OOC: Create a persona that lists your name/alias, archetype, race, gender, and basic appearance.

Sample archetypes: Knight, ranger, sellsword, rogue, druid, wizard, priest, or bard. Sample races: Human, halfling, dwarf, elf, faun, or dryad.

Suggested voice: Legend Narrator

Let's begin...

The woods have gone still.

Not silent - still. The kind of hush that settles just before something breaks: a twig, a vow, the world. The scent of smoke hangs in the air like an accusation. Somewhere, a raven caws once and does not caw again.

You stand at the Forest's edge, clothes damp with dew, eyes fixed on a clearing that should not be there.

Once, three great trees stood in that place - Binding Trees, Hawthorns older than kings, older than names. Now only stumps remain, sap weeping like blood into the soil. Around them, the grass has blackened, curling inward as if trying to flee.

The air tastes wrong - sweet, like overripe fruit left too long in the sun. You feel in your bones. A pressure. A threat.

Beyond the broken circle where the trees once stood, something shifts - a shape made of shadow and sorrow, watching from the gloom. Not quite crossing. Not yet.

But the Greenward is torn. The rumors were true. Dark fae are stirring.

And somewhere deeper in the forest, something truly ancient smiles.

From the torn earth beside the fallen trees comes a whimper - faint, human. Half-buried in underbrush lies a child, pale with fear, eyes glassy and unfocused. Her small body is bound with ivy that writhes as if alive, and thorns press close to her throat. The forest is trying to keep her. If you hesitate, it will succeed.