Thornshroud Dominion
Deep within the Withered Wilds, where the rot never sleeps and the land itself hungers, lies the Thornshroud Dominion, a province under the rule of King Daerion Blackthorn. It is a realm of twisting brambles, necrotic marshes, and ancient ruins, where the laws of life and death are blurred beyond recognition. Unlike the lawless expanses of the Wilds, Thornshroud is ruled with an iron grip, its people bound to their dark king and his ever-growing domain of decay.
Though it is part of the Noctavian Empire, it is said that King Blackthorn bows only to Malvera Noctara, and even then, his loyalty is one of mutual benefit rather than true fealty. The Dominion provides necrotic warriors, fungal alchemists, and death-cursed artifacts to the Empire, in return for autonomy and a steady supply of souls to fuel its unnatural existence.
Structure
King Daerion Blackthorn governs with absolute authority, his word carrying the weight of death itself. Unlike other rulers of the Noctavian Empire, he does not rely on traditional bureaucracy or nobility—instead, his kingdom is upheld by a council of death-bound advisors, each sworn to him in both life and undeath.
- The Hollow Council: Comprised of powerful necrotic druids, soul-bound wraiths, and ancient revenants, the Hollow Council ensures the Dominion remains in balance with its cycle of decay and rebirth.
- The Thornguard: Blackthorn’s personal enforcers, clad in barbed armor that feeds on their own vitality. They are living weapons, trained to fight with bone-blades and life-draining thorns, and they act as both his army and executioners.
- The Harvesters of Decay: A caste of alchemists, necromancers, and rot-priests, tasked with cultivating the land and ensuring the cycle of decomposition fuels the Dominion’s growth. They are responsible for the creation of necrotic elixirs, death-blooming crops, and fungal war beasts.
Though his rule is harsh, King Blackthorn is seen as both a tyrant and a savior—for under his dominion, his people are spared the aimless suffering of decay. Instead, they are given purpose, even beyond death.
Culture
The people of Thornshroud do not fear death. Instead, they embrace it as part of existence, knowing that even in death, they will continue to serve their king. Life is seen as a fleeting moment of strength before the inevitable transition into a higher, death-bound state.
- Necrotic Bonding: Upon reaching adulthood, many Thornshroud citizens undergo rituals that partially bind them to the realm of undeath, granting them prolonged life in exchange for pieces of their mortality. Some become revenants, others flesh-bound spirits, and a rare few merge with the living thorns of the land.
- The Feast of Withering: An annual event where those too weak to serve willingly offer themselves to the land, their bodies recycled into new growth or bound into necrotic servitude.
- Fungal Symbiosis: Many of Blackthorn’s people ingest or graft fungal parasites that enhance their bodies, allowing them to heal wounds, withstand disease, or even channel necrotic energies.
- Barter of Flesh & Favor: Traditional currency means little here—flesh, memories, and service are the true means of exchange. A man might trade a year of his life for a weapon, or a piece of his soul for forbidden knowledge.
Foreign Relations
The Noctavian Empire tolerates King Blackthorn’s rule because it benefits them. His domain provides soldiers, dark alchemy, and weapons that the Empire could never produce elsewhere. However, Blackthorn’s power is viewed with suspicion, as his loyalty is rooted in necessity rather than true devotion.
The Dominion has a tenuous alliance with Malvera Noctara, for she sees potential in his ability to control decay itself. However, whispers claim that one day, either Blackthorn will challenge her rule, or she will bring his Dominion to heel.
For now, the Thornshroud Dominion festers and thrives, its people clinging to their strange half-life, their king ruling over them like a specter of eternal decay.
Trade & Transport
Though grim, Thornshroud is a prosperous province, exporting necrotic goods, rot-infused weapons, and parasitic alchemy to the rest of the Noctavian Empire.
- Death-Blooming Crops: The fields of Thornshroud grow fungal grains, blood-fed vines, and corpse-flowered herbs used for alchemy and necromantic rituals.
- Boneforged Weapons: Blades, armor, and implements crafted from reanimated bone, able to regrow, shift shape, or feed on the essence of those they wound.
- Thornwood Constructs: Blackthorn’s druids craft living siege weapons, massive thorned beasts that devour enemy ranks before blooming into new horrors.
- Undying Thralls: Some warriors, nobles, or scholars sell their bodies to the Dominion, offering themselves up for preservation as undead servitors, bound to carry out their purpose long after their mortal lives have faded.
Thornshroud is a land of twisted beauty and eternal decay, where nature has been reshaped into a living prison of thorns, rot, and corrupted vitality. Unlike the untamed Withered Wilds, this province is carefully cultivated, shaped by King Blackthorn’s will and his court of necrotic druids.
- The Thornveil Forest: The heart of the Dominion, a dense, shadowed woodland of blackened trees, their branches tangled into an impenetrable canopy. The ground is covered in ashen vines and parasitic thorns that drain the life from anything that lingers too long. The deeper one ventures, the louder the whispers of the dead become.
- The Mire of Unmaking: A swamp of shifting black waters, where the dead refuse to rest. Skeletal trees claw at the sky, and the ground trembles with the slow, sickly movements of things buried beneath the sludge. It is said that those who drown here rise again, bound to Blackthorn’s will.
- The Bonebloom Fields: A vast expanse of ashen meadows, where crops grow from fertilized corpses and fungi pulse with unnatural luminescence. This is the agricultural heart of the Dominion, providing alchemical ingredients, necrotic herbs, and parasitic plants for trade.
- Blackthorn Keep: The seat of King Daerion Blackthorn, a towering fortress entwined with thorned vines and pulsing, fungal growths. Its walls are said to be woven from the roots of a cursed tree, and the very air inside hums with whispers of the dead. It is a place where the living serve only as long as their usefulness lasts, before joining the ranks of the eternally bound.
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