BRACKEN

Ruined by war and natural catastrophe, riven with unrest and corruption, Bracken represents a sobering testament of what fate can befall an ill-governed land in the modern era. Once mild and pastoral, a pampered colony of the Suzerainty and gateway for trade and exploration, this nation is now sere, dangerous, and in an ever tightening spiral towards breakdown and desolation. Already, other powers gather about its nigh-abandoned borders to pluck what scraps might be left when it falters for the last time.

The first settlement of what would become Bracken province occurred shortly after the rebuilding of Keltokel. Initially passed over by Suzerainty explorers due to the treacherous and marshy coastline, the nearby safe port renewed interest in the delta region to the west. Despite the challenges it presented to navigation, the swampy climes, rich in fish and wild game, were easily tolerated by iaret settlers. Yearly flooding from the watershed of the surrounding mountain ranges created rich, arable ground further inland. Beyond, the open expanses of the western steppes beckoned, a new horizon for the Suzerainty to rule.

Initial colonization was focused on fishing and trapping, with small port settlements built on stilts, floating anchored, or levitated in the river delta. While the sometimes miasmic tropical weather was no barrier to the iaret, disease took a heavy toll on beastkin slaves. The decimation of the servant class limited noble interest in the province and led to an early dominance of the area by the common folk of the Suzerainty. Notably many Fallen found a home here, away from the invective of the orthodox religious hierarchy of Akhet.

The simple settlements and benign neglect by the Suzerainty had a darker side, too. The shifting waterways became a nest of smugglers, avoiding the tariffs of the Dynast imposed in Keltokel. Indeed, this illicit trade spurred exploration beyond the delta region, seeking an overland route into the southern reaches that goods might flow through. What official authority did exist in the nascent Bracken province was often complicit to one degree or another and secretly enriched itself on flouting tariffs and bans. This early corruption would persist throughout much of the area’s history.

The discovery of humanity in the western steppes invigorated the province, leading to the official creation of the Satrapy of Bracken. Through an influential extended family remaining in Akhet, a local scion long-settled in the delta became the first Satrap. The appointment would ensure that the quiet tolerance of smuggling in the region would continue despite the gaze of the Suzerainty falling upon the land. The influx of pragmatic humans who were never properly under the rule of the Dynasts perpetuated the sense that iaret dominion was relaxed there.

For nearly 1000 years, Bracken grew, soft and wealthy with fertile farmlands and trade, legal and otherwise. Missionaries and explorers combed the mountainous borders, stirring the ozrut and ptak in their secluded homelands. Small, easygoing riverside towns dotted the countryside, and roads inched into the trackless steppes in the west. Proximity to the Jewel Cities and Keltokel meant that cosmopolitan life could be found even here.

Bracken’s downfall began, however, with the Great Khet. Supernatural firestorms marched the length of the steppes, only faltering as they reached the lush ground of Bracken. Palls of smoke blotted out the sun and ruined harvests. Refugees flooded the region like locusts and overwhelmed even the fattened granaries maintained by the Satrap. In the following decades, new waves of firestorms and migration would keep Bracken reeling. Refugees would find no succor here: insect and water-borne diseases ripped through weakened populations, and the canals and waterways filled with the bones of the dead.

The wars in the south drew the attention of the Suzerainty away from the slowly recovering province at a crucial time. The flower of a generation of iaret leadership would vanish into that maelstrom, leaving unfit regents and grifters to populate the halls of Satrapy governance. Bracken was not spared. Foolish, untrained bureaucrats were exploited and corrupted by smugglers, bandits, and river pirates. Order never fully broke down, but was co-opted by criminal organizations and local strongmen.

Worse, a new threat was looming in the west. Storms of ash and sand, all that remained of the once grassy steppes, eroded the still-rich farmland of Bracken. The replacement of the steppes with the wastelands of the Deshr was approaching its final stage. Now the sea of ash promised to swallow the land all the way to the sea.

In what would prove to be the last gasp of iaret vitality in the region, cabal of powerful Suzerainty magi gathered to safeguard the province. The Formulary of the Horizon’s Bulwark was cast, drawing on ancient wellsprings of magic in the body of Geb. This complex working extended a magical shield from north to south, anchored in mountain peaks, to block the encroaching desert. A curtain of shimmering blue light was clearly visible for miles, flaring when struck with sandstorms.

Intended to be as eternal as the gods, this shield was nevertheless abandoned within a century. The cabal of magi suffered mysterious deaths within its membership, disbanding the next year. The Satrapy could not afford the services of equally powerful spellcasters to monitor the shield and those appointed to the position of Formulary Wardens treated it as a plum way to siphon gold from the treasury. The Retreat ended any pretense that the Formulary would receive upkeep or study when the majority of the iaret ruling class abandoned their colonies. When the first gap appeared in YD 6209, the shield was already commonly known as the Folly.

The 7th millennium YD saw slow degradation of the situation in Bracken. Despite the Folly mostly stopping encroachment by western ash and sand, rivers waned and dried. Deprived of consistent flooding, crop yields began to diminish. Bracken remained a Satrapy but the inward focus of the Suzerainty deprived it of protection against newly-forming nations. Border incursion, low-level conflicts, and piracy became commonplace.

The Gate War sounded what might be the death knell of the province. Soldati forces invaded the region in order to further isolate the Suzerainty and the Jewel Cities from the south. The Satrapy’s ill-prepared defenders, unable to repel such a committed, modern, and relentless foe, were forced to rely upon Khalqist, Baltine, and other expeditionary forces to avoid conquest. Vicious battles were fought on Bracken soil, devastating the landscape. Armies looted and foraged with abandon, either to feed and enrich themselves or deny resources to the enemy. While Bracken was never conquered, the benighted nation suffered more than most.

During the Spasm, a middling guerrilla commander by the name of Alvaro Cambier rose up, murdered the former Satrap and assumed the title to become the first human ruler of Bracken. His personal army, the Band of Death, maintains something akin to order, but are little more disciplined than bandits themselves. Now he hunkers in the capital of Abell, daring the predators circling the nation to come dig him out. With the near complete breakdown of the rule of law, Khalquist incursions past the Folly nibble at his territory and resources and their agitators rot what stability there is from the inside. Powerful Jewel Cities merchants plunder the north of the country, and roving bands of Soldati still plague the province.

What remains of the Satrapy still affects the signatures of Suzerainty rule. Snake motifs, either dull with age or of shabby modern production adorn patchwork “official” equipment and paraphernalia. Swords tend to be leaf-bladed, similar to Suzerainty bronze weaponry. Aping out-of-fashion iaret gear, ornamental bronze is common, and antique conical helms without modern design and reinforcement identify what passes for legitimate agents of the government. In general, fashions tend toward lighter linen garb as befits the sweltering delta summers, though upland settlements in the surrounding mountains favor thicker homespuns and furs, sometimes with subtle ozrut influences.

Bracken is mostly rural in character, full of hardscrabble villages struggling to cope with the succession of crises. The west is depopulated in the face of creeping desert, while its heartland is a patchwork of drying rivers, salted fields, and wrecked warzone. Only the coast enjoys something akin to prosperity, with its sometimes miasmic waterways and fisheries. Surviving cities jealously husband their crippled foundries and trade centers. As a Satrapy, Bracken looks to the Suzerainty for guidance in foreign policy, but the Dynasts are silent on the matter and have been for centuries. Older iaret laws, without the benefit of religious scholars to interpret and apply them, theoretically hold sway but are subject to the self-serving enforcement of local bosses and petty warlords. Travel remains unsafe, with unescorted caravans risking attack by bandits or the capricious application of tolls.