A land of stone and strife, where the strong endure and the weak are forgotten.

A land of stone and strife, where the strong endure and the weak are forgotten.

To outsiders, the valley looks barren, cruel, and nearly empty. To those raised among its crags, it is a proving ground with a memory sharper than steel....

 The light he guards may not be his - but it remembers more than he does.

The light he guards may not be his - but it remembers more than he does.

Those who find him in the glade rarely leave unchanged. He speaks in fragments, old warnings, and strange observations that feel half overheard rather...

 Graceful enough to admire, sharp enough to regret.

Graceful enough to admire, sharp enough to regret.

They are ancient, graceful, and rarely as delicate as they look. An elf may speak with courtesy, smile like polished moonlight, and still measure every...
25 Settlements
45 Characters
11 Cabals
21 Tales
22 Bloodlines
The Mended Shield
  • Mountain Mead Hall
  • Dented Shields
  • Bruises Welcome

The Mended Shield

Teen 13+
Every student who survives a season at Brukna's Practice Hall makes the same walk afterward: down the mountain path, limping, to the Mended Shield. It is a low, thick-walled mead hall built for people who are tired, bruised and very hungry.

Its walls are hung with shields, every one of them dented, cracked or split, each left behind by a student who finally earned the right to brag. The food is plentiful, the benches are sturdy, and bruises are the price of entry.

The favorite argument here is whether Mistress Brukna has ever once smiled. Plenty of students claim to have seen it. None of them has dared to ask her.
Where Brukna's students limp in to eat and brag.