Mireborn
The Mireborn are the risen dead of the Mire of Unmaking, animated not by conventional necromancy but by the cursed waters and woven death-magic saturating the land. Unlike typical undead, Mireborn retain fragments of thought, emotion, or instinct—twisted into unyielding loyalty to the Thornshroud Dominion. They are not merely resurrected; they are rewritten.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
- Bog-Hardened Flesh: Swollen, pallid skin infused with marsh rot, fungal threads, and thorned roots. Many have bark-like armor growing from their backs or limbs.
- Veins of Memory: Thin, bioluminescent channels glow beneath their flesh—paths where soul-essence and necrotic current flow.
- Breathless and Wet: Mireborn constantly drip with cursed water, which they can exhale in noxious clouds or spit as weaponized bile.
- Masks of the Drowned: Some wear bone masks shaped like drowned faces, believed to preserve the moment of their "rebirth."
Behaviour
- Bound Will: Mireborn do not act independently. They are linked—mind to root—to Thornshroud totems, druids, or the Rotheart Grove. When a totem is destroyed, some collapse; others become feral.
- Silent Watchers: Many lie beneath the mire’s surface, motionless for days or years until roused by nearby death or command.
- Tactical Intelligence: Retain a dull echo of prior skill—Mireborn warriors still swing swords, archers still aim true, drowned priests still chant rites.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
To the Thornshroud, Mireborn are both utility and reverence—offerings returned. Some noble warriors choose to be submerged in the Mire of Unmaking in their final moments, hoping to serve eternally.
Enemies fear the Mireborn for their relentless march, inability to feel pain, and the way they sometimes whisper in the voices of the dead they were.
History
The Mire of Unmaking is a corrupted swamp where necromantic leylines fracture and churn beneath the surface, infusing the muck and waters with dark memory. When blood, death, or decay enters the mire—whether through drowning, battle, or sacrifice—the mire remembers. It calls back the body, fuses it with root, spore, and soul-echo, and remakes it.
Victims often awaken half-submerged, skin pale and veined with black-green tendrils, mouths bubbling with rotwater, eyes dim with purpose.
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