The Hollow Crown

The Hollow Crown, spoken with reverence or fear, is most often preceded by epithets such as “His Grace Who Waits” or “The Silence in Bloom.” His given name is unknown, if he ever had one, it has been erased, forgotten, or deliberately hidden. In keeping with Fae tradition, he bears no middle name, as names are power, and he is not one to be easily known. He has no family name, though some texts refer to him as “First of the Forgotten Court,” suggesting his lineage is singular, mythic, or perhaps not born of lineage at all.- A maiden name is not applicable, as Fae do not observe maidenhood in the human sense, and he is considered beyond mortal concepts of lineage or gender roles., Should any suffix be used, it is poetic in form: “Of the Thistle Throne,” “He-Who-Crowns-the-Silence,” or “Of No Line, Yet All Roots.”

“He does not walk. The land leans toward him.”

The Hollow Crown is not a god in the way mortals understand gods. He is not prayed to, but whispered about, behind woven curtains and between the cracks of bedtime stories meant to keep children quiet and alive. Some call him the first Fae. Others call him the last. To the Aetherial, he is reverence made real, a presence too sacred to name aloud. To Gnomish, he is the price behind every clever contract. To mortals, of The Folklandswhere Everwealth sleeps, he is a shadow behind the trees that never moves but is always closer. He does not shout, yet every broken twig is a scream in his court. The forests bend to his unseen will, the rivers forget your reflection if he wills it, and to spill wine on a root is to stain a crown. None alive recall his face. Some claim he has none. Others say he has every face ever forgotten. He does not rage. He waits. And when the hour comes, when names are lost, and masks fall, and the last polite lie is swallowed with a dry tongue, it is not death he brings, but consequence.

Divine Domains

• Oaths & Consequences.

• Forests & Unseen Paths.

• Memory & Forgetting.

• Trickery & Truths.

• Time Deferred.

Artifacts

• The Silent Crown: Said to be woven of thorns, black glass, and forgotten promises. Not worn, but placed upon the mind. Those who bear it speak in riddles or go mad with truth.

• The Branch That Was Never Stepped Upon: A broken stick, said to mark the first mortal to cross the Otherworld improperly. Said to reappear wherever his wrath is soon to bloom.

• The Word-That-Waits: A single syllable not yet spoken aloud, believed to summon or banish him if uttered at the wrong, or right, moment.

Holy Books & Codes

No book bears his direct word, but The Book of Boughs,a tangled grimoire kept by the Aetherial, contains parables attributed to him. Each version is slightly different, rewritten by the forest itself when left unattended. No page stays put. A forbidden text known as The Crowned Silence is said to record a conversation between the Hollow Crown and a mortal bard, now erased from history. Merely reading it is rumored to shorten one's shadow.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

• A crown of twisted vine, always drawn upside-down.

• A circle of thorns intersected by a single broken branch.

• An open mouth with no tongue inside, carved into trees or cave walls.

• The sigil of "Three Roots, One Stalk", used in silent warning to those who offend the land.

Tenets of Faith

These tenets are whispered, not preached. His “faith” is not followed so much as endured.

• Do not step where you are not invited.

• Do not name what cannot name itself.

• Do not lie under starlight.

• An oath kept in silence binds deeper than blood.

• All trespasses bloom. Eventually.

Holidays

• The Boughlight Vigil: Celebrated only by the Aetherial, a night where no fire is lit and no words spoken. Meant to honor the silence before the Schism.

• First Step Eve: Feared more than celebrated. On this night, it is said one must not enter any forest, not even to gather firewood, lest the Crown’s gaze fall on them.

• The Day of Thorns: A grim tale-driven event where Gnomes and Satyrs read aloud from the Book of Boughs to test fate. It is not uncommon for someone to disappear before dawn.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

What the Hollow Crown wants is unknowable. Some believe he wishes to reclaim the Folklands for the Fae, not through conquest, but through stories, replaced names, and slow, deliberate unraveling. Others say his purpose is more abstract: to ensure balance through consequence, to punish disrespect shown to land, name, and word. The Aetherial, when asked, only reply: “He does not want. He waits.”

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

His form is not bound by flesh, but when seen, it appears tall and statuesque, neither frail nor overly muscular, but impossibly still. No signs of age mark him, but he emanates the weight of eons. He does not breathe. His presence distorts the air like heat above dry stone.

Body Features

The Hollow Crown is cloaked in a mantle of bark and shadow, from which bone antlers emerge like gnarled branches. His torso seems built from living wood and wind-woven cloth, shifting in texture when not directly looked at. His limbs are long and graceful but creak faintly, like old timber when moved. His body smells faintly of petrichor and decay.

Facial Features

His face is rarely glimpsed, often veiled in half-light or distorted by fae illusions. When revealed, it is said to resemble an ancient Elf king carved from silver ash and starlight, eyes black and ringed in gold, mouth unmoving except to decree. Some claim his face is hollow, literally so, showing only a crown suspended above an empty space.

Identifying Characteristics

• A crown of thorned branches fused to his brow, glowing faintly with runes unseen to most.

• A deep, resonating silence follows him, a quiet so profound it drowns nearby sound.

• A faint, perpetual hum emanates from his being, neither song nor static, but something in between.

Physical quirks

• Leaves sometimes fall from his limbs or hair without him moving.

• When he steps (if he walks at all), no footprints are left, only warped, unsettled ground.

• His gaze causes flora to bloom or rot, seemingly at whim.

• His body seems to subtly shift when unobserved, as if each glance finds him slightly changed.

Special abilities

• Reality Writhe: Can subtly bend cause and effect within his presence, stepping on a branch may snap your leg, whispering may summon storms.

• Wordbinding: His voice seals contracts into the world itself. To hear him speak is to be made part of a pact, whether you agreed to it or not.

• Verdant Judgment: The land responds to his emotion, his rage causes roots to burst from the ground, storms to howl, or silence to fall like a blade.

• Immortal Memory: Every broken pact, every stolen seed, every fruit picked without offering, he remembers it all.

Apparel & Accessories

The Hollow Crown wears a robe stitched from fog and dried leaves, rimmed in frost and thorns. It drapes like velvet but whispers like grass in wind. Around his neck hangs a single broken key carved from fossilized bone, said to open the first gate between worlds. He bears no weapon, he is his own consequence.

Specialized Equipment

• The Veil-Knot Cord: A loop of hair, twine, and starlight that seals or severs oaths. Said to bind beings to places or erase them from memory entirely.

• The Root-Ring: A ring made from petrified spriggan root, unseen to most, it pulses when lies are spoken nearby.

• Crown of the Hollow: Not removable. Said to hold back some deeper form of his, either mercy or apocalypse.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

No mortal knows the Hollow Crown’s origin, not even the Aetherial speak of his beginning. Some believe he was once a god, others a spirit too ancient for gods to name. There are songs hidden in the roots of old trees that hint at a war, a betrayal, and a coronation beneath a sky that no longer burns. After The Great Schism, when the Fae withdrew and the bridges to the mortal world cracked, it was said the Hollow Crown retreated deeper into the Otherworld, leaving only whispers and the occasional shattered intruder to mark his displeasure.

Gender Identity

Gender is irrelevant to the Hollow Crown’s existence. He manifests in the shape of expectation and myth: to some a towering male form, antler-crowned and vine-bound; to others, a regal matron of withering petals. To the Fae, he is presence incarnate. The laws he enforces are older than names.

Sexuality

Not applicable. If the Hollow Crown ever loved, it was long ago, and likely ended with blood on the bark. He expresses no desire nor attachment, save perhaps to his land and its preservation.

Education

Whatever knowledge he possesses predates written language. He teaches only by punishment and memory, and his lessons are rarely survived.

Employment

Ruler of the Otherworld, though whether this title is ceremonial, practical, or a curse placed upon him remains unclear. He does not govern in the mortal sense, but all creatures of the Otherworld bend knee to his will, either by choice or by fear.

Accomplishments & Achievements

• Bound the first names to the land, creating the sacred contract that gives the Fae their power.

• Sealed the first gateway between Gaiatia and the Otherworld, preventing the Schism from unraveling the Veil.

• Birthed the Aetherial hierarchy to speak his word, whether willingly or as puppets remains debated.

Failures & Embarrassments

• Allowed the Folklands to forget the old pacts, leading to centuries of exploitation and thievery from the Fae.

• Lost his presence in the mortal world following the Schism, now forced to work through intermediaries, legends, and curses.

• Rumored to have been betrayed by his kin, or worse, to have betrayed them first and punished them for daring to deny him his every whim.

Mental Trauma

There are places in the Otherworld where the wind sobs and trees bleed in silence. Some say these are the Hollow Crown’s memories, physical scars of grief, rage, and isolation. His refusal to appear in person, even to the Aetherial, may stem from something far older than pain. Perhaps shame. Perhaps terror of being seen.

Intellectual Characteristics

Brilliant, cruel, and utterly alien. The Hollow Crown understands causality, contract, and consequence better than any being alive. But he does not think like a mortal, and his logic is twisted in ways that mirror the wildness of his realm. His strategies are eternal. His traps are woven from patience.

Morality & Philosophy

Order through fear. Harmony through consequence. The Hollow Crown does not believe in good or evil, only in debt and balance. Those who tread softly are often rewarded. Those who stray, even unintentionally, by stepping on a sacred beetle, or plucking an unripe fruit, may find their lives unmade. He believes in law written in the marrow of the world, not in ink.

Taboos

• Speaking his name aloud.

• Breaking a promise made in the Otherworld.

• Harming a creature bound to his realm.

• Stepping on a living branch during the Rite of Silver Silence.

• Claiming dominion over Fae lands without offering tribute.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

The Hollow Crown’s will is not driven by emotion or ideology, it is born of ancient design and natural decree. He exists to preserve the balance of the Otherworld and enforce the sanctity of pacts, promises, and primal law. Whether born of vengeance, love, or something deeper than either, his motivations are neither benevolent nor malevolent, they are inevitable. He does not desire followers, but obedience; not worship, but respect. He desires no war, but if one must come, it will be because the Folklands forgot to whisper "thank you" after harvesting his fruit.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Savvies:

• Flawless manipulation of magickal law and verbal contract.

• Near-omniscient understanding of fae ecology and natural arcana.

• Persuasion through fear, presence, and poetic ambiguity.

• Unerring judgment in matters of promise, betrayal, and bloodlines.

Ineptitudes:

• Inability or refusal to comprehend mortal nuance or moral relativism.

• Disdain for technology, logic-based systems, or any structure divorced from nature.

• Will not recognize any authority besides his own.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes:

• Silence after snowfall.

• Seeds planted without expectation of bloom.

• Music played without audience.

• Vows kept by the dead.

Dislikes:

• Fruit picked without offering.

• Lies dressed as poetry.

• Mortals who treat the forest like it owes them something.

• Apologies made only to avoid consequence.

Virtues & Personality perks

• Unwavering: Cannot be bribed, tricked, or reasoned out of his decrees.

• Timeless Memory: Remembers every name spoken to the trees.

• Just (to a fault): All debts are honored. All pacts enforced. No exceptions.

• Natural Magnetism: Inspires awe and silence even in the bravest of mortals.

• Enforcer of Balance: He does not play favorites, he punishes fae and man alike if the rules are broken.

Vices & Personality flaws

• Inflexible: There is no room for mercy where the law of root and word is concerned.

• Detached from Mortality: Fails to understand or care for mortal suffering when weighed against cosmic balance.

• Ruthlessly Literal: Pacts are enforced exactly as written, no intent, only consequence.

• Obsession with Control: Nothing may grow where he has not permitted it. Nothing may die unaccounted for.

Personality Quirks

• Often remains completely motionless for hours, even mid-sentence.

• Speaks in riddles laced with ancient syntax, his grammar subtly shifting by century.

• When agitated, the plants around him twist inward, as if bracing for a scream.

• Rarely blinks, if ever. Some say he has no eyes beneath the crown.

Hygiene

The Hollow Crown does not bathe, for the forest washes him. His presence carries the scent of rich earth and windblown moss. No filth clings to him, no blood stains his feet. Insects walk upon him, yet do not bite. His skin always appears as if freshly carved from storm-wet stone or root.

Representation & Legacy

To the Aetherial, he is law made living, silent, holy, feared. His sigil, an empty crown resting upon a bed of twisted roots, is etched into the bark of sacred trees across the Otherworld. No statue of him exists, his image is forbidden. Instead, shrines are built with open space where his form might be, surrounded by offerings of silence, bone, and stone fruit. Among The Folklands, he is the whisper in the orchard, the reason no child wanders off-trail, the explanation for why songs stop abruptly when one steps on a twig. Whether he exists or not no longer matters, he is the fear that shaped the land.

Social

Reign

His “reign,” if it can be called that, is not measured in years but in seasons turned under silence. He has ruled, or existed, since before the concept of mortal kingship, before the Folklands called themselves anything at all. His reign is marked not by declarations, but by consequences: entire settlements vanished for harvesting magickal fruit, blood spilled when a forgotten pact was broken, winds changing course when his name was used in vain. His rule is not active, but reactive, the land answers in his stead.

Contacts & Relations

• The Aetherial: His supposed emissaries, delivering edicts on his behalf with reverence and terror.

• The Gnomish Courts: Tricksters who claim favor from him, though whether this is true remains uncertain.

• The Scholar’s Guild (Feared): Obsessive archivists who debate whether he is real, a mass hallucination, or something worse.

• The Faerie Armies (Rumored): Whispers claim that if the Hollow Crown were ever truly angered, these warriors would answer.

• The Land Itself: The most sacred and true of his allies. The earth bends for him. Storms hush at his passing.

Family Ties

None know if the Hollow Crown was ever born. Some say he was once a Faerie king who bled into the root system of the world. Others claim he is the first whisper of Gaiatia given shape. The Aetherial do not speak of “family” when referring to him, only of lineage of will. Whether this makes him father, child, or echo is unknowable.

Religious Views

He is not a god, but many pray to him out of fear. He does not demand faith, but punishes disregard. The Fae do not worship him, they obey him. In temples of stone, his name is absent. In the groves, his presence is law. Some scholars consider him a natural god, not divine but necessary, a sentient law written in thorn and echo.

Social Aptitude

• Charisma: Overwhelming, in the way a landslide is charismatic.

• Confidence: Absolute.

• Ego: Absent. He does not see himself as greater, merely correct.

• Extroversion: Minimal. He speaks only when necessary, but his presence fills the space.

• Etiquette: Immaculate, but alien. All interactions feel like walking a ritual you were never taught.

• Mannerisms: Does not blink. Does not fidget. Pauses unnaturally long before responding.

Mannerisms

• Turns his head slowly, often without moving the rest of his body.

• Tilts his head slightly when displeased; animals nearby often fall still.

• Speaks only in poetic structure or contracted prophecy.

• Rarely repeats himself. If you did not understand, that is your failure.

• Hums with no mouth, some say the sound comes from the crown itself.

Hobbies & Pets

Hobbies:

• None in the mortal sense. He tends to groves that do not rot. He listens to winds not yet born.

Pets:

• Some claim a moss-wolf the size of a house follows him. Others say every tree is his familiar. He has been seen with a single wasp that hovers near his crown, never leaving its orbit.

Speech

The Hollow Crown speaks in a voice low and weighty, as though each word has been dredged through stone and leaf before reaching the ear. His baritone pitch carries harmonic undertones, so subtle they resemble distant flutes or reeds in the wind, impossible to place yet impossible to ignore. He speaks without accent or dialect, his tone seeming to belong to every age at once, an ancient cadence unclaimed by time or tongue. There are no stutters, no slips. His speech is flawless, unnervingly so, so precise it feels inhuman. His words fall with the gravity of carved commandments. He rarely greets, for his presence is its own declaration. He does not offer farewells so much as verdicts, “This is the last time you will not be hunted.” Compliments, when given, are brief and disarming: “You listened.” Insults, however, are colder still: “You wasted a word.” Among the most repeated phrases tied to him are: “You were warned, though not by me,” “The land remembers,” “Do not confuse silence for mercy,” and “All debts bloom in time.” He swears without profanity, his gaze a sharper blade than any oath. Metaphor is his native tongue; he does not speak plainly unless forced, and even then, the truth tends to arrive like frost: quiet, biting, and irreversible.

Wealth & Financial state

The Hollow Crown has no currency, no vaults. Yet he is wealthier than kings. He holds dominion over rare materials: Faerie dust, seed-silver, twilight iron, and whisperroot. These he offers sparingly, always with a price not understood until it’s too late. What he owns cannot be counted. What he takes cannot be returned.

Divine Classification

Shadow-God, Dream-King, or Fiction Given Crown, The Hollow Crown is not a god in the traditional sense of Everwealth's pantheon. Some say he is a Tulpa, a being born from belief, story, and fear.

Honorary & Occupational Titles

• The Hollow Crown.

• He Who Waits Beneath.

• The Branch King.

• Oathroot.

• Voice in the Bark.

• The Last Accord.

His name is never spoken aloud by the Aetherial. Among common folk, his titles are whispered rather than declared, used more to ward him off than summon him. To speak one of his titles in the Otherworld is to ask the trees to listen.

Quotes & Catchphrases

• “One oath broken... one root dies.”

• “You stepped on the land. It remembers.”

• “You did not ask. Now I must answer.”

• “Speak your truth, but do not mistake it for mine.”

• “The woods are quiet for your sake. Not theirs.”

• “The wind warned you. You chose not to listen.”

Known Languages

• Sylvarin (Fae language, likely its originator).

• Rootsong (an unspoken language felt through trees and earth).

• Arcane Primordial (used in ancient contracts, now forbidden).

• Possibly all mortal tongues, though he rarely speaks at all.

Character Prototype

A hybrid of mythic archetypes: part eldritch sovereign, part folkloric judge, part environmental warden. He is not a ruler of people, but a ruler of land and consequence. Think: an ageless trickster-king cast in natural elements, equal parts Oberron, the Erlking, and a god that never asked to be worshipped but will be obeyed.