Thornehold - An Ironsworn Setting

The city of Thornehold rots like a cancer. Its streets crawl across old bridges, haunted slums, burned-out fortresses, and shattered churches. The half-waking dreams of the lich nobility lie caught, twitching, and mummified in that web. The city's sewers bleed poison into the water, which vomits forth multi-eyed-many-limbed things that should not be. And tangled Ironwood trees send roots down through the city's guts, catacombs and dungeons to draw up old debts, lies, and secrets best left forgotten.

In Thornehold, death does not grant peace. The House of Usher's hunger for power has thinned the veil between life and death, reality and dreams. Alhazráed, Necropolis of Black Sand and Thousand Pillars claws at the walls of sleep. Black Lotus and reptilian monsters swim in the canals around the once grand cathedral. Deathwatch beetles and cobras lurk in ruined alehouses and banks. Grit gets in your teeth. In your eyes. Makes it hard to see what is real. But, it gives life and vision to what is hidden. True. Hungry, Beyond the veil. Alhazráed. The city not-dead-but-dreaming. 

But carrion draws jackals. Treasure hunters and tomb robbers come seeking gold and gems, caches of mummy dust, and forbidden knowledge trapped in the gnarled and swollen skulls of the dreaming lich lords.  Others are drawn by purpose—a hope they can stave off the rot that consumes their lands. And so, Thronehold draws the desperate, the mad, and the vainglorious. Saint cults, mercenary bands, occult societies, and a panoply of hungry street gangs stake their claims. Driving new teeth into the city's gory maw.

What is this?

Thornehold is a Gothic Horror setting for tabletop RPGs, but especially Ironsworn. This is the roughest sketch of the setting and what I'm using for my home campaign. As it continues to develop I will continue to add content. 

Next Steps: Flesh out the remaining factions within Tallowmass.