:
Appear older than their years, their shells cracked, mud-caked, or etched with ancestral marks. Some paint them with swamp dyes, others let natural growths flourish untouched. Their eyes are often milky from bog gases, yet sharp.
Ribbets
Bog-leapers and croak-singers of the swamplands.
Dawnbreaker Ribbets:
Wears ordered armor, hiding vibrant skin tones. Some are forced to pierce their throat sacs or trim their tongues to be more “civil.” Their legs may be banded or restrained when not in service.
Hollow Grove Ribbets:
Skin takes on mottled hues of green and purple, patterned like marsh decay. Their throat sacs may be fungal amplifiers, releasing haunting croaks that stir spores or bone. Some develop algae webbing between joints.
Wickling Ribbets:
Proud and expressive—bright skins, wild eye patterns, and long lashing tongues. Some tattoo their throats, others wear masks of mud or bark. Many croak in sacred chorus when danger nears or stars align.
Dwarf
Resilient and ornately adorned, dwarves carry the legacy of stone and hardship.
Dawnbreaker Dwarves:
Heavily involved in maintaining radiant infrastructure, including the crafting of fire lenses, radiant forges, and sanctified bunkers. Many embed gems and stones in their skin as both protection and status. Their tattoos may reflect oaths to Thandros.
Hollow Grove Dwarves:
Their bodies bear bone inlays or spore-carved glyphs. Grove dwarves may act as gravewrights, builders of chambers and graft fungus to shelters. Their compact strength makes them excellent caretakers of decaying places.
Wickling Dwarves:
Found in the deep woods or mountainous ridges, where they raise gem-veined grottos or root-fortified dens. Many hold secret grudges against both Orders, believing their ruin was avoidable if they only headed the warnings of the world around them.
Elf
Graceful and long-lived, elves bear the memory of every season.
Dawnbreaker Elves:
Often serve as scouts, judges, or ceremonial lighters of flame. Their mystic forms may take on sunlight and starlight motifs, reinforcing their celestial devotion to Thandros.
Hollow Grove Elves:
Elves in the Grove are often transmuted by Blight magic with vine-twined hair, bioluminescent freckles, and moss growing over their limbs. Some serve as dream-chroniclers, recording visions, they make excellect dirgewrights given their long lifespan, but not all enjoy the confines of the life in the grove.
Wickling Elves:
Among Wicklings, elves are ancient sages, guides, and keepers of forgotten places. Their mystic forms often reflect local gods—their bodies shaped by whispered prayers and natural energies.
Faerie
Metamorphic and wild, faeries reflect the strange glory of unchecked nature.
Dawnbreaker Faeries:
Very rare and usually watched closely. Those accepted may be harnessed for divine reconnaissance. Their metamorphoses are constrained by ritual, wings burned, purified, or limited. A show of sacrifice to their god for their wild heritage.
Hollow Grove Faeries:
Highly valued for their ability to be pollinators, scouts and natural affinity with life and death. Many undergo second-stage metamorphosis when fused with fungal colonies or rotting decay.
Wickling Faeries:
Live in hidden colonies, deep groves, or bogglades. Their metamorphoses are wild and unique, some merge with local flora, others gain new senses attuned to Witherwild rhythms.
Giant
Towering and elemental, giants are a force of nature personified.
Dawnbreaker Giants:
Often deployed as war champions or juggernauts, especially if born with a third eye—interpreted as divine favor from Thandros. Cyclops giants however are less favoured in Dawnbreaker society and often tasked with manual labour jobs.
Hollow Grove Giants:
Some act as walking sentinels or others hold mossy farms on their back, with massive fungal growths integrated into their frame. Their strength is seen as a stabilizing force against corruption’s chaos.
Wickling Giants:
Often reclusive and territorial. Tribal in structure, with some serving as guardians of ruins. Their fluctuating eye development may mark them as oracles or cursed.
Goblin
Small, sharp, and endlessly adaptive.
Dawnbreaker Goblins:
Employed as signalers, saboteurs, or informants. Their hearing is prized in battlefield scenarios, and their ear-position code is sometimes adopted into cipher-gesture.
Hollow Grove Goblins:
Often act as corpse-pickers, trappers, cultivators or cooks. Their massive ears may become semi-fungal or develop thorn-like ridges. Many live in burrows within the their groves.
Wickling Goblins:
Live among hidden creeks, thorn-havens, and moss-villages. They value oral history and smell-memory, and their ear gestures are often used in courtship, trade, and challenge.
Halfling
Quietly perceptive and deeply intuitive.
Dawnbreaker Halflings:
Serve as scouts, cartographers, and temple stewards. Their sense of direction is viewed as divine attunement. Often oversee travel routes between settlements and travel frequently between places.
Hollow Grove Halflings:
Navigate the tangle-paths and maintain fungal roads. Their internal compass is used to track vein networks of fungus and where new paths of decay can spread. Often serve as seed-walkers guiding sacred spore dispersals to grow new varietals of fungi and plants locals and wildlife alike.
Wickling Halflings:
Live in low hollows or tree-knuckle towns. Their scent and sound memories help track predators or spirits. Some believe their feet are sacred, always drawn toward safety.
Human
Versatile, volatile, and everywhere.
Dawnbreaker Humans:
Make up the backbone of the Order’s army, clergy, and citizens. Seen as the most “malleable” their devotion or defiance determines their rise.
Hollow Grove Humans:
Their diversity is seen as an asset. Some humans become sages, protectors, scholomancers, their purposes are as diverse as they are. Many are trained from youth to listen to the land’s rhythm.
Wickling Humans:
Found in every kind of settlement from wandering kin-clans to deepwood communes. Some carry mutation marks from long exposure to the Witherwild, such as barklike skin or green-tinged blood.
Katari
Feline grace, sharp perception, and mystic movement.
Dawnbreaker Katari:
Employed as assassins, trackers and silent protectors. Their loyalty is scrutinized, but their reflexes are valued in skirmishes and frontline scouting.
Hollow Grove Katari:
Highly attuned to the jungle surrounds. Some develop whiskers that can detect spore-born movement or fungal resonance. Many serve as nocturnal sentinels.
Wickling Katari:
Solitary or tribal, found among jungle ruins or ancient temples. Considered blessed hunters. Their tails are sometimes believed to “sense the dying breath of the land.”
Orc
Powerful and unyielding, orcs bear both burden and pride.
Dawnbreaker Orcs:
Serve well in units, often chosen to wield hammers and marked with radiant brands, they are skilled warriors. Their tusks are sometimes ritually engraved to mark holy oaths, their training is strict and discipline is adhered to, they can be seen as wild and savage but once forged in the eyes of Thandros they are fiercely loyal to his cause.
Hollow Grove Orcs:
Revered as champions and defenders of groves, unlike in Dawnbreaker culture, The Grove let's the wild heart of their orcish brethren to run wild and fuse with the primal instinct to protect, raise and grow. Many decorate tusks with lichen, runes, or hanging tokens of those they’ve buried or raised.
Wickling Orcs:
Frequently form warbands or defense circles in wild settlements. Many carry ancestral grudges and act as ritual duelists, settling disputes between tribes or Orders in blood sport.
Simiah
Simian agility and deep ancestral memory.
Dawnbreaker Simiah:
Used for vertical operations, tower maintenance, and temple defense. Their prehensile feet and tails are often restricted by harnesses in formal settings, yet let free when it is in aiding the cause of the Dawnbreakers.
Hollow Grove Simiah:
Simiah of the Grove are great scouts, botanists and ritualists; they are excellent in maintaining even the hardest to reach places. Their feet are tattooed with memory rings, and many act as bone-librarians who “read with their toes.”
Wickling Simiah:
Found in tree-vault communes, rope-village settlements, or ruins. Known for unmatched mobility and story acrobatics, ritual dances that pass on history through climbing.
Classes
All classes are available, but some have unique aspects within a Witherwild campaign. As needed, provide the following information to your players.
Druids, Rangers, and Sorcerers
Druids, rangers, and sorcerers are commonly found throughout Fanewick. If players choose one of these classes, they should consider how their character’s connection to the natural world might be impacted by the Witherwild. It is also more common for Druids to be found in the wilds, some have found homes in the Necrotic territories, however few are able to find common ground with the Holy order.
Sorcerers are balanced between both and rangers are spread also between both as well as in the wilds.
Warriors and Wizards
Warriors and wizards are prevalent in both factions. A large wizarding school in the Holy Order teaches fighters and healers, and the Holy Army is largely composed of warriors and School of War wizards. If a Player is either of these classes, consider their personal relationship to the Holy Order. A head Wizard is also often found at most Necrotic towns and cities as they tend to the Blight that keeps the Witherwilds at bay. Necrotic Wizards often pass their teachings down from one generation to the next through story, song and discussion, formal education and training is far harder to come by and necrotic wizards often resent their holy counterparts for the way they horde their access to libraries and knowledge.
Warriors of the necrotic armies act largely the same as those of their holy counterparts.
Vengeance Guardian
Many Wicklings who seek revenge on Haven and now the Necrotic and Holy order are keen to expel them from Fanewick become Vengeance guardians. If players choose this subclass, they should consider what ideals or institutions their character protects and which faction has wronged them the most.
Syndicate Rogue
Each faction sends spies into Fanewick communities to gain information on planned attacks and manipulate public perception. When selecting the Syndicate rogue subclass, players should consider how their character might be connected to or impacted by these covert operatives.
Player Principles
If your group decides to play this campaign, give your players the following information before character creation.
Make the Conflict Personal
Consider how your character feels about the initial invasion of Fanewick and the continuous tension between the Holy and Necrotic forces. Everyone has lost a loved one to the Witherwild, the Serpent’s Sickness or the crossfire between factions, and more are dying by the day. Consider how the growing conflict caused your character to act in ways they aren’t proud of, or transformed personal truths they once believed were unshakable.
Treat Death with Importance
Taking a life should not be done without consideration, desperation, and consequences. As your character journeys, they should remember those they’ve lost and those they’ve slain, allowing each death to affect their choices in the future.
Embrace Vulnerability
Find your character’s humanity and showcase it whenever you can. They should be as vulnerable during quiet moments as they are vicious during violent ones, opening up to their allies even if they close themself off to everyone else.
GM Principles
Keep the following guidance in mind while you GM this campaign.
Paint the World in Contrast
Subvert expectations by giving space for the nightmarish to charm and the beautiful to terrify. Give the PCs visions of the natural beauty of Fanewick that has run roughshod across the region, breaking the bounds of the bogs and forests and devastating homes and communities. Show the grim and ordered life behind the walls of the Holy Order, but also show the culture, art, and progress that has come out of centuries of their safety. Show the balance the Necrotic Faction wishes to bring to the world, creating the decay and rot the world needs to balance out that which is grown uncontested. Their way of life is equally as important as that of the righteous fires that stave off the growth. Contrast these factions with the capricious nature of the Faint Divinities with the devotion of the Wicklings, and Faction members fighting to save their home. In a place of long nights and days, dual seasons, and two nations in conflict, look for ways to highlight bold dualities.
Show Them True Danger
Though it may be tragic, bodily harm is not the worst tragedy that can befall the characters. To illustrate what’s truly at stake, use the PCs’ origins in Fanewick, to show them what they stand to lose, be it their homes, family, friends, communities, or even their core truths and beliefs. The events of this campaign may change, threaten, or destroy these aspects of their past—when your players create and are invested in their character’s backstory, they have something to fight for.
Offer Alternatives to Violence
By illuminating nonviolent approaches to problem-solving, the PCs can help break the brutal cycle that binds this world. For example, showing compassion—rather than swordpoint—to a corrupted beast can free them from the Witherwild. Similarly, the conflict between the waring factions and Fanewick shouldn’t only be solved with blood and blade. What threatens both could also unify them. Give the PCs opportunities to mend old wounds, right past wrongs, and heal the rift between factions and the Wicklings from within.
Create Multidimensional Allies and Adversaries
No adversary or ally is all good or all bad, and they each have multidimensional lives. Even the most congenial ally should be hiding darkness inside them, hoping their failings will go undiscovered. Those painted as evil should sometimes do the right thing, even if it’s for the wrong reason. Just because a PC or NPC is from a Haven Faction it doesn’t make them a villain, and, conversely, not all the inhabitants of Fanewick are virtuous. Finding the nuance, complications, and deeper motivations of the people of Haven and Fanewick will lead to richer interactions, more complex moral choices, and a deeper sense of attachment to the world for the players.
Distinctions
Use this information to prepare your campaign. You can also share it with your players as needed. The Weeks of Day and Night The day and night cycle occurs weekly, meaning the sun rises for an entire week before setting into a nighttime of the same length. This has an impact on everything from agriculture to trade, as many merchants refuse to travel through the night. But this cycle doesn’t just affect Wicklings, it’s dictated how Fanewick’s wondrous ecology has evolved. Days and nights are accompanied by entirely different natural soundscapes as Fanewick’s nocturnal denizens sleep through the long days and stalk the woods in times of darkness while their diurnal counterparts sleep. The plants similarly live on this strange day-night loop, and many live out their entire life cycles in a week. Sun rose vines make a thorny ascent to the top of the tree canopy over the course of the week, only to wilt under the light of the moon. Conversely, night bloom, a bioluminescent flower that emits the smell of burnt sugar and decay, only blossoms when evening falls, illuminating patches of forest—a godsend to anyone forced to travel in the dark.
The Serpent’s Sickness
The plague that swept across the founding settlements of Haven spared no one. Since the initial outbreak, officials from both factions have worked tirelessly to quarantine those in the early stages of the disease. Those still foolish enough to visit the old settlements may contract Serpent's Sickness and due to the rarity of crimson lady’s veil, petrification is almost certain. In the initial stages, victims are afflicted with a hacking cough laden with dust that resembles powdered bone. Then a scaled rash erupts across their skin, cracking their flesh in a unique and painful pattern that resembles a snake’s skin. Not long after, the victims’ bodies harden until their organs solidify and cease to function. The final stages of the Serpent’s Sickness is so quick that many transform into statues where they stand, leaving all of Haven a cenotaph to a once-great power. Cemetery Settlements or Stone Cities. (WIP) These settlements and cities are a harrowing reminder of the destruction, arrogance and desperation of the Havenites, where Haven settlements grew as did the Serpents Sickness and without enough red Lady Veil tea to go around most occupants froze in place becoming statues that lined the cities streets. Even though much time has passed, the sickness and stone statues remain untouched by the verdant growth, as if the lands themselves know well enough to leave those that have perished alone.
Lady’s Veil
These small flowers grow in patches of sun throughout Fanewick. For every ten thousand blossoms of white-petaled flowers, one blooms a unique and vibrant red. These flowers have long been used in herbal teas across the region, with the crimson flowers holding a place in specific ceremonies. Even so, they were only foraged until the Havenites discovered crimson lady’s veil—the only known cure for Serpent’s Sickness. Thus, the old Havenite Armies invaded Fanewick and began cultivating the flowers on massive farms that had overtaken the region’s bogs. Though the theft of the Reaping Eye has created an indefinite growing season, the red flowers remain just as rare, over the years the bogs have reclaimed their homeland and the lady's veil has grown wild blanketing much of the surrounding marshes. Wicklings now see the lady's veil as a warning of a cemetery settlement nearby.
The Witherwild
This corruption, empowered by the endless spring, is spreading throughout Fanewick. Some believe the overgrowth began in the forest, while others claim it sprang from the bogs. But no matter its origins, this flourishing malignancy induces horrific changes and massive growth on anything it touches, transforming them into Withered beings. Plants spring to life with a desire to consume all around them. Animals grow to immense proportions, with onerous dispositions to match their exaggerated teeth, tusks, and claws. Even harmless creatures that were once hunted for food have become dangerous and formidable adversaries. When a person is corrupted by the Witherwild, either from a purposeful attack or accidental harm (see the upcoming “Corruption from the Witherwild” section), they are transformed. They become a nightmarish hybrid—their body warped and intertwined with plant or beast. The Witherwild slowly replaces the personality of its victims with the same drive to consume exhibited by the rest of the corrupted Fanewick. Though the Withered may retain a semblance of who they are for a time, they eventually face the final loss of their personhood. Some Wicklings believe the Withered are gifted this power by Nikta’s wrath to drive the forces of both orders out from Fanewick and return the Shepherd’s Reaping Eye.
The Gods of Fanewick
Gods in this land aren’t ethereal concepts that exist in another realm; instead, they wander the land as incarnate beings, residing in both the natural world as well as within homes and small villages. As such, they’re generally present in Wicklings’ lives. Many communities, and some larger families, even have their own small god or tutelary spirit who watches over them. Belief and worship take on a different meaning in Fanewick—there is a constant push and pull between the goals of people and their deific neighbors. The gods must curry worship from mortals, often by performing small miracles, acts of service, or by testing their resolve with tricks and curses. Mortals rely on the small blessings from the gods to keep them safe when traveling and working in Fanewick. The most powerful and widely acknowledged Faint Divinity is the Shepherd of Seasons, Nikta, as the loss of her eye had the most recent and visible impact on everyone in Fanewick. Fanewick’s various divinities each have their own opinion concerning the Witherwild corruption. While some enjoy nature’s newfound dominance, many of the lesser deities are wary of how out of balance Fanewick has become.
While their behavior and motives may be inscrutable, these deities are more accessible than gods who watch from on high.
Fulg, Stacker of Stones: A small god who favors tribute in the form of smooth, stacked river rocks. Under his power, bivalves and limpets grow abundantly on rocks where they can be easily harvested. He is largely uninformed about the problems Fanewick faces, and he prefers it that way.
Hyacynis, They Who Spread Small Blossoms: A friend of bees and tiny flowers who has embraced the Witherwild after seeing their influence and domain swell (literally) to immense proportions. They’re enjoying this rampant growth and do not see a reason to end it.
Ikla, the Sky Painter: Ikla’s artistic prowess and talent are unmatched, painting the skies of each weekly sunrise and sunset over Fanewick in a myriad of scintillating colors. They could not be lazier the rest of the week, and their demeanor is exceedingly unpleasant, offended that anyone would ask a favor of them during their time off.
Oove, the Watcher of the Night Bloom: He is one of the few local gods who has never been seen, but he is often heard in the wilds at night, whispering directions to lost travelers, pointing them to the nearest source of night bloom. Locals claim he leads those who displease him or harm nocturnal creatures into dangerous terrain. It’s rumored that he watches over Fanewick nights from his home on the moon.
Qui’Gar, Whispered Sweetness for a Thorny End: A quiet god who presides over the deaths of those who pass in thorny bushes and briar patches. Traditionally, she doesn’t receive many visitors, but the Witherwild’s corruptive growth has made her job harder and upended her quiet existence.
Rohkin, the Wandering Horn: Rohkin watches over the many herds of horned creatures that reside in Fanewick. In happier times, he preserved the balance of nature and civilization, preventing overhunting. But since the corruption of the Witherwild has taken hold, he’s seen his herds change into unrecognizable, dangerous beasts.
These are but a small slice of the hundreds, if not thousands, of Faint Divinities lurking, relaxing, hunting, and playing throughout Fanewick. Happy to come up with some additional Divinities if players have certain requests. What Faint Divinities do the PCs acknowledge and pay tribute to, if any?
How has the Witherwild changed the outlook, personality, and dispositions of the Faint Divinities the characters encounter? Which gods ally themselves with the Holy order or the Necrotic Purpose to preserve the endless spring? Which align with Fanewick?
Campaign Mechanics
The following mechanics are unique to this campaign.
Corruption from the Witherwild
Adversaries and environments in this campaign can gain an additional type called Withered. When an adversary is Withered, describe how the Witherwild changed or impacted how they would normally appear or operate. You also need about 20 Wither tokens (these can be the same as the tokens you use for Fear). Any time a PC takes Severe damage from a Withered adversary or environment, gain a Wither token and place it on that PC’s character sheet. When you do, the PC must roll their Fear Die. If they roll equal to or below the number of Wither tokens on their sheet, they immediately gain a scar and clear all tokens, describing how the Witherwild changes them permanently.
At the end of each session, clear all Wither tokens from the PCs’ sheets and gain an equal amount of Fear. If a character ever dies with Wither tokens on their sheet, their body is permanently taken over by the Witherwild.
Session Zero Questions
Ask any of these questions to your players, or make your own.
What dangerous animal comes out during the week of night that isn’t out during the week of day?
What unique trait (such as appearance, smell, or taste) does anything tainted by the Witherwild have?
What superstitions does your character or their community have about traversing Fanewick during the long nights?
Your character has witnessed something beautiful that came from the Witherwild. What is it and how has it transformed their view of the corruption?
If your character is from Fanewick, what commodity do they secretly enjoy that comes from The Holy Order or the Necrotic ?
If they’re from The Holy Order or The Necrotic Order, what delicacy from Fanewick can they not get enough of?
Comments