Ashen Marches - Settings and Lore

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ASHEN MARCHES – Settings and Lore

This thread is for worldbuilding information, clarifications, geography, factions, and lore related to Ashen Marches.

Additional information will be added as the roleplay progresses. As new regions, factions, or threats are introduced in the Official Story, they will be documented here to maintain continuity and consistency.

The World of Vaelarith

Vaelarith is unstable. The land does not always remain as it was. Roads may shift. Forests may rot in days. Entire settlements have vanished without visible cause. Maps are unreliable, and memory is sometimes questioned.

The world was not always like this.

The Hollow Sovereign

Some believe he is human. Others believe he never was. The Hollow Sovereign is widely regarded as the embodiment of chaos and confusion, war and bloodshed, death and rebirth. He arrived in Vaelarith’s capital city, Knuckle, during a time of great global conflict. In a single day, now called the Day of Reasoning, he purged the capital of all humans and living beings. The exact method is unknown. The guards and military forces of Knuckle were considered the best of their time, yet none survived.

Years later, the Hollow Sovereign expanded his influence across continents. Cities either fell to direct destruction or bowed under intimidation from creatures that served him.

He is believed to sit upon what is known as the Throne of Ruin.

The World-Poisons

The World-Poisons are beings either created or inspired by the Hollow Sovereign.

They destroy cities. They wage war upon settlements and sometimes against one another. Their motives are unclear beyond the establishment of chaos and dominance.

Known World-Poisons include:

• Re’Nalor, The Sleep That Walks
• Egi’Ster, The Cartographer of Flesh
• Kia’Tori, The Void Carrion
• Ng’Dash, The Armor in Motion

Further details about these entities may be revealed as the story progresses.

The March

Because of the devastation brought by the Hollow Sovereign and the World-Poisons, the world is no longer safe.

Only a few villages remain neutral. Even fewer places still hold onto hope. The March is one of those places.

The March is a massive, moving city that never remains in one location for long. It travels across the broken lands in search of the Throne of Ruin. Its purpose is debated. Some seek to destroy the Hollow Sovereign. Others wish to claim his power. Some simply want the world to stop breaking beneath their feet.

The March is made up of guards, scholars, scouts, engineers, civilians, scavengers, and survivors from fallen cities. Internal factions exist, though they are not yet fully documented. It is a moving act of defiance.

Factions and Independent Armies

After the fall of Knuckle, many humans splintered into independent warbands and armies. Some fight anything connected to the Hollow Sovereign. Some seek power for themselves. Some believe chaos is the world’s natural state and should not be resisted. These factions may appear throughout the roleplay.

More lore will be added as the world expands through player actions and narrative developments.

If you have research, ideas, or proposals that expand the world, post them here for discussion.

 

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Re’Nalor, The Sleep That Walks



Lore:

The roaming, deathly disease that is sleep, personified. This being was entirely manifested from the dreams of the Hollow Sovereign after the second year of his conquest. It endlessly moves about the world while anyone and everyone around it falls asleep for days, even weeks. Enabling them completely vulnerable, it sucks the essence of dreams from their bodies and leaves them hopeless, fatigued and empty. Additionally, each dream-starved being it takes from is left under its complete control. Their intelligence is heightened dramatically.


Although not directly furthering the Hollow Sovereign’s goals, it does not confront them either. It seems to be entirely neutral between forces, taking anyone and anything under its control. Some believe it is a higher power, maybe something summoned by the gods. Others believe it is simply dreams made manifest.


Many people – whether in the March or anywhere else – have communicated to this being through dreams. Some make pacts with it to further its control over the world, and one “cult”, named The Silent Lambs, have made a presence in the world quickly and quietly, putting people to sleep and delivering them to Re’Nalor. They seem to be favored by this Poison and have been given some of its power.


However, this Poison is certainly not all-powerful. Even though its influence spans the world, few take its side, and most seek to kill it. Rumor has it that there is an artifact that was summoned when it came into existence, and can grant the proper power to destroy Re’Nalor. This artifact is allegedly hidden somewhere in the deepest recesses of the sea when it was cast out by the Hollow Sovereign himself, once he found it.


Known Strengths:
Prolonged weariness to others, fatigue, mind-control, hive-mind resilience, can make anyone sleep at any time, HIGHLY intelligent


Known Weaknesses:
Almost the whole world is against it, allegedly CAN be destroyed

 

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Yet another addition! I am welcoming feedback and ideas, so although these things are concrete lore documents, feel free to suggest additions to this!
It is seen below:

Well, I'm just going to quote some of the... Well, I got a lot of documents. Easier that way than taking 2 hours of writing to explain. Still had to take time finding these though! Ctrl+F is a very useful thing to find the right stuff! LOL

On Erikon and why humanity did not become machines:

From The Codex of Ironbound Echoes, Chapter II:

“Erikon does not grant life: it preserves resonance. The metal drinks the warmth of the hand that shapes it, but only in fragments. A laugh, a fear. A habit. Those who attempt full transference do not awaken within the frame, but rather, they disperse.”

From The Marcher’s Engineering Primer:

“No living citizen shall bind their whole essence into forged Erikon. The experiments beneath Southgate proved catastrophic. The constructs retained movement but not personhood. Their speech repeated final thoughts until the power cores were silenced.”

On Knuckle’s centralization:

From Annals of the Last Bastion, Volume I:

“When the Shattering Night split the horizon, the lesser kingdoms fell silent one by one. Couriers vanished between cities. Trade caravans did not return. Only Knuckle endured, for the bedrock beneath it dampened the tremors of reality. Refugees gathered first by hundreds, then by thousands.”

From Sermons Before the Fall:

“We did not choose to place all hope in Knuckle. Hope ran there on bleeding feet.”

On the fall of Knuckle as more than simple panic:

From The Sealed Gates Chronicle:

“The Day of Reasoning was convened to settle disputes between the High Generals and the Temple of Ash. Before the third bell, the outer gates were barred from within. By dusk, command towers no longer answered signal fire. The purge began."

From Testimony of Captain Elra Venn:

“We were not overrun. We were undone.”

On Fractures and the nature of chaos:

From Observations of the Veil, Scholar Arcthene:

“A Fracture is but a wound in continuity. Time folds within them. Distance distorts. A man may walk ten paces and return to the place he began without knowing he has moved.”

From Treatise on Arcane Generation:

“Chaos isn't evil. It is unstructured potential. Left alone, it unravels, harnessed through calibrated conduits, powering heat grids and legged caravans. The March confines chaos. It doesn't worship it.”

On why the Hollow Sovereign can rule through chaos:

From The Black Edicts:

“Total disorder is useless. Fear must be shaped. Cities broken by uncertainty turn toward the strongest voice that promises direction. Thus chaos clears the field; authority plants the banner.”

On solemn and hopeful as compatible tenets:

From The Three Tenets of the March:

“Remain solemn, for joy unguarded blinds the eye. Remain hopeful, for despair unmoving kills the step."