Mirehollow Grove
Overview
Name: Mirehollow Grove
Region: North Western Witherwilds | Fenfringe Basin
Population: ~35–40 Groveborn
Dominant Culture(s): Hollow Grove
Notable for: Heartbloom Tree shrine, Quietfall reflection hollow, and the Mirewell.
Region: North Western Witherwilds | Fenfringe Basin
Population: ~35–40 Groveborn
Dominant Culture(s): Hollow Grove
Notable for: Heartbloom Tree shrine, Quietfall reflection hollow, and the Mirewell.
Geography & Layout
Mirehollow is tucked within a moss-heavy depression surrounded by ancient fungal trees and tangled undergrowth. The terrain is soft and perpetually damp, with low-hanging fog and fungal caps growing from every surface. To the southeast lies the Fenweald bog, and further east are the Bloomshade Rise and Shiverpine Steeps.
Key buildings include:
The Heartbloom Tree — a massive, luminescent fungal shrine growing from the body of a buried elder.
The Mirewell — a necrotic reservoir hidden under layers of peat and fern.
The Quietfall — a peaceful, tiered depression with a fire pit at its center, used for rites and meditation.
Bramble Burrows — elevated shelters built into canopy platforms and fungal trunks.
History
Mirehollow was founded shortly after the fall of Haven as a failsafe refuge by exiled necromancers. Though isolated, it survived on pragmatism, ritual, and deep spiritual roots. For a time, it was forgotten even by other Groves, its location protected by swamp, silence, and decay. Its residents still speak of the "Veilfall Years" — a dark time when many were lost to the Serpent’s Sickness and containment wards failed.
Culture & Society
Mirehollow's society centers on reverence, ritual, and quiet interdependence. Silence is respected more than chatter. Death is honored, decay embraced. Rites of renewal are held each new moon around the Quietfall.
Fashion tends toward layered robes of mossy green and gray, decorated with fungus-thread stitching. Meals are fungal stews, fermented root teas, and bonebroth porridge. Taboos include firewood burning (seen as wasteful), and unnecessary noise at night. Sacred to the Grove are fungi that bloom only near the Mirewell, used sparingly in rites.
Power & Politics
Mirehollow is guided by a Scholomancer, supported by a small circle of Dirgewrights and Blightbinders. There is no council; consensus is reached in quiet circles beneath the Heartbloom. Power is spiritual, not enforced. While peace reigns within, the Scholomancer answers to the hidden Charnel Chorus that oversees all Groves.
Outsiders are met with solemn caution. Dissension is rare, but when it arises, the matter is brought before the Heartbloom — the memories of former elders, stored in fungal caps, often offer guidance.
Religion & Beliefs
The Grove’s belief system revolves around the Cycle — a doctrine of decay, renewal, and necrotic stewardship. While not atheistic, they honor Faint Divinities tied to rot, memory, and fungal bloom.
Sacred rites include:
The Silence Vigil — a night of stillness where no one speaks, held after a resident dies.
The Sporemother’s Breath — an initiation rite involving the inhalation of spores that carry ancestral memory.
Heretical behavior includes raising undead for labor without intent or reverence.
Economy & Trade
Mirehollow trades rarely, but occasionally barters with other Groves or sympathetic Wicklings. Exports include:
Preserved spores of unique fungi
Dried rotroot salves
Anima-infused bone charms
There is no true economy; resources are pooled communally. Currency is trust, reputation, and contribution.
Defense & Threats
Blight Seals line the perimeter — aging but still functional.
Bonewatchers, skeletal sentries slumber in root-pits until awoken by intrusion.
Deathbell Vines pulse and twitch when disturbed, alerting the Grove.
Primary threats include Witherwild corruption breaching the seal lines, Dawnbreaker inquisitors, or creatures mutated by old Haven residue.
Notable NPCs
Scholomancer Iress Thorne (they/them) — Gentle, perceptive, and unwavering in their belief that balance is possible.
Dirgewright Fenni Ashroot (she/her) — Grove lorekeeper with bark-like fungal plates along her spine; speaks rarely but with precision.
Blightbinder Correl Wane (he/him) — Keeper of the seals, pragmatic and loyal, haunted by his mentor's demise during the Veilfall.
Secrets & Story Hooks
The Mirewell was not created, but discovered — and beneath it lies something deeper, older, and still whispering.
A faded missive from the Charnel Chorus has arrived, requesting the party recover a petrified sage near the Amberwoods.
A buried mask in the Heartbloom's roots does not match any known Chorus identity — a lost or false Scholomancer once lived here.
The Grove Lark that delivered the mission was already dead before it arrived.
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