Thornsunk Barrows
The Thornsunk Barrows are a labyrinthine necropolis sprawled beneath the forest floor of Thornveil, half-swallowed by roots, rot, and ritual. Here, death is not a finality but a transition—an offering to the forest and a forge for future servants. The Barrows serve as both burial ground and birthing chamber for the reborn dead who rise in service to the Thornshroud Dominion.
Purpose / Function
- Burial of Warriors and Sacrifices: Those who fall in service to the Dominion—or are given willingly to it—are interred within the Barrows. Their bodies are often entangled in vines, fungal veins, or crypt bark, anchoring them to the land.
- The Rebirthing: Select corpses undergo the Thornsunk Rite, a necro-druidic ritual that feeds their flesh to the forest. Some return as rootbound guardians, witherwights, or even sentient fungal avatars.
- Grave Communion: Necromancers, Rot-Speakers, and death-priests descend to the Barrows to seek guidance from ancestral spirits or commune with the Barrow Chorus—an echo of moans and memories that fills the deeper chambers.
Architecture
Winding crypts and moss-laden tunnels descend from cracked stone markers or vine-covered mausoleums. The deeper one travels, the more the catacombs give way to natural chambers—roots forming archways, fungal growths illuminating the dark with sickly bioluminescence. The air is damp, heavy with the scent of decay and spores, and filled with the soft hum of unseen whispers.
Barrow gates are carved with sigils of decay and renewal—some marked by thornspikes that bleed sap when touched, others watched by rootbound sentinels or the silent dead.
History
It is said that the deepest crypt, the Hollow Crown, houses the remains of Thornveil’s first druid-king—entombed in a cocoon of black mycelium, still whispering commands to those who dream in death.
Children of the Dominion are warned not to stray near the outer barrows, for some of the risen dead do not recall their names—and hunger for more than memory.
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